5C's Que Pasa

As many of you know I have still have had some issues with my right knee since my January 3rd surgery.  The past four days have brought a different type of pain.  I woke up with it one morning and wondered if I had done something to it during the night while asleep. Fortunately physiotherapists are back to work since the 19th and I was able to call yesterday and get an appointment for this morning at 9:45AM.  This clinic had only been open for a few days.

As I walked in the door I was asked to use their hand sanitizer.  I was told they could sell me a mask for $2.00 if I did not have one.  Next I was asked if I was sick,  if I had a fever, etc. I noticed that there were only three chairs in the waiting room, well spaced. No children nor spouses are allowed into the office with you.

This sign was in plain view.

Hailley, my physiotherapist, came to get me and offered to carry my heavy bag with 14 pounds of weights in it.  First thing she said is that her hands were clean. She made a point of getting a pillow that had been sitting in another area airing out and covering it with a fresh pillowcase.  As we were sitting at opposite ends of the examining room I asked if could take my mask off as my glasses were steaming up.  No problem and of course she kept hers on.  She was aghast that I had meniscus surgery and told me that that is not done any longer 😯  I explained to her that I had between 85 – 90% of my meniscus left and the that Mazatalan surgeon had only removed a sliver. She approved.  Then she took my history and I showed her my exact exercise routine as set out for me by Octavio, my Mazatlan physio contact. Next came the examination of my knee from many angles, lots of poking and prodding and pushing.

Bottom line, she claims that my knee is not inflamed but rather that I have some water on my knee which will likely go away over time. Hailley also stated that it looked like I had had a great surgery and that my exercise routine was spot on and that she would change nothing. She approved of the amount of walking I was doing each day. The pain I have been experiencing is likely due to a pull during one of my exercises. So she used ultrasound, massaged that area and did some manipulation.  I was to take the day off  ( I did do a medium walk once the rain stopped ) and use either ice or heat, my preference. I felt much better after the appointment in that I now have a second opinion and that everything that happed in Mexico was positive.  The best news was that I had a full range of motion in my right knee.

Next stop was Costco and it was about 11AM as we approached.  Colin was rather concerned about line ups.  There was nothing more than a five minute wait.  The parking lot was pretty full as was the inside of the store. Someone was counting the number who entered. I did not notice if they were counting those that has left.  We both were surprised at how busy it was inside.  Most were observing social distancing, but not all.

At the entrance, a staff member ( in the orange safety vest ), had an open box of masks that she was asking people to take and put on if they did not have a mask. You had to reach into the box to get a mask.  We had our own masks.  I was surprised once inside to see close to 10% not wearing a mask.

Colin has been to Costco once prior since our arrival here two months ago and today was my first visit.  The plexiglass shield is the most impressive that I have seen anywhere to date. It went from the left of this photo through to the person in black.  It was very tall, right to the top of the photo. The only opening was in front of the tellers hand.  Just large enough to pass the credit card machine through. However our total was more than the allowed limit to tap, so I had to hold the machine with one hand in order to insert my card and then put in my PIN number.  I did notice that once she pulled the machine back in, that the PIN pad was not wiped down. However they had many sanitizer stations throughout the store so I was able to clean my hands.  Colin is usually the one with the dirty ands and I keep ‘clean’ hands.

The big purchase of the day was a new BBQ.  Sorry George, but we had to give the Weber away.  It was giving us too much trouble.  This stainless steel grill was only $149.99.

21W x 18D x 11H and even lighter to lift than the Weber.

Our salmon board fits with room to spare.  A great deal.

Well first of all I have been devastated as my blog would not come up at all on any of our Mac devices.  I finally checked in with my computer guru who said that the something was down.  However I have lost all of my info on the laptop which was my go to as my desktop can be slow at times. Fortunately as I was about to shut it down for tonight it came back up.  I will deal with the rest tomorrow.

We had a rainbow a few days back. I guess I need more luck than that.

Speaking of luck, the morning of my birthday I got my thumb stuck in these scissors.  They belonged to my parents and I rarely use them.  Eventually after running my hand under cold water I was able to free my thumb.

Have you ever tried to grow romaine lettuce from the stub of a head that you had in your fridge?

It was doing really well but I forgot to keep changing the water and the base of the plant rotted. I have since found out that I should have planted it into some soil.

We have had cold days and lots of rain and from the looks of things, lots of snow up there.

We have been using the furnace in the morning to take the chill off and the fireplace a few times during the all rain days.

These papers all pertain to the October trip that we are trying to get money back on or????

The problem in our garden is caused by the flea beetle. It comes from soil and likely came in the soil that the park ordered for the gardens for those who wanted it.

This is what those beetles did to our tomato plants and yes they ate all of our newly sprouted bean plants as well.

In other news the kale is almost ready to eat.

And our peas are up.

