A Bunch of Sleepy Heads Here

It is 6:30am and I am sitting here with Otto, Harvey, and Pearl.  They are all sacked out after having breakfast. I would have like to have slept until 6 or 7, but it is REALLY hard to ignore Pearl once she decides it breakfast time. :-/

Anyway, it rained, rained, and rained more this week.  Sometimes I think it rains here almost as much as Vancouver, but now it is Sunday and we are supposed to have sunny skies.  I really hope so.  On the gray, wet days, I constantly fight the inclination to plot my escape.

I am house-sitting for dad and mom.  They were able to go down to the coast for a young relative's grad party. Would have been nice but when a person works full-time the long drive and quick return is just too much.  So I am dog-sitting for mom and dad so they can go down and enjoy it.  And it is going great.  I was pretty worried about Harvey playing a lot, but his back is holding up good.  Yesterday was very cool.  Pearl spotted a big deer that came up to the fence-line.  She started running in circles barking, which alerted Harvey and Otto, so all 3 of them stood face to face with it barking through the face.  The deer wasn't fazed at all and stood there with its face over the fence chewing, seemingly intrigued by the 3 little crazies.

I pushed my motorcycle under the awning yesterday and did my best to do an oil change on it.  Saves about $150 every few months, but this time I couldn't get the filter screws off.  Grrr...will have to wait til dad gets home to apply some brute force to them.

Okay, must start thinking about the meeting...WT..what to wear, etc.  So everyone have a great day.

Love to all,

d  :-)

This Squirt Was Born Without A Brain

This weekend Linda Bielby told me that even though she is an animal lover she doesn't mind eating quail because “they do such stupid things, they were obviously born without a brain”. Mmm...well I felt sad momentarily, but then Sunday afternoon I think her point was proven. I was working in my yard with Harvey and Pearl and out of the corner of my eye I saw a peanut roll across my yard. But peanuts don't usually roll across my yard so I decided to take a closer look. It was a newborn quail out for a run by itself. :-/

Since Harvey and Pearl also saw it I quickly grabbed the garden hose because that is Harvey and Pearl's cue to run and hide – as they are not keen on baths. Then I ran and got the little thing and put it through the fence. I only hope he develops somewhat better skills at where to hangout for future outings. I... just found the most incredible thing at the Women Shelter Shop (where I like to wander and browse on some of my lunch hours). A lady dropped off a doggy booster seat including the seatbelt and harness, and I scooped it for $3..yay!! Anyway, now no more fighting over the one booster seat I already have. :-)

And finally here are some pics of where Harvey and Pearl and I walk everyday. Pearl has turned into quite the little “farm dog”. The blades are taller than her but she loves to run through them. And Harvey's back is healing good now and I haven't had to carry him home for about 5 days straight now. So that is a great thing too. :-)

So anyway, life is good, and hope it is for you all too. Have a great week.

Love to all, d :-)

Oh Yes, Don't Forget

$25 per month for pet insurance is worth it for situations like this, especially for people on limited incomes.  I know I have mentioned it before, but it has saved me tons and given me peace of mind, so want to encourage others with pets to have it too. :-)

Love,
d

I Didn't Suspect This Could Happen

Hey hi everyone :-)  Hope everyone is having a great week.

