August 8 to 21, 2010

HEY ... I've just discovered that I apparently forgot to post my blog entry last week !  So ... guess I'll just have to post two weeks now !

August 8 to 14, 2010


Monday ; We both went to see our family doctor today. HMPH … 70 minute wait time. I consider that to be totally unacceptable. I told Joanne, after waiting for an hour, that I was leaving. She convinced me to stay, because seeing our doctor doesn’t usually involve a wait, and she thought he should be given “the benefit of the doubt”. To my doctor friends reading this ; recognize how arrogant and disrespectful it is to treat your patients like their time is less valuable than yours ! ! ! My experience has been that that is a fairly common attitude problem amongst physicians.

All of Joanne’s cancer screening tests were negative. She’s good to go for another year ! Yippee ! After being frozen a few weeks ago, the basal cell lesion on my nose is still there after the frozen spot blistered then healed. My doctor wants to freeze it a few more times before trying a topical chemotherapy. And … now I have some sort of a tiny skin problem on my lower lip as well ! He prescribed Celebrex for my shoulder pain, sore with bursitis or tendonitis. And physiotherapy … which is only partially covered by BC Medical Services Plan. There’s about a 50% co-pay on physiotherapy services. HMPH ! And … I declined the Celebrex prescription when the pharmacist told me how much it costs … and BC Pharmacare doesn’t pay for Celebrex. HMPH … **** that ! At that price for Celebrex, I’ll just use Ibuprofen ! Maybe I can buy Celebrex cheaper in Mexico ?

Friday ; One of the residents of Riverside RV Park Resort purchased a new fifth wheel trailer at an RV dealer in Penticton, trading in their existing fifth wheel trailer. We were hired by the RV dealer to transport the old trailer from Riverside RV Park Resort to the dealer in Penticton, then transport the new trailer back to Riverside. We did that this morning. Nice new trailer !

In between dropping off one trailer and picking up the other we ran a few quick errands in Penticton. WOO-HOO … bought a couple of whole salmon at the annual “five bucks a salmon” sale.

After more than two weeks, the Tweddle Creek fire continues to burn ! ! ! No flames visible any more, just smoke. And it’s not spreading, it’s staying in its confined area.

Saturday ; Well, today was a relatively easy day of work. We picked up and / or delivered four trailers, three in Osoyoos and one in Oliver. We will be doing another four tomorrow. On our way to Osoyoos to start work and on our way home from Oliver at the end of the day, we passed by the Tweddle Creek fire which is between Riverside RV Park Resort and the Village of Keremeos. It’s still burning, and a bit more healthy today than it was the last few days, having spread a little to find fresh “fuel”.

At the RV park in Oliver where we were making our last delivery of the day, we met a full time RV’ing couple who spent three months last winter, including Christmas and New Year’s, at Villas Onac RV Park in Teacapán, Mexico. We will be spending a few months there next winter, including Christmas and New Year’s, with Joanne’s family.

DSK

August 15 to 21, 2010


Sunday ; Whew … another long, hard, hot day of work. Temperature well into the 90’s ! Only four trailers picked up and / or delivered today, but lots of miles. We drove from home to Penticton, picked up a trailer, took it to the Osoyoos storage yard for cleaning, picked up another trailer from an Osoyoos campground and brought it to the yard for cleaning, delivered a trailer from the yard to an Osoyoos campground, delivered another trailer from the yard to a campground near Kaleden, ran some errands in Penticton, then finally drove home.

< sigh > The Tweddle Creek fire has found new life, spreading to find some fresh fuel to burn. It’s now been burning for 2½ weeks. It’s at the top of a very steep, inaccessible canyon. It’s not threatening any people or buildings or anything other than inaccessible forest, so it’s being left alone to run its course. There’s about 400 fires burning in BC right now, and firefighting resources are stretched pretty thin, especially tanker planes and helicopters with buckets !

Monday ; This afternoon Joanne went shopping in town. While she was at Dave’s Fruit & Veggies, her employer last year, they asked her if she is interested in working the fruit stand from Labour Day to Thanksgiving. She was non-committal. When she came home and discussed it with me, I suggested that she return tomorrow and tell them “YES” !

