INSANITY!!!!!

 He is ours!!!!!  And he is crazy!!!  Holy Hannah!!!!

He has been here for one night.  And I must say he is settling down.  I won't go into endless boring detail like dog owners are want to do, but....he is a lot of fun and extremely high energy.  Right now, until we get the right equipment (halters etc) Ange and I can't walk him.  He is actually that strong and pulls.  Monte has no trouble though and Floyd is really comfortable with Monte.  I don't care what the previous owner told them, he has a pretty high dose of husky in him.  He does look like a German shepherd body wise but his face and ears are all husky.  Plus his tail has been docked.  The previous owner was breeding him and he was advertising him as shepherd/Australian Shepherd....and Australian shepherds have vet docked tails for working safety.  Frankly I quite like him tailless!  Less worry about stuff being swiped off low tables.

Anyway it feels right having another shepherdy type dog in the house.  And there is no doubt this will be a game changer for all three of us.  We all have already expended way more energy than normal!!!

  Thank goodness our yard was made for a dog.  It is completely fenced and huge.  Our plan is to put an outdoor carpet down (already ordered) outside beside the tin shed, move the three Adirondack chairs down and the table.  We can sit out there and have coffee and chuck a ball for Mr. Fetch.  And probably chat with Mr. Howdelydoodely Harry seeing as how we will be directly facing his house.  Ahh...good times.

Okay enough about doggie stuff.  I will be back in a couple days.  The housekeeper comes tomorrow and I don't think she is going to be very happy with the clumps of hair all over the place.  Clearly he is blowing his coat, springtime occurrence! TTYL

'If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise.'  Anon.

SEE?  IT ISN'T ALL ABOUT FLOYD

OUT AT THE EDGE OF THE EARTH ON MAUI, HAVING A PICNIC AND SNOOPING ON THE FISHERMEN DOWN BY THE WATER (THOSE ARE BINOCULARS IN MY HAND)

OUR DEAR LAHAINA...IN A PART THAT DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE

THE TAILLESS PART

JUST LIKE LEELOO, STARING AND WHINING AND STARING AND WHINING

STARING AND WHINING AND DROOLING....GOTTA LOVE A DOG

FINALLY!!!!!

STARING AND WHINING

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!

 This is exciting news....to our household but maybe not to anyone else.  But I am sharing it anyway!!!

This is Floyd.  He is up at our local SPCA. I filled out a form and sent it in and this morning they phoned me and said that we should come meet him and if it goes well he will be ours!!!!!  This household is super excited!!  So in Half an hour we are leaving to go see him and hopefully get him.  He is a Shepherd/Australian Shepherd cattle dog cross.  Five years old.  Wish us luck and I shall post again with the results!!!

TTYL

SIGH

 Remember when I was whining about how much money I have to collect by June?  Well, another chunk was just added.

Aryn and Bradley, bless them, took the van to Fountain Tire in North Vancouver to get the brakes checked.  They are due to leave for a round trip, Kananaskis, Grand Prairie then home, gone two weeks.  They were going to use the van but brakes were likely needed.

Well by the time Fountain, whom I trust implicitly, came up with everything that is wrong with the van and needs fixing right away, the total was shocking!  I guess everything is leaking, tie rods are a problem blah blah blah....final bill is seventy five hundred. ( a steam shovel list) 

I freaked, hooped, said extreme stupid things, settled down, discussed, then Monte and I decided to get it fixed.  I share expenses with him due to my using it as much as he does.  I think I will have to tap into my LOC for this one and make payments.  And I have to say this will be the very first time I have ever borrowed or owed money anywhere ever.  Our properties have always been clear title and I always keep money on my credit cards.  It's going to be weird.  But if we scrapped the van we would never get a second vehicle.  Apparently the motor is in great shape and there isn't a whole lot of mileage on it which makes it saveable. 

And just a note here, Monte has had the van serviced regularly.  How did it get so bad if they were checking it?  And that was at Canadian Tire, thank you very much.  We will be taking it to Dodge Ram from now on for its service checks.  And from now on we are going to keep her running forever.  Possibly we should take it back to Fountain Tire, our family go to for the last thirty plus years, and snag a visit with the family at the same time!  If something goes wrong with what they are doing right now, they can not complain about someone else screwing it up!!!

We have company coming tomorrow.  A friend of Ange's, and now mine as well, (I shan't mention names here), the nicest person possible, has met an apparently fabulous man online.  He lives in Maple Ridge.  I am really happy for her and I so hope it works out.  But due to the fact that we don't know him, some safety measures need to be in place.  So tomorrow afternoon she is bringing him here for coffee.  He will be staying in a hotel so it will be within her control how close she choses to be with him.

Ange and I are so different from her.  This April marks the two year anniversary of her living here.  And at the beginning we both swore there would never be any penises (other than Monte and he doesn't count cuz he is a rellie) living in this house.  And two years later we feel even stronger about that.  We did our time and we are quite happy to be just ourself.  But our friend lost her husband many years ago so she hasn't had the same experience. I understand why she is interested.  Fingers crossed!!!

