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Although Jack’s still on his vet-required-no-walk-time and couldn’t come with me, I got to see another beautiful sunrise this morning.
As usual, I came home, fed Jack his breakfast, and then it was play time.
Except it wasn’t. Jack didn’t want to play. He didn’t seem to be feeling well. Since he’d scratched his ears a few times last night, I decided it couldn’t hurt to use the vet’s medicated ear wash again. His left ear came out clean as a whistle, but sure enough, his right ear didn’t. Jack’s in the process of re-developing an ear infection. As the day went on, his lack of energy and general no-spirit behavior told me he felt like crap. Although I don’t take animal’s temps, I could tell from his belly that if he had a fever it wasn’t bad. And I’m a firm believer in giving temps at least a day to do what they’re designed to do anyway, which is kill off the bad guys trying to attack us. Still, I feel bad for the little guy, and this makes it a not-good day.
A few hours later, look what the mailman brought me…
…two cones of lavender silk for EK’s weft! Within a matter of minutes I’d turned those cones into the first 7 bobbins so I could start weaving immediately.
The fabric for me chair cushions can wait!
Today I took Jack to the vet. He sometimes limps/favors his right front leg, and although I couldn’t feel anything wrong, I wanted the vet to check it out. Here’s what I learned.
She was immediately concerned about his good eye, didn’t like the way it looked. So she numbed it and did some tests. There is some scarring on the eye in 2 different places, indicating that there were previous ‘ulcers’ (I think that just means infections; I should have asked but I was sort of in shock.) She hopes that it’s simply a result of his prior mistreatment and not an indication of an underlying problem that caused both infections. Yeah, me too. “Be sure to watch that closely,” she tells me.
Then she noticed that he has oily fur. Yes, I noticed that, too, and is a bit stinky, but just figured it was Jack, perhaps compounded by what has to be some anxiety with all the changes he’s been through. No, probably not, the vet says. It’s an indication of either a yeast or bacterial infection. So give him a bath once/week with prescription shampoo, and leave the shampoo on for 10 minutes before you rinse it out. The yeast/bacterial infection could be a result of his prior situation and the many issues he had (outrageous fleas, the eye infection, and ear infection, and, if I remember correctly without going to look up his papers, worms), or it could be an allergy, such as a food allergy. Either of those are certainly possible and neither are too difficult to deal with.
His ears look good now, but because of his prior ear infection and the fact that I need to give him all those baths, I have to use some special cleanser to clean his ears after every bath, too.
SO glad he’s so easy-going and gentle!
Regarding his limping, that could be a result of his “unusual confirmation” as the vet called it. Clearly he’s not a common mix of breeds, and who really knows what he is, anyway. But the fact that he has these huge front legs and feet, very stout bone structure, and is long and low may just cause discomfort with all the walking he’s been doing. So the treatment? 3 days of an anti-inflammatory and NO walks for a week. Then build up VERY SLOWLY. So I’ll be doing solo walks again, at least for a while.
I have consciously decided against routine preventive treatment for worms and fleas/ticks for my dogs for many years. Partly because they’re quite costly, partly because of my previous isolated, rural environment, partly because these meds have negative side effects, too, and generally shorten a dog’s life span. However in this case, given Jack’s history of, and apparently current, immuno-compromised position, I’m going to go with both meds for a while. He’ll only need the Frontline for another month or 2 anyway-once we have a good hard freeze we can quit for the winter. In the spring I’ll decide if we’ll pick that up again, and if we’ll continue the worm treatment.
I feel really badly for this little guy. His troubles aren’t over yet. At least now he’ll get good treatment, and I’ll do everything I can to get and keep him healthy.
I did finish weaving LY’s wrap this afternoon, and tomorrow will get serious about weaving fabric for my chair cushions. Plus, since today’s October 1 I plugged in my Halloween lights. With just a few more inches they’d complete the route around my window. No big deal.
It’s taken me 3 days of chipping away at it between other tasks, but I now have 160″ of LY’s custom baby wrap woven. The natural cotton weft makes such a difference in the value of those warp colors; I really like it. Only about 40″ to go. So I plan to finish it tomorrow, at which point we’ll be waiting for the silk for EK’s weft, LY’s wrap sister, to come in.
I’ve got some good ideas for the chair cushions. As soon as I finish LY’s wrap I’ll check out my stash to see if it lends itself more to one design or another. I WILL NOT buy more yarn for these seat cushions!
Meanwhile, I think I have my living room done. Except for curtains. The prior owner had mini blinds on all but the studio windows, which is great. They function. But they don’t exactly give a soft look. So one of these days/years I may add curtains, or replace the blinds with curtains. Maybe I’ll even weave curtains in a very open lace pattern or transparencies. See why it might take years?
So what did I finish? A few weeks ago I bought this (what I think is) attractive storage bench. It’s a very similar color to the 2 small tables in that room, and serves 3 functions: extra seating, storage, and, when I’m sitting in that chair, a place to set my tea cup. It had to be assembled and was a pain, but it all worked out in the end.
