Not a Great Start to 2014

After hearing the shocking news of Gerry’s passing, Barb and I muddle through some of our activities in a bit of a fog. But life does go on and we try to keep busy, keeping our minds busy to keep down the sadness we feel. First things we had to do was cancel our cruise to Hawaii and reschedule our flights to take us back to London, Ontario. Our daughter offered to pick us up but a rental car would give us more flexibility while back home. There are complications when one dies outside of their home country and it sure made us think about our own situation of being snowbirds.  Our good friends sent us home with a going away dinner.

 

The flight home was uneventful, get into rental, stop by the ‘hobby house’ and head to Chez Terri & Mark’s in Toronto. Kerri & Kelly, Gerry’s daughters and their significant others came by for dinner and the evening. We sat around the dining table remembering their dad and telling stories. As the wine bottles fell, the funnier the stories became. It was a great pre-celebration!

 

John gave us a heads up that friends Donna & Ray were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. So, on Saturday on our way to London, we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop by and hoist a beverage with them. We surprised them completely and had great fun for the short time we were there.

 

 

At Anne’s, the family all gathered for dinner and stories. Anne’s kids, grand kids, Terri & Mark, Anne’s sister Rose and her husband Flo with their daughter Leanne. A tremendous amount of food was served, the odd beverage consumed with lots of fun and good times remembering Gerry – it’s too bad this was one party he missed or did he!

Gerry’s service was held at the funeral home, attended by many, many family and friends to honour Gerry’s memory. Terri provided a eulogy that exemplified Gerry’s life and accomplishments. It was a tremendous and deserving celebration for a send off of a truly good guy – we will miss you Gerry…..

 

We spent the remainder of the time in Toronto, waiting for our flights home. We had dinner at Corrie’s and visited with our grandsons Mackenzie and Nathaniel, dinner downtown with Terri & Mark – now that brings back past memories, we used to do this lots when we worked downtown in our previous life!

On the weekend, we’re off to the cabin – no, we’re not skiing but Terri & Mark did while Barb & I sat in the lodge doing the après ski thing – I’m good at that part of the sport.

Monday, we drove back to London to have lunch with Anne and Kelly and a farewell. The weather was threatening so we did not stop off to visit John & Di but headed back as quickly as we could. Brrrr, cold and snowy is not our idea of a fun time! All the time away, we are keeping an eye on FB and our email for news on Jim, our dear friend in Jasper, GA. His battle with cancer has been hard fought but he has been in the hospital lately for blood problems and we are hoping we can drive up to see him after we land in Pensacola on Tuesday.

But, our return trip was unfortunately extended by bad weather in Pensacola and the airport was closed down for 2 days with ice. We got held up in Washington DC for 3 nights before we could get a flight out. More unfortunately, we found out on Wednesday that Jim had lost his battle and passed before we could even get out of DC! Jim and Lydia are the type of people that you meet once and immediately are best of friends. We spent many great times together even though we only knew them for 4 years. They would tell anyone who listened that Barb & I were the couple that inspired them to go full time RVing. That’s a heavy title to bear but love them both.

More on our unscheduled holiday in Washington, DC in our next post. We hope all is good where you are, it has been a shaky start to 2014 so far.

It’s a New Year

Well, we’re all winding down from our Christmas excitement. Many ‘Mercans’ do not ‘celebrate’ Boxing Day here – it’s just the day after Christmas and everything, shops, businesses and routines go on as usual. Of course Barb & I educated our friends with a bit of Canadianisms, making it a holiday.

Our DVR died on us and if you know us, you know we use it extensively to record our favourite shows so we do have to be tormented by the crazy amount of commercials. I opened the case to see if the fuse was ok but that’s as far as I could go to fix it. Call around and all the repair shops I called said throw it away and buy a new one! So, being a frugal minded or as  Barb would say – cheap, I surfed over to the manufactures web site and found a service centre not far away in Mobile. After a brief conversation on the phone, Barb & I are on our way to the repair shop. After a 90 minute return trip, we just step in the door and the repair guy called to tell us the unit is repaired and ready to go – just had to replace the power supply board and at half the cost of a new one! So, where are these other shops coming from? Are they too busy to do the simple jobs, they only want the high end warranty repairs? I digress, we went back on Dec 30th for pick up.

