Thanks for your well wishes for Don. He is in pain, but he’s sure he didn’t break anything. If this goes on much longer, he’ll have it checked out. We’ve been icing, etc. I’m taking care of him. But keep him in your prayers, okay?
I went over to our neighbors’ property yesterday to try to shovel their driveway. Unfortunately, the snow is like a block of ice, so I had to chop at it with the shovel and then clear some of it in layers as best I could. They have a long curved driveway. Sadly, I didn’t get too far. It was too hard on my back and my neck. I managed to clear enough so they could at least pull in off the road.
Then I texted Laura and explained what was going on – Don’s injury, my back – and she immediately responded with sympathy and a “Don’t worry! We’ll take care of it!” We have good neighbors.
I finished this yesterday. It was extremely difficult and a real challenge. I loved it. This isn’t the best photo, but it’s beautifully designed.
And, amazingly, a Blythe outfit that went missing in the post arrived yesterday. It came from Russia and arrived in the US in November, where it sat on a barge for a long time and we gave up hope. Then it showed up in Chicago, where it also sat for almost 2 months. But it dropped off the radar again, so Olga refunded my money. This past week, she wrote me saying it looked like it had resurfaced again. Go figure! This time, the delay had nothing to do with Russia but with the USPS. It took 103 days to get here.
Maeve is today’s model:
This is as close to a cat as Maeve will get since Mom is allergic. Olga – pippydolls on IG – makes beautiful clothes. And she has been such a great communicator during all of this. We became friends.
Today, we’re laying low here at the cottage. With all the melting and then temps plunging down to single digits at night, it’s slippery out there. But it’s going to reach 45 today, so once that happens, I’ll venture out to put out the trash, etc. I won’t let Don do it.
The egg cups arrived safe and sound. Country Living did a great job of packing and protecting them. They’re back home in the cubby and on the shelves.
Stay safe.
Happy Sunday.
I hope Don will heal quickly!
And such a cute outfit.
Marion
Thank you, Marion!
Stay safe.
Don’s in my prayers for a quick recovery! I am glad he is taking it easy. You take it easy too so your back will stay in good shape. And so happy the outfit showed up. Such a cute kitty on the top. Almost hate to turn on the TV. My prayers are long and constant. You and Don fit right in.
Thank you, Tana. I’m praying, too.
Stay safe.
I’m so sorry about Don. Thankfully he didn’t break a hip.
That puzzle looks too challenging for me but it’s certainly beautiful.
The sun is shining here and we should be up above freezing this week. Maybe as high as 50 later in the week!
I am hoping the snow and ice go quickly and don’t come back.
I just cannot imagine how it could take so long for the Blythe package to get to you once it made it to the US. It is adorable.
I know you are taking good care of Don. Take care of yourself and your back.
Happy Sunday!
The USPS is suffering because a Trump guy is running it. That’s it. Also, customs can sometimes take a long time, but this was ridiculous.
Stay safe, Marilyn.
Praying Don is ok and will not have to go to the Dr. Love the new outfit. Yes things can get stuck for months in customs I’ve found out. The cat is so cute on the shirt. Rest up. Its raining and icky today so just staying in and playing in my craft room. Hugs!
I hope you had a good day in your craft room, Linda!
Stay safe.
Hi,
I empathize with your snow removal..I have been there broken snow blower and a long driveway and heavy/wet frozen snow. I am glad your neighbors are understanding. Don’t shovel anymore with your back!
I do hope and wish Don a quick recovery..fingers crossed.
I was thrilled to see Maeve (my personal favorite) looking so cute in the new outfit.
Happy your egg cups are safely home.
Take Care,
Kaye
Maeve is pretty darned adorable, Kaye! So glad you like her.
Stay safe.
Continuing many thoughts and prayers for Don’s recovery and sparing your back.
You are a puzzle whiz!
Glad your eggcups arrived safe & sound. Odd postal delivery of the cute Blythe outfit. I’ve had similar experience of a package taking its time to arrive in US from France &, seemingly, disappearing in Jamaica, NY, never to be found again.
Completely glued to news of Ukraine (France24 & France2). Wish I could join in with others in protests today. Loving the response by the Russian people and, today, the people in Berlin in front of the Russian Embassy. One foreign correspondent inferred that if Russians turn out to protests at the level of 3% of the population, things might change. We can only hope.
I’ve had things disappear in Jamaica, Queens as well. They’ve eventually resurfaced, but that place is frustrating!
Putin has been thoroughly denounced world-wide and we need to keep up the pressure.
Stay safe, Martha.
You two take care of each other. Hoping that Don is on the mend soon.
Thank you, Shanna. Thinking of you and Fred.
Stay safe.
Prayers for Don’s back to heal soon. Love the outfit, just so cute. Prayers were also said in church this morning for The Ukraine.