Aw, shit ! The Tweddle Creek fire moved over slightly today, and flared. REALLY flared ! ! !

Tuesday ; How disappointing ! The Tweddle Creek fire has spread … a lot … in the last 24 hours. A few days ago it appeared to be almost out.

Joanne went into town today and … got a job ! She’s going to work full time at Dave’s Fruit & Veggies from Labour Day to Thanksgiving, about six weeks. That’s great … we will put the money she earns to good use.

Wednesday ; Well, in keeping with the principle of shutting the barn door after the horse is gone, the Tweddle Creek fire is getting a lot of attention today. A “bird dog” spotter plane, two bucket equipped helicopters, and multiple tanker plane drops. But it’s too little, too late. The fire has grown quite large over the last couple of days. The drops of fire retardant foam from the tanker planes are impressive, but the buckets of water dropped by the helicopters look woefully inadequate. Watching the little bird dog plane fly right in front of the tanker planes, leading them into and through the smoke to make their drops, makes me wince ! Pretty fancy flying ! ! ! Especially when the tankers drop a load of fire retardant foam on the extremely steep sloped sections by flying over the top of the ridge then pushing the nose of the plane down into a steep dive while dumping. WOW !

The weather in the BC Interior will be changing tonight and overnight. A cold front is coming in, lowering the daytime temperatures about 20 degrees from the mid-90’s to the mid 70’s. But more importantly, it’s bringing strong winds which will fan the fires.

Thursday ; HMPH … the Tweddle Creek fire is now huge, covering at least four or five times as much area as it had until a couple of days ago. And today’s winds are spreading it even more ! It’s now been burning for more than three weeks !

Today we received news that Joanne’s family will not be joining us in Teacapán, Mexico on Christmas Day as planned. Oh well, qué sera, sera.

I washed the trailer roof today, an annual chore that I dread. But it’s necessary, and allows me to find and repair small roof problems before they become large roof problems. Today I discovered a tear in the rubber roof underneath the TV antenna, as well as a couple of other small spots that could benefit from some preventive maintenance attention before they develop into problems.

Friday ; Well, we certainly are getting a lot of air traffic around us. Helicopters with buckets, little “bird dog” spotter planes, tankers, and Search & Rescue aircraft ! This morning I went into Keremeos for my first physiotherapy session for my sore left shoulder. Bursitis and / or rotator cuff tendonitis. Hope the physiotherapy helps. The fire has jumped over three more ridges, and is now burning at least three mountain faces. It has moved closer to the Village of Keremeos, and is now burning down the face of the mountain along Ashnola River Road, where there are ranches. The wind is blowing towards the village, so Keremeos is blanketed in smoke. So today there was a lot of fire fighting activity along that mountain face, to keep the fire from coming down the mountain far enough to threaten the ranches. On the way home from town I stopped on the side of the road for a few minutes to watch two helicopters repeatedly fill their buckets in the Similkameen River then fly up the face of the mountain to dump their buckets. They certainly are precise in their dumping ! And two days ago a small plane was lost in our area. As I’m typing this a large Search & Rescue aircraft is flying slowly overhead, very low, back and forth in a grid search pattern. The pilot was a local, with not too much flying experience. I wonder if he had the Mountain Performance Flying Course ? As I do ! These mountains can really jump up and bite your ass as a pilot ! Since the plane has been missing now for two days, I wouldn’t expect a very good outcome for the pilot and three passengers. Perhaps I should consider myself fortunate to have survived 26 years of flying without turning myself into a smoking hole.

Saturday ; Our good friend Ron Swanson died of cancer yesterday. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his widow, Mary. We’ve known for three months that Ron would die this summer, but his death still saddens us deeply.

We picked up and / or delivered three trailers in Osoyoos, and one in Penticton today. Working today was an excellent excuse for us to not attend Riverside RV Park Resort’s Annual General Meeting. We don’t need the drama ! ! !

The Tweddle Creek fire has been suppressed a lot since yesterday.

DSK

August 1 to 7, 2010

August 1 to 7, 2010


Sunday ; This morning we went into town to see Kars Under The “K”, the annual classic car show in Keremeos. HA HA HA … did you know … ? ? ? A 1974 Hornet is now a “classic” ! HA HA HA … should have held on to the first new car I ever bought, a 1972 limited edition The Green Hornet … HA HA HA ( SNORT ) HA HA !

