5C's Que Pasa

I chose to take part of Sunday off hence no post yesterday.  I caught up on emails, tidied my desk into a bunch of piles to deal with later this week and decided to do some research for our next trip.  Hard to believe that we are leaving four weeks tomorrow considering we have only been home for two weeks.  We are visiting four countries ( three new to Colin and two new to me ) and I was able to complete the one city in the third country yesterday.  I still have two more cites in one country to research and that will happen this week.

Eventually that cup of tea changed into a glass of vino blanco. I then actually sat in my recliner and finished a book.

Colin spent the day checking things off the to do list.  One of which was taking the Pressure Pro Tire Sensors off the RV and the Jeep tires.  We bought new sensors last fall and the fellow told Colin that when we were not traveling to take them off as the batteries will last longer. Cleaning the fireplace was another thing on the list.

It is a gas fireplace and the soot really begins to obscure the glass.

We hired someone to do this the first time it needed to be cleaned.  Colin was a quick student and we no longer have to pay $196.00 to have this done.  It is a dirty job but if you are slow and careful it is easily completed.

Each tiny hole is cleaned out and the flame now burns nice and bright.  The fireplace looks brand new.

Colin then went on to put leather protector on our new white sofa.  If we do that once per year, the sun coming through the windows will not dry it out.  He was was like the Energizer rabbit, going from task to task.  I don’t think that there are too many other things left on the list.

Thanks to all of you who gave me so many ideas on finding the perfect set of sheets.  I am looking forward to doing more research.  So many interesting suggestions.  I think that we will be alright until we get back the end of June.  Seems that I always have something to research 🙄  At least we have the option of ordering and picking  up new sheets in the US as we head back to Mexico in October.  I had almost ordered sheets from Land’s End ( who now deliver to Canada ) when I kept getting more suggestions so I will wait until I have more time to sort it all out.

We ended up cooking a special dinner last night that we ate as we watched Ocean’s 8.  What a fun movie.  I never even fell asleep 😉

Today was another day but I will save that for tomorrow.

Oh, I just wanted to add, that the guy two doors over who just poured his concrete patio/driveway ( I will try and remember  David…concrete not cement ) is already parking on it 8-O. I thought that it had to cure for a certain amount of time.  He only left it untouched for 36 hours.  I know that David and Alan will have something to say about this.  Stay tuned 😎

We needed to buy a new set of sheets as the ones we had were wearing out. They are great sheets but we got them so long ago that I have have no idea where they came from nor what type they are.  All the tags are worn off so I can’t order them again  I had heard wonderful things about bamboo sheets  and when we saw lovely soft, silky  bamboo sheets for sale at the Alburqueque Ballon Fiesta we bought a set.  I washed them last week and put them on the bed.  They were nice and soft but slippery.  Colin thought that they were too hot but was willing to give them chance.  Today I took them off the bed and washed them again.  Always wash in cold water and tumble dry on low.  Which takes forever but I was careful and followed the instructions.  As we remade the bed a while ago we saw that they are already pilling.  Not good.

We heard a loud thump on the roof this morning. It was a few geese.  They must weight a lot.  For certain they are loud.

So I ask you what sheets have you found that are perfect and where did you get them from?  I have been on a hunt now for a few years.  I prefer sheets with a high thread count and tend to like sateen and Egyptian cotton.  But I might be off the charts.  I would love your input. Please  🙂

Mystery solved.

Today was clear but cool.  I got a lot done on the year end and if I am lucky I will finish it tomorrow.  I need to balance the entire year, all the deposits must equal all the expenses and balance.  If I am out by only $5.00 I won’t do any more.  I had to call my accountants assistant three times about a GST ( tax ) issue and then later in the day call GST itself.  I only held 45 minutes, not too bad.  I did three loads of laundry today and was able to put things away while on hold.  Colin had errands to run for part of the day, including picking up my library books, so no more iPad in the bath.

Our new neighbour is cementing his entire yard.  There must have been at least six cement trucks there through the day.  I just don’t understand why the truck drives over the rebar and that the cement was just poured over the it.  I thought rebar was supposed to be in the middle of the cement .  They did not lift the rebar.

An Isla sunset that I never posted.

The flying sand is from an ATV doing wheelies..

All the way up from Mexico we saw no signs of spring other than newborn calves and a very few lambs.  No buds on trees and certainly not any daffodils.  I have yet to see a daffodil 😥  Usually as we drive we see spring all the up from the US border to the Canadian border, not this year.  We are however two weeks earlier than normal plus from February on it was a brutal winter in these parts so spring is late.

These apple trees look like they want to spring free with buds but there are no buds.  I took this on April 1st at the US/Canada border.

I finally found some green buds two days ago.

We woke up today to 23F/-5C with heavy frost.  Definitely cold out there.  I have been wearing my leather jacket anytime we have to go out.  Yes barefoot in sandals but a scarf and a jacket and long pants.  I was surprised to find very little goose poop on our patio which is the norm.  We only saw three geese in our first 9 days home. Three days ago I saw four and yesterday we saw a total of six geese.  I suspect that they really addled the eggs last spring and there are no new geese around here but where are the old timers?  Are they still flying north?

The potential for flowers.

Finally, flowers on a tree. I can hardly wait to see the cherry blossoms.

