I gave Keisha a bath today.  She really needed one.  It’s funny, my Yellow Labrador Retriever really doesn’t like water, but my Siberian Husky doesn’t mind it too much.  I got the bathroom ready earlier, and when I came out to get Keisha, Sophie was standing in the hall by the kitchen with her front legs spread out bracing herself for the worst!  She relaxed once she knew she was safe from the tub. 

Keisha is getting heavy, and it’s getting harder for me to lift her into the tub now.  We have really deep soaker tubs, and they are too tall for her to jump into on her own.  This time when I lifted her, she spread her front paws out to try to stop me from putting her in the tub.  I mamaged to get her in there ok though, and she had a nice shower.  Hand held showers really come in handy!  She likes to put her front paws on my bath bench while she gets her shower.  She’s funny like that.  She didn’t do that this time though.  She actually just stood in the tub and let me wash her that way.  I guess she’s getting too tall to lean on the bath bench like she’s use to.

The funny thing about bathing a husky is that when they are wet they look a lot smaller, but when they shake the fur on their heads gts really fluffed up.  Then you are left with a husky with a really small body and a huge fluffy head!  It’s so funny! 

Anyway, after her bath I cut up some meat to use for treats and took her into the kitchen.  It only took me a very short time to teach her to close the drawer with her nose.  She’s very smart and learns things quickly.

I was stumped by what words to use for opening and closing doors and drawers.  I was thinking of using “push” and either “pull” or “tug”.  Then, as I was laying in bed last night, not able to get to sleep I thought about it some more.  I realized that I didn’t have to use the words that described the action she was doing, but could use words that described what happened when she did it.  So, I have decided to use “close” and “open”.  That way she will know now to stop until the drawer or door is completly open or closed.  I will say the word “push” for buttons and “pull” for helping pull my wheelchair up steep curbs. 

The problem is solved!  I guess insomnia helps sometimes after all!

I’m so annoyed right now.  For the past couple of days my ctrl keys haven’t worked.  I don’t know why.  I didn’t do anything, but they both stopped working.  I thought the left one had something caught under it, and took the key off.  I cleaned all around it, put it back on and it still didn’t work.  Then I tried the right one and it wasn’t working either.  They don’t work in any program.  I’m using a Sony Vaio laptop and have Win XP.

I’ve rebooted my laptop, Googled the problem, and now I just know that a lot of other people have the same problem.  I didn’t find out how to fix it, and it’s bugging me even more knowing that a lot of other people haven’t found out how to fix it either!  I guess I was hoping to find an obvious, easily fixed problem.  So much for that!

So, if anyone knows why both of my ctrl keys would quit working, please leave a comment!  I would really appreachiate it! 

I just finished a huge supper of salmon, rice and macaroni salad.  I’m so full.  I always end up eating too much and feeling “blah”.  I got up around 6am this morning, and ended up having a nap on the couch.  It felt so odd.  Julian woke me up and tried to tell me how work was going for him today, and I had to force myself to understand him.  I ended up falling asleep again for awhile when he left to go to the store.  By the time he got back I managd to wake myself up enough to get up and make some sandwiches for dinner.  I did manage to get a couple of loads of laundry done, the hallway cleaned up and most of the bedroomcleared up though before my nap, so the day wasn’t completely wasted.  It was rainy and cold out today, so it was just a dull day anyway.  It’s so hard to be energized when the weather is like that.

I managed to loose the back of my earring last night.  Well, at least I think it was last night.  I remember when I went to bed on Saturday night.  Oh wait, it was actually Sunday morning because the fire alarm went off at like 1:30am!  It does that a lot.  Anyway, I remember the back of my earring stabbing me behind my ear and I moved it.  As far as I could tell the, the back was still there.  I went swimming that night, and when I got back I noticed that the back was missing! 

The odd thing is, while Julian was taking out the trash before we left to go to the pool (which is only downstairs), I took out my nose ring, and took my ring off.  I was considering taking my earrings out too, but decided to leave them in.  I didn’t want to keep Julian waiting in the hallway for me.  I don’t knwo if the back was already off, or if I lost it while I was in the hot tub or swimming.  Or, I could have lost it in the bedroom while I was changing after our swim.

