Category — General Stuff

Yes, it certainly has been a long time since our last post.

Yes, since September we have both been very busy volunteering with the Theatre, driving school bus, exercising, planning a winter vacation and everyday stuff.

We have also visited with grand-kids (Oh Ya and their parents) in Princeton and Kelowna got lots of hugs and had a bunch of fun with the little ones.

Today we headed up to Sun Peaks for our first day of snowshoeing in a couple years. Weather was a little cool and overcast to start. But later on it warmed up to above “0” and the sun came out between the clouds and it was quite nice. For early in the season there is a fair bit of snow.

Enjoy the pictures!

Friday morning after a great breakfast we headed into Tofino for some grocery shopping. After that it was back to the cabin to prepare for an afternoon picnic at Chesterman Beach. The weather and the scenery was amazing .

On Saturday we had the usual large breakfast and gorged ourselves. It wouldn’t be reunion weekend without over eating.

After breakfast we headed in to Tofino to take in the Saturday Market and walk around town to many of the shops. In the afternoon a few went for a walk and others caught up on their sleep with an afternoon nap. The day was beautiful, the sun was shining, it was a warm day and we have really been lucky with the weather…. a great way to spend the afternoon.

Later that evening we had a delicious meal prepared by Rick & Gayle  and then a campfire complete with Rick entertaining us on his guitar.

It was a great weekend, however on a sad note; this was the first reunion since our good friend Ed House passed away late last year.

We miss him dearly!

On Thursday after a morning coffee we drove over to take a walk on the Black Beach section of the “Wild Pacific Trail”. This beach walk was all along a very rugged coastline and through a heavily forested area. The sun was shining and it was spectacular.

After checking out we headed to Tofino where we were meeting with our Reunion group friends. On the way we stopped in at Chesterman Beach which is just outside Tofino. Once again another gorgeous beach on the west coast.

We finally met up with Dean and Judy in downtown Tofino and wandered around a bit before heading to the Condo/Cabin our reunion group has rented for the next 4 days. There is a main cabin and then a guest suite off to one side which is perfect for our group.

So let the partying and the weekend begin.

On Tuesday August 14th we traded in our 1998 Honda Accord EX-V6 and bought a 2012 Toyota Prius.

The 1998 Accord has been very reliable and a great car since we bought it. We have had very few maintenance or operational issues; however it was getting to be 14 – 15 years old and it was time to trade it in and get a new vehicle.

As Brenda said “it was a very Bitter Sweet feeling” as the car was so reliable in getting her back and forth to work with no troubles for all those years…. summer or winter.

After a bunch of internet and hands-on research we decided on the Toyota Prius Hybrid. In the end it has everything and probably more than we need. There a few models of this years Prius and we chose the standard model with a couple minor upgrades.

Attached are a couple pictures taken right after we got it home and we’re sure there will be more to come.

Last Wednesday we took GGMA for a day trip to visit Baby Oliver.

GGPA stayed in Kamloops as Wednesday is his day to volunteer at he Red Cross. Pretty good for a person at the age of 89 to still be active and giving back to the community.

On the way to Kelowna we stopped at the road side farm to pick up some asparagus to take down to Jeff and Lindsay.

Unfortunately we did not a get a chance to see Zachary as he was at Little Owl Academy……… Oh the life of a 18 month old…. school, school, school.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

Unusual title……….. but darn true.

Sunday one of our home circulation fans sounded like it was about to fail. We are having a bit of a heat wave here in Kamloops so lots of air movement is the key to keeping cool.

Anyway, when I turned on the upstairs fan in the morning it did not start spinning right away on low speed and you could hear the windings growling as they were trying to get the blades moving. It fired up okay on high speed and then ran fine on low speed but I just don’t want to take a chance of the windings stopping and then it dead short and potentially causing a fire.

The fan was one that my Mom bought when I was about 12 years old, so that would be about 45 years ago. I am sure my sisters and brothers will remember it well. Over the years I have taken the grill off and washed it, cleaned the blades and blown the build up of air dust out of the electric motor. But besides that it’s been trouble free every year for the last 45 hot Kamloops Summers.

You will also note that the grill cover holes are large enough for a young child to get his or her fingers inside so that they could possibly touch the fan blades; definitely does not meet CSA kid proof standards of today. However at last count none of my siblings, or our own two boys or nieces and nephews have lost the ends of any fingers.

So this got me to thinking. What can you say that you could buy today and expect to be using 45 years later?

Certainly not a circulation fan to keep you cool in a hot Kamloops summer. If you get 10 years out of a new fan consider yourself lucky.

It’s definitely not a computer. Those are outdated 45 days after you purchase them.

Not golf clubs, unless you are an antique collector. Technology on those changes almost as fast as computers.

For some it may be a car? But that is quite unlikely, unless you are a very serious car collector.

Perhaps a Grandfather or Grandmother Clock or a Dining Room Table or a Painting. You know something that will be in the family for years?

Our expectations have changed and we have become a throwaway society!

