Year 3 Week 47

May 6 to 12, 2007

Keremeos, B.C.

Year 3 week 47

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny and mild.

Today we drove into town to phone Joanne's niece Amelia and wish her a Happy Birthday. Yesterday was her birthday. We don't have cell phone service at Riverside RV Park Resort. We have to drive into Keremeos to be able to use the cell phone. I did some maintenance and "home improvement" projects. I updated my blog and did some more phone service research work on the computer.

After supper I took the little 12V TV and drove into Keremeos, hoping to be able to watch the season final of Amazing Race. I was able to get 2 channels in town, but neither one was the network carrying Amazing Race. Darn !

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and warm.

Today was another long, tiring day of running errands in Penticton. We drove to Penticton this morning, and my first chore there was to make phone calls. We parked in Canadian Tire's parking lot, and I phoned Star Choice to finalize arrangements for installation of satellite TV service on our lot, for May 17. I phoned China Creek Internet, the local Wi-Fi service provider, to get their opinion on Vonage, the local VOIP ( Voice Over Internet Protocol ) service provider. Their opinion is that Vonage was not very good when first introduced in this area about a year and a half ago, but they have steadily improved to the point where they have become quite good in the last 6 months. We're strongly inclined to give Vonage a try.

We returned some items, and bought some items at Canadian Tire. Then we shopped at Home Hardware before going for lunch to A & W. More returns and purchases at Rona. We phoned an ad in the Bargain Hunter advertising oak wine barrels for sale, cut in half to be used as planters. One of our neighbours bought 9 of them last week. We like them and wanted to buy 2 to use as planters. < sigh > They were sold out. Oh, well, in this area of many wineries, we'll probably be able to find them again somewhere soon. We went to see a local home based builder of picnic tables. I was hoping he would be using cedar to build picnic tables, but he's using spruce. I asked for a price to build one using pressure treated lumber, and will phone him on Wednesday for a price. We drove to Wal-Mart. Joanne went shopping in Wal-Mart while I went to Bell, then Wal-Mart's electronics department, to get information and prices on cell phone plans. Oh, for crying out loud, one needs a university degree in cellphoneology or something to be able to comprehend cell phones, plans and prices. While the salesman at Bell kept showing me different cell phones, I kept saying "no ... I just want one that goes 'ring ring', I say hello, and we talk !" I already have a camera. If I wanted an MP3 player, I'd buy one. If I wanted a blue tooth, I'd paint one of my own ! < shaking head in despair > Sheesh !

Driving home from Penticton to Keremeos on Hwy. 3A, we passed a fifth wheel being towed by an older GMC diesel, parked on the side of the highway, with its hood up. With empathy, I stopped to offer assistance. Yup ... sure enough ... it was the old GM 6.5 diesel PoS. Blown engine ! The engine had over 400,000 km. on it, and had been rebuilt only 3000 km. ago. The man wasn't pleased. I refrained from advising him to buy a Dodge. HA HA HA !

Back home, after supper, we analyzed and discussed home phone options and cell phone options, trying to make decisions on a home phone and cell phone. We made our decisions and I placed an order online for Vonage VOIP service for our home phone.

We were supposed to actually own Lot 89 today, but I received an e-mail from our lawyer advising us that there would be a one day delay, because the developer didn't sign the sale papers at his lawyer's office until very late in the day. Yeah ... I don't care. Our contractor will be on the lot early tomorrow morning excavating whether the developer is late signing or not ! So there !

 

Tuesday ; Today was a gorgeous, sunny, very warm, perfect "June 18" day.

I got up early this morning, and as I walked out the door at 8:00 A.M., showered, dressed, and ready to go, Ben Nendick was driving up to our lot in a backhoe. He trenched for the water line, and laid the water line. He trenched for a sewer line to each side of the lot, and laid the 2 sewer lines. He used 2 different pieces of heavy earth moving equipment. He sure is good at what he does with that heavy equipment.

While he was excavating, he dug up a huge, tangled mess of very old barbed wire and old, rotten fence post, buried about 5 feet deep. In the 1940's, a rail line from the Mascot Gold Mine in Hedley ran through this property on its way to Keremeos, then Osoyoos, then across the border down into Oroville, Washington. Farmers / ranchers of that era must have run fence lines alongside the rail line to keep their livestock safe.

I went to the office to ask for the keys to our mailbox. There were over 100 unlabelled sets of keys in 3 small containers. I had to take them to the community mailboxes, and keep trying keys in our mailbox until I found the set that fit < sigh >. Like an Amazing Race "roadblock" task ! Sure would be nice if somebody sorted and labelled all those mailbox keys !

