A Time For Everything

 

We loved our girl the best we could, but love doesn't cure cancer, and this past Monday, we said good bye.

She'd been in increasing pain, whining almost constantly, and not interested in her food unless we doctored it with tuna juice.

We had planned to wait until Saturday, but it didn't seem fair that after a week of being with at least one person 24/7, she'd spend her last week alone and miserable while I went back to work.

I'd taken Monday as a vacation day and DD was off for President's Day, so we took her in.

I know I shared a pic of young Rayna on Monday, but here are a few more from over the years....

Rest in pain-free peace, sweet girl...

 

 

So Today is National Love Your Pet Day...a day to show your love and appreciation to the non-human family members. Not that true pet-lovers need a special for that, huh? I read something recently that said that sales at online pet retail sites is growing, so people are already splurging big time on the Fifis and Fidos in their lives.

But as this is a love your pet day post, let me share pics of my babies.

My dear sweet Rayna, you know. This is her when we first adopted her. So young, so dark-furred.

She's been a constant and loyal companion for a decade now, and the house is going to be strange place without her in it.

On the other hand, we've have two new fur babies in residence to fill the void a bit...

And it appears, much to my surprise, that I've never shared pictures of these two? I've searched through the archives of the blog images and can't find a single one.

Huh...

Anyway... Here's Rascal, the little dog... He's a sweetie and a charmer. He still barks a lot because that's what little dogs do, I've been told. But we thank him for warning us of dangers and that usually quiets him fairly quickly.

He's in for a surprise trip to the groomer later--he needs his claws, er, nails trimmed.

And last but not least, our gentleman cat in residence... Waldo.

Waldo is a sweet old man, with a bit of a feisty streak. He can also be a little clueless, sometimes too fearless for his own good. He's a tall lanky cat--stands taller than Rascal, which amuses me.

And we learned, with the Brown-Eyed Girl's visit, that he has a very healthy fear of strangers. He's very affable and friendly with the usual residents, but he went into hiding while the Brown Eyed Girl was up and around during the day.

But as DD said--the last time a stranger came into his house, he ended up with major upheaval to everything he'd ever known and ultimately thousands of miles away in a new state and a new house. Who knows what his situation was before Mom adopted him. He may have some PTSD, poor guy.

If you're a pet owner, today's just an excuse to splurge on your finned, scaled, feathered, or furry friends.

Have a great week.

 

 

I missed a few topics in my January edition of Miscellaneous Monday...so here's a bit of a catch up as well as some new random bits.

* * * * *

My oldest is coming for a visit on the 15th for a few days. I haven't seen her since Christmas 2021, although we chat via text a lot along with her soul mate and her sister. She's been living the good life, mostly, since taking up residence in the Centennial State, and it'll be good to see her again.

Her birthday is at the beginning of March, so we'll probably do a small b-day celebration while she's here. (Note to self: better put cake mix on the grocery list.)

* * * * *

We had a snow (ice) "week" last week. Everyone went home early on Monday, came in for a few hours early on Tuesday--for me to create and them to pick-up paychecks--before heading back home to work from home. Bad timing there, Mother Nature! And then worked from home Wednesday and half of Thursday, before returning to the office mid-day Thursday and all of Friday.

I used to be super excited about snow days, but when they go on for too long (what's too long? three days) then they muck up schedules and routines and aren't really worth it.

And also--the dogs, especially the little one, had a hard time navigating the ice rink that was our back yard. He just didn't have the weight to get any traction. Even Rayna's 50-ish pounds had a hard time with it.

* * * * *

Speaking of Rayna, she's still alive and kicking around. Although in the couple of weeks, she's had some rough days, and I'm wondering if this is the beginning of the end. If you remember, she was diagnosed October 10th, and I thought we'd have had to put her down by now.

Rest assured, I'm always on the watch for her mental and physical well-being. I don't want to put her down prematurely, but I don't want her to suffer unnecessarily either. So we're being vigilant to her indications of "okay-ness" vs pain / miserableness. I don't believe she's quite there yet, but it may be looming. If you're a pet owner who's faced this kind of thing, you know what I'm talking about. The animal will tell you when it's time to go.

