The Gallavanting Groomer

28/10/2024

So ...

"Anyway, I'm very happy with the tattoo, and can't wait to see it fully healed. This is tattoo number 21 (if I've counted correctly). This will not be the end of my tattoo body modifications. 😉 There will be more ink applied to this body of mine."
.. That didn't last long. LOL

I have just had tattoos number 22, 23, and 24 applied today at The Inkery Tattoo London Inc., kind of on a whim. LOL They're having a Halloween Flash tattoo event, so I popped in to make some minor modifications to make some ghosts personal.

Halloween is my favourite seasonal thing, and yet, I had no ink for it. I didn't want just anything though. I want all my tattoos to be a little bit personalized, within the parameters of The Inkery's promotion.

So, Matt, from Neon Crab Tattoos & Piercing was available(Joe and Matt are collaborating on the promotion), and hooked me up! He spent literally maybe 15 minutes drawing these up from the flash art they were offering and then showed me his work. Clearly, the dude is an artist! He nailed my asks PERFECTLY. I'm tickled with my wee ghosts and look forward to seeing them healed up.

Thanks Matt and Joe. What a fun set of tattoos!

24/10/2024

Hi friends. I need to find a few things, and I'd rather buy used stuff so, here's what I need:

First, it's coming into winter, and I will be needing to make some fire starter cups soon, but to do so I need wax. If you could save up all your wax scraps from candles for me, that would be greatly appreciated;

Second, I'm looking for about 45 inches of lower kitchen cabinets / bathroom vanity to fill a space that I'd considered putting seats in, but have changed my mind. I have zero intention of having someone join me in the bus, so I have no need for passenger seats. This space will be better used getting kitchen things off my counter top, making the space look less cluttered.

Let me know if you see or have either of these asks. Thanks!

23/10/2024

I've spent the last two days in North Bay, getting a fresh, new tattoo with Dave La Rue, from Sammy DeCaen Tattoos, at Hexxus Studios, and visiting new friends, Christine LaRue Fraser and her partner, Mike Fraser.

I'm thrilled with the results of the tattoo, and even more thrilled to have met and made friends with Christine and Mike. They're lovely, generous, wonderful people, and I truly appreciated them hosting us for this little jaunt north.

It wasn't a cheap tattoo, but to me it's worth the money to have both Dave and I marked and matching.

We chose the Sgain Dhu as it's an important ceremonial dagger in Scots culture (worn with a full dress kilt) to represent our shared history. We chose the knights head for the joint of blade and hilt as the Cowie family crest has one at the top. (We are both Cowie decendents, my Mum was born a Cowie, and Dave's Mum's grandfather was a Cowie.) Finally, we chose the gemstones in the hilt tip for our favourites: Dave went with a Sapphire, as it's his birthstone, and I went with Amethyst as it's my favourite gemstone. October's birthstone is something in a yellow, or an Opal. Opal is difficult to create in a tattoo, and I strongly dislike the yellow tone, so I chose my favourite stone instead.

Sammy started with Dave, and did his tattoo from the approved artwork, and then took a half dozen shots of Dave's tattoo himself. Then, so do mine and ensure that every detail was identical (except the coloured gemstone), he opened Dave's tattoo photos on his tablet, and had that inches from his face and my leg, so he could get every detail close-up exactly identical. Such a clever idea!

Be sure to blow the pictures up, so you can see the detail close up. Sammy really did an outstanding job with those fine details!

Anyway, I'm very happy with the tattoo, and can't wait to see it fully healed. This is tattoo number 21 (if I've counted correctly). This will not be the end of my tattoo body modifications. ;) There will be more ink applied to this body of mine.

04/10/2024

Facts.

30/09/2024

WoooooHooooo! Trip booked!

January 2 through January 16th (2 WEEKS!!) I will be in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! Flying out of TO on a direct flight to Puerto Vallarta, and the same / reverse on return (non-stop PV to TO). I do not like stops or plane transfers, so I've avoided those.

This is my first solo, international travel, and while I'm excited about it, I'm also a tad nervous. The good thing is, I'm going to a place where I know someone! Luke LaRue and his husband reside very close to Puerto Vallarta, so I'll have people I know, just in case. Get ready, Luke! ;) I'm also looking very forward to meeting Luke's partner, Randy, finally!

I have also booked cancellation insurance and such. I'm not interested in losing the money for this vacation. I've been there before, and it's financially painful, so I've avoided that too.

Of course, I will be unable to groom dogs during that period, so we'll have to arrange our schedule to accommodate everyone as much as possible. Fortunately, there's still plenty of time, and nothing already booked ahead.

While there, I'll look at RV parks for places that I might be able to take the bus to in winter 2026.

