Yeah, the thermometer shows it’s gotten warmer, but we’ve got another bit of a storm happening. The winds are quite as severe as a few days ago, but with more snow.
When I headed out this morning, we were at -26C/-15F, but the wind chill was at -39C/-38F I spent as little time outside as possible! Basically, just give the outside cats non-frozen food (their food trays are filled with frozen kibble) and warm water, and that’s it. I did manage to get a few pictures, including a show of this gorgeous girl.
I want to pet her. I want to brush the mats out of her fur.
I want her to not be pregnant.
I assume she is, as the boys are leaving her alone, now, though when I checked out the bathroom window last night, I saw some shenanigans happening with Midnight and a female I couldn’t make out under him; definitely not a big fluff ball like Brussel. I wasn’t going to even try interrupting them, since that would just scare cats outside into the cold.
As I write this, we have warmed up to -19C/2F with a wind chill of -32C/-25F This time, the wind is coming up from the south at 34km/h21m/h, though we certainly have higher gusts that I can see blowing past my window.
We are supposed to reach a high of -17C/1F I don’t know what time of day they use to determine when the high happens, though, as the temperatures are supposed to continue warming slightly, to reach -15C/5F by about 10pm tonight, and stay there until about 2am, when we’re supposed to cool down. The “high” of tomorrow is supposed to be -19C/2F, but that’s supposed to be at about 5am, and things are supposed to keep cooling down for the rest of the day.
Thursday, at least, we’re supposed to have a high of -15C/5F. I got mixed up and was thinking that’s when we’re taking a couple of cats in for a spay and a neuter, but that’s on the 30th. This Thursday is a follow up doctor’s appointment for my daughter. Her appointment isn’t until 3pm, though, and we’re supposed to get snow again, starting Thursday evening and continuing all through Friday. Friday, however, is supposed to have a high of -3C/27F!! Then, on the 28th, we’re supposed to actually go above freezing!
If the long range forecasts are at all accurate, things should stay pretty mild, with only one or two days below -20C/-4F in February.
I certainly home so.
This polar vortex may have some other negative effects that we won’t know about until spring. While our Liberty apple tree is planted in a sheltered spot, and protected someone with an anti-deer wrap, it’s still a zone 4 fruit tree. These temperatures may have killed it.
Our winter sowing experiment may also be affected. While the sown garden beds did get a thick layer of mulch, they would also have benefited from a thicker layer of snow to insulate them. We just don’t have a lot of snow this year (which is NOT a complaint!). Some seeds, like the onion seeds, I’m sure will survive just fine. Others, I’m not so sure!
Well, we’ll see in the spring. Once things warm up and melt away enough, I’ll remove the mulches. Then we’ll see whether I’m making a mistake by not buying more seeds this year.
Oh, who am I kidding. I am sure there are some seeds out there I will end up buying!
With the cold, the snow and the winds, I am cheering myself up by thinking garden thoughts!
… that I convinced my mother to do her errands yesterday, and not today.
The high for today was forecast to be -4C/25F – with a blizzard warning. During the night, I’d checked the weather and we had actually reached -1C/30F at 4am.
It has been dropping steadily, since then.
Temperature-wise, we’re still at a mild -11C/12F as I write this. The wind chill, however is -32C/-26F
This is what it was like when I did my short rounds this morning. (scroll through the slideshow to see a brief video)
The usual bunch is warm and cozy in the isolation shelter. In the next image, the older and more feral cats were taking shelter in various places. The water bowl shelter is more sheltered from the wind than the kibble shelter, though under the kibble shelter, which has a sheet of rigid foam insulation on the ground, plus another under the shelter floor, was a popular spot. The plastic wrapped catio was also being used, as well as the old dog house. When we get a chance, we need to open the roof and check on the heat bulb in there, as I don’t think it’s working anymore. Usually, there is melted snow on the roof above where the bulb is, and there isn’t any, even when we had the warmer days.
The sun room, however, is a very busy place. Looking out the bathroom window, not long ago, I counted 21 cats that I could see. There may have been more in corners we can’t see through the window. The thermometer on the wall was reading 0C/32F, which is likely reading on the cold side, as it’s on an exterior wall and between windows, one of which is a single pane instead of double pain.
In the video, you get some idea of how windy it was, in general. I wasn’t able to catch some of the more severe gusts, and wasn’t about to hang out outside for it! We were getting warnings of 70km/43m winds, with gusts up to 100km/62m As I write this, however were are down to 42km/26m winds.
When I got inside and started checking my local groups on FB, I found it had just exploded with posts from people describing terrible road conditions, and telling people to please stay home. Some had just arrived at their destinations. At least one described starting out, then turning around and going home, because they simply couldn’t see the road.
Soon after, one of the weather groups started posting about highway closures. Some, just sections were closed, but one highway was closed entirely.
For us, we are pretty sheltered from the winds coming from the north-northwest, and we didn’t get a lot of snow. Our odd climate bubble seems to have protected us again. We still have high winds, of course, and I even saw the sun come out briefly, a few minutes ago.
As always, when we have high winds, we are watching the trees. Especially the spruce grove, with all those dead trees. With the wind direction, though, if any do come down, they will fall away from the house. There’s really just one that is a threat to the house itself.
If my mother had gotten me to come today to help with her shopping, as she had wanted to originally, I would have had to cancel, and she would have been stuck. She is just a couple of blocks from the grocery store, though, and they do deliver, so she would have been okay for food. The pharmacy only delivers medications, though, so she could not have gotten her shopping there.
Speaking of which, I’m glad my husband’s prescription refills were delivered yesterday, too!
So we get to stay home and hibernate for the next few days. The temperatures will continue to drop, but will start warming up again next week – just in time for my daughter’s follow up doctor’s appointment!
In other things…
Yesterday morning, I’d poured more of the calcium chloride into the ejector’s venturi pipe, as my brother requested. It never filled, which means it was draining at the bottom. The level in the stack pipe did rise, but not very much. In talking to him about it, we figured that, if everything was thawed out, the fluid could possibly back up into the main pipe to the house.
Yesterday evening, after I got home from doing my mother’s shopping, I went into the basement.
I found a puddle of water on the floor, near the septic pump.
This was good news!
I checked around the pump itself, of course. The pipes and connectors were all dry. The puddle had already started to dry, so it had been there for some hours, and the only other place I found moisture was under the pump itself.
Directly under the loose and open outflow pipe to the ejector.
I found a container that I could fit under it, even though it is unlikely to happen again, but this was a really positive thing. It means that the ejector is now completely thawed out, and the the main pipe to the house is clear. The pipe itself has a slope to it, so it would always drain away from the house. Pouring in the ice melter was just enough to push the water that would always be in the pipe, back up into the basement a bit.
Which means we could set the pump up to the ejector again!
My brother was talking about coming out this weekend to do that, weather willing.
Today, I told him, don’t even think about it! We can stay with the emergency diverter for another week. Next weekend is supposed to be much better. Thankfully, he is able to work from home today, too, so no commuting in this storm! They got hit harder than we did.
Wow. I was just going over this post, looking for typos, when my phone started screaming at me. Our province just issued an emergency alert for hazardous road conditions, high winds and blizzard like conditions. They are asking people in the south or our province to avoid driving, conditions are worsening, visibility is near zero, and multiple highways are closed.
We are further north than the warning area, though.
Today didn’t go above freezing, like yesterday, but it did reach a high of -3C/27F, which is absolutely gorgeous for this time of year . We need to take advantage of it while we can, though. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have the same high of the day, and then it’s supposed to drop to a high of -23C/-9F the next day! We’re supposed to keep getting colder for a couple more days before things start warming up to above -20C/-4F again.
With that on the horizon, when my mother called yesterday about getting help with her shopping, I was already planning to call her to arrange doing it today. My mother, after telling me her fridge is sooo empty, tried to have it on Friday, because there is a social event in her building on Thursdays. I reminded her, I’m doing her shopping for her. She isn’t coming along, so she can still go visit with her neighbours! I just didn’t want her to be with an empty fridge any longer than necessary.
So that was worked out.
Before I headed out this morning, I had a little extra to do during my morning rounds.
It was time to put some pretty collars on some cats!
