Happy Birthday, Bob!

I will always love you!

 

Merry Christmas

 From all of us at The Pink House!  And boy is it cold here!!!  Brrrrr....

The Ripley Saga

 My little family has been keeping me on my toes. 

I bought this rug for the room where I fell and broke my hand.
Used to be just bare wood.
Ripley, who normally doesn't like "new" things in the house,
has claimed it as his own.

 Late in October, Ripley walked across the room and something caught my eye. His back legs (which are white) looked, ah, brown? I caught up with him and indeed, both his legs were stained with something -- poop? or...? I first tried to wash it off with a wet cloth, didn't work, so wasn't poop. Upon further examination I started to worry it was dried blood. Whatever it was, he needed to be cleaned up.

So into the kitchen sink went Ripley for a warm sitz bath. Now if you have every tried to bathe a cat, you know what a feat that can be. He struggled and cried as I gently scrubbed him with Mane and Tail shampoo and soft natural sponge. We both were soaked. Still I didn't see anywhere he was bleeding.

As I started to pull him out of the water to towel him off, he grabbed onto my head. With his claws. Into my scalp. 

So there I am, wet cat stuck on my head. Bleeding. Pulling out one paw, only to have the other grip on tighter. Pulling the other out, only to have his "free" paw latch into my scalp again. Finally, bleeding, in pain and exhausted I just let him go without drying him off. He fled.

I made an emergency appointment with his doctor. He had one scheduled for Nov. 12, but I didn't want to wait that long worried something was seriously wrong with him. (Internal bleeding?)

He is a totally different cat in the doctor's mobile clinic. They pull him out of his crate, plop him on the stainless steel table and he just goes limp. Sort of melts into the table, tail and feet tucked under him, flat as a 17 lb. furry pancake. They poke and prod and he just lets them go at it. The doctor always remarks what "an easy relaxed kitty" he is -- yeah right. She finds a wound on his back thigh, hidden under all that fluffy fur, where he has been licking which caused the bleeding.

After a thorough exam and x-rays, turns out he has severe arthritis in his back legs and hips. Doctor said a cat will lick where it hurts. She gives him an injection of a new drug called Solensia for arthritis pain in cats. She draws blood which was due. Gives me a wound cleaning kit which I have to do twice a day for a week. And $900+ later we are done. (That was my birthday.) 

Blood tests come back and his T4's are too high. (He has hyperthyroidism.) She tells me to double the dose, which means a larger pill. Now he was taking his pills nicely, hidden in cheese, but these are bigger and now he's refusing. Every morning is a struggle of shoving a pill down his throat. He starts hiding from me in the mornings. Waiting for me to leave the kitchen before he'll come out for breakfast. For some reason, he will eat the evening pill in the cheese but not the morning pill. I tell you, I was thinking I need a cat whisperer to figure him out.

Finally, I tried giving his morning pill on the couch instead of in the kitchen. Now, every morning I cover the pill in cheese, bring out his special cheese plate, set in on the couch and he will eat it there, but not in kitchen. I, of course, have to watch him like a hawk so he actually eats the pill and also so Kona doesn't steal the cheese.

He had a recheck last week. Good news, his T4 is back in normal range. Good news, the Solensia seems to be working, he's actually playful again! Bad news, that Solensia shot needs to be given monthly by a doctor. It's not cheap. But then, he is worth it.

The Kona Saga will be next..... stay tuned.

Found at the Foot of my Back Gate...

 Bob used to do a wonderfully funny Kermit The Frog impersonation....

Made me smile.

Finally A Blue Pool

 So the pool is filled and blue again! I'm glad I spent the extra money for the blue surface as it does look good... 

I had picked out two different surfaces one called "Bluestone" and the other "Aqua White" and when the company rep brought over samples I was shocked to see that "Bluestone" looked white and "Aqua White" looked blue under the water...  He said the Bluestone would only look blue on a sunny day as it reflected the blue sky....  I bit the bullet and ordered the Aqua White which actually looks blue on a cloudy day but was a bit more expensive.