Saturday night I cooked up a penne Alfredo with canned salmon. Who would have thought of that? It was all Colin’s idea and based on a recipe he found.   Nice to be creative when we have so much extra time on our hands.

Yesterday morning we awoke to a wonderful day with lots of new snow up on the mountains.  As the day progressed the clouds came in and the rain started doing the night. We had rain 90% of the day today.

Not much we can do but take each day as it comes.  Definitely dinner time.  Hopefully I will be back tomorrow if the computer gods are willing.

Numbers don’t mean anything, do they?  How did I get to be 67?  I used to think of that as old in terms of my parents.  A long time ago, a girlfriend and I were at the beach when some young kids ( under 15 ) asked us how old we were.  I can’t recall our ages but it was around 25 -27.  The kids both stopped and starred at us and said “wow, you are very old” 😯 So now they are older than I was at that time, I wonder if they feel old.  I certainly don’t. My body is older 😥  but my mind remains as young as ever and I still have the same desires and dreams that I always have had 😎

Yesterday was my birthday. Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday via my blog comments and via email. I wasn’t going to let the cat out of the bag until today. It was the first time in my life that I remember it raining on May 22nd.  I have photos as a child taken every year in front of the same cherry blossom tree and the sun was always shining and the sky was always blue. Two years ago when I turned 65  I was in Rome  at the Vatican and last year I was on a  Greek island cruise and the sun was shining both years. This year as I turned 67 we are social distancing and laying low because of the pandemic and the skies were crying huge tears.

We started the day with a visit to the chiropractor and then a grocery shop at the wonderful huge and well spaced Superstore in Vernon. I picked out my birthday cake for later in the day. On the way home Colin took a detour and we had a wonderful drive though the countryside despite the weather. Somehow we ended up at 50th Parallel, one of my favourite wineries here in the Okanagan. Colin was stopping in to purchase a bottle of my favourite Pinot Gris.  It turns out that they had just opened the day prior for wine tastings. They have been shut down for two months due to government Covid – 19 regulations.

So why not. We got four tastings for $5.00 and that was deleted if we bought a bottle of wine and I said lets’ do the tasting. Because of Covid they are not allowed to pour our wine but pour the wine into a small carafe and then we have to pour that into our individual glasses.  Not much difference to me but whatever works.

Their restaurant also had just opened and was full.

Back home we put our groceries away and had a late lunch.  Colin had made my salmon pate recipe the day prior ( secret recipe ) and so we enjoyed that over a few crackers and relaxed. Our walk was aborted due to the rain.  In case I forget to mention this later, we had a lot of rain all day yesterday and overnight.  The lake actually did rise but not enough for us to be concerned.  I settled in with my current read and a glass of vino.  Excellent novel by Armando Lucas Correa, called the “German Girl”.

Later Colin went out to pick up Chinese food from our favourite place.  We have eaten there, inside the restaurant, over the years as well as had take out, so we felt perfectly safe with this decision. As is our normal we sit in our recliners and watch TV as we ate.  Colin had specially chosen, as a surprise to me ‘ Mary Poppins Returns ‘ ( 2018 ).  He recalled that a while back I had expressed a desire to see the movie.  I can’t believe that he remembered that. It was a good movie but in my mind no where as near grand as the original ‘ Mary Poppins ‘ ( 1964 ). Afterwards I discovered that Colin had never seen the original.  Guess what we will be watching sometime in the next few weeks?  I know every word to every song from that original movie.

He later surprised me with a homemade birthday card printed off the computer.  Included was a certificate for a thirty minute foot massage. Lucky me. So very original and thoughtful.  Grazie mille mi amore. But there was more to come, a bottle of Dubonnet from France which I have not had for a few years and is a favourite and also a bottle of Disaronno Originale Amaretto from Italy. What a wonderful celebration.  I will forever remember by Covid birthday. As they say “life is good”.  It truly was a grand day.

A wee confession.  My good friend, Sandy M, is always suggesting cake and ice cream to celebrate.  I was so full that I could only eat a few spoons of ‘Death by Chocolate’ ice cream yesterday.  The chocolate fudge cake will be served tonight 😆  Don’t worry amiga, I will get both.

Oh yes, the fortune cookies. For some  unknown  reason the restaurant had included twelve fortune cookies. I spread them all out and chose one. I was surprised to discover that my choice had not one but two fortunes in the same cookie. Colin only had the one. It said “Rome was not built in a day”.  The first one I read said “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst 😯  Hmm, not a great fortune. Eventually I read the second tiny piece of white paper, “You will soon be reminded of a fond memory”. That was easy, the girls.  I have been thinking of them more and more these past days. If it appears that we can no longer travel for years to come, some wiener babies may be in our future. But only if international travel becomes impossible. We both want more fur babies but we do want to complete our world travels first. Unlike others I could not leave my kids with someone else.

