August 8 to 14, 2010
Monday ; We both went to see our family doctor today. HMPH … 70 minute wait time. I consider that to be totally unacceptable. I told Joanne, after waiting for an hour, that I was leaving. She convinced me to stay, because seeing our doctor doesn’t usually involve a wait, and she thought he should be given “the benefit of the doubt”. To my doctor friends reading this ; recognize how arrogant and disrespectful it is to treat your patients like their time is less valuable than yours ! ! ! My experience has been that that is a fairly common attitude problem amongst physicians.
All of Joanne’s cancer screening tests were negative. She’s good to go for another year ! Yippee ! After being frozen a few weeks ago, the basal cell lesion on my nose is still there after the frozen spot blistered then healed. My doctor wants to freeze it a few more times before trying a topical chemotherapy. And … now I have some sort of a tiny skin problem on my lower lip as well ! He prescribed Celebrex for my shoulder pain, sore with bursitis or tendonitis. And physiotherapy … which is only partially covered by BC Medical Services Plan. There’s about a 50% co-pay on physiotherapy services. HMPH ! And … I declined the Celebrex prescription when the pharmacist told me how much it costs … and BC Pharmacare doesn’t pay for Celebrex. HMPH … **** that ! At that price for Celebrex, I’ll just use Ibuprofen ! Maybe I can buy Celebrex cheaper in Mexico ?
Friday ; One of the residents of Riverside RV Park Resort purchased a new fifth wheel trailer at an RV dealer in Penticton, trading in their existing fifth wheel trailer. We were hired by the RV dealer to transport the old trailer from Riverside RV Park Resort to the dealer in Penticton, then transport the new trailer back to Riverside. We did that this morning. Nice new trailer !
In between dropping off one trailer and picking up the other we ran a few quick errands in Penticton. WOO-HOO … bought a couple of whole salmon at the annual “five bucks a salmon” sale.
After more than two weeks, the Tweddle Creek fire continues to burn ! ! ! No flames visible any more, just smoke. And it’s not spreading, it’s staying in its confined area.
Saturday ; Well, today was a relatively easy day of work. We picked up and / or delivered four trailers, three in Osoyoos and one in Oliver. We will be doing another four tomorrow. On our way to Osoyoos to start work and on our way home from Oliver at the end of the day, we passed by the Tweddle Creek fire which is between Riverside RV Park Resort and the Village of Keremeos. It’s still burning, and a bit more healthy today than it was the last few days, having spread a little to find fresh “fuel”.
At the RV park in Oliver where we were making our last delivery of the day, we met a full time RV’ing couple who spent three months last winter, including Christmas and New Year’s, at Villas Onac RV Park in Teacapán, Mexico. We will be spending a few months there next winter, including Christmas and New Year’s, with Joanne’s family.
DSK
August 15 to 21, 2010
Sunday ; Whew … another long, hard, hot day of work. Temperature well into the 90’s ! Only four trailers picked up and / or delivered today, but lots of miles. We drove from home to Penticton, picked up a trailer, took it to the Osoyoos storage yard for cleaning, picked up another trailer from an Osoyoos campground and brought it to the yard for cleaning, delivered a trailer from the yard to an Osoyoos campground, delivered another trailer from the yard to a campground near Kaleden, ran some errands in Penticton, then finally drove home.
< sigh > The Tweddle Creek fire has found new life, spreading to find some fresh fuel to burn. It’s now been burning for 2½ weeks. It’s at the top of a very steep, inaccessible canyon. It’s not threatening any people or buildings or anything other than inaccessible forest, so it’s being left alone to run its course. There’s about 400 fires burning in BC right now, and firefighting resources are stretched pretty thin, especially tanker planes and helicopters with buckets !
Monday ; This afternoon Joanne went shopping in town. While she was at Dave’s Fruit & Veggies, her employer last year, they asked her if she is interested in working the fruit stand from Labour Day to Thanksgiving. She was non-committal. When she came home and discussed it with me, I suggested that she return tomorrow and tell them “YES” !
Aw, shit ! The Tweddle Creek fire moved over slightly today, and flared. REALLY flared ! ! !
Joanne went into town today and … got a job ! She’s going to work full time at Dave’s Fruit & Veggies from Labour Day to Thanksgiving, about six weeks. That’s great … we will put the money she earns to good use.
Wednesday ; Well, in keeping with the principle of shutting the barn door after the horse is gone, the Tweddle Creek fire is getting a lot of attention today. A “bird dog” spotter plane, two bucket equipped helicopters, and multiple tanker plane drops. But it’s too little, too late. The fire has grown quite large over the last couple of days. The drops of fire retardant foam from the tanker planes are impressive, but the buckets of water dropped by the helicopters look woefully inadequate. Watching the little bird dog plane fly right in front of the tanker planes, leading them into and through the smoke to make their drops, makes me wince ! Pretty fancy flying ! ! ! Especially when the tankers drop a load of fire retardant foam on the extremely steep sloped sections by flying over the top of the ridge then pushing the nose of the plane down into a steep dive while dumping. WOW !
The weather in the BC Interior will be changing tonight and overnight. A cold front is coming in, lowering the daytime temperatures about 20 degrees from the mid-90’s to the mid 70’s. But more importantly, it’s bringing strong winds which will fan the fires.
Thursday ; HMPH … the Tweddle Creek fire is now huge, covering at least four or five times as much area as it had until a couple of days ago. And today’s winds are spreading it even more ! It’s now been burning for more than three weeks !
Today we received news that Joanne’s family will not be joining us in Teacapán, Mexico on Christmas Day as planned. Oh well, qué sera, sera.
I washed the trailer roof today, an annual chore that I dread. But it’s necessary, and allows me to find and repair small roof problems before they become large roof problems. Today I discovered a tear in the rubber roof underneath the TV antenna, as well as a couple of other small spots that could benefit from some preventive maintenance attention before they develop into problems.
Friday ; Well, we certainly are getting a lot of air traffic around us. Helicopters with buckets, little “bird dog” spotter planes, tankers, and Search & Rescue aircraft ! This morning I went into Keremeos for my first physiotherapy session for my sore left shoulder. Bursitis and / or rotator cuff tendonitis. Hope the physiotherapy helps. The fire has jumped over three more ridges, and is now burning at least three mountain faces. It has moved closer to the Village of Keremeos, and is now burning down the face of the mountain along Ashnola River Road, where there are ranches. The wind is blowing towards the village, so Keremeos is blanketed in smoke. So today there was a lot of fire fighting activity along that mountain face, to keep the fire from coming down the mountain far enough to threaten the ranches. On the way home from town I stopped on the side of the road for a few minutes to watch two helicopters repeatedly fill their buckets in the Similkameen River then fly up the face of the mountain to dump their buckets. They certainly are precise in their dumping ! And two days ago a small plane was lost in our area. As I’m typing this a large Search & Rescue aircraft is flying slowly overhead, very low, back and forth in a grid search pattern. The pilot was a local, with not too much flying experience. I wonder if he had the Mountain Performance Flying Course ? As I do ! These mountains can really jump up and bite your ass as a pilot ! Since the plane has been missing now for two days, I wouldn’t expect a very good outcome for the pilot and three passengers. Perhaps I should consider myself fortunate to have survived 26 years of flying without turning myself into a smoking hole.
We picked up and / or delivered three trailers in Osoyoos, and one in Penticton today. Working today was an excellent excuse for us to not attend Riverside RV Park Resort’s Annual General Meeting. We don’t need the drama ! ! !
The Tweddle Creek fire has been suppressed a lot since yesterday.
DSK
No comments:
Post a Comment