Santa arrives and Vape update

My Dad (and childhood santa) flew in yesterday. His seaplane was due to arrive at 4pm so imagine my surprise when he called at 330 to say 'I'm here'... and even more amazing, just 20 min after waking up at 330am to catch his flight at 6 the airline called because his flight was delayed 2 hours... yet he still managed to get across the country and arrive half hour early.... during Xmas. I forgot to ask what airline did this amazing feat but will inquire today.

We got him all set up in his cabin, plenty of Xmas treats, a small tree and prezzies... can't forget the prezzies!

My Daddy

The cabin was cool when we first arrived so Brad started a fire.

The Prezzies

Kitchen

Its a really cute log cabin, roughly 20' x 25' with a deep dish bathtub (you all know what that means :D) and a king size bed.

Last Tuesday I gave up the vape... I had reduced to 0 nicotine and kept puffing that for a month or so - some of you may remember that my plan was to vape the Black Licorice flavour (good taste) while reducing the nicotine levels from 18mg/L to 0mg/L and then switch to the flavour Brad has been using which is a cigarette flavour (nasty taste) and then stop vaping all together.... this I have now done. Finally.

Brad is at 0.75mg/L and only a couple of weeks behind me, he started vaping slightly after me also.

Now that the nicotine has been eliminated my only issue to deal with is the habit... so I bought a lot of gum, Spitz sunflower seeds and an adult colouring book to keep my hands busy while trying desperately not to eat all the Xmas snacks we've had lying around.... Massive diet and exercise regime in my immediate (well, after New Years) future.

 Adult colouring book about the different provinces in Canada

$1 Loonie and $2 Twoonie

If you follow along you know that my microwave/convection heater died a couple of weeks ago, so my Xmas baking was limited to the stove top, so I made chocolate covered pretzels and bought everything else because the new oven wasn't due to be delivered until Dec 27....

The new Microwave/Convection oven arrived late Saturday and we managed to get it installed before Dad arrived on Sunday.

A Saskatchewan Summer

You know your in Saskatchewan when...

a.k.a. 37C

 Our solar panels were bringing in 40.6 Amps

 

This is why I don't do selfies

My 'thing' is to tell everyone how cute I am... and I get away with it because while I don't have self esteem problems, I also don't think I'm all that. Perhaps it is just in my mind, but I 'think' I'm getting away with it. Maybe people just think I'm a nut. Whatever. 

However, while I'm proud of every wrinkle I've earned through my life so far... I don't really like pictures of them floating around in the world, real or cyber. It may also be the old school upbringing I got about not being vain... I don't know but selfies are just not a comfortable thing for me. I do try, I swear it.

It has been so incredibly hot here and having been on the East coast for the last 8 years we are just not used to it anymore, obviously. We've gone to the city every day and generally end up on Brad's Mum's deck, tucked nicely into the shade to get some reprieve from the heat. The poor woman probably just wants rid of us.

I actually faint in the heat, so I have to be very careful and make sure that I stay hydrated - more so than would be considered 'normal'. My body just does not retain fluid, which I always thought was a good thing  - until I returned to spend the summer in Saskatchewan! Holy Hell kinda Hot.

I think I wrote about our change of plans... we were going to clear out our house on the East coast in July, but we have decided to wait until August due to a s.n.a.f.u (literally). We contacted the campground that allowed us to store the RV here back in April, even before they opened and have taken a spot here for the month of July.

It's a nice campground, I wrote about it the other day. Not a lot to do around here and Brad is getting bored, so I went to the office to discuss a workamping option with them for when we return at the end of August. This campground stays open until the end of October which I find very shocking having lived in Saskatchewan since I was 5 - looong time, it gets damn cold here in October.

Anyway, Brad has taken to walking lately. He does a mile twice a day, which to some may not seem like much but with his back issues its quite a feat. We are not very active people, which we'd sure like to fix. I had planned to do PickleBall in Saskatoon but when we volunteered to work the PB Tournament here a couple of months back, nobody knew what was going on, I couldn't get a straight answer about whether to show up or wait for a call, someone was supposed to call me about it but never did and it put a bad taste in my mouth so we've just never gone. I actually miss playing and I know I'm going to get grief about not being any better when I get back to the Ranch in November, but I do it for fun and exercise, not to be some PB Champion, unlike some.

We had a comment yesterday from some regular readers asking about our smoking/vaping and how that was going. Well, I'm happy to report that we are both still vaping and haven't had a cigarette in 2 months, without even a hiccup. Even our Doctor is happy, while vaping is still more than our lungs were designed for (O2), at least we are not getting the smoke, tar and chemicals that accompany the nicotine of a cigarette. Vaping is just nicotine.... at least as far as anyone is telling us (the common folk).

