Unless there are more babies hiding under the fluff, somewhere!
Interestingly, the kitten seems to be a calico around its head and shoulders, but has tabby markings on its back!
While out today, I looked for a telescoping spoon, or something that would allow us to reach her from a distance. I could only find a telescoping camp fork, and that wouldn’t work. I did get some wet cat food in small packets, just for Brussel. After everything was unloaded, I fed the outside cats early, then used a bamboo back scratcher we weren’t using to hold the cat food and give it to her. She was growling every time I was in front of the cat cage and, of course, while I was passing the wet cat food over to her (she still had plenty of dry kibble and water in the cat cage with her). I ended up dropping the chunk of paté right in front of her.
Then I put the back scratcher in the old kitchen, turned around, and there was Gouda, in the cat cage, head in the cat cave, going for Brussel’s wet cat food!
I got him out, but then Magda jumped in, too.
I got her out, then closed up the door on the cat cage. I’ve got a time going right now, to go and open it up again so she can answer the call of nature. There isn’t room for a litter box in there, right now.
I will likely close her up in there again for the night, though, and open it in the morning, to make sure no skunks or racoons go in to steal her food. Either that, or take her food bowl right out for the night. That would probably be better. Otherwise, the racoons will try and break into the cat cage to get at it.
The live feed on the critter cam is going to be heavily used for the next while!
After watching for a bit to make sure she was okay, I quickly finished my rounds, then checked on her again. I didn’t think she was done, but it was hard to tell. I could see one little calico squirming around, but Brussel is so fluffy, there could easily have been more hidden in there.
What I ended up doing was pulling the entire cage away from the window wall, where it would be colder. I grabbed a cat cave from inside and, after straightening out the blanket bed in the cut next to Brussel, I squeezed it in, using the handle of a broom stick to shove it into place. I’m hoping Brussel will move her kittens into there.
I also got a two sided bowl and set it up for her with food and water. I also changed the angle of the second heat lamp with the warmer bulb to face more into the cage.
She growled at me, the whole time.
I’ve let the Cat Lady know already. We have never been able to get close to Brussel, though her sister, Sprout, is even more feral than she is. But she chose to have her kittens in the sun room, which is a total shock. Given how insanely early in the year it is for having kittens, it was probably the warmest place she could find. Since she is in the cat cage, if we could get a litter pan in there somehow, we could close it up, too. That would keep the other cats – and racoons and skunks – out.
I have the critter cam set facing the cat cage and the live feed up right now. With the cage pulled further from the wall, I can see into it more, but the heat lamp’s shield blocks my view of the corner she is in. I did, however, catch another cat going in to check things out, and was able to use the camera to tell it to leave, which it did.
Hopefully, this will mean we can finally socialize Brussel, and be able to socialize her kittens, too, and get her fixed.
Meanwhile, I need to head out soon to run errands. The family can keep an eye on her while I am gone. My biggest concern is that she will move them out of the sun room completely, which would probably kill the kittens. I know, I know. We don’t need more kittens, but after last year, finding so many dead and dying kittens, day after day, I really don’t want that to happen again this year.
Whatever happens, happens. We’ll deal with things as they come – but I can still try to set things up to hopefully have a happy result!
We have a lovely warm day today! As I write this, we have reached -3C/27F, and are expecting a high of -1C/30F. I was just outside, and was finding it too warm for my toque and jacket! We’re talking t-shirt weather for this time of year!
Not a lot happening today, but I have a couple of adorable faces to share with you. The first is what I woke up to, this morning.
Butterscotch was in the “cat bowl” right next to me!
She looks like such a kitten. Can you believe she is at least 11 years old? Probably more.
For my morning rounds, I was able to give the outside cats their version of “cat soup”, since it was going to be so warm today. By the time I was ready to go back inside, I was seeing a lot of contented cats all over the place. Including several in the isolation shelter. I opened one of the windows so I could get a picture without reflections or dirt in the way, and that really got their attention.
Oh, wait. I think this one is the female. There are two tabbies with a bit of white that look very much alike. I was just petting the male a little while ago, and he has a different pattern in the white patch over his nose, which means this one has to be the female.
Unless there’s a third similar looking tabby running around, which is possible!
Gotta work on socializing this one, so we can easily get her into a carrier to get fixed! Still waiting on word from the rescue about getting 3 cats done soon.
Yesterday, the first day of spring, was a gorgeous day!
