I tried to do two significant things yesterday and I was an undeniable fail for both!

 

The first was ordering a new liner for our inground liner swimming pool that we, meaning Hubby installed in 2005, I believe, is our third-liner.  

It's been quite a while though, the last one was replaced in 2012, and now this one's seams are ripped in two locations, and so it is needed badly.

I believe that the company is under new ownership, and they are a bit persnickety about email, saying if you email too often it's considered harassment!

The first email was as his per request with the dimensions of the pool so I sent the blueprint we still have. And he wanted to know in his return email which liner we (I) wanted, but to call him back. So I did and his office was closed!

The other is also an ongoing issue with the red tide fish kill that has come down many canals... not only ours but most of Charlotte County's waterfront communities!

I contacted FWC, Fish, and Wildlife, in which Catalina Brown is in charge of reports of fish kills, but the cleanups are only for beaches and parks, not canals.

She did try to get me help by telling me to try natural resources, and Jane said they do not know who would do that clean up as well as Nicole at Public Works, and the Department of Health and were quite impatient with me, lastly who I did not try, I was told to try Poison Control! Oh, and the Agriculture department at the college, Sara.

No allowances, contingencies, clean ups of fish kills, were made for the outcome of the waterways from the harbor!!!

DEAD, DEAD ENDS!!!

So I did something rash and contacted our local news station and a newscaster there that seems to be caring and understanding, a young fellow named Nate Foy.

He said he would have to speak to his boss but in the end, he said he would investigate further. I thanked him and thought well now maybe something will happen!

That was just yesterday.

This morning I read an item on my phone where WINK news, a CBS affiliate did the story about a fish kill down a canal, though in Punta Gorda, with no resolve. My contact works for the NBC-2 affiliate.

Who knows if he will try anymore.

Yesterday, I reread my own blog and decided to contact NOAA, they have an email for questions and this is what I wrote:

"To whom this may concern:

I have spent a better part of the day trying to find out who will remedy the fish kill in our saltwater canal behind our home. The many agencies I contacted basically have no responsibility for finger canals that adorn the county as offshoots from Charlotte Harbor.  

The picture above shows our proximity to the harbor. The smell of dead fish is gut-wrenching, and I with asthma and Multiple sclerosis and my husband with arthritis cannot do anything about it. Nobody will fix the problem. We have been living in Florida for 35 years, and this is the worst we have seen it, i.e. red tide! Twenty-three years in this particular home, our third since moving here in 1986. 

So we bought it when it was very cheap. I tell people we are living large in the cheap seats! But as senior citizens, we are on a small income, and cannot afford to pay anyone to remove the now toxic fish. I cannot go out in our backyard for long, and we have three rescue dogs, I worry for them too! We received our vaccines for COVID and did what is right to stay well and now this. After speaking to all the agencies who apparently did not prepare for this! We pay taxes for our home like everyone else, but it appears they, the powers that be are more concerned with Snowbirds and tourists than us all-year-rounders,...since the only clean-up is of dead fish at beaches and parks! We have been forgotten about!

I wish there was something you could do, but I am telling you all this just so you know.

  

I did notify our local TV station, and the newscaster says he will do a story about it. He is very kind, but I do not believe there is an answer. Unfortunately, he will hit the same brick wall I hit...contacting everyone from FWC to the Ag at the college.

Sincerely,"

The epitome of frustration!!!

And so, we must go, for now ...

Please be smart, as well as safe.

Have a very pleasant day.

Count those blessings, and we will too!

Next time, please be here or be square, ya hear!

Aussie, say good day!

I am Aussie, not being from Australia, but American-made. I will comply anyway, for the fun of it,... so I will say good day!

I am called Aussie because my Mom asked a sixteen-year-old girl, who had been looking at me, in the crate at the adoption site, that day, what she thought I should be named. And without hesitation, the teenager had said, Aussie! She was just looking, by the way,... so Mom did not steal me from her.
We never did find out the girl's name, and Mom liked the name Aussie too. We have since found out that it is a very common name, but it is still just right for me! My parents think that I am uncommon though,...some might say even unique! I do like that.
I am an Australian Shepherd. Here is an interesting factoid about me, I was supposed to be a miniature Australian Shepherd, but...as you might know, I AM NOT! Although I am now three years old, so I am the baby, though I tip the scales at around seventy pounds, HA! I must admit, a very big one! 
I was three months old when Mommy and Daddy adopted me. I had been taken out of a hoarder's home in the Carolinas with my litter. Below is my new PIC that had been taken on the birthday that I share with my Dad, but Dad is much, much older than me!!! I was the first to be adopted, February 16, 2018, his brother's birthday.

                            3 months................................................3 years

No tail/tale publishing, circa 2018. 

Get it? I was born without a tail, preferable for all Australian Shepherds; only one out of five are born that way!

                                           

Hello, I am Bella in the picture above, a Maltese Yorkie, a Morkie, and I might be five years old. I am the middle child, so I am what you would expect, with all those idiosyncrasies that go along with all that! Being the only girl has its rewards, as well as difficulties...We are all rescues, so no one knows for sure our ages. I was turned in from my previous family, stating that I was misbehaving with their elderly dog, they had said I was driving him crazy! I was the second to be adopted on 8/18/18, on out clear the shelters' day!Oh, by the way, my record's called me Belle, and so for no known reason, Mom decided I was more of a Bella; beautiful either way!

Please don't forget me, I am Chance, pictured above, a Bichon Frise! I am six years old, so they think, and the eldest, and I like getting up early with Mom and Aussie. Bella sleeps in with Dad, till after seven most days, even later! I enjoy a good tug-of-war on the ropes that Dad had twisted for Aussie and me, and sometimes even Bella plays too! I was the last to be adopted, on January 23, 2020. 

I was wandering the neighborhood for days and then saw Aussie and Bella in their living room window, so I hung out there... The Animal Welfare League checked me out and kept me for sixteen days until I was allowed to be adopted. Good evening? 

Now my name of Chance is because I was given another chance, it could be only the second one or perhaps more... The animal control lady came out to see if I had a chip I.D. with her machine, and Dad told her that he wanted to name me Chance. His reason being, that if no one claimed me, I want to give him a second chance! So that is how I got the name Chance!

Easy as Aussie, Bella, Chance, now you got it!