5C's Que Pasa

The post I was going to write tonight is delayed due to current environmental issues.  Sorry, Shelagh, maybe tomorrow 😉

Just now as I am checking the latest online updates I discovered that our severe thunderstorm watch has ended.  We have been under this watch for 48 hours and have endured many heavy dumps of rain.  This rain along with the rapid snow melt due to two days of very warm temperatures have combined to create havoc here in Kelowna.  Of course all the lakes and creeks were already high due to the constant rain over the past few months.

All photos shown are from open media marked contributed.

This is the Fintry area including the Provincial Park where blogger Teresa Wood who writes A Life Made Simple lives along with her daughter Cassia and her husband Derek.  Hopefully they have found somewhere safe tonight.

Emergency services provided sand earlier today but the supply has run out. More needs to trucked in.  Meanwhile homeowners are doing what they can.

It was a mostly gloomy day with the occasional bright spots.

When we arrived home not quite three weeks ago we had a pebble beach. Here you see the first three steps under water.

This morning Colin was hired by the Kelowna Airport to come in and take some emergency flood photos.  That dot one third down from the top and one third from the left is the helicopter Colin was flying in.

The skies began to open up while he was still flying.

But really let go as he landed.

I can’t show you the photos that he was specifically hired to take until they are released to the public. This is the golf course adjacent to the airport, under water and now closed.

This area is close to the airport.  That is Hwy 97 on the right.  The flooding is sporadic all over the city where ever there is a creek, stream or lake.  Some areas worse than others.  Hopefully the worst is over.

You have to feel for these poor folks and there are many more like them.  The rain continues to fall as I compose this post.

Our home is within the red circle.  The airport is situated below the photo.  A good deal of the water is coming from the hills that surround us.  Those who know the area can see how high our lake is and it is continuing to rise as I type.

I just came back in from checking out the level of the lake. The water level is at the top of the 3rd step but  still under the 4th step.  The distance between these two steps is higher than normal.  So far so good and we are down to a drizzle out there.

My bonus shot of the evening.

Way back in June of 2013 we purchased a new very very large tree for our new lot on the lake.  Click here to see the post about it.   The post also has some extremely sweet photos of the girls.  I guess that when I go back to an old post I will always find some surprise photos.  A lovely gift.  It was a challenge to get it planted.  Click here for that post.  We loved that tree.  However over the past few years it has become a messy tree with hundreds of little whirly birds falling over.  First the blossoms and then the whirly birds, Colin did not like the mess.  It did not bother me so much and we did pay a lot to have the tree moved here and planted 🙄

Colin doesn’t ask for much so I told him it was up to him to make the final decision.

Poor Walter, first he planted it on June 4th of 2013 and then on September 28, 2016 it had to come out.  We had it for just over three years and I quite liked it but…..

The plan was to try and save the tree so that it could be recycled to someone. It was extremely difficult to get it out with the root ball intact. It was a massive brute and heavy.  Walter ended up on his butt but they got it out.

Getting into the truck was another huge effort.  Sadly in the end neither us nor Walter could find a home for the tree.

Meanwhile Colin had spent weeks trying to find the perfect tree. He, not me, went to all the nurseries in town. He’d find a tree and call me and I would look up the info and there was always something not right about how the tree grew or the direct sun we got all day or the type of flower or whatever. Finally he found this tree and Walter brought it home and planted it.  Both trees are shown in the top two photos for a size comparison.

My first thought was “but it’s so small, it won’t grow in my lifetime”.  It is an American Mountain Ash and will grow to 15 feet ( the hedge is 8′ high ).  Lovely fall color.  One day when we can’t travel anymore we will be able to watch the birds in the winter, eating the red berries with a bit of snow on the branches.

Last week the new tree finally started to bud out. We’ve already fertilized it.  Grow tree, grow.

You might remember my butterfly story after the girls had been put to rest.  Since then we have decided to honor the girls with a few butterflies in our yard.  We haven’t yet found the perfect ones but are still looking.

Meanwhile I picked these up the other day as they were in the girls colors, teal/green and pink.  They move with the wind.  A small memento.

My fourth vein treatment was yesterday morning.  After each treatment I am supposed to walk 30 minutes before getting into the car and driving home.  Yay, I am 2/3 of the way through my treatment.

It was so wonderful to see the blossoms.

Spring is late this year. Normally when we get back here mid April the daffodils, tulips and cherry tree blossoms are all done with.  A bonus year for us……however that means it is much cooler than normal.  But oh what a treat to see the magnolia blossoms.

The leaves are bursting from the buds, you can almost see them pop.

After my walk the next stop was to check out a home for photography. The homeowner was upset as her hydrangeas were 18 inches shorter than normal at this time of year.  She so wanted them to be in perfect condition for the photos.  Mother Nature is in charge this spring.

We had not been home long when I spotted my first kayaker of the season. This was a real rush shot taken thru a dirty window. Love the new camera.  Gloves, eh!

I have a feeling that the snow will be soon be gone.  Thank goodness.  We need to plant some flowers soon.  I so miss my Isla garden.

This was the forecast this morning for tomorrow and the week ahead.

The rain started at 2AM this morning and was steady till almost 7AM.  Then it tapered on and off the rest of the day.  We certainly did not see the sun.  We did see our window washer which made me wonder why I was paying to get my windows cleaned today of all days.  I had booked him last fall and he is booked solid.  It is what it is.  As we have only had showers this afternoon, the windows still look great.  Hoping for a very warm and sunshine type of day tomorrow.  Colin has appointments in the morning and I have a full day of desk work but we have something fun scheduled for 4PM.  Sure hope that it all works out.  Too bad you weren’t here Shelagh and Peter, you would love it.

