Bertha, The Petulant Purple Pig

I got the garbage out in plenty of time. Yay me. Then I proceeded to sleep half the day away. It's been another beauty.

Guys might want to plug your ears here. I have not had my period yet. I'm a month late. There is no chance of pregnancy or anything. All I can think of is menopause. I am 45 and a half. I've been peri-menopausal for years. I've had PMS symptoms on time, but no flow. For me to sleep half the day, it would appear I'm getting the dreaded symptoms again, already. Ugh.

So Hubby woke me up with a fresh Timmys coffee. He has gone off running errands. One of those errands is making arrangements to bring the bike home. Yay! I'm sure the neighbours all think we sold it, hehe. No such luck suckers. Sitting outside on the weekend watching the herds of bikes thundering by was annoying. In a way I felt happy for all of those who were able to be out enjoying the wind and our best in the province local riding roads, but at the same time I kept feeling like that should be me dammit. There seemed to be more than usual husband and wife riders. I do not want to ride myself. I have no desire to ride a bike. I totally enjoy kicking back in the backseat, trusting my husband with my life. I take pictures back there. I light cigarettes for the two of us, sometimes for other riders too. But mainly I just relax, enjoy the ride and the scenery. We've toyed with the idea of me learning to ride. First off the desire really isn't there for me. Secondly every single bike I've sat on is too big. Even other womens bikes. I don't think I have the strength required. For sure I could never pick a bike up from the ground. I believe you have to be able to do that. Just about everyone drops their bike at some time, believe it or not. Shit happens. But the main thing is, I can't touch the ground, my legs are too short. I'm sure there is a bike out there which is low enough for me, but as I said the desire isn't there, so who cares. I'm happy being a passenger. And that's only with my Hubby. I wouldn't get on a bike with just anyone driving. He is a good rider, he knows what he's doing, he knows when to take it easy, he's smooth, he knows how to ride. That's not true of everyone. So yeah, the neighbours should be thrilled to see, or rather hear it when it comes home, hehe.

On the other side of the nextdoor tards who do all the complaining lives a guy with a Harley also. Now it seems he has his son living there too, who also rides a Harley. So there's 2 of them. Not only do they ride, they wear colours. You don't see these guys without their patches on. They belong to the "Geriatric Club". So they always have bikes out in the driveway, plenty of noise going on and plenty of geriatric guys in "colours". Do these tards complain? NO. They only complain when Hubby has to reset the timing on our VINTAGE bike. He tends to do it inside the garage, maybe that's the problem. Perhaps he should do it out in the driveway. The noise seems louder inside I guess, it echoes. It is because it's an old bike that he has to do these things, like setting the timing. We LIKE old bikes, excuse us. New bikes are much quieter. But you know what? Most guys with new bikes change the pipes to make them louder! Go figure. Personally the sound of a Harley rumbling, whether idling or shifting as it roars off in the distance, is MUSIC to my ears. It's just like that, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. So fuck the neighbours and their petty little attitudes. I should mention here, that on the other side of us, the ones who whine about dog shit, also have 2 Harleys. So out of 4 houses in a row, these tards beside us are the only ones who don't ride and we are the only ones they complain about. Thank the powers that be, their house is up for sale. And anything we can do to help them sell, we're on it. I think they only pick on us because we're new. The geriatric biker has been here for 20 years. His scoot is markedly quieter than ours. It has an Evolution engine so he doesn't need to fuck around with it, setting the timing etc. He just pushes a button and goes. And he goes out of his way to be friendly with the fuckheads. That's the kind of guy he is. We really tried to be good neighbours when we moved in. We tried our damnest to get along with these fuckers. They had it in their heads from the get-go that they weren't going to get along with us. I can't explain it. I don't know why anyone would want that. But I can tell you the very first, and pretty much only, conversation we had with them over the back fence, was them telling us how horrible the previous owners were. So we made every effort to not be horrible neighbours. It made no difference. We in fact went out of our way to please them when we put in a rock garden which abutted their fence. Long story short, it made no difference. They are freaks. Nothing we can do about that. Except pray for them to move.

So I went outside with my coffee and my guys, and it's nice but windy. I believe we're expecting some rain. Which is good because that's what will make everything just flourish, like the trees and whatnot. I learned this past winter to deeply appreciate every single moment of nice warm weather. I may look like Rudolph, but I feel great. My body's been sucking up those rays like there's no tomorrow.

Well, I'm going back out while I have the chance. I think I'll putter in the garage, collecting yard sale crap and making room for "Bertha". Lo the Purple Pig people...

Shopping For A Fence

The day started out on a bit of a sour note when we got a letter from the Township in our mail.

The letter stated "It has come to the attention of this office that, your dogs have been allowed to run at large. The issue of safety is a serious concern. Complaints have been received regarding your dog disturbing/threatening neighbouring landowners, their children and their pets. It is imperative that you resolve this situation immediately."

It goes on further to explain the charges and fines that could be laid on us and contains a copy of the dog bylaws.

