What's Up with Kona?

Damn! This dog used to love diving in the pool, playing in the pool, chasing tennis balls....

Suddenly, she doesn't want to go into the pool. When I put on my bathing suit, she used to get excited. Now she just looks at me. When I call her to come, she lies down on the kitchen floor and refuses to come out the door.....

I'm not going to push her or drag her into the pool...

She seems fine in every other way, i.e. appetite, walking, pooping, etc.  Don't know what's gotten into her with the pool.

The only thing I can think of was several weeks ago when she was playing in the pool, fetching tennis balls, she swallowed some water and vomited, quite a bit... found out later the pool tech had used muriatic acid the day before, but when I called the pool company, I was told this acid dissipates quickly and shouldn't have caused that kind of reaction.

Other people seem to think this acid should not have caused any reaction 24 hours later.... And I don't know, because she was acting cautious about the pool before that incident... I had to "lure" her to the pool with tennis balls...

I did tell them (pool company) to let me know when they put chemicals in the pool, so I know....  but still now Kona doesn't want to go into the pool at all.

And I am missing this one little joy in my life: playing with Kona in the pool.

Any ideas?

The way she was! I do miss this!

And so it goes....

Just when I thought I was to the bottom of my to-do list: i.e.: fence (check!) insulation (check!) gates fixed by cottage (check!) AC issues (check!) toilets (2 of them, check!) I walk in the bathroom and find this:

TERMITES!!!!! GA!!!

Thankfully I have a contract with the termite company... but before I call them, I search around the house and find more termite frass (i.e. poop) inside my office window, on the back deck and GA! falling from the french doors that I'd just repaired months ago....

So I call the company which is thankfully still operating and they send the termite guy over to treat all the spots and I beg him to not destroy my french doors like he did the last time as I had to hire two carpenters to rebuild the doors and really don't know how much more those antique doors can take.

He obliged and only poked a few small holes in the doors, but told me it wouldn't be "as effective" and then treated the rest of the areas. Of course, we had to stand "social distance" apart and he was wearing a mask... and he said to wait 20+ days and if I see more frass after that to call him and he'll bring the manager over with him. That was the 16th so now I'm on termite poop patrol.

While he was here, I showed him what I thought was some type of bee hive in the corner of one of the front porch column capitals and he thought it looked like hornets or wasps, told me it would be very expensive for their company to handle that, and first I should try using some hornet/wasp spray. When I said I didn't have any, he suggested I use hair spray first. I don't use hair spray, but I'm thinking I have a little can of hair spray somewhere, I think I got it in one of those "gift bags" you get at charitable events. Anyway, I got out the hair spray after he left and what I thought looked like a hive turned out to be cluster of bees and when I sprayed them, all these black bees fell dead to the porch floor. Who'd have thought hair spray can be a killer?!

So thinking there's probably more bees (maybe in the column itself) I went out to get some bug spray. Since I was going out, decided to make a few more stops along the way. I wore a mask, my therapist had sent me a couple in the mail and damn they are uncomfortable. Keep fogging up my glasses. Have to keep re-adjusting it, etc. Went to the pharmacy (thinking they may have wasp spray -- didn't) but got some stuff I needed. I was one of only a few with a mask on. Had to stand in line with those markers on the floor -- to keep your distance. Kona kept trying to lie down (which is usually good) but I didn't want her lying on what might be a dirty floor, so keep pulling her to her feet, practically hanging the poor girl.

Went next to the liquor store, left Kona in the car. I was the only one there with a mask on. Clerk said, "First time I've seen you without your dog!" (Guess my liquor store robbing days are over,  ha!) Went to the gas station, I was one of only two with a mask on and by then I was so sick of the mask, I took it off and tossed it in the trunk. Then I went to Home Depot.

When I got to the doors, two burly guys in masks stopped me and said "Are you here to shop?"

Well, duh. I said, I just need bug spray. They say, "You have to go the back of the line" and point to where there are four more big bouncer looking guys, arms crossed wearing masks and gloves and they point to this roped off aisle, so Kona and I walk down this aisle and I realize there are dozens of masked people standing in line, just on the other side of the rope (so much for social distancing) and they see me (without a mask) and physically turn away from me as we pass by and I'm thinking this is ridiculous, get to the end of the roped off aisle and headed to my car, went home and bought the bug spray on Amazon.

Not to mention how high anxiety provoking the whole experience was and how stressed I was when we arrived home....

Add that experience and termites on top how depressed and stressed and lonely I've been since all this "staying at home" virus stuff started. Somedays it's hard to get out of bed.

I do believe the world has gone crazy.

Fence Completion

Still "Sheltering in Place" or "Staying in Place" or whatever they are calling it now...and are told not the leave the house for two weeks.... but been getting some things done like my fence!

My next-door neighbor notified me in February that he was removing his picket fence which "connects" to my aluminum fence, and when he does this, it would leave my front yard wide open on one side! Yikes!

My fence (black) butted up to neighbor's white picket fence

So I contacted the guy who put my fence in originally and found he's retired and closed his company.  (Problem #1)  Couldn't remember where he bought the fencing. (Problem #2). I dug through all my paperwork and couldn't find the name of the fence company, frustrating! As I usually save things like that... finally remembered the company had "West" in it's name and started googling fence companies with "West" and found it! (Yay me!)

Went to said fence company with photos of my fence telling them I needed to extend. It was the right fence company, however the manufacturer of that fence is no longer in business (GA! Problem #3). So we had to figure out the closest model of fence out there that would match.... Except the proportions were a little off, but more importantly the fence finales were a bit different and my finales had strangely faded since they were installed. (Problem #4).

A guy came out to give me an estimate, said the new fence would not match exactly, but would be close enough... got an estimate (expensive!) and a date for install of April 2nd. (This was in February.) We talked about the finales not matching and he gave me a second estimate for replacing all 317 finales so they match --- which cost a lot more than I imagined, but I decided if your going to do a job, do it right.

Informed my neighbor of the delay, he was okay with it...  In fact, he hasn't even started his project which is to remove his entire fence and re-sod his yard. So "my guys" ended up having to remove the part of his fence that connects with mine.

April 2nd comes and no fence installers. Get a call that the materials didn't get in.... Finally was installed yesterday....

This shows the new fence next to the old, before replacing old finales with matching new ones. You can see that the new finales are closer to the railing, larger bases, a different shape....  so I replaced all 317 finales on the old fence.
Also the rail height it little off, height of fence is the same. Really don't notice that unless you point it out!

Job completed!
AND ONE MORE THING OFF MY TO DO LIST!!!