The snow is still on the ground and so are my patio table umbrellas, ugh. It's been a crazy few days, I tell you. First, the weather said snow, snow, snow, and then 2 days later they said it would miss us. Listen, I love snow and use it to give myself excuses to do nothing, but this year is different. In Oct. this skinny, forlorn cat showed up in my backyard. Being the bleeding heart for animals I am, I called to him and he came running. Hungry! I fed him, and fed him, and wondered just how much a cat could put away -- he'd now eaten 2 big cans of Little Friskies -- and so gave him dried food, too, and that was gobbled up in no time flat. Then he climbed into my lap and fell asleep. The next day, he was still there and so I started posting flyers and making calls and still feeding him. The next day, the owners were found and I was thrilled! He was such a sweetheart of a cat that I was sure he had a home that missed him. Well, he had a home all right but it was right on the highway and as they began telling me how much they'd missed him, they also said, without missing a breath, "But you can have him if you want him." WHAT?? Who says that about their pet?? I was positive I was hearing things and so we bundled him up in my carrier and they took him home. The next day he was back in my yard. I called them and they said they thought it was because their other 2 cats beat the living daylights out of him every day. Omg, no wonder he ran away. So here's this sweet cat in my yard again and they said they were coming (again) to get him. I was not feeling good about it at all, but they didn't show up. A week went by and guilt set in that I was sort of kidnapping this cat and so I bundled him up and took him to his house. I drove home and there he was -- he'd beat me to my own home and was waiting in the driveway. I wrote a letter to the 'owners' and said what happened and this time there was no mistake, they said, "Good. He seems to be happier there". No emotion. I said I was keeping him. It seems that other cat of theirs, the ringleader of bullies, is named Ammo (God, who names their pet a violent name like that), and so they'd named 'my' cat Chamo which stood for camouflage since he'd try to hide from the bullie. It took me 2 days of calling him by a new name, only 2, and he got it. His name is now Happy. Now Happy is not fond of other cats but I understand why. I still have my Sam & Lucy inside and they are now going on 13 and 14. Happy is 2.5. Sam doesn't like other cats and so this is not exactly a match made in Heaven. I'm not giving up but this co-mingling is going to take a long, long and patient time. In the meantime, he can't come inside and in fact doesn't want to because he knows they're there. It's ok. I spent $250 on a double insulated (rated at R20), heated cat house with extra heating pads, squooshy bedding, a rewired back porch to make sure it's always heated, an entrance where nothing can get to him, and he loves it. He also loves the 2 litter boxes so his toes don't get cold in the yard/snow, the abundance of toys that he plays with all the time, breakfast, lunch, and dinner with snacks no less, AND my winter fur coat in one of the chairs in case he wants to lounge (and he does). He's got it made. But back to the beginning of this post -- after all this he has and can't possibly get cold, I still worry because we got a ton of snow for 2 straight days. So much that I forgot to take down the patio table umbrellas and it broke the metal poles in half and almost shattered one of the glass tables. And Happy? Well, he sauntered down the steps, looped his tail in play, and ran all over the backyard in the snow; leaping, skidding, running, and having a ball as he ran back to the porch, through the boxwoods and the snow plummeted onto his head. He didn't care. I swear he laughed.

Later, JennyD XOXOXO

Test, just a test ....

I haven't been able to access this old blog of mine for a few years now and have had a terrible time trying to post on anyone else's as well. Today I'm trying sort of a backdoor process to see if it will take a post or not. Interestingly, after researching for so long that I can't even count anymore, I first tried my old email address that I never use --- bingo, it signed me in to my blog. Then I tried to change my info to my new email address so it would be a LOT easier for me. Nope. Won't take and you know what it says? You can't use a gmail for a blogger. Don't they realize that the majority use gmail these days? Who's up there twiddlin' thumbs?? Oh well, it won't help to rant. Just trying a post, that's all. I miss blogging and honestly, I do not like FB and haven't posted on that for a year and 3 months. The only plus I see to keeping my FB is to know if someone has died or not. I loved blogger. I loved knowing what people were actually doing and actually 'thought' about things. Ok, ok, if I keep typing, it will be a book. Let me see if this posts, that's all I want to know. If it does, I'll be back...but I might be all by myself. (I need to ck my cat blog, too; oh lordy) XOXOXO

As I trip over my own feet again…..

Yes, it’s apologies.  Seems to be that way all the time.  When I don’t feel particularly great, or I’m in pain as has been the case since last year, I don’t write. I just don’t have it in me to do it.  Then the surgeries came along.  Well, the hernia/Gerd/gall bladder one went ok but the aftermath has been…awful.  I’m not going into it.  Let’s say I spend a LOT of time in another room.  The knee surgery was slow in healing until that PT guy got hold of me.  He has really, really damaged something and I am always in pain now.  Don’t say to go back to the surgeon, I did.  He didn’t listen at all but he did keep asking how his new shirt looked.  The outfit he’s with is ranked as THE best, so going to anyone puts me right back in with the same group.  Even the PT group is owned by them.  Besides, after this, I’m not so certain I’d ever allow anyone around my knee again.  There you have it.  No writings as you know, no replies to anything, and just hibernating.  Toodie-Nancy told me I should blog right through the ups and the downs but I felt so crappy I couldn’t.  I even got the longest and most wonderful newsy email from Carrie and I haven’t replied to that, either.  I feel like the worst friend. 

