I have to admit, I’m feeling disoriented right now, looking at the time. It’s still morning??
It was another mostly sleepless night, so I did my morning rounds, then went back to bed. I did get some sleep, but my brain just wouldn’t shut off. I’m starting to feel rather ill at this point.
Thankfully, we did cool down during the night, and today is not as hot. We’re supposed to have some rain in about an hour, and it should keep raining for a couple of hours. Which is good, because I wasn’t able to water the garden this morning.
I started off feeding the yard cats, as usual. This morning, little Colby – the fluffy orange and white feral – was actually in the space between the cat shelters, meowing for food! What a brave little one. Even the other three were in the grass, heading towards the cat shelters near the house. As I came closer, the tortie ran into the isolation shelter and watched me go by with the kibble from the bottom level, rather than running away. Alas, my hands were full, and I wasn’t able to get any pictures!
After the dry kibble is set out, the bowls of kitten soup get set out. Some of the cats have started to actually wait for the kitten soup before they start eating! I have to set a couple of bowls up higher for the four socialized kittens, then quickly set out more bowls in various spots outside, so they have a chance to eat before the grownups push them away. One of the larger two-sided bowls goes to the shrine feeding station for the Colby and his sibling. I also have the mixing bowl and add some kitten soup to some of the dry kibble bowls before taking the rest of it to the garage for the kittens and their mom living in there. These days, they are almost always outside and seem to have moved out of the garage and into the area directly behind it. This morning, I spotted the two kittens were making their way through the sun choke and asparagus beds. They seemed to be aiming for the shrine feeding station! It would be great if they did that.
After the cats were fed, I did my usual rounds, which includes switching out trail cam memory cards. For one of them, I get to check on the crab apple trees along the way.
There are lots of apples forming, and some of them are starting to blush. The apples on this tree still have a long way to go. They get larger and tend to be ripe in September, or even October. The big tree with smaller edible apples tends to ripen a month earlier.
Checking on the garden beds, there was this blooming pumpkin. Of the five plants, this one is the largest. It has one primary vine that is long enough that I’m starting to train it up the bean trellis – since the beans clearly will not grow large enough to start climbing it. You can see how yellow they are, in the background.
In the top right corner, you can see the sunflower that got its top eaten by a deer. It is sending up a pair of new tops that grew out from the bases of the remaining leaf pair.
The onions from last year are blooming nicely, and one of them was serving as a bed.
I could not resist getting a bunch of pictures of the sleepy bee!
While doing my rounds, it’s not unusual for me to be followed by one or more cats. Usually, Stinky comes along and wants all sorts of attention. Lately, though, I’ve had a tabby hanging out and calling to me. He has a high pitched, peeping sort of meow, and he meows at me like he wants attention. He’s feral, though, and will not let me near him. Instead, he circles around, lays on the ground when I stop, but if I move towards him, it’s a big NOPE!
This morning, he was rolling around adorably in the grass. He stopped when I tried to get video of his cuteness, though. 😄
It’s hard to be sure, but I do think I actually have been able to pet this cat – when it was a teenager! I think he’s the one that would hang out in the upper level of the isolation shelter, when it was set up against the house for the winters, waiting for me to fill the food bowl. That was the only time he allowed me to pet him, and he stopped doing that after the isolation shelter was moved to its summer spot. He’s much bigger now, but he’s got a mark on the side of his nose that makes me think it’s the same cat. That might explain the almost-socialized behaviour.
Today being Sunday, I do normally try to make it a day of rest, and it seems like today, I won’t have much choice. Lack of good sleep is doing me in. I do hope things improve, since I need to go to my mother’s for her evening med assist.
Ugh. I just checked the weather. According to two of my weather apps, it’s raining right now (it’s not). We’re at 26C/79F right now, and the humidex is 29C/84F. We’re supposed to cool down a bit, then reach our predicted high of 27C/81F at about 6 or 7 pm. Checking the weather radar, more thunderstorms are happening to the south of us. There’s still that huge, out of control fire across the lake. It has crossed provincial borders. Then there are more fires to the north, including an ever bigger one, also still out of control. There are so many fires, in a big swoop along the Boreal forest, starting from Alaska, all the way down into Northern Ontario.
We could really use a whole lot of rain right now!
If today had gone as originally planned, we would have dropped the truck off for the insurance claim repairs this morning, and been driving a Caravan until Tuesday.
The courtesy vehicle being broken down, the repairs and truck box cover replacement are now on hold.
Which should have meant a day at home, with no driving around.
Ha!
Last night was actually a very rough night for me. Zero sleep. You know those nights when you start to drift off, suddenly wake up and… that’s it. The more tired you get, the less you’re able to sleep.
That was my night.
I finally got up to do my morning rounds as usual. The morning was still pleasant. The high of 29C/84F my weather app said we were supposed to get, when I went to bed last night, with 31C/88F tomorrow was reversed by this morning. We did, indeed, reach 31C/88F this afternoon, and the humidity is at 85%.
I had intended to water the garden again this morning, but everything was still damp from last night’s watering, and I was feeling like I got hit by a truck, so I skipped it.
I did find a lovely surprise, though! Some flashes of red in a silver buffaloberry.
Our first silver buffaloberry bushes have produced berries! Only two of them.
The berries are edible, but I didn’t try them yet. I believe they’re supposed to ripen to an even darker red, so I will wait a little longer before tasting one.
My morning rounds done, I intended to crash right away, but ended up chatting with my brother for a while, then making a call. My daughter’s computer was supposed to be shipped to their address yesterday, but it didn’t show up. The tracking information now said it would be delivered on Monday. My brother can’t work from home on Monday, which means it would get left at their front door with no one to bring it inside before it got stolen. We considered coming over and just hanging out on Monday, but to do that, we would need a house key, and we don’t have one.
He suggested we might be able to find out where the computer was, and perhaps pick it up from the depot, directly. After much searching on the website, I was able to find a customer support number to try calling.
Of course, the first thing I had to do was navigate the automated menu system. That finally sent me to the appropriate customer service department.
Which got me to the strangest recorded lecture I’ve ever heard. First, there was a bizarre speech about Canada Post being “accepting” of “diversity” and all the usual Woke butt kissing BS. Then it started to say that racism, bigotry, and abuse would not be accept – oh, and they were very polite. Be polite.
I would have taken the second part better if they hadn’t started with the first part, which is the epitome of racist and bigoted ideology, but I digress.
After a minute or two of a robot voice lecturing me, I finally got sent to…
… an AI support voice.
It took a couple of times go get it to understand that no, I did not have a business tracking number, but I did have a tracking number, and let me read it out. Then it basically told me exactly what the website did, and told, hey, did you know you could get all this from the website? You should really use the website.
When it ended by asking if there was anything else, I said no, I’d like to speak to a person.
“It sounds like you would like to speak to an agent!”
It then repeated the same thing it had before, ending with, is there anything else?
It took me three times asking to talk to a person before it finally transferred me to a person.
Who, much to my surprise, answered almost right away.
