The bee's knees

I wish the topics covered here were the end of any given subject, but some drag on and on.  For instance, my son's broken leg, caused by DS stepping backward off the tailgate of a big box truck while wrestling with 8 foot tables.  There were weeks of post surgery therapy, and now weight bearing  for short trips.  We are trying not to ask him to do all the things he did before, but he is so good natured, he doesn't complain  and there is so much to do before winter.

For example, sealing the driveway.  We had a lovely asphalt driveway installed last year, with specific instructions about NOT using salt or whatever to help when the driveway is slippery and new.  So, only kitty litter.  This year we can use salt, once the driveway is sealed.  We contacted someone to do this, but they never even submitted a an estimate, only measured the size.  So, we did it ourselves for around $XXX, that's the cans of sealer and a squeegee, and the cost of two sets of  clothes that went in the trash immediately after use.  It looks nice.

We found a small engine repair place for working on the Powerwagon.   It is 40 miles away, but we will give it a shot, we must have the wagon to clean the stalls this winter, when it is too cold to leave the beasts outside.  We need to get shavings delivered too, but for now just having the wagon for stall cleaning would be heavenly.

I have put this off and filled this post with trivia to avoid having to acknowledge my loss.
We were planning to go to see my aunt and uncle this weekend, but it didn't work out.  I feel especially bad because my uncle died on Saturday; they life-flighted him to
Charleston and he died en-route.  I can hardly give credence to the thought he is gone; it was my aunt who has been in hospice care and bedridden  for weeks now.  We went to the viewing/funeral , and not only were we the youngest, we were the only direct relative to attend; the rest were church members, etc.  In all, there are 3 cousins who couldn't come.  I felt very strange, he looked much younger than 85.  He died on his birthday.  I find I myself thinking of all he did as the youngest of his generation.  But what I mainly remember is when we hugged as we were leaving and he whispered, "I love you".  There aren't many left to say that to me.

Thought for the day:  "If nothing ever changed, there would be be no butterflies."

Falling behind

Well, I seem to have sorely neglected my blog of late, so I will post here, this in spite of having nothing much to post (that's not new).

The computer is up and running again without problems.  Even the Mal-ware program has been quiet.  I paid for the disk for that program, allowing two more PCs to be protected, but so far no one has done anything with it.  Oh well, I hope they won't be troubled like I was.  And that HP program I was trying to load/run?  Not for me.  I finally got Adobe Photoshop to install and to stop asking me to provide an "activation key"  when all I have is the registration key.  Mutter mutter.  Turns out I had an old version of PS as well as a newer version, and the old one (from 2005) is not compatible with Win7.  Sigh.

Reverting to that boring subject:  Weather.  We need rain, in spite of having so much in June we were bailing it out of the garage (slight exaggeration).  Can't mow the grass, which is pretty ragged looking; the neighbors who mowed theirs now have an entire lawn with dead grass, the sun is so scorching.  Plus, we have a LOT of trees, shading most of the property, which helps, although the leaves are falling very early and very heavily.  We don't rake them up, just wait for them to blow into the neighbor's yard (JOKE!  joke!).  One year the neighbor's kids wanted to rake them into their yard so they could play with them.  I said their dad won't be pleased with that, but they assured me their dad didn't care, so I let them.  Later the leaves were blown into the farm/pasture beyond them, no harm done.

I have had to take the old cat into my bedroom at night, the other cats were picking on him and he isn't spry enough to get up high or hide.  I had to shut him in the bathroom, with box, food, and water.  So far the only downside to that is when I need to use the facility during the night.  I tempt him with treats to move away from the doorway, and then I scoot out.  Things upstairs have quieted down a lot, and he can rest at night too.  He is 16.

Mostly he sleeps.

Wish I could make him young again.

t-shirt of the day:  "Remember that life is like riding a bike - if it's easy, you're probably going downhill."