Sunday Stealing

1. What did you do today?  Went to the Methodist Church at 9, then walked to the Baptist Church for their services; I enjoy going to church.  

2. Five things about where you live.  My town, Wellington, a little over one mile from my house, has less than 900 people.  When we moved here the town had a grocery store, a drug store, a hardware store, a bank, and a gas station.  All of those are gone now, but we do have a school.  A lot of the longtime residents are of German heritage.  We've lived here since 1975. 

3. What are the must-sees sights around you?  Lexington, 10 miles to our east, has the Battle of Lexington State Park, and many antebellum homes.  Thirty miles west of us, Kansas City, Missouri, has lots to offer:  The Kansas City Chiefs, the Truman Library, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, the Arabia Steamboat Museum, and so many more things to do and places to go.  Don't forget about Kansas City Barbecue!

4. What’s your favorite restaurant meal?  In Buckner, thirteen miles to our west, there is an Italian restaurant that you wouldn't expect to find in a one-horse town.  We don't go there often, but we surely do enjoy it when we do.  

5. What was the last thing you cooked or ate?  I ate some grapes when I got home from church, then had a few almonds.  That was so I wouldn't starve to death until we eat at 2 P.M.  

6. What is something you learned from your grandparents?  I learned how to make noodles at my grandmother's house.  

7. What’s the weather like as you are writing your postcard?  63 and cloudy.

8. Share an interesting fact you’ve learned, that most people are unaware of.  Interesting?  I'm afraid not.  But this morning I found out that cottonwood trees can be male or female, and the male cottonwood tree doesn't give off cotton.  

8. Are there any local events or festivals in your area?  Our town as well as the surrounding ones all have some sort of fair every year.  Of course, the high school football game is a big deal, too.  

9. What was the last concert you attended?  If you're talking about the really big concerts, I imagine the last one I attended was Green Day with one of my granddaughters.  

10. What is your favorite charitable organization?  City Union Mission in Kansas City.  

What have you traded?

A QUESTIONABLE TRADE

Donna Wood

October 29, 2022

I’m all alone in the house today

Except for the dog and cat.

My Mac computer is put away.  

I’ve a peaceful habitat

Some years ago I’d have used this time

For a muse’s visitation.

She’d guide my thoughts and help me rhyme;

We’d watch a poem’s formation.

And sometimes, I can remember well

How a tune would come to mind.

The words and the music would start to gel,

Impeccably intertwined.

I do enjoy my computer play

And the unseen friends I’ve met.

But my creativity’s gone away,

Replaced by the Internet.

Very random

My husband finally knows when he'll be getting his cochlear implant:  December 12.  Medicare insurance has approved it and both doctors, our regular one and the cardiologist, have given him the go-ahead.   However, he has missed two cardio appointments due to the fact that they remind him ahead of an appointment by text message, which he never looks at.  So he does have to go back there for a more thorough checkup.  The nurse-practitioner he saw yesterday told him he's a very unusual heart patient.  It's been eighteen years since his four-way bypass, and he hasn't had any problem except for a minor one a year or so ago.  People usually don't go that long after a heart surgery without needing something else done, like stents, for instance.  I do recall his first cardiologist telling him shortly after his surgery that he'd likely be needing something done in eight or ten years.

This morning I made some blueberry muffins from scratch.  Good stuff!  

Cliff has been skipping supper (dinner to you city folks).  He said it's getting easier now, so I'm going to start moving our noon meal (dinner) to around 2 PM.  That way he won't have so long to go without eating.  I quit eating anything after 4:30 some time ago, but I do sometimes eat some fruit or nuts or something before I start my nighttime fast.  I eat all I want at our dinner, though, and often more than I should.  So far I seem to be staying at my same weight.

We did some shopping yesterday, since we were in Blue Springs for the cardiologist anyway.  The shortage of the week was cream, apparently.  Neither Aldi or Walmart had cream in the coolers.  These days I never know what the stores will be missing on my list.

After reading five David Rosenfelt books, I finally got a book I've had on hold for a long time:  Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez.  I'm liking it so far.

I don't usually listen to music in the morning, but something made me think of Aretha Franklin today; so I put Alexa to work for about an hour by making her play Aretha songs.  I didn't pay attention to all the lyrics, but I sure enjoyed her sound in the background.  I'll bet that woman never sang a sour note in her life.

