Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain, New Tires, Mom's Checkup

Wednesday, Apr. 25^th I stirred first at 4:10, dropped off, then again at 5:30 and finally woke at 6. My plan was to get up and go for a walk. With the transient lifestyle all winter, each morning I wake up, I have to envision where we are. This morning was no different and it was in my mind that we were still at the bottom of the hill. When I popped my earplugs out, I could hear the patter of rain and soon remembered that we were at the top of the hill.

Black Beauty going to get new tires

Bill moved when he felt me doing my morning stretches and said “I guess we won’t be walking this morning.” We got up at 6:30 and went through the morning rituals and Clemson soon followed. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to not have to slip layers of clothes on and shoes to take him out on the leash. We can just open the door and he trots down.

While rummaging through the cupboard
I found my Disc walkman but one port was rusted
so it wouldn't work 😢

I scraped it and wiped it clean and tried the batteries again
Yay! it is working now so I listened to Willie Nelson for a while😊

Sometimes he gets over eager, sometimes fearful of the stairs and jumps from 2 stairs down. We always say ‘take your time’ and often that slows him down. Then when we see he is finished, we go out and lift him up. This is for our peace of mind so he doesn’t hurt himself in his frantic rush to get up again. His long legs are so spindly. I’m sure he is also quite happy to be able to do his business in private! 😊

I had received Mom’s missing documents from BMO yesterday so printed them off this morning to be dropped off at the accountants today. After buying Black Beauty out, we knew we wouldn’t have our first much lower payment go through until the middle of May. You can imagine Bill’s consternation when he checked the bank this morning to find that Ford Credit had taken out the original lease payment!

something else I came across in the photo box made me smile
My grandsons, probably 18 years ago
I love this picture!

We have never been pleased with the lady in the office at Mt. Brydges Ford, always seeming to screw simple things up. Today, being no exception. We’ll call and get it straightened out but it is so frustrating all the same. Today is a busy day. Bill is taking B.B. in to get her new wheels, well, tires on the back, he is dropping off his Stihl weed trimmer for a cleanup and maybe getting a haircut.

I will be meeting my sister, Donna, at Rockwood right after Mom’s lunch. We need to take Mom into Owen Sound for her regular pacemaker check. It is so much easier with at least two of us, so Mom is not left alone at any time. I’ve just learned that Gayle, another sister, is coming too. The less confusion for Mom, the better, although any removal from Rockwood turns her world upside down anyway.

Bill and I had our showers and he had cereal while I just had a banana. I wasn’t hungry enough for a full breakfast at 9. I will need a bit more before I leave at 12:30 so a bowl of bean soup will fit the bill. The rain continues to pitter patter across the Ridge and with a calm high of only 47F/9C we aren’t expecting anything different today. That’s okay, we have things to keep us busy today.

The last of the bean soup that was in the freezer
I added butter and mozzarella cheese
Yummy!

I managed to keep myself entertained but filing a few things from our winter travels, new state maps we picked up. I also opened the overhead cupboards above the sofa and removed some unnecessary things. This is where I’ve kept all of our momentos, pictures, small photo albums, notes, letters and my dolls, so there wasn’t a lot of movement up there. It is sorted better, that’s the main thing.

Clemson walked to the mailbox with me to mail a couple of letters

Under the bed, there was some more adjustment and sorting. I brought all the pocket novels out from under there and from the closet to be stored in the bunky until we read them. I think most of these came from Deb and Riley, so thanks again gals for the books! At 12:30 I was out the door and on my way down the laneway.

and he led the way back home

When I arrived at Rockwood, the dining room was full with residents and dessert was still being served to a few of them. I saw Mom was still at her table eating so I sat in the front foyer for about 10 minutes before approaching her. Just in time, she was finished and stood to greet me with a wonderful smile and kiss. As I was explaining to her what we were doing today, Donna slipped in and onto the elevator to grab Mom’s coat upstairs and to sign her out.

Mom was confused already but that would be normal since she doesn’t often get out of the building. We picked Gayle up at the end of her driveway and drove to the hospital in the rain. We made good time and had a few minutes to spare after being guided to the correct waiting room. The young gal was very patient with Mom. We managed to drop Gayle off and get Mom back to her room by 3ish.

In the 'games' room, there have been many improvements
Nice things for residents to partake in

I love the typewriter although many young children today wouldn't know what it was

Different gadgets to open, tie, turn and undo

Dishes in the cupboards to have a small lunch together with family

A bright laundry area to keep idle hands and minds active

Mom is wondering how she can talk us girls into staying longer 

Donna and I hung around trying to entertain her for another 45 minutes and she went through numerous mood changes. Luckily, Donna got her battery-operated doggie turned on and that took up a few minutes with Mom talking to it. When it was time for us to leave, we were both pleased that her sad moments had passed and she willingly walked us down to the elevator with many goodbye hugs and kisses. It isn’t easy slipping away sometimes so we usually plan our individual visits for an hour before meals so we can draw her attention elsewhere when we say goodbye.

Back home at 4:15 I felt brain dead, with a headache and a heartache. Bill and I discussed the good and bad of our day. At 4:30 I began preparing lasagna, which I’d planned for supper. Nice comfort food on a rainy day. I poured myself a Beer Margarita and that made me feel better. Donna had another piece of mail for us, that was delivered there on Friday, just missing the switch over. It was another sign of incompetency.