The park has a New Years Eve party at the clubhouse but when they sing Auld Lang Syne at 9 PM, I find it too racy for me so we planned a party at our place. We invited 3 other couples over for a pot luck and beverages of course. We had a great time with Ann, Bill, Marcia, Dick and our new Canadian friends, Simon & Sandy. Good food, good friends, what better way to ring in the New Year.

 

 

New Years day was different for us. After we witnessed the ‘polar bear plunge’, we wandered through the campground with various stops, toasting the day. We ended up at Simon & Sandy’s and some one (can you spell Simon) kept filling our glasses and soon enough, it was difficult to aim Barb up the road to home – yes friends, she was toasted and feeling no pain! This is a most unusual state for my bride but she was having fun anyway.

Simon & Sandy are fairly new to the Plantation and have not experienced some of the attractions of the area so we decided to take them on Jan 2nd to Pensacola to do lunch at McGuires Irish Pub – Simon likes his stout beers – and then over to Joe Patti’s for some fresh sea food. Going to Joe Patti’s is a different experience that should not be missed if possible. Well, word travels fast around the park and soon we were expecting about 14 people to go to lunch! Unfortunately, Simon had come down with a flu bug and he was unable to go but the rest of us – we’re there! Not too many folks turn down a trip to McGuires! Of course, the girls decided that they would rather hit a few quilt shops instead of the fish market and would meet us at home!

On Jan 3rd, there was a quilt shop having a ‘going out of business’ sale in Ocean Springs, Mississippi – I guess the girls didn’t buy enough there last year. Anyway, 10 of us thought it was a great opportunity to meet the girls at The Shed for lunch, that’s a 90 minute drive each way! Anyway, the 5 ladies, Marcia, Ann, Mary, Marsha & Barb headed out at 9 so they could be the first to scoop up some of those ‘you just can’t miss’ deals and the guys, Dick, Bill, Dick, Bud & me left at 11ish to meet them at The Shed BBQ. It’s a unique experience and again, one of those local attractions that one should not miss!

 

 

And of course, all this time while I’m trying to catch my breath from the trip down and setting up, Barb continues to knock out beautiful quilt tops like this one.  She took a Craftsy course this year with Laura Nowles and this is the finished product from the class.  Now all that is left to do is the Free Motion Quilting.

 

 

 

It is with great sadness that we learn of my cousin’s passing. Gerry and Barb & I were the same age and he was more a brother to me than he was a cousin. Gerry & I grew up together, hanging out, playing hockey and spending the summers at our cottage, water skiing, fishing and swimming as if we were in our right minds.  As we grew up and had families, we picnicked, partied and spent holidays together.  He and Anne were enjoying a vacation with two of their grandsons in Cuba when he left us.  We will miss him deeply.

Back in LA

In our last post, we talked about frozen water lines but we were lucky and did not suffer any damage. Our second night of the trip down, we stayed in a Walmart in Clanton Alabama. It was a few miles off I65 and was not a super store but they allowed us to stay anyway and it was warm and quiet, what a treat! From here, it was a short run down to the Plantation. We arrived just before the annual Christmas tractor parade – we prefer to think they were having the parade just to welcome us back! Since many of our Plantation friends did not expect to see us this year, we had many of them stop by to greet and welcome us back. It was a very warming arrival.

Now that we are all set up in our site, we try to tend to things that are becoming routine – raking the gardens, washing the roof of the rig and then the sides and of course, digging the shorts out of the cabinets! It took us a couple of days to catch our breath from the escape from Ontario, the long drive down and acclimatizing ourselves to the temps here. But once back on our feet, we’re back into the swing of the activities in the campground.

With Christmas looming and since we have already celebrated with our kids back home, it is kinda anticlimactic now but we’re celebrating with a clubhouse full of other campers with a Christmas eve party and then dinner on Christmas day. To help get us in the mood, we went shopping and bought ourselves new bikes. When we decided to drive to California for our cruise, we stored our bikes, thinking we were not going to be stopped anywhere long enough to use them so why drag ‘em around. Once we changed plans not to drive west, it was too late to retrieve them – does that sound reasonable? Anyway, new bikes for Christmas, just like when we were kids. I’m sure you also know our Christmas card ritual – we take the camera and exchange cards in the isle at Walmart and take pictures of the occasion – this way, we can ‘spend’ as much as we want to for the card without spending our hard earned cash!

