Good News!

Just an FYI, Betty, Nancy and Ron are doing better.  Betty continues to quarantine at home in Duncaster, Nancy and Ron are both at the nursing facility in Duncaster, out of St. Francis.  They are both on oxygen, but doing better.  

The wild storm did no damage Christmas Eve.  It was weird to see the thermometer reading 60+ degrees with snow still deep on the ground.  The rain came in after dark and really washed everything away.  I was awakened by the roaring wind several times, but the only evidence was a toppled over trash can, and the complete loss of the snow pack.  The tarp is still on Rigbee, so that's a relief.

It was a strange Christmas, but a good one.  Next door to celebrate with my "grands" and a wonderful "zoom" meeting with dear LONG time friends.  Very different, but good nonetheless.

It's gone cold again, temps below freezing as they should be for winter.  I'm just grateful to be here and healthy.  

I hope your holiday was a good one.

Thank you for your prayers.   

A Favor, I Ask.

So, my Betty-Mom took the several-days-to-get-results Covid test.  She does have it.  So too do her sister and brother-in-law, Nancy and Ron.  Betty is home at Duncaster, but Ron and Nancy are at St. Francis.  They are all quite compromised, so this is a huge set-back and a major concern.

The Favor?

Please, please pray for them.  

Thank you, very much.

 

Betty, last spring 

Nancy and Ron, Easter a couple of years ago 

 

It's December, It's New England, We get Snow.

 Noontime, 12/7

That's just the way it is, people.  No need to have a cow, run to the store and get Bread and Milk...  really, this is winter-normal.

So as of 7 a.m. we had 12.5 inches of snow.  That's according to NWS.  I agree, because I went out around 9:30 and it was definitely more than a foot.  The idiots who were out last night with the plows broke down a street sign (on the sidewalk, by Bowers field) and carefully plowed snow up on my sidewalk at the corner, right by the fire hydrant.  However, Wellesley Road has not seen a plow.  There are at least 3 inches on Henry.

In order to get onto the sidewalk, I had to go down the street to the neighbor's driveway and blow my way up onto it.  I worked for about an hour, and the snow is still coming down.  The sidewalks are clear and I also cleared the gutter up to the point where the plow shoved it up onto the sidewalk.  Can't get through there.  Nope.

Tails-U-Win cancelled classes today, so Tyson is depressed (no, not really, but he loves going to class!).

So, here's this morning's work!

I put the glove on top of the plowed snow bank to give perspective.  The hydrant is just off camera to the left. 

To the right is the gutter, with my glove on top of the snow bank I could not go through.

It's difficult to see, but this is the plowed up snow, at least 3 feet deep, right on the sidewalk by the corner.  The hydrant is a foot higher than the sidewalk, and I blew around it from the other side.  No way you could get through the plow bank...  

Sidewalk and gutter cleared.  I can only hope the plows don't completely ruin it. 

A second round of cleaning up in a couple of hours.  Will update this blog then! 

UPDATE:  my sneaky trick of blowing the gutter worked!!  the plows did NOT plow in the sidewalk any more than it already was. So the last couple of inches were easily removed.  I love my snow-blower.  It's the biggest, baddest one made for home use back when I bought it (about 16 years ago?) and it does a great job.  Except of course when the town plows decided that all the street snow belongs on the sidewalk!  Then nothing but another plow will move that stuff.

While Wellesley Rd did not get plowed until mid-afternoon on Thursday, I don't care.  They did NOT plow in the whole sidewalk and no one was going anywhere, anyway!  

Holidays?

 

Well, this is the year of No Holidays.  At least not the traditional, family-gathering type. No family Christmas, either.   Thank you Covid-19.  It’s the Chinese gift that keeps giving, and taking away.  Okay, rant over.

The fact that we’re still alive is reason to be thankful, so yay for us.

UCONN basketball is playing, again YAY for us!

We’re supposed to get snow tonight, lots of snow, so yay for us.

Piper is doing very well, yay for us!

Tyson just Loves Piper, curled up on my bed. 

 

Piper goes through the trash, of course I just washed the floor...

 

What else is going on?

My second oldest friend just moved from Westerly, R.I. to South Carolina.  Of course, the last minute packing was a complete shit-show.  She rented a large truck last year and I helped her load it about 2/3 full and she drove it down to her new place.  I kept telling her we needed to fully load the truck as she’d never get everything else down there in a couple of trips in her car. 

Well, that was the truth.  She brought a bunch of things over a couple of weeks before she left for me to pack into Rigbee to bring with me when I visit next spring.  Included was an EMPTY army footlocker trunk.  Why empty???  So, anyway, I picked up FIVE of those $15 shipping boxes from the USPS and went over the day before she was leaving to help with the last minute stuff.  OMG.  Unbelievable.  I should have taken a picture.  She was so busy repainting the apartment, cleaning everything, re-caulking everything, hoping to get her security deposit back – that she still had an inordinate amount of STUFF to pack/ship/trash to get out of Dodge.

We packed another NINE boxes and shipped them to her new address.  This on top of the dozen or so she already sent.  (was it really cheaper than renting another truck with a car dolly?)  We loaded my car practically full, about half and half between stuff for me (keep or sell) and stuff to bring down to her next spring.  OMG.  The little utility trailer I bought to haul my kayak around is such a blessing.  Rigbee is going to be well loaded.  I truly doubted she’d get everything loaded into the car. 

