It's Only A Kilometer... Right?

I am not the model of physical fitness. I am not proud to admit that and when the doctor asks me if I get exercise I answer somewhat evasively that we get lots of walking in in Mexico. Which we do, or at least did. We have not been there in three years and do not get the same exercise in the USA or at home. We are far enough from everything important that we tend to drive instead of walk.

We keep meaning to fix this. We talk about it all the time. We just don't actually do it. I have to go in for a cardio stress test in a month or so and I want to be able to walk at least a few steps without collapsing. OK, it's not THAT bad but still...

The community mailbox is located down the highway a bit and there is a beautiful taxpayer funded walkway all along the waterfront to it. Right across the highway from the mailbox is the Fogg Dukkers Coffee Shop on the beach. What a perfect reward for walking to the mail instead of driving! I drove past there and measured the distance. It is a half a kilometre each way. One kilometre in total. It's not going to kill me. EDIT: Google Maps is kind to me and says it is 0.6 KM each way. That makes it 1.2 KM total!

We walked down there yesterday and rewarded ourselves with an Americano espresso, sitting in some chairs beside a beach fire in a big tire rim that appears to be burning all the time. It was very nice.

Today Norma was busy doing whatever around the house so I walked down myself, cell phone handy in my pocket in case I decided I wanted a ride back. No problem, it was much faster and more effortless than yesterday. In fact I skipped the reward of an espresso.

I am on my way to fitness!

Windows 1803 Update

Called the "April Update", this update seems to be causing problems everywhere! My Acer desktop tried downloading and installing it at least three times and failed every time. My final solution was to reinstall Windows 10 and that seems to work although the computer failed to restart properly a few times after that.

My Lenovo netbook with the tiny 32 GB hard drive was next. It told me it had no room on the drive so I directed the download to the SD card that serves as storage. It attempted the process using this card but failed four times. I finally stuck an empty 16 GB memory stick in it and tried again last night. It downloaded but got stuck on the install process and just sat there for a couple of hours with the spinning wheel and a notice telling me it could take a while and to not turn off the power. Progress showed as 0%. Well, sit there it did! I checked it before I went to bed and it had progressed up to 2% so something was happening! When I got up this morning it had completed!

Now I have to try to update my old Toshiba laptop that started out as a Windows 7 or maybe 8.1 machine and has updated to Windows 10. But first, I need a coffee!

EDIT! The Toshiba updated with no problem and now seems even a little faster.

Robert Francis Kennedy. 1925 - 1968

I remember when it happened. He was killed late on a Wednesday night and I did not hear about it until the next morning as I was driving to work and had to pull over to absorb the news. It was a shock to me following so closely after the twin tragedies of President Kennedy's assignation and Martin Luther King's execution. I was not prepared for it, I thought the USA was on the road to recovery, that everything bad that could happen had already happened and then suddenly it was not OK any more, something else inconceivably bad had happened. And then only two years later the students were murdered by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University. Recovery would not come quickly.

Conspiracy theories fly and not without good reason. At least thirteen shots were recorded on tape, more than the eight bullets held by Sirhan Sirhan's gun and there are many photos showing Sirhan standing in front of Kennedy while the killing shot was to the back of Kennedy's head. "They" do not want us to know the truth of what actually happened so probably we never will, at least not in our lifetimes.

"Is everybody OK?"

"Kennedy's approach to national problems did not fit neatly into the idealogical categories of his time...His was a muscular liberalism, committed to an activist federal government but deeply suspicious of concentrated power and certain that fundamental change would best be achieved at the community level, insistent on responsibilities as well as rights, and convinced that the dynamism of capitalism could be the impetus for broadening national growth."

Edwin O. Guthman and C. Richard Allen, 1993

Windows 10 Mini Crisis

My desktop computer started acting up recently. It wanted to update but refused to install the update when I restarted. I restarted it many times but nothing happened, it just kept asking for a restart. I Googled the problem and got a bunch of suggestions for an "easy" fix, none of which worked.

I dug a little deeper and decided to reinstall Windows 10 but leaving all my personal files and settings intact. If this does not work I will do a totally new install from scratch and then reload all my programs. I hate doing this so I have my fingers crossed.

So far, so good. I am using it right now and it updated and working fine! Hope for the best!

The Seabreeze

Another reason to visit Campbell River!

I have been wanting to visit the Seabreeze Food Truck for weeks now but every time I suggested it Norma was too busy, too dirty. too tired or some combination of all three. This afternoon it was her who suggested it!

It is situated down on "The Spit" and has actually been there for a few years. They specialize in hamburgers and fish and chips. Norma had a burger and even though the halibut burger looked tempting, I went for my standby, halibut fish and chips.

