That's what I was thinking today, and what I had to deal with today. In my head, my planning for today was very different from how the day actually went.

This morning my partner went back to work after being at home for a while, and I had planned to pick up some chores that had been left behind while he was home. I have started a course, that is, I have ordered a course. And so today I wanted to sit down and start doing that. It was also my plan to post a blog online again today after a while of no inspiration. After all, I have to let you know every now and then that I am still alive and that I am doing well. Not then?

Zest For Life

An update about my dogs has also been on my mind for some time because, after the report that Lana was diagnosed with breast cancer, I have not given any further update on how she is doing now. And even though Lana is still very active and still has so much zest for life, we see the bump growing very fast. And unfortunately, that does not provide a good view of the future. The end may come much sooner than we even expected. And certainly much sooner than we and Lana are ready for. However, we are certainly not giving up yet. As long as Lana shows no pain, and still has a zest for life and the will to continue (what a blessing it is that dogs live in the moment and are said to have no awareness of scary diseases), we will certainly continue with her and do everything we can to support her and ensure she has a great time. That she can do what she wants most every day and that she gets good nutrition to keep her energy up.

A Healthy Balance

Anyone who knows me even a little knows that this not only applies to Lana but also to Myla and Skipper. Every day my dogs live a wonderful life with many moments of being outside. With enough play and attention, and with rest of course. Dogs must also get enough rest to process all the stimuli so that they remain relaxed. And I always keep an eye on that combination of action and rest. A dog that doesn't get enough action gets bored and starts looking for things on its own. A dog that gets too much action becomes overstimulated. It is always a matter of finding the right balance for each dog. There can even be a difference per day, depending on what's happening... and that was very noticeable again today.

A New Propane Gas Tank?

After a quite intensive weekend, I had planned a quiet day to start the week, but things turned out a little differently. This morning when I had just woken up and was quietly drinking a cup of tea after my partner had gone to work, Skipper started barking like an idiot. I wasn't expecting anything or anyone, but from his barking tone, I could hear that something was really going on. When I looked out the window there was a truck and trailer in front of the house. I saw a propane gas tank on the trailer, so I assumed they must be with the new neighbors. These are foreign people, of whom the woman certainly doesn´t speak Dutch. We had also seen the landlord working with someone at their gas tank a week or two ago, and they had also looked at our gas tank and wanted to know how the pipes were running. We hadn't heard anything else about it, so we hadn't really thought about it anymore. At most, we had the expectation that something would change at the neighbors. But now the driver was at our front door. And luckily Skipper had barked loud enough for me to notice.

When I walked up to the man I asked him if he should be at the neighbor's address, which is the number with the A after it. But to my surprise, he said "No, I have received this house number and need to install two new propane gas tanks." Now I was completely dumbfounded because I knew nothing about installing a new gas tank, and it is useful that as a resident you also know where to order your propane gas to refill the tank if it is about to become empty. We also have a rental contract for the tank with the supplier we had the tank from.

The driver didn't know what to do with this either and was just as surprised by my statement that I knew nothing about anything, as I was surprised by his statement that he was installing two new propane tanks. We thought about it together for a short moment and came to the conclusion that I would text my landlord and he would call his boss. After some messages back and forth it was clear... it was really true. Our landlord had arranged it and two new propane gas tanks would be installed. The old tanks were removed, and the propane gas that was still in the tanks would be pumped over. Now don´t get me wrong, we're not even that interested in what kind of tank we have to use, or which supplier we have to contact for a refill. All the tanks are ugly, and propane isn't cheap anywhere, but it still would have been nice to have known that this was about to happen. That also gave us the opportunity to ask the landlord how to deal with the tank rental contract from our old supplier, which we had to conclude (against our wishes) for five years. Why against our wish? It was very simple, the tank rent was always charged to the landlord, and suddenly that was no longer possible for the supplier. They didn´t want to handle it that way anymore. We then had to sign a five-year contract. If it were up to us personally, we wouldn't have a propane gas tank at all, but we have no say in that. We rent this house, and the owner of the house, our landlord, wants there to be a propane gas system here. That's why we thought it was fine for him to take care of the contract for the tank rental, so we can control the consumption ourselves. But when that was suddenly no longer possible and we were given a five-year contract, we were not so happy. And now the landlord has suddenly had the tank removed. That leaves us to see how we can get rid of that contract. No tank, no contract. Just whether it will be that easy? Only time will tell.

So you can say with certainty that our landlord is not very good at communication. Normally we don't have such a hard time with that, but I don't find these kinds of unexpected moments very useful. And that is something I will point out, it just doesn't change much. Let me be clear, although the landlord is not very good at communication, and the maintenance also leaves something to be desired, he is really not a bad guy and we get along fine with him. But today he had totally unexpectedly messed up my planning with his planning.

Changing the propane gas tanks meant that I had to temporarily move a lot of heavy containers with trees and plants. The dogs had to stay inside because the large gate had to be opened to allow the truck to enter so that the gas tanks could be changed via our backyard with a large crane. It is clear that all this did not happen in half an hour ... but I did not expect that it ultimately cost me my entire morning. Fortunately, it was a bright summer day in October and I was able to do plenty of other things so that the driveway and garden are now largely weed-free again.

So you see...

You can plan whatever you want, but you can't plan for the unexpected.