a musical weekend with lots of laughs

  Whilst we have been perusing the RV dealers and the Park model manufacturers websites, we will not be making a decision till we actually go and visit the factories or rv sales lots in person.  There are too many variables in construction, and it is a big purchase.  The beauty of this decision versus other times of our lives, is that we do not have to be in any hurry to make it!  We have our RV to live in, and we will have no commitments other than people and places to visit - that will be a joy!
    So, the big things now are getting the big house ready to sell and that is not a joy.  We have ordered a new front door, and that should be ready any day for us to install.

    We have friends flying up from Vancouver Island tomorrow - they are professional jazz musicians and will be teaching at a Jazz workshop here this weekend. They are also professors at Island University, teaching there in the Music Department.   After they leave on Monday, I will be starting to purge out those 2 spare bedrooms.
     We may not post anything till after the weekend, as it is usually a very busy time when these guys are visiting! check out greg's playing : http://www.gregorybush.com  - click on the cd page and you can click on some tunes!
  

Dinner Club

  We have blue sky, but over the week it has turned to more winter like temperatures.  The cooler temps help to make the snow glisten - beautiful!   Last evening we went to our International Dinner Club get together - this club has been on going for over 30 years.  At present, the club has about 9 couples.  Our town does have dining establishments, but not a great number and this club is a way of going out for dinner with friends and enjoying far better food than any dining establishment can provide.  We have some rules and in the fall at the initial "appetizer only" meeting, the dates are picked and the themes as well.  We have used the Elvis Cookbook, every country imaginable, and some wacky themes such as ' layers' and 'stuff it'.  Last night was Costa Rican - 2 of the couples went there last winter with a group of 10.  It was a great night - Donald and I were responsible for the soup and a vegetable dish. 
    Now, almost each of the couples also has an RV, so the talk invariably turns to that topic at the table or during the cocktail time.  Last night of course it was storage and last summer's escapades and adventures.  The summer get together is with the RV's at one of the couple's river front properties.  When we go on the road full time, we may not make the dinner club nights during the cold months, but the get- togethers are about every 6 weeks to 2 months so we will be able to make at least one, and also the RV adventures with most of them!
    

tire and wheel stories

Ricks' blog made us think about tire stories - it seems kind of amusing now but back then..... three summers ago we were travelling across the prairies with our oldest son and his girlfriend ( now wife).  We started out in the early morning - Kim was snoozing in the front seat, the other two perhaps were as well, then about less than an hour into a six hour planned drive, the right rear of the suburban dropped.  Kim wakes up and says" flat tire?"  Donald says " NO TIRE!" at which point, Kim remarks very sleepily, " Well, there it goes, past us in the ditch".  Donald safely brought the rig to a stop on the shoulder - thank goodness for Saskatchewan Hwy 16 big shoulders.  And, its funny how even grown  children know better that to say anything when Dad is freaked out, turning white, hands shaking.....

We put out our safety triangles on the road behind us, and called for a tow.  When we walked back to put the road triangles up, we found lug nuts with the studs sheared off in them.

We found that if you are prepared for emergency situations with triangles and things, no one stops!  Not even the RCMP, who passed us and never even though to ask if everyone was ok.

The flat deck tow truck showed up with a car on it, and Donald immediately thought the guy was an idiot, because how was he going to haul the suburban and car at the same time!  Well, the tow truck driver lovingly said the car was for us - of course.  The brain isn't firing on all circuits under a little stress here.  We proceeded to the garage to find out we would be stuck for a day for new brake drum and brake shoes for the right rear - the tow truck driver hauled the RV to a campground for us, set it up and it was all great. Within a day we were on the road again.

Lessons learned? Would re-tourquing have helped?  Probably.  Thank goodness, damage was minimal and everyone was rattled, but safe .  It does not take much to re-tourque or check wheel nuts, especially on cast aluminum. So, one would be well- advised to do this on a regular basis.

It seems we always have "something" weird happen on our trips - and just before we left on this one, Nathan remarked to Keira ( his gal ) to be prepared for an adventure, because something always happens.  After he decided it was alright to speak after the wheel dropped, he turned to her and said
" see, I told you ". ...  and we would not have stayed in this town, where we found this wonderful barbed wire buffalo!

figuring......

  We received a quote today from a Park Model custom manufacturer in Kelowna.  This time, the quote was quite extensive, so it gave us a lot more to think about.  It was a fair price and in line with other prices.  When we left the RV lot in August, I took a number of pictures without the vehicles and RV there, so that over the winter months we could do some planning and the pictures help us to remember space available, what trees are there, what trees still have to come out and how everything will be placed on the lot.  We do not want to build a garage for a number of reasons, but we also do not want to pay for storage when we have lots of ground space available.  There are a couple of ideas rummaging around in our wee little brains that might work. 
   Ah, but it was hard to look at the 'summer' shots and not feel like you want to be right back there.If you click on the picture, you can see the bee about to enjoy the sunflower generously grown by birds who dropped some seeds.

