Medical

Beach Views and Power

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After dropping my daughter off at work this morning, I went by the beach and took a bit of a walk.

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I was able to catch a whole lot of seagulls, just as they were taking off!

This morning, our power was hooked up to the garage and barn.  Yay!

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In order to detach the existing line from the old pole, the old pole had to be pushed down.

Despite being broken already, it was not easy to do!  That core was still hanging on pretty hard.

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That platform that broke off the top of the pole once held a bird house.  My late brother built the birdhouse, then scrambled up the pole to install it, many years ago.  We didn’t have a ladder tall enough to reach all the way, so he climbed the pole itself for the top few feet – somehow bringing the bird house and the tools he needed at the same time!

The new pole is even taller, so no normal vehicle going under there will ever get caught!  And there’s almost no sag in the middle at all, either.

Then the power got hooked up to the barn, which meant new line from the main pole to a secondary pole, then to the barn.

So happy it’s finally done!

Unfortunately, there seems to have been an unexpected victim of the power being shut off twice while the work was done.

My husband’s CPAP no longer works.

It wasn’t on while the work was being done, but there is still power going to it.  Perhaps a fuse got blown?  No matter.  It’s dead.  And he just got replacement hose, nose piece and filters for it!

Thankfully, now that my husband is sleeping on a hospital bed, he can adjust it to sleep in an upright position; he should be able to breath that way until we can replace the CPAP.  We do have insurance that covers most of the cost, but we’d have to buy it first, then send in a receipt.  So that will have to wait a couple of weeks!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Ah, family

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One of the benefits of moving out here is that we are close to family again.  Both sides.  Which, of course, makes it much easier to get together and visit and spend time together.

Being close to family is a good thing.

Unfortunately, family is why we left in the first place.  Specifically, my mother.  That’s a long story that doesn’t belong on this blog, but after 14 years away, things have changed and the biggest reason behind our leaving doesn’t exist anymore.  Still, when my mother asked us to move to the empty farm and take care of it for her, we did have to consider certain relationship issues along with everything else.  My mother is an amazing woman in many respects; intelligent, brave, strong, and a real survivor.  There are just… other issues.

Today, I ended up having an unplanned visit with my mother, so we could lend her our scale.  She is going for surgery in a couple of months (yay!  Finally – though not for her knee replacement, yet), and the surgeon wants her to lose some weight.  She remembered that there was a scale here, under a dresser that was in the hallway near the old kitchen.  I told her that yes, there was a scale here, but we packed all that up.  She was surprised that the stuff was not in that corner anymore and asked what was there now.  The cat litter box, I told her.  Oh, no! she lamented.  She doesn’t like that we have cats, because then we have a litter box, and then there’s the smell and…

I had to remind her what I’d already told her about before; that when we moved that dresser, we found old cat litter (and more).  Oh, but that wasn’t while she was at the farm…  *sigh*

Okay.  Moving on.

Once it was agreed that I would just lend her our scale, so she didn’t have to buy herself a new one, we worked out that I would come over today and finally get a visit in.

It was actually a good visit, overall, which is always appreciated.  Plus, it gave me the opportunity to show her pictures on my phone.  So she got to see the kittens, and some of her flowers.  I showed her the progress in the old kitchen and some of the things I found. I also showed her pictures of different areas in the yard that I’ve been cleaning up.

It was so strange.

I get some very mixed messages from my mother.

We are here to take care of the place for her.  Which we have been.  However, we have noticed things that are a priority that she had never had to concern herself over, because my dad or my brothers always took her of them.  In her mind, the priorities are the things she worked on.  Like the garden.  Which we’ve not touched this year and is overgrown.   At one point, she told me that I was lazy, and that I was unintelligent. But when I would tell her about the work I’ve been doing around the yard, she would start telling me that I shouldn’t be doing it, I should get my oldest brother to do it.  The one that lives 1 1/2 hours away.  Because I, being female, shouldn’t be doing this stuff.

Today, I started showing her pictures of different areas among the trees I’d cleared out.  Not even all of them; just the most recent.  This included before and after pictures, of course.  As I showed her a few… then a few more… then a bunch more… she suddenly sat back, looked at me and said; “you need a man around!”

List of Emoticons for Facebook | Symbols & Emoticons*facepalm*

So, if I don’t do the work, I’m lazy, but if I DO do the work, I shouldn’t be doing it, because it’s men’s work (and let’s not even start on what she must think about my husband being disabled, in constant pain and unable to do this stuff).  I don’t think she even realized how insulting she was being, even when I told her flat out, that’s insulting.

There was no sense that she felt anything positive about what I’ve been doing.  I’d show her where I’d trimmed away from the storage house stairs and cleared her grapes a bit, and she demanded to know if I was watering them.  Was I doing this?  No, I’m focusing on that.  Well, what about this other thing?  No, I’m doing this, this and that, because they’re more of a priority.  What am I doing about those things over there?  Well, this is what I have planned.  Oh, she’d never do it that way, she did it this way and it was never a problem.  Gee, thanks, Mom.