We reached a high of 5-6C/41-43F, and it was awesome. While I was at my mothers, the truck cab warmed up so much in the sun, I almost turned the air conditioning on to cool it down. The thermometer in the sun room was reading 16C/61F and was feeling positively hot!
I took advantage of it to get some stuff done outside in preparation for today. The forecast high is supposed to be -11C/12F This is what it was like this morning, as I was getting ready to head outside for my morning rounds.
I actually waited until a bit later for things to warm up, too. The -17C/1F is bad enough, but that -27C/-17F windchill… Yikes!
One of the things I did yesterday was to finally replace the heat lamp in the isolation shelter. I had the 200w ceramic heat bulb in the new fixture, but decided to put the 250w incandescent heat bulb in, instead. Partially in anticipation of the temperatures dropping so much overnight, but also because I’ve found the light it gives off is handy. When I look out the kitchen window, it illuminates the area around it fairly well.
This light fixture has the guard around the bulb, too, so less chance of a cat burning themselves on the bulb!
I had to do quite a bit inside the isolation shelter. The cat bed had been knocked down to the lower level, where the litter box had already been knocked about, spilling most of the litter all over. My guess is, racoons. Thankfully, we’re using stove pellets for litter, not clay, so it will be easier to clean up in the spring. We still have the box over the opening on the bottom to keep the wind and snow from getting into the lower level. That had to be moved to access things.
Once I have some, I need to put handles on that thing.
I replaced the litter box with a new one with fresh litter pellets. It does seem like the cats have actually started to use it as intended, though with it being knocked over, it’s hard to tell for sure. When we had cats isolated in there, they were using everything BUT the litter box!
The hammock has been a bit of an issue, in that two corners are always getting pushed off the hooks holding them. Sometimes, a third corner gets pushed off somehow, too, and how that one happens perplexes me. I ended up tying some paracord across the two hooks that get pushed off all the time. Hopefully, it will be enough to keep it from happening, as the cats use the ramp to go between levels.
The heat lamp hides it in the photo, but there is a spot in the insulation on the wall next to the sliding window that has a hole scratched into it. The cats really like to use that insulation to scratch at! Even more than the actual scratch pad I made out of rope on the ramp for them to use. I did expect this top happen, but not in that spot! 😄 When the snow is gone and things are dry, we’ll move the isolation shelter away from the house and give it a thorough cleaning. That would be a good time to replace any of the rigid insulation that is damaged. The insulation “ceiling” will simply be taken off until next winter, though one piece will need to be replaced. They really managed to chew it up! You can see some of the damage above Ink’s head.
It won’t be much longer before we can stop using the heat lamps entirely.
I’m so glad we got this thing built, and the cats are making full use of it!
On the down side, today is turning into a laundry day for all of us. Yes, we’re still running the hose out the door to drain the washing machine. We still haven’t been able to use the new pipe brush to try and clear out that drain. I keep waiting until we don’t need to use the kitchen sink for a while, so we don’t get splashed when opening the coupling access, but that just doesn’t seem to be happening! So every now and then, between cycles, I pop outside and make sure the hose is fully drains, so it doesn’t freeze closed again.
We have another problem, though.
The drier isn’t drying.
We thought it was because the vent outside was too clogged, but once it was clear, it didn’t make much difference. So I though the duct might have been clogged and we checked it before starting our first load in the drier. It’s completely clear. The lint trap’s space is clear, too.
We’ll see how it works today, but it’s starting to look like we need a new drier. We already had to replace the washing machine since moving here. I don’t know how old this drier is, but it definitely has a lot of years on it.
Yes, we do have a clothes line outside, which would be handy but, with how cold it is today, it would take forever for anything to dry, and we have a lot of bedding to wash today. It’s a long line, but not that long! Originally, it was set up with three clothes lines, but there’s only one, and I had to replace that one a few years back. I do want to set up two more lines again, but we need to buy all the hardware for it, first.
Technically, we also have clothes lines rigged up in the basements, but we’d have the same problem of it taking forever to dry, though I suppose we could set up a blower fan or two. The basements are dank and dusty, though, so we’d be hanging things outside before we used the basements!
*sigh*
Well, so far, we’ve replaced the washing machine, stove, range hood, and the hot water tank (three times). I expect we’ll be needing to replace the fridge in the not too distant future, too. That and the drier are the only original appliances left.
Well, that’s part of the deal we have for living here, in place of paying rent. We take care of the place, maintain it and improve it, as we are able. That includes replacing appliances, when the time comes.
