Departure day

 

Happy cat

 I’d say Amos is pretty relaxed his first day at DD’s. LOL 

Signing out

This should be my last post for about 10 days or so. We will have internet on board the cruise, so I may just post a picture or two each day, instead of writing out a post. I can't type well on my ipad. 

I'm pretty much ready to go. Just will need to add the things I use tomorrow morning getting ready, into my suitcase. Both our suitcases are jam packed. We will have the backpack, that will have the 12 pack of Mountain Dew in it, but coming home that will be empty and we can use that for any purchases or stuff things from our suitcase into it, if we need to fit a purchase into a suitcase.

Work wise, I've got everything on my list to get done before I leave done. Now I'm just kind of half working/half not. Getting personal things done and checking work emails for the next couple of hours in case there is something that needs to be done before I'm off.

Packing, I think I'm going to cut down one pair of jeans and a couple of tops. I can easily wear a few of the tops more than once. That'll make a bit more room. I usually wear my jeans several days, as long as I don't spill something on them or not outside working in the yard. Plus I have a pair of tan colored jeans, that are new, I can wear a couple of times.

Not sure yet what time we are leaving tomorrow - probably get going around 8 or 8:30 in the morning, since it's about a 7 hour drive. DD has made plans for us to go out to Mexican food one of the nights and will do the Costco chicken penne pasta for the other dinner. Mexican food sounds really good - we haven't been to a Mexican restaurant in a long time.

I hope to have lots to tell of our travels, when I return.

it's packing time

I found my old pair of glasses. For some reason I put them in a bathroom drawer and not even in a case. So, now they are set aside (in a case!) to be packed.

We had some work connectivity issues yesterday afternoon and I lost my connection for awhile, so I started getting out the clothes I want to pack. Last fall, when we booked the trip, dd sent me a link to some packing compression bags she used so I ordered them. Well, they seem annoying, LOL, I was trying to figure out how best to pack in them so I watched a youtube video. I found one that did 4 side by side video comparisons: packing just regular, rolling clothes, in a compression bag and in compression cubes. Well, good grief - each method ended up with pretty much the same room left in the suitcase! and with the compression bags she couldn't even get the last bag in her suitcase, LOL. Plus the good old regular way took half the time. I'm just going to skip the compression bags and do a combination of rolling and folding. DD also said she found with just doing the good old regular way of folding and rolling she had much more spots to tuck small items in, compared to using the bags.

This morning I see in my informed delivery both the property tax refund check and dh's prescription will be delivered today. The part for his truck ( a tire sensor) is in and the guy will replace it this morning, after we drop off the truck for a couple hours. I'll have to follow him in there, so he has a ride back home and then we're supposed to be able to pick it up in a couple hours. So, I'll have to take like 30 minutes off work twice today. I started a bit earlier today, plus part of it will just be my lunch break.

We now think we will drive over to DD's on Saturday instead of Sunday. Miss the Sunday coming home from camping pass traffic, hopefully. Plus then we'll get a little extra time with her and SIL.

Still looking

I still haven't found my old pair of glasses. I've found every other old pair, LOL, but not my last pair. What in the world did I do with them? If I don't find them to have as backup, I guess I just hope I don't break mine. In all my years I never have, but you know.....I do have my prescription sunglasses I will have with me. I can walk around the cruise ship looking like a movie star, if I break my normal glasses, haha.

Amos is doing fine. I did attempt to give him the last anti inflammatory/pain pill yesterday. He had figured out that nonsense and ate right around the teeny tiny pill mixed in with the wet food. Oh well. He doesn't appear to be in pain and has no swelling. He's being feisty and wants outside. His left leg is shaved all the way up to his elbow. Dh keeps calling him "peg leg".

The neighbor down at the end of our street texted me and Mrs. that they are taking care of her parents dog for a week..."she's old and slow, but if you see her wandering down your way, text me". My first thought was you've been entrusted with care of this dog for a week and you are just going to let her wander off..in an area she isn't familiar with, not to mention a 2 lane 60mph road on one side of your property. How about you make sure she is always watched if she is outside......

