May 10 to 16, 2020

Sunday ; Sunny and very warm. Joanne cooked my favourite Sun Oven meal today, a Mexican chicken and rice recipe.

I did some inspection and measuring of our home’s water heater this morning. It seems likely that I will have to replace it in order to change home insurance companies. Home insurers seem unwilling to accept new clients with water heaters older than ten years of age. HMPH ! In the afternoon I oiled the truck’s “permanent” air filter and reinstalled the truck’s air intake system, a.k.a. fuel injection performance kit.

As we returned home after our daily long exercise walk … HUH ? There was a little brown poodle wandering around our yard. Hello ! We recognized it as belonging to our new neighbour two doors down. We picked him up and returned him to our neighbour, who was gardening in her yard. Her response was … “OH, he’s such an intelligent little dog and understands his boundaries”. < rolling my eyes > Yeah … maybe not ! ! !

Monday ; Sunny and very warm.

This morning I had a phone conversation with my new insurance agent’s … supervisor. Hopefully that will get my new home insurance policy purchase process back on track ! < fume >

Working together we watered our composters and gardens. After lunch we headed into town to run some errands. Bought some produce at Sanderson Farms. Bought some advertised specials at Pharmasave. Bought some groceries at Buy-Low Foods. Gee … groceries are SO much more expensive here than they are in Yuma !

Late in the evening I “attended” a ZOOM app tutorial “meeting”. ZZZZZZZZ ! ! !

Tuesday ; Overcast, light rain all day.

This morning I “fired” the new insurance agent ( and agency ) I have been 

( unsuccessfully ) working with for three weeks on the purchase of a home insurance policy. Notwithstanding the COVID-19 era difficulties of having to deal with everything by phone and e-mail, and the impact that has on “timeliness” … 

I can’t tolerate ineptitude and disinterest !  I started over with a new insurance agency and agent. I hope this goes better !

I did a small amount of work on the minivan and truck this afternoon. I prepared the truck for tire rotation and brake inspection work in a couple of days, removing the hub caps, wheel liners, and valve extenders.

As we do every day, we did an online exercise session before having lunch, then went for a long ( thirty minute ) brisk walk before supper. WHEW … hard work for the heart ! That’s the point !

Wednesday ; Cloudy with intermittent rain until late afternoon, then slowly clearing.

We visited with our neighbour / friend Jeanine this afternoon, mostly so that 

I could program the YMCA Thrive online exercise sessions for seniors into her 

i-pad. In the evening we watched the three hour season finale of Survivor.

Thursday ; Mix of sun and clouds, mild.

We left home this morning at 11 AM, in both vehicles, heading out for a long, tiring day of running errands. We dropped the truck off in Keremeos to have a tire rotation and brake inspection service done. We’ll pick it up tomorrow. We continued to Penticton in the minivan.

I dropped Joanne off at Dollarama then went to Rona to buy “guy stuff”. I picked her up at Dollarama and we went to Skaha Lake Beach Park for a picnic lunch. It was fun watching a nearby couple’s cat on a long tie-out stalk bugs in the grass. And … HA HA HA … a pair of Mallard Ducks.

After lunch we went to Total Pet and bought a lot of expensive cans of cat food, trying to find something new for Emma that might be easier for her to digest than what we’ve been feeding her lately. She’s been having “nearing end of life” digestive issues. From there I dropped Joanne off at Wal-Mart and I went to Great Canadian Oil Change and had an oil change service done on the minivan. 

I refilled the minivan with fuel at Mobil, then bought more “guy stuff” at Home Hardware. I picked Joanne up at Wal-Mart and we finished our day in Penticton with grocery shopping at Superstore.

We arrived back home shortly after 7 PM. It had obviously rained quite a bit here at home while we were out for the day.

Friday ; Mix of sun and clouds, light rain in the evening.

This morning I “fired” another insurance agent and agency. < shrug > HMPH !

This afternoon we drove into town in the minivan to pick up the truck at Total Performance Auto Repair after having the truck’s tires rotated and brakes inspected. As I drove away from the service garage … the truck’s “check engine” light was on. HMPH ! I returned to the garage and had that diagnosed and cleared. HMPH !

At 6 PM I watched the You Tube live stream concert of Bachman and Bachman 

( Randy and his son Tal ), the ninth in the weekly series. This was the third that 

I watched. Afterwards we went for our daily brisk long walk, then I barbecued steak for supper.

I replaced our screen door’s inside latch. I replaced the battery in Joanne’s watch. I retrieved our Bank of America monthly statement and reconciled it. Today we started feeding some of the very expensive cat food cans we bought yesterday for Emma. So far, so good. She hasn’t turned her nose up at anything. I mean … why would a Humane Society of Yuma cat turn her nose up at “limited ingredient, grain free, cage free duck pâté” ? ! ?  HA HA HA !  It doesn’t even come in a can. It’s in a Tetra Pak that you have to cut the top off !  HA HA HA !

Saturday ; Mostly cloudy, mild.

First job this morning was to trim Emma’s claws. She HATES having her claws trimmed. I did some maintenance work on the truck, including reinstalling the valve extenders, wheel liners, and hub caps after having removed them prior to the tire rotation and brake inspection service. I did a repair on the Sun Oven. This is the older of our two Sun Ovens, and is probably more than ten years old now.

In the evening I paid bills online and made arrangements to increase the amount of our monthly Snowbird Currency Exchange Program monthly funds transfer from our Canadian bank account to our American bank account.

DSK