It was a cold night, just below freezing. I was grateful to be able to turn on my mattress warmer in the wee hours of the morning. Then, around 6:00, my furnace kicked on (thanks to my programmable thermostat) to warm up the rig to an acceptable temperature when I was finally ready to crawl out of my warm cocoon.

This awaited me outside!

Notice, it’s just in the shade, but I still had snow on the truck when I left for town around nine.

First stop in town was the RCMP detachment to drop off my victim impact statement. Then, I went to a photography studio to have my passport picture taken. Might as well take advantage of my otherwise unnecessary trip into town and get my passport application sent off! I can’t buy a plane ticket until I have my new passport so this needed to be done ASAP.

I had my paperwork all filled out so I was able to go straight from the studio to the post office. $20 for the picture, $22 to XPress post the application to Canada, and something like $160 for a 10-year passport. Thank goodness we have a 10-year option now!!! And the renewal process is so easy. Nice to see one Government of Canada department improving its efficiency. My passport actually doesn’t expire till next March, so I’m kind of “wasting” nearly a year, but with most countries not granting entry unless your passport is good for at least six months beyond your entry, I would have been limited as to where I could go in Europe and forced to come back by March. Brr!

Then, I made a couple of stops. I went to The Bargain! Shop for household things — hand soap, dish soap, and laundry detergent, as well as to check out the clothes. I’m looking for a particular skirt style for my upcoming travels and they get out of season things from good brands, so it’s worth having a peek every now in then to see if they’re carrying any treasures.

I then went to the Salvation Army to do the same thing and also see if they’d brought their prices back down to more reasonable levels. Almost. Not as good as it used to be, but I would shop there again. They had tons of nice handbags and I caved and bought a gorgeous quilted tote with handy pockets in it. I just can’t resist a unique bag…

Next stop was the grocery store, where spent a whopping $20 on produce — a bag of onions, a bunch of bananas, four pink lady apples, two nectarines, a bag of satsumas, and a red pepper that was almost $3. Wow. The store was really chaotic and dusty as they’re laying down the flooring (tiles), with half the produce at one end of the store and the other half on the other side of the store. Most of the meat aisle was inaccessible. I can’t wait for them to be done, especially since I don’t see any real improvements being made. We didn’t need a shiny new store with new coolers. We needed more space…

Finally, I popped into the bakery for a coffee and bun to go because I was feeling a little faint. The bakery’s a little pricy, but it’s a nice treat now and then.

I got in just before twelve. Now, lunch and then I really need to get to work!