April 19, 2006

April 19, 2006

Cortland, New York

YEAR 2 DAY 306

 

Today was sunny and warm.

We had decided last night that we wanted to stay here today to rest a bit, and prepare for our return to Canada. I was exhausted physically and mentally. We went to bed early last night, and slept in a bit this morning. We walked around the big pond to the campground's shower building, so we wouldn't fill up the trailer's shower holding tank. We're in a site without sewer service. I did preventive maintenance and morning chores in a slow, relaxed manner, enjoying the warm sunshine. I prepared a list of the gifts we've purchased over the last 6 months in the United States, and their costs, to facilitate our crossing the border. I got the printer out of storage, and printed the many documents I had queued up for printing. Investment updates and WorkCamping information on Guide Dogs Of The Desert in Palm Springs, California.

We had lunch. I napped. I spent much of the afternoon working on updating my investment files. It's a bit redundant, because the information I printed today was already 6 days old. We're down about 1% from March 31, which is a big whack of dough, although yesterday I heard on the radio that the market was up a bit, so I don't know where we are now. After I finished all the investment updates and analysis, I took Bo for an obedience walk. Joanne was still working on researching campgrounds between Kingston and Ottawa, where we'll be truck shopping for the next couple of weeks. She worked on that for much of the afternoon. I got out the Autopac guide to see if I could find anything in it about the ramifications of purchasing a vehicle outside the province of Manitoba. There is some information, but it doesn't quite match our circumstances. I'll have to phone them from Kingston in a couple of days and discuss it. It would be simple if we bought a truck and headed straight back to Manitoba, but I want to buy a truck and head for Newfoundland. I repaired one of Joanne's shoes. I did today's accounting, which was nothing but the cost of the campsite. I started today's journal entry.

I spent a fair amount of time preparing a letter of complaint to the Superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We spent time analyzing the various options of acquiring a new truck. Use our money, lease from the dealer, finance through the dealer, finance through the bank. Each of those optionslikely results in lower monthly costs than the monthly cost of owning Dee-Dee for the last 32 months, based on purchase cost and repair costs minus residual value < really huge sigh >. I could have been driving a new truck for the last couple of years for less money than Dee-Dee has cost. Live and learn !

We went for a long walk, and tennis ball play session with Bo as the sun set. We worked together on making supper, using up what might be a problem to take across the border. We played a game of Scrabble. I lost ... badly !

DSK