I'm SO excited!!

19/09/2024

Okay, London friends, I need a winter vacation, and I've never been to Mexico or Cuba. I'm planning for two weeks, Puerto Vallarta area if I go to Mexico, and Havana, I think for Cuba, with some historical stuff to see and do. Gay friendly is a must.

Solo traveler. And GO!

02/09/2024

Good morning, friends. Who do I know (locally-ish) who has or knows someone with a metal brake, to bend two pieces of metal, the longest being 40 inches?

It's not thick metal either, more like auto body sheet metal thickness. It would literally take 5 minutes to bend both pieces.

And ... GO! (Thanks!)

14/08/2024

Happy Anniversary Kevin. Today we would have been married 19 years. 19 years! Instead, I sit here crying alone for what could have been, but wasn't. I wake up every morning missing you. I go to bed every night missing you. Every time I have exciting news, or something remarkable happened, I want to rush home and tell you, but you're not home anymore.

The world moved on after you died, and that kind of kills me every day.

You were and still are "my person". You weren't perfect. I'm a far cry from perfect. But we were good for each other, and I miss that so badly. What I wouldn't give to see your face, hear your voice and hold you so tightly you'd never leave me again.

I still love you. I still miss you. I will until I take my last breath.

Happy anniversary, babe.

06/08/2024

LOL

23/07/2024

Yeah ... imagine. I don't need to. I live it.

27/06/2024

I had what I hope to be the final appointment with my Orthopaedic surgeon today, and it was a very short visit. No offence to Dr. MacLeod and his staff. They're all fantastic, and gave me excellent service and care. My foot and ankle are both feeling much better.

The numbness / pain in my foot seems to have largely been resolved by the repair and fusing of my baby toe metatarsal bones, so that's fantastic. There's still the odd pain now and then, and my range of motion is very limited in my baby toe, but really, how much range of motion does one need in their baby toe? LOL

The Fibula feels so much better with the screws gone, and my ankle almost looks normal again, on the inside. The outside of my ankle still feels a little ... odd. I still think they elongated my Tibia when they rebuilt it. It's only like, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 inch longer, so I'm not terribly concerned by it. I do notice it much less now that the toe is sorted, so another plus(?).

Also, my hernia(s) seem to be healing up very nicely. I'm back in the gym, and it feels good to be rebuilding the muscle mass lost when I broke my ankle. It's going to take time to get back as close to where I was at before I broke it, but it's time I'm going to spend anyway, so I might was well spend some of it making myself more comfortable, and hopefully that will keep the worst of the pain at bay.

Onward and upward!

12/06/2024

If I invited a Trans educator to come give a "Transtalk 101" (topics include: pronoun use; bathroom etiquette, etc.) discussion, how many friends in London would come?

I have a trans sibling, and trans friends, and *I* want to make sure that I'm properly educated, and I'm hoping a bunch of my friends would appreciate some more knowledge too.

So ... let me know if you'd like to come, please, and I'll set it up.

30/05/2024

My stitches came out yesterday at 8:30 am! Yay! The wounds are now covered with a basic plaster (bandaid), and I am able to wear a normal sock and running shoes!

I won't lie, my foot was very tender inside the shoe, and I have to really loosen the laces to get my foot in (I can't bend it much), but I can get it in! Slides and socks will soon be a thing of the past. :)

I found out yesterday that I didn't just break a bone in my baby toe when I broke my ankle. I broke all 3 metatarsal bones, and two of them had reset in bad positions. So, they had to rebreak those two and reset them in their normal positions.

But, given that my foot and ankle bones are, apparently, undersized, (Kevin would have laughed his ass off over me and my tiny feet) they fused all 3 bones to support the two broken ones. Which explains why I can't bend my foot much. LOL Who knew?! (Clearly, not me. LOL)

I'm sure someone explained all this to me after surgery, but I have no memory directly of this information. They obviously gave me some really fantastic drugs. LOL Can I have some more, please? I'd like to forget the nightmare fu***ng world we live in for a spell. :P

I don't mess about, when I do something. Go big or stay home! LOL (I should have maybe stayed home on broken ankle day, in retrospect. LOL)

I go back in a month for more x-rays, and we will address the slight length issue in my tibia. I have 30 days or so to decide if I can cope with my left foot not striking the floor flat. Right now, the recently re-broken baby toe bones are exactly what I step on, and the inside of my foot is elevated slightly off the floor.

I'm seriously considering just leaving it, because the thought of yet another surgery, potentially rebreaking the tibia to shorten it (I don't know how they'd do this, to be honest) just feels like too much right now. We'll see how I feel 45 days post surgery #5.