Speaking of Alexa, she has started answering me back without her name being called again.  Here's how it goes:  I say, "Alexa, what's the weather for today?"  She tells me, and then I say, "Thank you," and she comes back immediately with "You're welcome."  It won't be long before she takes over the whole house; if that happens, she had better be cleaning house for me.

And now I have you wondering about me thanking a device, right?  Hey, I do it all the time.  I don't get out much, and it entertains me.

It's going to be a boring weekend:  Our Kansas City Chiefs aren't playing.

If you've managed to read this far, you've realized you wasted five minutes of your life you'll never get back.     

Peace.      

Getting the bugs out

Tis the season when the Asian Lady Beetles become a plague to all of us who live in or near soybean fields.  They can find ways to get inside most any older home, where they hide in cracks and crevices; a few come out every once in awhile when the house is warmed by sunshine or furnace.  These are not the cute little ladybugs I played with in my mother's garden.  If you scare them, they stink.  They will also bite.  They will get on your clothes and in your hair outside, and hitchhike into your house.

However, we are finally having genuine autumn weather, after getting almost two inches of rain Saturday.  Highs in the 50's and 60's, lows in the 30's and 40's.  I imagine when the sun shines brightly in the afternoon there will still be some of those bugs trying to get inside, but it won't be as bad as when it was 80 last week.

For a long time the story about how the Asian Lady Beetles arrived here was that they were introduced to the U.S. deliberately, to eat aphids that hurt soybean production.  Now it's thought that a lot of them probably traveled here with freight coming from Asia; this makes sense, because the little critters do like to get in tight places and hide.  I imagine both stories of their travels are correct.

Speaking of bugs, I took Blue the cat to visit the veterinarian yesterday.  He's had an ongoing ear-mite problem.  A long time back I stopped by and got some medicine from the animal doctor.  The instructions on the bottle said to put three drops in each ear twice a day, for three weeks.  I could never remember to keep it going for that long, so he'd get better for awhile, then eventually come back shaking his head and scratching his ears.  Our old Mama Kitty, who is totally an outside cat, has had trouble with mites for years; in fact, she doesn't want anyone even touching her head.  There's no way I could treat her anyhow, because she is a little wild.  I knew I could give her one treatment, but then I probably wouldn't be able to touch her for a long time.  And that's a problem because Blue sleeps with her at night, so he''d catch them from her again even if I got him free of them.

So I told the doctor my problem and received good news:  There is a solution for me, a one-time dose of stuff that works.  He treated Blue, and gave me the same thing to bring home and use on Mama Kitty.  She won't know what to think, with all those crawling little mites out of her head after so many years!  The vet showed me on a screen what it looks like inside Blue's ears, magnified many times.  It was like a hundred bugs crawling around like crazy!  Poor Blue, my ears started itching just watching that.  I also had him worm the cat.  He will always have some worms, the vet says, because he's outdoors so much and eats all manner of mice and moles; however, he said it would be good to just worm him once a year.  Mama Kitty has never been wormed in her life, but she seems fine without that.  I'm sure her teeth are bad, but that costs more than I intend to pay; and she still seems to enjoy her life and eat heartily.  

I guess I'll get my vacuum and get rid of some more of those Asian Lady Beetles that have sneaked into my house the past few days.

How much fun can one woman have?

Rainy days make me think about old times

I don't think much about my high school years, but it's the time of year when I sink into ennui as I kiss summer and spring goodbye, and today I landed in my 10th-grade (I think) psychology class.  If anybody remembered me from high school except for my two cousins, I'd be surprised.  I pretended to be invisible, walking from class to class wishing I was out of school.

I remember a couple of teachers fondly, but lately have been thinking about a psychology teacher I barely recall.  I don't even know his name, but he was liked, I think, by most students and had a great sense of humor.  He had some books he wanted us to read for his class.  I don't know if there was a list to choose from or perhaps he just told us about the two we were to read, but after all these years, I remember a lot about both the books I read.

One was "The Natural Superiority of Women", which must have been ahead of its time, considering it was first released in 1953.  It was written by a man, Dr. Ashley Montagu.  I read it, I suppose, in 1960.  I liked it just fine, and still recall some of the things I learned from that book, which is now out of print.

