Business and pleasure

We traveled (by car) to Canada for our friends' wedding this weekend.  They put us up at a beautiful hotel with a spectacular view of the Niagara River and the Falls by day, and the city lights by night.  You know which is which.

Annie took this photo

... and this one ...

... and this one, too.  I took none of these pictures.

 I showered as though I'd never felt hot water before.  Eight months of conservation down a Canadian drain.

Those guys brought their iPads and enjoyed the blazing speed of the hotel wifi.  I moseyed down to the bank of public computers and relaxed to the gentle rhythm of dial-up.  This was a good thing!  I realized that this site loads slowly.  That made me feel shame and remorse, so I reset the formatting so that there are only a few posts on the front page;  hopefully that will speed things up for lower bandwidth access.  You lower-bandwidth people.  Yes, you.  Let me know if it helps.  I'm sorry for my previous obliviosity.

I've added a couple of links.  I'm only adding companies that I like and use myself.  I haven't bought Marianne's books yet, but only because I'm procrastinating.  I will definitely buy them before we launch.

Embarrassed

I spent some time yesterday reading other RV blogs.  Scenic splendor, majestic vistas.  Mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts.  I showed you our sewer hose.

Don't be mad!  Here are some things to look at:

Finger Lakes National Forest, morning

Autumn, upstate NY

Seneca Lake from Lodi Point, NY

Lodi, NY (stuck again)

Spring, Ithaca, NY

What's missing?

March, standing ON Lake Erie

Blue Ridge buck-to-be

Blue Ridge tree 'n' stuff

Group campgrounds are the worst,

and innkeepers can be crabby

... and that's why we got the Duck.

Take a waddle on the wild side.

Lots of fun wildlife to be found here!

Linus


Honk Shoo!


Sage


Honk Who?



Sly-vester (picture by Carolyn)


Thomas (picture by Carolyn)


Pandora





No letters! I didn't name them, people - they come with their own ID. And, this is not the way we tether our animals ordinarily. This was a special circumstance.

And, speaking of wildlife ...



... Kathy and Jill (Internet names Rudy and Judy) came to visit Annie and Carolyn, and we were kindly invited to join them for a cookout. It was unavoidable. Guests would start pulling up next to the Duck, beans and buns would walk past laughing, and they all knew they didn't want to deal with our sad faces and big eyes staring out toward the campfire.

Jill and Kathy lived and traveled the US and Canada in a small truck camper for six months; they were hardcore! Great stories. We could tell by the glimmer in their eyes that they would do it again.

It is so peaceful here that we hate to go back to the house. I sleep very well in a background of peepers and rain on the roof, and birds are better than beeps for waking up to.

Duck, Goose, Goose

This post may not be appropriate for small children or people with heart problems. Disclaimer: contains descriptions and pictures of geese.

I gathered up my courage and went in search of the nest. [I do not have a picture of this process. Just picture me getting all big and fluffy.]

Spotted! There she is!


Her domestic partner:


Nice! This is easy.


While Jim confronts the angry goose, Marlin watches from the Jeep.


Jackpot! Isn't she gorgeous?




BLARGH! Okay, I'm going! I don't even like eggs!


Annie and Carolyn predict goslings in about a week. This mom takes two short breaks a day to go for a swim and see a movie, the rest of the time she is sitting just like this. The spouse stays close and keeps a very careful watch on the surroundings; he chased away a very large blue heron who was fishing a little too closely.

We really enjoy "getting away" over here. We've made a few upgrades on the coach, and I think it's looking pretty good.


Thanks, Carolyn and Annie, for the hospitality! Before it starts looking entirely like Christmas Vacation, we'll fire up and drive it outta here.

Census-takers?

Can we come in? We're a sedate family. We'll probably fall asleep soon.

Big calm people: Kathleen and Kathy
Small calm people: Mason, Violet and Alex

You remember Violet from an earlier visit to the Duckette. I haven't seen her for a while, but she did remind me that my house is messy. Okay kid, quiet down and drive.


Naturally, Alex can drive, too.

Mason won't consider driving until he's confident the thing is roadworthy.

The kids helped me visualize things. What do you mean, 24 cubic feet? That makes no sense. What I'm asking is, how many six-year-olds will it hold?

Q: How many triplets will fit in this storage hatch?
A: All of them.

It was sad to see kids so unfamiliar with being photographed.

These guys play hard and work hard. I can see the leak from here, Annie. Where's your duct tape?


Eventually, it was time to go. Y'all come back!

Photographic evidence

You probably thought I was overstating the danger of a waddle-by goosing, but that's before you were faced with overwhelming evidence.

We're just out for a walk! See? And a snack. Nothing suspicious going on here! Ha ha!


*whistles nonchalantly* O hai! Nice day, huh? We'll just keep moving and eating.


We'll just be ... right ... here ... because there are delicious bugs here. Yeah, bugs.


Thanks, Other Annie, for indisputable proof of our peril.

The Duck will be in the shop over the weekend. I was hoping to bring it home today or tomorrow, but no such luck, Duck.

Starlite Galaxy

Glenn Miller's golden notes surround us with their glow. The evening is violet satin, and my shantung gown flows like sherry all around the ...

RV toilet?


I especially love the tasteful appointments in the Starlite/Galaxy room.

Oh, she's a beauty, with her Aqua-Magic. But, she's outta here! to make way for the Nature's Head we bought last year. There was some kind of crazy unreachable bolt that held the whole works in. The toilet must be destroyed! Bring in the Multi-Max! And her Dremel!



The Aqua-Magic Starlite/Galaxy was no match for Annie and her new tool.



Carolyn and Annie's reputation in the neighborhood was no match for me and the Aqua-Magic Starlite/Galaxy.



While I was lowering property values, Maria called to check in and to let us know about Car(r)a(o)t. She's doing very well, is about to be integrated, and has taken to tearing around their house with no apparent pursuer.

As I was "uploading" pictures yesterday, I destroyed them, including photographic evidence that the geese here are predatory. Luckily, I woke up just in time and spotted them preparing to double-team the Big Duck.

Next time, or some time after that:  pictures of Annie tearing down and rebuilding the Bucket Room.

It felt sad to end our vacation.  On to the mechanic who will be re-installing a rebuilt generator, installing the exhaust system, and repairing a rear support arm.

A picture is worth a word or two. (Roxi)

One significant body of work that will stay behind is my picture collection. The photos are stuffed into albums, traditionally, with a few strays here and there. I think it's like most old-school collections. The conventional grab-these-on-the-way-out-of-the-burning-building pile.

It seemed obvious to start scanning them and arranging them in some order. This coincided with my desire to create an album for my son, whose father died this June, at 49.

While I'm at it (I thought), why not create another online album with and for my cousins out west, with whom I haven't shared the recent couple of decades. In reality, this has been easy, because their side of the family is a subset of my son's kin. It has also been great to see old snapshots of us as kids; remembering Lori writing letters to a pesky younger cousin, just because she was kind even then. Feeling queasy like I did the summer we all rode around in the back of the station wagon while our parents took in the old sights. They were so mad at us because we weren't interested!

So far, I've processed a little more than 500 photos - scanning, cropping, editing and uploading - and holy cow! what a project. Not half done yet! But, it's packing an emotional punch - a good one.

Pictures

I remembered the Before pictures:





If you will all kindly tilt your heads 11° to the right:





What will change the most: