One of the resident cows looking over the fence at the motor home
Nine month old bull, isn't he a beauty?
Our Mom is still hanging in there. It was looking pretty bad for her for a few
days. They put her on a second round of
antibiotics and she came around a bit but has gone downhill again. Sometimes her eyes are open but she appears
to be unseeing. The eyes just seem
totally vacant. She is still taking a
bit of liquid and Ensure so she could keep going indefinitely, but one
certainly has to wonder if there is any good quality of life. As I’ve said many times, “you’re lucky if
you live that long, but on the other hand, you’re unlucky to live that long!”
The sea walk at Qualicum Beach looking east
and looking west
Last Saturday we went to Campbell River and helped friends
Gay and Doug celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. It was nice to meet some of the other people
in their life. When we got home from
there, son Richard and our granddaughter Georgia were here for a two night
visit. Georgia slept in the motor home
with us while Richard made use of one of the four spare bedrooms in the
house. We had hoped to sleep in Sunday morning but at
5:58 Georgia appeared at our bedside announcing “I’m done sleeping Grandma!” She was on the go until just after 9 pm so
she was really tired. On Monday morning,
I finally woke her at 9. Richard and I
both put in some time helping with the renovations at the local community hall
on Sunday and Monday.
I had received a coupon from Nanaimo Honda offering a free
oil change if I’d come in before May 31 since I hadn’t been there in two
years. As luck would have it, the car
was requiring service so I took them up on it.
The only cost to me was for having the transmission oil changed which is
required more frequently when the car is being towed. However, they did point out that the tires
were getting worn out. Since they have
only half the mileage that they were warranted to produce, I went to the tire
shop on the way home to see what they had to say. After all, these were high priced Michelin’s,
not cheap original equipment. After phoning
Michelin in, I think, South Carolina, they finally called back several days
later offering a substantially better tire at a greatly discounted price. I will have them installed when they arrive.
I’ve been doing a bit of geocaching. Richard helped me solve a cryptex cache. I’d been there and had to come back and look
it up on my computer and still had the wrong answer. Richard came with me and was able to try
different searches on his i-phone and finally got the solution. Georgia likes to take something from a cache
so I went to the dollar store and grabbed a selection of toys to use as
replacements.
This past Tuesday night, most of our family went to the
Shady Rest in Qualicum Beach to help my next younger brother, Sam, celebrate
his 65th. Two sisters and spouses
and a sister-in-law were absent. Two old
age pensioners in the family now, six more in the next 13 years. Of course there are all eight in-laws who’ll
turn 65 in that same period. Good thing
we all paid into the pension funds over the years.
We dumped the tanks Thursday after being parked for 16
days. The tanks weren’t full yet but the
fresh water was. We drive a few kms to
the Coombs Rodeo grounds to fill with fresh water and then use the dump hookup
brother Charlie installed over near the rental house in the new septic system.
We went down to Duncan yesterday and met Richard and Georgia
for lunch then a couple walks and a couple geocaches. We got caught in some rain at one point so
Georgia ended up wearing Grandma’s spare vest which looked like a dress on her.
The Kinsol Trestle, a wooden railway trestle, provides a
spectacular crossing of the Koksilah River.
Started in 1911 and completed in 1920, its dimensions
measure 44 m (144 ft) high and 188 m (617 ft) long, making it the largest
wooden trestle in the Commonwealth and one of the highest railway trestles in
the world.
It was calculated that the rehabilitation of the trestle
cost about $5.7 million. By means of
government grants and community fundraising for the project, the necessary money
was obtained and the repairs began. The
rehabilitation work replaced unsound timbers, reinforced structural piers and
built a new 614-foot walkway atop the structure for hikers, runners, cyclists
and equestrians, as well as ensuring that the historic characteristics of this
wonderful structure were preserved for the community and tourists. The official reopening of the trestle was
July 28, 2011.
And then it started to rain
Looking down at the Koksilah River from the trestle, in the rain
Beautiful carving at the entrance to Bright Angel Park which is on the Koksilah River, several miles downstream from the Kinsol Trestle
Georgia and Richard on the suspension bridge over the Koksilah River
Richard and Georgia in between two huge Western Red Cedar trees on the river bank
And now, the rest of the story. This is the back side of the largest tree in the previous picture
A broadleaf maple
I was on the suspension bridge when Richard skipped a rock underneath creating the ripples