The other book was "The Hidden Persuaders", by Vance Packard, published in 1957. and it's still available on Kindle.  It explains how advertisers manipulate consumers without them even realizing it, although I like to think these days we are a little wiser.  For instance, when toothpaste was advertised on TV, it shows a strip of toothpaste as long as the brush part of the toothbrush, so that's how much everyone used, when all that's really needed is a little dot of it on the brush.  Think of all the toothpaste that was needlessly used!

The only thing I remember about the teacher himself is that he sort of hinted that he had become an atheist, but did it in such a way he couldn't possibly get in trouble.  He was actually having a conversation with all of us, and something was said about Baptists; I don't know what it was, but certainly nothing negative, or I'd recall it.  At some point in the context of what he was saying, he said, "My wife married a Baptist."  Whatever else was said, I don't know; but I thought to myself, "He doesn't believe in God."  Somehow I guess I thought atheists had to be terrible people, and this was a teacher I really admired.  

My goodness, I haven't thought about all this in over fifty years!

I have atheist friends on Facebook now, all very nice people... although some of them like to make fun of Christians.  It took me a while to realize we must live and let live to get along in this world. 

I don't argue religion with anyone.  I will confess to you that I believe in God, and I find my peace in Jesus.  I love the Bible.  But I will not try to change your beliefs.  You can't force such things on people, and it often just makes folks dislike both the messenger and the message.  

As for my sweet atheist friends... just pat me on my silly head as you go by, and remember I'm harmless.

I just read this and thought, "I'll bet people will wonder how on earth I got on this train of thought; this blog entry is all over the place!

Peace.

bye-bye, garden (and Cliff's cochlear implant approaches)

Thursday when we heard there was a hard freeze coming, I went out to see if there was anything I wanted to bring in.  My first thought was the turnips; about 90% of the seeds hadn't made turnips, although they had produced lots of greens; unfortunately, I don't care for turnip greens.  However, the other 10% or so of the seeds made good-sized turnips, the sweetest-tasting I have ever had.

Next, with Cliff's help, we dug up the very few sweet potatoes.  Moles or mice had ruined some of the largest ones, and there was only one sweet potato for each plant for the most part.  They are delicious, though... they just didn't have enough water to form and grow.

There were six or seven beets, huge ones.  I made pickled beets out of some of those huge ones several days ago, and they are delicious.  Those big ones weigh over a pound.  

Having rescued the below-ground crops, I picked a few ripe and almost-ripe tomatoes, small though they were.  Then I picked quite a few green ones.  I might make some fried green tomatoes, but my real intention was to let them ripen in the house, because they'll still be better than those plastic-like tomatoes I buy in the store. 

So that's the end of the garden, at least for this year.

I think the time is getting near for Cliff to get the cochlear implant (receiver/transmitter) put inside his head near his right ear.  Then for about a month, he will be totally deaf.  I'd better buy a couple of notebooks for us to write to one another!  The doctor said he might notice his tinnitus even more during that time, since that will be all he can "hear".  Tinnitus, as you may know, is not genuine sound, but is caused by certain damaged nerves fooling you.  

Anyway, he has to see our regular doctor Thursday to find out if he's well enough for the surgery.  It isn't a big deal as surgeries go, and he will likely come home the same day.  It should be scheduled after Medicare okays it and Cliff is cleared for the surgery.

We are so hoping it lets him hear again.

If you want to know more about the procedure, you'll find information HERE.

the second and third day

We woke up early Saturday.  Cliff still wasn't breathing very well, and I suggested we just head back home.  He refused, saying he was alright.

So we ate breakfast at the motel and headed west again.  We still had 1/3 of Kansas to cover; in some ways Kansas is boring, but we found things to talk about and make the time pass.  Someone very smart decided Kansas is the perfect place to place a million wind turbines.  OK, I just looked it up, and it's only 3,500.  Seemed like more to me, but what do I know?  Anyway, there aren't many people living in the middle of Kansas, so not many people have the view from their windows ruined.  When we first went to Iowa and saw those things, I felt like the state of my childhood had been ruined; who wants to look at that every day?

However, it is sort of a novelty, something to talk about besides the feedlots and oil wells you see in Kansas.  Cliff is fascinated by how things work and how things are made, so he was curious about all aspects of wind turbines.  So when we found our motel in Hays, we sat together on the couch in our room with my computer between us and watched a documentary on how the turbines are made and set up.  It was more information than I would have wanted, but I learned some things; and it was kinda nice, the two of us sitting shoulder to shoulder watching it.

