5C's Que Pasa

As I often publish my post as the end of the day I want to clarify a few terms.  Because we are on PST time a great many of my readers are already in bed when I publish a new post.  So when I say yesterday, I really mean Monday which was my yesterday as I wrote this on Tuesday evening.  But when you read this post, likely on Wednesday, yesterday will likely mean Tuesday to you.  So I just wanted to clarify that yesterday really meant Monday, is that clear? 🙄

So yesterday morning ( Monday AM ) we both headed out in two vehicles.  Colin was dropping the RV off at United Hitch for the final electrical wiring required to tow the Jeep.  Once back home he went to do some work on his computer and I head out for my morning walk.  Once done I stopped to chat with a neighbor.  It wasn’t long before Colin came to find me.  I had missed my scheduled 11 AM phone conference.  It had totally slipped my mind and I of course had neglected to check my calendar.  Fortunately I was able to reconnect about 20 minutes later.  My walk had started on a clear cool morning and by 10:30AM it was smokey once again 👿

Basically I spent the day catching up with paperwork as Colin did with computer work. He has been photo shopping grey skies with blue sky.  A client had a deadline of today (Tuesday ) to enter photos for a commercial project competition. I call it faking reality but what can we do with our current circumstances.  This is one of the very few jobs we have that he can do this with.  He later headed out in the Jeep to pick up the RV.  This was the big moment when he would connect them together for the first time and also set up the Brake Buddy.  I have to say that I was beyond shocked when he called to tell me that we was waiting for a tow truck for the Jeep.  Apparently he was all set up to tow it home when the car refused to move forward. It was locked in park.  Unknown to me Colin has had this problem several times over the past two weeks.  The Jeep refuses to move into gear but after much giggling with the gear shift it does eventually get into drive.  So he called the Jeep dealership which here is with Chrysler and they sent a flatbed tow truck.  Off went the tow truck with the Jeep.  Colin finally got going and just a few blocks later came to a full stop in the middle of the street.  He put the flashers on and went out to tell the tow truck driver that we was unloading our Jeep at the wrong dealership.  I guess the good news is that he actually was driving by as it was happening.  Meanwhile the road was being blocked by our RV for a short period of time.  Also it is good to know that this problem will be covered by our Jeep warranty.

Instead of coming home Colin drove onward to Vernon to Okanagan Glass to have some measurements made.  You may recall that two years ago we had some interior renovations done on the RV.  I promised a post but never did it as it was too distressing.  The work cost a bundle and it was not to our standard.  The fellow was/is a great craftsman but not in our case.  Colin has photographed his work for years.

One of the things he did was replace our beveled glass panels.  Well just a year in, the glass began to have black spots.  We found out that the fellow had likely used the wrong glue.  So now we are replacing all the glass panels.  They look fine in this photo which was taken almost two years ago.

The woodwork in the photo is of new stained wood cabinets and he did a good job on that as well as the rest of the kitchen and bathroom.  However these two cupboard doors used to have a glass insert.  I don’t know why he didn’t to it as requested.  I find it too dark and we will likely get the center insert replaced with an opaque glass panel.  To the right of this photo we have cabinets all the length of the living room with opaque inserts.  One of the things I did not like is that he re hung two doors opening the wrong way and it is impossible to fix unless we redo the cabinets from scratch.  To this day, two years later, I am still upset each time I use those two doors which are situated in the bathroom.

So at this point we are getting two tables refinished (by a different highly recommended wood finisher ), as well as the chairs and also the wood moldings on the floor.  Today ( Tuesday 😎 ) we took the chair backs and cushions in for recovering and the fellow insists on redoing the foam also.

Colin never got back till after 7PM yesterday ( Monday ).  Meanwhile I was reeling from the news of a very special friend who has been told chemo is no longer in her future and that she must come to terms with what will be.  Enough said.  I can say that there was wine consumed yesterday.

This morning ( heh, we are still on Tuesday 😀 ) Colin turned on our very seldom used 2015 Mac Air laptop and……..

…….. got the prohibitory symbol.

Yup that is what it means. Bad news.

So of course being my most efficient self I set to work to resolve the issue.  None of the many suggestions on Google helped.  I called the place we bought the computer from and they pushed us off to Apple Support.  They now only sell new items and no longer service anything.  So after two hours of time spent trying this and that online with the Apple lady who happened to be in Georgia it was obvious that we had yet another major situation or crisis as I prefer to call it on hand.

So we had to wait until the chap who was cleaning our very dirty carpets and dusty upholstery in the RV was done.  He was not impressed with our new storage area, stopping short of calling it Hades.  I don’t think he will be available to clean for us in that location again.  Pity as we have been using him for over ten years and he does a wonderful job.

