Wow! It has been a while since I have posted an entry! So much has happened since we last sat down for a cuppa! One thing that has not changed is that I still rise with the Sun, well, actually, I get up before the Sun! I am happy to report that we have had a fair amount of Sunshine in the month of February; so much so that we have not had to run the generator.
Alright, so what have we been up to since the beginning of January? Well, once we had the road plowed, ploughed? I high tailed it home to the Valley! I had a wonderful 2 weeks of visiting the family, cooking for the family and immersing myself in their company. I spent the first week at Michael and Hayley’s, in their new home. It was very comfortable as I had the pleasure of sleeping in my own (old) bed. When we moved up to Brittany Lake we went from a 4 bedroom house to a single bedroom house! Needless to say we had some spare beds to disperse and one of them ended up with Michael and Hayley. I was super spoiled whilst at their place because they pretty much gave me free reign of the kitchen; absolutely delightful to have people to cook for again! And seeing how they only moved into the place in December or was it November? Anyway, they were lacking in some kitchen smalls so I got to buy pretty, functional things that will be gifts that will continue to give long after I have returned home.
The second week that I was down home I spent in a self contained Best Western unit where I was able to happily prepare dinners for my grandsons. They had a continental breakfast so Benny and Alex were super happy to have their choice of breakfast when they spent the night. The older grandsons didn’t sleep over but they did come along and use the swimming pool a few times. It was so lovely to bask in the company of all the grandsons. I think right near the beginning of my stay the three older grandsons and I took in the new Star Wars movie! Okay, new to me, old to you! We had fun going to the Spaceship movie theatre in Langley to watch the spaceship movie.
Of course no trip home would be complete without a trip to IKEA with Anita and Krick! And I had a shopping list; the most important thing on the list was a second bed as the camp cot simply was not cutting it. I am known to have a difficult time sleeping and rather than waking Luke I opt to move to another sleeping space. I tried the loveseat-too short, I tried the camp cot-too pokey! I tried the recliner-gave me wicked back aches. I am pleased to say that I am now able to retire to my own HERMNES Daybed which easily pulls out into a full size bed. Maybe even a Queen? It’s nice. I tried the daybed-size first but Sammy likes to follow me about and he would end up sleeping on my feet which was pretty uncomfortable so now the bed pretty much stays pulled out and Sammy and I OFTEN sleep together on the HERMNES while Luke and Bear bask in the comfort of the spacious King-size bed in the Cave. Now Luke prolly thinks my IKEA purchases have come to an end but I have my eye on wardrobes to replace the single piece of doweling that is strung up to serve as a closet in the Cave; and the industrial shelves in the bathroom simply have to go. But shhhh, it’s a secret; don’t tell Luke!
As mentioned, I stayed at the Regency Best Western in Abbotsford for 5 days; on the 5th day, didn’t it start to…no other way to put it…puke snow!! I mean, man oh man! It was coming down! If my room had not been hired out to a dance team for that 6th night, I so would have stayed put! Ah, well; I have a great truck….oh, I have a truck story! With good tires; I’m just lacking in confidence to drive in the white stuff. I packed all the stuff into the truck, brushed 2 freakin’ feet of snow off poor, cold ‘bou (short for Caribou) and got ready to head out. It took 45 minutes of white-knuckle driving to get me the scant 35 kilometres from the hotel to Michael and Hayley’s, who, lucky for me, live very close to the highway! Well, not so close that you can hear the traffic noise but close enough that it is normally a 3 minute drive from the highway to their driveway. The original plan was that I would return to their place for a night, pack up all the stuff I had accumulated over the trip and head out the Saturday morn. Yea, that didn’t happen! It snowed and snowed and then snowed some more! Wednesday morn I awoke to sunny skies so I bolted! I didn’t even take a few minutes to ring Luke to let him know I was leaving. Needless to say when I contacted him that evening from William’s Lake he was thrilled to hear that I would be home on the morrow!
Now, quickly, before I log out today, that truck story:
With the temps well below zero, the chains coming on and off the truck we noticed that the rear left tire was super low; low enough to prompt the purchase of a portable pump kit. The day before I was to depart to the Valley the tire was looking suspiciously normal. Shrug. Righty oh. Luke said that I ought to make sure I get it checked out at Kal Tire before I made my way down the Canyon. I am pleased to say that the tire gave me no cause for concern along our dirt roads, or along Highway 20; still I brought ‘bou in to Kal Tire in the morning and they gave the tire a thorough checking over. Nothing to report, m’am (man, am I that old?) but please do stop in at the Kal Tire in 100 Mile House to get the tires re-torqued. Sure thing! And off I go; stopped in at 100 Mile, no concerns. Woot! A lot of worry for nothing! And then…..I’m in the middle of freakin’ no where! A message comes up on the control panel ” Tire flat” WTF????? I pulled over as soon as there was a place for me to do so and sure enough. A fricken flat. But not so flat that I couldn’t drive on it. I limped in to Lytton. Nothing there! No one to help a damsel in distress. I found a servo with an ancient air pump and did my very best to get a bit of air in the tire. That accomplished I limped 27 minutes down the Canyon to Boston Bar to the Tirecraft. The fella there checked out my offending tire finding absolutely nothing wrong with it!!! This tire is now giving me a migraine! He assured me that the tires all had the optimal amount of air in them and that the flat was probably due to the fluctuations in atmospheric temperatures. Well, crossed my fingers and set off on my last leg of the white knuckle drive home. Let me assure you, it was white knuckle due to the grief my friggen tire was giving me! I booked young ‘bou into the Ford service centre for routine maintenance with express instructions to check that dang tire!@%$# It’s fine, she’s fine.
And just a random snowy pic to close out this entry.
