I have it on good authority that if you have not yet tried rolling on your back in the grass on a hot summer's day, you have not lived. I have been informed that grass rolling is THE BEST THING EVER!

Oh YES!!!
That is THE BEST THING EVER

Hehe, they're like the children I see rolling down the hill in the park every day

Guess who went for their full 3K walk last night and the night before too.



This girl!


And me!:



I went for my full walk too!


Yes, you did, Shelby Ann. You are very strong!


Secret message from Shelby:


Trudy and I would like to thank everyone for their well wishes. Thank you:

Mamatigerj
TheLibrarian
Matan
Fremen
sleep_twitch
Trbrat75
Colin
Anek
PetiteSheWolf
Mianevem
Whirly
DorothyMH
NancyTree
'rin

Trudy is doing much better now! She is still falling sometimes in our living room where we still have exposed hardwood. (I cannot put the foam squares down where my father needs to be able to go in his wheelchair.) But she is pretty steady everywhere else now. I'm fairly certain now her walking problems were caused by a vestibular issue, which is not all that uncommon in older dogs. The condition is idiopathic and untreatable, but usually resolves on its own--as it did for Trudy. The biggest danger with these vestibular issues is that the dog loses interest in eating and drinking, due to nausea. But we got through that okay with our fire engine red sports drink.

Onward to new adventures!

Well, exactly!

This seems like a reasonable system. Here there is just an assumption that everyone will have a cell phone. Which is inaccurate. (Also, it is not uncommon for younger/low income people to have cell phones but only use them for texting, as they simply cannot afford the voice time rates.)

I have usually had good experiences with my vets too. (The one receptionist is the only exception. But even she is nice half the time. And the other staff are always great.) It is the only veterinary clinic in the town where I live. I do have access to a vehicle, and could take my dogs to a vet out of town. I had to do this when I was fostering for the rescue, as the rescue uses a vet clinic a half hour drive from where I live. Several of my neighbours use the same vet as the rescue does, because that clinic is cheaper than the one here in town. But I did not have good experiences with that other clinic. (They almost killed Trudy and did cause her to experience multiple post-op complications from her hysterectomy--all caused by negligence and incompetence on the part of the clinic staff. And they separated animals from their caregivers immediately upon entry into the building as part of their normal MO, long before Covid was an issue. I would never willingly take an animal in my care there!)

Covid has put a lot of stress and strain on people. I know my vets have good intentions. So I trust they are doing the best they think they can--even though I may sometimes disagree with their choices. Their receptionist just called me a few minutes ago, in fact (playing Dr. Jekyll today, which is a relief!), concerned because Shelby is overdue for her rabies booster. I reminded her I am not okay with my dogs going into the clinic without me. So she set me up with a parking lot vaccination for Shelby for the first week in July, and gave me their first appointment of the day as I explained it would be too hot to walk my dogs there later in the day in July.

I don't understand why people like that want to own a pet. Certainly not a dog, which requires a lot of time and attention! There are a lot of people like that here though, sadly. Is it a status symbol to own a dog? Something people do just 'cause "that's what you do"? I don't know. There are a lot of dogs who are neglected by owners who just cannot be bothered to deal with them. It breaks my heart.

I was starting to get calluses from the rope! So I'm glad I didn't need to do it for too long!

Just make sure that carpet remains securely stapled!

I did a little better with my helmet cam today:



If you're able to view in HD, some excitement occurs when I turn the corner @ ~ 2:07. My friend submerges @ 2:20. Best views from 2:35 - 3:05. (Look in the water off the bow of my board.)

Cool, what was that? A turtle?

Yes, NancyTree ! A Snapping Turtle. A big one! It disappeared under a mat of reeds near the end of the video. Then, while i was sitting there, reviewing the footage I had captured to see if the turtle was on it, it popped back up, right beside me! Sadly I did not have a camera ready to capture that moment.

