Cooked Ground Turkey and Black Olives.

 Cooked Ground Turkey and Black Olives.

 

Just thought you might want to know: black olives do NOT appeal to my dogs. If one had been dipped in the ground turkey that was cooking, one of them might have tasted of an olive, but it would not have gone much past the tasting phase. These dogs are particular, dear hearts! But truthfully, the black olives were for the old woman who lives here.

 

Market Street only had the 1.5-pound tubes of FreshPet dog food, so yours truly had to get up this morning and give them the last of that stuff and then cook up ground turkey, rice, and mix in peas and carrots. Just finished doing that number again so we would have two meals ready for tomorrow. Ordered some Pedigree from Amazon and am hoping that it will set well with Thompson’s tummy and not cause more allergy problems. Also ordered more allergy meds for him. This makes me understand just a bit about how my parents must have felt about dealing with my allergies years ago. Danged expensive!

 

Connie is at the dentist office this afternoon, and she will be back there again next Monday. Feel sorry for her bank account! It’s one thing to have to deal with Novocain, but a few thousand dollars for crowns just about eats up one’s savings. But having teeth with which to chew does make a big difference eventually. It’s not like we can all go around eating pudding and soft stuff the rest of our lives. We get out of that phase of our lives sometime before our second birthday.

 

Over at the State Hospital they have been working on two different areas with big tractors and trucks. Know they are building a new guard house on the north side, but it looks as if they are laying down either new road or something on the south side now. They shut down the big tent looking thing where they were checking the employees for covid for the past few months. Having the huge lights off over there makes quite a bit of difference outside on my deck. It is much darker now.

 

Let Thompson out to run around early this morning around five, and wouldn’t you know it—smelled skunk! Thankfully the skunk was not in our yard or in Patty’s yard. Thinking maybe that Gail Kestler might have trapped her “pet” skunk last night or this morning. She is south of my place, and the fumes would have drifted this direction if it turned loose and let go of its ammunition! It is so difficult to clean a dog that has been sprayed. Have done that a few times and did not enjoy it in the least. It is a heavy oil that is very difficult to cut with any kind of soap—including Dawn. And then the tub has to be cleaned afterward! Such fun. If the dog can be cleaned outside in the fresh air, it is not quite as bad, but when it is cool like this, both of you will get cold before the stink is gone.

 

Michelle Malay called a bit ago, and we got to talking about the difference between health care in our country and in India. Over in India, a person may not see a doctor after waiting an entire day. Have seen a few times when it felt almost that bad here—especially in a VA hospital or in an office where the manager of a doctor’s business double booked everyone! Of course, some folks would say that the VA does not really intend to have a doctor see anyone, much less give them a prescription for anything that helps. In India, if you know what drug you want, you just go tell a pharmacist and pay for the drug. And their costs are hardly a fraction of what our medications cost. No, they don’t make the kind of money that we do, but the cost of living is different, too. Anyway, it occurred to me that all this wonderful infrastructure money that has been appropriated might do wonders if we also made a difference in what is available for health care, communications (internet access all over the country that did not cost as much as a Cadillac), web access to all children for education—including home schooled or charter schools, schools for general education (mechanics, electronics, carpentry, welding, concrete and building classes, and any other non-liberal arts education classes. We need those who can build and repair things more than we need politicians, for sure! Learning—and teaching the correct use—of English or other languages would be much more helpful than many of the classes in philosophy or other esoteric subjects. Mathematics is much more important than some subjects, but not everyone is capable of learning physics or chemistry. Know one old woman who could not have learned many of the science subjects if she had had to. It was ok to learn to figure the square footage of a room or plot of ground, or even the addition of the fractions of material needed to make a decent garment, but chemistry for me would have been a total waste beyond knowing that vinegar and baking soda react to each other and that vinegar and bleach should not be mixed! Anyway, common sense in government is not going to happen anytime soon, so there’s that.

 

My phone kept predicting rain today that simply did not happen. Not sure what anyone else got, but my hens and dogs got clean water right out of the hose and not from the sky. Had to bring the water bowls inside and scrub them after they had been left un-scrubbed for an entire week. Someone is falling down on the job. But at least the hens got some cantaloupe peels and seeds. And the dogs have been relatively happy. They seem able to sleep no matter what in any position or place available. It makes me almost jealous. My eyes were wide open at 4:30 this morning.

 

Thought a virus or something had taken over my computer last night. It worried me, but finally went to bed and just tried to forget about it. You can imagine how well that worked out. Then got a call from my sister-by-another-mother around seven. By that time the computer had been turned off twice and rebooted. Daniel Hernandez always told me that the first answer to any computer problem was REBOOT! Should have thought about that last night! Oh well. It seems to be ok now. Will start shutting it down every other night for a while to be sure it is ok. And was so happy to hear from Sharon. She was happy and had her children on her mind. Know how that is. Would love to be able to talk to my grands more often, but they are either at work, at school, at the gym, or soccer, or something. Their lives are just as busy as mine is not. But that is how life is supposed to be, isn’t it?

 

Have not heard from Cindy or Nikki today, but am hoping that Stephen was able to come home from Dallas. It seems that doctors don’t keep patients in the hospital any longer than absolutely necessary any more. Maybe that is a good thing. Too many things are floating around in those places! Anyway, please continue to pray for Stephen. Please also pray for Shirley and Lee Taylor that they can totally recover from Covid.

 

We all have those who are dealing with tragedies or illnesses these days. Let us ask God for His blessings on this old world, its people, its resources, and its creatures. Only God can set things right.

 

Rest and Be Grateful. You are loved.