Afternoon Coffee and Tea

I parked at the EV chargers on Third Avenue. Kimchi got several hours of free Level 2 power from New Westminster's street lighting system.

The parking was right across the street from some folks whom we'd not yet seen this summer. They invited us for coffee at their place. We met in New Westminster through mutual friends a smidgeon over one year ago. They have continuing connections to Malaysia, where we had spent most of our previous winter.

That wasn't the last time we saw them though. Luckily, we were able to see them once again in Kuala Lumpur last winter. This photo was taken on January 17th.



It's also entirely possible we may have the chance to meet them at the same location again. As fellow 'snowbirds', they will also be travelling for about five months of the upcoming winter. We will have overlapping dates in Malaysia during February and March 2020.

Wednesday is Laundry Day (This Week)

Today seemed pretty ordinary. Jay did catch the flu that I got during the rainy day in Charlottetown a week ago. That didn't stop us from taking the car to Queensborough. Jay had received $5 for free slot play on his BC Lotteries Encore Card. We think of those cards as primarily an option for cheap casino buffet lunches when travelling in British Columbia. Occasionally, we receive some promotional cash which must be spent on slots.

By the time Jay had checked in at the front reception, he somehow had $15 with which to play. It lasted about that many minutes. The promotional funds cannot be withdrawn but winnings can be. I think he cashed out with $0.45 because the minimum bet is now $0.50.

When in that neighbhourhood, we stopped at the Value Village. I was in need of some new jeans. I didn't want a pair which was ripped and fashionably torn. I didn't even want faded denim.



I found what I wanted. So among the things accomplished today, was the washing of all laundry in the house. It'd been sitting from our days on the NE / Canada cruise waiting for dry sunny weather. I am a firm believer of natural drying on our balcony rack. My new, pre-owned Calvin Kleins® were included.

Today's Message

Dear Weather gods,

Thank you very much. You've prompted us to light the gas fireplace already this season. I'm happy to see it still works. Also, keeping lights switched on most of the day meant we'll get a larger power bill, but it did provide us with a very cozy, relaxing environment. We didn't feel the need to accomplish anything. Most importantly, I must add that today's weather is providing us with some pleasure in knowing our winter plans are all set and include five months away in the tropics.

Yours in damp subjugation,
Dennis and Jay

Something to Smile About

I've been told I have a big mouth. However, it wasn't big enough for all my adult teeth. To prevent crowding, my parents had the dentist of my youth pull a few healthy ones. There's that and then the time I broke my lower jaw in a car accident in Kuwait. Needless to say, I do not have a mouth of perfectly aligned specimens.

As an adult, I've come to rely on a Waterpik® device. Mere flossing cannot extract all the food which can sometimes get caught between my teeth. Besides, having a clean mouth simply feels much better.

I finally replaced my travel Waterpik® that I've been using daily for a few years. My new one does not sport that famous, brand name though. I have been unhappy with my last purchase from that company. It was designed for travelling but only came with large, clunky 120v plug. We are overseas a lot and require alternative power. Secondly, it never held enough electrical charge to last more than one session. Perhaps, most importantly, it literally screamed during operation. That purchase always felt like a downgrade from the counter-tank versions I'd owned prior to it.

On Amazon, I ordered an ABOX FC2561 water flosser developed by a Chinese company. The package was delivered yesterday, on a Sunday no less! My new device is great. It overcomes each of the problems mentioned. The more-than-ample battery charges via a standard USB outlet. So far I've run it six times and there's no sign of any battery discharge. It is nearly silent, but powerful with a solid feel. The 'nozzle heads' seem rather cheap but it shipped with at least a half dozen different ones.

All this is almost enough to make me smile!

Deep Sleep and our One-Legged Bird

We're back on west-coast time. Our recent cruise had us in both the Eastern and Atlantic time zones for a while. That meant going to bed yesterday at our regular time, but very tired. I was nearly too tired to sleep.