It’s an odd position to be in.  I’m am glad that we moved out there, even with all the problems that came with the move.  I’m enjoying the work of getting things cleaned up, fixed up and cleared out, that hadn’t been done for so many years.  Every area we’ve worked on looks and feels so much better, even if there is still much work to do.  As I walk through different areas that I’ve cleared in the yard, it feels so much more open and airy and welcoming, and I can hardly wait to keep going.  Right now, I’m holding back until my birthday gift gets here.  Which was supposed to be delivered on Friday, but now when I check the tracking, there’s no date and it’s back to “in transit” at the city.  Turns out that we are “in a remote area where delivery does not happen every day”.  No kidding.  I should be receiving notifications now, though, if not a call, about delivery.  I might have to pick it up from a depot in the town my mother lives in, but we’ll see.  Until then, the clearing of the trees will wait.

The main thing is, while we are taking care of the place for my mom, it is becoming more and more our home.  My mother somehow thought that we could just leave everything behind and move into the house as it was, because everything was already perfect, and she’s still not understanding that no, it wasn’t perfect.  Not even close to perfect.  And we are finding things she knew nothing about that need to be dealt with.

I think, in a way, she never will.  And certainly I know that I will never be good enough, or do right, in her eyes.  But I do wish she would, if not appreciate the work that’s being done, stop telling me that I shouldn’t be doing it, because I’m female.

Ah, family.

The Re-Farmer

Yard work and home care visit

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Today was very much an outdoors day!

Thanks to the AWESOME riding mower my brother and his wife gave us, I was able to finish mowing the yard yesterday.  Which means that one of the goals of the day was to get out the weed trimmer to clear areas the mower can’t get close to.

A loud and messy job, so I waited until after our afternoon appointment with someone from the home care department.  This was a follow up on the last visit, with a different person.  So while we waited for her to arrive, I started working on cleaning up the flower bed on the west side of the house.

At one end of the flower bed, there is an unusual variety of lilac; it’s bushier, has tiny leaves, and masses of sprays with tiny flower buds right now; it’s blooming period seems quite a bit later than the other lilacs, which are near the end of their blooming period.

One of the problems with it is that there is a maple tree growing out the middle of it.

Plus, lots of dead branches.

So I started cleaning away dead branches and cutting away the many suckers at the base, just to get at the maple.  Where I found this.

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This is the trunk of the maple tree (which would have been self-sown), bent around a lilac stem.

I had to cut away more of the lilac before I could take out the maple, which had to be done in sections, due to the size.

It was very awkward work.  The lilac stems are surprisingly long and bendy, and many were wrapped around each other.  So much so, I found myself wondering if someone hadn’t done it deliberately at some point; perhaps they were overhanging the space between the house and the flower bed or something.

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Once the maple was out, I could see the damage it did to the lilac.

I’d already had to cut away a branch of that stem, and I’m not sure if I’ll have to cut the rest of it away.  Without being regularly pruned, the stems are so long that, without the dead and dying branches (and the maple tree) holding them up, they’re just sort of… flopping.

It was while I was working on this, that the woman from home care arrived.

While she was here, she went over her form questions, double checking my husband’s mobility needs and what we’ve got around the house.  She even took a look at our bathroom (higher toilet, bath chair, lots of arm bars in the tub/shower, and we made sure to bring the special hand held shower with us when we moved; you can shut the water off at the handle, rather than at the wall, and it has an extra long hose).  She asked about how he finds raising his legs over the side of the tub, and brought up that, if he ever needs it, there is a transfer chair available.  Which we already have, as my father needed one, and it’s still quite new.

She checked out the hospital bed as well, confirming that my husband is now able to get in and out of bed without losing his balance.  He’s really enjoying that thing, and finding it very comfortable to sleep on, too.

She also went through her list, asking about cooking, shopping, laundry, etc.  If the girls and I were not around to take care of this stuff, he would be able to get home care to come in to help.  As things stand now, it isn’t needed.

Which brought us to the only thing that we are hoping to be able to get; a ramp, to make it easier for my husband to get in and out of the house with his wheeled walker.  One of the things we learned is that, if we were to qualify for a ramp, we would need to get a contractor to give us a quote to pass on to them.  Qualifying for funding is another issue.  I had found out about the program online and read that there is an income cut off that can change, so they said to contact to find out what it is.  I’d sent an email and finally got a response.

Based on that, my husband’s disability payments put him at too high of an income to qualify. :-/

She’s still going to see if there are other programs available, but if we can just get someone to assess the location for us, and give us the information we need, then we will have something to go on to get it done ourselves, at some point.

So that meeting went well.

After she left, I headed back out to work on the yard.  I just cleaned up the trimmings I’d cut down earlier, then got out the weed trimmer – and the two 100 ft extension cords we’d been using to get power to the garage.  With those, I can reach pretty much anywhere in the yard.

While I worked on that, the girls cleared out the large pile of branches I’d cleared away from the maple grove.  The dead stuff went to the piles by the fire pit, but most of it was green.  The green wood pile by the fire pit is already getting big, so they decided to add to the pile I’d started outside the yard, when I cleared the back of the garage.

I didn’t think to take photos before I started with the weed trimmer in some areas.  After going around the house, I went around the east yard, including clearing a path to the Saskatoon bushes.  When I started working on the south west yard, I was finally able to go around parts of the “spare” house in the yard (I have no idea what my mother has in mind for that building; I did ask her, but the only answer I got was that it’s for storage.  !!  It was originally intended to be moved to one of the other quarter sections, for one of my brothers to use as a home), and the south fence line.  There had been a single mowed pathway leading to around the back of the other house.  There are several curved rows of spindly trees, planted close together.  I’d asked my mom about them, and she told me she planted them to be a “living fence.”