Most of the time she's back to sleeping on Sonshine's old bed that became Mom's bed, with a mattress upgrade from futon mattress to regular mattress. It's no doubt way more comfortable for her.

Now instead of having run of the kitchen and my home office while I'm at work, we've given her the run of the back of the house with access to that bedroom. It has a big window and faces south, so lots of bright light during the day to help keep her mentally peppy as well.

* * * * *

In very belated news, Mom's house ended up not selling. Due to an issue of their own making (probably inadvertently, but nevertheless), the sellers were unable to come up with the full, agreed upon price. That was after they'd asked for two discounts. Which I had agreed to since I'd wanted to have that one major "thing" off my plate.

After realizing what they'd caused for themselves, they came back and asked for another drop in price. I just couldn't agree to that. It's cheaper for me to pay the bills for three or four months than to give up the amount of money they wanted me to.

But ugh.

* * * * *

I'd fallen off the de-cluttering wagon... but I'm trying to climb back on. I think I just forgot, what with the busyness of the holidays, but I want to keep going, keep simplifying, keep reducing the number of things I have to clean or keep track of.

I've penciled into my chore chart twice a week that I have to go in search of something to give away or throw away. I have a list and I keep it updated. I'm at 50-ish items for this go-round, which started October 2nd.

The goal is 100 items out of my house by the end of the first quarter. :0)

* * * * *

January was a tough month for me. As a business owner, there are all kinds of "end of year" things to do as well as "beginning of year" things to do. All of that on top regular monthly tasks. Add in the end of a fireworks season and the things that have to happen with that.

I was already pooped from the excitement and work of the holidays. And then there's me trying to wrangle plans for fresh start goals into submission as well as dealing with three fur babies, between whom I have to juggle time and attention.

* * * * *

Remember my no-spend challenge? I have several events on the books that I want to fund in advance, so there's another chain of tasks I've penciled in -- listing stuff Facebook Marketplace and eventually eBay and then shipping or delivering said items.

FB Marketplace has not been kind to me this go round. I've successfully bought two dryers for cheap that I've been extremely pleased with, but my foray as a seller rather than a buyer has been frustrating.

First, they rejected my listing of mom's walker--that she never used--because it falls under the "medical device" umbrella despite the fact that it doesn't diagnose nor treat nor attempt to cure any sort of condition.

Then I got duped into a Zelle scam. Stupid me. But here...

And then people keep offering me less money for my stuff. If I were willing to take less money (right now), I would have asked for less money. Grrrr...

* * * * *

Well, that's a decent list of randomness, wouldn't you say? I've revisited this post-in-progress several times hoping to remember any other bits and pieces I've wanted to share or document, but I'm tapped out for the time being.

Here's to a great week and a February as equally abundant as January. Take care.

 

Image courtesy of IMGBIN. 

I probably could have written this in November or October for that matter.

My attempts at getting back on track with most of the non-writing goals were thwarted.

I struggled more with mental health (as a result of Mom's death) this quarter than I thought I would. I never felt sad, per se, but I had periods of days when I just really felt blah.

I've also been in learning mode and taking in a lot of information and processing it. It took me some time to realize that that had/has also contributed to my feelings of blah and general tiredness. 

There were some external stresses that contributed to my struggles as well, so making extra things happen took a back seat to getting the basics taken care of.

One of those external things was learning that my shadow aka Rayna had cancer. Needless to say, some of my focus turned to making sure she has a good end of life experience. As of right now, she's still with us. However, I think she's taking a turn and it's not going to be much longer before we say our final good-byes. 😢

Even before her diagnosis, I'd planned on taking some half-days off to do yard work once the weather changed. Post-diagnosis, those days became even more important. Rayna likes to be outside but often won't spend a lot of time in the yard without me. And I'm not always keen on being out there.

But after being house-locked for most of the summer when being outside was a break from the stress going on inside my house, I looked forward to fall and cooler temps. Also, once Mom passed, I'd vowed to throw open all the windows and air out my house once the weather turned. I never got to do that as fully as I had hoped. Maybe in spring.

