And the Roller Coaster Ride Begins

When I left you on Friday I was celebrating the gratitude that found me that day.  The rest of the weekend couldn't decide whether gratitude or a "Are you frickin' kidding me???? point of view would come out the victor.  

Mmmmm!

Saturday provided the biggest return on the "I am grateful" scale.  It was my Grandma's 98th birthday.  Yes you read that right... 98.  Now you can see why I think reaching 113 is entirely plausible.  Last year my Grandma moved into a care facility which means it is a challenge getting a hold of her by phone or virtually. Visiting in person has also not been in the cards since Oct 2019, due to Covid restrictions and timing i.e. restrictions tend to be lifted days after my vacation is over.  Well thanks to the amazing Recreational staff at her care facility I was able to FaceTime with Grandma on her Birthday.  It was lovely getting to see and speak with her.  Frankly I have been worried that I would get an opportunity to do so again.  I bought myself a piece of cake to mark the occasion.

I continued expanding my gratitude by heading out to the barn to play with Ingrid and work on building my rapport with Sola.  It was a smidge chilly but well worth the nipping at my nose... cold not horses :).  

Enter Snow Squall Sunday!!!!!

I awoke to wind whistling in through the bedroom window.  A look outside at the blustering, swirling snow convinced my that a return to bed was in my best interest.   Safely ensconced under layers of blankets I succumbed to the allure of... just one more episode of Taskmaster on YouTube.  It wasn't until mid-season two when I managed to do anything more productive than letting the dogs out to relieve themselves.  

Will work for cookies!!!!

What did I decide to do???

Make motivational cookies for work.  The plan, if I can stick to it, is to have a cookie to celebrate the end of the workday for the next month and a bit.   The batch of cookies yielded 36 cookies with 5 BONUS cookies that I ate to celebrate making the cookies... yes you can see this plan has the potential to quickly go downhill fast.  There was a reason Cookie Monster was my favourite on Sesame Street!

Sunday ended up being so lazy that I didn't even consider doing my daily yoga until right before bed.  I didn't want to get behind so I did both the morning and evening yoga classes back to back.  

Cookies made,  Season 2 of Taskmaster finished, two meals and double yoga later,  I retreated back to the safety of my bed and warm fuzzy blankets.  The dogs and I had just settled in when Whisper jumped up behind my head and made a strangled noise.... 

Oh christ!  

She was about to vomit on my pillow.  I quickly pushed her head to the right while pulling my pillow to the left.  She missed my pillow but nailed the bedding, the window sill and the wall and floor behind the bed.  The last thing that I thought I would be doing late last night was laundry and clean-up, but one must do what one must do.  

Oakley couldn't be left out of the fun but didn't want to expose me to a Vomitfest so timed his episode for later that night.  2 am to be exact.  I awoke to him jumping off the bed, which was quickly followed by the guttural packing sound.   Vomit was all over the floor.  He kept moving to a new spot as why spare any part of the floor.  Luckily the paper towel was still in the room from cleaning up from Whisper so I wasted no time in the clean-up.   Oaks wasn't pleased that I was cleaning up his vomit faster than he could re-eat it and he started growling at me.  Words were exchanged. To bad so sad Bub.... science dictates that whatever bugs your stomach once is bound to bother it the second time around.  

I set my alarm for 5:45 am, as given all the Sunday snow there would lots of digging out in the morning.  The plow didn't disappoint.  The bank left at the front of the driveway up mid-thigh and three snow floats wide.  The end of the driveway was slightly lower but equally as wide.  I managed to get the driveway entrance and exit cleared (3km of walking) before I needed to head in for work.  As I walked back into the house I reached into my pocket to grab my wallet.  It wasn't there.  

OHHHHHH FRIDGE!!!  

It was there when I started shovelling.  Did it fall out while I was shovelling and if it did where was it?????? It wasn't lying in any of the snow trails I created in the yard and on the road.  A quick look at the front steps and in the entrance yielded similar results.  Thats when I started wondering if it could have fallen out into a snow bank when I was dumping the snow.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!  

I didn't have time for the worlds worst easter egg hunt.  Frantically digging through snow to find nothing.  I checked and rechecked the entrance, truck, pockets, road, paths hoping that my panic made me blind but nope.... no wallet.  Resigned to the fact that it was looking like I needed to cancel my cards and reorder ID I headed in to get ready for work.  Thank goodness I gave it a little more time as my wallet was safely on a side table in the living room.  

WHEW!

What mess????

The dogs were grand for most of the morning.  Oaks kept himself amused, amassing a treasure trove behind me while I was in meetings.  By afternoon,  Oaks was refusing to share chew toys with Ferg and Whisper and would let them know how displeased he was with their chewing "his toys" by excessive barking and howling, neither of which pair with virtual meetings.  I did get some reprieve from the barking when I gave him the black kong filled with treats. 

 Sadly Oak is about as patient as I am and what is supposed to be indestructible proved to be just as destructible as the red kong.  This led to me having to scoop Kong pieces out of Whisper's mouth during the middle of a meeting.  

Kong Smong!  Red or Black- can't stop Oaks

Slimely fingers- ooooh joy!

When the Kong no longer worked Oak had some quality crate time that he dramatically whined and sighed through.  Thank goodness for mute buttons.  

Let's hope Oaks's first Obedience Junior High class goes better than the start of the morning and tires him out for tomorrow!