Archive for November 2023
Nothing Particular
It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wintervale-be-gone. The only thing close to drama yesterday was a visit from Johanne, our handler from This Old Horse, delivering feed bags. I told her we still had ten bags left from the last time she delivered and inquired about how many she had brought this time.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I was talking with the person helping me load them and we didn’t count.”
She said a couple of pallets of bags had been set aside for her and she just took them all.
We moved all the bags from her truck to the pallet in our barn and counted them. Instead of the usual two-week supply, we now have enough for almost two months. I will let her know when we get down to a one-week supply so she can plan the next delivery.
This is all happening because they changed suppliers of the feed. I didn’t ask for any details or reasons for the switch, choosing to stay out of the business end of things. I’m more than happy to remain oblivious.
Cyndie is continuing to make good progress in taking care of her ankle and preventing excessive swelling. The two stitched wounds look good. She has an appointment next Tuesday to have the stitches removed. At this rate, we feel confident that the procedure should be able to happen right on schedule.
Asher seemed like he was seeking out more hands-on snuggling attention than usual after the previous day away from us where he was carousing with other canines. At the same time, I felt like he was also missing the companionship of other dogs.
No, we will not get another dog. Do not mention it.
Asher hasn’t been given much chance to add drama because I’m continuing to confine him to a leash after the neighbor had to call me to report his whereabouts. Firearm deer hunting season starts here next week, so he won’t be free-roaming again until that ends on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Another aspect of our quiet week is the calm weather we have been enjoying. That is, calm in terms of low precipitation and mild temperatures. With respect to airspeed, the wind has not been calm at all. I would say we have reached the point of no leaves left in the trees except for a few oaks that always hold them for most of the winter.
Oh, and I finished the 2000-piece jigsaw puzzle I’ve been assembling for about a week.
Honestly, that’s all I have to report. That’s it from Wintervale-be-gone, where the woman is strong, the man regular-looking, and the animals always above average. Peace, out.
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Road Hazards
In the country, finding domestic livestock on the wrong side of fences is not surprising. What is more remarkable is that it doesn’t happen more often. This time of year, the number of whitetail deer showing up along roadways gets the bulk of attention from drivers.
Deer carcasses from collisions with automobiles lie scattered along most roadways. During the rutting season, deer are more active during daylight hours. We have noticed two different bucks wandering the fields around our property.
Yesterday, a steer blocked my lane as I was returning from dropping Asher off at his play date and picking up groceries.
He decided to trot back to his pasture fence as I rolled closer to him. That enabled my car to pass without incident but it didn’t do anything toward getting him back on the correct side of that fence.
When I passed that pasture again on my way to pick Asher up later in the day, there was no sign of cattle anywhere. Maybe that one steer got them all shipped off to a rendering plant.
Don’t mess with that rancher.
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Looking Close
I woke early yesterday and snuck out the door in the dark while Asher was still in his overnight crate. My destination was the Subaru Dealership in the Cities where I bought my 2019 Crosstrek. It’s headed for the 80K mile mark soon and still had the original tires, or what was left of ‘em, anyway.
Today it has fresh tires, brakes, oil, and an air filter. It’s almost like a brand-new car.
Cyndie called in one of our pet sitters to take care of the dog and horses in my absence. It was like having a day off for me. Well, half a day. Upon my arrival home, Asher instantly wanted to rough-house and battle for his squeaky ball. Eventually, we headed out to feed the horses.
The barn was in perfect order. The only difference between the way I do things in the morning and the way our helper left it was a closed door where we usually leave the top half open during the day.
I found myself taking close-up photos while waiting for the horses to eat everything in their feed pans.
The wind was whipping up some ripples on the surface of the waterer.
Close inspection of some of the hay that was delivered to us last season reveals a lot of woody stems and a very bleached coloring. We’ve been mixing it with partial flakes from 30 bales we received from a different supplier. I’m guessing the difference is first-cut versus second or third-cut.
The horses are very skilled at not eating any hay they don’t like.
