Monday, September 30, 2013

Monday...back to work!

Never did get a chance to blog yesterday... simply too busy out and about. I actually spent the afternoon out with David, (Chris' Dad) golfing! David and I went golfing earlier this summer. We golfed at Woodstock Meadows which is a nice local course, and of course for my Judicial Health, I kind of let David beat me by a couple strokes, as he is an Ontario Superior Court Judge! Well, OK, he beat me fair and square, but he did have an advantage as he just bought a new set of Callaway Golf Clubs! He wanted to try them out.

They are kind of neat, in that they now include 3 different hybrid clubs that are newer to the golf scene. I have a hybrid 3 iron and I love it.

Today, was a back to work day for sure. Judy did all the RV cleaning this morning, while I took on the job of defrosting our Dometic Fridge. This is about a 6 month job, as you have to rid the freezer of a bunch of built up ice inside. Takes a couple hours by the time I wash it all down to make it shiny white again inside.

Went for a nice hike this afternoon, as I wanted to try out a new Cardio App I downloaded on the iphone, called Digfit. Here is what the screen looked like when we were finished.

 

Another great day for a walk as our temperatures have been great the past few days, and this week looks like more of the same.

Till tomorrow...

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Back to Woodstock today in the sun!

We must all be living right in Ontario, as today our weather was more like mid summer than the end of September...what a day! In just watching the weather on the news for the next week, much of the same is in order!

We left Tom and Cheryl this morning to head back home. They are both doing well after recent surgeries and it was good to see them.

On our way home this afternoon, we stopped in at a new mall built on the west side of Toronto, called the Toronto Premium Outlets. 85 Brand Name stores here, just waiting to pry the money out of your wallets!

As you can see above, this is sort of an outside type of mall...very new, and very nice!

Judy is heading into the new Banana Republic Store above... I picked up 2 real nice pairs of boots at the Columbia Sports Wear Store... I love their footwear, and they had a deal on where you bought one pair and received another pair free. So, for $100.00 I got a pair of new waterproof hiking boots, and a nice pair of running shoes... all set to get out and go! Of course, I needed new shoes to match up with my new orthotics coming shortly.

I have never seen this before...check out the fireplace in the centre of the Mall in the pic above. You cannot really see the flame in this picture, but it is a huge gas fireplace and it was hot! The people sit here to warm up a bit if it gets a bit cool. It was nice today and not really needed, but they had it on anyways. You could sit on both sides of it! Really neat!

We made it back home mid afternoon and just took life easy, cooking a nice steak dinner on our Weber Q200.

Till tomorrow...

 

Friday, September 27, 2013

A day in "The Big Smoke..."

It sure was a nice day, even if I had to spend it in Toronto... I drove Tom down to Toronto East General Hospital for some tear duct surgery today that went very well for him!

The Hospital is on Coxwell Ave. and is a very busy place. We ended up here all day. Now, I did get to drive Tom down in his Corvette, so that was a blast!

 

After lunch I decided to go for a walk as it was so nice out. I walked due south on Coxwell until I hit Lake Ontario! Above I looked right at Queen St. And could see the C.N. Tower...

Found a Marina down at the Lake.

A big empty beach only had one guy with his metal detector.

It was a 4 klm. walk that took 45 minutes to complete, then turned around to head back. I love watching the Electric Trolleys that still run Queen Street.

This had to win the contest of the weirdest house on Coxwell! Very different!

Hanging in here again tonight, then hitting the road back to Woodstock tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Some more RV repairs...

I was reading with interest and laughing at the comments from yesterdays blog, with different people who have had experience with being locked in a bathroom! Maybe it is not all that uncommon after all... Pleased to report Judy is doing well after her locked in encounter, and has not needed any professional help at this point in time, but we are monitoring the situation!

This morning I took on another job that was bugging me. Our kitchen tap was causing problems, as it was loose and leaking a bit. I tried to repair it the other day but had problems getting it off of the sink. Today I had more success!

This is the culprit above... it is a one handle do all type tap... bend to the right for cold, and bend to the left for hot, and a blend of both in between. After 4 years of constant use, it needed some work!

 

After I crawled underneath the counter and dismanteled the assembly, I soaked it all in vinigar, and cleaned it with (of all things...) a toothbrush! It did a great job of cleaning 4 years of built up calcium on the hardware.

