And November

I put my birdfeeder out a week or so ago and almost immediately the chickadees found it, quickly followed by the blue jays. There are an unusal number of jays in the neighbourhood this year, at one point I counted over eight at or around the feeder. They fight amongst each other and scare off the smaller birds. The chickadees are also more numerous than usual and they seem adept at scooting in and out to grab a seed between jays. 

I am concerned for the other birds though. I've only seen two goldfinches and that is unusual as well, they were formerly the most numerous. A cardinal pair visit just before dusk but often the feeder has been totally emptied by then, thanks to the jays. I am now trying to replace the empty feeder later in the day in hopes that the small birds and cardinals get a shot at it, the jays seem to find other places to go around noon.

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I was talking to my son about Hapi and her brother Hiro. He had told me that Hiro had cancer which incapacitated him. But now he tells me that he doesn't think it was cancer, rather it was a preventable accident. I think he felt very guilty about the accident and clung to the cancer theory advanced by the vet who attended Hiro's euthanasia. That is sad. He texted me a Youtube video of seven Malamutes and a toy poodle being fed by their owners through a window (8 minutes long), it is very cute. Most of the Mals look like Hapi, one looks a bit like Hiro.

He also texted me a link to another Youtube video (11 minutes) about the myth that destruction of the environment and climate change can be halted by personal actions such as changing lightbulbs and taking shorter showers. This was in response to my comment that I felt pressured by certain people to invest in solar panels for my house. My son said the solar panels weren't going to save the world. That if anything, the gain of reducing hydrocarbon-based energy usage is offset by the cost of mining and manufacturing the components of solar panels.

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I went to an Artisan's Market event at the local Lions Club hall with a friend. Names and phone numbers were taken at the door to enable contact tracing if needed, a handwashing station provided and of course masks and social distancing were obligatory. Nevertheless the place was crowded, it was difficult to maintain social distance and I found the noise bothersome. I got to chat to a couple of people I recognized behind their masks, but I soon got overwhelmed. My dizziness ramped up and I started looking for the exit. I told the friend I arrived with that I would wait for her outside. It was cold and damp and the only place to sit down outdoors was a still-damp picnic bench, but it was better than staying inside the hall.

I did see some nice things there but I couldn't think straight enough to determine whether I wanted to buy anything. My friend had a Christmas shopping list in her head that she successfully ticked off as she moved from booth to booth. I was very impressed with her efficiency. She has a large family in the area and Christmas is a major production for them. But over the years she has gotten her Christmas shopping down to a system, she knows what kinds of things she can gift to each family member. She emerged from the hall happy that most of her Christmas shopping was already taken care of.

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Sorry, I have no pictures. I've plasticked over the window where the birdfeeder is so it does not photograph well, and taking gloves off to use the cell phone camera outdoors seems like too much bother these days. Our lovely warm spell is over and we are back to the regularly scheduled November weather. Trees are bare, ground is wet, air is cold.

My not so free day

Before the rain, when the beach was sandy and the water was clear

I had to take my car back to the garage yesterday morning, nothing serious, just a follow-up to a previous visit, and I thought I had the rest of the day free. Took Hapi to the Reservoir and viewed the damage from the other night's heavy rainfall. As I previously noted they've been renovating the beach and trails at the Reservoir and the heavy rain did a number on it. The trails are mostly okay but the beach washed out to sea, so to speak. Half of the nice beach sand that they had just trucked in got washed into the pond, leaving the gravel underneath exposed and the pond turned into a mudhole. What a mess. Of course all immaterial to Hapi, as long as she can wade in and enjoy a nice soak, mud or no.

Got home and read an email inviting me to a luncheon meeting—all bring-your-own and socially distanced on a shady patio—in less than an hour's time. That was fine, I could do that, and while I was at the meeting my son texted asking if I was available to talk. Sure, why not, just give me an hour to get home again. Only that chat ended up being the better part of two hours and then it was time to get Hapi's supper, respond to some of my writing group emails, get my own supper, and that was pretty much the end of the day. So much for a free day.

The meeting was interesting, we were trying to figure out how to revive our book club. One person refused to do Zoom and a couple of others refused to meet in person indoors, even in a very large space with a small group. So no concensus on that, but everyone agreed that we all missed our old club meetings. We also fear that things are going to get worse in the fall. The local university is going to be going half online and half in person, but there is no plan for providing quarantine space for returning students from away. The town also has no plan for dealing with that. I hear that South Shore ports are dealing with an influx of Americans boating up the East Coast, and we've already had two outbreaks (Nova Scotia and PEI) because of one American who was told to quarantine but decided not to and after infecting a bunch of people tested positive himself. One of the people he infected worked in a continuing care home. This province needs to up its game in enforcing quarantine orders.

My son is trying his hand at online dating, this is actually a pretty good time for that. Because of the pandemic people are spending more time getting to know each other online before actually meeting, and rushing into sex is pretty much off the table. I think that is a good thing. He told me that he had recently received a wedding invitation from an old friend who he considered to be seriously emotionally damaged. He said it made him feel like life was so unfair: here's this guy who my son was sure would never be capable of carrying on a serious relationship inviting him to his wedding, while he himself was still single and looking. Not that he didn't wish his friend well, but darn it, why couldn't it be him? I laughed and told him I understood the feeling completely.