Everything is going o-k-a-y here...actually good, when thinking about situations in the world.  But it has been a tiring week.  Harvey pickled his back.  After seeing a picture the vet showed me, I am sure it was when he was having  a great time playing with Otto – doing the tug of war thing, but the whipping back and forth caused a disc to rupture in his back.  I feel very fortunate because the vet said many dogs lose all feeling and ability to walk for several weeks while it heals.  Harvey has just had severe pain when being touched ANY place on his body.  The first couple days he just stood to go to the bathroom and then laid back down in a small area I made for him in the kitchen.  Now he does walk around but is wobbly and weak.  As the disc heals the vet says the symptoms will alleviate.  It is a big adjustment for him because we were walking over two hours a day.  So even though he can't walk right now he cries and whimpers to go, so I decided our walks would become strolls.  I put him in the big buggy I have and push him along the route.  He does seem to understand though, because he waits for me to pick him up to get in the buggy or out of buggy rather than jumping like he used to.  Even though jumping is forever out of his life due to the risk of re-injury, the vet said the goal is to get the blood vessels healed around the disc so that we can be walking our long routes again.  ...Pearl is doing okay with it.  The first few days I had to lock her in the bedroom because she would hop all over him wanting to play and he couldn't get up.  Now with the stroller, when she gets tired she hops in the grocery basket underneath the main buggy and looks like she is in heaven as we stroll along.  Meanwhile I have built ramps in my place so that Harve can start walking around my place again.  The one off the back deck area was the most challenging because after I built it I watched out the window as Harvey went out the door.  Instead of using the ramp he did a full blown leap off the edge of the deck. Heart sink.  So I took our gogo pen for traveling and boxed the deck in with it and left only the space where the ramp is open – now no choice to go up and down.  So hopefully things will heal quickly.  He is on Tramadol and Metacam to control the pain and making the swelling on the spine go down.  For the first couple days it was breaking through and I found him laying just absolutely vibrating with pain and his eyes looking very scared, day and night – I would just massage him until the pain meds kicked in.  But now they seem to have kicked in full force.  In 10 days we will start to wean him off and see how he does. 

One thing I learned though, is that dogs can still sense their toe nails being cut even when they are high.  I got the idea that when Harvey was sleeping on his drugs, which are very strong, I would use the opp to cut his nails.  Will have to wait for assistance. Even in a stupor he knew what was going on. :-( 

….So as you can see this has pretty much consumed my life this week with no tons of other stuff to report. :-/  We had one nice day of weather, and another day that made me think the second coming of Noah's flood had arrived.  The WT studies have been particularly good lately, and I am looking for ways at work to encourage ones to think about the Bible.

Oh, there is something I did different a couple weeks ago.  Mom and I went downtown and painted on the street corners.  Mom of course is very good, and I was there basically for the excellent cookies and sandwiches she brought along.  I did produce something, but a little too scary to post.  :-)  Anyway, here are a couple pics of that too.  And there is a pic of the patient too.  I plopped him on his pillow and gave him his squirrel.  He can lick it for hours.  He was very good and laid there and watched me barbecue.

Mom Painting

Mom's Unfinished painting...pretty

The patient licking his squirrel and watching me barbecue

Okay, I better run and make breakfast.  Have a wonderful week everyone.

Love to all,
d  :-) 

Life is Humming Along Just Great Here

Even though it is raining torrents today, the weather has been generally nice these last 10 days – sunny and warm.  I even got inspired to put more grass down in the yard.  Got out there with the hand-hoe and chopped up the ground then seeded it...and amazingly grass actually is growing! :-)  However, to prepare for more rainy days that may lay ahead I am going to stop at Canadian Tire tonight on the way home and buy a neon orange plastic suit, for over my motorcycle armour.  If someone hits me on the road it will truly be because they are blinded by my brightness. :-)

School life is great too.  Love going there everyday and now that the weather is nice I am using Friday afternoons for field trips or outdoor activities. Adds some extra fun to the week. 

Meetings and service are fine too.  Haven't got any spectacular calls in the territory but I did have a very nice stimulating conversation with one of my students about deteriorating world conditions and how the Bible used to give people guidelines, but now many people float aimlessly because of not knowing anyone who is wise to help them.  I think I mentioned before the students that told me they made decisions about life by watching television. :-/

Since Pearl's bee sting nothing serious has happened to them.  They are presently laying like doggy-potatoes on the couch probably.  We have increased our walking time another 30 minutes in the evenings.  A man in the resort inspired me.  He told me a couple weeks ago that in the last 11 months he has lost 103lbs only by using his dog as an exercise program.  They walk two loonng walks each day.  I don't have 103 lbs to lose, but I do want to stay fit. :-)

Okay, will go. Students are pouring into the room.