One event we try not to miss is the Fish River Santa Claus boat parade which was on Dec 21st. So using last years memory of timing for the parade, we went for dinner with Simon & Sandy at the Old 27 Grill and planned to be at our usual viewing point at the boat launch by 7PM. Well, not a lot of good things to say about my memory here….. after dinner, we arrived at the boat launch and were surprised at the number of available parking spots – this was a hint! Oppssss….. the parade has already gone by! We got the refreshments out anyway and met a nice couple from Silverhill, a town just north of the Plantation. We did manage to get a few pictures of some boats on their way back to where they launched from so not all was lost – we saw a few decorated boats and met nice folks too.

It must be Christmas, it has turned cooler to get us in the mood. On Christmas eve, we went to the Christmas party at the clubhouse. There was a Plantation music group to lead us in some carolling and after, we had our usual ‘secret Santa’ ritual. Everyone with a gift sits somewhat in a circle and a ‘host’ reads a short story and when she says right, you pass your gift to the right, left you pass your gift to the left. There are many instances of right and left so some times you might get a little lost and that makes some fun. You are in an Escapee park so you know there is lots food available. Everyone had to bring a finger food for the buffet table – wow, so much great treats! We even had Mr & Mrs Claus there checking who were being naught and nice. You notice I wasn’t in the picture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas day brings us back to the clubhouse for our Christmas dinner at 2PM. We were with 10 others and it was a great time – lots to eat, plenty of wine around and the desserts were over the top. Our table stayed after clean up to carry on with the chatter and of course, we were the last to leave – turning out the lights as we departed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoping all is well wherever you are and all the best in 2014….

Frayed Nerves

So, the last time I wrote, we were finishing up at the ‘hobby house’ for the winter and making plans – are we going south or are we staying in Canada for the winter while I receive some sort of treatment. Cancer is an awful word and keeps your mind buzzing with the ole what if’s. We have had family and friends that have gone through Cancer treatments and are now survivors! We have a good friend in Georgia that is going through the stages now and we are hoping and praying that he too will come out the other side as a survivor. We are at the decision point – do we go to California as planned or do we go to the Plantation and fly to Los Angeles for our cruise. There is a cut off point as we do not want to have to drive hard to get there on time. The original plan was to drive leisurely , stop to visit some of our ‘bucket list’ locations and do the touristy thing. The longer the Prostrate issue takes, the less chance we will be able to make the drive we planned.

The plus side of waiting was we were invited to join Corrie and her family for the annual Christmas Tree hunt. It was a great day, Corrie goes to one of the tree farms that we used to go to when we had a house. I thought I knew the way and soon we were lost in a subdivision that wasn’t there 15 years ago! Anyway, we made it and then enjoyed the hunt. Once felled, we all climbed back on the ‘hay wagon’ to go back to the bonfire to warm up and enjoy a hot chocolate or cider. Of course, the kids had to eat – someone saw hot dogs. After, Corrie had us back for a late lunch and refreshments. We used to do this each year and it was great to see this tradition being carried on with her family.

I have an appointment with a Urologist to get a more accurate diagnosis. When we walks into the exam room, he says ‘drop ‘em and bend over the table’. Then I hear the snap of his exam glove and the rest is just a blur. I was concerned that he had left his watch on – I didn’t want to be like the gator in Peter Pan!  Anyway, he said the Prostrate seemed normal but he wanted me to take another blood test but I had to wait 4 or 5 days for better accuracy. Again, we wait. We wait for the blood test appointment then for the results. Wait, wait, wait. And of course, you know what the mind is doing. I had to call the doctors office several times almost to the point that I felt like I was harassing them. Finally at 7:30AM on Thursday, Dec 12, the doctor called to say that all is good but he needs to see me in 6 months. Now, doesn’t that leave it in a gray area?

