I can't believe I haven't written anything since July 1st.  I suppose that just goes to show what happens to me when I get busy.  It was a busy summer.  I worked most of the time and my mom had hip replacement surgery in July.

I took mom to have her surgery in Red Deer on July 13.  It went very well and she was discharged from the hospital on July 16.  They sure don't want them in there any longer than they have to be.  Niece Susan came from Calgary to look after Grandma for the weekend which was very much appreciated since I was working and I didn't have Bernie up to speed yet with what mom needed. 

We got into a fairly good routine but it was difficult for mom to get around and do things for herself for a little while anyway.  Home Care was no help at all because things have really changed and what mom needed to have done and what Home Care could actually provide were two different stories. 

I work for Home Care and I was embarassed with the fact that the services are hardly there anymore to care for people who have been discharged home from the hospital.  So we just cared for mom ourselves and all I can say is "thank you Bernie, I love you and you are the best".  If it hadn't been for him I don't know what I would have done, he just took right over and cared for mom when I couldn't be there and for that there are not enough words to express what it means to me and to mom.

Mom had to have daily injections of blood thinner, each morning for 25 days and I think her son-in-law administered more of them than I did.  She couldn't get around in her kitchen for at least a month following surgery and he was there every day when I couldn't be, boiling water, making soup, wrapping up sandwiches and putting everything within easy reach.  It wasn't without the humourous moments and that's what keeps us going!  One day he decided to make chicken noodle soup at home and then take it to mom.  He drove because he wanted to stop at the Post Office for her mail and he was probably intending to go on to Home Hardware for something he always needed.  Anyhow, when he came to a halt at the Post Office the lid of the soup container came off, and it all went flying.  We are still picking noodles out of each crack and crevice of the truck!  LOL  He managed to salvage some of the soup and mom said it was pretty good.

Mom has had a fantastic recovery and she is getting around on her own, takes her cane when she thinks of it and life goes on as usual.  She is 85 years old.

Bernie spent most of the summer in the basement when he wasn't performing his "nurse duties".  Our basement was a wet soggy mess after all the rains.  He gutted it completely.  It was finished quite nicely but we soon discovered that it was not insulated and it needed some TLC anyway.  He framed it and insulated it and discovered new and interesting things about the basement on a daily basis.  At this point in time he is still putting up dry wall and it looks very cozy down there.  His leg muscles sure got a good workout since I lost track of how many times he carried stuff up and down those stairs.  He also became very knowledgable about eaves troughs and gutters.  We think we have everything right now and hopefully we never, ever get the same amount of rain that we got this past spring and summer.  Unbelievable.

Oh Canada!  July 1st and we are celebrating Canada Day.  My status on my Facebook page states that I am proud to be a Canadian.  Well, who wouldn't be?  We live in a wonderful country which is the "true north strong and free", through and through.
Later on today we will stroll on down to Heritage Park to take part in all of the festivities.  The Museum Society sponsors a great day which starts with the singing of our national anthem.  The kids will have races and contests, the museum will be open for tours and we do a lot of sitting around and visiting.  The barbecues are fired up to cook  hamburgers and hot dogs and of course there is a large cake to devour!  The highlight of the day is the Duck Racing.   The Fire Department comes and hoses down Railway Avenue from the top of the hill on the west end.   As the water rushes down the gutter the rubber ducks are thrown in and down they swim.  The first ones over the line win prizes for their "owners".  There are usually four or five races, depending on how many people buy ducks!  I love it, and I never get tired of it. 
We live in such a wonderful and diverse country.  I have been clear across the country and I haven't been anywhere that I didn't think I would fit right in and have a life no matter what.  Being a Canadian holds a special status for those who travel to other countries.  I always feel welcome no matter where we go and we have been to a few places outside of Canada.
I am very disgusted with what went on in Toronto this past week at the G-8, G-20 summit.  Cowards and hooligans who dress all in black and wreck things are not making a very good impression right now.  For those who got "sucked in" by all the stupidity and who are whining because the jail cells are too cold and they were a little thirsty.......well.....cry me a river, I don't feel very sorry for you.  You should not have been there. When you saw trouble coming you should have turned around and ran the other way.  Did your parents not teach you that there are consequences for your actions?
I think that Coronation should host the next summit.  I think we have room here for eight or twenty world leaders.  They would be very welcome and I do believe we could show them a good time.  Just think about it...........We have several people around town who would be only too happy to share their homes for a few days and I don't think we would have any trouble finding billets.  I personally have a nice big yard and a huge deck which could accomodate twenty people or more.  I am not sure how many days this little shindig lasts but I know we could pull it off.  We have a small detachment of RCMP officers who could stand guard if they like, but by the time the rest of the world figures out where Coronation is the event would be done and over with!
I do believe I am on to something here.
As for the trouble makers.  I want you all to know that we here in small town Alberta do not put up with rudeness and violence.  We have our ways and we are not afraid to do whatever it takes to protect our home and our loved ones. So if this event ever makes its way to our fair town all I can say is "Black Bloc, meet Alberta Red Neck".  LOL

