Blue - Mr Sociability
Blue ate foam and other rubbish yesterday evening which he gagged up. For the first time he did not want to eat real food at all for dinner I syringed water into his mouth and put him to bed. Naturally his empty tummy woke him before 5am! I tiptoed around the kitchen making myself a cup of tea and breakfast for Blue and Tilly so that Anita could keep sleeping. I tried to get him back in his crate but he was ready to play so I took them down to my study.
Our local farmers' markets opened today after a period of shut down. Anita brought home fruit buns which she toasted for our breakfast. I spent time on some annoying problems. After washing the Jeep yesterday the windows are covered in spots that I can't remove with any form of window cleaner. These are probably due to minerals in the water and like glass shower screens the windows seem to have become permanently stained. I tried a few different cleaners then gave up and drove to the service station to refuel and buy two large packs of toilet paper to get an extra 10 cents off per litre on top of the 4 cents for having a Coles voucher. I was told to put the voucher in a box and that is where it stayed without being checked to avoid it being handled by the person behind the counter.
Anita took the Jeep to get her nails done so I started cleaning the Toyota - I cleaned the wheels and that is as far as I got. I normally start from the top and the wheels don't get a lot of attention, so I gave them a good clean. When I do wash the whole vehicle, I won't have to worry about the wheels. I also removed the large towing hitch and gave it a good clean. A lot of paint has come off this heavy Hayman Reese product, but I won't pull it apart because I don't have large enough spanners and don't want to alter the settings on this critical piece of equipment. I will remove rust where it is accessible and give the whole thing a touch up paint job. The weight distribution bars that fit into this rig also need painting due to stones being thrown up by the Toyota rear wheels when towing the Bushtracker. I need to create a larger work area to do this.
Having our puppy has led to a lot more contact with neighbours. The two dogs from across the road came in for a short play. Blue goes into an appropriately submissive position even though he gets very excited, but within 30 seconds he had managed to get both of the adult dogs chasing him. Later I took him for a walk and he attracted the attention of three different groups of neighbours. It would be nice if they were admiring him walking properly on his lead, instead of his cuteness! He met the large Groodle across the road while it was behind a gate. Blue's body is the same size as the other dog's head.
Removing the green paint from the small bathroom cupboard is very time consuming and not something I can do with little ones running around the garage. I need to buy a big roll of steel wool as I used up my supply scrubbing off the paint stripper and paint. The interior of the cupboard is hard to access and the timber used for the back is rough and it is harder to clean off the paint stripper.
I put a collar and lead on Blue to start getting him used to these. The harness we put on Tilly had to be enlarged so she must have put on a bit of extra weight. Getting her to walk on a lead will be a serious challenge! I have had to surrender my knitting bag because she is so content and warm in it.
I researched pet doors but what I thought would be a simple job is a major expensive exercise. The plastic pet doors cost less than $40 each but I was quoted nearly $600 to have one fitted in the glass of a French door so they can both go out onto the veranda. I was going to have two pet doors installed - one on the front veranda and one on the back. Apparently the entire sheet of glass has to be removed and be replaced with a sheet with the hole cut in the factory. I don't want the glass replaced as it won't match the adjoining door where the glass is 20 years old, plus the timber beading will have to be removed then replaced and that will undoubtedly leave another fill and paint job.
I am considering installing a PVC blind to make the small veranda weatherproof. For 9 months of the year we leave one of the doors open day and night, but when it is cold or the weather is coming from the east we have to close it. As Blue used the artificial grass to pee on today of his own volition for the first time, we need to have somewhere to put his "toilet" and Tilly's kitty litter tray. At the moment her litter tray is in the bath as that is the only place where she can access it but he can't.
The good news we received last week was payment of my claim against our travel insurance. We will now have to prepare a claim for the costs of our cancelled overseas trip that were charged to Anita's credit card. Fortunately we cancelled our trip before borders closed and governments restricted travel, because if we had waited until then an exclusion in the policy would have applied and we would not have received any refund. The one big unknown at this stage concerns the three cruises we had booked with Cunard. They were supposed to refund about $8,000 a couple of weeks ago, but no money has been received. They also give future cruise credits instead of cash for cancelled trips and I don't know that we will be ready to use cruise credits within the timetable specified by the shipping line.
