Rejoice and be exceeding glad...

For this my cat was lost and is found again! 

I had put together creamed tuna to go over toast for a tummy-friendly supper and put the can scraps out on the deck for The Prisoner.  Guess who showed up shortly after I did that?

Skinny as a rail and covered in burrs!  Not particularly contrite, either.

You worried me, little one!  But you are home and there is much rejoicing in the land!

She has been missing for two solid weeks and I was ready to "give up" but it just goes to show.  Never give up on a semi-feral kitty!

Life is indeed good!  Spark on!

My trip through tripledemic-land

I don't like going to doctors, especially if I'm not feeling well.  This past week, though, my pre-surgery paranoia reached its limit, and I finally called my primary care office to ask advice.

I got an e-mail from the surgical hospital asking me to fill out forms online, related to that scheduled event (still a couple of weeks off).  I got as far as the section of questions about Covid and screeched to a halt.  I had taken home Covid tests on Friday the 21st (pre-CSG Walk), and again on Monday the 24th (because I had symptoms by then and a scheduled softener salt delivery to the house).  Both were negative.  

Symptoms were still there on Wednesday afternoon as I was trying to fill out these pre-surgery forms... so... the phone call.  The nurse was very kind, of course.  She asked the appropriate questions about symptoms and timing, and I mentioned my upcoming surgery.  At this point she decided I'd best be looked at, and Thursday morning I was.

Here's the symptom problem:  besides not being good at connecting physical sensations to words, this crazy quilt of a "thing" kept changing on me.  Over the course of Sunday through Thursday, I had experienced:

• runny nose
• dry mouth
• sore throat
• slightly elevated temperature (topped out at 100, which dropped within an hour to 99.3, without meds)
• muscle aches that were preventing sleep
• cough (productive - yuck) which woke me up every couple of hours
• a touch of nausea (started Thursday morning)

Since they weren't going away (just changing in nature), and it had been five days or so... seemed wise to have better answers for that questionnaire!  They swabbed me for three separate tests at the office.  One for Covid-19 (just in case my home tests were wrong). Nope, the professional test also said not Covid.  Onward.  The second was for flu, which while it's not high flu season in Summer, it's an available test.  Nope, not that either.  Which leads to the last one, the one they were all concerned about pediatric cases last Winter:  RSV.  Respiratory Syncytial Virus.  Bingo!  We have a winner.

The bad news:  there's a vaccine under development, but it hasn't been released/approved yet.  Besides, I've already GOT the bugger by the time the test was done.  Anti-viral was not recommended.  She mentioned antibiotics sometimes prescribed "just in case" but since I'm allergic to the penicillin family I waved off that suggestion.  I know there are other antibiotics, but this is a virus, and antibiotics don't help.

The good news:  RSV usually goes away (i.e. resolves itself) within "a week, or two" (she emphasized the TWO).  Just get plenty of rest, fluids, go ahead and use tylenol or advil for the aches and pains.  She sent me for a chest x-ray, which came back clean (apparently this nasty can settle into the lower lungs, but in my case, nope, at least I was spared that).  She said if I had chest pains or shortness of breath, go to the ER, but otherwise, just keep on with the self-care I was already doing.

I think that if it resolves in the next day or two it will not threaten the surgical schedule, but I'll find that out in the phone call and after the pre-op physical.  I'm just glad to have an answer.  And day by day I'm getting better.  

Meanwhile, so is The Prisoner.  He's been going in and out at will.  Despite the high heat, he prefers the great outdoors.  I put water out on the deck for him, and he comes in a few times a day to eat and get de-burred or just for companionship.  I make sure he's back inside for the night, though.  His stitches have pretty much dissolved, and the fur is growing back.  

Rubia has still not put in an appearance, and I'm afraid I may have to accept she's gone for good.  It would be happy to think she's found herself another family.  

I still believe that Life is Good.  Stay positive and Spark on!

First time in a year

 It's Cornhusker State Games time!  It's been going on for a week, and it has a bit more to go.  This morning was the Volkswalk portion, and it followed the same route as last year.  But it's not nearly as sweltering as it was then.

