July 14 to 20, 2019

Sunday ; Happy 98^th Birthday to our Oregon friend Eilene

Mostly cloudy, warm, a bit windy.

I went fly fishing today in the Similkameen River beside our community’s “beach access” area in the Crown Land beside our park. I wanted to assess how fast the river was flowing, and how cold the water temperature was. Wearing chest waders I walked out into the middle of the river. It’s still cold, and it’s still flowing fast, although the level has dropped to summer levels. I did not catch any fish in the half hour that I fished.

This afternoon I did some travel medical insurance comparison shopping. Still haven’t found a good alternative to MEDIPAC. I will continue to search.

Cooked blueberry pancakes this morning, with Aunt Lena’s sour milk pancake batter recipe made from scratch. Joanne made the batter, I cooked the pancakes. Cooked Morel mushroom omelettes for supper. My repertoire is small, but … I’m very good at what I do ! Both the pancakes and the omelettes were superb ! ! !

In the evening we watched the movie “Little Miss Sunshine”. For the third time ! HA HA HA !

Monday ; Mix of sun and clouds, a bit of rain around suppertime.

Did some preventive maintenance on the camper, truck and minivan this morning. This afternoon Joanne went into town to run some errands by herself. 

I worked on resealing the passenger side bedroom window on the camper. 

I removed all the old, dried, cracked caulking … a very difficult job … then applied new caulking.

For supper I pan fried and butter basted Cajun seasoned Cutthroat Trout fillets, caught by me a couple of weeks ago at Crooked River in Northern BC. They were excellent !

DARN ! We forgot to go to the swimming pool to do exercises today.

Tuesday ; Mix of sun and clouds, intermittent light rain.

Today was ear cleaning, teeth brushing, and nail trimming day for Ozzie, and just nail trimming day for Emma. This afternoon I removed the battery from the minivan. Tomorrow in Penticton I will buy a new battery. Late in the afternoon we went to the swimming pool and did aquatic exercises. I did more online research of travel medical insurance options. Today I found a couple of possibly viable options. In the evening we watched Amazing Race Canada … while eating my favourite dinner recipe. Thank you, my dear !

Wednesday ; Penticton

Mix of sun and clouds, warm, humid, intermittent light rain starting late afternoon.

We left home this morning at 10 AM heading for Penticton and my 11 AM appointment with my cardiologist. This was sort of my two year post-surgical checkup … twenty-one months after my surgery. My cardiologist was very optimistic and encouraging. His opinion was that my bypass surgery was / is very successful, with no ongoing angina, fibrillation, shortness of breath, exercise intolerance, edema / fluid build up, etc. No issues, just good news ! The radial artery from my left arm and both mammary arteries from my chest made excellent arterial grafts. The cardiothoracic surgeon suggested at my two month post-surgical checkup that my bypass grafts should have a twelve year life. My cardiologist today suggested that they should have a fifteen year life. So … I am now expecting to live to be 75 to 78 years old ! Remember … I come from a family of men that don’t live past seventy !

The arm and chest trauma of harvesting / ripping out arteries to be used as bypass grafts, and sawing the sternum apart to access the heart … well … 

< shrug > … that’s part of the “new reality” to live with. The residual discomforts will remain. Everything has healed as much as it is going to ! At least I’m alive !

We had a long, tiring day of errands in Penticton, not arriving back home until 7 PM.

Thursday ; Mostly sunny, warm, windy.

We had a meeting scheduled this afternoon with an insurance agent in Princeton, but this morning I returned a phone call she made yesterday, and she wanted to cancel our meeting this afternoon and deal with our business over the phone. And by e-mail. Okay ! She prepared two quotes for us, for home insurance. Neither was acceptable ! She’ll try again tomorrow.

Yesterday I purchased a new battery for the minivan. Today I installed it. I filleted a Steelhead Trout we purchased yesterday, freezing one large fillet and barbecuing the other one for supper tonight. Before supper we went to the swimming pool and exercised. I did yesterday’s credit card accounting. YIKES !

Friday ; Sunny and warm.

This morning I did some work on the truck, replacing the fuel filter. This afternoon I did a 6000 km. Inspection. And I had a lengthy chat in our gazebo with a neighbour. We mostly discussed recent park politics. In the evening I updated maintenance records for the truck and the minivan.

Saturday ; Sunny and warm. Joanne cooked Chicken & Zucchini Parmigiana in the Sun Oven today.

Went bicycling this morning. Should be doing that a lot more often ! Paid some bills online this afternoon. Around suppertime we went to the swimming pool to do cardiac exercises. We cut our session a bit short because … the pool became overwhelmed by two grandparent visiting families with … MANY children ! ! !

I got a free work bench vise today from a neighbour who was giving away some surplus work shop supplies. I installed it onto my work bench. Excellent !

Today I was offered an opportunity by a previous trailer towing client to transport two trailers from Edmonton to Vancouver. I declined that opportunity.

DSK