Our local farmers' markets opened today after a period of shut down. Anita brought home fruit buns which she toasted for our breakfast. I spent time on some annoying problems. After washing the Jeep yesterday the windows are covered in spots that I can't remove with any form of window cleaner. These are probably due to minerals in the water and like glass shower screens the windows seem to have become permanently stained. I tried a few different cleaners then gave up and drove to the service station to refuel and buy two large packs of toilet paper to get an extra 10 cents off per litre on top of the 4 cents for having a Coles voucher. I was told to put the voucher in a box and that is where it stayed without being checked to avoid it being handled by the person behind the counter.
Anita took the Jeep to get her nails done so I started cleaning the Toyota - I cleaned the wheels and that is as far as I got. I normally start from the top and the wheels don't get a lot of attention, so I gave them a good clean. When I do wash the whole vehicle, I won't have to worry about the wheels. I also removed the large towing hitch and gave it a good clean. A lot of paint has come off this heavy Hayman Reese product, but I won't pull it apart because I don't have large enough spanners and don't want to alter the settings on this critical piece of equipment. I will remove rust where it is accessible and give the whole thing a touch up paint job. The weight distribution bars that fit into this rig also need painting due to stones being thrown up by the Toyota rear wheels when towing the Bushtracker. I need to create a larger work area to do this.
Having our puppy has led to a lot more contact with neighbours. The two dogs from across the road came in for a short play. Blue goes into an appropriately submissive position even though he gets very excited, but within 30 seconds he had managed to get both of the adult dogs chasing him. Later I took him for a walk and he attracted the attention of three different groups of neighbours. It would be nice if they were admiring him walking properly on his lead, instead of his cuteness! He met the large Groodle across the road while it was behind a gate. Blue's body is the same size as the other dog's head.
Removing the green paint from the small bathroom cupboard is very time consuming and not something I can do with little ones running around the garage. I need to buy a big roll of steel wool as I used up my supply scrubbing off the paint stripper and paint. The interior of the cupboard is hard to access and the timber used for the back is rough and it is harder to clean off the paint stripper.
I put a collar and lead on Blue to start getting him used to these. The harness we put on Tilly had to be enlarged so she must have put on a bit of extra weight. Getting her to walk on a lead will be a serious challenge! I have had to surrender my knitting bag because she is so content and warm in it.
I researched pet doors but what I thought would be a simple job is a major expensive exercise. The plastic pet doors cost less than $40 each but I was quoted nearly $600 to have one fitted in the glass of a French door so they can both go out onto the veranda. I was going to have two pet doors installed - one on the front veranda and one on the back. Apparently the entire sheet of glass has to be removed and be replaced with a sheet with the hole cut in the factory. I don't want the glass replaced as it won't match the adjoining door where the glass is 20 years old, plus the timber beading will have to be removed then replaced and that will undoubtedly leave another fill and paint job.
I am considering installing a PVC blind to make the small veranda weatherproof. For 9 months of the year we leave one of the doors open day and night, but when it is cold or the weather is coming from the east we have to close it. As Blue used the artificial grass to pee on today of his own volition for the first time, we need to have somewhere to put his "toilet" and Tilly's kitty litter tray. At the moment her litter tray is in the bath as that is the only place where she can access it but he can't.
The good news we received last week was payment of my claim against our travel insurance. We will now have to prepare a claim for the costs of our cancelled overseas trip that were charged to Anita's credit card. Fortunately we cancelled our trip before borders closed and governments restricted travel, because if we had waited until then an exclusion in the policy would have applied and we would not have received any refund. The one big unknown at this stage concerns the three cruises we had booked with Cunard. They were supposed to refund about $8,000 a couple of weeks ago, but no money has been received. They also give future cruise credits instead of cash for cancelled trips and I don't know that we will be ready to use cruise credits within the timetable specified by the shipping line.