We had an awesome weekend in Edmonton even though it was rather tiring.  We spent most of the day Saturday and a good part of Sunday digging in Nicholas's and Pam's yard.  Pam was determined to spruce up their yard so we helped by preparing some of the back yard for trees.  I wasn't a whole lot of help because I am not strong enough anymore to dig up pieces of sod.  I hacked away at the ground, gave advice, went for cold drinks and became the "general contractor"!!

Bernie put trim on the shed that he and Nicholas built last fall and he also gave a lot of advice!!  Some of it was heeded and some of it was politely ignored.  Such is life.  It was fun working outside in the sun and I rather enjoyed the heat for a change.

Rome was not built in a day and yards are not transformed into places of beauty overnight.  It is a process and it will take a lot of sweat and hard work.  They purchased some trees and shrubs on Sunday and got them planted.  The grass is cut, some edging was installed, the front yard was cleaned up and redesigned a bit and the weed whacker did its job.  Now they need to remember to water everything, keep the grass cut once a week and fertilize, fertilize, fertilize!!

We left for home around three o'clock.  On Highway 21 we had a bit of an adventure.  A bicycle flew off the back of an oncoming motorhome just seconds before we met the vehicle.  The bike bounced towards us a few times as we tried to slow down without screeching the brakes too much.  It just missed us.  We had to drive towards the ditch to avoid it but we kept on going because there was a vehicle stopped right behind us and the traffic was horrid.  Thank goodness nobody was hurt or killed because of an unsecure load.  We could see that the motorhome had stopped as well so I guess they could deal with their broken bike.

Other than that we had an uneventful trip.  We got home around six thirty.  Our yard looks like a jungle since the sun shone all weekend long and the grass just grew and grew due to all the rain we had last week!

O.K.  I think we have enough rain and I am actually ready to leave this soggy place and head to drier climates.  California here I come!  I am serious, I have had enough.  So what if the countryside is lush and green?  I don't really care anymore.  Where is the sunshine??  If I hear one more comment about how good the rain is for this part of the country I am going to throw a wreck.  AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

I do believe in global warming and climate change and all that stuff.  So bring on the warming and change for crying out loud.  The interesting thing about crappy weather is that is all anybody talks about, including me.  So I guess it is time to shut up about that and "blog" about something else.

I bought petunias, portulaca, geraniums and a beautiful begonia.  They are all outside and doing quite well considering.  Well, all except the poor portulaca which has rotted.  I will have to get out there between showers and plow it under and get something else started there.  I knew that this would probably be the year for sweet peas but I decided against it because it sounded like too much work to soak the seeds before I put them in the parched earth.  Ha!  I will never be a meteorologist.

To top it all off we are having issues with our water consumption.  We are about 99 percent certain that our water metre is faulty since there is no way that we would use 29 cubic metres of water in a month's time.  We did the toilet tank test, and have determined that it isn't the culprit.  We even turned the water off at the tank overnight and when we check the metre in the morning it has actually moved ahead.  If there is a leak somewhere it certainly isn't obvious so what is that all about?  Unless we have someone tapping into our water supply we cannot figure out why the metre moves when the water is not turned on anywhere.  Today Bernie will march down to the town office and suggest a new metre.

Enough talk about water.

Well I haven't blogged for a whole month.  To all my "fans", sorry about that!

Here are a few pictures that I "borrowed" from somebody's Facebook page.  I think they are fantastic pictures of the day the big storm hit Coronation. This one is looking east along Windsor Avenue.  I love the water tower and the grader in the background.  The one below shows a cattle liner getting stuck right in front of our house. 

We were in Red Deer working at a Casino for the Library when the storm took hold.  I was glad that we didn't get stranded somewhere.  We planned on being there for two days so it all worked out good since we wouldn't have been able to get home very well.  By the time we came home the highways were clear.   We had to shovel a path to get into the house.

This week will be a busy one for me.  I have a council meeting on Tuesday evening, Senior's supper on Wednesday evening, Budget meeting on Thursday evening and on Thursday morning there are supposed to be some government people coming to tour the Assisted Living.  I want to be there for the tour since I am curious to see what they will have to say when they are done looking around at everything.

Other than that I haven't been doing much of anything and really trying to stay out of trouble. 