My half sis is stressing and struggling with her step dad. 92 years old, broken pelvis, that isn't healing and the hospital sent him home. Not once in his 6 or so weeks in the hospital did she or her sister in law ever even get to talk to a doctor! Can you even imagine?! They had to find out from a nurse yesterday that he has prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. He insisted on going home last week as of course he thinks he can take care of himself. Of course he can't and he's not doing well. Sis lives 2 hours from him and her sister in law and her dh, live an hour from him. Not easy at all for them to provide any kind of daily care. He keeps refusing having help come in. I doubt he will last much longer. Very sad.

All's well - let's keep it that way

Amos is doing well. The vet had given me 2 anti inflammatory/pain pills to give him. One for yesterday afternoon and one for today. I was wondering how I was going to get this pill down him, without having to force it down him. I had purchased some wet food, so I opened a can and put the little pill in with that and he ate it all up, pill included. He's not having any more swelling and doesn't seem in pain, but if I could get him to take it, at least if he was still in a bit of pain, it would help.

He really wants outside LOL. It's going to be a long week. This morning the top of his paw looks really good, other than it's all shaved all the way up his leg.

I ran into town yesterday morning for a few groceries. I don't know where my mind was, but I should have added a few other things to my list. That's annoying. Too much on my mind with preparing for our trip and then the cat throwing me a loop, I guess. Last night I thought of something I should add to my list to pack, but of course this morning, I can't remember what it was. DH had a good idea. He brought out this small new backpack he had in his gun closet (we got it as a gift when we went to that driving experience when we bought our car) and asked if it might come in handy when we do our shore excursions. I said perfect! I was thinking something like that might be handy, for binoculars and such.

DH washed all the vehicles yesterday. Of course he was very tired afterwards. 

I did pick up an Amazon gift card at the store to give to dd when we get back from the cruise, to thank her for driving us to the pier. I didn't know our little tiny grocery store in town has some gift cards. Good to know.

Still no property tax rebate in the mail. How do they say the payment was processed on 8/23 and it's still not here? I do see from my informed delivery that my side job check is in today's mail, so I'll have that deposited before we leave. I'm still trying to track dh's prescription shipment. The last it's been updated was 5 am Saturday 8/31 when it got to USPS in Denver. It should be here in the next couple of days. It better be!

Ok, I just remembered what I wanted to add to my list for the trip - my old pair of glasses, just in case mine broke. Now I just have to find where I put them!

The cat who's name can't be pronounced

Yesterday did not go at all, as planned. What I had planned was a bunch of relaxing nothing. 

Amos was outside in the morning for about an hour or so. When I let him back in I noticed he was limping and then noticed his left paw was a bit swollen. We tried to check it out, but he wasn't being very cooperative (ie he's a cat). I continued on with my shower and he was in the rocking chair he likes to rest in and the paw was a bit more swollen and a drop of blood coming from the top of his paw. I decided to take him into the emergency vet, so I got dressed off we went.

(Little did I know I crossed paths with Mrs Neighbor - who had just left the emergency vet. She did decide to take her old/sick dog there to be euthanized, instead of waiting until her appointment with our regular vet on Tuesday)

They got us in really quickly and the vet was suspecting maybe an abscess because his whole leg had edema, but she wouldn't be able to tell unless the put the can under anesthesia and shaved the area. She came back with the low/high estimate, depending on what she found, or didn't find. I had to pay the low estimate of $360 as a deposit. The high estimate was $850, which included an xray.

They told me it would be 2-3 hours, if I wanted to go home and come back. I said no, I live an hour away, I'll just go run errands and then hang out until he's ready. I decided to go to Ross and TJ Maxx to see if I could find myself a new lightweight open/cardigan type sweater. Ross was a dump (as this one always is) so then I went to TJ Maxx. So much nicer and cleaner. I didn't find a sweater, but I did pick up dh a lightweight rain jacket with a hood for $20 to have when we are in ports in Alaska, if it's raining.

Then I decided to try Target for a sweater. Nothing there either, but I picked up the 2 12packs of Mountain Dew we are taking on the cruise for dh, a lunchable for me to eat, some travel sized hand sanitizer and travel sized Downy wrinkle release spray. As I was doing that, the vet called (it had only been an hour) and said they were done and I could pick him up in a half hour. So, I got my stuff paid for and then stopped and filled up the gas tank, as otherwise it would have been getting really low by the time I got back home.

She said they found kind of an abscess, and drained it, but it didn't look like a normal abscess (whatever that means) so she decided to do an xray just to make sure nothing was broken or crushed, but that came back normal, thankfully.  Through IV they gave him some long acting antibiotic, anti inflammatory and pain med. They also sent me home with some anti inflammatory/pain med to give him once a day, starting this afternoon.

