Beautiful Day, Dancing Alone, Canon Camera Fix? Dinner with Friends

London, Ontario

I woke up on Saturday, Apr. 13^th when I heard Clemson jump off the bed. I was afraid to look at the clock after his 3 am jumps over the last two nights. No worries, I saw a light downstairs and realized that it was just before 7. I could see Bill opening the blinds and saw the gorgeous blue sky. After doing my leg stretches, which have become as natural a part of waking up for me as sitting up is, I got up.

Company on my walk this morning

It was a gorgeous day in the neighbourhood

 Bill made my tea, we greeted each other and sat and read blog posts of our friends. Actually, first I pushed to get my own posted. These late nights! Ha ha. With that done, Bill had his toast, washed up and was off to White Oaks Mall on the southwest end of London. Today, there was a static display of RC airplanes and it was his model club, Forest City Flyers, putting it on. He would spend the morning there with all of his long-time flying friends. Just because he can.

I walked by the woodsy area

I did hear that Princess Auto (oh no!) was open at 8 so he was stopping there first. I finished my drink and after I was caught up on things on my laptop, I dressed for a walk. There is a wind this morning coming from the west so the mile+ walk to the east and Wonderland Road was quite pleasant. I’ve learned to take grocery bags with me when I walk and if you remember me last summer, you’ll be reminded that I am not opposed to picking up empty beer cans on my walk.

and crossed the 'dead' tracks

Embarrassed? Nope, not me. If people want to throw money away while littering at the same time (pigs!), I’ll do my part by picking them up and getting 5 or 10¢/can for my effort. If I was wealthy, I bet I’d still feel that urge. I guess that came from Daddy and Mom taking us on back roads and picking up beer bottles. It was always a fun outing and that money was quite necessary back then at 1 or 2¢/btle. I came from good stock and proud of it.

When I turned around to walk back, okay, the wind was right in my face. I thought it would be cold but instead my hoody came down and I was quite enjoying the fresh air. Walking does take some exertion so I was warmed up by then. Back home, I dropped off the bag of cans (in a 2-mile walk, I scavenged (cleaned up) at least 20) and then walked up to the hot tub. I’m kind of a chicken-sh** when it comes to doing some things on my own and after lifting one of the lid sections and feeling the water, I changed my mind.

A huge hot tub, I just wish I'd had a 'friend' to join me

I made myself a coffee back in the Suite and had a bowl of oatmeal, ground flax and cream. Yum. With the dishes done up, I wanted to test something one more time. That would be my big Canon camera and its dust/dirt spots. I haven’t used it for a couple of months and that irritates me. I tried my 2 lenses and Bill’s zoom lens taking the exact same picture. The spots are there on every one and cleaning 8 or 10 spots each time on my Spot Fix is ridiculous.

On Kijiji, I found a fellow in London who is selling various camera bodies and one is identical to mine. He bundled some things together and came up with what we thought to be a reasonable price. Tonight, on our way out to dinner, we are stopping in to check it out. Fingers crossed; this will work for me. We were told last summer that Henry’s could send mine away to get a professional clean for $150. Yes, I’ve bought the recommended products and tried numerous times on our own.

Half of my paint supplies

Instead of sitting in my chair with my book, I decided to paint some rocks. I had a few ‘naked’ ones that I found in some of our recent camping spots. I didn’t bring my whole kit out of the storage area under the bed, but did easily bring one container out that had a fair number of paint colours, brushes and palettes. There was one in particular I wanted to paint and it was on a small piece of slate/cement that I found beside Kirk’s chicken coop. I hope he doesn’t mind!

Just a couple of painted rocks that I did
I'm certainly not an artist but I have fun

I had the table covered in my stuff when I saw out the back window that Black Beauty was making her way home on the country road. He can’t sneak up on me! It was early when Bill ate his toast so I made us an omelette sandwich each around 1. I don’t know if I was really hungry since I’d eaten later but supper would be later than our norm so I knew I would need something. Bill had his on toasted and I had mine in quesadilla form, as per our usual.

lunch was delicious

We cleaned up dishes and he went upstairs with my afghan for a snooze. Clemson soon figured out where he went and that a blanket was involved so I lifted him up on the bed with his Daddy. This morning, I was listening to 60’s on 6 on Sirius radio and because it was Saturday, they were playing tunes that I hadn’t heard in a while. It set my feet to tapping and soon I was up dancing around the coffee table. I do miss dancing so when given the opportunity, where there I was getting into the music.

I finished painting 3 rocks and set them aside to be sprayed with a clear coat finish. I have a few to hide in the coming winter and probably a few more when the summer is over. It is an enjoyable pastime for me and now that I have a ‘new to me’ outdoor table, it will be easy. I thought I would sit in my chair and read more of Princess by James Patterson.  It is another one that has me hooked. However, that didn’t happen. I had to finish a slip stitch on some slippers and then tear another project out so did that instead. My sister, Wendy, informs me the tear out etc. is called ‘Frogging’, rip it rip it. Ha ha I love that!

Arriving at Kathy and Derrick's beautiful home

Before we knew it, the afternoon had passed and it was 5 pm. We drove into the city once more to a Bulk Barn. We wanted to pick up a couple of pounds of shelled peanuts and that was the best deal. From there we drove to check out the camera bodies. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. With a couple of lenses, I took pictures with his camera body and it also had spots. It isn’t just me, we could all see them. No point in buying another body with the same issue. Darn! It was a good deal for all the stuff.

Getting seated at the table to enjoy our salad
L to R - Sharon, Lydia, Jeff, Derrick (our host)

We drove on to our friends, just down the street from his house. Kathy and Derrick had invited 6 of us to dinner. It was wonderful to see everyone and catch up on all the news from the past 6 months. We drank, we ate and drank some more. The regaling of stories didn’t stop. 

Doesn't look like a large piece, but trust me it was plenty!

Derrick presents Lydia with her birthday cake

The menu was Caesar salad, lasagna and Kathy surprised us all by scratch baking a lovely carrot cake for Lydia’s birthday. Happy 60, Lydia! Everything was wonderful and we all had a great evening.

And she quickly blew the candles out

It was just before 11 when we said our goodbyes and drove home. Somehow, Clemson managed to get his little wobbly self up on the bed and was curled up sleeping with my sweater. He hasn’t attempted that in a couple of months at least but seemed no worse for wear. We were in bed and asleep immediately, nope we’re (I’m) not used to these late hours.

A huge piece of cake and Sharon's Easter chocolate
The surprise was that Kathy never baked before while working
fulltime. Never! The cake was awesome!

What a wonderful day it was! Now get ready for some cold weather. LOL

Thank you for reading today. Comments are always welcome if you care to leave one.