Still, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. One of the troubleshooting solutions for what our drier is doing is to simply unplug it for 10-15 minutes. This could reset the heating elements. We unplugged it when we moved it out to check the vent. We’ll know if it worked once the first load that’s in there right now is done.
I couldn’t get them all in one photo! There’s so much reflection on the windows, the camera doesn’t “see” inside very well. I tried counting and there were at least 13 in there at the time.
Today is apparently not going to be as warm as predicted – just an expected high of 0C/32F instead of the 2C/36F predicted, earlier. It’s still warm enough to set the hose through the storm door window for laundry day.
Yeah. We’re still doing that.
Tomorrow was also supposed to be 2C/36F, but now they’re saying a high of -5C/23F tomorrow, and 3C/37F the day after.
At this point, I’m just happy that high winds have passed.
Of course, the temperatures had got me thinking of the garden again… but then, the garden is never really far from my mind.
I did end up making another seed order today. I’ll explain that in a separate post! Meanwhile, I got a email notification that my MI Gardener order has been shipped. I look forward to seeing those! The girls are particularly interested in the Turkish Orange eggplant, which we will need to start indoors around the end of March.
I’m really itching for the snow to be gone. I really want to see how the winter sowing experiment has turned out!
As much as I appreciate that we are slowly warming up and getting some really nice days, the weather whiplash of spring seems almost like an insult. 😄
With things warm enough to be melting all over, today’s high of -7C/19F (which we are already at) with a wind chill of -21C/-6F feels so much colder. A few weeks ago, these temperatures felt like spring!
While doing my morning rounds today, little Magda decided to follow me around. She kept getting under my feet, so I picked her up. She doesn’t like to be carried and ended up on my shoulders – which she didn’t like, either! – but she was cold and shivering, and actually allowed me to tuck her into my jacket.
There’s a weather system blowing from West to East, almost straight across the country, bringing snow and high winds. The snow is supposed to start hitting us withing the next half hour or so, and continue for several hours. Tonight’s low is supposed to drop to -22C/-8F, which means the winds will probably make it feel colder than -30C/-22F
This see-sawing of temperatures means our usual explosion of pot holes on the roads over the next few weeks! While we’re just getting a bit of snow today, it’s not unusual to have at least one big blizzard in March or April.
Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of -7C/19F again, with a warmer overnight low. I’ll be helping my mother with grocery shopping tomorrow, then do some of our own errands as well. After that, we’ll be getting a few days above freezing, then dropping down again, for more weather whiplash!
Winter and spring will be battling out for a few more weeks, yet!
I’m happy to say that today has been a quiet, uneventful day!
I’ve learned to really appreciate boring days. 😄
I was even able to sleep in… sort of. The girls took care of the outside stuff for me, as well as taking care of the inside cats. This includes kicking all the cats out of my room except for Butterscotch and Freya, so they have have their extra feeding of wet cat food, and Butterscotch would get a chance to use the litter. I’m happy to say that she is starting to use more of the room, instead of just the quarter or so of it that she was isolating herself into, but there is still the problem of the young cats going after her when she tries to use the litter.
You’d think that would make it easier to sleep in, but after the other cats are done with breakfast, they want back in, and start scratching at the door.
Loudly.
Today was warm enough that, when it was time to do the evening feeding outside, I made their own version of cat soup by softening their kibble in hot water for a while. They absolutely loved it!
I got to spend some extra time with the outside cats this morning. We had a chilly night, and it was still pretty cold, but they didn’t seem to notice! It’s going to be a decent day today, and then just keep warming up, so they’re going to be all over the place!
While putting kibble out in the sun room, I got accosted by a tuxedo, who wanted all sorts of pets.
We have a few tuxedos, but I haven’t seen most of them for a while. I’m actually not sure if this is one of our regulars that has come back from exploring, or if this is a new cat. It cats hard to keep track when they come and go so much.
I’m thrilled to have caught him in a tongue blehp, though.
He was incredibly friendly, though, and eager for both food and attention. So he’s probably one of ours that has returned. I suspect that if he were a dump, he would have been more skittish. He could be visiting from another farm, too.
Once outside, there was a crowd of cats on the cat house roof, waiting for kibble, so I went over and got an absolute thrill.
The tabby in front was named by the girls because he apparently always goes for their toes. He nips when he wants attention. He’s not the only one that does that!
