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The neighbor saga continues!

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A while ago I wrote about how our new neighbors have been driving me crazy. I think I mentioned that they had purchased a huge boat of a car (a Buick Regal – 30 year old gas guzzler!) and since it was there month to park in our shared driveway, promptly parked their new car in the driveway and left it there.

I think he almost decided to return the car a few days after he bought it because he found out that he’d have to do a lot of paperwork to get a license for the car since it’s not exactly environmentally friendly. Well … about mid-month I guess he got it all figured out and license plates appeared on the car … but still it sat and sat in the driveway.

Blocking the driveway is more like it since it’s wedged between our two houses in our narrow driveway. I can’t even get our garden hose past the car without my husbands help. We have to carefully pass the hose over about five feet of car – being careful not to touch the car since the neighbor is out there washing and polishing it pretty much daily! God forbid if we made a mark on it!

Anyway, I guess he called around and got some insurance quotes because they’ve started driving the gas guzzling car about once a week.

I’m just so frustrated with the huge car blocking off the top of our driveway. They also put their BBQ at the end of the driveway so they end up blocking the end of the driveway too. Argh!

Luckily … we get the use of the driveway in July. He’d better move that darn car! Oh and their young daughter told us that they might be moving in August … If the home owners continue to rent the house I hope we get better neighbors when they move.

Between what they’ve done to the driveway, how they treat their puppy and all the screaming and yelling I keep hearing next store I won’t be sorry to see them go.





Tired after a day at North America’s biggest dog Festival – Woofstock

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Our dog Midnight had an exciting day today. We took her to Woofstock. It’s billed as North America’s largest festival for dogs and oh boy … were there ever a lot of dogs and dog related items there!

My husband is a little tired, but Midnight (our Lab) and I are positively tuckered!

We walked outside in the warm sun for hours. Looking at every vendors booth, hoping to get a free sample here and there of things that our dog could use. We did get two packages of free dog food, and some promotional tote bags but that’s about it as far as freebies go. We got more freebies last year, but of course we went on the last day of the event last year so I think the vendors were trying to clear out their booths! Hmm maybe we should go again tomorrow at about 5 pm – an hour before closing?

Our dog made out well though. She met lots of other dogs and came home with two mammoth bone, a stuffed bone, a beef knee joint, pigs ears and a few small bags of dog treats as well as two new leashes and a new collar. She’s set for a long while!

Tomorrow we’re going to go to the end of the Luminato festival on the waterfront here in Toronto and next weekend we’re going to an outdoor concert. Toronto has so many great things to do … I’m sure we’ll find something interesting to do pretty much each weekend of the summer. I just hope that I don’t keep coming home from these “events” as tired as I feel tonight!

Time for a home town visit?

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Do you ever get homesick? I think I’m starting to become home sick. I haven’t visited my home town since 2005 when I went to one of my remaining aunts birthday parties (she was turning 80).

My brother still lives in my home town of Ottawa, but other than him, my aunt and her children I don’t have any other relatives there anymore. My mom died in 2004 and that ended all regular visits. When she was alive my husband and I tried to visit every two weeks (five hour drive each way from Toronto).

My husband is trying to book off for his vacation time. We’re hoping he’ll be able to book off for the last week of July and the first week of August. Perhaps some time during his vacation we’ll drive to Ottawa to see my brother and other relatives.

I’d kind of like to see our old house where we all grew up, but I’m sure that will bring back some painful memories. Not that my time there was bad or anything, in fact I had a great childhood and got along well with my parents … but it’s kind of sad since they are gone and the house is no longer ours.

If we do visit Ottawa I’d want to go to the Experimental Farm and Dow’s Lake. It was was walking distance from our house and I spent a lot of time there as a child going to see the farm animals and skating and boating on the lake and of course the Ottawa Canal. I suppose I’d probably find a reason to visit the Westgate Mall which was near my house as well. Just for old times sake.

If you no longer live in your home town do you try to go back for a visit every now and then or are you like me … haven’t visited for 5 or more years?