I had a notification from my high school class that they’d opened a FB page. I didn’t have or want a FB page.  I mean, for heaven’s sake, if I wasn’t keeping up with my blog, why would it be any different with FB?  After a dozen letters came in, I caved and opened a page last night.  Oh geezy, why oh why.  The whole thing is sort of throwing me for a loop at the moment, but I’m trying to learn to work the darn site.  Everyone says they love it….maybe I will, maybe I won’t.  Gawd, I’m getting older by the second when I can’t navigate some site.  At least I discovered the “Home” button today and that really, really helped.  We’ll see, we’ll see.

I’m not saying I’m completely giving up on blogging, but I know this extended leave will continue.  Hate to type a sentence and then have to get up and go to the other room.  Do you have any idea how long it took to write this?  Don’t ask.  I have always loved blogging.  I love my blog friends and I love to write and I love to see what everyone is up to, but well…..the other room, you know, the one with the tub?  It’s calling again.  For lord’s sake, how much can even be in a person.  TMI.

For anyone that’s interested, I did copy the link to my FB page, and here it is at the bottom of this post. It’s showing my maiden name first for the school info. I hate losing touch, honestly I do. 

I send oodles of heart felt love and hugs to all of you  XOXOXO

https://www.facebook.com/people/Jenny-Crouch/100005183449171

Do Things Really Happen in 3’s?

                                                            

Arlene, our good, good friend and blogster, wrote to me asking where I was. Yes, it’s been a long time again and I felt I really owed an explanation, so here is the letter I sent to her, and it also goes to you:

                                                 -------------------------------

You have got to be the dearest soul on the planet, Arlene.  I don't mean to disappear.  I think of all the years on WindowsLive Blog and never missed a post.  Then we get to Blogspot and I was ok for a good while but as you know, first Mom died, then my 8 closest friends all in the course of that year.  THEN, I got sick.  All I can say is I hope that I'm getting closer to the end of all the crappy luck.  This knee surgery has been the pits.  It is very, very uncomfortable to sit at the computer for anything.  I hate sitting in chairs for more than about 5 minutes and then have to stand or lie down.  This blasted PT therapist has really hurt me.  A few weeks ago, I was actually getting better and could take the steps up and down.  BUT....he decided on his own that something could be out of place and he literally gouged his finger under my knee cap and you could have heard me scream for miles.  He jumped back and all he said was Opps.  Because of that, I was back on a cane, couldn't do steps, couldn't sleep for the pain and had to cancel the next appointment.  The following week, which was last week, I told him what he did set me back weeks and weeks and now the pain was as bad as the day after the original surgery.  He apologized but then strapped weights to my ankle for the first exercises.  I told him no in no uncertain terms, that it hurt to the point of screaming and that it also was killing my back where I had plates and screws (from breaking my back in '92).  The girl helping him immediately took off the weights, but when she walked off, he put them right back on, telling me it would be fine, and then let go of my leg. I yelled bloody murder.  That was last Thursday.  I have upcoming appts every other day for the next 2 weeks beginning tomorrow but as soon as I finish writing to you, I am calling and cancelling all of them.  He is not going to do this to me ever again.  From the movement under the knee cap to the pain now running the entire length of my leg and to under my foot, I am positive he's made a new rip in the meniscus.  I have a followup appt with the surgeon on June 10th and even though he never listens at all and only keeps saying how great I look and how glad he is to see me, I will tell him what has happened and if he wants to do a new MRI, fine, but he will never, ever be allowed to operate on me again, either.  I'm just done with it all and want to rest my achin' bod and do my own leg/knee exercises and heal.....or at least heal to the point where I can bear it.  It's all been a nightmare and I had no idea I'd be out of commission for this long.  It's been 7 weeks so far, and I know the healing time is said to be 2 months at the earliest and goes all the way to 6 months, but I'll bet anything that didn't take all this into consideration.  I feel like the surgeon and the therapist walked right out of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. 

So that's the story up to this point and I think I'll post this to my page just for an update, but I swear, as this is the way it is right now, I'm honestly not sure of when I'll write much.  Just this typing/sitting has my leg really, really hurting.  It's like piano wires strung too tight and then pinged.  What a bunch of crap to happen, ugh.

But rather than write and just bitch and complain, I'd rather not blog at all until I can be smiling and laughing again.  I sure hope you and the rest of our wonderful group understands.

Always love to you and missing you, too,

Jenny