Chewer Deck

Today was my day to come home to walk Yoshi. Something about Yoshi that many people don’t know. He is a chewer. Like many pointers he chews when he is bored. Throughout the time we have had Yoshi, he has eaten or destroyed many household items. Plastic and wood are his favorite chew toys. Wooden mixing spoons, plastic cutting boards, wooden salad servers, wooden napkin holder, plastic buckets, 2 sink drain plugs (one he ate the rubber off of, the other just disappeared), and now a deck of cards have all fallen

To be honest, this one was my fault. Sox and I played a game of cribbage, and jokingly I tossed this deck on the ground. I claimed that I wasn’t going to pick it up, but my intetion was to throw the deck away (it was missing a card). Instead I totally forgot to do anything with them. Yoshi got a new chew toy today and it was my fault. Doh!

Beyond that slip up, we aren’t really sure what causes Yoshi to decide to snag something from the counter and go on a rampage. We know he does it when bored, but what makes a dog decide he is bored? We alway leave toys out for him. There is almost always bones or other chew toys for him. What is so appealing about a deck of cards over a nice smoky bone? Just what does run through that little pea brain of his?

Shredder Paperwork

Today Sox and I did a little spring cleaning in the fall. We have decided to perform a makeover on our filing system. To facilitate this we needed to purge the crap, to make room for the keepers.

This was the result of the purge. Who really needs bank statements from 2000? What about pay stubs from 1998? Sheehs. The biggest thing we have to decide is what to keep. Of course, in this day and age, it isn’t safe to just put all this stuff in the recycling. We purchased a shredder a while ago, and it got quite a workout today. Just look at all this paper! Yikes. We probably should have done this a lot sooner.

What sort of paperwork are you supposed to keep anyway?

Morning Escape

After several days of intense rain, something made me want to go mountain biking. On Friday I told a co-worker that I would definitely be in for a Sunday ride. This morning, seeing the wind and rain almost made me want to change my mind. Instead I perservered and went anyway. It turned out to be a great ride, and I am glad I went.

Taking Yoshi with me, I picked up Mike, met up with another friend of his, then the three of us, and the two dogs piled into my truck on our way to the dump. Yoshi was itching for a big run, and as we left the parking lot I wondered if the weather would hold. The route I took kept us to the lower trails. I chose this specifically so I could keep an eye on my dog to make sure he could handle the exercise. If something were to go wrong I knew I could easily get myself and Yoshi out quickly.

An escape route was never needed. As we rode through the trees, I looked up and saw blue. Turned into quite a nice day after all.

At the end of the ride I was pretty pooped. Yesterday’s yardwork, and today ride have left me quite wiped. It is a great feeling though.

Yoshi did great too. At the start he was running around all over the place, up on the hills, down in the puddles, alongside me, in front of me, and once in a while he lagged behind me. He was pretty slow by the end of the ride, which was nice to see. This afternoon you can hardly tell I have a dog. He has been curled up sleeping the entire day away. He is a little stiff when he gets up though. He might have overdone it a little.

After eating some lunch, and having a long hot shower, all I can think about is a nap. Not today though. I have too many other things I want to do.

Productive Waste

So, here is the scoop. I feel like I have been very negative here on the blog as of late. I am not sure why, but it seems like I have just been using this blog as a place to vent. I am going to try and curb that a little.

So let’s begin now.

Today was a fairly productive day around the house. While Sox was walking Yoshi, I got outside and started raking the leaves in the front yard. Wow. I had done the back yard already (not that you could tell by looking at it right now), so I thought the front would be a little easier. Wrong. Big time wrong. I was working hard for close to 3.5 hours. Raking in to piles, piling onto a tarp, taking the tarp to the truck, dumping it, and repeating.

Felt good to get it done, but I was sure beat by the time I was done. So far this year I have taken 4 full truck loads of leaves to the municipal yard. I am very glad that I have access to that resource. It is close to home, and free for Esquimalt residents. Sweet deal all around.

The municipal yard is well used too. Each time I have taken a load there, it is full of people dropping yard waste off. Way better than taking it out to Hartland.

Magical Dropping

What is the magical date that turns people into from nice, easy going Victorians, into crazed, maniacal drivers with no regard for others on the road?

Why does it always seem to occur right after Halloween?

Why do people return to normal after Christmas?

Why are people such fucks during the “holiday season”?

It drives me nuts. Today I encountered some of the most inconsiderate driving I have seen since last Christmas. Cutting people off, running red lights while oncoming traffic is trying to clear the intersection, taking up multiple parking spots, cutting people off in parking lots, not driving on the correct side of lanes in a parking lot, coming up on someone’s bumper while they were trying to parallel park (this happened to me), and not letting people merge in nicely. Those are all things I witnessed today while dropping off movies, and making a quick stop at Canadian tire. I was out of the house for just over an hour!

Holy crap. No wonder I hate Christmas shopping. I will have to deal with this more often, until Christmas is over. Rrrg. Perhaps now I will get my butt in gear and finish my shopping early this year.

