Second stop - Skagway

Our second stop was Skagway. We enjoyed this stop quite a bit. Our excursion was a train ride that was about a 3 1/2 hour trip. It took us up White Pass, where the gold rush had been and actually turned around in The Yukon, in Canada, just over the border, when it got to the top.

It was raining lightly when we got off the ship, but it didn't last long. Again, we were trying to figure out food, because this was going to be during lunch and 3 hours. The line for the train ride was fairly close to the pier, but still a good walk. (I put in over 7000 steps that day). We had about an hour wait, so friend and I decided to walk over to town and see if we could find some sandwiches or something to bring back. No luck there. There were some sit down type restaurants and pubs, but nothing we could grab quickly. With all the people walking around the little town, I'm thinking a couple of food trucks would have done good business! By the time we looked around it was time to start hoofing it back over to our train line. Apparently the guys were getting worried we wouldn't make it back in time, LOL. We ended up making do with some of our leftover cherry gummy bears, nuts, and salmon jerky we had bought the day before, between the 4 of us.

I think they said the tiny town of Skagway usually only has a population of 300, but with the ships in, over 10,000 people are in town on those days. There were 4 ships in on our day and the ones across from us, all the people had to be ferried to the pier in little boats. We had an actual dock and could walk off/on.

The train ride was fairly long, up there and back, but the tour guide gal was really good. She was in our car, so we also go a bit more face to face with her. We were near the front of our car (where the little restroom was) and she was standing there telling us stuff before we left. She made a joke about it costs $5 to use the restroom. Later, she had to use the restroom. Our friend says loudly, after she went in, "that'll be $5". We all hear her voice say "I already paid". She was pretty funny. Our friend had gotten us all light up lanyards for our cruise passes. When we went through the dark tunnel the 4 of us lit them up and everyone started laughing.

It was kind of hard to get pictures from the train, The windows kind of reflected back, but I got a few that were ok. The history of the gold rush and the area was very interesting to hear.

This last picture is the border between the US and Canada

Again, we got back with no extra time to spend in town and had to get back on the ship, which was fine. Friend and I had already walked around town a bit anyway, and we were all tired from the long day. But, if I ever went again, I'd make sure to get off the ship early enough to have time to walk into town and visit the shops a bit.

First stop - Sitka

Our first port was Sitka. I didn't at first realize that the port is about 10 minutes from the town, so we couldn't see the actual town. Turns out we only ended up seeing it from a bus ride. We didn't plan this very well. We got off the ship a couple hours before our excursion time. There were several gift shops and a restaurant, but what to do for 2 hours then? There was a movie/history thing we could have paid to watch, but it overlapped with our tour time. I guess we didn't realize that's all there was when we got off. We did look through all the shops and killed about an hour, found some snacks to purchase. Why we didn't hop on one of the free buses that ran back and forth between town, I have no idea. It was like a 10 minute ride and we could have killed an hour in town and then came back for our bus tour excursion. BUT, in our defense, after we got off there was this non stop line of thousands of people getting on these busses to town, so I think that was our main reason for just staying put where we were.

The excursion we had picked out was to a bear sanctuary. It wasn't that great of a place, really. Kind of sad. About 7 or 8 bears, kept about 2-3 bears per area. It was also not that nice of facility. I think we were there less than an hour and then back to port. We were offered to be dropped off in town, but we would have only had a half hour or so and had to make sure we'd catch a bus to make sure we'd be back by 4:30 so we decided not to risk that. At least it was a nice day of like 60 degrees. 

A view from the ride on the tour bus. Both of our tour bus drivers (and the train ride guide) were great and full of information about the areas.

We got back on the ship around 4pm and were hungry, since we never had lunch and only the snacks we bought, so we tried one of the cafe's on the ship for a sandwich. We had to agree that all the sandwiches we tried on the ship were not that good, which was surprising, since all the other food was so good. Since our dinner time wasn't until 6:45 we needed something to eat that day, so a sandwich it was. We had tried to see if the buffet was open, but it was closed at that time, as they were getting ready for dinner.

Overall, though, we enjoyed getting off the ship and seeing the scenery around us. What little I saw of Sitka - it did not look like the movie "The Proposal", which is one of my favorite movies, LOL. (I think I read before they actually filmed it at a New England coast town and CGI'd the backdrop scenery in)

Back to slow internet

Taking a break from the cruise posts, today. Because I barely have internet. It's been really slow for 2 days now. I can hardly work, it's so slow. I called my phone company first thing this morning and after the tech having me do a speed test that wouldn't even register 1Mpbs, she was like OMG - you basically have no internet! So, she had to escalate it to a tier 2 technician level and 3 hours later I'm still waiting for a call back. Usually they are quick to call back, so makes me wonder if lots of people are having issues.

