As I write this, we’re at -9C/16F, but the wind chill is at -25C/-13F
Around the house, we are sheltered from the wind direction for a change, so we’re not getting quite that wind chill effect in our immediate area. Which I am happy for, since we have to keep the isolation shelter closed, and there was only two cats in it.
I’d given them their wet cat food this morning, and Fluffy stayed well away from me. Even when I was about go go inside the house, saw her sharing the food bowl with The Grink and paused to get my phone out to take a picture, she saw me stop and moved away.
Clearly, she has not forgiven us for her trip to the vet! There’s no way I can check her incision, but at least we can tell how she’s feeling by her behaviour, at least somewhat.
The Grink, meanwhile, seems quite happy to stay right where he is! We see them cuddling together in the cat bed pretty regularly now.
At least I think he’s a dude. My daughters tell me he is, but I haven’t been able to see, myself, with all that long fur. He does not allow us near him. I had to zoom in to get this photo. He looks so much like Fluffy! She doesn’t have any white fur, other than inside her ears, so we can at least use that to tell them apart. This fluffer is one of this past summer’s kittens, so there’s almost a year between them. Fluffy is pretty small for her age, though, so there isn’t a lot of size difference between them.
The snow in our area started last night. It started coming down pretty hard at one point, but mostly it was light and constant, so there’s a few inches accumulated already. We’ve got a break in the snow right now, but it’s supposed to start up again tonight and keep snowing until about noon, with only a couple of hours break at about 7am. From what I’m hearing and seeing on the highway conditions group, the roads were getting pretty snow covered. The road between us and town was pretty bad, which is typical when the winds are blowing this way. The east-west roads are almost always the worst.
Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have to break out Spewie and do the driveway.
Needless to say, I did NOT head to town to see my mother. I did phone to ask how she was doing. I’d called shortly after shift change, though, so the nurse had only been there for 15 minutes. She knew my mother was doing well, and was feeling better, but that’s about it.
Then she asked if I wanted to talk to her on the phone. They could bring a phone to her room and she could transfer me over.
Yes, please!
It was good to be able to talk to her directly. Not that she could tell me much; she doesn’t understand much of what they are saying or doing in regards to her treatment, but she could tell me how she felt and we could just chat for a bit. My cousin had visited her today, so she was happy about that.
Little by little, I’ve been remembering different places to call that needed to know about my mother. Home care. Meals on Wheels. Today, I remembered to call her pharmacy. They would normally have delivered her bubble packs for the month, yesterday. Now that they know she is in the hospital, they can suspend her prescriptions until either we let them know she’s home, or a doctor calls to tell them her prescriptions are cancelled with the pharmacy, which they would do if she goes into long term care or assisted living.
I think that’s the last place that needs to know about my mother! Her church would already know, since the guy that took her to her appointment is from the church and has been bringing her communion since she hasn’t been physically up to going to church lately, and the church next to the hospital knows, as the priest has already come to give her communion since she was admitted.
It will probably be a couple of days before I can go and visit her again. While the roads might be clear earlier, it’ll take us some time to get our own driveway clear. In particular, I need to get the end of the driveway done. With what’s already there, once the plows go by, we probably would get stuck trying to get through the plow ridge. It’s going to start getting cold again, though. Today and tomorrow are going to be relatively warm, and then we’re getting highs of -19C/-2F, with overnight lows of -27C/-17F
I worry about the outside cats, but they know how to take care of themselves. The cats that used to hang out in the isolation shelter now hang out in the cat house and the sun room. Usually in big cuddle puddles.
We did get a big stinky kitty visit the sun room last night. I didn’t try to chase it out, after watching it on the camera for a while. The big heated water bowl that stopped working is set to the side, near where the heat lamp is. It’s full of ice, but on less frigid days, the heat lamp is enough for it to start to melt, and the cats seem to really like the melted ice water.
So goes the skunk, apparently. On the camera, I could see it sitting on top of the ice, doing something. It looked almost as if it were chewing on the ice, where a gap forms between the ice and the wall of the bowl. When I headed out this morning, I made sure to look. I could see a deeper spot in the ice, with smooth sides. The skunk had been licking the ice enough to create a hole!
By the middle of the month, I’m hoping we’ll have a new critter cam in the sun room. I’ve just ordered a small security type camera. It can be rotated 360° remotely, while the one in there now is stationary. The cats regularly knock it out of position. The main thing, though, is that it does not require a subscription to record and save files. We can add a micro SD card to record locally. As long as it can connect to our WiFi, that should be good. The last camera I tried simply would not connect to our WiFi, and we could never figure out why. If this one works out, I might try to get a lightbulb camera again, for the basement, to monitor the septic pump.
If I had the funds, I’d be like my brother with their old place. He had cameras everywhere! The buyers actually paid extra to keep his camera system. 😄 In the summer, I expect he will start adding more cameras around the property, since he moved his farm equipment here.
I have no problem with more cameras around!
But that will wait for when things are much warmer, and the snow is all gone.
It’s only February, but I am so done with winter already!
Today, I did NOT go to the city for our Costco stock up trip. I just wasn’t up to it.
This morning was bitterly cold, so I made sure to run the truck and do a scan to make sure it’s still just that sensor turning on the check engine light.
My first stop of the day was my mother’s place to find some clothes to bring to her at the hospital. I’m happy to say, the road conditions were very good, at least!
When I went into my mother’s apartment, the first thing I noticed was the smell of urine. Not overpowering, but very noticeable. So one of the first things I did was check her commode. Sure enough, it had not been emptied. So I took care of that.
After cleaning that up, I went into her kitchen, where I found there had been some food left out. It was covered, and was probably intended to be her supper after the appointment she never came home from. So I had to throw a few things away, then did her dishes. Her fridge was mostly empty – she was definitely ready for a grocery shopping trip, but never told me! – so there wasn’t much to take care of, there. I even remembered to water her single plant. 😁
Then I went looking for her “hospital bag”. She has been using a soft sided, insulated grocery bag for this, probably because it had a zipper closure. Way too small, but at least it would have had some of the stuff she intended to bring, if she found herself going to the ER from home again.
I didn’t find it. I think I found the bag, folded up and put away with other reusable grocery bags, but not what she’d had prepared.
I ended up going to my truck to get a hard sided grocery bag to use, instead. Anything I used had to be very light, which is why she wouldn’t use the very nice (and probably quite expensive) little suitcase my brother got for her to pack for any hospital stays.
As I was trying to figure out where my mother kept her things, I started to hear this very strange noise. A quiet, musical noise.
Coming out of my pocket.
My cell phone was ringing. I almost never use my cell phone as a phone, and even rarely get calls to me on it, so I had no idea what I was hearing! 😂
The call turned out to be from my sister, so I rejected the call, then sent a quick apology text telling her I was in the middle of getting clothes for our mother. When I had a moment, I saw she had left a voicemail message, which I can listen to through my text app, so I did.
She was asking me if I was planning on getting closed for our mother! Too funny.
I had to go through a number of shelves and drawers, as well as her closet, to gather what I thought she would need. Then I found a bag for her toiletries. I considered bringing her bubble packs, but she was almost done – she would have been getting her new bubble packs delivered today, if she were home – so I left them for now.
Eventually, I gathered several changes of clothing and sleepwear (I found her undies stored in a small garbage can! ???) and packed them up. Before heading to town, I paused to get a bit of gas – the prices were $1.479, while in the smaller city yesterday, it was $1.439 – and some food I could eat while driving, then headed to the town my mother is in.
By this time, I’d already decided I wasn’t up to going to the city after visiting my mother. We’re stocked up well enough right now that it isn’t urgent, and I didn’t want to rush my visit with her.
They had told me what room she was in, and that’s where I headed first, only to have someone tell me there was no one in that room. On getting my mother’s name, she looked her up and told me they’d moved her to the opposite end of the hall! The hospital only as 20 or so rooms, all down one hall, so I would have found her eventually, I suppose.
