HOME AND HAPPY

 Other than being booted out of the hospital with no warning, all has gone well.  Oh, and no diagnosis.  The day before I was telling April that he was scheduled for a thorough cat scan of his heart the next day at one o'clock, very much to all of our relief.  But I made an out loud prediction to her, kind of joking but not.  "you watch!  They are going to cancel the cat scan and discharge him with no warning or diagnosis."  And that is exactly what they did.  And to top it off boot him out with no one to pick him up til the next day and nowhere to go.

  They do this all the time to up island people.  An Elder from Port Hardy, six hours away at least, who had nobody to come get him...ever....and no wallet had the same thing happen to him.  Unbelievable.  I contacted an Island newspaper about it and they responded!  Looking into it.  Hopefully something will come of that.

Peter came home with us.  The three of us sat around the living room last night watching some tv and then the xmas fire.  It was so awesome and felt so right.  It is so so good to have him back!

Before we left Victoria, we went to the infamous Floyd's Diner in Langford for brunch.  The menu is online now, much to some oldsters chagrin.  The boys had bennies of one sort or another and I ordered the Mahoney.  The Mahoney is whatever the chef makes for you.  You have no clue what you are getting.

Well, I couldn't believe my eyes when they plopped that plate in front of me!  It was ridiculously massive!  Layer of potatoes, scrambled eggs, sausage pieces, crumbled bacon, onions and peppers, bbq sauce, mustard sauce, hollandaise sauce topped with deep fried onion strings.  And a load of toast.  20 bucks.  Which wasn't much more than the boys' bennies.

Well I ate about one sixteenth of it and asked for a box.  And.... get this.....apparently with the Mahoney, the chef flips a looney and I call it and if I lose I pay double for my meal, but if I win I get it for free.  I won.  hah!!!  And Monte just ate some of it for his breakfast right now!

Well time to go get my room done.  I am almost there with it!  I have a new little rug to put down and I am not allowing myself to do that until the room is properly clean.  I will take a pic when that happens!  Stay safe and noodle!

TTYL

DISGUSTINGLY HUGE

WARNING: THIS POST STARTS WITH A RANT

My rant today is this.....I read about four headline type news feeds, about ten articles per issue, daily.  I am getting very annoyed with all the articles about covid related disadvantages.  Like unhappy people that are mistreated because they medically can't wear masks, tourist industry whining because their hotels aren't full, businesses that are not making enough money, families can't get together for the sacred thanksgivings and xmases, people can't go on their three per year cruises etc....  The only one I would not include here is the inability to visit the older rellies in senior facilities.  That one I agree is totally miserable and heartbreaking.  Other than that one though I am annoyed with. Come on people!!!  It's a pandemic....crap is going to happen and trying to force the powers that be to let you open your churches, gyms, spin rooms, allow travel, no masks, turkey dinner gatherings etc...is just plain selfish and self interested.  Knock it off!!!!  We do what we have to do, and that means you too.  Quit whining.

There, rant over.  I just think about all those first liners, paramedics, firemen, police that deserve us to do what we have to do.  This isn't going to last forever and everybody's taking hits and doing their best.

Monte is still in the hospital without a definitive diagnosis.  The MRI machine was too small but he will be getting another cat scan.  Sigh.  He is getting impatient to come home.

I just went downstairs to do more laundry.  I went to go out the back door down there to put some bottles out.  The backdoor was UNLOCKED!!!!!  Holy Hannah!!!!  In this town one doesn't leave their doors unlocked, not even in the daytime when you are home, never mind at night!  The damned installers of those massive laundry machines took the old one out that door and one of the guys actually went over to be sure to lock said door.  Clearly doesn't know what he is doing.

Okay peeps...I need to do the healthy living thing now.  Stay safe and healthy and be sure to noodle!!!  That seems to work!  TTYL

ARYN AND SHARRI:

1.  Read food labels...starting with the ingredients.  Okay this is a no brainer and I am sure we all already do this.

2.  Beware of added sugar.  Yeah yeah yeah

3.  Choose food over supplements.  Well I totally agree with this one.  My sister sent me a link this morning that made this simple and understandable.  I can't put links on this site easily so I googled, The One Trick That Makes All Your Meals Healthy, Eat this Not that.  Super good site.

4.  Vitamin D.....yes yes yes....We were very fortunate to have a family doctor for years who really pushed D.  He even traveled to Italy once to give a lecture on this.  We take 6,000 units per day.

5.  Eat home cooked meals.  Say what???  You mean I can't order weenies and greek salad at a restaurant?  Or Balogna sammiches?

AH FER JEEZ!

 Thanks a whole bunch Sharri!!!!  Laugh away!!!  I'd like to see you, or any of you, be forced to do this.  I am not happy!!!

