SPCA....GOOD AND BAD

 I am pretty annoyed with the spca right now.  Since when was it okay for a society that purports to save animals and broker them to the public, pass on dogs with permanent disabilities and doesn't disclose them?  Basically it would cost me five hundred bucks a month to keep Floppy comfortable.  Well that ain't happening.

The spca here had Floppy for two full months.  The previous breeding owner went in after he was surrendered voluntarily to visit him.  And it was clear within one day when we brought him home that he had problems.  I googled it and made the discovery that due to his skin issues and smell and infected ears he had a massive yeast infection.  The first loser veterinary clinic was expensive and useless.  The second one was amazing.

His issue is inherited and permanent.  The vet was pretty angry.  She said that when a dog has this genetic inherited issue you absolutely can't let them breed, which of course is exactly what the jerk was doing with him.  And the spca was well aware of the yeast...and they did NOT tell us.  I am pissed off at that blatant irresponsibility.  We are left holding the bag, thank you very much.  Fortunately this vet understands and is doing everything she can to minimize his horrible discomfort and the depletion of my pocket book.  Not happy about that but very happy with the dog.  He is probably the best most fun smart dog I have ever owned....with the exception of his health.  (shovel list)

Ewwwwww....my house is really smelling odd.  The three prominent odours are Floppy himself, his awful terrible farts and his cooking dog food.  He will NOT eat his new tofu based dog food.  It seems dogs are also resistant to vegan meals.

He likes carrots so I chopped up three big carrots and mixed it with a couple cups of his dog food and I put that in the steamer and I am steaming them both together.  When they both are soft enough I will cool it and mash it and see if he will willingly eat it.  And the smell of cooking vegan dog food really sucks.

I promise I will not talk about the dog again.  I really get bored and tired of dog talk.  The only one that is worse is horse talk. Jeez...what is there interesting to say about freaking horses? Now cat talk is okay because cats are crazy and cross the line constantly and that makes cat talk funny.  And do not even bring up pet bird stories. I get visions of fly swatters or hammers when I hear endless bird talk.

I just heard from Cookie, and I see she left a message down below, she will be home after Xmas and I can go visit!!!  I can't wait!!!  I just love those two people.  And I love the way Brian tells such funny jokes and poor Cook gets so annoyed with him.  Probably if he was my husband I would be annoyed too but when it is them it is just funny.  Don't tell her I said this!!!  Hahahaha!!!!

Have I mentioned metformin on here before?  It is a very good drug for controlling blood sugar and something else to do with diabetes but I don't remember what.  For the vast majority of people it is like a miracle drug.  It is made from lilac trees in France or something like that.

Well for another bunch of us it is evil.  When I first started it I was in Maui.  In Costco doing our just arrived shopping, my stomach started to visibly grow, and grow, and my baggy shirt got tight, and it grew some more.  I became scared and ran to find Spod.  (I feel like I have already told you guys this).  I found him and in a panicked whisper showed him my extremely tight, you could have bounced a ball off of it, stomach.  He said that that is what metformin does when you first start taking it.  I thought I was going to explode open right there in the store so I waddled out to the car.  I figured I would explode in the car....still painful but not so embarrassing.  

As the months, then years passed by I turned out to be one of those that continuously had ridiculous side effects.  Sudden explosive you know whats, (I would have to dash into the sugar cane when we were driving around, now we call it sugar cane runs). Even the wee visiting grandchildren called it that and knew what it was.  And I single handedly am keeping Gravol 100's in business...and none of that ginger crap, straight up knock you out stuff.  I have gravol in my wallet and every outdoor pocket and every nook and cranny in the house and both vehicles.  

Okay enough of that.  I need to go mash carrots and vegan dog food.  Fortunately Monte has taken the dog out.  When he gets back it is Floppy bath time.  Should be a hell of a ride...bathing a 100pound (48Kilos)  reluctant dead weight dog.  (shovel list)

Gotta go.  TFL and TTYL

did I tell you I am going to hell?  All thanks to that asshole company Telus.  I have said every swear in the world dealing with them.  My swear jar overflowith.  I have to phone them tomorrow.  I hate them.

IF YOU ARE A SWIFTY BETTER SKIP THIS ONE

 I can't even say sorry to those that like T Swift.  I honestly cannot stand her music.  It is the most boring forgettable pop crap on the radio.  I can honestly say I can't think of one song she has sung.

That being said, I am completely appalled at how much money has been spent on tickets to see her.  Shame on her!!!  At this time when everyone is whining about not enough money in their pot they can pull out thousands of dollars for two hours of bad music!!!!  Where are the parents?  Would this not be a good time to teach kids priorities?  What an indulgent spoiled world we westerners live in!!!

