No Joy (but I'm back)

Well, it sure has been a while since I last posted anything. I just got back home to Germany yesterday, and finally have a high speed connection again. Frankly, its the only thing still going right at the moment.

Naw... I shouldn't go all doom and gloom, but it has been a tough three months and it isn't getting any better. People who get easily depressed should just skip to the next thread, since I haven't got much good news.

Before anyone here panics, the SVX is fine. Probably because I haven't driven it yet. Everything else I touch is going kablooey.

Mom had a hip replacement beginning December, just after I arrived. That was planned so I could help out when she got home afterwards. Well, they had her in the hospital 3 days, then 6 days in re-hab, then they sent her home. I wasn't happy, wanted her to get more re-hab and physiotherapy, but we coped. At least, we were coping fairly well until she fell, broke that same leg in two places (femur, a.k.a. thigh bone) and demolished her knee. And that was just as she was learning to climb stairs with a cane. I had been hoping to get rid of the walker before I left, and instead I prolonged my trip to deal with the new situation. She's still in hospital, waiting for a long-term re-hab spot to open up. No weight allowed on that leg for three months. It has plates and screws and wire which should later prove amusing at airports (along with the new hip). Meanwhile, most re-hab centres don't take patients who can't even stand on both legs, so we're waiting for a bed to free up at a semi-private institution where they do water therapy.

I'll skip all the stories about incompetent and lazy nurses I had to deal with throughout, though I must applaud the small minority who really tried hard to do the right thing and even go beyond. Big kudos to the paramedics who were wonderful! I suppose it didn't help that Mom fell during a freezing rain storm, so hospital emergency depts were overcrowded and so of course we ended up at a different hospital. But Mom fell in her bedroom at 3:30 am while going to the bathroom, so it didn't have anything to do with the storm. Just a real flukey accident.

So we waited with that broken leg for 4 days before she got transferred and had the leg operation. Not sure why, but everyone was insisting that she should have the same surgeon at the same hospital where her hip was done in December. Of course, we hit a small snag: that surgeon was on holidays, so she ended up with another one anyway, although at her original "hip" hospital.

All during the waiting time, and even after the leg surgery, they somehow totally missed the broken knee. Everyone was so worried about her new hip (no damage done) that they ignored her complaints that her knee was hurting, NOT her hip. The broken knee finally showed up during follow-up X-rays 3 days later, with Sunday night emergency surgery to fix the knee. What fun!

Now, just in case that wasn't enough fun, my brother landed in hospital for a short stay in middle January, and I got into a fight with my sister-in-law. Long story, short summary: I think that situation is now under control somewhat, though I have a severe disagreement with my brother's doctor about long-term treatment. Can't do anything about that though. Grrr....enough said about that one.

So... after many more trials and tribulations, I'm finally going to the airport. I'm tired and stressed out and frankly worn out both emotionally and physically. Hubby had called the night before to warn that I might get cancelled. Frankfurt airport had a major blizzard and 400 flights were cancelled the day before, including the ones from Toronto. So I get to the airport early, already expecting trouble about my changed departure date on top of the threatened cancellation.

Oh....right.... didn't mention that minor irritation. You see, I flew using Swiss airmiles, on a Lufthansa flight. But the awards programs won't be officially joined and on the same computer system until April 1. So even though I was holding a Lufthansa ticket, it had been issued by Swiss, and only Swiss could change it for me. But Swiss no longer has an office in Toronto. At least, that's what the Swiss phone rep in Australia explained to me. Yeah.. I couldn't even go through their Montreal office, because I wasn't a normal ticket but an award ticket which is handled by a different department. Finally a very nice man named Bruno in Australia got me straightened out. I ended up having no trouble with my ticket at the airport, but did end up with a middle seat which I really really hate. I suppose I should be glad for small mercies, since the flight was way overbooked and I did at least get a seat.

So, I'm finally at Stuttgart airport, and Hubby is waiting for me along with our puppy, who is now an 8-month old gangly teen-ager. No probs with customs, all my bags arrive, the weather is beautiful, the roads are clear, and I'm finally starting to relax on the drive home.

We get home, and Leo the black Lab is waiting to greet me quite effusively and with great joy. Wow! Things seem finally back on track. ... Nope

We leave the dogs outside playing in the nice afternoon sunshine and trundle my bags into the apartment. We hear dogs barking and kids laughing outside, while I start unpacking gifts for my husband and we get reaquainted. Then we realise that things seem very quiet outside.

Anyone care to guess what happened? Our dog was nowhere to be seen. It was around 5:30pm, so maybe another hour or so of good daylight. We got warmly dressed and spent the next few hours wandering around the countryside, yelling and whistling, hoping desperately for a reply but got nothing.

