Restless Morning, Bill Punches the Clock, Pat Reunites with Value Village, Family Dinner

On Tuesday, Apr. 10^th I was awake to use the facilities at 3:30. Hmm, that is highly unusual when that happens and I was unable to wait until 6. Anyway, I was uncomfortable enough to get up and then couldn’t drop back off. So weird for me. Bill was restless too, but other than concern for me, I think he was thinking of his first day ‘on the clock’ in a while.

We both got up shortly after 6 and I can tell you how many sheep I counted over and over up until then! We had a tea and coffee together, read a few blogs and Bill hopped in the shower. I knew he’d need something to eat, he has 2 orientations today starting at 9 and then 1, after lunch. I fried a couple of eggs and made him a toasted egg sandwich. It smelled good but I’ll wait a bit before having my eggs.

I'm behind the wheel again AND in Value Village's parking lot

When he left at 8 to go inside, it was my turn to shower and do what I’ve longed to do. During the winter months, I can count on maybe 4 fingers the number of second hand shops I went into, so I’m overdue for a visit to Value Village. Tuesday is Senior’s Day equating to 30% off. I have a couple of things I’m looking for but other than that, it will just be fun to be wandering and looking. I’ve been in withdrawal!

Something else that I have been in withdrawal about is getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. That isn’t a complaint, I don’t usually have a desire to drive anywhere without Bill when we’re south anyway. But it just hit me when we were almost home talking about getting our Toyota Corolla out of storage. I haven’t driven for 167 days! It is like riding a bicycle, I guess.

Gotta love the boots!

They are like new, comfy and perfect over slim leg pants

So, I remedied both things today. I found some of the things on my list and something else that I had in the back of my head but not necessarily a ‘need’. Well this beautiful pair of boots managed to fall off the shelf into my cart. Can you believe that? You’d be a fool if you do and I know you are no fools!

My old phone case

Last and this past winter, Bill and I kept our eyes out for a pair of cowboy boots for me but the prices were way more than I could ever justify. I’d pretty much decided that I’d just be happy with a short pair of boots with a good tread, more sensible for desert walking and hiking. Sometimes, I just can’t resist a good bargain so when these fit and were marked $15.99-30%, well, they came home with me and I love them!

My pretty new one

Exact same style of case so it can hold our 'business' cards etc.

 We have plans for dinner out tonight with my son, Patrick, his wife, Chaela and our youngest grandson, Nathan. Scheduling something on a day when Bill does two orientations is never a good idea. Seldom do these pick ups go as planned for one reason or another. Today, his first appointment through no fault of his own, was coming from the US and got delayed quite a bit at the Border Crossing. So, the 9 am meet did not happen until after I was done shopping, at 11:30.

Tasted my homemade vegetable soup

This fellow left Florida yesterday morning and is here today for his walk through and trailer pick up. He must be exhausted! My fingers are crossed as I write this at 4:30 that the remainder of the day goes well. Now as I look outside, the sky has opened up and it is snowing. A wet snow. So that is what that white/gray cloudy sky to the south was all about!

Their 2 tractors are bustling moving units around

Most of these trailers are sold

It truly is first and foremost, an Airstream dealership

Clemson has been looking at me, since 2 o’clock. After we went out for a walk, he lays on the chair for awhile but then is right back up with that eagle eye stare. I know it doesn’t help that I am just sitting here reading, making him feel (I’m sure) “you’re not busy, Mom, can’t you just feed me?” Ignore is the name of the game we play with him, there is lots of dry food in his dish so he isn’t starving, just manipulating.

this was minutes after the sky was gray with snow

Seeing the snow falling, I thought what the heck. Let’s go for a walk, Clem! I was surprised that it felt so mild and as soon as I stepped outside, the snow turned to sun and the clouds let some blue sky through. 

Gosh, if we Canadians didn’t have weather to talk about at this time of year, what is there? We killed a good 20 minutes and it took Clemson’s mind off of you know what.

Another sky fight - clouds vs sun

I saw Bill out front with the customer and his new Lance. Bill shows them the hitch-up as well as everything else, inside and out, and then they take a test drive. I’ll have to wait and see if that is the first or the last test drive so it gives me an idea how long he’ll be. I’m cleaned up and ready to go as soon as he is. When we got back, I fed the little mooching pest and now he is content.

