Thursday ; Cloudy, 6° C. Light rain beginning around 6 PM. Weather forecast to deteriorate significantly overnight and into the weekend.
Much of today was spent packing and loading, in preparation for moving tomorrow morning. Joanne has done an excellent job, as always, of managing our food inventory in advance of leaving a location. So, as a result of having very little food left in our fridge and cupboards, we went out at 6 PM to buy some Korean chicken from Smile Chicken. We were intending to walk there and back with Apollo, but as we left the hotel and found it raining, I vetoed that idea. We drove there instead, and Apollo and I waited in the car while Joanne went inside to buy our supper.
Friday ; Royal Scot Hotel & Suites, Victoria to Xanadu Estate, Cobble Hill
Cloudy, intermittent light rain, steady heavy rain while driving over the Malahat Highway, 7° C.
We were up at 8 AM, early for us, planning / hoping for an 11 AM check-out and departure from Royal Scot Hotel & Suites. We checked out at the front desk at 10:45 AM, then walked Apollo around the block one last time before pulling out of the hotel’s parking lot at 11 AM, right on time.
We drove through Victoria, then a bit west on Trans-Canada Highway 1 to the Victoria suburb city of Langford. We stopped at Superstore to buy supper for tonight and breakfast for tomorrow morning. We stopped again at Donair Express to buy lunch to go.
We headed north on the Malahat Highway, up and over and down Malahat Mountain to the Cowichan Valley. We took a brief detour to drive through Goldstream Provincial Park ; old growth cedar rainforest ! For much of the drive over Malahat Highway we were high enough in elevation to be driving in cloud. With cloud / fog and heavy rain, the visibility was poor, the driving conditions were difficult.
We arrived at our rental property Xanadu Estate around 1 PM and got checked into our apartment, planning to eat our lunch immediately upon arrival. We weren’t planning on the drama that ensued !
We entered our apartment, took off Apollo’s leash and harness first, then both of us began to take our shoes off at the door. Apollo disappeared into the apartment, and within a few seconds there was the sounds of many claws scrabbling quickly along the floors, and Apollo was barking enthusiastically ! WTF ? ! ?
We rushed into the bedroom to find Apollo with his head stuck underneath the bed skirt, barking and snarling. WTF ? ? ? ! ! ! I yanked him out from underneath the bed skirt and pushed him to Joanne, telling her to get him out of the bedroom and shut the door as she left. I lay down on the floor, lifted the bed skirt, and peeked underneath.
OH … SHIT … <blink blink> … a Siamese cat ! ! !
Our landlady has four Siamese cats. One of them was underneath our bed ! Joanne locked Apollo into the bathroom while I tried to coax the cat out from underneath the bed. NO ! The cat was NOT coming out ! I went over to Jane’s apartment to tell her that we had a cat under the bed. She came over to retrieve the cat. NO ! ! ! The cat was NOT coming out from underneath the bed ! ! ! Poor frightened kitty !
Jane had come into our apartment before our arrival to ensure our apartment was ready for us. Apparently one of the cats snuck in behind her, and stayed in the apartment when she left. She assured us that the cat would eventually come out from underneath the bed. I attempted to coax the cat out a couple times over the next hour or so, then eventually used a small broom to “encourage” it.
When the cat came out from underneath the bed, with terrified, bulging eyes, Joanne picked it up and tried to calm it, but … Apollo had made quite a “first impression” on the cat. HA HA HA … poor frightened kitty. Joanne took it home to Jane’s apartment.
We had lunch. Apollo and I napped briefly while Joanne unloaded stuff from the car into the apartment. When I awoke from my brief nap, I joined in to help her.
What a great place ! ! !
Saturday ; Heavy snowfall overnight, heavy snow today until noon, 0° C. to 2° C.
<blink blink> That was quite a bit of snow this morning. Especially for Vancouver Island ! And it was snowing heavily as we drove from Cobble Hill to Duncan (16 km.) around noon.
As always upon arrival in a new location, today’s priority was to stock up on groceries. Today at Superstore in Duncan we purchased over $160 worth of groceries. And paid for almost all of it with $160 in accumulated PC Optimum points ! And yesterday in Langford we spent a little over $10 at Superstore in Langford, and paid for almost all of it with $10 in accumulated PC Optimum points ! HA HA HA … take that, Galen Weston !
On the way to Duncan the car’s TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) sent a signal indicating low pressure in one of the tires. As we entered Duncan I stopped at Kal Tire and checked the tire pressures. Sure enough one of the tires had low pressure. I think that tire might have a slow leak. If it happens again soon, I now know which tire probably needs repair. Before shopping at Superstore I refilled the car with fuel at Superstore’s Mobil fuel bar.
As we were unloading our groceries from the car upon arrival back home we met one of our new neighbours, and chatted with her for awhile. Including … <rolling eyes> … explaining to her how tariffs work.