Jay is an ace at finishing up perishable foods just before we depart on adventures. Of course, that meant, we needed to do some shopping today. It kind of got us back into a weekend groove.

Presently, the apartment smells great as he's cooking a turkey. When we got back into town in the early summer, we bought a frozen turkey. I'm under the assumption that for a refrigerator/freezer to work efficiently, there should be adequate mass inside. The turkey was keeping our freezer temps consistent. However, we have only about 6 weeks remaining before we take off for the winter again! Jay decided to roast the bird as a great way to warm up the apartment and have it smell lived in again.



We had a bit of a surprise when pealing off the turkey's plastic wrap. Our bird had just one leg. Sure enough, in really small print, the wrapping read, "MAY HAVE SOME PARTS MISSING." There was truth in packaging there, I guess. I was left hoping our turkey lost its leg in the packaging process for I'd hate to think it had hopped around one-legged until being slaughtered.

Next Week's Itinerary

Tonight, we're on a red-eye to Toronto in order to make an early-morning connection to Boston. We're spending tomorrow night in a Brighton hotel and will board Holland America's MS Veendam midday on Saturday. We might witness the tail-end of the effects from hurricane Dorian.



Our return flight from Montreal is booked for Saturday, the 14th.

(We're not bothering to bring along our travel computer, so my review of the trip will not be published in this blog until after our return.)

My New Caffine Delivery System

I might be a half decade late to this party, but haven't let that deter my enthusiam.

One can never know when a new interest may develop, or what it might be.

My relationship with coffee goes way back; this is just a new fascination with brewing in a home Keurig machine. Just as with any new 'hobby' there are additional toys that go along with the activity.

Today, this 35-slot K-cup holder arrived. I think I'll like easier access to the pods. Spinning the rack is better than rummaging through a box for my choice. I look forward to expanding my coffee palate in the comfort of home.

Keurig has promised that all their pods will be recyclable by 2020. However, I also ordered a pack of six universal, refillable pods. I'll probably end up scooping my usual brand into them. The cup I tried this afternoon was 'orders of magnitude' better than when brewed in my old drip coffee maker. These are locked and loaded for quick use.

Personal Quote #138

"There's no one's life I'd rather have than my own."

Dennis Sylvester Hurd (1959- )

It does seem like we were so recently visiting Montreal! We'll soon be back there at the end of next week's cruise which starts in Boston, MA.

Hoping You had a Great Labour Day!

This is a 360° image. You may control the scene.
The weather was great today. We ushered out summer with lots of sunshine. The photo above was taken from the Surrey side of the Fraser River directly across from downtown New Westminster. We look at the large sand pile from our balcony. It was one of our destinations today because we'd not been over to check out the usually copious blackberry bushes growing in the vicinity.



We parked Kimchi, our EV, at a park at the end of Tannery Road.



The pickings were a bit sparse because we were late. Also, the weather lately has been a bit dry and many of the bushes had dried out. The views were great though and the picture below shows our apartment building near the exact center of the image.



We drove back across the Pattulo Bridge and stopped in at Queen's Park in our city. We wanted to give a fond farewell to the 'Petting Zoo' animals, on this, their last day of the summer season. I can only assume the creatures are both sad about their departure but excited for a return to life back on the farm. Many others were there to say their goodbyes too.





I love being home at this time of year. I do hope you had a great Labour Day too, wherever in the world you might have spent the day.

Morning Fog Along the River

How'd this happen so fast? September seems to have gotten here very quickly!

I have taken hundreds of photos from our balcony over the years. Sometimes they're of things running up or down the Fraser River. More often, they are shots showcasing the weather. Now that the fall has arrived, we will often witness foggy mornings.

An Activity for the First Day of the Long Weekend

We don't have a lot of chances to meet up with these guys during our summers in BC. Today, we made the time.

The Capilano River Hatchery was our destination and a nearby picnic table up at the Cleveland Dam provided a place to eat the food we'd bought for lunch.