For now though, my ankle feels great! No more screws rubbing the inside of my skin (such a gross, weird feeling!), and now that the stitches are out, I can move it more with less aggravation.

Onward and upward!

27/05/2024

I picked up the car today, and I'm very pleased with my purchase. It also looks much better with the tinted windows.

I do have a bit of a blind spot when I look over my right shoulder, with that big "D" pillar at the rear. This car has blind spot monitoring, though, and an amber warning pops up in the exterior mirror if something is in that space. Sweet!

I have a lot to learn about this car, and all the modern tech inside it. For instance, it has an electronic emergency / parking brake. It only took me 10 minutes to figure out how to disengage it. LOL I did figure it out on my own though! I paired my phone to the car way faster than I figured out the e-brake. LOL

The car also has Android Auto and Apple Car Play built in too, but they are wired connections. That's fine though, I do have the correct cable to connect them, and I will get that out to the car in the next few days. I tend to just listen to the radio most drives anyway, so those features aren't as important to me. Well, at the minute. Once I figure them out, they may well become much more important. ;)

I head back to work this week, with my stitches coming out on Wednesday morning, just before work. Fortunately, it's a light morning, so I'll be able to rest my foot before the afternoon groom.

The ankle feels pretty darned good. I can't feel the screws in there, and my ankle looks closer to normal. Yay! The toe, however, continues to be a fun little healing process. "Fun" ... yeah, anyway. LOL There was a bit of an infection forming in the toe wound, as I think the bandage and slides aggravated it. I've been soaking it in Epsom salt water, and it's doing really well now.

The pain's not bad if I'm cautious with my foot when I depress my clutch. I need to make sure it's positioned correctly on the clutch pedal, so that the baby toe bones aren't taking any of the pressure. As I heal, this will get easier and easier over time.

I'm walking relatively normally, but I can't yet put my foot into a running shoe, nor full pressure on that baby toe. I'm still "rocking" slides, and I intensely dislike them. Generally, I'm not at all comfortable in them, except that they are the only footwear that will expand enough to still fit over my bandages / stitches. Once they're gone, so are the slides.

Speaking of, hopefully, by the end of this week I'll be able to dispense with bandages altogether. With the stiches coming out Wednesday, there will be a few days to a week of some covering for the wounds, but a basic plaster (bandaid) should do it, and then nothing at all after a few days.

And, with any luck, this is the final surgery to correct my ankle. I'm happy to live with the fibula being ever so slightly longer than the tibia. Yes, my foot doesn't strike flat on the floor, but it doesn't bother me like those damned screws in there did. :P

Onward and upward.

25/05/2024

I am relieved to report that an insurance policy has been bound on the new car, so delivery can take place on Monday, as planned.

This policy is costing me roughly twice what my last insurance did, with the majority of that additional cost, ultimately, because either CRA or someone at Libro Credit Union didn't do their job, and my credit rating was destroyed because of it their failure.

They will pay. I am now pi**ed off enough, and have suffered enough fu***ng stress, that they will both pay. I'm so fu***ng done.

25/05/2024

This is so fu***ng demoralizing. The quotes I'm getting for insurance are fu***ng insane. All this because the fu***ng government and Libro Credit Union fu**ed me around for 5 months.

Those fu***rs are going to pay. (Oh, and if you don't like my language, well, you know where you can put your dislike.)

24/05/2024

Okay, Facebook hive mind, do I know anyone who is, or knows, a lawyer that deals with CRA, and banks, and likes to beat them up in a very winnable lawsuit?

Aaaaannnnnnd ..... GO! ;)

23/05/2024

Who do I know that sells auto insurance? I need to get some, and I'd rather deal locally, in the London or Oshawa areas.

22/05/2024

So, I bought a thing today, to replace my broken thing. It's a 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT Sport, and it happens to match Gus and the trailer perfectly. ;)

I feel like I got a decent deal on it, and as I do with most of my vehicles, I drive them for a decade or so. As long as I do the maintenance and rust-proofing, I should be able to make this one last as long.

(Please not I did say "most of my vehicles". LOL The Smart 4two was clearly not smart, and so hits the "most of" section. ;) )

Anyway, as mentioned, it's a 2018 Hyundai Elantra Sport, with only 37,700 kms on it (it's barely broken in!), 201 hp, 177 ft-lb torque, front wheel drive, air, cruise, tilt, power seats and windows, heated seats and steering wheel (I've never had such luxury before! LOL), backup camera, a panoramic glass roof (that covers about 3/4 of the roof surface!), leather seating ... it's loaded, essentially.

This may well be the last car I buy, so this time I decided to spoil myself a little. Yeah, it cost me, but as mentioned, I plan to keep it a long time, so if I average the cost out over the amount of time I plan to keep the car, it's worth it to me. And since I'm paying my bills, it's my decision.