Personally, I’d like to get rid of them, as it’s really not a good place for trees.  I don’t think she really thought about what they will be like, at full size.

And that doesn’t even include the two rows of fully grown trees immediately behind the other house.

Very little of the area is mowable, and no one has tried to clear in between the trees, at all.  So I started clearing parts of it with the weed trimmer.  There isn’t much I can do behind the other house, until we clear away the junk and fallen branches, and random cinder blocks.  :-/  It’s a big job, and I wasn’t able to finish it today.  Weather willing, I’ll continue tomorrow.

Once done the yard work for the day, I decided we needed to have another cookout.  This time, though, I did baked potatoes.

I will post about those, separately. :-D

My husband was even able to come out and join us for a little while.  Not long enough for the potatoes of finish, unfortunately, but even a little bit is good.  :-)

After the fire was no longer needed to cook food, my younger daughter and I took advantage of it and started adding more from the clean up pile.  Unfortunately, we seem to be adding to it much faster than we’ll be able to use it for fire pit fuel! :-D

Since we were tending the fire, anyway, we also took turns cutting down some of the logs to fire pit size lengths.

We’re going to be set for wood for a good, long time!

We’ll just have to find lots of reasons to get the fire pit going, I guess. :-D

The Re-Farmer

So Green!

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We had predictions for a series of thunderstorms throughout the day, starting at noon.

It didn’t quite work out that way.  At least not in our area. The first rainfall (I won’t even call it a thunderstorm, though there was some thunder) didn’t start until late afternoon/early evening.

Which worked out well for us, since today was when one of my husband’s medical appointments was rescheduled to.  We left early enough to have lunch in town.  Ooooohhh… a date!  His appointment was for an hour, though, so it did make things a lot longer than was probably good for him.  Especially after pushing himself so much for the family dinner in the city on Sunday, which he would not have recovered from quite yet.  The specialist he was seeing cut the appointment a bit short, which was a good thing.  We still had to stop at the pharmacy, grocery store and post office on the way home, too.  My husband stayed in the van, with the AC going, by that point.  No sense in dragging the walker out for quick stops.

It’s been a hot and muggy day today; the main floor manages to stay pretty cool, but the upstairs gets really hot.  Just like, in the winter, it got really cold!  There isn’t even anything we could do about it.  Even if we got, say, an air conditioner, there aren’t enough grounded outlets to plug it in.

When the rains did come, it swept through in short bursts, with one big downpour.  We even lost our internet for a bit, which is something we can expect any time there’s more severe weather.  At least until we can get about 14 feet cut from the tops of the trees in the south yard.

It’s pretty amazing, how different things are looking right now!

This was our west yard, a month ago.

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This is what it looks like now.

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So much green!

We needed this so much!

After taking the above photo, I had some issues coming back into the house.

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Mom and son, with their noses at the bottom of the door, waiting for me to come back! :-D

The good thing is, when I open the door, they aren’t really all the interested in going outside.  They just become a tripping hazard. ;-)

At about 10pm, we’re still at 21C, and its expected to cool down only a few degrees as we get more rain overnight.  More thunderstorms are expected tomorrow evening.

I do wish I’d been able to mow the lawn before the rains returned.

Ah, well.  At least the girls were able to get most of the eaves troughs cleaned.

My mother had mentioned to me that there was a hooked tool somewhere around that allowed for cleaning the eaves from ground level, though she said a hose was still needed to finish the cleaning.  She told me where she thought it was, but the only things there are long handled pruning tools (that I look forward to making use of!).  I mentioned it to my older brother and he knew exactly what she was talking about.  He’d bought it for my parents!  He said it was in the sun room.

So that’s what that thing was!  I’d seen it, tucked into a corner, and was wondering.

Turns out that it’s a hose attachment.  My brother had demonstrated to my parents how to use it, but he didn’t think they ever did.  This was before my mom moved to the senior’s centre, so we’re talking quite a few years ago!

It came in very handy.

It couldn’t clean out the eaves troughs on its own, though.  My younger daughter got up on the ladder with a stick to clear out some of the eaves troughs out, then got onto the new part roof through the 2nd floor window to clear the others, while my older daughter used the hose attachment to finish clearing everything away with water.

Thankfully, we do have some very long hose.

There’s still one corner on the north side of the house that needs to be done, but that will have to wait until we get another break in the weather.

With how much rain we’ve been having, I am sure the fire bans can finally be lifted, and I hope the fires around the province have been thoroughly rained on!

We’re basically getting the sort of weather we were expecting last month.  Which I suppose makes sense, since the winter weather came in about a month behind, too.

As long as the shift keeps matching all year, it should work out for the farmers and gardeners.

The Re-Farmer

Hmmm… foood!

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A quick post, before another storm moves in and I shut down the computer…

view of clinic

Photo by Daniel Frank on Pexels.com

It’s almost 6pm, and I have finally ingested my first meal of the day.

I’m not counting the meal replacement shake, because… no.

As soon as the earliest dental clinic in the next town was open, I called to see if they could fit me in – after checking to see if they did direct billing with our insurance company.  Which they did, and they could.  I got an appointment for the afternoon.  Yay!

I then spent the next while, doing work on the computer, and trying to figure out what we had that I could safely eat.  It wasn’t just needing soft food.  Even soft food getting in there could cause more of the tooth to break up.