Was it as good as Dick's? Well it was a bit different that Dicks where the fish is battered while this was coated in a crisp "breading". It was very good, at least as good as Dick's and maybe even better! The fact that the Seabreeze has outside seating which Dick's no longer has and that it has a sea view may just push it over the top! Norma's bacon (hold the cheese) burger was, according to her, very good. The woman told her she would not be able to eat all of it and she was right, She brought 3/5 of it home. I at all my fish (two large halibut slices) but brought home half my fries and the coleslaw.

A very good "linner"! $16 for the burger and $18 for the two piece fish and chips. We split a bottle of water.

Alberta Oil Shortage

Who says we need Alberta oil to keep RVing?

Linguine With Red Clam Sauce

One of my most memorable meals was Linguine with Red Clam Sauce. It was many, many years ago, decades actually and I have no memory of where it was. My memory includes a gangster era dark, wood paneled restaurant with small candle lit tables with red checkered tablecloth. The red wine flowed and the jazz singer crooned!

I thought we had found an ideal spot in Vegas last year. The Bootlegger is a Vegas favorite that was favorably reviewed by CNN's Anthony Bourdain.  It had the requisite sultry jazz singer but the restaurant turned out to be over-lit and the tables were outfitted with white tablecloths. The paneling on the walls was not the dark shade I wanted. The food and service was "pretty good" but not good enough to replace my old memories of that long ago great meal. The Vegas meal included a glass of wine each and a coffee and liqueur after. The bill was $128 Canadian!

Tonight I found a recipe for this Red Clam Sauce and discovered I had all the required ingredients on hand. The recipe feeds six and there was only me as Norma hates garlic and I refused to leave it out. There will be plenty of leftovers.

It turned out to be delicious. Not too garlicky, not too tomatoy, just about perfect. I even had french bread to go with it. The total cost was well under ten dollars, a much better deal. No sultry jazz singer but I guess we must make the occasional sacrifice!

Thanks Mastercard!

I received notification this morning that a charge of $175 had been made against my Mastercard. This is a backup card that has not been used in some time so I called mastercard. They asked if I had been using an online gambling site with my credit card. I told them no, I certainly had not! They said their computer had noticed the unusual transaction and had refused it. Good deal!

The amount never appeared on my account and they have now cancelled the card and will send a replacement. They are looking after me.

Lots Of Nothin'

We have been doing a lot of nothing or at least not very much, lately. The weather is so much better, short pants and t-shirt temperatures. Norma and her friend Kelly have been busy in the flower gardens and the new lawn cutting service has the horsetails on the back bank under control. Flowers are starting to peek up from the dirt.

I have been struggling with a bad back and was pretty much flat on my back for a couple of days but I am feeling much better now, maybe 80% back to normal. If it had not improved by today I was going to go to the chiropractor.

I have been fighting with one of our Garmin GPS units that was due for a map update. It informed me that the 4 GB micro SD card I had in it was too small and had to be formatted before the new maps could be loaded. I told it to go ahead and format it but it said it could not (?). I went down to London Drugs and bought a new card but the Garmin could not find the card (!) I then tried to format the original card using the computer but again, it refused, I guess the card is shot, the computer seems unable to determine the size of the 4 GB card. I eventually found an old 32 GB micro SD card I bought on eBay some time ago, formatted it in the computer and put it in the Garmin. The new maps downloaded and installed! Success! We now have two updated GPS units.

I am getting ready to Game 2 of the second round Winnipeg Jets hockey game tonight. They did really great against the new Las Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night so I am hoping they can persevere again tonight. Anyhow, that is my evening planned!

Expenses, Last Winter vs This Winter

Around this time of year I usually do a cost breakdown of our winter's travels. We did not travel this winter so I thought it might be valuable to explore the difference in costs staying home vs traveling.

It is a big difference.

First, one of our biggest costs last winter was my dental work in Mexico ($6,500) and I will take that out of the equation.

So the bottom line is, after taking out the dental expenses, we saved around $16.250 by staying home! The dates I used were November 1 to April 30.(6 months).

The big expenses we had last winter that we did not have this year were:

Medical insurance       $4,300
Motorhome Fuel          $2,000
Motorhome insurance  $700
Dining out                    $1.600 last year and only $220 this year
Groceries                      $4,700 last year and $3,400 this year
RV Park Fees               $3,500
Ferries                          $700
Hotels                           $300

RV, dolly, vehicle repairs  were $4,500 I excluded this in my calculations  It was an unusually expensive year in this category.

RV park fees were kept low because we got long term rates in Mesa, AZ.

There were lots of other minor expenses but these are the biggies. "Groceries" in the US includes booze. In Canada it is separate and I hardly buy any in Canada (still have left-overs from the US).

We have pretty much been hermits this winter and hardly went out for dinner at all.