TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

I’ve made it through Day 4 with a little help from the electronic cigarette.  But I think I am sleeping off the effects of the nicotine addiction via sleep.  I can fall asleep at the drop of a….well, I can easily fall asleep now every few hours and I sweat like crazy.  I had a girlfriend that said she did the same thing when she quit smoking.  She did it while she was on vacation from work and came back a non-smoker.  I haven’t been around a smoker yet but what I am finding out is that I do NOT like some of the smells I can smell now that I never noticed before.  It’s just plain awful.  I’m sorely tempted to start washing a whole closet full of clothes and I just may do that.  How could I have not noticed this before.  Yuk!

Chewlee said she was happy that I was not smoking because her teacher told her that smoking was bad for you.  She also said she never liked getting smoke in her face which she sometimes did while sitting on my lap playing some of the games that we do together. 

She spent the night here last night and we went outside together (it was nice out even at 6:30am) to wait for the bus.  When it got a bit late, I asked Chewlee if anyone else from our area was going to Summer Camp and she told me yes but they took a different number bus than she did.   That explained the bus sound I heard when we were first going outside, I think.  The Beast ended up taking her to school and dropping her off.  There were several people that were doing the same thing so he just watched her go inside before he left.  They have started dropping the kids back at home now earlier than it was when they were in school.  I think it’s really because there are fewer kids to deal with.  I am usually taking a nap when she gets home and she said to me today, *How come you always wake up?*  I know she tries to be quiet but I can tell she’s here.  What can I say?  I’m a mother.  No matter how old you get, you remain a mother.

The Beast is making all kinds of plans about the guest room and my computer room.  I think I am going to start emptying my closet here…..and maybe going through the clothes and doing some washing.  I intend to keep from smoking if it kills me! 

When I said I wasn’t using the electronic cigarette much, I really meant that.  It is only when the urge gets very strong that I pick it up.  I think seeing the smoke is more of a psychological thing than anything.  It makes me feel like I am still smoking while my system is cleaning itself out.  I’m hoping to be able to give that up entirely within the week…..say a little prayer for me, won’t you?

It got hot today (86 degrees) and is 70 outside right now (after midnight).  The weatherbug says it will only go down another couple degrees as our low.  I can hardly imagine what our summer weather will be like.  The Beast is setting up the house for a war on the heat.  He can’t take it so he’s ordered a slightly bigger AC window unit for the living room area and putting a unit in the guest room.  He wants to be prepared.  The window units work better than our big AC unit.  That’s undersized for this house and the ductwork leaks like crazy.  He’s not well enough or strong enough to make any changes in that so we have blocked the duct openings off so it won’t leak heat into the house from underneath.  I refused one in my room partly because it would mean moving my desk away from the window and I won’t do that.  I get enough coolness in here just from the spillover.  This house isn’t that darn big that we need a window AC unit in every room.  Sheesh.

Love you all.  Gonna get this posted now before I go back to bed for the night.  I wish you a great day tomorrow (Hump Day) and remember to stay safe and drive carefully. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

…Chewlee stayed the night since her mother worked later than normal (even after the store closed).  I’m on Day 4 of quitting smoking (yesterday was Day 3), and I seem to want to sleep a lot more.  Oh, not for long but I will get tired like I need a nap.  After Chewlee took her shower (more on that later..), I was nap-sleepy so I told Chewlee that I would lay down with her.  She goes to sleep a lot faster when I lay down with her.  She cuddles up and is asleep within just a few minutes.  Unfortunately, so was I….LOL.    Even Baron came into the guest room and laid down next to the bed and fell asleep.  The Beast had to wake him up when HE went to bed.  Otherwise Baron will bark and scratch on the door to be let into the room when he wakes up.  That’s what finally woke me…almost.  It was actually the light over the sink in the kitchen.  When the Beast came in for Baron, he left the door open and the light bothered me and woke me up.

When I got up, I woke Chewlee but told her to go back to sleep because I was just making a trip to the bathroom.  She just asked me to leave the door open (I did) and I checked on her a little later and she was sound asleep.  She just wants to know someone is close in case she gets scared.

