Sunday ; Cloudy, cool, intermittent rain.
Joanne did a lot of laundry. I retrieved our fifth wheel hitch from a neighbour who hauled it from Yuma to here for us. Thank you, Paul. I brushed Sully. And brushed and brushed and brushed ! Poor Sully, neither of us thought to brush him during our three week journey home. This afternoon we watched the finale of MasterChef Canada.
Monday ; Happy 13th Birthday to Joanne's niece Amelia
Amelia's a teenager already ? ! ? SHEESH ! ! !
Partially cloudy, cool, occasional very light rain.
A very long, tiring day of running errands ( and spending lots of money ! ), first in Keremeos, then Cawston, then all day in Penticton. Didn't return home until almost
9 PM. Weren't certain this morning that we would be able to run errands today. Rockslide on Highway 3 a couple of miles east of here last night closed highway in both directions for twelve hours. Exactly the same place where there was a rockslide last winter !
Tuesday ; Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, rain for a few minutes every hour or so, sometimes heavy.
We spent the day gardening, planting flower gardens and vegetable gardens. The flower gardens are Joanne's, the vegetable gardens are mine.
In the evening I went fishing. I took my brand new fly fishing rod and reel ( received as a Christmas gift ), walked down to the burn pile area, climbed up onto the dike along the Simillkameen River, and fished for about an hour. Nothing ! Water too high, fast, and muddy. I walked back over behind the lodge / clubhouse to try my luck in a different spot. As I was getting ready to fish there ... < fume > ... I broke the tip of my brand new fly fishing rod. WHAT THE **** ? ! ? Now I know ! The extremely thin tip of a long fly fishing rod is very fragile. Which explains why there are MANY websites dedicated to "how to repair the broken tip of a fly fishing rod" !
Wednesday ; Joanne's 13th anniversary as cancer survivor
Mostly sunny and mild. This morning Joanne cleaned Elsie ( the camper ) and laundered everything within. I repaired my fly fishing rod. I got some ideas online, then ... formulated my own solution. The broken tip of my fly fishing rod is hollow, a thin tube with just enough inside diameter to ... slip in part of a paper clip. GREAT !
I straightened and cut a paper clip, then used it as an internal splint, gluing it into the main shaft of the fishing rod, then gluing the broken tip on top, lined up perfectly. Seems okay ! Hope it works okay !
This afternoon I worked on some truck repairs, including changing a burned out taillight bulb. Joanne worked on staining the 2" x 8" piece of lumber I bought and cut to serve as a redneck tailgate for the truck. We did a fun obedience and agility session with Bo.
I got my bicycle ready for use. I mounted on the exterior wall of our shed the piece of metal sculpture art that Joanne bought in Los Algodones, Mexico this past winter. It’s a “family” of five quail, small to large, mounted on a long saw blade, and vividly painted.
In the evening, after watching Survivor, I began work on preparing our personal income tax returns.
When I took Bo out for his late night walk around 11:15 PM ... WOW ... great display of Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis.
Thursday ; Partially sunny, partially cloudy, mild.
This afternoon I saw the dentist in Keremeos. The only one in town. And ... the first dentist I have seen outside of Mexico in ten years ! ! ! I lost a filling and / or chipped a tooth. The dentist's opinion was that the tooth cracked and chipped, and the broken piece came out with the adjacent filling attached.
The broken area of the tooth required a bit of drilling, then filling. His work was ... competent. His ... or more precisely, his receptionist's ... respect for the value of their patients' time ... was sorely lacking. I have that same complaint about our family doctor in Keremeos. Maybe it's a regional thing ? Maybe it's a common attitude in the health care field towards seniors ?
His fee was ... four times higher than our dentist in Mexico. I have no current Canadian basis for comparison, but his receptionist did comment that their fees are based on the B.C. dental fee guidelines ... which I have no reason to doubt.
This evening I worked on preparing our personal income tax returns.
Friday ; Weather ... variable ! Sunny, cloudy, warm, cold, raining, windy ... !
We washed the truck camper today. First the roof. Tough job ! Then the entire body. The aluminum skin of Elsie ( the truck camper ) is much easier to clean than the fiberglass skin of Harvey ( the fifth wheel trailer ). Then we cleaned the awning. SHEESH ! About seventeen years of accumulated grime ... and mildew. When we were all finished we couldn't help but notice ... Elsie certainly does clean up nicely !
Tonight I finished our income tax returns and filed them electronically. Second year that I have used computer software to prepare our income tax returns. It certainly is easier than the old fashioned way of pencil and paper tax returns.
Saturday ; Variable weather again. Bo and I were sick today. I was suffering a Crohn's / colitis flare-up. And Bo was similarly ill. Poor Bo. It's difficult for a dog to communicate "I need to go to the bathroom NOW !" Especially in the middle of the night, which Bo had to do repeatedly.
We spent the day exploring and thrift shopping throughout the South Okanagan / Similkameen. Joanne wanted to go to a community yard sale in the Willowbrook neighbourhood. We had never been there before. Keremeos to Twin Lakes to White Lake to Willowbrook, a "high rent" neighbourhood high up in the hills west of Oliver, between Hwy 97 and Hwy. 3A. Not much left by the time we got there around noon. Picked up a beat up old cabinet to use for tool storage in our shed. Free ! Also picked up a Sudoku book for Joanne. Another freebie !
Drove down to Oliver, then north to Okanagan Falls. Shopped at the Okanagan Falls outdoor weekend flea markets. Bought a rhubarb plant. Joanne bought a leather purse. For a buck ! Big spenders today ! Had a picnic lunch in the waterfront park in Okanagan Falls. Lovely park ! Drove a short distance to see Okanagan Falls Provincial Park. Nice campground, but ... twenty-one dollars per night for an unserviced site in a campground that doesn't even have a dump station ? ! ? B.C.'s camping fees are unreasonable !
Drove back to Oliver. As the day progressed, I felt more and more ill. Shopped at the Oliver indoor flea markets. Flea markets in the U.S. and Canada are very different. In the U.S. flea markets, all the merchandise is new, inexpensive, and ... for the most part ... useful in one way or another. Canadian flea markets are filled with used ... crap ... that people scavenge from garbage dumps and buy at yard sales and are trying to resell for a profit. It's usually a whole lot of worthless junk.
By the time we reached Osoyoos on the drive home I became too ill to continue driving. Joanne drove the rest of the way home from Osoyoos.
DSK
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