Hot Diggity Dog

  I had the appointment with the surgeon yesterday. I liked the man and his nurses. The only thing I did not care for was the very lengthy paperwork! I told them I should be excused since the cyst causes pain when I use my hand. He looked at my hand and poked around all the tendons and such. Then he sent me for an X-ray to determine whether or not he wants to remove it or send me to the hand surgeon. He was quite good at explaining the anatomy of my hand and where he thought the cyst might have its "root". The X-ray will not show the cyst but will give him a good idea of my particular hand anatomy. Well, I did know I was special. In the meantime, arthritis is keeping me aware of each and every joint in my body. Bo has small feet but likes to stand in my lap with all his weight on one foot. It hurts! I have bruises. Eddie is much heavier than Bo, but his weight is equally distributed. Kevin is still light enough that the only thing that hurts is my chest and stomach from laugh...

  While I am aware that men are great chefs, this does not mean that ALL men can cook. The Man is among those who shouldn't even try. Yesterday was long and painful. It was raining when I woke. I conducted the daily business of taking care of the animals, letting them out, then back in and feeding them. I was not happy to see that The Man had failed to diaper Toni Louise, and she had left several lake sized puddles to navigate. Not her fault. Why he didn't tell me that he had failed in an attempt to get the diaper on her is a mystery that will never be solved. He said she wouldn't "let" him and then hid under the bed. It is not my fault that he failed to assert his dominance and now finds that the animals tend to make him do what they want. So, the day did not start well. My body was aching and my head hurt. I cleaned up the mess and then informed the canines that I was going back to bed. Bo and Eddie dutifully followed along. Kevin decided it would be fun to wres...

  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 ...