September 15 to 21, 2019

Sunday; Light rain most of the day, warm.

I continued working on the baluster project. The rain slowed me down. I also did a minor repair on the camper battery, resealing a hole through the wall of the battery compartment where a cable to the inverter passes through it. Around supper time I combined cardiac exercising in the swimming pool with doing laundry.

While I was eating my rather late supper (after 8 PM) the next door neighbour knocked on my door. She was rather freaked out. A mouse had just run through her trailer. HA HA HA! She wanted to borrow a mouse trap. Sure … no problem … good luck!

Monday; Kelowna

Overcast, light rain starting in mid-afternoon shortly before we arrived back home from Kelowna.

Ozzie and I left home this morning at 10:40 AM … twenty-five minutes late! … headed for Kelowna to pick Joanne up at the airport upon her return from Winnipeg at 12:30 PM. Like everyone else in the Okanagan, I exceeded the speed limit … not my usual style … all the way from home to the Kelowna airport, turning a 2½ hour trip into a two hour trip.

Ozzie was stunned to see Joanne. He seemed convinced, shortly after she had left, that he was being abandoned by yet another “mommy”, she was dead or otherwise gone forever. Poor Ozzie! We stopped to have lunch at McDonald’s in Westbank / West Kelowna. We arrived back home at 4:30 PM.

We had a lot to discuss about her trip to Winnipeg, especially her tours of two seniors’ condos.

Tuesday; Intermittent light rain all day.

Despite today’s cold, rainy weather we both spent much of the afternoon working on the entry landing baluster project. I continued to work on fabricating and installing balusters, Joanne worked on staining them. For me the work ended when I ran out of materials. I will be buying more wood and more screws tomorrow. Joanne likes the end results of the project so much that she wants me to remove all the lattice work surrounding our deck off the living room and replace it with stained wood balusters next summer. < sigh > Yes, dear, I would be happy to.

We went for an aquatic exercise session shortly after 6 PM. And at the same time Joanne did laundry. Afterwards she prepared (expensive Nelson Co-op) perogies for supper. My goodness, they certainly were better than the (cheap Chimo) ones I prepared last week!

Wednesday; Penticton

Overcast, intermittent rain all day, at times heavy.

Emma was ill this morning, but seemed better when we returned home around suppertime. I felt quite ill with a colitis flare up today, first one in a long time.

We left home around 11 AM heading for Penticton, for a day of running errands, a doctor’s appointment for me, and a physiotherapy appointment for Joanne. I went to Service BC to renew my driver’s license and my BC Medical Services Plan card. There were four people ahead of me. I expected about a fifteen minute wait. Thanks to two very high maintenance and seemingly rather stupid people of the four ahead of me, my wait time to see an agent was slightly more than an hour … < fume >! Story of my life ! Could have been worse! By the time I got to see an agent, there were seventeen more people waiting! ! !

We arrived back home at 7 PM. I cooked supper; my recently “invented” Udon noodle stir fry dish, with smoked beef brisket. Joanne liked it! We ate supper while watching the season finale of MasterChef.

Thursday; Mostly cloudy, warm, a bit of light rain in the evening.

This morning Joanne went into town to refill our five gallon water jug and replenish fruits and vegetables at Sanderson Farms. Apparently I allowed our fruits and vegetables inventory to get a little too low. HEY … who needs fruits and vegetables when one has perogies and Old Dutch potato chips? ? ? HA HA HA!

This morning I treated myself to another 65^th birthday gift to myself. HA HA HA! I purchased mini-season tickets to a live performance theatre in Palm Springs. We’ll see four plays; three musicals and a murder mystery, one play on our southbound trip in November, one play on our northbound trip in April, and two plays during our month and a half stay in Palm Springs / Desert Hot Springs in December and January.

After lunch I went fishing for an hour and a half. I caught four fish, lost two of them before getting them to the net … < sigh > … released one small Rainbow Trout and kept one larger Rainbow Trout. When I returned home from fishing our neighbour / friend Jeanine was visiting with Joanne. I cleaned and filleted the Rainbow Trout and gave it to Jeanine. She enjoys my occasional gift of fresh Rainbow Trout.

Friday; Mostly sunny, warm.

This afternoon I continued working on the baluster project. I had hoped that 

I might finish today. I didn’t! Firstly, because I split a baluster as I drove a mounting screw into it. I have no more wood to make a replacement. I will have to go into town tomorrow and buy another piece of lumber. Secondly, I ran into an unexpected problem with an existing brace on our entry landing. And more problems encountered while trying to remove it. < sigh >

I spent the evening on the computer. I paid some bills. I did some President’s Choice “points” reconciliation to satisfy myself that the “points” accrual problem with Joanne’s new MasterCard has been solved. Not an easy reconciliation. And yes, yes ... the points problem has been solved. No thanks to PC Financial or PC Optimum! I solved the problem myself by “tricking” their system! ! !  I spent quite a bit of time preparing instructions to our financial advisor regarding the “annuity/pension” payments that commence after my upcoming 65^th birthday.

Saturday ; Sunny and warm, a very nice fall day. Joanne cooked Beef Stroganoff in the Sun Oven today. Probably the last opportunity to use the Sun Oven this summer season.

WOO-HOO … finished the baluster project. Went into town this morning, bought another piece of lumber (and bought some postage at the Post Office), stopped at our park’s woodworking shop as I drove back into the park, cut the lumber into three balusters, measured and drilled them, then installed the last two required onto the entry landing. With one baluster left over as a spare. I stained some patched areas I had repaired on the railings, and … I was finally done!

Joanne spent much of the afternoon staining the new balusters. She did not quite finish them all. Perhaps tomorrow. But my part is done! Again … WOO-HOO!

After walking Ozzie around suppertime we went to the swimming pool and did exercises. BRRRRR … our swimming pool was much too cold today! Perhaps our park’s maintenance man is indulging in passive-aggressive behaviour (again) since he was chastised last week by members of our Board of Directors for his lack of productivity? ! ?

DSK