It’s a lot more like straw than hay. The horses just let it drop to the ground.
This morning, Asher gets a car ride to Hudson for a day of play with other canines. It’ll almost be like another day off for me, except I’ll be picking up Cyndie’s grocery order and hauling it into the house.
The latest update on Cyndie’s convalescence is all good one week after surgery. Maybe even ahead of schedule for what she was originally expecting. The swelling is under control and she is already moving around using only one crutch while controlling pain with nothing but over-the-counter acetaminophen.
She is doing well to keep herself at rest and icing and elevating her ankle regularly.
I’m hoping she will be able to get back in the action by the playoffs. Whoops. I mixed her surgery up with all the injuries happening in the NFL. Between concussions and ruptured Achilles, it seems like there is a risk of teams not being able to field enough backup players.
Here’s hoping Asher doesn’t pull a muscle racing around with other dogs on his play date today.
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List Making
Sometimes, it’s helpful to create a list, whether you need one or not.
- That look when a dog tilts its head.
- Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Bark with Almond, Pretzel & Sea Salt.
- Giggles from kids younger than 4.
- Eyeglasses that actually fit and correctly improve vision.
- Effective use of italics.
- Narrators with voices that sound comfortingly familiar.
- Thinking thoughts without perceiving them as [silently] spoken words.
- Knowing the difference between two similar things.
- Being on the safe side.
- LED light bulbs.
- Reading between the lines even when there are no spaces.
- Waiting for a ride.
- Shedding a tear at just the right moment.
- Always remembering to get to an appointment on time.
- Walking in late because there were no convenient parking spots.
- Cuff links.
- Answers to questions you were never asked.
- Jokes and riddles.
- Bullet points.
- Bonus points.
- Ball points.
- Insufficient segue logic.
- Candelabrum.
- Being reminded of something from the past of which you have no recollection.
- Forgetting the reason for making a list.
- Having so quiet a mind that nothing can be identified to add to a list.
- Emptying the garbage bin.
- Refusing to experiment with ChatGPT.
- Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
- Carrying your shoes, one in each hand.
- Super slow-motion replays.
- Poetry and song lyrics that are indistinguishable, one from the other.
- Unsolicited advice.
- Empathy.
- Comedy.
- Politicization of existential angst.
- Tenacity.
- Scratch paper.
- Wing nuts.
- Wing tips.
- Unfinished business.
- Final chapters.
- Feeling so much better after making a list.
I’m glad that’s over. Now I can get on with more important things. What was I going to do today? Oh, yeah… I’m going to spend too much money to get new tires on my Crosstrek. The car is approaching 80K miles on the original tires. Maybe if tires last that many miles, “too much money” is not a justifiable gripe.
It’s a luxury to have new tires compared to having everything I own turned to rubble by bombs of war. It is only because I am not living in a war zone that I can waste mental energy creating a seemingly purposeless list.
Throwing words and phrases, sometimes sentences, onto a list can be compared to an artist who creates paintings by randomly splashing colors onto a canvas.
Viewed from a certain angle, a person just might find a moment of resonance with the object, possibly even the creator.
If I were to make the list above again, I’d probably add:
- An audible heavy sigh.
inserted somewhere strategic. Whether it needs it or not.
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Appreciating Teamwork
Forgive me for a gushing sports fan post. I’m trying to learn how to fully appreciate the wins and my NFL team, the Minnesota Vikings pulled off a victory against a sequence of circumstances that appeared to doom their chances several times over. What stands out to me is that they didn’t give in when repeated misfortunes knocked them for a loop.
Our star quarterback suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in a game a week ago and his backup was inexperienced. The team traded for a quarterback with experience (Joshua Dobbs) but didn’t plan to use him until he had a week or two to learn the intricacies of the Vikings’ system.
Near the end of the first quarter in yesterday’s game, the first backup, who was playing respectably, scrambled toward the endzone and was tackled powerfully, resulting in him getting concussed. At that point, with our chances already suspect, it felt to this fan like all was doomed.