The handle assembly you see on the right of this picture, had come loose and was flopping all over. I managed to take out that little blue/red plastic plug you see on it, and behind was a set screw that allowed me to tighten up the handle to the assembly and have it working like new again. A good cleaning of everything was in order, and now the tap is working like it was new again! I was sort of looking at a $100.00 bill to replace this assembly, but it was not necessary... just a bit of elbow grease and some vinigar!

Even had time this afternoon to get the Honda out of the trailer, and clean it all up... it was a beautiful afternoon to spend time outside, so I also got the hose out and cleaned up the Jeep!

 

Even found time to take a 3 1/2 Klm. walk through Standard Tube Trails this afternoon, and found the water was receeding a bit. The river itself is still quite high after the deluge of rain we have had this past week.

Was off to Dr. Normand this morning at 8:00 bells, to arrange my new orthodics! He got out the plaster and the paint brush and made a cast of botth of my feet. These plaster casts will now be sent out to Vancouver so that my new orthotics can be made! Will have to get Rick to put a big push on them, as I need them bad! Two weeks will have them back here in Ontario, ready for use... Not sure why we have to have these done in Vancouver, but what ever!

My new ones will kind of look like this one above, and will fit right in my shoe. They are a life saver!

Yes, we are back on the road tomorrow, as we drive over and spend the night in Richmond Hill with Tom and Cheryl. Tom has to go in Friday morning for some day surgery, and I will be his driver for the day. We will also check in on Cheryl, who just recently had hip replacement surgery. Together, they are keeping our Provincial Hospital Plan in business!

Till tomorrow...

 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Must be Indian Summer...

This week our weather looks like it could easily be the middle of July, rather than the end of September. It was a beautiful sunny day here in the mid 20's, so kind of nice.

This morning I was off into Woodstock for a Dr.'s appointment, with yet another one tomorrow morning to have a new set of orthotics made to fit my size 10's. I have fallen arches, so good orthotics are a must to be able to walk anywhere.

Kristina was out at the RV for a couple minutes dropping Judy off and caught me up on the roof of the RV. I was taking some water that accumulated on the slide out toppers off, along with a bunch of fall leaves.

This afternoon Judy and I took a nice motorcycle ride over to the London area using out back roads. It was a great day for a ride! When we got back to Woodstock we went down to the Standard Tube Trail for a late afternoon walk... all was going good until..................

 

Houston...We have a problem! As you can see, this elevated section of the raised board walk was flooded out. We had a lot of rain the past week, and this area is low, down by the Thames River. We had no choice but to turn around and head back the way we came, as we did not have the kayaks with us!

Why am I showing you a picture of the bathroom door handles? Well, because we had a problem today! Five minutes before we have to leave to go to the Dr.'s Office this morning, Judy is using the washroom and yells out to me that she can't get out! I said "what?"...

Our door hardware had actually broken, and the door could not open. It simply wore out, and chose this time to break! Your kidding! I had to pass a Robertson's Screwdriver under the door to Judy, who was able to take the hardware apart, and eventually we were able to force the door open. You see the nice new set that I bought at Home Depot today, that I installed. Always something when you live in an RV. Good thing Judy is not clostrophobic as an RV washroom is not real big!

Till tomorrow...

 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Phew... what a whirlwind trip that was...

Yes, at 8:30 this evening, we arrived back at the RV in Woodstock, after a whirlwind of a trip to Ottawa. We had a blast, every minute of it! Never had time to blog, and that is life when you are on the run!

When we drove over last Saturday it rained the whole 7 hour drive! The Jeep was drenched, but kept on ticking! As we neared Ottawa, we were invited to head over to Shawn and Jenn's friends place, to celebrate Sophie's 3rd Birthday!

That is Jenn, holding Sophie while they survey the birthday cupcakes and other sundry wonderful deserts we had! Carrie, (on the extreme right) did a fantastic job of cooking up a great lasagne dinner for everyone along with all the homemade deserts! You had to be there!

 

The kids got to eat first of course! They were not too pumped up!

Sophie got a new Big Girls Bed for her birthday, so Paige and Emmie were helping to break it in... sure is a lot of blurr going on with all that jumping!

On Sunday we all had a great time. We spent the morning in the house just enjoying all the Company with everyone, while the two girls yet had another birthday party for a couple hours in the afternoon. I helped Shawn put the swimming pool away for the winter... too busy to take pictures of that, but I also found time to lounge in his hot tub for a while!