On a lighter note, had you noticed that the actor who played Abigail in the BBC series Around The World in Eighty Days is the same one who is Greta in Babylon Berlin?
Yes, we noticed that right away! Lovely to see her again!
Stay safe, Dee Dee.
I don’t know how on this EARTH you can chop and shovel ICE, Claudia. You were wise to knock it off; your neighbors appreciated your effort; it was a nice gesture on your part. Now, you and Don need to indeed lay low and mend. Glad to know you got your egg cups back safely.
So, we have a new dog and it’s a big challenge; I hope this works out; not sure at this writing. He needs A LOT of work and none of us got any sleep last night. He’s so nervous after being in a kennel at the rescue facility for five months (not the two they’d first said). He is much larger than I thought he would be from his descript/photo; I’m sure he’s minimum 60 lbs (so, although mostly Aussie shep, his mix must be other larger-breed dog[s]; he has HUGE paws).
He and I watched the Ukraine news on TV for most of the night so that Dad could sleep; however, the constant LOUD howling and whining was a deterrent. I’m pretty fried at the moment. We talked to a vet friend and she said we’ve gotta give it 10 days; the dog has had too much trauma, in and out of fostering. However, he was supposed to have been screened enough to be considered ADOPTABLE. (Right now, we’re a foster for 30 days; then we have to decide.)
Gosh he’s appealing in so many ways, though; loving on his terms. Wants to be good; he’s not willful. And, thank God, he’s housetrained, which is a surprise (good surprise!). But he’s nipping, and that has to stop. Also can’t keep him out of the sturdy stainless steel, closed-lid garbage bin in the kitchen (foot pedal closing on it, for hands-free disposing); he learned how to open the lid with his nose THAT fast. Mile-long walks on the leash help with his nervous energy. Right now he’s laying down in the backyard in warm sunshine.
We want this to work. We’ve taken in a lot of dogs over the years and never gave up on any of them. I hope this won’t be a first; we’re trying our best. I don’t want us to be quitters. The dog need us or anybody/good-somebody. I don’t want to be another human who fails him. He’s a beautiful-looking/handsome guy. I do think he’s worth saving. But it might take somebody besides us; just not sure yet. Like, I can see where a young single conscientious man could take a dog like this and, in time, really turn him around. I’m discouraged and thinking my husband and I, as an older/senior-aged couple, overestimated just what we can handle. We’ll see. Just not ready to give up this soon.
Had a heckuva earthquake yesterday at dinnertime. I dove under the dining-room table. (Believe me, I don’t ‘dive’ easily, and it’s even harder to get back up!) Was an explosive type, really loud, as if the air would get sucked out of the house and cave in its two sides; I don’t ever remember this type of earthquake although I’ve experienced so many as a mostly lifelong Californian. For where it fell on the ‘scale’, it shouldn’t have felt so violent. I really did, in initial moments, register it in my brain as an explosion, not a quake.
Anyway, whew, what a day it was yesterday. I’m really tired.
Vicki,
I hear you, with the dog. We adopted a Great Pyr mix who desperately needed a home, and had been rehomed five times in her two years. She was a mess, and a smart mess, which is worse. She was mouthy, not in a mean way, but I have very thin skin and . . . well, you can imagine. We’re in our 70’s, with mobility challenges, and our adult daughters were worried. Long walks helped. Training helped. Keeping her long enough that she trusted us did and didn’t try to dominate us, too. So did figuring out her mix and learning more about Great Pyrs. We were told she was half golden, but she has zero golden, it turns out. Does your guy have double dew claws on his rear legs? That’s a sure sign of a Great Pyr mix, but he could be anyway if he’s big. There’s a great Great Pyr Mix page on FB. Good luck.
Linda, thank you for sharing your story of the Great Pyr mix. I’ve been a little too hesitant to check (although he doesn’t technically seem paw-sensitive) but we’ll scope out any double dew claws today; that’s so weird, I’ve never heard of double dew claws! And my husband ‘does’ Facebook so I’ll have him find the Great Pyr Mix page/site. Indeed appreciate the info from you!
Our dog was better in many ways yesterday. Two hours out in the yard, just calm, while my husband repaired a standing planter as we ready all the planters for vegetable-growing (just trying to get past these latest weather freezes; now, we’re supposed to be quite warm all week here in SoCalif). And of course the dog is getting walked at minimum two miles per day. He’s VERY energetic and needs to burn that off on the walks. We took him out in the car this morning (Monday) for our early-a.m. errand-running and he rides in the car so surprisingly mannerly except that every time my husband got out to go drop off a check or pick something up, there was a lot of LOUD whining as they’re already bonded. (With me sitting right there in the car with the dog, I guess I’m chopped liver because it’s all about DADDY right now! Separation anxiety, so soon. The dog is insecure; he’s had too many false starts at a normal life.)