So now we have a green light to head south. Barb & I feel that it would not be fun to drive hard to get to LA so we decided that we would go home to the Plantation. Since we’re heading that way, why not take a detour and visit with Jim & Lydia for a couple of days. We find out that Jim is having a busy week medically but we could see him for part of Tuesday if we leave Sunday morning to get there in time. I have to make a few calls to cancel our satellite internet service, our Canadian cell service and adjust our travel insurances. It was a busy couple of days, packing up, and making calls. Terri and our great nephew, Nick, stopped by on their way to their cabin for skiing to say bye.

Watching the weather, we decide that Sunday was the better departure day but what we didn’t expect was the 12 inches of snow that was dumped on us on Saturday! On Sunday, Dec 15th, I tried moving the truck to hook it up but got stuck so we wait again for the campground to dig us out. They finally got us clear at 5PM on Sunday so Barb & I hooked up and flipped the rig around so we had a straight drive out in the morning.

Finally, at 7:30AM on Monday Dec 16th, we’re on the road – clear skies and dry roads, this was going to be a nice ride except of course, we were not able to do the detour to see our dear friends. We had planned on getting away ASAP and stopping at Tim’s for breakfast – what, you don’t have any eggs but we can have all the egg whites we want! It’s only 8:30 in the morning, and they are out of eggs.

Back on the road and all was great until we were about 40 miles from the Sarnia – Port Huron border crossing and bam, we are right in the middle – at least that is what we thought – of a complete white out! Soon we are thinking we should turn around and cross at Windsor – Detroit but what’s to say that route isn’t also getting this blizzard. We press on at much lower speed for what seemed like an hour then voila, we’re under clear skies again about 10 miles from the border. The roads were wet but passable. The border crossing was quick and we’re on our way through Michigan. It was cold but clear skies and for the most part, the roads were good – hey, they’re Michigan roads, everything was well shaken by the time we stopped.

We made it to the flying J at Indianapolis for the night. The drive into Indianapolis was a bit harry – it was getting dark and it was rush hour, everyone else knew exactly where they were going and didn’t have patience for old people in an RV! It’s been a number of years since Barb and I have departed Canada this late and didn’t expect frozen water lines when we reached our night stop! We’re both hoping that it wasn’t a hard enough freeze that we’re replacing pipes when we get into the Plantation!

Not much else weird or too exciting happened from here so until next time, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to y’all!

Waiting….

Last post, we had just found out that my PSA levels were up and my doctor was sending me to a Urologist for further diagnosis. My doctor was quite adamant that I was to do this ASAP, postponing our departure for California and she will arrange an appointment for me with a doc close by. This kinda sets one on edge until that appointment rolls around. So, let’s make the best of it and get more demolition done at the house – keeping busy is a good way to take your mind off your problems and we were busy.

On Nov 30th, Terri, Mark, Ali, Barb & I arrived at the house early morning to make as much damage as we could. We removed screws, drywall off the kitchen/bathroom walls and started lifting the old tiles from the kitchen floor, bathroom completely demolished, tub, vanity and toilet out, kitchen cabinets out and all plumbing cut down to the main shut off. Now the nasty work of cutting out the old rotten bathroom floor – oopss, hit the water pipe and we had to scurry around to find the shut off that should be before the water meter – got it now no more water! But at least we got the floor out…..

We make another run to the dump with both trucks and got rid off all the garbage from these 2 rooms. Now some serious inspection of the floor joists that were under the bathroom floor – what joists? The last builder did not build standard floors joists and subfloor. All of that has to come out and proper floor joists installed on a new beam – the old one appears to be a single 2X8 sitting on cement blocks that have shifted and not helping to support. Leaning over the floor and peering forward upside down, the rest of the house seems to be build to standard but that all remains to be seen when we expose that area. We have not had any real surprises yet that we have not expected.

For safety and to keep critters out, we temporarily screwed down 3 new sheets of plywood in the bathroom area. This is as far as we can take it until we remove the blown in insulation and take the ceilings down – we want to see the full skeleton on the house so we can make accurate design drawings for the town inspectors. This was a full days work, we are exhausted but satisfied. This is much more than we expected to have done before we headed south so the universe is looking after us. Speaking of which, if we had left on Nov 25th when we had planned, we would have been smack in the middle of the winter storm Dion that hit the USA mid west.

