Juggling

You know, for a day where we did “nothing”, we actually accomplished some important things.

Today was chilly and damp, so only the essentials got done outside.   The girls did the morning cat feeding, as usual, and the Shrine Lady was very loud about her displeasure that warm cat soup comes AFTER the dry kibble.   It always does, and she always complains.   Then they get to pet her while she has her soup.

We should look into getting a heated water bowl, just for cat soup in the winter, so it doesn’t freeze before they all get to eat some. 

It was a sleepy, not even getting dressed, day for me.  I ended up making little crochet projects with my cheap cotton mill end yarn, starting and undoing projects several times before settling on things.

Meanwhile, on top of taking care of all the household stuff, my daughters were able to reschedule their medical appointments to December.  My older daughter could only get a new time on December 30 and already expects it will be canceled due to weather.   Hopefully, we will not get snowed in, this year.  My younger daughter got hers rescheduled for earlier in December.

I got my letter for my follow up appointment today.  It’s in the middle of November, and past my driving restrictions.  It’s not at the cancer clinic, which is not what I was expecting, given what I’ve been told until now.  I’ve been to this other clinic before with my mother.  It’s at the sane hospital, but the clinic is a separate building built in a parking lot next to the hospital.  It’s early enough in the day that I hope we will find a parking spot in what’s left of the lot around it.  I really don’t want to park blocks away and have to walk back, with still under recovery restrictions.

After going over the letter about our doctor leaving the area, my daughter looked up the clinic she is moving to.  It’s in the city.  She had thought our doctor was leaving the province or something.

The letter had numbers and instructions on how to follow her to the new clinic, which my daughter wants to do.  I would rather find a doctor that’s closer, but she is a lot more selective than I am and wants to keep seeing this doctor.   After talking about it, I told her if she’s going to stay with that doctor, then I will, too. It’s more convenient to share a doctor and we can book consecutive appointments to save trips.  She offered to pay for the gas and do the driving.  Cost if gas was another major factor.

So that got taken care of, too, with her making the calls for both of us, then bringing the phone to me only when the receptionist needed to talk to me in person. It’s not officially done, since the doctor isn’t officially there for another week or two.  We will have to pay a fee to have our files transferred, but that can be paid when we come in to sign the appropriate consent forms.  We’ll combine that with making new appointments, again just to save trips.  She didn’t know what the fee was.  Every time we’ve had to transfer files, the fee has been different.

So that is taken care of, too, as far as possible right now.

Tomorrow will be a test for me, as we do our first stock up shop since my surgery.  At the closer Walmart.  My daughter will be doing all the driving and lifting and bagging and unloading.  As good as I’m feeling, we will still bring the walker.  I was needing that for bad arthritis pain days before the surgery, anyhow.  Aside from that, my biggest issue has been my injured left rotator cuff.  I am having difficulties lifting it past a certain point, and the range of motion has become more limited.  Likely because of the temperature fluctuations.   My husband is having similar issues with his back injury being worse lately.   He’s been using his TENS machine a lot more often.  What a great investment that was!

The good thing about heading into winter with all these issues.  We are getting into “hibernation” season, and slowing down in general, anyways.  It will give all of us a forced rest and recovery time.

As long as we don’t end up having to shovel driveways.

The Re-Farmer

Garden first, and a quick run down

Before I get into an update with things, I wanted to share this adorable little guy with you.

I found this while using the rain barrel to water the garden from the rain barrel. I had taken the caps off the watering cans, just in case frogs got into the filled cans again. They are kept full so they don’t blow away. I have no idea what kind of caterpillar that is, and hope it’s beneficial. It’s quite adorable.

I also found these…

The first image is our very first fully open winter squash flower. A male flower; I don’t expect to see female flowers for a while yet. The second image is a bit hard to see, but our caraway is starting to bloom!

Today was getting hotter and I normally would have watered the garden in the morning, but the girls and I were planning to head out a couple of hours early for my older daughter’s pre-op appointment. Thankfully, I made a comment about parking at the women’s hospital when my daughter reminded me that the appointment was somewhere else entirely! I had completely forgotten! I would have taken the wrong highway into the city!

So… we took a different route and stopped briefly at a gas station in the one town along the way for drinks and some fresh potato wedges to eat along the way. My younger daughter didn’t eat at all until afterwards, as she didn’t want to get sick at the start of the trip (eating in general always makes her sick for some reason).

The clinic we went to is clear across the city, and took well over an hour to get there, but the route was straightforward and there was plenty of free parking, which was greatly appreciated. We even got there a bit early, with more than enough time for my daughter to do the “first visit” paperwork.

Her appointment went well. She needs to book another pre-op appointment, but the person wasn’t in today so she’ll have to call them tomorrow. By the time she sees this person, they should have a time and date for her surgery. She was told it should be withing 3-6 months which, for Canada, is incredibly fast. She’ll also be getting a requisition for bloodwork emailed to her, which she can get done locally.

Since we were in the city, once the appointment was done, we went to a nearby Walmart to pick up cat supplies for the inside cats, plus a few other things for ourselves. I also wanted to pick up some food for all of us. This Walmart had a Subway instead of a Walmart – nothing on the menu I could eat while driving, but my daughter was able to get a sub for herself and her sister (who stayed in the truck). I tried looking around the grocery section of the Walmart for something I could eat while driving, but there was nothing. As we left, we got more gas and I went in to pre-pay, so I could use a discount coupon, and ended up getting some beef jerky to eat on the road, once clear of the city, with my daughter to hand me pieces.

Once at home and the truck unloaded, I changed and headed out. First to do the outside cat feeding, then to water the garden. After the watering, I was able to finish weed trimming around the East yard garden beds, but was not going to stay out to do more. Too many mosquitoes, even though I had bug repellant on!

I was almost done the watering when my brother and SIL showed up for the weekend. Before I headed in for the night, I quickly popped over to say hello. I was too much of a mess to go inside and visit, so it was a short one. We caught up for a bit, then my SIL remembered she had some things for us. One turned out to be a bag of frozen meat! Some butcher’s shop sausages that they found they couldn’t eat, and a packet of venison that had been given to them, but they aren’t fond of venison. If it turns out we don’t like any of it either (I already know I’m going to enjoy the venison!), we can always give it to the cats!

Oh, after looking at the forecast, I’ve decided I will skip the market tomorrow. I don’t want the truck to be baking in the heat. Not when those high temperatures somehow seems to be causing problems with the battery – or at least has the battery gauge doing weird things! Next weekend might be just as hot but for that one we will be there until 8pm, and things will be cooling down by then.

I will definitely be watering the garden again in the morning, before things get hot. I’m hoping the grass will be dry enough before it gets too hot that I can get the push mower out, as well as more weed trimming!

We shall see what the day brings.

The Re-Farmer