This afternoon our RV park’s social committee organized a group outing, a float down the Similkameen River on tubes and rafts. I went … it was fun ! We entered the river at our park’s burn pile, and floated about 5 km. / 3 mi. downstream. Most of the time the river was shallow and moving relatively slowly. Occasionally there were deep and / or fast sections. It’s really fun to shoot through the sections of little rapids.

Monday ; Another beautiful, sunny, hot day. I spent half the day working with our neighbour Gerry, repairing his damaged awning. And … we succeeded in repairing the two damaged sections. Two heads, four hands, some brute force, some hardware, and it’s ( almost ) as good as new.

We sold our old Wi-Fi phone today to an Alberta couple who were driving through to Vancouver Island and serendipitously saw our ad in the Okanagan Valley Bargain Hunter while they were in Kelowna this past weekend. They are Snowbirds / winter RV‘ers, and are already Vonage VoIP subscribers. They tried to get a stand alone Wi-Fi phone from Vonage, but the stand alone Wi-Fi phones are no longer available from Vonage. So them seeing our ad was like a match made in heaven.

The nearby forest fire persists. It’s been burning for five days now. It doesn’t seem to get any bigger, nor does it seem to get any smaller. It seems to be burning happily within its own defined area. And as long as it doesn’t spread significantly, I guess there are higher priority fires to fight.

Tuesday ; There are now 376 wildfires burning in the BC Interior. The sky is hazy with smoke. I was ill today, and spent most of the day in bed, reading and snoozing.

Wednesday ; Today we sadly remembered Teddy, our sweet little baby cat that died one year ago. Well, he was neither little nor a baby, but he was when we got him 17 years earlier, and I always thought of him as our little baby cat. We miss him !

My next work project was going to be repacking the trailer’s wheel bearings with fresh grease. I was going to do one hub per day over a four day period. Today I did one. I removed the tire and wheel, removed the hub off the axle, disassembled the hub, removed the bearings, greased them, reassembled the bearings into the hub, installed a new bearing seal, and reinstalled the hub onto the axle. What a filthy job ! I put the wheel and tire into the bed of the truck so that I can take it to a tire shop to have the weather beaten valve stem replaced. After doing one, I decided not to do the other three. There seemed to be plenty of grease in the bearings. There was no water and no dirt. I don’t think repacking the bearings is necessary yet.

Thursday ; This afternoon we drove to Penticton for the second of five days of PeachFest, the annual festival celebrating peach harvest time. We ran a few errands in Penticton before heading for Okanagan Lake Park. We spent a few hours in the late afternoon and early evening watching a variety of entertainment on the main stage. At 8 PM we left Okanagan Lake Park and drove across town to Skaha Lake Park to see the sandcastle competition. That was the main reason why Joanne wanted to go today. It was a bit disappointing. There were only a few entries, far less than the organizers had expected, obviously. After walking along the beach viewing the entries, we went for a late supper of fast food. Boy, that’s one thing the Americans do so much better than Canada ; fast foods !

Friday ; Our local wildfire, now known as the Tweddle Creek fire, persists. It’s been burning for about nine days now. There was a newspaper article on that fire and another one nearby, near Spotted Lake near Osoyoos. Oh my, I hope Spotted Lake itself isn’t affected. I guess we’ll see tomorrow when we go to work. The Tweddle Creek fire is mostly being left alone because it’s near the top of a mountain that is so steep and rugged they can’t get either men or equipment in. They dumped some fire retardant foam around the perimeter to keep it confined to its current size, 85 hectares, with the hope that it will eventually burn itself out. How big is a hectare ?

Well, isn’t that a strange Internet scam ? ! ? I’ve just received a plea for money, ostensibly from an old acquaintance of ours. I wonder if her e-mail address book was hacked into and stolen ?

