Sunday, January 07, 2007

Where do I start?

It’s been a rather random few days- difficult to make into a cognitive narrative, so here are some bullet highlights.



Þ Bil’s trip out here this week was postponed due to the weather, which turned out to be a real God thing. Thursday evening, his son Evan had a rather frightening accident at home, severing some tendons in his right hand. They got him to the hospital right away, where he was stabilized. A surgeon from the Mayo clinic, who was visiting on a consultation, was able to perform the necessary surgery early Friday morning & the prognosis is very good. He’ll start physical therapy in a couple of weeks & we are believing for a full recovery in a few months. I know Bil, Ray, & Evan would appreciate your prayers during his recovery.



Þ I felt like something was missing this weekend; we’ve been running at full speed since before Thanksgiving, so it felt strange to not have anywhere we had to be! Actually, it was quite nice to just putter around for two days. Friday night, the guys picked up pizza & some movies, so we hung around the house after a long short week back to work & school. I slept until 8:00 on Saturday, cleaned the shower after bathing, dressed in sweats & read the paper with my breakfast. The weather was clear & cool, so Chris & I took a walk around 11:00, then I headed over to the mall to exchange Sam’s MP3 player we gave him for Christmas (after 3 days, it wouldn’t turn on, even with new batteries). When I got home a couple of hours later, Sam was up in the tree out front, trimming branches with Chris “supervising” from below. We all stayed out for about an hour, raking leaves, trimming the roses, & cleaning up the flowerbed. Then we went in to fix supper & watch one of the movies. Sunday morning was church, then a trip to the grocery store to stock up. I took a long nap in the afternoon & woke up to a nice supper of grilled London broil & fresh veggies. The evening was spent with Sam downloading music to his MP3 player, while Chris & I watched ice skating & Extreme Home Makeover.



Þ We have been adopted. There has been a cat coming into our backyard for a few weeks now; he sits by the sliding glass door nearly all day long, visiting the girls & talking to anyone who walks by the door. He is very well mannered, not using the raised bed as a litter box, & very fastidious about his grooming. We started calling him Fred Astaire, since he is always dressed in top hat, white tie & of course, tails. I’ve become accustomed to seeing him every day; when it turned cold a couple of weeks ago, I would see him perched on a piece of cardboard sitting under the potting table. So, I put an old chair cushion on the cardboard one morning, & we could hear him purring thru the kitchen window. Then a friend of mine, who heard my stories about Fred, gave me a “kitty condo” that her cat outgrew. We sprayed it thoroughly with Scotch Guard, put his cleaned cushion inside, & put it outside the door. Now he has a dry, warm place to sleep at night or shelter in during the blustery days ahead. Our neighbor, who took care of the girls while we were away, saw Fred eating out of plastic containers (yes, I know, I broke the cardinal rule- don’t feed strays- but I’m a softy with charming young cats) & brought over 2 ceramic cat bowls which had belonged to their cat that recently passed away. So, it seems to be official- we have another cat, but he won’t ever come in the house. Actually, Fred won’t let us too close as of yet- whenever anyone goes into the backyard, he hightails it to the other side of the yard until we go back inside. I’m hoping to get him to the point that he’ll let me pet him; then I can get him over to the vet for shots & to be neutered. I know he’ll have a fit & may not come back afterward, but since I’ve taken responsibility for Fred, I want to make sure he’s not out making lots of other little Fred’s with no homes.



Guess that’s it for now- I need to get to bed, since I’m facing a rather hectic end of the year close at work.



Cat Haiku



The rule for today:
Touch my tail, I shred your hand.
New rule tomorrow
.





1 comment:

Stefaneener said...

Fred's a cutie.
We've had that same lovely hiatus feeling around here. I hear the rumbling of new activities, though.
Hang in there.