Friday, July 2, 2010

Cabal Is Home and Lola Is Going Camping...


Morning! Bet you weren't expecting me quite this early, but here we are. Nothing like falling asleep by 10:30 to get a girl up early.

The big news of course, is that Cabal came home yesterday. Poor little Frankendog! And the good news of the big news is that the operation seems to have been very successful, at least from the view that they knew what they wanted to do, and were able to do it.

The Doctors were able to remove a mass from his neck, which was pressing down on his spine. It was an odd mass, and we won't have the test results back for a few days yet. It was not a MASS OF DEADLY CANCER TUMOR. I asked. Right away. Those are apparently much easier to identify. If you are a Doctor, they tell me you see it and think "Wow, there's a mass of deadly cancer tumor." They didn't.

It's more likely something that grew after the poor guy spent three years on a choke chain, chained to a barn. I know how nuts he goes when Fed Ex drives up (Or anyone other than us) and can imagine the same thing happened at his old home. The location is right.


He does need to be kept quiet for the next 6-8 weeks. No playing, no running, no outside off leash, no walks, no jarring his neck in any way. At which point he will need a second operation for a torn tendon in his back leg, the same as he had a couple years ago on his other leg. And he will then need to be kept quiet for another 6 weeks.

(We don't know how the torn tendon happened, these things do, and they can do it easily, and with no symptoms for a long period of time, only gradually being noticeable.)

The next two weeks are the crucial ones, while his spine heals.

I'm not sure if this was the worst possible time to have acquired Lola, or the best.


We can't sit her down and explain why she can't play with her friend. All we can do is give her a lot of attention and love, without him. Boss has moved down onto the first floor. We've set up an office, and bedroom, added latches to doors. (Him being home this summer one of those things you are just grateful for) We need to see how things go. Cabal may come to my house at some point.

(Which will work better than you think it might, an added door or two and it can work.)

We'll have to see.

Meanwhile, Miss Lola met Horses last night. Not my horse, but the herd at Horsetrainer Mels, where Lola also got reacquainted with her friend Pearl. It went pretty well, which I am glad about, because Miss Lola is coming Horse Camping with me this weekend.

Now that I am an experienced Camper (remember, I went camping overnight a few weeks ago? Nothing to it.) I feel confident that it will go well. I have a new tent. I will remember to bring pillows. I am a better rider.

Me, three horse Friends, two small children, six horses, Pearl and a half trained puppy.

What could go wrong?

I actually feel better about having her along.

In a word: BEARS. (remember the BEARS? Not that we saw any, but the info board at the campground seemed very BEAR oriented and concerned that campers knew what to do if they encountered a BEAR. Mostly, it seemed, one ought to hope the BEAR was in a good mood.)

Like they are going to mess with Lola?

I think not.

Love and Dogs,
Lorraine

97 Comments:

At 07:10 Blogger Phiala said...

Heh. Bears. We took Grendel camping in New Mexico, and when bears appeared he very sensibly hid in the tent, or behind Nick. Or both, whenever possible.

I'm glad poor Frankendog's surgery was successful. I hope he's feeling just a bit poorly for the first couple weeks so that he stays still. (I realize that sounds awful to anyone who hasn't had to deal with a convalescing dog, but the hardest part is keeping them still after they start to feel better. Can't explain, after all.)

I hope everything from here proceeds smoothly, with Lola and my buddy Cabal. I'd be happy to help with the puppies if I weren't so far away.

At 07:14 Blogger Craig Steffen said...

Phiala: Some people are like that too. You can't explain and they're stupid and push themselves too far because they "feel better".

Thanks for the update Lorraine. Yeah; sounds like some kind of bony growth or something; benign by itself, but obviously putting pressure where it oughtn't. Wow. Scary.

Good luck camping! That sounds fun and adventurous with all the new and very young participants.

At 07:19 Blogger Dan Guy said...

Perhaps the mass on his spine was causing neurological issues with his legs, causing him to over-exert, leading to torn tendons?

At 07:33 Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

All very possible. And yes, keeping him quiet is going to be difficult.

Ought to be an interesting weekend, not a restful one, but time enough for sleeping in the grave I say.

Ok, bad metaphor. For all I am AWAKE, it IS early.

At 07:39 Blogger DataGoddess said...

