The Ouseys in Victoria Page

We had a great visit with Ken and Helen Kirkwood this past weekend.  They arrived Friday afternoon on the Victoria Express from Port Angeles and they departed this morning on the reverse route via the Coho.  We are all a few pounds heavier as our favourite pastime seemed to revolve around food.  But it was great food.  Checked out several Victoria restaurants as well as Carolyn's good home cooking.  Saturday was hot hot, so we tried a touring drive out of town around the western communities and the coast line including Mary Hill campground.  Didn't work it was just as hot there.  Sunday was cooler so we did downtown Victoria. Much to my surprise the inner harbour was closed to traffic because of a very large car show.  It was great seeing so many roadsters and other varieties from by gone days.  Ken and Helen have promised to come back with their motorhome and we will do the rest of the Island.  It was a wonderful weekend.

I see that Dennis and Catherine were partying it up, with yet another 25th wedding anniversary.  See his site for pictures.

Bye for now.     lets see those blogs.

Well what has happened this week.   I golf Juan de Fuca on Monday and Prospect Lake Thursday.  Both good days.  The weather has been hot hot hot.  So good thing we golf early in the morning.  Got to 35 for awhile today.

Lions Meeting Wednesday, only one meeting each of July and August, so it was a little longer than normal, but got lots accomplished.  We made $1000.00 net on the pancake breakfast at the Lions 24 hour Relay at the University.  It all goes to the Easter seal houses, and camps.  The 24 hour relay itself made much much more, must find out how much.

Managed to get the wiring done on the motorhome.  Took a few hours to figure it out and do the work, but it work first time I hooked up the car.   The tow bar itself fits fine, same as the Southwind.  So now all set to tow.  

There was an excellent article on Winnipeg as a travel destination, in the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Magazine).  In fact a 7 page spread with pictures.  If you can get your hands on a copy take a look.  It is on the web, but I can't send a link as you have to be a member to get it.

The Kirkwoods are coming to visit tomorrow.  We have kept in touch with each other since we met some 30+ years ago in Halifax.  Ken was a USN exchange officer at the same Halifax unit I was at.  They live in Washington State and are coming up for the weekend.  They too have a new Motorhome but it is not coming with them this trip.  Not for just a weekend.  They will have to come back for a longer trip with it to tour the Island.  We will tour mainly Victoria, this weekend.  Forecast is good, continued hot.  The Lantern Festival is on Saturday at Beacon Hill Park, that is a must see.

Nitey Nite all.

We have a temporary parking spot for the motorhome,  it is at Joyce's again.  She is away until the end of August so she said use it all we want.  It is only two doors over, so handy to do what we need to do.   Now I have to set up the towing.  The tow bar is on and tomorrow comes the wiring.  Of course nothing matched.  The new output is 6 pole, square, to the old 4 pole round, hmmmm.  I got a converter that should do the job.
 
Weather has been gloriously hot during the days, 29 centipedes yesterday, and cool at night.  We have the great Canadadian air conditioner, the Pacific Ocean.
 
Last night we had Kaye and Brian McKeever over for dinner, it was a lovely evening.  As usual Carolyn's meal was exquisite, nice weather, nice wine, nice company, wonderful.
 
We get to go to their place on the first of August.  It is their 40th wedding anniversary, and they celebrate with Margaret (Kaye's sister) and Errol Price who were married on the same day, a few years later however.   The first was also Grampa Georges birthday, and in times past we all got together for the two anniversaries and the birthday all at once.  Kaye and Brian have a house in Sooke and they live 6 months here and 6 months in England.
 
Well off to bed.    bloggity blog, bloggity blog.

Noni made the Times Colonist, elected as the Chairperson of the BCRFA. It was in the Friday, July 16th paper.

Chuffley is doing much better, its amazing what $300.00 can do.  He is improving, the swelling is down and he is in fact quite perky.  So we have him with us for a while longer.
 
I went golfing Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week.  Wednesday was a new course for me, Mt. Brenton near Chemainus.  About an hours drive to get there.  Nice course, and golfed it not too badly, esp. for the first time. 
 
Got a new mattress on Tuesday, an "Obus Forme" yet.  Very comfortable. Now that the dog is improving ( last 3 days the dog has his days and nights reversed) maybe we will actually get some sleep.
 
Good pictures and narrative of Dennis and Catherine's trip, check it out, links on the right, includes some interesting family historical facts.
 
TTFN.    Blog already, some of you haven't been, you know who you are.