Meanwhile, a young guy in a Hawaiian shirt and an Elvis hair-do showed up to start the chemical balancing of the pool. He told me that I need to "brush" the pool surface twice a day for the next 25 days. Huh? This was news to me.

He explained I needed to use the brush attachment on my leaf basket and sweep the floor and walls of the pool to clean off any "construction residue" and if I didn't do this twice daily, the surface could become stained and ruined.

So I did. For two weeks, I'm out there with the long handled brush trying to sweep the entire pool twice a day. No easy feat. First because I'm only 5'4" so it's hard to reach way down at the 6 foot end. Second, that brush is heavy under the water! Third, there are so many curves in the walls that are hard to reach that I nearly fell in a couple of times. Daily my back was aching, my arms were hurting and my hand (the one I broke) was cramping on me. After two weeks of this, I called the company rep one morning and told him I couldn't do it anymore, it was too hard. I started crying on the phone. I am not proud of that.

But he stopped me short. "What?" I explained what the Hawaiian shirt clad Elvis told me. He said, "No, no, no. You don't have to do that at all. We acid washed the pool and cleaned it already." He then explained that several other plaster companies do not acid wash the pool surface and in that case you do have sweep the pool, but this was not our case. And added, "Don't listen to anything he says, just nod and smile and talk to me."

Thank god.

Still can't use the pool until the chemical balancing is done. Then it's a month without salt. I will be glad when things are back to normal.

Almost Done!

 The pool project is proceeding:

Applying the new plaster

Finish coat done.

Acid washing the surface

After they acid washed the pool, I went out to ask the guys what the schedule was now and I was told they would start filling the pool. I asked if after the pool was filled if I should turn the system on. The guy said, "I don't know, call the company." I said, "Um, you're the company." and he says, "No, I mean the person in charge." I said, "I'm in charge." "No, the company you hired." I said, "I hired you guys." "Directly?" "Yes." He was floored. He said, "How did you find us?" I told him I googled "pool finishers near me" and their name popped up. He told me I was lucky as they normally work through contractors. And I guess I am lucky. Otherwise I would have been paying much more if a middleman was involved....  For once, I made the right decision, hey!

So the pool began to fill.

The guy told me to let it go all night.... 

An orb floating above the pool.... Bob watching?

I was up all night checking it! Finally filled by 7 a.m. the next morning. Now we are down to chemical testing for the next three weeks or so....

Meanwhile, I have to deal with this starting tonight:

Damn, I thought we were done with these storms.... 

Pool Renovation Day 2

 

By the end of first day, the old surface is gone....

On Day 2, the coating begins....

And now it cures....


Yes, this is a BIG Project!

And It Begins

Started the major pool repair today. 

Draining the pool

 

You can see the cracking on the sun shelf.

The stripping of the surface begins...

I tell you, this is making me sick, but it needs to be done.... The company who installed the pool is out of business and they evidently didn't prepare the surface properly which is why it is cracking after only 6 years.... frustrating.

Happy Halloween!

 Creeping visitors on my trail cam this Halloween.....  including a rare black possum!

Sick as a Dog

Sorry Kona....

But I've spent the last few weeks wondering if I was going to live or die. Barely able to keep chicken broth down. Lost 20 lbs. (not a bad thing, that.) 

Finally feeling better. Though still not 100%.

I think it's mostly stress induced from the storm anxiety and my pets not doing well, plus add my fireplace "blowing" in the power surge after being without power during the storm and my swimming pool now scheduled for a $10,000 repair.

Keeping positive has been difficult. I do try. I tell myself things could be worse.... isn't that always the truth?

Lessons Learned from Ian

So we survived the storm, must say it was an extremely tense time. We were "target landfall" expecting a direct hit which would have been devastating. Seeing the photos out of Sarasota and Fort Meyers, I know how lucky we are. Those areas are only about 2 hours away. Only 48 hours before landfall, Ian turned and we were spared a direct hit.