When vaping first came out, I never imagined that I'd be doing it. I do not like to be a guinea pig for anything but with cigarettes being $19.10/pack we finally decided enough was enough. Vaping costs us about $100/month compared to the $900/month we were spending on cigarettes.

Also, we have reduced our nicotine levels fairly dramatically already. We both started out on 18mg of nicotine and have reduced down a couple of times putting Brad at 10mg and me at 6mg. The idea being to reduce and eventually stop altogether.

Camping in a Saskatchewan summer means wood fires, Off, hotdogs and hamburgers. These smells are wafting in and around the RV often and its a comforting smell I find. Not that I was a camping person growing up but I find the smell of wood fires and Off especially just speaks 'summer' to me.

Hospital, Yard work and an Offer

I managed to pick up whatever bug this is going around - no doubt from Brad who was sick with it for 2 weeks... I only had it for a week but I had other complications it turns out... I just kept thinking it would get better eventually as it did for Brad, but I had symptoms Brad didn't have. Now keep in mind that many years ago I had a stroke and it took me 3 days to get to a Dr, I don't go to the Dr unless things are dire.

So Sunday night, having intended to go to the Dr on Monday morning I was in such a bad way that I had Brad take me to the ER at Royal University Hospital at 11pm. I hadn't slept for a week, hacking, blowing, unable to swallow. I was given some ice chips to help while I waited, after hours in the waiting room we got put into a room an hour later we said to hell with it... by now it was 3am and City Hospital ER opened at 5am, maybe they could help me. So I stopped by the desk to ask for another cup of ice chips before I left. The nurse assured me the Dr was coming momentarily so we returned to wait. Within 5 min he was there, same guy we'd seen wandering around the last several hours. He did get me sorted in short order and they took some blood work to CYA and sent me packing with a 4 day prescription to clear up my throat. It did.

RUH Emergency

While we were waiting to be seen in ER, Brad went out for a smoke (vape). He got to talking to a guy, turns out there is a thing about Vaping... if the nicotine level is too strong it can effect your throat. Monday morning, I researched and found this website with nicotine levels from a large assortment of cigarettes available in Canada. They don't print it on the package anymore!

I had been vaping at 18mg of nicotine for 3 weeks... most cigarettes come in around 10 - 14mg... oops. Knowing that the vape comes in 0mg, 6mg, 9mg and 18mg I realized that what I needed was 9mg so I went back to the vape shop and the same kid was working, I explained what had happened (he was the one who told us at a pack a day we would need the 18mg) and that it put me in the ER. Not in a nasty way, just so that he wouldn't make the same mistake and potentially kill someone down the line with nicotine poisoning.

Content with that, I started doing 9mg and blended the 18mg & 9mg for Brad giving him a 13.5mg. Yesterday I realized that I was low on the 1 bottle of 9mg I had so went back to the vape shop for another and I also wanted two 0mg to blend with the 18mg which would then give us more 9mg once Brad was ready to reduce again.

The Manager happened to be working so I explained to him what happened with the ER and too much nicotine, he advised he would be discussing it with the kid we dealt with. Again, not nasty just making sure the kid understood the importance of what he is selling and how it can affect a person's health. The Manager asked me a couple of questions and it turns out there are two different coils for these vape machines... a 0.60 and a 1.20... the .60 is for a straight to lung inhale (crazy to me) and the 1.20 is for more of a cigarette inhale (this is us). The kid sold us the .60's.... effectively turning our 18mg into 36mg!!!! Holy Mother of God! That's like 6 cigarettes in 1.... No wonder I got so damn sick and couldn't swallow.

The Manager has sorted us out and while Brad (and I) are not impressed that this happened, at least the problem was acknowledged and dealt with to save anyone else from being adversely affected.

We've been puttering around the yard here at Brad's Mum's while she has been away on vacation and got quite a bit of weeding done, put some grass seed down as the lawn was getting some bare patches and even touched up some staining on the deck. I've been too sick until Monday to do much of anything and with Brad's back/neck problems it was a very slow process.

We got an offer on our house!!!!!!!!!!!!

Late Monday we received an offer from our Realtor for our house that we have on the market. So excited! Anyway, it was low as you might imagine (well we expected it anyway, because of the state of the market in our locale), so we have countered. We are waiting to hear back from them as they made the offer and then had to leave on a business trip abroad. Their realtor assures our realtor that he will be able to contact them once they have arrived at their destination and that they are expecting a counter.

Meanwhile another woman was checking out our house so our neighbour took her in to see it. She loved it and apparently intends to contact our realtor to have a proper viewing with her husband.

None of this changes anything until it does obviously, but its a glimmer of hope and after everything we've been dealing with, we'll take it. So nice to get some good news for a change. I've even gone so far as to start thinking of what we will do once the house sells.... no spoilers though.

Incidentally, Brad started his new medication about a week and a half ago and all is well on that front.