My taking a five hour *nap* shows me that I was ready for bed, not a nap.  I’m not sure how much has to do with my not smoking but I’ll tell you this…..I opened up my closet and discovered it smells like stale, sour tobacco.  I’m finding that I can smell odors I probably haven’t smelled in years.  Food tastes different to me.  And that’s after just a few days of not smoking.  I’m not even using the electronic cigarette all that much.  I find that holding it sometimes is enough to keep that *extra* hand busy.  It’s going a bit easier than I thought it would.  But the extra *sleeping* bothers me.  I’m not sure if it’s just my way of getting through the cleansing period or what but I really DO feel very sleepy more than usual.  I’m hanging in there and just trying to get my body on a *normal* sleep schedule even if it includes an earlier bedtime.  I’ll just have to make some adjustments.

I have to tell you about Chewlee and *showering*.  At one time, Chewlee wanted nothing to do with a shower because it came down and hit her head.  She didn’t like that at all.  She knows her mother takes showers and so does Grandma.  She has come to associate showering with being a *big girl*. 

Now that she is *in first grade*, she is a *big girl* and so she now takes showers.  She also washes and creme rinses her own hair.  There’s no more taking a bath every day and no more toys she plays with.  At least, not while she showers.  She told me that baths are for when she *has time*.  I think that means on the weekends but I’m not quite sure yet.  She can be very abrupt and cryptic at times and she *doesn’t want to repeat herself or explain things all the time.*  I kid you not, those were her exact words. 

The Beast is still not feeling well.  He feels he doesn’t have to bother the doctor since it’s tough to go bother him for something as vague as his symptoms are.  A sudden feeling of weakness, a headache, slight nausea and an upset stomach.  When he rests, the nausea and headache subside but his upset stomach stays longer.  The weakness also goes away after a short nap.  Then he is able to eat something light (soup, crackers) and he’s fine…..for a while.

He wants to start tearing the guest bedroom apart and then my computer room so he can get rid of the rugs and get the laminate down.  We’ll get an area rug for me since the floor in here gets very cold in the winter and I have to keep my feet warm.  Just keeping socks on my feet doesn’t work and I haven’t found any really comfortable slippers in a couple years (not since the ones I loved were no longer carried where I bought them every year).  **Sigh** They were the softest slip-ins ever.

Anyway, I told the Beast that doing some of this is why he suffers from the sudden weakness.  He overdoes things and pushes himself to the point of exhaustion and he doesn’t recover well.  I told him to accept the fact that we are two old people who can no longer do some of the things we once did.  We need some helping hands to move some of the stuff we have in the rooms (dressers, bookcases, his gun safe) that need to be moved out of the rooms in order to take out the carpeting and install the laminate.  I’m hoping he might ask one of his new buddies to help out because I am afraid of being hurt trying to do any of that. 

Well, I need to go back to bed.  There’s only a few hours left before I have to get Chewlee up to catch her bus to Summer Camp at the school.  Love you all and I hope you are having a decent week at the very least.  Be good.  Stay safe. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Chewlee went canoeing with the Princess and Johnnycakes yesterday and she even paddled the canoe, too.  What was cute was that she was very brown today.  The Princess said she kept putting SPF 50 lotion on her and she had almost no reddish areas.  Today she was brown enough that I noticed it.  Chewlee, ever the skeptic, said to me…*Grandma, do you really mean it that I am brown like mommy?*  I told her that I was not kidding her and that she must have inherited the same kind of skin that her mommy has.  I put her little arm next to mine and said to her, *See?  Your arm is very brown compared to Grandma’s arm!*  That put a big grin on her face.  I know she loves her mother’s tan and wants to get one just like her. 

Today she got preoccupied with her hair for some reason and she kept brushing it.  What she wanted to do was put in her own pony tail with the little bands I bought for that.  Unfortunately, she hasn’t gotten the hang of it just yet and she gets frustrated.  I told her that I would teach her another day when she was able to be patient.  That was NOT today.  It’s that little twist and pull the hair through that gets her.  She had actually almost gotten it today but failed to get ALL the hair.  She still had a little loop of hair that needed to be pulled through.  I tried to tell her that but she was so frustrated at that point, she said she was just going to let it stay down.

She got excited today because the Beast told her that she could go over to the neighbors house to play with their little boy.  She ran into my room to tell me that he had said that to her.  Then I heard him tell her that she could go because he was outside playing but she had to come home when he went in the house.  I knew that would be shortly before it got dark and the Princess would be here to pick her up before that.  Chewlee ended up being paddled by mommy because, instead of riding her bike back to the house like she was told, she was straddling it and walking with it.  She even started dragging her toes and that ruined the fronts of her purple sequin shoes (which she was wearing when she was told not to wear them…but she was more than punished since her mother said to throw them away now.)  That, of course, made her cry more.  The shoes were not meant for any heavy wear.  They were just to make a little girl feel glamorous.  I think Chewlee is going to need extra reinforced high heels when she gets old enough to wear them.  You know…somewhere between a lumberjack boot and those platform heels that Goths wear. 

