October 6 to 12, 2019

Sunday ; Penticton

Sunny and mild.

At 4 PM we left to go to Penticton. We ran a few errands, had an early “dinner” … so to speak … at A&W, then went to the South Okanagan Events Centre to attend “Rock The Rink”. The show should have been titled “Tessa’s and Scott’s Figure Skating Farewell Tour”. The show lasted two and a half hours, and … the first hour was an aggravating waste of everybody’s time.

The first thirty minutes were taken up with a “warm up” act ; a four person, unknown to anybody over the age of fourteen, Canadian “boy band”. They were terrible ! The only thing worse than them was … the sound system which garbled their music and lyrics beyond comprehension !

The next thirty minutes were taken up with the dismantling of the band’s stage, and the cleaning of the ice, including about twenty minutes of watching a Zamboni drive around the rink !

And there went another precious hour of my diminishing life that I’ll never get back !

Finally … the figure skating exhibition began ; Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir, Patrick Chan, Elvis Stojko, and five other champion figure skaters, Canadian, American, and Russian. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are … superb ! And the best of the others was “old man” Elvis Stojko. The show ended at 9:30 PM and we didn’t get home until almost 11 PM.

Monday ; Mix of sun and clouds, mild.

I did some fall pre-departure work today. Joanne continued with her herb garden harvesting and drying. I did some household annual cleaning chores. Around supper time we went to the swimming pool and did aquatic exercises.

Tuesday ; Overcast and chilly.

I drained the camper’s freshwater tank and water heater tank today. < sigh > Second time I’ve done that in the past week or so. I did it about a week ago when we were going to have overnight temperatures below freezing, then unwisely filled them again a few days later. Now we’re going to have freezing overnight temperatures … again !

And while working inside the camper I hit my forehead on the corner of an open cupboard door … and split my forehead open ! OUCH ! ! !  I cleaned the little barbecue we carry in the camper. And I cleaned the larger barbecue in our yard. 

I did some exterior maintenance on the camper.

I did some inventory of medications on hand. I suspended our satellite TV and internet services starting on November 1. I did some budget work. Joanne did laundry. And took our neighbour / friend Jeanine to run errands in Keremeos.

Wednesday ; Sunny and cold.

Today I finished studying the Deputy Returning Officer training book. I’m ready for the upcoming election. We had our neighbour / friend Jeanine over for supper again tonight.

Thursday ; Daniel’s 65^th birthday

I feel as if this is probably the most major milestone birthday of my life, surpassing turning sixteen and being old enough to drive a car, and turning eighteen and being old enough to drink alcohol. I’m sixty-five … and old enough to retire ! ! !

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ! ! ! ! !

Today was sunny and cold. I don’t really mind the cold part, as long as I have the sunny part ! Although … it was so cold overnight … well below freezing … that whatever remained in our gardens was … destroyed. Today we harvested what we could, which wasn’t much, and then pulled everything out of the gardens.

In addition to pulling everything out of our gardens I did some other yard work today. When I blew out our garden hose with compressed air using our little compressor … long “icicles” blew out of the hose ! I suppose it was a good thing that I winterized our camper ( again ! ) yesterday.

My sister phoned to wish me a Happy Birthday. We had a pleasant long chat this afternoon.

We went to the swimming pool at suppertime to exercise but … the pool was so cold, we walked into the pool, spent about ten seconds in the cold water, and … quit ! We treated ourselves to a long soak session in the hot tub !

Friday ; Sunny and cool.

We left home this morning at 11:45 AM heading into Keremeos and my noon appointment for a haircut and beard trim. While I was getting my haircut Joanne went produce shopping. After my haircut we had a number of errands to run. First was to vote at the advance poll. Our wait was longer than we had hoped it would be. The advance polling employees seemed to be somewhat … inefficient. Maybe that’s a result of the poor training we all received ? We went to the local insurance agency to renew the truck’s and fifth wheel trailer’s registration and insurance, but … the agency’s ICBC computer system was down, and they were unable to renew vehicle registrations and insurance policies. We went to Valley First Credit Union and I rescinded a pre-authorized debit agreement. I walked across the street to Similkameen Pharmacy and got a flu shot. Finally we went to Benja Thai to have a wonderful lunch, somewhat in celebration of my birthday yesterday.

After we returned home in mid-afternoon Joanne phoned her sister to see how she was doing following her emergency appendectomy yesterday. Around suppertime we went to the swimming pool and did an exercise session. The pool was ever so slightly warmer than yesterday, but … still too cold ! After exercising we returned home to have a late, light supper of Doukhobor borscht. MMMMM !

Saturday ; our 45^th wedding anniversary

Sunny and cool.

This afternoon we cleaned and stored our yard and gazebo furniture. And my bicycle. And the Sun Oven.

For supper I cooked my new Udon noodle stir fry creation. I’ve now cooked it four times, and made it significantly different each time. Today was the second best.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MY LOVE ! ! !

DSK