I went to the pet store the other day and they were out of frozen jumbo mice.  Figures.  So I am about to go right now to get them.  She said the freezer would be full by two today.  And it's a huge freezer.  Like how many snakes are in this freaking little town?  Thats a lot of snakes needing a lot of mice!

Monte was ambulanced down to Victoria to the cardiac unit in the hospital there last night.  He should have been shipped down two weeks ago in my opinion.  They have already given him an echo cardiogram and now they are giving him a cat scan.  They should be able to give us a diagnosis later today and a plan of action.

Monte told me yesterday that the ambulance and nurse were picking him up between four and four thirty.  So I went up there and waited.  At around five they brought him out, all hooked up to intravenouses and strapped onto a stretcher.  They not only let me go over to him to give him a kiss on his forehead but they let me climb into the ambulance with him and chat for ten minutes.  It was so heavenly for both of us.  Who knows...at the moment I was thinking that if anything happens to him down there three hours away, this would be the last time I would see him.  But he seems to be in amazingly good hands and they know what they are doing.

So I am off now to get freaking mice.  I will report back later, both about the feeding and Monte's diagnosis.  

They didn't have jumbo mice!!!  Only little baby fuzzy ones.  She eats two of those.  TWO!!!  I HAVE TO FEED HER TWICE IN A ROW.  OH NO!  ONCE WAS NOT ENOUGH.  NOW I HAVE TO FEED HER TWICE!  WAAAAHHHHH!  AND I HAVE TO FEED HER TONIGHT WHEN SHE POKES HER HEAD OUT.  AH MAN ALIVE!!!!!!

Okay.  First Monte.  He does NOT have a blood clot in his lungs.  He does NOT have a torn artery in his heart (they think).  And they aren't sure about artery disease, which is doubtful at his age.  So in other words, they don't know.  Typical doctors.  I am not really blaming them...if nothing shows up, nothing shows up.  But he is still all hooked up, on morphine and adivan, and blood thinners.  Today I do believe they will finally do an angiogram, which I do believe they were trying to avoid.  So, we are still in wait and see mode.

Now the snake.  Oh jeez!  I finally did it.  OMG!!!  And I don't ever want to again!!!  Those wee mice were so cute, dead and frozen.  I felt so bad for them.  But Smooch, the scary part, stays dead still and then when you dangle a mouse in front of her she freezes to the spot, and then suddenly, with no warning, leaps out and snatches the mouse and wraps herself around it and freezes to the spot again, mimicking killing it.  I almost had a heart attack!  I did take pictures which I will put below.  If you don't like snakes feel free to not look.  I did a video but I missed the whole thing. In my terror I forgot to look at the screen and make sure it was pointing in the right direction, but, you can hear me.  It was the second mouse I fed her.  But due to blogspot the video may not load.  Stupid blogspot.

Anyway its all done now and I have absolutely no intention of ever having to feed her ever again ever!  Stay safe and noodle.  TTYL (Aryn and Sharri I will do the next segment of good living  in the next post.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8998RkzP2EecQCMdA

this link for the video probably won't work

POOR LITTLE THINGS

HERE SHE IS 'KILLING' IT

LAYING IN WAIT.  WAAAAAAH!!!!!  MOMMY!!!

OMG OMG OMG...YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT I HAVE TO DO....WAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

 Sometimes life hands you lemons and they just stay lemons.  No lemonade in sight at all.  (SHOVEL LIST!!!!) 

Monte is STILL in the hospital.  It's been over a week now.  They have had to send him to Nanaimo for two tests to make sure his heart is okay.

This means medical transport.  So off he went this morning and when he gets there they see that the idiot that sent his particulars from Port to Nanaimo, put the wrong weight down.  Monte is considerably bigger than 130 kilos, which is the number they sent.  As a result they can't do it!  He has to go to Comox and its a two day test.

So now he is sitting in Nanaimo, with a nurse, waiting for transport back to Port.  They are now trying to arrange for his transport to Comox which apparently is going to take a couple of days.  Then he probably has to spend a night in the hospital there.  Jesus H!!!  And he is really at the end of his rope.  He really wants to be done with it all.

Now here is the bad part.  I HAVE TO FEED SMOOCH, HIS SNAKE.  I have to go to the pet store, buy three jumbo frozen dead mice, put one in a ziplock bag and submerge it in hot water til it thaws, then get these little inadequate plastic tongs Monte uses, grip the mouse by the tail, dangle it in front of the snake and wait until the snake violently, and I mean violently, snaps it up.  OMG!!!! I could cry.  The things one does for their kids!!!!!!