Also, I can't remember if I mentioned or not, but since day 1 dh's new computer has been intermittently running the fan super loud. It will sound like the computer is about to blow up. I called a couple days ago and talked to a Dell technician who tried having me update the Bios firmware. That has not fixed it. The fan went off last night and again this morning. Now it sounds like they will be sending me a packing box to return it, for repair, and then they will return it via overnight, asap. Wonderful. NOT.

DH got a fever again last night. Two weeks of this now. It's getting old. This morning he doesn't have a fever. But we are still both coughing, though most nights I manage to sleep without coughing, so that is good.

I'm supposed to watch our company quarterly meeting at 3pm, for like 2 hours. I'm hoping I have good enough connection to watch it. I may have to watch it from my phone data. I also hope that isn't when the technician decides to call me back. I think the meetings are recorded, so I can watch later, if necessary.

I'm glad it's Friday. I'm ready to be done with this week.

UPDATE: Well, I feel totally stupid! It was dh's new computer doing the sync/back up to Microsoft OneDrive that was using ALL the bandwith. I should have realized that. As soon as I put it on pause, my internet speed was all back to normal. Now I just have to figure out if there is a way to have it sync on a schedule and do it overnight, while sleeping, instead of when we are trying to work/use the internet. At least it was an easy/quick fix for the tech guy to figure out.

The Cruise - Part 4

I'd have to say my least favorite part of the cruise was the breakfast buffet - for a couple of reasons. First off, it's a complete zoo! It felt like complete chaos to walk in there. Food stations set up all over and way too many people zigzagging here and there between the stations and their tables. It would take us a good 5 minutes just to find a place for 4 of us to sit. DH and I both hated it.

The food was very good though, and of course lots of choices. Just not relaxing at all. The second reason was we were definitely not on the same breakfast schedule as our friends. We were up by 7 or 7:30. Friends didn't want to leave for breakfast until 9am. We were both more than starving by then. We tried to get them to compromise a bit, in the middle like 8:30, but nope "we're on vacation". Ok. We suffered through it again the next morning. On Thursday our shore excursion was a bit earlier so we agreed to go to the dining room and that was SO much nicer. They even agreed.  The next morning we got down to the dining room at 8:45 but hadn't realized the dining room closed for breakfast at 8:30. Dang! So, we had to go back up to the stupid buffet. For the Saturday morning we had opted for a brunch (cost extra) and a galley tour of the kitchen, so that was in the dining room again. DH missed this because he was sick by then. More than likely the buffet is where we picked up the Covid.

That was our only issue in traveling with another couple. I told dh I'd love to do a cruise with DD and SIL as I know we'd all be on the same page or at least be willing to compromise some and meet in the middle on the time (though they are early risers, too).

My only other thing I wasn't that impressed with (considering how great everything else is) is the towels were pretty rough, haha. But, the shower was nice, even for the small size. The bathroom had plenty of shelf space for our stuff. The funny was around the second morning, after showering, dh say "I really like that shampoo/soap stuff they have" I say "oh?" and then he says "ya, I like the lemon smell" I said you mean the yellow shampoo and conditioner bottles in the shower? (not the wall unit that comes with a shampoo/soap/conditioner all in one) He says ya...I said "I brought those! LOL".  Doofus. LOL.

Our friends said the room seemed smaller/narrower than other cruises they've been on. Oh and here's something stupid - when friend booked our rooms she was told we couldn't get 2 rooms next to each other, there were booked, but we could get 2 with one room in between. Turns out the couple in between us and the couple on the other side of us..........they were traveling together! Why didn't they just put us next to each other and them next to each other in the first place? LOL. The other issue was that these people on the other side of us CONSTANTLY let their door slam every time in and out of the room. By the end of the week (and being sick) we were very sick of it.

Other notes: We purchased the "Key Program". I can't remember now how much extra (I paid for it like a year ago, after we booked) but a total of around $500 sticks in my mind. At the time, for me, hearing that it can be lines to get on board, and with dh's legs, I thought it would be worth it. Turns out, didn't even need it for that, at all. But, we would have purchased the wifi package and that was included and covered most of the cost of the wifi package, anyway. I did really like the welcome lunch that came with it, as well as being able to drop off our carryon's right after we boarded and they were delivered to our room. We did use it for getting off at the first port, but again, I don't think the regular line was slow either. We just kind of happened upon that when going to disembark the first port. The other 2 ports we didn't even see the separate place for "the key" and got off with everyone else, no issues. What would have been nice would have been to have a "key" line to get back on at ports - those lines were long and a bit slow. But, I see why they don't have that, since we had to go through screening to get back on. They did keep it moving well, though.

If I ever go on a cruise again, I'd definitely avoid the buffet. Not a fan, at all.

