Share Your World 2015 – Week 31

Posted on August 9, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..I’ll try to get this in before Week 32 arrives (tomorrow)

Would you rather take pictures or be in pictures?

I love taking pictures but every once in awhile I’d like to be in them. It seems that the photographer is hardly ever in any shots unless you ask someone to take a picture with you in it.

Where do you like to vacation?

I like to vacation at my cottage but I do like to travel overseas. A couple of my favourite places or countries are the Netherlands and Ireland. I’d also like to see more of Canada and hope to take a trip to the east coast in the near future.

If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?

Yield. I’m always slowing down and doing things for others before I can move on.

List at least five favorite first names.

Girls – Claire, Elizabeth, Michele, Emily (Emma), Abby, Andrea, Gaelan, Kate

Boys – Brendan, Michael, Mark, Christopher, Kevin

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful that my husband and our daughter, G, were able to come to the cottage for three days. It’s the first time all summer that family members have found time to visit.

The week is almost over but I am looking forward to G’s baby shower later today. I told you in an earlier post that I’d reveal the gender of her baby closer to her due date. Here’s a baby hat that I knit when I was up at the cottage. I bought the wool before we were told if the the baby was a boy or a girl. I chose the colour because I knew based on our genetic make-up and regardless of the sex that this would be a complimentary colour. I added a couple strands of another colour so that the public wouldn’t need to ask is it a boy or a girl. Is this enough of a clue?

For more Share Your World posts check out Cee’s blog.

Who Does That?????

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..if I sound a bit angry, I am ! ! !

Yesterday was suppose to be a lovely day with a birthday celebration and attending our final Pan Am Games event.

The day started off well. I finally had an appointment to get my hair cut and I left the salon in a good mood. I walked to the Farmers’ Market and bought a delicious cheese and herb bread and then made my way to the gas station to fill up before our trip to Hamilton. All good!

We picked up the girls from the subway station at 1:00 and then headed out to the highway. We got into the HOV lanes because we had four people in the car and we were flying down the highway and making great time. All went well until……everything slowed down, even the HOV lanes.

We weren’t surprised when we slowed down because we were approaching the part of the QEW where Hwy 403 merges with it. In past trips to Hamilton, London or Niagara Falls we’ve experienced these slow downs before. A couple of times traffic literally stopped in all the lanes.

Unfortunately the last time we stopped the Jeep behind us didn’t and slammed into our rear bumper. Luckily no one was physically hurt but I was emotionally scarred from the experience. Now before you think I’m a complete wuss let me explain my situation.

This is the third time that I’ve had an accident with this car. All three times I haven’t been at fault. Twice, including this time I was rear ended and the other time a dump truck backed into me in a turning lane. The first two times the drivers exchanged information with me and apologized for their mistake. Damage to the car totalled over $9000. for the first two accidents.

After the Jeep hit us yesterday, my daughter and her partner, declared that the driver was laughing at us. They turned around after the impact and they saw both the driver and his passenger point at the car and start to laugh. I was sure that they had to be mistaken. Who laughs after they’ve caused an accident?

I pulled onto the shoulder, to minimize the traffic jam that would occur because of this fender bender. To my shock and horror the Jeep passed us and kept going and the driver was laughing at us. What??????????

We managed to get the license plate number or we thought we did. It was a New York State plate. We called the OPP to report the hit and run and they suggested that we stay safe inside the car and wait for a police officer to arrive.

An OPP officer did call us soon after but he was about 20 minutes away and he advised us to move to the other shoulder, four lanes over. By this time, however, traffic had picked up again and was moving very quickly. We stayed where we were until another accident took place about 100 metres ahead of us. Of course traffic slowed to a crawl, so with my husband sticking his head out of the window and directing traffic with his hands, I managed to move over the four lanes to the ‘safer’ side.

After waiting for 30 minutes and being passed by four separate OPP vehicles we were worried that our officer had missed us. Then I saw a fifth car about to pass us but I managed to get his attention as he was driving by. I watched him put on his lights and pull over to the outside shoulder and back his car to where we were parked. Well it turned out that he wasn’t the officer assigned to our case but he stayed with us. In the next five minutes two more officers arrived, one on a motorcycle and one in a cruiser. Now we had three OPP vehicles around my little blue car with all their lights flashing.

