Everything Sven

06/03/2026

********* NOT A HAPPY CUSTOMER *************

Manager

Today we were denied access to a public bathroom. Grammy had an accident inside the bathroom, no idea if she fell or what the actual issue was. Staff would NOT let me back to the PUBLIC bathroom with my service dog, claiming they had a lot of food "back there" for starters its a FEDERAL LAW under the Americans with Disabilities Law that my Service Dog can attend me in any public area, secondly we were not in the kitchen area with open food, and food in boxes or cans on shelves in a back hallway is actually safe from any potential contamination of dog fur and does not meet the criteria, if anything it blocks egress in a fire. You staff insisted I leave my service dog unattended in a hallway with a table of children near by. While I trust my dog, I don't trust strangers or patrons. I asked staff to just stand there so I could at the very least go see what's wrong, god-forbid a female staff member ask or check to see if she fell or needed an ambulance or anything of the sort. I come out less than a minute later and staff is not there with my dog or blocking patrons from the hallway area out of precaution. WTF?

You and your staff need education. These are all common laws and rules for running a business, any lawyer worth half his salt could easily have a hay day with you if I chose that option. Fortunately, we're not as****es enough to bother, but certainly one day somebody will be, as for us you've certainly lost a customer. And put some paper towels in the bathroom, how do staff wash their damn hands.

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