Weird Times

 My week started on Sunday when a family member said there was a big wet muddy spot in the backyard.  That person tends to make things sound worse than they are, but when I checked it was indeed a mini swamp.  I diagnosed it as an under ground sprinkler pipe broken.  By Monday morning I was in the process of getting it fixed.

As I was pointing out the sprinkler controls to the plumber, I wondered if any of my family members knew where they were, along with other things like the main turn off for the water for the house.  No surprise when I asked them, I got blank looks.  We’ve lived here for almost 30 years.

Now not only do I have to worry about earthquakes and brush fires here, but now hurricanes heading  for my brother's place in North Carolina.   One of the front windows in his place won’t close and we had to leave it open.  There were also signs of a leak in the roof which we didn’t have time to investigate.  The news is not very particular and all I saw was that the hurricane was headed for the Carolinas.  Luckily, one of my brother’s neighbors texted me an update and it sounds like nothing bad happened.  My son and I haven't been able to go back there because of husband’s’s cancer surgery and recovery in mid July.  The good news is that the surgery took care of it, but Kaiser kept him in the hospital only overnight and he came home needing a lot of care.

Hair salons are closed again, so our family stylist came to us and cut my son’s hair and my bangs in our driveway. Weird times and for pets too.

One of the cats that moved in recently was under the weather. He’s a thirteen or fourteen year old Siamese and was throwing up foul smelling greenish brown stuff.  It used to be that we just showed up at the Vet and waited, but when I called to make sure things hadn’t changed, I found out they had.  It’s all appointments now and when I called on Tuesday, the first opening was Saturday morning.  He seemed to be getting worse, so on Wednesday we took him to the emergency vet.  We had to wait in the car for someone to come out and carry him in (in his cat case) and then wait until he was examined.  They’d call our cell with the prognosis.


When we finally spoke to the Vet, they offered two alternatives. Blood tests and X-rays for $900. or they could treat him with something to settle his stomach and some subcutaneous water and see if he got bad again. We went with the latter.  He hasn’t thrown up since (and it’s a day later) and other than seeming kind of tired, is acting normal.  Fingers crossed it stays that way.

They said to follow up in ten days or so.  I’ll take him to my regular Vet.  He is not afraid to give his gut opinion without a zillion dollars worth of tests.

I am busy with the next Crochet book.  The manuscript is due September 1st but what with everything connected with my brother’s death and then the cancer surgery and recovery, it’s been hard to focus on it.  I’m probably going to need a couple more weeks.  Today I got an email asking for cover ideas and a synopsis for the cover copy.  Then there is all this boring stuff like getting all the information together for our corporate and personal taxes.  It means dealing with QuickBooks again which invariably leads to going in circles and frustration.  But oh, when I finally get it to work, it is such a rush.  And still I get the question – What are you making for dinner?

Something New

            I have something new to report this week! 

            A few days ago, I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona--yes, the place mentioned in the Eagles hit "Take it Easy."  They even designated the corner in Winslow, and we were among the many who took our pictures there.  

            So why was I there? My husband and I took a road trip to meet up with family coming this way from Indiana in their new RV.  Fun trip!  We stopped various locations in Arizona including the Grand Canyon, and Bearizona--a wild animal park in Williams.

            Mostly, we drove in vast empty areas, mostly desert.  And yes, at times it was terribly hot.

            How much work did I get done? Hardly any, so I'm going to be very busy catching up.

            And one very good thing was that my subconscious and my imagination are now back at work!  I'm going to continue plotting an idea for a new cozy mystery series that occurred to me on this trip.  I've been pondering my protagonist and plotting ever since.  I'll just have to see if anything comes of it, but I hope so.

            We did attempt to stay safe with social distancing and masks on the trip, but we stayed in some motels so I worried about cleanliness.  I did rub some things down with disinfectant and attempted to be careful, and I think we're okay.

            But I'm also be glad to be home with my pups--plus our family members are staying in the area for a few days so we can visit with them, too.

            So--all is good!

Gotta Move!

First there was an earthquake, then brush fires.  Yikes! The truth is I slept through the earthquake and the brush fires near me were put out quickly, but still what a way to start the day.  Oh, and after a mildly warm summer, the temperature shot up to over 100 degrees,

Actually, my mind was on other things.  Last week Linda O. Johnston mentioned she was continuing to go to her regular exercise class and it was held outside.  It sounded so great and reminded me how much I missed taking exercise classes, particularly aerobics classes.  The gyms opened briefly, but I are closed again, but even when they were open, they weren’t holding classes.

By chance I saw a post card from Kaiser about at home exercise options. I looked into it and ended up signing up for classpass.  They offer live classes which cost something and on demand classes that are free.  I scrolled through them and found something close to what I used to take.  Well, maybe a little more high energy, but the same sort of dance moves that become a routine.

I needed space to do the class and a location where my family wouldn’t be passing through.  I am not up for an audience. The perfect plan was to exercise outside and view the class on my laptop.

I checked that I got WiFi in the yard.  Space was no problem and if I did the class in the morning, I’d be the only one awake, so no one watching.

So this morning, I ignored the disaster and went ahead with my plan.  It was great, I could wear anything I wanted. I didn’t have to worry about tripping over someone standing next to me.  And since I’m out of shape, I didn’t have to worry if I wanted to stop in the middle, modify the movements, or if I just got them all wrong.

It was already hot when I went outside and the patio where I planned to exercise didn’t have any shade, but I wasn’t to be dissuaded.  The umbrella table offer some shade.  I set my computer up on the table and I was ready to boogie.

I won’t say that it was easy. Like I said, I am out of shape.  But as I began to move along with the instructor and class I had I was flooded with a good feeling.  Welcome back endorphins! I didn’t do jumping jacks like the probably 20 something instructor did, but I moved my legs.  When I finished the class, I felt great.  I had forgotten how good I felt after an exercise class.  Even later when my muscles let me know they were in shock, I still felt so much better than if I hadn’t done the class.

It gave me such a boost.  Hope to be able to get something back that I have missed.  Hope that I can get back in shape.  Happiness that I can get a shot of endorphins.  And all that foot work seems to open up my mind.  Just a few minutes in and a whole conversation between Barry and Molly popped into my mind.  I was as surprised as Molly was when he told her he was seeing someone.

Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll try the kick boxing class.     

Blogger Change

Well, this is interesting.  Could just be my computer or my perception, but the Blogger website where we submit our Killer Hobbies posts has a different appearance now.  It'll be interesting to see how this post appears.  And hopefully it will appear!  Also, hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to work with the new format.  In case you haven't been able to tell from what I've written here, I'm far from techie.

My only change from what I've been discussing here lately is that I'm finally about to finish my rough first draft of the Colton story I'm currently writing for Harlequin Romantic Suspense.  The manuscript is far from being complete, but that's certainly a step in the right direction.

I guess one other change is that this is my last post in July.  It'll be August in a few days.  Time is going fast, as usual--even though a lot of things seem to be continuing without a lot of change, at least not yet.

So--Happy End of July.  Hug your pets. And stay safe!