For a dozen years or so, I've done something with these games.  It was under their auspices that I did my first "real" "baby" triathlon.  My activity has dropped in miles and increased in minutes, but at least this once a year, my friend Gerri and I have gone the distance.

Hopeful and chipper at 6:55 a.m., getting started from the school.

Sweaty with the sun burnishing bright and warming up at the end, 9:23 a.m.

Our winding path, 6.45 miles long.  No visiting stops this year, other than at the rest areas with water / nibbles provided.  Last year we kept running across people we knew, as due to last year's horrid heat EVERYBODY started out that early.  It's only supposed to get up to 89F this afternoon, and I think we've been a bit spoiled by the week of cooler weather with short bits of rain we just had.

And in the end, they hung finisher medals on everyone, whether they did the short path (2 miles) or the one we did.

In the books.  Longest outing in 2023 so far.

Still no orange kitty.  But the gray one is spry and happy and himself, now that he's allowed to go out and set his own pace.  For some reason, I'm not distraught about Rubia's absence, but as the days pass, I might get there.

Life is good.  Spark on!

More of a blogger

 My kid sis posted on a chat thread that I am "more of a blogger than a chit-chatter".  So I guess I'd better put a new one up, since I haven't in a couple of days, huh?

Thing is, I read that chit-chat but so many people are on it, I can't keep up!  Some of them I know from Spark, some "new" to me in the years since Spark went away.  I care about the people on it, and have an interest in their lives... they all have things happening and they are important and worthy of support and feedback... and that makes me feel... since I don't often respond... inadequate, in some way.

Blogging suits me more... I can write about my days, and reading the blogs of others, I can see into theirs and leave individual comments of support.  

The Prisoner continues to heal, and I'm back to letting him go out and in at will.  What's nibbling at the edges of my mind is that Rubia has yet to show up to come back into the household.  I've seen her out and about a few times over the past week, and I've put food out that has been eaten, but any critter can come up on the deck and get it.  This morning the water dish had been dragged to center deck, but still had a little fluid at the bottom.  Prisoner sniffed at it (as he has at the deck corner where it sat).

My own activities this week, since last blog was put up, include getting a hair cut, walking with the sister, and one workout with the trainer.

My older sister is complicating my week before surgery by asking me to come take care of her kitties in the mornings while she heads off to Kansas to care for her grandsons while their parents begin the school year.  Both parents teach and have to report before the kids return to the classroom.

This would not be a problem, but the paranoia of pre-op is setting in.  This is the same week where I will be having my pre-op physical, and my pre-op blood draw, and my last two trainer workouts before the cataract surgery.  So it's important that I stay healthy, so as not to endanger the safety of that surgery.

So, I'm shaking off that particular anxiety and resolving to do the other things that are in my control to make sure all will be well.  I said yes to the kitty care (edited to add that, as my prior paragraph didn't make it clear).  I will be extra careful with the hand washing, and probably do some preventative masking for the week.

The haircut and the rainclouds show in this selfie!  Which reminds me... we have had cooler than normal temperatures this week, and periodic rain.  The cooler than normal will last through Saturday, then it will become Summer normal, HOT and dry.  They have three triple digit predictions for next week.  

Saturday morning's State Games walk should still be OK, as the 89F high won't be until afternoon.  My friend Geri and I plan on starting our walk before 7 a.m. and we should be done before 10.  Remember to take water, I tell myself.

So yes, Life is still Good.  Spark on, my friends!

Healing up, Mom, can't I go out?

 

The stitches are looking good... I imagine in the next week or so they'll be dissolving.

Prisoner wants out.  He makes his wishes plain.  Today I did open the deck door and he came out and jumped up on the rail, from which I collected him to carry back inside.

This was to collect Rubia's dishes and refill the water dish.  So Prisoner went out briefly twice on Monday.  After that he settled down, napping in his chair.  He's quite alert and his normal self.

Meanwhile, I messaged my son "around" the minute of his birth (Monday morning), which is tradition for us.  It was interesting during his deployments, and I regularly mis-remember what the specific minute was.  I looked it up on his birth certificate, and ... yep, I was early with my greetings.  For some reason I want to make it 10 minutes of 7.  But it was really 10 minutes of 8.