Before I finally decided (I was leaning towards egg flower soup), I got a call back from them.  Could I be there by 11:15?  It was 10:53.  I could leave right then and there!

By the time I parked and walked in the door, it was just a few minutes past 11:15.  After the paperwork was done, I barely had time to sit down when I was being called to come in.

The hygienist got started on me with getting an Xray, as I told her about the history of the tooth, and the troubles the dentist who did the root canal had had with it, because of a bent root.  She got me to bite on the thing to get the Xray, but had to do it twice, just to get it far back enough.  The screen for the Xray was facing me, so we could both see the problem root.

Then, just before the dentist came in, I pulled out another piece of tooth.  Just getting the Xray taken broke off more.

I’d already told the hygienist that I was more interested in just having it pulled, but it turned out to not be a choice.  There wasn’t enough of it left to do anything else.  The dentist even had to break it apart to take each root out, individually.

As I knew would happen, because apparently I have some pretty massive bone density (this is not the first tooth I’ve lost), this took quite a bit of effort.

But that was okay.  I got to lie in a massage chair and watch You Gotta Eat Here on the TV in the ceiling.

Though requesting it be put on The Food Network was probably not the best of ideas, considering how hungry I was.  :-D

However, it was done, and because it was just a pull and not any major work, it actually cost much less than I feared.  Which is good, because I then had to go to the grocery store and buy more pain killers for when the freezing wore off, and food that I could safely eat.

I had to wait 4-6 hours before trying to eat, though I could drink water.  I have a gauze to bite on that needs to be changed every hour.  Starting tomorrow, I need to swish with salt water after eating anything.

I am, however, good to go for the big family dinner on Sunday, even if I won’t be able to eat certain foods.  I just have to bring my bottle of salt water with me.

So that is done!

On the home front, it was an indoor day. The girls kindly made supper, though I could only eat the perogies they made.  Very, very carefully.  Oh, I was so hungry by then!

It was too hot to safely do any yard work today, anyhow, and while it’s cooler now (a mere 26C *L*), it has quickly gotten very dark, and I can hear thunder and see flashes of lightning in the distance.  We’ll see if we get the sort of downpours we got yesterday or not.  Until then, I think I’ll just shut down the desktop computer, just to be safe!

The Re-Farmer

That was quick. Also, deer!

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Early this morning, I saw a pair of deer coming into the feeding area.  Unfortunately, because we haven’t had them coming by in the last while, I hadn’t put any feed out the night before, so there wasn’t much there for them.  Still, I got a few pictures, even through the reflections in the window. :-)

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They are both looking pretty rough around the edges!  I do think they’ve been here before.

Notice the little antler buds on the deer in the foreground? :-)

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The female has some nicks out of an ear, and it looks like some scarring on her snout, too.

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Aside from the missing patches of fur on the male that can be seen in the first photo, he’s looking pretty thin, too!

Just before I went to put more feed out tonight, I spotted a single deer through our bedroom window, making its way through the maple grove to the feeding area.  The noise of me going outside would have scared it off, though.  I hope it comes back later.  :-)

This morning, my husband’s hospital bed was supposed to be delivered between 10 and 11 pm.  So this morning, we dismantled our king size bed, which has been resting on a pair of queen box springs until we could get a proper bed frame again.  The mattress just got leaned on the wall at first, and the box springs went into the dining room at first.  Then I went out to feed the cats.

Beep Beep stood up to say hello! :-D

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Then, with the help of one of the girls, the box springs got moved outside, just to lean on a tree until they could be taken to the shed.

The outside cats were very curious about this!

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Well, hello, again, Beep Beep!

I had to head out at 11:30.  My mother registered her vehicle, effective this morning, so I drove her car out to meet my brother at her place, as a surprise.  I was going to accompany them for a medical appointment in the city, which was also a surprise.

It turns out my mother doesn’t like surprises.

Ah, well.

It was a long and draining day for all, but we got the information we needed, then took the time to explain it again to my mother on the way back.  My brother, sweetheart that he is, drove me home before driving the 1 1/2 hours back to his place.  It was a VERY long day for him!

While I was gone, much to my surprise, someone from the electric company came out to check the power lines!  I was told they’d have someone out within 2 weeks.  I wasn’t expecting someone the very next day! :-D  I will have to phone them again to find out what their assessment was, since not a lot of information was shared while the guy was here and my daughters were buy hauling box springs to the shed and cleaning up the yard.

As for the hospital bed, it did finally get delivered and set up, several hours later than expected. Once that was done, my daughters got the king size mattress out – I have no idea where we’re going to store that thing! – then set up the spare twin bed up for me.  I had had other plans for it – plans that can’t be done with the king size bed – but… oh, well.  Thankfully, the master bedroom is quite big, and there’s more than enough room.  I hope it works out better for my husband.  At least he won’t be losing his balance trying to get in and out of bed anymore, since he can adjust the height to exactly where he needs it.

All in all, I’m really happy about how quick things got followed through on, both for the bed, and with the electric company.

The Re-Farmer

One more thing, off the list

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This morning, I took my younger daughter for her knowledge test to transfer her driver’s license to this province.

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Butterscotch, in command of the deer feeding station.

To recap: she did not have a full license; just the learner’s license.  She never had a chance to take her road test.  When she tried to transfer her license, once they saw it was a learners, she was told she had to take the written test to get a new license for this province.  Then, because we are past the 90 day grace period, they kept her license, because she cannot legally drive in this province with it.