Over the years I have had ten dogs forced on me, four rabbits, one chinchilla, one rat, umpteen hamsters, two gerbils, several guinea pigs....I think that's it.  And I am NOT the proverbial animal lover.  Now I have to feed a snake.  I know! I am going to go get my kitchen tongs, much longer and more removed from the snake and give them a try.  Then I am throwing them out.  (SHOVEL LIST SHOVEL LIST SHOVEL LIST to the power of infinity plus one). Monte told me that the snake would be little and eat crickets.  Hah!!!

Wish me luck. Be safe and noodle.  TTYL 

WELL HOLY FREAKING HANNAH!!!

 I need to defrag right now.  What an explosive couple of days it's been.  

Firstly, Monte is in the hospital as most of you know.  He went in with a blood pressure of 250 over 150.  He would probably be mad at me for telling you.  It embarrasses him.  I think that is because he feels responsible.  And let me make it clear...he isn't.  The meds he is on create ravenous hunger, the kind you can't think when you are feeling that way.  As a result you eat.  You eat whatever is in your pathway. Consequently, you gain weight.

He hasn't been feeling well for a long time.  And he gets terrible headaches and then he throws up.  This has been going on for two or three months.  Finally he felt that bad that he took himself to emergency.  And..... they hooked him up, started tests and x-rays, blood work etc...  The upshot is there were a lot of markers to start with and now there is one pesky one that won't go away.  Its enough to make them worry about his heart.  With bp that high, damage to the heart is almost inevitable.  Because of his weight and size he can't get angiograms, cat scans or any other testing to check out his heart.  So they are sending him to Nanaimo hospital (where there was just a covid outbreak thank you very much) for some other kind of imaging testing. 

 Poor guy is scared stiff which doesn't help. But on the good side, they would have moved him out of icu to a regular ward but there wasn't room, so he stays in the icu, just not hooked up.  I don't think they would have done that if they were super worried.  I wish I could see him.  I know how poor Clare felt when he couldn't see his lovely Tish.  It makes the whole thing worse.  At least this will not be too long...not months like Tish and Clare had to go through.

Today the washer and dryer came with the installers. They had a hell of a time getting them into this old house with its little doors.  And then...they accidentally broke the tap off the wall, sheered it right off.  It was old and brittle.  And by the time I got down there, the water, a shooting fountain, had completely flooded the whole huge laundry room.  Holy crap!!!!  Fortunately I knew where the turn off was.  OMG!!!  What a mess.  I found a zillion towels and threw them all over.  Now I have a zillion soaked dripping towels to deal with.  A plumber has to come to put new taps in and eventually the installers need to come back to hook up the new laundry units.  Until then I have filthy soaking towels on the floor, no laundry and no water.  And there is still an inch of water everywhere.  Waaaaaaaah!!!!!

And I decided to just come up and take a moment and have a coffee and suddenly I remembered I had bread rising, or should I say super over rising.  Its a really expensive ground flax mix, low carb, high fibre, not a dough I want to waste.  So I flew into the kitchen and punched it down.  It was huge!!!!  Hopefully it will recover!  This is definitely an off kilter day for sure.

Actually that was a nice distraction for a while.  But one never gets rid of that lump of dread in the bottom of the tummy. It's not going away methinks until Monte isn't in danger of having a stroke or heart attack.  I'm sure he isn't, or they would have kept him near and hooked up.  But you know...I am not my mother who wouldn't worry until it was super worryible.  

Well I am going to go check up on my bread.  It smells funny.  I am not sure about it.  Stay safe and remember to noodle (they are six feet, I checked!). TTYL

MONEYBAGS

 Dishwasher. Check. Microwave. Check.  Washer.  Check.  Dryer. Check.  Sigh.

I made a new friend at the Brick, over the phone.  His name was Greg.  He was awesome.  I picked out what I wanted afore hand and phoned the Brick.  And one by one I bought all those things.  I knew when I bought the house that other than the furnace and heat pump and water tank, I would have to be buying new appliances.  The microwave didn't even have a turn around thingy.  So the laundry stuff and the microwave arrive next Thursday and my new dishwasher comes on Dec. 31st.  

 I bought extra big everything.  With a six foot nine person's jeans one needs an extra big laundry pair.  Plus my duvets are desperately needing washing.  The dinky stupid thing down there can hardly wash a pair of Monte's jeans.

I bought a dishwasher that has a 'tall tub'.  I googled that and somehow, without raising the counter, the tub is taller and accommodates bigger stuff.  And it was a simple one...no wifi (shovel list) no special anything, not too noisy...the way I like it.  Same with the washer.  No wifi, no special anything...just a washer with a speedy cycle.  Can you imagine being able to run your appliances from your smart phone?  No, me neither.  Trying to break that phone habit, not increase my need for it.

I just heard about Alex Trebeck's death today.  He was such an amazing trooper.  After watching how the same disease took my big strapping husband down, I can totally sympathize with Alex.  What a fine fine person he was.