The Beast is still not feeling well.  At least, not for long every day.  He will have a time that he feels good and he can go do something he considers normal and then *POOF!*…he feels like hell, has a headache and a stomach ache.   I have no clue what’s going on with him so we just have to kind of ride this out and see what happens.  Me?  I’m sleeping better at night (thank the Lord) and am more and more active as time goes on.  I’m using the electronic cigarette whenever I feel like I don’t know what to do with that third arm.  Sometimes, just holding it makes the yen go away.  So far, so good.

Love you all.  Have a great week. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

It was a nice day today.  Well, for most of the day anyway.  The Beast and I sat out on the deck with our morning coffee, chatting.  Mostly we talked about what we ARE going to buy in the next week or so.  Our new mattress.  A metal roof for the house since it will be due to be replaced soon.  A metal roof will last us much longer than shingles.  Paying for the new riding mower.  Laminate floors in the guest room and my computer room…..I decided I can get an area rug once that’s done.  The Beast wanted me to put my new desk (yes, that’s another thing we agreed was needed.  This one is falling apart) on the wall opposite from the closet but I told him *No!*  I like it by the window.  He wasn’t happy with that but he can’t control everything, sorry buddy!

But the conversation was a quiet one.  We did discuss the heavy condensation that formed on the outer wall of my computer room.  You can see it up near the ceiling where it looks like there’s no insulation up in that area or something.  He says he’s going to check it out before this next winter sets in.  Who knows?  The contractor that was responsible for that might not have cared if he got it all the way back under the eaves.  If it’s not their house, they just aren’t all that careful.

Since I am quitting smoking, we will repaint this room before the Beast puts down the laminate.  I’m not looking forward to moving everything out of this room since it involves moving all my cd’s and dvd’s, too.  If the Beast tries to do that alone while I am in Chicago, I know what will happen.  He will try to move my DVD case without removing the DVD’s from it and it will bust apart.  He has to move the cd’s because the bookcase he made for those has no back.  Plus it has fewer things in it.  I think I only have 60 or so cd’s.  We have a case with about 24 cd’s in the car but those don’t count.  The Beast and I picked out our favorites to play if we travel any distance and put them in a nice case.  We filled every single pocket in it so there might be more than 24 in it.  I wasn’t really counting….LOL.

The weather was beautiful, as I said.  I was glad since the kids were canoeing today and I wanted them to enjoy themselves.  I think they did because they hit the sack early (around 7:30pm or so).  I had called to let the Princess know that the Beast wasn’t going to church tomorrow since he was still sick so let Chewlee sleep in if she was tired.  Then, shortly after I had called, I heard the boomers.  Then the rain came pouring down and my weatherbug started tweeting.  It seems we were under an alert for dangerous thunderstorms moving into this area.  The alert lasts until 6am Sunday.  It seems like there are a lot of lightning strikes associated with the storm front.

I made us a nice salad today complete with cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes and lettuce from our garden.  I didn’t put any dressing on it because I like ranch or bleu cheese and the Beast likes thousand island or french dressing.  I had planned on our having the salad, then have the Beast make up the two tenderloin steaks I bought yesterday while I made us some nuked sweet potatoes (with cinnamon butter) and some corn on the cob.  But, since the Beast felt lousy and only wanted soup, we’ll have that for dinner tomorrow instead.

Got to get this posted.  It’s late and I need to get back to bed.  Love you all and enjoy your Sunday. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Today, Tara arrived…..on time …with a cashiers check for the house in Guntersville.  The Beast had the form ready to be typed up on his computer but never thought about needing the legal description for the house.  Once we went through the little metal cabinet, we located the title insurance for when we bought the house.  Tara took over the typing since the Beast is one of those two-fingered typists.

She and the Beast went to our bank so the Beast could get the check deposited and the Quit Claim notarized.  Then, Tara wanted FOOD.  She was hungry and I tagged along with her to keep her company (I know she hates to eat alone).  Then we did a couple errands.  She needed to go to the post office and I needed to hit my bank to get that Class Action check cashed and then we stopped at one of the South’s grocery stores because I wanted to pick up a few things.  After that was done, we came back here and she left to go pick up Chance.

