A Week of Absence

 Thanks to those of you who wrote me wondering if everything was ok here. It's been a busy week! I think of stopping and writing a blog post at least a dozen times a day and  .. obviously, it never happened.

Monday we went back to the orchard in Kansas. We came home with 60 pounds of pairs and apples. Those all have to be canned. I've done some but not all. Vince found a receipt for fermenting apples so he tried that with some of them. Not sure how a fermented apple will taste but we'll see.

The Beauty Berries are ripe so I picked some of those and made jelly. There's more to the "jelly" link than just the recipe. If you live in the south (or don't mind growing them in pots), you may want to look at that link too.

Tuesday was physical therapy in the morning and a breast ultrasound in the afternoon. In July, I had a mammogram and they wanted me to have an ultrasound. The first available appointment was September 29. I didn't think much about it until September 28 and then I got pretty nervous about it. It seems that one of the hospitals here has an issue with their mammogram department and it has been closed so the waiting room at Mercy Breast Cancer Center was FULL and we had a good wait. According to the report, there's a cyst but nothing to worry about - recheck it next year.

Wednesday I spent the day stitching with Debbie. I need that day with her so much. If we lived just a bit closer together, we'd probably get together twice a week.

Wednesday and Thursday we had the gutter guys here. They took off the old gutters and downspouts, put on new ones, along with new leaf guards.

We're SLOWLY getting the storm damage fixed. Vince had a talk with the contractor last week and I'm thinking things may start moving now. I think Vince said on Tuesday, they're coming to "wrap" the vinyl siding around the garage doors and two walk thru doors. The roof was the big deal and it's been done so I shouldn't complain, even though the storm was on April 2. Yet to be done - the deck has to be sanded down and re-stained; there are 9 windows that have to be replaced. The wood fence has to be pressure washed and re-stained. I'm thinking that's all. I asked the window guys if they would come after we have a frost because my Jerusalem artichokes will get trampled with the windows being changed.

Thursday Vince had to get a haircut. We use the same lady but I didn't need a haircut . . probably NEEDED it but didn't want it because I'm letting my hair grow some. Her shop is in her home so Vince doesn't really want to go alone so I went with him. We went to Aldi and I was able to get Dachshund slippers they had just gotten in.

Also on Thursday I got a call that the attorney I had worked for had passed away. I worked for him for 9 years and only left because Vince and I got married and I moved from Louisiana to Kentucky. Almost every time I would be in Lake Charles, we would have lunch together. I know not all attorneys are good guys but he was really a good guy.  A few years after I left, he ran for District Attorney and was elected and re-elected several times. He was D.A. for 15 years I think. I have so many good memories of my time working with him. His office was in an old, historic house. At some point it had been a girls' dorm for the college, at some point it had been a fancy restaurant. There was a giant gas commercial stove still in the kitchen and almost every Friday someone (mostly always a good Cajun cook) would come in and cook lunch for the office. It was always so good. It was usually me, one other lady (Charlene) who had gone to work for John just out of high school, and a receptionist (Lisa). We were all good friends. Charlene, her kids, Chad and I went camping together a couple of times on weekends. Charlene and I went to The Myrtles Plantation and spent a weekend in the haunted house. Those were good days for me and I was sad to hear that John had passed away.

Friday I got a bit more canning done, made some pear jam and we took this guy to the vet for his annual checkup.

Cooper is the sweetest, most loving little guy . . until he isn't! Debbie had shown  me some videos of "drama queen" dogs that would yell when they just think they're hurt. I texted Debbie after the vet visit and said "Cooper put on a YouTube worthy show at the vet."

We were back in the room and the tech came in to draw blood. The minute she reached for his paw, he started screaming like she was killing him. I looked at her, she looked at me and said "I haven't even touched him yet." I was holding him so I got him to stop screaming. She walked up close to him and he started screaming again. She said she was going to get help so she went and got another tech. With two of them, he must have felt REALLY threatened so he kept screaming. There are windows on the door to the exam rooms and people were coming to look in the window to see what was going on in there.

She got the blood drawn and left. He calmed down. When the vet turned the door knob to come in, he started screaming again. She tried to sweet talk him and he wouldn't stop. She walked out to get the heart worm and flea meds that we needed. When she came in, he wasn't screaming. She walked over and talked to him a minute. Then she started to kinda rub on his back and he started screaming again. She said "Cooper, you're a ti**y baby!" She kept petting him and talking to him and he stopped screaming. When she gave him his shots, he didn't make a sound! I was expecting him to really scream when he got stuck but, nope, it's just the strangers that scared him half to death.

Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about what I did last week!  :)