I guess a Swifty could launch back at those of us that cruise.  On average cruises cost about five thousand dollars.  But it is two weeks of fun, not two hours.  And just think, five kids could have gone to a concert for that amount of money.  I get the kids...I had kids who were gaga over Guns and Roses or Backstreet boys or Mars Volta, the same level of fervour.  But the tickets were maybe a hundred dollars, not thousands.  They were cheap enough the kid could kick in half easily.  But Swifty tickets?  I don't think so.

Anyway, enough of that.  I am sounding like an old curmudgeon which is fine because I am.  One thing about aging, you get smarter and you get waaaay less tolerant with stupidity.

The next thing on my list is laundry.  I have garbage bags, the extra large ones that are hard to find, full of dirty laundry.  Before I leave for Vancouver I must get most of it done.  I am going to let the household know that I will be usurping the machines for a couple of days.

When I bought that washer and dryer set I purposely purchased extra huge and gargantuous ones.  I had duvets and Monte's jeans in mind.  The first time I used them I discovered a true disadvantage to this.  It had to do with my stomach.

Due to the size of my gargantuous stomach, bending over to reach the suctioned to the bottom clothes (the spinning cycle is like a turbo hurricane and sucks everything to the bottom of the barrel) I found I could not reach the bottom.  My stomach was a definite impediment. What the hell?  My only defence to this silliness is that I bought them online, sight unseen so no chance to try them out, not that I would have.  Like who bends into a washing machine to see if they can reach the bottom before buying?  That would be no one!!!!

The only way to solve that is to use Bill's grabber.  If you don't know what that is google image 'grabber'.  Those are for people who can't bend over...like Bill was.  I went to get it and couldn't find it in this house that bares/bears the name "I CAN'T FIND IT'. So over the rim of the barrel, legs kicking in the air, I repeat until all has been removed.  Later I find laundry bruises on my said impediment.

So now it is packing time.  I leave on the 23rd and come home on Jan 3rd ish.  I firstly go park on April's street somewhere and then Arnie will pick me up to go to hers until the 28th.  Then I go to April's.  I am hoping they plan to go out New Years Eve.  I can babysit Leeloo.  On the second I am meeting Graeme for lunch or supper depending on his work hours.  Then probably home on the 3rd.

  I am really looking forward to the holidays.  I don't like to leave the Port family for too long but I would love to go see Cookie.  I don't even know if she is busy or not.  She travels a lot and still does the Granny Nanny thing (lucky girl!) sometimes.  For a best friend I hardly ever see her.  It is time.  We have lots of family gossip to catch up on.  A bff is one person where gossip isn't really gossip.  It is unloading crap in a gossipy healing way!

Thats it for today.  Mr dog has to go out and it is blowing and raining like crazy out there.  He will have to be pushed down the deck stairs.  So talk to you in a few days.  Have fun getting ready for the holidays!!!!  Do some baking and EAT IT!!!!!! 

TFL and TTYL

MY THREE FOOT 600 LIGHTS TREE

 

A POST ON THE FLY!!!

 We are having an unusually busy day today.  Normally we are sitting around, drinking coffee, rocking the ol' rockin' chair, brushing the dog, reminding someone to take the stinking garbage out, watching Judge Judy.  (It used to be Jerry Springer but he seems to be gone)  Just your average day.  But today is busy.

One thing on the list is taking Floppy to the vet....again.  (freaking shovel list). The last vet charged us 185 bucks for two little bottles of drugs for his yeast infection (we think).  I wasn't there and Monte was the one to hear what the vet had to say.  He doesn't remember much.

Well as long as the dog was taking the drugs he improved and got better.  The minute the drugs stopped it came right back.  He is insanely itchy to the point where he has scratched and licked all the hair off  his 'down there'.  I would keep a cone on him but he knocks everything over and he is just plain miserably itchy and sore.  One of his ears also has now become infected.  I am NOT happy with that vet.  If this is what has to be done every two months to keep him happy, well I just might entertain the idea that he will have to go back to the spca.  I cannot afford to keep drugging him but he can't be in misery forever either. 

The other thing, that vet charges a hundred bucks for a missed appointment.  They tried to tell me I missed an appointment on Oct 15, when I was out in the middle of the ocean on a cruise.  Like hell I did.  It will be a cold day in hell before they see another dime out of me.

So we have made an appointment at a different vet.  I am going this time and I have some pretty direct questions.  I think I will tell them that if they can't cure it please just tell me and our next stop will be the spca.  Actually I don't think I would actually do that.  We are now bonded with that stupid animal but I don't have endless pots of money to keep trying to fix an unfixable problem.  I think I will give him one of the anti yeast pills women take.  They are only 25 bucks, not two hundred.  Grrrrrr.....  We will see.