Chewlee had gotten here a few minutes before and already pissed off the Beast (who was cranky anyway due to not feeling well).  I just shrugged it off, acted like I cared and gave Chewlee a pickle spear.  I had bought them for her while at the food store.  I was impressed by their meat selection and by the fact that they always have butcher’s there to cut meat like you might want it.  I haven’t seen that at a store in years. 

Anyhow, Tara escaped as the Beast started his tirade (love that gal).  Bless her heart.  It’s been a while since she and I just got together and TALKED like we did today.  We said we would do it again….soon.  She made me laugh when she told me about the Beast saying he had to stop buying STUFF like he was some kind of rich guy since this check from her was really the last of our big cash reserves.  I said that I had already warned him that his endless need for STUFF had to stop.  I found out that he felt partly justified because he sold three of his guns.  Of course, I only knew about the last one he sold.  He felt there was no need to tell me because they were HIS guns.  Oh really?  And he wonders why I spend so little time with him and why I really don’t feel he’s become the Christian he claims to be…to other people. 

Chewlee was excited about going canoeing tomorrow and she also had a better day at school today.  She made a friend and that put her in a better mood.  (Although she did ask me why the Beast was so cranky today).  She told me she didn’t like him very much when he was sick because he got mean to her.  (Unfortunately, that’s true).  She’s also come to accept the fact that she isn’t going to Chicago with me this year but I told her that next summer, her mommy would know the dates I usually go up there and wouldn’t sign her up for any special programs.  Chewlee said that next year was so Loooooooong to wait but I reminded her that she would know how to swim without any swimmies on and wouldn’t that be great?  She liked that idea so then she went on to other things….like kids do.

I’m tired tonight since I didn’t sleep well last night (again) but this time it was my IBS giving me a slight problem.  I say *slight* because it wasn’t a full-blown case of IBS and I grabbed my OTC medication and took it right away.  It’s better now so I hope to sleep better tonight.  Tomorrow starts my first day of not smoking.  I’m kind of dreading it but also looking forward to it.  When I left the house with Tara today, I didn’t bring any cigarettes with me and I didn’t run right to my cigarettes when we got back here either.  Baby steps.  Baby steps.  I’ll have to ask for the strength to get through the next few days when I say my prayers. 

Our weather today was beautiful.  Not too hot and not too breezy either.  I hope that’s the kind of weather the kids have for their day of canoeing tomorrow.  Chewlee wants to be *brown* like her mother is but Chewlee is too young for a tanning booth.  I didn’t tell her that.  I told her she just needs to spend some time at the beach in the water.  I told that to her a couple weeks ago and it jarred me when she asked her mother if they would have a beach there where they were going canoeing.  I knew that she remembered our talk.  But she was happy because they do have sandy beach areas there.

Love you all.  Have a fantastic weekend. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Chewlee knew that today was her REAL birthday so she actually expected another party!  Her heart was just broken that *on her real birthday* no one was going to be here to celebrate it.  I ended up giving her FOUR pieces of bubble gum AND an unopened bag of Gummy Worms that I had bought for her anyway.  Then we went out and checked for more strawberries.  We found a few and I let her cut them from their stems.  Then we went and picked a few more radishes for salads and she cut the tops off of those.  She’s always very careful and watches out for my fingers, too.  It’s really cute when she tells me, *Watch your fingers, Grandma….I don’t want to cut you.*

She wanted to celebrate her *real* birthday so she changed her clothes.  She put on one of her favorite skirts and a pretty purple top.  Then she wanted to wear the necklace I gave her and I had to brush her hair.  She kicked off her flip-flops and put on her purple sequined shoes.  Then she asked me, very nicely, if we could go out and sit on the porch for a while.  I grabbed my coffee and we went to sit outside until her mother got here to pick her up.  The Beast was feeling sick so they didn’t go to Bible Study at church tonight.  Although Chewlee was disappointed, she rallied well.

That’s really why she chose the skirt and top.  She wasn’t going to wear one of her *good* dresses so she picked the next best thing.  She also put on some of her strawberry lip gloss to finish off the look she wanted.