From Hays, we drove clear to Boulder, Colorado.  Don't even ask me about the traffic!  We've driven through St. Louis and Atlanta, but this was nothing we could have imagined.  It was about 3 P.M. and we were starved, so this time we chose Cracker Barrel.  Would you believe the food was even worse than Applebee's? I kid you not.  

We began looking at motels and found out a lot of them were already at the "no vacancy" stage.  So in order to have someplace to sleep, we ended up in a not-so-savory part of town with the smallest, most pathetic motel room we've ever paid over a hundred dollars for.  I can only think of one worse experience with a motel.

I woke up around midnight and Cliff was out of bed, sitting on the one chair provided us.  His stomach was upset from what we'd eaten at Cracker Barrel, and he was having trouble breathing while lying down; he had no choice but to sit in that chair the rest of the night.  

When I got up Sunday, I informed him we were going home.  He didn't do too much protesting.  I told him it was time to cut our losses or we'd be going from bad to worse.  He didn't argue with that, and we loaded up and started home Sunday morning.  Oh, by the way... the motel in Hays had called us after we had driven about 150 miles toward Colorado to tell us we had left a plastic bag of stuff behind.  Cliff's prescriptions were in that bag!  I told the lady we'd be back in a couple of days.  I guess it didn't hurt him to go without his statins, his pill for asthma (we did have his inhalers with us) and his blood pressure meds.

We were in Hays again about 2:30, starving again, so after we got our stuff we left at the motel, I suggested Taco Bell; I hadn't eaten there in years, but at least it was something we both liked.  That didn't turn out so well either.  There was at least a twenty minute wait, and the burritos had barely been warmed up.  They tasted alright, but give me a break!  As we ate, Cliff started griping about the dirty floor in the kitchen.  

"How long would it take somebody to get a broom and sweep that mess up?"  

All the employees there were teenagers, but they moved slower than molasses in January.  Cliff then realized our tiny table wasn't on the level and discussed that situation, as well as the fact there wasn't a clean table in the place.  As he pointed out all the problems of the establishment, his voice got louder and louder; since his hearing is almost non-existent, he doesn't realize he's talking so loud, and I put my finger up to my mouth to let him know.  At that point, somehow we got tickled at the whole situation and started laughing.  Sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from crying or killing somebody.

When we departed Hays, I found a radio station that was broadcasting the Chiefs game, so the trip home went pretty fast.  However, one station would fizzle out when we put too much distance between us and I'd have to find a closer one.  Of course, when I had to hunt another station, it was always when something exciting was happening.  The Chiefs lost, but it seems to me they were doing a good job of playing, anyhow.  After all, they were up against the best team there is, this year.

So that's the story.  Home never looked so good, my cooking never tasted so good, and Cliff is breathing.  

End of story.   

Interrupted Road Trip

We have talked about going to Colorado again for weeks, but with our doctor appointments and all (mostly Cliff's appointments), we kept putting it off.  Cliff is finally making some headway toward his cochlear implant and has to go to our regular doctor next Thursday to make sure he's up to the surgery.  The weather is getting cold, and before long Colorado will be getting snow.  Cliff said, "Why don't we just go tomorrow and come home Wednesday?"

So with no planning at all, we packed our bags.  Friday A.M. we got in the car, dropped Gabe off at Bed and Bones, and headed out.  Cliff's asthma has been acting up, but he said he figured if he's just driving a car and not doing much of anything that's an effort, he'd be fine.  He hadn't slept well the night before we left, so he said we'd probably just go halfway or so and get a motel Friday night. 

We landed in Hays, Kansas around 1:30 P.M. and checked into a hotel suite, so we'd have more than one chair to sit in.  I hate trying to watch television from bed!  Cliff noticed an Applebee's across the street and wanted to go there for some unknown reason.  He ordered a meal; I simply ordered a chicken quesadilla appetizer.  He had wanted a nice meal, but you  really don't get that at Applebee's in my opinion.  My appetizer was OK.  

Hays is a thriving, busy town of almost 21,000 people.  Our grandson had been there once and gone to the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, and thought we might enjoy it.  We were really impressed by the displays, and even the live frogs, turtles, and snakes there; however, we can't walk much more than an hour before our legs start hurting; I would have loved to stay longer, but I can only put up with the knee pain for so long, and Cliff isn't in much better shape.  I'll add some pictures from the museum and be back tomorrow with the rest of our road trip story.