We spent a sleepless night worrying, Hubby took Monday off and we spent all morning scouring the countryside with no luck. We've called the police and reported our missing dog, and also the local animal shelter. Unfortunately, each shelter in Germany acts independently of the others, so we'll have to sit down with a map and figure out possible distances that a dog could travel in a day or two, and call all the other shelters ourselves. Our ad will be running in the paper on Wednesday and I've already put together info sheets with colour photos that I'll be posting at major bus stops and grocery stores around the area in a 10 mile radius to start.

And the icing on the cake..... today was my husband's birthday, and we'd been joking for months that his gift was going to be finally having his two girls back home and his family together again.

Welcome home....

[It's Just Eric]

Sounds like you also have had your fair share of bad luck the past few months
Welcome back though! Hopefully things work themselves out for you

[Noir]

Well it can't rain all the time Vera.

I'm happy you're back! I was getting bored without you here!!!

Hope you find your hounds soon!

[ensteele]

Sorry to hear of the troubles. You had us worried becasue we didn't know where you went. All of a sudden, no Bipa! Where did she go? Hope all goes weill now.

[Electrophil]

Ahhhh Bipa... Sorry, so sorry!!

It is great to see you back though. You've been missed!!

Lots of political threads going on right now. We are in dire need of your intelligence, knowledge, and guidance.

[Noir]

however, after your brief description of healthcare in Canada. I may have to reconsider if the free druggie card is worth it in Canuckistan.

[SSSVX]

Good to see you back. Do a search! I remember there's a thread like : "where is Bipa?" Some of us missed you.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Feb was not good for me also. Let's hang in there and hopefully good things will come soon.

[SilverSpear]

Originally Posted by SSSVX

Good to see you back. Do a search! I remember there's a thread like : "where is Bipa?" Some of us missed you.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Feb was not good for me also. Let's hang in there and hopefully good things will come soon.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/show...highlight=bipa

Sorry to hear about your troubles Bipa. Hope your mom will feel better soon. What was the doctors thinking there? when people say they are feeling pain in their knee, they look at the hip???

Anyway welcome back, glad you landed again (on our forum) safe and sound

[subi-crosser]

Originally Posted by SilverSpear

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/show...highlight=bipa

Sorry to hear about your troubles Bipa. Hope your mom will feel better soon. What was the doctors thinking there? when people say they are feeling pain in their knee, they look at the hip???

Anyway welcome back, glad you landed again (on our forum) safe and sound

we were worried that you fell off the earth or something!!

Jerry

[intelisevil]

We're desperately waiting for your comments on these two threads and maybe a few others . . .

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31783

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31922

Welcome back!!!

Dan

Still no puppy in sight

Our dog was wearing her collar with her valid(!) license tag. So anyone who found her would easily be able to trace and get our names and address and phone number just by calling the gov't office and reading off the registration number on the tag. Or the gov't office could contact us if they can't disclose our info. Or the police could also easily use it to get us. If she somehow lost her collar, then she also has an implanted microchip. I insisted that my husband have her chipped while I was away and not wait until my return. Thank goodness he did it. So all the basics are covered.

Today I started hitting local places with flyers. Seems that the major grocery chains have a policy not allowing any flyers to be posted. But I did get the local little supermarket, the central chain hardware store, the big electronics store, and the huge garden centre to agree to displaying my info sheet. The local gas station attendent took one but said he'd first have to check with the Boss in the morning. I've got three very recent photos of Kaya on the sheet, one lying down, one sitting and staring directly into the camera, and the third is a profile shot. Good thing that I kept insisting on having my husband take photos and emailing them to me. That's probably the only reason we have so many good recent shots of her.

The newspaper ad will be coming out in tomorrow's edition. It will be running in both the large daily newspaper and also in the little local free bi-weekly paper that is distributed to about 65,000 households in our region. They don't run pictures in the paper, but the papers will indicate that photos are available on their internet web site. We uploaded 5 photos (6 max allowed).

Hubby also contacted a second animal shelter, so now we got the west and north-east covered. I bought a really good detailed local map today, and will figure out the nearest southern animal shelter to cover all directions. Tomorrow I'll be also hitting all the major bus stops with flyers. Don't know what else to do except pray.

I'm even having trouble with that one. Brought up Eastern Rite Catholic, I lean towards agnostic, but am now finding my thoughts and prayers turning towards: Saint Francis of Assisi (patron Saint of animals), Saint Nicholas (patron Saint of children and always my personal favourite), Saint Gabriel (patron Saint of communications), Saint Jude (patron Saint of desperate causes), Saint Isidore the Farmer (patron Saint of farmers, that one might find and take care of our baby), Saint Anthony of Padua (lost items), Saint Fiacre (taxi drivers & chauffers) and Saint Frances of Rome (motorists) that she doesn't get hit by a car, aw... the list goes on.

