Victoria Beach: 2006-07-21 to 2006-07-23 Ongoing

This category it to keep track of our visits to the Victoria Beach Cottage. I have created a portal site where you can see any pictures that we might take with our digital camera at ..

http://HBSMC.com/victoriabeach/ | All Pictures Taken At Victoria Beach

Yvonne is on two weeks of holidays and naturally wants me to spend it with her. Unfortunately, I have too much to do before month-end is over, so I came back Late Sunday night to Winnipeg. I had car troubles in that my “Low Coolant” light kept blinking on. Because I’ve never seen that, nor had any water with me .. I just stopped at the side of the road and turned the car off for about 5-minutes. It seemed to work, but I will be getting it looked at on Wednesday.

I took Maxxie home with me .. and Sophie is up there with Yv. Hopefully they will remember each other when they meet next weekend! It seems .. that our dogs – interferes with Yvonne’s Jogging routine. I bought the bike to get exercise and go out riding every morning with Yvonne while she jogs for about 1-1/2 hours. It became apparent to Yv that the dogs cramp her style and do not keep up. It’s just not feasible to have dogs slow you down when you want to jog. I talked about my biking experience last week when I tried to go with her while she jogs .. but, this week our neighbor happened to mention that during the entire time that we were gone – and Maxxie and Sophie were locked up in the house … they were barking like crazy. NOT GOOD at 7:30am in the morning.

Although Yvonne wanted Maxxie – without me to stay home while she jogs .. she thought Maxxie is the instigator and didn’t want him. Or rather, wanted him – but unwilling to change her routine for the pets. It’s a shame too .. Maxxie loves it out there, taking swims .. all the smells .. other people and dogs … Although he doesn’t always listen and come back when we call him .. or he gets tired from walking too much or running too much .. he DOES have fun! Now, it’s like he’s being punished here at home this morning.

I talked to Yv this morning though .. Sophie seems to be having the same old time … staying close to Yvonne, sleeping on soft pillows or beds .. etc etc.

Karen and the kiddies are expected to arrive later in the day and be there for the week – which, gives me better excuse not to be there.

Movies Watched by HART this trip:

* Fantastic Four

Impulse shopping // I rented it from the store, even though there is about 10 recorded movies waiting for me to watch. I had never seen this movie yet.

Re: Bike … I bought this neat little expandable package that attaches to the backend .. to hold my tools … but Yv filled it up with gum and I didn’t get around to putting it on the bike until Sunday. It’s not a clean fit .. and because it’s an expandable bag .. it’s not sturdy (when empty) and I had to place it close to the seat to get that extra velcro-attachment to secure it properly. I’ll take pictures next weekend to show you what I mean. I might replace it with something else.

We’ll see.

Boy. Sure miss swimming .. I am a water hound … at least 3 times per day, for an hour or so each time .. That’s without any accessories .. although, once I used a noodle contraction to try and float on my back with – works okay.

Victoria Beach: 2006-07-14 to 2006-07-16

This category it to keep track of our visits to the Victoria Beach Cottage. I have created a portal site where you can see any pictures that we might take with our digital camera at ..

http://HBSMC.com/victoriabeach/ | All Pictures Taken At Victoria Beach

We took last weekend off and didn’t go to the cottage. Since it was my birthday on Tuesday July 11th .. we decided that instead of the annual Steak BBQ at my mom’s place .. Yvonne and my Mom would throw me a BBQ out at Victoria Beach! We invited both my folks, and my brothers. We only wanted them out for a day though – it’s too messy to clean up after them and there really isn’t enough room if they come out to stay – especially if Yvonne’s sister and family comes out too.

So – they were there on Saturday the 15th. They arrived around noon and left around 10pm ..

I took many pictures – but, I seemed to have forgotten to take a picture of the entire family and Sammi (their dog) who was also out. The pictures are up in the gallery now, starting from page 3 to about page 5. There was a little hullaballo because everybody wanted to listen to the Bomber Football Game (against Montreal). Now, my father is a little deaf and even though he wears one hearing aid .. we still had to turn up the volume. I hope the neighbors didn’t mind too much – as we all know they heard our radio! We couldn’t get a good enough screen image to watch it on the TV

Movies Watched by HART this trip:

* None

Why?

I GOT A NEW BIKE! WooHoo!

But it was awful. I didn’t watch the store take apart the front tire, so I’m not sure that I put all the parts back in the proper order. And, while I was walking it down to the cottage – the nut fell off and I lost it. I managed to find a similar one and used that instead. Later on in the day – I found the original nut. I will replace it next week.

Anyway – Yvonne is jogging about an hour every morning out there around 7:30am so, I was anxious to just ride along with her on my new bike. She is very “one-ness” about the jogging – “me,me,me,me”. We were going down 8th avenue out there and I saw the view at the end of the road and mentioned that I wanted a picture. She wouldn’t have anything like that! No way! “I’m not stopping for you!” … So, I immediately sped up pedalling down the hill to take a picture and be able to get ahead of her so after my picture, I can catch up to her if she gets past me (I don’t know her route) … when all of a sudden..

The main spring fell off the front time. The bike was inoperable. The bike pictures are on Page 4 of the gallery.

I walked it up to the main gate and borrowed some pliers to put it back on, pedalled back to the cottage and tightened it accordingly and headed out back around Victoria Beach to find my Booboo. I failed miserably and just came back an hour later. She arrived shortly after that. It seems .. we might have missed each other by 5 minutes on one stretch of Sunset Boulevard beach road – thanks to some nice joggers who I thought were giving me good information but, instead were just playing dumb and put me on a goose chase. DON’T ASK!

The bike works fine now! It’s great – all I have to do is raise the seat now… if I can figure out how to do that!

Victoria Beach: 2006-06-30 to 2006-07-03

This category it to keep track of our visits to the Victoria Beach Cottage. I have created a portal site where you can see any pictures that we might take with our digital camera at ..

http://HBSMC.com/victoriabeach/ | All Pictures Taken At Victoria Beach

We ended up leaving on Friday June 30th in mid-afternoon after dropping off Zeussie Pussy Cat to stay with Cousin Sammi and HART’s folks. Karen and Warren and the kiddies :p were up on Saturday. We now have a working TV and the plumbing in the kitchen when running the hot water – does not rattle anymore.

I forgot to bring my camera, but took a lot of pictures with my sucky phone cam. I just have to figure out what to do with them now.

As for movies … Yvonne recorded about 9 movies for this trip out .. including the Deer Hunter and a few other oldies … but I was the only one ending up to watch a movie on Friday night … And, the tape ran out approx. 15 minutes before the ending. That’s what you get for putting 3 movies per VHS tape! Oh well .. it wasn’t a great movie anyway. We were more or less socializing the rest of the time or, watching the football game. (Go Blue!)

Movies Watched by HART this trip:

7) Kingdom of Heaven (Orlando Bloom)

Mental Note: I need a new bike … I was out browsing last week and got the shock of my life seeing $4100.00 bicycles .. (are you guys nuts?) and I’ve seen a few reasonably priced bikes that are well made, suitable for the beach and my size and weight that I’m eyeing on … $375.00 although, there are cheaper bikes at Canadian Tire ($225 range). If I get a chance before mid-month I also want to just check out a few local pawn shops and see what’s around. My brothers both “know people” who can find bikes REALLY CHEAP — … ugh, thanks I guess.

Anybody have any suggestions for a good bike for gravel roads and hills and paths and able to either pull a cart or have a basket? Suggestions to brand names, links for pictures, or model numbers welcome.