A new roundabout with a wonderful
rustic metal train in the middle
I love it!

Jumbo, the elephant up on the hill
The story is that P.T. Barnum brought Jumbo to Saint Thomas as part of his show
Unfortunately, in 1885 Jumbo was hit by a freight train as he and another elephant were being herded
into their cages.
You can read about it here if you are interested

The day was a good one and now with dinner out in St. Thomas at the Roadhouse, it can only get better. We left the Suite after talking to Andy for a few minutes and met Patrick right on time in the parking lot of the restaurant. Nate came running towards me with his arms out saying “I missed you sooo much!” What a charmer. He is 8 and every bit of him is exuberantly 8.

Downtown St. Thomas
a town of about 40,000

He's just a character - every minute

He wanted me to continually take pictures of his faces

We had a great visit; a nice dinner and we admired their ‘new’ to them Honda Pilot. Patrick just picked it up tonight after work and it is perfect family vehicle for them.

Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla - Yum!

this is about as serious as we're going to get

The MacDonald's and their 'new' Honda

I love Patrick's look on his face
as he holds Nate in a fake restraint

We said goodbye around 7:30ish and stopped at the Flying M to fuel up. Wow, that was the first time in a long time it has been over the $100 mark. Welcome home!

I hope you have enjoyed your day, this has been a good one for us. 

and now I'm making the face! haha

And the sun sets for another night
Good night from CanAm

Thank you for stopping by today! I love to hear from you and will respond to every post in time

Slow Start, Goodbye Turbo Hub, Busy Farmers, Dinner Date

On Saturday, Oct.21^st I was awake around 6 but laid in bed for another hour. Bill and Clemson were pretty dead to the world so I ‘sneakily’ got my clothes and crept out of the room. The sky to the east was putting on a pretty show so went out and snapped a picture. The temperature was hovering around 13C so a pretty nice morning for sure.

The sun never actually stayed when it popped up at 7:20 but hopefully it will push the clouds away for a glorious encore. I made my tea and opened the blinds. It didn’t take long to realize that we had no internet connection. Hmm, oh yes, since we bought our hub out last month, the contract ran out today. This gave me cause to use the hotspot on my phone. Bingo!

Clemson had no intention of getting up with us this morning

The sun rises but loses momentum immediately

 It will take a while to get used to, we’ve had great internet up here since we bought it. We haven’t had to think about it at all but that will change. No more email videos or emails with large photos will be opened during the winter. This winter will be a test for our new data phone system and will determine what we do in the summer of ’18.

Sleepy head gets up just before 8:30

After reading some blog posts from friends, I logged off the hotspot and opened a Word document. Finally getting to a project that I have wanted to generate on line for a while. I’ve carried a small page with me in my purse listing the novels we’ve read so I don’t pick up duplicate copies. With my memory, it can happen easily and I don’t remember the stories. Woe is me!

Lovely day for a walk, drive or whatever

I have about 4 cups of cherry tomatoes that I need to do something with so I spread them out on a baking sheet, sprinkled them with olive oil and onion powder. These, I baked for 35 minutes. After they got wrinkly like little ancient people, I removed them to cool. I then blended them with basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper until smooth and creamy. My plan was to freeze this for spaghetti sauce.

Not round bales, not square but wrapped bales none-the-less

Jello. Bill read the list of restrictions about border crossing and it seems unless tomatoes are commercially packaged, they are not enterable. Darn! I know some people wouldn’t worry about it and take the chance. We like to make a list of what we have, in general, and I wouldn’t exclude the tomato sauce since it is an ‘iffy’ item. I continued to make it up and I will ask Donna if she will take it. C’est la vie.

Bill and I grabbed some breakfast around 10 ish, he had cereal and Craisins and I warmed up some of my steel cut oatmeal with some. Then my guy went out and put away the portable solar panel, our Weber Q and the folding table. Everything fit in the ‘garage’ perfectly with just enough room for our patio mat and possibly the solar panel. These things will not be brought out again until we plant ourselves for more than a one night stopover.

