Everything Sven

05/31/2026

Mom is down and out with another one of those horrible eye-migraines like she had back in March. But really stumped because she hasn't taken any of the B12 or other supplements or OTC stuff. Probably should have went to ER, but rain and windstorm yesterday, Seems as if it's getting a bit better, so she said she'd right it out., Grampys got enough of his own problems right now wouldn't be good to have him drive us there. Momma Will post again once it releases.

Big sonic boom happened here yesterday, turned out to be a meteor exploding into bits and landing in the waters off Cape Cod. We're here on Cape Anne but it went by us overhead here first.

Photos: Feels like Death, warmed over.

05/24/2026

We remember them...

In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
We remember them.
In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
We remember them.
In the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring,
We remember them.
In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer,
We remember them.
In the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
We remember them.
In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
We remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength,
We remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart,
We remember them.
When we have joys we yearn to share,
We remember them.
So long as we live, they too shall live,
For they are now a part of us,
As we remember them.

05/24/2026

So yesterday was horrible. I don’t know how things went down hill so badly but they did.

I went to Lynn, MA for an auto part. Should have been simple, I had the part number and all the info. The employee helping me was in a really bad mood to begin with and I don’t suffer fools and as****es all that well.
I left Sven in the car because of potholes, debris and oil all over the ground, I didn’t want an injury over it, and praying we didn’t get a flat. I thought it was a parts store, turned out to be a junkyard and then some.

I give him the part number and he’s hollering at me that it’s not the part number, it’s a car number. I say sorry, how would I know that, it’s the only number on the website given when looking up the item. He’s really snippy to me but looks up the part and says I’d have to wait an hour but they’ll get it.

The guy wanted money upfront for the part, sight unseen. Why would I pay for a used part that I don’t know the condition of and can’t return the part. That’s nuts. I really thought it was already on a backroom shelf, but apparently, they have to go pull it off a car in the junk yard. I asked for a photo or to be able to see the part first and he just tore off into a litany of obscenities at me calling me "a dirty w***e, go suck his c**k, get out of his store" and so on.

Ok, as***le, considering his attitude we’ll just go by this for more money from your competitor, you obviously don’t need the money. (worst customer service ever) It really wouldn’t have taken very much in conversation or effort to discuss the part and make a sale. But so be it...

As I’m leaving, he starts to follow us out the door and threatening to break our headlights and good luck finding parts he's not going to sell us anything and calling me 'miserable fat fu***ng cunt"… things are starting to go way beyond the pale. His reaction to the whole encounter is grossly overboard as it was.

At this point, I had my pepper spray in my hand ready to go if he advanced any further or damaged the headlights and I opened the car door…

His coworkers in the parking lot near the gate are hollering to him… “Dios Mio… Perro, Perro… Vaminos senior, vaminos !!!”

I chuckle to myself, knowing they saw my 200+ lb. dog leap up as I opened the door to get in. One look at h him and no translation needed in any language. Not that I would ever sic my dog on anyone or put him in harm’s way, but it sure is funny when people get a look at him.

And seriously the thought of having to mow him down like a scene out of breaking bad crossed my mind for a fleeting moment, if he attempted to block our egress.

Alas as luck or fate would have it, they did go over and block their coworker from advancing on us and we were able to leave unscathed.

There was an officer working a detail on the other side of the two way highway, I would have had a hell of a time navigating traffic just to get to him to report it. I kept going and just headed for home. The guy didn't really hurt my feelings any, they're just words, and it says more about his character than it does mine.

I bought the part brand new from a little shop in CA, paying 3 times as much, anf happy to do so. Comes with the Amazon Guarantee.

05/18/2026

Hi Everyone, ... sorry we were a bit MIA, its been another crazy week. Lots of complications arose pulling us in opposite directions.

Without revealing too much of their privacy, I'll just say that a routine post-op check-up went awry and Gramps ended up being admitted hospital. Things were further complicated over wrong types of medications and treatment options, ultimately, he ended up opting to go AMA, so that he could been treated more appropriately at another hospital. Which without doubt for him, in his situation, was the right thing to do. (this may not be the case for everyone and we don't advise or recommend any sort of health decisions for others without first consulting your own medical providers.)