Here, from left to right, Colin, Judgement and Stinky are sporting their handsome new necklaces. These are not only brightly colours, but have rows of reflective strands in them. I was also able to get one on Gouda, and Nosey showed up towards the end and got one.
This is Gouda’s old collar, that showed up in the sun room after he lost it, as other cats were dragging it around and playing with it.
This colour also has the rows of reflective strands in, though with the collar being scratched until it frayed like this, I doubt they could be seen! The breakaway collar is still there, but the loop of collar on one end had come undone. This has happened before. These are the collars I’ve been able to find at the local dollar store. I still have one like it left that got buried. I just need to remove the bell and adjust the length before I add it to the others.
These are all the prepared collars. Since the yard cats earn their keep by hunting rodents for us, all the bells get removed, first. The ones on the bottom are the ones I found at the local dollar store. The bells on those ones need a pair of pliers to removed them, as the bells are on a ring that goes around the fabric of the collar. The new reflective ones have D rings for the bells. Plus, the rings the bells were on were the kind with overlapping ends, so they could be slid off like a key ring.
I’m keeping all the bells. Eventually, I plan to crochet a bunch of cat toys and will include the bells inside them.
We have one spay and one neuter booked through the rescue at the end of the month. I plan to bring a couple of collars along for the clinic to put on them while they are still under. Much easier than trying to get a collar on a mostly feral cat.
Meaning Brussel, the gorgeous fluffy calico with four boys hanging around.
Yes, she has gone into heat.
In the middle of January.
If we can’t catch her, she would be having kittens at the end of February. Way too early. The chances of survival would be almost nil.
But, how do we catch her? I don’t want to use a trap, yet, as it’s too still too cold, and who knows which cat would actually get caught in the trap. I might be able to get her closed up in the catio – she actually went into there this morning, and I could have closed her in, but she would need a heated water bowl, and there is no power available out there. The catio itself is a mini greenhouse, plus it has two box nests, one insulated, one with insulation between it and the ground, and a food bowl. Once things are warm enough that water won’t freeze, the catio could also be used as an isolation shelter, but not yet!
Brussel is one of the more feral cats but at least she does come closer and sometimes goes into the sun room. Her sister, Sprout, sometimes comes closer to house, but runs away as soon as she sees us. Sprout it one of the most feral in the colony.
Gotta work on that lady! She would be a priority over the other females right now, if we could snag her.
Aside from bedecking cats with snazzy new necklaces (the two littles that got fixed won’t be getting theirs quite yet), the other additional task of the morning was to pour more calcium chloride into the ejector. My brother asked me to pour it into the venturi pipe first, see if that can be filled, before pouring it into the stand pipe around it.
The two jugs were on the old oil drum my brother dragged over to use as a work surface. I started with the one that had only about a quarter jug left. Once that was done, I cracked open the second one.
As my brother expected, showing that the venturi valve is, indeed, no longer frozen, the level of liquid inside the venturi pipe did not seem to increase. The level in the stand pipe did increase, slowly. What would be happening is liquid at the bottom might be draining slowly into the main pipe.
It wasn’t until I was pouring the last of the calcium chloride into the pipe that I realized I was hearing an odd sound from inside the jug.
It was slush.
The liquid ice melter, had started to freeze!
Part of this is because they were sitting on metal, which would have made the bottoms a lot colder. The other part is that, while they were sitting there, the contents separated in the cold, with the water freezing at the bottom.
After closing up the ejector and wrapping it up again, the tarp, I nestled both jugs into the black plastic, on the east side of the set up, so that they would get the most sun and warmth to thaw out.
I hope we get one extra warm day on the weekend, as I expect my brother will want to come out on Saturday to switch the pipes back on the septic pump. I would then trudge out to the ejector for when he’s ready to test it, so I can message him and let him know if it’s working or not.
If it does work, we’ll have to make a point of using lots of water so the septic pump will turn on a few times and wash out the calcium chloride. The fitting at the bottom of the ejector is brass, which might corrode if it’s exposed to it for too long.
Once all that was done, it wasn’t long before I headed out to the truck to set up the OBDII scanner and make sure it is still just the sensor triggering the check engine light. I probably don’t need to do that, but I’m paranoid about having just one vehicle available.
My husband was expecting a prescription delivery today, so I left the gate open when I headed out, and the girls made sure to keep a phone handy and be available to get the delivery.
I timed my departure for when I could pick up our favourite fried chicken and wedges for lunch at the gas station – and top up the gas tank.
One thing my mother needs to get done that I cannot do for her is get cash from the bank, and she is no longer physically up to going to the bank in person. She doesn’t have a bank card (she did get one and my brother has it for safe keeping), as she wouldn’t know how to use it, nor would she trust it, so it’s cash only. My brother, as her Power of Attorney, is the only person who can do it for her. I brought it up with my brother, at her request, to see if there was some way to include me in the PoA (I do NOT want to be PoA at all!). He will have to take a day off work and make an appointment with our mother at the bank to work things out, and has no idea when he’ll be able to do that. Hopefully, some workaround be found.
We’ll figure it out.
After my mother and I had our lunch together, we went over her list and then I went to the pharmacy and the grocery store for her. I got back just in time for the social worker from the senior’s centre to arrive and start setting up their weekly event. I was able to get everything unloaded and put away, before starting time, so that worked out quite well.
My daughters, meanwhile, were also taking advantage of the warm day and have set up the laundry. No one has had a chance to climb onto the roof and check the vent yet (they climb through a window upstairs, rather than use a ladder, as it’s safer that way), so we’ve got the hose running out the door again. Since it’s going to be set up, anyhow, I’ll also take advantage of it and find things to wash. It may be warmer right now, but we still need to make sure to bring the hose in as soon as possible, before any remaining water starts to freeze, or the plastic starts to get brittle and crack.
One of these days, we’ll be able to do laundry like normal people again. 😄😄
Getting all this stuff done during the few warm days we have right now is a lot like “making hay while the sun shines” in the summer! We’re going to be hit with the bitter cold again, soon enough.
I can’t complain, though. For all that we are getting these cold spells, it’s really been a fairly mild winter. Not as mild as last year’s El Nińo winter, but still much nicer than the first few winters we had after moving here!
What the heck???
I just checked my computer’s weather app.
We are now under a blizzard warning.
We were expecting a couple of hours with snow this evening, then more in the wee hours of the morning, but this is the first blizzard warning I’m seeing! With winds up to 70km/h (43mph), they’re now saying. Looking at the weather radar, it seems that most of the system will pass to the north of us.
Mind you, the same weather app is saying the snow has already started where we are, and I see no snow falling at all, outside my window. So maybe our weird climate bubble is doing its thing again.
As I write this, our temperature is still a balmy -4C/25F, though the windchill is at -15C/5C. Still not too bad right now. We shall see!
At least the yard babies have plenty of food, water and shelter.
Today was expected to be a warm on, though the forecast kept changing when it came to what our high was supposed to be. In the end, it was a glorious 3C/37F! It’s past 6:30pm as I start this, and we are still at 1C/34F It is so awesome!
Things had warmed up pretty constantly overnight, so while I was doing my morning rounds, I was able to check on the frozen ejector. My brother had brought over one of his tarps to cover it, but until this morning, I hadn’t seen just how long it was! It took a while to get it off, and I made sure to lay it out on the snow, so that I could fold it in half (black side out) for later.
After very carefully removing the elbow and cap, the first thing I saw was that the venturi pipe – the discharge pipe – inside the 4″ stand pipe was loose and could move around. My brother and I left a length of copper pipe nearby, supported by a fence post and a tree, so it couldn’t freeze in the snow, that I used to see how far down the ice was. I was able to get the copper pipe its entire length in, and never hit ice! It was the same inside the venturi pipe. I was extra careful while doing this, as the last thing I needed to do was drop the thing! It’s a few feet shorter than the height of the stand pipe, so if that hadn’t, I would not have been able to get it out again.
As for the venturi pipe, while I could wiggle it around, it was still solid at the bottom. That could have just been the venturi valve properly seated at the bottom, but I wasn’t about to force it out to find out.