We compared notes on Hapi and Hiro, her brother now deceased. He said that in the last few months of Hiro's life he felt like a full-time hospice worker, Hiro's care was now his job. Sounds familiar. This morning I chatted with a couple who own a dog of similar age and condition as Hapi and they agreed that it really was a full-time job. You wrap your life around it, it takes up so much of your emotional headspace, never mind the time and effort of actual care. They usually go to their cottage on PEI in the summer but they won't be going this year, too hard on the dog. They saw Hapi and me across the pond and told their dog that Hapi was here, their dog picked up his pace in anticipation of meeting Hapi, but when they met he immediately sat down with his back to her and she ignored him too. Dogs are funny.

Good ol' Main Street, there she goes

There's an interesting controversy going on here right now. With little fanfare or warning the town council is setting our Main Street as one direction only, starting July 1st. A parallel street will be set as one way only in the opposite direction. I heard about it at the Reservoir one day and went online to find out more and there was nothing. Not even on Facebook or the official town website. However I did read a comment on the Facebook page for the town about there being a petition against this new policy and already it had 800 signatures. Someone else commented that in a town of our size that indicated that hardly anyone was against it, but considering how few of us actually knew about the change let alone that there was a petition against it, kind of argues against that. Anyway, I've not heard anyone say they think it is a great idea, most people I've talked to think it is a disaster in the making.

Initially I agreed that it was a stupid move but when I thought about it a little more critically I couldn't really come up with a logical argument against it, other than that a big sudden change is going to cause a lot of initial confusion. I just wish it had been made more public further in advance. But in these days of Facebook and Zoom, everybody goes public in those venues and if you're not there, well, too bad for you. Maybe the town council should be posting decisions at the Reservoir, haha.

Something else I heard at the Reservoir was that the town did post about the change on Facebook, but the negative reaction in the comments was so overwhelming that they deleted the post. I have no evidence to support what that person said, because if it was there before it is gone now.

It is supposed to be a pilot project so we will see how it goes.

I was looking for a photo of Main Street in my collection to illustrate this post, but I couldn't find it, it might not be scanned in yet. However, I did find this photo of the family dogs when they all came to visit back in 2011. Hapi ended up staying but Hiro and Dobby returned home.

Hiro, Hapi and Dobby at the Reservoir, 2011

Unfortunately Hiro and Hapi ganged up on Dobby and he returned home temporarily injured. A couple of years later Hapi and I visited Dobby's home in Toronto and Dobby let Hapi know that she was not welcome on his turf. Their relationship was civil but not friendly.

Another vet visit, another dollar

Hapi, 8 years ago

Hapi had her annual check-up at the vet's a couple of days ago. I also picked up a big bag of special dog food for her at the same place, and between that, the vaccinations and a blood panel, the bill came to well over $400. I mentioned that to a couple of people who reacted in shock about how much vets charge, but my answer to that is that since we never see our routine medical bills we probably would be paying that and thensome for routine healthcare for ourselves. The vet bill is probably on a par with what we would be paying if we didn't have healthcare coverage. But I digress.

I really only wanted one vaccination (for lepto, because she drinks dirty water), but the vet talked me into several others. The blood panel was so I could get another prescription for an NSAID for her arthritis. Six months worth of the NSAID is cheaper than the blood panel she has to have in order to get the meds. I go to this particular vet clinic because I like the owner veterinarian, I find her a nice mix of compassion and pragmatism, but her partner is the one I saw and she is a whole other kettle of fish. Note to self, don't do that again!

Aside from any bad news it takes me a couple of days to recover from the encounter with this particular vet. It is mostly how much she talks, you can't get a word in edgewise and after fifteen minutes of listening you are exhausted. Most of what she says is pretty uninformative, so just when you are drifting off into a daze she mentions one important thing in passing and if you've fallen asleep you miss it.

The vet said she couldn't renew the NSAID prescription without positive bloodwork results, so I was kind of dreading that. And because they are so busy it took the vet a couple of days to relay the results to me. I used to get the results within hours of the office visit. The results turned out to be slightly negative, but not negative enough for the vet to cancel the prescription. Hapi has elevated liver markers and slight anemia, along with worse arthritis, muscle wasting and hair loss. Since the vet said it might be more serious if she showed loss of appetite and/or lethargy, I decided not to mention the lethargy. But definitely no loss of appetite.

Hiro and Hapi, 10 years ago

Anyway, not a clean bill of health but I wasn't expecting one either. The bloodwork results could all be explained by simple aging, or they could be signs of the same cancer that killed Hiro. The vet talked about doing further tests and all I could see was $$$. She's old! Something's going to get her! Do I need to spend $$$ just to find out what exactly that will be? I'm sure not putting her through chemo or surgery! Just her anti-tick medication knocked her sideways for a day or two. I sure wish they'd told me beforehand that old dogs do better with the skin-applied stuff than the oral stuff.

I'm just venting now. I think I had non-stop dreams last night due to that vet visit. But Hapi will probably never have another vaccination, except maybe for lepto if she is still here next summer. The bloodwork has to be done again in six months time, I will make a point of getting an appointment with her regular vet for that. Otherwise I'll have to go to another vet clinic, or else switch her to CBD oil which I don't need a prescription for.