I moved the little things from the floor of the outhouse up to the bench so there would be room for the firepit. Everything in its place. I took the broom out there to the window and messed with the multitude of flies covering the window. That got rid of quite a few but about 10 refused to take the hint. I swept the floor as well and the last thing to do is put the roll of toilet paper away. The chipmunks like it when we forget this, trust me!

You can hardly see the tractor ahead of these gulls

        

Bill had his shower and then went up to rest before our drive today. The sleepies hit him when he’s driving in the afternoon, especially on warm sunny days. If he snoozes, it means I don’t have to drive. 

He took his book up too to get into a few chapters. He just started reading The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. I know it is a good one……just don’t ask details. I took that opportunity to use the bathroom, putting my face on and messing with my hair.

Then I decided to go for a walk to the corner. Half way there I was caught in the act of walking and texting. The ‘sister and b.i.l.’ police pulled up and stopped. Donna and Gerry were heading to our place to drop off their itinerary for their flights in November. We’ll need this information so we know where to meet them in Las Vegas.

Not sure what these fellows were doing

This baler was busy in the same field as the picture above

I carried on walking and they drove up to chat with Bill. Not sure if we’ll catch them home on Sunday so I gave her my 2 small spaghetti sauce containers for the freezer and my Christmas cactus. Maybe it will bloom for her. It neglected to do so for me over the summer. They left and Bill went up to catch his “zzzz’s”. I woke him at 1:30 so we could get dressed and feed our house sitter, Clemson. I’ll leave the trailer keys out somewhere for Rob and Pat, in case something goes array today.

Dad and Marilynne's home base

Some of the first burgundy red trees we've seen

So, by 2 pm we were in the car and on our way to London. It was a great day for a drive and I thought I would try and capture some of the farmers in their fields today. We arrived at Stratford to get Bill’s parents by 3:45 and in London a bit early at 5. We took the few spare minutes to drive around past our former sticks and bricks house.

We lived here for close to 14 years

It doesn’t look any different although they need to cut the grass! Ha ha, everything else looks great. It was nice to see our neighbours, Gord and Ann, walking around the block with their ‘new’ dog. We stopped to say a brief hello.

Arriving at the restaurant, using Dad’s handicapped sign, we parked Black Beauty right at the door. This way, Dad only had a few short steps with his walker into the main entrance. We were set up in the back room at Southside Grill and very soon after, Bridgette arrived. Jake, Jess, Matt, Yvonne, Dennis, Connor, Zach, Carter, Patrick, Chaela, Nate, and Krystal within 10 minutes. There were 17 of us for dinner.

The two waitresses who looked after our tables were great, one offering to destroy the bill if we took her with us to Arizona. The 4 small boys were well behaved, and had fun together, at one point playing I-spy with Chaela. Just so you understand what a character my son Patrick is here is a story. From the beginning of our invite he kept telling us that we didn’t have to buy their dinners. Unbeknownst to Bill and I he had called ahead and spoke to our servers.

The water fountain in Milverton
Teeswater has the exact same one

They stood at the end of our table to inform us of a special that wasn’t advertised on the board out front. A Surf and Turf meal including all the fixings, a steak and seafood choices for $45.99. When our jaws dropped I noticed a few of our guests turn to look at us with delight in their eyes. I stood to my feet and just said “No, no, no!” Then I realized that my son, the instigator, was cracking up. It was a great joke and the waitresses were wonderful sports to play along.

We all had plenty to eat and enjoyed our meals. Dad, Marilynne and I ordered the senior’s Liver entrée with bacon and onions. It was just the right amount with a Caesar salad to start. Bill had the hot turkey sandwich with fries. Yummy food! When all was said and done, we said our goodbyes and were leaving the restaurant by 7:45 for the drive home to Stratford and the Ridge. We were sad that 7 of our family couldn’t make it but choices had to be made on an individual basis. Sorry you had to work, Braeden!

Back home at 10:20 we had a very anxious little guy up on the bed. He probably thought we’d left him for good. He is such a good dog. We crawled into bed with no further ado. How nice that it was still 13C outside on a late October evening.

Night night!

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