This is very encouraging, though, and a very pleasant surprise. I was expecting it to still be frozen a few feet down. We might be able to hook things up to the pump again soon!
For now, I left it as it as it was and covered it back up again, tying the tarp around itself so the wind won’t blow it off. I didn’t add more of the liquid ice melter. I updated my brother about it and he did ask me to add a bit more, but I will do that tomorrow, as we were out most of today.
That was my first surprise – just how well that stuff worked!
My second surprise happened when I went to check on the truck and do a scan.
We have not been able to do much about clearing and organizing the garage since moving here. Among the things we will need to deal with are various long items stored in the rafters.
The yard cats like to go up into the rafters and use them to move around. There are shelves they climb to get up there, so I sometimes find things they’ve knocked down in the process.
This morning, I found a bundle of scrap molding and whatnot, on the ground beside the truck, along with a board. These had been in the rafters.
The first thing I did was check the truck for damage, but it seems it was missed completely!
After cleaning things up, I did the OBDII scan on the truck to make sure it was still just the sensor setting off the check engine light, then fired up the compressor to top up the tires. I was checking the tire pressures still when my daughter caught up to me, so she started topping up the tires that were a bit low.
I was telling her about finding the bundle that had been in the rafters next to the truck, when I realized.
One of the more feral kitties was up there, on another bundle – one that did not look like it could be knocked down, thankfully! – watching us very closely. Thankfully, this is not one that panics and dashes awake, leaving a wake of destruction behind. We have others that do, and I worry that they will hurt themselves in the process! Not to mention, break things.
So that was another surprise.
Once we were done prepping the truck, my daughter and I headed out. Our first stop was the post office, where I knew we had some parcels waiting to be picked up. Two of them were not a surprise; my husband got me a new pair of boots, as the right foot on the ones I have now finally started splitting. It’s always my right foot that wrecks my shoes, first! He also picked up a siphon with a rather unique design, This is something we could use to drain some of the water in the ejector – both the stand pipe and the venturi pipe – if needed. Based on what I saw this morning, the level is going down, which means it might be draining slowly from below, but it’s hard to say for sure.
There was one large but very light box among the parcels that I wasn’t expecting – at least not so soon! The replacement hose for our washer came in. They expedited the parcel, even though I only paid for regular mail! That was really awesome of them!
There was another package that was a total surprise, though.
A whole bunch of cat collars! They have breakaway collars and are reflective. We will be able to get all sorts of cats collared up as they are fixed! Right now, Syndol is the only one that still has his collar, and his winter fur is so fluffy, you can’t even see it, even though it’s bright red. I have a bunch of collars ready to put on them. Only one of them is reflective, though, so I will likely use these, instead
I didn’t order these, by the way. There was nothing on the package to say who sent them to us. There were a couple of possibilities, and I can now send a great big thankyou to M for being so very thoughtful in sending these! M, you are awesome!
It’s so nice to have good surprises for a change, instead of all the “what is breaking down now??” surprises!
Meanwhile, my daughter and I ended up changing our plans and heading to the city today, and I ended up doing a smaller stock up trip. By the time we got back from the city, it was starting to get dark, so it was a much longer day than expected, too!
I would really like to be able to get that fluffy lady and get her spayed! She does sometimes let me pet her, but not very often of late.
This morning, I tried for a head count and got 29, which is the highest I’ve counted in a while. Not sure what to make of that, but cats will cat, I guess!
A brief update on our plumbing situation. Any time I hear a pump go off, I am checking the basement, even if it’s just the well pump. The septic pump makes a different sound now that the diverter is attached but, strangely, it sounds just like the fan in our bathroom!
There is still a leak somewhere, and I’ve had to top up the filter a few times. Sometimes, the filter cap will be tightly seals. Other times, it won’t be. There was one time I checked when I heard it go off, and the filter was low on water, but there was inflow happening. I waited and watched, and the inflow pressure increased as the water level in the filter increased faster than it drained out, and soon it was properly full and working right.
I updated my brother on all of this. He asked for some photos from different angles, and I figured he was planning to come out and see what he could do about it. Something he did eventually confirm, saying he was going to try something with the “back valve” on the pump. I assume there are valves, but I don’t know anything about what they are or where. I look forward to seeing what he does and learning more about it. Meanwhile, my SIL confirmed that she would be driving my brother out and drop him off, so he can take back their car that they loaned us.
My younger daughter and I needed to go into town to pick up our prescriptions today so, of course, we took advantage of the trip to run other errands.
This meant using the truck. I can’t be using my brother’s car, just because it’s there. I’d used the OBDII scanner last night and confirmed it was still the same sensor that was the issue, so there was really no excuse.
It ran just fine, but I really hate having the check engine light on, and the oil pressure gauge not working.
Our first stop in town was, of course, the pharmacy. My new painkiller prescription was filled yesterday, but my daughter’s was just put on file; when my prescription arrived, they called us about it, asking if I wanted it filled. They never called about my daughter’s prescriptions. They were going to need some time to fill it, so I left her to wait for it and did our other errands. The first was to return that security camera I’d picked up, so we could monitor the septic pump without running up and down the stairs all the time. We never did figure out why it wouldn’t connect to our WiFi.
The exchange was pretty straightforward and quick, so I had time to stop at a grocery store near the pharmacy. It’s not one we normally go to, but it was on the way. All I needed to pick up was butter, but on the way out I’d asked if my daughter had eaten anything, and she hadn’t. It was coming up on lunch time, and I knew she’d been up at around 3am and unable to get back to sleep. So I picked up something for her to eat as well.
That done, I went back to the pharmacy, where my daughter was still waiting. They didn’t have one of the meds as a generic in stock, so she got a name brand, instead. Another, they could only fill half of it. It didn’t take too much longer, though. My daughter used to work at this pharmacy, so she got to catch up a bit with former co-workers.
Since I was able to run our other errands while she waited, once everything was paid for, we were done in town.
This town, at least!
We were starting to run low on kibble, especially for the outside cats, so we made the trip to my mother’s town, next, and to the feed store.
The price on the 40 pound bags has gone up.
The lysine I’d ordered wasn’t in. It’s been quite a while since I requested it, so I was a bit surprised.
From there, we picked up some fuel and headed for home, with a quick side trip to the post office. I was giving one more day for the letter mail that got delayed by the postal strike. If it didn’t come today, I was going to assume it was lost and would have to make arrangements.
I was pretty happy to see that it had finally arrived – but also found a parcel slip. I was not expecting any parcels until next week!
The post office hadn’t reopened for the afternoon, yet, so I couldn’t pick it up. They’d reopen in only 20 minutes, though, so my daughter and I headed home and unloaded. She headed in to put things away, and I went back to the post office, just in time for it to reopen.
This is what my brother and I want to try on the ejector. We can’t use the 100′ extension cord my brother set up when he was going to try his heat gun, as it is for 2 prong plugs. We have two, but they are both in use right now. Once my brother retrieves his car, though, one will be freed up, as it’s currently what his block heater is plugged into. I don’t know that we’ll set that up tomorrow, though. If the source of the problem really is the over saturated soil under the ejector, thawing the stand pipe out isn’t going to do much good. It’ll just freeze again. And we certainly don’t want to be switching from the emergency diverter to the ejector on the pump, if only to have to switch it back again later.
We shall see what my brother thinks, when he gets here tomorrow.
Meanwhile, now that we no longer have a clogged drain from the kitchen sink, and the diverter is mostly working fine, we’ve been catching up on dishes and other cleaning jobs. We still haven’t needed to do laundry, though. I’m still on constant alert for the sound of the septic pump; I’m the only one that can hear it when it goes off, and only when I’m in my office/bedroom, which puts a limit on what I can get done.
I really hope whatever my brother has come up with, works!
I must say, though; it may be a pain in the butt to be constantly listening for and checking on that pump, things are a LOT more relaxed now that both the diverter is working, and that clogged drain is cleared!
Meanwhile, I’m hoping to get a much better night’s sleep tonight, with these new painkillers.
We keep several cat carriers in the sun room, so the cats will be used to them and hopefully not panic as much as we are able grab the more feral ones for spays and neuters. Sometimes, I will find cats just chilling in one of them.