In Remembrance

Taken at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

Driving Witnesses

WTF is wrong with people anyway? Driving along Esquimalt Ave tonight, while on my way to pick up Sue I see someone in the oncoming lane enter the parking lot by the Esqumalt Inn very quickly. Like 50 KM/H quick. Next thing I know traffic around me is stopping quickly. The guy that left the road, after entering the parking lot, then hooked left across a sidewalk, just missed a telephone pole (but taking out a guy wire), and struck a metal lamp post. He hit with so much force that he pushed in the front of his Explorer about a foot.

I never actually saw the impact (other cars were in the way), but the after effects were something else. Bits of the truck were thrown 10 feet away. Coolant and other liquids drained onto the sidewalk. Parts dangled off the crumpled front end. A used air bag slowly delfated from around the steering wheel.

Other actual witnesses rushed over to see if the driver needed help. He seemed coherent enough. Very, very strange incident.

I remained on the scene until some police officers showed up. When they had a moment I asked to make sure I could leave. After explaining what I did see, the officer said I could go since there were so many other witnesses that saw more than me.

Thankfully there wasn’t anyone on the sidewalk where that guy drove. Could have been so much more worse.

Ritual Tape

Another blood donation tonight. This one kind of snuck up on me, and I had to consciously remind myself every couple hours that I had to go. Once there everything was smooth sailing like normal. I have this weird thing though. I refuse to try anything different. Similar to a baseball pitchers ritual or something. I always read the pamphlet, use the middle finger of my left hand for the iron test, and always donate from my left arm. I will wait for a bed rather than donate with my right. I am not sure why that is, but I have always done it.

The only downside was the nurse used a lengthy piece of tape to hold the bandage on my arm. I’m talking 8 inches of tape for a 1 by 2 inch piece of gauze. Crazy. I hate that tape.

Accident Space

On the way home today Sox and I were almost in an accident. Scared me pretty bad. We were just talking about when we are going to pick up our new car while driving our death trap of a Firefly. Seconds later I was making an emergency swerve with full on braking.

What happened? Well, as I was rounding the corner on Esquimalt Road, someone in the left lane decided they didn’t want to wait for the left turner in front of them and decided to change lanes. We were in the right lane passing the stopped cars. With very little room to spare, I managed to hit the brakes (locking up at least one wheel), and swerve right enough to avoid the trans am, but not far enough to hit the curb or sidewalk. I swear that there was less than a foot of space between our car and the other.

I was shaken, but grateful that I had quick enough reactions to avoid everything. Very happy that the contents of the car were safe. Soon we will be getting our new car. I was already looking forward to it, but now even more so.

Cooperating Purchases

Yesterday morning I was supposed to get out and shoot pictures with the photo club. That didn’t happen due to the rain. We met at Swan Lake here in Victoria, and thought it looked like an awesome place to shoot, we decided as a group that the rain wasn’t likely to stop, so we passed. Some time soon, when the weather is cooperating, we will go back there.

Instead, and since I was already out I took Yoshi for a walk. I grabbed a coffee, and stopped at the Cedar Hill Golf Course because I have often seen people walking on trails alongside Nrth Dairy. Leashing up the dog, grabbing a jacket, filling pockets with baggies Yoshi and I set out on some new trails. Intersting track around the golf course. Pretty easy walk, but scenic. Changes from tight, dense trees, to open green grass, then to a Garry Oak stand that is now barren of leaves. Just under an hour’s walk, it was very enjoyable, despite the rain.

After getting home, I jumped into the yard work. I had raked the leaves in the back yard last weekend, so it was just a matter of loading the truck, and hauling them away. There were a few extras on the ground, but it was very nice to have them all in one central location (3 spots actually). Plus, since I had raked and tarped them, they had a week to dry. Made for and easier experience loading the truck. In the end I took 2 full truckloads of leaves, branches, twigs and other yard debris to the municipal yard. Nice to get that done, but by the time I was ready to start on the front yard, the wind had kicked up. The front yard is much less protected than the back, so raking and loading the truck would have been much more difficult. I packed it in and got myself cleaned up.

Next up on the day was a Costco trip. Dumb, dumb, dumb idea. It was raining hard, cold, nasty outside, and Costco was crazy busy. It took me forever to cross the store because at steady stream of people with carts prevented me from crossing the aisles. I actually had the thought that I needed a traffic light just to cross the store. Grabbing the few things I wanted I then got in one of the huge lines for a checkout. Yikes. Stupid, stupid store. I knew I should have waited for a weeknight before heading up there, but no, I had to go mid afternoon on a Saturday. I got was I deserved. I perservered though, but then got a shock when I went to pay. The business account my card is under had expired, and they wanted me to pay $220 to re-open it before I could then pay for my items. I explained I wasn’t the business owner, and a manager provided a one time override so I could pay for my items on the expired account. Phew. I would have been very upset if I had had to walk away without my purchases after spending so much time in line.

Busy tiring day. I did a little more house work, ate some dinner, played some PS2 games, then watched a DVD. Great day really. Relaxing, yet I feel like I actually accomplished something too.

muddylaces

Spreading mud since 1975.