After doing the online practice tests, my daughter was quite worried about this.  So many of the questions were unrelated to the rules of the road, or phrased so badly and without context, it was difficult to understand what was actually being asked.

We ended up leaving more than an hour early – and she was still worried about being late!  Ah, a daughter after my own heart. :-D  On the way, we stopped in the town my mother lives in to fill the gas tank.  This is the gas station we’d stopped at when we were bleeding coolant, and one of our regular gas jockeys had crawled under and found the broken pipe.  Well, he was there this morning.  When he saw us, he came over and asked how things went, so I entertained him with the story.  Turns out he was all worried about us, and was so happy to find out everything turned out okay!

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One, lone dark eyed junco, just chillin’

I really like this gas station.  They have such great people working there.    Plus, they have this section of home baked goodies that no one else has, because they’re baked by one of the gas jockeys! :-D  It’s become a bit of a ritual, that when we stop there for gas, I pick up some cookies (they are sold in twos) or a piece of Nanaimo bar as a special treat.

The city we went to is roughly an hour’s drive, and we’d left so early that, even with the stop for gas, we were an hour early.  Which worked out, because neither of us had had breakfast, plus it gave us the chance to find the place, first.  Which turned out to be incredibly easy to find.  We were told to arrive about 15 minutes early, so that’s what we did.

When my daughter got called up, she had all her paperwork from the broker that started her file for her, ready to go.  The lady helping her just had to look up the file and continue the process.  She was really great about explaining the exam process, and how my daughter needed to get a minimum of 24 out of 30 questions correct, and so on.  Then she took my daughter to the testing computer.  The questions turned out to be MUCH more realistic than in the online practice tests.  They actually made sense, and were about the rules of the road.

She did 24 questions, then the test shut down, because she’d got them all correct.  So she got 100% on her knowledge test.  Awesome!

Then she had to do the eye test, were we discovered that she does NOT need her glasses to drive.  She will use them, because she prefers to (she gets headaches from eye strain if she doesn’t), but there will be no restriction on her license.  Cool!

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The Mothman makes an appearance!

When the final processing for her license was started, we hit a problem.

The system was asking for her to turn over her current license.

Which had already been taken.

It turns out, they shouldn’t have done that.  While my daughter could not legally drive here with it, it was still a valid license.  She could still use it in our previous province, plus it was her valid photo ID, until 2022.

Not only that, but when her license was scanned, they only scanned one side.  So even though the person helping us could find the scanned image on file, she had only the front information, not the back.

Now, the only reason this was an issue was a matter of credit for time driving.  If they could use her current license, she could go for her road test at any time, because she’s been driving on her learner’s license for more than 5 years.  If, however, they couldn’t use it, she would not be able to take her road test for at least 9 months.

The woman helping us called the broker where we’d started the process, to find out if they still had the license, but the person who started the file wasn’t available.  After some discussion, they figured it got sent away already to the department all returned licenses go to.  So she phoned there.

The license had arrived there, just yesterday!

Which meant they could scan both sides of the old license for the file.  The woman helping us, meanwhile, used a copy of the scanned front of the license already on file, just to be extra sure – and my daughter got a copy for her own files, too, just as I did with mine.

Because of when her birthday is, though, when she gets her plastic copy, it’ll only be valid until the end of August.  Which meant it cost less to process her license, since they only charged for the shorter time.

Cool.

As we were doing this, I told the woman helping us that I had some ID related questions for after it was all done.  I had shared some of the issues I’d had with getting my license during conversation.  When my daughter got her temporary license, I told the woman helping us about my husband’s attempt to get his license.

As soon as I said that his ID didn’t match his birth certificate, she knew exactly what was coming; he was told to get a legal name change.

Yup.

I brought up how this didn’t make any sense.  He’s already using his legal name.  It’s on his birth certificate.  Everything he’s got – save his old license in this province, for some reason – has the name he uses.  Even the Department of National Defense and the Government of Canada is good with the name he uses.

As we were talking, a guy came over and asked if he could join in, and he was able to give us more information.  What it comes down to is, it’s up to the Identity Unit.  Whatever they say, everyone else’s hands are tied, and they are basically the overseers of identity in this province.  We talked about the issues of identity theft and security, which I totally get, but it still doesn’t make sense to demand that my husband change his legal name to… his legal name.

At one point, he asked why my husband wasn’t interesting in doing the legal name change, and my response was basically, why should he have to go through all that process, when he’s already using his legal name.  In the conversation, I used as an example how it’s not like my sister, whose legal name is one thing, but the name she uses is completely different.  It’s not entirely even an English version of her birth name, since there really isn’t any English equivalent.  This is his legal name that is on his birth certificate.  Every other place has been fine with using his second name.  He has always used this name.  Sure, they can understandably change things now, but why should he essentially be retroactively held to these requirements?  It’s still his legal name.

Well, it turns out this guy completely understood not wanting to go the legal name change route.  He’s newly married, and his wife is in the process of legally changing to her married name.  The whole thing costs about $200, there are many hoops to jump, and one of those hoops is to go to the RCMP and get fingerprinted.

With the amount of pain my husband is in, that kind of running around is asking way too much.

In the end, he suggested we try calling the Ombudsman, explaining the situation, and asking for an exemption.  We even got the name and phone number.