All that to say I spent a lot of time keeping my sanity in check and very little time doing chores, exercising officially, or cooking healthy meals.

But this post is supposed to be a review, so let's review the final quarter of 2022. I'm going in order of the list on the right side...

1) Grandma continued to receive missives from me. I'm all that's left of her daughter, so yeah. I'm even getting more consistent with it. Finally.

2) No exercise other than upping my average daily step-count and doing yard work, although that tapered off after the first real cold snap. I'd hoped to get back to yoga or riding the elliptical, but I just couldn't carve out the time, and I didn't really have the energy these past couple of months.

3) Honestly, I don't know how long cooking & eating healthy lasted this year. And once Mom moved in, that fell completely by the wayside in favor of more carb/calorie heavy meals. She needed them. After that, food was a comfort. Thankfully, I only gained about five pounds. Then lost a few and gained a few. *sigh*

4) Housekeeping just never really got off the ground for me, no matter how much I wanted it to.

5) I kept up (mostly) with my writers group duties. There's a lot of improvement there to be made here, but I think a list of tasks will help.

6) My one book got published and once Mom passed, I worked consistently on the next hockey book. But consistency was mainly wrought in five-minute chunks just so I could "stay in the manuscript" (on a daily basis) as the saying in writer circles goes. That faded the farther into December we went.

7) I didn't spend a lot of time on learning the craft of writing. I spent money on virtual conferences where I can go back and watch at my leisure, but not much time doing so.

8) I added a few things to the Etsy inventory, but didn't double my stock as I'd hoped/planned.

9) The one thing I have done and will always do is READ. Reading is almost as necessary as breathing to me. In fact, I read about 80-ish books this year.

10) I got back on the Goodreads horse somewhat right after Mom passed, but then slowed down again. I don't think I solidified anything really.

This year (2022) will always be the year that everything was knocked off the rails by Mom's move to Texas, her illness, and her death, so I don't know that I can rightly grade myself. Especially for the third and fourth quarters.

I did what I could when I could, and I made it through the year. That, in and of itself, is a success.

As I've mentioned in a couple of previous posts, it's time to rethink writing and to decide what my plan is going forward.

As I've done for the last umpteen years, I'll post my fresh start goals at the beginning of January.

Have a great week and I'll catch you Thursday.

Image courtesy of IMGBIN.

Due to the much needed rain on Thanksgiving Day, DD and I did not make it to the zoo. I'm happy for the rain, but sad we missed the Dallas Zoo. Maybe we'll go over DD's Christmas break.

Instead, we watched Enola Holmes 2, had yummy treats, and enjoyed the cozy day. Friday, too, was low key and relaxing. Sorta. I'm used to some sort of daily structure, but Thursday and Friday were just played by ear. Treated as true holidays.

Saturday was more productive with the usual Saturday tasks: thinking ahead to grocery shopping as well as the upcoming week and what I plan to accomplish. I struggled the past couple of weeks with getting stuff done as my chore chart will attest. Last week was more holiday antsy-ness and anticipation than anything, but the week before that I had some emotional ups and down that hindered my usual energy and productivity levels.

Sunday was also pretty back-to-normal. Groceries were bought, dogs were bathed, and the upcoming week was prepped for. All in all, a good four-day break.

Since I was planning on a zoo picture filled post and that's no longer an option, I've turned this into a Miscellaneous-Monday-type, in case you hadn't figured that out.

So...

Rayna is hanging tough. She favored her front left leg a bit on Thursday, but seems to be putting light weight on it once again. We're gonna love on her until she tells us she's ready to go.

And...

In a much-desired turn of events, we've received an offer on Mom's house. The buyers offered $5K below asking, which is fine. I had asked the real estate agent to bump it up to allow for negotiating. The buyers didn't ask for any concessions, but I need to get the property off my hands. The offer was fair and closing is scheduled for December 14th. Yee haw.

Now...