'Sleeping in the grave'? What kind of tent did you buy? *grin*

Poor Frankendog, I hope he recovers quickly. With Boss home and with him maybe he will be good and stay still. Have you seen any improvement yet in his walking (wasn't this mass affecting how well he could tell where his feet are?). I hope it's a good 6-8 weeks for you all.

Oh, Lola is going to have fun camping!

At 07:45 Blogger Antiqueight said...

I will be collecting my brothers dog tomorrow to mind him for the month of July. He LOVES to play and run and do his tricks but he has a condition which acts like arthritis and grounds him if he plays and runs and does his tricks too much.. Poor pet. So I too shall be ensuring the correct level of activities for a really great, doesn't deserve the pain, dog. Fingers crossed we all do well.

At 07:49 Blogger Lioness said...

I hope the weather is good for you. Camping with dog is one thing. Camping with wet dog? I don't think so! So glad to hear that the operation went well.

At 07:59 Blogger Marjorie said...

Such a relief to know it's not a scary cancerous mass. Even if he does look a little as though the vets did a 'cut'n'shunt' and stitched halves of 2 dogs together (didya check his serial number to check they didn't foist half the wrong dogon you?)
do you have a big dog crate to put him innto make sure he doesn't bounce when his people take their eyes off him?

Happy camping! Hopefully Pearl being there will be an advantage-if Lola follows her lead she'll stay out of trouble, won't she?
And we will all think special, Bear repelling thoughts for you all..

Finally - congratulations again to Phiala on the Clarkesworld piece.

At 08:01 Blogger dabbler said...

Love to Dog, and Puppy, and all those involved with the challenging 'wrassling of both!

Echoing Lihua's comment about how great it is that we Fiends come in all persuasions, except, I think, bigoted and small minded. Gives me hope.

And continued good healing thoughts to Lys's Mom, Brenda.

Off to discover what the chewing sound from the kitchen is...the cat is out, and I am alone in the house (hooray!) But something is definitely chewing on the other side of the room. (boo.)

At 08:02 Blogger dabbler said...

Oh.... and, Phiala, great work. You rock.

At 08:04 Blogger dabbler said...

And, I'm pretty sure Fiends will enjoy this... (via Utne):
http://bookshelfporn.com/

Bye for now

At 08:06 Blogger LihuaEmilyP said...

Lola needs a theme song.

My mom always loathed camping: "My parents took us camping, kids. A lot. And it was" -shiver- "CHILD ABUSE."

I'm pleased Cabal's okay. He deserves to be okay. Of course, he also should be able to run and be Cabal in the fullest way but ... if that's the price for his well-being, you and Boss and Cabal and Lola and everyone else can all manage.

At 08:08 Anonymous Monique said...

Hello! As a faithful reader of Mr. Neil's and your blog, and also a veterinarian, I'd like to mention that torn cranial cruciate ligaments in dogs (ACLs in people) are usually part of a degenerative process and not an injury. Injuries can make it worse, but this is common in older dogs and can be considered part of aging.

At 08:44 Blogger Phiala said...

Thanks for the comments on the Clarkesworld article. Fun stuff - ecology and science fiction. Along those same lines, there's this, with really cool science videos.

And I promise I'm done now, for a while at least. :)

At 08:56 Blogger Hellie said...

Yay for good news about Cabal, hope his convalescence goes well.

Phiala, just read your story - gave me a most delightful shudder at the end. Congrats on your Publishedness!

Ohh bookshelf porn, love it!! Immediately thought of this place, I spent a few blissful hours there on my birthday last year.

At 09:09 Blogger Laura B said...

I'm glad Cabal made it through OK. Now I hope he heals quickly. Have fun camping, again!

At 09:20 Blogger Jane said...

tick

At 09:21 Blogger One Sock Short said...

Glad to hear that Cabal is doing well post-op. He must also be very glad that his pack leader is home for all this.

Lola camping. This should be interesting. At least she will be able to exercise her puppy exuberance away from her convalescing friend for a few days.

I want to be Phiala when I grow up. Even though I'm older.

I also want to come back to the FIT conversation. But that will have to be later. Till then, best of everything to Fiends one and all.

At 09:55 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm so glad Cabal is doing well so far. Poor puppy. As the wife of a cancer doc ""Wow, there's a mass of deadly cancer tumor." this is mostly true but still fingers crossed for the results.

AND fingers crossed for the camping. It will be FUN!! Yes, FUN!!

