Sunday ; our 40th wedding anniversary
Cloudy and mild. Raining lightly at bedtime.
I spent the afternoon working on building a raised garden using pressure treated landscape ties. I'm almost finished. And the only thing I'm worse at than spray painting is ... working with wood !
At supper time we drove to Penticton with the truck camper. For the third year in a row we went to LambFest at Bogner's Restaurant. LambFest is an annual Okanagan Fall Wine Festival event. Bogner's Restaurant spit roasts a lamb on the barbecue, and Hester Creek Winery pairs a different wine with three of the meal's four courses. We both like barbecued lamb, and have made LambFest my birthday and / or our anniversary dinner for the past two years. But previously I felt uneasy about driving home after drinking three glasses of wine, even though it was over a period of more than two hours. So this year ... we took the truck camper and parked about three blocks away from Bogner's Restaurant behind a sports field park. We walked to the restaurant, had dinner, walked back to the camper, and boondocked overnight. Very nice not to have to drive home in the dark, in the rain, after drinking wine.
Great meal, as always at Bogner's. < BURP > Maybe a bit heavy on the garlic !
Monday ; Canadian Thanksgiving
Partially sunny, mild, windy.
We slept in a bit this morning. I guess three glasses of wine with supper does that ! We could see from our overnight boondocking spot that Canadian Tire was open today, so before leaving Penticton we went over to Canadian Tire to buy a few items we needed. And we took the opportunity to dump the camper's waste holding tanks at Canadian Tire's sani-dump station. And then we went to Lordco Auto Parts for an item that Canadian Tire didn't have. And then we refilled the truck with diesel. And then we went to Superstore for some groceries. SO ... it was pretty late ( early afternoon ) by the time we got out of Penticton and headed home. BUT ... I think we eliminated the need to go back to Penticton to run weekly errands this coming week.
When we arrived home we had a very late lunch then Joanne began preparing Thanksgiving Dinner while I worked outside on the raised garden project. And I finished the project just as it got dark. And that was the last item on my "Summer 2014 To Do" list.
Thanksgiving Dinner was great. And ... as always ... I am thankful for Joanne's cancer survival. She's thankful for our lifestyle ; used to be "homeless, unemployed vagabonds" ... now I guess it's just "unemployed vagabonds". If we were still "homeless" I wouldn’t be building a ****ing raised garden, now would I ? ? ?
Oh, boy ... only about six and a half more weeks to American Thanksgiving. HA HA HA !
Tuesday ; Cloudy and mild.
I haven't been in this foul a mood in a very long time. I spent the entire afternoon trying ... and failing ... to install new wiper blades on the minivan.
Wednesday ; Cloudy, cool, raining.
Was up early this morning to head for lab at Keremeos Clinic for blood tests. Hate going to Keremeos Clinic lab. ALWAYS a line up more than an hour long. So ... went early ! Arrived at 8:40 AM, ten minutes after opening. GREAT ... only two people ahead of me. AND ... < sputter > ... old woman in front of me was there for ECG that took fifty minutes ! ! ! Despite signage on wall that indicates 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM reserved for fasting blood tests. After emotional short circuiting of yesterday, very difficult to "not sweat the small stuff" this morning.
After having blood drawn went to Napa Auto Parts in town. Bought three new wiper blades for minivan. Installation took ... < thinking > ... maybe twenty seconds per wiper ! Hope I can get refund from Canadian Tire on three ( pieces of junk made in China ) wiper blades bought there. Blister packaging is destroyed, plastic clips on wiper blades are damaged from hours of installation attempts, etc. Discovered yesterday that even the first wiper blade ... installed "professionally" by safety inspection service facility was broken during installation. Would have been nice for them to have mentioned that to me, n'est-ce pas ? ! ? WHEW ... how could wiper blade installation difficulty have brought a reasonably intelligent man to his meltdown point yesterday ? ! ? If Canadian Tire won't issue refunds for three wiper blades ... maybe I can shove them up somebody's ass for my satisfaction ! ! !
While walking the dog Joanne discovered some mushrooms growing near our park office building. So ... out came the Mushroom Hunter book she bought for me as a birthday gift. The mushrooms are edible Shaggy Manes. I harvested some young ones, and Joanne will cook them following the instructions in the book, first sautéed, then in a Shaggy Mane mushroom soup Wish us luck !
If there is no blog entry next week ... I've probably died from eating poisonous mushrooms. HA HA HA !
Thursday ; Sunny and cool.
I puttered around with preventive maintenance on the truck and minivan. Joanne did laundry. AND ... made Shaggy Mane mushroom soup for lunch. This afternoon our neighbour / friend Jeannine dropped by for a visit. We invited her to join us Saturday evening at Taste Of Our Valley, the local annual fall harvest festival in Keremeos.
This evening I made a four jar batch of my "secret recipe" pine sap and beeswax salve using the remainder of the expensive jar of pine sap I bought two and a half years ago at a Native PowWow at 150 Mile House near Williams Lake, B.C. Making this batch of salve did not go smoothly, and I have decided it's not worth the effort to make this kind of stuff by myself anymore, when herbalists and other assorted wing nut types make similar salves and sell them at farmer's markets and other outdoor events for ten bucks or so per jar. Joanne was not pleased about how difficult it was for her to clean out the thin coating of beeswax lining the inside of one of her stainless steel bowls that I had used to melt the beeswax. Sorry !
Friday ; Sunny and cool.
Yesterday Joanne experienced a problem with the starter function in the minivan.
I spent some time this afternoon attempting to diagnose and repair the problem. I'm not sure I accomplished either objective. Most auto repair nowadays is a bit beyond my skill levels.
I the evening I worked online evaluating travel medical insurance plans. YIKES ! I had not counted on the immense increase in our travel medical insurance premiums now that we've reached the "60 years and older" category !
Saturday ; Sunny and mild. Nice day !
The minivan's intermittent starter problem persists. This afternoon I began working on my "fall pre-departure" chore list. This evening we went to Taste Of Our Valley in Keremeos, with our neighbour / friend Jeannine. We spent a couple of hours munching on local foods and sipping local wines and visiting with other neighbours who were there. Not surprisingly, the minivan did not want to start when it was time to return home. After many attempts, it finally started. We drove home, dropped Jeannine at her home, then we returned to Keremeos, Joanne driving the minivan, me driving the truck. We dropped the minivan off at a local auto repair facility in town for service on Monday. < sigh >
DSK
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