Twin disasters: car damage and the return of the fleas

Preamble #1:
On the way home from Ottawa last weekend, we stopped in downtown Toronto to visit Greta's high school buddy Laura and her husband Vishal.  Max had a great time playing hide-and-seek with Laura under an upturned wicker chair and a good time was had by all.

Disaster #1: car damage
While attempting to exit the cramped downtown parking garage at Laura's apartment, I took a corner too sharply and gouged the hell out of the side of our minivan.  I never was a very good driver.

Nice parking job, idiot.

As you can see, the sliding door is severely dented and the metal has been punctured.  To fully repair such damage would cost thousands of dollars.  Insanely, our insurance company has valued our precious minivan at only $5000, so the cost to repair a gouge like that is comparable to that of the entire vehicle!

Of course, filing a claim with insurance is not an option, as I opted out of the comprehensive coverage that would cover such damage.  But even if I hadn't opted out, we'd probably pay for the repairs many times over in increased premiums.  (Either that, or the insurance company would decide that it's cheaper to scrap a perfectly good minivan with a dent in the side and cut us a cheque for $5000 rather than pay some overpriced body shop $5500 to repair the damage.  Gotta love insurance.)

I haven't done anything about it yet.  Partly because I don't want to think about it and partly because I'm waiting for Gramma and Grampa G to return from vacation so I can solicit their advice.  I don't care how it looks.  All I care about is that the car doesn't rust out and disintegrate before it would otherwise die of natural causes.

Preamble #2:
Followers of this blog will no doubt remember our first battle with dog fleas in our home.  Since that time we've enjoyed about three months of a flea-free home and we were starting to think we'd finally gotten rid of the little buggers.


Disaster #2: return of the fleas
Over the past couple days we noticed the dogs itching themselves more than usual.  I started checking them pretty frequently for fleas, but it took until this morning for me to finally find one on Hailey.  Our suspicions and fears were confirmed.

Get out of our house, you blood-sucker!!

Needless to say, were were quite demoralized.  However, whereas last time we were off gallivanting in Saskatoon for two weeks while the fleas infested our home, this time we're present and capable of putting up a fight.  We went on the offensive immediately, quarantining the dogs to the backyard while we scoured the city for a vet who would sell us flea treatment on a Sunday without an accompanying $75 exam.  $100 later, we are the proud owners of three months' worth of high-quality flea treatment for our dogs.  Thank you, Waterloo West Animal Hospital, for providing what we need with only a teeny bit of highway robbery.  Thanks also to the Bayer Corporation for somehow managing to charge monopoly rents for a substance that is no longer protected by patent.

As usual, we vacuumed every square inch of carpet in the house.  (An onerous job, but not nearly half so much as it was before we tore out all the carpet in our living and dining areas.)  We also did all the laundry in hot water, including bed sheets.  I can only hope that there are no fleas in Heather's room.  We love Heather, but the amount of stuff she's managed to cram into that 250sq.ft. room of hers makes it awfully difficult to chase down fleas.

Not to be derailed from our plans for today, we also fed Gramma and Grampa's cat, took the dogs on their usual walks through the bush, stopped at Home Depot for lumber, and later began construction of Max's new bed with said lumber.  Stay tuned for pictures when it's done.  It's going to be a great bed and I'm sure my family will wince when they see it.

Lately we've taken to wondering aloud what life would be like if we never had to clean up after our dogs anymore.  Some people might be offended by the idea of ditching dogs once they become inconvenient.  But many of the people who feel that way also have no problem eating the meat of tortured animals seven days each week, so their arguments count for little in our books.  That said, I love our dogs and I have no plans to get rid of them.  But with a toddler running around and another infant on the way... Man, we do NOT have the time or money to chase after fleas.