A hiccup in the schedule

 

From our walk on October 11th.  There were children and adults loading into a car of the right-hand side of the street, which had Ember's attention.

October 12th was Canadian Thanksgiving.  I'm hoping my neighbEsors to the North had a wonderful holiday.  I gave it my nod of acknowledgement, and I'm finally letting go of my traditional Thanksgiving (Canada) to Thanksgiving (US) Facebook gratitude posts.

Why?  Probably mostly because SparkPeople is back, and I have a daily gratitude practice going on over there, and don't feel the need for the six and a half week long exercise.

We lived through the week, collecting a fecal sample that's required by Ember's daycare on Thursday morning.  I wasn't worried about it, just grateful she produced in the rain on Thursday morning so I could drop it off.

Normally it takes them a couple of days before we have results.  The daycare requires a clean fecal test once a year.  And that year rolls around in October.

I had Ember booked for an extra day in daycare, Friday, for the family trip up to Omaha for a visit to the Kiewit Luminarium.  We managed to fit five of us into DIL's car.  It was an amazing day, if an exhausting one.  The big feature was my phone running out of power!  I kept turning it off to try to preserve power.

When we got back to town, and I plugged my phone into my car's charger, I discovered that the vet's office had been trying to call me, and left voice mail (that I didn't have enough power to call and collect), so I just drove straight there.

Turns out her sample was not clean, it was positive for coccidia!  She's banned from daycare while we medicate her and re-test!  I looked it up online today (I was too exhausted Friday night) and it lines right up with her having eaten crap on her walks in the past couple of weeks!

Saturday and Sunday both were too chilly for our usual schedule of walking, and the walk had to be delayed until about 10 a.m.  This resulted in Ember not taking her morning nap... actually in not taking crate time until after dinner before last call!  Which messed up MY schedule for the day, too, as my usual "do human stuff" time is while she's napping in her crate, after the walk.

Yeah, I know, wah-wah-wah!

Saturday morning, Ember decided she wanted the pumpkin she just sniffed at a week ago, and she picked it up, destroyed the stem, carried it across the street and proceeded to carve it with her teeth and eat the pumpkin!  Just like a squirrel would have done!

Anyway, mortified, once I got her home, I went over, rang the doorbell of the house with the pumpkin, apologized for Ember's behavior and offered to pay for the pumpkin.  The lady was very kind and had a sense of humor about the whole thing.  She would not take my money for the pumpkin, just matter of factly placed it back where it had been, and sent us on our way, thanking me for coming forward with the story.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 3 and couldn't get back to sleep.  On that 10 a.m. walk, I took a fall, crossing a residential street.  Ember behaved very well, when I fell, it jerked her leash, she barked once, then noticed I was down and came over to check on me.  I told her "Oops, Mommy fell.  Help Mommy get back up."  And she stood guard while I did.  After checking to make sure all my parts were still functional, I said, "We'd better take Mommy straight home."  And we did.  I was more mentally shook up.  I do have a couple of skin scrapes, but we walked home just fine, ending with a shorter time and distance than "normal".

We went out again to drop donations off, and to go to the doggy-treat store (she earned it, but we were running low anyway), and a stop at the grocery store for a couple of items.  I bought her a pumpkin of her own, and put it in the back yard.  Later in the day, she discovered it and wasn't sure it was allowed to be played with.  But I assured her this one was hers, and she went to town on it.  If I have a pumpkin patch in my backyard next year, we'll know where it came from.

The Ember's exclusive all-you-can-eat pumpkin buffet.

Monday morning, thankfully, I'm awake and with few "aftereffects" of the fall on Sunday.  The plan is to treat myself gently, and encourage Ember to treat me gently, too!

Life is still good.  Spark on!

We have a new behavior in Emberville

I am not sure I like it, but in some ways it is useful.  Remember last blog, when Ember got me up early?  It messed with my morning routine.  She destroyed a pair of socks in the bargain?  And became a "free elf"?  Ah, yes!