Yesterday I had a long conversation with our propane company which has given me nothing but grief all winter.  They took over just a year ago from a wonderful small mom and pop company that we have dealt with since 2003.  We never ever had a problem with them.  The new company is testing me but I have been calm and finally was able to call them yesterday.  We are unable to call most 800 or 888 numbers, etc from our Mexican cell phone.  It appears that the majority of businesses only have toll free numbers.  I emailed and asked for a telephone number with an area code but they have don’t have them anymore.  I finally got all the way up to the supervisor of customer service and she was amazed as to the lengths I have gone to over the last year to try and communicate with their company.  We have been shut off to the online service for some reason.  That was resolved yesterday.  I never asked for anything but she emailed me that they have credited us for 100 litres of propane and to personally call her should we ever have another problem. I was surprised and of course my faith in the company has been renewed.  But I was just that close to moving to another company.  I will give them a chance.

We were out almost 8 hours today what with a few appointments and running errands.  One stop was right up to the tree line.

Kelowna on this side of the lake and West Kelowna on the other side.

It was a very long day for us but we just went with the flow and it all got done.  Back to my paperwork tomorrow.  I did get in 90 minutes early this morning and I am happy with my progress.

We stopped for lunch and while waiting for our meal we browsed the newspaper.  I have a feeling that this was the trial that I was supposed to be a juror for this past February.  I had found nothing in the paper and now see that the trial was delayed to the end of April.  It would have been interesting to be on the jury.

From my home zoomed all the way up. Some serious snow up there.

It’s not the Isla but it is still beautiful.

Colin has incorporated at least an hour into his morning routine with his guitars.  Today he then proceeded to clean the entire house while I continued doing what I do best, the paperwork for the last six months.

Well for one thing, we are no longer in Mexico, in more ways than one.  Yesterday Colin went to pick up the RV from Freightliner and took Steve along for the ride. I just kept working diligently at our company tax files.  The personal tax filing is easy but the company filing requires a full week at the minimum.  I have to reconcile a full business year to the bank statements once I have completed each individual month and we have been gone for six months. I finally have all the missing mail as far as I know so there is no reason to delay any longer.

I do all my entries by hand with a mechanical pencil. As you can see I do have a dent in my finger. I do have a permanent dent but it is now more pronounced  because I am working.  Don’t even suggest that I go online to do this, not worth my time nor the learning curve.  I can get this all done in a week.

Back to the RV.  So they were able to repair the part that had the hole and was causing the exhaust smell.  Repair cost $132.96.  However the labor was$399.00 😯 For a total of $670.13 including shop supplies and taxes.  Definitely not Mexican rates.  Likely we would have paid less than $130.00 had we been back on the Isla.  But at least we have the source of the exhaust smell repaired or at least Colin thinks so.  He thought that he still smelled a bit of exhaust on the way back home yesterday.  So did Steve but only when he walked into the bedroom but that is where the engine is.  However Freightliner did break the rubber seal around the bed that Colin had put in last fall while we were in Las Vegas and that might be the reason for the smell.  It looks that that will have to be redone.  Colin’s to do list is getting longer everyday.

Colin had an appointment in Vernon today and on the way there he was able to drop off all of our donated items.  After the appointment he picked up a free pizza ( Papa Murphy’s that you take home and bake ).  I  had found a note in my daytimer that we were owed a free pizza.  So glad that I make these types of notes. That will take care of dinner tonight.  He also stopped in at our lawyer’s office and signed whatever he needed to re our annual report with the BC Registry.  I need those papers for the company year end.

I worked for another hour after he got back and then we headed off about 4PM to the bank, to transfer some money into our personal account from the company and get some cash.  Next stop was the insurance company.  Long story short we got screwed out of $18.00.  We went in to cancel the RV ICBC ( provincial private insurance  company) insurance.  We had a newbie in training helping us.  We told her that we wanted to cancel that portion of our insurance.  That the Aviva ( thank you Croft ) portion still insures the RV while in storage.  The ICBC portion is mostly for when it is on the road.  We thought that by cancelling early ( it expired on the 20th ) that we might get a bit of a refund.  So while the paperwork was being done I asked how much we would get back, she said that she wasn’t there yet.  Well it turns out that there is a $15.00 cancellation fee and we would get a $4.00 refund but ICBC does not issue a refund unless it is at least $5.00.  And we had to turn in our plates.  Had we left the insurance expire naturally on the 20th we would not have had to turn in our plates.  So now in October we will have to spend $18.00 to buy new plates.  I said to her, that in that case we did not want to cancel our policy.  She said too late 😡  I asked her to ask someone else, she said no, but did make the call after someone else told her to.  No go.  In fact she should have given us our options but as a new employees she did not think to do so.  So we now have to pay $18.00 extra in October and get new plates 👿   She did tell us to have a nice day as we left 🙄  So $18.00 dollars down the drain along with that $16.00 from the frozen and broken wine bottle.  If you factor in that extra $670.00 from Freightliner ( we already paid them over $1800.00 last week which included finding the source of the exhaust smell ) we are on a losing streak.

While there we also put in our paperwork for our refund on our BC insurance on both the Jeep and the RV as one needs to purchase separate Mexican insurance for our vehicles.  Not all Canadian provinces do that refund but BC does which is a bit of a help financially.  You have to be out of Canada and the US for over a month and you do have to prove when you entered and when you left  Mexico.

Of course we had to stop for more wine and then back home. Once I am done here on the blog it will be time to cook our pizza.  I am tired, it has been a long day.

Colin hooked up our outdoor lights. Nice to see the glow.