Yesterday I took a trailer tire to “Big O Tires” in Penticton and had a cracked rubber valve stem replaced with a metal valve stem. Today I reinstalled that tire on the trailer, and removed another tire with a cracked valve stem. I’ll also have that one changed to a metal valve stem, probably tomorrow when I start our work day by picking up a trailer at a campground in Penticton. I also installed the new fridge igniter electronic control module that I purchased yesterday. Yup … that solved the problem ! The fridge now ignites properly on propane function.

Saturday ; We got up very early again this morning, in order to be in Penticton before 9 AM so that we could run a few errands before starting work. I took another trailer tire to Big O Tires and had a metal valve stem installed. Then we went to Staples to buy many CANADA scribblers on sale, to give away to children in Mexico next winter, along with CANADA pencils. We picked up our first trailer of the day, in Penticton, and transported it to Osoyoos for cleaning. We picked up and / or delivered five more trailers in Osoyoos. WHEW … first time we’ve done six in a day. I guess we’re getting faster and better. Today we did six in a bit less time than we took to do five, a few weeks ago. We ran a couple more errands in Osoyoos, then headed for home.

The Spotted Lake fire was extinguished. It burned from the highway right down to the edge of Spotted Lake, and up the surrounding mountain. It was stopped just a few feet from at least three residences. There was fire retardant foam residue on the highway. It looked like pretty impressive fire fighting. The Tweddle Creek fire is still burning, but weakly. We stopped in Keremeos on the way home to refill a propane tank.

WHEW … long, hard day !

DSK

July 25 to 31, 2010

July 25 to 31, 2010


Sunday ; Another day of temperatures nudging 100 degrees. I quite like it actually ! We went to Osoyoos today to deliver one trailer, the delivery that was postponed from yesterday. Since we were all the way out there, and didn’t have all that much work to do, Joanne decided we should cross the border and do some shopping. So … across the border we went, into Oroville, Washington. We refilled Lanoire with diesel ( cheaper in the U.S. ) and we shopped for groceries at Prince’s. Why are the prices for milk, eggs, and cheese a fraction of the price in Canada ? ! ? Does that mean Canada’s socialistic marketing boards just don’t work ? ! ? WOO-HOO … got the last tub of Tillamook Ice Cream with the peanut butter filled little chocolate cows.

Monday ; Another hot day. Hauled a very heavy, old compressor from the park’s garage to the trailer in the park that I have been hired to transport to Penticton. Inflated the trailer’s flat tires. Did some yard work. Did a Bo-gility session. Late in the afternoon, we washed the truck. WHEW … too hot for that ! Fortunately, there is a lovely indoor / outdoor pool here.

Tuesday ; Another hot day. When we were driving home from the South a few months ago our fridge wasn’t functioning properly on the propane function. Today my objective was to clean and adjust the fridge’s propane burner and igniter. While doing that I discovered that the igniter is not functioning properly. The problem might be the igniter. Or maybe the igniter’s printed circuit board module. Or maybe the thermocouple. ( sigh ) I did some Internet research but wasn’t able to learn much. I will try to get some helpful free advice from the RV dealer in Penticton that I do business with, and the mobile RV service technician that RV Days uses to service their rental trailers.

Wednesday ; Another hot day. We had to get up waaaaay too early this morning in order to be at Penticton Hospital by 8:30 AM for the last of Joanne’s annual cancer screening tests. Afterwards we did our regular shopping and errands, had a picnic lunch in Skaha Lake Park, and were back home by mid-afternoon. Our next door neighbour Stu asked if we heard a wildcat / bobcat late last night in either his or our yard. Uhhhhh, no, Stu … I think what you heard was Sully using his “outdoor voice” to tell Bo to hurry up and finish drinking water and get away from the water bowl. HA HA HA … Sully’s not “big” on standing in line and waiting. HA HA HA … that’s my boy … HA HA HA ( SNORT ) HA HA !

Thursday ; Uh-oh … smoke on top of the mountain ! ! !

Yesterday evening the sky turned grey and there was much thunder and lightning, although no rain. At dusk there was a beautiful double rainbow over the Ashnola River Valley to the south. This morning when I opened the bedroom blinds … uh-oh … smoke over the Ashnola ! ! ! The noon news on TV reported that last night’s electrical storm ignited over 100 new fires in the BC Interior last night. By early afternoon there were fire fighting helicopters filling their buckets in the Similkameen River beside our RV park, but they weren’t fighting the fire that was visible to the south. They were heading over the mountain on the west side of the river, returning with empty buckets within a few minutes.

