Where do I start? . . .

So much has gone on this weekend. 

First of all, Judy has come through her surgery just fine and is currently being asked to sit up on the side of her bed and get into a wheel chair.  She's going to have to go to a rehab facility for a while though because losing that leg has seriously affected her balance and she is going to have to work at getting a bit stronger before she'll be able to function with a prosthetic leg. 

Vickie is planning to head home shortly.  She's been here a week and a half and she's seriously missing John.

And Arthur is gone now, too.  Sniff.  Well, he's not GONE gone -- he's just over at Zoilo's at "mule bootcamp" so Zoilo can teach him to be a bit more cooperative.  I'll be going over periodically so Zoilo can teach ME too once I get back from Ohio.

Harley, my oldest kitty, on the other hand, IS gone.  I woke up Saturday morning to hear the cats hollering on the adjacent porch.  I walked over to see what was wrong.  They do that sometimes if their water bowl or their food bowls are empty, but I didn't see anything at all empty.  Then I wondered why Harley wasn't singing along.  She was just laying there asleep.  But as it turned out, she wasn't actually asleep.  She had died during the night.  She was almost 20 years old.  She had been with me since the winter of 1992-3 - don't remember what month exactly.  But I found her as a tiny kitten in foot-deep snow on my way home from the bus stop after work one day when I worked in Cincinnati and lived across the river in Bellevue, Kentucky.  She was hollering bloody murder for such a tiny little thing.  I picked her up and stuffed her inside my coat and by the time I made the one block to my house I could not only hear but FEEL her purring.  And when I took her out it was incredible just how loud her purr was!  That's why I named her "Harley" - she sounded almost like a motorcycle!

Harley - Winter 1992 to 5-5-2012

She had apparently had a stroke a week or two ago - she's been walking peculiarly in circles most of the time, but when you got her attention she was able to act pretty much normal.  She apparently wasn't in any pain.  Just a bit confused.  I could pretty much identify with that!  So I didn't take her to the vet.  I didn't want to put her through all kinds of things that would have frightened her.  I had a feeling that she was not going to make the winter.  But I'm glad if she had to go, she didn't have to put up with the horrendous heat we're probably going to get this summer.  She's been pooping on the floor now for more than a couple years so she has not been allowed inside.  We can provide plenty of heat in the winter out there on the screened porch, but it can't be air conditioned so they're probably less than comfortable in summer.  Well, she won't have to deal with that anymore.  Mark took her over to AVS this morning to have her cremated.  She'll be joining the rest of us when I go.  I told Mark, I probably need to get some sort of cabinet or something to put all those containers of ashes in one place.  It's beginning to look a BIT odd to see those things sitting everywhere in our house!!  I've had a LOT of pets in my lifetime - and all but the first few have been cremated so that they can go with me when I go.   That may sound a BIT peculiar, but even if that isn't the case, at least it makes me feel better NOW to know they're all still here with me in a sense.  Call me crazy.  What the heck.

When Mark gets home, he's probably going to want to try out his new zero turn mower.  He picked it up yesterday but hasn't had time to unload it and give it a try just yet.

Oh yes - and the land next door to us that we tried years ago to buy is now for sale!  The old woman who owned it (who lived on the other side of that land from us) refused to even discuss selling it.  So she must be gone now.  When I called the number on the sign, a young guy answered and said "wait a minute while I call my wife to the phone."  And then she told me about the price and the property dimensions, etc.  So she must be the daughter who inherited it.

We wish we could buy it, but because it's completely wooded, it would take a good chunk of change to clear it enough to turn it into pasture -- that's what we would use it for, of course.  

See - it is DEFINITELY wooded!
(That's our house and barn at the bottom there.
And those little dots back there in the back corner are our horses.)

So we told Vickie about it, and she called John, who then talked to Bruce, one of his (many) brothers, and they are thinking of going in on it together and splitting the land.  Talk about a great idea!  It would be SO wonderful to have that much family right here with us! 

And I'll tell you what, the price on that land is significantly less than the property being sold across the road from us.  Those lots across from us are $160,000 for 1 1/2 or 2 acres.  The land next door is only $140,000 for 4+ acres.  (It's the same size as our property.)  They should definitely buy it.  Even if they decide not to build on it when they move back to Baton Rouge from DC, they could no doubt make some money by selling it later.  I'm sure that once that L'Auberge Casino and hotel just four miles up the road from here is completed, the property values around here will be higher.  (They ARE hiring over 1000 people!)

So anyway, Bruce is driving over here today from their current home in Mississippi to check out that land.  I'm really anxious to know what he decides!

As for me, I'm back at work today and tomorrow.  Then I'll be heading up to Ohio for a vacation of just slightly less than a week.  CAN'T WAIT!  But the first thing I want to do when I get up there is go see how Cass is doing.  She's scheduled for surgery tomorrow.  I'll tell you what, it's good that it's possible to get so many things fixed as you age, I guess.  But it would be so much better if they could figure out how the heck to avoid having the problems in the first place, wouldn't it?!

Oh - did you see CBS News Sunday Morning yesterday?  There was a story on there about Dr. Pauza over in Tyler, Texas who has come up with a way to put back the padding between back discs WITHOUT surgery.  It's done much like those cortisone injections -- takes maybe 10 minutes as an outpatient!  Wow!  If you ever have back pain you have GOT to check this out!  It will probably be available everywhere in another couple years.  But I'll tell you what, Tyler isn't all THAT far away from us -- maybe 100 miles west of Shreveport!  If my back craps out again, I think I may well be visiting with him over there.


Well, it's beginning to storm - again.  And I have to go into work tomorrow at 5 am - again.  So I guess I'll go get something to eat and hit the sack.   Wendy - two more days!