 

On Dec 2nd, Barb & I went back for the second last trip to clean up, pack up our tools, clean out the rain gutters (which had not been cleaned in a few years) and install a mail slot instead of using the curb side mail box. It appears that the ‘pet door’ that Barb designed worked great and we covered that basement access with wood. There were muddy paw prints on the ‘pet door’ so we knew that whatever was living under the house kept trying to get back in.

 

 

On our idle days when not at the house, Barb has kept busy sewing even though her sewing centre has been put away, she still managed to start and complete a few festive projects. I am emptying waste tanks, filling the fresh water tank, washing the truck and generally puttering around. I’m also doing lots of surfing to research various building ideas for roof trusses for cathedral ceilings, beam sizing and floor joist sizing, HVAC etc. Whew, I am exhausted so I better slow down!

Until next time, we hope all is good where you are – it’s getting cold here and we’re still waiting for additional blood results….

Our Black Friday

Our ‘Black Friday’ was Nov 22nd, closing day for the house deal. We think we got a good deal on this property but that remains to be seen once we open it up!

Our day started out innocent enough. There was no promise from the lawyer that we could get the keys early so we could get away on our south western excursion! We’re excited about both the property and our trip to California. We are hoping to take our time travelling – probably having Christmas dinner in a Walmart parking lot somewhere warm! So about noonish, we decided to head toward St Catharines where our lawyer is located so we would be nearby when we got the call to pick up the keys. Just before we hit the highway, my doctor called to go over my blood test we had done on Wednesday. She did not come with good news and our day drew gloomy. But as we have always said, our plans are cast in Jello so changes can be made. My doctor will book me an appointment with a specialist to do further testing before we leave so we have to delay  our departure. So, back to picking up the keys - we started out at Home Depot pricing supplies and generally ‘window’ shopping. We talked to a couple of the sales folks that gave us good info about Tankless Hot Water systems and HVAC stuff. The last time we had to research this stuff was back when we built our house in 1983! Certainly some significant changes have occurred since then.

Our next stop was the Restore to see what bargains we could find there. Not much but we did find a pocket door frame for only $15.00 – regularly $100 so this was a good deal. We also picked up some hazmat suits (read painter suits) for when we start demolition. We’re sure to find lots of mouse poop and mold when we’re taking the house apart. By now, it was going on 3PM and still no word from the lawyer. Our realtor wants to meet up so we find a Tim’s nearby and take a break. As we’re waiting for Elizabeth, the lawyer calls (4ish) and our keys are ready. Elizabeth arrives and quickly presents us with a gift basket to celebrate our purchase – it was very nice of her and we’ll make use of the sparking wine and glasses!

We’re finally at the house in the dark, not what we expected and slightly depressing but Barb unlocks the door and we step into our future hobby! We take a quick look around and take stock of what’s what and start making plans. The property management group that looked after the property for the trustee left signs all around to say that the house was winterized. After some checking, it is not winterized like we would winterize a trailer – water still in the water lines and in the hot water tank. So we’ll need to do some real winterizing. We’ve decided that all the appliances are to go and our realtor thinks she may have a home for them. Originally, we were going to keep the fridge but the mold everywhere in and on it is too much for us! The upside of the day is we met the new neighbours and they seem very nice – they’ll have to be – you know it’s hard for me to play nice with others! We lock up and head back home with our heads whirring with ideas and plans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terri & Mark wanted to meet us at the house on Sunday to show Mark the house. Terri brought cheese and crackers and some sparking wine and along with the bottle we had, we had a nice ‘house warming’ with them. After a short break and knowing we were staying in Ontario longer than planned, we started some demolition and with Terri & Mark’s help, we soon made significant headway – carpets out, drywall off bedroom walls, sub floor up in bedroom, hot water tank out, ceramic tiles off bathroom floor and 3 of 4 appliances gone. It looks like the hot water tank has been leaking for a long time as I broke through the bathroom tile floor and subfloor trying to smash the ceramic floor tiles up! The floor in the bathroom is totally rotten and will have to be replaced. Can not tell what condition the floor joists are in until we expose them. All the debris was stacked up in the garage and Barb & I went down on Monday (next day) to load garbage in truck and haul it over to the dump – it took us 2 trips! After cleaning up, we took stock again for our next trip down so we could bring appropriate supplies.

Until then, we hope all is good where ever you are…