Workout summary report for week of May 23-29:

Consecutive days of fitness for Laura: 396-402
Consecutive days of fitness for Norma: 430-436

running: 9 km (3 runs, each 3K, all in town)

workouts with my mother: 3:28:45 total time for the week -- fourth week of our new schedule.

other strength training: 5 minutes of handstand practice (a few handstands from kick-up, press walking, attempts at two-footed jump to handstand)

hiking: 26.5 km

SUP: 10 km

yoga/dance: nada

Only Homemade Food: days 509 - 515
Daily French Study: days 195-201
GOBOT: 4/7
GBOT: 1/7

Workout summary report for week of May 30 - June 5:

Consecutive days of fitness for Laura: 403-409
Consecutive days of fitness for Norma: 437-443

running: nada

workouts with my mother: 3:43:50 total time for the week -- fifth week of our new schedule.

other strength training: nada

hiking: 21.8 km

SUP: nada

yoga/dance: nada

Only Homemade Food: days 516 - 522
Daily French Study: days 202-208
GOBOT: 0/7
GBOT: 0/7

Workout summary report for week of June 6-12:

Consecutive days of fitness for Laura: 410-416
Consecutive days of fitness for Norma: 444-450

running: 11 km (one 5K run and one 6K run, both in Rondeau)

workouts with my mother: 3:16:50 total time for the week -- sixth week of our new schedule.

other strength training: 2 minutes - crow pose and pressing

hiking: 47.6 km

SUP: 9.8 km

yoga/dance: nada

Only Homemade Food: days 523 - 529
Daily French Study: days 209-215
GOBOT: 1/7 (not counting the day I was up on time because I had not yet gone to bed)
GBOT: 0/7

I finally managed to stop the bleed on mileage last week--although I was still short on the running.

Yoga is still... I don't know what's going on with me and yoga. I want to be doing it. I'm just not making the time for it.

I have been dreadfully unproductive over the past couple of months in general. I could blame this on external events affecting my life. But truthfully? I just need to smarten up. $#!+ happens to everybody. I need to do a better job of dealing with mine.

On a happier note: both my mother and I are now fully vaxxed. We're still trying to get a second shot into my father's arm. This, as before, is proving to be difficult. But we're working on it. The delay is a bit scary with Delta flying around Ontario now (and Ford lifted the travel ban here recently and has already moved the province into the first step of re-opening). My father does have some amount of protection from his first shot in March. The data suggests only one dose of vaccine does not provide great protection against symptomatic infection with the Delta variant. But it hopefully will be enough protection to keep him from dying, should he become infected.

Once again, I lucked out on getting my shot, thanks to trying to get one for my father. I was not yet eligible for my booster when I placed the call to try to get a booking for my father. And thanks to our brilliant provincial government deciding to open up vaccination to twelve-year-olds (who obviously don't have jobs and aren't in school right now and won't be until next September--so the rush to get them vaccinated today is what, exactly?) before most of our 20-somethings have had a chance to be vaccinated yet, there is a huge backlog of people trying to get vaccination appointments. There is an online booking system now. But I could not use that for my father due to his mobility issues. (The only place he could get a vaccine through the web portal would be at the mass clinic out of town. So we'd need to hire a wheelchair taxi service to get him there. Which is expensive and also overbooked at the moment with all of the other seniors trying to get to their vaccination appointments.) Besides which, people trying to use the web system have been reporting problems with pages timing out on them, and available appointment slots disappearing before their eyes before they have a chance to input their information. So we'd called the vaccine booking phone # to try to get an in-home vaccination for my father.

Thanks to the backlog in booking appointments, it took the booking office 10 days to get back to us! The day they finally called us back happened to be the day Ontario opened up 2nd appointment eligibility to everyone who received their first shot two weeks before I received mine right through to everyone who received their first shots six weeks afterward. Boom! Eight weeks worth of 2nd dose eligibility granted at a time when the system was already massively overloaded. So when I talked to the person from the booking line to get my father on the list for an in-home shot, and to book an appointment at the clinic for my mother (who was already eligible--even though she received her first shot the same day as me--due to her age), the person from the booking line informed me I was eligible to receive my second dose too.