I explained the situation – after he got the tracking number and repeated to me exactly what the website and AI support voice already told me, assuring me that the package absolutely would be delivered on Monday. I told him that what I was asking was, where is the package now, and if we could pick it up ourselves, rather than wait until Monday.
Once he understood what I was after, he told me that the last time it was scanned was on the 22nd, when it got processed and shipped.
Three days ago.
Since it had not been scanned at any point since then, even though it was apparently in transit to my brother’s place, yesterday, they had no idea where it actually was.
…
So, there was nothing we could do. He couldn’t even tell me if it was in our province, never mind if it was in the city.
Well, so much for that idea.
I passed that on to my brother, and we left it for then, and I was finally able to crash for about an hour.
I had just woken up when I got a message from my brother.
With a picture of a package left next to their lock box. He just happened to catch the delivery as it happened!
Well, that changed our plans entirely!
My brother had to finish things up by 3pm, as he’s heading out of the province for the weekend for one of their grandson’s birthday. I updated my daughter and we were able to be on the road within the hour! Which is good, because it takes about an hour to get to his place, and by then it was just past lunch time.
We didn’t stay for long, as we knew he had lots going on. Much thanks and hugs were given!
Neither my daughter nor I had eaten yet, though, so on the way home, we swung by the Walmart we were at yesterday, and we had a quick lunch. While we were there, I picked up a big bag of kibble that I forgot to get yesterday. The outside cat’s kibble bin was going down fast, and I knew it wouldn’t last until our first city stock up trip.
By the time everything was done, we got home shortly after 3pm. Which is close to when I would normally do the evening cat feeding.
That didn’t happen quite yet, though. I noticed we had a message.
It was from home care.
They didn’t have anyone for my mother’s evening med assists tonight, nor for Sunday evening.
*sigh*
In the middle of all this, I started getting messages from the large animal rescue. They’ve had guided tours and a petting zoo open, as part of their fundraising and educational efforts. Poirot’s kittens are a big hit, and people are interested in adopting.
Of course, they all want a fixed and fully vetted cat, but not pay for it.
They do have adoption fees, but a spay is $300.
I made sure to tell them about the clinic we’ve been going to through the Cat Lady’s rescue, which is $175 for a spay.
We’ve been trying to adopt out cats for a long time now, and I’m starting to get really frustrated with people. Everyone wants a “free” cat, or at least very low adoption fees, but they also want the cat to have hundreds of dollars in vet care spent on them first.
Which is almost like saying they want to be paid to take the rescue.
Just one of the many reasons the Cat Lady is dropping out of rescue.
I had time to send in some of the information the local rescue lady was asking for. Mostly. I’m sure she’ll have more questions. Then I quickly did the evening feeding of outside cats before heading to my mother’s.
Of course, since I was there anyhow, my mother had stuff for me to do. 😄 Things the home care aides don’t do, like floor sweeping, or refilling her water bottles. The aides in the city will do light stuff like that, but not out here in the more rural communities.
My mother then wanted me to leave her morning pills out for her.
It turned out she thought I would be coming for all her visits for the entire weekend. I told her that she was covered for tomorrow and for Sunday morning, but I would be back on Sunday evening.
I did set out her bed time pills, and her inhaler, so that I wouldn’t have to come back for… pretty much the time I’m writing this, right this moment. As I was filling out the booklet where I record when I do these visits, my mother almost took her inhaler, which is supposed to be just before bed. Simply because it was there.
My mother is still convinced she can do her own meds, and doesn’t even really realize that, if I weren’t still there to stop her, she would have taken it at the wrong time. In this case, it would not have harmed her, but that’s why she has a lock box! Well. One reason why.
Once I was back home from my mother’s, I did the evening rounds I normally would have done after doing the evening cat feeding. I spotted this adorable sight and had to get a picture.
After getting the picture (I couldn’t see the second kitten anywhere), I went over and Pinky let me pet her. She even started purring and rolling around in that old barrel.
The kitten, however, disappeared behind the sheet of metal roofing and stayed hidden.
I had considered watering the garden for the evening, but we were getting severe thunderstorm warnings. The wind was picking up, and I could hear thunder in the distance.
Looking at the weather radar, it appears that particular storm passed to the north of us, but it’s still really windy, and I think more little storms are blowing towards our area. I even had some broken branches to pick up as I checked around the yard.
I did manage a tiny little harvest in the garden this evening.
I gave them to my husband as a little treat. He got a laugh out of them. They are so adorable!
Good grief…
As I sit at my computer, I can see out my window facing part of the maple grove. I’m watching these giant maple branches being violently blown about in the wind. I’m half expecting a chunk of that tree to break off! It has an overhanging branch that is so old and so thick, it’s basically another tree trunk.
Anyhow…
That has been my day today! Not at all as planned or expected.
Tomorrow, I’m expecting to be able to stay home for a change.
We’ll see if that actually works out!
Meanwhile, I think I’ll go visit my daughter and see how the new computer is. 😁
My plan had been to take some recordings for my July garden tour video. It was raining a little bit while I was feeding the yard cats and doing my rounds, so that got postponed. I’m happy to say that the rain became heavier, and it’s still raining, several hours later. It’s supposed to continue to rain for at least two, maybe three, more hours.
This is such a good thing!
So my recordings will wait until later today – as will my trip to the post office to pick up my package of seeds from MI Gardener. I’m really looking forward to seeing those!
Sprout is there with three of the four feral kittens. I did see the tortie, but it was hiding when I took the images.
The white and black cat nearby is Ink. I can tell she’s nursing, and it seems that she is keeping her babies in the unoccupied farm across the road from us. I do wish they wouldn’t go there. Crossing that road can be quite dangerous for adult cats, like the late Poirot, never mind for kittens!
The next picture is of Pinky and her two, in the garage. I had to zoom in from well outside the garage to be able to get that shot. If I come any closer, the kittens run off.
As I was finishing up and about to head back inside, I spotted the adorable trio in the last photo, all snuggled together. That cat bed is supposed to be a cat cave, but it always collapses. I finally just rolled down the side, and the sides still collapsed! The kittens seem to like it, though, so that’s good.
Havarti was hanging out in the sun room doorway, and I wasn’t able to get a picture of him. When the weather is good, I have the outer door secured open, so it doesn’t blow around in the wind. With the rain, I secured it mostly closed (there’s a brick to make sure it can’t close all the way) to keep the weather out, but the cats and kittens can still get in and out as will.
So we currently have four socialized kittens, six feral kittens, and several cats that I can see are nursing, but no sign of kittens. From what I can see, they have small litters. Maybe two or three active nips, though it’s really hard to tell at times. Adam will jump up on the cat house to eat kibble and will let me pet her. She might have one active nip, but I really can’t tell. I get the sense the Brussel has had a second litter, but that’s based strictly on behaviour. She doesn’t seem to have any active nips, though with her long fur, I could easily be wrong. Then there’s Slick. I am sure Slick had an early litter that she lost, then got pregnant again. She isn’t pregnant now, but I can’t see if she has any active nips. Does that mean she lost another litter? Or maybe has just one kitten, and I can’t see the active nip? She has been letting me pet her while she is eating, but only when there are other cats I can pet at the same time, so there’s lots of movement. If it’s just her, she won’t let me close enough to touch her.