Finally, to those people who helped me out financially not so long ago, I would like to return the assistance you've given me, as I have access to my accounts again, and can repay you. Someone else in your world may need help, and if I repay you, you can help them more readily.

I truly appreciate the help when I was so desperate, but that time has passed, and it's very important to me to return the monetary help I received, so maybe someone else can be helped. Please shoot me a message with your e-mail address, so I can e-transfer those funds to you.

Thank you!

21/05/2024

I'm going to buy a whack of those things for when I finally get travelling.

May long weekend reminder for all of us campers! Jot down your campsite # and cell on a dollarstore tag, and attach to your pupper’s collar with other tags. Even the most responsible of us can have a doggo who slips a leash or gets startled and bolts. Even if no cell service in the camp area, this allows other to bring the rascally runner back to your site.

20/05/2024

Hello bi***es! I'm home. I'm back on line, and the bu****it begins again. Did you enjoy your holiday from me as much as I enjoyed my holiday from ... well, everything?

It was a short break, but it was absolutely the medicine I needed. I simply cannot thank Hope and Stephen enough for inviting me to spend a few days at their place with, no responsibilities. They were the perfect hosts, and I really appreciate their kindness and generosity. I love you.

17/05/2024

Good morning friends. I will be offline for the weekend, as I'm going to visit my sister in Toronto, and I'm not taking my laptop.

I'm available via text, if you have my cell number. If you don't, you don't need to talk to me that badly that it can't wait until Monday. :P (I don't have social media on my phone.)

For my Canadian friends, enjoy the Victoria Day long weekend, and the day off on Monday. For my American friends, enjoy your weekend, and Monday (?). LOL

16/05/2024

It's unwrapping day!! They've gone in the same scar on my ankle as the last surgery, so no additional scarring. There is some extra bruising just above the new stitches, but the only surprising thing to me is that there's not more. I am a walking bruise factory most times. LOL

The baby toe is another matter. That's an entirely new scar on my foot. Oh goody! I hope no one I meet has an unscarred foot fe**sh. LOL I will fail them. :P

I can bear weight on my left heel now, but I am still unable to walk with any normalcy. I expect that'll be another day or three healing for that to start happening. All in good time.

But, what I can do for this evening is bag my foot and shower! YAY!! I've been sponge bathing in the bus, but it's just not the same as a full-on shower!

14/05/2024

That's surgery number 5 done. In 367 days. (Three to fix my ankle and two to fix my groin hernia.) If I don't see a medical professional for a long, long time, it won't break my heart. LOL

I am truly grateful that I live in Canada, as all of this hasn't cost me a dime (other than $120 for new aluminum crutches) when I first broke my ankle. I'm sure in the US this would have cost me THOUSANDS of dollars each time I was operated on. All of the medical personnel were fantastic too. I have not so much as a single complaint about any of them. Well, maybe one minor one ... LOL

I was promised up to 36 hours of nerve block in my leg. My foot started waking up 2 hours ago. My surgery was finished by 10:30 am, and I started being able to move my foot (and feel pain again) by about 5 pm, so barely 6 1/2 hours of painless time. Crap. That's fairly typical of my body though, as my nervous system tends to burn through drugs like that quickly. *sigh*

Anyway, the screws in my ankle are now gone, which was the biggest pain, so that's good. It seems the lump on the bottom of my baby toe was more involved than anticipated, as they ended up breaking the baby toe to fix it. I don't know what went on yet, but I will find out on May 28th when I go back to see the surgeon.

And now on to relaxation and healing. I've given myself one clear week for recovery, and then I go back to work for one day next Wednesday, and then again on Saturday (the 25th) for two grooms. Am I pushing myself too hard? Probably. Do I have much of an option? Nope. Bills gotta get paid!

03/05/2024

Well that was an interesting bit of time.

I went to St. Thomas to get dog food, and while there, I decided to drive over to Aylmer, as there's a used car dealer there that had some cars I wanted to look at.

I drove a 2015 Mazda 3 Sport GS (base model) and a 2016 Hyundai Veloster. The only thing the Mazda doesn't have is cruise control, otherwise it's nearly perfect. It's even white with black trim, matching the bus and trailer! 6 speed standard transmission. $12,995 and 165K kms.

I also drove a 2016 Hyundai Veloster, and it was pretty well loaded up, except for leather and a sunroof. Neither of which are necessary to me. It did have cruise control. $14,995 and $160K kms.

I liked them both, but much prefer the Mazda, despite the lack of the optional cruise control. It could be added later. Or not. Now I just need to find a private lender that will work with me, until CRA gets their s**t together. If you know any private lenders, let me know their contact info, please.