Love to all,
d :-)

One Detail More On That Last Post

Baking Soda is highly toxic to dogs so after a person applies the paste make sure to cover it with sock or cloth bandage of some sort.

:-)

I Like The Internet

Hey hi everybody :-)

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

I am sitting here on the couch a little bleary eyed - got my taxes sent this weekend, my place cleaned out after a water problem, and the window on my truck fixed using one of the in-store products (dreary story on how that happened :-( )

Was planning to wash the truck and motorcycle yesterday afternoon but decided to take Harvey and Pearl to the lake instead - which lead to a heavy duty evening and night. They were playing on the beach when suddenly Pearl started yelping and crying. People were coming from all directions to see if she had broken her leg. I couldn't see a thing so with her crying at high pitch stuffed her in my coat and thought that maybe she had twisted her leg and it would wear off. But no. The pain and loud wailing escalated after an hour, and the swelling grew.

I started to think that maybe a snake was in the grass that I didn't see, or maybe something else was...so I left Pearl laying on the bed crying and ran the 15 minutes back to the beach myself. It was almost completely dark but I got down on my knees and felt for ANYTHING that could have done this. Finally I picked up a bee in my fingers and knew this was the culprit. So ran back home at high speed. The internet said: make a baking soda paste and apply to entire area to draw toxins out and neutralize pain. And give plain Benadryl to stop swelling. It worked. Before the internet people would have had to go to the vet, because bee stings are often dangerous for dogs - so yay internet! But by this time it was quite late and I got up during the night to make sure the skinny white dog as responding well to the treatment...therefore, a little tired this morning but had a big smile when I saw her bouncing into the yard a few minutes ago to do her business.

Other than this a splendid talk by Chris Docksteader yesterday. He has a great way of painting mental pictures. Now, off to work. Looking forward to a great week. :-)

Okay, hope everyone else has a great week also.

Love to all,
d :-)

A Couple Fun Things To Do

Hey hi everyone :-)

Hope all is great. The weather is finally warming up. Was about 70 yesterday, which is definitely moving in the right direction. :-) Now, I know everyone is pretty busy with service activity and meetings and LIFE everyday, but if you want something a little fun to throw into the mix there are a couple things we started doing at the college that I think fit the bill - the first one is called GEOCACHING. It is kind of like treasure hunting using GPS coordinates. There are routes planted in most cities now. I was amazed that most places are already really active with this - and it is free! Yay!! I am kind of hoping we can use it for a congregation outing. In Kelowna there were over 400 and in Palm Springs there are over 500 routes. A team or individual follows the coordinates to the final "treasure". Then you leave it where you find it (hidden for the next seeker) or take a picture of it before you leave. ...The second is SCVNGR. Both these website can be googled. This one is more like the Amazing Race where a team or person does challenges around the city or landscape earning points. Anyways, just wanted to share because sometimes it is fun to do something a little different when one has some time.

Harvey and Pearl are doing great. At this moment Pearl is doing a sausage sprawl across the couch giving me the sad eyes hoping I will break down and give her something from the fridge. And Harvey is still curled up in bed. Ahhhh a dog's life!

Hope everyone has a great day.

Love to all,
d :-)

It Is Not As Easy As Some Think

Hey hi everyone! :-)

My keyboard is gradually wearing out so if you see some weird spelled (missing (“a”s mostly) words you'll know why. :-)

Life is going okay this week. We actually had our last snow last week and I am riding my motorcycle again. Yay!! At least I am hoping it is the last snow. :-( It was a long cold winter. Fine though. No matter how cold it got outside it was warm and cozy inside our little home. Did have a couple glitches though. When a public water main burst in January the resort turned off my water pipes for 10 hours while they fixed it. But at -30 it caused my pipes to freeze and my back water tank to burst so had to bypass tank for 6 weeks until that was fixed – thanks to Dad. A challenge, but doable. Then a couple weeks ago the electrical pedestal caught fire. That was the one that made me cry because it happened while I was at work. Miraculously it didn't burn the RV down. But it was teary for me because Harvey and Pearl are at home alone during the day, and it the RV went up in flames it would be the end of them. As a joke, when I am leaving in the morning for work, as they are sitting on the couch staring at me, I give them instructions: “if someone knocks growl once then run and hide under the covers, if a flood happens run and hide under the covers, and if there is a fire run to the corner of the yard and wait for someone to save you.” Never thinking that any of those things could actually happen. ...Now that the weather is improving I am just looking forward to a nice uneventful Spring and Summer.