While doing my rounds, I was very happy to see how quickly the Opal plum is starting to recover so many leaves being eaten by deer.
At the base of every leaf that was eaten, a new leaf is emerging. Pairs of leaves, actually.
I really need to figure out some sort of fencing around the garden. The remaining beet greens, more radish plants, and even some carrot greens, were gone this morning. I do have a cover – two, actually – that will fit this raised bed, but not with the radish plants being so big.
Not that they’re going to stay big for long, at this rate.
The peas also look like more of them have been eaten. I did add the pinwheels, but those are a deterrent only if there is a wind to move them. Same with the wind chimes. The new lights I added are working – I can see them from my bedroom window at night – but they don’t seem to be much of a deterrent either.
One of the suggestions I’ve read is to have a radio set to a talk radio station playing all night. I think we even have some old “ghetto blasters” that we could use (anyone else remember those? They were so popular in the 80’s), but I’d have to set up some sort of shelter to put one in and protect it from the elements. I don’t think I’d want to do that, though. Hearing talk radio from outside during the night would not go over well. Usually, when we hear voices in the night, it’s something to be concerned about and check on, not ignore.
With the garlic bed empty and waiting to be cleaned up, I’m considering. Should I bother trying to plant something in it? In theory, we still have enough growing season to plant something like bush beans. Perhaps a late planting for a fall harvest will actually work. The beans we planted earlier all seem to have stalled and stagnated.
We could also try planting anything that either needs about 40 days to harvest, or handles frost well. So we could try growing peas, beets, chard or spinach, too. I could even try zucchini. Anything we plant now would have to have a cover over it, though, since these are all things the deer like to eat.
With how things I direct sowed this year have been stagnating, though, is it even worth planting something? Either things will stagnate again, or it will give us at least something to harvest. We should be harvesting all sorts of things right now, and there’s just nothing.
I’ll look through my seeds again and decide. I might just leave the bed and save it for winter sowing, so we will have something next year.
I’m not sure which of the adult cats is in there, snuggling with Eyelet, Sir Robin and Havarti. It’s not Colin. Maybe it’s Mochrie? Well, whoever he is, he does enough a nap with the littles!
When it was feeding time, I got to see Sprout and her four ferals.
When I come back with the kitten soup, after putting out the dry kibble, Sprout always hisses at me. It’s been years, and we’re no closer to socializing Sprout in any way. I hope we have better luck with her babies, but the tortie and the calico in particular are a lot like their Mom!
Today was setting out to be a slightly cooler day with the possibility of rain this afternoon. All we got was some light cloud spit. The smoke is really bad today. I’m hoping the rain missed us and hit the wildfires, instead!
My husband had called in a prescription refill yesterday, that couldn’t wait until a Thursday delivery. One of his “controlled substance” meds that he can only refill when he’s down to 3 days of being out. So a trip to town was in order.
The pharmacy opens at noon on Sundays and I got there about 15 minutes early, so I popped across the street to a small department store that was open. I ended up getting a different type of sticky tape to trap insects that I’m used to. The old kitchen is so full of mosquitoes that when I go to get the cat stuff ready in the mornings, I can actually hear the whining of them, and I get surrounded by clouds of them. Thankfully, we have insect repellant now, so it wasn’t too bad this morning! We needed something to get rid of them, and I’m hoping this thing works.
I came out of the store just before the pharmacy opened, and there was a whole crowd of people waiting for the doors to open! Weird.
It didn’t take me long to get what I needed, and I was soon off to my next stop, which was the grocery store to refill a couple 18.9L/5 gallon jugs of water.
The grocery store parking lot was looking pretty busy, so I made a point of parking well away from the store, with no vehicles around me. With the large jugs to get in and out of the vehicle, I like to be able to bring the cart right up to the door to unload it into the space behind the front passenger seat. The space behind the driver’s seat is where we keep our hard sided and hard sided, insulated, reusable grocery bags. In the middle is where we keep the emergency kit and other supplies.
Yes, this is relevant. The main thing is, the only space for the jugs is behind the passenger seat.
I went through the store to see if there was anything else we needed, but only picked up a small package of stew meat and an energy drink for the drive home. So it wasn’t long before I was heading back to the truck with the full water bottles.
There was, of course, a large truck parked right next to me. One the passenger side.
The truck was facing the opposite direction, which means it drove through an empty parking spot to pull into the spot beside me. There was an empty spot on the other side they could have gone into, but nope. the biga$$ Silverado just HAD to park next to me.
I get to the back of the truck and assess the space for a moment. Then I grabbed the stew meat and went to put it in the bag with my other stuff, on the front passenger seat. There is a woman in the Silverado passenger seat, so she could basically just look down at me – the Silverado is quite a big taller than my Sierra! I put the meat and my energy drink in, then went to the back door on the passenger side. Did I have enough room to load the water jugs?
I opened the door and checked. If it opened all the way, it would be against the Silverado. If I left it half way open, I figured there was just enough space to fit a water jug through. I got the first one in fine.
While I was doing this, a guy came over and got into the driver’s seat of the Silverado. So I now had two people in the truck that could see what I was doing, and how little space I had between the vehicles. I figured they would move.
Instead, the guy started unwrapping his half a Dagwood sandwich and started eating.
Needless to say, I’m pretty irritated by this point, but whatever. I just and the second jug to put in, and then I could leave.
As I was settling the water jug into place, I heard a “tick” behind me.
Putting the jug in shook the truck enough that my door opened the rest of the way, and was now touching the truck.
I didn’t see if the woman even looked down to see if there was contact. I moved my door and checked them, but could see no damage. So I closed my door, then went to return the cart to the cart corral.
When I got back to my vehicle, the guy was standing between them, still carrying his sandwich, looking at his door. As I came around to see what he was up to, he looked at me and said that there was some damage.
My response was, so?
I mean really. The guy parked is biga$$ truck next to me, with tonnes of space he could have parked in, instead, didn’t move when he could see I was trying to load large, heavy jugs of water through the narrow space, and now he’s worried about a ding?
Then he said that he was going to have to file an insurance claim.
Really? For that?
My first thought, of course, was “scammer”. If he meant to intimidate me, it didn’t work. I just got more pissed off.
I told him, I deliberately parked far from the store so that there would be no one around me. He’s the one who decided to park right next to me. He made a gesture to the space, as if to suggest it was enough. Which it would have been, if it was just a person getting in and out. Not so much for carrying large water jugs and trying to squeeze them through the half open door. Particularly since, with the weight and awkwardness of them, I should have brought the cart right up to the door, not carry them from behind my truck, squeezing myself and the jug through that little space.
He then started going on about, what else can he do? He has to file a claim. This is an $80,000 truck. It’s a brand new truck. What else can he do? As he was talking, all I could think of was how smarmy he sounded. Smarmy and condescending.
And yes, I did flat out tell him at one point that he was being an a-hole.