This depicts Sternberg excavating the "fish within a fish" in Gove County, Kansas, in 1952.  Imagine a time when an ocean covered Kansas.

.... To  be continued

Sunday Stealing

SUNDAY STEALING

1. You are walking down the road and you look down. There is a bug. Do you step on it?  I don't make a big deal of trying not to step on it, but I wouldn't purposely step on a bug crawling on the ground.  Why bother? 

2. What is one fantasy that you want to come true more than any other?  That people and countries could get along.  Not that I think that will ever happen.   

3. Someone knocks on your door. Do you look out the window to see who it is before you open it? Do you open it regardless of who it is?  We don't get many door knockers.  We're in a rural area, and from the road, nobody can see our trailer house; it's behind a barn.  But if someone does knock on the door, I just open it.  No surprises so far. 

4. Have you ever eaten Play-Doh?  We didn't have play-Doh when I was a child... just plain old clay.  I probably licked it at some time or other, since I recall licking glue of that old-fashioned glue that looked like it had a nipple on it when I was 5 or 6; I even remember how awful it tasted; it had some sweetness to it, but it was horrible.  And yet, I think I licked it more that once.  That was back at Skinner School in Iowa, around 1950.  

5. What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon as a child?  We didn't have a television until I was 13 years old, and even then, I don't recall watching cartoons.  When my mom took me to the movies, though, I liked Bugs Bunny cartoons.

6. Are you a people watcher?  Sometimes, in a crowd where there's nothing else to do.  But in a shopping situation I don't look at people and hope they don't look at me. 

7. I have a bowl of fruit. There are apples, oranges & pears. You help yourself to one. Which one do you choose?  I like oranges (if they're sweet) and pears, but in this situation I'd take the pear because I wouldn't want to have to peel the orange. 

8. What is your biggest pet peeve in the blogging world?  I don't think I have a pet peeve in the blogging world.

9. What was the last really funny movie you watched?  I don't watch many funny movies.  One of my favorite movies is "Little Big Man", and I love the humor in that one, although in many ways it's a serious movie.

10. What word do you use far too often?  I'm sure I use some, but I need somebody to tell me what they are.  In blogging, I have to watch myself or I'll use "and" too much, when I should make a new sentence. 

11. How long do you spend in the shower?  No idea, but no longer than I have to. 

12. What is something that you've never done that you secretly are dying to do?  I'd like to take a few group bus trips to places I've never seen.

13. Your favorite flavor of soup is….?  If we're talking canned soup,  
it would be Campbell's Soup made with milk, not water.  I guess my favorite that I make from scratch is hamburger soup, being sure to add cabbage and barley with the other ingredients.

14. You are sitting on a bench in the park and a bug walks in front of your feet….  As long as it isn't bothering me, like an ant crawling up my leg or a fly that's landing on me, why bother?

I got this quiz from Sunday Stealing.

It was cool inside this morning

Our propane tank was still almost half full Thursday when the truck came out and filled it up.  I'm glad it wasn't nearly empty, because propane is $2.15 per gallon, making it $236 for the 110 gallon they put in the tank.  This morning I turned the furnace on because when I got out of bed, the temperature in the house was 62.  

I'm hardly even going out to the garden lately.  I tried to dig my sweet potatoes, but couldn't even get that done.  All I got was a couple of sweet potatoes and several dirt/sand clods the size of my head.  I did, however, find some late-planted beets that I had given up on because very few of them came up.  However, I found out the few that survived were big, some over a pound; so I made some Harvard beets.  I also pickled some beets to keep in the refrigerator and eat in the next few days.  We received some free cabbages recently, so I boiled one, drained it, and then buttered it.  To fill out the meal, I found enough green tomatoes to fry.  The grandson walked over and asked if we had anything for him to eat, and I laughed.  He isn't terribly picky, but I had managed to cook three things he doesn't like:  Fried green tomatoes, cabbage, and beets.  However, there was a full serving of the beef stew we'd had the previous two days, so he didn't starve.

