| September 19th, 2006 - back at Latitude 49. This will be our home until we figure out where we'll be working. | ||
| It's been 11½ months since we pulled out of this spot on our tour of North America. At the start a year seemed like a nice long vacation, but we discovered it really isn't quite long enough. There are places where we would have liked to have stayed longer and other places we didn't even get the chance to see this time. |
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Any qualms we might have had about living in the motorhome for an extended period of time were certainly quashed, we could certainly do this again and we will, there's a lot of blue on the maps that needs to be turned to red! |
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At home - Watching families crabbing from Blaine Pier. | |
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| Early in November we traveled to Point Roberts for a concert featuring the "Point Roberts Wind Ensemble." Nancy, a friend from the water aerobics classes in Tsawwassen plays the bassoon in this group. |
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Agnes & Chris came up for a vacation over Thanksgiving; unfortunately the weather turned nasty, cold, and windy and a dump of snow. It didn't stop us from having a good time, but did make getting around a little more difficult. | |
| We discovered that, although the motorhome was cozy and warm, our outside water froze and we just didn't have the room for the coats, hats, and boots etc that are needed to brave the wintry weather. In addition, it got so cold outside that the water froze, even though we had a heated, insulated hose attached. Time to look for a different space for the winter | ||
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| Ron found us a nice 1 bedroom apartment in the condo resort that Agnes & Chris were staying in while they were here; the monthly winter rates were good, so we moved in on Dec. 1 to spend the winter at the beach sitting by the fireplace. We rented the apartment until the end of April. | ||
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Even in winter the beach is beautiful! On windy days the tide comes in with enough extra force to cause the waves to crash up onto the rocks. In the evenings we see the sun set over the bay, and sometimes, in the mornings we scan see the moon setting over the bay. |
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Xmas at Birch Bay was quiet, just the 2 of us. We made a special dinner of roast rack of lamb with Swiss chard and polenta. On Dec. 29th , Pat came over for a visit,, the next day we treated ourselves to a ride on the "Santa Train" near latitude 49 |
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In addition to getting settled back in Blaine, we started the started the job search process. I landed a temporary job through Manpower at Intalco on Oct. 16th. Intalco is increasing production, and my primary job was to update training materials for the large group of new hires who were expected. I ended up working is most departments of the plant over the next 2 months. |
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Near the end of January, about the time I thought the job was about to end, a member of the staff had to take emergency medical leave, and I was asked to take over that job. That job consists of tracking inventories and usage of the raw materials that are used to produce aluminum. I took this photo of Mount Baker one day as I was leaving the plant. |
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The work is interesting and the people are great, unfortunately Manpower doesn't pay very well, so I'm still in the market for something more permanent, as long as it isn't in the insurance business! Ron landed a project management assignment with Dell Computers in Canada. For the first few weeks he needed to travel to Burnaby, but was able to do most of the work from home after that. |
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