Hello all my old friends

So here I am, sitting in my new RV in Rondeau Provincial Park, writing for my blog again. It's a Thursday night. 7:08 to be exact, or 19:00 hours for you military folks. I'll start this off with a short run down of where I've been for the last year and a half.

Dick died last August. Need I say more?

Surprise! Widow!

The while before that you ask? Well, Dick and I were having the best months we'd ever had! Funny that….

I'm going to look up my last posting on Secrets For Happiness to see when the last regular post was there. Right at this moment, I can't remember and I've used up my monthly quota for download on my internet stick, so I'll check when I'm back home and on my unlimited home plan. Once I look that detail up, I can cross reference the timing, but I do know that I tried to write just after he died. I apologize for making such a cryptic post at that time. (Eva - I couldn't reply. I tried…)

I'm healing nicely. I've got on with my life somewhat and can function, although most of that is because I met my Dick late in life and I'd been single for 13 years before, so I know how to be that. I'm also blessed with fairy tale types of friends and family. I have never lacked for help or someone to talk to. I do have Post Traumatic Stress disorder attached to the building where I worked, but that was not their fault and is just one of those flukey things we all must live with. I'm very much a cockroach. I adapt. And last but not least, the best medicine; I have my cat. 'Nuff said on that.

So! The plan:

I'm going to start blogging again. Almost Retired Handbook is going to be a sort of novel interspersed with some true occurrences and some flights of fantasy. I likely won't tell you which is which. (I won't get sued that way if I hurt somebody's feelings.) And I'll warn you. I'm not going to watch my language or try to be politically correct because… Seriously?

My Secrets For Happiness will be sporadic with photos of places I'm going in this new life of mine. (Called Lucy's New Life Plan I might add!) I just took some pictures of Rondeau Park today while I was out walking. Don't get the wrong idea… I walked to the restaurant, Rondeau Joe's, for a pickerel dinner! And the pictures might look different  because I'm taking them with my Blackberry because one of us scratched the lens on my Nikon in Florida a year and a half ago. We couldn't for the life of us think when we'd done it, but there it is, a half inch gouge in the lens and more to fix it than the things worth! I still use it for my Ebay stuff and have taken a few thousand pics since.

Now, bear with me if I miss a day or week or month. I still work a lot what with Ebay and my other internet store and you know with all the stuff I did around the house and all the stuff he did, I'm a busy girl. (Damn! I hate vacuuming!)

Enough preamble here…

I'll be in touch...

Yesterday was a week. My fingers are frozen. I need to write about him. About us.

Hobbies: Casino Mania!

Today, with the best interests of my readers at heart, I took myself off to our local casino on a trip of research and discovery.

No, not for my own pleasure and enjoyment, but simply to scope it all out and find the reason why so many seniors are always in there!


And if you believe that story, I've got a parcel of swampland in Florida I can sell you too!


Ok, so I do go to the casino once in a while, I admit. And I love it!


I do however, only go once in a while and have some little tips and observations to share.


First of all, our casino's here in Ontario are mostly located at our horse racing tracks.


We do have a few bigger, Las Vegas style ones within a couple of hours of my home, but I like the little ones the best.


They are a comfortable place for a person to go by yourself because they have security guards to help you and if you're uncomfortable walking back to your car, they'll go with you too! Video cameras are everywhere so nobody misbehaves for long and there is a sense of community sitting side by side with another stranger with a common activity.

My most frequented is in London, Ontario at the Western Fair Grounds. They have 750 slot machines only with denominations of 5 cents to five dollars. (No gaming tables.) It's a pleasant little place with a restaurant, lounge and free coffee and serve yourself soda kiosk. Waitresses circulate and the security guards all smile and say hi. (I think they are made to try to catch everyone's eye.)