It’s a screw on back, so I couldn’t replace it with a back from other earrings I have.  I checked the bed to see if it was tangled in the sheets, or under my pillow, and even went downstairs to check the change room and pool.  I didn’tfind it.  The conceirge said if they saw it on the floor they would keep it for me, and the people who were in the hot tub when I went back to the pool said that if they found it, they would give it the the conceirge downstairs.  One of the guys even got down on the floor and looked under the chairs by the hot tub! 

I think I’ll go to a jewlery store next week and see if I can get a back for it.  I’m just really glad I didn’t loose the earring!  It would have tore me apart to loose the first set of diamond earrings my boyfriend gave me!  I guess that crises was averted!

Well the TTC transit strike is over.  They were forced to go back to work.  It lasted all of 36 hours!  It’s almost like it didn’t even happen.  When I woke up on Saturdy it was really quiet outside.  That’s very unusual for around here.  It felt odd, like I slept in and missed something that caused the whole city to leave or something!

I did a lot of laundry and cleaning today.  There’s still a ton of laundry left (I’ve been putting it off for awhile).  I’ll get some more of it done tomorrow though.  We also went swimming earlier, and it was nice.  My left shoulder has been bothering me, but I soaked int he hot tub for awhile before the swim, so it’s feeling a bit better now.

Supper is ready, so I should clear off the table.  I’ll write the entry I was planning on writing about accessible cabs in Toronto tomorrow.  Right now I’m going to go finish watching Jerry Maguire.

TTC (Toronto Transit Comission) workers went on strike Friday night (actually at midnight).  They have been talking about it for awhile now, and said that they would give at least 48 hours notice.  This didn’t happen, and at midnight all of the buses, streetcars and subways were parked in their garages/yards and one driver even stoped his bus on the side of the street, put his hazard lights on and walked away.

The one good thing about this is that it happened on a Friday night, leaving most people with two days to find other ways to get to work before Monday morning.  It’s at times like this that I’m really thankful that I work from home!

This is what the TTC has on it’s website:

Due to a legal strike by its unions, the Toronto Transit Commission regrets that there will be no bus, streetcar, subway or Scarborough RT service effective Midnight, Friday April 25. Wheel-Trans service is limited to critical medical appointments only

Wheel-Trans is an accessible bus service.  The people I’m most concerned for are the people who use power wheelchairs that have to get to work.  If they relied on the Wheel-Trans buses I’m not sure what they are going to do.  There are not enough wheelchair accessible cabs (I’ll be writing an entry about this tomorrow), and power chairs can’t usually be carried in regular cabs.  I hope things are sorted out quickly.

If you serch for TTC Strike online I’m sure you can find plenty of news stories about what’s happening with it.

I wrote about my neighbours in a post a few days ago.  I have to admit, besides the trash being thrown off the balcony upstairs (including the bits of broken glass my puppy was trying to eat yesterday), the guy upstairs hasn’t been making a lot of noise lately.  I have a feeling that’s all about to change! 

My boyfriend went to the store earlier, and while he was getting our mail he met the guy from upstairs.  He had a conversation with him about the trash being thrown on our patio, and he didn’t deny that it was him doing it at all.  He did make a comment about how we were the ones who reported his party though.  My boyfriend didn’t say we did or didn’t.  If he said he didn’t, he wouldn’t have been lieing because it was me! 

Now, I have a feeling things can go either way.  Either he will continue on with the way he’s been lately, or he will look for every little thing to complain about.  I’m hoping he don’t choose option two.  Luckily, I don’t have to put up with things here much longer because we are moving out of this building soon! 

I’m just really glad we didn’t buy this condo!

My travel plans, if everything goes well are actually moving plans.  We are planning on moving to The Netherlands!  It’s a long way from Canada, but I’ve already living in the US for awhile, and my boyfriend is from the UK.  We wanted to move to the UK so he could be closer to his kids, but in order to move there, we had a whole issue with getting my guide dog, and service dog in training into the country.  They are really strict when it comes to bringing animals into the country because there is no rabies there.

