The story of Jimmy......

Now who is Jimmy you ask?

Well Jimmy is a racoon, who used to live in our son's backyard.  

Here is Southern Ontario, you technically can't kill racoon's you have to get rid of them humanely.  Now Jimmy had been knocking about son's backyard for a couple of years.  Son has a large deck with a sectional sofa on it and he found Jimmy "relaxing" on it under the covers the other month.  As he has two young boys he decided he had to do something about Jimmy.

So he called a pest control company and they came out with a live trap.  However as Jimmy was still under the covers they decided to just put him in a large rubbermaid container and take him the required 1km away.  We all thought that wasn't far enough away but what do we know?

The two guys (they were brother's) got their equipment and one went to put Jimmy into the rubbermaid container.  Now as you can image Jimmy wasn't awfully fond of this idea, and put up a fuss.  Enough of a fuss that he bit the one guy and despite getting him into the container and putting the top on, couldn't keep him in the container.  He escaped and the two guys announced that the one had to go to the hospital to get a rabies shot 😕

Meanwhile, Jimmy bounds over to the next door neighbours yard, where the elderly mother is standing on their deck.  Son is yelling at her to go indoors, but she doesn't speak or understand English.  Her son finally comes out to see what all the carry on is about, and ushers his mother inside.

The guy comes back the next day and brings out a live trap and sure enough they trap Jimmy.

He takes Jimmy away and then phones son up to tell him not to worry about Jimmy he won't be coming back............take from that what you want.....LOL

Now fast forward until we were on vacation.  I really enjoy going into TSC (ours closed in Canada) in the States.  And low and behold what do see but a racoon skeleton.  Now I love my two grandsons to bits, but the older one is always winding me up just like his father!!!  He even announced to his father he missed me  shouting at him, while I was away !!!

So I took a photo of Jimmy the skeleton and sent it to son and daughter-in-law and told them we were going to buy this and give it to older grandson and say "We found Jimmy when we were on vacation!"

They found that funny, as did we.  Luckily for older grandson (he's 7 by the way) I wasn't forking out $30 USD for that.

TSC sells these chicken's.  I love them but have no where to put them.

They had various skeleton's of animals........

 

Cades Cove

One of my favourite places in the world, is Cades Cover.  I just love the area.  If you want to read more about the history of Cades Cove you can read about it here.  I find it very interesting.

We have been a number of times over the years, and we went on September 30th, which was a Tuesday and in the morning.  We have been on a weekend and I hated it.  There are a lot of selfish people in this world, and despite big signs saying do not idle, they drive along at 5mph!!!  Cades Cove is a 12 mile one way road.  There are many, many places to pull in to let people pass, but some people ignore it!!!

Here are some photo's I took:

The drive to Cades Cove from Sugarlands Visitor Centre takes a good 40 minutes depending on the traffic.  It's a very windy road, with a speed limit of 30 or 35 mph.  Again many pull off areas for you to stop.  We didn't stop in at Sugarlands this time.  At the time of writing this post, both the visitor centre and Cades Cove is shut down because of the US Government action.

There is a visitor centre and bathrooms half way round the loop.  We did see a mother bear and two babies, though were not close enough to take photos.  There a big signs throughout the loop telling you to stay away from the wildlife and not too feed them.  In this case with the bears, the cars in front of us stopped in the middle of the road.  A couple of people got out to take photos, including an older man using a walking stick.

Everyone knows to keep well away of a mother bear with cubs.  But that idiot kept on walking closer.  If she had turned nasty, he wouldn't have stood a chance and it would have been his fault.  I am sitting here shaking my head when thinking about it.

We saw plenty of wild turkeys, and some deer as well.

On a Wednesday it is shut down to motor vehicles and only open to walkers and bicycle's.  If I were fit enough I would love to be able to walk or bike it.  It would be so peaceful.  

It's such a lovely place and well worth the visit, if you are in the area.

I need a vacation from being on vacation..........

Not sure if that makes sense.  However, I am really tired now I am back home.  We were busier than normal when away, and you know when you're not sleeping in your own bed, you don't get as good a nights sleep.  Plus all homes/cabins/rooms/houses make different noises, so if you're a light sleeper, you can't quite settle.