At some point, I told him, you’ve got a working truck, and you’re worried about a little bit of paint? He got all huffy, asking me if I could see any tags or stickers showing that this is a “working truck”. WTF was he even talking about? My truck is a working truck, and it’s got no tags or stickers.
Then he went on again about how he’s going to file a claim, no matter what, and went to take a picture of my license plate, saying he was going to be giving me his information, etc. After all, what else could he do? It’s a $100,000 truck.
…
So we were going to exchange our information. Fine. He was going to get his registration papers. Okay. We’re at the back of my truck and I looked at my passenger side door.
Do you really want me to go get mine, and risk hitting your truck again?
Nope. He told me I needed to get them through the driver’s side door.
Right. He wanted this short, fat, middle aged woman to crawl over the console to reach the glove compartment from the driver’s side.
I scoffed and just went and got the papers.
No, I didn’t hit his truck with my door again.
So we took pictures of each other’s registration papers and driver’s licenses, using my tail gate as a table. I’d already taken a picture of the paint from my truck on his door – and of him, walking around with his phone and his big sandwich, taking pictures. Before leaving, I made sure to get a couple more pictures showing the space between and around our vehicles.
Then I got into my truck and started updating my family, before heading home. They left while I was still doing that.
Guess he didn’t need to sit in his truck to eat his sandwich, after all.
The family updated, I headed home and unloaded the truck by the house. Which is when I remembered to get a better look at my own door.
Sure enough, after a bit of searching, I could find a bit of grey paint from the Silverado on my door.
Which I don’t care about, of course.
Once everything was settled inside, I made sure to settle down and write an incident report while everything was still fresh in my memory.
Sadly, I’ve got a lot of experience when it comes to writing incident reports. Usually, it was for the police or the courts, though, not insurance companies.
I made sure to include my photos with the report. The photos of his driver’s license and registration papers as well.
Oh, my.
I really hope this guy doesn’t try to file a claim – for his sake.
First up, after looking at what his vehicle was, I did a quick search. The value, in Canada, maxed out at under $83,000. If he’s stuck to $80K, that would have worked, but he then upped it to $100K
Then I noticed who the owner was.
The truck was owned by, and registered to, a drywall company.
It really was a “working truck”. It’s not even his truck. The company itself is in the city, so he was probably an employee using a company truck… on a Sunday. In a resort town and hour away. With a woman.
The company doesn’t have a website. No email address. Just an FB page. Nothing has been posted on is since 2020.
Then I noticed his license. He’s from a town bordering the city, but what was that X under “restrictions”? Mine has a 1, since I wear glasses. Restrictions also includes things like “maximum speed of 70km/h”, “daytime only”, “hand controls”, “commercial class”, etc. I’ve never seen an X before.
So I looked it up.
It turns out to be a driver’s restriction “addendum”.
It’s used when someone has more restrictions than there is room for on the license.
A list and description of those restrictions must be carried by the person, by law, at all times.
Interesting…
Eventually, I took a look at the photo I took of the ding on the door.
The door of that precious, new, “$100,000” truck…
The first thing I noticed was the pair of scratches in the paint, above the ding I caused.
Then I had to zoom in because… were those… so many…
The first photo above is the one I took, untouched. The blue paint from my truck is in the “clean” spot, where he’d dragged his thumb across.
In the second picture, I used red to mark the scratches, and put a dot beside every spot that was clearly a chip in the paint. There were others that I didn’t mark because I couldn’t be sure if it was a chip, or road dust.
As someone who lives off a gravel road, I recognize stone chips in paint. Except the chips were really high up the door. I’m short. That’s a tall truck. Some of those dings at the top of the photo were almost chest height on me. Normal driving on a gravel road shouldn’t result in paint chips, that high up.
According to the registration papers, this truck has only been driving since the end of May of this year. Not even two months, yet. It’s also set to expire at the end of August, so it’s only registered for 3 months, plus a couple of days in May.
That’s a LOT of dings for just a couple of months driving – and that’s just in the area in my photo, on the passenger side door.
There’s also a smear that I am not sure if it’s a smear of dust, or if it’s a smear of paint or something.
Now, I did ding this guy’s car. I tried hard to keep my door from opening all the way, but couldn’t stop it while I was settling the water jug in place.
With the guy’s behaviour and attitude about it, any possibility of apologizing disappeared. Plus, I was already ticked that he’d parked so close to me, when there were so many other places he could have parked and not had anyone next to him, then didn’t move when he saw that I was struggling to get the water jugs into my own truck.
Of course, a polite, able bodied young gentleman would have offered to assist the fat old lady lugging 5 gallon jugs of water and trying to get them into a vehicle. Not that I needed it, but it would have been polite. I’ve certainly done as much for others, when the opportunity rose. At the very least, if he was so worried about the truck, he would have moved it before I started hauling over that second water just.
I somehow doubt that the company that owns the truck is going to think it’s worth paying the deductible to file a claim for negligible damage, while it was being driven by, presumably, an employee (not the owner, since the company name is a surname that isn’t his) using it for personal reasons during off hours.
Well, as my husband put it, if they do file, we’ll let the insurance company sort it out.
What a way to end my time in town today!
Thankfully, the rest of the day has been far less… interesting.
It’s been a long day! I didn’t have to go anywhere, and the weather was good, so I finally got some progress outside.
First, the cuteness!
The mama and her secret babies seem to be good with my coming into the garage and leaving food for them. No attempt to move them again. I guess actually picking up the smokey kitten was just too much for the mom.
Still, seeing both kittens at the same time – and eating with Mom – is pretty rare!
In the next photo of the slideshow above, we have full belly babies, enjoying the morning sun on my late fathers old car. I’m pretty sure this is two litters, but they behave like one.
I’ve been checking on the garlic while doing my rounds and they will be ready to harvest soon. With that in mind, I finally opened up the canopy tent I bought on clearance last fall and set it up.
I have to admit; for a cheap canopy tent, it came with the highest quality pegs I’ve ever seen with any kit we’ve bought before!
Usually, they’re skimpy pegs that easily bend. I’m quite glad for the high quality ones, because with a couple of the legs, I had quite a time finding a spot where I could actually put the peg through without hitting something.
The tent was packed in a cardboard box inside the case. After I got everything out and starting working on the tent, the cats discovered it.
They were having so much fun with it, I left it there for them when it was time to clean up.
That done, my next project was to finally start on the new wattle weave bed in the old kitchen garden.
Which took all day, and is nowhere near finished, but I’ll get into that in my next post!
Havarti does NOT like to be picked up or carried, but gosh, he loves pets!
He also loves wrestling with grommet.
After the heat we’ve been having, daytime highs are finally getting to be more reasonable, but last night?
We dropped to 7C/45F last night. Lower than was in the forecast.
We’re expected to drop that low again tonight, though some apps say to expect a low of 9C/48F which means we might actually be hitting lower, the way the forecasts have been off lately.
Yes, we’re still in July.
Not quite cold enough to cover things, but pretty darn close. Overnight lows are expected to warm up again after tonight, but not by much.
As if the garden isn’t have a hard enough time as it is. My squash and melons still haven’t recovered from that one cold night back in June.