She was a bit upset when she got home from Summer Camp.  She said no one wanted to pick her to play on their teams.  They picked their friends so she didn’t get to play some of the games she wanted.  She also said that she was called *ugly* today and that hurt her.  I think someone was teasing her but it wasn’t how it made her feel.  Her mother and I told her that she needed to make some new friends when she said she wanted her old friends back.  I gather that not many (if ANY) are going to Summer Camp.  She said she wanted to go to sleep-away camp, not THIS one.

I told her she needed to be older AND to learn to listen to go to sleep-away camp.  When she asked HOW OLD she needed to be, I told her at the very least, she should be 10 years old.  I also told her that we had sent her mother to sleep-away camp and she told me that her mother had told her that.  She also told me that she knew her mother learned to ride a horse at camp.  Then she regaled me with the story of her riding a horse and they went to a bird house where all the chickens were dead and someone showed her a head.  She saw a woman that cut off the head of one and the body ran around afterward.  She thought that was weird.   It kind of blew me away that someone would show that to her.  She was only about three when she was on that horse.  I remember that time.

It looked like it was going to rain hard this morning.  I mean it was really dark and ugly looking.  But, after securing the umbrella, the clouds parted, the sun came out and it was a wonderful day all around.  Not too hot, a nice breeze and no rain at all.  It meant we needed to get out and water the garden and the flowers though….LOL.

Tomorrow Tara is supposed to be here with a check for our house in Guntersville that she bought from us.  I’m tickled pink that she will own it free and clear now.  That takes a big worry off her now.  And it means that I will be spending a lot of time trying to keep the Beast from going on a spending spree.  I kid you not.  We agreed to buying just a few things as well as paying for my trip to Chicago, of course.  But I know him.  All that money will be burning holes in his mind.

My needs/wants are simple.  Just a new desk chair and desk and we both agree on a new mattress.  His big deal wish was for the new zero turn lawnmower that he bought (put on his charge card and that will be paid off on Monday).  He’s still trying to become proficient on that.    He’s getting better but he’s a bit wobbly still. 

Love you all.  I’m going to get this posted now so I can just relax for a bit.  I have one more day for smoking and then I will be quitting on the first of June.  I hope I don’t have a hard time.  The Beast would just love for that to happen since he quit cold turkey and never looked back.  He did admit to me that there were a few times that he really, really felt like he wanted a cigarette but he worked hard to get busy doing something that kept his attention and he forgot about it.   I have lots that I can do to keep myself busy so we shall see what happens.

Be good.  Be safe.  Be happy. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

It started for me yesterday.  I had problems first with YIM (yahoo internet messenger).  We have never had an internet provider (except for Comcast years ago) that didn’t give us problems with continuity.  We would get kicked off every now and again without any notice.  What always…always…let me know if I was online or not was my YIM.  It would suddenly go to the start section where I would need to sign back in.  That told me I was NOT online.  Some days it was maddening because it would be for a minute or two.  Other days it would happen so often that I might as well not be online at all.

Then I couldn’t get on to Pogo.  Today it was the same thing, only worse.  It affected the Beast, too.  He hadn’t been online yesterday except briefly to check his email.  Today neither of us could get into our email, on Pogo and I still couldn’t get onto YIM.

Of course, we thought it was a virus or some such thing.  We ran our virus programs (we have two) then we tried restoring to an earlier date.  I won’t go into all the things we tried but, after a whole day of only being able to reach a few sites, we decided it was a problem with our internet provider.  It was crazy.  Then, after the Beast took a short nap, he got up and reset our modem and…we had full access to our internet again.  **Blush**  Such a simple thing but we, of course, looked at it all wrong. 

Then, I went to restart my computer after updating my Firefox and I almost shit when it said my boot manager was missing.  This was the second time in a week (or so) that I had a problem with my computer.  How often does your hard drive crash land at the same time that you have your modem screw up?  I had to swap out my hard drive (thank goodness the Beast keeps a couple extra ones around that are already formatted and have the operating system on them!).  Now my computer is working again and the Beast said to me as he left my  computer room….*Try to keep it working for a week at least, okay?*  Men are jerks.  Like I screw around or download a lot of things…..NOT!!!!  I just talk to various friends and family on YIM and play my games on Pogo or Sloto.  That’s my life on the computer. 

Right now, I am spending more time working in the garden (in the morning).  We are just loaded with strawberries.  I asked the Beast if he wanted me to make some jam now and he said to just keep picking them for now.  That works for me, too, since I would still need another two quarts for the amount of jam I would want to make.  If I am going to go through the trouble it takes, I want to make it worth my while.  Oh well!

