Day 400 - Wenda.

It is with a heavy heart that I received the email this morning that my friend Wenda, whom I met in Tijuana at Dr. Castillo's, has passed away. Her bright & beautiful smile had the capacity to light up an entire room & warm the hearts of those in it. She always wore colourful socks to cheer up herself & others around her. Bless your heart Wenda. I miss you!

What a beautiful woman. Look at that smile.

This morning I called Jenn bright & early, as I was still awake. We had a wonderful chat about life & all the amazing things that are happening for the both of us. She has introduced me to the Bethel Church in Redding, California that has had many miracles. They have Healing Rooms on Saturday mornings & you can travel to Redding for a healing or you can skype them if you are unable to travel there. I tried to skype them last week, but didn't get through. I tried to call them during the week, but they are very busy! So, this morning I tried to skype them again. About the time I decided I was tired, I heard the skype phone ringing! It was the Healing Room! 

They prayed for me 3 times during our call & as soon as the first prayer began, I felt a huge heat wave rush through my body & when I looked at myself in the webcam, my face was beet red. I had my hand on my neck while the man prayed for me. I checked my neck after the prayers & the lumps were so much softer & smaller! Wow! It's a miracle! Praise God! Can you believe it! We said goodbye & I laid in bed, reciting a prayer over & over again with my hand on my neck. Shortly thereafter, they called me again! I had sent a message to both of their skype addresses, so I got a second call 'by accident'. Thus, I received more prayers! Whoo hoo! 

As I drifted off to sleep, I couldn't help but notice the brightness behind my eyelids. It was as though the sun was beaming into the room. At first I thought, 'How am I going to sleep if it's this bright?' I opened my eyes, only to see NO SUNSHINE in the room! I closed my eyes & the brightness returned. It continued for about 10 minutes or until I finally drifted asleep! What a crazy way to start/end the day!

I woke up at 1800 this evening. Whoops. I was supposed to go to Mom2's via Black Diamond to shoot some Christmas photos for Stirr, but I realized that my Picc line wasn't looking so good. I think I may have an infection. I was about to drive to Black Diamond when I realized that I had the heavy boxes in my car & I couldn't lift them out. Hopefully things won't deteriorate too much by tomorrow morning (or afternoon at my rate!) So, I didn't go to the city today, either. I managed to catch up on the blog (finally!) & do some more reading. I seem to find all of these controversial topics... I'm not sure why, but I seem to be an advocate for some pretty crazy topics these days! Oh well, keeps things interesting! 

Phew. What a day. Have a great sleep & we'll see you tomorrow! 

xxxxMV&O

Meet Florence (as in Florence & the Machine)

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)