Rolando Moon claimed it, this morning. 😊 Rondo Moon is the last of the originals, living here before we moved in, and cared for by my late father, still outside. We were willing to bring her in, and she has actually gone into the house voluntarily, then headed back outside. She has no interest in being an indoor cat!
Today is quite a bit warmer, as far as temperature goes, but I sure couldn’t tell when I did my morning rounds. It was -14C/7F at the time, but the wind chill was at -29C/-20F! The outside cats seem to be handling things well, for the most part. I haven’t been able to do a head count lately, but it does seem like there are fewer of them. There could be many reasons for that, but they move around so much, it’s hard to tell, and some show up for the food later on. I have seen cats going up and down our driveway on the trail cam, though, so hopefully they are just out visiting neighbours.
Speaking of cameras…
It looks like I’ll be returning the camera I picked up yesterday, to monitor the septic pump. It simply would not connect to our WiFi. It doesn’t tell me why. Just that it failed. We have two networks that I tried linking up to – one on our Starlink router, one on our Orbii router, which is there to ensure all parts of the house gets a good internet signal. It won’t connect with either of them.
Our septic pump still has not been triggered, so we still don’t know how well the emergency diverter will work until it does.
Meanwhile, we’re still dealing with the clogged drain to the kitchen and laundry.
My daughters tried to clear it again. This time, one daughter blocked the drain pipe for the washing machine while the other used the sink plunger in the kitchen. That thing does work really well!
Unfortunately, when my daughter uncovered the laundry drain again, gunk went shooting up out of the pipe! So the clog is basically right at where the laundry drain reaches the main pipe in the root cellar, causing anything from the kitchen to go up the laundry pipe instead of the main drain.
Once I had a chance, I made a couple of calls to plumbers. The first call, they were booked solid and new bookings are more than 2 weeks away. I had success with the second call. They, too, were busy, but his first response, when I told him what I needed done, was “definitely not today”. I asked about the next few days.
Long story short, he’s going to make us their first call tomorrow. Since they’re coming from the town to the north of us, they’ll get here around 9-10am. My younger daughter and I have our doctor’s appointments in the afternoon, but it should be done before we leave.
We might finally be able to do laundry without running a hose out the front door! That would help fill the septic tank faster, triggering the pump, so we’ll know how the diverter is working, too. It should be fine, but still… I’ve become as paranoid with our plumbing as with our truck!
I asked for some idea of what the bill will be. He said it depends on a few things, from how long it takes, to which machine he ends up using, etc., but might be as low as $150. I figure it will cost at least $300, but we’ll see.
So we have one more day of not being able to drain water down the kitchen sink.
It feels like it should be 2 or 3 in the afternoon!
I tried going to be early last night, but it was an interrupted night. Which was a good thing, really. At one point, I heard the toilet flush, and the septic pump turned on soon after. I forced myself to stay awake, listening for it to turn off.
It didn’t.
Downstairs I went and checked the filter. There was no water in it. The pump was running dry. Thankfully, not for very long. I shut it off, primed the filter, then turned it on again. It took a few moments, but I was soon seeing water flowing in and it was running properly.
Running dry like that is not at all good for the pump. If I didn’t happen to be awake to hear it, it would have kept running all night, or until I woke to go to the bathroom or something. No one else in the house can hear it.
After the pump shut itself up, I popped the top on the filter and primed it again, even though it was still mostly full. Air must be getting into the system somewhere, but it’s not the filter cap, as that was sealed tight when I popped it open. Once it is full, it should stay full. There’s no sign of a leak under the filter that I can see, but once it’s primed, the level doesn’t drop. It’s when the pump turns on that it drains, but doesn’t refill completely once the water from the tank starts flowing. It seems that, after it runs properly a couple of times, the filter just doesn’t have enough water in it to create the vacuum needed anymore, and it runs dry. It’s almost as if the pump isn’t pulling water from the tank efficiently enough anymore, or there might be a partial block in the intake pipe, somewhere between the pump filter and the septic tank. The outflow seems to be working fine.
If anyone has ideas as to why that would be, I’d love to hear it!
Either way, that pump needs to be replaced before it burns out completely. For now, we’re going to have to constantly check on it and make sure that filter is full. Thank God we have that, because otherwise, we couldn’t see what is going on.
Working on the septic pump was at about 5-5:30 am, and my alarm was set for 7:30. I did manage a bit more sleep before I had to get up.
When heading out to do the morning rounds, I made sure to grab the truck keys, so I could start warming it up while switching out memory cards on the trail cams, and opening the gate ahead of time.
The new solar powered camera’s solar panel was frosted over, so I cleared that of. Checking the battery indicators, it showed that it was using the regular batteries, not the solar panel’s internal battery.
Then it gave a “low battery warning” and shut itself down.
Both sets of batteries were too frozen to power the camera!
I got it going enough to check it was up and running and recording before I moved on. The morning sun hits it directly, so it was already warming up and charging.
As I was finishing up my rounds, I made sure to double check the isolation shelter.
The patch, with its clear Gorilla tape over the crack, was doing its job. I still want to tape it on the inside, but it’ll be a while before it’s frost free enough to get it clean and dry. You can’t tell in the photo above, but the top of the isolation shelter was quite full of cats at the time!
The next image is a screen cap of the temperature taken several hours later. It had warmed up to -22C/-8F by then, but that windchill of -33C/-27F is the real killer.
I had been walking in that, just before taking that screenshot.
The isolation shelter is sheltered from most winds, though. The plastic around the bottom half would make a big difference, too. The cats love to just crowd into the top half. I’m glad I took out that insulated box and moved the bed into the middle. More cats can fit in there, now. I’m going to see if I can find a smaller cat bed I can shove into the corner near the heated water bowl, too. The insulation on the lounging shelf is being thoroughly taken advantage of, too.
My morning rounds done, I was soon on the road to drop the truck off at the garage. I had a 9am drop off time, rather than an appointment time, so when I dropped off the keys, I asked if he had an idea of how long it might me, just so I knew what I had time for while waiting. He figured it would be done by about 11.
So I had about 2 1/2 hours to kill.
I headed out to find somewhere for breakfast – and a public washroom (did I mention, these temperature fluctuations are murder on the bladder? 😄). I ended up going to a Subway. It’s been years since I’ve been there, but the only other place shared a bathroom in a pharmacy that wasn’t going to open for a while yet.
I wasn’t even sure the Subway was open, even though the sign was on. The lighting over the counter was very dark. I must have been their first customer of the day. They were still setting up. I ordered my favourite; a meatball sub. It was good, but the meatballs and sauce hadn’t had time to get hot, yet. That was okay. It was still warmer than the burger I had at Boston Pizza yesterday!
That done, I decided to pop into our regular pharmacy to cash in a couple of winning lottery tickets, then headed to the dollar store. There I found a bunch of breakaway cat collars. There was only one red one with reflective strips, but my daughters requested I not get red ones anymore. When they see red through the fur, their first reaction is alarm, because they think it’s a wound. So I got some colourful ones, instead. They are affordable there, and I was able to get six of them for about the price of, at best, two, in other stores. Most of the breakaway collars I see elsewhere actually cost more than what I paid for 6, and there’s really no difference in quality that I can see.
Of course, with that many collars, the woman at the counter was curious. When I told her they were for every yard cat that gets fixed, so we can tell them apart, she just lit up. It turns out she’s been taking care of a feral – and it’s now an indoor cat they’ve adopted! We talked for a while about the problems of stray cats, people dumping cats, and the insane cost of getting cats spayed and neutered. I showed her a picture of some of the yard cats inside the top of the isolation shelter and she told me, no way. I couldn’t do that. I’d have to keep them all! She had considered being a foster but knows herself well enough that she could never let any fosters go if she took them in, and joked about how, before she moved to where she is now, she was the “crazy cat lady.”
Which is basically what I am right now! 😄
Once I was finished there, I headed back towards the garage, stopping at the hardware store along the way. I picked up a block heater extension cord (we have a couple of older ones, but they’ve become damaged) and more of the Free Flow drain maintenance powder. For the next while, my daughters are using it twice a week, rather than once a week, to help keep that bottleneck in the pipe to the tank clear, as well as try and clear the main drain pipe from the bathroom to where it drops down and runs out of the house to the tank. It’s frustrating that we have a commercial pipe auger, and can’t even use it on this pipe. I did make good use of it in the pipes in the floor, at least. It’s a shame there isn’t another access to that pipe at the opposite end.