After the Party, we all headed out to Montanas for dinner, and then we headed over to the large Theatre Complex in Kanata to take in the new movie, Dispicable Me 2. This is the one with the minions! It was a lot of fun for all!

Shawn and Jenn were off to work today, Emmie was off to School, but Paige was home all day, so Judy and I stayed with her until Jenn finished up work this afternoon. We had fun playing with Paige all day, including taking her to the park.

It was overcast in Ottawa this morning, but things improved as the day grew older.

We left Ottawa around 2:30, and made our fastest trip home ever! Only 6 hours! That compares to 9 1/2 the last time we came home a month ago with the motorhome! It all depends on what is going on in Toronto!

Anyhow, too tired to blog much more, on with the new week!

Till tomorrow...

Friday, September 20, 2013

Lesson learned well today!

Yesterday when I was in visiting Kristina, Chris and the kids, I downloaded the new Apple iOs 7 onto my new iphone 5. It took over 45 minutes to complete, but it went well.

I opted for the nice black iPhone, so it would match our black iPad... gotta be in tune with with stuff you know... I really liked the look and feel of the new iOs and it is still a learrning process.

 

No, I did not upgrade our iPad 3 at the same time, as it told me I needed 3 Gig of free memory, and at the time I only had 1.5 Gig availiable. This required a bit of cleanup to free up the needed space.

So, this morning, with some lousy weather here... wet and raining all morning, I decided to do the clean up of memory, and upgrade the iOs on the iPad. I decided to do it through iTunes.

 
That is when all the fun began today. It downloaded the new iOs, but when it was syncing to the iPad - oooopppsssssss, got a dreaded error message saying the upgrade did not work, and our iPad was locked on a black screen! Yikes. I got iTunes closed on the laptop, and unplugged the iPad, and all of a sudden an image of an iPad came up on the iPad screen, with a picture of the wire, telling me to plug the iPad into the laptop and open iTunes. It took 30 minutes, but the iPad did back up, and when it restarted it had the new iOs 7 up and running... phew!!! I was worried for a bit.
 
Now here is the lesson learned. Just before I started the upgrade this morning on iTunes, I completed a full backup of the iPad through iTunes! Lesson learned! Always make sure you do the backup!!! It is very easy to do the recovery...
 
Anyways, not a lot going on today, other than I tried to fix a loose kitchen sink fixture with little luck. Looks like it is worn out and requires replacement, so we will see.
 
Judy and I are back on the road tomorrow, as we drive over to Ottawa again to visit with Shawn, Jenn, and the kids. Looking forward to it!
 
Have a great weekend everyone!
Till tomorrow...

 

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Off to the Park...

Another nice warm day here...looked like rain all day, but never did.

Judy wanted to give Kristina a bit of a break, so we took the kids down to the Park all morning. We had a ball!

As you can see, Gwenny had lots of fun. We ended up at Tim Horton's for lunch!

For all the Doggy lovers out there, if you wonder where all that Purina Dog Food is made, look no further...they have a large production facility here! We walked right by it today.

This afternoon was spent on doing an oil change on our Onan 5500 Genset. Work is never done!

Till tomorrow...

 

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Hey... Summer is Back!!!

We will take 24 deg. C. and nothing but sun anytime, let alone September 18th! What a great day it was here...we made sure we got out to enjoy it!

Judy was into Town this morning to get fit at exercise class, while I stayed out at the RV and did some get ready work. We have a small 8 X 8 metal shed on our lot, and you would think it was 16 X 16 the way I try to pack stuff into it! This morning I pulled everything out, resorted, got rid of, and repacked the shed! There! All set for when we take off this winter! I had been wanting to do this job all summer, so it feels good to getter done!

We wanted to get exercise this afternoon, so off we were to the Lake Pittock Trail. Trees still pretty green here!

 

Judy is walking on the trail using her poles... She is taking a walking class and they use them to help burn additional calories!

That is a large campground on the far side of the lake... no boats out today!

There are the results for you... just over a 37 minute walk to walk the 3.59 klm. path. We walk it up and back as it is not a circle trail, but it is sure nice walking right along side the lake as you can see from the map shot off of "Runmeter", our iPhone walking App.

Till tomorrow...