Finally we were free to dash into town to the only Apple store where fortunately the Apple Support lady had made us an appointment for 4:20PM.  The place was packed with people seeking advice and help for their broken devices.  I saw someone come in complaining that their iPhone would no longer charge.  The manager merely took a sharp tool and picked out over a teaspoon of lint.  Problem solved.  There wasn’t much help for the gal who had dropped her laptop into a basin of water.  How did she manage to do that?  But they said that they would try.  Good people.

So it was our turn.  They really tried, in fact two of them did.  Sadly our laptop appears to have either an easy fix, a loose or broken connection between the hard drive and the software, an easy inexpensive fix.  Or which they suspect might be the case a failed hard drive which the manager has only seen 5 times over the years.  With our luck guess which it might be?  The cost for a new hard drive is $500.00.  We have owned this computer for two years but have used it very very little.  It gets turned on 3 or 4 times per month.  Its purpose is for travel and the very odd time that Colin will take it on a job.  So we will know it’s fate by the end of the week.  Cost to us $55.00 thus far.  Then we have to make a decision.  They do say that they might still be able to get my data off of it and transfer it to ??????

So as you can see, life has been a challenge to us this week.  Well actually it has been a challenge since the end of March.  That one week in Venice stands out like a bright light.

Oh, how could I forget.  We did make contact with the Jeep dealership at the end of the day, today, Tuesday.  According to them there is nothing wrong.  They say that their computer would tell them if there was a problem and there were no bad ( my words ) codes indicated on the computer.  So why on earth could the Jeep not be towed or even moved at all.  In our minds there is an unsafe situation but the dealership says that all is well.  If there was a problem it would be indicated in the codes.  So are we not telling the truth???  Colin asked them to please have someone take our car home and drive it around a bit and see what happens.  We can only hope that tomorrow ( that is Wednesday 😆 ) they will find a solution to the issue.

Seriously I am almost ready to give up.  What next I ask?  Other than another glass of vino!

The local fire was knocked down last Saturday night in about 6 – 8 hours. It was human caused but deemed to be an accident.  It really could have turned out otherwise as it was very close to a gas station.  Our volunteer firefighters are the best.

Late Friday night and Saturday morning we had some rain showers.  Not a lot of rain but still rain. That sweet wonderful aroma after over 40 days with not a drop, that earthy fragrance, what a joy to experience 😀

The weather Saturday was a mixed bag but the smoke was gone and that was incredible.

I don’t think we did too much on Saturday, along with the rain came cooler temperatures.  I know that we walked together that day but don’t recall what else we did.  Oh yes now it comes back to me.  Colin spent the morning cleaning the RV.  The house batteries continue to work however the steps won’t go down.  We now have an RV tech coming by in a week to check it out.  He is also going to do our annual generator service including changing the filters and the oil.  Colin told him that our battery tray is still arching ( first noticed it as we were being evacuated re the flood ) when pulled in and out.  We will have to get a new one as we don’t want to have a fire.  This is the same tech who put in new batteries two years ago.  However the new batteries were higher and kept hitting the tray above and so he shaved down the frame of the upper tray so the batteries would clear it.  Sadly that resulted in the upper tray bending and sagging down so that it touches the batteries posts as he had weakened the member.  We had it repaired once but it is still weak and has started to sag yet again.  So we now need new entire battery trays.  At this time it is unclear as to who will be paying the bill.  The tech should never ever have cut into the actual member of the battery tray.  He should have just taken the batteries away and got shorter ones.

Saturday afternoon we both attended the annual general meeting of the Holiday Park Lease Holders Association.  All the business was quickly dealt with, the main attraction was the Q & A session with management re our serious ground water situation.  I will go into this with more photos in a post yet to come.  Basically the problem comes from outside the park and the City of Kelowna has already spent $300,000 thousand for a band-aid fix but it will cost an estimated 10 million to do the proper repairs.  We can only hope that will go through, there are no guaranties.  Meanwhile management is doing what it can do to keep the park operating.  Apparently a month or so ago they came very close to shutting down the park because of our sewer system.  Everyone would have had to leave.  Our sewer treatment plant can handle 75 thousand gallons per day and at the moment with the ground water it is getting hit with 125 thousand gallons per day.  There is a pumper truck working 24/7 to pump out the system.  He fills his truck, goes and dumps ‘somewhere’ and comes back and over and over.  Just another small problem to deal with this summer.

We also have contacted a furniture re finisher  ( different from the guy we used a few years ago 🙁   )  He came by on Saturday and took our RV coffee table/dinner table to be refinished.  It raises from coffee table height to dinner table height.  Colin also took our Corian top off our proper fixed dinning table and he took the base to refinish it as well.

