Tanya's Solitude

He just turned 3 years old...and he must feel like a man now.

He's a tall, wide cat and makes our other cat, who is 6 years old, look like a kitten.  But as much as he likes to think he's the man, he's always been just a little sook.

Loves to stretch out on the leather or in your legs in bed and just purr.  Sure, he has to pee in the dirt in the summer.  Cause he's a man, you know! And sure he walks with a strut and woo'd the little black cat of the neighborhood.  But still a sook.

But now.  Well now he has reached his peak! Or at least he thinks so.

A couple days ago I woke up to a Chaos standing on my chest talking to me.  There were purrs and little meows and rubbing...I pet him and went back to sleep.  I figured he just needed some food or something and he was going to wait.  So an hour later, I got up and wandered out to the living room, where Chaos promptly woke up, stood up and began to make noises at me again.

Okay, okay, I said.  I went to his food dish.  But to my surprise, it wasn't empty! Inside was a dead mole. (or at least I believe it's a mole, looks a little different then a mouse.  Could be a big old mouse though too.)

Well now, imagine that! He kept on meowing, so I reached over and scratched his head.  He was so proud of himself.  He strutted and rubbed my hand.  I sat down and gave him some love and he fell right back asleep.  Must have been a long night!

Now forward on to last night.  Why am I up at 2am? What is with all the noise? Why is the dog whimpering?

*squeek squeek*

Ugh, dog is making his cage squeek. I wake again about 4am.

*whimper* *squeek* *SQUEEK* *thud*

Ok what the hell? I look up and Chaos is sitting near our closet, looking at a pile of dirty clothes.  Uh oh.  I quickly realize that the squeek is not the cage and is in face some sort of rodent lurking in our house.

Now I have the heebie jeebies.  It's in my clothes. In my bedroom. *shivers* I watch Chaos, hoping he would get him right away, but no luck. I poke Josh until he wakes up.  We proceed to watch Chaos for an hour. He chases it out of the room and into a seat cover that is on the floor outside of our room.  He likes this game.  The cover moves, he pounces.

Finally, some more squeeking ensues, and Chaos has the mouse.  Josh starts to laugh, but he won't let me look.  Chaos is throwing the mouse in the air, letting it fall and then chasing it again.  I guess it still has some kick in it.

Later on I look and watch him carry off the little mouse.  Wondering if he put it in the food dish, Josh gets up to look where he finds the mouse beside the bowl.  Chaos is eating.  And once he makes a whole in the food, he drops the mouse in it and comes back to us to let us know.

Now, the hunter is sleeping.  Josh has nicknamed him Killer.  He certainly has discovered something he likes.  Now if I could just find out where the damn mice are coming from....

This story doesn't get any easier to tell. Nor does it feel any better to talk about it.  But I tell it anyway to let everyone know what went on. It's a long one, I warn you now.

Friday, April 18th.  Josh and I decided to go take a look at a few cars after work. I told him about the Hyundai Tiburon so we took off for the dealership.  Coming out, we saw a used one in the Hansen Ford parking lot, beside a very cool looking WRX.  We stopped and looked and decided to come back Saturday for prices. 

Saturday, April 19th. This beautiful little Tiburon turns out to be an amazing deal.  $17,000 with only 24,000km on it, 2 years warranty left on it, fully inspected and just gorgeous.  WRX was pretty expensive since it was tricked out already.  We figure, do some paperwork and see what happens first.  A few hours later, I'm approved for the car and we go back to give it a test drive.

The car in the pictures here are the actual car that we drove. They are from the dealership's website.

The salesman says he'll stay and do the paperwork, so if we decide to take it, all we needed to do was sign the papers when we got back.  Sounded good to us.  We hopped in, started her up and backed out.  She purred I tell you.  The salesman recommended we go up the highway to get a good feel for the car, so that's what I did. 

We pulled out and headed up the highway. After the last set of lights at Costco, I started picking up speed.  It was so smooth, I couldn't even hear when to shift.  I was a bit slow since I was still getting used to the car, but as we neared the airport turn off I got into 5th gear and just got to 90km/hour. We were smiling, laughing and knew we were taking this car home.

Then, as we were about 10 feet away from the turnoff, a little RAV4 punched it and pulled out in front of us.  I barely had time to brake and all I remember is seeing the blue of the truck, then hearing Josh tell me to get the car off the road.  But he stayed conscious through it, so this is the story told by him:

He said I cut the wheel just before we hit him, trying to avoid him. Josh threw himself on me just before, both airbag blew, he got hit with both.  We went across the two lanes and into the center of the highway.  I hit my head on the steering wheel and blacked out for a bit.  The car went up the other side and across the two lanes of oncoming traffic.  The car was still running because I had my foot on the clutch still.  We were still in the road and he looked over to see a transport truck coming.  He said, "Babe, you have to get the car off the road."  I let go of the clutch, we rolled into the ditch and stalled. 

I started crying and I remember a woman getting in the car with me.  I tasted blood, my arm was swollen, my back hurt.  Josh jumped out, but almost collapsed when he found his leg wasn't working. 

The other driver was fine. He got out, came over, but went back to his truck when he that Josh was going to punch him.

The ambulance arrived and pulled me from the car in a neck brace and back board.  They made Josh get in the car and did the same for him.  We rode in the ambulance together and spent a few hours in the hospital.  It felt like a few minutes to me, but I wasn't very conscious. 