Before I got my camera out, not only was I able to pet Adam, but I was able to give her full on, two handed, face and neck scritches. She looked like she was in heaven! This is so awesome! We have been trying to socialize her for 3 years, with virtually zero success. No, suddenly, she has decided she likes us. 😄
She is one of the cats that went into heat early, but she doesn’t seem to be pregnant. Given how long it’s been, I would have expected her to start showing by now. There’s no real way to know right now, though. However, now that she had decided to let us actually pet her, we should be able to get her into a carrier, rather than having to trap her, and get her spayed. Hopefully, the rescue would be able to arrange something, soon. It’s getting warm enough that I would be willing to try trapping cats soon. It’s those overnight temperatures we have to keep an eye on, since we have no way to monitor a trap.
As I was finishing up my rounds and passing by the isolation shelter, I had a whole crowd of faces, watching me!
Magda is one of the cats that is just too smol. She’s almost a year old, but looks like she’s just a few months old. There are several littles like her, but she is the only friendly one – and even she has her making strange moments, still. She would be an easy one to catch for spay and adoption through the rescue, but I’d be afraid to do it. With her small size, that tells me she’s probably going to need extra medical care. Whenever that happens, it seems they end up keeping the cats permanently, and they already have so many unadoptable cats right now!
I tried to do a head count this morning, and I think I counted a total of 30. It’s hard to know for sure if I got them all, or if I double counted some.
So many of them would make such great indoor cats, if we could find people to adopt them!
I just had to include my hand for perspective, though the kitty prints help, too. That is one big raccoon was had visiting us!
It’s doing a good job of cleaning up the old kibble that cats won’t eat anymore, so I can’t complain. I haven’t checked today’s trail cam files yet, so I don’t know it it was caught, but a few days ago I saw him going in and out through our gate, and he is a big’un!
While putting kibble into the isolation shelter, I got tackled.
That little tabby has been after attention pretty much every morning, now.
Colin wanted attention so much, he forced himself into my hand while I was trying to get pictures! Lately, I’ve typically had about 5 or 6 friendly males, pushing for attention, in the mornings. Plus Magda. I have to be careful trying to pet her. She’s so small, the big boys push her around without even noticing!
As usual, I left for my appointment early, remembering to leave the gate open for today’s prescription delivery. My husband would get his meds faster that way, than if I went to the pharmacy to get them myself.
While dropping off the keys, I asked for a general idea of how long it would take. The best he could tell me was “a few hours”. Thankfully, it’s warmer now (we are still at our high of -6C/21F), so it was a fine day to walk around town.
The first thing to do was find somewhere to get breakfast. I was still early enough that not a lot of places were open yet, but also, I needed to find somewhere were I could adjust my order to fit my Lenten fast from sugars and starches. I ended up walking across town, almost to the lake, to a hotel cafe where I knew they would be open for breakfast. I don’t often go there, partly because they are not accessible, and I don’t do well with stairs. But, it’s got reliably good home cooking type meals, and they open early in the day. I also knew that I would be able to take my time while there, and not feel like I’m taking up a table they needed for any sort of rush.
All their breakfast meals include home cut hash browns and toast in your bread of choice – both things I wanted to skip. I told the waitress what I was needing to cut out, and asked if they could just add an extra egg or something, instead. She said she would talk to the kitchen staff, and that’s what they ended up doing. I got their “Farmer’s Breakfast) of eggs, bacon, ham and sausage. The hash browns and toast would have made it a really huge meal! It was very good.
My tea without sugar, however, was … tea without sugar. 😄
When I was done there, I went to several nearby shops to look around. One of them was a dollar type store, and I did find a few things, including a long pipe cleaner style brush for our bathroom sink. When we had to take stuff out of the bathroom while replacing the taps, faucet, some pipes, and the old tub surround, we had to take pretty much everything out of the bathroom. That included one of these pipe cleaner type brushes. It’s the only thing that can clean out the bathroom sink properly.
Unfortunately, it disappeared at some point. We figure a cat had to have dragged it off, but to where? It’s been months, and we still haven’t found it!
I was happy to see they had some in stock and made sure to grab one!
I spent enough time looking at things and checking out other stores that when I got closer to another restaurant, a fried chicken place, it was actually a good time to stop for lunch.
They had a new sign out front. They are now open for breakfast, too! Until recently, they didn’t open until 11am. Something to remember, should I need to in the future.
