Altivo

I'm not sure I can account for all of the time since the last post.

A good bit of it was consumed by just dealing with winter and work, daily routine for me without many breaks or distractions. I don't particularly enjoy that, but it's a horse thing, ya know?

Small things have happened along the way. Max (our latest rescue dog, eleven year old bearded collie) has finally figured out the dog door. He learned to go out on his own a while ago, but never would come back in unless invited or someone held the door open for him. Now he comes back in on his own most of the time. He's good about not doing anything in the house, and we worried about leaving him here for too long unable to get out. Then we worried that he'd freeze outside when he was able to go out but wouldn't come back in unaided. At least that concern is pretty much resolved.

Red, the big lab/golden mix that we rescued a couple of years ago, has developed an autoimmune problem that makes his nose blister and peel. It seems most likely to be pemphigus, which is a nuisance thing for most dogs that have it, but not life threatening. However, it could be lupus which is much more serious. Now awaiting lab results on a biopsy that is supposed to determine which it is and what treatment might be likely to help. During the biopsy they found a large tumor on his tongue and removed that too. Now he's on "soft diet" for two weeks, though his appetite is good and he doesn't appear to be in much discomfort. (Could be the pain meds he's getting, though.)

Weather has been bizarre here. Winter didn't really set in until January, which is very late for us. Fortunate in a way, since we had the two family funerals and attending excursions in November and December. And after last summer's drought, not so good, since we need rain or snow badly. The snow finally came in February, with a vengeance. about 18 inches (official at O'Hare but more like 23 inches by our measurement here) in three big snowfalls. Not done yet, either, as they are predicting another storm for Tuesday-Wednesday of this week with possibly 7 to 8 inches of accumulation. No snow days from work for me, alas. Gary's university did shut down in the last snow, but only as he was leaving for the day anyway.

Gary and his brothers put their mom's house on the market in January thinking that it would probably not attract bidders until spring. Wrong. They had three cash offers in the first week, and the third was for the full asking price. This is a tiny two bedroom brick house on a very narrow lot in Chicago, and not in a particularly trendy neighborhood either so we were surprised. Of course it means they have a big high pressured hurry to clean the house and garage out before the closing which is now only a week away. Since the whole family are "savers," the place was stuffed to the gills and going through all of it is traumatic. I know he'd like to bring a lot more back here, but even he realizes that we have space limitations. Two sewing machines, furniture for two households, and memorabilia reaching back three generations. Plus he's attending two graduate courses with the requisite work to do. I'm trying not to intervene in the triage and decision making. His brothers are picking up their share of the load, fortunately, and I feel it should be their family decision.

He keeps bringing back items that I made and gave to his mom as gifts, which is heart-breaking but sweet as well, and we'll find new homes for them if we can't use them here. Some of these things go back almost 30 years to when I first met him and his family, and I hadn't thought about them for a long time. I have two or three small boxes of similar things from my own mother and older brother, and I've never looked through them from the time the executor of my brother's estate handed them to me. Consequently, I can't complain about his stress and indecision on all this stuff. I was lucky that I didn't have such a huge bulk to sort through. The executor and my younger brother took care of that (it was in Texas.)

I still have a stack of holiday cards and notes that really deserve a reply, since we sent out nothing this year at all. I keep promising myself I'll get to them soon.

So here we are, waiting for a hint of spring. This morning's temperature of 4°F didn't help. I've been neglecting my writing and weaving for months, just doing the chores and trying to stay warm. I've done more reading, and am pushing myself to bake more bread and practice my music more. Additional posts with some of that news soon.

Beautiful clear day. Tidied house a bit (a lot, actually) before my brother arrived. Gary went back to Neal's to work on his computer again. Still not usable. They've restored it five times, and something went wrong each time (different each time) mostly due to the really poor quality backup software Gary had been using. It seems quite erratic.

They think they have it solved now, I guess. But each iteration takes hours to run.

Brother Larry arrived. We went over to the Wild West place in Union because he wanted steak. Much entertaining conversation about his doctoral program, which he has completed now and received his degree. It was good to see him.

I actually got some spinning done today. Gary has classes tomorrow afternoon, so I hope to get some work done then. I also got some reading done, halfway through Phil Geusz's First Book of Lapism and loving it. A religion whose followers have themselves transformed into bunnies? Why not? It's delightful and, as always for Phil, very well written with excellent characters.

Must go to sleep now, it's been a long day.

Long and draggy but no really bad problems this time. Wayne's surgery went without incident, I guess, so it's a matter of waiting to see if it actually helps. He had a heart attack last winter and they tried stents but it wasn't enough so they ended up doing triple bypass surgery. (He's younger than either of us, eeek.) This time they gave him an electronic implanted defibrillator if I understand it correctly. I hope he's got good insurance.

So Gary's mom is here for the night. He went and brought her to the hospital from Chicago, and will take her back tomorrow. No problem with that, we get along fine.

Several boxes of new books arrived at work, so I had plenty to do. About half of it is leftover for tomorrow and probably Friday since tomorrow is only a half day for me.

Oh, and the lace scarf from the colored poonies is now started. Soon there will be enough to photograph.

Typing with a cat on my lap, which isn't easy because she won't sit still. She was asleep on my chair and I made her move so I could sit down, but it didn't work. She just got right back up here.