17 September 2018

Tasha on a better day

Natasha and Walt were out playing with la ba-balle, as they say in French, yesterday morning. Tasha runs so fast and so happily when chasing the ball that she's just a blur. And then the accident happened. She's limping badly. We're having to carry her up and down the stairs. It's one of her front legs. I think we'll have to take her to the vet's this morning. The only recent good news here is that we got our new back gate, finally. Maybe you've seen photos of the old gate and the new gate on Walt's blog.


Natasha's injury is just one in a series of recent setbacks, and I'm sure the stress over everything going on back in my native North Carolina is contributing to my dark mood right now. Two weeks ago it was my laptop that failed me. The battery wouldn't recharge. I ended up taking it to a computer shop, where they replaced the laptop's power socket. That didn't really help. I ordered and received a new AC adapter/power supply for the computer and now the problem is gone. Finally.




Then my laptop screen developed a string of bad pixels. I half-way wonder if the guys at the computer shop didn't somehow cause the damage, because it wasn't there before I took the computer in for the power socket repair. The symptom is what you see in the blurry photo on the right: a long line of bluish, blackish dead pixels that now runs from the top to the bottom of the screen on the left side.



And then the dishwasher broke down. Water spurted out of the back of the machine in the middle of the night. The water dripped on some part of our electrical wiring, which caused the main circuit braker to trip. We were stumbling around in the dark in our underwear at two o'clock in the morning trying to mop up the flood and figure out what had happened. Since the dishwasher is 15 years old, we decided to replace it.

The new dishwasher will be delivered and installed on Thursday, if all goes as planned. I ordered a new screen for my laptop and will install it myself. After looking at some YouTube videos showing how to change out the screen, I've decided it won't be too hard to do. I have the appropriate screwdriver and other tools. I ordered the screen from a company in Canada that has a warehouse at Gatwick airport in the U.K. from which the screen has been shipped.


I wrote in comment that my sister and cousin who basically run the food bank in my home town in North Carolina were able to make the 12-mile trip to see how the place fared in the storm. The news was not good. When I talked to my sister, she and G had just arrived to find that the generator that was supposed to keep the food bank refrigerators and freezers running during and after the storm had failed.



All the food will have spoiled. It seems the water rose to such a high level that the generator was submerged and stopped running. We hung up the phone before J and G unlocked the door and went into the food bank building, so I don't know what condition they found things inside to be in. Latest reports say that the Morehead City got as much as 30 inches (762 mm) of rainfall and experienced winds as high as 112 mph (180 kph) over the weekend.

27 comments:

  1. Hope that string of bad news has now enced.

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    1. What is the English equivalent of un malheur n'arrive jamais seul ?

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    2. The translation of that expression is very appropriate for North Carolina right now: "When it rains it pours."

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    3. An older version of this expression seems better to me: "It never rains but it pours." Une petite pluie devient vite un déluge.

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  2. I'm sorry to hear about all your woes and I really feel for your sister and the food bank situation. How downheartening!

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    1. I'm sure my sister and cousin were already pretty stressed out, and seeing that the food mission's generator had failed was just the last straw. At some point, you just crack.

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  3. Oh, heavens! Well, I'm glad that you're tackling these problems head on-- getting a new dishwasher will be good; you're always good at fixing computer things, so it will feel good to get that new screen taken care of; Tasha! Poor dear! Keep us posted on that!; The good thing, is that Joanna and G are, themselves, safe. What a heartache, though, about the food pantry.

    Ken, I know that they can't receive mail right now, but what is the name of the food bank? Is there a way to make a monetary donation?

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    1. It's called Martha's Mission, in Morehead City. They would welcome a contribution.

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    2. Excellent! They have an easy, online way to contribute. Happy to help.

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  4. I would bet that Tasha has just pulled a muscle. We've had that happen with dogs of ours when they're running fast. She probably tried to make a "turn in a dime" move. At her age she'll recover quickly.

    Hopefully your sister and cousin will get lots of volunteers to help with the food bank cleanup. I keep thinking of the labels on the canned goods coming off because of being underwater. At least they are both okay and your sister's house hasn't flooded.

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    1. I hope it's just a pulled muscle or a sprain. We have an appointment at the vet's later this afternoon.

      J and G will get help from many volunteers, I'm sure. And yes, they and their own houses seem to have fared well, so there's always that consolation. Martha's Mission has a lot of support locally, and that helps.

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  5. well glad to hear that your sister is OK at least....the eastern part of the state is still having problems even today...and water will be rising from run off for a few days....we were lucky & didnt even lose power (I am really shocked at that) ...not that easy for y'all to carry Tasha up your stairs I imagine.....next time perhaps a more petite companion,,,,we went from corgis to a schnoodle & mini doxie....quite the difference.....

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    1. Tasha weighs about 10.5 kg — the vet weighed her yesterday. That's about 23 lbs. and manageable. Tasha is walking so much better this morning that she could probably go up and down stairs by herself. Though we won't encourage that for the time being.

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  6. By the end of this week there will be improvements. Having the right tools to fix your own screen is a good thing and I agree that the problem may have happened in the shop. Our granddog Rosie hurt her back leg yesterday also and is going to the vet today. She was running like she did when she was a pup, but she's nine now. My new washing machine has done it's first load and it is very nice. I hope your new dishwasher will be a good one..

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    1. The vet took x-rays and said Tasha has nothing broken, but has a sprained wrist. Anti-inflammatories for a week to 10 days...

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  7. You have hit a bad patch, certainly. Hope that is the end of it and you can lick your wounds and have some hot soup or a tasty stew and then a good nap. Take care of yourselves.

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    1. I think I'll make lasagne today. That might be comforting.

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  8. I'm so sorry for all this mess, Ken. Thinking of you all.

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  9. Chris, the worst part is the catastrophe in North Carolina. It's as bad a major earthquake.

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  10. Ken, sorry to hear about all the bad news. It's especially distressing when everything bad happens at the same time. Been there, many times.

    Just thinking about the laptop screen. Have you had a chance to clean and reseat the screen connector on the motherboard? The lads at the service depot may have disturbed it during the installation of the power connector.

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    1. Good idea, Terry. Maybe I'll try that today. I've already ordered a replacement...

      But tell me about you. Are you in Morehead? How did Ekklesia fare in the storm? Any flooding? Do you have telephone and electricity? Is everybody okay?

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    2. Ken, I'm a long way away from the storm now (up in Toronto) but keeping a close eye on the flooding and the health of a friend near Raleigh. Will take a long time for the folks there to get back to some form of normalcy.

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  11. Glad to hear that Tasha's injury is nothing really serious. A sprain is bad enough but hopefully she is young enough to heal quite quickly. It's such a worry when a dog gets hurt or ill.

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    1. We've been having a spell of bad luck. Dishwasher flood, disabled laptop, now a defective laptop screen (waiting for replacement to arrive), the catastrophe in North Carolina, and on and on. The good news this morning is that Tasha is doing visibly better. She's walking almost normally after 48 hours of holding one front paw up off the floor or ground. She'll be on anti-inflammatory meds for about 10 days, though I'm not even sure she'll need them for that long.

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  12. So sorry about the foodbank's loss, but glad your sister and cousin are OK. I was lucky not to lose power, although a number of people in my area did. I've seen lots of utility trucks out and about, so they're working as fast as they can.

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    1. Is it still raining? I guess I can check the Accuweather radar to see.

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