HAD MYSELF A PAYING JOB FOR A FEW HOURS THIS MORNING:))

ST MARYS, ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SOUTHERN ONTARIO TOWNS

Actually had myself a nice little paying job this morning for a couple hours. The job was right up my alley.   DEER PARK LODGE recently switched from a large linen/laundry facility in London Ontario to another laundry company in St. Marys. Normally, the company picks up & delivers on certain days but with the Labor Day holiday weekend upon us, Deer Park needed an extra load of dirty laundry delivered to ST. MARYS ONTARIO this morning in order to have it back Monday. And, that's where I came in.  Picked up & stuffed 15 bags of laundry into our Santa Fe about 10:30 & headed east with ‘The Laundry Company Inc’ as my destination. St. Marys is a small picturesque town & it is a quiet country drive all the way there & all the back. When we lived in the old farm house near Fullarton Ontario years ago, St Marys was our 'go to' town so I am well familiar with it.  Kelly & I both drove school buses out of there & I also drove the St. Mary’s mobility bus part time for a few years.   If I had to pick a small southern inland Ontario town to live in, it would be St. Marys. If I were to pick a town on Lake Huron, it would be Goderich.  And, if I had to live in a large city…….I would just simply throw my hands up in despair:((

<<< MY MISSION THIS MORNING?  DELIVER THE LAUNDRY!!

Over the years I have had many varied jobs & one of these days I'm going to take the time to write a few posts about all the shenanigans & experiences those working years entailed.  It was the driving jobs I enjoyed most over the years. Before leaving the stress of working in a small retail business back in the mid 80's for a few years I used to dream of just getting myself a simple driving job delivering parcels to rural communities. A month after leaving my managerial job at a one hour photofinishing store in Stratford Ontario, I was in a cube van all by myself, happy as a Clam, delivering parcels for Purolator. I was one of the 'on call' drivers who came in after all the main driver's had left on their morning routes. I loaded my van up with the left over stuff the regular guys couldn't fit in their trucks. Most of my deliveries were to outlying farms & small rural business's off the beaten path. It was this period of time I got to know so many of the back country roads in our area & it was also the time I began to grow my love for the countryside. Ten years later, after meeting Kelly, we both moved from large cities to an old farm house in rural southern Ontario & that marked a major turning point in both our lives:))

LARGE STONE BUILDING ON RIGHT WAS ONCE THE OPERA HOUSE

 

IT IS EASY TO SEE WHY ST. MARYS IS REFERRED TO AS ‘STONETOWN’

Took me exactly one hour to reach St. Marys & another hour & a half’s journey back to Bayfield.  That extra half hour was spent put putting along a few gravel roads along the way.  Humidity was heavy again today so I was thankful for the A/C in the Santa Fe. 

Commenter, Casita Wren asks, 'Al, can you tell me how you deal with Ontario house-watching for 6 months’?  Leaving one's house empty for half a year is a always a major concern for Snow Birders. We are fortunate in several ways here. First, we happen to live in a very secure & mature community so our fears of break-ins & vandalism are extremely low. We are not in a town or city & yet not isolated on a back country road either. We do have watchful neighbors. We have a friend in the Park who checks out our place on a regular basis. We leave a large thermometer in a window beside the driveway as well & a quick glance at that gauge from outside quickly tells him if there is any problem with a dropping temperature inside. We leave our furnace on low which is an old habit from when we had a lot of indoor plants. Well, we had a lot of plants until they all froze two years ago when something happened we had not anticipated. The batteries in our thermostat failed!! So, from experience, a warning here!! Replace the batteries in your thermostat each year before heading south. When the batteries failed, our house temperature began dropping. Luckily, the fellow (Bruce) we had looking after our place caught the drop before it did any serious damage to our water pipes, but not before all our plants died. We have two separate thermostats, one for our electric furnace & one for our gas fireplace stove. We will definitely replace those year old batteries with new ones before we leave. Many people completely drain their water systems & completely shut their house down. Seems to work fine but I've never been comfortable with the idea of our whole house turning into one big huge frozen ice box.

C 

THE RUSTIC TOWN HAS AN OLD ENGLISH FLAVOUR TO IT
We have never had our mail forwarded while traveling. Bruce picks up our mail every few days & if he feels there is anything important we should know about, he emails us. Bruce also starts up our Santa Fe periodically. The first few years of traveling we always took the battery out of the vehicle at home & for some reason we went through a couple batteries. The last few years we just leave the battery in the vehicle & with it being started & left running for a bit everything has been fine. Our cable TV, internet & telephone stuff is all put into 'vacation mode' & the insurance on our Santa Fe is dropped into a basic coverage mode. All that saves us a few dollars here & there. We unplug all electrical cords from outlets. We leave cupboard doors under sinks open, etc. If, in an emergency we had to come home in the winter, we have a neighbouring farmer who can slip over with his tractor & blow any snow out of our driveway. If a tree or branch fell on our roof, we have Park staff here who could immediately help with that.  Anyway, in my usual rambling sort of way, I hope that kinda answers Casita Wrens question.

 

And, I did find my Picasa Web Albums where commenter Rick said they would be.  I have to now spend some time getting myself familiar with the new & revised workings of Google.  Practice makes perfect they say.  Whoever they are that say them kinda things that is:))

THE THAMES RIVER FLOWS THROUGH THE HEART OF ST. MARYS 

GROANER’S CORNER:((   New Investment Definitions::
CEO - Chief Embezzlement Officer.
CFO - Corporate Fraud Officer.
BULL MARKET - A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.
BEAR MARKET - A six to eighteen month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewellery, and the husband gets no sex!
VALUE INVESTING - The art of buying low and selling lower.
P/E RATIO - The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
BROKER - What my broker has made me.
(S&P) STANDARD & POOR - Your life in a nutshell.
STOCK ANALYST - Idiot who just downgraded your stock.
STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.
MARKET CORRECTION - The day after you buy stocks.
CASH FLOW - The movement your money makes as it disappears down the Toilet.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR - Past year investor who's now locked up in a Nuthouse.
MOMENTUM INVESTING - The fine art of buying high and selling low.
'BUY, BUY' - A flight attendant making market recommendations as you step off the plane.
FINANCIAL PLANNER - A guy who actually remembers his wallet when he runs to the 7-Eleven for toilet paper and cigarettes.
CALL OPTION - Something people used to do with a telephone in ancient times before e-mail.
YA HOO - What you yell after selling all you owned to some poor sucker for $240 per share.
WINDOWS - What you jump out of when you're the sucker that bought Yahoo for $240 per share.
PROFIT - Religious guy who talks to God.

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- Tourists see the world, travelers  experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))

- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)

- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward   

- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right  now...AL.

- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

- OUR PHOTO ALBUMS - .https://picasaweb.google.com/117858411710794543295/

stargeezerguy@gmail.com