I went into town today to get a haircut and beard trim. I sanded and painted the lower fiberglass skirt of the trailer where I damaged it with spray brake cleaner a few days ago. Did you know that spray brake cleaner eats paint ? ! ? Well, neither did I ! ! ! HMPH … as always, my spray painting work leaves a lot to be desired.

Friday ; This morning the forest fire on the nearby ridge was a lot worse than yesterday. It got no attention until mid-afternoon when a tanker plane finally showed up and dumped a load of fire retardant on it. Then a couple of helicopters with buckets worked it for a few hours. They managed to knock it back down to about the level that it was last night before they quit for the day. At 7 PM, while we were cooling off in the swimming pool, and watching the fire, it flared ! A lot ! Heavy smoke with visible flames ! I hope it gets more attention tomorrow !

I spent the day trying to solve two problems with the trailer. First, the thermostat that controls the furnace and air conditioner has not been functioning quite right lately. I removed it from the wall, disassembled it, cleaned it as best as I could, then reassembled and reinstalled it. If that doesn’t solve the problem I guess I’ll just replace it. Then I continued working on the malfunctioning fridge propane igniter. Following some diagnostic instructions I found on the Internet I was able to diagnose the problem as a faulty igniter module, a little box of electronics that costs about $50. Guess I’ll have to buy a new one. Harvey ( the trailer ) is now 12 years old, so the failure of some electronic components is neither unexpected nor unreasonable.

At 9 PM I went outside to look at the forest fire through binoculars. WOW … it was spooky to be able to see individual trees ignite and burst into flames like a blowtorch shooting fire up off the side of the mountain. Fifty to a hundred years to grow, and fifty to a hundred seconds to be destroyed !

Saturday ; Today was a little less hot, temperature in the high 80’s. We had a long, hard day of picking up and / or delivering 5 trailers, in Osoyoos, Penticton, and Summerland. Lots of driving ! When we finished our last delivery, in Penticton, it was 5:40 PM. We decided we might as well run a few errands while we were in Penticton. Then we decided we might as well treat ourselves to dinner out. We ate supper at a Chinese buffet restaurant.

The forest fire continues, although diminished quite a bit from yesterday.

Late at night, around 11 PM, an extremely strong wind blew up suddenly. I heard the “snap, crackle, pop” of a trailer awning being damaged by wind. We ran outside and met our neighbour Janet coming out of her trailer. Her husband Gerry wasn’t home ! The three of us began to wrestle with the awning, already damaged, making it difficult to close / roll up. Quickly some other neighbours joined in, and after 20 or 30 minutes of frustrating effort in the dark, we managed to get the awning closed, protecting it from any further damage.

DSK

July 18 to 24, 2010

July 18 to 24, 2010


Sunday ; Our visitors left late this morning. The next time we will see the Carlson family will be when we pick them up at the Mazatlán Airport on Christmas Day ! Feliz Navidad ! This afternoon I repaired a leaking plumbing connection … for the fifth time in the last couple of weeks ! ! ! Our neighbour Dave brought over a bag of sweet Lapin Cherries, picked from the tree in their yard. Thanks, Dave ! We went to the park orchard to pick sour cherries for baking. We did an agility session with Bo. We went to the swimming pool. AHHHHH … just the two of us !

Monday ; WHEW … a hot, long, hard day of shopping in Penticton !

Tuesday ; We went to pick wild apricots a few miles down the road towards Hedley. I reconfigured the back seat of the truck, then installed our new dual voltage ( AC / DC ) small fridge back there. Joanne baked a cherry pie ! MMMMM ! ! ! After 2½ days without leaking, my five time repaired plumbing job seems to finally be okay. After 3 days of taking Prednisone, the painful attack of gout in my left hand and thumb has subsided. Thanks to word of mouth I have been hired by a Penticton RV dealer to deliver a couple of trailers.

Wednesday ; A hot, humid day. High humidity is rare here.

Thursday ; Spent much of the day laying on a heating pad on the bed, nursing a sore lower back.