We have been home for two weeks and I am still marveling at all of the space I have to live with lately.  LOL  As soon as I walked in the house I felt as if the walls were expanding and I lost track of my own sense of space for a while as I adjusted to the new dimensions.  If that didn't make sense just try to imagine standing in the middle of a closet and then move into a room that is four times as large and you might experience the sensation of the walls moving outwards........or not.  Am I losing my mind??

So here we are in the snow and cold and fog.  My that fog sure has everybody on edge.  I think it has something to do with the sun not shining for days on end and causing most human beings to go slightly bonkers or depressed.

I haven't had time to really savor the time spent away from home in the warmth of the sun.  We were home for not even twenty-four hours when I had to deal with a lot of aftermath concerning my most recent squabbles with Town Council.  Well, I call it a squabble, and I am not sure what the rest of them call it since no one really talks to me about anything important. 

I went back to work on Friday the 12th which just happened to be my 56th birthday.   We celebrated with a cake that my mother baked and cupcakes from friend Lois.  Mom even went to the store and got the big number candles so I celebrated in style.  I guess they make those numbers large so we can see them at our age!  ha ha    We had a feast of Chinese food, cake, cupcakes, ice cream and coffee with real cream.  Then we sat in front of the television for the rest of the evening and watched the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

I worked for four days, had a bit of a break, went to some meetings and worked again in Coronation and Castor.  I am going to take a much longer break now and try to catch my breath. 

I didn't really miss winter but I missed my curling and bowling buddies and all the fun we have when we get together. 

The Olympic games have been taking up a lot of my time as well.  We spend most of our time in front of the television watching everything we can possibly watch.  I am so proud of all of our Canadian athletes.  My sister-in-law , niece and nephews are in Vancouver taking in the games and I do hope we hear some good stories when they get back.

Today is Wednesday February 10, 2010 and we have been home in Coronation for two days.  We arrived safe and sound, in the snow and cold, about 3:00 p.m. on Monday the 8th.  While it is nice to be home I miss being away......if that makes any sense.

We left Campland at 8:00 a.m. on Friday February 5/10.  We got all organized and on the way out we stopped to blow the water out of the lines and drain everything since we were headed to the snow and ice again.  We got gas the day before so we were good to go.

We stopped in Barstow for lunch and gas.  I just ran into a Starbucks and got a couple of sandwiches and coffee for me, cold drink for Bernie.  We got gas at a station right in Barstow and had lots of fun getting back onto I-15.  Next time we would stop at Exit 191, get gas at a nice BIG gas station and have lunch at Peggy Sue's Diner.  Ahhhhh, live and learn.

We got to Vegas around 2:00 p.m. and just drove right on through.  It seemed to take forever, but it was about half an hour.  We stopped for gas again at the Las Vegas Speedway.  Gas was getting a bit cheaper now that we were out of California.

We arrived at Desert Skies RV Resort about 4:00 p.m.  I had called the day before to reserve a spot for one night.  It is on the eastern outskirts of Mesquite, Nevada and actually in Arizona, right on the border.  We took a wrong turn before we got there and as we were turning on what we hoped was the right road (of course it was Betty's fault) two people and a dog called out to us and asked if we were heading to Desert Skies.  They told us where it was, just down the hill.

When we got there they were right behind us and as I was filling out the registration form and putting money in the envelope the gentleman greeted me and welcomed us to Desert Skies.  He then invited us to a potluck at 5:00 p.m. in the "Palm Room"!!  We drove to our site and the neighbours on either side introduced themselves and we shot the breeze for a while before settling in.  We took Duke for a walk and also found the washrooms and while we were there the people going to the potluck also invited us to come.  I declined gracefully.  We just got there, had the dog with us, didn't bring any food - the usual excuses.  If we were planning on staying for a while we would probably have gone and it would have been fun!

It rained like crazy during the night, unusual for this part of the world.  Our neighbour from Wyoming said it was 75 degrees the day before.  Now that's more like it!

On Saturday morning we were up at 6:00 a.m.  I made the coffee and went for a shower.  We had a quick breakfast, took the dog for a pee (he is not impressed with getting up so early), cleaned up and put things away.  We dumped our black and grey tanks for the last time (heading to freezing temperatures now), stopped at the bathrooms and left the resort at 7:55 a.m.  Well....we were in Arizona now so it is Mountain time, same as at home, making it 8:55 a.m.  Cripes we were behind before we even got started!

We stopped in Cedar City, Utah for gas at a Shell station at a quarter to eleven.  I wanted to get a loaf of bread at the food store but they didn't sell bread.  Weatherwise it was all right.  It rained before we got to Cedar City and there was lots of snow in the mountains. 