Chewlee got in trouble here today.  She went outside and I was busy folding clothes.  She wanted to ride her bike (which is a biggie now that she doesn’t have training wheels).  I told her not to go away from the house and that she couldn’t go to Sam’s house OR Olivia’s.  It seems she decided to ignore what I said.  Worse than that, when Chewlee got to Sam’s house, Sam’s mother asked her if either grandma (me) or grandpa (the Beast) knew she was there and she said we did.  When I went outside to keep an eye on her after I was done folding clothes, she was gone.  The Beast was going to take Baron for his run anyway so he also looked for Chewlee.  Now she is punished by not being allowed outside except in the back yard for the next two days.  Worse yet, if she isn’t good during that time, she won’t be allowed to go on a canoeing trip on Saturday.

Chewlee started Summer Camp (which is at her school) today.   The bus picked her up this morning and brought her  home (to our house) after summer camp was over for the day.  I was shocked that the bus service was available but very grateful.  The same bus picks her up at her house or ours.  We only live a little less than a mile and a half apart so that works well for us all the way around.

When I asked Chewlee what she did today, she said she colored….all day.  AND it was boooooooring!  She was also upset because one of the pictures they colored was part of a contest they had.  The first one done got a sucker.  What the teacher DIDN’T say was that it had to be NEAT.  Chewlee wanted that sucker so she didn’t care if she stayed in the lines or not.  She didn’t get the sucker and she was embarrassed, too.  I told her it was only the first day of Summer Camp and they would be doing a lot of interesting things plus she would be starting swimming class soon.  She found out today she wasn’t going to Chicago with me BUT…she felt better when she thought about the swimming lessons and what that meant.  She would be learning in a POOL and that was what she wanted more than anything.  She can swim with her swimmies on but she does want to do it without them.  Plus, she wants to learn to dive.

I’m tired, mostly from frustration and aggravation with the crap we went through with the computer.  I didn’t even tell you all we did, including getting our Verizon wireless turned on (we can use it on a month-to-month basis).  That was money we spent that we didn’t need to spend.

Tomorrow I will tell you about my most recent experience with a Class Action Suit that I almost didn’t respond to.  But that’s fodder for tomorrow.  Love you all. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

First things first….the dog lived through the night.  We discovered that the Beast and I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep because we both were getting up to check on the dog.  I found him totally off the big cushion bed once (and the Beast says he did, too).  But he lived through the night and that was a surprise.

The Beast took the dog to the vets office along with his buddy, Jackie.  The vet said the dog was in shock and may have had a bad concussion.  She gave him a shot of morphine to make sure he wasn’t suffering pain and then she took some x-rays.  Turns out both his front paws are broken (she said they were a mess)….ca-ching $$$$$1200. to repair them.  It had cost us $150. for the morphine, xrays and the IV fluids to fight dehydration.  The bad part of the head injury is the fact that the dog doesn’t seem to recognize anything or anyone.  The vet said there wasn’t a whole lot of hope to offer on that.  The Beast paid her the money to put him to sleep and came home depressed. 

It couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes and the vet called us.  It seems this one woman that saw the dog, came over and pet him for a bit and asked what the story was.  The vet told her and the woman said this….how about if I pay you to keep the dog going for a few more days and let him try to recover from this.  Then, if he does and his mind seems okay, I will pay the money for fixing his paws BUT…..I want to keep him then.  Well, that was just fine with us.  If she was going to pay all that money out, we felt she would be good to him and that’s what we wanted….a good home for him.  Needless-to-say, we gave the vet our okay on that.

A couple hours later, who shows up at our door but the guy that owns *little Lazarus* (our kidding name for him).  He asks if we have his dog or have seen him.  The Beast crosses his fingers and tells the guy that the dog was seen on the busy street down near the crash barrier over the creek area.  He looked like a car might have hit him and he wasn’t moving when the Beast saw him (true).  But that’s where he stops.  I heard the guy say…..*Damn, someone might have stopped and picked him up or kicked him down near the creek…..*  The Beast, very casually, says to him, *Well, all you can do is go and see!* 

His coming over surprised us for two reasons….he has NEVER done it before (and he’s known where we live because of Baron playing with his dog) plus he’s never worried about that dog being gone for just the night.  I wonder just why he suddenly started acting like he gave a damn about that dog.  He left it for a whole week (while they went camping and could have taken the dog with them) with no food or water out in that yard.  Bastard! 