10, 9 and 5

I have been 10 days now without a 'cigarette', I am using a vape - not one of those ridiculous things the kids are using that looks like a bong... but a much more subtle vape gadget - more age appropriate, if there is such a thing. That sounds ridiculous, I know. I was not interested in Vaping because what I'd seen were just these bong looking things and that just isn't - well, it isn't me.

The Aspire Breeze is the one we chose

This is the one some of the kids are using... note the difference.

Anyway, 10 days now and while I am still getting the nicotine that my body craves, I do not have the smoke aspect and have actually noticed a difference in my lungs. Not that I was having lung issues, but considering I've been sick... I'm surprised by the noticeable difference I'm feeling.

I'm finding the last couple of days that I'm not connected to the thing as much as I was in the beginning. I was carrying it everywhere with me. The kid at the vape store did say that would happen. "You'll be tied to it for the first while and then you'll notice you start to leave it sitting around"... he was right.

Brad has started to integrate his vape in with his cigarettes, he's pretty concerned about switching but is completely impressed that I have had no indication of any trouble with it. No 'nic fits', no moodiness, no nothing...

The machines cost $35CAD each, the vape juice was $25 each (I expect 1 will last us a month) and then you also have to buy replacement atomizers... I don't remember how much they were but roughly $15 for 5... also expected to do 1 person a month. Considering we were spending approximately $900CAD on cigarettes a month (WOW putting that in print is shocking)... I'd s,ay we can manage $40/month...

The trick will be to reduce our nicotine levels as soon as possible before the price of this stuff goes up.......

9 Days ago we switched Robbie to a raw diet. I know I've mentioned before about sweeping up a chihuahua every day that falls off this dog and it drives me crazy... In another life I had a dog on the raw diet and absolutely loved it but when we got Robbie we knew we were going to be in the middle of nowhere so I put him on Kibbles & Bits knowing I could get it anywhere.

At the time the raw diet was still relatively 'new' on the market and wasn't easily accessible. In the coming years I forgot all about it. Now that we are back in civilization it was brought to my attention once again. I wasn't completely convinced that it would be enough to make a difference considering the amount this dog sheds.... I was shocked. Within about 3 days we started to notice a difference, and honestly, there is still some minor shedding going on but considering how bad it used to be.... I believe that over time it will disappear. It's only been 9 days and we can't brush anything off of him anymore so after a month..... I'll keep you posted.

The other benefits to the raw diet are that the dog doesn't smell like a dog... you know that smell, I'm sure... not that Robbie stinks, but if you get real close... anyway, in another week of so I will take him for another doggie wash and see what happens... Also, because the dog/cat is using all of the nutritional value of the meal, his poops are only a fraction of the size.... not exactly dinner conversation, but a bonus I thought I'd mention. There are other benefits if you want to check into it but these are the ones I can think of without looking it up.

I am on Day 5 of being sick. It totally sucks. My throat feels like there is a razor in there and I have a hell of a time swallowing. I've found that hot Jasmine tea really helps but there is only so much I want to pee in a day.... I've been basically drinking Jasmine tea back to back all day until just after supper... then 2 Advil helps for a while and another 2 Advil before bed allows me to fall asleep - at least for a few hours. Also, chocolate... seems to coat my throat and offer some relief for about 10 minutes. Handy if I'm just trying to get through until an appropriate time that I can take some Advil.

Much ado about nothing

We've been ridiculously busy - doing nothing, really. It has been such a welcome nothingness after the last few months of craziness.

We have literally been sitting around the house, ( in fairness, Brad has been sick for 2 weeks - some bug going around the Dr tells us) we went for a drive around the city to see all the new neighbourhoods that have popped up since we left 13 years ago and we went for a drive in the country just to see the sights.

I have transitioned easily to the Vape, Brad hasn't started his yet because he's sick and the Vape is not disposable... he has a lot going on at the moment.

He went to the Dr because he is still having hostility issues having come off that medication a while back and she has given him a new prescription which is not so difficult to come off of should he need to in the future but should still help him with the day to day stuff.

So he is currently: sick, awaiting the start of a new medication and planning to switch to the Vape. Given what his body has been through these last couple of months, he doesn't want to push anything so we've been taking a rather laissez-faire attitude to all of this.

I appreciate that this makes for a boring Blog and we appreciate those of you who are hanging in there while we get through this.

Good news is: the RV windshield has been approved by insurance and ordered by the installers so we await word of its arrival and appointment to install.

We have begun looking at what we'll do once Brad's Mum returns from her holidays (leaving today for 2 weeks and mid June for another 2 weeks). I have found a new app which has great filters for finding places to stay in an RV and we will be taking a couple of trips to check out some of them in the Jeep. Saskatchewan backroads are questionable at times and most campgrounds are dirt/mud so we want to make sure of where we're taking the rig before we actually go - and we have time so road trips are in our plans.

I will further discuss this new app once we've checked into its usefulness.