Friday ; Went to see a doctor today. Hate going to see doctors ! But … lower back pain has persisted for almost three weeks now. Doctor referred me for massage. And froze off the pre-cancerous basal cell lesion on my nose. And gave me some drugs for bursitis / tendonitis in shoulder. Thanks, Doc … see ya !

Saturday ; WHEW … a long, hard, hot day of delivering trailers. I was too busy during the hottest part of the afternoon to notice what the temperature was, but at 5 PM it was 97 degrees ! We picked up two trailers in Oliver, and delivered two trailers in Osoyoos. We were just about to pick up our final delivery of the day from the Osoyoos storage yard when the boss’s wife
( well, I guess she’s the boss, as well ) drove up and advised us that our final delivery of the day was postponed until tomorrow because the customer changed their reservation. DARN … now we have to drive all the way back to Osoyoos tomorrow for just one delivery.

As I was complaining to Joanne about how our day had gone, as we were driving from Osoyoos back home to Keremeos, I stopped to take a look at an accident that had obviously happened earlier in the day, because the wreckage wasn’t there this morning. A travel trailer had become detached from its towing vehicle, flipped, slid along the highway, disintegrated, slid over the edge of the road and down a steep embankment, completely self-destructing into nothing but a massive pile of debris ! YIKES … what a mess ! ! ! “I guess there’s always somebody who’s having a worse day than you” was Joanne’s comment !

When we arrived home, we found … or more precisely, Bo found … a dead, drowned mouse in the child’s swimming pool that is part of Bo’s agility course. I guess we’d better not leave it filled with water !

Our new 12 volt fridge in the back seat of the truck worked excellently today. It’s a keeper !

DSK

July 11 to 17, 2010

July 11 to 17, 2010


Sunday ; Late in the afternoon Joanne’s family … and then some … arrived for a week long visit. Her sister Lorraine, brother-in-law Doug, and nieces Madeleine and Amelia arrived, with their Bichon Frisé, Macie, whom we had not yet met, and … Doug’s sister Sandra and her son Nash. They’re all staying in Riverside RV Park Resort’s two guest suites. Lorraine, Doug, and the two girls drove for two days from Winnipeg to Calgary, where Sandra and Nash joined them for another two days of driving to here. In recognition of the fact that Joanne’s family will be joining us down in Mexico on Christmas Day I prepared a Mexican dinner of Pollo Asado ( Mexican style barbecued chicken ), served with frijoles ( refried beans ) and arroz con mais ( seasoned rice with corn ).

Monday ; The weather was a bit strange today. The morning was cool. Around lunchtime a little squall blew up, with very strong winds and heavy rain. The rest of the day was partially cloudy and a bit windy. Our visitors spent the morning in the swimming pool, an activity which the Carlson family never tires of. Because of the weather, lunch was in our trailer. HMPH … I didn’t think it was possible to be functional in a fifth wheel trailer with five adults, three children, two dogs, and a cat, but … it is ! Everybody except me went to town in the afternoon to run some shopping errands and do some sightseeing and browsing. I read and napped with Sully and Bo … and Macie. Macie has had little or no exposure to cats, so she found it intriguing to be on a bed with a cat. I read a book, Sully and Bo napped, and Macie lay cuddled against me … staring intently at Sully for a very long time. Eventually fatigue triumphed over curiosity and she finally fell asleep.

Before supper there was more pool time. For supper Aunt Joanne prepared a haystack dinner, a meal we learned from the Amish in Shipshewana, Indiana. After supper, Uncle Dan performed a magic trick, then conducted the second of the daily Spanish lessons for the Carlson family. Late in the evening most of the visitors went to the games room in the basement of The Lodge ( our park’s “clubhouse” ) to play shuffleboard.

Tuesday ; Again the weather wasn’t very good ! Our visitors had a verrrrry late start to the day. I picked Saskatoons with Amelia and Sandra. We went for a long dog walk down to the burn pile, accompanied by Sandra and Macie. All the visitors spent the afternoon at Farmer John’s, the local petting zoo. We didn’t go with them. I worked on repairing a plumbing leak. My fourth attempt at solving this problem ! ! ! I sure hope I got it right this time ! Then I worked on repairing the truck’s broken emergency brake lever, which broke last Saturday. Why, in a heavy duty truck, presumably being driven by ham fisted type male drivers for the most part, would you design an emergency brake lever made out of plastic ? ! ? For supper I prepared tacos de pescado y tacos de camarón ( fish tacos and shrimp tacos ), a meal requested by our visitors. After supper I performed my daily magic trick, then conducted our daily Spanish lesson before they all headed off to the pool once again for an evening of pool play.