My Husband is NOT a Guinness World Record holder – unfortunately

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I was hoping that I’d be able to announce that I’m married to a Guinness World Record holder this evening, but I’m afraid that I can only say that my husband attempted to break a Guinness World Record and unfortunately failed because enough people didn’t show up. Shame.

Sp what am I talking about? Well, earlier today a large group of guitarists gathered at Toronto’s Dundas Square in attempt to break the record for the largest guitar ensemble. They needed 1803 guitarists to break the 2007 German record of 1802 guitarists playing Smoke on the Water, but they were apparently short by about 123 people.

My husband was disappointed when he came home, but he still said he had fun playing Neil Young’s Heartless and meeting several other guitarists. Oh well, maybe they’ll try to break the record again next year. He was so excited too … he even wrote a post about the attempt to break the world record on his guitar blog.

I was going to go to watch the event, but I wasn’t feeling all that well. Remember I have Crohn’s and it’s acting up lately. To tell you the truth I kind of feel like I’ve taken a colon cleanser today. That’s what life with Crohn’s is like.

If Chris had only been going downtown for an hour or so it wouldn’t have been that bad, but registration was supposed to start at 2 p.m. and he heard on the radio at noon that people were already starting to gather so he left at about 12:30 pm. All the guitarists didn’t start playing the song Heartless until 6 p.m. so that would have been a lot of standing around for me. Still … I would have liked to have gone as I’m sure I would have taken some cool pictures of all those guitarists.

Neighbors starting to drive me nuts!

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Do you like or even know your neighbors? Sometimes I feel like we know our neighbors too well and most of the time that’s not a good thing. Not at all!

We know most of our neighbors because my husband is Mr. Friendly. So friendly in fact that I often call him Mr. Flanders (from the Simpsons) and I’d swear I’ve heard him call out “Hi de ho – Neighbor” on occasion! So yeah … we know everyone for blocks around, half due to my husbands outgoing friendliness and half due to the fact that the two of us work at the hospital just down the street and we’ve both taken care of many of our neighbors over the years in the ER (me), day surgery or on the various medical floors of the hospital.

Our newest neighbors, the renters that moved in next door in January, are really getting on my nerves lately.

They bought a Lab/ American Bulldog mix puppy shortly after falling in love with our Lab, Midnight, and I fear for the poor little thing. They let it out in their backyard unattended and it’s eating weeds, wood and all kinds of things. That pup is going to have a bowel obstruction soon. Also, their gate doesn’t lock properly so this week their puppy has gotten out and ran to the front twice! Luckily yesterday when it happened the first time I was outside with my dog and the puppy ran right up to us … otherwise he might have ran out into the busy street.

On Saturday the guy was walking their puppy and he let it get too close to a dog that was fenced in it’s own backyard. The dog bit their puppy in the face! Did my neighbors take their dog to the vet? Nope! They asked me for advice since I’m a nurse. My main advice was to go to the vet fast as I though their puppy needed stitches, but I also gave them betadine to put on the wound to keep it clean. Anyway, by the next day the three holes in their puppies muzzle were infected and pussy, probably because they’d let the dog play outside in the dirty weedy garden. They finally took their pup to the vets on Monday and it’s now on antibiotics.

Then … last night they bought a used car. We share our driveway – alternating driveway use each month since the drive way is short and narrow and only one car can be parked in it at once. So they bought this old boat of a car (they now have three or four cars!) and wedged it in the driveway.

I say wedged because it’s wider than the driveway and we can’t even walk down the driveway beside the car because the car is only about half a foot from each of our houses! Grrrr! So what now … gee, when I need to water my lawn and front flower beds I’m going to have to ask them to move the car so I can get the hose between the house and their boat of a car? Sigh!

They also have two daughters. One is a ten and she’s been asking my advice about dieting and reading Colonix reviews. She’s only 12 and I don’t want to hurt her feelings but I’m starting to feel like a professional adviser what with all the questions she’s asking … not to mention her family asking us all kinds of dog car and training advice (and then not using it!).

Do you have neighbors that just make you shake your head in wonder at the things they do?

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