My mother didn’t look very good when I walked in, though. She was sitting on the side of her bed, leaning on the table and holding a cloth over her eyes. She was looking very tired!
She cheered right up when she saw me, though – and even more when I told her I brought clothing for her! I found out that they had only just moved her to this room, too. The room she was in before was a shared room, so after they did another EKG on her today, they moved her to a private room.
That was nice of them!
I’d barely settled into a chair to visit with her when there was a knock at the door, and my sister walked in! She hadn’t seen my message yet, but said she figured I was probably driving to do exactly what she was asking me about. It was my cousin that had phoned my sister, asking about bringing clothes for my mother.
I’m actually a bit upset with my sister, so be honest, but we weren’t going to talk about it in front on my mother. My sister told our vandal that Mom was in the hospital, and he had come to visit Mom pretty much right away. His wife was with him, at least. I found out about the visit through my brother, who was able to visit that same evening. My mother told my brother that our vandal had started talking smack my brother, until Mom started crossing herself repeatedly, and he stopped. I honestly didn’t think our vandal would be up to visiting, since he supposedly just had major, life threatening cancer surgery, but for someone who is supposedly dying of cancer, he’s pretty darn active. He did, however, tell my cousin about Mom being in the hospital, and she’s visited several times already. The hospital is right next to the church we went to when I was a kid, and my cousin is very involved with it, so it’s a simple matter for her to pop over. She even let the priest know, and he came to give my mother communion, which she really appreciated. Unfortunately, my cousin has also been sucked in by our vandal’s claims and has caused other problems as well, so this is not really a good thing, even though my mother enjoys the visits.
My sister and I had a good long visit with my mother. Honestly, I would have probably left earlier, but after what my sister did re: our vandal, I didn’t want to leave them alone together. What a terrible way to have to think! She seems utterly oblivious, though, and even mentioned how happy our vandal was that she told him Mom was in the hospital. Yes, she was like a mother to him, too, but she knows what he’s been doing over the past few years!
Well, it is what it is, and we just have to deal with things as they come.
Meanwhile, we were at least able to help my mother change to a fresh clean shirt. She complained about the lack of a scarf, as she finds it helps her throat, so I went to the truck to see if I had one in our winter clothing bin. I didn’t, but I did have a shawl I’d crocheted that she could drape over her shoulders and around her neck, if she wanted. While I was doing that, I had a chance to talk to her nurse and let them know that my mother was having difficulty changing her clothes – something she mentioned to my brother – but is too proud to bring up with the nursing staff. She “doesn’t want to bother them”.
She had several visits with nursing staff while we were there, and found out a few things being changed with her treatment, so it was a good thing I didn’t bring her bubble packs. The hospital is giving her her medication from their own supply for now, and the doctor is trying her on some new medications, as the old ones don’t seem to be working anymore.
Eventually, though, I could see my mother was getting very tired, so I suggested it was time for us to leave and let her rest. I walked my sister out, but she parked in a very different area, so after we parted ways, I went back to the entrance closer to where I parked.
Which gave me a chance to stop at the nursing station and let them know about our vandal, if he visits again. As long as his wife is with him, he should be okay, but they know that he is never to be with her, unsupervised. She took notes so the other staff would be aware.
Then I remembered something my brother asked me to tell my mother, and went back to see her. Basically, to let her know that if anyone tries to get her to sign something, to tell them to talk to my brother, or to me, first. She’s had people try to coerce her into signing things before – including both our vandal and my cousin – so I made sure to add that if *anyone* tried to get her to sign something, tell them to call my brother or me, first.
Gosh, I hate having to think like this. My mother, however, greatly appreciated the reminder.
By this time, it was getting to be late in the afternoon. Since I didn’t go to the city, I made a quick stop at the grocery store for a couple of things, then headed home.
It was late enough that, once things were unloaded and put away (no need to drive up to the house to unload, this time!), I gave the outside cats their evening feed and warm water.
Fluffy and The Grink were cuddled together on the cat bed in front of the heat lamp, which was nice to see. I also spotted a pink collar on a black cat among the crowd in the sun room, so Midnight has returned. I had to be sneaky about it, but managed to get a quick peak at his nethers. Just enough to confirm no sign of infection.
I had been keeping my brother up to date, to a certain extent. He and my SIL were driving out to visit my mother this evening, so he called while they were driving, so I could update them both on speakerphone.
After all the updated, I had one unrelated thing to bring up with my brother.
A recent, strange thudding sound I’ve been hearing that seems to be coming from the furnace.
It’s almost random. The only pattern I can see is that it starts happening after the furnace has been on for a while, though when the furnace turns off, I usually hear one last thump. Stranger still is that I’ve heard the thumping even when the furnace has not been on for some time. Yet it still seems to be coming from the furnace.
We have two furnaces. There’s the wood burning furnace, that can no longer be used. My brother had to seal the door with metal strapping and send the insurance company pictures as proof, otherwise, they would not have insured the house. When the new roof was installed, the old chimney for the wood furnace was removed at the top, and the opening sealed.
The other furnace is electric, and attached to the wood furnace. This way, if the fire died down in the wood furnace and it got cold, it would automatically switch to the electric furnace, which sends the warm air through the wood burning furnace to use the same ducts. This meant my dad wouldn’t have to go into the basement during the night to load the wood burning furnace anymore and, eventually, he just used the electric. So we have two thermostats on the wall, too. The one for the wood burning furnace is off, and we just use the one for the electric furnace.
With this new thumping noise, I am very perplexed. I’ve even started to try dashing (ha! As much as I can dash) to the basement, in hopes that the noise would happen again while I’m down there.
I have yet to hear it while I’m in the basement.
I’ve tried looking up possible causes, but none apply to our furnace. Some applied to gas furnaces, not electric. Others applied to a belt motor, but this one doesn’t have a belt. Other possibilities mentioned the sound happening when the furnace first starts, and this noise happens after the furnace has been running for a while. Etc.
I am totally perplexed.
As I described it to them and answered their questions, they were equally perplexed.
In the end, the one thing my brother could think of was to remove the chain from the damper on the old furnace. The old furnace has its own internal thermostat, which can’t really be turned off, so it might be acting up and trying to open the damper or something. It seems unlikely, but we can’t think of anything else.
So I’ve done that. I’ve since turned the electric furnace’s thermostat back up again a bit, so it’ll turn on sooner.
~~~ pause for the noise happening again ~~~
Okay, I think we figured it out.
I kept going into the basement to listen to the noise, only for it to happen after I’ve gone back upstairs. In fact, just as I reached the top of the stairs.
I finally got my daughter to walk around while I was downstairs.
It’s the floor. The floor joist (it’s all exposed) is in direct contact with the metal at the top of the furnace.
My daughter even found a spot to make the noise happen repeatedly, but it doesn’t seem to be just one spot. It happened while I was moving around in front of the doorway to my husband’s bedroom. The subfloor boards are diagonal, so I could simply have been standing on a different spot over the same board.
Which means, when I’m hearing it go off, it has nothing to do with the furnace being on. It might actually just be one of the heavier cats walking past the basement door, or even the floor shifting with temperature changes. The house shifting might also explain why it’s happening now, when it hadn’t happened before.
That is NOT what I expected at all.
I’ve got to tell my brother about this!
That is just the strangest thing ever.
Now I have to wonder if the floor shifting – sagging? – can actually damage the furnace!
Good grief, this house has some of the strangest problems creep up!
My goodness, how things can change in a short time!
Today was supposed to be my day to do our first stock up shopping trip in the city. There’s one major street with several stores I go to that are all conveniently in a row. I save the Costco shopping for another trip.
Then I got a phone call yesterday, late afternoon.
