5C's Que Pasa

Well Carmeh is definitely depressed. It took a lot of encouragement to get her to eat her breakfast.  Then later she refused to play which is her normal after breakfast.  She refused to come under the bed covers last night so I made sure that she was covered with a dog blanket.  We/I sleep with the windows open and the bedroom is cool.

It is now 10PM and she is sleeping on  the bed.  Just under 24 hours and she will be reunited with Colin.

For years and years and years, ever since we have had doxies we have done an annual calendar.  The cover is a photo of the four of us and then each month is a shot of the girls hopefully representing the current month.

One of my readers, Cat, asked if I could show the calendar photos month by month.  Why not I thought?

This is the cover of our 2016 calendar, taken in our garden on the Isla.

Yes we did have snow last October, hence our 2016 October shot.

It has been a hectic time since Colin left but I am happy to say that I only need one more hour to complete shutting down our books until mid April.  However I do feel that I am three days behind in my prep to leave.  Hopefully I can make up for lost time in the next few days.

Unfortunately I was distracted while making my dinner at 8:30PM and touched a finger to the hot oven rack @ 425F.  Yup, I burnt it and it does hurt.  Using an ice pack at the moment. Always something with me 🙄

Colin left very early this morning for Winnipeg.  He was flying there to see his Mom and to celebrate her 102nd birthday.  I’m certain that I will receive some photos in the next day or so to share with  you.  Meanwhile our major concern was Carmeh and how she would deal with the separation from Colin.  As she ages she gets upset when he is gone for more than a very few hours.  Right now we don’t need her to experience any stress to aggravate the pancreatitis.

So as I awoke at 4:15AM today I had the thought that we should bring her to the airport with us so she could actually see Colin leave the car and walk away.  She was awake the entire drive and became concerned when he got out of the car.

Over the last few weeks we have been working on some signals so that she knows that he is leaving. Giving her a kiss goodbye, waving hands goodbye and a few things along that line.

Caeli meanwhile stayed home sound asleep and barely registered that we had been gone when we got home.  She does not have separation anxiety. Carmeh only developed this over the past 15 months when she became paralyzed and now after her pancreatitis attack.  At 13 years of age and all that she has been through I think she is entitled to have her Papa with her.

We both watched Colin walk into the building and I waited a bit so that she could see that he was not coming back.

She laid her head down on the dog bed in the front passenger seat of the car and I could see that her eyes were wide open all the way back home..  She looked so sad.  Once home she did sit and look out the window for a few moments before she fell asleep next to Caeli.  Overall she was better today than she usually is when he leaves.  She only went to the door a few times and asked to be let out.  I really can’t say that the experiment worked but she did eat all her food at mealtimes and enjoyed her afternoon walk.

Sadly I am deep into closing down our business for just over five months and did not have a lot of time to play with her but I think she did alright.  I would say that today is a good day.  Colin doesn’t return home till about 9:30PM Friday so we are only 1/3 of the way there.  So far so good.

Interesting cloud formation early this morning.

By 10AM we were at the Vet for our final check up and paperwork for crossing two international borders.  Caeli is so very laid back.  She would not stand but did a low side sit and almost just laid down.

Meanwhile Carmeh is shaking and upset. I’m sure that she remembers being here just weeks ago for two days of IV therapy.  She was pacing the floor but when I picked her up she settled a bit, but refused to look at the Vet or Caeli.  The photo makes her look fat with all the wrinkles but in fact she has lost a lot of weight rather quickly due to the pancreatitis.  Turns out she lost  a full pound in just under 6 weeks.

The chicken and rice just didn’t do it for her.  I knew that she was hungry.  In fact she still is, but once she gets her food she has a burst of energy and plays for a good 30 minutes.  I decided to feed her the 6.6 ounces of canned food over three feedings as that seemed to fill her the most and the vet said that it was fine but she felt that feeding a dog just once per day was enough.  Well sorry, but not my dog 🙂

The sky cleared and we had some sun and a bit of heat.  It managed to get up to 53F.