I really, really hope this works out, because this whole thing is completely ridiculous.

They were both extremely helpful and awesome, and I’m so glad I asked them about it.

Before we left, we paused to use the bathroom before I left.  When I came out and my daughter took her turn, the woman that had been helping us asked, was my sister in law’s last name XXX?  Why yes, it is, except she’s my sister, not my sister in law.

When I had used my sister’s names as an example, and she started talking about the names issue with a co-worker, it occurred to her that she knew someone by that name – and it’s a very uncommon name.  So she figured she’s ask me when I came out of the washroom.  It turns out that, not only does she know my sister, but they are cousins, by marriage!

That was so funny!  I ended up staying and chatting with her for a while, with my daughter joining us as I told her about our move back to the farm and all the “fun” it’s been, dealing with my parents’ things, the state of the house, and all the interesting things we’ve been discovering.  That led us to talking about how, especially in our parents’ generation, there was such an insistence of doing everything themselves, instead of paying someone else to do it, even when in the long term, it would be cheaper to pay someone else to do it!  Or to buy new instead of second hand, etc.  She knew first hand what it was like! :-D

It wasn’t until we were walking to the van and my daughter asked about it that I realized she’s missed the part about how this woman was related to her aunt.  Ah, what a small world it is!

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Trüllbus the Crime Eater, coming through!

After we finished there, my daughter and I headed to the nearby Walmart.  Our monthly shopping plans have had to change, with my husband’s newest medical appointment, so we did most of our non-Costco monthly shopping today.  Normally, we’d wait until the last business day of the month, when his disability payment comes in, but today is when the much smaller CPP Disability comes in.  It’s enough to do the monthly grocery shopping, at least.  Plus, I really wanted to finally pick up some new underwear for him, what with either not being able to find his size in the style he wanted, or only being able to find them at $15 for a single pair, with only one lower end brand available.

Amazingly, not even the Walmart had his style in his size.  There were 4 or 5 different brands, and NONE of them had it.  In fact, they only seemed to have them in two sizes; small and medium.  What the heck?  Is there some sort of embargo on briefs going on I don’t know about?  I finally got a package of 4 in the closest to the style he wanted I could find (at least the price was good!), but I can’t believe I still couldn’t even find what he wanted at a WALMART, in a city!  Yeah, it’s a small city, but still…  Sheesh!

Since we were there anyways, we paused to look at some of the summer stuff that’s out now.  It occurred to me that I have yet to see a garden hose anywhere around here.  I still want to check the garden shed, but there is no way my dad didn’t have garden hoses!  If they’re not in the garden shed, then they found some legs and walked away.  Along with too many other things around here. :-(

We’re also interested in getting a weed whacker – preferably an electric one – so we priced those out, too.  Pretty reasonable.  We are also looking to get a battery operated chain saw, though not at Walmart.  We’ve got at least 4 chain saws in the garage and, as far as I know, none of them work.  One could probably be considered an antique!  I have no interest in hauling around jerry cans of fuel anymore, and the modern electric tools are just as powerful as the ones that run on fuel.

So we got the small grocery shopping done, including stocking up on distilled water for my husband’s CPAP.  That done, we had one more stop to make; back to the town closest to home to pick up some prescription refills.  As my older daughter has caught my cold (I’m still coughing myself, but at least I’m feeling better) and was feeling really awful today, we also made sure to pick up some “medication” for her.  At the liquor store, in the form of a nice, spiced whiskey.  :-D  We rarely drink, so when we do, it’s at least a decent quality! :-D

Hopefully, we’ll all be healthy again soon, and can start manhandling the last of my parents’ stuff we need to move to the shed.  The snow is gone and the ground it dry.  It’s just that 2 out of 3 of us are too sick to do the physical labour. :-(

While in town, we took the time to play a bit of Pokemon Go, and at one point we were parked next to an arts and crafts store, which is also part of a used book store.  I haven’t been there since we last lived in this province, so we decided to take a look.

I don’t know why they advertise as an arts and crafts store.  They had basically nothing.

But we did come out with a whole pile of Brother Cadfael books. :-D

After all the running around, we were so glad to finally get home.  Now that my daughter has her license, that’s one more thing to strike off the list!  Next up is for my older daughter to get her ID transferred.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Rough

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Rough night.  Rough day.  Ugh.

I didn’t get a single photo of the critters out the window today.  In fact, it’s almost 9pm, and I still haven’t had my first cup of tea!

I did get a photo last night to share with you.  Nasty Crime Boy came to the window upstairs for attention again. :-D

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“Touch me, now. Don’t touch me or I’ll scratch you.  Touch me, I said.  No!  I’ll scratch you!  Touch me.  I batt at thee!!!”

He didn’t really let my daughter pet him.  He kept batting at her hand while still wanting her to reach out to him.  Too funny!

I ended up awake until about 5am, unable to sleep.  My chronic cough is tickling again, and I spent much of the night listening to my trachea squeaking.  Inhale.  Exhale. squeeeeeeeeaaaaakkkk.  Inhale.  Exhale. squeeeeeeeeaaaaaakkkkkkk.  Inhale.  Exhale.  squeeeeeeaaaaakkkkk.  All night.

Then I woke up to this, over my head.

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Good Morning.