It took a while, but I finally settled on one of their “snack” meals, that came with only one side and no bun. Instead of the usual fries, I chose their coleslaw. I like their coleslaw better than their fries, anyhow! So that worked out.
Again, I was able to take my time about it, as much to make it easier on my hips and knees as anything else! I knew I would have a lot more walking ahead of me.
Once I was done there, I made my way to another shop where I found a few more small things to pick up. The pharmacy was across the street, and I remembered to go there to get the printouts for our taxes.
We paid over $1400 in co-pay for my husband’s meds last year. His private insurance covers 90% and, once the $3000+ deductible is covered, some of his medications switch to the provincial prescription insurance, which then covers 100%. Most of his meds aren’t covered by the provincial insurance at all.
Thank God for private insurance!
My prescription co-pay amount is miniscule compared to his.
From there, it was more walking – and finding a clean bench to sit on for a while. Last of all, I stopped at a hardware store, where I finally found a metal dish rack to replace the plastic coated one we’ve been using since moving here. It was here before us, and pieces of the plastic coating was already starting to break off. After 7 more years, it was definitely time to replace it! It was surprisingly hard to find a non-plastic dish rack in the size we needed.
I mightily resisted picking up grow light kits today. One would have done will for our plants in the living room. The other would be great for starting seeds. I have decided I do want to use the new part basement for seed starting, but we have to do some re-arranging, first. I do have a nice, bright shop light down there now, but it’s not the kind where a timer could be set. I can still use one of the big aquarium lights, though, and it does have a timer, so that could work. We shall see.
At that point, I was just a couple of blocks from the garage. I hadn’t heard from them yet, but I was done with walking, so I headed over. I knew I could stay in their office waiting area, at least for a while.
When I got there, the truck was up on the lift.
There were 3 mechanics under it, the owner/mechanic had something in his hand, and they were all looking slightly perplexed.
Hmmm.
Once I was in the office, one of the first things I noticed was a bag of take out food on the desk, still all closed up.
The owner soon came in and told me they would have to change the oil plate gasket another day. He had the wrong one! He ordered a new one immediately.
He went out and was back again. The only thing left to do was the wheel alignment, and he suggested doing it at the same time as the gasket, rather than today. The bay with the equipment to do the wheel alignment had another vehicle on it still. They’d have to finish that vehicle first, then move the truck, which would make it another 2 1/2 hours! They were so busy, they had all three bays full, plus smaller vehicles/equipment tucked in spaces in between that, even with three mechanics, they hadn’t been able to stop for lunch, yet! It was well past 1pm by the time I got there.
By stopping at this point, though, it would only be a few more minutes.
So I paid for the work they did today. When he mentioned that the gasket he’d ordered would be in tomorrow, I asked if I could come back tomorrow, and he fit me in for the afternoon.
Just one more day, and the list of small(ish) fixes will be done!
It was just a bit longer as they lowered the truck and tested it out before it was ready.
Today’s work was replacing a front left axle seal, the new oil pressure sensor, a new cv boot and new front links. The parts totaled $216.35. Shop supplies cost $36.99. Three hours of labour cost $299.97 After taxes, the final bill was $619.71
I’m expecting tomorrow’s work to be in the $200-$250 range, after taxes.
That done, I still had a couple more stops to make, now that I could use the truck to do them. First, a quick trip to the grocery store across the street to refill two of our big water jugs. We didn’t need anything else, but I looked around anyhow, and did get a few things that were on sale – specifically, cheese and lactose free cheese, plus some salad kits that I can eat. The ones I got at Costco have dressings that are just over my tolerance level for spicy heat.
Before leaving town, I got some gas at the one gas station where the prices have started to go down. $1.519/L instead of $1.569/L
My husband had let me know a parcel had come in, so I stopped at the post office on the way home. The 250 watt ceramic bulbs I ordered were in. However, the pair of clamp lamps I ordered that can handle 250 watt bulbs are not in yet. Once that package reached the Canadian side of the border, it switched to CanPar for delivery. I think we might actually get delivery to our physical address with them! Tracking information says March 14 for delivery, but I do know it’s in our province now, so it shouldn’t take that long.
Once it’s in, I want to replace the fixture in the isolation shelter. The new fixture has a wire guard around the bulb, so no cats can burn themselves. The current fixture has no such protection. Granted, it would take a lot for a cat to end up that close to the heat bult, but still, I’d rather not take the chance! Plus, the current heat bulb is incandescent, so there is light in there, day and night, which can disrupt sleep patterns. Considering they cluster together right in front of the bulb to stay warm, that can potentially be an issue.
