Tuesday, October 6, 2009

GUMBO

OK, let's face it, I'm just not a prolific blogger on the screen that is. I'm always writing up things in my head naturally when no keyboard is available. I've just got entirely too much life going on ALL THE TIME to write routinely and I apologize,,,,but then again there's only three of you. But regardless of the amount of readers, I shouldn't disappoint those that are looking!

I do have topics in my handy, dandy notebook (I watch entirely too much Blues Clues!) but as usual, I have some catching of a myriad of things--hence the Gumbo title,,,,it's a little of everything, exactly what Gumbo is.

I haven't written about the P's lately.



They are growing and growing and growing.....Perfect is so dang cute and he so wants to be the special boy still. He loves Precious and thinks about and of her and includes her in what he's doing. But sometimes when I'm spending alot of time with her, he'll just come over and climb up in my lap and want some extra attention. I do try to divide my time equally but he's getting so independent and can just sit still and watch a movie whereas Precious needs constant attention all the time. So I do feel like she gets more of Grammy than he does.

But then again, he had me soley for almost two years. I think it's just kind of bittersweet for him realizing that he's not the only baby in town anymore. That first child syndrome, oh I know it so well.

Precious got a new bike recently.



Her look just says it all.

Then there's Papa who suffers greatly (in his own mind) on Wednesdays!! Oh, the ignoring he endures from me. But to get back at me, he ropes my P's into working for him and they love helping. Usually, it's just picking up sticks in the yard but a few Wednesdays ago, he handed out brooms to everyone and they started their acorn removal (those darn squirrels).






It's like herding cats he says. I thought it was hilarious and they were all so dang cute and working so hard--not working together, they each had their own agendas but it eventually got swept up.

Papa's been a little irritable of late. What with the moving and rehabbing and undue, excesses we've suffered all summer. A couple of months ago as we were driving to the hardware store in the country, he offhandedly said "I think I had a heart attack last night." Needless to say, my worrying went into overdrive. No, he didn't want to go to the hospital, yes, he felt fine now but did promise to contact his doctor on the following Monday. Well, Monday arrived and he was in denial that there was even an issue. I finally had to take matters into my own hands and called both his son AND his supervisor and told them what had taken place and how he was acting. He was furious with me but I could handle that as long as he called his doctor. He did, went right in for an examination and tests and had a stress test the following week and everything came up a big fat negative. Don't get me wrong, this was wonderful news BUT why did he experience the symptoms he did? That was never explained...to me....satisfactorily.

But back to the moving and rehabbing....SO we moved in three weekends in July into the house we were rehabbing across the road from the house we lived in so our "buyers" could move into our old house. HOWEVER, they had yet to procure their loan BUT had sold their house, so were in a predicament. We agreed (under my duress) that they could come in and rent for two weeks until their loan went through.

Well, two weeks turned into two months and one thing led to another, etc. etc., yadda, yadda, and bottom line, we believe they did NOT get their loan but wouldn't fess up. We heard a gamit of excuses of why they "didn't" want to go through with the deal now. "Too far to drive to work", "thinks property is worth less than the agreed upon (signed contract stated) price", "can't drive his show cars on the gravel road" (will mark up the tires), "there are mice in the garage where his show cars live" (hey, it's the country---the garage has seen feral cats, birds, possums, raccoons, and other unnamed wildlife in the nine years we've lived out there).

The excuses just went on and on and on. Papa was just boiling and finally gave an ultimatum that they had to be out by October 1, we were not landlords and were not renting that property, it was a purchase or nothing. Papa also contacted a lawyer and is still wavering back and forth whether to pursue legal action.

The month of September was quite unpleasant in Masseyville and relations were cold with our "renters" who by this time, had acquired a dog from the Humane Society that we later learned, destroyed several things in the house, i.e., the tile in the sun room was just shredded.

Rehabbing went on as usual at Massey Ponds. The painting of the ceilings in the hall, dining room, and kitchen was finished. The walls in the dining room were also painted. Some landscaping was also completed in the front using a pile a rocks that were nearby and we accumulated a huge bowl full of Indian arrowheads in the process which was kind of cool. All the time we were working, we were shooting glares across the road at people that seemed to hide out on the weekends when we were out there. It was quite uncomfortable. No wonder Papa thought he had a heart attack.

AND at this same time, Snoopy went running off into the fields one afternoon and came back limping. She limped around and stood with her leg in the air for about three weeks before I hauled her into see her vet who proclaimed a torn cruciate ligament (i.e., blown knee) in her left hind leg. Not a complete tear and she may recover without surgery if I keep her on "bedrest" for about four weeks and she takes an anti-inflammatory daily.

Bedrest, seriously! It's a dog! So complicating matters more, I decided to keep her at the city house, inside. For the next two weekends, I would drive down to the country during the day, driving back home every night to stay with Snoopy. I could not contain her in the country---the house is a construction site and the yard and woods and fields are wide open. In the city, she was more comfortable with a dog bed in each room and a fenced yard when she needed to go outside.

It's been three weeks since her vet appointment and she has improved considerably. So much so that last weekend, I did take her to the country for 24 hours and she did fine---for the most part---although she was limping a little on Saturday night when I brought her home.

Hopefully, we have avoided the surgery bullet but time will tell. She's been off her meds for a week now as well but the vet said she could resume taking them on an as needed basis if she starts limping frequently. So we hold our breath every time she flies off the back porch after a squirrel but other than that, bedrest is working out for her and she's healing.

OK, time to cover the Gumbo and let it percolate.....maybe I'll add more to it tomorrow.....

Chef Grammy