Hot Diggity Dog

  We are in sunny Folkston, GA. The trip was ...... I suppose this trip was no different than any others. We were ready to roll at 9 am. I was in the RV with the animals, waiting for my ride to start moving when I heard The Man say something outside. I thought he might be trying to explain his deer feeder set-up to the feral felines. He was not. He was disgusted with himself for having locked the keys in his truck. You may recall that The Man used to do some towing and rescuing travelers from themselves when they also locked their keys in their vehicles. He has all the tools necessary to break into a vehicle and fortunately the one he needed was in the cargo area of his truck. With my assistance guiding the tool to the door handle, it only took 17 minutes to retrieve the keys and be on our way. The Man had acquired navigational advice from his friend, Siri. I had actually looked at a map and checked out a route with MapQuest that would take us east of Helen, thus avoiding going rou...

I am happy to report that the knee is better. It was a long night trying to shield my knee from my bedtime companions. Kevin has decided to sleep with his favorite canine. When Bo tires of his little buddy he heads to the foot of the bed and waits for me to lift the covers with my foot so he can hide out. The canines want to get up early and be escorted through the porch and have the outside door opened. I have a system. I get up and throw my big fleece robe on and slip my feet into the slippers with depictions of doxies on the toes. This is after I assist fat Eddie to the floor. He will only walk across the sheet, no covers, and you have to hold his back end until his front paws touch the floor. He is very stubborn and will protest loudly if his routine is not obeyed. I walk out on the porch with the dogfood scoop in tow, then I release the hounds and while they attend to personal matters, I open the big container and scoop out their food. On the way back to the warm interior, I grab ...

  The cold front has mostly gone away. No ice on our driveway and we even managed to go out to eat last night. The long-awaited trip will begin Monday morning. The weather forecast looks good for it. So, with that in mind, I went out to make the bed in the RV and get our clothes situated. I always take too many, but you never know when you might need another change of clothes. I could go buy more, but I will be too busy for such. We will be taking a different route. Heading southeast will provide something new to look at. It will be nice to get away. I recently reconnected with a cousin. We are going to see her on the first leg of the trip. I have not seen her since my grandmother died. I think that 1988, so a very long time. She is 3 years younger than me and we share a birthday. I have a lot of cousins, but Donna and her sisters and brother were the ones I was closest to. I spent as much time as I could with them at their house. My mother was not good at hosting other children in...

This day 4 of our isolation here on the side of a mountain. The snow was generous and our driveway is still covered in white. I imagine (no, I know) there is a good layer of ice under the white stuff. The truck will not ascend the driveway. The Man did try, mumbling about getting the mail. I doubt that was the real reason he tried. He disdained all my suggestions for dinner, and he really wanted to go get take-out. He was forced to eat what I offered. I made a nice soup from frozen turkey and potatoes and carrots. It was good, he had to admit. The feral feline colony thought so, too. They were happy to scarf up the leftovers. Lucy almost succumbed to the bitter cold and enter the house. Then she chickened out. I feel certain that Kevin has told them to let me pick them up, that they won't regret it. I am really worried about Scar. Her wounds have opened. It looks like she may have made contact with the ground, and her belly froze to it. Now it is a big raw mess. I want so badly to ...

  I sit here with the cold dregs of my coffee watching as the snow drifts down onto the snow covering the ground. Is this the new storm? Or is this the storm we were told to watch out for two weeks ago? At any rate this is sticking around for a while. It is 20 degrees with a feel like temp of 9. I went out on the porch to open the door and let the dogs out, then scooped their food out of the big container and came back in. The plastic we put up, that is quite ugly, by the way, seems to be doing a good job. I have two small green house structures that are housing plants that are still green and I put all the ferns and big hanging plants on the table and put a plastic sheet over them. The spider plant is looking sad, but I saw some new green shoots at the base of the plant and the ferns are still green. I need a for-real green house! I would prefer one that is half under ground level to take advantage of the insulating soil. It doesn't need to be all that big and it could double as a...

  Just when you think things have settled and you can plan the immediate future and you are smugly patting yourself on the back for having it all together, reality reaches out and slaps you in the face. I was eating and when I swallowed my tongue brushed against the big screw that was holding the tooth implant. Wait, I thought, this does not feel right. The implanted tooth is gone! I must have swallowed it with the food. I rushed to the mirror and saw the ugly screw and no tooth. I am beyond upset. Implants are expensive and you get them thinking you will never have to think about them again. You brush your teeth and floss and are happy that at least one tooth will never decay. Now I am worried that I have an opening into my jaw and your mouth has more bacteria that your intestines. I know I will have to call the dentist tomorrow and get in as soon as possible. I have a cardiac appointment Thursday, and we planned to pull out Friday and head south. I bet that won't happen now. The ...