We're home....

The concert was spectacular! Angus ruled the stadium all night long. ACDC simply rocks...it was the best concert I've ever been to in my life. They are just awesome! Rick was beside himself. 

The baking class at King Arthur was wonderful; both Rick and I really enjoyed ourselves and we walked out with 3 dozen sticky buns between the two of us. Good sticky buns. Yummy sticky buns. Weight gain! Oh well, it is what it is. I think we are going to make Vermont and a class at King Arthur a yearly event. I asked Rick if he'd consider making it part of my Christmas present and he is more than willing to do so. I think it helped that about half the class were men. We had a great time. And I came home with 40 pounds of flour for the freezer in addition to lots of other items from the King Arthur store and from the Penzey store in Hartford, CT. 

We did have a problem. We had just gotten into Ottawa Wednesday afternoon and I was making a left-hand turn....a city bus side-swiped my car on the passenger side. It's bad. Hannah will need a new rear wheel well,a new mirror and a whole new front grill. That's what we're thinking, but once they open the hood, it could even be worse. We made it home OK, but we had to take our time, no 70-mph driving on the interstates. I have an appt on Tuesday with the insurance adjustor to see what they're going to do. The policeman in Ottawa said he was citing the bus driver; unfortunately, Canadian law says it doesn't matter whose fault it is....everybody pays their own. So my insurance company is stuck paying our bill regardless, even though I didn't cause the accident. Which also means that my insurance is going up and I think it's going to be a hefty increase, too, judging from my poor car. Anyway, we'll see. I'm not amused and I think it will be a while before we even think about going back to Ottawa. OTOH, the cop? OMG, he was adorable!   And I could have listened to him speak for hours. And when he found out we were going to the ACDC concert, he made sure to tell us that he had gone to see Motley Crue and Alice Cooper and that concert was great, too. He was pretty cool. He even met us at the US Embassy to give me a copy of the collision report.

Got "lost" in Montreal. Not so much lost as that Rick thought he knew more than Hannah's nav system. We probably futzed around for a good hour before I said, "We're listening to Hannah!" and back-tracked. Honestly, when we hit US soil, I told Rick to pull off....just so I could kiss American pavement.  I have never been so happy to get back on American soil (well, pavement, as the case may be). 

All in all, it was a good trip, would have been better had the bus driver not hit us....it's a lot of damage to my car. But we are both OK, not hurt at all and we made it to an outstanding concert and to a great baking class. 

My thanks to Carol (LaRussa) for volunteering to do Friday's Question of the Day! 

Life is still good.

i've seen AC/DC twice. the 1st time when bon scott was still alive. it was probably the best concert i ever went to and i went to alot! then i saw them on the "back in black" tour not long after bon died. still a great concert but kind of sad not having bon there and knowing what a senseless death he had. angus young is one of the best guitarists ever imo! they all ROCK!

I'm glad your concert and baking class went so well!  Boo on the accident though!  Poor Hannah! 

Yikes! I'm glad part of your trip was enjoyable and that you are both OK. I was recently in an accident (my fault). To my surprise my insurance company has accident forgiveness. Since I was a perfect driver, up until this point , my insurance will not be going up and they are paying my deductible. I hope your insurance has something similar. :cross:

I'm glad you had a good time and I'm glad your back.
How's your MiL?

Stewball said:

I'm glad you had a good time and I'm glad your back.
How's your MiL?

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Hi Judy! 

Evelyn came home from the nursing home yesterday and we are going to finally get Jackie out of the kennel this afternoon. I'm sure poor Jackie thinks she's been abandoned, poor baby. I know she'll be ready to come home.

The nursing facility did a home test throughout the house before Evelyn was able to come home. They noted some things that she might have trouble with (i.e. getting in and out of the bathtub, putting items in and out of the microwave because it's above the stove, things like that). They think she'll be fine....as long as she doesn't start thinking she's Wonder Woman again and pulling stupid stunts. I don't think she will; I think this has calmed her down quite a bit. She has already told us that she won't drive anywhere at all anymore; we shall see how long that lasts. Rick's sister stayed with her last night and will do so tonight. I think Rick will stay with her until the weekend. 

My job is to go there during my lunch hour to take Jackie out to go to the bathroom. I am to do that every day at lunch for a while and then again on my way home from work. I don't think it will last too long, though, til Evelyn will decide that she can do that.

So far things are going well. Thank you, Judy.

Wow, Karen, that's so great of your insurance company! Kudos! We don't have accident forgiveness, so we must pay the deductible. Still better than paying the entire repair bill, though. If the police officer in Canada does cite the bus driver (and he told Rick and I that he was doing so), then our insurance company will fight to get our deductible back. I guess we'll see how things go. I took the Tucson in for the claims adjuster appt last night and Hannah will be getting repaired the week of Sept 21st; they said it will take pretty the whole week til I get the car back. Meanwhile I'm driving the Cruiser for now. (Good old Clarence; I don't know where we'd be without him.   )

Glad the accident wasn't worse. Hopefully Hannah gets put together again alright.
Otherwise the trip sounds like a fun time for you both. Keep on rockin' !

pushylady said:

Glad the accident wasn't worse. Hopefully Hannah gets put together again alright.
Otherwise the trip sounds like a fun time for you both. Keep on rockin' !