My drive home

 Because a few of you are rv’ers who took advantage of the 3 FREE nights at Fortuna Del Oro in Yuma, I’ll pass this along. The letter was actually a statement from this RV resort. In our case, we stayed 4 nights. 3 nights free and we paid cash for 1 night. This statement shows those transactions BUT also are charging us for 2 extra nights of which we did not stay.

You can't really tell here, but it was quite foggy off in the distance

 We can prove that we were in Tuscon at a KOA so will call tomorrow to straighten it up. The stupid thing is, before leaving a park, Bill always stops to inform the staff that we are leaving. But, again I ask, can’t anyone do their job? Sorry, had to vent about that one. If you have stayed there, I hope this hasn’t happened to you.

Baptist Church Road is a really nice drive

With 20 minutes left on the convection oven timer, I put together a salad to eat for each of us and buttered some breadsticks that were in the freezer. They can toast for a few minutes at the tail end of baking the lasagna. Hmm, smells good! And we weren’t disappointed. It was a great meal with leftovers for a few more nights. We cleaned up dishes and I finished today’s blog post, as you can tell.

Supper was so good and so filling!

I hope you have enjoyed your day today. We had a pretty good one too and look forward to tomorrow’s sunshine.

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

And Then It Happened, We Moved!

Waking up on Tuesday, Apr. 24^th was the day. There were clouds covering the sky so we didn’t have a sunrise, yet it was warm. The overnight temperatures didn’t drop below 43F/6C so a great night for sleeping as well as rising. It was 6:30 when Bill got up and I followed within 10 minutes when I heard him preparing his coffee.

No sunshine first thing but these bright Coltsfoots were a great replacement

We’ve had three perfect battery-charging days so we hope the sun pops out periodically today to keep us off the grid. We haven’t turned the power on yet but will play that by ear. We had one priority this morning and that was to read a few blog posts from our friends and then pull the slides in, hook up and get up the hill. There could be rain on the way later tonight so we want to take advantage of the dry conditions now that the snow is gone.

So here we are all set up

At 7:45 I moved Ptooties out onto the road so Bill could pull the Suite out. We were backed in, obviously, so he had to turn it around and drive up the lane. I followed with the car and he had no problem at all swinging into position. One minor adjustment to set the wheels between the bricks we’d left last fall and we’re done! Yay! The landing gear down and slides open, Clemson, our supervisor, agreed that all was well with the world now.

the supervisor checking things out

We each puttered around doing our own thing and when Bill set the satellite dish up, he came in to check the reception and had 99 and 98% bang on with no adjustment. That puts a smile on his face everytime. He’s that good! 

Bang on!

He called his Dad to let him know we had ‘arrived up on the Ridge’ and I contacted the accountant in Durham about bringing Mom’s income tax in to him. It looks like I’m missing a T5 so had to follow up with the bank on that. My mistake with our address change, I’m sure.

A view from the road

It was 11 o’clock when Bill admitted to being hungry so I cooked some bacon and hash browns with eggs. A nice countryman’s brunch. It hit the spot, I was hungry too. We cleaned up dishes and soon went out to enjoy the day. 

Bill installing the motion solar light on the bunky
Check his own story of the day's jobs here

Solar motion detector lights got put up on the bunky and the outhouse and Bill pulled up the electric garden lights that stopped working last spring. He also placed our turtle signs up in their respective spots so I announced to the pond that they could now cross the lane safely.

light installed

I washed the outhouse down really good with Mr. Clean now that the critters are dead and gone. They do leave black spots on things and webs so they are all cleaned up now. I’ll do the same in the bunky once we get it emptied of a few things and uncover the tv. Bill finishes one job and moves on to another, where I had pretty much reached my limit by 2 o’clock. The warm day (15C/60F) had started to cool down yet things had dried up nicely so we could walk most areas.

signs posted again

The turtles can cross the road now

When Bill announced that the mail had been delivered, we walked down together to collect a magazine. Clemson remained inside, no amount of encouraging could budge Mr. Lazy Bones off the chair. It was around this time that Gerry, Donna, Tom and Audrey drove in to see how things were going. They were out for a drive to the Acreage so popped in. There needs to be a whole lot of drying up on that property so they can get a ‘new to them’ trailer in, in a couple of weeks.

Our first visitors this season

I wrote a bit on my post and Bill downloaded his pictures but my eyes are heavy so I moved to the recliner. Maybe a snooze, maybe not, but a rest for sure. Once Bill finished at his laptop he turned the tv on and promptly drifted off. That, of course, is when my return call from BMO came in and woke him up. I perused Canadian RV’ng magazines that came over the winter. Some of the questions and responses are interesting and articles worth reading.

And from the road, you can still see us up there

Clemson is making up for lost time today and now is constantly at the door to go out, now that we’ve come inside. It is nice that we can just open the door and let him go on his own but we still need to keep an eye where he goes. At 5:15 Bill lit Broken Wing Weber for our first steak dinner at home in a long time. I prepared a potato for grilling as well as made myself a salad and fried some sliced mushrooms.

I do believe the snow has gone from the garden
and now the lights are gone too

We've had these for many years so we're not surprised when they
gave up the ghost
They were always losing their caps so now we can find solar lights instead

We weren’t too keen on the thick steak, the thicker it is the more difficult it is to cook to that ‘just right’ state, but it filled us up and that is the main thing. 

Lots of food and even Clemmy got a taste of steak tonight

After cleaning up dishes, I finished my post and downloaded my daily pictures. This has been a mix of work and play and a bit of relaxing too, therefore making it perfect! I hope the day was good to you too.

our choice of parking spot

this is Black Beauty's summer spot

Good night
We are finally really HOME!

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