The plumbing in this place has been no end of problems since we’ve moved out here.
After getting what I needed at the hardware store, I headed to the garage. The truck was in one of the bays when I got there, so I just settled into one of the chairs in the office to wait. That was when I took the screen cap of what my weather app was showing, so I know the exact time I got there!
It wasn’t even windy out, but at those temperatures, even a light breeze results in quite the wind chill.
Our mechanic was constantly on the go, taking care of a customer ahead of me, taking care of deliveries coming in, and other vehicles to be worked on later in the day. In the middle of all this, my truck was driven out and another car immediately replaced it in the bay. It was just non-stop!
Then it came time to pay my bill.
Ouch.
$391 and change. The parts cost almost $250 and the labour was just under $100. Then there were the taxes, which added over $40 to the bill.
Well, it needed to be done.
We spoke for a while, and he told me everything went well with the fix. The check engine light is off, finally. He did let me know, though, that if moisture gets into that oil pressure sensor again, it will turn on again, first. It’s been fine since he cleaned it out, and the main thing will be for use to make sure the engine stays running long enough to evaporate the moisture. It’s the short trips with lots of stopping and starting, in these temperatures, that can cause the humidity to build up.
That done, I headed to the truck to start heading out. I noticed right away, he had the plug from the new block heater cord out and ready to be used!
It’s right in front of the deer screamer, but that shouldn’t be an issue while driving.
Then I went back in to get the container of Free Flow that I forgot in the office.
I was about to message my family when I saw a reminder from my husband. He’d wanted me to look into getting a battery warmer for the truck. I wasn’t sure how that would work out, since the battery is completely encased, but back in I went and asked.
Our mechanic looked up the part, and it will cost about $55. Plus labour. He did mention that it would take a bit longer because of the battery case, but he would expect labour to be about $30. Add in taxes, and we’re looking at about $100 to get a battery warmer installed. He’d need to order in the part.
We still need to get a tire sensor replaced, but that won’t be until next month. We could probably get both done then.
Finally, I was heading out. I was at a half tank and have lots of driving to do next week, so I stopped at a gas station to fill up.
The gas prices here were $1.499 It cost almost $70 to fill the tank, and that was after my CAA discount.
Ouch.
From there, I was finally heading home – and really appreciating the lack of a check engine light! – with only a quick stop at the post office. The mail I am expecting still isn’t in, but I did finally get a Christmas card! Thank you, CZ! It’s beautiful!
Then, it was finally home. With where the block heater’s plug came out, though, I found I did not need to use the new block heater cord that I bought. The truck is so long, I have to pull right up to the counter along the back of the garage, where I have a shop power bar set up. I was able to plug it right in there! The idea behind the block heater extension cord is that it controls the power level, so that the block heater isn’t constantly on, but the block heater cord, as you can see in the photo above, has its own controller, so that will be fine. I’ve left the new extension cord in the truck, so if we are ever out somewhere and are able to plug the truck in, we have it handy. Quite a few public parking lots have outlets available for people to plug in. They usually get turned on in the winter, off in the summer. While my husband and I were doing our running around yesterday, the spot I’d parked in that was in between all the places we needed to go had outlets available for people to plug in their block heaters. Now, I could actually make use of that!
With what happened with the septic pump last night, I’d messaged the family on the need to monitor it; especially if someone were taking a shower, as the pump goes off pretty much every time the shower is used. When I got home, my younger daughter was in the shower, so I headed for the basement as soon as I could. Both the well pump and the septic pump were running, and I was happy to see that the septic pump was running properly. I just waited until it was done, then popped the top off the filter and primed it again.
After that, I could finally relax and settle in to start writing this post, and was so surprised that it wasn’t even noon yet!
This has been the most interrupted post ever, though, so it’s been two hours since I started! 😄 It’s going to be time to head out and top up the kibble and water for the outside cats, soon.
One of those interruptions was a call from my mother. I’ll be taking her for her doctor’s appointment on Monday, and she wanted to talk to me about that. She’s been listening to her neighbours in her building again, and has decided she needs a puffer. She doesn’t have asthma, but I guess she could be tested for it.
By the time we got off the phone, we’d changed plans for me to come much earlier in the day to do her laundry. She can’t do it herself, and I haven’t been able to stay at her place long enough to do it for her. My sister has done it for her in the past, but she hasn’t visited lately. If she comes in on the weekend, maybe she can get it done, but otherwise, I’ll take care of it.
It’s going to make for a much longer day, that’s for sure!
Looking ahead in the weather forecast, though, I’m happy to see that all those nights they were predicting lows colder than -30C/-22F are pretty much gone, and on the days of my mother’s appointment, and my daughter’s follow up appointment, it’s supposed to get warmer. There’s even a day expected to reach a high of 0C/32F coming up!
Well, we’ll see what actually happens when the time comes, but I would be most happy for it to NOT drop to those extreme cold temperatures, even if we actually can plug in the truck now!
I really dislike the cold. Especially with so many things breaking down around the house!
If we didn’t have to get the work done on the truck, we could have gotten a new septic pump ordered in.
Today was the day my husband and I were able to head into the nearer city to trade in his phone. With his contract expired, returning the phone would save getting hit with the balance of the after contract bill, and he could trade up to a newer version.
That was the plan, anyhow.
Since trading in the phone meant it needed to be checked as being in good working condition, that had to be done in person. It would be a painful trip for him, but it’s been a long time since my husband has gone anywhere other than doctor’s appointments, so we were going to make the most of the trip. The store location is right next to the Walmart I normally go to if I’m not going to the larger city, plus there is a restaurant right near by.
We could *gasp* go on a date! 😄😄
So we headed out about mid morning, with a quick stop at the post office (the mail I’m expecting that’s been delayed by the strike still isn’t in – and it’s coming on on 2 months since it was sent!), and got there in decent time. Some sections of roads running East-West were in rougher shape, but better than I expected.
When we got there, I dropped my husband off at the cell phone store with his walker, then found a parking spot in between the three places we needed to go to. We had several choices on where to go for lunch, but decided to go to a Boston Pizza. My husband already knew what he’d be ordering, and asked if I could pick up some lactase for him, so I made a quick run into the Walmart to get that, first.
When I got back to the cell phone store, he was still in line. It was very busy. He’s been there long enough to hear and see transactions ahead of him and realized he might have a problem. They required photo ID.
He doesn’t have one.
He has other ID, but no photo ID. This goes back to when we tried to transfer his driver’s license the province we moved from, to this one, back in 2017. Even though his old driver’s license from this province was still on file, the laws changed because of identity theft. None of his ID match his birth certificate. It’s tradition in his family from the area he grew up in (he’s from the East coast) for everyone to have four names – three “first names” plus a surname – and use the second name as the given name. This only ever came up as a issue while he was in the military, and all they did was reverse his first two names on his paperwork. His old military passport has that version of his name in it.
What they told him he had to do when he tried to get his new driver’s license was to legally change his name to… his legal name… It was bizarre. Also, expensive and a weeks long process.
Unfortunately, it took so long to finally get to that conclusion, he was in insane amounts of pain by the time we left. We made a number of calls and ended up talking to the ombudsman, only to be told he just needed to have two bills/official documents with his full legal name on them, and they could issue him the ID. My husband, however, was not physically up to going back and going through all that hassle again. For the most part, however, when he does go out, all he needs to show is his health care card as ID, since it’s typically for medical appointments.
My thought was, if he could get his phone online in the first place, without having to prove his identify, there must be some way to do it in real life.
As we were waiting, I messaged my younger daughter to update her on things.
She sent me a photo.
I’d brought the truck up to the house for my husband, and shoveled the walkway up to the truck. After we left, she went out to shovel the rest of the walkways. In doing so, she startled some of the more feral cats out of the isolation shelter.
One of them jumped out in totally the wrong spot, so she went to take a look.