Against our advice, my mother had made an appointment with the doctor in the hospital clinic near her place. They have one doctor that comes in one day a week. That appointment was yesterday afternoon, and a friend from church was driving her. We’ve advised against it as we’ve started the process to try and get her into long term care, and switching doctors could slow that down, but we can’t stop her if she decides otherwise. When she told me about the appointment, I just asked her to call me after and let me know if she had officially switched doctors, so I could call home care and let them know. The only reason she’d told me about it was because I’d called her to pass on a message from the home care coordinator! She had just gotten home from the walk in clinic when I called. She was having issues with her breathing again, which she says has been getting worse. From what I’ve seen the last couple of times I’ve been with her, it definitely has, though she still says it’s the worst when she’s lying down in bed. Apparently, they didn’t actually see her, but made an appointment for the next day.
I didn’t get a call from my mother.
I got a call from the ER in the hospital in her town, instead.
She’d gone to the clinic, but it turned out the appointment was with a nurse practitioner, because the doctor wasn’t there that day. After checking on her and hearing her complaints, he sent her to the ER. They were treating her on the assumption of heart failure, based on the symptoms she described, which she told them she’d had for only a couple of weeks.
She’s been complaining about these symptoms for longer than we’ve been back in this province.
I spoke to the nurse for a while, as my mother was having difficulties remembering her medical history. She asked about the contact numbers they had on file, so I also let them know that I was the nearest of my siblings and to call me first but, if things got to such a point, my brother is PoA, so he would be the one to call for decision making authority. Since this hospital doesn’t have a doctor, they were in the process of doing an EKG, and where then going to transfer her to the nearest ER.
An ER with a doctor.
She mentioned the two most likely ER location possibilities, one of which my mother would probably refuse to go back to, so I filled in about that, too, and why. After we spoke, she told me she would call back once they knew where she would be going.
Which turned out to be the hospital we are closest to.
So much of my evening was spent keeping on top of things and updating my siblings. By the final call I made to the hospital my mother was transferred to, it was concluded that my mother had pulmonary edema.
I had remembered and made sure to call them earlier about the kidney function issues my mother had, some time ago, and this was why she was no longer on water pills. By then, they’d already figured it out.
Pulmonary edema certainly explain her breathing problems!
So my plans changed for today. I was originally going to go to the post office for some packages that came in yesterday, then head towards town to take a particular highway straight into the city and the street with the stores I meant to go to. Instead, I would go to into town to see my mother at the hospital (after phoning to confirm where she was and what room she was assigned to), then go to the city.
After our very warm day, followed by a colder one yesterday, I started seeing all sorts of reports for poor highway conditions, today. All that melting resulted in roads that were icy and snow packed. Today was supposed to be a bit warmer again, but the high winds were back, so now there was blowing snow on top of everything else.
At that point, I was going to decide whether I would go to the city or not, based on what the conditions were like when I got to the hospital to see my mother.
The east-west road to town was not too bad; there were icy patches. Enough to drive below the speed limit, but nothing too excessive – until I got closer to town, when it was all ice.
Then I got to the junction for the highway I would have been taking to go to the city.
It was barricaded in one direction with vehicles, warning cones, people in high viz vests, and a sign saying “emergency scene ahead”. Wherever the emergency scene was, though, it was too far away to see from this intersection. The cross roads are every mile, so that’s not surprising.
My brother was talking about visiting my mother after work, if the roads were safe, so once I parked at the hospital, I updated my siblings on road conditions, as well as posting on the highway conditions group I’m on.
As for my mother, though she has been admitted, she was still in their ER and not yet transferred to her room. They had just finished doing another series of tests on her.
She’s actually doing really well.
She was still wired for EKG; they just need to plug her in for the next test. She had an IV port, but no IV. They’d given her the IV version of her old water pills, and she was already feeling a difference. They’re going to do bloodwork repeatedly to figure out what’s going on with her. She expects to be there for just a few days, though typically, someone admitted with her symptoms would be there for a week.
We had a good visit, and I told her I’ve been keeping my siblings up to day. I also told her about my brother hoping to visit this evening, if road conditions are safe, but they didn’t seem to be. I even checked again while she went to the washroom and found more recent updates from people saying how icy the conditions were on the highways.
As for that accident scene, it turned out a couple of miles of highway was shut down, and the medical helicopter from the city had to be brought in!
My mother said she was just fine without any visits!!
I had already decided by then that I would NOT be going to the city. I’m going to be in the nearer city tomorrow, after dropping the cats off at the vet, anyhow, so I can do most of the stock up shopping there.
After having a good visit with my rather indestructible mother (seriously. She’s amazing), I headed to the local grocery store, instead. I was just going to pick up a few things to tide us over and then head home.
Well, I ended up going an almost stock up trip. I took advantage of a lot of sales.
This is what $262.32 looks like.
Quite a lot of stuff is buried and can’t be seen in the photo.
Because of all the sales, I found myself with a ridiculously long receipt, and had to take two pictures to make it manageable. Here’s the top half.
The cat food was one necessity. We’ve still got feed store kibble, but the inside cats will not eat it! Even the outside cats don’t like this particular brand of feed store kibble, though they do like the other brand this feed store carries. So I got two 8kg bags of house brand kibble, which was a lot more affordable. Hopefully, the cats will actually eat it!
The Basmati rice is for my husband, as we’re low and that’s usually a Costco item. He does love his rice!
My daughter requested and sent funds for energy drinks. The cases of 4 were on sale, so I got two. At Costco, I will pick up a flat for her. The Coke Zero is for my husband and I.
My husband requested nacho fixings and there were sales on, so I got four bags of nacho chips, in hopes to have enough unbroken chips to make a decent sized batch of nachos! The salsa dip is for him as well.
I even remembered to grab garlic powder, as we ran out.
The pre-sliced olives were for the nachos. The canned fruit cocktail was a good sale, so I picked those up as a pantry treat.
I don’t normally buy cereal, but do pick it up as a treat when it’s on sale. Two boxes are in flavours my daughters like, two for my husband and I.
I got a flat of eggs, because we always need eggs. The blocks of cheese were on sale, so I got one regular and one lactose free. We still had cheese at home, but since we’re making nachos, we’ll be using up a lot more than usual in a short time.
I got only 1 pound of butter because it was on sale. I’ll pick up the month’s supply at Costco.
Since we got cereal, I got more regular milk and oat milk. The frozen perogies were another sale item that also got me extra points on my Scene card. The rice crackers were for my husband. It doesn’t show, but those were on sale, as was the bag of McIntosh apples and the baby spinach.
The bacon was also on sale, plus there was a points bonus, so I got two packages. Same with the hot dog wieners. Which means I had to get hot dog buns, which were not on sale. It amazes me that the buns cost more than the wieners! I picked up a couple of loaves of Texas Toast bread, so I got some sliced meats for sandwiches. They are “pizza” meats, but they’ll make good sandwiches, too.
I also picked up more dips for the nachos that my daughters and I like; a 6 layer dip and an artichoke asiago dip.
That made my bill a total of $262.32 after taxes for 43 items, while my total discounts and savings was $57.66, for a 19% savings. I also earned 1230 points with just this trip, which more than doubled my balance. I save the points for times when getting cash off my groceries will be an extra help. As of right now, I could get $20 off, but I’ll save that for a tighter month.
So I ended up getting more than planned, with a lot of things I don’t get very often. We could easily go for some time without a full stock up trip, but after I drop off the cats at the vet tomorrow, I will be close to both a Walmart and a Canadian Tire, which is where I will get specific stock up items without the big city trip. I had been looking forward to going to the international grocery store in the city, as today is the last day for some promotions and sales, but I’ll just have to miss them this time. The Costco trip might be on Friday, or on the weekend.
