Sunday, August 7 to Monday, August 22, 2022 (Peace Arch RV Park, Surrey, BC)

As usual, the past couple of weeks since returning home from our vacation on Vancouver Island has flown by! Most of Steve's time during the first week was spent on picture and video editing...getting ready for blog updates. My time was spent grocery shopping, laundry and doing a bunch of other routine miscellaneous stuff. We always managed to get out for our daily walks....once in the morning and often again in the afternoon.

Chris and Angela invited us over for dinner Tuesday (Aug. 9) so we could see our little guy...sure missed our weekly visit with Isaac! No pictures taken...sheesh! However, they came out to our place on Sunday (Aug. 14)...and we remembered to take pictures! We've been going through another heat wave, so a dip in the pool was in order...Angela, Chris with Isaac and Steve...

I'm now in the pool holding Isaac as we try to get him to lay back in the water...

Lasagna, Caesar salad and garlic bread for dinner. We filled our plates up inside and sat out at the picnic table...

Steve has been researching new laptops for quite awhile now so with the help of Chris, we found one that seems to check all the boxes Steve is after for his picture/video editing projects. Tuesday (Aug. 16) morning we went to Best Buy out in Langley and bought a MSI GF63 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Black (Intel Core i5-11400H/512GB SSD/16GB RAM/RTX 3050/Win 11). Of course, we had to leave it, and our old laptop, with the Geek Squad to set it up and transfer files.

Since we were out that way, we drove a little further to Fort Langley and The Fort Pub for lunch to celebrate our new purchase LOL!

Back home that afternoon, Steve turned the TV on and there was no sound...what the heck?! No matter what he did, no sound! This also happened when we arrived here last April. The optical audio plug was no longer lit up on any HDMI settings. After fiddling around with it for awhile Steve gave up on it but then it mysteriously started working and has worked fine ever since. But not now! Well the TV is over 12 years old and to be quite honest, I think Steve has been waiting for any excuse to buy a new one...mainly because it is a power guzzler which isn't great when we're boondocking. So Steve started his research again...this time for a TV.

He found the one he wanted...a Sony KD43X85K, so Wednesday  (Aug. 17) after dropping the car off for servicing, we went to Best Buy again. This time to the South Surrey location. They had it in stock, so out came my credit card again! This has been a very expensive week!

Apparently it is a good idea to have the screen on a new TV calibrated for home viewing, so we had to go back to pick it up a couple of hours later.

Since the car was expected to be ready by 3:00, Steve dropped me off to pick it up and he continued home to install our new TV. I went out to Langley to pick up our new laptop and came home to Steve still busy installing the TV. Our motorized tv mount goes up and down behind the fireplace which Steve had to remove to get easier access to all the wiring. 

Nothing can ever go smoothly it seems! After trying various wiring configurations, Steve still could not get the sound to work...on either the TV speakers or through cable. Frustration took over and after chatting on-line with Geek Squad support, we made an appointment for someone to come out. Unfortunately Sunday is the earliest. So we have been cranking up the sound on the bedroom TV in order to watch the new TV.

Friday (Aug. 19) we were at Chris and Angela's by noon. Angela has an appointment...and we were more than willing to come and look after Isaac for the afternoon! 

Grampa and Isaac after we finished our lunch...

Playing Chutes and Ladders...

It was a very hot day so we decided not to walk down to the park, instead we went out on the back patio and played out there for a bit. 

Okay, that was long enough...let's go back inside where the portable air-conditioner has cooled the place down. Isaac and Grampa watching some of the old classic cartoons that we used to watch. Steve pulled them up on his iPad...Yogi Bear, Tom and Jerry, Flintstones...etc...

Steve here...

Sunday (Aug. 21) a fellow from the Geek Squad arrived at 10:45 a.m....and after an hour and a quarter we finally had sound on the TV! YAY! He played with the wiring, settings on the TV and satellite cable box, had many phone calls checking with others. Finally after unplugging the satellite cable box, waiting a minute, then plugging it back in, a reset was completed and we had sound! We've never had an issue with the satellite cable box before. So...did we really need a new TV...hmmm?

Monday (Aug. 22) morning our daily walk was at Crescent Beach. For the most part over the last couple of weeks we have just been walking at the campground. Always nice for a change of scenery! It  has turned out to be our favourite walking spot here. It's going to be another beautiful day! Even though the temperatures are reasonable in the mid 20's, it's the added humidity that has driven up the "feels like" values.

Back home, Steve ran the quads and the generator for a few minutes...he likes to do that monthly...and I defrosted the freezer and then worked on this blog update. 

Although a warm day, it wasn't too bad outside in the shade with a slight breeze, so we enjoyed happy hour today with our neighbours, Wayne and Mary-Ellen. Another good visit!

We are heading back over to the Island tomorrow for a week...more appointments and visits with family and friends! Always look forward to that...especially since we will be gone for the winter!