No trainer workout until Thursday.  Monday was a pretty boring day.  The Prisoner and I hung out and watched Season 1 of Grantchester on the streaming service.  Well, four episodes, anyway.

Tuesday's good news:

Phone call from the vet's office... they got the pathology report back, and the lump was benign.  And of course, The Prisoner says "I told you so!"  He's himself, and has been all along... these humans!

And of course I got the chance to re-tell about The Prisoner's name, because someone always asks.

Life is indeed good!  Spark on!

Robber's Cave tour

Ever wonder what it would be like to turn a hobby / passion into a side-hustle, and later at least a "Summer job", but more likely, year-round?  This guy is doing it. 

Joel Green, author

Fascinated by Nebraska's one and only cave... he researched and wrote a book.  He conducts tours of the cave.  

Now you have to understand that this cave has a long local history.  I went there as a kid.  The way my wonky memory works, it was when I was a Brownie Scout, which tracks with the history of the cave being open.  Because it closed for quite a while, and has only reopened for tours the past seven or eight years.

My observation as a kid was that most of the cave was way too "civilized", but there was this back part that was a bit more wild, and fueled our imaginations as kids. It's the part beyond the yellow chain in that photo.  I opted out of that loop of the tour, because he indicated how large a step might be in parts of it, and that it was kind of muddy down there.  It got flooded back in 2018 when most of Nebraska was flooding.

Anyway, the kids and her parents took that "challenge" loop, and I'll bet it would have triggered more of my childhood memories had I chosen to do it.  I took a later "challenge" passage, but it was going UP, not down, so I wasn't as intimidated by it.

Above, a "selfie attempt" to catch the five of us.  I gave up after just one such, because I wasn't feeling secure in the footing.

A vein of iron ore in the general sandstone walls of the cave.  The guide made a joke to the kids about the video game "Minecraft".  

This was a modern kind of tour, complete with tablet photos (from the book collection) of historic use of the cave.

Our guide would have the tour group line the sides of the passages and show those photos around.

Robber's cave has gone by various names through the years.  Being close to the state penitentiary it was once called Penitentiary Cave.  But it was also used as storage for a brewery, as a gaming den, as a concert venue, with dancing included, and currently it is rented out as a venue for Weddings and such.  The football and vollyball teams from the University of Nebraska took some tunnel walk photos in the cave.  

But the tour we took was all about history.

Lots of graffiti on the walls, which have dates on them going back to 1901.  

There is a spot, where the "stage" used to be for the bands, where someone had carved the word "Brownie", and our tour guide had me stand under it while he snapped my photo.  

My DIL took a shot of me posing... it's got one of those fake grins on my face, but it's me.  The word "Brownie" did not make it into her photo.  It's above my head on my left.

A part of the cave is netted over, because... bats.  And the tour guide had a great video that he saved for the end of the tour to show us of a twilight zone moment he experienced where the electricity in the cave did some pretty freaky things.

He said he saved it for last so that we wouldn't refuse to enter the cave.  But then again, remember, modern day.  Most of us were carrying phones that include flashlight, which of course those of us worried about the uneven footing in the darker parts of the cave used in spots.

The afterparty:

Dueling cell phone photos of the 4 oz. beers.  

This was before the food arrived... let's see, they had a dark lager with chocolate at the front, the Peach flavored one is at the back left, and a couple of lagers in the middle.

I'm being educated by the younger generation, even though I don't drink myself.  This is responsible sampling!  Four people, four four-ounce beers.

The food was provided by Porkalicious, and was indeed pork... pulled pork tacos and nachos, and they were delicious.

Over the meal we were swapping info about our various smart watches (both Lacey and I had acquired new ones in the past week, and my son is shopping for his next one).  Three or four different brands and features, with each person choosing what's most important to him or her.  We also looked at the features of the various fitness apps on our phones that interact with these watches.

That's about it from Saturday.  Sunday morning, we have rain... ahhh!  We do need this rain.  May it be gentle and soak in to the parched ground, and maybe move us another step down the drought monitor chart (we're down to Severe as of last Thursday's update).