The scene today. Of course it was freezing outside. Inside, they have a coat check and really huge, clean washrooms. All the staff is seriously nice and if you want, they are always glad to show you how to use any of the new machines and explain all the ins and outs.



tip 1- Only take the money you want to throw away and some sort of ID in with you. (You can't accept a big win if you don't have ID.) If you take any of your credit cards or bank cards, the urge to use them will be too strong. If you leave them in the car or at home, by the time you collect them to gamble MORE, your saner side will have surfaced to save you!


tip 2- Make sure you eat something! They pump those places full of good air and smells and anything else they can think of to keep you glued to the same machine for weeks! Eating does two things. One, makes you think better and two, gets you off your butt, away from the slot machine. If you can't afford the restaurant, then go over to the racetrack side and they'll have sandwiches and muffins over there.


tip 3- Get a membership card. They do give some freebees away and you might as well get them as well as anybody! Also for every penny that slides through the slot, you get a tiny little percentage back in points, which can be redeemed cash value or for free food in the restaurant.



tip 4- Give yourself a time limit. My limit is normally how long it takes me to get home before Dick does after his work!


tip 5- Remember, it's just for fun. Do not ever think you can pay the bills with your winnings. Look around you while you are there and see all the folks who are pounding machines and are desperate because they've gone over their limit!  Expect yourself to lose every single time and if you expect this, you won't ever be disappointed and the odd time you might win a nickle or two, you'' be on cloud nine!


So! To end my story. I donated $40.00 to the province today. (They say the money goes for healthcare.)

Lost Arts: Split Rail Fences!

For many years everywhere we drove you could see split rail fences.


In our north country, pioneer farmers used whatever was on hand and metal fencing being so expensive and mostly unavailable, the farmers cut cedar trees and split the trunks, layering them for miles and miles of fences. Very little else was needed for construction and the wood was free! They also gladly cleared the land of aromatic cedar forests so they could plant crops. The wood weathered slowly and lasted for years!


If you drive the Bruce peninsula, you can still see and walk nature trails through thousands of acres of cedar forests and they are a marvel!




These fences became in vogue when I was a girl. Of course they fell out of fashion. In, Out. In, Out. Enterprising folk traveled the north, bought and dismantled existing fences and trucked the weathered wood south to landscapers and lumber yards where it was sold at a premium.




I can't recall when I last saw a brand new cedar fence and was delighted when this one was constructed just before Christmas.

Isn't it just something!

Travel: Finding Medical Help!

Oh my gosh! You worst fears! Here you are in another country and you are sick!


Well, you'll be able to whip out your laptop and find good old Lucy's Blog and look up how to find a doctor in a foreign country!


Be prepared before you travel and save yourself some hassel. Dick and I never travel without our laptop, but, last year when we went to the Barrett Jackson Auction, we didn't bother to take it with us to Vegas, because we knew we just wouldn't have time to use it. Las Vegas is one thing, but if you're going to north Timbucktoo and you don't speak the language, you better go prepared!


Your Embassy or Consulate can provide you with a list of appropriate doctors and hospitals in their region. Before you travel, look up the phone numbers and locations for those in the areas you are visiting.


Our Canadian Government also recommends purchasing travel insurance and frankly, if you don't you are an idiot to travel without it. 
If you have existing medical insurance, check to make sure it will cover you in the country you are visiting. For instance: our wonderful Canadian Health Insurance that everyone is so envious of, will cover my having a heart attack in Florida, but only up to what the same service would cost here in Ontario. (If a hospital room was $200.00 a day here and $500.00 in Florida, they would pay the $200.00 and I would have to cough up the rest.) We are lucky that our work coverage will pay most of the rest.

CAA and AAA and likely BCAA all have travel insurance you can buy. Your bank as well and also the up and coming AARP or in Canada CARP. 






Who wants to worry about this kind of stuff, I know! But better safe than sorry!


There's a list of Canadian Offices abroad, by country, can be found at the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada website.




Good Links:


www.travel.gc.ca
http://www.caasco.com/
http://www.aaa.com