Well, I think I have sussed out the real reason she barked and got me up.  She did not urgently need to go out (witness the distraction of the socks).  I had forgotten the cat was out for the night.  Cat must have asked to come in by pawing/scratching the door.

I think this now because it happened again.  A single bark at about 12:30 a.m.  I turned over and went back to sleep.  Then in the 2 a.m. hour, another bark or two.  This time I pulled on socks and a sweatshirt and padded down the stairs.  

This time I remembered that the cat was outside.  Sure enough, when I slid open the deck door, in trots The Prisoner!  I escorted him down to his luxury suite in the laundry room and came back upstairs.  Ember went back to sleep.  I did not.  I dressed, and here I am at 3:17 a.m. typing away.

Meanwhile, in the news, some of you may remember my traumatic day on November 5, 2009.  Mine, my son's, and his whole unit's traumatic day and all time since then.  17 years later, they are proposing to put the shooter to death via firing squad, and to live stream it.  But before that scheduled date, it is filling the news cycles with the image of the "bad guy" and completely ignoring the people who lost their lives, were wounded, or lost a family member.

Way to reopen wounds, people.  I have no desire to watch any execution, mind you.  Not even one where my son was present in the day.  I still have Facebook friends among the two units and the families. Their reactions are on all extremes of the spectrum.  

I am having to just look away from all that to preserve sanity.

On the good news front, a step forward.  The appellate court upheld the termination of parental rights of my foster grandson's birth parents.  The appealing parent has 30 days to file one last appeal to the state's supreme court.  That deadline lands on November 5th.  Yes, the anniversary of the Fort Hood incident!  If he does not file, the kids will be free to file for adoption of this young boy.  In the meantime, we wait and pray.  If he does file for that last appeal, we're in waiting mode for longer still.

Good Ember news:  on our walk on Saturday the 10th, she sniffed at a pumpkin someone had out for decor... and did NOT steal it!  Considering last November she stole two from yards on successive days, her mommy was very proud of her restraint this year.  The passage of time does help!

Other than that, life is moving on.  A family outing is planned for Friday the 16th, to the Luminarium in Omaha, with foster grand kiddo, his parents and the two grandmas.  Ember will get an extra day of day care to accommodate me being gone all day.

Guess I'd best post this or it will stretch to two weeks between blogs!

Recovery weekend and beyond!

I did not sleep well last Saturday night.  I am not sure why.  But I got up in the 3:00 a.m. hour, then took a nice long nap between 11:00 and 1:30.  We did get through Ember's morning routine, including about a 2-mile walk. 

Since then, I have started experimenting with using music CD's to fall asleep rather than YouTube "Boring X for sleep" videos.  I roll over and close my eyes to those, don't watch them!  Sometimes one works, sometimes the other.  Sometimes neither.  But... working on finding what works!

Our city / county recorded a record high amount of rainfall Wednesday overnight into Thursday.  This photo is from the runoff ditch at the park entrance about a block and a half from my house.

Thankfully, the inside of the house, basement level included, stayed dry.  Some parts of the city were cut off or underwater.  Low-lying areas, of course.  My daughter in law messaged the family group that two of her coworkers had water get into their automobiles where they lived.  Yikes!

The good news is that we are up for several dryer days now.  Friday morning dawned colder than it has been in a while:  47℉ when I got up.  That getting up was early and rushed, because Ember was whining in her crate and escalated to a bark before I even got dressed.

I hurried a bit and went downstairs in bare feet, carrying my socks and shoes, and let her out, thinking she'd head straight for the outside door.  Nope!  She focused on that rolled up pair of socks in my hand and swiped them from me!

Thankfully, this was a pair that was several years old, wearing thin, and I had already been debating with myself whether to pitch them or not.  "Decluttering by dog" quipped my sister in our early morning text exchange (you know the one, the "are we both still breathing" check-in).

In any case, this started off my day differently from what I envisioned, and now I have some catching up to do!  I'm off to feed the cat (belated), take a shower, etc.

Hope you all have a good weekend and week ahead!

Life's good, even when unexpected things happen!  Spark on!