Then when you get back, you have to catch up with daily life.  The grass was to cut, the garden to tidy up.  Laundry to catch up with.  Banking to catch up on.  Grocery shopping to do.  Everything to put away from the vacation; and on and on it goes.

We ended up coming home a day earlier.  I was not well.  My poor stomach was so upset.  We find the food very rich down south.  Mind you no one forced me to eat poorly!!!!

We were to leave on the Thursday but we had a rough night Tuesday night with acid reflux, me especially.  So much so we decided to head on home on Wednesday and stay overnight in Ohio again.

Here is some of the bad food choices we made!!

This was at Cracker Barrel and was actually not a bad choice, minus the biscuits with lashings of butter on them!!

This was hubby's plate of food from the Museum of Appalachia.  He left the green beans, as they were cooked within an inch of their lives he said!!

Mine was chicken noodle casserole, corn casserole and fried cabbage with a piece of sour dough bread.  The chicken casserole was like mac and cheese with some chicken and veggies in it.  It was very heavy.  The corn casserole was like a dead weight as well, left most of that.  The fried cabbage was not great.  Even the sour dough bread was odd.  It was the worst meal of the vacation.

We went to Dollywood and bought the tasting pass, which gave you five "meals or drinks" for a set price.  I will talk about this more when I do my post on Dollywood.  So the next three photos are what we got and none were healthy choices.

This was a kielbasa sausage skillet and a stuffed sweet potato with chicken and collard greens and fried onions and that white stuff was gravy I think.

A funnel cake.

A hot honey chicken pizza and garlic knot bread.

Then this I think is the meal that broke the camel's back as they say.  We had this on Tuesday lunchtime at the Cracker Barrel.  Again I think it was the biscuits with lashings of butter on them that did it.  Cracker Barrel has the best biscuit's/scones.  They are warm and fluffy, and oh so good!!

Suffice to say; I hardly ate anything on Wednesday nor on Thursday.  Friday I make chicken, carrots and some rice for supper, as by then my stomach was finally settling down..........

Now back to sensible eating!!

RIP Patricia...........

Lost a lovely lady this past week.  I think we all have a Hyacinth in our lives, don't we?

Hopefully she's busy hosting many more "Candle Light Supper's," in the sky as we speak.

Then if that wasn't bad enough, we also lost Dame Jane Goodall, who was an award winning primatologist and anthropologist.  

Both ladies were in their 90's and will be truly missed.

Vacation time.....

So late last month we headed out on our annual vacation.  We were supposed to be going to Northern Ontario, but honestly that did not feel like a vacation to us.  We had another death in the family, an uncle who was only 71 and I/we decided that we were going to go to our favourite place as life is way to short; and Donald and his idiotic rantings are not going to determine where we vacation.  So Tennessee we went, to Pigeon Forge and our beloved Smokies.

We started out on September 23rd and travelled as far as Middletown, Ohio the first day.  We crossed over at Windsor and drove right up to the guard and was through in as long as it took him to swipe our passports and ask us where we were going and for how long.  Super nice guy.

As I said we stopped at The Comfort Inn in Middletown, Ohio.  One of the nicest, cleanest hotels we have stayed in.  Far enough off the I75 so not to hear the traffic noise.  Many choices of restaurants to eat at.  We chose the Olive Garden, I had the soup, salad and bread sticks, hubby just had salad.  He came down with an awful head cold a couple of days before we left.

The hotel was super clean, the bathroom was clean, there was plenty of hot water, and lots of choices for breakfast.  We both slept like a log that night.  It cost us under $150 CDN for the night through, Expedia, so a good start to the vacation.  

On the Wednesday we headed down to Pigeon Forge which was less than a five hour drive, but with a couple of stops took us longer.

Got to the cabin just before 5pm.  After we called into Walmart to pick up a few supplies.  My first impression on grocery prices, expensive.  However we were just so tired.

We booked this cabin: Mountain Mischief, in the Hidden Springs Resort/Gated Community which is behind Dollywood. We have stayed in this resort 3 times now.  We like how close it is to town, but how quiet it is.  This cabin although looks gorgeous on the photos, is very tired looking in real life.  We had a few text messages going back and forward between us and the property owners on the first day, which was a like a comedy of errors.  This cabin has a gorgeous view over to the smokies, but is not as nice as the last one we stayed in, which didn't have the view.