It was another really bad pain day for my husband, too.  He’s have a very rough time right now. :-(  I did make it into town to pick up prescription refills for him.  Then I tried to stop at the department store to see if I could find him some new undies.  There is one basic store in town, with clothing, shoes and accessories.  There are a couple other stores that have clothing, but that’s not their main thing, and one of them caters more to the touristy, trendy stuff.

I just about choked when I found the men’s underwear.  A single pair of briefs in his size cost $15.

We’re talking your basic gitch, here.  Not some name brand, fancy-shmancy stuff.  The next size up cost $17.

For one.  Just one.

We walked around the store some more and saw things like an ordinary t-shirt – something I’d expect to find at Walmart or the like – for $50.  Even the higher quality T’s in Walmart cost less than $10.

I realize that it costs more to run a business in smaller towns, where it takes more resources just to GET inventory, but this is ridiculous, even for here.  My daughter and I wondered how anyone could afford to shop there, and how they stayed in business.  Then we realized that some people might not have any other choice.  Which is a rather depressing thought.

We tried going to a discount, kinda-like-a-dollar-store-but-not, store, thanks to my daughter remembering that they had clothes, too, and while they had better prices (we could get 3 pairs for $15), they didn’t have the size I needed.

So that’s going to have to wait until the end of the month, when we can finally get to the city to shop.

After we got home, I had to lie down for a much needed nap.  Which is really going to mess me up for tonight, but I just couldn’t stay awake.  Still ended up lying there, listening to my squeaky breathing, but I was tired enough to fall asleep.

So our daughters took care of things around the house, and my younger daughter even had a chance to block a project she recently finished.

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Beautiful, but frustrating.  She has made several lacy projects from this one crochet pattern book, and they’ve all turned out about 1/3 of what the finished size should be.  My daughter does stitch more tightly than I do, but she also checks her gauge, and so on.  Her stitching is meticulous and the stitches are always perfectly formed.  It doesn’t seem to make a difference.  Instead of a full sized shawl big enough to tie in front, she has a baby shawl that, before blocking, looked too small to even be a cowl or kerchief.  It would have been the right size for her sister’s 18″ Josephina doll.

Blocking is making a big difference, but it’s still a fraction of the size it’s supposed to be.  This particular piece is made in three sections; the 2 side triangles, then the middle strip, which is then used to join the side triangles together.  That middle strip is actually about the size it should be, so it’s not just a matter of her stitch tension.

She plans to try again, using a larger hook and thicker yarn.

For now, it’s getting late, but I’m going to have at least one cup of tea before bed, dangit! :-D

The Re-Farmer

I can rest now… and critter pictures

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Good news; today was the last day my mother had to go to the hospital for injections!

But first, here are a couple of critter pictures from the DSLR, yesterday.  I didn’t upload them until today.  There were very few, but a couple I really enjoyed, that I hope you enjoy, too!

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Yes, I am an immature child that loves to catch the deer with goofy faces.  :-D

I tried to snag a picture of a squirrel posing so perfectly on top of the limestone cross.

I didn’t quite manage it, but I think I like this better…

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This morning’s trip with my mom to the hospital took a lot longer, for good reasons, and she was having one of her good days, so it was much more pleasant, too!  When I got to her place, she was ready and waiting for me to put the brace on her leg, which was awesome.  She did comment on how the bump on the inside (a knob with a dial that applies pressure to her knee, to straighten it) gets in the way of her other leg, so she has to walk with her legs farther apart.  My response was good!  That’s what it’s supposed to do!

Well.  At least until her knee starts to straighten out.  The dial will need to be checked and adjusted after a while – if she keeps up wearing it!

We had a pleasant drive to the next town, with beautiful views of frost covered trees glistening in the sunlight.  She did comment again about how ridiculous it is to drive so far, every day, just for an injection.  While I understand why it’s being done, and I think she kind of does, too, she had a point.  So when we got there (this time, I gave in and used my husband’s disability placard so we could park closer to the door; the distance she had to walk yesterday was really hard on her!) and I let them know she was there, I also asked if someone was available to check on her eye and see about getting the prescription to replace the injections.  After explaining the situation to the nurse, she was more than willing to see what she could do about it.

Later, the same nurse brought the blood pressure machine to the waiting room for my mother and took her vitals.  She looked at my mom’s eye, but this was the first time she’d seen it.  Thankfully, I’d taken a picture of it a couple of days ago, which helped.  She had us go to an examination room (all of this is being done in the emergency section of the hospital) for a bit more privacy for the injection, then she had us go back to the waiting room while she got the on-call doctor.  The one that has seen my mother before was not in, so we had no idea who it would be.

I think we waited less than 15 minutes, in total.  The doctor came over and took my mom back to the examination room.  He had lots of questions, trying to figure out why my mom was on the first blood thinners at all, and why she was now getting these injections.  Had she had heart surgery?  Valves replaced?  Nope.  We explained as best we could. Then he left, and we could hear him consulting someone on the phone nearby.  A few minutes later, he was back with a few more questions, then off to consult again.

I must admit, my mother showed tremendous restraint from her usual behaviour.  Not only did we once again have a non-white doctor – Middle Eastern, no less! – with a strong accent, but one that was dressed VERY casually (I once got a long story from her that culminated in her concluding that because doctors and nurses don’t wear white uniforms anymore, it means hospitals are dirty, and that’s why we have viruses…).  However, it was a male doctor, and he asked her lots of questions, looked at her eye and listened to her heart.  The expressions on her face were very conflicted!