Yes it is true that Bear takes off on me on a regular basis. And though I know he wouldn't hurt a flea, others have no way of knowing that. And I don't know how he acts when I'm not there. I spoke to one of the Town Councillors about it and she said she had received 3 complaints. She told them all the same thing, that they must put it in writing for anything to happen. One refused to do that, another did so right away and she is waiting for the written complaint from the third. We have a pretty good idea of who it may be. We have no argument. The one thing I find strange is the timing. When I let Bear out and he takes off on me is usually late at night or in the wee hours. It's just our lovely neighbours being asses. It bothers me because I'm fairly certain it's bullshit, only said to cause us grief. And because I've seen every other dog on this street out roaming around loose. But I don't complain about it.

Anyways, we went fence shopping yesterday. We're getting a small part of the settlement next week, so we figured we'd find out how much it's going to cost to fence the backyard. We were planning to do that even before receiving this letter. We need 205 feet of fence. We decided to go with the pre-assembled wood panels. Not including the posts it will cost over $3000. We hope to have it done by next weekend. Hubby is going to recruit a couple of guys and they can slap it up themselves. We haven't decided if we'll rent a post hole digger or hire a local guy to do that part. We'll have to remove the cedar rail fence which runs across the back of the yard and may use it as a decorative fence in the frontyard. Due to the cost, I may not be able to finish the denture project just yet. Aww, that's too bad, hehe.

Other than that it was a fabulous day. Since my car is on its last legs, and we have that money coming, we stopped in at a car place too. We may have found a reasonable replacement car. We're also going to pull our old pick up truck out of the backyard before the fence goes up, and get it back on the road. It's been a real pain not having a truck.

The weather was amazing. It was as hot as a summer day. We spent the entire day outside. We even had a barbecue for dinner. Little R went for a scoot on her mini bike after school. I got the raking done, even cleaned up the mess from the wood cutting pile. I got a slight sunburn. You know how you get a chill, after getting a burn, when the sun goes down? That was me last night. I'm going to have a decent tan already by the time summer does roll around.

The house nextdoor still hasn't sold. I read the listing and it says "needs TLC", that's not a good selling point and they mention it "has a large sandbox", hardly a selling feature. These folks are freaks, it's common knowledge. Two grown adults who live in a 4 bedroom house and do like to play in their sandbox. They've been seen by other neighbours doing what can only be described as "role playing". They are also the ones who complain about every little thing. It started with the bike which again was quite unfair since ours is not the only bike around. They live between two Harley owners, but it's only ours that bothers them. When they found that there was nothing they could do about it, they moved on to complaining about the dog. The other house, which is down and across from us, sold in a week. This will be the second time the freaks nextdoor have put theirs on the market and still, nothing. We'd be more than happy to see them go. There must be something really wrong with the house for it to take this long. "Needs TLC" could mean so many things. If you really want to sell, don't you make the neccesary repairs yourself before putting it on the market? Doesn't that make sense? These folks don't make sense at the best of times. I also noticed on the MLS site, there are no indoor photos of the place. They just don't seem very serious about selling and that's a shame. I'd love to have some decent, normal people living beside me.

All in all it was a gorgeous day and I sure do hope it's a trend. My narcissus' which I planted last year are just about ready to bloom. I can't wait to get out there digging in the dirt and planting all the things I've bought this year. Did I mention I got a rasberry bush last week? Of course I can't decide where to plant it. The sun and warmth yesterday got all the plants and flowers going good. It is supposed to be nice for the next few days. I plan on being out there enjoying every minute of it.

There is a fire ban in effect until May 18 or further notice. So, we couldn't get a fire permit just yet. If you have a fire and someone calls the fire department or otherwise reports it, if the fire department comes out, you are responsible for paying for the call which is now $1800 and you get a fine. It's very much not worth it. Better off waiting for the ban to be lifted. We plan on expanding our tiny firepit. I might start on that today. I have a lot of plans for today actually. All involving being outside in the sunshine.

Have a great day!

Sigh...

Good evening.
I went to bed over an hour ago and just woke with a start. Not sure why. I think it could be the full moon.
I once asked the neighbours what their big problem with dog poo is. It seems to me, its no different than cat poo, or bird poo or rabbit poo or any other kind of poo you may come across in your yard. And that its no big deal to clean it up just like anything else when you're cleaning up your yard. The answer I got was, that they just don't like to have to pick it up. So now I would have to ask, if they don't like to pick it up to get rid of it, why don't they mind picking it up to throw it in our yard? I think I know the answer, its obvious. I think the answer is, because they are petty jackasses who just want something to complain about. Just because they don't have a dog but we do, every dog poo they see MUST belong to our dog, even though there are lots and lots of dogs around, and they ALL get loose at times. We don't have a cat, but they do. So what should I do when I find my gardens dug up? When I find cat poo in my gardens? When I find dead things and headless birds in my yard? Should I dig up THEIR gardens? Should I fling the poo and dead things in THEIR yard? Maybe I SHOULD, but I probably won't, because I'm not a petty jerk. I just clean up my own yard and don't worry about where these things come from, or who to blame. They seem to invent excuses to justify their petty asinine behaviour. I just think the fact that they won't pick up dog poo and put it in the garbage or wherever, but they will pick it up to throw it in our yard, speaks loud and clear.
Good night and sweet dreams.