Life is good.  Spark on!

Cat-itude

 

"Mom is turning me into an indoor cat, and an only cat at that!"  - The Prisoner moping.  All moping aside, he is recovering well from his adventures at the vet.

It's not going to be easy keeping him inside and separated from the temptations that might disturb those stitches, but his hu-mom (that would be me) is doing her best.

Meanwhile, Rubia is on Carl-visit-like protocol, being fed and watered out on the deck.  It is Summertime, and she won't freeze.  She has access to shelter, too.  But I do not care to risk them dusting it up inside and having Prisoner's stitches come loose.

Saturday afternoon's special treat for the human in the house is a get-together with the kids and co-inlaws to go tour a local cave.  I have not been to Robber's Cave in more than 50 years, but it was my DIL's thought last Christmas that this would be a good activity-based gift for the family.  Afterwards we will retreat to a nearby brewing company where a Food Truck called "Porkcentric" will be serving up pulled pork tacos, among other things.

I managed to get myself out to find a birthday card for my son.  His birthday is Monday.  Do you know how hard it is find a card that's "Not too mushy" for a grown man who happens to be your son?  But success!  I found one that's the right shade of "oh, shucks, I love you, Son" to suit our goofy mom-son dynamic.

Life's still good.  Spark on!

Expensive pets

The season of keeping the economy going continues.  With pets, it does not matter whether you adopt them from a shelter or pay top dollar from an exclusive breeder, you are committing to their veterinary care.  And that can get pricey.  Vets have to make a living, too, and modern medicine and facilities and equipment doesn't happen "for free".

The Prisoner was oh, so cute when he first came into my home.  We're looking at his second "major" (in terms of my budget) surgery today.  Not as expensive as Rubia's was last year, but steep enough.  However, it was not a hard surgery, in that the lump was not attached to any muscle tissue, per the vet.

Once again, "in for a penny"... he's in good shape for a 12-year-old cat, still enjoying life, and that lump had to go!

All young things are cute... Rubia was a cutie, too.

The vet's office messaged me around 2 p.m. that he was awake post-surgery and would be available for pick up between 4:30 and 6 p.m.  The pesky lump is now gone, and he has stitches to heal.  Soft food only for the first meal home.

This is what it looked like before.  It wasn't stopping him from doing any of his kitty things, but he was defensive of it, so obviously it was a tender area.

And this is the after photo.  So I shall be keeping him inside for a few days.  They are sending the removed lump (or whatever section of it they need to) off to be analyzed, of course.

So Life continues to be Good!  Spark on!

Thursday update on miscellaneous stuff

 New Toys

Ear buds that will work with the watch.

The watch will work out of range of the phone, it says, thus the ear bugs for playing music when out and about.  I haven't figured it all out, but I did re-discover my Marathon Playlist now moved from Google Play onto YouTube Music!

Now Jeff Bezos pretty much owns me... Google pixel phone, watch, and ear buds.  All my data, sucked into the Google verse (Google bought up Fitbit, you know).

I suppose this particular bout of spending is related to finally ticking a few tasks off my list.

Medicalizing, me

All five medical appointments related to the cataract surgery were booked Monday by end of day.  By end of Tuesday, my surgery ride, my overnight watcher, and a baby-sitter for in between the two shifts were arranged.

Life, ongoing

I now have a month in which to shovel out my house some more and get it cleaner than the current "shedding cats" time of year has it.  

The trainer hasn't been asked to report for jury selection yet.  He's got another week and a half of his "call" left before we can say he got off Scot free.  Consequently I got in for a workout Tuesday morning, and it's looking like I'll be able to get one in on Thursday morning as well.

Wednesday morning I got the first of the day appointment for the plumber to bring the water softener with its rebed installed back.  I had been observing the difference that hard water makes:  uses more soap to get suds.  They finished quickly, and I am glad to have my soft water back.