I have bought two new piano books to work on.  I am excited.  But my problem was my eyes.  One eye is good...the other not so much.  It transposes whatever is on the right over to the left, but it leaves the original placement there.  So it is a warped double exposure.  When I read I either shut my bad eye or cover it with something, a piece of paper or my hand and then I can see the printing properly. 

In the past I have purchased eye patches but I really do not like them.  They are uncomfortable in unpredictable ways.  Like when you blink.  Who knew scraping eyelashes could feel so gritty?  And who knew eyelids could get super sweaty?  No.  I do not like them.

I was looking at them yearningly on Amazon once again just in case there was some kind of new invention when BOOM!!! there it was!!!!  An eye patch that fit over your glasses!!!  It took Ange and I half an hour to figure out how it worked but when we did it was magical!!!!!  It doesn't bother me and I could read properly.  So now there is no excuse!  Piano is back on the to do list!

Well thats enough about me....(hahahaha....when you write a blog it always ends up being about the me writing it).  If I can figure out how to put a video on here I will post my first accomplished song!!!!  Lucky you guys!!!  I promise it won't be a xmas carol.  TFL and TTYL

OH GLORIOUS ME...SIGH

 

SAD BUT OKAY

 As promised I shall update.  It turns out that Kevin and family cannot join us at Xmas.  We, the family, are so so sad and disappointed about this.  We haven't all been together since.....you know what?  I can't even remember.    Maybe we never have.  I am not sure.

They are having issues...that are not mine to tell.  They will be fine but it's going to be a struggle.  Those two never seem to get a break and it isn't fair or right.  Eventually one needs that easing up of worry.  I feel so bad for them....and us.  We were all so looking forward to spending some fun time with them.

Well something happened to Ange that I live in fear of!!!  LOL!!  Actually it isn't funny.  Her one pair of ancient glasses broke.  Irrepairably (is that a word? the red line says NOOOOT). Her eyesight isn't great.  It isn't as bad as blind Bob here, but bad enough I am glad she doesn't drive and attempt it anyway.  I have often dwelt on that thought of broken glasses.  If that happened to me I would be totally hooped.  I do have old ones around but I can't see very well with them.  Now and then I try them out and no...just no.  Instant nausea.  Yikes!!!!

So today we are heading over to Walmart to look at reading glasses.  She can't get new glasses til January so she thought she would give readers a try.  Could work, you never know.

Got my tree up finally.  It's been laying on the floor since the beginning of November.  But now it is all decorated.  Lol!!!  All I did was wrap 300 colourful lights on it. Keep in mind it's only three feet tall.  And those lights are not LED's.  They are hot.  Oh well.

If the tree catches fire I think I would get peeps and animals out, grab my technology and let'er rip.  I am so tired of stuff stuff stuff. I have three sheds. a large area in the laundry room and one bedroom full of crap.  I would attempt to sell some of it but that is such a chore.  I have no trouble selling April's stuff as her stuff is desirable.  Mine not so much.  And a lot of my stuff is big and awkward to get unburied.  I remember clearly feeling this way four days before our big house burned down.  It was the fastest easiest downsizing ever.

Today is housekeeper day.  I spent the day yesterday preparing for her, in other words cleaning the house.  I want her to not only spend her very expensive time actually cleaning, but I want her to see it, not junk laying around.  She is booked solid and she makes 35 bucks an hour.  That's more than the educated and trained friends of April...a lot of them in the medical field.  Doesn't seem right.

Well before I head into a rant I shall stop here.  TFL andTTYL

'The only time I enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in my steam iron.'  Phyllis Tiller

OUR AMAZING KEEPER OF OUR VILLAGE

TELUS HELL

 Honestly Telus is endless trouble that follows me around.  Plus they are robbers.  It forces you to read your bills super carefully.  I am constantly having to phone them (I say so easily ....  shovel list) for bill fixings or optic (worst thing to happen to tv) or screwed up tv due to power outage or whatever.  They are going to send me a new pvr box and I just got an email with a mile long list of what I have to do with the old one.  And...there is a flipping mail strike.  So no tv in the other room til the strike is over.

Speaking of...I have decided to hold off on the xmas cards.  If the strike goes past mailing time for people to get their card before xmas, then I am saving them for next year. I loved my last year's cards so much I bought another box of them..on sale.  They aren't exactly xmas cards per se, so maybe I will send out Happy New Years cards instead!

I started this post yesterday then crap happened.  It seems to be like this a lot of the time.  I got a pretty disturbing text from one of the family with their promise to call me back. And they haven't yet.  Now I am operating with a rock in my stomach.  It's hard to think when that feeling is weighing you down.  In fact I am going to sign off here.  I am sorry to be so obscure but I don't know any more than you do.  If it isn't too personal, when I find out I will tell you what's up.  Sorry about this not so interesting post.  TFL and TTYL

FOR ME

 If there was one phrase in our arsenal that I would remove it would be 'for me'. Whatever in the world  you are going through would make you think you are the only person out of eight billion humans on the planet to have the negative experience you are suffering through.