The clamp lamp in the sun room has a 150 watt ceramic bulb in it right now, and I’m thinking of still using that, but setting up a second 250 watt heat bulb nearby, somewhere.
Look! No check engine light! And the oil pressure gauge is working again!
The tire light is for the three remaining tire sensors with dead 14 yr old batteries that need to be replaced. Those can be done, little by little. We’ve had that light on for over a year, now. I think we can last a few more months! We need to focus on paying off the credit card for the work we’re getting done right now, first.
The trip meter shows how many kilometers I’ve driven since filling the tank at Costco. Which is about twice what it normally would be, this early in the month!
Oh, I just realized. I need to go read the meter for our electricity, while it’s still light out enough to see it!
My last task on today’s “to do list”.
It’s been a pretty darn productive day.
I’m going to feel much, much better once the final work is done, tomorrow!
I was tending to the flexible hose for the emergency septic diverter, getting any liquid sitting in it, out, and the cats were very interested! Syndol, however, went for a post-eye view! 😁
This morning, I was just starting to feed the cats outside, when my cell phone started ringing.
*sigh*
There’s really just one place that calls my cell phone.
Home care.
Yup. They were short staffed again. This time for my mother’s morning meds.
Given what time it was, I quickly finished feeding the cats, grabbed my purse, then finished short rounds before heading to my mother’s. With what time she’s supposed to take her morning medications, I didn’t have time to change or call her ahead. So my mother got a bit of a surprise when I came in the door instead of home care this morning!
I wasn’t there for very long, but a lot happened in that short time. She has some confusion about her meds and that led to her making all sorts of assumptions and accusations. Then she commented on how the case coordinator we had a meeting with yesterday had said we’d soon be getting rid of the lock box. Very clearly, she said this, according to my mother.
Which is the opposite of what she actually said.
After answering her as best I could while doing her meds, I took her blood pressure. It is much better this early in the day than in the evening. She had already made herself some breakfast, but I was able to empty her commode for her. I offered to help her dress, but she was happy to stay in her warm and fluffy night gown today, as she doesn’t need to go anywhere. My sister will be coming by later, so she will be able to do more light housekeeping and laundry for her. Hopefully, she also found a hot water bottle and some Velcro shoes for my mother, too. Finding shoes that my mother can get her feet into is even harder than for me. She has massive bunions and bunionettes, so her feet are much, much wider at the ball of the foot, even compared to mine. My sister was also planning to bring some microwave dinners as well. Home care will be able to heat those up for Mom, if she wants them to.
As we were talking, my mother mentioned that our vandal and his wife had stopped to visit her not long after I’d left yesterday. !!! It seems they were on the way back from another chemo treatment. Apparently, he was so sick, he couldn’t sit down, but had to lie on the couch and, even while driving, has to lay the seat back.
If he’s that sick, he shouldn’t be visiting my mother.
But, he’s playing her like a lute, and it’s working. She feels so sorry for him, and started telling me how my brother and I shouldn’t be “afraid” of him, and that we should basically suck up to him because he’s sick. She heard the messages he’d managed to leave with my brother’s voice mail, and knows full well he claims we caused his cancer, among other far more vile things he said about me and my daughters. Unfortunately, she is easily swayed. I don’t know what he’s trying to get out of her (and I doubt his wife has any idea that he made those calls), but he’s certainly succeeding in getting her to feel sorry for him. I think my brother may need to keep an eye on her accounts to see if any checks made out for large amounts get cashed!
After I left, I decided to stop at the post office to pick up a couple of parcels. I have another that’s supposed to arrive tomorrow, and was going to pick them all up on my way home from getting the truck to the garage, but went ahead and got the two that were there today, anyhow. More on that later!
Once I got home and updated my family, I called up the case coordinator. She was actually in her office, so I was able to talk to her directly. I knew she would have heard the messages I’d left yesterday, but there was no need for her to follow up on those. I wanted her to know about how my mother had declared she had said the opposite of what she really said, about the lock box, and about my mother’s confusion with her bubble packs.
