Spider Lake Provincial Park near Qualicum Beach is is popular for canoeing, kayaking and swimming. Especially for families.
It’s stocked with small mouth bass and rainbow trout — but catching them is another matter.
On one of the first hot weather days of the summer, my brother took me out on his excellent sit-on-top kayaks.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
My brother installed the same new stove in his house and my parents house.
Profile 5.6 cu. ft. Smart Slide-In Gas Range with Self-Cleaning Convection in Stainless Steel
We like it so far. It simmers at every possible temperature.
We locked the electronic screen so you can’t accidentally start or stop something.
The app — SmartHQ — is hilariously poorly done. 😀 Don’t bother.
Not many people would use an oven app, even if it worked.
Click PLAY or watch a review on YouTube.
We joined a service called Better Meals out of Vancouver, Canada.
They offer free delivery with $30.00 minimum order to my parent’s house from an extensive menu. Cost is only CAD $7.50 / meal. Unbelievably inexpensive for what you get.
Main course with two side dishes. Soup. And dessert.
Everything arrives frozen in recyclable containers. You can heat in the over or microwave.
You’d need trial and error to find the dishes you like best.
For example, my Mom liked the Turkey dinner but did not like one of the chicken dinners.
For those not going out much, Better Meals saves shopping. Cooking. And cleaning.
You could store some of the meals in the freezer, only pulling something out when it turns out you don’t have time to cook for yourself.
I’d recommend Better Meals. It’s available to anyone. They deliver only certain days of the week depending on where you live in B.C.
Note that the food comes without seasonings. You’d add those to taste.
related – In our town you can also get hot meals for CAD $7.50 from Meals on Wheels. But you have very little choice in menu.
Cleaned, sanded and painted the trim of my parent’s place in Parksville.
After all, at the end of the world as we know it WHY NOT invest in your home.
Well … my brother Rob did help a bit. Supplying the tools, paint and expertise.
But the unskilled labour — that was all me.
Pro tip – If looking for a tradesman count the fingers. Any with all 10 probably aren’t very quick at their job. 😀
Returning to Canada from Bermuda (zero positives at the time) I was asked at the Toronto airport to voluntarily self-quarantine for 14 days. And watch to see if I developed a fever or other symptoms:
Since that time I’ve only had one encounter I considered at all risky — a hotel check-in clerk near the Toronto airport.
When I got to the room I washed my credit card, the room key and my hands very thoroughly.
Physical distancing at my parent’s place in Parksville went well. Just 5 of us in contact. And one friend.
We had no thermometer but it was clear I had no fever — only my usual Spring allergies.
I’ll continue with the physical distancing, minimizing contact with people. But I do feel freer now to spend more time outside running, hiking and cycling in the wilds of Vancouver Island.
As far from people as possible.
Brant can be distinguished from Canada Geese by their smaller size; dark brown body with a black head and shorter neck and white collar. …
Brant breed in the north, in coastal Alaska and the Canadian Arctic on tundra and coastal islands. During winter, they are found along the Pacific coast and further south into Baja California, Mexico. Brant geese form long-term, monogamous pair-bonds and family units migrate together. …
First morning in Parksville, B.C. I headed to Rathtrevor Beach at dawn to see and hear the mob of several hundred. They are noisy.
Brant feed on coastal mudflats and only rarely come inland.
The Brant Wildlife Festival in Parksville/Qualicum Beach runs from March 5th to April 28th, 2020 — but some of the events have been cancelled due to COVID-19.
If I wasn’t watching Saturday morning cartoons, we would catch a bus to downtown Calgary because pool was free from 9am – noon at one hall.
What hall was that?
At noon I’d head over to Jaffe’s Book & Music Exchange to spend most of my $1 / week allowance on used comics.
It was located at 225 – 8th Ave. S.E.
Here’s Sam Osherow, manager.
The 3rd book in my brother’s Peter Galloway Murder Mystery series is set in my home-away-from-home in Mexico.
I had a condo there for 20 years. Randy’s had a condo there since. So he’s got a very accurate depiction of the Golden Zone in this novel.
In fact, tourist have been murdered there in similar ways to what happens here.
While in Mexico searching for his fugitive father, Peter Galloway chances upon the murder of a Canadian tourist.
What should be a pleasurable working vacation in an exotic destination becomes a desperate struggle to understand and survive the dangers of an unfamiliar culture.
Criminals, police, and politicians all hinder Galloway’s investigation, bringing their own brand of danger, and turning upside down his understanding of justice.
Even RCMP Sergeant Angela Ford is helpless to keep Galloway out of trouble.
Check Randy’s full list of books.
Book 4 in the Galloway series will be set in Niagara Falls.
Gary sent me a copy.
April 13, 1956 at Curry Barracks in Calgary.
My mailing address all these decades later is across the road from the old Curry Barracks. 😊
Second annual burger night at my parent’s place in Parksville B.C.
I had two salmon burgers. Chicken and steak were also on offer.
We tried adding horseradish to our Clamato drinks. It worked!
related – burgers on Christmas Eve 2018
Rick McCharles 