Later Colin decided that we should get the two chairs refinished also.  Here he is drilling out the wood plugs.  So today he took the chairs into Kelly to refinish and later this week we are taking the seat cushions and backs to have them recovered.  When we bought the RV in 2001 we bought some extra fabric for down the road just in case and this is that time.

Sunday morning we just happened to have leftover lox and croissants.  So while Colin poached the eggs I whipped up a gourmet ( in my opinion ) hollandaise sauce.  I had never made it before and it turned out perfect.  I found the recipe on the internet and it used a microwave rather than a double boiler and only 5 minutes.  Oh my, what a filling and tasty brunch.

I was so full that I had no choice but to move about and do things.  I ended up clearing all the spider webs off the house as well as the shrubs and hedges.  Meanwhile Colin was unpacking his brake buddy and studying all the details.  We legally need to use one due to the weight of our tow vehicle.

Yesterday, Sunday was a glorious day. As Colin said, it reminded us of why we live here.

Today things went downhill.  Actually as it is already 8PM and we need to make dinner I am going to leave it here for now.  Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

Suffice to say that the smoke returned.

In the last 24 hours I have had to send a photo to a client via my iPhone.  I had to call Inger for help on how to do the first one but I just managed the second one on my own.  Thanks for your help Inger.  Interesting how this smart phone is fitting in with things.

Also re the heron in my photo, in the last post, it is a stained glass window as Sandy suspected.  As you can see from this post from back in 2012 we have had herons in our lives for a bit, click here for that post.

Here it is from the bathroom side. The heron is a window between our dining room and the bathroom. It is the only window in our bathroom along with a solar tube. you really don’t realize that there is no natural light.

And here is the full window from the other side.

Good news, the RV battery situation is back to normal or so we hope.  We will be monitoring it closely.  However we have a new glitch, the RV stairs will not come down.  Likely a loose wire, well hopefully that is all it is.  We will have it checked out next week.  Colin had contacted a wood working fellow a while back and he came by today to pick up our dining table as well the coffee table that rises up to make a proper dining table.  He says that he can refinish the wood for $250.00.  Now that is a deal indeed.

No matter the smoke, folks around here are getting on with their lives. Girlfriends on the lake. One on a board.

We have actually seen these vehicles in Mazatlan.  I have to say that I am shocked that Culiacan only has four ambulances.  Now I understand why Colin had to drive Heriberto to the hospital in the back of the HHR a few years ago.

What a brilliant idea. Now that is a super way to recycle.

Meanwhile the international US vs Korea vs China has hit our local online news.  How would you vote?

This morning is the first time in weeks that I have been able to see the larger hill over the low rise above the lake.  Progress indeed.

Just an hour ago I glimpsed a bit of blue and clouds.  Strangely only directly above us.  Towards Kelowna, to the right, it remains smokey.

I took this last evening, perhaps and hopefully it will be the last time we see so much smoke over our lake.

There may be hope, the wind had increased.  The smoke has lifted ever so slightly.  Sadly the wind also fans the flames and we have had new fires today as well as more evacuations on the really big one, Elephant Hill, which remains out of control.  Just checked the latest news update and the wind is a major concern to the firefighters.  Such a sad state of affairs.  We are beginning to wonder if this will be our new normal 🙁

On the positive side of things, today was my 31st day in a row of doing 10,000 or steps per day.  A major milestone for me.

UPDATE

Well there you go, yet another huge change.  About five minutes after publishing this post I hear fire engines and more and more.  Turns out that the main Hwy has been closed due to a fire, just two miles from us.  No details yet.

From social media.

For one thing we still have fires and smoke.  Quite frankly we are immensely tired of all this thick heavy smoke.  You can practically touch it as well as smell it.  We haven’t seen the sun for over two weeks now, somewhat depressing.

The geese are now having their siesta on our beach.

Colin keeps a dog bed full of dog toys in a corner. He used to get down on the floor with the girls 2 -3 times per day and play like a kid. They loved it.

This where we decided to place our angel girls.  The heron window represents our place on the Isla.  I like how the colors work.

I showed you the internet online store photos but these are mine. Carmeh always snuggled when she napped.

This is how Caeli often slept. She of course is the one who would roll on her back to have her tummy rubbed.

I had all the emails I had sent to my parents collated, one for each winter we were away.

I will always be thankful that my sister printed these for my parents and that my dad kept them for me.

Just this last Monday I found a large envelope in the last area I was cleaning out.  In it were all the emails from the winter of 2003 -2004.  It was the first year that I had started sending out a travelogue.  There were not a lot of pages.  In those days we had no computer to travel with.  As a matter of fact we had just started to use an iMac which now would be called a dinosaur.  The RV parks had computers that you could use but they were all PC’s which I had no idea how to use unless someone helped me, so my emails were very few and far between.