Chewlee was all upset with the Beast the other day when he took off her training wheels.  She chewed him out big time and was upset because she didn’t know how to ride her bike without them.  Well, guess what???  After a couple days of just attempting to ride (and she was so frustrated over it), she finally got it.  Yep, she taught herself how to ride her bike with no training wheels.  She was so proud.  I was sitting outside just watching her and suddenly, there she went…flying down the street on two wheels.  It was an incredible sight and one she will never forget.  She had to show everyone.  The bad part of this all is that now she’s very mobile and can disappear in a heartbeat.

Love you all.  Have a great week…or at least try to. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Remember the little dog I talked about yesterday?  Well, today a neighbor came over to tell us he thought he had seen the little dog on the road down about a half mile from the house.  He was explicit about where he had seen it so the Beast went down to see if it was him.  It was.  He thought it was dead and he couldn’t just leave it where it was.  When he went to pick it up, the dog lifted his head up.  That shocked the Beast because he didn’t see any breathing.  When he got it home, the dogs breathing was ragged and he seemed to need water.  He was in either shock or too much pain to get up to drink.  Our next door neighbor, who is a nurse, gave the Beast a large medicine dropper and we used that to give him water.  Just a bit at a time.

Nothing seemed to be broken but we couldn’t do much more for him other than keep him comfortable.  Our vet had taken the day off it seems so we’ve just been going out and keeping an eye on him.  If he has internal injuries, I don’t hold much faith in him living through the night.  He HAS been moving around the bedding we have him on.  He’s such a sweet thing.  I’m just furious with his (former) owners.  We will NOT return him to them if he lives.

Another neighbor, not his owners, told the Beast that if the dog lives and he takes him to the vet, they will split the cost with us.  I really meant it when I said he was a sweet dog.  No one that knew him would say anything differently.  He stole the hearts of everyone around here.

I’ve been watching him closely and I just have the strong feeling that he will be passing over the Rainbow Bridge tonight.  It’s why this is so late.  I was sitting next to him, just petting him and he would open his eyes.  I think it’s been a comfort to him.

The Beast decided he would be the one to break the news to Chewlee since she adores the little guy.  I think, because he’s so short, that he might actually have been hit by the undercarriage of a car.  He has no broken bones that we could feel but, like I said, if he has internal injuries, I don’t think he will make it through the night.  I’m sure he has a concussion but he IS aware that we are trying to help him.  At least we are trying to keep him alive until we can get him to the vet in the morning.  The Beast went to bed early so he can have the dog at her door at 8am if he’s still breathing.

Chewlee explained to me what the Beast had told her so she knows he may die.  She kept coming over to where he was laying just to make sure he was still alive.  She petted him once and his little tail wagged.  He recognized her, I think, since she would play with him.  I don’t think those (disgusting) owners ever played with him.  They are a young couple and the Beast thinks they just treated him like a lot of people here treat their animals.  They don’t know any different but I don’t accept that.  They really never considered having someone make sure the dog had water and food while they were gone for the week.  If the dog hadn’t gotten out, they probably would have come home to a dead dog.  That just makes me so angry.  It also makes me angry that he went out on the busy road and that someone had to know they hit the dog and they just drove on.  They deserve a special place in hell for that.

Well, gonna get this posted.  I shall let you know what happens.  If he dies, the Beast plans on burying him on our property.  Juli will want a marker so we will have to look for a big rock then.  Say a little prayer, won’t you?  At least he should pass peacefully since he doesn’t seem to be in a lot of pain.  There hasn’t been any whimpering so far.

Love you all.  Have a great week. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

The other day our dog, Baron (a 115 lb. monster…my word), stepped on my foot and primarily on the big toe of my left foot.  He really hurt me and it raised a big bloody blister on the side of the toe that he had kind of slid down.  He’s lucky I didn’t sling him across the room.  You try to protect the area but the blister was big and it broke.  I had it bandaged but….that really doesn’t help.  THEN…I find that the damn bandage itself raised a blister on the opposite side of the toe.  I now have is bandaged with a teflon coated gauze pad and paper tape so it can *breathe*.   We diabetics have a tough time healing sore on our feet due to the decreased circulation and the fact that the neuropathy in our feet often prevents us from feeling things we should. 

