5C's Que Pasa

I wondered why I have been unable to find our favorite Gardein ( meatless soy based ) product on the shelves these last few months.  So I called the the head office in the US today and discovered that the turkey cutlets with the most wonderful gravy have been discontinued 😥   Our favorite lentil loaf by Amy’s Kitchen can no longer be purchased in Canada.  Pretty soon we are going to run out of foods we like that don’t take too long to prepare.

I got a call this morning that our sold sectional is going to be picked up tomorrow morning.  The new one we purchased wasn’t supposed to arrive until around October 26th but I got another call this afternoon that it was in fact in town.  It somehow made the truck from Vancouver that left the day we ordered it.  As it will be delivered next Wednesday we will only be without a sofa for five days.  The third unexpected call came about 5PM and it was letting us know that our new coffee table which was not supposed to arrive until November 1st would be ready to pick up on Tuesday.  Quite amazing that it all came together on the same day.  That tells me that this change was meant to be.

What can I tell you about the laptop?  I got a call late yesterday asking me to bring in my time machine so that they can reinstall my data.  They said that the problem was rectified by upgrading to the new OS High Sierra.  Good thing I had other errands in town.  It might be ready tomorrow.  Like I really care 🙄  In case you missed it that was sarcasm.

Once again today my Fitbit Zip wanted a new battery.  I put a new one in on August 24th, September 7th, September 23rd and now October 5th.  That is about every two weeks.  Definitely something wrong with my Fitbit and not the batteries.  So I called and got a very pleasant individual.  Of course my warranty was over a few years ago.  I however insisted that something was wrong with their product and kept repeating that.  I also read their ad back to them stating that the Zip has a long lasting battery life.  The fellow said that he was checking with his support team and that the best he could do was offer me 25% off a new Fitbit device.  I asked him how he could have checked in with the support team as he had been on the phone with me the entire time.  At that point I asked to please be transferred to a supervisor.  Again another friendly guy came on the phone and knew my name and asked how he could help. I once again went over the issues with the batteries needing to be replaced very frequently.  He than explained that the new Apple OS upgrade had caused a huge problem with the Zip batteries and that their engineers were working on it.  I patiently explained that I wasn’t using any new OS upgrades until the last 8 eight days and that I had been using a 2009 computer with Mountain Lion.  He was shocked that I was running something so old, but said that that info may help the engineers.  He then offered me a 50% discount on any device.  I then said that I didn’t understand how my battery issues could be caused using such an old OS and that the problem had been ongoing for the past year.  He then put me on hold and when he came back he offered me 50% off any device or a new replacement ZIP at no charge.  I really only wanted another Zip and took the deal.  They are shipping it to me at no charge next week.  Now that is good customer service.  An $80.00 saving.

Maybe my luck is improving.

We woke up to frost and -6C/21F  this morning and this is only the beginning of October.  I am beginning to wonder how I will survive until we leave on November 6th.  I went out today to do an errand in sandals and my skort.  Despite a fleece jacket I was chilled.  I got my final pesos ordered from the bank.  I also purchased veggies to make a really really good soup for dinner.  We were both impressed.  One bowl filled us, the protein was quinoa and beans.  I am pretty sure that the 3/4 cup of wine made all the difference in the taste 😀

As  we were working in the kitchen chopping, sauteing, etc.,  I thought about the girls.  They were always underfoot when we cooked hoping for a piece of carrot or a fresh green bean.  I find myself thinking of them almost constantly since autumn arrived.  Once the cold began it was always a struggle to get them into their fleece coats. But once in them they pranced happily down the street.

I do get up from time to time in the night to use the bathroom.  As we like fresh air one or two of our four bedrooms windows are open a crack or a few inches.  In the past it was always great to get back into my side of the bed and have Caeli there to warm me.  Carmeh was always plastered next to Colin.  We miss them so much but for some reason this season seems to be the worst.

Fall mornings meant having the fireplace on high and seeing the girls get as close as they could to the heat.  I think of them each morning when I turn on the fireplace.

Oh how they loved to be warm and to cuddle each other.  Carmeh on the right, taken fall of 2016.

So many many memories but for some reason this time of year seems to be the most difficult.  I miss seeing Caeli asking to go out and once her head is out of the door deciding it was too cold even though the sun was shining.  She would check over and over and I was happy to get up and let her out and then back in.  They would often follow the sunbeams around and lay in the sun to stay warm.  Carmeh never liked the cold and was the first one to find a warm spot to sleep.  So often we ate ( and still do ) late dinners.  Usually after a long day we would each sit in our recliners with one of the girls and catch an hour of TV as we ate.  Carmeh was with Colin and Caeli was with me but when she realized that she wasn’t getting any food she took off and went to our bed for the night.  Carmeh on the other hand stuck with Colin until bedtime.  Their little bodies pressed close to us kept us warm.  This is our busiest time of year and Colin is always gone and I am at my desk/computer.  Carmeh always wanted attention and she would come to me and head butt me at the back of my knee asking asking to be played with or picked up and cuddled.  I am finding this a very difficult time of year and I am often sad.