Apparently she threw a LOT of stuff into the dumpster and dropped more off at the church.  Her car was totally dragging a$$ down the highway, but she got there.

I still have one tub and one large plastic hamper full of odds and ends, mostly cleaning supplies, of which I was already well stocked.  I’m going to give some away.  Too much.

Okay, on to another topic:  what have I been doing?

I have some knitting projects for Christmas, done!

I have some leatherworking projects for Christmas, almost done!

 Walking stick projects for Christmas, (includes a little leatherwork!) almost done!

Cooking for Christmas?  Not even started!

And I made a stitching pony.  This is a device to hold leather while you sew it.  A third hand, so to speak.  It wasn’t hard to do, but since I was determined not to spend any money but use leftovers it took a little scrounging around downstairs.  Lord knows, there are all kinds of neat pieces down there.  I have a lot my own junk, a lot of Dad’s stuff, and he had stuff from his uncles which are now mine.  There are tools I have no idea what they are, or how they’re used and I try desperately to keep it organized.  I fail at that last. 

I also have a large tray I call my therapy box.  I inherited it from Dad, naturally.  It’s full of all kinds of screws, nuts, bolts, and all kinds of small hardware.  I also found one of Hex’s license tags (1959), a marble, and an old spatula in it.  When I don’t know what I need or I’m not sure, I go to the therapy box and start poking through it all.  It’s amazing how often I find something that will work or could work or is exactly what I’m looking for. 

I didn’t have any difficulty finding the right wood or most of the hardware, but a nut to fit the threaded rod that would be easy to turn without a wrench?  Go to the Therapy Box.  I found a cool brass nut that fits!

 

 

 

The Stitching Pony

On the sofa...

The Cool Nut from the Therapy Box
 

 

 Clockwise from top left:

Tyson, Piper, Tripp

Piper’s Story Continues, Atypical Addison’s Disease

Okay, I apologize.  I haven’t updated the Piper story in a while, and I should have.

Pieper Memorial Veterinary Hospital in Middletown is a truly wonderful place for a sick puppy.  They ran every test that could possibly tell them what was happening, and after all those tests, the tests at Bolton and at Tufts and eventually they (well, Dr. Winzelberg) determined Piper’s diagnosis.  Her body stopped producing corticosteroids.  Which are absolutely necessary for life. 

She had none.  Nada.  Her muscles were disappearing and her strength was gone.  So was her appetite.

On the off chance that she had an underlying infection that wasn’t showing up, she was put on two antibiotics.  Because she had NO Appetite, she was put on an anti-nausea pill, an appetite stimulant and an antacid.  Finally, because she has no corticosteroids in her system, 30 mg. of prednisone.

When she first came home, she still didn’t want to eat and was very quiet.  Barely moving.  I called Pieper, and we decided to double (!) her prednisone (up to 30 mg., three pills twice a day).  Within 24 hours, she turned the corner.  She was eating, she was up and about, and she was bright.  Not quite back to herself, but much, much better.

I was warned that she would be drinking more and need to peed more.  So she soaked through FIVE pee pads a couple of times over night.  Not a big deal, at least she used the pads.  I was warned that she’d be famished ALL the time.  So I started giving her lunch, too.  It is sad to me that I can no longer trust her when I go out, or leave a full waste basket in the kitchen, because her hunger will drive her to steal garbage from the sink, waste basket, and any food she can. 

I used to be able to leave meat on the counter to thaw.  I don’t dare anymore.  But that’s okay.  Piper’s worth it.

Gradually, Hyper Piper became more and more herself.  Another visit to Pieper in Middletown (where they all LOVE her) and we’re now gradually reducing her prednisone to find the maintenance dose she’ll take for the rest of her life.  One pill down each week.  She’s down to 4 pills a day (20 mgs).  Occasionally, she still has an accident overnight, but not so much (2 or 3 pads!), and she’s still famished.  In fact, yesterday she and Tyson broke into the compost pile and they both left me presents overnight… bad fur-kids.

One other effect of the prednisone is that she has lost her temper with Tripp and Tyson – once each.  While she hasn’t actually bitten them, she’s gone after them individually with full intent and anger.  I’ve been able to separate them, and send them to their crates (in separate rooms, thankfully).  She gets over her anger very quickly, is back to being sweet Piper, but it’s scary.  I know it’s the overload of steroids in her system, at least I hope it is, and it should diminish/disappear once we get down to a maintenance dose.  Until then, I keep a close eye on things, and when I go out, the boys are in the kitchen and Piper gets her room, the hall and bathroom.  Blackie gets anywhere he wants, except the living room.   When I get home, Piper is always at the kitchen gate, eager to see me and the boys.

She is still using “the climb” to get onto my bed, although she has leapt from the floor to the bed, once.  She barely made it, and I continue to encourage her to “go around” and come up using the climb.  She will also curl up on it (the climb) and sleep there when she’s not on the floor right next to the bed.  That last makes it difficult to go to the facilities in the middle of the night.  I have to get around her and she’s not small.

We go back to Pieper the end of the month, I hope we can continue to reduce her meds.  She’s down to the prednisone, antacid, and Zyrtec.  All the antibiotics are done, and she does NOT need any appetite stimulants!

Thanks for all your prayers and positivity.