Medicalizing, The Prisoner

Thursday morning, I have dropped The Prisoner off at the vet.  He has a problem on his side that has been growing... It's been growing since early May.  But since it wasn't stopping him from his normal feline behavior, I'd been dragging my feet about taking him in. I had conflicting things going on, and "it wasn't stopping his normal behavior".  Now that he's into deep Summer shedding, it's clear that he's protective of that side of his body when I go to brush and debur him.  So, it's time.

The vet said to fast him overnight, so I did.  This morning he meowed to ask for food, and he meowed to ask to go outside, but I was being strong mama and didn't give him his way.  I tried to wrangle him into the newer cat carrier and he was having none of it, so he ended up in the old green plastic one.  But he's delivered, and I gave the details to the vet tech, and now we wait to hear from them.

He was not happy with me.  We shall see how long before he forgives me for this injury to his princely dignity.

I came home, and have dressed for my trainer appointment and had my breakfast.  I intend to make this a good day!  Hoping the same for all my "invisible friends", as we've taken to calling one another.

Oh, and for those of you who are tracking, it's four years today since we lost MOBYCARP.  As he said in closing every one of his Spark blogs:  Life is good.

Spark on!

Weekending

Saturday morning chores... the recycling center trip... corrugated cardboard, plastics, glass, cans... all out of the house now.  I accumulate them at home until the at home bins are full, then off to the center they go!  And my house feels lighter because they are gone.

As I was leaving the house to do the first trip, I discovered that there was an auction going on down the block.  Usually this is an estate sale situation, and you wouldn't believe the hordes of customers they get.  Always a bit of a show for the locals.

27 years is a long time

Twenty seven years ago was our "Summer from hell".  Twenty seven years ago yesterday, my mother passed.  This was three weeks to the day after we lost my husband's brother.  And in another few weeks, my mother in law would suffer a stroke.  When it's all swirling around you, you go numb.  Time passes and you wonder how you did it... but somehow, you did.  And now, twenty seven years later, it is just something that happened.  You still miss the people.  But you have kept on keeping on, and life is still life.

Sunday

A morning walk started Sunday off well.  I even had company!

The long anticipated Eye Appointment was Monday morning

Scheduled with visual field test at 7:30 a.m., my inner anxious Grandpa Ken genes got up up at 3:45.  Yep.  Might as well take that shower and get yourself ready early.

Doctor's offices are even "mask optional" these days.  I must have been the first appointment of the day because unlike other visits there was not a lot of waiting around.  They dilated my eyes to get a better look and hoo-boy that takes a loooong time to wear off.  The world becomes oh-so-bright, and you feel lucky you made it home safe afterward.

The cataract?  Oh, yes, we are going to take care of that puppy... August 14th is the surgery.  Pre-op regular doctor exam a week before, and a blood draw ahead, too, plus aftercare appointments with the surgeon and a week later the optometrist.  

Unlike some patients, I don't get much in terms of fancy lens choices, sez the doc.  Because I also have glaucoma, it will be a "normal" lens.  No astigmatism kind of correction, but it will be adjusted for distance vision.  He said I might see some lack of balance between the eyes.  Doc, I've been dealing with unbalanced eyes my whole life, I think I can handle this.

I will need a driver both the day of and the day after the surgery, and they recommend having someone stay overnight with you the day of the surgery.  So there is that to line up.

And the Thursday organizing your home class has been canceled for lack of registrations.

They offered a Zoom class as an alternative, but I turned that down.  They will refund my registration fee.  Guess it's back to the boot-strap method for getting my act together!

Meanwhile, back at the trainer

Remember last November when I got called for Jury Duty (and didn't get picked, so only had to show up down there one day?)  Well, this week, it is the trainer's turn.  If he was going to have to report that would be today.  We shall see if that further jumbles up the week ahead.

May your week ahead be blessed.  For Life is good.  Spark on.

Summertime!

 

Potato salad, made on the 4th, lasting a few days.  The burgers lasted the 1st through the 4th.  My holiday feasts are kind of drawn out in a single-person household.

We've finally got some rain, the past week.  The fireworks on the 4th were interrupted by one of the storms, but it didn't stop the people who were determined to shoot off all they bought.  Some of them were out as soon as the rain lessened.  Others waited and shot them on the 5th.

