This afternoon Joanne helped me with shower enclosure "leak detection". I have been unsuccessfully battling a leak of water underneath the shower enclosure, between the bottom of the shower enclosure walls and the floor / base. < sigh > It seems as if I will have to remove "old" caulking" to find the problem. And the "old" caulking does not want to be removed < sigh > !
Monday ; Penticton
This afternoon we went to Penticton. I attended session twenty-six ( of thirty ) of my cardiac rehabilitation fitness program. Joanne went shopping while I was at the gym. After she picked me up we went to Wal-Mart so that I could buy some socks.
I was hired today to transport a trailer to Prince George. However ... there was some misunderstanding / difficulty regarding use of the dealer's license plate or purchase of a temporary transport permit. I don't think the problems can be overcome, and the job will likely be cancelled tomorrow morning.
Tuesday ; home to 100 Mile House
This morning I received word around 8 AM that the trailer delivery job to Prince George was a "go". We scrambled around for a few hours getting ready to go, and left home around 11:30 AM, Ozzie with us, and Emma left at home to fend for herself.
We drove halfway to Penticton, to Twin Lakes, and picked up the trailer to be delivered. There was a bit of a delay while the dealer "wrapped" the trailer using bubble wrap on the front, and "stretch wrap" around and around and around the trailer, in an attempt to protect the brand new trailer from the elements. It didn't really work all that well !
We had the trailer hooked up and were on the way from Twin Lakes at 1 PM. North on Hwy. 3A to Kaleden, Hwy. 97 to Penticton to Summerland to Peachland. West on Coquihalla Okanagan Connector to Merritt. We refilled with diesel and bought some groceries at Extra Foods in Merritt. North on the Coquihalla ... aptly named the Highway Thru Hell ! Terrible winter conditions on the Coquihalla. At one point our truck with large trailer attached began to slip and slide on the highway. Very scary ! Needed all my best driving skills, and lots of luck, to bring it back under control. Just before reaching Kamloops we turned west on Hwy.1 to Cache Creek, then north on Hwy. 97 again. We reached 100 Mile House at 7 PM. I was tired and needed to stop for the night.
We checked into the 100 Mile House Motel. Ate supper in our room while watching TV.
The shrink wrap around the trailer slowly peeled off during the day. Every time we stopped I had to cut off more "tails" of shrink wrap blowing and dragging behind the trailer.
This was our first road trip with Ozzie. He did fine until it got dark outside at 6 PM. Then he seemed to suffer a bit of a panic attack. He seemed very worried that we were "lost".
Wednesday ; post-operative 5 months ; 100 Mile House to Prince George and return
Overcast, temperature well below freezing this far north.
This morning we were up by 7:30 AM and checked out of our motel room around 9:30 AM. We continued north on Hwy. 97. We stopped in Quesnel to refill with diesel. We arrived in Prince George around 2 PM. The buyer of the trailer met us at the Superstore parking lot, I unhitched his new trailer from our truck, and helped him hitch it up to his truck. Eight hundred kilometre ( five hundred mile ) trailer delivery job completed ! We were heading south out of Prince George at 2:30 PM.
We refilled with diesel again in Quesnel on our way back. We stopped in Williams Lake at 5:30 PM to have an early supper at Denny's. We left Williams Lake at 6:30 PM and arrived in 100 Mile House at 7:30 PM. We checked into the motel next door to the one we stayed in last night, just to try something different, and were ready to watch the two hour season premiere of Survivor at 8 PM.
Thursday ; 100 Mile House to home
We left 100 Mile House this morning about 9:30 AM, continuing south on Hwy. 97. At Cache Creek we turned west on Trans Canada Highway 1. As we approached Kamloops and the Coquihalla Highway, not surprisingly, we encountered snow blizzard conditions. There was a radio report that the Coquihalla Highway was closed southbound because of ( ANOTHER ) multi-vehicle accident, an event that seems to take place about twice a week during the winter on the Highway Thru Hell ! We decided to drive a few miles into Kamloops and turn south on Hwy. 5A, the very winding "old" two lane undivided highway from Kamloops to Merritt, with a much lower speed limit than the Coquihalla.
Yes, it was blizzard conditions, but ... with an 80 km./hour speed limit, and few commercial trucks, it was not that difficult a drive. As opposed to driving on the Coquihalla, with bumper to bumper commercial trucks driving at 130 km./hr. regardless of weather conditions ! ! ! At Merritt we refilled with diesel at the Extra Foods Fuel Bar. The blizzard conditions persisted eastbound on the Coquihalla Okanagan Connector and southbound on Hwy. 5A again to Princeton. We turned east on Hwy. 3 at Princeton, and were home an hour later, at 4 PM.
This trailer delivery job wasn't about making money so much as it was about proving to myself that after five months I have recovered sufficiently from cardiac bypass surgery to resume the hard work of trailer deliveries. I passed the test !
Friday ; Penticton
Blizzard conditions starting in late afternoon.
We left home at 12:30 PM heading for Penticton and my twenty-seventh cardiac rehabilitation session. We stopped in Keremeos to refill our five gallon water jug. We stopped at Twin Lakes to return the dealer's license plate and pick up payment for our trailer delivery job to Prince George. Joanne dropped me off at the cardiac rehabilitation gym and went grocery shopping at Superstore. After grocery shopping she refilled the minivan with fuel then picked me up at the gym at 3:45 PM.
By then it was raining heavily in Penticton and as we drove out of the city the heavy rain turned into a snow blizzard. On our way home down Hwy. 3A we stopped to provide assistance to a small car that had spun off the road and into the ditch. The two ladies in the car were a bit rattled, but okay. Nothing for them to do but wait for a tow truck !
The closer we got to home, the worse the storm became. We arrived home at 4:45 PM, about fifteen minutes after the power went out ! A semi-trailer ... ( of course ! ) ... had crashed into a power pole nearby. The power was out from 4:30 PM until 12:20 AM ! It was a dark, cold ... and crabby ... evening !
Saturday ; Partially sunny, temperature just above freezing, yesterday's huge dump of snow melting.
Emma seems to have an upper respiratory infection. A "kitty cat cold". I am administering a cold medication for pets that we bought in Mexico. She hates it ! Poor baby Emma.
Just before lunch we headed into town ( Keremeos ) to wash the road grime off the truck. YUCK ... filthy big truck ! Back at home, after lunch, we gave Ozzie a bath. YUCK ... stinky little dog ! HA HA HA !
In the evening I processed some photos and worked on month end banking and investment reconciliations. After supper we watched Saturday Night Live.
DSK
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