The last car to arrive was the officer we had been waiting for. He took all our information and then he gave us the bad news. After putting the license plate number into the computer it came back null and void. That number didn’t exist. I thought the girls had given him one wrong letter so I suggested that he try a ‘c’ instead of a ‘d’. This time he got a hit but it wasn’t for a Jeep. The girls were sure of the numbers but not the order. The officer wasn’t comfortable playing around with the numbers. The last thing he wanted to do was accuse the wrong person of hitting our car. I don’t blame him.

Everyone felt badly for not getting the plate numbers right but the last thing we expected was that someone would actually ‘run’ from the accident. We were in a panic and not thinking straight. I just remember swearing over and over (something I don’t normally do) and my husband was shaken up and the girls were appalled that the Jeep occupants were laughing at the situation.

So I guess in the end the Jeep driver got away with this one. The damage to my car will be at least $1000. and who knows what will happen to my insurance rates. The good news is that no one was hurt, we made it to our game and we managed to have a nice birthday dinner for my daughter-in-law.

Share Your World 2015 – Week 29

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….a whole week without internet and I feel I’ve let you down

When I go to the cottage I like to spend some time at the local library to catch up on my emails and post an article or two and some photos. On my last visit to the cottage I made three visits to the library but was unable to connect to their Wifi. It was frustrating but maybe someone was trying to tell me something.

Now that I’m home I’m overburdened with hundreds of emails and can’t seem to get to them because of other commitments. Has anyone really missed me? Probably not but none the less I still feel somewhat guilty for not replying to comments and writing new posts.

My contribution to this week’s Share Your World is a bit later than I like to post because next week’s questions are only a day away.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Initially I wanted to be a nurse, like most little girls of my generation, but when I was 12 I knew decisively that I wanted to teach Family Studies. My teacher at the time asked me to demonstrate some sewing skills for an open house we were having and from that moment on I was focused on my goal to teach.

What was your favorite food as a child? Do you eat it now?

I loved many foods as a little girl but one food that stands out for me was a meat sauce that my father made with ground beef and peas and the base was made from a roux of flour, butter and beef stock. This is what we served over spaghetti until my mother learned how to make an Italian tomato based meat sauce. I’ve never made the original meat sauce with peas again but have made the Italian sauce numerous times.

If you were invisible, where would you go?

If I were invisible or a fly on the wall I would love to hear and see what goes on in the private chambers of some of the world’s leading politicians. We might be surprised at how much some of them struggle with day to day decisions that they have to make and we might be shocked at some of the corruption that occurs in the name of democracy.

Would you rather forget everyone else’s name all the time or have have everyone for your name all the time?

I’m not sure I understand this question as it is written. I’m assuming you mean ‘or have everyone remember you name all the time’.

I’m not good with names either but I don’t think I want to forget everyone’s name all the time. I’m often surprised how some names come back even after decades but I’m very uncomfortable when someone remembers me and I can’t think of their name. This happens often when students come back to visit me and I can’t for the life of me remember who they are. I can feel their initial disappointment but eventually I remember something about them and we can carry on a conversation. It helps when I explain that I have taught 1000s of students over the last thirty some years. When I taught middle school I used to teach every student in the school. In one school that was over 600 students.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a wonderful week at the cottage. I wish that my family and friends from the city could visit me up there but I have good friends and neighbours on the island that I spend time with. I’m very grateful to my friend’s son, DM, who helped me transport a bed and a beautiful old oak cabinet from my girlfriend’s house to the cottage. Without his van I would never have been able to get it up there.

This week, which has mostly passed I cleaned up the cottage and had friends from the island over for a wine and cheese party and some supper. I loved gathering flowers for the tables and preparing dips and plates of goodies.

I was also looking forward to yesterday’s final women’s soccer game against Brazil and Colombia. I was a bit disappointed in the overall game. It certainly didn’t feel like a gold medal game. Brazil won easily over the Colombians, 4 to 0. In the first five minutes of the game I couldn’t help but compare this game to the one I watched two weeks ago with the Canadian women. It made me wonder how the Colombians had advanced so far and weren’t able to play a better game. Their shots were wild and they only had 8 shots on goal compared to Brazil’s 120 shots on goal. I don’t know how accurate these stats are but according to my husband that’s what he saw on the scoreboard. Sitting between Brazilian and Colombian fans was quite the experience. They’re loud and exuberant if nothing else.