As for tomorrow, I’m really hoping the roads improve, because there is no way I’m skipping getting the cats to the vet. The rescue set this up for us, and I’d hate to be a no-show. The Cat Lady would understand, but the vet gets so many no-shows, they’ve had to start banning people from their cheap spay days for it. I don’t want to get the Cat Lady in trouble with one of the few vets that gives her such decent discounts! Plus, I will be meeting the Cat Lady, then later on will meet with someone from a feral and stray cats group that has some donated cat food for us.
I would normally live an hour before drop off time, even though it typically takes 45-55 minutes to get to the nearer city, but with potentially bad road conditions, I will plan on leaving even earlier.
I just really hope we can catch either Brussel or the fluffy lady – the ones I am sure are pregnant right now. Sprout has shown up again and had the boys following her around. The last time I saw her, the boys were no longer following her, so she probably is, too. No possibility of catching her without a trap, though. The fluffy lady is our best bet to catch, I think. We’re booked for one male and one female, and we will bring in whichever ones we can snag!
Well, that’s where things stand today. I’ll be calling the hospital again later today to see if there are any updates on my mother. I don’t expect my brother or sister to make the drive out to visit, but there is another highway they could take that is supposed to be in better condition, so we’ll see. Unfortunately, since I’ll be having cats in the truck with me, I won’t be able to visit my mother tomorrow. We’ll see how things go over the next few days.
What would be ideal is for the home care panel to see what’s going on with my mother and this will be enough to get her into the nursing home she wants to be in! That would make her so happy.
Things kept warming up slowly overnight and, as I write this, we’ve been at our high of the day (-4C/25F) for some time, and will stay there for several more hours. After a slight dip in temperature this morning, we’re going to keep warming up again overnight. Tomorrow’s high keeps changing, but the range has been from -1C/30F to 1C/34F
I took advantage of this. Once my rounds were done, I stayed out and got little Spewie out of the garage. This was also going to give me a chance to use the new heavy duty, 100′ outdoor extension cord my husband picked up for me. This one is designed to withstand both extreme cold and extreme hot temperatures – so whether we’re at -30C/-22F or 30C/86F, it will be able to handle it!
I just double checked. On the cold side, it’s rated to stay flexible at -50C/-58F. The heat resistant jacket is rated to 70C/158F
So we’re good! 😄😄
My plan had been to do the driveway and paths in the outer yard. I started with the paths, including a new path to the pump shack. Since I was already on that side of the garage and had enough cord for the job, I did the paths around the cat shelters, to the compost pile, outhouse, back of the garage, and the litter pellet compost pile behind the outhouse.
I’m standing next to the kibble house to take the above picture. I widened the space at the bottom of the photo, to make room for the truck to back up towards the sun room. When I backed into the yard to load up the garbage the other day, I kept hitting a pile of snow along the cat path I was standing in for the photo.
There is now enough room to drive in, turn around, back up – and still have room to open doors and walk around the truck.
By the time I finished here, I was done for the day. I just cleared one last section of path, plus right in front of the garage, before putting everything away. The driveway can be done tomorrow! Plus a path to the barn. We can get through the area, if needed, but by clearing it now, when things warm up, the remaining snow will melt away faster.
Added bonus was coming inside to a hot lunch and a giant mug of freshly brewed tea. 💖🍵🍚
It felt so good to be outside and getting work done! I just love it!
The outside kitties were not impressed, though. At least, not the more feral ones. Spewie is pretty quiet, being a tiny electric snow blower, but between the noise and the snow being hurled into the air (and sometimes blown back into my face when we got a gust!) was just too much for them.
There is a down side to getting all that cleared, though.
I made sure not to push myself but, once inside, it didn’t take long for my entire body to stiffen up and start hurting a lot. I ended up taking a couple of my prescription painkillers. Which I was hoping to avoid, since I’ve been saving those to take before bed. The prescription is to take one or two capsules, once a day. By taking them now, it means I can’t take them before bed. Last night, thought I was doing pretty good and took only one before bed, and it just didn’t cut it. Even taking two, it eases most of the pain, but not my hips, so I’m still rotating like a rotisserie chicken at the best of times. Taking one helped with most of my joints, but my hips were hurting enough that they kept waking me up.
I’ll have to talk to my new doctor about that, the next time I see her.
Meanwhile, I’m prescription pain-killered up for now, and will need to watch myself for the rest of the day, so I can do the driveway tomorrow. I can still take acetaminophen for the night, as they are the same class of painkillers. I just can’t take anything like ibuprofen while I’m using this prescription painkiller.
Getting all that space in the yard cleared is worth it for me, though. It just felt so good to get some manual labour done!
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.
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!
Today, I’d hoped to stay home for a few days (I really, really didn’t want to go to the dump today!) but when my husband needed something from the pharmacy, I figured I’d do that right away, since it was supposed to be milder. The next couple of days are supposed to get much colder.
A high of -9C/16F is milder, right?
It seemed all right when I headed out to feed the outside cats.
The full belly kitties were content to stay in the sun room. Not all of them, but enough to make nice, warm cuddle puddles!
The isolation kittens are doing fine, too.
It was a different story, once I started heading to town!
The first thing I realized was that the driveway needed to be cleared. Best to do it while the snow is still light and fluffy, too. Much easier on little Spewie. After closing the gate behind me, I made sure to message the family about that, because I knew I would forget once I got going again.
Driving conditions really sucked!
Once on the main gravel road, visibility was low with blowing snow, made all the more interesting when I had to cross paths with oncoming trucks bringing in bales. The trucks alone are wide loads, but their trailers were loaded 3 round bales wide. To fit them, about a third of a bale sticks out on each side of the trailers, adding about 3 feet to the total width. The main gravel road is wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other well enough, with room to spare, but it’s a very different story with these trucks! They did try to go to the side as far as they could, but with how slippery things can be under the snow, it wouldn’t take much to hit some ice on the shoulder and slide right into the ditches… and these ditches are narrow, steep and deep!
Even on the highway, it wasn’t much better. I found myself doing 70-80 kph (43-50mph) in a 100 (62mph) zone – and no one was trying to pass me!
I’m glad the roads were plowed yesterday, or it would have been so much worse!
Once in town, I did my errands, with my last stop at the grocery store. My husband had called in a prescription delivery for Thursday that I was able to pick up today, instead. At the grocery store, after refilling a couple of our 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs, I ended up taking advantage of some sales and picked up a few extra things besides what was on my list, and my older daughter’s list that she send funds for, once she found out I was going into town. Poor thing is not feeling well at all, today. PCOS sucks.
The drive home was not any better than the drive out, so it was slow going. I’ve driven in far worse. I just didn’t want to be driving at all today! Ah, well.
With the water jugs on top of everything else, I drove up to the house to unload, but had some troubles backing up to the main doors. The truck had to go over the sidewalk from the house to the gate, which was shoveled, and it was just too slippery!
I was quite happy to be parking the truck back in the garage!
My younger daughter was a sweetheart and took care of clearing the driveway after everything was put away, and the outside cats got a light feeding to keep them distracted. The isolation kitties seem very content in their shelter. I was even able to pet the fluffball! He started to run away, but once I started petting his back, he stopped and let me!
I’m going to be worrying about them over the next while, though. As I was writing this, I could see the temperature on my task bar dropping. We’re down to -14C/7F right now, but the wind chill is -30C/-22F!
The isolation kittens are protected from the wind, so that shouldn’t affect the heat lamps ability to keep them warm, but we’re supposed to drop to -25C/-13F tonight, and the high tomorrow is supposed to only reach -23C/-9F, with an overnight low of -26C/-15F, before wind chill. The next day is supposed to be slightly warmer, before our highs are supposed to get back into the single digits below freezing (Celsius).
Those would be good days to stay home, but I’m expecting to pick up our 1/8 beef share on one of those days. I’m just waiting on an email to confirm the date.
I hadn’t been home for long, when I got a phone call from my mother.