Our next stop was Fillmore to eat.  We just parked in a rest/truck stop (right where a cattle truck had parked - nice).  I made some sandwiches and then went to both "food stores" for bread.  I came away empty handed.  Why do "food stores" not sell bread??  I got milk.

We stopped at a Flying J at Springville for more gas and checked out their food store.  Guess what??  No bread there either.

We finally arrived at Salt Lake and then drove on to Brigham City, KOA which in my opinion was the biggest dump I have ever seen.  It was 5:00 p.m., the office which closed at 6:00 was already closed, the bathrooms looked like they were insect infested at some point in the summer.  There was ice and snow and it had melted a bit.  We found a good spot that was easy to get into.  There were not many people there and it was friggin' cold.  A campground guy came and knocked on our door about 7:00 p.m. looking for money.  We paid but I didn't want to!!  They were supposed to have WiFi but I couldn't get a signal.  There was cable t.v. so we watched a bit and went to bed.

I woke up at 3:00 a.m. with a gut ache from hell.  I quickly stumbled into some shoes and found my jacket and tried to run to the washrooms which was tricky with the ice.  I thought I needed to throw up or something but in the end I didn't.  I wish I had because I felt lousy.  I went back to bed but I did not sleep and I just curled up into a tight ball and lay still thinking that whatever it was that was causing my stomach such distress would just go away.

We left Brigham City at 7:15 a.m. in the fog.  I was getting grumpier and grumpier because I sure didn't feel that good.  Duke was a bit confused at all the early mornings but he just played along.  Bernie drove in silence mostly because when Bonnie gets upset Bonnie is a bear. 

We got to Pocatello, Idaho at 9:30 a.m. and stopped for gas and then at a Jack In The Box for breakfast.  By this time I was hungry and Bernie was craving bacon and eggs.  The last time we ate at a Jack In The Box was in 1987 in Annaheim when we took the boys to Disneyland.  We had burgers and fries, the usual, and about ten minutes later on the drive back to the hotel Brett threw up in the car (in a Disneyland bag!).  Oh brother.  I told that story while we were eating.  It was actually a good memory!

As we drove into the higher elevations it got colder and there was a lot of snow.  We got to the Montana border at 11:50 a.m..  The next gas stop was Dillon at 1:15.  My stomach was not right, again.  I wanted a gingerale but I had to settle for a Coke Zero.  Guess what?  They sold bread in that store.  Now that we were almost home we get the bread.  I would rather have had a Canada Dry!  Oh well.

In Dillon we saw a motorhome from Alberta pulling into a motel and I could have settled for that as well.  Bernie just looked straight ahead and that was my answer! 

Bernie wanted to get gas before we got to Great Falls so he pulled into a Conoco in Helena only to discover that they were closed.  We stopped at a road side rest stop so he could use the "bathroom", and I use that term loosely, and we got to Great Falls in the dark around 6:00 p.m.  Tons of snow, lots of icy streets, Bonnie feels like crap, it is cold and we have to go to an R.V. Park.  There will be changes next time.  Anyhow Bernie watched the second half of the Super Bowl game and I just went to bed.  Duke liked the snow.  To the only people we know in Great Falls - next year we will stay at a motel with a parking lot that can accomodate recreational vehicles and we will have that visit that I promised!! 

On Monday we were up at 5:30 a.m. and trudged through the snow drifts to the bathrooms.  We were out of there by 6:30 and at the Flying J for gas and then on our way.  It was foggy and we also ran into some snow.  The highway is really the greatest thing at this point since it is divided all the way and for the most part in excellent condition. 

We got to the border at 9:00 a.m., stopped for gas and got some smokes for my friend Lois and some beer for us at the Duty Free Shop.  By 9:30 we were on our way.  When we bought the stuff at the Duty Free they asked for our license number and Bernie says, "Charlie Two Charlie Two Zero Zero Two".  After we got in the truck he said he was just dying for somebody to ask because he knew that was how he would respond.  He did the same thing at the border crossing except he forgot the second two so I had to clue him in!!  ha ha  We have fun anyway. 

It snowed pretty much all the way to the border and it was foggy.  When we crossed the border into Canada the fog cleared and the sun shone.  I guess we brought it with us.

We arrived in Taber at 10:30 and had breakfast at the Heritage Inn.  Cactus Corner was our next stop for gas and a bathroom break and we got home at 3:00 p.m. before the sun set on another day.

Welcome home.  The house was the same as we left it.  It took me an hour to get all the stuff from the trailer inside but I did it all because Bernie did all the driving and he looked beat. 

It was a good break from the cold and the snow and we would like to make it an annual affair.