Sunday ; Sunny and hot.
Another day of "return home" chores and gardening. I planted lettuce. I did some maintenance work on our little generator. I did some maintenance work on my fly fishing gear. Lord knows it's had quite a workout lately ! HA HA HA ! I did some maintenance and replenishment work on my clothing inventory in the camper. We went down to our RV park's riverfront orchard and picked a lot of apples and plums. I went bicycling. Need to do more of that ! Joanne had a lengthy phone chat with her sister.
I uploaded my weekly journal to my online blog. In the evening I spent too long on the computer making arrangements for a very special New Year's Eve.
Monday ; Sunny and hot. Only another day or two of hot summer weather left. Joanne baked a plum cake in the Sun Oven today. MMMMM ... she makes good plum cake.
Today was similar to yesterday. Routine "return home" chores, maintenance, etc. Tried to "scale" Bo's teeth. "NO !" ... he said.
Tuesday ; Mostly sunny and hot, thin, high, scattered cloud early in the day, becoming thin, high cloud cover later in the day.
Today was a long, tiring day of running errands in Penticton. And DanAir flight 429. We left home around 10:30 AM, drove to Penticton, and first stop was to buy a used Shaw Direct satellite TV receiver "box". So there, Shaw Direct ! I'd rather put money into somebody else's pocket than yours. NYAH NYAH NYAH ! Joanne dropped me off at BP Aviation to go flying, and she went thrift store shopping.
I asked Michelle ( BP Aviation's CFI ) to load the GPS co-ordinates for Cathedral Lakes into the aircraft's GPS. I had obtained them last night from Google Maps. I took off in Cessna 172 C-GHBM heading for Cathedral Lakes, a bit south of Riverside RV Park Resort / home, way up in the Cascade Mountains, up the Ashnola River Valley. This was the second time / second year that I have attempted to locate Cathedral Lakes ( an almost inaccessible wilderness provincial park ) by aircraft. And ... < sputter > ... the second time that I failed ! I flew right to the GPS "waypoint" defined by the
co-ordinates, and ... no Cathedral Lakes that I could see ! Nothing that looked like the Google Maps satellite view ! Nothing that looked like what Michelle told me to look for ! And with mountain tops near 9000 feet, I was flying at 10,000 to 10,300 feet. BUT ... not for long ! Above 10,000 feet for more than half an hour requires supplemental oxygen.
< sigh > I flew a figure "8" pattern, about a mile in each direction. Still couldn't find any of the five little lakes that comprise Cathedral Lakes. < sigh > I turned around and headed back towards Penticton. Within a few minutes I was flying over our RV park.
A bit hard to tell, from 10,000 feet up ! I crossed the mountains over to Okanagan Falls at about 8500 feet, requiring me to fly two slow circles over Skaha Lake to lose enough altitude to land at Penticton. And even then I flew the last few miles with full 40º of flaps, slow flight, and the nose pointed down at the lake, to lose altitude.
We spent the rest of the afternoon running errands. My priority when we arrived back home about 6:30 PM was to get the satellite receiver box functional by 8 PM, in order to watch Amazing Race Canada. I accomplished that, with the assistance of Shaw Direct's Technical Support "Live Chat" online messaging function. Tomorrow or the next day I will contact their billing department and attempt to convince them that
I should not pay for the last five days of service, while my receiver box was "dead". Even if I lose that battle, I still feel that I won the war by refusing to buy a new receiver box from them.
After Amazing Race Canada and supper, I spent the rest of the evening preparing a complicated trailer towing quote.
Wednesday ; Mostly sunny and warm, becoming cloudy and windy in the evening. Joanne spent the day with Gord and Marcie at Penticton Hospital.
WELL ! ! ! J**** F****** H. C**** ! ! ! ! ! One evening ! One show ! One hour ! And our new Shaw Direct satellite TV receiver box is dead ! ! ! ! ! I spent half the day online with Technical Support "Live Chat". They don't have an explanation. And can't solve the problem from their end. They have placed an order for a service technician to come out. With an unknown / unspecified supplemental mileage charge because the service technician has to come from Kelowna. I'm not certain I'm willing to pay that. I want to know what the charge will be before I agree to it. So ... I'm awaiting a call from the service technician. Stay tuned !
In the middle of the night our 120 volt "hard wired" smoke alarm sounded for a few seconds. Could there have been some manner of power surge ? Could it have "fried" the new Shaw Direct receiver box ?