We noticed this garter snake move across our front patio next to our shed this afternoon.  It reminded me of how Caeli would spend time watching for a garter snake on the rocks on the beach side patio  She would then bark a special bark that would have Carmeh flying out the door to meet her.  Then the hunt was on.  Most of the time the snakes got away.  Just seeing that wee snake today got my tear ducts flowing.

Colin took this today on his way to photograph a home in a residential area.  As he had just landed from a few hours of aerial photography in a helicopter his camera was on the passenger seat.  Normally his camera is in a bag in the back. He said that they were both licking each other.  How very sweet.  Of course their devotion to each other reminds me of our girls.

Taken last fall.  I remember this glorious day and the walk we enjoyed.

Wow was it cold this morning, -5C/23F, and yes there was frost.  We have been using the fireplace every morning to warm the house up.  Of course it wouldn’t be so cold in here if we closed the blinds at night.   But we love to leave them open day and night at this time of year.  So great to see the moon rise and then cross from one side of the lake to the other.  Then once the sun rises it fills the house with light and warmth.  How fortunate we are to have the privacy we do.  It is worth paying a bit more for heat so that we can enjoy nature.

I am sad to say that I haven’t been outside since I took the laptop in.  Just too much to do with the business and getting my to do lists ready for Mexico.  So my steps vary from 4000 to 7000 ish.  I do a lot of house walking as I also make a point of not sitting too long so I get up every so often to walk and stretch.  We are supposed to have sun for the next few days which is giving Colin a chance to catch up on some jobs.  Of course now that the weather is perfect and he has has a few free hours here and there, the clients are not ready.  I predict that when the rains start in earnest they will start to call.  He has about 15 days left of shooting time and then that is it.  The days after that will be the final editing and photoshop.  Then he has to do some things to get us ready to leave such as putting all of our plant pots, patio furniture, etc away for the winter.  I am always glued to my desk and computer the month before we leave and the first month once we return.  It is not easy running a business for the time we are away and I do as much prep as I can.

A few weeks ago we noticed that the  leather on our sectional was starting to have some tiny cracks.  We did some research and found out that what was sold to us five years ago was not true leather but rather bonded leather.  We knew that we would have to replace it in a year or so.  By accident I noticed an ad for a real high quality leather sectional.  It was close to 50% off.  This is not the right time for us financially or time wise but it was too good a deal to pass up.

So yesterday we went into town and checked it out.  Lovely comfortable sofa.  It is about 11 inches too long for the space but we can make it work.  So last night I listed our sectional on a free site and paid $15.00 to have it stay at the top of the listings.  I got calls, emails and texts ( to our landline ) until 11PM last night.  There were three people who wanted to come by today.  The first lady who called could only come at 2PM and she came with cash and bought it.  I asked $750.00 and was willing to take $600.00 but I had a total of eight people wanting to pay that amount.  Everyone was disappointed when I called to let them know that it was sold.  I had told everyone about the fine cracks that were developing in the leather.  I also listed the old desktop but no bites yet.

Speaking of computers I did call the geek guys this afternoon.  The low guy on the totem pole told me that he heard it might just be that I needed to upgrade to High Sierra and that it should be fine.  He told me that he would have Mr. Manager get back go me.  Of course he didn’t but I am happy that it appears to not be the hard drive.  However I am perplexed as to why he never called back.  Hopefully nothing further is amiss.

Enough for tonight.  As always thanks so much for your comments.

You may find this hard to believe.  I was here and I am still in shock.  I had turned off the laptop two days ago and needed to use it this morning.  It would not boot up.  Finally I called Apple support and after 55 minutes speaking on the phone with the agent, it still would not work.  He fears that the hard drive may have failed 👿 What the heck 😯

By pressing a few keys at the same time and hitting the enter button as well we got to Disk Utilities.  As you can see corruption was found.

How can a brand new hard drive that I have used for 24 hours become corrupted?

It shows operation successful.  Actually it was not succesful.

We tried a few more times.  Even tried rebooting directly from the Macintosh hard drive.  No go.  The next step the Apple dude wanted to try was to reformat my hard drive and start from scratch.  I knew enough to say no.  So off I went to my tech guys in town.  Long line up.  I went to an associate and asked for the store manager.  He was aware of my situation over the past weeks and told me that he would take care of it.  I had previously discovered that he used to work as an Apple tech before he got laid of.  My Geek manager guy is off until 1PM tomorrow.

I wasn’t rude nor loud but quietly strong in expressing that I was done and wanted this fixed pronto.  So what is it with me and computers?

Meanwhile what can one say about the beyond horrific event in Las Vegas.   Sadly to date there have been three Canadian deaths as a result of the shooting last evening, one here in BC and two in Alberta.  We also have one fellow who lives in our small community of Lake Country who is in a Vegas hospital with a bullet wound and brain bleed.  The world as I know it has changed beyond the norm.  It is hard to have hope for our world.

This is the photo of the girls for our October calendar.

Taken as we are on the road up to the campground at Picacho Peak State Park on November 11, 2015.

We plan to feature the girls once again in our 2018 calendar.