It's all over for another year

Dad left on Sunday around 3PM to head back to Ottawa for the night, and got home to Vancouver early afternoon yesterday, his time.

The only thing left for me to do is to detox from the enormous quantities of food and drink. (Seriously, I had fries twice in the 9 days. Along with chicken, wraps, an awesome real burger, desserts, Italian, Austrian, bakery items, wine, sangria, rye, beer, cider...you get the idea.)

We took lots of pics around town, in Gananqoue, went up the Skydeck off the Thousand Islands Parkway, and did go to Prince Edward County, both to the County Cider Company and then to Lake on the Mountain for lunch. The weather was glorious and hot, and we couldn't have asked for better.

The Skydeck. Elevator up, stairs are not permitted.

 The view from the open top level. I took my Fuji with the 30x zoom lens.

 

 

 

 

 

 From the middle level, I think. Hard to remember.

 

 

In another week or two, the colours will be quite pretty. Last Friday it still was mostly green, as you can see.

I was able to make use of Dad's rental car for stocking up, too, though not as much as in previous years. (I already did my huge Walmart run before he came.) And we got rid of the slew of paint cans and other hazardous waste that had been accumulating in my garage.

So it was mostly a fun visit, though we were productive too.

Now it's back to reality and back to work. One of my coworkers is in Scotland for two weeks' vacation, flew out yesterday. My "old" boss had routine day surgery go horribly awry last week and has had numerous complications since. He'll be off for at least another two weeks, if he's lucky. (I'm thinking "lawsuit," but we don't do that quite as much in Canada as is done in the U.S.)

I'm in the process of remortgaging the house yet again (the bank called me with a "deal"), to clear my debt. But hey, third time's the charm, right? I'm not optimistic about my chances of remaining debt-free. I'd need two or three years without any vet or house emergencies to save a bit, and what are the odds that will happen? Almost nil, I'd say. But I don't see any other solution, because I'm struggling to make even the minimum payments, so that's not good.

I am, however, having the ugly painted green countertop in the kitchen replaced. (It was a hideous speckled gray and I painted it an equally hideous shade of green years ago, though hadn't realized it would look that bad.) My former cubicle-mate's husband, the one who helped out this winter, will do it sometime in October. Shouldn't cost much, as I'm just going with cheap in-store laminate, and I'm including enough in the new mortgage to cover it.

I think that's it. I want to go home, but it's only 9:45AM here and I have a long day ahead of me.

Purrs from the boys and peace from me. I'll leave you with more pics.

Waiting for the Glenora ferry over to the County.

My favourite old house. Used to be a sherbet orange, has been repainted within the past two years, since I last saw it.

 Up at the County Cider Company.

 The view from their vineyard.

 

Up at Lake on the Mountain (lake is across the road, behind me), looking toward the Kingston side.

Boathouse (?) on the Lake. The Lake remains a mystery, as it's on the top of the mountain (hence the name) and there's no consensus on how it remains in existence, i.e. what feeds it.