I was skeptical, because the new eligibility information had not yet been added to our PHU's website. The information that was on the PHU site included a very limited list of people eligible for 2nd doses. A list which most definitely did not include me. The site also included a note stating that people who were not eligible were not going to be given their second doses, no way no how. Do not show up at our clinic. Even if you manage to get yourself an appointment, we will turn you away at the door and you will not receive your vaccine.

Since the only place I could book a second dose vaccine was also at the clinic out of down, I obviously did not want to drive all the way up there only to be turned away at the door. So I questioned the person from the booking line on the validity of her information. She checked with other people in her office and came back to me with the response that I was most certainly now eligible, effective that very morning. She also informed me that they were already fully booked up for the next week, but that they had appointments available for June 11 and 12. After that, they were fully booked up again for the next two weeks. So we booked my mother in for June 11 and me for June 12.

June 11 arrived, and my mother drove up to the clinic and received her second shot, no problem. Then it was June 12 and my turn. I drove half an hour to get to this clinic, parked the car, masked up, and entered the convention centre, only to be greeted by a big sandwich board in the vestibule which stated in no uncertain terms that I was NOT eligible to receive my second dose and would not be given one at that time. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. Turn around and go home now. The sandwich board sign still had the limited list of 2nd dose eligible people which had been posted on the PHU's website when I'd questioned the booking line about my own eligibility more than a week previously.

Oh, you'd better believe I was ready for a fight!

I did not turn around and go home. I entered the convention centre. Answered the questions put to me by the three different people positioned in the entrance hall to grill attendees on their potential recent exposure to Covid. Checked in at the check-in desk. And proceeded into the main hall, where I was directed to speak with one of the volunteers who screens attendees for eligibility.

"What is your reason for being eligible to receive your seconds dose today?" he asked me.

"Everyone who received their first shot on or before April 18 is now eligible to receive their second shot," I told him, "and I received my first shot on March 10."

"Yes. That's correct," he said. And sent me on to receive my shot. No fight necessary. But really: with eligibility information changing as quickly as it does, could the mass vaccination clinic maybe try to ensure that the big sign in their entrance hall is not more than a week out of date?

Anyway... I'm fully vaxxed. My mother is fully vaxxed. And my father's name has been given to the paramedics for an in-home vaccination. (Although we have been advised that it might take several weeks for them to get around to visiting him.)

Then yesterday, I learned from an elderly neighbour who I know received her first shot of vaccine up at the mass clinic like I did that she had just received her booster from one of the drug stores here in the town where we live. I knew that this drug store was now serving the Pfizer vaccine. But our PHU's website states very clearly that only people who are still in need of their first shot are eligible to go there. People looking to book second dose appointments need to drive out of town to go to the mass clinic. Turns out this piece of information on our PHU's website was also inaccurate. So I called the pharmacy in question to get an appointment there for my father.

I was informed that they are fully booked up for the next two weeks and have a waiting list so long that they are not even taking any more reservations at this time. "Call us back next week," the person who answered the phone told me.

"Next week when?" I asked him. "Sunday? Monday? How will I know what day you are opening up to accept bookings once again? What happens if I wait a week only to find out that you started taking names again the day before and are now fully booked up for another two weeks? My father is an extremely vulnerable individual, and he's unable to isolate himself from other people due to his medical needs."

The person on the other end of the phone decided to allow me to speak with the store manager. And the store manager agreed that my father's need to be vaccinated quickly is more compelling than the reasons given by the 20 other people she had already turned down that day. So she agreed to add his name to the bottom of their 150 person long waiting list.

People are trying here. But our provincial government's ongoing incompetence is definitely not making things easy for anyone.