Another week goes by ... closer to back on the road! Aug 8-16

Wednesday, August 8

Got my crown on so all dental work is completed. Another thing off the list before we head out this year. Still smokey and hot out.  Amazing (or is it BS), the deductable cost in Canada is about 50% more than the whole cost in Mexico.

Thursday, August 9

Ray spent the morning running around dealing with his mum's estate. Again, smokey and hot. Stayed outside under the trees for the afternoon.

Friday, August 10

Busy day. Took Dad for blood work at 9 am, back home and then out again at 11:30 for his podiatrist appointment. In between Ray managed to get out for a hot tub at the pool. Boy when you are old you sure have a lot of doctor appointments! Oh well, lucky I am here to help out. Larny has arranged for a friend to come tonight and take care of Dad for the weekend and who will leave at noon on Sunday as Larny is going to Victoria for the weekend with her husband and friend. Leny, is afraid of dogs ... the two shepherds (Kira is here) won her over after a bit though.  By the time she left, as they did not do anything but wag their tails when they came up to her, she was okay within a few hours of them wandering around near her. Gotta love our "doggie ambassadors".

Garrett and Kat did not arrive until 9 pm after having a late start leaving from Squamish for their weeks holiday. They are staying overnight and leaving Kira with us for the week while they spend their vacay in Kamloops and Vernon, picking her up next Sunday. As usual, on the first night she woke us up hourly after 2:30 am until we finally gave up at 6 am. Hopefully she is better tonight. Garrett and Kat had a quick visit with Dad, for an hour, before heading out shortly before 9 am hopefully beating the traffic heading to Kamloops.

Saturday, August 12,

The sky is finally showing some blue sky and the smoke is gone. What a relief. The air is much cooler as well. Rain is supposed to start this evening which is greatly needed. Hopefully it extends to the interior to help with the fire situation. Kira is somewhat unsettled as her "daddy and mommy" are gone. She will settle in though after several hours as usual.

Sunday we all had a better night's sleep ... only got awoken with the dogs at 5:45 am, close to the time Garrett and Kat usually get up for work. Kicked the dogs out to their mats and closed the door for another hours snooze ... for me at least, Ray got up with the dogs.

It rained on and off all night so it was a nice surprise to see the sun out this morning and clear skies. After a lazy morning we decided to take a walk through another one of Surrey's parks after making sure Dad was set up for the next couple of hours. We first stopped for some chicken at KFC and made our way with the two dogs to the park at 148th and 17th in Surrey/White Rock. There were 2 ponds with a nice paved walkway around them on both sides. This green space was surrounded by houses on all sides. (Park does not have a name.) A nice relief to high density housing. Ray and I, with the two dogs had a nice walk around then headed back to Dad's for the rest of the afternoon. It is Sunday ... my day to look after Dad and make dinner.

Monday, August 14th

More running around today with Larny on Dad's behalf. He needs new shoes as per the podiatrist and his prescriptions need to go into Costco. Of course one place is in White Rock and Costco is in Langley! Got this all accomplished but shoes need some alterations so I have to go back tomorrow hopefully to pick them up. $285 bill later ... Dad was not too happy but that is a cheap fix so he can keep walking and stay in his house.

Tuesday, August 15th

Woke up to a cool morning of 11C this morning. Certainly feels more "fall like". Looked at the weather in Banff and it was only 6C so thankfully we will be plugged in to run a heater at night a month from now.

More chores on the list today. Hopefully I can get the last "bagster" full of junk from the old shed so it can go and that will be the end of our planned chores this year at Dad's. (Done) Junk picked up on Wednesday afternoon.

Remember the picture of all this junk! We did take all of the electronics and chemicals in to the recycling depot first though.

There it goes!

We've been unable to get any workers to help with the branch chipping project so we just cleaned up the small stuff, raking up the foot deep pile of needles from underneath the trees. (Done mostly by Larny, Ray directed the work and I did the towing of the bins to the road). We borrowed 3 large green bins from the neighbour and with ours we were putting out 8 containers of stuff each week for the last 4 weeks. The larger branches will have to wait until next spring and maybe I can arrange a work party with Garrett and Kat for a weekend with the promise of great food and drink! No time left this summer.

To say we are getting "hitch itch" is an understatement. We will have had the jacks down for 5 1/2 months in one spot more or less ... way too long for us nomads. If it was not for our previously made commitments we would be gone!

Wednesday, August 16th

Another sunny morning. Puttered around the coach and then other than a dental appointment at 1 pm to adjust my mouth guard to fit my new crown, not much else happening today. The dogs sure are enjoying each others company and loving staying outside most of the day under the trees in the front of the house

The "German Shredder" busy working on Freya's stick!