One thing I did notice happen a lot today; more so than other days – while talking to my mother, more and more, people would turn and start talking to me, instead.  Now, I can help by explaining things that are harder for her to explain, due to her limited English medical vocabulary, but don’t ask me what her symptoms are or how she’s feeling!  She’s sitting right there.  She may have trouble expressing herself in English sometimes, and takes a while to get to the point, but she’s not senile.  She’s not deaf, either.

I’m reminded of a time I accompanied a friend to a medical clinic.  She is a wheelchair user and drives an adapted van; she just needed someone with her for a bit of assistance.  When we got to the clinic, the person behind the counter looked right past my friend and started asking me the questions.  Hullo!  Just because she’s in a wheelchair, that doen’t mean she doesn’t understand her own care needs!  I’m just along for the ride!

Though I do have to give the people at the hospital some slack, after seeing some of the inpatients they are caring for, several of whom are younger than my mother.  It may just be what they are most used to.

The end result was, my mother got her new prescription!  No more trips for injections.

I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!

We took advantage of the situation and I helped her do some grocery shopping, and she took me out for tea at a lovely little café.  Then it was off to her home town to get her new prescription, though they could only give her a few days’ worth.  She’ll have to come back next week to get the rest.  She can do that herself, using her walker, if she has to.

I have been talking to her about getting home care to help put her brace on in the mornings.  I hope she’ll be able to get that arranged quickly.

Meanwhile, my older brother will be visiting her tomorrow morning, so he’ll be able to help her put the brace on.

We’ll still have to keep tabs on her and that eye; it’s better, but after I took another picture and showed it to her, she even commented that it still looks pretty bad!  The good thing is that there is no pain, nor is her vision affected.

Phew.

By the time it was all done, it was almost 5 hours before I got home – scaring a deer away from the house in the process!  It came back, though…

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At least I’m guessing it was Hungry Girl that had run off.  She’s been coming over by herself more often.

Excuse me while I giggle happily at her silly tongue face.  I got several of them, but that one is the best!

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This one looks like she’s having a conversation.

I also got a good shot of a male redpoll today…

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Pretty little thing!

Meanwhile, I got other good news.

First off, I got the mail before coming home and WE HAVE OUR NEW HEALTH CARE CARDS!!!!  WHOOT!!! Finally!

Or, to be more precise, my husband has two health care cards, and my name happens to be on the second half of both, along with his.

Apparently, husbands and wives still don’t rate individual cards in this province, but wives are added to the list on the second half, like dependent minors.  So he and I have identical cards, with his name and address on the first half, and both our names and individual numbers on the second half.

They still needed me to send them a copy of my marriage certificate to use my married name, though.

Arglebargle.

Whatever.   At least we have them now!

Then I got a phone call from our insurance company, letting me know that the problem with my coverage has finally been fixed!  It took them a while to track it down, since everywhere else in their system, it showed me as being covered.  It was now done, she told me, and I should have no problem!

Conveniently, my husband had phoned in some prescription refills of his own, so I headed into town to pick those up, and had the pharmacy get my insurance checked out, too.  Sure enough, it was all fixed!  So I got my own prescription refilled, too.  Just one, though.  After seeing my new doctor and going over the results of my blood work, it was decided to go with just one right now, and see how it goes.  My goal is to be off that one, too, though the doctor seems dead set on me being on it for the rest of my life, along with statins.

Not if I can help it!

*sigh*

I feel a wonderful sense of relief today.

I look forward to being home tomorrow. :-D

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Cat Therapy

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Ugh.  It feels like it’s been a long day already, and it’s not even noon.

I got home from taking my mom to the hospital for her injection early enough to do that outside cat stuff, so I got a bit of feline therapy for stress reduction.

It was much appreciated.

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Nasty Crime Boy was even extra friendly today, gracing me with licks and love bites on the fingers; his way of showing affection.  Butterscotch and Rolando Moon all let me pet them, too.

I think I’m ready for a nap.

The trip with my mom was fast.  I got there early and she let me put her brace on, which is a huge step forward.  Then she got in my van and tried to take the frog off my dash.  It didn’t come off (yay Fun Tack!).  Instead I got yelled at for worshiping frogs, being brainwashed by negative and evil people, and how things like frogs and snakes are ugly, therefore they are of the devil.  I should have Jesus things on my dash, and not worship frogs.  I told her I don’t worship icons.

Thankfully, that didn’t last long and we didn’t talk at all for most of the trip in.

Once at the hospital, she didn’t even have to leave the waiting room.  A nurse came in and gave her the injection right there, and we could leave right away.  I did confirm we’re coming back tomorrow.  Her eye is looking better, but I can see a couple more days of this.

Which is not making my mom happy.

If she were unhappy because it’s hard on her body, or she’s tired (and I can see that it is taxing on her, physically) and so on, that would be great.  But that’s not what she complains about.  It was back to wanting a second opinion and eventually got around to the doctor not being able to speak English well (she speaks English just fine; she just has a strong accent) and other criticisms of the doctor herself.  It’s all about race.

*sigh*

Even when I got her home, her racism came out, all because of a stamp on some mail she got, honoring a black woman.  I even looked up who she was and read out some of her accomplishments, but nope… that just made it worse.

*sigh*

I was glad to leave.

Maybe tomorrow she will be better.

I’m going for a nap.  After I get some more fur therapy.

The Re-Farmer