Ten-Finger Exercises

today is a gift

Yesterday was a very busy day, starting with our Monday morning meeting at 9, followed by more training on our new computer program for charting. Then I had three visits to make, followed by a quick drive home (22 miles) to make sure Lola hadn't eaten anything bad or fallen in the koi pond. She has taken to chewing things-- not shoes or underwear, standard puppy tastes I hear-- but pencils, pens and empty bags and boxes. She wants to sample the fish food floating on top of the water, evidently, because she leans out precariously on the stacked flagstones to get her face in the water. Now and then a fish will come up to investigate, and she'll levitate back to safe ground. Yesterday was our first sort of cold day, so I worried about her being left outside. So far she has shown no interest in bedding down on the dog bed in the protected corner of the screen porch Seamus used to inhabit. When it gets colder, I'll put the heated pad out there, and perhaps that will entice her.

Anyway, after seeing she had not been in any big trouble, and playing a few rounds of fetch the ball/squeaky toy/tug rope, I had to go back to the office to talk to a new group of volunteers about my role in hospice.

Just as I was leaving, my daughter called, sounding disgruntled. She was on her way home from the hospital (or clinic, probably) where she'd gone because she was pretty sure she'd developed a blood clot behind her left knee. Sure enough. And even though she knew what was wrong, of course she had to go here and there to this person and that for one test and another to diagnose it. So, armed with blood thinner injections and a dose of warfarin, she went home and will have to go to coagulation clinic tomorrow.

I talked to her again when I got back home from my presentation, and she complained of her own irritability, which seems pretty natural to me. She has to go to an appointment with some doctor every day this week. Monday her husband will go back to work, and I'll drive up Sunday to take her to her Monday appointment with her primary care physician.

Anyway, one minor cat skirmish later and lots of barking at unknown trespassers walking blithely down the street, I was going to tell you about my day today. I do have to go into work, but I'm spending the morning at home. I picked tomatoes and peppers a week ago, cooked them down with some seasoning, and they've been waiting in the fridge for me to pay attention to them. So I got out the Foley food mill this morning and strained out all the peels and seeds. I'll freeze it for vegetable soup makings, or just use it as marinara. Now I'm going to make some zucchini bread. I've got the squash all grated. Surely that's the hard part.

Oh, one other thing Lola found to chew. Last night while I ironed some shirts, I heard bumping and thumping upstairs. When I came up, in addition to her collection of balls and toys, I saw she'd snagged a cucumber from the garden and was having a good chew. She'd eaten both ends off and hadn't even made a mess. Playing with her food-- what a child-like thing to do!

Bill will be gone one night this week, so I'll catch up on my blog reading then I hope.