We have had a worrisome couple of days. On Sunday we discovered a lump on shuffles throat, underside. Very large lump, I can't quite cup it with my whole hand. It wasn't there Wednesday when a bathed him. Took him to the animal hospital and it turns out to be a large abscess. They drained it and we had to keep that open for a couple of days, antibiotics, etc. Somewhat messy and difficult to keep him from scratching it. Had to wrap it in a towel. Today we saw the vet and he put in a bigger better drain and prescribed a stronger anti-biotic. To do this Chuffley had to be sedated. It has been several hours now and after sleeping for a couple of hours is now staggering around wondering what happened. Poor little guy. Unfortunately, this may be the beginning of the end. If this doesn't clear up quickly and completely we may have to consider the inevitable. He can't take an operation, his heart murmur couldn't handle the anesthetic. Well we'll see how he makes out.

Looks by what I've seen on TV and what Alice Hogue has sent that Edmonton got quite a storm. I don't think I ever seen so much hail, didn't even think that that much could be produced by one storm. Crazy weather.

Well must tend to the dog, his legs are going in several directions on this slippery floor.

Haven't blogged since Tuesday. Hmmm.. Could have sworn I blogged on Wednesday or Thursday, but it ain't there. Anyhow we packed up the rig on Wednesday and brought it home. We parked nearby in Joyce's driveway. I washed it Thursday after golfing.

Found out that our friends Ken and Helen Kirkwood will be visiting on the weekend of the 23,24,25 July. We are looking forward to seeing them. They have a new Rig, a Winnebago Brave, but are not bringing it this trip. Maybe next time and we can tour the island.

Kathie and Andy's anniversary today. Hope they have a Happy one. Tried to get hold of them several times today but guess they were busy.

I finally ate the steaks that Noni gave to me for my birthday. We had to freeze them that day, but got them out and were they some delicious. Excellent taste and butter-knife tender. MMmmmmmm. Thanks you Noni.

Gotta go. Blog blog blog already.

We are again home for the day. We just brought some extra stuff home as we will be packing up camp tomorrow. Amazing what one collects just be parked for two weeks, of course when it is close to home you tend to bring out more each trip you make. Anyhow, we have lost our parking spot at Andy and Kathie's, as Colwood is cracking down on boulevard parking, so we are hunting for a place to park. It was kind of Andy and Kathie, and we thought that some day it would come to an end via some bureaucratic regulations.

Alas Dennis and Catherine will not be coming over to the Island this trip. Apparently they ate their way through Vancouver and would have exceeded the Ferry weight limits. Hopefully next time. Maybe when they are retired they will have more time. Wait, they are retired. Hmmmmm!

We had all available kids out for a picnic on Sunday past. All the Victoria bunch were able to make it except for Chris. It was nice to see them all at once, though rather hectic. A good time was had by all.

A week ago we went to Chelsea's award ceremonies and some pictures follow below.

A group shot. Ain't she cute?

Chelsea won not only the "Spirit of Spencer" award, she won the "Top Student" Award. Congratulations Chelsea.

8 award winning classmates, where are the guys????

I see Dennis and Catherine made it to Vancouver, with an extra visit to Medicine Hat to retrieve a lost purse. Thankfully it was found intact. See his blog on the right.

We went to Chelsea's award night. She picked up 5 awards. Honour roll with 20 others, Spencer Achievement award with 7 other girls, the leadership award (with several others) and the Spirt of Spencer award, which is shared between a guy and a girl. She was the girl surprise, surprise. What the big surprise was and no one had any advance warning was the Spencer top student award, which she won all by herself. Noni was crying, Grandma was crying, Steven was puffed up with pride. You know it is hard to take pictures with tears in your eyes. We are so very proud of her.

Speaking of pictures I had forgotten my good digital camera at the campground, the old digital didn't take very good pictures, so I had my faithful 35mm, with high speed film and telephoto lens. Anyhow we all have to wait for developing, the old fashion way. I'll post them soon.

Weather has been great, having a great time at the campground, at least when we are there. I have been helping Andy reshingle his roof. So far we have stripped it, took down the gutters, put in new facia, and have placed the new tar paper. Shingles are coming tomorrow. He has lots of help, with his sons Kevin and Chris, along with a couple of Chris's friends, so it going along quite smoothly. I have been sleeping good.

That all for now. Dennis: pass on our regards to Lois and Brett on the occasion of their 25th Wedding anniversary.

Give Margot and Joel a kiss and hug too.

We are off to a dance tonight at the Crystal Gardens downtown. Probably the last affair we will have there, since it is destined to be torn down, or something. After the roof work, I'll be lucky to be standing, never mind dancing.