I DID WHAT ANY SMART SELF RESPECTING HUSBAND SHOULD DO IN TIME OF MINOR CRISES………….I CALLED MY WIFE

TAKEN AFTER A WINTER’S STORM ON THE ROAD JUST OUTSIDE OUR PARK BACK IN OUR PRE-RV SNOW BIRD DAYS
Didn’t have any photos for tonight’s post so seeings how it was soooooo hot today I dug into my files for a few winter photos to cool myself off.  I have posted these pics a few times before through the years.  They are basically the only winter photos I have of our area & most were taken before we began traveling to the South-west back in 06.



YES, WINTER SOMETIMES DOES BRING A HEAVY SNOW LOAD TO OUR AREA
Unhooked our Lenova desk top computer this morning about 8:30.  Half an hour later we walked it into ContinuIT computers in Goderich.  This is where we bought the computer about 4 years ago & this is where we were leaving it for the day to have a larger hard drive installed.  After a quick stop at a Bell Telephone store we popped into our bank on the Square to get 2 of my credit cards straightened out after a gas station embarrassment in Clinton Monday.
<<< ALONG GODERICH’S BEACH ROAD
Pheebs & I had pulled in for a routine gas fill-up in Clinton Tuesday morning.  For some unknown reason my usually reliable debit card wouldn't work.  Didn't have enough cash on me to pay for the gas but no problem, I'll just use one of my hardly ever used credit cards taking up space in my wallet.  Nope, first card was rejected saying invalid pin number.  Ok no problem as I dusted card number 2 off & inserted it into the machine only for that card to be rejected as well saying my pin number was once again invalid.  Ok panic time.  Gas station was busy & it was not only the heat of the day I was feeling.  Cars having to go around me as I stressfully fumbled through my wallet trying to see if I had stashed any cash in a secret compartment somewhere 10 years ago.  Nope, no luck.  And yes it’s time I had a new wallet.  Didn't want to move the Jeep away from the pump in case the gas station owner thought I was trying to abscond with a full tank of gas.  Didn’t want the Jeep’s rear end peppered with a load of buckshot.  But hey it’s Canada so I knew there was little chance of that happening.  Probably the only gun in town was an old early 1800’s Flintlock covered in dust & hanging on somebody’s living room wall as an antique.  But then I had myself a brainwave & of course I did what any self respecting smart husband should do in time of crisis.......I called my wife.  Of course that required a cell phone but fortunately I had one complete with an instruction manual on how to use the darn fangled thing.  Bonus.  Did a little speed reading & finally got the call through & with her customary problem solving ways Kelly quickly sprinkled some magic wiffle dust on our computers keyboard at home, transferred some money between accounts & minutes later my debit card worked just fine again.  In a big cloud of gas station dust & with a hardy ‘Hi-Ho Silver’ Pheebs & I quickly rode out of town & hit the trail for parts unknown.  In all the years using my debit card that was the first time I had a problem & as it turns out it wasn’t a fault of the card anyway.  We had just slipped up & forgot to ensure our debit card account had sufficient funds in it.  Not likely that problem will ever occur again.  Well it better not anyway!!!!


BAYFIELD’S FROZEN PIER TAKEN FROM PIONEER PARK


NOT TOO MANY SUNSET WATCHERS AT BAYFIELD’S PIONEER PARK IN THE WINTER TIME
While at the bank we also got a bank draft to deposit some money to our account at the Bank Of America in Wickenburg Arizona.  Kelly had a few questions regarding our account in Wickenburg so upon returning home she decided to call the bank but couldn't find their number so called the always helpful Gals at the Congress water department.  Pat at the front desk told Kelly it was no point in her looking up Bank Of America's number in Wickenburg because the bank closed last May.  What!!!!   ATM still there but anytime we cashed any Canadian cheques we always had to physically go inside the bank to deposit them.  So what a surprise that was this morning.  Definitely inconveniences us & we will have to re-think some of our routine American banking practices for the winter.  So just to repeat, Bank Of America in Wickenburg Arizona closed last May but the ATM machine is still there.




STOPPING WITH MY ‘TOWN & COUNTRY’ MOBILITY VAN YEARS AGO TO QUICKLY TAKE A FEW WINTER PHOTOS BETWEEN WHEEL CHAIR PICK-UPS

Too hot to do anything constructive outside today so it was mainly a stay in the house day with the A/C on.  I think we hit 90F with high humidity.  We did fire up the Big EEE's generator & crank up both A/C roof vents for an hour or so.  We were told to do that occasionally & that it was good for the generator to run under a heavy load periodically.  Good for the house batteries as I recall too.  Not living full time in our Motorhome the generator is not used as much as it should be & never being in the southwest in hot weather the least used appliances on any of our rigs have always been the A/C units.  Happy to say both roof units fired right up & pumped out lots of cold air.  Good to know in case we decide to spend future Snow Bird winters living in the rig again.


Sure was a shock this morning coming face to face with the exchange rate on the American dollar.  Cost us a bundle just to deposit $500 U.S. dollars into our American bank account.  Wonder how this is going to affect fellow Snow Birds traveling south this winter.  Definitely going to cost all we Canadians a lot more money for sure.  But what's the alternative, sit here in the ice & cold all winter??  Certainly not yet if we can help it.


OUR BAYFIELD HOUSE IN WINTER TIME & YOU CAN SEE WHY WE DO NOT WANT TO SPEND WINTERS HERE

THEY CALL THIS CABIN ‘THE HUTCH’ AT BAYFIELD'S DEER PARK LODGE
A quick trip to Goderich late this afternoon brought our Lenova computer home & I had it hooked back up running before 6 o’clock.  Everything checked out perfect with it purring along smoothly as usual.  Now instead of having 26 Gigabytes of free space left we have 646 Gigglebytes of free space left.  Should be good for another hundred thousand photos.  Could have had a SSD drive put in but they were way too much money for us.  What we had installed today will serve us just fine.  And we do have an external back-up Toshiba hard drive with all my photos which does travel with us to the States.

SURE DON’T MISS THESE ICY ROAD DRIVES IN THE WINTER
GROANER'S CORNER:(( Dad's a safety-first kind of guy. But while vacationing with some buddies, he was talked into going parasailing.  He was on the back of the boat getting hooked into the parachute when he nervously asked the pilot, "How often do you replace the rope?"  The pilot replied. "Every time it breaks."