We spent much of our evening watching Canadian news coverage of Canada’s response to the 25% tariffs imposed on Canada (and Mexico). Today for the first time ever, we checked the country of origin of every product we purchased (or rejected) today. We will NOT buy US products any longer ! ! ! ! !
Vive le Canada !
<mumbling> Fucking asshole ! ! !
Right after lunch we set off for Thrifty Foods in the small town of Mill Bay, about a ten minute drive south of Xanadu Estate. On the way … <blink blink> … we passed an RV park where we delivered a large fifth wheel trailer from Osoyoos about … <thinking> … between ten and fifteen years ago. That was the trailer delivery that we combined with delivering Noodles the pit bull (in heat), from Penticton to Vancouver.
Also on the way to Thrifty Foods we stopped at Sweet Meadows, one of the nearby farm markets. Great products, somewhat expensive prices. I bought some very reasonably priced heirloom cherry tomatoes, and a slab of locally produced, overpriced Havarti cheese.
We did our grocery shopping at Thrifty Foods, mostly buying some advertised specials, but also some items that we did not buy at Superstore yesterday for a variety of reasons, mostly being … NOT Canadian products !
In the evening our landlady came over to visit and discuss some issues / answer some questions.
Monday ; Intermittent heavy snowfall, -1° C.
SHEESH ! ! ! What a lot of snow ! ! !
“Locals” don’t seem to know how to drive on snowy roads, so … we hunkered down and stayed in for the day.
Tuesday ; Gloomy, -5° C.
Seems somewhat ironic that we spent two months at the Royal Scot parked indoors, and as soon as we moved here to Xanadu Estate, with outdoor parking, we have a massive dump of snow, especially rare for here on Vancouver Island. This afternoon I cleaned off the car, and was amazed at the total amount of snow that has fallen in the past few days. It is easily more than a foot deep. The car was buried !
Again we cancelled our plans for the day. The roads out here in the “up island” boondocks are not yet cleared, the long, winding, descending driveway from our suite’s parking spot down to the street is not yet cleared, and it seems likely that it’s not going to be. “Snow clearing” is not a readily available service here ! When we rented this suite, I had not imagined that I would be doing as much snow shovelling as I have done in the past couple of days. HMPH ! If I had wanted to do my own snow shovelling, I wouldn’t have moved into a seniors’ condominium ! ! ! And I wouldn’t be “going away” to warmer climes for the winters ! ! ! ! !
This afternoon I tried, with limited success, to split the small pile of firewood left piled outside our entry door. I used the hatchet I keep stored in our car for emergency use. It is my intent to use commercially produced firelogs in our suite’s fireplace. And it had been my intention to have purchased some by now, but … ! In a few minutes (it’s now 7 PM) while Joanne prepares supper I will attempt to light a fire in our fireplace using the small amount of wood I was able to split. And then, hopefully, persuade some larger, unsplit pieces of firewood to burn. I am doubtful that unsplit pieces will burn but … wish me luck.
By the way … that overpriced local Havarti cheese is GREAT !
Good news ; wood fire was very successful. Well done, Daniel !
Bad news ; Little wifey thinks I am too old to be outdoors in cold weather trying to split unco-operative frozen firewood with a small hatchet … and a bad heart ! Seems like a reasonable point ! Seems likely that I will be buying overpriced but Canadian made firelogs at Canadian Tire ASAP ! HA HA HA !
Wednesday ; Gloomy, 0° C.
We left our suite about 11:30 AM to head into Duncan (16 km. / 10 miles north) for a day of shopping errands. Just before reaching Duncan we stopped at Old Farm Market, one of the nearby greengrocers / farm markets Joanne was interested in. We bought quite a bit of fresh produce, all non-U.S. products, some local, some from Mexico, some from elsewhere. Some too expensive !
Once in Duncan I dropped Joanne off at Dollar Tree, I went to nearby Superstore to buy firelogs, then returned to Dollar Tree. Before going in to rejoin Joanne I took Apollo for his noon walk around the mall parking lot. He’s been resisting walks at Xanadu Estate because of the heavy snow accumulation.
From Dollar Tree we went to reFRESH Cowichan Marketplace, planning to shop for more fresh products and have a nutritious lunch. I had understood reFRESH Cowichan Marketplace to be an upscale, retired hippie tree hugger type of demographic, greengrocer and café. I was wrong ! Very wrong ! ! ! It’s sort of a combination food bank and soup kitchen kind of place. OOOPS … my bad … sorry … bye !
We went to Thai Lum Lum for lunch. Superb food and service ! Final and longest stop was Wal-Mart. I hate shopping at Wal-Mart ! I know … you already know ! We were back home about 4:30 PM.
I did some planning for next winter before supper. After supper we watched the animated movie SING. It was very good ! The SING ; THRILLER fourteen minute short film afterwards was even better !
DSK
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