I've been riding like mad. We've finally had a cold front here. high 80s instead of high 90s to low 100s {with heat indexes 110s} it's glorious.

At 10:05 Anonymous kali_licious said...

So glad to hear the FrankenDog is doing better (and that his Person is home, which should help.)

Camping with Lola ought to be fun!

Dabbler: Oooo pretty bookshelves!

I too, second Miss Lihua, since she summed it all up so nicely yesterday, much better than my grumpy sore-throated self.:)

And congrats yet again to Phiala:)

At 10:13 Blogger Cecily said...

So happy Cabal is home and things went well. And very happy that you are going camping again! And it sounds like it will be quite the adventure. :-)

I might get to see fire breathing and twirling this weekend. I am very much looking forward to a long weekend with my family.

At 10:26 Blogger vampi said...

box of twirls

At 10:49 Anonymous ScarlettSiren said...

So glad to hear that Cabal has pulled through and is busy healing. Good luck with that by the way- hopefully he's on groggy meds. Horrible to see them act out of it, but a relief since the meds make them less likely to jump around and interrupt the healing.

As for Lola, being out in the woods will probably be good for her- lot's of new things to smell and see and bark at! Like bears! :D

At 10:54 Blogger Chantrelle said...

All this chatting happened while I was asleep!?!?

You are a busy lot!

I'll be back later to read!

At 11:02 Blogger Jess said...

Yay Dog! :)
Poor Dog. :(
Yay camping? You mean you want to do it again?! :/

I tease.

Fact which fascinates me: that dogs and bears are related species. Every time I see a bear, I squint and try to see the dog in him. Every time I meet a dog, I try to see the bear.

At 11:05 Blogger Hellie said...

It's probably quite difficult to see the similarities between a chiuhuahua and a Grizzly :o)

At 11:17 Blogger Beez said...

As the human of mostly black Labs, I always thought my dogs were related to seals (which would explain the whole I Hate Bears thing).

Glad Big Dog came through well g'luck with keeping him mellow. If you need a place to stash Lola for a breather Mika is volunteering her fenced yard and ball n' stick sharing.

No really, she said so!

I was working over near the vet school yesterday. Wondered if you were picking him up.

Phiala, the story was GREAT! A proper frisson at the end.

I have an Unexpected Day Off! (mostly). A group canceled at work and there wasn't any other work available.
My pocketbook won't approve, but my feet and sleep-deprived brain do.

At 14:00 Blogger AletaMay said...

Hurray for camping with Lola! Can't wait to hear the Stories that come of that adventure!

My mind has been Very Very Disorganized lately. I am hoping to find some Order (the good kind not the restrictive kind) this weekend.

At 14:12 Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Thanks Monique, I had heard that too come to think on it, but hadn't thought again, he's only 7, but that would make sense, since it is on both legs..

Sitting with Cabal here. Poor guy is kind of stoned, and will sort of stand there looking into space until you tell him to go lie down.

At 14:14 Blogger spacedlaw said...

Thanks goodness for this mighty body guard you are taking along.
She will have a great time of it all.

At 14:19 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does Lola have her own little backpack?

At 16:23 Blogger Dragonsally said...

Stoner Frankendog!

I am so relieved it wasn't a nasty mass of doom.

And gee Fiends, thanks for all the links I have open now *grin*

I want to see Lola with her own little backpack...she'd look so cute.

Really looking forward to tales of camping with lots of photos.

right. now for hot, soothing tea.

At 16:25 Blogger Dragonsally said...

And I go to my first open link...Phiala, another published story? Congrats, you productive thing!

oh and tickytwirlything

At 17:04 Blogger LihuaEmilyP said...

Um. Jess? Did you just say dogs and bears are related?

At 17:11 Blogger Precision Grace said...

Remember to say *there there nice bear* if the opportunity should present itself.

And tell Lola to bring some smells back for Cabal from your trip - he'd like that.

Have fun - look at you going camping again and not even mentioning silky underthings for sleeping in this time - such a pro!

At 18:38 Blogger Phiala said...

Dogs and bears are related, but not all that closely. Dogs and bears are more closely related than dogs and cats (as we all can tell!), but dogs and bears are less closely related than, oh, bears and sea lions. Probably.

Leave it to the former biology professor...

At 18:42 Blogger Jess said...

Well that would be the sensible thing to do, yes.

