my daughter recently sent me this postcard to remind me how close we are to our big trip…
for my birthday – the big 75 – I decided to take the train through the Rockies and visit gardens on Vancouver Island…
planning started last summer, and we had to book our train trip by December to be able to travel in September… crazy, lol…
next we searched for gardens that we would like to visit, besides the Butchart Gardens, which were first on the list…
then came looking at other spots in and around Victoria that we would like to see… we are going to have as many afternoon teas as possible, lol…
finding accommodations for our stay took a bit of work, but we found a lovely AirBnB close to the Butchart Gardens (and a Butterfly garden)… our second place to stay is a cute little hotel that faces the ocean in Victoria…
and finally, first class flights were booked back home… as I haven’t travelled for ages, the flights were covered by points… how cool is that;-)…
now to think about what I need to pack for a train trip and fall on Vancouver Island…
very happy to discover that the physio I’ve been paying for is covered under my insurance…
I had gone online to check for amounts and annual start date but couldn’t find any information…
I finally got around to calling and discovered, after talking to a very helpful woman, that I do have coverage and could submit my claims online to be reimbursed…
made me quite pleased as the visits are costly…
after filing the required information, it just took a few days for the money to make its way back into my credit union account…
and I continue to do new and interesting exercises to get back to my best…
I ordered a new pair of shoes from Vessi as I have really enjoyed the ones I ordered previously and wore all winter… and, they only took ten days to arrive;-)…
these ones are flats, and, of course, waterproof…
they fit a tiny bit snug, but I think they will stretch… my plan is to wear them in the house and garden for a while to break them in…
I think they will look good with my new outfits;-)…
we’ve been looking into air conditioner splits, as well as a new air conditioner for a while now…
the current air conditioner hasn’t worked for at least three years, and maybe even five… I can’t remember…
when I had someone in to look at it, they said it was leaking freon and couldn’t be repaired… it has sometimes been very hot upstairs but I managed with a tower fan…
last year I’d been quoted around $5,000 to replace it and that just seemed too much, particularly as the cold air never really made it upstairs, lol…
we had an HVAC person in the other day and the splits just weren’t going to work here… before moving forward with a new air conditioner, they suggested trying to get the old one working… they came back on Saturday to see if they could get the old one going…
they were here for a couple of hours and got it working😁😆😄…
the problem was the virginia creeper which had wound its way around the motor… I guess the other company was just wanting me to purchase a new air conditioner…
it is recording 13 something and the optimum is 20, so that sounds quite wonderful to me…
herbiggirlpants 