But the week before, watching the forecast, predicting gloom and doom, was extremely stressful. Evacuation zones A, B and C were put into mandatory evacuation. Water was cut off to the barrier islands in order to force people off. Bridges were closed. Roads were closed. Store shelves were bare. Gas was in short supply. More than 400,000 people evacuated. Predictions were dire: This was going to be the worse storm in 100 years to hit our area. I'm in a non-evacuation zone so in those zones we are told to "shelter in place." I did stock up, board up, etc. Thought I was well prepared.

Still when Ian hit land, we were on the outer edge of the storm, Ian was enormous. The wind was so extreme it sucked the water right out of the bay. Steady winds of around 70 mph. Lost power early in the day and was without electricity for nearly 48 hours. Around 75% of our county was dark. With the house boarded up, there's no ventilation, no light, it was terribly uncomfortable and nerve wracking to say the least. Wind was howling and I couldn't see outside. Kona came down with some kind of severe allergic reaction to something and began itching to the point of tearing her skin into a bloody pulp. She later had a steroid shot and is on antibiotics. I am doing daily wound care for her.

Spent most of this week cleaning up after the storm. Two waist high piles of tree branches and debris for my efforts. One branch of a neighbour's huge tropical plant fell on my fence, crushing the gate, and I was out there with a hack saw manually chopping it down. Then dragging the six foot thing to the alley. It was heavy, like dragging a dead body (not that I've ever done that!) and I had to stop every few feet to catch my breath and recoup my strength. 

In the middle of all the clean up, my kitchen table decided to break a leg, literally. So there I was hunting up wood glue, wood screws and Bob's old furniture clamps trying to repair it. Took tries, but it's finally standing up right. 

I feel beaten up, every muscle aches, and I have cuts all over my hands and my knuckles are swollen.

I learned a few things: batteries, for one, do not last that long! Even though I bought name brand expensive batteries, they all died before the power came back on. Next storm, I will buy more batteries!

The guys who put up my hurricane boards used "star" screws. I never heard of such a thing and I went out with the idea of taking down a few boards to let some air into the house and found I didn't have a drill bit that fit these star things....  so had to wait for the guys to show up, fortunately they came and took a couple of boards down so I could open a few windows. Still...  Need a star shaped screw driver or bit for drill.

I maybe should invest in a small chain saw? 

And that "5 day" cooler I bought to keep perishables in was filled with melted ice after a day. So much for that. The refrigerator actually stayed colder without power:  live and learn. But then I switched the fridge on the highest/coldest setting the day before the storm. And the a/c on the low. In order to keep things cool as long as possible in case of a power outage. That did help a bit for the first few hours.... 

Did you know a swimming pool can actually "pop" out of the ground in a storm? I did not know this, not that it happened to me, but learned you should not drain too much water out of your pool in order to prevent that. I did drain the pool a few inches as we were forecasted to have 15 or more inches of rain. We only got two inches, so I had refill the pool after the storm. My emergency drain hose broke during the storm...  That and two gates that won't close properly, and a piece of the solar heating for pool that sprung a leak are the only damage I had.

Then all the time spent carting the patio/porch furniture, plants, wind chimes, etc. first into the house/garage and then back out afterwards. 

I am exhausted both physically and mentally. But counting my blessings. It could have been worse.

Boarded Up

 Here we go again.... It's going to be a long, stressful week. I am alone with Kona and Ripley.

I Am Exhausted! Ian barrelling down.

 Spent all morning into the afternoon dragging stuff inside from the porch and back deck. Getting ready for Ian which is sounding more and more frightening.

Tomorrow, got some guys coming to board me up.

We are expecting wide spread flooding, 10 or more inches of rain, power outages and hurricane force winds.....

Still more to do tomorrow to prepare before all hell breaks loose on Wednesday.