They do like the grass clipping mulch around the winter squash!
This morning, I tried to get some images of the feral kittens at the shrine feeding station. One seems to be missing from view. No idea if it was just behind something, or hadn’t made it to the feeding station yet.
Several of the older cats tend to push the littles away from the cat soup, even though they’ve already had dried kibble. I don’t make a lot of it, since it’s supposed to be just for the kittens, but there’s no stopping the adults from getting at it. All I can do is spread it around as much as possible, so everyone gets at least a little bit.
I have one more quick share for you – an inside cat this time!
I need to get ready to go now. I found a ride to pick up the truck! Yay! We’ll have transportation again! Plus, I get to spend time with an old friend. 🩷 That’s about as good as it gets. 😊
I was definitely wiped out yesterday. I went to bed before 8am and, other than a few cat related disturbances, slept until 6am.
Some time yesterday evening, it started to rain, and was still raining when I went out to feed the kitties. Nothing major; just a gentle, constant rainfall. It was enough to finally refill the rain barrel by the sunroom, though, and I had to add the diverter!
Sprout’s feral babies (and she seems to have all four of them now; I don’t see the other mama around as much) are getting braver. Now that we’ve got kibble again, I’m back to setting out the dry kibble first, then distributing the bowls of kitten soup. As I was going back to the shrine feeding station, I spotted the tortie, loafed in the upper level of the isolation shelter! She ran off when I got too close, but that she was there at all, and just chillin’, is progress.
They were very happy when the kitten soup bowl arrived.
Even Sprout is starting to go in there more often. You can see her in the second image above, with Colby on top of one of the box nests behind her.
I took some kitten soup to the bowl in the garage, just in case the secret kitties were still around. This side of the garage is where we store the lawn equipment, and is accessible only through the main doors. A hole was dug under the door, I believe originally by skunks, so the cats could also get in and out with the doors closed. My brother tried to cover up the hole with a sheet of metal when he stored their big mower in there, but it got dug out again beside it, before we knew there were kittens in there!
After I was able to pick up and hold one of the babies, the mama moved them, and I feared she took them to the barn or one of the sheds in the outer yard. I was still leaving food in where they were before, just in case.
This morning, after putting the food bowl in, I spotted the mama coming up through the garage. The middle is where we park our vehicle, and where my brother’s vehicle he loaned us is currently parked. It has a doorway to the other lean-to side of the garage, and the back door is beside that, so it’s not unusual to see cats cutting through the garage from the yard through there.
She went to eat while I continued on to switching out the gate cam memory card. When I came back, I saw the mom going around into the middle of the garage, making calling noises, while doing to a back corner of the garage. Currently, there is a wrapped and stacked pile of summer tires from the van we no longer have, sort of blocking the space into the corner, between a built in counter shelf on one wall, and a storage shelf on the other.
On a hunch, I moved the food bowl into that part of the garage, and left it in front of the shelf near that corner.
Walking by a few minutes later, I spotted the mama sharing food with her white and grey kitten, which you can see in the last photo above. I didn’t see the smokey one, but it would be in there, somewhere.
The mama had simply moved her kittens to the other side of a wall.
I am so glad she didn’t take them far!
Now, we just have to convince them to come to the shelters in the inner yard.
I was watering the future food forest when I heard some scrambling. Syndol had climbed to the top of the old squash tunnel. He looked so very majestic, silhouetted against the sky, so I had to get a couple of pictures!
Even the shy ones are exploring the isolation shelter. I think that’s their sibling in the upper level, with Eyelet.
When doing the evening feeding, Colby has been getting brave enough to actually start coming back to the food bowls, while I’m still nearby. I almost touched him today! The shy ones in the photo, though, ran off even though I was across the yard from them still.
Speaking of feral kittens, while I was out, my daughter took care of paying the septic guy, then making sure the gate was closed after he left. As she was going past the garage, she spotted the mama that lives there, the white and grey kitten I spotted this morning, and a second kitten! She tried to get pictures, but was too far away, and the ran under the door as soon as they saw her. From what we can make out, the second kittens looks SO much like a Siamese!
We have got to get them closer to the house somehow. The mother just isn’t bringing them. At least they’re going outdoors!
As for my day…
Good grief.
Everything was fine when I headed out. I made sure to leave the gate open for the septic truck, so I didn’t have to stop to close the gate behind me. I got to my mother’s in good time, and did her morning med assist. Then we went over her grocery list and she made sure to give me cash. She just couldn’t resist making a nasty comment about how she didn’t want me using my card again. Somehow, she seems to be blaming the high cost of her inhaler on my using my credit card to pay for it. As if it somehow would have been free, if I hadn’t done that. Very confusing.
Speaking of confusing, I made sure to get pictures of my all my mother’s bubble packs. She has three “active” bubble packs, and one completely untouched one – and her secret stash bubble pack is now in the lock box, thankfully. There’s still one pack that has a single bubble in it with pills still in it from a day no one showed up for her morning meds. My mom made comments about how confusing it all was, as if it was the fault of the home care aids. It old her, it’s a mess because of what she’d been doing!
Once I was done going over her grocery list with her, I headed out to the truck to go to the store.
It wouldn’t go.
It started fine, but when I went to shift out of part to drive, nothing happened. The lever just moved up and down, freely, with no resistance.
My immediate thought was that something was wrong with the transmission. Which was a worst case scenario, really.
Whatever it was, the truck wasn’t moving.
After turning it off, then on and trying again several times, I finally went back inside, while sending messages to my family and my brother – I knew my brother was coming out to the farm this morning, but didn’t know when.
Once inside, I told my mother what was going on, and finished sending my messages. Then I told her I would just walk over to the grocery store, do her shopping then, when everything was put away, I planned to walk to a garage that was up the street from her place.
My mother suggested that I get them to deliver her groceries, which would have been done after the store closed, but I said it was fine. The store is just a couple of blocks away, and she didn’t have a large list.
As I headed out, I stopped at the truck to get a couple of hard sided grocery bags I knew would fit all her shopping. Of course, I tried the truck again.
Nothing.
Off I went to the grocery store and picked up my mothers items, then brought them back. As I going past her with the bags to get into the kitchen and put things away, she shoved a box of chocolates at me and said to take some. She wanted me to sit down with her and finish off the last few chocolates in the box. I said no thanks for now, I wanted to put the groceries away first. I always make sure to show her what I got, as I put things away, even if I didn’t have to make any changes to her list.
Then I sat down for a bit and did have a couple of chocolates while messaging with my brother and my family, and updating her, before going walking to the garage.
Which is when she asked me to sweep her floor.
Now, I had expected to do some housework for her today, but that went out the window once the truck stopped working. I needed to somehow get it to a garage and find a way home! We only have the one vehicle. I was still thinking “transmission”, even though, after trying to get it out of park a few times, it didn’t seem like the transmission was being engaged at all.
So I told her I needed to work on getting the arrange to get the truck to a garage.
She wanted me to sit down and “rest” for a while.
I really needed to get on this.
“So, you’re done with me, then?”
…
Yes, today, I am done and have to go!