I have now had this last batch of emails collated and have reread that year.  So very precious, so many memories.  We had just moved here in the summer of 2003, the year of the fires.  In fact we evacuated in our RV the day after we took possession of our site.  Fortunately we were able to return the next day once the fire was tamed.  That was the October we got Carmeh and we didn’t leave here until early December.  Our RV pipes froze driving the Coquihalla to Vancouver.  It was also the first winter that we RVed to mainland Mexico.  So many great things that first year.  Perhaps I will recreate those posts for you.  I have to think about it, perhaps just thru photos of the words.  We have all the photos we have taken over the last thirty years but I had lost the words, the stories and most important certain memories and experiences like RV tire blow outs 🙄

I am guilty.  But then I was an RN.

A now normal sunset for us. The sun it self is red but you can’t get a photo of that.

Colin’s plan yesterday morning was to go and clean the RV.  It came back full of dust from Freightliner.  We had lived in it in May while evacuated due to the flooding and it was not dirty when we took it into them about five weeks ago.  Perhaps they left a window open, we know that it was not us.  So while I did my morning walk and continued to purge thru paperwork Colin was going to clean the RV from top to bottom.  Only thing was that when he got there,  the house batteries were dead.  Last Thursday evening when we brought it back here he basically drove it home and we parked it in the dark.  Yesterday Colin realized that he could not put the steps down nor open the slides never mind start the generator.  He checked and double checked and did as much trouble shooting as be he could including checking the inverter.

A hand held, thus out of focus, of a smokey moon shot. But you get the idea of the color.

You can see our new storage compound from here but to drive there is about 3-4 miles.  We can walk there from here but can’t get a car through the cement barricades that cross the rail trail.  The walk from here in less than 10 minutes.  It would be great if we could take the golf cart but we don’t think it would fit between the two cement blocks.  We haven’t tried yet for lack of time plus  the golf cart is not insured off the park premises.

It is easy to observe that smoke fills the air.  It is difficult to see but the last block against the fence on the left is our storage site, just left of the telephone pole. The RV park is just where the line of greenery is.  We asked to be away from the others as we will eventually need to open the slides in order to clean our carpets.  The sites here are narrower than what we have here in the park.  Management says that once things settle down with the ground water that they will rebuild our storage lot.  Hopefully!

Colin eventually drove back here and together we walked over to check the batteries with his special meter which was here in our shed.  The batteries were each between 1 -2 volts.  What caused them to discharge?  Did Freightliner hit a switch and turn something on?  There is no way to prove that.  I only know that Colin is extremely diligent and systematic when it comes to the RV.  Heck, each time he gets in and moves it even an inch he automatically locks the door behind him as he enters.

So late yesterday afternoon he got permission from the manager of the storage area to use the only electrical outlet so that he could plug in the RV and try and charge the batteries.  So we walked back again to move the RV close to the electrical outlet.  This morning the batteries had only charged a bit, it take a long while on 15AMP.  By this evening they were getting better.  So he unplugged and moved the RV back to our rented storage spot.  Colin figures that when he goes back on the weekend to clean, that by running the generator which now starts, that the batteries will totally recharge.  We can only hope that the batteries will hold their charge.  The last thing we need to do is buy new batteries, these are only a few years old.  All I can say yet again is that this has not been an easy year.

Our set up re charging with 15 AMPS.  The extension cord runs right back to the fence you see in the background.

Checking that the batteries are starting to take a charge.

The sun about 10AM today. It was only this morning that I realized that with my two extra walks to the RV yesterday that I was only 46 steps away from doing a 14,000 step day yesterday.

It is obvious to us that each day the smoke is becoming thicker.  I do believe that this morning was the worst.  My photos over the past week confirm it.

The BC Wildfire Service says that 11 fires were started before noon today alone.  Meanwhile motorists continue to stop at the side of the road to put out fires.  I read that at the last such incident that they were using their bare hands to pick up clumps of dirt to try and smother the fire.  They were successful.

Thanks to them and another 108 bomberos/firefighters who have arrived from Mexico.  This just in on the latest forecast……

“Heavy smoke from the fires continues to pose a health risk for infants, the elderly and people with chronic health conditions, and is causing poor visibility on some highways.

An air quality advisory from Environment Canada that already covered the southern half of the province has now expanded north past Smithers.

Skrepnek says while there is still no significant rain in the forecast, inflow winds from the ocean are expected to roll in by Friday and clear the smoke hanging over the south coast.”

So that means that Colin is going to be scrambling to get some jobs done this weekend if indeed the smoke clears.  Mind you it does say coast and we are inland but it will probably help.  Fingers crossed.