Oh I know there will be times, positive times, or taking responsibility times, that the two words are appropriate. I am not sure why it bugs me so much.

  Our mother raised us so so strongly to not ever be a victim. (shovel list..I am making myself a victim of two words...lol!!)  Like Monte taught me, it's a choice.  And 'for me' at the end of a whine is so narcissistic and....well whiny.

 Eg: In an unhappy group situation, ' This is so painful and it is so uncomfortable for me.'  Well what about everybody else in the group?  Everyone is in pain and uncomfortable.  If you are one that does say that phrase, next time instead of  saying 'for me', substitute  'only me', because that is what you sound like you are saying.  How can you tell I am watching  Naked and Afraid?  lol!!! In the words of Tim Conway, 'STOP IT, JUST STOP IT!!!!!"

Well now that that rant is done, on to happier thoughts.  My housekeeper is back!!!!  I am sitting on my bed, drinking coffee and blogging whilst my house is getting cleaned.  I do go around and completely put everything away, clear off the table, do the dishes, super clean every inch of the whole kitchen and get the floors ready to be vacuumed and washed.  She cleans and scrubs the sinks, stove and microwave.  Then lastly, after scrubbing the bathroom, she vacuums and washes the floors.

Right now Floppy is locked in the other bedroom.  He is NOT happy.  But he is shedding so extremely it is kind of shocking.  He is my ninth shepherd but he is by far the worst shedder.  They should call them shedherds.  Its ridiculous.  One run of the vacuum through the house and my thirty dollar Miele bag is full.  In his defence he is blowing his coat.  They do this four times a year so the worst of it will end soon.  It's so difficult for me.  hahahaha!!!!

Monte doesn't sleep at night. He sleeps during the day.  He has been like this since he was a baby.

Last night around ten he went out for a coffee and then to Canal Beach/Park to practice swording.  (we don't know the proper word for that).  Eventually around two am he parked outside the house and cleaned out the car.  Then he exercised in the front yard.  I was afraid the cops were going to show up, called by a neighbour, thinking something nefarious was going on at the ugly shit box house on 11th.  It was almost pitch black so all you could see was a super huge hulking man lurking and moving about.  If I saw that at a neighbour's house I would be inclined to think nefarious stuff was going on.

Ah jeez, I am rambling on about nothing you guys could possibly be interested in.  I'm hangin' her up.  TFL and TTYL

BROTHER TIME

We had a fantastic visit from Stan and Antonia.  I managed to get the house free of dog hair.  Floppy is blowing his coat right now and it is shocking how much hair can come out of him.  He spent the entire time stuck in my bedroom.  I think he would have been fine with their dog, but he is way over enthusiastic with people.  He goes nuts, trying to climb into their laps and jumping up.  If we had people here ever, I would be able to train him with a shock collar. He has ADHD and I think I will sneak someone's Ritalin and put it in his food.

I made a massive stew the day before.  It was delicious!  I don't make them too often but it was a miserable day out when I made it and now it is cold enough at night outside to put it out overnight.

Monte does runes.  It is kind of like tarot but he uses stones with symbols on them.  Antonia was super interested in rune reading and Monte and she were going to do a reading.  Unfortunately there wasn't time.  So on Nov. 27 we are going to make a trip up to Campbell River for lunch and a rune reading.  Should be interesting.  He is super good at it!

I am looking forward to going out to the shed with all my storage unit boxes.  I need to make sure rats aren't getting into any of them.  I am anxious to get my native statues and my lamp for the kitchen.  I don't even remember what is in all those boxes. 

 I do know that Bill's giant fifty pound salmon, mounted on a board, is leaning on the carport wall out back.  It needs to be either hung up somewhere in this house or put into the shed.  Maybe I will hang it over the fireplace.  It would fit perfectly!  At least it's mouth and head don't move as it starts to sing 'Take Me to the River".  Jeez...kill me now!!!

Right now my current project is Monte's bedroom.  There is so much piddlyass stuff in there with nowhere to put any of it.  I also have a zillion dollar store containers that I think I will start sorting his stuff into.  Then I will stack them in the corner.  I really don't know what else to do.  We aren't dresser people. I know that the drawers would remain empty.  (shovel list)

That is it for today.  Got stuff to do!  (not really.  I just want to watch an upcoming episode of Naked and Afraid!). Take care...TFL and TTYL

OUR AWESOME COFFEE SPOT. 'STEAMPUNK CAFE'

BUNS ALL READY TO BE BAKED

WINTER STEW

WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING ON A GREY RAINY DAY

THE GREY FOGGY DAY OUT MY WINDOW