Worked the weekend so had today off and decided to take the kids to spend the day in the Qu’Appelle Valley visiting the family cottage, practicing driving at the family farm, stopping for ice cream at Katepwa Beach, checking out main street in Fort Qu’Appelle.
I did a list of “10 Things That Make You A Bad All-Inclusive Guest” previously so with a summer of camping slowly drawing to a close once again, I thought I’d do a similar list for camping (obviously, mostly to do with seasonal RV camping, not back country tenting which is a whole different ballgame!)…
It’s hard to believe anyone would dump their camper *without* a hose attached but apparently people do pull up to the dump station and “let it gush” towards the sewer drain. Definitely a no-no!
On the other hand, if you pull your black water with a sewer tote, a hose is not required as you can pull your little blue shit wagon right up to the basin where the hole is and dump it in directly. (This is sort of what inspired this post as some old duffer lectured me about not using a hose with my sewer tote the other day. So I went and checked at the campground office and the park manager even said “Oh no, that’s how I do it too. A hose doesn’t work if you have a sewer tote!”)
There might be some crossover between my all-inclusive and my camping *don’t* lists and one of those would be “Don’t be the DJ for everyone around you!” Keep your music to a reasonable volume and be respectful of those around you. No matter how much you drink, don’t sing along. (Also, based on our experience at Echo, I would suggest that though it has its place, gangster rap isn’t really appropriate camping music either!)
Don’t wait until the fire’s going in the evening – chop your firewood in the day – both because the noise can be irritating to those nearby trying to enjoy their own fires and you’re probably more likely to hurt yourself when it’s darker and/or if you’ve had a few drinks before you get swinging that axe!
If you’re going to set off fireworks, don’t do it in the park (but if you go outside the park, make sure an angry farmer on a quad isn’t nearby either!)
Don’t forget to pick up your site every night. If you don’t, it’ll inevitably rain (whether that’s the forecast or not) and all your chairs and other stuff will be wet the next day.
If you’re day drinking, don’t pour a drink before noon (exceptions – Bailey’s in coffee, mimosas, caesars, tomato juice in light beer.)
Keep the ice maker filled with water!
This is my own personal rule but don’t wear long pants if you can help it. Shorts should be the preferred clothing from May to September, no matter the temperature, bug situation or amount of teasing from neighbours! 🙂
Going back to that first point, don’t drain your grey water (sink and tub water, not toilet) in the nearby trees, haul it with your black water. 😉
Showed up at our campsite last weekend to find a neighbour had surprised us with a custom decorated chair that had been converted into a plant holder (plants courtesy Shea and her green thumb!)
Happened to this picture from early March which gives a sense of how long we’ve been living with Covid. Given that we shut down just before March 20/21, we’re technically into our third season of living with Covid – winter, spring and now summer. And there will likely be many more seasons of Covid-life to come. 🙁
This is a photo from when we moved into our house last fall, not since Covid hit.
Now that we’ve been going out more for shopping, staying in our seasonal campsite since the start of June, I’ve been back to work for over a month, and we’ve even been brave enough to eat at a couple restaurants (only patios though, not inside!), I thought it might be interesting to think about who’s in my “bubble” of people I associate with. This is listed roughly in order of how safe I feel around all of them.
“Immediate Family” Bubble
My tightest bubble is obviously my immediate family – Shea, Pace, and Sasha – to the point that if one of them were to get Covid, I’m pretty sure I would too as it would be difficult to isolate from all of them living under the same roof.
“Extended Family” Bubble
Family members we don’t live with including Shea’s parents and my parents who we regularly see, don’t wear masks around and don’t keep distance from when we see them are the next level of our “bubbles”.
“Coworker” Bubble
I’d put my coworkers at the library in this next level of bubble – people I interact with on a nearly daily basis, completely indoors but while wearing a mask, keeping well-sanitized and trying to keep our distance.
“People I See Semi-Regularly” Bubble
This is already getting to the point that I wouldn’t even class people as being in a “bubble” per se – the people in the neighbouring campsites who we interact with regularly but try to keep our distance from and/or only interact with outside. Our neighbours in Regina who we similarly don’t have in to our house (one advantage of moving to a new house last winter – we didn’t get to know our new neighbours well enough that we’d have them over like we might’ve at our old house!)
“Friends and More Distant Relatives” Bubble
We’ve had a couple occasions where we’ve had a chance to see friends or extended family – a longtime friend visiting from Alberta, a cousin who moved back from Quebec – but after making arrangements to meet outdoors where we could socially distance, we decided to pull the pin both times because we’d get reminders that the risk is just too great – an outbreak nearby, someone we know getting a covid test, etc. We also have an aunt who lives in Kelowna and usually stays with us for the entire month of May but that was during the heart of quarantine so also got cancelled.
“Everyone Else” Bubble
There’s probably other sub-groups but really, beyond the ones I listed, the next “bubble” is “everyone else” ranging from clerks in grocery stores to other shoppers we pass by in stores to my mechanic to the patrons who come into my library to basically everyone else in society?
Even since the end of quarantine (for me, that was in mid-to-late June when I started back into branches to prepare for reopening), I’d say Shea and I have only eaten at a couple restaurants, both with patios, tried to always wear masks when shopping (we’re only human and slip if we forget/are only grabbing one thing/catch a ride with someone who doesn’t have a mask as I did when I ran into Weyburn with Shea’s dad one day and realised I didn’t have a mask when we ended up stopping at a few stores after not originally intending to.) So overall, like most people, we’re doing our best to stay as safe as possible but also to continue living our life the best we can in this strange new normal.
At any rate, I’m just glad I got so much training in bubbles when I was younger…
A friend who used to live on my street (and may have been one of my first “girlfriends”?) posted this to her Facebook page recently.
I honestly thought “maybe we dressed like that because…80’s?”. But turns out it’s from her birthday (how old are we in this pic – 7? 8?) and the “unique” fashion choices were from a game which was like musical chairs but instead, we passed around a garbage bag of strange clothes and whoever got caught holding it when the music stopped had to wear something from the bag!
(I’m sure you’ll spot me but if not, I’m in the top left of the picture.)