Had baked Rainbow Trout smothered in dill cream sauce for supper. Pretty darn good !
Thursday ; Started out sunny and mild, becoming cloudy in the afternoon, with cold rain and wind by late afternoon, raining and cold in the evening ... < sigh >.
Joanne spent the day taking Gord and Marcie to Kelowna Hospital and back. For a fifteen minute appointment with an arrogant doctor who spent ten of the fifteen minutes trying to get rid of them because his nurse advised him five minutes into the appointment that "they are ready for you downstairs, doctor". It has once again proven to be impossible to get the health care community to have some respect and recognize that every "appointment" for Gord in Kelowna involves five hours of driving time for the patient and his "entourage".
I took the camper off the truck. And then it began to rain, so the rest of my day's
( outdoor ) activities were curtailed. I read. I napped. I walked Bo and Ozzie.
I returned a book to the library in the clubhouse. I stared out the windows and sighed a lot.
Friday ; Sunny and mild in the morning, becoming cloudy and cool in the afternoon, with evening rain.
This morning we went into town to run errands, and for Joanne to see the doctor to review some test results. She saw the new doctor at our local clinic. He will become her new family doctor. I hope for the same, but that is not yet certain. Thanks to the passive aggressive games playing of a power abusing administrative clerk at our clinic that I had a telephone dispute / personality conflict with last winter while we were in Texas. Stay tuned ... I don't usually lose these kinds of pissing contests !
After seeing the new doctor ... I accompanied Joanne into the examination room so that I could also meet the new doctor ... we ran errands in town. I dropped Joanne off at Sanderson Farms to buy some produce, and I went to Autumn Rain Hair Design to make an appointment for a haircut and beard trim next week, and to FasGas to refill a truck camper propane tank. I picked Joanne up at Sanderson Farms and we went to Mariposa Gardens for more produce shopping.
Back at home, after lunch and a nap, I did some minor maintenance work on both the truck and the minivan, then we gave Bo a bath. What a dirty, stinky, little Haida Gwaii adventuring dog ! I mowed the tiny patch of lawn that Gord and Marcie have ( to be used as a bathroom by Ozzie ), using one of our park's power mowers that Marcie had borrowed, but had difficulty operating. Joanne did some medical appointments scheduling and records keeping work with Marcie, for Gord's ongoing medical care.
We took Bo for a walk, to pick up our mail, and go to the dog park. While there we discovered that two of the four Adirondack chairs that I had purchased earlier this summer for use in the dog park ( by anyone ) were missing. I searched high and low for them, all over the entire RV park, including in all the common area buildings. I finally found them outside the RV park, on the small beach in the crown land adjacent to our park. With considerable indignation, I returned them to the dog park, then returned home to write a nasty e-mail letter to our park's "homeowner society" and residents of the park. How presumptuous and arrogant for somebody to take chairs from the dog park and down to "their" beach outside the park. That beach is used by few, so I have a pretty good idea who the guilty party might be !
We spent ( too much of ) the evening online, exploring what options we have for using the Air Miles points we have accumulated. They will begin to "expire" at the end of this year, based on Air Miles' new policy of "expiring" reward miles not used in five years.
Saturday ; Started out cloudy, cold, and raining in the morning, becoming partially sunny and mild in the afternoon.
We had a late start to the day. Some of us later than others ! I got up around 9 AM, showered, had breakfast, etc. Then ... because it was cold and raining, and Joanne was still in bed, I went back to bed around 10 AM. I got up for the second time around 1 PM. Joanne continued to sleep until 3:30 PM !
I spent the afternoon washing the truck and part of the camper. Very filthy from Haida Gwaii trip ! And that Haida Gwaii mud stuck to both the truck and the camper like s*** on a blanket ! When Joanne finally got going, she came outside and helped. Afterwards we took Bo for a walk down to the dog park where he met and played with a visitor's four month old Rottweiler puppy. HA HA HA ... four months old and more than twice the size of Bo ! Bo's patience wears thin pretty quickly with four month old big puppies. HA HA HA ... you tell 'im, Bo !
I spent the evening working on financial planning. HMMMMM ... we're in pretty good financial shape right now, and getting better all the time. Must be all that clean livin' we did in the 70's ! HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! I also worked on updating the travel log I am keeping for Gord and Marcie, tracking the travel required for Gord's ongoing medical care. We were away for a month and ... < rolling eyes > ... Marcie's records keeping leaves a bit to be desired !
DSK
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