Freaking out. Scared shitless. Wish Bob were here.

Waiting and Watching

Waiting today for the lawn service, the AC service and a guy from a pool restoration service. Going to be a long day.

Going to be a long weekend waiting for this:

As Bob would say, we are in "the cone of doom" for this storm, still a tropical depression but projected to be a hurricane....  

Don't need this right now.

28 Years Ago

...we stood before the judge and promised our love and lives to each other. You were crying. I was nervous. I giggled when you accidentally tried to put your ring on my finger. 

Forever, my darling, my love, my life.

Happy Anniversary

Two Years Ago

This morning marks the 2 year anniversary of my sister's death. Seems like so long ago for some reason. Still doesn't seem real.....

 

A Long Hot Summer and not over yet....

It has been a hot and messy summer. Seems like death in the air. Plus medical issues with both Kona and Ripley. Kona three pills a day. Ripley two pills a day. Both have sprays and Ripley has steroids on top it. Myself, trying to wean down the Xanax as I'm starting to get some side effects from it... ringing in my ears being one of them which is driving me crazy. Plus the periodontal disease has raised its nasty head and returned, partly because of missing too many appointments during pandemic lockdown, partly as I'm predisposed genetically to it. I was scheduled for several procedures, each 2 hours in a dental chair, when my hygienist came down with Covid and everything is hold after the first one. Nerve-wrecking, I tell you.

I've got termites in the house (again). The pool surface cracking. Critters in the backyard. A broken gate. Rotting wood on the deck. A dripping AC duct in the attic.  Trying to find the appropriate service providers. Making phone calls that go unanswered. The usual fun of home ownership.

We are at the peak of hurricane season. Though the tropics are rather quiet, the storms have been fierce and daily. Constant lightening warnings, sometimes tornado warnings. Kona, Ripley and I huddled on the sofa while the world crashes around us. In the mornings, I see large branches fallen on cars and fences knocked over. Scary, that. So far, everything fine at home.

Missing my dad brings back the emptiness, the hole in my heart, since Bob left this earth. Our wedding anniversary next week. 28 years. And my sister's death anniversary the same week. My birthday coming up soon. Getting older.

Makes me think of my own mortality. Makes me think, I must finish this book. Then makes me wonder is it even worth it to try. Will all that hard work just end up in a slush pile? Or be bound to the endless scrap heap of never published/never read manuscripts.... And will it really make a difference at all? And am I really that important?

Feeling a bit melancholy. And quiet.

Step by step.

Day by day.

I know I must carry on... even though it's hard sometimes.

In Memory of a Lovely Couple

Today they laid my Aunt Pauline to rest. My aunt and uncle, Don and Pauline, used to come to Florida to visit with my mom and dad every year for a long time.... And I really got to know them over the years. Don, with his nightly beer and a shot, "is it beer-thirty yet, Diane?" And always so helpful, "can I get that for you?" And Pauline and her love of shopping and her red hat phase! And both of them so kind and compassionate. If you've been a long time reader, you remember them. Especially Pauline, who once thought our house was cursed! ha!  

They were here in 2010 with my mother and father when Bob was in the hospital (in a coma) after "the incident" at The Hospital. I remember Pauline saying to me then, "How do deal with this, Diane? If it were Don, I couldn't deal with it. I wouldn't know what to do without him. I'd be falling apart."

Well, I didn't fall apart only because I believed Bob would survive and he needed me to be strong for him. And he did survive, you know that story.

My Uncle Don died around 5 months ago and Pauline was buried today, exactly 5 months to the date that Don was buried. She couldn't live without him. She didn't know "what to do without him".  She had a stroke and, I guess had no will to fight without Don by her side and -- "fell apart."

That, my friends, is one true love.

I honestly thought, that would be me when Bob died. I would do the "broken heart syndrome", and join Bob soon, and I wanted that so so very much --- but somehow I am still here almost 7 years later. And do wonder why... Wasn't my love true enough? Or perhaps, as my grief counsellor suggested, I have "unfinished business" here.