At 18:44 Blogger Phiala said...

That was of course exactly how I didn't mean it. :)

I meant, "Leave it to the former biology professor to come up with the pedantic explanation that spoils a perfectly good blog discussion."

:)

Hm. The cat just went galloping across the courtyard. Once and a half times: out, back, out. Now he's standing still and looking perplexed. I wonder what set him off?

I love my fifteen year old psycho cat.

At 19:04 Blogger Dragonsally said...

So, you were a biology prof Phiala? Did I know that?

I can see bear in quite a few dogs...we often call Shiraz bear because certain things she does or looks she gives seem bearish.

Does anyone have a working wand?
I really need this cold to *phoof*

At 19:15 Blogger Phiala said...

Probably not, Sally. I've never been a full-time professor, but I taught college biology for a while. It was a rather horrible experience, but quite educational for me if not my students.

I taught the once-a-week Saturday class, from noon to 6pm. Is that not frightful just to contemplate?

At 19:17 Blogger Dragonsally said...

Holy something or others - an all day class? Even if it included lab time, that is marathon-ey

At 19:19 Blogger Phiala said...

That included lab, but still awful: 3 hours lecture, 3 hours lab. I can't lecture that many hours in a row, even if it were possible for my students to absorb it. We did a lot of in-class projects and discussions.

At 19:33 Blogger Jess said...

Argh. That's a long haul, all right.

Teaching at a university taught me that I didn't want to teach at a university.

At 19:36 Blogger Phiala said...

Well, I certainly didn't want to teach long-term at that university.

The thing about being full-time faculty is that you have to be entirely committed. That's what you do, a zillion hours a week, and there's no time for anything else (especially for the first five years).

That's what I wanted when I was young and enthusiastic, but now I'm happy to have a more diverse life. Most of the time, anyway.

At 19:40 Blogger Precision Grace said...

gnh tick that sticks

At 19:40 Blogger Jess said...

Yeah. So many of my old grad school friends are working thier way up the pre-tenure ladder now, and they all complain that they never have time to write, or are stuck doing lit crit they wish they weren't. It took me a long time to work out that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing to have never hopped on that ladder in the first place.

At 19:40 Blogger Precision Grace said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

At 19:43 Blogger Jess said...

(And it's lucky I don't teach at a university now, spelling "their" like that...)

At 21:19 Blogger Jess said...

Aaaand the thread is DEAD in 48! Booyah!

*stab*

At 21:59 Blogger One Sock Short said...

Hey! That hurt! Watch what you're stabbing :-)

My actual computer is having connection issues while on Netflix. Meanwhile, Blogger on my phone has gone all large-print on me. Is this a commentary on my age? "We at Blogger perceive that you are not as young as you used to be. Here, have some large-print and a zimmer frame."

Still no Netflix. Grrr.

I plan to hibernate this weekend. Well, I guess the "hiber-" part is wrong, but I don't know the summer eqivalent. But after farmer's market, I intend to putter around at home all three days. Ah, bliss.

Still no Netflix?! Grrr x2.

At 22:11 Blogger Chantrelle said...

Ooh, neighbor boy is testing my patience at tonight's sleepover. I wonder if ben does this to them.

Can't complain on twitter, his mom is on there ;-)

At 22:54 Blogger Cecily said...

Netflix on our Wii is probably one of my favoritest new things ever. It makes me sooo happy.

At 22:59 Anonymous Wendy Withers said...

I talked to my mom today, and she said she put her cat down yesterday. :( Her cat had diabetes and was not very sick, but she was having diabetes related problems, and my mom decided it was better to put her down. She was somewhere around 10.

Serious Black is sitting in my lap, purring.

I'm knitting a kippah.

The handle on my car door broke today, so now I have to climb over the speed control thinger mabobber and get out of the passenger side.

My wii does not want to play with my internet, so I have to live with Netflix on my laptop.

I think that's about it for today.

At 23:02 Blogger Dragonsally said...

Oh no, I'm so sorry about your mum's cat. Tysie is 16 and a half and still going trong despite her diabetes, but I love in fear, you know.

Huge hugs for you Wendy.

At 23:54 Blogger Ticia said...

::lesigh::

Ticky box.

Comments for later.

At 06:23 Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Morning campers! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Actually it's going to be freaky hot, but there you have it.