Hmm... maybe I should use that as part of a post in that Middle East thread? <weak attempt at humour>

I wonder how many folks I could piss off here if I were to publish a prayer to St. Jude. You often see them published in the papers as part of the "ritual". Heck... desperate and hopeless causes also kinda includes the whole Middle East mess we have at the moment.

As always, I have a bit of trouble with the whole Catholic ritual stuff. These formal prayers never really fully meet with my personal situations, yet are often close enough to strike some resounding chord of emotional response.

Here is one version, for your reading pleasure

O most holy apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus -- People honor and invoke you universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, of things almost despaired of. Pray for me, for I am so helpless and alone. Please help to bring me visible and speedy assistance. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly (state your request) finding and bringing Kaya home safe and sound, and that I may praise God with you always. I promise, O blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, to always honor you as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to you by publishing this request. Amen.

As you can see, it doesn't quite fit. I'm not really alone here... the whole family on both continents is calling and sending emails of encouragement. Folks here on this site are also sending me nice messages. I haven't really hit the "helpless" stage either, since I'm actively doing something (posting flyers) that just might bring Kaya home. God helps those who help themselves, eh? Yet at the same time, it does somehow help to be calling on a "greater power" for a little extra boost.

Perhaps that, in a way, can also explain the current mess going on between all the various sects which combined make up "The People of the Book". It is very easy to simply do as you're told, or follow unthinkingly the rituals of your childhood. In times of stress, we often fall back unconciously into the patterns that were established earlier, even if as adults we have partially or fully rejected them later. What we think rationally is often at odds with how we react with the gut in times of stress. There is little opportunity, or even time, for rational thought when emotions are at a high level and people feel a need for action NOW. Act now, and think later... that becomes a typical pattern. Even I'm guilty of it, having spent hours outside in the cold searching for a missing dog in a rural area that on reflection had extremely little chance of succeeding. Yet even that small chance had me out there in the cold, risking a twisted or broken ankle in the dark.

Now you probably think that I'm a little crazy in comparing my current situation with the Middle East mess, but the principles are the same. Folks there have either already lost something very important to them, or feel at risk of losing it in the near future. They want to get it back, or simply keep what they have. Let's not worry about what that "it" is... it doesn't really matter since "it" might be different for every faction. But they are afraid, and fear turns into anger and grief - both extremely powerful emotions that can completely block off rational thought and allow raw, illogical gut response to take over.

Hmm.... don't know if any of you can understand what I've written. I'm not being as clear as I'd like, and might have made a few jumps in reasoning that aren't easily followed.

But heck.... the ritual to St. Jude is complete with the publishing of the prayer, so Divine Intervention just might help my personal cause.

[SilverSpear]

Hope you find your dog Bipa. You seem very attached to him, well I was once at 13 of age, also lost it and never found it again . I still think of him to this day, good luck in finding yours

[Chiketkd]

Welcome back Bipa!!!!!! I really hope you find your doggy...

Update:

Still no dog. Our ads ran in both papers today. I'm wondering if we should run ads in other ones. No response, not even a crank call. Also I can't find those online photos that we uploaded. The online site is only showing the text ad. Oh, well.

Put out a bunch of flyers on the major bus stops around here, as well as the local hair salon, the local pub, and found out that banks allow these flyers in their lobbies (while supermarkets don't?!)

More flyers tomorrow - have about 30 printed up already in clear plastic sheaths to protect them from the wet snow we're getting <sigh - our dog hates water, including rain)

One good thing - people are being really sympathetic, and a guy at the pub said he'd already seen the flyer at the hardware store. So word is actually starting to spread.

I'm thinking of switching to Voodoo ... that might bring quicker results

[Noir]

Originally Posted by Bipa

Update:

Still no dog. Our ads ran in both papers today. I'm wondering if we should run ads in other ones. No response, not even a crank call. Also I can't find those online photos that we uploaded. The online site is only showing the text ad. Oh, well.

Put out a bunch of flyers on the major bus stops around here, as well as the local hair salon, the local pub, and found out that banks allow these flyers in their lobbies (while supermarkets don't?!)

More flyers tomorrow - have about 30 printed up already in clear plastic sheaths to protect them from the wet snow we're getting <sigh - our dog hates water, including rain)

One good thing - people are being really sympathetic, and a guy at the pub said he'd already seen the flyer at the hardware store. So word is actually starting to spread.

I'm thinking of switching to Voodoo ... that might bring quicker results

i think someone stole your dog.