5C's Que Pasa

Gosh I feel like I have been camping out at my desk.  It was a work day for both of us.   My morning walk did not go well as it was too hot to walk by the time I got going.  Here I am at 7:35PM and still have 3500 steps to walk not to mention make dinner.

Should I mention the new fire that started in Kelowna this afternoon ( human caused ) or the fellow that was finally captured who was seen walking the streets with a blow torch staring random fires earlier today.  I think not.  I’m tired of this fire business.

Let’s think of better things……

Like people riding on the beach on the Isla.

…or a tree with palms blowing in a gentle ocean breeze.

…or a guy and his dog out for paddle.

What fun.

Then there are the many vendors who walk the beach.  Hats, sunglasses or pastries, your choice.

This ice creme vendor is working very hard.

Maybe you would rather just dance in the sand with music provided by a wandering banda group.

…or catch a sunset. This one was taken Dec. 24/16.

There now I have forgotten about working all day and the fires.   There really is a paradise out there, you just have to find it 😎

These are bugs flying around our outdoor light. We seem to have many more insects than normal this year. Then there are the millions of spiders….their webs are not one of my favorite things.

I went to Kelowna Friday to do an errand and to grocery shop.  The sign says ” EVACUEES REPORT TO ” and then flashes to the address.  Just another sign of of current times.  No I am not going into new or expanded fires tonight.

Some of those logs are rather large.

Thank you for your suggestions as to how to deal with all of our old paperwork and photos.  I think the best way to deal with the six years of travelogues that my Dad saved for me is to have them collated into mini books.  There is way too much material to scan.  I will just add the photos to a box of others that we have.   There is just too much info to put up on Box ( our cloud ).  It takes too much time to upload.  We store our business photos three times in three different hard drives plus the clients get their photos on a USB flash drive ( high end JPGS and TIFFS, each image is as big as one half of a CD ) as well as the option to download regular JPGS ( 20 megs each image ) from the cloud.  Our photos of our home as recorded of our possessions for insurance purposes were too large to upload to the cloud so we had to use a 16GB flash drive and then rent a safe deposit box to store it in.

In addition to photos I put on our blog Colin goes through all our photos annually and chooses hundreds and hundreds that we get printed out at Costco and he puts them into an album.  It’s just the way we do things.  Maybe we are old fashioned but that is who we are.

After I got out of my car at Costco yesterday I noticed the car next to me had both windows open and a dog laying very low on the seat.  It was panting deeply and frequently.  It did not respond to me poking my head in the window but I did not try to rouse it as I think it was in a deep sleep but not in danger.  I was still very concerned for the dog.  You can see the bowl of water on the divider between seats but it was 35C/95F outside, not to mention the increased heat inside the vehicle.

As I got to the door of Costco I asked the employee checking memberships to call the police about the dog.  I explained that I had no cell phone and he said that he would gladly deal with it.  By the time I returned to my car the car with the dog was gone.  I still don’t have my cell phone.  Both Best Buy and Costco now are selling it.  I am still holding back as I really want to get my phone from Walmart as I know that the two tech guys there will help me learn how to use the phone and will be there for me for as long I need help with my iPhone 6.

I made a great dinner last night called Gramma’s Goulash. A one dish meal ready in 30 minutes. It was great.  A base of veggie ground round ( or hamburger for you ), tomatoes & sauces and spices, a bit of pasta and 1/2 cup of cheese.

Not a great photo but this was two girls walking a pig down the street and crossing at a crosswalk.

It turned a bit here.  I was about a block away when I took this.  Okay cats on a leash but a pig!

Gosh just as I am writing this post at about 11:30PM Colin comes up to me with a handful of pesos.  He was emptying the pockets of the shorts he wore today.  800 pesos!  I guess he hasn’t put those shorts in the wash since we got back from Mexico the middle of April.  He says that he has over 12 pairs of beige shots alone.  Some are cargo, some are old, some are dress up, some are for clients, some have many pockets 🙄

Why oh why would you pay $1.99 for four thin slices of watermelon ( top left ) when you can get 1/4 of a watermelon for $1.49.

Have to dash….still have 600 steps to walk before midnite 😉

Just now as I was trying to get online my computer appeared to die.  I knew my mouse batteries were low so I changed those but still the computer would not work.  I kept typing but nothing appeared.  I restarted the computer twice.  Now what?  Just for the heck of it I also changed the batteries for the keyboard and all is well again.  What are the chances of all four batteries wearing out at the same time?  I know I need a new computer but please God not this year.

I guess I should have prayed more last night 😉   We went to the Vernon All Saints Anglican Church to attend an Early Music Instrumental Concert.  The featured player was Alan Rinehart, a very well know Canadian involved in all aspects of classical guitar from performing internationally as well as here in Canada to teaching and composing.  He was just nominated for the Classical Artist of the Year by the Western Canadian Music Awards.  You can read more about Alan and his numerous accomplishments here.