I can look ahead to a cruise. I'd promised myself that once Mom passed and everything had been taken care of and put to bed, I was going to take another cruise. It's still going be a little while, but with the house selling and me receiving some of the proceeds, a cruise is one of the things that's been ear-marked for funding. I'm hoping to take all the kids along as well. If all the in-laws want to tag along, that could be fun too, but it's going to be mostly Sonshine's ability to get time off that's going to drive scheduling the cruise.

But...

Now that Thanksgiving is past, it's time to look ahead to--you guessed it--Christmas. I've received Christmas monies and started shopping. DD and I also have a few home-made gifts to make. I even bought new wrapping paper for this year. I'd been trying to use down the stock-piles and finally did, so I needed to replenish the stores.

 Also...

In recent weeks, I've discovered a couple of new podcasts. :0) One is called Warfare and discusses various topics in relationship to war. Sometimes it's a discussion about a specific war itself, such as the WWII Battle of Midway, but sometimes it's about the abstract things that happen in the buildup to wars. It's all fascinating.

The other podcast is called American History Hit that touches on random topics of America's history including things like Walt Disney accusing former colleagues of being communist or the dark history beneath Central Park.

You might be hearing about some of these historical tidbits in the future.

Finally...

I'm done rambling. I hope your Thanksgiving was all you hoped it would be. Take care and I'll be back (probably) on Thursday.

The Boys in Victory Green Are Back in Town!

DD and I enjoyed everything the Dallas Stars home opener had to offer this past Saturday--most especially the win!!

As mentioned, for the first time ever, we were able to attend the opening day Victory Green Carpet Walk. After a lunch out (thanks to a gift card and no out of pocket $$ spent), we lined up along said green carpet and waited. And waited. And waited. Things didn't get started until about twenty minutes after they should have.

We got got stuck behind people who kept pressing forward against the "rope" and blocking our view. This really sucks for a short person. And DD has a few inches on me, but she's still on the short side.

But I was able to get my phone mostly in good position that it could see what was coming and I was pleasantly surprised a few moments later.

After being there way early and the things not starting on time, DD and I didn't stick it out for the whole thing. We were both hot and tired and very thirsty, so we left before everyone had walked the carpet. We only missed a couple of faces we would have liked to have seen, but we got the really important ones.

Jamie Benn, the captain:

Tyler Seguin, the super model:

Jake Oettinger, the new number one netminder:

And this dapper fellow here, is Luke Glendening. I thought he just looked so charming with his bow tie.

After our return to the car for some cool air and cool drinks, we returned to the arena. Not to our former season-ticket-holder seats, but close enough. But sadly we were in a set of seats that saw a lot of traffic by lazy people. It ended up being a lot of up and down to let people pass. Lesson learned for future games.

But the game was exciting and we won again a division rival. As is my wont after a win, I got a picture--no, have the whole video!-- of the Reunion Tower Ball lit up in Dallas Stars colors:

* * * * *

Cleanup in Aisle 9!

Okay, not really, lol.

But my Walmart did get new shopping carts yet again. They're a little unusual, but with a couple of cool new features: A phone holder on the left of the back of the child seat, and a cup holder on the right side of the seat back. As a short person, the push handle is a little higher than I'd prefer, but what are you gonna do? At least all the carts will push properly for a while--no wonky wheels yet.

* * * * *

The Sun's a Hot Star...

Did you know that Venus and Uranus rotate east to west when all the other planets rotate west to east...?

There are some theories as to why and you can read those here, if you're so inclined.

Uranus also spins on its side, which those who are fans of the original Blue's Clues would know.

I did note that the animation had Venus and Uranus spinning in the correct direction!

As a side note, the original Blue's Clues was a staple in our house for many years as Sonshine was a wee little lad when it first aired.

* * * * *

In a push to help Rayna's allergy situation and just because she needed new beds, she is now the proud(?) owner of three raised mesh/canvas beds. Now all the dander, dog hair, dirt, and / or bugs will fall to the floor rather than live and fester in the bedding. I can easily sweep / mop under her beds and throw the blankets I bought specifically for her in the wash.



She also got some good meds and medicated shampoo from the vet last Saturday and has been a much less itchy / scratchy canine. I'm not thrilled about bathing her three times a week, but it's doing what it's meant to, so I'll keep it up for another week before tapering off.