When we still had the large heated water bowl in there, and the cats kept knocking it down into the gap between the floor and the front that the cats can climb through, it knocked a screw loose right at the corner of the plastic window. I’d bought longer screws to secure it again, but hadn’t gotten around to actually doing it yet.
*sigh*
Well, a cat forced its way through the loose corner and snapped off a section of the plastic window.
The broken off piece could be put back and the corner patched up, though.
We were out of the neoprene washers we’d used for securing the plastic to the frame. I’d found them at the Canadian Tire, which was across the street, so I walked over to get some, along with some clear Gorilla tape, while my husband stayed in line. Depending on how long things went, I could meet him at the Boston Pizza.
I knew exactly where to go to find the washers, though, and the tape section was nearby, so it didn’t take long at all. The only down side is that the smaller washers I’d used before were not in stock. They had the next two sizes, and I went with the smaller, half inch washers.
After getting those and dropping them off in the truck, it took such a short time, I figured my husband might finally be at the counter, so I went back to the cell phone store, first. I checked inside, but was pretty sure my husband was already gone, though, as I saw fresh tracks in the snow on the sidewalk that looked like they could be from a walker or wheelchair.
Sure enough, he was already gone, so I ended up following his tire tracks all the way to the front door of the restaurant. He had pretty much just been seated when I got there!
He didn’t get a new phone.
Sure enough, his lack of photo ID meant he couldn’t trade in his old phone and couldn’t use it to trade up to a new one.
Which means, we’re going to get almost $700 added to our next cell phone bill.
*sigh*
On the plus side, I always pay what’s in the budget, not the actual amount for new charges, so we’d been building up a credit. My own phone had ended its contract and I got a much smaller end-of-term bill added, so that credit came in handy already. We’ll also be able to change our plans to reduce the monthly billed amount, which my husband will look into. We’ll still be paying the budgeted amount, though, so between the two, it won’t take long to pay it off, but still… what a pain!
For my husband, literally a pain.
Still, he was very happy to be out and about.
As for our meal…
We started out with a shared plate of onion rings for an appetizer, and those were good. It came with a lovely creamy dill sauce for dipping.
My husband ordered their nachos for his meal – they are an appetizer meant to be shared, so it was huge, as well as loaded with all sorts of toppings. He really liked it, and ended up having almost half of it boxed up for home.
I decided to try their maple bacon burger (no tomatoes, no onions). For the side, I chose a coleslaw.
I had the coleslaw first and it was the blandest coleslaw I’ve ever had in my life. I tasted zero vinegar. There was a dressing on it, but I couldn’t taste anything I could even give a name to. Oddly, though, I started feeling the heat of spices in the crevices of my tongue (this is something that is hereditary, and is the reason I can’t handle the heat of spices; the chemicals get into the crevices and even mild spices burn painfully). I couldn’t taste any spices, but that heat was there. It was so strange, and disappointing.
Then I had my burger.
I may not have had tomatoes or onions, but it was still loaded with toppings. Cheese, pickles, bacon, cheese, lettuce, the maple flavoured sauce and condiments, all on a brioche bun. It should have been packed with flavour.
It was bland. How all those ingredients could be bland, I don’t know, but they managed it. Perhaps it was because of the second issue I found.
It was barely even warm. The slice of cheese had melted over the burger, but was no longer melted. It’s like the burger had sat in the kitchen, and not under heat, long before it came to our table.
It still tasted okay. It certainly wasn’t a bad burger. Just not a very good burger.
As I’m writing this, I realized it never even occurred to me to say anything about it. I just ate it anyway.
In the end, the food, plus our Pepsi’s, totaled just over $68 before tip.
Ah, well. We had our date, and enjoyed each other’s company, and that’s why we were there in the first place!
As we were talking, it occurred to me that the last time we’ve been to a Boston Pizza, it was before we moved out of the city, and my husband was still working. There was a BP not far from the office he was in, and he and his co-workers would go there for lunch. Sometimes, the girls and I were able to meet him there during his lunch break. Which means, it’s been more than 10 years since we’ve been to a BP!
I don’t think we’ll go again for probably another 10 years, if at all. There are far better, and better priced, choices out there.
That done, my husband was actually up to going to the Walmart with me. He had something he wanted to pick up himself, so I told him where he could find what he was after, then headed to the pet section. I’m not sure when I’ll make it back to the feed store for 40 pound bags of cat food, so I wanted to get a few 9kg bags for the outside cats, just in case. Plus, I got more canned cat food for the inside cats. My daughter let me know she and her sister were out of oat milk, so I picked up a couple of cartons for them, plus a case of Kraft Dinner that was on sale.
As I went into the winding lane to the self checkouts, I caught up with my husband, at the next till. After talking to him for a bit, I grabbed a couple of snacks and drinks for the road, then paid for my cart load. Much to my surprise, I went through the exit just as my husband was done loading his stuff up into the basket under the seat of his walker!
Then the cashier handed him a Ziplock baggie with stuff in it. He was confused by this. It took a while to figure it out, but he’d made a donation to the Children’s Hospital, and I guess they have some sort of promo for donations of a certain amount. In the past, I’ve received a reusable bag, a lanyard and a pen at different times.
The baggie he got, though, had baby food items in it. A box of baby cereal and some sort of squeeze container. I’m not sure what else was in there. We had asked the cashier about a donation bin, and she said something about giving it to the food bank.
We’d gone through the first set of doors out when my husband stopped to put on his jacket, so popped back in and looked around some more for a donation bin. I didn’t find one, so I went to the customer service counter and asked the woman there. She stopped to think for a moment, told me they did have one, but she didn’t know where it was! She did take the baggie, though (it had “paid for” written on it already) and said she would take care of it, and talk to her manager. As she was talking to the back room, she passed another employee and I could hear her saying “we need to put a donation bin by the doors!”
So… that worked out, I guess! I have no idea what else we would have done with a baggie of baby food. There are no food banks in our area, and we don’t know anyone out here with babies to give it to. There’s a food bank in the town nearest us, though I don’t know where their donation bin is. The grocery store has one they keep near the exit, so I suppose we could eventually have left it there.
That done, we loaded up the truck and headed home. My husband had bricked his phone last night, expecting to be coming home with a different phone, so he didn’t have any of the apps we normally use. He was at least able to text my younger daughter to let her know we were on the way home.
Once at home, I backed up to the house to unload, but had to quickly dash ahead in to use the washroom – going in and out from warm buildings or a warm truck, into the cold, does terrible things to my bladder! My husband caned it in, leaving the walker for me to bring into the house later.
The first thing I noticed when I went into the washroom, though, was the quiet hum of a pump. Not the louder sound of the well pump, right under the bathroom. The septic pump, barely audible.
My daughters were upstairs, and no water was running to turn trigger the pump.
As soon as I could, I dashed into the basement to check.
Sure enough, I could see through the filter lid that the pump was running dry. It had been running for so long, not only was the motor hot, but the exit pipe was also hot!
I shut it off, then popped open the lid on the filter to prime it. The lid came right off; it wasn’t sealed for some reason!
I think we need to replace the O ring!
After priming it, I turned the pump back on and watched carefully. Sure enough, water started flowing through. So the tank did fill and triggered the float, but nothing was flowing through. It could be that something had blocked the pipe, or it could be because the filter lid was too loose and there wasn’t enough of a vacuum. This has happened before, though, and I had to pry the filter lid off, because the O ring was sealed so well, so I can’t say for sure.
Thankfully, once water started flowing through, that actually cooled down the pipe, and even the pump itself. I still stayed and watched until it shut itself off.
Part of the problem is, there are few places in the house were the pumps can be heard. Especially the septic pump, which runs quieter than the well pump. So unless someone is in my bedroom/office, in the bathroom, or standing by the basement door, they can’t hear the pump – and even if they were, they wouldn’t necessarily be there long enough to know if there’s a problem.
I’ve been looking at indoor security cameras to replace the critter cam in the sunroom. I want something that allows us to keep the live feed going continuously, and save files to a micro disc, without having to pay for a subscription. The ones I have been looking at can also be directionally controlled through an app.
We might need to get one for the basement, so we can check on the pump from anywhere. Depending on where we set it up, we could also see if anything is backing up through the floor drain again, too.