All is great at work. I work with really great staff who are nice people, great teachers that are really invested in teaching, and of course the students that make each day interesting. I am so thankful Jehovah gave me the motivation and ability to get that training. However, I was recently reminded of what people think of teaching, or maybe it is about what people think of teaching English. :-/ When I was taking my teaching program, the instructor told us that many native speakers think that anybody can teach English because they speak it. But when you actually hear someone say it, it leaves you feeling deflated. When a group discussion about teachers came up among none-teachers recently, I just sat there and said nothing, and then eventually tried to offer a couple small insights into what being in a classroom is like, and then someone turned to me and asked, “you still just teach English, right?” ...yup...sure. When other people talk about their jobs inside my head I am always in awe because I think about the skills that person must have to do what they do, whether it is working at McDonald's, or being an artist with special talent, or doing some job of intricate skill a person got special training for. (When it was slow a while back I had time to talk to a McDonald's worker about the best things about her job, and it was really nice to find out some details and gave me some insight.) Anyway, this morning, I was feeling a bit defeated about this. I guess I don't have pride about my job per say, but feeling it is nice to be somewhat respected for what you do...like anyone else, so I started reading an essay written by another teacher on the subject and it really put things into perspective for me. He was a molecular biologist that decided to become a teacher and what he learned. Since some of you reading this are classroom teachers too, if you want to read it it is can be found at this link: http://www.musingsonlifeandlove.com/2010/09/13/the-hardest-job-everyone-thinks-they-can-do/ And you know what....maybe I will never be respected for my work by some, and I guess that is okay too. :-)

Okay, it is the long weekend. Very exciting. :-) Soooo, I am going to study my WT, then go into town to do some GEOCACHING. A cool activity where a person hunts for hidden “treasures” or spots in an area. I decided I will take my GPS unit on my motorcycle and see what I can find. There is an international website of maps for anyone interested.

And finally, wash the truck and motorcycle so they can be all sparkly for the week. :-)

I have been able to have a couple discussions with students about the Bible lately so that has been great, AND our Memorial attendance on Thursday was 189. Awesome numbers for our area.

Have a great weekend!

Love to all,
d :-)

Spring Has Sprung

Well I guess Jehovah heard me whining because exactly on March 1 nice weather appeared. An older lady here told me that the way to tell Spring is here is when the Snow Drop flowers shoot up. They apparently come before Crocuses or anything else. They are tiny with a white head, thus the name. So things are looking up.

I am sore like no tomorrow. Two days ago I was carrying something out of my RV and my foot caught the door edge and I fell down the metal steps, hitting the door frame first and then the edge of every step before the hard cement full force. I think it was the worst fall in years for me. I just laid there for a bit because I felt faint every time I tried to sit up. Harvey and Pearl knew something was wrong and came and pawed at me, and then hopped up on my chest and just curled up. Must thought I was providing a nap opportunity for them. :-/ After about 15 minutes I could get up, but now I am blue from my kidney to my behind on one side. Will take a few days to heal up I guess. The good part of living in a resort is that if I needed an ambulance or something I could yell and for sure someone would hear me. High point to almost everything. :-)

Work is going good this week. Meetings have been good. So life is humming along. Harvey and Pearl are doing awesome, and playing in the yard lots. Pearl is barking at my neighbor Frank as usual as he works in his shop in the next yard. Entertainment for her, and he says he likes hearing her...mmm...he really is a nice man...if I had a chihuahua as my own private fan I am not sure I would be as sweet. :-(

Okay, bus is almost downtown so will close up. Have a wonderful week!

Love to all,

d :-)