It's raining again!

It's pouring downright now, the first of 3 or 4 days so they are saying. Brunel and Lightning are most unhappy. They can't run in and out, or play outside, and when they do have to go out, they come back in soaking wet. Lightning doesn't even venture out in it sometimes, just stays on the porch looking sad, so I expect some accidents indoors today. Thankfully, my floors are tile and easily mopped and disinfected.

We've barely recovered from last week's deluges, and the ground hadn't really dried out properly, so my front yard is a quagmire, and the back field is beginning to show mini lakes on the plateaus. I feel badly for the outdoor animals, and the homeless. 

There's even some ponding on roads, and I daresay, by this evening, there will be some flooded out areas. One of the bad things about wet ground, here in SC, is that the trees don't have long roots, so heavy rainfall usually results in quite a few fallen trees. It's dangerous driving on the back roads because you never know when a tree will topple. We get a lot of blocked roads, but sometimes worse than that, wirth trees falling on houses or even on vehicles.

We had an old oak tree out front for many years, but over the last 5 or 6, the upper limbs died and would drop off any time it got windy. This last Autumn, we had somebody come and cut it down, and then had the stump ground down. Better safe than sorry, I couldn't risk it coming down on the house or car.

One of the nice "after the rain" things we like to do, is go down to Cedar Falls in Fork Shoals, to see how the rain has affected the river. It gets pretty awesome, crashing over the boulders, loud and noisy, and about 20 feet higher than normal, sometimes even cresting the banks above the "beach" area. Makes you realise how small we are in the world of nature, watching the torrent.

Thankfully, I have no plans to go anywhere today (or the next few days!). 

Life

Hubby returned to work last Wednesday, and we've pretty much settled back into a routine. I get up at 5am, use the auto start to get his truck running and warming up, make him breakfast and a cup of coffee, pack his lunch and snacks for work, let Brunel and Lightning out, feed said pair of 4 leggeds, feed the feline 4-legged, check hubby has his phone and has taken his pills, and then he's gone. He's out of the house by 5.30pm and will be gone until almost 5pm of an evening.

Brunel and Lightning say their goodbyes ... and then rush into the bedroom, jump on the bed and claim their spots on his side of the bed. I do some stuff online, my AVON, check FB, play my memory and observation games to keep my brain savvy, and then - usually around 7am or so - I switch everything off and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I used to feel bad about it, but not any more. As my granddaughter said "you're almost 70", and since I worked in nursing homes as a CNA, I've seen folks much younger than me, sleep way more than I do. So, now, my naps are guilt-free.

Today's been a pretty good day. Not by much, but def a bit warmer than the past couple of weeks. I've not had to run my heat to excess, although my heartrate slowed a bit earlier, but 20 minutes of pedalling on my elliptical bike, and 30 minutes on my teeter, got it back to where I felt ok. When your resting heartrate is 45-50, when it slows below that it makes me feel decidedly "off".

The boys played outside for a bit, and I sat on the porch watching them bounding around the yard, chasing each other, rolling over each other, and generally acting silly and happy, amid growls and yelps. They are happy boys. Lightning is now less "snappy", especially around my face during "lovings", so he is learning. They are both spoiled rotten, and know it.

Madam is spoiled also, she sleeps on the bed of a nighttime, but chooses to hide in hubby's closet and sleep on his clothes, during the day. 

Now that hubby's doctor has released him, he's going to start on the remodelling projects again. Hopefully, in a few weeks, I'll be able to take a bath in my nice new walk-in tub, with my scented candles for soft lighting and Deuter playing. To say I am so ready, is an understatement. That had been what I wanted to indulge in on Christmas Day ... but - of course - hubby's broken leg and surgery put paid to that idea. All the best laid plans, as they say.

Well, hubby will be home in a couple of hours and I'm going to do him a pizza tonight. Maybe a hot cup of soup to go with it. It's still chilly, still Winter, even if it's not frigid, so warm comfort food's the way to go!

Enjoy your evening!

Hubby goes back to work tomorrow!

 WOW! The past couple of months have been a roller coaster, that's for sure! Hubby's run-in with a pit bull, at the dog park, on November 4th last year started it all. 

He was at the park with Brunel, and Bru and his buddies were all zooming around. They ran towards Mark and all but one veered around him ... and the one headbutted his knee,  and that was how Mark fractured his tibia.

We ended up at the St Francis ER in Simpsonville, and then at Carolina Orthopaedic and Neurosurgical Associates in Greenville, they scheduled his surgery, and then he's had to have physical therapy twice weekly, since the surgery.

Today, he went back to see the surgeon, and was cleared to go back to work tomorrow. He goes ack again in 6 weeks to get totally cleared by them.

The past 2 months have been a pre-retirement of sorts, other than - because of him being incapacitated - none of my "honey-do" list got touched. The bathroom still awaits his tender touch to get the barebones (where we'd taken everything out just before his injury) tidied up, the pipes cut back and replaced, and a floorboard replacing, so that the new fittings (my walk-in bathtub, new vanity and the loo) can all be installed.

Tonight will be a "back to bed at 10pm" ready for the alarm waking us at 5am tomorrow, when I'll get up and fix him something to eat and a coffee, and pack his lunch, for him to get out the door.

Thankfully, he installed one of those automatic starters in his truck, so I can turn it on for him before he goes out there, so's it's warm and the windshield is clear.

I know they've missed him at work, so they'll be happy to see him tomorrow. He's basically the last old-timer there, the others retired last year. The younger guys are just learning so a few times Mark got calls asking about stuff.

Oh well, hopefully he'll do ok, those 10 hours may drag after so long not being there.

Brunel has a new little brother

Yesterday, my granddaughter-in-law, Lauren, came with me to Greenville County Animal Animal Care to adopt a puppy that I'd seen pictured on their website and "needing a home". His name was Geddy but - based on his whizzing around the yard as soon as we got him home - he's been renamed Lightning! Brunel loves his baby brother, and they get on really well together. Weirdly, Brunel growls warnings like the sounds like Chewbacca on Star Wars, and last night Lightning suddenly opened up with a hound-like yodel, so we are having some fun moments listening to them.

Overnight was quiet. Brunel isn't food or pen aggressive, and Lightning has gone into Bru's bed a few times, but overnight I shut him up in his own bed with his snuggly toys, and he slept really good from 11.30 until about 7am. We've had a few accidents but he's usually trying to go outside when it happens, and as soon as he is out, he pees and then runs off to find a place to do the other.

He seems to be a natural "sit-er". When he comes up for loving, he immediately sits, so I'm simply telling him to sit before he has chance to, and then giving him his treat, so that he knows the command. With me also doing the command with Bru, it's just reiterating it.

He is a darling, and already loves us and his big brother, and is having fun exploring everywhere. Being a puppy, we're going through the same thing we did Bru at this age ... we have to hide ALL FOOTWEAR or they disappear in the mouth of the small brown speedy monster that zooms off when he sees us watching him.