Day 399 - Miss Communication & Food, Inc.

Okay! Here's another BBC Animals video if you didn't see them all yet!

Today was a day of miscommunication. I am still not sleeping well. I finally fell asleep about 0500 this morning. Mom's SCREAMING (not whistling) tea kettle woke me up at 0615. It screamed for 9 minutes. Really. I checked the clock. I thought surely to goodness she would shut it off. Now. Now? NOW?! I think I know what she's getting for Christmas. Perhaps early at this rate!

I managed to fall back asleep at 0800 until my alarm went off at 1130. I was supposed to go stay with Mom2 for the weekend. Plans got shuffled around as much as sanely possible, so I ended up not going. I may go tomorrow if all goes well! I was on the phone with Roxy, Mom2 & Collet for the better part of the afternoon trying to sort out the agenda. By the time 1700 rolled around, I was exhausted. I fell asleep for one hour. Mom came home briefly & I was back to sleep just past 1800.

Of course, I slept until 2100 & was subsequently awake until 1100 the following morning. I don't understand why my body is so messed up. I just can't seem to straighten things out. It's getting old! And so am I from the lack of sleep! I used to be able to sleep & sleep & sleep! Now, not so!

I watched a documentary this evening called Food, Inc. I was eating chicken while watching it. I couldn't finish my chicken. I gave it to the dogs. If you watch one film this month/week/year, pick this one! It is incredible. It basically educates the viewer about corporate control over our food sources. Of course, it is based on American companies, but as you & I both know, America controls & owns a lot of the companies in Canada. It isn't for one type of eater - carnivore, vegetarian, vegan, raw - it educates you on so many different levels. Basically they encourage you to buy from companies that treat the workers, animals & environment with respect. It would be wonderful if these large corporations would do that without our asking, but sadly, very sadly, this is not the case. This film changed my, well, life! It did! As cliché as that sounds, it's totally true! Just watch it already!

And with that, another day is done. Tomorrow Jaco should be in Barbados, soaking up the Caribbean sun. Sigh. Soon enough I'll be able to join him. I sure do miss him!

xxxxMV&O

Meet Gwyneth - her son, Moses, & I share the same birthday!

As for Apple, well, I'm typing this blog on one, does that count?

Day 347 - The Kettle & The Power Outage

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but my Mother is hard of hearing. This morning I woke up to the sound of the kettle whistling. (Our electric kettle broke & we haven't replaced it yet, so in the meantime, we're using an old school one that whistles on the stovetop when it's boiling) The kettle whistled for, I kid you not, 30 minutes. Yes, half an hour. I'm at one end of the house with the door closed, in peaceful slumber. I hear it right away - wide awake. How can you NOT hear it for 30 minutes?!?! 


After that lovely start to the day, I finally attempted to start catching up on the blog. Jaco & I sit in bed like a cute married couple, with our matching Macs & type & surf away. Aren't we cute? :oP 


We started watching some of The Office in the afternoon, with the intention of not watching any in the evening & actually going to bed early for once. We were in the middle of an episode when the power went off. Hmpf. Oh well. Guess we'll take the dogs for a walk. Jaco was a bit concerned about why the power was off, but I told him not to worry. Chances were someone severed the power line, a bird landed on the wire, a tree... it could be anything. I reassured him that it would be up & running in no time. 


We walked the dogs to the highway & back & threw the ball for Valentina. When we got back to the house, Mom asked us if we would give her a hand. Apparently Jim, the fellow who owns the ranch & is 86 years old, had switched off the power after he got tangled up in the wires & he needed our help to climb up a ladder & untangle the wires. Rrrrright.


We walked down to investigate. Oh my. He was trying to do something with his septic tank in his yard with the Farmhand. (A Farmhand is kind of like an old tractor that has a lift on the front end & 'claws' for picking up bales, etc.) When he backed into his yard the 'claws' were lowered. When he was finished in the yard, he drove out, not realizing the 'claws' were up. He somehow managed to entangle the power lines, snap two wires, pull over a power pole, knock the line off the insulator on his house & in all of that, he didn't electrocute himself. 


Needless to say, we were NOT touching a single wire. He called his friend, who is quite handy, but now needs a walker to get around, to come out & help him with the wires. Supposedly they taped the wires back together & they are on the ground now. Looks like we won't be walking the dogs to the barn anytime soon! 


In all of this, we found it quite humorous. Nobody got hurt, miraculously, and thinking about the entire situation, that in itself is funny. There were cables all over the place & it was CLEARLY NOT a job for amateurs! Jim was too 'thrifty' to call the power company to come & fix it. Thankfully our power is back on! When we got back to the house, Jim had left us a phone message. I've pieced it together with the photos. In case you can't understand him, he's saying: "Jim calling. I had to shut the power off." No doubt!


Have a safe night!
xxxxMJV&O

Just in case you couldn't see the wires clearly on the video...

Jaco assesses the damage 

 The cable comes from the barn to the pole on the ground to the Farmhand to the house to the main pole

 Pole on the ground!

 Wire from the barn to the pole

 From the pole to the Farmhand

Exposed wires! 

 From the house to the Farmhand

 WAY too many cables!

 Wrapped around the Farmhand & then some!

 1-800-DIAL-B4U-DRIVE!!!

 You need an expert!

Expert help arrives. (kind of)