RIP my dearest Aunt and Uncle. I do imagine you both happily together again.

Don & Pauline on our porch swing

Black Butterfly, Blue Feather

The other night, Kona and I were sitting on the front porch when a black swallowtail butterfly flew toward me. I was amazed, it was so huge: as large as the palm of my hand and I wondered will it come to me? And wouldn't that be cool, especially if it landed on my hand?

I watched it flutter toward me. I held out my hand and held my breath.

Now many people think butterflies are spiritual signs, though I'm not particularly in that crowd. Still, it was an incredible sight. And could it be a sign from above? From Bob? How wonderful would that be.

Then it suddenly flew up, right into the rotating ceiling fan blades and fell with an audible plop to the ground.

The injured butterfly flopped across the tile porch floor, one wing dangling. 

I didn't know what to do. I'm no butterfly doctor. I watched it make its way slowly, clumsily, limping, dragging its broken wing and ultimately falling off the edge of the porch into some ferns. 

I got up, softly crept to the edge and peered down.

The swallowtail was beautiful, even in death. Black with an orange/yellow pattern on the edge of its wings. It was spread out like a specimen pinned to a board in a classroom. A huge chunk was missing from one of its wings. I gently touched a fern leaf near it and it quivered. It was still alive. But what on earth could I do?

I sat down, feeling awful. Trying not to think about it.

Then I saw it. It was in the front yard. It flew up a few inches and fell back down. It flew up again, a sort of drunken spiralling flight, and fell back down. It did this several times, inching toward the fence. It somehow managed to get to the boulevard where it suddenly lifted into the air, nearly two feet up, then fell like a tornado twirling to the ground. Again it tried, and this time it landed in the middle of the street.

I sprang up. In the middle of road, it was prey to cars and neighbour cats and birds. The least I could do is try to catch it and bring it back to safer location. Half way down the sidewalk, the butterfly flew up and drunkenly made its way, a sort of loop de loop flight, over to the neighbours' house.

I stood there watching it, thinking, Bob, if this was a sign from you, it was not a nice one as that poor thing got clobbered and will probably die.

Just then, from nowhere, a single blue feather wafted through the air and landed at my feet. I picked it up. Looked over at the neighbour's yard, didn't see the swallowtail.

The next day, I was working at my desk and a movement at my window caught my attention.

A black swallowtail butterfly had landed on the flowers in my window box. I got up and took a closer look. It had a chunk taken out of its wing. It quivered there for a moment, then flew off, gently landing on a nearby ixora bush. I watched it, flitting from flower to flower, until it took off, perfectly flying away into the distance.

Critter Parade

I have a trail camera set up in the backyard, trying to capture whatever attacked Kona. For weeks all I saw was a cat... and then I noticed a shadowy thing in the background. So I changed the camera location and the other night, I had a regular critter parade going on.

At almost 11 p.m., this opossum showed up:

He actually climbs the stairs, like he lives here, and jumps threw the rails down under the porch...

At 2:50 a.m., the usual cat appears:

The cat exits left.

At 4:52 a.m., a raccoon streams by in a hurry. Exits in the same direction as the cat.

The cat returns at 5:31 a.m., goes under the porch and joins the opposum....

Good grief! 

And what is the cat and opossum doing under the porch? Having a party?

Now I'm not sure who the prime suspect is in Kona's attack. 

Spent an entire afternoon researching opossums....and blowing up pool floats (in case the raccoon gets any ideas about pooping in my pool again).

I purchased and sprinkled cayenne pepper and camphor oil under the porch. Opossums supposedly don't like the smell.

I purchased "scare cat" silhouettes with marble eyes that glow, these are supposed to scare away cats and other critters, but so far the only one's who they've scared is Kona and me! The cat, the opossum don't seem to care.

Honestly, perhaps one is better off not knowing what goes on in your backyard late at night!