Just one....of our Thousand Islandsn Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.com
River Rats
It’s that time of the year again. September rolls around and the tourist and summer weekend people all go home leaving the river to us ‘river rats’. The boating traffic has been cut down by at least half from the summer highs. Like the departure of the geese, the other half will disappear gradually over the next several weekends and by the beginning of October the river will be ours alone. The only boaters we will see during our last month here will be the occasional border patrols. It becomes an entirely different island experience, which we look forward to every year.
All in all, we had a rather easy month. Mandy flew in from the Netherlands to join up with Janice’s mother who had flown in from California in Philadelphia. There, they took the last leg of the flight together to Syracuse NY where we picked them up. During their 10-day visit we had the clearest, warmest, sunniest days of the entire summer. We swam twice a day, went boating all over creation, BBQ’d up a storm and even spent an overnight in Ottawa to visit the capitol.
We also got the news that Janice’s mother was remarrying a fine fellow by the name of Vern who is a local resident in her park. We had met him on our last visit home and he is a great choice for her. They will honeymoon in Australia and Fiji in November. It was a super visit.
The day we drove them back to the airport they had their respective flights home 6 hours apart, so Mandy had time to do a little more clothes shopping. (She showed up with the clothes on her back and a backpack and returned with two suitcases and a roll on with 130 pounds [59 kilos] of ‘stuff'). Heading home within minutes of leaving the airport, Janice suddenly had a serious gallbladder attack. You will recall that she has been seeing her doctor regarding this for the better part of the summer. She has had blood and urine tests, ultrasounds and more recently a cat scan to try to positively confirm that this was in fact, the problem as her doctor was still hesitant about the source.
Janice said that is was the most pain that she has ever had in her life. Pain beyond 2 ‘C’ sections giving birth and more pain than chemotherapy. Although she was scheduled to see her doctor the very next day to have the latest results read and to make a decision to proceed I put the pedal to the metal and off to the emergency room we went. As we walked in, I could see about 60 people in the waiting room with all manners of pain, injuries and trauma. This was not looking encouraging. When the receptionist saw Janice bent in two in pain and crying she called the nurse over and he quickly had her in a bed in one of the emergency room bays for further examination.
They drew blood and took a urine sample and sent it to the hospital lab for analysis. Then we waited……and waited…….and waited. Her attack subsided after about two hours and 10 ½ hours after we arrived the doctor said that the results did not indicate a bursting gallbladder or anything else that was imminent. He said that since she had that previously scheduled appointment with her doctor in 6 hours (it was now 3 AM) we should see him for further treatment. So, we went home for a few hours sleep and returned to see her doctor that same morning. Prognosis? Gallbladder! Her surgery is scheduled for October 14th.
Of course, all of this pales in comparison to our little man Christopher who underwent yet another cranial surgery this month to relieve pressure within his skull. Doing better afterward yet again, he seems to have no limit on what he can endure and ‘keep on ticking’ like the proverbial Timex watches. There will be a very special place in heaven for that little boy some day.
Last but hardly least is our baby girl Cassie Anna. She has developed a condition in her pregnancy called ‘preeclampsia’. It is a pregnancy-induced hypertension in association with significant amounts of protein in the urine. As a result, she will be induced 3 weeks early, on October 3rd. Boy even when they grow up and go off they still manage to keep you up nights…..
More news
This has been an easy month with little productive done around here. We did put a little backsplash in the kitchen. It is made of polished river stones that match the Brazilian Maranace granite counter tops.
And you thought Michael did all the work....
Then, our TV died. Poof! It had been a great TV that had been donated to us by my mother a few summers ago when she moved to California. It had some years on it but worked fine. Coincidentally, it died a few weeks after my sister in Toronto generously offered us a 36” much newer TV as she was replacing it with another flat screen HD TV. (Must be nice, huh?) So, on a weekend visit we loaded the 175-pound (80 kilo) beast on our boat trailer and took it home.
I had two friends help me take our old TV to shore on the back of my boat and while they prepared the new one to be off loaded from the trailer, I removed the straps that held the old TV to the dolly we had carried it on. It promptly slipped and went off the back of the boat into the water. I never would have believed it but it floated like a cork. Donning a swimsuit I keep in the boat for emergencies (floating TV’s) I quickly got it to the dock where the fella’s helped me get it up before it sank. I never take anything I carry on the boat lightly but you can be sure that we were wide-awake with the new load going back.
New and improved!
Last fall I wrote about an improvement we made of sorts, with a new location for a shore slip. It was a better, closer location and considerably cheaper. This year, we had the chance to explore our options some more and have made yet another big stride. We found a place that is a little lower on the food chain in opulent luxury and amenities (read basic) but is closer to fitting our needs. Starting next summer, our shore dock and winter storage will be on the US side of the border.
This has many distinct advantages for us. First, it is about half the price of what we currently pay. Second it will allow us to do virtually all our shopping (groceries and other) where we like to go without having to clear customs (both US and Canada) by car where it tends to be a little more time consuming. We will continue to have to clear customs, but with a new system that allows us to phone in instead of reporting in person it should go a long way towards simplifying the process. We continue to be dumfounded how 100 meters can make such a huge difference in the price of everything….from gas to groceries to services of all kinds. We rarely see less than a 30-40% discrepancy in prices between the US and Canada. Yet, few Canadians immediately on the border seem to want to take advantage of it. Understandably it is less practical for those who live inland.
September 11th changed everything.