The drought monitor report showed us going from "Exceptional" drought to "Extreme" drought (that's a lesser level of drought, in case you're confused by the levels).  This report did not include the rain we got over the fourth, so hoping that next week it will be better (extreme is still not so great).  

Thursday was a particularly confusing day.  Wednesday evening I got a text from my plumbing firm saying they would arrive between 8 and 8:30 Thursday morning.  I quick like a bunny texted my trainer to cancel my session with him, as getting my water softener back was important to me, and worthy of not re-scheduling immediately.

I got myself up on Thursday morning in time to shovel things around, especially down in the laundry/furnace area of the house.  And then... the plumber didn't show up.  I busied myself with other tasks... filling out the medication list for next Monday's eye appointment, for example.  When an hour and a half had passed (and I could have been to the trainer and on my way home by then), I called to find out what was up.  Sure enough, the text was sent in error!  Bummer.  For this, I missed my workout!

Then the phone blipped with notification of prescriptions ready to pick up.  Off to the grocery store that contains my pharmacy, and pick up a few other essentials (bananas, with thoughts of LeanJean6). 

New game that has my attention, thanks to kid sis Alicia:  How many US Cities can you name?  I'm hooked.  Don't log in, and don't save, and as long as you go back on the same device you can keep on adding cities.  So far, I'm up to 339 cities, containing 23.5% of the US urban population.  Lots of folks live in smaller cities.  I have at least one city in all 50 states, and I've got all the capitals... plus having lived in three states gave me some knowledge of local area smaller towns.  Then I remember that Grandpa came from city X or city Y, we visited cousins in city Z (or town or village).  It also gives you interesting statistics, like which of the cities you have named are the largest, the smallest, the rarest among players (the town my son grew up in is the rarest in my own list... with only 0.03% of players having included it in their lists).  Don't you just love a good mind stretcher?

Oh, and of the five smallest towns I named, they are all in my home state!  The smallest with a whopping population of 51.  I will keep adding to it as time goes on.  

Next week is going to be too much peopling, so I'll be storing up energy over the weekend.  Next week I have the eye doctor, the plumber who did not come on Thursday will be here Wednesday (they got the part in on Friday), and on Saturday there's another P-5 family outing, to Robber's Cave.  Add in the normal workouts with the trainer, and I'm pretty well booked up.

I'll leave off with a refreshing photo of this morning's downpour.  

Life is good.  Spark on!

Once upon a time...

The fourth of July was "my" holiday, dating back to pretty young childhood.

My dad would give each of us kids a dollar to spend on fireworks.  For that dollar, we could get a box of snakes, a box of sparklers, one Roman candle, and one fountain.  Only in adulthood did I come to realize how big a splurge that was for my dad.  When I started my first job, I made as much in a week as he had in a month, back then.  Inflation is not new.  But I digress.

Fourth of July was a day when we grilled out (those coals took FOREVER to get ready).  It was a day when dad would get out the old ice cream bucket and we would hand-crank the ice cream (no electric motors, no air conditioning).  It was a day to carefully schedule our supply of fireworks so that the daytime ones (snakes and smokeballs, and later lady fingers) would last until sunset.

It was the day when dad would insist that before we started, there was a bucket (all buckets were metal back then) filled with water, into which all sparkler wires would be dropped as soon at the sparkler burnt out.

Later, it was a day to go to the big display with my sweetheart, finding a spot to spread the blanket where it felt like we were in the middle of Star Wars, the original movie.  This happened to be in Topeka, Kansas, across from the state fair grounds, where the professionals were setting them off.

Still later, it was a time to mourn that I'd moved to a state that didn't allow fireworks, and that my son would not get to experience the explosive kind of day I had as a kid.  So we took the occasional trip back to Nebraska so he'd at least see it once or twice while still "a kid".

The photo above was from one of those trips.  Son's not in it, as I believe he might have been supervising setting off some of the pops and bangs.

This was my dad a few months before he passed, his last 4th of July, in my sister's driveway, set up to watch the fireworks, as we did.