Wednesday ; The weather today was gorgeous, sunny and hot. We had to deliver a trailer in Osoyoos today. Our visitors did not want to tag along and make a day trip to Osoyoos. When I retrieved e-mail this morning, there was a message from Tom and Marion, Escapee friends of ours from Colorado. They had arrived in Keremeos last night and were boondocked in the parking lot beside the Elks Lodge in town. We last saw Tom and Marion in the fall of 2007.

We drove to town and visited briefly with Tom and Marion. They were planning to go to Oroville, Washington ( across the border from Osoyoos ) tomorrow to pick up their forwarded mail at the Post Office. We suggested they go today, pick up their mail in Oroville while we were busy delivering a trailer to Nk’Mip RV Park in Osoyoos, then we could meet on the lakeshore in Osoyoos for a picnic lunch. That’s what we did !

Before we all left Keremeos, Tom and Marion pointed out that there was a cat at the top of a tall utility pole beside their motorhome, and the cat had been there since yesterday. There was a municipal work truck across the street, beside Memorial Park. I approached the municipal employee to ask if he could do something about the stranded cat. He said that his boss at the Village of Keremeos office was already aware of the situation, and had declared it to be “not their problem”. He suggested I contact Fortis, the local hydro utility service provider. I phoned Fortis. They also declared it to be “not their problem” ! A small crowd of local townspeople was gathering. They were indignant and angry at Fortis and the Village of Keremeos. We had to get to work in Osoyoos, and there seemed to be enough “righteous indignation” amongst the little crowd that I was confident a solution to the problem would be found. We headed off to Osoyoos.

We delivered the trailer, then met Tom and Marion for a picnic lunch at a lakeshore public park in Osoyoos. We had a lovely visit with them, and invited them to join us for supper tonight. We have been preparing meals all week for eight, so how much harder can it be to cook for ten ? ! ? As we were pulling out of the small park’s parking lot, a family in an older Class C motorhome approached and asked if I could boost their dead battery. Sure … but I’m currently in “work” mode, and there’s no such thing as a free lunch. I charged them ten dollars to boost their battery. If you don’t like that, phone a local tow truck, wait three hours for them to arrive, and pay them a hundred bucks ! ! !

As we drove back through Keremeos I noticed that the cat was no longer at the top of the utility pole. When we arrived back home we discovered that … ( sigh ) … our visitors had left for an afternoon outing to Bromley Rock Provincial Park, an outing that we had wanted to join them on.

All of our dinner guests eventually showed up. I prepared barbecued salmon. After a lot of griping about mosquitoes we went to the clubhouse for the nightly magic trick and very brief Spanish lesson. All of the Carlson family members went to the pool. Joanne and I visited with Tom and Marion in our gazebo.

Thursday ; Another beautiful, sunny, hot day. Our visitors spent the afternoon at Skaha Lake Beach in Penticton. We dog sat Macie. Bo and Macie both enjoyed a cooling romp in the Similkameen River during the hottest part of the afternoon. When the visitors returned from Penticton Joanne and I prepared supper for the group, then we all went to the swimming pool for awhile before returning to our trailer for dessert.

Friday ; Another sunny, hot day. The visitors went to Hedley, to go on the Mascot Gold Mine Tour. We dog sat Macie. After lunch we went to Keremeos to do some grocery shopping. WOO-HOO … Bo and Macie get to go drivey ! When we returned home we took the dogs for a long walk and a romp in the Similkameen River. After the visitors returned from the gold mine tour we all went out for dinner to the Benja Thai restaurant in Keremeos. Doug’s treat !