During the time we are here in Canada in the summer, when Colin has some spare time, he will take a few lessons from Alan.  I have met him a few times in the past, once at another concert and more recently last summer when Alan purchased my Z3.

The first half of the concert was music from 1535 to the late 1600’s, all featuring Alan.  The acoustics in the church were fabulous however the wooden pews were most uncomfortable.

After intermission we were treated to four sonatas from the mid 1600’s played by Oko Baroquo, Vernon’s own period music ensemble.  Featured were a bassoon, a viola, a violin and an organ and at times a harpsichord.

Then Alan accompanied two singers, an alto and a bass as they sang ‘Flow my Tears’ by John Dowland ( 11563 – 1626 ).  Very well done.

The last number was played by Alan and the ensemble.  This final sonata was composed by Giuseppe Scarani.  He was a Carmelite monk who served as a singer from 1629 to about 164o at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice.  Just about 388 years before we visited there.

It was a lovely evening.  We had a big day ahead of us today but somehow we ended up talking till midnight.  Colin has now been gone close to 13 hours and I hope to see him within the hour.  Three photo shoots, errands and a few meetings for him while I got caught up at my desk today.  I actually even cleaned it, meaning I went through every paper on each of the many piles.  Some things were thrown out and others set aside to discuss over the weekend.  When I cleaned out my Dad’s home in Edmonton while he was in hospital I came across  box after box of paper work.  He even had a specific box for each of us four kids.  In my box were the travelogues ( starting in 2004 ) I had emailed to my family as we traveled in the RV complete with photos.  My sister would print them out for my parents.  My Dad had saved every single printed email for me right up to when I started this blog in 2010.  A wonderful gift of our early travels.  It would be lovely to incorporate them into a blog but it would take much too much time not to mention energy.  There is also a thick envelope of photos which include my first communion, a trip to Montreal with my Grandmother in my early teens, my grade 12 graduation photo with my date and every single letter I had written to them over the last thirty years.  In each envelope are the photos I sent of our life, of our homes, of parties and precious photos of all four of our girls, simply everything I wrote and sent to them to make them be a part of our lives as we lived far away.  All of this has been sitting in a corner of my desk  for the last few years waiting for me to do something.  So now the pile is on the kitchen counter where something will have to be done, but what?

A lovely sunset this evening. It is not often that we have such a deep color in the sky.  I can smell smoke so I speculate that the smoke particles might have something to do with the color.

A bit late tonight as we were out for a few hours tonight, more on that tomorrow.

I looked across a few sites this afternoon as I stood stretching from a few hours at my desk and noticed that this roof was losing its shingles.

So I took the photo and went over to tell the owner.  Her husband works in Calgary during the week and flies back every Friday.  Now if it was me I would have waited for my husband to deal with the shingles.  Not her, she just said she would call her handy man to deal with it.  As we were chatting she mentioned to me that she saw a white fire truck here today.  I thought aha, someone was coming to speak to the moron.  She said that she saw the fireman speaking to another couple but not my neighbor.  Too bad I wasn’t aware of what had transpired.

I did check out the kids and the dog this morning on my walk.  About 10AM they were outside in their PJ’s but no sign of the dog.  There was a truck in the driveway and the trailer door was open so I left it at that.  I plan to start up a conversation once I see an adult outside.  I know someone who will take the dog if they no longer want it.

So the reason for the fire nearby last week was due to arson.  Yet another moron!  I sure hope they find who started the fire and put him/her away for a very long time.

I hate to have to tell you this but there is a new out of control fire on the road between Vernon and Kamloops at Monte Lake.  This one likely started by a cigarette butt thrown out the window and puff up went the dry hillside.  Up to 100 hectares within a few hours.  I know someone who lives in Monte Lake but at the moment they are here at their trailer in our park, so they are safe but not their permanent home.

I saw a lady today that I have not spoken to for a long while.  She stopped to tell me how sorry she was about the girls.

Then tonight another person gave me a hug told me how sorry she was about the girls and then about the flood and the current ground water problems we are having here in the park.  It doesn’t take much to make the tears flow but twice today was tough.

I have no idea how Carmeh got into that position but I am glad that I was able to take the photo.

I knit the pink blanket for Carmeh and she had a pink collar and leash.  Then I knit the green one for Caeli when she joined us and she used a teal color collar and leash.  Once the girls were put to rest I wrapped them in their special blankets and then the vet and our very good friend Grant took them away.  I am so glad that they were surrounded by love at the end.

I still have 1100 steps to walk tonight to get to my 10,000 for the day.  Once I’m done I hope that my sadness will have left me, at least for a little while.