Becoming attuned to the "r" word

  It always seems that when you are thinking about or doing something in your own life or family, others are doing the same thing.  Perhaps you are just that much more attuned in the same 'wavelength'.  As I think about retirement, one co-worker retired 2 weeks ago and another announced her retirement today for mid December.  This is from a very small office.  I think some changes in the upcoming benefit plan and retirement perks are 'persuading' people to leave earlier than originally planned.  Donald went last night to a " Last Trip" get together at the Legion, as another railroad worker made his last trip on the rails and retired. 
   There is yet to be an RV blog that we have found, where they noted on their last post that they made the worst decision of their life by changing to the RV lifestyle.  It is most encouraging to those of us who have yet to make the big leap.  The co-worker leaving in December noted today the old adage, 'life is too short...'.
   We were worried that perhaps the big house might not sell when we put it on the marketplace but we have been checking the paper for comparables and there is really nothing for sale to even make a comparison.  Another co worker's house sold within a couple of weeks, and she was happy with the price they obtained.  So, that is also an encouragement.

   More snow fell today - it was sunny and beautiful this morning and quite glistening.  Those ski runs look like they are just about ready, don't they? The hydro work project on the neighbourhood road is still carrying on and now they are pulling cable through their underground holes.  Not much excitement around the house, but there you have it.
  
 

winter morning

Yes, I spoke too soon the other day - this snow will probably stay.  It is truly lovely though with the fresh snow on the tree boughs and leftover red crabapples.  The west skies this morning are very dark as we are supposed to perhaps get more snow and there is some type of weather moving in, and I tried to take a picture of the skies over the mountain, but was unable to get the right darkness that my eyes see.  I am envious of some of the camera equipment that some of the rv bloggers are using, and perhaps that will be a retirement gift?? from Donald.  In the meantime, I will make do with my little Nikon Coolpix, which is more than adequate at the present time.

  Yesterday I was able to start making a card for a "you have finally finished your renovations" occasion. I will put up a picture of the card just before it is delivered.  Our friends have torn apart their kitchen, dining room and living room and are only days away from being done.  I have also been making Christmas Cards.

  Well, one bedroom is just about cleaned out - what is left can be boxed up for our youngest.  He was here for Sunday supper last night and went through some clothes and items.  Not much is fitting him, as he has lost about 70 pounds in the last year.  The clothes can go to our local goodwill store " New to You".  This store is operated by the hospital auxiliary with proceeds to purchasing hospital equipment and students pursuing medical/nursing careers.  The bedrooms cannot be completely finished and purged out till after the end of the month when we are host to 2 friends and professional jazz musicians from Vancouver Island who are here to teach a jazz workshop. That will be a fun weekend, as always!

Weather watching and Twinkly lights

We sure are enjoying green grass and Robins in Mid November.  Now that I have said that, for sure it will snow this upcoming week.  Donald is a real weather wizard - he keeps track of the upcoming weather and has a weather station at the big house here.  The weather station consists of a barometer, a wind thing up on the roof, a precipitation measure on the deck arbour and of course whatever he needs for temperature reading.  All this comes into the house, and there is a digital readout box on the den wall.  We also have a small one for Rv'ing, and everyone always asks " what is the little man saying for tomorrow?" It has a picture of a little guy - sometimes he wears shorts, sometimes pants, he can carry an umbrella, or have his beach chair showing.  He also tells the temperature.  I think you can get these things anywhere and they have kept us amused.  They are both surprisingly accurate! They probably won't tell you when big Arizona winds are coming though Al - those clouds are most likely a better indicator!  I read somewhere recently that Canadians are obsessed with weather matters.  I am not sure if it has something to do with our 4 distinct seasons of the year and those variations, or that we are such a large country that we can have summer weather in Victoria and a huge dump of snow in Ontario or even Calgary - all on the same day!  Check out  wheretheheckisandrewjay.blogspot.com  -  for some Calgary weather tales.

Today was a short work day for me and I was off at 1:30.  I decided to make a quiche for supper and that is now in the oven.  MMM. We receive a monthly Kraft magazine " Whats Cooking"and this quiche is in the newest issue. I am not generally a fan of Kraft products, but sometimes there are some good ideas. Donald cleaned up some more in the garage, hauled an old desk to the dump yesterday and today he is going through all the Christmas lights in preparation for placing the lights out in the crabapple tree.  We use lots of white mini lights and its looks quite lovely.  We also do the same down at the RV lot, with solar ones and those solar swirly glass balls that light at night in different colours.  Our neighbour in the lot behind us also has white mini lights on his cedar arbour and fencing.    The other neighbours behind us to the east have a fabulous fountain that is about 4 feet high, concrete looking with a ball and it lights different colours.  Our rv lots are up from the lake and in a forest area without street lights and it is really dark at night.  These twinkling lights in the neighbourhood with sitting around the campfire is kind of magical .... and makes it easier to walk home in the dark when happy hour is a little longer    :)

I have emailed a couple of manufacturers of custom Park Models and we'll see what they quote.

Ok - Donald just walked in the back door to inform me that it was now raining.  Weather guy!