The total came to $650, so I guess not as bad as it could have been and honestly before they gave me the estimate I was expecting this to cost over $1000. Time to get the "pet emergency" fund built back up :/ I got home around 4pm, so about 5 hours in total, including driving there and back.

The swelling is gone. His paw is a bit red/blood stained looking. He wanted outside all evening, LOL. (He can't go out until it's healed). I kept him up in my office for the night. His paw looks a little better this morning and no apparent limp. He's been eating and drinking and just had his morning treats. Now he's off in the corner of my office sleeping.

No idea what could have happened to him in that hour or so he was outside yesterday morning. DH was wondering snake bite? At first we thought maybe a bee sting, but I don't think that would have bled, just swelled up. Did he get bit or scratched by something he was hunting and then it abscessed? 

Has nobody seen or heard the name Amos before? His regular vet can't pronounce it right, this vet tech did the same. Plus they must not have been able to read my writing (I have good handwriting, LOL) and wrote it down as Amas. They all want to pronounce it with a short A,  A-mose. I always say no, it's A(long A)mus...like Famous Amos cookies.....LOL. When you read him mentioned in my blog, how do you pronounce it? haha.

No!.... Just NO!

Yesterday, mid morning or so, I went out to the chicken coop to take the hen some bread for a treat. Her water was getting low so I picked it up to take it outside the coop to add some water. The door to the coop is wooden framed and on a spring, so I'm pushing it open with my left hand and as I'm walking out the door, with the waterer in my right hand, I feel something flit lightly against my right arm. At the same time I'm looking down to see what it was, I'm past the door and it's starting to shut and I just see a bit of a black wing land on the ground right inside the coop door. At first I think it's one of those big black moths.

I think, well, the chicken will get it, but I pull the door open just a bit to see exactly what it was

IT WAS A BAT! I let go of the door to shut it self back up and ran into the house to get dh, LOL. I guess it was pretty much almost dead, so we're assuming it somehow got into the coop and chicken had already gotten to it and it was trying to get out when I opened the door. If it had been trying to go in, while I was coming out, I certainly would have seen it in front of me. EWWWW!

Anyway, as dh is using the shovel to take care of it, I see Mrs Neighbor on her lawn just on the other side of the fence, with her old dog, that I know they said they will be putting down at the end of the month. So, I go out through our little gate between us, and ask if I can give the pup some love. Poor sweet thing (yellow lab). She can't walk much and Mrs said she's barely eating this morning. I got down on the grass and gave her some love and she gave me some kisses. It's so hard when a pet gets old. They have an appointment with the vet on Tuesday for the euthenasia. We told them with our last dog we had ended up going to the emergency vet to have it done. She asked if it cost much more and I said I couldn't remember now, but I'd try to look it up to let her know. Well, my online credit card statements only go back 24 months and we had our dog put down 26 months ago, so I couldn't find the amount and I just really can't remember how much it was.

I chatted with Mrs quite awhile. She did say that our other neighbor asked her if they were going to get a puppy after this one passed and she said "No!". She also brought up that they had to replace their furnace not too long ago - at a cost of over $26,000! Yikes. She's supposed to get back some energy rebates - $2500 from federal, $1000 state and $1000 from our electric provider. How long should a good quality furnace last?! Gosh, we lived in a manufactured home with a basic furnace and that thing lasted like 25 years. Their expensive furnace (like ours is now) lasted 16 years. I guess I'd better have this replacement cost in the back of my mind in another 10 years. Their house is 5100 sf and we were comparing electric costs. Theirs is quite a bit lower and I can only assume it's because their house is a concrete log home and that concrete is very thick and a good insulator. But, our electricity bill is also for our appliances and one of our hot water heaters, while theirs is gas. Her winter contract for propane is for 700 gallons. Mine is for 500.

I did not mention to her that there was a bat in the coop.....not when I had just asked her to check on the hen while we are gone! LOL. Since it's never happened before, I'm hoping it never happens again.

Oh, and Mrs told me she had been getting her dog's prescription filled through Chewy and had went online last week to cancel the next order for it and it asked for a reason for canceling, so she put something like "dog will be deceased". A few days later a dozen red roses show up, from Chewy! Now, that is amazing customer service, isn't it?