The problem is, when we finally did get them both into the country, it would be a pain in the butt every time we wanted to travel outside of the UK.  In the end, we decided to move to a country that was close enough to the UK so that he could see his kids whenever he wanted, but where I could travel to and from with my dogs, without having to plan trips months in advance.  The Netherlands fit both of these requirements, and after looking into things further I really liked what I have learned about it.  We are considering Amsterdam, and Den Haag.  Both are nice places, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.  I’m leaning further towards Den Haag though, because it seems to be more “wheelchair friendly” than Amsterdam. 

I’m sure it will be a great experience, and I’m looking forward to the move!  We still have a lot to organize before it happens, but with a little bit of luck and a lot of planning, hopefully we will be settling in there by the end of the summer!

What are my neighbours like?

Where do I even start?!  We moved into this condo in July of 2007.  It’s in a good area, and when we moved in here, I didn’t think we would have any problems with our neighbours.  It’s a very secure building, with a concierge and I just didn’t think the type of people who lived here were the type to cause any trouble.  Boy, was I wrong!

We noticed right after we moved in that the people above us thought nothing of throwing their trash down onto our patio area!  I really liked the fact that we have a nice big area outside instead of a tiny balcony at first.  In fact it’s one of the reasons we picked this condo.  We traded the high floor for more outside space.  It turns out what we really did was trade a high floor for a huge outside dumping ground for everyone else’s trash! 

We know who is doing most of this, and even went to the management about the problem.  Nothing was done.  We pick up around 200 cigarette butts a week and we don’t even smoke!  There are always bits of envelopes, and wrappers to various food items blowing around outside.  I can’t even open the balcony door on days when there is enough wind to blow the cigarette butts around because they blow into the living room and ash gets all over the carpet.  Some of the other items dropped onto our patio include lighters, dead leaves from plants, a mat that goes around a toilet, a broken mirror, a dirty towel, long pieces of wood, and a used condom!  Just to remind you we’ve been here less than a year!

Most of the trash seems to come from the people living directly above us.  There are a lot of cigarette packages stuck between the railing of their balcony.  I guess they got caught when someone tried to kick them off of the balcony.  We can’t even go outside and enjoy the space because it’s so disgusting out there. 

The same neighbours are loud and don’t seem to care about anyone who lives around them.  They seem to leave every noisy thing they have to do until late at night.  I’m not the least bit surprised anymore when I hear drilling at bedtime.  They use to have quite a few late night parties too, until I went downstairs and reported them one night.  It was after 11 pm, we had to get up for work the next morning and all we could hear was the music they were playing and people talking loudly and laughing.  Their balcony door was open and people were outside making a lot of noise and not caring one bit that there are other people living around them!  The balcony is right next to our bedroom window.  I finally had too much, and went downstairs in my sweatshirt and pyjama pants to speak to the concierge about the situation.  I had let them off plenty of times before, and that night they just stepped over the line! 

When I got downstairs there was a guy waiting to be let upstairs.  I think he was on his way to the party, but that didn’t stop me fro complaining about it.  I just couldn’t handle it anymore.  The concierge got into the elevator with both of us, and as I was climbing back into bed, I heard the people upstairs get a lot louder, before they all cleared out, leaving the guy who lives there to clean up the mess.

Did I feel bad?  Not at all!  This is the same guy that left a nasty note for me taped onto my door with the writing (excuse me, typing) facing out for everyone to see.  It was all because my guide dog had a bit of an upset stomach and had pooed outside of her litter box.  He informed me that it was disgusting having to look down at it and told me to clean it up.

Now, to go back a bit when we moved in here we knew there were a lot of other dogs in the building.  We also knew there had to be somewhere for them to pee because there were so many of them.  There is a park a short walk from here, and we thought that if there was no spot closer to the building I could take my guide dog there when she had to go.  This plan didn’t quite work out because it turns out the other people who have dogs take them out in the planters near the enterance to the parking garage.  They are not suppose to do this.  Another option is to cut across the street and take them to a parking lot, or to take them to the park.