We need to replace the pump itself, but a camera is something we can afford in the short term. I was thinking of getting one in the spring, but we might just pick one up sooner, rather than later!
That taken care of, I unloaded the back of the truck, then fed the outside cats so I could park it. Which is when I remembered my husband’s walker was still in the back! 😄 So were the things I picked up at Canadian Tire, and his box of nachos.
I was just a big distracted after dealing with the pump!
Once I got everything to the house, I got the drill and driver to patch up the isolation shelter.
I don’t know why Instagram cut the pictures. I specifically set it to show full size when I uploaded them!
The first photo is the one my daughter sent me. The broken off corner was set on top of the entry shelter box. When I was going in and out of the house to unload the truck at point point, I was seeing Stinky watching me, through the hold in the corner!
Much to my surprise, several of the younglings actually stayed inside the shelter while I worked on it. The broken off piece has frost on it, and I held it in front of the heat bulb to get it melting, wiped it down, melted it some more, until I got it clean and dry.
The cats were quite confused by my actions!
I got the corner piece back in place and partially secured with new, longer screws. Then I covered the broken edges with clear Gorilla tape on the outside. I mean to do the inside, too, but that’s frost covered, so it will wait until that melts away and it can be cleaned and dried.
The very corner screw, however, wouldn’t secure. It stripped the pilot hole, and would need a wider screw. Since I was adding more screws to secure the plastic window in strategic places anyhow, I added a couple more on either side of the corner screw. The neoprene washers are too big for the screws, but as long as they are tight enough, they’ll keep the moisture out of the screw holes.
In the summer, what we might end up doing is cutting away the half of the window with the broken corner and putting in a new section over that side. My brother gave us a bunch of scrap wood and other materials, including a section of clear plastic (most likely Lexan) that might be big enough to cover the opening.
This patch will have to do for the rest of the winter, though.
By the time I was done, my daughter had put away the shopping and was helping my husband set his phone up again. He’s got it done enough that it can be used again, and he can log into his various accounts and apps.
The whole purpose of our trip to the nearer city was for him to trade in his phone, and that didn’t happen – but it wasn’t a wasted trip at all. My husband got to get out and about, which he hasn’t done in such a very long time. It was painful, but he was glad to have done it, and we even got a date out of it.
So all is good!
Tomorrow morning, though, I’m out again, this time to drop the truck off at the garage at 9am. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to replace the sensor and the block heater cord, or even if they’ll get to it right away, so I have no idea how long I’ll be in town. I don’t have any errands to run, though I will make a stop at the hardware store. In the summer, I would walk to the beach or something and enjoy the outdoors. There are no indoor places to just hang out in the winter, and the high for tomorrow is expected to be -20C/-4F. There are just stores, restaurants and gas stations, and I don’t like to linger if I’m not going to buy anything.
Ah, well. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to hang out in town during the winter.
After that, I should be able to stay home for the weekend and just enjoy not going anywhere! 😄
We’ve got a bit of a break in between things, so I thought I’d drop in and wish everyone a Happy New Year!
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My daughter and I headed out this afternoon to go to the bank in my mother’s town, where she could get a replacement debit card, after discovering someone had stolen her number and tried to use it in the US somewhere. Since it was so close to the grocery store, I dropped her off and went in to pick up some drinks for tonight, and more sandwich meats – because I know, no one is going to want to cook for the next while!
Then I spotted some excellent sale prices and got a few more things. Of course. 😄
When my daughter joined me, she picked up a couple of things just to confirm her replacement debit card was properly activated.
Before heading out, we stopped to fill the gas tank. Our province’s gas tax break ends tonight, and the prices are expected to jump by about 12¢/L tomorrow. Unfortunately, the prices went up since yesterday. I’d put some gas in yesterday at $1.309 and today it was at $1.369 *sigh*
And we’ve got so much driving to do in the next couple of weeks!
From there, we made a quick stop at the post office to pick up a parcel for my husband that came in today. While I was there, I got a cheap (on sale) bottle of wine for tonight. Then I saw the most adorable display of tiny mason jars of “Moonshine” (that’s the brand name) in different flavours. I ended up getting one of each for us to taste test. For the price of those, I spent more on them than the bottle of wine, but I’ll never be buying them again, so I figured it was a nice treat. The full size jars – these drinks all come in mason jars – are a pretty standard inventory item, but I’ve never seen the minis before. Our tiny little general store’s booze corner doesn’t have a lot of space, and these are seasonal items, so I don’t expect to see them again. Mind you, for such a tiny space, they manage an amazing selection.
From there it was home. As my daughter and I were gathering stuff to take to the house, I noticed something strange on the shelf against the wall.
The garage door handle.
My daughter had gone ahead to start the truck as we were leaving and, when she opened the door, the handle hit the sagging door frame and broke loose. When she closed the door as we were leaving the garage, I could see the screws in the door, holding bits of the handle still!
I don’t see the point of replacing the handle until we can do something about that sagging frame.
While my daughter took care of putting things away, I made sure to give the outside cats their evening feeding.
He is a strange one when it comes to trying to pet him! He wants pets, but he also wants to bite my hand. Or lick it. Or attack it with his paws. Or push his head against it, asking for more pets, then biting at my hand again.
Silly boy!
For now, we have a bit of time on our hands before we need to start preparing things for tonight. There isn’t a lot that can be done in advance. We plan to have a whole bunch of different appetizers that need to go into the oven, a vegetable tray with dip, a charcuterie board and baked brie with a variety of crackers, mini Naan and cubed French bread.
Oh, I just remembered something that needs to be made ahead! Asparagus pinwheels. They’re a simple appetizer. Flour tortilla spread with cream cheese all over, then rolled with pickled asparagus spears in the middle. This time, we will be including prosciutto with the asparagus spears. After they are rolled up, they get sliced into rounds about half an inch thick. They’re awesome, but we only make them for days like today. We just don’t normally have pickled asparagus spears around.
As we enjoy our spread this evening, we plan to continue our Lord of the Rings marathon until midnight.
Since I have to go to my mother’s so early in the morning for her MRI, I might take a couple of hours nap (I made a point of napping earlier today), but may end up just staying up all night, then sleeping when I get home.
I get the feeling sleep is going to be in short supply for the next while. 😄
Meanwhile, I hope you all have a grand time celebrating this New Year’s Eve and welcoming in 2025!
There was one heck of a crowd in the isolation shelter when I came back from doing my morning rounds! As I came closer to the shelter, some of the more feral cats ran away, leaving “only” eleven left in the upper level of the shelter. I think there might have been as many as fifteen cats, crammed into that upper level, as I was walking up to the shelter!
Once I was back inside and having my breakfast, my daughter suddenly came in with her phone. She’d been wanting to book a follow up visit with her doctor today, which was on my morning to-do list, as I wanted to book a meet and greet for myself, too. The doctor I’m seeing now is still the interim doctor. It may be convenient having the same doctor as my mother, but we’re working to get my mother into assisted living, and it would be more convenient to have the same doctor as my daughter. That and the clinic is right next to a grocery store, which is extra handy. 😄
Well, the clinic called her cell phone (I’m shocked they got through!), and she was wondering what date worked for me to drive in. So I talked to the receptionist and booked a double appointment for us. After the call, my daughter asked, who goes first? I told her, I would, and then I could go to the grocery store if we needed anything, while she had her appointment. It’s been a long time since I’ve had my bloodwork done, though, so I won’t be surprised if I get a requisition for that to be done. There is a lab in the pharmacy right at the clinic, too.
After the call and while finishing breakfast, I was wrestling with myself. There were a few things I wasn’t able to get at the grocery store yesterday. If I left early enough, I might be able to find them before they sold out. Mostly, I was looking to get a party tray of fresh vegetables, and maybe another of fruit, to go with our finger food New Year’s celebration. Plus a flat of eggs. With tomorrow being New Year’s Eve, I knew things would be busy and things would sell out fast, but none of it was necessary, and I really didn’t want to go.
Then my mother phoned.
She was worried about her MRI appointment on the first. It’s a big holiday, and everybody has the day off, so there must be some sort of mistake. I told her, hospitals don’t have the day off. Oh, for emergencies, sure, she tells me. I finally asked, are you wanting me to cancel the appointment? Oh… no… but are you sure there’s no mistake?
