Post Holiday Post

Things have been a bit muted around our household. On Friday, I received unfortunate, but expected, news about my dog, Greta. They were unable to grow a culture from her urine sample--that means that even though she has pus in her urine, it is not from a bacteria that can be treated. (Apologies if I'm grossing any of you out). Tomorrow I take her for an ultrasound that will likely confirm that she has a tumor. It could also show (here's the hopeful news) that she has something treatable like kidney stones, but that is a lower probability (I should say low probability) prognosis. She's on some kicked-up pain pills, so that is helping her. It is likely that you'll see little in the way of substantive market posting by me next week as I deal with these difficult issues. But, that is part of the business of having dogs whose life expectancy is a fraction of our own.

Just to keep things spicy around here, I'm finding new ways to injure myself. Mark and I took Macy out for an inaugural boat ride yesterday. The last dog that was on our boat was my beagle, Suzy. She's been dead for more than 15 years. I'll say that have a 20lb dog is quite different than having a ~60lb dog. But Macy did beautifully, and we'll take her again. Thankfully we have a top for the boat. It would have been hateful otherwise. While we were waiting at the boat ramp to put our boat in, I settled under the shade of a largish boat (probably a boat in a perennial state of repairs) on jacks. This was a nice respite from the sun. Unfortunately, I was not paying attention and when I stood up, I cracked my head on the v-edge of the bow. While I didn't not knock myself out, I'm still suffering a rather nasty headache and of course have a nice sore spot on my head.

My husband, though sympathetic and solicitous, expressed amazement (and amusement) over the various maladies and injuries that I have subjected myself to over these last few weeks. I generally have an uneventful life. I hope that I'm not soon telling you that I'm pregnant.

I did not make any advance plans for the 4th given Greta's fragile health. But at the last minute, I invited my BIL/SIL over. We had delicious hamburgers with blue cheese and bacon, homemade potato salad (courtesy of my SIL, it was her Nana's recipe) and squash casserole. I made this wonderful German Blueberry cake, which is more of a tart than a cake for you foodies out there. Thank goodness for the food processor. I literally came home at 3:30 and was able to have dinner ready by 6:30--that includes doing some of the EPA cleanup necessary to make our home presentable to outsiders (even if they are family!). We were able to eat out on the deck and be grateful for our great nation's independence.

Squash is the preeminent vegetable in my corner of the world. It is running out of everyone's garden here, though ours is just getting started to bear. I just attempted to make some squash bread. I monkeyed with the recipe, and despite extended the time, I still managed to end up with underdone loaves. Oh well. I've also monkeyed with a squash casserole recipe. This time, I'm using blue cheese (only because I have no more cheddar, and I have blue cheese left over from July 4 that I do not wish to spoil). I also elected NOT to scrape out the seeds of the jalapenos (from our garden). This is likely to be a spicy concoction. But, you gotta experiment in the kitchen--it will keep you from experimenting other places that are likely to get you in trouble or arrested.

I did dig up some potatoes out of the garden. Thankfully, I was not attacked by any serpents, but my head hurt from bending over, so had any serpent shown itself, it likely would have been a surprise ingredient in my squash casserole.

Oh....our weather is not turning to be the hateful kind of summer weather you'd expect in Virginia. I think that it hit 100 today.

My beautiful, beloved Greta has had the most wonderful life that a dog could have. She has also been the most wonderful companion for me. She is MY dog. She has never bonded with either of my kids and she tolerates my husband. She adores me. But with that, she comes up to me truly expecting that I can help her. Alas, I'm not much help. I do lay with her on her dog bed, and comfort her as best I can which in truth is not very much at all.

Please don't read any of this as any sort of lament. I take all things in stride. And this is one of more sad moments that punctuate each of our lives. I'm fortunate to have so many other blessings that manage to tilt the scale to the green. I'm well aware that so many have scales tipped the other way.