So it’s a sad goodbye to our reliable and trusted fan after 45 years.

This past weekend we got together with our group of Reunion Friends in Whistler B.C. it was year number 33, we first got together in Kamloops in1979. Reunion weekend is a very special time to reconnect with long time friends (you’ll notice I avoided using the term “old friends”). Unfortunately our good friend Ed H. from Portland was unable to join us as he is battling some health and personal issues, we really missed him. We do not know of any other group that have a similar friends reunion once a year. 

We found a Condo on VRBO in an area of Whistler called Montebello. The Condo was excellent and it was well located to Whistler Lower Village. There was a nearby walking trail that led directly to the village which took less than 10 minutes to be in the center of the action. It was where the Winter Olympic Celebration Plaza was located and it was being used this weekend for outdoor concerts that were part of Crankworks Bike Downhill.

Most years the hosts of the reunion plan an outing or event. However this year nothing in particular was planned. It was kind of nice as everyone did their own thing or we got together at different times as a group to head into the village for shopping or lunch. 6 of us did take advantage of a dry moment to go for a bike ride on some of the trails of Whistler. The picture was taken in Alta Lake Park.

Unfortunately the weather was not the best and even though it rained only occasionally the clouds and fog were low enough that it was not worth taking the Peak to Peak Gondola or to go on one of the many Zip Lines.

As with all reunions we brought too much food which meant we ate and drank too much, stayed up well beyond our regular bedtime and laughed till our sides hurt. Special friends and special times………. we are blessed!

So this is your skill testing question of the day!

“Spark Plugs to St. Maarten” is it

a. The name of a Rock Band from the 80’s?

b. The newest Blackeyed Peas hit song written and performed at their New Years Eve concert in St. Barth’s?

c. a Humanitarian relief effort complete with telethon and lottery contest supported by Lordco Auto Parts?

d. A request from my sister and her husband to help fix the outboard motor for their dingy so they can get on with their Caribbean sailing adventure!

or………………. imagine this

“It’s Couples Travel week on Jeopardy”

Contestants Larry & Brenda – We’ll take “Caribbean Travel Oddities” for $200 Alex.

Alex Trebek – “Something unusual and odd that your sister asked you to bring all the way to the Caribbean from Kamloops B.C.”?

Contestants Larry & Brenda – What are“Spark Plugs to St. Maarten”!

Alex Trebek – “You’ve got to kidding”! “OMG it is the correct answer”!

So, honestly we  received an urgent e-mail from Donna that she and Bob are having trouble with the outboard motor for their dinghy. Bob has the carburetor apart and it’s recommended that they also change the spark plugs. Anyway, none are to be had in St. Maarten, however there are some at Lordco Auto Parts in Kamloops. Tricia, bless her heart, picked them up at Lordco and dropped them off this morning.

But here is the dilemma. Do I take them in my carry-on? Are they allowed? Well if you Google “Spark Plugs in your carry-on baggage” you get a variety of results. I then checked Canadian Transport Safety and they have nothing specific about spark plugs. So, rather than take a chance at having them confiscated by airport security I put them into my checked baggage.

However, if someone in St. Maarten reads this blog and has a couple spare NGK 2983 – CR6HSA Spark Plugs, would you mind stopping by the Boat Yard near the end of the runway at Princess Juliana Airport (it’s on your left heading towards Simpson Bay) and dropping them off….. Thanks!

You have probably noticed that the picture(s) at the start of our Blog has been updated; in fact it changes randomly each time you sign on to our web site.

Thanks to Jeff and his computer wizardry we have pictures from our Holland trip and our visit to the Keukenoff as our opening view…….. amazing pic’s EH!

So how did Jeff do it? Well it started by him getting me to download FileZilla (whatever that is) and then after he was finished cooking dinner he got into the set up portion which involved computer stuff way above my head. Anyway, in the end the changes are pretty cool…… don’t ya think?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF – on the Sunday after our visit to Princeton We drove over to Kelowna and lucky for us we were to be able to celebrate Jeff’s 32nd birthday. Jeff cooked some steaks and zucchini on the bar-b-que with potatoes from the oven and it was a great birthday dinner. 

Baby Zachary was so precious to hold and was an absolute angel while we visited. Pictures are attached.

If you have been following our post you’ll remember the day in Holland when I lost our cellphone, broke the camera and got oil/tar all over my running shoes. Well here’s an update.

When we got home there was a message on our answering machine from Kamloops Airport Security…. and guess what, they had our cellphone. I know I had it when I cleared security in Kamloops so it must have fallen out of my day pack somewhere between Kamloops and Vancouver. Mystery #1 solved. Then I took the Digital Camera back to London Drugs and it’s been sent off to Sony for warranty repair; 4 -6 weeks it should be back. Finally the shoes, well they traveled to south of France but after walking absolutely everywhere in my Keen Sandals I didn’t think we needed to pack them any farther, so we left them in Arles. I’m going to get some new hiking shoes when I get a chance. So in the end everything has worked out alright!