Year 3 Week 11

August 27 to September 2, 2006

Steinbach, Manitoba

Year 3 week 11

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot.

Yesterday I had failed to notice on the calendar that it was the third anniversary of our purchase of Harvey, our 30 foot fifth wheel trailer. Three years ago, we had just sold PET VALU 92, our flagship store on Montreal Road in Ottawa. We only had one store left to sell, PET VALU 234 in Westgate Shopping Centre. I was confident that it would be sold during the following winter, and by spring we would be ready to sell the house and hit the road as full time RV'ers. And ... after about a year and a half of browsing, looking at a lot of RV's, Harvey was the first one that really met all our criteria. So ... we bought it !

Today I reinstalled the mouldings on the repaired lower side panel of Harvey. Now the repair job is truly finished, and it looks great ! I gave the truck a quick rinse. Gee ... a black truck doesn't stay looking clean very long. It was spotless and gleaming a week ago. We have a short section of gravel road to travel to reach our campground, and a week after being washed the truck was coated with a fine layer of gravel dust. Joanne and I both worked on removing old caulking from the side of the front section of the trailer that I discovered yesterday needs some repair and resealing. It was a tedious, difficult job. Then I applied adhesive little dots on the North America map on the side of trailer, to indicate the locations where we have had WorkCamper jobs. Potosi, Missouri. Livingston, Texas. West Hawk Lake, Manitoba. And ... counting our chickens before they're hatched ... Palm Springs, California.

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and warm.

This morning we headed into Winnipeg for our appointment with our new family physician in Southdale. We were not very impressed with him. He was patronizing, and refused to meet our needs, which are to have cancer screening tests for Joanne, and a colonoscopy for me, arranged for early May, 2007. We wanted to be able to phone a few months in advance to arrange for referrals and appointments, or even arrange for them now. He refuses to make referrals or arrange appointments until we attend in person next spring. By which time he is likely to be retired ! I'm not sure how we're going to deal with this problem. I think I'll just ignore him for now, then phone about the beginning of February, from California, and insist that referrals and appointments be made for early May. My concern is that if we have a WorkCamper job for next summer, we would plan to return to Winnipeg for only enough time to attend medical appointments, which would be a week or two at most. Like we did in Ottawa this last spring.

We did some shopping at Canadian Tire in Southdale, then at Wal-Mart in St. Vital Shopping Centre. From there we went to the Carlson's. We had lunch with Lorri, Madeleine, and Amelia. I got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, and updated my blog. I picked up the new digital camera I ordered from Air Miles, and had shipped to the Carlson's address. I'm a bit disappointed in it, but ... it's mine now ! Such is the risk of ordering merchandise "sight unseen".

We drove to the 3 RV dealers near and on Dugald Road, and bought some RV supplies we needed, then headed back to Steinbach by a different route than usual. We drove east on Dugald Road / Hwy. 15 to Anola, then south on Hwy. 12 back to Steinbach.

 

Tuesday ; Another sunny, very warm day.

This morning I reattached the moulding along the driver's side lower edge of the front of the trailer. This afternoon I resealed it with silicone caulking. The more I work on the trailer, the more work I find to do. Missing screws, loose screws, stripped screws, cracked caulking, etc.. Harvey is really beginning to show his age. He's 8 years old now. There is a significant camp amongst the RV crowd that believes that RV's become more trouble than they're worth after 10 years of age, due to wear and tear. I think I'm going to heed that, given the regrets I have about keeping Dee-Dee too long.

WOO-HOO ! ! ! I went flying tonight. Dan Air flight 393 ! First time I've flown in 2½ years. First time I've flown a Cessna 152 in 11 years. I flew Cessna 152 C-GGGP ( call sign "Triple Golf Papa" ) from Steinbach South Airport ( CKK7 ) to St. Andrew's Airport ( YAV ) at dusk, did a touch and go at St. Andrew's, and flew back to Steinbach in darkness. We took off from Steinbach, I flew to Lorette, found the Danelak's house from the air, flew along the east side of Winnipeg following the Red River Floodway to St. Andrew's, staying just outside the Winnipeg Air Traffic Control Zone. My flying was near flawless. I forgot to lower the flaps 10 degrees on approach. PHHHT ! So what ? ! When I was flying regularly I used to forget to do that half the time. Some bad habits are hard to break. HA HA HA ! I needed to have an instructor as a co-pilot tonight to make my flight legal. He was a young man from France, taking flight training in Canada. He began his flight training 11 months ago ! ! ! He has been licensed as an instructor for a month ! ! ! ! ! Fortunately, he was not concerned about how long it's been since I've flown, and he remained 100 % hands off. Thank you, Thibault.