Selfie

My hubby and daughter, GT.

Colombia vs Brazil

Share Your World 2015 – Week 28

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..week of July 14th

What is your favorite comfort snack food?

At the cottage I’d have to say that my favourite comfort snack food is hot freshly popped corn with a little drizzle of melted butter. I have a special cast aluminum pot that I inherited from my mother-in-law over 40 years ago. I don’t know how old it was when I first got hold of it but it’s probably from the 50s. It makes the best popcorn but it stays at the cottage so I never have access to it when I’m back in the city. Therefore my second favourite comfort snack is cheese. I love cheese and a little wine on the side doesn’t hurt.

If you had to spend one weekend alone in a single store but could remove nothing, which store would you pick? (except food or beverage)

I like Cee’s answer (Ikea) but I think I might get bored. There are nice comfy beds to sleep on and the food there is also pretty good but I think I’d choose a Chapters Book Store. Most of them have a Starbuck’s on the premises and their chairs are comfortable enough for sleeping. I’m assuming I can take books off the shelves as long as I return them. I could really get into all the art books and decide which ones I’d like to own and maybe I could bring my knitting and find some great patterns that I could experiment with.

What was the largest city you have been to? What is the one thing you remember most?

The largest city I’ve ever been to is probably the one I live in. Toronto is the largest city in Canada. The next largest city I’ve been to would have to be Montreal. The things I remember most are how the city is divided into old, historic Montreal and the new modern Montreal. In old Montreal there are great cathedrals and churches and in modern Montreal there are fantastic restaurants and great shopping.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.designsponge.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/montreal.jpg

Photo courtesy of: http://www.cmdai.org/images/montreal.jpg

Finish this sentence: It has recently come to my attention that ….

…..my husband is going to have more surgery in August. After all the tests and the indecision and differing opinions of numerous doctors, the tumour board has decided that surgery was the best option. We’re actually happy that a decision has finally been reached and we will find out exactly what it is in his lungs that keeps showing up in his scans.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for a week spent at the cottage. Now that the place has been opened and cleaned future trips will be much easier and there won’t be any hesitation about going up there. I’m also grateful for time spent with my daughters and husband and being able to take part in the Pan Am Games experience.

This week I’m looking forward to going back up to the cottage and hopefully the water will have warmed up a bit so that I can go swimming. My husband has another doctor’s appointment on Friday but I hope he can find the time to join me on the weekend.

My First Pam Am Games Experience

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..couldn’t have asked for better weather or a better outcome

There was so much negativity in the media about these games that I felt compelled to actually buy tickets for some events. The prices were very reasonable and I questioned why wouldn’t we want to support our athletes. People were critical of how memorable these games aren’t and challenged people to remember where the last games were even held.

One day, recently, someone phoned in and actually answered those questions. I decided to do some research and I also learned a little bit about the last games. They were held in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011 and opened Oct. 14th and closed Oct. 30th. There were three mascots for these games: Huihci, a deer, Gavo, a blue agave and Leo, a lion.

Image courtesy of: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/90/Guadalajara2011logo.JPG/220px-Guadalajara2011logo.JPG

This year is the first time that golf was added as a sport. I learned that bit at the soccer game during intermission when they hosted a trivia game.

Well I think the support for the games has been quite a surprise for the naysayers in the media. Many events have sold out and so far traffic hasn’t been the nightmare that they predicted.

On Saturday, my family and I drove to Hamilton to attend the women’s soccer game. There were actually two matches for the price of one. The first game was Brazil vs. Costa Rico and then it was Canada vs. Ecuador. We could have taken the Go Train free of charge but we weren’t sure how late it would be before we returned home so we opted to drive and park at our daughter’s house. She lives a couple of blocks from the new train station, that was actually finished on time for these games. At the station there were shuttle buses to take people to the stadium. It was a sea of yellow school buses or ‘cheese wagons’ as the kids call them.