While I "supervised" the development of our lot, Joanne went to town to do some laundry and buy some groceries. She got into a conversation with the owner of the grocery store. After talking to her for a few minutes, he seemed eager to discuss employment opportunities with her. Yeah ... I remember the desperate sense of "good help is hard to find".

Woo-Hoo ... perogies for supper tonight. Welcome back to Western Canada !

After supper we drove to town to phone the half wit Quebecois electrician we hired. He failed to show up tonight, as scheduled, to measure the trenching on our lot, to determine the amount of materials he would have to buy ( tonight ! ), to be able to commence his work on our lot tomorrow morning. When I first spoke to him 6 months ago, and impressed upon him that we wanted him to commence work on May 8, I thought he might be unreliable. When I spoke to him again a week ago, and impressed upon him that I expected him to commence work on May 8, again I thought he might be unreliable. Now I'm sure of it, and I'm angry !

I spent the evening preparing Joanne's income tax return. HEY ... CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Erbon and Lorraine in Ottawa who have just purchased a brand new RoadTrek Class B ( camper van ) RV.

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and very warm again. How nice !

This morning there was a loud knocking on our door at 8:00 A.M.. It was my half wit Quebecois electrician. He seemed a tad surly. Perhaps it was the message I left on his voice mail last night. I used a firm tone of voice, and I clearly expressed my expectations ! Anyway, we discussed what he was to do, and when he was going to do it. Maybe this afternoon ... probably tomorrow morning. I scowled and sneered, but left it at that.

We drove to Penticton for another long day of errands. First we had a meeting with an Edward Jones investment broker. He was the second Edward Jones broker we "interviewed" in Penticton, to determine if we wanted to transfer our investment portfolios from our excellent Edward Jones broker in Ottawa, to him. Unlike the broker we met in Penticton last October, this one "passed the test".

We took the truck to Parker's Chrysler for routine servicing. I made quite a few phone calls. The Virgin Mobile cell phone I wanted to order online wasn't available online, so I phoned them to find out where I could buy one. We walked a few blocks to Zeller's to buy a Virgin Mobile cell phone. We walked to Cherry Lane Mall for lunch. We returned to Parker's and waited for the truck servicing to be completed, then ran errands around Penticton for the rest of the afternoon.

I realized that I had misunderstood a question asked by Virgin Mobile when I phoned to activate our new cell phone, and I ended up with a Keremeos phone number. Darn ... what I wanted was a Penticton phone number. A Penticton cell phone number will meet our needs better than a Keremeos cell phone number will.

When we returned to Riverside RV Park it was no surprise to find that the electrician had done nothing today < fume >. We received our first piece of mail here today. It wasn't even addressed to us here. It was addressed to us c/o General Delivery in Keremeos. The Keremeos Post Office took it upon themselves to forward it to us here. Very impressive small town postal service !

The weather was so nice tonight that we took Bo for a long obedience walk before supper, and an even longer pleasure walk after supper. The Similkameen River seems to be rising daily. The newspaper had an article on the weekend about B.C. rivers being at high levels because of last winter's larger than average snowfall, and fairly rapid melting recently at the higher elevations. It's quite evident in the Similkameen, which was a meandering little stream last October. It's a raging torrent now !

 

Thursday ; Today was sunny and very warm again.

Early this morning the electrician showed up to commence work on our lot. With a lot of prodding from the excavation contractor, he managed to get the electrical work done by noon. Of course, he forgot to purchase the necessary materials to install the phone line, so he will have to return in a week or so to do the phone line. Fine ! I don't care ... we're going to use Vonage VOIP phone service. We'll only need the phone wiring if Vonage turns out to be unsatisfactory. Now that the electrician is finished the basic hydro installation, he can contact Fortis to install our hydro meter and turn on the power to our lot. Hopefully, that will take place early next week.

The excavation contractor Ben and his assistant Ed worked on installing the water supply while Richard the electrician did the hydro. By late afternoon Ben had backfilled all the trenching and had brought a dump truck load of sandy gravel, for levelling the site. We thought he might be finished today, but he abandoned our lot late in the afternoon to get started on another lot that he had promised to begin today. He knows that he has a few days to finish ours now that the electrician is finished, before Fortis comes in to install the hydro meter and turn on the power. All that is left for Ben to do is to finish levelling the site, then bring in a truck load of finishing shale, dump it, level it, and compact it.