Thank goodness that isn’t the way the players and coaches interpreted things.
In came the guy they had just traded for. He hadn’t been around long enough to learn his new teammates’ names, let alone the custom play-calling language the Vikings use. Then he got sacked in the endzone for a two-point safety, followed by having the ball knocked out of his hands for a fumble.
Things just kept going from bad to worse. One of our big play receivers caught a long pass and was walloped in the helmet forcing him out of the game with a concussion.
This is where I am so impressed with how well the coaching staff –I think it starts at the top with the head coach, Kevin O’Connell– maintained poise and calmly guided the athletes toward opportunities to succeed.
Joshua Dobbs put in some impressive individual effort to scramble for big gains and throw key passes, but his success was made possible by critical blocking from the offensive linemen and essential plays by the entire defensive unit. Yesterday’s road game for the Vikings was an impressive display of teamwork in the way they dealt with adversity and ground out a victory against the odds.
I would have understood it if we had lost, and that makes the surprising win even more rewarding entertainment.
Now here is a “horse tax” in a nod toward readers less interested in the goings-on of an NFL franchise…
Speaking of teamwork, our horses, Swings, and Light often team up to eat from one feed pan at the same time.
The thing is, Swings tends to pick her head up to chew between bites and feed pellets leak out of her mouth and rain down on Light’s head.
It’s cute because Light appears totally oblivious. Sometimes I think Swings knows what she is doing. A passive aggressive way of suggesting Light might rather go back and eat from her own pan. Is that a form of teamwork?
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Different Time
Here is what I heard:
“It’s madness, but it’s really fun.”
“I had average luck, but not by much.”
“Good job, Bob.”
“Losers lose, winners win.”
“It’s your spirit responding to somebody else’s spirit.”
Without context, uttered phrases range from silly to meaningless. How much of our everyday couldn’t be framed as silly or meaningless?
How many email teasers from organizations seeking my attention can I ignore in a day? No, I won’t click to see how many people have visited my high school or career website accounts I created eons ago and never deleted even though I’m no longer active.
I’m in a bull-headed contest with them to see how long they will continue to include my email address in their marketing attempts even though I never, ever open the email. The loser will be whoever deletes the account first.
My dog doesn’t have a clue what the clock indicates for hour of the day today. We are in a different time from yesterday.
I need to take him for a walk in the minutes I would have otherwise composed a thought-out blog post.
Catch ya later…
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Getting Outside
It’s only been three days since Cyndie’s ankle surgery. She is spending most of her time reclining with her foot elevated and I am outside many hours every day, walking around with Asher and tending to the horses. This morning it was particularly frosty because the overnight temperature bottomed out well below freezing.
I cleaned up some leaves yesterday that had become matted on the driveway and in the early light today it looks pretty respectable.
It’s a shame Cyndie doesn’t see it. She missed out on the neighbor’s wood furnace smoke stretching along the valley and the horses lining up in the early rays of sunlight.
As much as I wanted to stay beneath the covers with my head snuggled into a soft pillow this morning, getting outside to experience the glory of the day offers rewards that Cyndie doesn’t get to enjoy during her convalescence.
It becomes my responsibility to appreciate being outside twice as much to cover for her. It’s a tough job, but a challenge I am willing to meet.
I know my warm bed will be waiting for me again at the end of each day.
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Easy Patient
It was almost “just another Thursday” except for the fact Cyndie was only one day away from surgery on her ankle. Her extensive experience with the routine of recovering from surgeries makes her a pretty easy patient to watch over. She has been in good spirits throughout the whole process, surviving the first night with only minimally interrupted sleep from pain.
You may think she is doing so well because of the care I’ve been providing, but I can’t take credit. It’s the healed ankle bones that are all the difference. More specifically, it’s that she doesn’t have pain from the shattered bones and she is not forced to avoid putting any weight on her right foot.
Cyndie’s brother, Steve stopped by for a visit and provided good energy. He and Asher got along really well, especially when Steve accepted Asher’s challenges to wrestle by dishing out plenty of roughhouse competition.