I went to give her another hug before leaving, and she hung on to me, like she was trying to stop me from leaving.
Now, if this were someone else, I’d be flattered, but this is my mother. It wasn’t that she wanted my company or anything like that. It was because I had a problem to solve instead of paying attention to her and doing stuff for her. It was like some sort of test.
Which I’m sure I failed.
We said our goodbyes and I headed out. My brother suggested something to try first, so I did.
Nothing.
They were on the road to the farm, and said they would meet me at the truck along the way.
The cab of the truck was way too hot to sit in, so I dropped the tail gate and sat to wait for my brother.
It turned out that he misunderstood what I meant when I said the truck wasn’t moving. When he tried it himself, he figured it had to be a linkage problem. He then popped the hood and got me to move the lever while he watched inside. My SIL had to actually look around the hood to confirm that yes, I was moving the lever back and forth, continuously.
Nothing.
We now had to get the truck to a garage. My brother suggested I call CAA and arrange a tow, but I told him I needed to find out where to tow it, first. That’s why I wanted to walk over to the garage, first, so see if they would take the truck.
So they drove me over, with my poor SIL squished in the middle seat, and my brother went in with me. We talked to the woman behind the counter and explained what was happening with the truck. Her immediate thought was that it sounded like a linkage problem! I asked about getting the truck towed to them and she checked their schedule.
They wouldn’t be able to look at it until Wednesday.
Today is Friday.
My brother and I talked about it briefly and she suggested we try one of the other garages, in case someone else could look at it sooner.
So that’s what we did.
The other garage is one I’ve been to before, but not in many years, since we now go to a garage in the nearer town. The original owner sold the garage to one of his mechanics, but kept working his towing company, in the same location. When we got there, I was surprised to see the towing guy, but we talked to him about the truck and he looked at their schedule.
Tuesday. Maybe Monday.
Well, that was better than Wednesday!
So we agreed and he wrote my into the schedule. As we were talking about getting it towed, I found he no longer did CAA tows at all, but they would use the garage a couple of blocks away. He suggested I call CAA for the tow, since it’s covered, and that would save me $100.
That done, I started making the call to CAA while we drove back to the truck. The plan was for me to leave the keys hidden in the truck and then I would go home with my brother.
The call continued after we got to the truck and I had it on speaker phone so my brother could hear as well. We also had a hard time giving the name of the garage, as the guy couldn’t find it. My brother finally looked it up on his own phone and it turned out the only name that showed up was the towing company name, so that was the location they put it in as. The entire call was made extra difficult as we were suddenly getting some of the loudest traffic going by, ever!
As we arranged the tow, the guy told me I had to be with the truck when the tow truck arrived.
???
They haven’t required that in years.
Oh, and the tow would arrive at around 1:30pm
It was barely 11am at the time.
I told him, I can’t do that. I don’t live here, and I don’t have transportation. He said, if I wasn’t there, the driver couldn’t tow the truck.
My brother finally just said, we’ll be here, so I confirmed that with the guy.
I was thanked for my cooperation.
Uh huh.
Once the call was done, my brother suggested I hide the keys in the truck, then we would go back to the garage.
So that’s what we did.
Because of the trouble we had finding the place on the map, I made sure to look for the spelling on the sign when we got there.
The sign wasn’t there.
There was the towing company sign.
Looks like the original owner owns the garage again!
Which I’m good with. I liked him better.
So we talked to him about the call with CAA and what they told us about needing to be there when the truck arrived. Now, he used to do towing for CAA, so his reaction was a big WTF?
The towing company was just up the road, so he suggested we talk to the guy about it.
Meanwhile, I already received a text confirming the arrangement with the towing company, complete with reference number.
So we went over to the other garage (this town has one grocery store, but at least three garages!) and got to talk to the tow truck driver directly. We explained what CAA told us, and he was all, WTF? No, I did not need to be there. I told him where the key was hidden, and made sure he knew that the truck wouldn’t go out of park. That was useful for him, because they normally need to put the vehicle into neutral to be able to move it. I also warned him about the missing handle inside the driver’s side door. My brother laughed and joked, “you probably see that all the time.” The guy said yes, yes he did!
In the middle of all this, my daughter let me know when the septic guy came and went, she took care of paying him (with tip. The septic guy always gets a tip) – and about the kittens she saw! All was being taken care of on the home front.
So arrangements with the garage and the tow was finally done. We then squeezed back into my brother’s truck and drove to the farm!
My brother and his wife, meanwhile, were going to lend us a vehicle.
The one that’s stored in the barn.
Now, there are reasons they replaced it, but it still runs and they were pretty sure the registration hasn’t expired yet, either. My brother would get it out of the barn for me and we could use it until we got the truck back.
!!!
Once we got to the farm, they had to rush to get what they needed to do done – and now they had the extra job of getting the car out of the barn! A lot of stuff had been shoved into it and around it, in their hurry to get everything off their property before possession was turned over to the new owners.
My brother and his wife are the best. I don’t know what we’d do without them!
A few hours later, I was in my room folding laundry, my older daughter came in to let me know that she’d heard the storm door open and close. She went to check and found my brother had dropped some peas on the floor and left.
Peas?
Okay.
As we were talking, I mentioned that they were in a huge hurry, but were making sure to have the vehicle available for us.
Which is when I realized my daughter had said, keys. Not peas.
Auditory processing disorder can be really funny, sometimes.
Thanks to the new security camera my brother installed at the gate, I was able to check the live feed to see them leave. My brother drove the truck out with their trailer, and my SIL followed behind with the care they’d loaned us in the past. When she stopped to close the gate behind them, I was able to use the camera to say thank you again, and wish them safe driving, and hear my SIL’s response.
I love technology!
Not long after, I got a call from the garage.
He had a few minutes, so he got the truck in and took a look.
It was exactly what everything thought it might be. A linkage problem. The cable broke.
He was able to use a clip and put it together and it was working, but he couldn’t give any sort of guarantee on how long it would hold. A few months. A few weeks? Eventually, the part would need to be replaced, which would be the entire assembly. It has been a long time since he’d replaced one, but he thought it was around $400plus.
This is our only vehicle. We can’t take chances.
I gave the go ahead. to order the part, asking him to call me back when he knew how much the part would cost. Labour would be $100 an hour, and he estimated about 2 hours to replace it.
I was getting ready to go out and water the garden when he called back.
Was I good with an off market cable for $150?
Uhm… yeah!!!!
So that’s what he ordered for me. The total, with 2 hours of labour and taxes, would come out to less than the part if it came from GM.
So that will be done on Tuesday.
Just in time for my daughter and I to have our joint medical appointment on Wednesday.
Then my eye test on Thursday that she has to drive me home from.
I had completely forgotten about the medical appointments on Wednesday. If we’d gone with the first garage, we would have had to reschedule, and who knows when that would have had to be.
Thank God the problem turned out to be relatively minor and not the transmission!!!
Plus, my older daughter has said she can cover the cost, so it’s not a hit to our budget, either.
That’s a huge relief!
Meanwhile, I’m going to have to use my brother’s vehicle tomorrow, though I was planning to avoid it. It all the fuss, I completely forgot I was going to hit the feed store for more kibble for the outside cats.