AHHHHHHHHH < taking deep breath > it was so wonderful to fly at dusk, and at night, on a calm evening, no wind, calm air, clear sky.

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and warm, but a bit windy.

Today I fixed Bo's broken tie out, which he broke the other day by lunging at a little dog walking by. I had to break up a skirmish by 2 little dust mop dogs, the other one wearing little socks on his back paws. Why do little dust mop dogs feel as if they have something to prove about how tough they are ? ! ? Must be something akin to short man syndrome. HA HA HA ! It's hard to be taken seriously as a tough dog when you're wearing little green socks on your back paws.

I re-glued a section of stair nosing that had come loose. I did some long range planning of major purchases. It seemed appropriate since we have decided to continue this lifestyle, and I now think it would be appropriate to replace Harvey in 2 years. I updated our health care records on the computer. I loaded the new camera software. I downloaded a few photos I took with the new camera. It works fine. I did a monthly backup of all my computer files to CD's.

 

Thursday ; Today was warm, overcast, and windy. It rained a bit in the evening.

This morning I phoned the Manitoba chapter of the Explorer RV Club ( sort of the Canadian version of Escapees ) and registered to attend their Fall Rally at Lac Du Bonnet next weekend. We attended an Explorer RV Club National Rally 2 years ago near Windsor, Ontario, and now would like to attend a much smaller provincial rally, and see how we like this Manitoba group. I did some "spring cleaning" in the trailer's front storage "trunk", sorting, culling, and discarding. Living with the space constraints of an RV requires this sort of "spring cleaning" on a regular basis.

I reviewed the income tax assessments recently received. I compared Joanne's assessment to the return I prepared and filed. I was able to ascertain why Revenue Canada assessed another $550 owing, but I'm hardly willing to concede that I made a "mistake". Okay ... Revenue Canada won't allow capital losses in excess of capital gains, requiring that the "excess" capital losses be carried forward to future returns and applied to future capital gains. Fine ... you won't allow the deduction / pay me now, you can pay me later !

We went to the Farmer's Market in Steinbach to buy something Sharon asked us to get for her, refilled a propane tank in Steinbach, drove to Winnipeg to buy something I needed at an RV dealer, then drove back to Lorette to have dinner with Sharon and Bud. Sharon prepared us a huge batch of fresh perogies. YUMMM ! ! ! Their daughter Andrea was there for supper. Over dinner we chatted with Andrea about university. She has just started her third year of Journalism. After supper we were joined by Andrea's friend Kierstan from Germany. She was an exchange student 2 years ago at Andrea's high school, and has returned to Canada for a visit.

 

Friday ; Today was cloudy and mild.

Joanne went to Winnipeg to visit with her sister and nieces. I puttered around working on minor trailer maintenance. I replaced 3 long sections of moulding insert trim, removed some old caulking, applied new caulking, cleaned off the top of the living room / dinette slide, fixed the roof ladder ... ! I think Harvey is ready for another year of travel.

Late in the evening I sat outside, in the dark, smoked the second of my 3 Cuban Monte Cristo No. 5 cigars ... and reflected. Did I learn anything this summer ? ! Yeah ... I most certainly did !

 

Saturday ; Today was mostly cloudy and mild.

This afternoon we drove to Winnipeg and did some shopping before joining our friends Darcy and Shirley for dinner. We drove to Wal-Mart in St. Vital Centre, picked up a prescription, and did a bit of grocery shopping. From there we drove over to Pembina Highway looking for a Home, Bed, and Bath store called JYSK. Sharon had noticed a nylon pet carrier advertised in their flyer that she thought we might be interested in for Teddy. We found JYSK, and looked at the advertised nylon pet carrier. We didn't buy it, but we did buy a small nylon pet tent. Now Teddy has 3 different "cat tents", one of which actually is a tent. This new one will be a spare. The nylon pet carrier that we're currently using, his favourite, is cheaply made, and won't last much longer.

We stopped at Safeway to refill some water jugs, then headed downtown to join Darcy and Shirley. We met them at an Italian restaurant on Broadway called Bombolini's. Their children Sheryl and Erik came along for dinner. Sheryl will be leaving in a few days to return to Toronto where she attends university. We're very impressed by Sheryl's achievements. And we're always amused by Erik's intellect and enthusiasm. We had a very pleasant dinner, and as always, it was great to visit with them. Thank you, Darcy, for treating us to dinner.

DSK