It's a beautiful fall day outside, and here we sit, Cliff and I, watching some pretty good pro football on Hulu/NFL.  I have two good books to read, and I'm watching football.  I never thought such a thing would happen to me.  After church tomorrow I'll do my reading, since the Chiefs don't play until Monday Night.    

Oh, by the way:  after we had watched one-and-a-half games, I found out those games were played last week!  Only college games are ever on Saturday.  Oh well, we hadn't watched them, so they were new to us.  I'm sure we had them recorded on Hulu, but Cliff hadn't watched either one yet.  We're still getting used to streaming services.

Other than this stuff, I have nothing to report except that Cliff has an appointment on the Plaza at St. Luke's Hospital, something having to do the cochlear implant.  I suppose that's where he'll have the operation, but we don't know when that will be yet.  And we're still thinking about a possible road trip before winter takes hold.

I've been trying to get all the dirty summer clothes and sheets washed to put them in the trunks for winter.  The flannel sheets are now on the bed, and my skimpy nighties have been switched for winter pajamas.  The washing machine has been going most of the day.

Blue and Gabe, saying goodbye for me.

cats and forgotten blog entries

Blue the cat got into a new predicament today. I let him come inside this morning and he went through his usual routine: He got a drink from the dog's water bowl, went to his scratching post and gave it a fit, then went on a tour of the house, as he always does, just to see that nothing has changed. However, he didn't come out of the main bedroom for quite awhile. Finally, he managed to come to the kitchen looking quite disgusted. Cliff had put one of those sticky-pad things under his bed to catch spiders, and Blue had stepped on it, so he was dragging that with him. He came right to me, knowing I'm the one who always saves him. What a time I had, pulling that gooey thing off him! When I finally got it off his feet, it was sticking to my fingers and I had a time getting it to stay in the trash.

Blue spent the next ten minutes licking his sticky feet, then wanted to go outside. I guess he's decided it isn't safe in here.

Yesterday I got an email letting me know someone had made a comment on a blog entry I did in 2007. My settings won't let anybody comment on an old entry because spammers often leave comments with links, trying to further whatever their cause is. If it's a genuine comment from a real person, of course I allow the comment onto my blog. The person left just enough information to make me curious. Here's what he wrote: "His name was Gale Howard. He passed away recently. I'm his kid. He was a lovely man even though I only knew him briefly. Thank you for this."

I can't imagine how he (or she) happened onto that blog entry, since it didn't have the man's name in it.  Perhaps she googled "Napoleon Elevator" and found it that way.  The entry I'm talking about is THIS ONE, about one of my many adventures riding my horse around the countryside.

I've had several comments like this where someone googled their way onto my blog.  After the Twin Towers attack on 9/11, I was part of a project where people found out things about some of those who died, and wrote stories about some of them.  I did this for several years, and when 9/11 comes around, I usually get a lot of traffic to those entries.  Some of them have commented, thanking me for keeping memories of their friend or family member alive, so people know they existed.

And now I'm going to google Gale Howard and see what I can find out about him.

P.S.  I found his very brief obituary HERE.

Now, where was I?

Seems I've neglected blogging for a few days.  Nothing much going on around here, but usually I can at least make up something.  We had what was, for us, a busy weekend.  

Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for Cliff's older sister and had a lot of good barbecue done by her son, as well as several other dishes that made it a full meal.  The cake was good, too.  Sunday as soon as I got out of church, we went to Peculiar, Missouri, to visit one of Cliff's nephews.  He had built a shed he wanted Cliff to see.  His mom, our former sister-in-law, was there, and we all had a good visit, especially after his wife got home from her nursing job.  We really had a good time at both places, but like a typical introvert, I had dreaded going to both places... however, I lived through it and thrived!

We enjoyed the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football, since they won the game in grand style; they seem to have improved their offense this year. 

We are thinking about a road trip before long.  First we thought about going to Colorado for a three-day stay.  Then this morning I remembered the trip to Nashville that we were going to make when Covid hit and destroyed our plans.  Cliff, I think, would probably rather go to Colorado, but says all he wants to do is make me happy.  So I have to make up my mind before long.  Poor Gabe is going to think we don't love him anymore, taking him to Bed and Bones so often.  

Who knows, we may not go anyplace.  I've been known to change my mind at the drop of a hat these days.

Oh, we both went and got our covid boosters as well as the flu shot, so we're ready for the winter season in that regard... at least as ready as anyone can be.