Guess who had just showed up at her place?
*sigh*
Yup. Our vandal. My surprising him by being there yesterday didn’t scare him off for long.
My mother was in the common room, though, and our neighbour was with him again, so he was on his best behaviour. Apparently, he was in the nearer city for “treatment” (chemotherapy?) so they stopped by on the way home.
I’m glad my mother called me as soon as she got back into her apartment after they left. In the past, she wouldn’t tell us if he showed up, even when he was alone and his behaviour was verbally abusive.
Then she told me that the doctor that was supposed to call her at 2pm, did finally call! It was past 4pm by the time he did. Thankfully, my mother still remembered our conversation, and on telling him how things went, his recommendation was exactly what I said was most likely. He wanted to increase the dose of the medication.
Then my mother, being the way she is, asked him if she could just stop taking them. What would happen? His response was, probably nothing would change. She could stop taking them, if she wanted, but to call him again if things got worse.
*sigh*
I just had to express my frustrations with her, as carefully as I could. She keeps complaining about all sorts of health problems, but when people try to help her, she won’t do the things that she is supposed to do to make things better. When we first moved out here, she mostly complained about her knees, but refused to wear the braces my brother got for her (as recommended by her doctor at the time), for her knee that’s bent sideways. I forget it he got two or three different braces, trying to find one she was willing to wear, but she wouldn’t. Instead, she would wear sport knee pads. They kept her knees warm, therefore, in her mind, they were helping her knees more than the brace.
It’s the same thing with this new medication. I tried to explain again, it takes time to see if a specific medication would work, and at what dose. As an example, I told her how my husband it still trying to get the dose right on the new pain medication he’s on (the previous one is no longer available), and it’s been about a year. Her response was to start talking about how much she pities us for him having health problems, but I had to cut that off. I told her, this was just an example of something that is common. Everyone is different, so they have to take the time to figure out exactly what will work for each person.
Her bubble packs are due for new ones, and the doctor would be faxing the increased dosage to her pharmacy, so I told her that when she gets her new bubble packs, they should have the new dosage, and nothing would change. Just keep taking her prescriptions as always, and give it time to work.
I don’t know if I got through to her. I might have, at least for a little while.
I’m so glad she has homecare doing med assists, now. Even with the bubble packs, she was messing with her prescriptions. Which is more of a problem because she forgets what some of them are for, and gets them mixed up.
I need to remember to call the home care office and see where her application for assisted living or a nursing home is at! There’s only so much my siblings and I can do to help her. Especially when she isn’t willing to help herself at times!
So today didn’t turn out the way it was intended to, but things got done and, more importantly, my mom is okay after our vandal showing up at her place again.
I really, really wish she would just tell him to not come around anymore, but she still holds out home that things will get better.
Another reason to get her into some sort of long term care! She can move to a better living situation, and no one needs to tell him where she is. As long as she doesn’t tell him herself, of course. 🫤🙄
Ah, well. It is what it is! All we can do is deal with the cards we’ve got.
First up, my daughter and I left quite early for her appointment, and I’m glad we did!
The outside cats seemed quite confused that they were getting fed while it was still dark out.
While we were not supposed to get more snow in our area, today, we were expected to get high winds, and we sure had that! Since we did get some light snow yesterday and overnight, that meant a lot of blowing snow reducing visibility on top of being buffeted on the highway. I had considered stopping at the gas station at my mother’s town along the way, just to grab some sort of road snack since I hadn’t had breakfast yet, but I skipped that. The clinic we were going to has a grocery store right next to it, and I figured I could wait!
We got there maybe 20 minutes early. I headed to the grocery store while my daughter went to the clinic, only to discover the doors were locked. So we both waited in the truck while I ate my sandwich until we saw the doors open 15 minutes before her appointment. Once she got called in, things went rather quickly. She had another round of bloodwork to do after that appointment, so I went to the truck while she got that done.
Which is when the messages started coming in.
My older daughter was letting me know to call my mother back… then to call home care. She couldn’t quite make much out of the message that had been left, but was eventually able to tell me that home care was still with my mother.
So I called my mother and the health care aid answered.
The first thing she told me was that she had just managed to get through to my sister. Which is good. I’m the first person to call, since I’m the closest. Then my sister, then my brother, who still lives the furthest away. My sister had said she would be coming to see my mother.
My mother was complaining of chest pains (again), shortness of breath (again) and clamminess.
The clamminess was a new one.
The health care aid was offering to call an ambulance, but my mother was refusing.
Her chest pains were most likely the usual heartburn, and the shortness of breath has become a regular complaint. From what I can observe, the previous doctors suggestion that it is conditioning is most likely correct. My mother is 93, had busted up knees and is getting out of shape with age, but she doesn’t know how to slow down. I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with her once she gets going with her walker. Then she gets out of breath and can’t understand why.
The clamminess, though… I don’t know what to make of that.
As we were talking, my sister tried to call. I dismissed that call, finished up with the health care aid, then phoned my sister while the health care aid was going to call home care next.
In talking to my sister, I told her where we were and why. She started saying they hadn’t have breakfast yet, but if I were in the area, maybe I could check on Mom instead.
…
I told her again, why we were where we were (which is NOT “in the area”). We were going to be in this town for most of the day. My sister wasn’t happy to hear that, but said she would go to Mom’s after they had breakfast.
I don’t know how long it was going to be before she was on the road, but by the time I was done with the phone calls, the weather had gotten worse. It would not be a fun drive, though I don’t know of the worsened weather reached as far as where she lives. Her route wouldn’t take her through this town, anyhow, so it’s possible she wouldn’t see the bad weather at all. Other than the high winds. Those never died down at all today. Even now, as I write this, I can see the trees swaying out my window.
That call done, I messaged my brother to keep him in the loop. Then my daughter and I went to get an actual breakfast. Not much was open that early in the morning, so we ended up going to a Tim Hortons.
We had some time between appointments, so I took advantage of it and went to a branch of my bank with some questions I had. The postal strike is causing some issues, and I needed to clear some things up. From there, we went to a Red Apple, where my daughter was able to get some clothing necessities, and I snagged a high density foam mat to keep in the truck. If we need to climb into the truck box with the tailgate open, it’s something we can lay down to protect our knees. Or, if we have a situation like when my brother wanted to lie on the ground to look under the truck, it can be a nicely insulated, clean surface to lie on.
After taking our time there, we then went to a Home Hardware that was kitty corner from the eye clinic. While there, I picked up a new sump pump hose. Not for our sump pump, though, but for our washing machine drain. We’re still running the hose out the front door, and the current one has started to leak.
At some point, we need to use that drain auger on the pipes, but I’m not going to do it until I am sure we can seal it up again without leaking. My brother keeps telling me how easy it is, but I honestly can’t even see how to open the thing. We also don’t have the sealant needed for when it gets closed up again. It’s also in a very awkward space, plus it’s directly above the sump pump reservoir. Just getting the auger close enough to use it is going to be difficult.
I really hate the plumbing in this place. 😄😄
Anyhow.
It was shortly past noon when we finished at the hardware store, so we popped across to the eye clinic and I checked in.
Thankfully, they were not busy.
I first got called in for the eye images, then the puff test. Then the tech checked to see if the field of vision machine was ready. It was, so she was able to take me straight over for that.
The field of vision test takes about five minutes per eye. Once that was done, the data was sent for the eye doctor to look at, and she would call me in when she was done. When I sat down with my daughter in the waiting room, I checked my phone and it had just turned 1pm – a full hour before my appointment!
Then my phone rang. 😄
It was my brother, calling me in between meetings, about Mom. We spoke for a short time, but there really wasn’t anything to say. Our sister had not sent any messages to update us.
It wasn’t too much longer before the eye doctor called me in. After looking at the images and comparing them from the last two, each 6 months apart, there was very little change. She took a direct look as well, and it was decided to not do the eye dilation tests this time. We would do it next time.