I assured her that, when I got the call, I did ask because the appointment was on New Year’s day. They confirmed.
Then she started talking about how, when she looks into her fridge, it’s looking pretty empty.
Did she want me to come over?
Oh, no, she tells me. Then starts listing off all the stuff she still has (even after telling me she was out of various things). Plus, it’s cold, and she also needs to go to the bank, and she doesn’t want to go out in the cold. Plus, today is Bingo day.
I told her, it’s going to start getting colder again after New Year’s. Looking at my calendar, I added, it’s either today or Thursday, and it’s supposed to be colder on Thursday.
She hemmed and hawed some more.
Finally I told her to just start her list, because I can come over today. She was getting her Meals on Wheels today, so I told her I would be there for about 1pm, after she had a chance to eat.
I ended up leaving early enough to do my own shopping first. This little grocery store doesn’t do party trays, so I ended up getting some fresh vegetables to make our own party tray, some grapes to go with our charcuterie board, plus a few other things. Then, because the price was right, I picked up a 2 pack of frying chickens for less than a single chicken normally is. The Instant Pot I got for my daughters is big enough to fit a whole chicken in it, so that would work out well.
(As I write this, I can hear the pot venting away; they’ve started a pot roast for the first meal with it!)
From there, I put some gas in the tank (we’re going through a lot more gas than usual, with all the extra driving around!), got my own lunch to eat in the truck (the truck seats are more comfortable) and still ended up at my mother’s about half an hour early.
When I got there, she was in the lobby, looking for something.
She was wondering why bingo wasn’t set up yet.
I asked how she was doing, and she was silent, making motions and acting like there was some reason not to speak out loud. Finally, she said, it’s better not to say.
So…. I guess that meant she wasn’t feeling well?
She did manage to tell me that she wasn’t up to going out and would just give me her list. Then she was going on about where bingo was one or not, then knocking on a neighbour’s door right by the common room to ask him if he knew if it was still on. He didn’t, and seemed confused that she was asking him. She told him she could just phone, instead. I told her, it’s barely past 12:30. It’s probably still too early, thinking it started at 1, but nope: turns out it starts at 1:30. Way too early to be setting up!
I managed to get her back to her place and, as soon as she sat down, she started digging around for a phone number. I eventually figured out she meant to call the senior’s center (they run the social events in her building) to find out if bingo was still on. I told her, why bother calling? Just go over at 1:30 and see. It’s either on or it isn’t, but there’s no need to call. She agreed that she could do that.
Then we went over her list, she gave me funds for her shopping, and I was soon off. The shopping is a lot faster when it’s just me using her list. When I got back and made my way through the common room, I saw that they were starting to set up for bingo! 😄
I made sure to tell her that, when I got to her place. After putting away her groceries, there was time for a bit of a visit before bingo started. As we were talking, she told me how her breathing issues seem to be connected to how much commotion is going on. After asking some questions, it seems like a stress response. The problem is, my mother is creating a lot of her own stress, like worrying about there being a mistake with her MRI appointment (this isn’t the first time she’s done that with appointments, so it’s not just about it being on New Year’s day), or that bingo was cancelled because nothing was set up an hour in advance.
Then she started talking about her vision. Oh, her vision. It’s getting worse.
Now this set off all sorts of alarm bells with me. With her wet macular degeneration, we were advised to monitor it closely and, if it starts getting worse, to get her back to the eye clinic in the city right away. So of course, I started asking more specific questions.
As she started talking about how her vision is getting worse, she casually mentioned that the “black spot” is gone…
Wait… what???? !!!!
Then she mentioned the wavy lines are gone.
????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The wavy lines were from dry macular degeneration in her left eye. She’s taking special vitamins to keep that from getting worse. For those to be gone is amazing, but not as amazing as for her to say the “black spot” in her right eye is gone!
I got her to cover her left eye, then held my hand about two feet from her face, raising two fingers. I asked her, can you see the two fingers?
Yes, she tells me.
I raise a third finger without saying anything.
Three fingers, she tells me.
I’m totally shocked that she could see any fingers at all!
I moved my had back another couple of feet and tried again.
She couldn’t tell me how many fingers, but she could see that “something” was there.
I am totally blown away. While at the clinic with her, less than a month ago, a tech did the same test with her, and she couldn’t see his fingers. When he had her try and look at a single letter on the eye chart, she saw nothing at all.
The eye doctor had told her she shouldn’t need more injections, but also that her eye would not get better. There is scar tissue that will not go away. The injections were to keep it from getting worse, but that we shouldn’t expect it to get better. Her next appointment is in February, and we are to monitor her and bring her back if it gets worse.
Now, it seems her vision around that scarred area in her eye has healed enough that she can see more.
But, she told me, her vision is getting worse. It’s getting “dimmer”. I tried to ask questions to get a better idea of what she meant, but she started getting really frustrated. She simply doesn’t have the vocabulary to tell me what she means. So we dropped that part.
She’s been wearing her old glasses, though, since she decided the eye doctor she got her prescription from gave her a bad prescription and cheated her (they treated her like gold). I suggested that tomorrow, she try wearing her new glasses, as those would have the most up to date prescription. She agreed that it was worth a try.
Hopefully, she will remember to do it in the morning.
Then there was a knock at the door. One of her neighbours had come over to let her know, bingo would be starting soon!
So we said our goodbyes, and I headed home.
By then, it was pretty much time to do my evening rounds, so I headed out and topped up the kibble and warm water for the outside cats.
The one in the freshly emptied food bowl is Magda. She is pretty friendly and lets us pick her some and sometimes even carry her.
The one above her, with the black splotches on its nose and mouth, has been named Ink by the girls. It also has black splotches on its front paws. The girls think it looks like he’s been playing with a pot of ink, so that’s what they’ve named him.
Or her.
He’s pretty feral and won’t let us anywhere near him to find out, one way or the other!
Oh, there was one other unexpected thing today.
Not long ago, my daughter tried to log into her bank account and found it locked. I got a message from her while I was on my way home. She’d gotten through to the bank on the phone and discovered that someone tried to use her debit card number (she has no credit card) at a restaurant in the US. !!! It was stopped and her accounted locked as potential fraud, so nothing was taken from her bank account, thank God!
She would, however, need to go to a branch and get a replacement card.
As soon as I could, I called the branch in my mother’s town to confirm their hours. They are open tomorrow.
Which means that, tomorrow, I will be driving my daughter to our bank branch in my mother’s town (we won’t be able to do that much longer; I hear this branch will be closing!).
Then, the day after tomorrow – New Year’s Day – I will be taking my mother to her MRI appointment.
Then, on the 2nd, my husband and I will be going to trade his phone in before they ding him with the end-of-contract bill of almost $700. It has to be done before the 4th, and that’s the only day I’ve got left.
The next day, Friday, I’m taking the truck in to get the MAF sensor and block heater cord replaced.
Then, on the following Monday, I’m taking my mother to her regular doctor for a follow up appointment.
Then, on the Wednesday, I’m going back to the same town, but a different clinic, for the joint appointment for me and my daughter.
I’m doing as much driving in the next couple of weeks as I would normally do in a month in the summer. In the winter, I try to do as little driving as possible, but that’s just not working out!
Thank God winter has been mild and conditions pretty good, so far. Based on the 10 day forecast, though, that joint appointment is going to be on a day where the high is expected to be -24C/-13F, while the lows are supposed to be -29C/-20F.
At least we’ll be able to plug in the block heater by then! That’s being replaced on Friday, and Thursday night is when overnight lows are starting to dip below -20C/-4F again.
Weirdly, the long term forecast now says we’ll have about 10 days of that, then 10 days or so of temperatures rising to just below freezing again. This is a La Nińa winter, though, and the system should start affecting our area more over the next couple of months. For our region, that usually means colder temperatures, but it looks like we’re going to be getting temperature whiplash, instead!
Once we get past that last appointment, I hope to not have to do anything more than short trips into town – and hardly any of those! – until it’s time to go more stock up shopping at the end of January!
The Re-Farmer 