Anyway...it's Friday again. Another three-day weekend sure would be nice, wouldn't it?

Hope you enjoy the two days we're getting. Take care!!

I have a dog, but I have to confess... I am a CAT person.

I prefer the soft fur and purring to coarse hair and barking.

I feel bad for my dog sometimes because there's a cat in the house and she tends to get more attention than my sweet doggy. I have nothing against Rayna or dogs in general, but I grew up with cats. I like cats. I love cats.

Are you a dog person or a cat person?

The Brown-Eyed Girl is coming for a visit and Darling Daughter is moving home to help out for a few months. I'm so excited to see both my girls--now if only Sonshine could make it home, but alas...

In other news--now that maybe the real baby birds have left the nest, Mama and Papa Cardinal have been flying and chirping all around my yard.



...up on the power lines that run from one pole to another across the back end of our yard. Silly puppy!!


Hope you had a lovely weekend.

I'm a bit late on the uptake again, but I was barely on the PC at all this weekend, so the blog was not on my mind at all.

We hired some lawn care folks to come take care of our jungle...as I mentioned, DH was gone and the lawnmower broke. With all the moisture, it grew out of control rather quickly, though I don't think the guys really realized what they were in for. It took them almost 3.5 hours to do front, sides, and back--most of that was spent on the back yard.


But it's done now and it looks 100% better. I spent some time Sunday morning trimming away growth from along the fences and other random areas, as well as clearing out my bird feeder bed which has been terribly neglected of late and was looking rather pathetic.

Aside from that, I watched a lot of TV with hubster, but spent some time enjoying the sunshine with the dog.


Hope you had a lovely weekend!

Dear Rayna is back home with us. She had gone back to her daddy, but due to some technical difficulties, she couldn't stay. DD took her, but that wasn't working out either and so DH decided we'd rather have her back than see her go live with strangers.




She's settled back in quite nicely and is enjoying having a yard and sticks to chew up once again.

In other news, my azaleas have started blooming.



Happy Spring!

Rayna has only been a part of our lives for fourteen months, but she's become a full-fledged member. But when we agreed to give her a home, it was with the caveat that she was DD's dog in name if not in deed--mostly I cared for her. But the deal was when DD moved out, the dog went with her.

Well, she moved out in November but her living arrangements being what they were at the time, DH and I agreed to keep her until DD and her roommate were able to move into a two-bedroom apartment. Moving weekend has finally arrived, but Rayna was in for a surprise--instead of going to live with DD, she gets to live back with her daddy, the young man from whom we originally took her.

They were both quite excited, and I'm pleased as punch for the both of them, if not a little sad for myself.

These pictures are from a previous post about Rayna...





It was a little quiet that first morning, not having the tick, tick, tick of her nails on the flooring or the jingle of the bells hanging from the back door knob when she wanted to go out.

Several people have said I can finally get a cat, and while that's true, I still want to wait a bit. In the mean time, I guess I ought to get started on cleaning my floors!

After losing our two dogs within six month of each other, I was relieved to be pet free for a while. I'd lived with fur all over my house for well over twenty years and looked forward to clean corners and baseboards, as well as a poop-free yard.

And I enjoyed that for almost eight months. Then Rayna came into our lives at the beginning of this year. That story is here. I wasn't really in the market for another dog. After being sans cat for close to a decade I had a hankerin' for some feline companionship. But I also wanted to wait until I was working from home or the kids were gone. Or both. Or who knows. But Rayna needed a home.

Fast forward seven months and I'd like to say how grateful I am to have had her around. We all know the emotional benefits of having a pet, and I have to say I've benefited much from her presence in our family. I won't go into all the sordid details, but my life has been enriched.

So without further ado, some recent pictures of Puppy Face...

She loves to play and we step outside several times in the course of a day to throw her ball. Though not the one pictured. Her preferred ball is a football shaped tennis ball, at the moment.

 Here she is in the office with me. The kids probably aren't home otherwise she'd be next to one of them.