Need to get some Camping Things together. I like this one night thing, because how much do you NEED? Extra pants socks and shirt. Sunscreen. PILLOWS.

I have my saddle bridle grooming things riding hat riding boots.

I am responsible for breakfast tomorrow. Easy. Eggs sausage butter toast cheese powerade.

I have Lola crate dishes water dog food (frozen steak)leashes.

I'll bring that key I found too just in case.

At 06:32 Blogger Phiala said...

You sound well-prepared. I hope you and Lola have lots of fun.

At 07:35 Blogger Jess said...

You are as ready as you'll ever be. Go Forth! Have fun.

At 07:43 Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Ok. If it were done tis better it were done quickly.

I go.

CHatter me nicely so I can read comments, and I will twitter.

See you tomorrow night if I don't get EATEN BY A BEAR!!!!!!!!!!

At 07:43 Blogger Phiala said...

Have fun!

At 08:01 Blogger Jess said...

Just remember that bears are vaguely related to dogs. Then everything will be fine.

At 09:16 Anonymous Sister Tracy said...

Oh Lorraine!! I'm sorry I didn't see your post in time to stop you. Horses, Bears, Dogs, Camping, all Very Good, but TWO SMALL CHILDREN??!!! You don't stand a chance. There's no defense against the creatures- they will Why and What and Want you to death. I just watched a 3 and 4 year old for two days and a few bears would have been easier to deal with. Good Luck.

At 09:53 Blogger Cecily said...

"I'll bring that key I found too just in case."

I *heart* you!

And Tracy, I agree and disagree with you, it all depends the breed of children. Some are bred to be obnoxious, uncontrollable, and altogether people you don't want to have around. BUT some are bred to be well manner, intelligent, creative creatures that do nothing be impress and make people go squishy with there adorableness. *I* am a breeder of the second group. Here's hoping Fablo doesn't encounter the first unruly breed of child. ;-)

At 11:30 Blogger Chantrelle said...

I hope I am a breeder of the 2nd type. He did really well camping and found us the rattlesnake in our campsite! We wouldn't have. Right useful that boy is ;-)

He and neighbor boy just had C3PO french toast (made a face w/ berries, told them it was C3PO) and are now playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii.

Have a great time camping Q!!

Good morning :)

At 11:47 Anonymous Sister Tracy said...

oh, these WERE the good kind of kids, smart and well-trained. It's just that they're so DEPENDENT. By lunchtime I was ready to hide under the bed, if there had been room left with all the cats there. You have my admiration Cecily, Chantrelle,and all the rest of you with the stamina to continue the human race!

At 11:53 Blogger Chantrelle said...

Ah yes....Mom play tag. Mom play Star wars. Mom draw. Mom...mom...mom...mom.

Ben's pretty self-sufficient but he's an only child so I'm the playmate. I'm not so good at free-play.

At 12:09 Blogger Cecily said...

Independence is an important part of learning! I have three girls, and the middle one is my step-daughter, and I have been fighting the good fight to have her other household not coddling her and teaching her independence! My kids are so independent I can't get them to play with me right now. *pout* (They would if I asked, but they are off enjoying themselves so I don't want to tear them away from what they are doing. We painted one of the walls in the youngest's room with chalkboard paint and they have created fictional characters with special abilities, stats, names, etc...and written all the details across the wall. We're raising ourselves some good gamer geeks. *lol*)

Yeah for finding the rattler! Those suckers are scary!

At 13:39 Anonymous kali_licious said...

Sounds like you should employ Lola to help carry her things. A puppy backpack would be so cute.:)

I'd not fear the bears, you have horses and dogs and kids. Plenty of noise happening to warn them off. They like peace and quiet, you know;)

At 14:14 Blogger Marjorie said...

I agree independence is of great importance - as I get older I increasingly admire my parents for encouraging each of us to be independent - it must be very hard to encourage your children to go out into the big bad world (I travelled alone to France, to visit a penpal, when I was 17 -pre mobile phones, and changing trains in London and Paris) My parents were very supportive, although I don't think my mum slept for about 3 days...

At 18:04 Blogger Dragonsally said...

lI can't imagine how awful it would be to be a 'cottonwool' kid. I think one of the biggest advantages of growing up on a farm was that we tended to just disappear during the day. Adventures we had them, trouble we got into but most of all we had a blast.
If I'd had kids, I would have insisted on a farm life I think.