I have a complaint about instagram.  I really enjoy it.  The reels are so funny.  I have learned that some dogs are smarter than me.  I have heard amazing new music.  I have seen some crazy good artwork.  But....and here's the rub.

I keep everything I put out publicly open to anyone.  If I have something private, I don't post it.  As a result the world can look at my pictures.  But I don't know why they would, except for one group that consistently are looking.  Nigerians.  Bless them.

I get the most sickly sweet, misspelled, ridiculous messages from them along with ridiculous fake pictures.  Even if I was beyond desperate I would hate the invites.  They are too icky.

Two nights ago around three in the morning my phone blew up with notices.  I don't silence it, just turn it down just in case there is an emergency.  Well this thing dinged and dinged and dinged and....  Finally I thought I had better look.  It was one of those messages and he was hearting every single one of my forty pictures.  I immediately blocked him.  These guys treat instagram like a store for old bags that hopefully have money and no brains.

Well I am super hungry.  Back to low carb and intermittent fasting.  It certainly works on my blood sugar.  If anything keeps me trying is I don't want my kidneys getting worse.  It really annoys me that when you are first diagnosed with type 2 they don't tell you that even working hard at it your kidneys take a beating.  There are so many things I would have done differently had I only known.  Like ibuprofen.......bad bad bad.  Mix Tylenol and aspirin they say.  If you have to.  Best to just tough it out, whatever it is.  And my kidneys are only fifty per cent.  So I am drinking quarts of water every day and about to start a new drug, one that gives you certain infections that are not fun.

So I am going to go and make a yummy greek salad.  Have a lovely day and I shall report back how our friend's weekend works out.  Fingers crossed.  TTYL

"Guys number one fear with online dating is the girl is chubby.  Women's is they are going to get murdered."  Hampton Yount

update:  The mystery man has arrived in Port, they are out for dinner and so far no help message from her!!!  Oh I do hope it works out for her.

BUSY WEEK I THINK

 Actually now that I think about it, these past nine days have been very uneventful!!!  The less stuff that happens the less posting I seem to do.  I keep swearing I am going to post twice a week but then don't.  Which is probably good.  You would be getting lots of ....   my hibiscus has a fungus, there is a wasp in my window, the dogwood across the street still hasn't got leaves, my housekeeper couldn't come, my ears keep ringing, I watch endless murder shows (seriously, I could kill someone now and get away with it), I seem to have stopped cooking, I gained five pounds.  Well, you get it.  So I do you a favour and stay off the blog!

We did make one decision.  Upon discussion of the upcoming Panama cruise, we decided to change it to Hawaii.  Mainly because there is no flying involved. 

 Flying for fat people is not fun.  Can you imagine the look on the poor sucker's face when he sees Monte and I descending on the poor hapless soul as we ask for seat belt extensions and squeeze into the two little seats beside him?  (shovel list). Yeah.  We decided that that's not happening. So that limits us to either Alaska or Hawaii.

And Hawaii it is.  And this time we are getting a suite.  It's actually cheaper than the balcony room on the Panama cruise.  And because we cancelled so soon I didn't lose a dime.  I think Monte will be a little happier in a bigger space.  We didn't mind the little room but I think he is a little self conscious about travelling in such close quarters with 'Mommy'.

Monte and I made an impromptu trip to Nanaimo a couple of days ago.  And I managed to NOT go into Costco.  All we did was go to Horang, which is Korean for Tiger.  It is worth the trip to Nanaimo just to get lunch there.  Fantastic interesting healthy food. 

 Trouble is I actually got carsick on the way.  I can't believe it!!!  I have never ever not once ever become carsick.  I blame that car. Smudge is like two inches off the ground and the seats are so low inside, I can't see over the dashboard.  And due to the lowness, that little sucker can corner like a hot dam!  And Monte is like over enjoying that aspect of her.  Ayyayyyai!  I'm getting queasy remembering!!! Consequently I was not hungry and barely ate my plain bowl of rice.  What a waste!  It better not happen again!

One thing I did was take care of 2.5 kilograms of chicken legs!  They were already bagged and they were 99 cents a pound.  You can't beat that!  I sent Monte to go and get them and a couple of boxes of shake and bake.  That kid can eat more chicken legs in one sitting than a hen house would be able to keep up with.  

 Bryce, Monte's friend, makes a brisket every now and then.  He trims about five pounds of pure white tallow off of it first.  And he always offers it to me.  Which of course I instantly agree to take it.  I divide it up into portions to freeze and use for gravy at the next roasty dinner!

Well thats it for today.  There are a couple of things happening this coming week so I shall be able to make a decent post....I hope!  TTYL

'I found there is only one way to look thin, hang out with fat people.'  Rodney Dangerfield. (Bill's all time fave comedian.)

YET ANOTHER OUT MY FRONT WINDOW TAKEN FROM MY CHAIR

TIME FLIES

I had no idea so much time flew by since the last post.  I love posting and there are times when I have things to say but I posted the day before and it is too soon.  Then there are times like now...a whole week goes by!  So unpredictable and inconsistent.  (shovel list)

Well another trip is in the works.  It isn't until the end of next September so both Monte and I should be able to shovel shekels into the travel account to cover the cost.  This one is a little more due to it being twenty days plus a flight home from Fort Lauderdale.