I also mentioned that our vandal had showed up yesterday. She is somewhat aware of that situation. We talked about how it would work out if my mother were in a nursing home. Particularly the one she wants to be in. I would hope that we’d be able to ban him from visiting her, but they don’t really have security. Their security is to keep nursing home patients from wandering off, not to keep people out. The only real way to keep him away would be if there were a court order, and we looked into that several years ago. My mother would have to go to court herself, which she physically can’t do. My brother, as PoA, could only do it on her behalf if a doctor declared my mother mentally incapable of doing it herself. That she is physically unable to doesn’t matter. Granted, her cognitive decline would make it difficult for her to do it, too, but she’s not far enough gone for the PoA to kick in, in that regard.
Either way, it’s disturbing that he keeps showing up at my mother’s, and that she lets him in. At least his wife is with him, so he’d be on better behaviour. Apparently, he’s so unwell, he can’t sit, and had to lie down. Even while in the vehicle, he has to have the seat back. Even the case coordinator wondered, if he’s that sick, why is he stopping to see my mother?
Once all that was done, I could finally make myself breakfast – brunch? Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Once again, I am giving up sugar and simple carbs. Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, that sort of thing. The first year I did that, it was not that difficult. Last year, it was oddly difficult. But then, it wouldn’t mean as much if it was easy.
I ended up making a creamy meat soup for breakfast, with bacon lardons, celery, mushrooms, ground beef, mushroom broth, cream, a can of mushroom soup and a handful of shredded cheese (cheddar and mozzarella). It turned out delicious!
That done, I finally got to opening the packages. One of them was the keyboard protector I originally bought for myself. March is a birthday month, though, and after talking to my younger daughter, I found that my older daughter would not want what I originally planned to get her. Knowing that she has the same issues with cats on her keyboard that I do – and her computer is how she makes a living – I decided this might make an acceptable gift, instead.
When I took it out of the box, I discovered some pleasant surprises!
This is what I got. (not an affiliate link) Just a basic acrylic piece in the large sise, that would fit over my ergonomic keyboard.
It was not the only thing in the box!
The cover itself came with self adhesive, no slip pads to protect the desk surface. There is also an optional back cover, with clear Alien Tape type stuff to attach it, if necessary.
Then there was the clear acrylic phone holder.
A colourful round mouse pad.
and… what the heck???
An odd looking stick and some brightly coloured fuzzy things???
The odd looking stick turned out to be a “fishing rod”, and the fuzzy things were the “lures”.
It was a cat toy, with two different fluffy “lures”.
I called my younger daughter down and asked her if she thought her sister would like it as her birthday gift. We knew she wouldn’t have much use for the phone holder, and the cat toy would, of course, be for the cats, but she said that yes, her sister would like the gift. So she took it upstairs to set up over her sister’s keyboard as a surprise.
Then she got the cat toy out and put it together with a highlight marker yellow lure, discovering that the rod was telescoping!
The cats went absolutely insane over it!
Unfortunately, one of them woke up my older daughter after parkouring off of her stomach to get to the other room and try and catch the lure!
So my older daughter now knows what she got for her birthday – and then promptly fell back asleep!
My younger daughter was able to get all the cats downstairs and played with them for some time. Only the three grandmas were completely uninterested, and stayed on my bed! Tin Whistle was the most insane with her leaping and twisting and flipping through the air. Amazingly, the cat that was almost as acrobatic was Tin Whistle was Cheddar! He’s such a big boy, I really did not expect that!
When she saw Tin Whistle actually starting to pant (cats should NOT pant!), she stopped and tucked it way into the bathroom, where the cats are not allowed, until next time.
I plan to get two more of these covers. One for my own keyboard and one for my younger daughter. While I did balk slightly at the cost, the extras that came with it more than made up for it! Only the optional back panel was included in the description.
I am getting quite the giggle out of this “Engrish” description of the large sized cover.
【large size】20”long x 7”Width x 4.7”high. 0.4” thick；- this is large enough to cover each of them with enough room for keyboard. It’s high enough allows boys with large palms to type without any hindrance. that you can use the keyboard easily. It’s thick so it can take the weight of you chonky adult cats easily. Compared with glass, the sturdy and drop-proof acrylic material makes it safer.
Boys with large palms!
You chonky adult cats!
Too funny.
On a completely different note, I’ve been chatting with the Cat Lady today. They’ve been in the US for the past while, combining a family holiday with her husband doing a presentation at a conference. It turns out he was offered a job and they are seriously considering moving. Or, more accurately, she would really like to move. He’s not too keen on moving. As someone who has moved so many times, I’d be more like her husband on this one! Plus, they’ve been in their house for less than 2 years. So why would she want to move?
Better weather (Florida).
Better healthcare (US in general)
No state income tax (her husband would get to keep 52% more of his income).
