Planned Obsolescence

All the pets seem to be running down at the same time. One cat is too skinny, one is too fat, one couldn't pee and exploded. Really. I woke up one morning to a soaking wet bed and soaking wet cat who was unable to move one leg. I changed the sheets, put him on a stack of towels (to much screaming), and he slept for 15 hours. He feels better now, but I hate it when he is sick. One dog has some suspicious lumps and I have had to scoop 3 fish in the last month. AND the rabbit got a piece of something in his eye and looked in a bad way for a day or two. Right now everyone (except skinny cat) is acting fine, but I have worried lo these many years about all the pets getting old and infirm at the same time. Sigh.

In the good news department, my application for extended unemployment was approved *and* I received a totally unexpected check in the mail which will cover my COBRA payment and electric bill for the month. Woot!

The dog(s) and I are still taking our long walks almost every day. I am up to an hour's worth of patience. Any more than that and I get snippy and they get dragged. Today we splurged and walked to the ice cream stand. The other night we wandered a new route through neighborhoods and an owl flew right over us. Today it was a pair of crows (a brace of corbies?).

Knitting progress is being made. I have finished the first skein of yarn on That Scottish Stole, and am dithering about whether to start a new skein or advertise on Ravelry to see if anyone has a partial skein in their stash that I can trade / barter for. In the meantime I have picked up the Mystery Stole 4 project and am halfway through clue 6. Then I put in waste yarn, set it aside, knit clues 1-5 again and then graft the two pieces together. I don't have enough yarn for this project (I wonder if I could dye the leftover gray-green to match the lovely deep blue? It is the same brand of yarn), so it may be going into a holding pattern in a few weeks too.

I made some pretty tasty pizza last night with homemade dough... I need to really practise my dough-smoothing-to-edge-of-pan abilities. I ended up with a 1" thick crust! I have also been making oven-dried tomatoes with the haul from the garden. The bounty just doesn't end. I have peppers, tomatoes, volunteer lettuces, and very happy basil.

Life is good most days... if only I could get up and do all the things that need doing instead of wishing they were done. Some days I start with a lot of energy and then it fades away. Some days I spend the whole day working up the nerve to get going and it is 4 pm before I leave the house. And this is when I am on my meds! It is not that I am lacking for things that need to get done. But tonight I am out and about.