Shortly after our walk, about 2PM, the sky looked ominous.  It was raining way back there over the hills.

Just after Colin left to pick up a cheque at Predator Ridge the skies opened.  He said that he could barely see the highway.

A few hours later we had a lovely reflection sunset in the East.

The actual sunset this evening.

A wonderful end to a very full day.  You missed all the details of our very busy day but I will share that @ 5:30 PM I received an email from our accountants office that Revenue Canada was wondering why I had not paid GST ( a Federal tax ) from March till now!  What the heck!  Checking my files, sure enough I had not.  However nor had I received the usual three month documentation that the tax was due.  Not really an excuse as normally I know when it is due and am usually on top of it albeit mostly because of the mail I receive for Revenue Canada.  However I was in the midst of  my cancer scare in June when it was due and it September I was dealing with Carmeh’s pancreatitis.  Coincidentally I had just got off the phone with Revenue Canada mere moments earlier about my Dad’s estate and the Clearance Certificate which seems to have reached a snag.  So it seems that I will not be able to finalize my Dad’s estate before we leave the end of the month.  It might take 5 – 7 months more.  I’m sure that some of my siblings won’t be happy but I must proceed according to the law.

So as wonderful as the sunset was, my day end was not so great.  In my defense all I can say is, that is why I drink wine 😯

I did a fairly detailed travel insurance post a few weeks back and have since received the following via email.  It is worth a mention in a follow up post in my opinion.

Taken a few nights ago.

This is the email……

Contessa, I had mailed a portion of your blog pertaining to Travel Insurance
to Laura Lee. This was her reply. Just hope that your insurance coverage
will be sufficient, if ever needed. There are so many variables, so hard to
tell, I know. Thought you might like to read her reply.

Good luck, especially with your special dogs. Cheers and all the best,

Begin forwarded message:

From: “Laura Lee O’Brien” <LauraLee@travelinsuranceoffice.com>
Subject: RE: Travel Insurance
Date: October 4, 2016 at 11:22:04 AM PDT
To: ”

I was finally able to open the attachment.
Unfortunately she doesn’t have her age, the number of days she is travelling and such so I have no idea if she actually got the best price from me.
Travellers Choice was a higher priced product than TIME, which is the one you purchase. If she called for TC pricing, she may not have received the best price we had and she took a $500 US deductible, which would be the equivalent of close to a $700 Canadian deductible. TIME and Travellers Choice have Canadian deductibles with great discounts.
This quite possibly was the least expensive product for her but like I said, there are other things to consider, like the currency for the deductibles.
My comment to her would be, price is not always the deciding factor and that she should tell her followers that, so that someone with medical conditions is aware that they need to consider coverage for pre-existing conditions as well as pricing. If she ever wants to contact us for tips on selling travel insurance properly, we can send her the link to our #TravelTuesday information videos. They are good for anyone, regardless of who they purchase with and are on our website.
Thanks for sending it XXXXXX and we will talk again soon.

Kind regards,

Laura Lee

Laura Lee O’Brien
Product Development Manager
Travel Insurance Office Inc.
Toll-free: 1-800-550-1295
Office: 905-201-1570
www.TravelInsuranceOffice.com

One of Canada’s largest travel insurance brokers.
Insuring travelling Canadians since 1991.

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed. Any review, re-transmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender immediately by return electronic transmission and then immediately delete this transmission, including all attachments, without copying, distributing or disclosing them.

From:
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2016 1:57 PM
To: lauralee@travelinsuranceoffice.com
Subject: Re: Travel Insurance

___________________

I am not certain but is does not look like Laura Lee was able to read my entire post.  I have no idea how much of it was sent to her.  Personally $500.00 US is nothing to us, as if we need to use the deductible it means that one of us has a very serious problem that will require thousands of dollars to be covered and the $500.00 is a nothing in the big picture of the actual situation.  As I carefully explained in the post, we have no pre existing conditions and I did caution my readers to that effect and that each person is a different situation and quote.