So difficult to look at as they are no longer with us but at the same time a great memory of our daily beach walks.

Carmeh on left, Caeli on the right.

The title was supposed to be ‘Inspected, Insured and Home’ but it did not quite work out that way.

The view yesterday morning from our room in Golden.  Yes that is the new Jeep in the foreground.

Breakfast with the hotel room appears to be the norm these days.  Quite the lovely send off.  It wasn’t long before the view clouded in.

We just had to take this shot in the window of a shop attached to the hotel.  Love it!

Can’t remember if I mentioned some of the new wines we tried on our trip.  A lovely Italian Raffino Lumina Pinot Grigio and an interesting Woodbridge Sauvignon Blanc.  The liquor stores in Alberta have so many selections at such reasonable prices.  We both felt like the entire trip was an eat fest, not our normal style to be eating out each meal.  Certainly a fun thing to do but also most calorie laden and you know what comes with that, groan 😯

As we drove we realized that our last road trip in a car was way back in 1998 when we traveled to Cannon Beach, Oregon.  This was an annual August trip that we did year after year.  Suddenly we had not one but two doxies.  We did travel with them by car to Cannon Beach but it was not easy and we had odd issues such as having to get pieces of wood to block the bottom of the balcony so they did not jump over.  On the way back as we drove through the Seattle area we saw many RV dealerships and the idea was formed.  Within a few months we had purchased our first RV, a 1999 Fleetwood Class A,  35′ Pace Arrow and our life changed.  This particular trip we shared so many fun memories including where we stopped to pee Caeli as a 6 week puppy and the exact rest area and moment that she and Carmeh started to become friends and sisters.

Quite the foggy, rainy drive thru the Rockies, but we did have the very occasional glimpse of sun.  The car is a marvel especially the heat system.  We simply programmed our preferred temperature and we could each chose a different number.  What was amazing is that we never felt a surge of heat or cold, the temperature just seemed to maintain without any blasts of air.

This Jeep has a huge panorama sun roof, which extends from the front seats to the rear seats. I was trying it out with this shot. That is the top of Colin’s head and part of the view from the back seat.

We had a lot of snow flurries along Rogers Pass.  But we also made great time as all the construction zones were closed on a Sunday.  Colin realized that we were getting 31 miles per gallon on the highway. Amazing.

So many more memories as we drove back such as when Carmeh back in 2014 who was very very slowly coming out of her paralysis crawled onto the dash from my lap and sat with her head on her paws and watched the scenery as we approached Vernon and Kelowna.  At that time I sensed a great sadness in her and I recalled that as we drove past that area yesterday.  But then we remembered her recovery and how she did get to enjoy the Isla beach for a few more years.

So our plan was to get the Jeep inspected at Canadian Tire in Vernon.  When you import an out of province vehicle into BC you need to do an out of Province Inspection.  Translation = $123.00 tax.  Of course our 2015 vehicle passed but there was a tiny glitch.  Somehow we never got the Alberta registration number so we could not get the passed inspection report.  So on a Sunday afternoon we called our salesman back in Medicine Hat and he said he would have it for us first thing Monday  morning.  Meanwhile that meant that we could not complete our final insurance on the Jeep.  We did have a binder insurance policy as well as an ‘In Transit’ registry from the province of Alberta so we were legal, but we did have to get a special permit to drive the Jeep to the insurance broker today.

Plans don’t always come together, so we came home yesterday, had a good dinner and relaxed and had a good sleep.

This morning our salesman Kris, headed to the registration office in Medicine Hat ( different rules for an Alberta sale vs an out of province sale ) and did what he had to do.  He faxed his paperwork to Canadian Tire and called us to let us know that they had received it.  Fortunately the mechanic that had inspected the Jeep yesterday was willing to come in today, his day off, to sign off on the final passed report.  Lucky us.  Next I called C Tire with the fax number of our insurance broker.  Of course the fax never went thru till a few attempts and phone calls later.  Soon thereafter we drove over to the insurance company with our special one day permit ( $15.00 ) ( more ICBC rules ). Thirty minutes later we were officially licensed and the Grand C ( as we have decided to call it ) was ours and now fully legal in the Province of BC 😆  If anyone in Southern Alberta, Saskatchewan or BC is looking for a great car guy, be sure to call Kris from Southland Kia @ 587 253 7666.  He bent over backwards to give us great service, to feed us and to put us up in the best hotel in the city and was always there for us every step of the way and every single ( hundreds of them ) questions that we had.  He is certain to give you 150% if not more.  In addition to selling Kia’s they have an impressive selection of used vehicles.  Hey, they had the only Grand Cherokee in all of Canada that we wanted.

Next stop was my third out of six vein treatments and then a few errands.  Costco is out of stock on romaine as the California weather is affecting production 😥  So we shall just have to make do with other lettuce.  Warmer weather is supposed to arrive tomorrow, we can only hope.  Meanwhile I sit here with a heater behind me.

It was quite the road trip.  We love the new car and are ready to start settling into our normal routine of work and work.  I heard from a few neighbors today as to how they missed us walking by with the girls.  We miss it also but soon I will be doing my walking solo.  Colin already has new jobs on the horizon and so begins our normal routine for this time of year.  Not to worry as there are many different plans on the radar.

Don’t you just love the ‘Grand C’?