I used the last of their kibble to do this evening’s feeding, and even had to stretch it a bit by making a big bowl of cat soup with it.
The cats didn’t complain, that’s for sure!
After all that, I finally headed out to water the garden and baby food forest, which I’ll write about in my next post.
On the one hand, this was a pretty stressful day and another expense we just don’t need.
On the other than, things couldn’t have worked out better, under the circumstances.
The problem didn’t happen until after I got to my mother’s, and I could still do her grocery shopping.
My brother happened to take the day off today so they could get their trailer set up and out for the rest of the summer, so stopping to help me out was on their way.
They still had their hold vehicle, it was being stored here at the farm, and it’s insured (though they did have to run into town to make sure of that).
We went with the second garage that could work on the truck a day earlier than the first one, which meant we don’t have to reschedule medical appointments I’d forgotten about.
I mean, if something’s going to go wrong, it couldn’t have happened under better circumstances.
As my SIL said, someone is watching out for me, and I totally agree – and give thanks!
Something weird has happened with my traffic stats again, today. I have no idea why this is happening to my little Canadian blog. From about 4am to 10am today, I have gotten hit with over a thousand views, with the highest number at about 8am. Most are from Lansing, Michigan, with a significant portion from Ashburn, Virginia. This has happened before, and the hits are from the same two place, artificially inflating my stats. These are obviously bots of some kind, and they do nothing good for my blog. Whoever is doing this, I wish they would go away and not come back!
With that out of the way, here is our kitten fix for the day!
It took some doing, but I managed to get a shot of the little calico.
Big brother Colby is fluffy enough that he completely hid the calico from view until he moved to the other side of the kitten soup bowl. I’m glad to see Little Sprout getting some kitten soup, though she ran away while I was taking pictures, and didn’t get much. It would be great if we could lure the babies closer and socialize them, but we seem to have very little success with the calicos. I thought we’d be able to socialize Brussel, when she had her babies in the sun room, but now she’s almost as strange as her sister, Sprout.
While working outside today, I just had to pause and snap this picture of Eyelet.
He is so, so small! Absolutely dwarfed by the rhubarb leaves.
Those incredible eyes. Wow.
Much later in the day, as we were approaching our high of the day, I was finding cats splattered all over the place, trying to find any cool spot. The kittens especially like this spot.
The like that roll of mosquito netting, too! There’s another one that they ignore. This one is smaller and lighter, and I often find it knocked off the platform.
When it’s not being used as a bed or pillow by kittens!
On a completely different note; one thing about this time of year, when tending things outside, is there are more and more little things I can pick to snack on. The radish pods are getting prolific and there are many, many more tiny pods developing. Currently, we also have some wild saskatoons to enjoy!
With how dry things have been, they are not as big and juicy as they could be, but they’re not dried out, either. One of the jobs in my list over the next while is to clear the underbrush so we can better access the saskatoon bushes – and get rid of the stuff that’s crowding them and competing for water and nutrients.
It isn’t a lot, for July, even in our short season climate, but things are progressing. Hopefully, we will have another long, mild fall for an extended growing season.
Ha! I just checked the Government of Canada average first frost date for our area. I’ve been going by September 10. According to the updated map, if I go by the town to the north of us, it’s now between Sept. 18 and Sept. 21. If I go by the town to the east of us, it’s between Sept. 21 and 24. Yet another source has it between Sept. 21 and 30.
The Farmer’s Almanac still has our last frost date at June 2, and first frost date at Sept. 10, for a 99 day growing season. Frankly, I think the Farmer’s Almanac is the most likely to be correct.
We shall plan accordingly – both for the garden, and for taking care of the kitties!
We didn’t need to leave until 11, so the morning was our normal routine. As usual, I started off feeding the yard cats, and got to see these two again.
Colby looks like a real scrapper! That white and grey is so big, I’m starting to mistake it for one of the three from last year that are really small!
Yesterday, I happened to be in the right place to see Sprout lying in the grass in the outer yard, nursing these two, plus the tortie. The calico is definitely the shiest of the four. The orange one, Colby, is the bravest. Last night, I saw him at the top of the ramp into the isolation shelter. Just a little while ago, while gathering bowls for the evening kitten soup feeding, I spotted the tortie inside the cat cage, inside the big no-longer heated water bowl that’s been repurposed as a food bowl in there. I didn’t see it when I brought out the kitten soup bowl, though Colby, was back again.
Last night, after I mused about how far behind parts of our garden is this year, I did go and look at last year’s photos. Wow, are we ever behind this year! At least with the winter squash and melons. At this time last year, the winter squash in particular were getting huge, and by the middle of the month, I was taking pictures of the developing squash with my hand for a size reference. I get a strong feeling we won’t have any winter squash or melons this year! The transplant shock, plus those bugs on the winter squash, followed by that one unpredicted cold night, has really done damage. The eggplants were set back, too; last year, they were in full bloom by now. The peppers are going okay, though, compared to last year, at least.
I’ve also definitely lost at least two of the summer squash that got transplanted out, including one of the White Scallop squash. Last year was a bad year for summer squash, but I think this one might be even worse!
I was done my rounds early enough that I took a quick nap before we left. I knew that if I didn’t, I’d be falling sleep while waiting for my daughter to come out of surgery!
We ended up on the road shortly before 11. My poor daughter was fasting, and was so very hungry! The surgery was booked for 12:30, and we got there shortly before 12. We went to the outpatient clinic first, where she registered and got her paperwork. Then we went to the day surgery section on the second floor. The staff found that, while she was on their list, for some reason her chart wasn’t printed out yet, so we sat down in the waiting room while they took care of that. Which took no time at all, and she was soon passing my her glasses and phone, etc. as they took her in to be prepped for surgery.
She told me afterwards that everything went very smoothly. She was even complimented for not being at all nervous about it, as they strapped her down to the “crucifix” operating table. The staff and the surgeon were all really nice, too. She REALLY appreciated the pre-warmed blankets and towels they used on her, too!
While that was happening, I made a quick trip to the nearby Walmart to get a few things. It started to rain while I was inside. I always bag my purchases at the truck, so I was standing in the rain, filling an insulated bag, when my phone started ringing.
My first thought was that it was the hospital, and why would they be calling me so soon? Did something go wrong???
Nope.
It was the home care office. Not the usual coordinator, but someone who was covering for her at the moment.
She told me that this morning’s home care aid got to my mother’s place 10 minutes late. When she got there, my mother told her she’s already taken her pills. The aid opened up the lock box and this morning’s beds were still in their bubble, of course. I told the coordinator, my mother has a secret stash of her pills somewhere. The coordinator told me something like that had been reported. As for my mother taking them herself after the aid was only 10 minutes late (which means she arrived at the time she was scheduled to leave, rather than the time she was scheduled to arrive), she would have decided the aid wasn’t going to show up at all. I told the coordinator that my mother believes that the aids don’t show up sometimes, because they want her to die. That’s something I’d already told the regular coordinator before, so it’s probably somewhere in the file. This is why she snuck out and hid one of her bubble packs.