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Thanks! We'll probably rock til we drop!   On to the Mark Knopfler concert in October (but Rick is driving, not me. I refuse and I already told him that. I tried to get out of driving home from Vermont, but he said that was a horse I needed to get back on as soon as possible.).

Just got a call from the insurance company. They are waiving our deductible because the accident was not our fault. And our insurance rate is not going to be increased either.

Life is definitely good! 

Glad everything worked out well for you and Rick Pam.  Sometimes our luck does change from bad to good.

Winchester said:

Hi Judy! 

Evelyn came home from the nursing home yesterday and we are going to finally get Jackie out of the kennel this afternoon. I'm sure poor Jackie thinks she's been abandoned, poor baby. I know she'll be ready to come home.

The nursing facility did a home test throughout the house before Evelyn was able to come home. They noted some things that she might have trouble with (i.e. getting in and out of the bathtub, putting items in and out of the microwave because it's above the stove, things like that). They think she'll be fine....as long as she doesn't start thinking she's Wonder Woman again and pulling stupid stunts. I don't think she will; I think this has calmed her down quite a bit. She has already told us that she won't drive anywhere at all anymore; we shall see how long that lasts. Rick's sister stayed with her last night and will do so tonight. I think Rick will stay with her until the weekend. 

My job is to go there during my lunch hour to take Jackie out to go to the bathroom. I am to do that every day at lunch for a while and then again on my way home from work. I don't think it will last too long, though, til Evelyn will decide that she can do that.

So far things are going well. Thank you, Judy.

Wow, Karen, that's so great of your insurance company! Kudos! We don't have accident forgiveness, so we must pay the deductible. Still better than paying the entire repair bill, though. If the police officer in Canada does cite the bus driver (and he told Rick and I that he was doing so), then our insurance company will fight to get our deductible back. I guess we'll see how things go. I took the Tucson in for the claims adjuster appt last night and Hannah will be getting repaired the week of Sept 21st; they said it will take pretty the whole week til I get the car back. Meanwhile I'm driving the Cruiser for now. (Good old Clarence; I don't know where we'd be without him. :heart3:  )

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Hi Pam,
Lovely to hear from you.
I'm glad you had a good time in Canada apart from the stupid bus driver. At least neitherb you was hurt, but must have given you a tterrible shock.
Regarding your MiL and ddriving. Maybe you should just take the car away from her so that she can't drive.
What did you do with the gang while you were away.
My holiday to the UK is coming closer. I'm getting very excited.
Did you go straight back to work after you holiday. I always came back on a Wednesday to re-aclimitize myself to the tension of the country.
Big hugs,
Judy.

We won't take Rick's mother's car, unless it gets to where we think we must. 

As for the kitty gang, we have petsitters who come in twice a day to feed them and spend some time with them. They charge $20 a visit ($40 a day) and it's well worth the money. They come in, feed the kids, scoop the boxes, check for mail, check the basement, etc.They always leave us a detailed note as to what's going on with the kids, how they acted, and so on. The sitters are bonded and insured. We leave a note for them with information about food, water, vet phone numbers, our cell numbers, my sister's cell number, phone numbers at where we're going to be staying, the whole thing, I trust them implicitly. They've been sitting for us long enough that they know the kids very well.

And then my sister and BIL will come in every night for about an hour or so. They'll sit down and watch something on tv and let the cats snuggle on their laps and spend some time with them. Amber Louise just loves my BIL and so while she refuses to come out for the petsitters, she's all over my BIL when he comes to visit. So he gives her a little bit to eat while he's there (she won't eat anything at all for the petsitters). My sister will text me every night while they're here and sometimes she'll send me some pictures.

Everybody is always amazed at how friendly our cats are. They don't hide (well, except for Amber Louise and even she's getting a lot better than she used to be), they mingle right with everybody. When people sit down, the cats are right there, always willing to share your lap. They have no qualms about meowing at you to say "Hi, how's it goin'?" My sister finds it remarkable because at her house, the doorbell rings and the cats scatter to the upper parts of the house. At my house, the doorbell rings and the cats go running down the steps to see who it is.   Visitors mean laps. And laps are always good.

(I remember the first time our insurance agent came to the house. He sat down at the table with us and, right away, BooBoo jumped right up in his lap. He looked at me and I walked over to get Boo off....he said, "Hey, if he's willing to sit in my lap, it's fine with me!  He can stay!" And they got along very well. To this day, when Jeff comes to the house, he looks for Boo and he shares his lap.)

We came back late Sunday afternoon. I would have had to come to work the following day, but fortunately it was our Labor Day holiday, so we were good there. Normally I will come back to work right afterward....sometimes I come back to work to relax. I need a vacation from my vacation!

Judy, you enjoy your holiday!