I mentioned to her that we were going to try and not book appointments in the winter, due to transportation and road condition concerns. The next appointment would have been in June, but she was okay if we changed it to July or August.
So that’s what I did. For the next appointment, I’m booked in the second half of July. If she wants me to do another “6 month” test, I would book it for March or April, slowly shifting the appointments to spring and fall instead of summer and winter.
Since we didn’t need to do the eye dilation test, I got to drive us home. My daughter’s dizzy spells have improved, but not gone away completely yet, so me driving was better, anyhow.
Since we were in town, we then made a short stop at a grocery store. I won’t be able to do our Costco shop until Friday at the earliest, so there were a few fresh things that we needed to get. We also picked up some road food for the trip home.
By this time, conditions had improved considerably. It was still very windy and the truck was being buffeted, but we also had bright sunshine. There was only one area that got dicey. The windward side in that area was all open fields and so much snow was being blown across, driving into it was like driving into a fog bank! At one point, as I checked my rear view mirror, the car behind me looked like it was driving on a cloud. No sign of the road or ditches at all! Just blowing snow.
Thankfully, the further north we go, the more trees there are to block the blowing snow.
We were both very glad to be home, that’s for sure!
Once everything was brought in, it was getting late enough that I left my daughter to put most of the stuff away while I went to feed the outside cats and top up their warm water before it got dark. I wanted to make sure they all had a chance to finish the food off before night time. It’s the only way we can get the outside cats that are going to be spayed tomorrow to fast.
I need to be on the road by 7am with the cats tomorrow, giving myself extra time for bad road conditions, for the 8am drop off. We’ll still be at our overnight low of -18C/0F at that time, based on the current forecast. It’s supposed to be slightly colder tomorrow, but without the high winds, so that will make a huge difference.
After the cats get dropped off at the vet, I’ll be hanging around the area until they call me to pick them up. So I will be gone all morning, at the very least. Last time, I was able to nap in the truck, but it’ll probably be too cold to do that, this time!
Oh, I just got word from my sister. By the time she got to my mother’s, she was feeling fine. No longer clammy. There’s a cold going through her building that she might be catching, so she got my mother some vitamin D, echinacea and immunity boosting tea.
Hopefully, that will do it.
I still plan to phone my mother, right after I finish posting this!
Then we need to get some carriers ready for the cats tomorrow. We won’t have any problem getting Kohl, as she’s become nice and social. The adult females may be another story. If we can’t get them, we should at least be able to snag Magda, who is also very social, but it would be much better if we could manage to get one of the adults! I’m not even sure Magda is 2 pounds yet, but she should be close.
We shall see.
Once the carriers are prepped, it’s going to be an early bedtime for me!
Since the truck was booked to be looked at tomorrow morning, I rescheduled my mother’s shopping and errands to today. The plan was to do her errands, making sure to bring along our water jugs that needed refilling, so that I could go to the town nearer to us and fill them while running some errands of our own before going home.
Early this morning, I got a text reminder – at about 7am! – from Canadian Tire for our 7am appointment on Monday, saying to make sure to be there ahead of time and be ready to drop off the keys; standard stuff. I responded by saying the vehicle was already there, and they already had the keys.
It was probably around 9am when I got the first call from them.
They had already looked at the truck!
The problem was, indeed, a wheel bearing. I asked how much it would be, and it was thankfully lower than I feared. Being just the one tire, the total came to less than $500. I was half expecting both tires and a $1000 bill.
I authorized the work, which took a few texts, another call, then an email, because the link they texted me wouldn’t work on my phone. Instead, I got a message saying I needed to complete the process on my computer – but I don’t have text to desktop set up on this computer. In the end, all I needed to do was text back “approved”, but what they were trying to send me was the document showing an itemized list of what was to be done, and the cost of each item.
So that got approved just in time for me to start heading out to my mother’s.
Except…
I didn’t realize it, but my younger daughter was planning to come with me! I misunderstood something she’d said. She was behind on doing the morning cat feeding and the morning rounds, so I switched out one of the trail cam memory cards while she did the other. Everything else got skipped.
The slight delay turned out to be a good thing, because I’d forgotten the water jugs!
It’s a good thing I started heading out early. By the time we finally got everything ready, we were on the road exactly when I knew was the latest we could leave and get there for the time I told my mother I would be there.
When we got to my mother’s, I went in to get and go over her list with her. My daughter stayed in the car. With how my mother behaves towards her, she has no interest in being around her grandmother anymore and, to be honest, I can’t blame her one bit.
Normally, our first stop would have been the pharmacy, but they were still closed, so we went to the grocery store instead. They opened their doors at 11am – pretty much as we were parking! I keep forgetting about Sunday hours.
My daughter stayed in the car for that part, too, as there was nothing she needed there. That done, it was back to the pharmacy. It was still closed, so we went looking for the posted hours and realized they opened at noon, so we still had time. We took advantage of that and went to the gas station to fill my brother’s tank, which was just below half by then – it still feels so strange to be able to fill at tank for $30! That’s a quarter tank, on our truck.
I also picked up some fried chicken and wedges for our lunch, along with some drinks, since we would still have to wait. After parking by the pharmacy again, I called my mother to let her know we were waiting for the pharmacy to open at noon, so we would be longer. Then we had our lunch – very carefully, so as not to drop any crumbs in my brother’s car! – and watched all the people going to the pharmacy doors, realizing they were locked, then leaving again. 😄
As we were waiting, I got a text from the garage.
The truck was ready.
!!!!!
At this point, I’d already made arrangements with my brother and SIL for switching vehicles tomorrow. The garage already knew about this, so that was not an issue.
They were done so early, though. After updating my brother, he wondered if we meant to get it today, instead.
On finding out the garage was open until 6, and it was barely noon, we decided to just finish my mother’s shopping, then head straight to my brother’s, then to the city to get the truck.
After I did my mother’s shopping at the pharmacy and my daughter did part of hers, we went back to my mother’s place. She isn’t up to going to church lately, even though it’s just across the street, so someone comes over with communion for her, after services. She was all set up for this when I got there, so I quickly told her what was going on as I put her things away. I was just packing up my reusable bags when there was a knock at the door. Perfect timing! It was the guy from church.
So, off I went and soon, my daughter and I were on the road to my brother’s new place.
This is the first time I’ve driven to their place myself; I’ve been driven there as a passenger, and I’ve driven FROM their place, and everything looked different. I kept second guessing myself when I knew we were getting close. I had a landmark building I told my daughter about. It’s been there for probably 100 years. I told my daughter, it’s now an antique store.
“But what do they sell?” she asked me.
…
It took me a few moments. I’m not too swift with jokes.
I then laughed for the next 5 minutes!
Finally we got there, and then I had to remember which driveway was the right one. They’re in a row of townhouses now, and they all look identical, and I couldn’t remember their unit number. I recognized a car in another driveway, so I pulled into a driveway that I was pretty sure was theirs. I figured, if it was, their garage door opener would work. I knew which button closed the door, so I tried the other buttons to open it.
No garage doors opened.
I was still pretty sure we were at the right place. I could see some decor items near the door, but couldn’t remember if they were familiar to me or not.
Then, as we got out, I saw the block heater extension cord on the step, recognized that, and knew I was in the right place.
😄😄
Oh, and it turned out the same button on the garage door opener that closes it, opens it. We have no idea what the other two buttons are supposed to do. 😄
When we got there, they were all ready to set up a pot of tea and stuff, but I didn’t want to delay. The garage would be open for a few more hours but, since we were in the city, we could still do our errands at a nearby Walmart, and fill our water jugs at the Canadian Tire. So we were soon out the door again. Both my brother and SIL came along and drove us to the garage, taking advantage of the trip themselves to look for things.