I asked if my mother treated the home care aid all right, and was told nothing was reported about any such behaviour. After clarifying with me about the medications, she said she would make notes for the file, then follow up with the aid.
Meanwhile, I got a message from my older daughter. The land line had rung, but she never got to it in time, and she was worried it was the hospital. So I quickly told her it was home care, then finished bagging things up and got out of the rain so I could explain further.
That done, I quickly updated my siblings on our group chat, then went back to the hospital. I still had about 2 hours to wait, and I just stayed in the waiting room.
Where I dozed off again!
Why am I always so sleepy during the day, but can easily stay up all night?? It’s not like I’m in my 20’s anymore!
After about an hour or more – my daughter would have been out of surgery and in the recovery room by then – I started hearing a strange noise from the bag of my daughter’s stuff beside me. Her phone was ringing! So I answered it, using my hotel receptionist voice. 😄 Even though I identified the phone as my daughter’s, and that I wasn’t my daughter, the person on the other end launched into their reason for calling. I don’t think she caught on that I wasn’t my daughter!
It turned out to be a clinic in the city. My daughter has been referred to an endocrinologist about her PCOS, and they were calling about an appointment they have for her. I was in no position to take anything down, and explained that I was in the hospital, and my daughter was coming out of surgery just then. We eventually worked out that they will send my daughter a letter with the information, plus they will call back to follow up tomorrow. The appointment is in October some time, so there’s no rush on that.
Not long after, my phone rang. It was the surgery staff, letting me know my daughter would be ready to leave withing half an hour. When she found out I was already in the waiting room, she asked me to go to the main entry, where they have wheelchairs available for patient transport to the vehicle. Standard procedure, and I already knew where the wheelchairs were kept, so off I went.
Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of options. There was the extra wide bariatric wheelchair. I wasn’t going to use that, because they only have one. There was another wheelchair that was so low, it had to be for a child. Then there was another, but it was so narrow, it was probably also for a child, but at least her feet wouldn’t be dragging on the ground. So that was the one I took.
When I got there, the person behind the desk immediately asked who is was for, and I told her. She then went to take it, to go get my daughter. When she saw it, she commented that she didn’t think my daughter would fit! I told her, I wasn’t sure, either, but I didn’t have much choice.
When they brought my daughter out, she was in a completely different wheelchair. 😄 She had her discharge papers in hand, and a package with a couple of cookies in it. She inhaled those as soon as she got into the truck!
As I was pushing her out of the hospital, she showed me her incision site. I couldn’t believe how tiny it was! She said she was also feeling really good, but for safety reasons, she wasn’t allowed to walk out on her own. She had to be careful not to use the hand or arm, because it wasn’t hurting at all, and her mobility was really good.
Once at ground level, we made a side trip so she could use the washroom. As I was looking out the windows, I spotted something moving around.
Interestingly, it was only eating the thistles, not the flowers. We had one summer where we had about 5 or 6 groundhogs in our yard, then they basically disappeared. It was really nice to see one again. I did pause at the reception desk on the way out to let the staff know they had a groundhog in there, just in case they didn’t already know. They buggers are adorable, but they can do major damage!
I brought the truck around for my daughter and, once she was settled in, checked to see how she was feeling. Was she up to eating? I knew she would be hungry, but straight out of anesthesia is not always a good time to eat. She said she was famished, so we headed over to a nearby Subway I knew the location of. Just a few bites into her food, and she told me she was feeling SO much better. Post op, they had told her a number of things to watch out for and, if she had any of those symptoms, to get to a doctor right away. This included feeling light headed or nauseous. Which she was feeling, but she was pretty sure it was because she was hungry. It was. Once she started eating, it all went away!
From there, it was straight to home. As we were driving, I updated her on the calls I got on both my phone and hers. As we talked about her referral to endocrinology, I remembered to asked about her referral for a reduction mammoplasty; I knew she had a call about that, and that is why she has an appointment with our regular doctor on the same day that I do, next week. Since I had my own done in this province, I was curious to know how much things have changed. It turned out there are only two doctors in this province that does them. One has his own clinic, while the other is new to our province, and is in one of the city hospitals.
The one with the cardiac clinic that wouldn’t accommodate my husband’s disability, then ghosted him on the phone appointments.
So… I’m thinking going to the doctor with his own clinic would be worth the extra time on the waiting list.
Which could be a year or two!
When I had the ball rolling for mine, the clinic told me they wouldn’t even book appointments past 6 months, and anything before 6 months was booked solid. I was looking at a long wait for surgery, but I was also put on the cancellation list, and my doctor at the time flagged my file as urgent, because of how much pain I was in. I ended up getting in due to a cancellation, within a couple of months. Hopefully, they will be able to do the same for her, but I don’t know that they’re allowed to flag files like that anymore.
It’s good that my daughter is finally getting all this stuff done. Now, if I could just talk her sister into starting to see a doctor, too!
My daughter may have been feeling good after her surgery, but it still took a lot out of her, and she dozed off on the ride home. When we got to the gate, she started undoing her seat belt to open it. I just looked at her, asking, are you up to that?
Nope. She wasn’t. But she was in the passenger seat, so it was automatic! 😄
Now that we’re all inside and settled in, she decided a nap on the couch would be a good idea!
I’m so glad everything went smoothly. She’ll probably start feeling pain more as things wear off, but for now, she’s mostly just feeling drained. I’m still wildly impressed by how small the incision is. Squidly has been evicted! Once it all heals up, it’s going to make a huge difference for her, to be able to use that hand without pain.
Meanwhile, it has still be raining, off and on today. It isn’t a lot, but enough that I don’t need to water the garden this evening. The yard cats got fed as soon as everything was settled in. I’d picked up more pumpkin seed, so I’ve been able to add powdered pumpkin seed to the kitten soup lately, though the adult cats are certainly getting their share. Hopefully, that will help get rid of any worms they might have. I suspect that’s why some of the really small cats and kittens are as small as they are.
Eyelet is so much like Button was in that respect. I have been putting the 4 friendly kittens inside the old kitchen to get a chance to eat the kitten soup before the adult push them away. Only Eyelet and Sir Robin like to stay and eat. Havarti and Grommet will eat a little, then they want out. Eyelet has discovered the plastic couch that’s in there, so when he’s done, that’s where I’ve been finding him. When I picked him up today, his pupils were so dilated, it concerned me. That’s what Button’s eyes started to do, to the point his irises are almost completely hidden. So I used the flashlight on my phone to test, and was happy to see his pupils slowly undilate, before he started blinking and trying to look away. That was a relief.
So that’s where were are at now. It looks like the rain has stopped for now, and it’s been blessedly cooler. It’s supposed to get really hot again in a few days, but I should have at least one cooler day to get some manual labour done outside! Thankfully, I don’t have any scheduled outings for the next while. Unless I get called to do my mother’s med assist, I should be able to get some decent progress in.
We shall see.
I’m so happy my daughter was able to get this surgery done so quickly! It’s going to make a big difference, once everything is healed up.
The Re-Farmer 