It was barely a 5 minute walk to the station and we boarded one of the complementary buses to the stadium. The ride took only 10 minutes, if that, and then it was a short walk to the entrance. There were volunteers everywhere to assist people and they were extremely friendly.

We were sitting on the sunny side of the stadium but luckily the sun was setting so we weren’t staring into the sun for too long. We missed the first half of the first game but we really were there to see the Canadian women play. In the first match the Brazilian team won over Costa Rico.

There were easily over 15 000 people in attendance at this game. The camaraderie and spirit in the stands was amazing. It was a sea of red and white with a smattering of yellow from the Ecuadorian fans.

The Canadian team didn’t disappoint. They easily won with a score of 5 to 2.

When the game was over thousands of people lined up for the shuttle buses. We were glad to be in the line for the Go Trains because the line up for the buses going to the parking lots were crazy. There are a few kinks that need to be worked out with this free service but all in all it was a wonderful experience and we’re looking forward to returning in two weeks for the final game. Hopefully Canada will be in the finals.

How I Keep Warm on Cold Rainy Days

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….last Tuesday it poured at the cottage and it was cool

There’s always plenty to do in the cottage but when it’s cold outside it does limit my choice of activities. Last week we had one of those days. Luckily the rain held off until noon so I was able to cook a nice warm breakfast on the BBQ. I should have gone out for a long walk but I didn’t so I didn’t reach my walking goal of 10 000 steps.

The inside of my cottage holds whatever heat there is fairly well and when the windows and doors are closed there are no drafts to worry about. I did a lot of reading on Tuesday and when I felt cool I put on an extra sweater and covered myself with a blanket.

Close to supper time the rain ceased but the temperatures remained cool. I walked over to CH’s cottage, four roads over, with D and we found her unpacking her car. She had just arrived from Toronto with her 10 year old granddaughter, from Norway. I stayed for a cup of tea and I was then invited for dinner. Wonderful!

CH’s cottage is small and has electricity so it was nice and cozy warm inside. When I returned to D’s cottage, however, it had cooled off even more. D turned the electric heater on but you had to sit right in front of it and then it felt like you were starting to bake. If you moved back a cool draft hit the rest of your body. There was only one solution to really warm up and that was go into the sauna.

Now this sauna is something else. As with most projects done up here it was over engineered but it works like a charm. D’s father did an amazing job with the finishing details. It’s big enough to seat 6 adults comfortably and right next door is an outdoor shower with hot and cold water. What a luxury! Not only did I warm up but I also washed my hair. Heavenly! It’s the things we take for granted that bring me so much joy up here!

Share Your World 2015 – Week 27

Posted on July 11, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…….thank you Cee for this week’s questions

I’m a little late answering this week’s questions. The internet connections on the island were a bit wonky this past week so I had to wait till I came back to the city to post my articles and take part in challenges.

What is your favorite month of the year?

My favourite month of the year is October. It’s a busy month but the weather is usually mild, the autumn colours are out, the craziness of school opening has died down, we celebrate numerous birthdays in my family and we host Thanksgiving dinner. This year October will be extra special with the birth of our first grandchild. Can’t wait!

Do you drink coffee at all?

Yes! I couldn’t imagine starting my day without coffee. As I get older I like it stronger and it has to have cream. Milk just doesn’t cut it except in a latte or cappuccino.

What was one of your first moneymaking jobs (other than babysitting or newspaper delivery)?

My parents owned a milk store when I was 14 and I worked in that store till I was 16. They gave it up shortly after I was robbed. The guy pretended to have a gun under his shirt but I wasn’t about to question him so I emptied the cash register. This was the second time that my parent’s store was held up. Luckily no one was hurt during the robberies.

After that my parents opened a fabric and sewing machine store and I worked there off and on for the next 20 years when they needed the occasional help. Other jobs where I earned a pay check included working at Woolworth’s, Ontario Produce as a clerical secretary, Pitney Bowes making metal and later plastic mailing cards, factory jobs making Barbie tents and filling sample pouches with perfumes, gels and other cosmetic products, cashier at a large grocery chain, waitress and one summer I worked in Germany in a small family owned hotel as a chambermaid.

List: If you play video/computer games list 5 games you like?

