Gone again!

Summer truly rushed by this year. We did not do much that accomplished anything that would be considered major, or possibly even minor. I continued to do my walking making it to more days of the week walking than not. This for a couch potato is some sort of record. I have had some rocks in the road recently beginning with a bad back for about a week. That led to another week of pain in a different part of my back. Traveling arthritis? Possible. Flu in the muscles? Could be. Sad to say it kept me down for way too long. I have still not gotten back to my exercise the way I would like. I am not going to complain about it however because they say everything happens for a reason. Maybe the reason is to just plain take some time to rest and care for me. No selfishness, no guilt, just taking care of me. I caught up on my reading. I watched several movies. I did not totally baby myself for I went to help both daughters while in pain. The worst part was that I could not pick up my grandson. Too soon he will be too big to hold, or will no longer want to be held as all children eventually do. For the time being he is still our little snuggler. Both of my Grandsons are very loving, cuddly boys. No one has told them not to do so, to grow up, not to cry, etc. At least not on my watch. I spent a lot of time with my youngest daughter this summer. She was due to have her second child in August and with her boy only a little over a year old, she welcomed help keeping up with him. I of course adore being so involved in his first 2 years. Today is his Birthday in fact. Why am I writing about Summer when this is the first day of December? Mainly because I can. I tend to write off the cuff. Putting it in a department can happen later if I choose to move things around. Free writing is just what it says, freeing. I can get things down and out of my mind. Clutter out. I have been working on that in the house too this summer. I took loads and loads to the Goodwill or New Hope Village stores. I can find such bargains at Garage Sales, and second hand stores . I also seem to continue to collect books to read. That said, I have been doing a good job about reading them as well. I cataloged some of them this past few days. I am doing this with a plan in mind. I need to put up some Christmas decorations and want to clear off the books and get them put somewhere in some sort of order before I do. I have actually had a few days to myself since returning from my middle daughters where I stayed for a few days. I go to visit her as often as I can. She spends a lot of time alone and so do I, so it works out well. As we get older I find we have more in common all the time. Nice in so many ways, frustrating in others. Wow have I wandered away from where I started this time. Writing is like that for me. Start and just go where the thoughts lead me. Also this summer, hubby and I went to the water often. I walked, sat and watched him fish, read a book, took photos or just watched the water. Now what could be any better than that? We have found some very nice quiet places to spend time together. We sold our Camper last month. Sad as it is, I am glad to have it gone from the yard. Right after we bought it, plans changed. Hubby worked more Saturdays than ever and then the weather seemed to always be bad on the weekends. There were many cold and rainy days we just did not want to be out in nature on those days. There were also a lot of very HOT days that I did not relish sitting inside a camper doing nothing. I do not do well in close tight spaces. Our daughter was the one who really wanted us to get the camper. We took it out maybe once a year for 5 years. It got more use as an extra bedroom when the kids came home than anything. I miss several things. I miss a campfire. I miss that hot feeling on your face and backside. I do not however miss the mess and smoke, nor the birds that used to get into the house through the flu. We took our woodburner stove out when allergies and dust became just too much for our daughters' allergies. We have had pets for most of the time we had small children. We got our first dog, Moki one hot summer day after the girls played with some dogs for sale at a local celebration. We had moki for many years. She was 14.5 when we finally decided that her life had no more quality. Her teeth fell out so she could not chew too well. She got arthritis and hip displasia and could barely climb the stairs. She would still give it her all on walks though, gotta give her that. Wish I had walked her more when we had her. Would have been good for her and for me. Our second dog was named Sadie. She was a save from a local shelter. Black lab and shepard mix. We ended up giving her to some people on a farm because she just had too much pep and energy for in town, in home living. I would have loved to keep her as she was a beautiful thing with a wonderful spirit. She just needed to be free to run. The people we gave her to lived on a farm and she was happy for her ending years. She got a problem with a twisted gut and died a couple of years after we gaver her to the nice people. They killed her with kindness giving her scraps and sweet treats when we had never given her either one. We had a hard time getting over losing moki. She was like a child or sister to the girls. I still find myself missing her to this day and she has been gone for a long time now. the girls were pretty small when we got her and are adults with lives of their own now. Then there were Smokey and Duke, our last two. We got duke from a home where the puppies were unexpected and we got him early as his owners were letting the puppies run around in their kitchen. They got tired of the puppies pooping and peeing and so when we called abut getting one, they were only too happy to let us have duke early. We wanted him early because we would all be home on Thanksgiving break that week. He was only about 5 weeks old when we brought him home. He became my baby. He was so tiny and loved to snuggle and I always wanted a dog who would do that. He would lay on my chest and just cuddle in. He would get up right by my neck near my heartbeat. As he grew, he moved down a bit. Pretty soon he was down to my tummy, then legs. He could keep me so warm and toasty and I loved that. When we would go for a walk, he would literally run to keep up and he loved walking with me. Even later on when he boggled up his right back leg, he could keep up holding the back leg in the air. He injured his leg jumping off the couch when he was still quite small. I had gone to get something in the kitchen quickly thinking he would just lay there till I got back. WRONG! Here all of a sudden, there he was in the kitchen! I knew he would pay for that when he got older. He could not have been much over a couple of months old, if that. He was my buddy. Everywhere I went, he went. I only worked part time when we first got him, and about a year later I stayed home due to health issues. He loved that! We spent many days snuggling up and having a good time together. About this time our daughter moved into a place where she could not have pets and she had rescued her dog from the shelter near her. So, we inherited her schnauzer blend, Smokey. Duke was a heintz 57 mix of some sort. We never did find out for sure. His mother looked like a mix between a schnauzer and a west hightland terrier. She had the long fur under the belly and the short hair on her back. Duke was short haired. He was a blondish color with some brown across the back. Smokey was gray. He was a good dog who had been abused in his former home, we were sure of that. He ducked for a long time after he came to live with our daughter and us. He still would do it when tired. We had to get rid of both dogs because they became untrustworthy. They would nip for no particular reason. Smokey had a hematoma on his ear that would not heal which made him impossible to handle. after surgery, he would not let us put the meds in his ear. It just became to dangerous and expensive to keep him and we had promised never to return him to the shelter. It sounds a bit sad and I still feel some guilt about it, but we had to do what was best for our grandchildren. We could not risk him getting bitten. I still miss having a pet. I do not miss the mess or noise or finding someone to watch them when we wanted to be away. So now, I find solace in going to petfinder.com to look for my next dog. Some day I may find the right one. Husband says no more pets, but I may have to go against that wish some day. I have 3 grandchildren now and a 4th is on the way, so maybe I better wait a while to get another pet. Unless some summer the right one happens to find its way to our home.