I will say we are up a height which makes me worried with parking the car.  I have got over the fear though of the cabin sliding down the mountain/hill though...LOL

Driving up to the cabin:

We turn around, so we park facing downhill.  There is a green hydro box on the left hand side of the photo, we parked there outside of our cabin.

View from back deck, looking towards the Smokies in the background.

Some more of the cabins, nestled in the trees.

There will be more posts about our vacation over the next week or two.

Blog posts and posting questions..........

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Everyone's blog is personal to them.  How you set up your blog, how you post on your blog etc., is up to you.  There are no rules you need to stick too, individuality rules to my mind.  I do have a number of questions that I would like to ask, as I think the answers will be interesting.  Feel free to copy and paste the questions over onto your own blog, as we all have different readers of our blogs.

How often do you publish a blog post?

I try to post on a daily basis when I am blogging.  But will admit I get burnt out after a while trying to think of new things to post about.

Do you prepare blog posts ahead of time?

Yes, especially when I know I am going to be busy or away.  As you are reading this we have just come back from vacation!

Do you limit the length of your blog post? 

I try to.  I find I lose interest in a blog post when reading others if it's too long.  I think if I can read it in a couple of minutes I'm good.

Do you always need to add a photo or a graphic to your blog post?

Not always, as I find you either want to read what I say or you don't.  Photos are good but not necessary.

Do you like to add links to blog posts, so people can gather more information?

I do when appropriate, because I love learning something new.  I always think two sets of eyes are better than one, when looking for things.

Do you try to stick to one theme on your blog?

I don't; it's what ever I am thinking about at the time.

What do you wish you could do with your blog?

I would love to print all mine out to make a book to give to the grandkids, to remember me by,

Have you made many friends in the blog world, since you started blogging and have you met them in person?

Yes, loads.  I have only met a couple in person though.

What do you avoid talking about on your blog?

Religion and politics.  I will occasionally mention politics, but rarely if ever religion.  Both are like walking in a minefield and I don't need people arguing with me about it on my blog.

If you have other questions, add yours.........I am looking forward to reading your answers.

Retirement - Health and Travel Insurance

While hubby was working we were covered through his employer for the majority of health and travel insurance.  When he retired we lost those benefits.

As we live in Ontario we are covered for a lot of things under OHIP.  It does not cover prescriptions, dental care, glasses, eye exams.  As hubby is over 65 he does get a lot of his prescriptions paid for but pay's a $100 fee per year and a reduced dispensing fee.

I am only 61 and am on a lot of meds, so have to pay out of pocket for all my things.  We looked into private health insurance and for what we were going to pay, it truly wasn't worth it.  We can claim back our out of pocket medical expenses, when we do our taxes, but we'll only get a fraction back of what we paid out.  

I do know the solution to this problem; get off the medications, but it's not possible.

They have brought out a plan for reduced fees on the dental and we should be below the income threshold next year, as that is also all to pay for.  Mind you I had to go in for a check up on my tooth and when I said I had no insurance they reduced the bill from $250 to around $150!!!

If you have good medical benefits, hold onto them, as they are worth their weight in gold!!

Travel insurance is also an issue now as well.  We are going away for 10 days to the States, and it is a MUST that you have good insurance especially when you're older.  We are CAA members so get four days of insurance free.  Despite being on twice the number of medications that hubby is on, I got insurance no problem at $55 for the ten days.  Hubby's cost $460 for the 10 days, as he has had a mini stroke and has been on a drug this past year that insurance companies hate????

We need to research more into travel insurance.  After June of 2026, hubby's travel insurance will be $460 for the year once he has past the year since he was last prescribed the "no-no" drug!!!  The "no-no," drug by the way is PREDNISONE.

Again if you have travel insurance through your work, hold onto that as well if you have the option.  

We didn't have the option to hold onto either.  As I told hubby we need to change our mind set from now on and include travel insurance costs as part of our vacation expenses.

Do you have good benefit plans?  Do you have any tips or tricks regarding travel insurance here in Canada?

How Qatar Airways Prepares 200,000 Meals From Scratch Every Day | Big Bu...

Over the years I have had a number of meals on airplanes and I have to say they get worse and worse with each passing year.  Now granted I fly economy, never business class, but still.

Do you agree?