A Few Random Thoughts and Good Things

It's hard to believe it's September already, but as soon as I opened my email on Tuesday morning, there it was - September 1st!! Wow, the summer flew by fast! It seems like Erin's wedding was just yesterday instead of July 25th. And now, with Mikayla back home after spending 2 weeks with us, it's just Paulette, me and the mutzo's again!

Four months & we'll be driving down this road to our RV Site

From Our First Few Days in Desert Hot Springs

But, hold on - September already is a 'good thing'! In just 4 short months, it'll be January, and we'll be heading down to Palm Springs for our winter sojourn in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas(El Paso) and Utah before finally heading back home to the Cowichan Valley. It's going to be both a relaxing vacation, in Palm Springs, and exciting too when we head off in April to new places like the Carlsbad Caverns, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Salt Lake City.

No sense in getting too far ahead of ourselves though, we still have lots of things to keep us occupied between now and the Christmas holidays(Christmas, yikes - can't believe I said it!). First, and foremost, will be to make sure we get our 5th wheel all spruced up and ready to roll well before then. We've put a few miles on our 5'er this year, so I'll be getting the wheel-bearings greased and re-packed sometime before then. We have a friend who does this for us and he checks all the brake linings at the same time - never hurts to be safe!

Rylie - "I'm quiet, just perfect and no trouble at all"
Our little pup, Rylie, turned 4 months old on Sept. 1st. She was born on Camano Island in Washington State on May 1st, but we didn't bring her home until June 16th. Rylie has been a bundle of joy and love ever since that day and has added a whole new dimension to our home - albeit, a bit of a frenzied dimension on occasion.

She's a lively one, to say the least! From the time Rylie gets up in the morning until she finally conks out at night, she is just a bundle of energy, curiosity and trouble!! As innocent as Rylie looks in the picture to the left, she is incredibly able to find things she shouldn't find, and to do things she shouldn't be doing.

She has been very quick to learn, and house training Rylie has really been a snap - only the very odd 'accident' anymore. She already responds eagerly to several common commands, comes when she is called and is extremely friendly, gentle and cuddly(when doesn't feel like taking a bite out of me). Rylie just loves her 'big sister' Molly and is always quick to follow Molly and try to copy whatever she is doing. They've become great companions and truly enjoy each others company - now that Molly has firmly established herself as the 'alpha dog'. Although, I sometimes have to wonder if Rylie is just letting her think that!

So, enough with the brilliant, adorable, all-everything, best-in-the-world puppies(substitute the name of your own pet here) and back to the very ordinary and mundane life I lead, most of the time. And, as I've said many times - that's a 'good thing'.

Tuesday's main task, albeit a sad one, was to drive Mikayla home to her long lost family in Victoria. Mikayla gave us big hugs, thanked us for having her, and was off at full speed to her family and friends. Goodbye, Mikayla, and I hope you don't have too many withdrawal symptoms from all the blizzards, cake, cookies, ice cream, pop and other nutritious foods you ate while with us! I guess, as Grandparents, we do get the best of our grandchildren - but then, we've earned it haven't we?

Molly has been a terrific 'big sister' to Rylie


I went down to Victoria for lunch yesterday to meet Jim, an old friend I used to work with. We used to go for lunch almost every day when I was working, but now since I've retired, we only meet about once every 3 or 4 months, so there's always lots to catch up on. Yesterday, we met at Cafe Mexico right across from the old "Blue Bridge" in Victoria. It was the usual, and always good, Chicken Enchiladas for both of us. Jim's counting down the years to retirement and only has 3 or 4 more years to go, so he's always interested in finding out what I've been up to - drives him nuts when I say "just takin' it easy"!!

One other random thought I had. Yesterday morning as I was reading Mike and Pat's Travels, I stumbled across this from his blog: "I won't tell you what we had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, nor what a great dessert we had. No pictures of FOOD!!! ". I almost choked on my Blueberry Muffin! Because, this was only a day after my entire blog about making homemade Blackberry Pies! With lots of pictures, too! GUILTY as charged!

So, now what? I've just done it again by mentioning I had Chicken Enchilada's for lunch yesterday! Also, my good friends and fellow bloggers, Jerry and Suzy, are just as guilty! They have written blogs about their recent buffet party, and making Cowboy Cookies - both with multiple pictures! And Speedy too - with his casino buffet forays! C'mon, Mike - I'd just love to see a few pics of those lake trout you fish for sizzling away in your frying pan!

It is though, just a random thought, that it's great our blogs are all so different and that each of us has unique ideas on what's right. If we all thought the same way, and wrote the same stuff, what would be the point? So, Mike, I really enjoyed your blog yesterday and got a great laugh, at myself, and that's always a 'good thing'.