But what took more time was figuring out what I wanted on that wall. I tried a few things. In the end, it all started with the large image, a drawing of my husband that was made in 1989. (I struggled with lighting, and had to choose between flash bulbs glare on the pictures or sun reflection on them.) I hung it on a hook that was already in the wall. What would I put around it? I started photo by photo. First was the 3 pictures on the right side. Of course, I had to buy some frames so they were all black and created a unified look. I’m committed to using Command hooks, and had to hang one photo at a time so I could decide on the specific placement of the subsequent one. That meant an hour between each photo (Command’s instructions)…more since I was doing other things in between and would forget to go back and hang the picture.
Then it clearly needed something on the left, in different shapes. I had to spend quite a bit of time looking for things that I thought would work. The bigger image is one of my kids when they were little – like about 3 and 6. Underneath that is a collage frame with 4 small photos from when I was little. Me and my 2 sisters, me and my sisters and mom, mom and dad, mom and dad and other relatives. First I had to get my sister to email me the digital images, then I had to get them printed, then, of course, back to the store for more black frames and more Command picture hanging strips. More deciding and waiting. I’m happy with the general placement, but I do want to replace some of the photos on the right with more current ones, and have plenty of space on the right to add more pix over time.
Completely unrelated, the grass is starting to grow in my backyard. And the sparrows and starlings can’t stay away. I don’t know if they’re eating grass seed or grass shoots, but especially in the afternoon, my yard is alive with small birds. I’ve tried getting a good image of them, but taking pix through a window screen provides pretty poor quality.
Where does the day go? Yesterday was so productive. Today? It’s after 2PM and I’ve spent all day on my butt. Doing things that are important and not fun.
- Balancing 4, yes 4, checkbooks: 1 personal and 1 business account at the old bank, 1 personal and 1 business account at the new bank. I’ll be really happy when all my deposits go into the new bank and I can close the accounts at the old bank.
- Making an appointment for an energy audit. It’s free and can only provide me with helpful information. I may or may not be able to implement their suggestions to reduce my energy usage this year, but I won’t know what’s recommended if I don’t get the audit.
- Calling 2 roofers to get them to come out and give me estimates on replacing my roof. I may or may not be able to do it till spring, but again, I won’t know what kind of cost I’m looking at if I don’t ask. I’m going to have them give me 2 prices, 1 for shingles and 1 for a metal roof. I’m hoping I can do the latter. If these prices are something I can do this year, I’ll get a 3rd estimate just to be sure.
- Talking to the really nice man from Birchcrest who came to look at my window. A pebble from the grinding clearly made a ‘ding’ in one of my studio thermopane windows. Birchcrest is used to dealing with problems and will take care of this one. (Sure glad I washed my windows yesterday or may not have noticed this for months, when it would have been too late to take care of it.)
- Calling the window company that installed the relatively new windows in most of the house for a repair/replacement. One of the windows that I washed yesterday wasn’t just dirty, it’s clearly cloudy, and since it’s still under warranty, now’s the time to get it fixed.
- Entering bills paid and checks received into Quickbooks for my business. How is it possible I hadn’t done this since May??!! So needless to say, a PITA to catch it all up.
Now I can FINALLY sit down at the loom. But first I have to wash those sliding glass doors!
For the past 2 days I’ve felt rather slug-like. Didn’t accomplish much, sat & read a bit, and honestly, I have no idea what else I did. Today was a different story.
I got up this morning and did my yoga, then went for a 3-mile walk with Jack. We get to see some really stunning sunrises on these walks.
I used to prefer doing my walk first and then yoga, but Jack insists that we play as soon as he’d had his breakfast, which is immediately after walking. Play and yoga do not go well together.
Then I did my typical Sunday morning routine, which is do a bit of contracted computer work and call my dear friend in West Virginia, often talking for 45 minutes or more.
Next I decided to do hang the little yellow & orange lights I’d bought to go around my bay window for Halloween. No intention of lighting them yet, I just wanted to get the new Command clips up and the lights hung while the weather was nice. After all, yesterday I’d made and hung a fall wreath on my front door, so I was in the mode.
By then it was time to walk down to the local fire department for their chicken barbecue – about a mile round trip. I love a good chicken barbecue and have been sorely disappointed at the last few I tried before I moved. This one was good. Not great, but totally acceptable.
Fully nourished, I decided to tackle window washing. Just get a few of the windows done while the weather was nice. I got into the job and did 7 windows before I ran out of paper towels. I like using newspaper, but I don’t subscribe and therefore don’t have any. So I decided to walk to Rite Aid and buy more paper towels as well as a few other things I needed. There’s another 1.8 miles round trip.
Back home I got all the rest of the windows washed inside and out – all 16 of them – but only because I really pushed myself at the end. I realized that I didn’t get to the sliding glass doors, but I couldn’t make myself do it today. It won’t take long tomorrow, and by then my back will be rested and I’ll just get it done.
I don’t feel like a slug today!
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