So overall it was a grand day despite the rain. The future is cloudy but I choose to believe that the sun will shine through 😎

Yesterday was our second appointment with the chiropractor.  We both remained ‘out ‘ but that is to be expected after being rear ended November 2nd.  I am still not happy with her way of being safe but it is a bit of give and take. Hopefully we won’t have to go too many more times.  Yesterday started unsettled as she called and asked us to come in thirty minutes early which meant I had to stop what I was doing and get ready to leave within 15 minutes.

On they way back from Vernon, this RV came up beside us and almost pushed us off the road.  He just had to pass us, but while he was in our lane.

He was driving rather fast and had trouble staying in his lane. He did the same to another driver trying to pass him.

We both spent time over the past few days leaning some new technology and it came with a bit of a cost. I signed us up with Hulu over our VPN server but is still recognized that we were in Canada even though we set it to the USA.  Seems that they are now using GPS to pinpoint your location. So we ended up starting to watch the show we wanted to on Colin’s desktop.

The next day Colin did more research and with help of a techie friend he figured out a way to watch the show on our TV.  I think we spent maybe 4 hours one day and another 3 -4 hours a second day sorting it all out.  But now we both know something new.  However it cost close to $45.00CAD to sign up for Hulu. It cost a lot because we only have a Canadian credit card so we had to purchase a USD gift card to pay Hulu with, but even though I only wanted to use $12.00 for one month, they took the entire $25.00 card. Why did we have to pay $45.00CAD for a $25.00USD card??  And then we had to sign up with a different VPN company for one month.  Yes I spent even more hours on the phone trying to get some money back. I was not successful.  So about $60.00CAD was spent but had we gone to a movie it would have cost close to that plus we both learned a lot.

I almost missed the sunset last night but I managed to get this shot.

Our menu for last night.

Colin made salmon loaf for dinner. I had mentioned that we had several cans of salmon so he did some research.

He blended several recipes together and went to the parks herb garden ( open to everyone ) and got some chives, dill and parsley to add to the loaf.  He did it all himself other than me showing him how to beat an egg with a tiny whisk.  It was light and moist and very tasty.  We will be having it again.  It was wonderful having him plan the entire meal himself.  The only problem was that the BBQ would not turn on to cook the potatoes but we managed without the BBQ.

I pretty much spent all of today on the computer or the telephone.  I finally was able to book myself in to see a physio to get my knee checked out as well as to verify that my exercises are correct as well as call my ICBC contact re payments.  I had canceled our trip to Yellowstone on May 5th but I still have not received a refund.  The RV park says that they have refunded the amount.  Colin held on the phone for over an hour to talk to Visa while I was on another line making other calls.  I later called the RV park for the third time and I will have to try again tomorrow.  The insurance money for my knee surgery back in January has still not come through. They say that it is in the second review and I should hear next week, it not, please call again. Colin spent a fair bit of time researching a new BBQ.  We got the Weber 200 back in November of 2013, thanks to George.  It gave us a bit of trouble the past few years and I guess it is time for a new one.  Colin had purchased a new propane connector hose in March and the Weber only worked the one time with it so no choice but to purchase a new BBQ. How long do BBQ’s last?

Colins’ main issue today was dealing with some sort of extremely tiny, smaller than an aphid bug that is eating our garden.  Yesterday on our walk we were overjoyed to see our new bean plants coming up out of the soil and today they are gone and the tomatoes are dying because of the same bug.  My main issue was holding for hours to speak with the tour company and the airline that we have booked with for our trip this fall.  We have put a good deal of money into this trip and now have a deadline in a few weeks to put more money into the trip. Of course no one is giving back cash refunds, only credit for future travel. What to do?  So today was a fact finding mission and we have a week to decide what we want to do. The only thing I know is that we are not going this fall.

There is no way that I will spend all that money to sit in a plane wearing a mask the entire twenty two hours ( with connections ).  I have a hard enough time flying because I am claustrophobic.  Even grocery shopping and wearing a mask is a push for me.  Thirty minutes is my max.  So sitting on a plane that will no long serve beverages nor food is not my idea of a vacation.  Then there is now the issue of having to ask permission to use the toilets and being put in a queue.  I guess that will keep the flight attendants busy seeing as they are no anger serving meals.  The idea of doing the entire trip wearing a mask at meals, on a tour, in museums, etc just turns my stomach. Plus there is the factor of Covid – 19 hanging out there.  Meanwhile we have a good deal of money already invested into this trip that we will likely lose.  It is a gamble as to what we do next about this situation.

If this is the current picture of travel I am not sure that I want to go any more. So glad that we did what we did the past few years. The headlines today and all the discussion that wearing masks is to be the new normal for everything we do is somewhat depressing.  But what does the future hold?  If allowed to travel through the US into Mexico we will for certain do that.  We can easily keep our distance on the Isla, walk the beach and enjoy the vista from our site. Happy hours will be for only a few friends at a time.  Dining out not so much.  Yes I am in a funk.

Fortunately the baker lady made lemon poppyseed mini loaves today.