We planned to do three cruises before I cross the rainbow bridge.  This will be number three.  The first was Hawaii, the second one was Alaska and now it is the Panama Canal.

This trip also makes stops in Panama, Mexico, Columbia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, San Francisco. and Fort Lauderdale.  Not in that order.  And of course we transit the Panama Canal.

The only part I am NOT excited about is the flight home.  We fly to Toronto, two hour layover and then home.  I am not sure how I get seats that will accommodate Monte.  There is simply no way he fits into a regular seat on one of those planes.  I may get hold of the vacations to go guy and get him to get us a third seat.  They were only 250 us bucks.

We have been looking at rescue dogs.  There are lots of puppies or young dogs.  We want an old sedate dog that hates walks!  Hahahaha!!!!  I keep hearing about all these dogs needing to be adopted but they sure aren't here in Port!  And the other obstacle is I want a little lappy type dog (Leelooesque) and Monte wants a German shepherd (Parkeresque).  And neither of us are willing to meet in the middle and compromise! 

There seem to be lots of chihuahuas but I can't stand them.  They have bug eyes and they shake.  I don't like boxers or squash faced dogs like pugs, they look like Winston Churchill after he ran into a wall.  But then I think about what a sedentary household we are and start feeling sorry for any dog that enters our life.  When Wrangler was still able to walk we had Peter here who would take him out every day, all day long.  Eventually two things happened.  Wrangler couldn't walk up the stairs after a long walk and Peter left.  I have faith that the perfect dog that suits us both in every way will walk into our life eventually.  Remember that book The Secret?  All you had to do was wish for something hard enough and it would transpire.  Well maybe I will give that the old army try.  I will let you know how that works out!!!

I also want to consider Ange.  She has so very kindly offered to look after the dog when we would be gone.  I think there is a big difference between looking after a little fur ball and a giant needy dog.  I offered to pay her the same as I would a kennel, but some dogs need a huge amount of attention.  Should that end up being the case, kennel it would have to be.

Well enough silly rambling.  The clinic just phoned me to see why I haven't been in for my three month check up.  This doctor I have is pretty amazing.  I ended up with an extra three months of pills so I am not doing my A1c until they are all gone but I think I will go in and see her anyway.  She clearly has noticed my absence.  Normally that would piss me off but I like this doctor.

So I shall sign off now.  I hope this finds you all happy.  Take care.  TTYL

 

A SHOCKING EVENT IN OUR FAMILY

 I shall get to the event momentarily. First a catchup.  

After K&T left, Stan asked if I would like to join them for breakfast at Pescadories, known as Pesky's in our house.  I absolutely jumped on that invitation!!!  This is the second or third time I have gone with them.  I always get Stan to order for me, the same thing he gets.  I put a pic at the bottom!  But this time I couldn't eat it all.  I had to bring home a bunch and eat it later.

Over the last few years I would occasionally take a sleeping pill, or rather a quarter of one.  They are strong!  If I took a whole one I am pretty sure I would sleep for a week!

But a quarter of one knocks me out for basically 24 hours.  It kind of comes and goes.  I wake up, all groggy and swimmy in the head, then go back to sleep, for the 24 hours.  I love it.  But...if something happened and I had to perform the next day I would be up the creek!  Consequently, I plan pretty carefully.  I tell everyone I ain't cookin' that night and I will be comatose on my chair!  

I don't sleep much.  No matter when I go to bed I always, always, wake up at three and that's it.  I may doze afterwards off and on but I don't go back to sleep.  But I have never needed much sleep, but eventually it catches up.  And that is when I plan a sleeping pill.  And then I am good to go for another couple of months!

Now for the shocking event.  I have a huge huge family on my dad's side.  Every five years we have a massive family reunion.  As a result we all know each other and are quite close.  There are about 30 plus first cousins and many many second and now third cousins.  

One of the cousins in Kelowna has a number of adult children and grandchildren.  One of his sons owns Adventure Trucks, he outfits trucks with tents on top of them etc...  They are quite amazing!!!

Someone who is an acquaintance of his, the son's, entered his business, shot him, set fire to the business and then shot himself.  At least that is what we know so far.  Jeez!!!  This is a god fearing family, good good people!  This just doesn't happen in families like that!  I guess the police are figuring it all out right now, as is the family.  Stan phoned Jack, the dad, and sent our love and condolences.  Man, Jack just lost his wife to stomach cancer recently.  Just an awful awful time for him and the family.

Well I guess I had best get on with my day.  There is one helluva stack of dirty dishes to load into a fully loaded dishwasher of clean dishes.  Sigh.  Plus I am hungry!  I don't remember eating much yesterday.  I shall post soon.  TTYL

'What nicer thing can you do for someone than make them breakfast?'  Anthony Bourdain

RANCHO OEVOS (SP?). AND THAT IS CORNBREAD, TOASTED ON THE PLATE!!!

LOOK OUT STAN!!!  SHE'S GOT HER EYE ON YOUR BREAKFAST!!!

SMILES PEOPLE!!!!!