Saturday ; WHEW … a sunny, hot day of delivering trailers. We delivered three trailers in Osoyoos and one in Okanagan Falls. Our visitors spent the day relaxing at Riverside RV Park Resort, amusing themselves in the swimming pool and games room. After we got home, Joanne prepared dinner, assisted by Lorraine and Sandra, while the rest of us took the two dogs for a romp in the Similkameen River. After dinner we all went to play in the swimming pool. Well … not including Sully, Bo, and Macie. HA HA HA !

DSK

July 4 to 10, 2010

July 4 to 10, 2010


On Monday evening I pulled a muscle in my lower back, causing excruciating pain. OUCH, OUCH, OUCH ! ! ! It was quite a bit better after a night’s sleep ( and powerful drugs ! ), but still quite bothersome for the rest of the week.

On Tuesday the weather became hot. I did a plumbing repair that I have been dreading. As difficult as I expected it to be, it was even more so. And … I sliced deeply with a hacksaw into the knuckle of the index finger of my left hand ! A deep, very jagged cut, imbedded with plastic dust off the saw blade from the plastic pipe I was cutting. OUCH, OUCH, OUCH ! ! !

Every few days we pick a huge batch of Saskatoons. Bo likes when I park the truck close to the Saskatoon bush / tree at the park’s front gate and we pick by standing in the bed of the truck. He stands up in the bed of the truck with his front paws on the bed rails, and picks his own Saskatoons from the low hanging branches. HA HA HA … good dog, Bo ! Joanne also picked some Pin Cherries from a bush in our park’s orchard and made a Pin Cherry compote which she mixed into yoghurt. I didn’t particularly like it.

Saturday was our first full day of work delivering rental RV trailers. And it was a scorching hot day, temperature well into the 90’s ! We delivered 5 trailers, all in Osoyoos. It was a long, hard day of work for both of us. But … we earned more in one day than Joanne earned last year for a week of work in the fruit stand ! And … Bo got to go drivey, visit people and dogs, go for a dip in Lake Osoyoos, we got to have a picnic lunch. We think this is a good gig !

DSK

June 27 to July 3, 2010

June 27 to July 3, 2010


Happy Canada Day on Thursday, July 1

This week we sanded and stained our cedar picnic table. We gave Bo a haircut. I taught a neighbour how to drain her dog’s anal glands. Now there’s a useful skill ! HA HA HA !

We picked Saskatoons ( berries ). Lots of Saskatoons ! The large Saskatoon bush ( now a tree, actually ) at our park’s front entrance has been laden with huge berries for the last couple of weeks. But they didn’t seem to be ripening, due to the cold, wet weather we have been having. Well, this week they finally began ripening nicely. Joanne baked a variety of Saskatoon berry desserts, including some baked desserts blending Saskatoons with rhubarb and / or strawberries. I can eat her baking almost as fast as she can bake it. HA HA HA ! The lowest berries on the Saskatoon bush / tree are about at the level of the truck’s side windows. Today as we drove out of the park heading for work, I stopped, rolled down my window, and … HA HA HA … Bo lunged out of the truck window and chomped a mouthful of hanging Saskatoons. HA HA HA … way to go, Bo ! Almost as good as those blueberries you liked picking by yourself and eating near Falcon Lake in Manitoba in 2005, aren’t they ? HA HA HA … Bo loves fruit … and eating in the truck !

Saturday was our first day of work. We delivered two travel trailers to Nk’Mip Campground in Osoyoos. We picked them up in RV Days’ Osoyoos storage yard, delivered them to the campground, set them up ( water, electricity, sewer, propane, slides, etc. ), tested everything, and gave an orientation to the clients. It went quite well. I had never hitched up and manoeuvered a large travel trailer before. All my experience has been a fifth wheel trailer. With Joanne as my very efficient spotter, it was relatively easy. And while I worked on the outdoor “guy” stuff, she took care of everything inside the trailers, including answering all the clients’ questions, which kept them out of my hair and allowed me to work safely, without distractions. WOW … Nk’Mip Campground is a zoo on summer weekends ! Kids everywhere, loud voices everywhere, unrestrained dogs running around loose and playing, lots of loud boats and personal watercrafts on Lake Osoyoos.  Joanne commented, while we drove home, how nice it was to be returning to the “quiet” of Riverside RV Park Resort.

DSK