I walked into the pool building this evening to find in the hot tub four incredibly attractive guys my age.
!!!
And there I was, looking like a clown in mismatched, over-sized pyjamas and huge duck shoes.
How often is this going to happen in a world filled with coupled 50+ retirees? Not very. This was my one in a billion chance to meet some guys my own age in this world and all I could do was smile and squeak out a not particularly cool ‘hi’!!!!
Evil duck shoes!
One thing I find hard about RV life is how little privacy we get in RV parks. There does seem to be an unspoken rule that every RV pad is its own bubble, giving an illusion of privacy, but it’s just that, an illusion. That said, until Saturday, I felt that I had a pretty good spot here at Pacific Border. The owners of the rig on my passenger side haven’t been here, I have a forest behind me, and there has been no one on my driver’s side. Then this huge class A backed in next to me. The view from my study went from being one of grass to one of fiberglass, but I sucked it up. C’est la vie in RV parks, after all. But last night, around 9:30, they started to blast music. Then they ran their generator until almost 11pm. I am not kidding. They must be the most self-centred people in the universe because for not being able to realise that loud music and generator noise at that hour is unacceptable! The kicker is that after they turned on the generator, they left! I think their generator might have had a timer or something because it turned off before they roared into their site around 1AM.
Needless to say, I was not bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at work this morning. 🙁
I wound up buying a huge 10L jug of water today since I’m still not at the point of believing that spending hundreds of dollars in a water filter can be justified. It’s just that the water here is really, really, really, bad. I’ve never encountered tap water this chlorinated before. All I can figure is that the current floods have something to do with it; that perhaps they’re overtreating the water to ensure potability. The result is incredibly caustic. I made a pan of pasta two days ago, cooking the pasta with water from the tap. I didn’t taste the pasta before adding sauce and cheese, which is a shame because I had to throw the whole thing out! Despite the strong tomato sauce and stinky cheese, all you could taste was chlorine! After washing my hands, all I can smell is chlorine. After dinner tonight, I could still smell chlorine on the dishes after washing and drying them. Dinner was lemon-garlic prawns and lemongrass halibut, which should have stunk up the RV, but could I smell fish in here after? Nope, all I could smell was, yup, chlorine!
I’ll use the water from the jug for cooking, teeth brushing, and drinking (kitties drink what mom drinks) this week and see how quickly I go through it, and also keep tabs on the smell of the water. It hasn’t always been this bad; I used to be able to brush my teeth with it at least!
I’ve been showering at the pool complex and haven’t noticed if the water smells bad there. It’s a pool complex. It’s supposed to smell like chlorine! So, it’s kind of hard to judge. 😀
Until I got here, all the parks I’d stayed at preferred that mail not be sent directly to them (courrier deliveries okay, though). So, I’ve been having my mail sent general delivery. This worked out fine until I got to Oliver. The post office there was really bad. Canada Post’s services are notoriously poor, but these guys were the champions of bad service. They misplaced some of my mail, didn’t lift a finger to find it even though I was able to prove that the mail go to their office, and tried to blame me for the error when the package was finally located. I wound up having my mail forwarded directly to the resort by UPS at 30$ a pop!
At Pacific Border, mail can simply be sent to your attention. There are bins at the front desk where mail is sorted alphabetically and guests can go through the appropriate bin to find mail they’re waiting for. Sure, it’s not the most secure method, but, really, how secure is your mail when it’s sitting in a box on your porch anyway?
I continue to be pleased with the service I’m getting from the clerk at the UPS store in Gatineau where I rented a box. Several weeks ago, I emailed him to ask if some mail I was expecting had arrived and if so to please send me all my mail to Oliver, otherwise I would try again in a week. He replied that the letter hadn’t arrived. Two days later, he sent me another email telling me that he’d spotted my letter and my mail was on its way. This is a busy store so talk about service!
When I was researching parks in the area, it came down to deciding between here and another park I won’t name. I waited for them to get back with a quote for me for monthly sites and they never did, so I came here. Speaking with the camphost, she said that the other park would have been a huge mistake, but I took that with a grain of salt. Until today. The other park just emailed me with the following message:
Hi
Sorry I am slow as we have been busy.
You would need to call XXX.
He takes care of all monthly sites.
I do not know if he has room so call and deal with him.
Thank you
What?! The proper reaction on the person’s part would have been to call XXX and get the information for me.
I’ve started to look at other parks in the area and I have yet to see one I’d be willing to move to, even if the rent would be a lot cheaper. Here, I feel safe and secure, never mind the amenities, while the other parks I visited seemed run down and in poor parts of town. I’m highly motivated to stay here.