Jul 04, 2021
Que pasa
Officially the extreme heat warning is continuing for another week. After the highs we experienced for the first time last week, todays high of 93F/34C seemed balmy. The low last night was 63F/17F. We opened the windows and turned the A/C off. It was great to sleep in fresh 🙄 air for a change. Today we were so smokey that we could not see the mountains at the end of the lake and the sun only made a few appearances. On July 1st we were hotter than Osoyoos which for those of you who live in BC know is a very big event, that was a new record of course. Sadly 719 people died from the heat in the past week.
Languishing in the heat. They go in and out every 5 – 10 minutes. That bell system I set up is being used, mostly by Ciela who sometimes will come in one door and go to the other and then ring the bells to go outside again. Carlie on the left has used the bells a few times but mostly follows Ciela. I have to get up and let them out so many times per hour but I do need to reinforce that they are doing the right thing. It’s just that it is too hot to leave them out more than five minutes.
As I wrote on June 29th, the A/C in the Jeep died that afternoon. We needed the Jeep as we are leaving later this week on yet another road trip, the third and last of the summer. We ended up dealing with an unknown company as they are the only ones who could see us ASAP. It was at least 14 days plus before someone could even take a look. So Colin drove the RV to Freightliner in West Kelowna as it also needed servicing. He towed the Jeep and I ended up meeting him at the A/C repair shop later in Kelowna. Fortunately I had A/C. Long story short they did not come up with a diagnosis on Wednesday, Thursday was a holiday. So Colin took my car in early last Friday to hang around and make sure that they looked at the car. They said they would really try to have it out by end of day. It appears that they say yes to everyone to being their vehicles in but never promise when they would be ready 8-O.
I just now realized that this blog was partially written last Tuesday ( end of the blog ). Long story short the Jeep was ready end of day Friday. Turns out that the freon – not really freon as they stopped using that in 2014 was down 19 ounces! Someone will know what the correct name is. Anyway 19 ounces is a lot. The Jeep now has A/C and it cost us $1,000.00. The coolant cost $20.00 per ounce which was only $380.00 so the rest was all in the diagnostics and labour plus over $100.00 in taxes. Meanwhile the RV came in with a diagnosis of some sort of bypass required as just the tiniest amount of exhaust was coming through which is normal in a semi but not in an RV. Colin also asked them to check the dash A/C. Turns out that one of the hoses has developed a leak. So the freon has slowly been escaping. They now need to order a new part. The RV should be ready Monday. We anticipate a 3K repair bill. It is good that all these things are being discovered and repaired before we head south to Mexico in October.
This is the current fire map as of this morning. All the red represents various fires in different stages & sizes, from out of control and a fire of note. The green dots are fires under control.
Back in March we had planned to see friends at Green Lake this coming weekend. It was the start of a 14 day trip for us. If you follow the thick yellow line ( on the above photo ) that comes up from the bottom right ( the direction we would come from ) it travels thought many large out of control fires. The olive coloured dot about mid section sits near Green Lake. The provincial parks were closed on July 2nd. We are staying in a private RV Park. However we could not get in touch with them either by phone or email. Were they evacuated? New fires keep cropping up, many due to the thunderstorms going through the area. As you can see after we leave Green Lake we were going to cross from left to right to join up with the green dotted route. That is highway 24 with is only two narrow lanes and is part of a current evacuation route. The road from Green Lake to #24 currently goes through two red out of control fires. This morning we made a decision to not travel to Green Lake. Instead we are going to do the green route up to Clearwater for the first three days of our road trip. It is not worth getting stuck up there because of the fires. An RV our size towing has very little manoeuvrability plus we can’t back up. Just not worth traveling that fire route for a few days in Green Lake. We can do it another summer.
We now have a pool, well the girls do.
Hecho en Mexico. How cool is that.
They can jump out on their own.
But they are unable to jump in on their own. Seven inches high to jump up and over and down is too much for them right now. Colin will come up with something when we come back end of the month. The sand box remains their favourite of the two but I love the pool to help them cool down.
Covid and an extreme heat dome. What next?
Thanks to Colin for helping me keep sane. These were taken the day ( June 24th – just as the heat wave commenced ) we got back from Fort Langley but I was too busy to go outside. I appreciate you so much Colin for taking these for me and for all those many extras that you do for me.
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Sorry to hear about all the fires, I bet the smoke is everywhere! The pups seem to like the pool, before long they will be jumping in and out themselves!
We have no choice but to tolerate it and the heat. Still going up to 97 today. I can hardly wait to get the girls to a lake or the ocean in Mexico. We are looking for life jackets.
Living through historical events tends not to be much fun but they can make really good stories in the future. 🙂
So true. Good to be on the positive side.
Smart move to avoid Green Lake. Hubby’s brother has vacation property in that area and they were forced out by the fire.
Beautiful sunset pictures!
Well that makes us feel better. We have friends who live there in the summer and are staying so far. I am relieved that we changed our plans.
I just love those views from your place always so beautiful. My friend did a very quick easy pool step for her little basset puppy,she put a old pillow that was no longer in use into the kitty pool so Oscar could get out and easily get in. Just saying easy free fix if you’ve got one laying around. Have a wonderful day and hope to see you once more before you leave for the Isla.
Great idea Karen. I think our pillows are too big, they would take half the pool but we might find something similar around here. Like one of our life jackets. It would be lovely to see you again but I don’t think that we will be heading that way in the RV before Mexico. Time is moving much too fast for me.