In the meantime, grammy managed to slip out the door and take off, right under the noses of both daughters. she's quite the fox. Police were called and the search initiated, ... the police found her inside a car, and told us she was driving WHAT? They only have one car and it's with Grampy at the hospital... They ask us to describe what she's wearing again and they're back and forth over the comms... she has an HP card? Affirmative, she's driving, Affirmative.... I'm like what, what, what, she stole a car? OMGs... They tell me she's with a friend, I say what friend, did she get kidnapped? she walked out of here alone, I'm not sure who she is with. Two cruisers pulled the car over and were blocking the street, and the friend was all in shock. It turned out to be a former neighbor that recognized her and was bringing her home. The word "driving" was used as driving home or driving for coffee... when they really meant riding, and friend was in driver's seat, somehow it got relayed that they thought Grammy was driving.

The initial freak out probably took a few years off the lives of me and sibling. And thank god Grampy took the alternate route home or he would have driving right past the whole scene and really had a heart attack.

Starting to feel like I'm in one of those lost scenes from "all in the family" or "everyone loves raymond" and can laugh about it now, as alls well that ends well. Glad things didn't turn for the worst.

They're both home and doing better now. I'm a walking trainwreck from lugging all the dogs needs, drinks portable water bowls, and snacks, etc. Somedays it feels like my service dog could use a personal assistant. LOL Normally I have a rolling suitcase for his things, but it was being used for some of Grampy's things, then my overnight things and it just got away from us really fast with all the grab and go scenarios happening.

Ok we are off to go help prepare dinner for them and then come home. I'm so looking forward to sleeping the AC tonight. Thank you to the Rotary Club that installed it for me among all the other things going on this week. Sadly in all the chaos and changing scenes, Sven missed his allergy shot appointment; we need to reschedule it ASAP. But those are problems for tomorrow's agenda.

Below are a few more pictures of Sven, visiting and ER waiting rooms. These were long days and Sven handled it with such grace, he just rolled with all of the ups and downs, wherever I go, he is content to follows. I'm so proud of him.

And once again it bears repeating... for all those Un-fair Housing false accusations about my smelly dog (vs water damage from 2 floods and smelly lobby rugs).... they don't let smelly, dirty unbathed dogs in hospitals, cardiac wards or ICU, etc. He doesn't stink, he never stank or ever once stunk.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day!

photo credit

Happy Mother’s Day! This will be my first one in 53 years without mine. This one’s dedicated to you mom, I miss you so very much…

05/06/2026

Boy oh boy, our Boston trip became a real ordeal.

It started about 12 hrs before Grampy had to go into the city. Grammy was having a bad day with her dementia and ran away. Fortunately, she didn't get too far and the police, ambulance and my sibling found her. But because of that, she had to go to the ER for an evaluation. I met the ambulance at the local hospital. Sat there a few hours and only a UTI test, no psych eval, no MRI to rule out TIA or STROKE then they let her go home because she was too agitated and sedation might make her worse. (translation they didn't want to deal with her and said it was a P*P issue). 11pm at night I'm now loading and packing the car for Boston and slept over their house so we could be up by 4:30am. I barely slept, but alas we made it into the city.

It pretty much went like this, Check-In, then waiting room one, then say Good Bye's & See You in a Bit, breakfast, potty trip for all, waiting room two... and then all hell broke out and didn't stop for another 20 hrs.

The cafe was complicated, tiny corner style room in one door out another, where you had to go get all your stuff, no trays, and make own coffee and then go pay. Too complicated with a dog and grammy with all these people trying to dart around us, so we grabbed drinks from a cooler, Grammy got Pepsi. I didn't think about it too much, because she does have coffee, but the Pepsi and diet Colas all day added up to more caffeine than usual, and she wa way out of her normal routine and just couldn't handle it. She turned into one angry bear. By the tie we go to the final waiting room she flipped out and couldn't really be controlled or behave appropriately, no amount of reasoning or direction was going to change that, and she kicked Sven right in the snout causing him to bleed all over his mat so now we really had to leave and go home for the rest of the day before we got ourselves into big trouble or kicked out. We thought including her would keep her calm, but it just proved to be too much for her to deal with. (Setting her up for Respite care didn't pan out either. ) Grammy also escaped my unit, using the HP buttons on the wall to open the doors, something I feared Sven would do because he's trained for them, and they don't have a turn off or lock for safety or kids. Ugh. Fortunately, I found her in the parking lot, she didn't get too far. Is the full moon in retrograde? Holy Wow.

