2020 Life Logs, Day 14: Taking Care of Business
Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Weather: Overcast; High 43, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
An appointment with my knee surgeon was the first order of business today. In the fall, I scheduled March 2nd as the date to have my right knee replaced. Since then I got a puppy and I have been having second thoughts about the timing even though I am having increasing difficulty with that knee. I talked to the surgeon today and he agreed that it would be wise to wait until Shadow is trained to walk with me instead of me being pulled along my Shadow! The other day a gentleman we passed while walking commented, “Ah, I see your dog is taking you for walk.” That, plus the fact that I will not be able to drive nearly as quickly with a right knee replacement, made me give serious thought to my friend Lynne Kirwin’s very generous offer to come spend a week or so with me if I could move the surgery to be after April when she returns from New Zealand. She will return to New Zealand in late November, so with that time span as a possibility, I am thinking that I would rather have the surgery after the summer. When the nurse calls to reschedule, I will set a mid-October date and hope that Lynne can come then. But if not, I will have a year-old puppy that will go on a walk with me . . . I hope! And, Lynne, thank you for your offer to come.
The knee appointment was in Hyannis, so I next made a stop at Whole Foods before returning home. Since I am leaving for a few days on Friday, I didn’t buy a lot of fresh food, but I did buy the non-perishables that are always on my Whole Foods list. When I got home, it was time to take Shadow on a nice, long walk and then I got on the phone and made arrangements for walking and feeding Shadow while I am gone and Heather is not at home. Shadow will be staying with the Goldstones during my absence, but Sam’s 13th birthday party with his friends is this Friday night. He is taking some of his guy friends to a Brazilian Grill in Hyannis for dinner and then home for an overnight. I leave at 11 am on Friday, so I need someone to walk Shadow mid-day and feed him lunch. The kids will be able to walk him when they get home from school, but then someone needs to come to feed him dinner while they are all in Hyannis. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are covered, but on Tuesday everyone goes back to work and to school, so someone will need come walk and feed him mid-day again. Heather linked me with a friend who has a pet sitting business, but getting signed up takes a couple of days. Meghan, my friend with the goats, had once said she would be glad to do dog walking and feeding when needed. So, I called Meghan and the timing is going to work for her. She does this as a friend, not as a business, so I will make sure that I can reciprocate at some point. And I will go ahead and get signed up with Upper Cape Pet Sitting (Heather’s friend) so that I can use them in the future. I do feel guilty leaving Heather with Shadow while Jed will also be out of town as Shadow has gotten more demanding and his mommy (that would be me) has just not been able to keep up with the training needs. He is house trained, at least at this house, which is great thing. But he resists putting the leash on, still nips as a way of showing love, and jumps up on everyone. I have an appointment with a trainer next week, but that is not going to help this weekend. It is my sincere hope that the Goldpebbles and Heather will survive and have some fun with Shadow at the same time.
Correction to last night’s log . . . I wrote that I didn’t think there were any quakes in Puerto Rico yesterday. Well, Justin wrote this morning to let me know that there were more yesterday than the day before. ” Just for accuracy, I’m pretty sure there were 24 quakes here yesterday, down from 49 the day before. Today already we’ve had five (9:18 am there), and they are getting stronger again (up to 4.6 this morning) where the biggest yesterday was 4.2.” We just have to hope this stops soon.