Jay and I drove along Highway 1 and the Richmond guys stopped in the West End to pick up the others. Both cars arrived at a crowded parking area near the hatchery before noon. We crossed the river and hiked up to the dam.

A table there was the location for our lunch. After that, we looked at one of the major reservoirs for the Vancovuer water supply. This summer was not as dry as some recent ones; however, the water was down and none was spilling over the sluiceway.





We walked down towards the hatchery and spent some time watching the 'example' salmon swimming up a fish ladder. In addition we viewed hatching tanks holding thousands of tiny fry.





One more walk with a big, rest-time conversation ended the afternoon. At last, we headed home. It's nice to have a chance for this type of meetup. It doesn't seem possible that we only have two months until we head to Sri Lanka and Kuala Lumpur for our next retirement winter.

Having or Showing Experience, Knowledge, and Good Judgment.

I guess our third molars are called wisdom teeth because they show up in the back of our mouths so late. Supposedly, humans are wiser by our late teens and early 20s than when we were youngsters.

It can't be they carry accumulated knowledge because I had my upper-right one removed today and I don't feel any less wise. A filling of six years ago fell out of it and it wasn't in good enough shape to patch. In fact, was extracted piece by piece!

Local anesthetics are a miracle for modern dentistry! Regardless of what you may infer from TV news, we live in one of the best times in history.

Don't Do As I Say, I Don't!

Apparently, I have the moral conviction of a politician. I can proceed with a strongly ingrained view and then, seemingly, change on a dime. I can preach one thing for years and suddenly do the exact opposite.

Since I first learned of them, I've dismissed Keurig coffee makers as pricey and completely unnecessary. I've derided those who use them for the deleterious environmental impact of billions of those unrecyclable K-Cup pods. In addition, I considered their owners as simpletons who couldn't figure how to take the minimal effort necessary to brew a traditional pot of coffee. Lastly, I saw the copious, over-selection of pod-based brews in the supermarket as proof these devices were being marketed to bored millennials.

Today, I ordered my own Keurig coffee maker from Amazon Canada.



We have limited counter space, so I expect my K35 will be delivered to my apartment door tomorrow along with a variety 30-pack of K-Cups. For safe measure, I picked up a box of some Tim Hortons this afternoon too.

It Couldn't Be Better!

This is the time to be hanging around this part of British Columbia. Today must be among the best days we've had so far this summer. Isn't that the way? Now that kids are begrudgingly getting ready to go back to school, a few days of excellent weather come to taunt.



I didn't notice the sun from the dentist's chair at 8:15 this morning. I had a filling in my top, left wisdom tooth go missing. I didn't spit it out so I must have recently eaten it. Actually, chips may have started coming off weeks ago as my tongue felt that something was different back there. It didn't hurt until yesterday, so I made today's appointment.

Ugh. It seems as though it'd be easier to remove it than try to patch it up again. I made another appointment for 11:00 AM on Friday!

The Soon Ex-Cow of New Westminster

The petting farm of our little city closes at the end of the long weekend. Summer is unofficially over next Monday.



We went up to say goodbye to the animals in the special, enclosed part of Queen's Park in our city of New Westminster. The tenacious goats will adapt to whatever situation prevails upon them. The chickens, pigs, rabbits, and peafowl will prosper. As the borrowed animals head back to their winter homes, the creatures will adapt to the new normal.

I'm worried about the cow, or more accurately, the heifer.



It was young, indeed, when it arrived in the spring. Newly seperated from its mother, I suspect, the furry bovine grew used to the attention of thousands of screaming kids. It endured endless hours of brushing and having hay poked at its face. It grew stronger in the public environment of the petting zoo.

From next Tuesday, it will join a farm and an existing herd. I bet it will wonder why nobody seems to be around. I know it may be hard giving up being the center of attention. Believe me, I have experiencd that. I was a teacher for thirty-three years and I retired five years ago!