In more recent years, I'm not as much into the explosives, and I'm turning into my mother... stay in the house, away from the smoke.  Go out and watch the neighbors and their kids do the lighting up.

Lots of memories are wrapped up in the 4th of July.  Last year we spent some time that weekend at a lake, where Carl capsized my son's kayak.  This year, it was the mini-golf and the dog bar.  Our fourth has moved into the "keep the dog happy and calm" phase.

So here's hoping all a safe, sane, and appropriate to your phase of life Holiday!

Life is good.  Spark on!

Things that bring hope

 

This was the pebble jar on June 30th, half the year gone!

With the news being so stirring up, I think it's good to reflect on things closer to home.  Saturday at the dog bar, my daughter in law let me know they are starting to talk about the possibility of adoption.

You know how some people are vegan for ethical reasons?  My son is against bringing children into the world because of how he views it (and also looking at his family history when it comes to mental health... doesn't want to continue the genetic line).  Whether I agree or not with this, it's his life and his decision.  But working in mental health, as he does, he is exposed to a lot of children in need, and he has nothing against a philosophy that says, "I wasn't responsible for bringing them into this world, but I am in favor of bettering their circumstances and giving them a better chance in life".  

In their research, they have found that they have to be married for two years to qualify for the program they are interested in.  I'm not sure how it works exactly, but its title is something like "foster to adopt", so you would be taking a child in a bad situation into your home, to provide stability, etc.  

In any case, trying to limit my expectations, but it thrills me to think of the possibility of a grandchild in the future.  There is reason to hope, in that at least the subject is being discussed within the young marriage.  She talked as though they are prioritizing the addition of a child over the search for a bigger house.  Even so, the prospect is at least two years out; there is plenty of time for them to talk through their various decision points.

Doing dumb things... in the wake of the plumber's visit

I've been working on removing, clearing out, and putting back on the little screens on the taps in various places in the house.  One of them, the sink in the family room, I ended up popping the screen out in the process.  It wasn't going back on.  At all.

So brainless me thought... "super glue, it worked for the shower spring 23 years ago"!   That latch still works to this day.

Dumb idea, though.  I ended up gluing my fingers to each other, to the screen, and to the plastic bit I was trying to glue it to!  

Add to the drama, Rubia decided to "help".  I yelled at her.  Sorry, not sorry.  Eventually I worked my fingers loose, but I still have dried super glue on my skin.  

A trip to the hardware store will replace the little nozzle end, but we might be talking Friday for that.

Monday afternoon was my trainer session.  Now I am thoroughly confused as to what day of the week it is, and this confusion is likely to continue all week.  

As always:  life is good.

Spark on!

Celebrating that we got rain!

Friday morning it was raining between 4 and 5 a.m., but I just rolled over and slept until seven!  According to the weather man we got over an inch, and based on the bare dirt washing across my sidewalk, I believe him.

I opted out of a music in the park thing the kids were going to Friday evening, as I'm peopled out from the plumber being here Thursday, and I don't want to miss the Saturday mini-golf and the visit to the dog-bar.

Saturday morning, we got a bit more of the rain.  Feels muggy, but it's not yet steamy.  Will probably get there.

Friday night the illegal fireworks folks were out at play but not as bad as the pops and bangs will get once we hit the third, when the city allows them.  So that's an extra reason to be glad for the recent rains.  It may have prevented fireworks ignition of the dry vegetation if the vegetation gets wet, right?

Happy Canada Day to our neighbors to the North:

It rained off and on throughout the morning and afternoon on Saturday, which made it such a good thing that our family outings were both indoors.

The first stop involved a very strange sort of indoor mini-golf.  It was a cross between an arcade game or pinball machine and normal mini golf.  Electronics kept score and kept track of the players, no little cards or counting strokes.  Donna successfully defended her family title.

We followed that with a visit to the Off Leash Dog Bar which was a total hoot.  Carl had lots of playmates and could come chill with his people when he needed a break.  Adult beverages were available.

Grandma and Grandpa on one side

Grandma on the other side

And Carl's favorite person in the world

Wonder what Carl used as a pick up line?  After all, this was a dog bar.

Life is good.  Spark on!