In the afternoon, Cyndie occupied herself in the recliner by making a “snuffle mat” for Asher. My sister, Judy provided inspiration with photos of mats that she makes. The project fit well with the homemade dog chews Cyndie had just sewn for our pup.
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Asher took to it like a natural, individually sniffing out and chomping each little morsel Cyndie had scattered. It occupied him for about a minute or two.
I allowed him some off-leash time around the outside of the house while I moved all the deck furniture to storage behind the house for the winter. He was a good sport and stayed close but went nuts doing Zoomies to burn pent-up energy.
I think he senses something weird with Cyndie’s behavior and is rising to respect her space while looking toward other avenues to get his needs met. At the same time, I think he really misses the “old” version of his momma.
It won’t be long before she is back to her old ways.
Last year, I was more concerned with how soon she could return to tossing around hay bales. This year, I’m looking toward how soon she can get back to entertaining Asher when he gets overly whiny.
I really wish I could convince him to simply “use [his] words!” whenever I can’t figure out what he wants.
He is not what I’d call an easy patient.
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Plates Removed
Thank you to everyone who offered good vibes for Cyndie’s surgery yesterday. I am happy to report that everything went according to plan. We made it in and out without any complications.
Getting one of the first surgeries of the day was a blessing. A year ago, her appointment was in the afternoon and after she was prepped, we had to wait almost two extra hours due to an emergency procedure that got inserted before hers.
I snapped a photo of Cyndie in the recovery bay post-surgery.
Those aren’t her real eyes. The photo has been enhanced to preserve her dignity. She came out of the anesthesia very slowly and was not yet in control of all her faculties when they brought me back to keep her company.
Instead of having a problem with pain, this time she endured a fair amount of feeling nauseous as the drugs were wearing off. Once I got her home and she got a chance to eat a little chicken soup, her gut settled down considerably.
It became obvious very quickly that recovery from this surgery would be a lot less onerous than a year ago. The key difference is that she wasn’t able to put ANY weight on that foot for 8 weeks while the bones were healing. This time the bones are good to go. She can stand on it as soon as she feels able.
The surgeon offered to give her the hardware if she wanted it (after they cleaned it up), but we forgot about that in the excitement of leaving and they never produced the goods. We’ll have to take his word on whether he actually removed it all or not, until the next x-ray.
Speaking of cleaning things up, the doc mentioned he took a little snip of the previous scar and added an extra stitch at the bottom to improve on the look he left her with last time.
When everything heals up Cyndie’s ankle will feel better and look better, too!
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Misjudged Amount
I thought it was going to be a small amount of slushy snow coating the grass but I guessed wrong. Our first snow of the season covered everything with around three inches of windblown snow.
As ready as we thought we were for winter to arrive, this snow landed on plenty of things I intended to move. Cyndie’s door table in the woods. The furniture on the deck. Potted plants all around the house. Chairs out in the yard.
It’s all stuff that can still be moved without too much trouble. Temperatures are expected to warm up well above freezing in the next few days, but there’s no guarantee how much of the snow will disappear. I’m gonna make another guess and combine it with some hope that almost all of it will vanish.
By the weekend, it looks like a chance of some rain, which would go a long way to finish off any patches of snow that might last that long.
Cyndie landed the first appointment for surgery today, so we are heading out the door before dawn and hoping to have her back home in the recliner by mid-afternoon. Just depends on how quickly she comes to her senses, breathes on her own, and eats a little something.
We are well familiar with the routine.
While she convalesces the next few days, Asher and I can be outside putting away deck furniture. I’m sure he’d love to help me.
When we first met Asher, his foster mom told us he loves snow, so we’ve been looking forward to witnessing it firsthand. His reaction didn’t disappoint. His aura radiated “FUN!” the whole time he was romping around in the white stuff.
Thank you to all who have offered encouraging messages to Cyndie for her metal removal today. We appreciate your support! I’ll provide a full report tomorrow about how smoothly everything went.
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Relative Something 