This will be a short list. Scrabble and sometimes Solitaire

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that I finally opened the cottage and spent a glorious week just puttering around and spending time with friends. I’m also grateful that my oldest daughter and her partner had a wonderful vacation on the west coast of Canada and returned safely last night.

In the coming week I’m looking forward to seeing a Pan Am soccer match in Hamilton (the game is actually tonight) and returning to the cottage. Hopefully this time my husband will be able to clear his work schedule and find time to join me for a few days.

A Bit of Cleaning, Some Reading, Making Bean Soup and Visiting Friends

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….Monday, July 6, 2015

People often wonder what I do at the cottage all day, especially when I’m up here alone. Well there’s lots to do but no pressure as to when I do it. I like that.

Instead of spending two days of solid cleaning when I first open the cottage I like to spread it out and do a little bit every day. I take care of the absolute essentials when I first arrive, like fill up the water barrel, start the fridge, make the bed, uncover the furniture and wipe down all the surfaces that I’ll be using right away.

On subsequent days, I’ve washed all the dishes, even though they were clean when I left in October, wiped out the cupboards and restocked them and organized my clothes and put them back into the dresser. All of this is necessary because at some point in the months when we’re away a few rodents manage to find their way into the cottage, looking for warmth, food and shelter. Unfortunately for some of them they don’t survive and I usually find a few carcasses lying about and of course evidence that they’ve been around. Luckily this year the evidence has been minimal and a few of them had drowned in a bucket of water that was inside the cottage.

One of my goals this summer is to finish reading the books that I started this year and then didn’t finish before I picked up another to read. I’m happy to report that I’ve finished two of them and am concurrently reading two more. I also started a new book and I finished that as well. I think I will report on those books in a future post.

Another goal is to do a little bit of art everyday or at least a couple of times a week. I completed one art assignment this week and I started sketching in my art journal. Another goal well on it’s way!

I didn’t bring up a lot of food on this visit but enough to get me through the week. When I was cleaning out the cupboards I noticed that I had left a container of dried beans here over the winter. I decided to make soup from scratch. I turned on the side burner on the BBQ and cooked onions, celery and carrots in a large soup pot. I added a chopped clove of garlic and then 4 cups of broth, 2 cups of water, a tin of diced tomatoes and 1 cup of dried beans. I added salt and pepper to taste and then I let it cook for 2 hours. After the two hours I looked in the fridge to see what else I could add and I found some chick peas, cooked hamburger and fresh mushrooms. I chopped up the burgers and the mushrooms and added everything to the pot. I let it cook for a few more minutes and dinner was ready. I grated in some fresh parmesan cheese. Delicious!

Of course I had way more soup than I could eat so I put the rest into container and froze it for future meals and I kept some in the fridge for another dinner this week.

While I was cooking I got a phone call from a friend who has a cottage four roads over from mine. She invited me to come to her place for a chat, a glass of wine and to see the finished renovations on her cottage. The soup had pretty much finished cooking, so I turned it off and walked over (1500 steps). The cottage looked fantastic and since we hadn’t seen each other since January we had a nice long gab and got caught up on each other’s lives.

When I finally left it was going on 8:00 and I ended up having a late dinner. The nice part was that it was already cooked, I just had to reheat it. Even though it was getting dark I ventured down to the beach for one last walk and just managed to get in my 10,000 steps for the day. I did decide though that leaving my walk for that late wasn’t the best decision because the mosquitoes also come out at that time. Note to self, walk before the sun sets.

So that’s my day in a nutshell. Everyday I read a little, do art a little, cook, clean and visit friends, either in person or on the phone. I hope all of you enjoy your days as much as I do. Cheers!

Gas Pumps, Spark Plugs and Carburators

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..every year when I go to the cottage I learn something new

Friday, July 3, 2015

First things first. Coffee. I started the BBQ and boiled water to make a pot of coffee. I don’t know why we feel the need for expensive coffee machines when using a kettle and a coffee filter over a carafe makes excellent coffee and in the same amount of time.

Dr. D came over and shared a cup of coffee with me and then we went to tackle the water problem. We’ve both started this pump hundreds of times and have never had a problem that couldn’t be solved with a minimum of effort. Today was the exception.