This truly is an interesting year.  Between the elections, covid, significant deaths, isolation, no travel....  I must admit though that having Monte under my nose is a true blessing.  After losing him for that year I don't think I will ever take him for granted again.  So no matter how horrible the general population seems to be behaving, no matter how difficult isolation is, no matter how horrific Trump became, no matter how scary catching covid is, there is a large part of me that is just plain happy.

I talked to Aryn today.  She was baking!!!  Baking cookies.  She doesn't bake.  At least that is what she says.  But she sent me a pic of her cookies she was making and her Yorkshire puddings.  Dorothy is going over for a roast dinner and an evening of Monopoly.  She was going on and on about how she can't bake but...I will show you pics.  SHE CAN TOO!!!

So tonite is the Clan Zoom.  Now and then we have a Fam Zoom...jus me and my kids.  The Clan Zoom is everybody...cousins, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, kids, oldsters....its really fun!  David organizes it bless him and we all get on there and share our latest news.  I think we are 'seeing' each other more in the pandemic than when there isn't one.

Well my bread is ready to come out of the oven.  I can tell by the smell!  Baloney sammiches for supper!!!!  Stay safe and healthy and remember to noodle!  TTYL

AREN'T THEY PRETTY?

OMG!!!  YUMMY YORKIES!!

SADLY NO VANCOUVER

 Monte has been sick over the last week.  I am pretty sure it isn't covid but I just can't take any chances with April and Myles's health.  He gets the most awful headaches and is extremely fatigued.  So no visiting anybody.  I am sad but I don't want Monte to feel bad.

Halloween was its usual silly self.  So many awful fireworks.  It's so hard on the dogs around.  There weren't many families and children out.  I turned out all the lights and hid out.  I really dislike halloween. No let me reword that.  I really effing hate halloween, always have.  (big time shovel list). I can't think of one redeeming thing about it and I had four kids.  Poor kids.  They survived.

I bought a rolling clothes rack.  I plan to put it right beside the washer and dryer so I can hang all my shirts etc...  It arrived from Amazon right on time.

Well shit!!!!!!!  It is in a hundred unmarked pieces and the instructions are like...put A in B and tighten with included (not) Allan wrench, stand the pieces up and put the c over top of d...none of them marked.  Grrrrr.  Tomorrow morning Pat is coming over to organize all the cans out there (he takes them) and he has offered to organize our mountains of recycling (Toonykoot we need you!!!). I remember from Monte's clean out, he loves to organize recycling.  I will pay him.  And I am going to ask him if he feels like building the stupid rack.  I will pay him to do that too.  Monte and I tried tonight and we both ran screaming from it!  If he can't or doesn't want to, I am boxing it up and sending it back with a bad review.

So Monte and I have come to the conclusion that we will be alone this Christmas.  A certain person is moving in soon and he may be here for Xmas.  Turkey time!!!!!!!  We are going to buy our fave booze and fave hors d'ourves and I am going to buy everything, except the gravy and stuffing, already made and just need heating.  No work this year.  Maybe I will get paper dishes too!  I will be on a severe budget this xmas so I think there will be no presents except for thoughtful littler ones.

Speaking of budget, I now can include a broken washer and dryer, well actually dryer but its stacked so both go.  It takes over 100 minutes to get the clothes dry enough to put away.  My over the stove microwave is busted.  We are using Monte's tiny inexpensive old old old one.  It barely pops corn. I have to make a giant instalment payment to rev can. It never ends dammit!!!!

Well enough with the complaining.  I am still more happy than sad.  Covid just suits me.  I wake up whenever in the morning and go.....'ahhhhh...nothing scheduled today.....'.  Then I wander out to the living room in a terrible outfit I have been wearing night and day for a week now and it just doesn't matter cuz absolutely not one person will be dropping in.  I sit in my chair and watch crap tv, Bitch Judy, Scrapping 90 day Fiance Marryers, Pimple popping doctors, Plastic surgery mistakes, Really bad Tattoo Correctors, endless cooking competitions etc.....Then we eat when we want to....mostly baloney sammiches or TV dinners.  What more wonderfulness can life offer I ask!  Oh and left over Halloween candy (the only good thing about Halloween) that we can dig into now that no stray little kid had the audacity to come to a darkened blacked out house.

Stay safe and noodle!!  TTYL

some totally random pics I found on fb as I was closing my account out:

WINTER TIME UP CYPRESS

A NORMAL DAY IN THE LOG HOUSE AT BAMFIELD

 A FAVE STEP SON (BRAD) WITH BARNABY

FENTON PICKING HIS PUMKIN

GOOD OLD PARKER IN LANGFORD

SPOD CLEANING FISH