Better political leadership, both state and federal.
I can’t argue against any of those points. Especially right now, when our Liberal government has chosen a tariff war that will destroy our economy, rather than accepting the reasonable request of beefing up our border security, dealing with the fentanyl crisis and meeting our NATO obligations, all of which we should already be doing.
If you’re hearing about it in the news and the US is being painted as the “bad guy” in all this, and Canadians are all up in arms against Americans and boycotting, they are lying. We could easily have avoided a tariff war, but our governments, federal and most provincial, have decided to play a dick waving war. Most Canadians see that, but you won’t be hearing about them, in the media.
Like the quote, wrongly attributed to Sun Tzu, goes…
“An evil enemy will burn his own nation to the ground… to rule over the ashes“.
That is what our own government has chosen to do. Burn our nation to the ground, but now they can blame Trump for it. Our own government is the “evil enemy”, not the US.
Honestly, it’s gotten to the point where, if it were an option, I’d be moving, too. That whole “51st state” thing? That might well be the only thing that can save Canada. Lord knows, we haven’t been able to save ourselves. As I write this, Trudeau is still our Prime Minister, having stated his intent to resign after a new Liberal leader and PM is chosen, in a few days.
In our system. we don’t vote for our Prime Minister in federal elections. We have 338 elections for our Members of Parliament. The party that has the most winning MPs wins the federal election, and that party’s leader becomes the PM. The PM is supposed to also be an MP. Technically, he or she could still be PM if they did not win in their own riding, but they would not be able to debate in Parliament. In the rare event that this happens, an MP that did win would volunteer to step down. The party leader would officially move to that riding and be the MP in their stead.
On announcing his intent to resign, our Prime Dictator got the Governor General (who is supposed to be a neutral representative of the crown, but is a partisan T2 appointee) to shut down parliament. This was to avoid a planned vote of non-confidence which would have passed and triggered an election. The act was blatantly unconstitutional, but then, most of what T2 and his Liberals have done for the past 10 years have been unconstitutional and often outright illegal, and they’ve been getting away with it.
With T2 (not to be confused with his father T1, who was the most hated PM in Canadian history until now) saying he will step down when a new party leader is selected, there is now a leadership race. They managed to get rid of the one person that was actually competent (a woman born in India, and if there’s one thing our “feminist” PM can’t stand, it’s a strong, ethnic woman), so there are 4 people running for leadership. The one that they are blatantly working to install is Carney, a guy that hasn’t lived in Canada for more than 10 years, holds 3 passports, has destroyed the UK economy and, it turns out, has been advising our Prime Dictator for the past 5 years. So he’s been busy destroying our economy, too. Of course, he isn’t an MP, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He’s actually worse than T2. If (when) he is installed, he would automatically become PM – though when asked directly, when he would resign, T2 said it would be up to whoever won the leadership race. So… he might not resign after all.
Carney, meanwhile, has already talked about using emergency measures in Canada. My prediction (please, God, let me be wrong) is that, once installed into office, he’ll pull a Zelensky. Invoke the war measures act (aka: the emergency act) and declare martial law (because, Trump), and ban any elections. They can keep parliament from resuming, but can push through that “internet safety” bill they were trying to force through before parliament was shut down. This bill, if passed into law, would literally allow for people to be arrested for thought crimes and pre-crimes. Basically, anything anyone says that the government does not approve of can lead to charges, but it would also allow people to press charges against each other essentially for hurt feelings. It would allow them to ban opposition parties, start arresting anyone who disagrees with them, and give them the power to control the media, including social media.
It blows my mind that Canada has fallen so far. Worse, there are so many people who actually cheer this on.
So… yeah. I can understand why so many people have been leaving Canada (a trend that has been going on for years) for greener pastures, like the US.
I would certainly be sad to see the Cat Lady and her family go, but if they are able to escape, more power to them!
Thankfully, we live in the boonies. Things would be much worse if we still lived in a city!
I also mentioned to the Cat Lady about my having to cover for home care so many times. She completely understood our situation. Her mother had gone through the same with her mother (the Cat Lady’s grandmother. She had to be there almost all day, every day, because there were so many cancellations and screwups.
Suddenly, our situation doesn’t seem to bad!
When I got the call this morning, I confirmed that this evening’s med assists were still on schedule, and was told yes. I’m still half expecting my cell phone to ring, and be told they suddenly don’t have staff again.
The Re-Farmer 