We were x-rayed in multiple places and nothing was found broken. Josh tore ligaments in his knee and was given crutches.  We were both released around 7pm and sent home, telling us we needed to come back when things were less swollen to get things reassessed.

Monday, April 21st. I'm back at the hospital and I find out that I have a fracture in my lower spine. They given me a shit load of painkillers and tell me to come back.  10 days off of work as well.  We are both getting worse it seems, but still alive.

The police told us that he was charged. 

Tuesday, April 22nd.  Today.  We are left hanging and told that the insurance companies will deal with each other.  Well where does that leave us?  So today we called a lawyer and that's where we are at right now.

There is more to say and more to talk about, but I'm a little lightheaded.  That took me about an hour and 16 minutes to write LOL

The cleaning of the basement has commenced! Jarret would like to move down there this weekend (that will be explained at a different time on a different blog post). 

Last night I took a bucket to the bathroom and Jar went to the living room to wash the walls.  I am happy to announce that the bathroom looks sparkling clean and everything has been disinfected....twice. 

Jarret got the mysterious brown goop off the walls and the living room and kitchen area actually look livable.  We are getting a carpet shampooer tonight to see what we can do with the carpet down there. This weekend we need to take the old bed to the dump and it will be ready to move things into.  It's actually exciting to see it not so gross.

While cleaning out the kitchen, I also found a capsule with cocaine in it.  Do I know it's cocaine? Not 100%, it would be something else.  But it was marked and in a pill capsule, just as I saw my friend get coke in once.  Needless to say, it reinforced our want to change the locks on the front door. 

But things are coming along well.

I am also happy to announce that I was offered a job today (which I accepted).  That is a huge stress off of me, let me tell you! It is reception for a sandblasting company.  Very quiet, not many people just dropping by.  Male dominated, only me and one other girl in the office, but I have no worries that I will be able to hold my own there ;)

Fáilte!

Instead of a history lesson on St. Patrick, I'm going to give you some information on something a little less known.  The leprechaun! Because everyone associates them with St. Patrick's Day and well...they just don't belong there!

Leprechaun comes from lobaircin, which means 'small-bodied fellow'.

These little 'fellows' were made to be cranky and tricky.  In Celtic folk tales, they were responsible for mending the shoes of the other fairies.  The belief come from the Celtic belief in fairies (which of course are tiny people with magical powers).  The Lobaircin used their sneaky and tricky ways to protect the treasure that they would hoard.

Now, Leprechauns have NOTHING to do with St. Patrick or today's celebration.  Their only connection is that the leprechaun is a symbol of good luck, for if you catch one, you can force him to give up his gold.  It just so happened, that in 1959, Walt Disney created a film that gave us a different view of this little old leprechaun.  He was a cheerful, friendly little man - and that is what the public associates him with still.

Near a misty stream in Ireland in the hollow of a tree
Live mystical, magical leprechauns
who are clever as can be
With their pointed ears, and turned up toes and little coats of green
The leprechauns busily make their shoes and try hard not to be seen.
Only those who really believe have seen these little elves
And if we are all believers
We can surely see for ourselves.
(Irish Blessing)

Saoilidh an duin’ air mhisg gum bi a h-uile duin’ air mhisg ach e fhèin!

Last night the tenants from downstairs moved out.  Finally.  If you ever decide to rent out part of your house, read this story with care and remember it always.

From a town a couple hours away, these guys came here to work.  For the money.  Like most people do.  They are young and eager and know that they can do hard labour for lots of cash.  The owner of the house knew the parents and said that they could live in the basement.  Sort of a favor to help them out. 

So they moved in.  Since it was a favor, no damage deposit was taken and they paid cash on a month-to-month basis.  No real rules, it was assumed that living in another person's house means that you respect them and the living area.  The two of them were great in the beginning. Then they asked if a friend could move in.  Sure, why not? It's a two bedroom place, but if they can make it work, so be it.

Three of them lived there.  And as circumstances changed, the landlord was no longer around much.  She visited monthly to collect rent.  Gave them leeway and extensions on rent and asked them to do things such as mow the lawn in return.  But the neighbours started to complain.  Parties were happening...it was beginning to get loud.  She spoke with them, but it only subsided for a time before it went back to being the same.

When Jar and I needed a place to live, this place was offered to us.  Live in the top part of the house so that we could keep an eye on the guys downstairs and look after the house.  Sounded like a plan.  When we got here everyone was surprised at what was discovered.

There was 4 of them living down there, sometimes 5.  They were partying on Wednesday nights.  Leaving garbage piled all over the yard. Not cleaning up after the dog.  A disaster.  The house smelt like weed and cigarettes and garbage.  Lovely.

However, they have moved now.  Everything is gone with the exception of a few things.  But what is left.....is terrible.

The carpet is stained with alcohol, dog business, puke and other foreign colors. Dishes are filling both sinks, dirty and stinking.  Some sort of brown, dripping stuff is on the walls.  Looks as if they were throwing things at it.  The bed is stained with what looks like blood or shit.  The other bedroom is where the dog lived and is full of dog stains.  It's gross.

I am pretty sure the carpet needs to be replaced.  And it will take a week to clean.  How can people treat other people's stuff like this?