We went to town this afternoon to run some errands. I phoned Virgin Mobile and had our new cell phone number changed from a Keremeos number to a Penticton number. We posted some mail, picked up passport application forms, then bought me a coin pouch to replace the one I recently lost. Darn ... I had just bought it a month and a half ago in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. We went to Keremeos Irly Bird and ordered a picnic table kit, then went to the local nursery to browse.

Back at Riverside we met our new next door neighbour. Our park has a Moduline park model / mobile home franchise and had 3 park models installed in the park as sales models. One was beside our lot, and sold this week. The new neighbour is an elderly single gentleman from Chilliwack.

The Similkameen River is noticeably rising daily, and is now quite high. Ben says that the Similkameen typically doesn't crest until the May long weekend, so it's likely to continue rising for a couple more weeks. Hmmmmm ... I wonder if it's going to flood over its banks ?

 

Friday ; Today was sunny and warm.

I'm tired tonight. I spent the afternoon doing heavy physical labour, working as my excavation contractor's assistant. He worked the heavy equipment, and I did all the manual work with a shovel in the areas where he couldn't get in with the heavy equipment ; around the 2 sewer inlets, the hydro pedestal, the water stand pipe, around the tree, along the edge of the asphalt road, and around the utility access boxes at the road's edge. The basic development of the lot is almost completed, and it looks great ! Well ... great for an RV lot, anyway. A lot for an RV doesn't look like a tract house lot in suburbia. Especially since we're trying to develop our lot to be zero maintenance.

This morning Ben started bringing in dump truck loads of "rock slide" shale. Gee ... it took 4 dump truck loads to cover our lot. Our neighbour Dorothy asked if I could try to fix her computer problem. I went over to her place and was able to resolve the problem by doing disk cleanup and disk defragmentation. She didn't know she was supposed to do those things. I also helped her solve a dog urine stain problem on the carpet. Her dog Jimmy was a bad dog this morning. We went to Keremeos late in the morning to buy a few items, and to go to Similkameen Insurance to change our driver's licenses and vehicle registrations and insurance from Manitoba to British Columbia. Well, that was the plan anyway. But we hadn't counted on British Columbia's high level of bureaucracy. We have to go to Penticton to get new driver's licenses. And the truck has to pass a safety inspection before it can be registered in British Columbia. And I have to obtain insurance claim histories from Manitoba and Ontario going back 8 years ! < sigh >

When we returned from town, Ben was ready to have me assist him. He levelled first with a backhoe, then with a huge piece of heavy equipment that is basically a big giant vibrating roller. When he drove it back and forth across and around our lot, I could feel vibration as I stood on the road, and I could see the widows rattling in the park model next door. We didn't finish working until almost 6:00 P.M.. Ben left a walk behind vibrating compactor for me to use on the weekend, to finish up. After he left, I started it up to try it. Ungh ... it's like trying to hold back a vibrating, runaway train.

A few days after we bought our lot here last October, the price of lots in this park increased $5000. Today the price rose another $10,000. So before we even move onto our lot, it has increased in value by $15,000.

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and warm.

This morning I finished tidying up / fussing with the installation of our water line. This afternoon I helped our new next door neighbour, Stu, repair some plumbing leaks around his hot water heater. The developer failed to winterize Stu's new park model / mobile home unit. When Stu took possession of it a couple of days ago, the toilet was cracked, and there were some cracked and leaking water supply valves and lines in and around the bathroom and hot water heater. The developer replaced the toilet and did necessary repairs, but after he left, Stu found that there were still some repairs necessary. He has no tools with him here yet, so he borrowed tools from me.

We went to the RV park next door called SunKatchers. They had a park wide yard sale. Joanne bought a brand new queen sized goose down duvet to replace an old, worn one of ours. The seller had received it as a gift, and didn't want it. We also bought a set of 4 VCR tapes with the entire 13 episodes of Fawlty Towers, a British TV comedy series from about 25 years ago, starring John Cleese. There were only 13 episodes ever made. We think Fawlty Towers is hilarious, and had been looking for a year for VCR tapes or a DVD of the series, for a gift for someone. We were unable, after a year of searching, to find them in any video stores, so we jumped at the opportunity to buy this used set, cheap, at a yard sale !

We walked Bo around the park, working on obedience, and visiting with neighbours. There's only a dozen or so couples living here so far, so it's a pretty friendly little community. While I was sitting outside working on the computer, our neighbour Dorothy came over to return the Natural Chemistry Odour & Stain Remover I lent her yesterday ( bad dog, Jimmy ), and to invite us over after supper for a visit. She also invited Stu.

We spent the evening visiting with Dorothy and Stu.

 

DSK