In order to get across the street to the parking lot I have to go all the way to the end of the block, cross the street, come all the way back towards the building and get over grass and gravel.  Sounds simple enough, but when you are a blind wheelchair user, it’s not so simple.  The park was also not an option because there is a huge chuck of sidewalk that is raised and cracked.  Some tree roots have uprooted it, and it’s too steep and cracked to get over safely, even when someone is helping.  If I do manage to get over this there is an open hole where a cover came off, that is just big enough to catch a wheel in and send me catapulting head first into the sidewalk just past the “sidewalk of death”. 

To get around this issue, I built a Lab. sized litter box and put it on our patio.  My guide dog uses it, and I clean it out, but if her stomach is not feeling well, and she has to get out in a hurry sometimes she will miss the box.  I can’t get out onto the patio, but I can sit on the floor in the living room and reach to the end of the box to clean it up.  If anything goes outside the box my boyfriend cleans it up.  It works out great, because when either of my dogs have to go out, I just have to open the door, put them on their leash and let them out.  It’s great in the winter when there’s snow on the ground!  Since moving here, I got a Siberian Husky puppy to train as my new guide/service dog.  She uses the litter box also.  She will gradually take over the work my current guide dog does whenever she wants to retire.

I’ve talked to the girl that lives down the hall from me and she has no problem with this.  Our patios are connected.  She couldn’t believe that the guy upstairs left the note on my door the way he did.  At the time my boyfriend wasn’t here, and I had to wait a few days to get the little spot that was outside the box cleaned up.  Anyway, enough about that neighbour, lets talk about the girl across the hall!

This girl has absolutely no respect for anyone!  The trash chute is right across the hall from me, and right next to her condo.  She usually gets home at odd hours of the morning and decides to take her trash out at 2 am!  Why it can’t wait until a sensible time of day is beyond me.  She gets home, lets her door slam so hard it can potentially wake everyone who lives around her, lets her door slam again while she hurls her trash down the chute and lets those two doors slam, before letting her own door slam once more.  She leaves her trash on the floor behind the door in the room the trash chute is in, so the door wont open, and leaves bags of trash stuck int he chute.  She never bothers to even try to stop her door from slamming shut, and will talk really loudly in the hallway no matter what time of day or night it is!  Then when she opens her door she will stand in the hallway talking in a loud baby voice to her barking dogs!

This was the worst I had to put up with from her, or so I thought!  Earlier this month, she had a loud argument with some guy she had brought home with her.  I have no idea who he was, but I assume he was her boyfriend.  They were arguing inside her apartment loud enough that I could hear them all the way in my living room.  There’s a long hallway and a kitchen between the hallway and where I was.  They continue arguing as they came out into the hallway a few times and went back into her apartment.  Her dogs were barking, and I was seriously considering calling downstairs.  Not so much to report the argument, but I was getting worried.  She was crying rather uncontrollably, and the guy wouldn’t give her her phone.  If I could have read the number on the side of the fridge, I would have let someone know, just to make sure she was ok.  Sure, she’s an annoying neighbour, but no one deserves that.

Anyway, things seemed to calm down, and I settled in again on the couch to watch some TV until I fell asleep.  I didn’t even have a chance to get comfortable, when there was a loud knock on my door!  I froze for a minute trying to decide what to do.  My guide dog was already halfway to the door, and my puppy was freaking out in her crate.  I grabbed one of the cordless phones, got back into my wheelchair and nervously pushed my way past my guide dog.  I thought it was probably my neighbour needing to use a phone or something.  I thought the guy had left because I herd the ding of the elevator when it stopped on this floor. 

I opened the door a crack, shaking from the adrenaline, only to find two Police officers in the hallway!  I invited them in and they asked some questions.  The male officer even changed a burnt out light bulb for me while the female played with my puppy.  They spoke to the other people at this end of the hallway, and I heard them say something about something “being evidence” as they left on of the apartments down the hall from me. 

I thought the girl would take it easy after this whole fiasco, and at least try to be quiet for the next few days.  The Police had come around 1:20 am.  It was only about 15 minutes after the argument had taken place, and by 8 am the girl had come back home and was slamming her door as usual!  She hasn’t stopped since!

With any luck we wont have to put up with this for too much longer because we are thinking about moving to The Netherlands this summer!  It will be a huge move, but I’m looking forward to it!  Let’s just hope we find better neighbours there!