We’ve never had any of that nipping since the first day home. But I did read his whole ‘bio’ as we were given a lot of paperwork at the foster appointment, and the nipping does come up here and there, so we’ll have to exercise caution around strangers, at least for now. (It’s the mouthy you’re speaking of; the nip that is a sort of warning that never breaks the skin, though. It’s not enough to hurt except that, yeah, I have thin-reactive skin, too.)
I just think the poor guy has had a rough ‘go’ since he was dumped at the shelter last September. The first vet report at the shelter said he was ‘skittish’. Well, sure, he’s had fear. And although the shelter figures the guy who dumped them off might have been lying (that it wasn’t that he just found our dog; rather it was HIS dog; actually, it was two dogs), it’s also entirely possible that our dog was ‘out there’ for awhile, lost/abandoned; just no way of ever knowing his early story; can’t imagine what he’s been through.
We’ve learned to let it happen on his terms, but his default is to be cuddly. I was on the phone a lot yesterday afternoon and had swung my legs up on the sofa. He jumped up on the other end of the sofa and wanted to bump up against my feet, so I enjoyed having a ‘heating pad’ for my cold toes. At bedtime, he has to lay RIGHT against my husband.
Such a learning process for him and us!
It’s worth the time. This baby just needs some constancy. The good thing is that the two of you have the time to do that. Someone who is working full-time wouldn’t. Stay positive. Reminds of Winston and Riley, both of them had major issues. In Riley’s case, we didn’t know if we would be able to keep him. And we were in our mid-fifties at that point and working. But I couldn’t give up on him and it all worked out. He always had issues but he trusted us and we made our way forward.
Stay safe, Vicki.
Claudia, thanks for the insight; I don’t think I knew or had forgotten that you had some early problems with Winston and Riley; I guess who I feel I ‘knew’ more of was Scout.
Thank you for the encouragement.
I continue to be SO grateful that he is somehow housetrained and is having no ‘accidents’ inside the house. What we’re learning is that he doesn’t like small areas. We have a tiny home office and he gets very restless when he’s in it, trying to climb up on things as if to get ‘out’. Also, our bedroom is very small because we have a king bed and he seems to be only able to take so much of any feeling of confinement or being ‘crowded’. (We’ve learned to leave the bedroom door open. Don’t make him feel that he’s shut into a space.) Clearly, this is very telling. It’s making the last two nights pretty bad; we’ve lost so much sleep. Have just learned the shelter person we signed out with was supposed to give us a herbal ‘rescue remedy’ for the first few nights home (comfort drops for calming; put in the dog-food bowl), so we’re getting that today from them.
The things you soon learn; if you want to give him a treat, he sits and takes it very gently. And he can eat a bite of food off of a fork, again SO gently and neatly. It’s all so curious. (Like one of your puzzles; trying to fit the pieces together!)
While in foster status, we can’t take him out of town; we can’t take him to the beach; we are not allowed to take him to a dog park. It’s a lot of rules; the shelter is VERY careful. He can only wear a certain type of collar. You are never to use a retractable leash. And so on.
I know what you mean about no matter what you do for the dog, sometimes one will have issues for the rest of his life. We had a cocker spaniel who reminds me of your Riley. He did learn to trust us after what the vets considered at least two years of for-sure/former abuse by some kind of monster-unhuman being (who stole the dog’s trust), but our little guy had permanent triggers of which we had to be very watchful outside of our ‘compound’ at home (where he had few if any unpleasant surprises to set off those triggers).
xoxo
Reading backwards but sorry to hear about Don’s injury and sending get well wishes. Yes, checking out if it doesn’t improve soon. Your ice sounds grim. You take care, too!
Love that little outfit and the puzzle is gorgeous!
Thank you Jeanie. It’s been a difficult few days.
Stay safe.
dear Claudia/Don — so glad Don did not break any bones BUT needs to be very careful to let healing begin–ahem, it can be a s l o w process for those of us as we age, HaHa — ask me how I know, haha!!!! luv Maeve’s new outfit-perfect for her (of course, she is my favorite!!!!) that puzzle looks nearly impossible even finished — hope you all take care, stay healthy/safe
He’s being very careful and I’m taking over some of the things he does daily.
Thank goodness it didn’t involve his right hand – he can still cook!
Stay safe, Linda.
Hope Don’s shoulder is feeling better!
Very slowly! But today it feels a bit better.
Stay safe, Ellen.
Oh no!
Wishing for speedy healing
Xo
Thank you, Naomi!
Stay safe.
I hope Don gets better quickly. Shoulders are so tough, and I bet that interferes with his guitar playing.
It does a little, but he’s been able to hold it in a certain way and play a little – thank goodness!
Thanks, Linda.
Stay safe.