The cruise - Part 3

I forgot to mention, of course that first day, we met our room attendant - Darwin. Oh my! He was the best. So sweet and funny. He made us laugh as much as we made him laugh. He was from the Philippines. All the crew was foreign, all Asian, from India to Indonesia. The only white crew person I saw was the cruise director. An extremely (annoyingly LOL) perky gal from the UK. We did hear the captain talk to us once, at the beginning - he sounded like he was from Norway or thereabouts.

Darwin took very good care of us. Our first towel animal was a polar bear. I told dh (who does our laundry at home) that I now expect him to fold my towel this way from now on, LOL. Dh gave Darwin heck for this and they laughed. 

The next evening the animal was an elephant and Darwin had found my sunglasses in a case on the vanity and added the funny touch. DH was like "Darwin - you're killing me!"  Darwin just laughed.

DH was a begrudging passenger....for all of about 6 hours...then he was thoroughly enjoying himself. He was quite the chatterbug on the elevators. Between him and our friend most people got a fun little ride to their floor haha.

We had booked one of the entertainment shows for the first night at 8pm but since our dinner time wasn't until 6:45 we weren't sure we'd make it. We asked when we got seated and they thought we could make it, but we did not. So, we opted to go see a comedy show in the theater. Turns out that would be the only show we attended. We tried to re-book the missed show, but the app was showing that we already saw it, so wouldn't let us book again. I'm sure we could have rectified with guest services, but usually by the time we were done with dinner, it was late and we were all tired anyway. 

The comedy show was really good. The guy was very funny. Only about 45 min long, so just the right amount of time. By the time we got back to our rooms it was 10pm and we were all worn out from the first day and went to bed.

The next day was at "at sea day". Seems like eating 3 meals took up most of the day, LOL. That 2nd morning we had our first experience with the buffet....(I'm making a schrinchy face right now, haha)

The cruise - Part 2

It was about an hour drive to the cruise pier and we made good time, no traffic issues. We had been assigned a boarding time of 11:30, but our friends airport hotel shuttle was getting them there around 10am and we didn't want them to have to stand around waiting by themselves, so my goal was to also arrive by 10am. At 9:30 friend texted me that they were still waiting on their shuttle bus (a half hour late), so we arrived a good half hour before them. 

Holy cow - this is a big ship!

We would later learn that there was almost 5000 passengers, plus 1500 crew. More people than our whole county has.

A bit chaotic at the drop off. It appeared there were still people who had disembarked sitting with their luggage waiting on their pickups. All the benches taken, to sit and wait for our friends. There were a couple of porters, but hard to get their attention, they were buzzing around. Finally, we got the attention of one who was just starting to load on some luggage and he added ours. Of course then dh needed to use a restroom. We were pointed in the direction of the big building next to the ship. 

At this point we just kept getting pushed along to check in at what felt like at least 3 check in points. The first was just outside the building. Go just inside and there's a check point. "But our check in time isn't until 11:30 and we just need a bathroom". "That's ok! you can check in anytime" ok....So, we went through a checkpoint, then went to the bathroom. Only to get over to the stupid bathroom we had to go back out of where we just passed to check in and then go through that checkpoint again. There really wasn't a line for it, so no big deal really.

Then up some stairs to another check in. The "main" check in, I guess. It was all just moving very quickly. Everyone working there very friendly and welcoming. After that we got into a larger area with a waiting area (they weren't letting anyone on the ship yet anyway), so we sat down and about 10 or so minutes later our friends showed up. They started calling groups to board and not much longer later we got to board, and I think it was about 10:30 or 11, at the latest.

After our friends arrived we felt less "lost" LOL. They knew the ropes. After boarding we saw the table for "key" members to drop off their carryon's if they wanted. We wanted to drop off the 2 bags holding the mountain dew. They said our luggage wouldn't be at the room until later this afternoon, but we were welcome to go see our rooms, so we did that first.

As "key" members one of the "perks" was a lunch in the dining room, away from all the masses at the buffet. It was very nice. Quiet. I had the filet mignon. It was probably the best steak I've ever had. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the ship. Our luggage eventually showed up (much to dh's amazement LOL. He thought that porter took them and we were never going to see them again, haha). We pulled out of port late afternoon and we found a fairly quiet spot at the bow of the ship to watch.

I think then we all decided to go back to our rooms and take a bit of a nap. Our dinner reservation time wasn't until 6:45.

We made our way down to the main dining room where we had "My Time" dining, so our time was 6:45. There was a long line for "no reservations" and we started to walk past that towards the front, but there were still quite a few people waiting in front of us, outside the line. Suddenly a tall maitre d type of staff walked up to us (past all the people in front of us) and asked how many? 4. "Follow me" and we walked right past all the other waiting! Ok! LOL. He sat us at a table and and told us this would be our table for dining each night. We were all still wondering why we got pulled out from the others waiting, LOL, but we weren't going to complain.

Dinner service was amazing. The food was delicious and our head and assistant server were wonderful. More on them later.