Grampy came out of surgery ok, few small issues causing some problems he'll have to go back in for, but by 11:30pm he was calling wanting to come home AMA or be taken the MGH. OMGs. DBL trouble. Eventually he called back and they were able to sort it out the issues and he stayed overnight. Phew... but now Grammy was up and being a grizzly bear again. I finally get her to bed and now it's time to take Sven outside for a potty break at 4:30am. By 9:30am Grampy was calling saying they were going to discharge him after one more scan. We didn't end up leaving Boston to almost 4pm and then hit rush hour traffic home.

Alas we all made it home in one piece. - There's been several police chases, wrong way drivers and a bomb threat at a Walmart on the stretch of road we needed to take. Glad we were able to avoid all that.

Sven was a saint the whole time, & aced it even in 80-degree heat and a bloody mouth. He's ok, No broken teeth, just a small fat lip. He still hugged Grammy goodbye when we left to come home.

Below is our scrap book of waiting rooms and hospital room, I had to avoid a lot due to patient privacy.

I'm wiped out, it's a lot for a disabled person and still haven't gotten my eye checked out yet.

05/03/2026

Bath day in the merry ole land of Sven ...

05/01/2026

Today was a really nice weather day here in Massachusetts. I went with Momma & Grammy to do some shopping and then we drove over to Salem, MA and had lunch at pizzeria 🍕 over on Derby St.

We haven't been in for a while since moving out of the city. We used to go there on our walks back from the parking garages during snow parking bans and even bumped into another former neighbors while in the parking lo area.

Everyone was so nice, the waitress even brought me over fresh bowl of water and we had a chat. I even posed for a photo with a Salem tourist magazine. It was a nice day out. Even saved a slice or two to bring home to Grampy. He's having heart surgery on Monday. 🙏

Happy Beltane to those that Celebrates it.

Be sure to stop by and say hello to Stu and Keenan.

04/29/2026

04/22/2026

A little bit more drama, but a long time coming.

Yesterday's Vet Dr. visit tanked. We scheduled an appointment Cyto-point shot to get Sven thru the worst of the pollen season. For those of you who are new followers Sven has about 20 blood tested allergies to environment and food by

Our normal Vet Dr. left the practice, and the remaining Vet/Owner has butted heads on just about everything with us. We considered leaving the practice but were in the midst of moving this time last year and with changing dog license, shots and paperwork we waited.

The Vet/Owner kept wanting to do more useless and/or risky tests. Chron's disease and Skin puncture would risk introducing infection unnecessarily and wouldn't really have more than 50% chance of any conclusive results and was super expensive. I said no, not when we have bloodwork and know that the cyto-point clears things up. Its allergy not disease. And they refuse to prescribe medications.

He uses staff to present a bill before we even start, claiming the new receptionist made a mistake and scheduled this as "annual exam, all annual vaccines and Cytopoint".... which was contrived.

His annual exam and vaccines are not due till July & Aug. The bill is close to $1500. I say no. And the staffer is prepared with a reply like automatically, bartering like a car dealership to remove the exam fee. I say no again. Staffer leaves and comes back with a bill for $967 for just the cyto-point injection, claiming prices have gone up since we last had it. Again, I said no, that the national average on google for a dog that size is about $200-300, not 3X's that. And even the urgent care clinic which is slighty higher, is still half the price they are demanding and that this is retaliation for declining the Vet Dr's exploratory tests.

I could have afforded the price, I had the cash for the bill, but it was the whole damn principle of it all. Scalping your customers for nothing when the money would and could be better applied to other health care needs or applications, like dental cleanings, eye exams, etc.

What galls me the most, the Vet Dr couldn't/wouldn't even face his own customers, he had to have a staffer do it, and because they claimed to have scheduled an exam, he had the time slot open to speak to us. Instead, the staffer has to talk to me from what was clearly a well-rehearsed scripted conversation where they think speaking louder to a person will help than understand their BS.

The Dr. doesn't have any care or concern for the dog and hasn't for the past few years, needless to say we left the practice. Something I should have done last year, but it is what it is. We are moving on to another local practice that we have been following online for a while now and have the greatest of confidence that Sven will be better off for it, They have years of experience with dog allergies.

Meanwhile there's a pic of Sven, eyes running, hives on ears and skin. He has Benadryl for now until we can set up new appointment at the new clinic.