For example.  You will never guess what I stepped on in my kitchen today.  A bumble bee.  I kid you not.  It hurt me due to it’s bulk and shape but it didn’t sting me.  It was kind of like stepping on a rock.  No one was more surprised than I was when I went to sweep it up.  I saw it was something black and yellow so I knew it wasn’t a rock but I never even imagined that was what *I* had stepped on.  I still inspected my foot to make SURE that it hadn’t stung me because I just don’t feel a lot of things that are sharp down there.  I was just glad that I flattened it by stepping on it.  I couldn’t begin to imagine seeing it flying around my kitchen or living room and trying to catch it or even encourage it to fly out my door….LOL.

Anyway, back to my poor toe.  Chewlee had seen my *boo-boo* and thought I should beat Baron.  She was here when this all happened.  I kind of thought I was rubbing my toe more than I wanted yesterday when I went to Chewlee’s birthday party and was wearing the sandals I did.  The gauze I had around the toe was a bit on the rough side since it was really meant to go OVER a bandaged area but I was too lazy to go pull my supply box from the top shelf of my clothes closet.  That’ll learn me.  At least I can have my doctor check it out for me when I see him next week.  Hopefully, it will be healing but, if not, he should know what I need to do to aid that.  When Chewlee (who you can’t keep away when you want to) saw the toe today, she just went *ick!* and walked away.  But she was reacting to the loose skin from the blister. 

In the meantime, it hurts like hell to walk around.  The toe is swollen right now…not badly but just enough to make me aware it’s there and it’s sore. 

I think I’ve mentioned the little dog that has been hanging around our house.  I really can’t make out what kind of dog it is other than a small mutt with some terrier in it (but it’s much smaller than a terrier).  Chewlee can and does like to pick it up although it’s legs are hanging down.  Well, today the Beast and Chewlee gave it a flea bath….just because it it DOES have fleas, it will help keep any from getting on Baron.  It really needed a bath since it was both dirty and is shedding.  It’s got a double coat and winter is now over.  I was horrified at all the hair that was on Chewlee from picking it up.  Anyway, the dog really didn’t act like he’d ever been bathed before.  I think he stood still mostly because the cool water felt good standing there in the sun.  He’s been seeking shade out before that since it was warm out and I’m sure that double coat that is still on him didn’t help. 

Later on, the Beast went over to the owners house to see if anyone was around.  Chewlee had him on Baron’s leash so that he was following them.  The people were home and, get this….they couldn’t understand where he was since they had left him in the back yard a week ago when they left for a camping trip.  I know!  The Beast and I were horrified when we heard that.  All we could think of was….and how was he going to eat or get drinking water?  When it rained, where was he going to find shelter?  We know that house and it hasn’t even got a deck for the dog to get under.  They had put a chair to block the only access they knew that allowed the dog out of the yard.  Yeah, like even a little dog can’t knock over a folding chair?  Give me a break.  It’s probably the only thing that saved his life.

The Beast has decided that, if this happens again, that dog is going to be claimed by US and we will find a family that wants a sweet little dog.  In fact, we have a family in mind for that.  At least when they go away, they will make sure to find someone to keep it (probably us) while they are gone.  Since he and Baron get along, that shouldn’t be a problem.  The Beast won’t keep him mainly because we can’t keep him out of the garden and that is just a big no-no here.  We think this type of neglect has happened before because the hole they tried to block was one the dog had dug to escape the yard…and the Beast said it looks like he dug a hole into the access underneath and then dug another hole out of it.  That was a lot of digging for that little guy.

When it rained last week, we think that the dog must have gone underneath our porch out front.  That area stays dry pretty much partly because of the boards being so close together and then we have a roof over the porch, too.  If he stayed underneath and close to the house, he would have stayed dry.  He never looked drenched when we saw him.  We actually thought those people were putting the dog out when they went to work.  But we DID put out dry dog food for him and water, too.  That was just because we weren’t sure about these people and he dug into the food the first time we fed him.  After that, we left the food out for him every morning and all day long.  We only brought the food in at night because we ASSUMED he was home with his owners and we didn’t want any critters coming around for a late night snack.

Love you all.  Hope you had a good weekend but brace yourselves.  It doesn’t look good for us here as far as bad weather, tornadoes and rain, rain, rain.  Say a prayer for everyone in their paths.