If you are interested in receiving a quote from Laura Lee and Travellers Choice please give her a call.  She did point out the following….

My comment to her would be, price is not always the deciding factor and that she should tell her followers that, so that someone with medical conditions is aware that they need to consider coverage for pre-existing conditions as well as pricing. If she ever wants to contact us for tips on selling travel insurance properly, we can send her the link to our #TravelTuesday information videos. They are good for anyone, regardless of who they purchase with and are on our website.

You might want to check with her and get the link to the travel video, I’m sure it is of great value.  Again, I say, there are many choices out there and much to consider.  Please do your own fact checking before making a decision.  Colin and I are 100% confident in our choice.  Considering we haven’t had insurance for our time within Mexico for the last 13 years we are very happy with what we have at the moment.  However I think that calling Laura Lee is a good thing as she obviously cares about her clients and her clients friends, ie me.  She certainly took time out of her busy schedule to send me such a time consuming reply.  Likely I will give her another call next year.

Meanwhile I hope that all you snowbirds have a lovely winter and that none of us need use our insurance policies.

That same evening.

This is how the girls are preparing for the trek south. It can’t come soon enough for them.

D Day is 13 sleeps away…..the last of which we will be sleeping in the RV on the street in front of our home.

Tags: travel medical insurance

Not only is the vista constantly changing due to the color of the leaves ( simply wonderful ) and the varying temperatures ( not so great ) but our daily plans are as well.  Meanwhile I still enjoy the daily comings and goings of the geese.  As in the spring they are very vocal of late.  I just love hearing and watching the various squadrons flying in.

Just this last Friday, late in the day, Colin got a request to photograph four homes for one client.  Great job but the timing is bad.  So he will do two of them in April/May when we return and two this very weekend.  In fact he is on his way home from completing the first one.  The problem is that the homes are in Naramata, an almost two hour drive from here.  So four hours round trip, that takes a lot of time out of the day just driving.  He was already scheduled to do photography at 8AM this morning for another client so that did delay his departure to Naramata.  I no longer know if he is home for dinner or not and it is a challenge as now tonight he wants a full meal as he is tired and hungry.  Meanwhile I have three more hours at my desk tonight.  It is a big change for me as I can’t close the books in preparation for our trip South until he completes his photography and then the photo shop part of it and finally the invoicing.  As these last three jobs are for the Tommie Awards with a deadline we are insisting on COD for the USB flash drive.  However all of this takes time and delays my shutting down our business until May.

I really do have days like this.

Carmeh had a bad morning yesterday.  Her stomach was gurgling big time and she wanted to eat grass instead of her food.  It took a few hours for her to return to her normal self.  Meanwhile we were in agony wondering if the pancreatitis was back and we were back to square one. With Colin gone for two days in Naramata I was concerned but so far all is well.  Needless to say she is sitting on the bed looking out the window hoping for Colin’s return.  In the end he decided to drive home tonight and is expected shortly.  Thank goodness.

This is exactly how I looked the other day trying to get our internet up and running.  Seriously!

I am not a last minute person and all the changes plus many not documented really take a toll on me.  We are not retired and much needs to be done to keep the company running as if we were here.  Then there is the shutting down of the house including blowing out the water lines which needs to be scheduled as many other things.  Of course there is always the preparing and packing to head South for the winter.  Not to mention trying to collect on all the outstanding invoices before we leave.  You have to understand that no one is here to open the mail until we return in the spring so we don’t want any stale dated cheques.

I also wanted to mention that in the last four weeks I have been over 10,000 steps per day and even over 15,000 one day except for 8 days when I was close to the 10K.  So I really am on the move 🙂

All I can do is take one day at a time and do one thing at a time.  Not to mention indulging in a few glasses of wine.

Actually I don’t do Windows as we are iMac but still, yes to the wine.