Hugs to all, hope you enjoyed this read,

Katey

Fun Fun Fun Till the TeaBird is taken away

Ok, so it is off the wall, I like it~!!

I have not blogged in a while, so it is about time. Today I had a full day by Ten in the morning. We went fishing, Hubby fished, I went for a walk on a very rustic path. I am not usually the type to be afraid, but I have to admit I was alone, I had no cell phone because I forgot it at home. The path was about 2 miles up and down hills, and very closed in by the underbrush. It seemed very wild and quiet! This from a country girl! I guess I am not as brave as I thought I was. I felt very alone and separate from my self and civilization.

I made the best of it, and kept going even when I was afraid. I noticed that my fear left when I was able to see on one side or the other. Maybe a bit of Claustrophobia? It was a thrill though when I made the top of the hill and came out into a Bean field on one side and a beautiful view of the lake on the other. Of course I forgot my camera too! I am going to have to start keeping it in the car because I have missed several good photo ops recently.

We went to town after the fishing and walk. We went for breakfast, then to shop for a few things we needed and some we did not, but wanted.

I wish I could walk in an area like that more often. Even thought it was a bit scary, it was better than when I walk around town here. It is pretty flat here and uninteresting. I have to admit it is beautiful. I have walked it now in all seasons and conditions and it is wonderful just to be out in nature and to notice how common every day things can be awesome to behold.

This one time, as I began my walk, I noticed a tingling. I looked down and my two white socks were literally covered with mosquito! The town had not sprayed for a while because of rain! Of course back to the house I went for some spray before I redid the walk!

I had no direction in this writing, just wanted to tell of a pretty neat, rewarding restful day. I spent the afternoon surfing and just playing around for fun while watching television. It helps when hubby flips channels faster than I can blink. Yes, there was nothing on.......again.

Hugs to all who read this, and hug yourself too, you deserve it~!!