When we got there, we were able to spot the truck fairly easily, so my brother pulled in behind it while we transferred my daughter’s shopping to the truck box – where I found the box with the old wheel bearings they’d left for me – and grabbed the water jugs, then my brother parked.
My brother went in to the auto service area with me while my daughter and SIL took the water jugs into the store to refill them.
I got the keys and paperwork for the truck and then got sent over to the cashier on the store side of the barrier to pay for it. Boom, boom, boom, and it was done!
I was so happy!!!!! What a relief!
We reconnected with my daughter and SIL soon after. They couldn’t find the refill station. I went to where I thought it was, completely forgetting that this is a different store than where I’d refilled at before. After looking around, I finally asked an employee.
This location doesn’t have a refill station. They only did Culligan brand exchanges.
Well… so much for that!
I put the jugs back in the truck, then met back up with everyone else in the store again. Since we didn’t need to get anything else and my brother and his wife were going to do some more looking around, we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
With the Costco pretty much across the street, I figured I would at least go there to fill the tank with cheaper gas.
Then we saw the lineups of cars at all the pumps.
We went straight to the Walmart, instead.
It was really busy, too!
My daughter had her list and I had mine, so we parted ways for a bit, then reconnected in the grocery section. We didn’t bring in the water jugs, though, because I didn’t know if this Walmart had a refill station.
We never did see one, so probably not.
By the time we were done and paid for our stuff – I didn’t take any stocking up photos, like I usually do, as we were just in high gear, the whole time – it was starting to snow quite a bit. So we just took the time to update the family before we started out. Well… updated my husband, as my older daughter would have still been in bed. She just closed the slots for her Christmas quick commissions sale, while also having several regular commissions to complete, last night, so she is going to have some very busy work nights for the next couple of weeks. She then takes time off for Christmas and New Years.
I also updated the Cat Lady whenever I could, throughout the day, and confirmed that we will NOT be rescheduling those spays she booked for us on Thursday!
She had good news for me, too. A friend of hers had donated 50 cans of wet cat food to us! That’s on top of the 100 or so, she is going to pass on to us because her own cats won’t eat that flavour, plus some kibble a grocery store donated. When we meet up with her at the vet, she’s going to have all sorts of donated cat food to pass on to us! In fact, we might find ourselves with enough wet cat food that we might be able to treat the outside cats to some cat soup! The Cat Lady is so awesome in being able to do this for us!
If we can keep it from freezing.
We’ll figure it out.
She said she even ordered more kibble for us from Amazon, though with the postal strike, it’s hard to say when it’ll get here. It’s a rotating strike; mail gets delivered in some places, while others are picketing, then it changes every week. So mail can potentially get through, at some point. We just have no idea when or where.
This strike is killing a lot of small businesses that depend on shipping out orders. Especially this time of year, when most businesses have their highest sales, putting them in the black before the end of the year. Some things just can’t be shipped by courier.
Anyhow.
For most of the drive out of the city, we took things easy. Nearer the city, roads were icy, but they cleared up the further north we drove. Which was good, because visibility decreased at the same time!
We got to the town nearest us and made our first stop for my daughter to run in and get what she needed while I updated the family again. Then it was to the grocery store. This time, I ran in with the water jugs to refill them – and picked up some food for my daughter, since she was too stressed out to choose something to eat on the road. She’s even worse for crowds and shopping than I am!
By the time we were done there, it was full dark. We made one more stop for gas, since we didn’t get any at Costco, then finally we headed home.
The snow was coming down harder by then, and I was very glad my daughter was with me. I had to focus on the road directly in front of us, just to stay in my lane. I couldn’t see the centre line, but I could make out the shoulder, at least. Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic. Still, at times we were doing only 60 kph in a 100 zone.
My daughter, meanwhile, was on deer watch, scanning the ditches for me. You’d think deer would be hunkering down in shelter somewhere in weather like this, but nooo. These are Canadian deer. They’ll stand in the middle of the road and wait for the vodka to freeze.
Credit to my daughter for that one… 😄
So this day ended up being much, much longer than expected. The outside cats hadn’t been fed before it got dark, like we usually try to do. My older daughter wasn’t up yet, and my husband can’t manage getting kibble to all the spread out food bowls anymore, now that there’s ice and snow on the ground making it more dangerous for him to hobble about, even with a cane.
Which worked out, really, since we had to feed them to get them away from the truck before I could park it.
We had some very hungry babies. By the time I finished doing the outside trays and bowls and came back into the sunroom, the sunroom trays were almost empty!
As for me, I was very happy to be parking our own truck in the garage, instead of a borrowed car.
I’m so incredibly thankful they were able to get it done today, and that we could work out the transportation and vehicle switching with my brother and SIL on such short notice.
Best of all…
All the time that we were driving, all I was hearing was normal road noises. 😄
When I get a chance, I want to bring in the old part from the truck and take a look at the damage. I’m curious to see what kind of damage would make the noise I was hearing, since it was so different from the last vehicle we had to replace wheel bearings on.
To top it off, we now no longer have anyplace we will potentially need to go to, tomorrow. My mother’s errands are done, and now the truck is home, too.
We can actually *gasp* stay home for a day!
Which is good, because it’s supposed to be colder, tomorrow. The next day – Tuesday – is supposed to be warmer, so that will be a good time to make a much needed trip to the dump and, since I’d be going in that direction anyhow, go to the town north of us and get a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble. Yes, we have cat food donations coming, but you just can’t have too much kibble! Especially in winter. It’s looking like we will have a mild winter, but if things ever change and we end up not being able to get out for some reason, we need to have the pantry stocked up with enough for all of us – humans and feline alike. In the winter, I want to have at least one, preferably two, months worth of supplies on hand. We’ve already have a few times when we’ve relied on our stocked up items. It’s getting harder to keep it up, with the cost of everything going up, but I view this as an essential.
An essential, like our truck is!!
Have I mentioned, how glad I am that our truck is back?
I don’t mean that in a good way, but I have to say that I am very grateful. Things went wrong in the best way possible, if that makes any sense!
Today was my day to go to Costco for our second stock up shopping trip. Shopping there on a Saturday is definitely better than on Black Friday! Still, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I just don’t like shopping in general. On top of that, while today was warmer than yesterday, the winds were still pretty high. But, it needed to be done, and it really wasn’t all that bad out, as far as winter weather goes in this area.
My mother called last night and we arranged for a grocery shopping and errands day on Monday. However, she mentioned being out of milk, so I told her I would swing by the grocery store in her town on the way out, and get some for her. She asked me to get her something to go with her tea, too. 😊
So that was my first stop of the day. While at the grocery store, I picked up a sandwich and a drink to tide me over until I got to the city.
I am so glad I did.
My plan had been to stop at a shopping mall near the Costco first to grab lunch at the food court, then do the shopping. As I was getting closer to the city, however, I began to notice the sound of tires on the road was getting louder. I had the radio on, and it was loud enough to be heard over the music, which is not usual.
I couldn’t think about it too much, though, once I made my first turn onto the highway bypassing most of the city. At this point, I was no longer driving with the wind at my back, but was getting blasted from the side. The truck was being buffeted quite a lot, until I finally reached my exit.
At this point, I turned off the radio and was listening to the tires. It still sounded like tires on the road. Just louder.
When I got to the mall, I found myself having to drive through the parking lot, trying to find a spot. It was really full, and I couldn’t find any, even far from the building. However, that sound was really bothering me. There is a Canadian Tire between this mall and the Costco, so I headed for the Canadian Tire. Just to make things even more interesting, by this time I was really needing a bathroom.
Thankfully, I found a parking spot near the Canadian Tire auto service area. When I got out of the truck, I quickly checked the tires. They looked find, but there was a lot of ice built up on the mud flaps. Could that be all it was?
