Luke being the technological genius that he is installed two cameras in mom’s house and then put the app on my cell phone (yes, I own one I just don’t use it as a phone) and now I can watch mom whenever I feel like it. There’s one camera aimed at her chair in the kitchen, and one aimed at her chair in front of the TV as these are the two most-likely places for her to be.

It’s fun because I’ll turn on the camera, then call her, and I get to watch her start hunting for her phone. Thanks to mom’s friend Alan we found a private company who does home support and so a nice woman comes daily at 9:00 to make sure mom’s okay and to help her dress and get her coffee. I get to watch her chatting away with mom, or more likely mom pumping her with questions about her life.

I know you’ll be surprised that I’m working on my book which is a compilation of newsletter articles, yet guess what? When some of these are ten or more years old, they’re no longer topical. Hence, I’m writing some new material and hating myself for not completing this a decade ago when I wanted to do it then but didn’t. Will I learn how to conquer procrastination? To be determined.

A friend who lives in the Hall Road neighbourhood sent me a message and said is someone walking your dogs? I replied no, why, and she said because two kids were swinging three miniature long-haired dachshunds around by their leashes, up in the air.  Of course you can imagine my ire so I immediately posted on both the Hall Road and also the Kelowna Dachshund Facebook Page.

The Hall Road page people were like huh!  But oh my God, the dachshund group… hello, if you want action about your breed just post on one of these pages. Suffice to say the culprits were identified and it’s very doubtful it’ll happen again given they know people are watching. Just like new technology, some Facebook conversations are helpful.

But some people in these groups like to fight which is really unfortunate given we’re neighbours. I had posted a link to the SPCA’s petition to outlaw fireworks and was saying I don’t like them. Then a person posted I should be banned from the group for negativity! I then sent them a private message saying Look. We’re all neighbours here, and I’m allowed to say I don’t want illegal activity in my neighbourhood. Turns out you can be fined $500 for letting off fireworks without a permit, which the people around here certainly didn’t have.

This is how a cat rewards you. I felt sorry for Calvin’s cat Felix because he’s alone in the basement, so I was letting him come up here and hang around with the four pets and he seemed to like it a lot. But being a cat, no good deed goes unpunished, so the other day I found he’d peed on a cushion and some laundry. Then Calvin said he peed onto the bathmat downstairs! Now the silly cat isn’t allowed upstairs thanks to his behaviour.

And speaking of behaviour you know the cameras Luke easily ordered and installed are skills senseless old cuckers such as myself appreciate. He lives in a town filled with nothing but old people, and so I wish he would let others know about this technology. It feels a lot like the teleportation from Star Trek and is really amazing.