It's been an eventful week. Lots to do at work. Marsha is finally over her cold. It took much longer than expected and she ended up missing work on Tuesday. But by Friday she was back to 100%. Friday I also went into Pacific Shores to do some work in the equipment room. This included pulling one system out to bring down to Victoria when I go down there on the 6th. Then I had to pull a second system, repair a couple of things and put it back. Then I installed a used system that I brought from Nanaimo, and then hooked the whole thing up, hit power and everything started up and ran just like it was supposed to. I was surprised. Maybe I'm beginning to learn this business after all. The trouble is that the systems room has no windows, nearly no ventilation and the breaker panels and equipment keep it over 35 C all the time. (Remember 35*2 +30= ~100 degrees F.) After 5 hours in there I was exhausted.

You may have noticed a tone in last weeks letter. A seriousness that I normally try to avoid. I have to confess something. We were dealing with an issue and didn't want to mention it until things got sorted out. On the 12th we picked up some flowers from the 50% off table at the Superstore. We wanted to put them in an open patch in the front yard. We set them on the ledge in the kitchen window so we could keep them wet and they'd get some sun. Marsha was still fighting this cold so it wasn't until late Saturday that she felt well enough to plant. It was then that she noticed that they had been trimmed. apparently sometime in the night, the long flowing fronds on one had been bitten off and eaten. The plant was a daylily.

Many of you may not know, we were unaware until this happened, but lilies of all kinds are poisonous to cats. Not 'oh no kitty threw up on the rug' poisonous either. More of a 'three days and they die' poisonous. As soon as we discovered this we called the vet. She said that if it was within a couple three hours they could induce vomiting, and then put Geiger (and we were sure it was Geiger) on an IV and a catheter and try to pump the poison out of his system. We figured it had been at least 12 hours, possibly as much as 18. The vet was willing to try even at this late point, but it was clear that whatever damage was going to happen had been done. She said to watch him and if his conditioned changed to bring him in. We were very worried. Though Geiger seemed fine everything that we'd read said that his kidneys would shut down and  in 3-5 days toxins would build up, and that would be it. It was about then that we wrote last weeks letter. So we've watched both cats as the week went on. Both Marsha and I were getting up in the middle of the night and checking them. I'm very surprised and happy to be able to say that Geiger (and Momiji) are fine. This can only mean one of three things;

Either there's a little pile of cat puke somewhere hidden that we'll discover one day when we move.
That we are infested with House Hippos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBfi8OEz0rA
or that Geiger is the luckiest @$!!*?!!#$% cat on the face of the earth. Either way he's still around and we're very happy about that.

In other news they pulled a guy out of a well north of here this week. The guy is 84, he was looking for a well he'd dug years before and when he stumbled on it the rotten boards covering the hole shattered. He spent four days trapped before he was found by a friend and the RCMP canine unit. When they finally found him though, he refused getting pulled out "Just get me a ladder and I'll climb out." Once he was out he didn't want to go to the doctor to get checked out. "I'll just go home, have some soup, and I'll be fine." I hope I'm that tough when I'm 84.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/06/24/bc-trapped-man-well.html

They rescued a Humpback Whale off of the central BC coast that had gotten tangled in some prawn traps.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/06/26/bc-whale-rescued-traps.html

And lastly we went down to the harbor on Saturday afternoon. We parked in the nearest pay lot, one of  those where you pay at the machine and then put the ticket in your front window. Well we had just gotten there when a lady walked out to her car. She turned and asked Marsha "Have you gotten your ticket yet?" We said no so she took the one out of her car "I got a 24 hour ticket and got back early. You can use it. We took it and thanked her. It saved us a buck. When we left we saw some people who were just arriving. Marsha backed up I rolled down the window and handed the ticket to the very surprised driver, gave a quick explanation and we took off. That's the kind of town Nanaimo is.

This week is Canada Day. So here's a quiz of your Canada knowledge. All questions are True or False. Answers in next weeks letter.

1.  Canada is on the continent of South America.
2.  Canada is the second largest country in the world.
3.  Canada has 9 provinces and 2 territories.
4.  The Capital city of Canada is Ottawa.
5. The current leader of Canada is Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
6.  The current Governor General of Canada is Michaelle Jean.
7.  The Canadian emblem is the maple leaf.
8.  The Canadian flag is red, white and blue with a white maple leaf.
9.  Canada's birthday is on the first of July.
10. The national anthem is "O Canada".
11. There are two time zones in Canada.
12. The Canadian population in 2009 is 12,275,324.
13. The two main languages are English and French.
14. The name "Canada" comes from the Huron Iroquoi word 'kanata' meaning 'village'.
15. Canada became a country on July 1, 1998.

D&M

Pix: The cats are healthy and happy and a new generation is being taught to eat what's in our yard.