I didn’t stop to find out and ran inside to use the bathroom, then messaged my family about the status of things. I messaged my brother, too. I had messaged them earlier about the possibility of meeting for lunch. My SIL had gone out of province and wasn’t back yet, and my brother was running errands. When they bowed out, I responded and said, just as well, and explained why.
After that, I went back to the truck and knocked the ice free from all the mud flaps. From the gouges in the ice, there was no doubt that it had been rubbing against the tires.
By the fourth tire, the scraper on my snow clearing brush broke off. That piece of ice beside it in the photo was probably the biggest of them all.
I then got into the truck and started backing out, thinking I could head back to the mall and get food.
Which is when the other noise started.
As soon as I started moving, there was a sort of screeching, rubbing, grinding noise.
I stopped and moved back into the stop, and the sound continued when I was moving forward.
I was not going to drive anywhere with that noise!
I thought that maybe it was just ice somewhere in there, but it wasn’t worth taking a chance. We only have the one vehicle!
Back into Canadian Tire I went.
After waiting in line for a while – there were a lot of people around – I told a guy what was happening and asked about getting it checked. He told me that they were really busy, and it was unlikely they’d be able to check it for at least 6 or 7 hours.
!!!
So I asked where the next nearest garage was and he told me about a couple of them.
I wasn’t about to drive the truck, though. After looking up on my maps app, I found which one was closest and headed that way.
Walking straight into the wind.
Thankfully, I was dressed for the weather, so I was fine. I made sure to wear my down filled parka today. It may be old and ratty, but it’s very warm.
I just checked, and the distance I walked was a little over half a mile.
I talked to the guy behind the counter, explaining the situation. Unfortunately, they were really busy, too. They closed at four and, even if we got the towed over, he couldn’t guarantee they’d be able to look at it before closing. The truck would be staying there for the weekend.
So I thanked them and decided, 6-7 hours isn’t that bad.
I was going to message my family but found my brother had tried to call me while I was walking, so I called him back. It turned out he was in the area – stuck waiting for a train! – and wanted to meet me. I told him I was going back to the Canadian Tire and why.
Amazingly, I got there before he did.
This time, I had the wind at my back, so it was a much more pleasant walk.
Once there, however, I found I was too late. They were now booking for Monday.
Meanwhile, I was concerned about the budget. There was only so much we could absorb. So I ended up calling my bank to talk about that. I ended up sitting in the truck to have the privacy and quiet to make the call.
I got an automated message saying how long the wait was expected to be and was able to choose a call back option.
I just finished on the phone when my brother called. He was in the auto service area, looking for me! When I told him where I was, he told me to stay there and he’d meet me.
When he got there, he asked me all sorts of questions, then got me to try moving the truck back a few feet, then forward again, while he listened.
He was able to narrow the noise down to the front tires (from the inside, the sound seemed to be all around). He also thought it sounded like metal on metal.
*sigh*
He wanted to try and look under, but didn’t want to lie on the snow. I had a tarp in the back, though so we brought that out. He looked, then had me move the truck back again, while he was looking under it.
After he got up and got me to more forward again, he told me everything that he could see looked in really good shape. The only thing he could think of that could be making the noise was the bearings.
I’ve had to replace a bearing before, and it didn’t sound anything at all like this.
If it is the bearings, he thinks it would likely cost around $1000.
!!!
He also said that when I was going in reverse, the sound seemed to come from the front driver’s side tire – but when I moved forward, it seemed to be coming from the front passenger side.
At that point, the only thing to do was to book the truck in. He said he would lend us a car – or I could possibly spend the night with them.
When we got back in and talked to the guy at the counter, my brother was able to tell him exactly what he saw for the notes.
Just checking the truck is going to cost almost $200 in total.
It’s now booked for 7am on Monday. I’d say that’s their earliest slot that no one else wanted. I won’t be in the city and the truck is staying in their parking lot, so it doesn’t matter to me. He did say that they will try and see it tomorrow, if possible. Otherwise, Monday it is.
While this was going on, my phone vibrated but didn’t ring. I don’t know why my phone doesn’t ring for incoming calls. It is set to both ring and vibrate, but there’s never a ring. Anyhow, it was CIBC trying to call me back. My brother and I were heading for the doors when I felt my pocket vibrating, so I took the call.
Long story short on that one: I spoke to 5 different people for 1 hour and 11 minutes. During this time, I followed my brother to his car, we sat there for a bit until I was on hold again, he drove me to his place, made a pot of tea and got out a lunch to heat up, all while I was either on hold or being transferred and put on hold again.
In the end, though, it was done. If necessary, we will have back up funds to finance the cost.
*sigh*
Meanwhile, my brother still had errands to do – and was going to be meeting my SIL at the airport! She was in the loop with messaging and we even spoke on the phone while having lunch. I am so glad I got that sandwich earlier, or I would have been dizzy and nauseous from hunger by that point! The hungrier I get, the sicker I get, but the more I lose my appetite. It’s really weird. The more I need to eat, the less I want to eat.
Anyhow.
During the drive to their place, the weather got really bad. By this time, it was past 2, so going to Costco was not going to happen. We would be losing light, soon, so I wanted to go straight home.
My brother then moved the car he drove so I could take their other car out of the garage, and we went our separate ways.
I don’t know what I would have done without my brother’s help! I’d still have talked to the bank, but likely would have had to find a hotel or something, and I don’t think there are any in this area.
By the time I was heading home, though, the road conditions and weather were excellent, so I made a stop at the small Walmart along the way. I figured I could at least pick up some butter and toilet paper.
I messaged my family and my daughter added a couple more things to the list that we would need soon.
They were out of butter, other than the expensive stuff sold in sticks, but I got a few other things. I even got some more kibble, just in case.
Then I loaded the car and started messaging my family to let them know I was soon to be back on the road, when I realized, I forgot the toilet paper! 😄😄 We aren’t out, but it would have been good to have extra, just in case.
Meanwhile, I also got messages from the Cat Lady while I was driving to the Walmart. I answered her and told her what was going on.
Finally, I was on the road home again. Since I had the cat food, I had arranged for the sun room doors to be untied so I could go in that way with them.
Which is why I found the kitten.
The tiny little grey and white kitten that wasn’t getting any bigger, lying on one of the patio blocks in front of the shelf shelter.
😭
I can’t say it was a surprise, since she was obviously not thriving. With the cold we’ve been having, it was probably just too much for her tiny body. There was nothing obviously wrong with her. She didn’t seem sick, no injuries, just… not thriving. I knew that if we were going to lose any to natural causes, she was the most likely.
It still really sucks. Yes, we have too many yard cats, but it’s always sad when we lose them – and we lost so many this year!
I couldn’t even bury her. I had to put her in the branch pile for cremation.
*sigh*
So, that’s our situation now. I’ve got my brother’s car again – he was telling me that, at this point, I’ve driven their “new” car more than he has! – which is such a Godsend. The fact that I was able to get the truck parked right at the garage is another thing to be grateful for.
Meanwhile, we’re going to have to change things up next week, since we have no way of knowing when we’ll get the truck back. Even if they check it and find the problem, they may not be able to actually repair it right away.
The Cat Lady has already said she will reschedule the spays on Thursday. I may or may not have to reschedule with my mother on Monday, but if we don’t get the truck back on Monday or Tuesday, my daughter and I will have to reschedule her doctor’s appointment and my eye appointment, which are both on Wednesday. Which we might have had to do anyhow. My daughter still has her dizzy spells and might not be able to drive me home from my eye appointment, even if we had the truck, and my brother doesn’t want anyone but me driving their car.
Oof.
What a day!
For all the things that went wrong, I can still say, they went wrong in as good a way as possible. I didn’t break down on the road, or while I was running errands for my mother or.. or… or… There are so many ways things could have been worse.
Meanwhile, I am safe at home and, thanks go my brother, we have transportation.
Life is good, and we have much to be thankful for.