One of the things that I noticed was that there wasn’t a strong smell of gas, even after numerous pulls on the cord. Most people would think that we flooded the motor. Just in case we gave it a rest. Dr. D also thought that it might need a new spark plug so she rummaged through her brother’s stash in the boathouse and found the exact match. The difficulty came when we tried to remove the old one. I don’t know how a man with big hands could possibly remove this spark plug. We found the socket wrenches but the plug was so far into the motor that the wrench didn’t fit.

We found another tool that fit over the bolt at the bottom of the plug and with a screw driver acting as a lever we finally managed to remove the old plug. We screwed in the new plug and tightened it the same way we loosened the old one. We pulled on the cord again. Nothing. Now what?

Dr. D remembered that her brother had heated the end of the spark plug for another application so we removed the new spark plug using our make shift tool and got out the propane torch. After heating the contact end we put it back into the motor and tried again. Nothing.

As a last resort we called D’s brother and her parents. We reached her mom and dad who were on holiday on the east coast, first. We told them what we had done and all the suggestions that they made we had already tried. Their final recommendation was to get buckets and get water from our neighbours. Luckily D’s brother D called. He was on his way to the cottage but was still one and a half days away.

After explaining, again, what we had done he advised that we check the carburator. Okay but where is it? We’re lucky that he knows this motor so well because he described exactly where to locate the carburator and how to empty it. The theory is that water had mixed in with the gas and wasn’t going through the motor. That would account for the lack of gasoline smell when we were pulling on the cord. Again we had difficultly removing the bolt but this time the socket wrench proved useful. After emptying the tank we pulled the cord again. Nothing! Arghhh!

We decided we needed a break and went inside D’s cottage. She made us each a cappuccino with the expresso maker she brought to the cottage. Did I mention that they have electricity where I don’t. What a treat! After being satisfactorily caffeinated we decided to clean up the tools and wait for D’s brother to arrive to fix the problem.

After putting the tools away and cleaning up the area, I suggested that we give it one more try, just to make sure that it really wasn’t working. Voila! It worked! We gave each high fives and acted like little children who had just won a competition. We had beat this thing and fixed it ourselves.

I filled up my water barrel and five large bottles of water that I took to the kitchen. Someday I will actually have the water piped right into the cottage so that I don’t have to lug water every other day but that’s for another day.

Now it was time to celebrate. A little bit of wine and great food. A wonderful way to end the day.

Cottage Time

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Mama Cormier

……Thursday, July 2, 2015

I finally got here.

Thursday morning I finally got the car packed and shortly before 1:00 I set out, by myself for the cottage. It was the day after the holiday so traffic was minimal and I made good time but I knew that I would never make the 3:00 ferry. As I got closer to Cedar Point I made a decision to head into Midland and see if I could find a special paper I needed for my next art assignment.

There’s a new art gallery/school in the downtown and I was hoping that I could get what I needed from there or from a small framing business that also sold art supplies. Well the framing store has gone out of business and the new gallery only had a small supply of papers. They recommended that I try the printing shop across the street. I had nothing to lose and I still had time so I made my way up the street.

The owners were very friendly and very accommodating. They found a few sheets of tracing paper on an upper shelf that had obviously been there awhile. They gave me what was left and didn’t charge me. How nice was that!.

I passed through Penatang and tried to find the art store there but didn’t have time to park and walk up the street. I’ll leave that for another day. I’ll make do with the paper that was so graciously gifted to me. When I got to Lafontaine (the last town before Cedar Point) I made another quick stop and picked up a couple of bottles of wine.

I still had ten minutes to spare when I got to Cedar Point. The ferry was just coming into the dock. I’ve done this trip for over 25 years but I still don’t like backing onto the ferry. It’s about a twenty minute trip across the bay to the island and then another seven minutes by car to get to the far end of the island where our cottage is situated.

I arrived around 5:00. Luckily my neighbour’s adult daughter had arrived that day as well and she came over to help me unload the car. She also helped me move the fridge, set up the BBQ and started the pump so I would have water. Everything went well until the pump stopped. No biggie. The gas motor needed more gas. After filling it up we pulled the cord. Nothing! We tried again and again. Nothing! I wasn’t too worried. I always bring two large bottles of water with me for this very reason. We decided to leave it for awhile and give it another go in the morning. Little did we know what an adventure we were about to encounter. More about that tomorrow.