 Rayna's favorite place to be...Sonshine's bed, preferably with Sonshine.

And outside enjoying the sunshine. I'd do that more if I could...

Do you have or have had a beloved pet that you couldn't imagine your life without?

Thank goodness it's Friday.

It's been a tough week and a tough month. Next month will be just as busy.

Am I ready? No.

Do I have a choice? No.

February, here I come...

New family member, Rayna, is settling in quite nicely. I thought she would miss her dad more, and if she saw him, she'd probably go crazy. I think the upgrade in her living conditions has made a difference in how she's handled the transition--she's not boxed up or sleeping 18 to 20 hours of the day. Yep... she was in her box when her dad was at work and since he works overnight, he'd sleep during the day, so Rayna was sleeping with him.

Here, while she is alone for many hours during the day, she's not boxed up and can roam the house. She's well behaved and doesn't tear stuff up and she has toys. She's allowed on Sonshine's bed as far as furniture goes, and there are a couple of dog beds for her use. Our yard is about three times the size of her previous yard, so she can run and play and chase away all my wildlife. And when we're home we pay attention to her, talk to her, and play with her.

But she's technically, DD's dog. DD was told that if we agreed to give Rayna a new home, she would go with DD when she moves out. DD agreed. So Rayna is really just a temporary house guest. But it's nice to have a critter in the house again.

Well, she's knee deep in writing group business. The beginning of the year means the changing of the guard--out with the previous board members, in with the newly elected. Sometimes it's just a shuffle from one position to the next. We lose one or two, gain one or two and everyone else just trades hats.

I love serving my writing group, I really do. I love going to meetings and hanging out with my writer peeps. Writing group day is my one day when I let all my other cares go. I'm gone the whole day, first to meeting, then to hang out with critique partners and other invited friends. I ride with a friend so we have extra time to visit.

This past Saturday was the changing of the guard meeting. My friend, chapter mate, and faithful blog reader Lara was kind enough to open her home to us gaggle of women to get our group on the road to 2014 success. (Thanks, Lara!)

In other news, the yard is frozen. It hasn't had any work done to it in a good month and it needs a pick-me-up pretty bad. On the other hand, it's not the worst it's ever been, so I'm not fretting it too much. There's just been something going on for the last several weeks and when there wasn't, it was just too dang cold to go out.

I spent a couple of weeks on hubby alert. He got a bad case of that flu going around and was laid up at home for a few days. Then, from all the coughing, he ended up with a level three tear in his abdominal wall. If it had been any worse, he'd have had to have surgery to re-attach stuff. Yikes. Until this past Friday, he hasn't driven since when he has to cough, he likes to hunch over to cause the least amount of tug on his belly muscles.

My schedule's been wonky because of DH being sick, and on top of that, the water pump on DD's truck bit the big one, so we were out a vehicle for two weeks. It took a bit longer because we had DD's friend fix it rather than pay a dealership the thousand dollars they quotes us. Instead, we shelled out about $150 in parts and adopted a dog.

This is Rayna...




Her daddy (the friend that fixed DD's truck) lives at home with his parents, as does his sister who has a toddler and a new baby. His parents have been after him to get rid of her because they're worried that she might hurt one or the other of the little ones--not out of aggression, but because she's protective. So we agreed to take her. We babysat her last week and it's going to be a tough adjustment for her. She loves her daddy. I'm thinking she's gonna have to bond with Sonshine. Also, I think I'm going to have to take her to work with me. I don't know that leaving her in a strange house by herself right off the bat is a good idea either. I'll keep you posted.

And last but not least is my continued lack of weight loss. I'm back up around 140lbs, though I haven't gone over but a blip and only once. All the sickies and injuries and crazy schedules and just stuff have conspired to keep me off kilter and seeking comfort in not-so-great food choices. Okay, they're not super bad, it's just that I think I'm eating more that I should be and not drinking enough water. That's gonna end very soon. DH is ready to make healthier choices too.

Well, I think I've gabbed your ear (or eyes?) off enough for today, so I'll sign off.

Hope things are cruising along much better in your neighborhood.