Jul 26, 2013
…we have wild fire burning just next to us….Colin is packing and I am blogging….have already moved the car out and are loading the golf cart with essentials. This is serious, the airport has been shut down and in about 45 minutes the helicopters have to stop. Colin photos on the link below…
Follow along on http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-95656-1-.htm#95656. Gotta go pack. No time to move the RV.
starting to run out of daylight
Jul 25, 2013
Today and tomorrow July 26th, 2013 you can click here and order a free book. Why not? This is the book cover.
Even if you don’t have a kindle you can download the book onto your computer to read.
Thanks to Theresa in Merida Mexico for sharing this on her blog post today.
Isn’t the internet fabulous? Who doesn’t want everlasting love?
Jul 24, 2013
When Colin left at 8:00AM yesterday I don’t think he thought he would be working until 11PM. A long day for him and today seems no better.
Caeli, our doxie who had the eye surgery last Friday, is allowed to sleep with us at night without her ‘safety’ collar. It seems that she got up early, around 6AM I think and went to sleep elsewhere in one of her many beds spread throughout the house. When I did get up and look for her I was horrified. I thought the stitches in her eye had come undone.
Of course that created a bit of panic.
Colin was heading out in 10 minutes to a local appointment so he dropped Caeli off at the vet to do whatever had to be done. Turns out her eye was full of crud and the stitches were okay. Thank goodness. Best news of all is that since Friday she has already lost .55 of a pound.
Meanwhile Mr. Carpenter just happened to show up….said he had to take more measurements. He was here over an hour. SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am beginning to wonder if we will ever get a finished stair rail system.
Then knock knock at the door….surprise! I had put a call into a fellow a few days ago to come give us a quote to add about 32 inches of glass to our tub in order to shower without washing the bathroom floor. Did he call back to schedule an appointment, no he just showed up. By now I had already had enough. Colin happened to mention that he had to leave in 20 minutes and head out to Vernon for work. I don’t think he even ate today. Just found out that he managed to grab a veggie burger from A & W.
Here it is 3:30PM PST and I have eaten nothing but a banana today. Most certainly a crazy day. Colin is still out there but I have fuelled up with cheese and crackers ( rice ones ) and the appropriate beverage. Dinner will be easy, left over BBQ wild salmon mixed into a Caesar salad with sliced grape tomatoes.
Meanwhile I am still researching a variety of dog foods and what I have chosen is so new it hasn’t reached Canada yet. It was just launched in the USA on July 10th. I will post about this soon.
Carmeh is our fussy eater. She has had severe GI problems for over 7 years and almost died while we were in Acapulco. However the ultra allergen free food we have had her on is full of nothing. Way too modified to my liking but it was all she could eat. But now both girls are showing signs of not agreeing with that food. So the search is on for something new. This of course has to be done before we leave here the end of October to be sure they are both symptom free. Here are 2 new kibbles, recommended by the vet which have been mixed with one teaspoon of a salmon based wet dog food. Carmeh loves the salmon flavor. She is licking the salmon off the kibble and dropping the rejected kibble onto the floor. Well at least now I have a direction to work with!
Oh yes…turns out the photography jobs are coming in faster and faster. Interiors and exteriors of two banks in Vernon today, shots at the famous Predator Ridge Golf Course on Saturday and on Sunday….photography and video of LeAnn Rimes in concert at the Mission Hill Winery. I also have been invited to attend but at this point I say no gracias. I believe I need some quality time sitting in my recliner in front of the lake with a good book.
Jul 23, 2013
The weather prediction is highs over 102F the rest of this week and coming weekend. Fortunately by 8:30PM we can shut the A/C and enjoy much cooler air. Last night we had a breeze coming in off the lake which was lovely. Sadly the heat means forest fires. So far so good.
I felt sorry for the fellow working on our stair railing system today. The water was just pouring off of him. But really this job should have been completed mid May. I have a reader from Texas who calls himself ‘butterbean carpenter’ and I should have hired him to come and do the job. I bet even with paying his airfare up here it would have been cheaper. I have no idea how we will be charged on this fiasco but I won’t be in a hurry to pay the invoice.
Monday afternoon Mr. Carpenter comes back to start the install. Only he decides that the stringers under the composite deck boards are too green to support the posts!
No we are still not rebuilding the steps as he suggested last time he was here. Colin got under the steps to try and come up with a solution. By now something had to be done, as my only means in and out of the house, the wooden makeshift railing, had been removed. So Mr. Carpenter goes back to wherever the posts came from and changed out the base support. Back to the original 4 hole post he had brought us last time.
Finally the posts are in and the rail assembly is starting.
Colin had to supervise every step. Mr. Carpenter put in at least 7 hours on Monday, not leaving until after 5:30PM putting a crimp into our birthday celebration. Colin thanks you all for his birthday greetings. Meanwhile we had yet another trade person on site Monday.
I have lost count of the number of times Mr. Electric has been back to get our light railing system working perfectly. Happy to say it is functioning perfectly. Once again it took Colin to pinpoint the problems so they could be resolved.
Colin is on a job site today so the girls have taken over the supervision of Mr. Carpenter.
So far the back stairs have posts and railings. Now comes the work of measuring for the glass inserts.
I think Colin told this guy he would not be here today so Mr. Carpenter is being extra cautious on the glass measurements. He has been working on this for hours and measuring and remeasuring and remeasuring yet again. Now I worry he is going to dehydrate. I keep pushing fluids on him. Yet another long day for him, going onto 5 hours so far. I wish Colin had been here, it would have been done in 1/4 the time. Please finish up so I can relax with a glass of cool vino blanco.
Jul 22, 2013
…just had to take a few days off. I seem to be tired all the time. I am taking a daily iron supplement. Plus I have started walking 2 blocks with my walker each day as well as continuing exercises here in the house twice per day but I am now having some pain. Plus my wound started bleeding again. The visiting nurse came today and thought it should just get better on its own eventually. Problem is that I can’t do any exercises in the pool until the wound is totally healed which is the best way to rehabilitate after hip surgery.
Last Friday Colin took Caeli in for some surgery. She has had a stye on her lower eyelid for a few years and it recently started growing so it needed to be removed.
She looks so sad at being left.
I did go with Colin to pick her up and we heard her pityfull whimpering as soon as we opened the door. She was well looked after but just not happy. See the black coil hose to the bottom right, that is the cord for the electric heating pad they put in the cage for the dogs. Better care than I got after surgery. We also did get her teeth cleaned while she was under anesthetic.
Dr. Susan was very strict with us. Both of the girls have to lose 2 lbs ASAP if we want to avoid back problems.
We have over the years been very good but lately the girls have been getting fed almost on demand plus we have not been walking them as much as they should be. Colin has had his hands full just looking after me and no extra time. The girls are in great shape while in Mexico but here they are a bit neglected and now it shows. So in addition to everything else we now have to find a better food for them and sadly starve them. Their diet has been cut down 50%. Only 1/2 cup of kibble per day 🙁 But it is for their own good.
Caeli's whimpering continued until we fed her. She is food motivated.
So it was a quiet low key weekend around here. I think the constant 35C ( 95 F ) temperatures with no wind are helping to make me tired. We finally had to resort to turning on our house A/C which works great.
In case you haven’t heard yet the Royal baby was born today and it is a boy! Born on Colin’s birthday which we will celebrate this evening. Happy Birthday Colin! You are in royal company now.