Crawling out from under the rock

I will be so happy to be over this bout of Covid. While the cough has subsided quite a bit, it's still definitely there. We had to go get groceries, (we now test negative) so I put in a Walmart order for pickup between 5 and 6pm yesterday. That was a good time to go into the city. I just wanted a vanilla milkshake. DH, who is showing more signs of life then me, finally ate a normal meal of a burger, fries and a coke. So far, I just still mostly sleep - and then more sleep.

I got some sad news last evening that my aunt passed away yesterday. She's my mom's older brother's ex wife (but they were married for like 30 years). A very sweet woman, who I did get to talk to on the phone for awhile after my mom died, so I'm glad I got a chance to talk to her. I think she was in her mid 80's, a couple years older than my mom. (She's also the grandma of the cousin's daughter who recently contacted me about ancestry). I did also let my uncle (my mom's younger brother) know - hard to say if any of them would think to get a hold of him. Even though she and my uncle divorced, she was always still considered a daughter by my grandparents and still just as much family.

We'll see how much energy I manage to have today. Maybe I'll be able to feel like writing some more about the cruise. Reading the Facebook page that was for this cruise  - we aren't the only one's who got sick.

Nothing has sounded good, at all, to eat so far. But, I also didn't have much left in the fridge to choose from this past week. I'm hoping now that we're stocked up again, my appetite will start to come back. 

I had the cutest exchange with the young man who brought our grocery order out to our truck. He was grabbing the bags of out their blue bins and noticed inside one was jello pudding mixes. Suddenly he exclaimed "Cheesecake pudding mix?!!! Are you SERIOUS?!! OMG!" I said yep, it's SO GOOD!. He was so excited. "I never knew such a thing existed! I'm so excited. I can't wait to text my wife about it!" LOL.

Alaska Cruise - part 1

I'm trying to work today. Sleep has not come easy the past 2 nights, but I'm at least managing to get through all my emails and keep up with new emails that are coming in today. I took yesterday day off, hoping I would be all better by today. It not happening yet.

Lot's of blogging days to catch up with! I'll try to condense the recap as much as I can.

We left to head for DD's the Saturday morning before the cruise. We took off around 8:30am and got to her place at around 2:30. For Amos transport we had our larger cage/crate in the back canopy area, with his litter box and a little food. But, dh wanted to try him up in the cab first to see how he did, so we put him in the small cat carrier and set that in the back seat floor. I had given him 3 drops of the cat cbd oil I got to try. I just did the very minimum the directions recommended, since I hadn't given it to him before. He was totally perfect all the way there. After we stopped in town and got gas, and got on the freeway, dh opened the carrier door and we just let him be free. He spent most of his time inside it, but would occasionally come out. So, it was a good drive over there, other than the traffic hitting the metro area, but that's just normal there, LOL.

We hung out at their house for the afternoon and then went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. DH loves carne asada, so he was excited to finally have that again. The rest of the evening the guys watched a race on tv while dd and I worked on a puzzle she had started.

DH said he needed more underwear for the cruise (turns out he did NOT! good grief - he brought twice as many clothes as I did!) so Sunday morning dd and I took off, stopped to get coffee's, and went to Kohl's for underwear. I kind of wanted to look for a new purse and also I have been trying to find a dark brown lightweight cardigan sweater. When we walked in a greeter handed us each a mystery coupon. DD's was $5 Kohl's cash and mine was $15. Nice. I found a purse, on sale for 40%off. At first I wasn't loving it, but it was "ok". Also not a color (like a bone color) I would normally pick, but it ticked off all the features I was looking for. Turns out now I love it! It's the perfect size and also has a divider inside to help keep things separated. And outside end pockets that my phone will slip into perfectly, so it is easy to retrieve and not be digging around in my purse to find it. No luck finding a sweater though. We also tried Marshalls.

On Saturday night, while getting into his large leather duffel bag, dh said it felt "sticky" and smelled. He's only used it the one time, when I bought it for our trip to Utah, so he hasn't used it in 15 months. He wanted me to pick up a new suitcase for him while we were out shopping. Then dd said he could just use her really large suitcase, she won't be needing it any time soon, so we opted for that, rather than spending the money on another suitcase.

After we grabbed some lunch at their house, we then went to see the 5 acres property they will be building their house on. I had seen it last time I was there, but dh had not. Their neighbor (they will share a driveway) was out mowing so we all chatted with him quite awhile. OMG - LOL - I think he and dh are brothers from another mother! I was like OMG dd, you are moving in next door to your dad! haha!

Dinner was some Costco pasta and just relaxing for the evening. We needed to leave around 9am in the morning to head to the cruise pier.

Resuming blogging

Resuming blogging will have to wait until I am over the Covid we came down with the last couple of days of the cruise. Hopefully tomorrow.

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?