Hope your camping is going really well Lorraine, I guess I'd better get on twitter to see what's happening.

At 20:36 Blogger Beez said...

I agree Sally. I wasn't on a farm, but 4 houses from where my neighborhood ended and the farms began. Mom could kick us out the door in the morning in Summer especially and we mayyyybe came home for lunch.

We were actually hungry by dinnertime though *grin*

Living in the city I couldn't give Spawn quite that much freedom and it's one of the few things I regret.
Must say though, he made up for it by becoming bus-savvy and heading out to the library, bookstore and gaming shops on his own though!

At 22:02 Blogger Dragonsally said...

I guess that's sort of the urban equivilent Beez.
One thing I love about the 'burb I live in that just about all the kids seem to walk or ride to school and are allowed out and about. A contrast to other places I've lived where you never saw the kids.
Easy for me to say of course, not being a parent. I imagine that balancing protection and space to experience is one of the hardest things to do.

At 23:18 Blogger vampi said...

oooh, healing thoughts for frankendog.

i hope camping is going well. you left the honey at home right? whinney the pooh has taught me that bears can't keep their paws out of the honey jar.

i have a really strong opinion on child rearing and playing outside and unsupervised, but this isn't my soap box. i played outside, rode my bike everywhere, and trick or treated at night. i made it out alive. i think somehow society decided it was necessary to wrap our kids up in bubble wrap and keep them indoors, but we blame it on video games. that said, the fiends are amazing parents, i enjoy hearing about the different things you allow your kids to do and keep that in mind for if spawn should occur.

At 00:16 Blogger dabbler said...

I think the selling of fear...be fearful, all the time, of everything has drastically altered our childrearing, for the worse, by far. But I am so far not in the majority....
(Fiends aside...)

I also think many modern parents have sheltered their children from the experience of learning to entertain themselves, and from learning to work out solutions to conflict. I spent years as a kid playing games where half the fun was arguing...about the rules, about whether the shuttlecock was in or out, about everything.

Home from a party with good food, managed to dodge one person I particularly did not want to see, and had a good time. But WAY past my bedtime. Goodnight, Fiends, Goodnight moon, goodnight, bears sitting on chairs....

At 01:10 Blogger Marjorie said...

Happy Revolution Day to all you American Fiends!

Would you all like a nice cup of tea? I'll make you one if you promise not to throw it all in the sea this time ;-)

At 02:44 Blogger vampi said...

hahahaha

tea would be loverly, because you know we just can't do tea properly here.

At 02:55 Blogger Dragonsally said...

Well you know Vampi, its really hard to make a good harbour sized cuppa!

At 08:51 Blogger dabbler said...

Why, thank you, Marjorie, I'd be delighted. These days, I stay as far from the 'tea party' folks as I can!

At 09:40 Blogger DataGoddess said...

Marjorie, I would love a good English cuppa! Thank you!

One thing I have always appreciated about my sister-in-law is that in the summer she pretty much kicked the kids outside and told them to go play. They did have some organized activities, but generally if it was nice out, they were outside. They live in a neighborhood that has a lot of kids, so there was plenty of other kids for them to hang with, and all the parents would look out for the kids in their vicinity when needed.

A true neighborhood. Hmmm, wonder how many of them are still around. I haven't noticed many.

At 09:51 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Fab I am away form home and wanted to reach you. Can we do Wed and Fri this week at 8:30?

she who owns it all

At 10:17 Anonymous Wendy Withers said...

Sigh. I have to go to the bathroom, but I have a sleeping Serious Black on my lap.

Oh the turmoil of cat owning.

Also, should I go to the French Quarter, where I know I will be able to see fireworks, but where all of the people in the city will be clamoring to watch them, or should I set up stake in the park across the street, where I might be able to see the fireworks, but it is right across the street and I won't have to deal with a mob?

At 10:53 Blogger Precision Grace said...

I may be in a need of a calming cup of tea. Tonks seems to have done something untoward to his back left paw and it's swollen and he can't put weight down on it. Trip to the vet tomorrow (called emergency vet, they said they'd see him today for £100 - errr, I can't even afford my mortgage so that's out).

I tried to put ice compress on his paw to help the swelling go down but he lasted all of 4 minutes before insisting he had to go outside. Now he's sleeping under the honeysuckle bush again. He must be in so much pain. Why can't I have painkillers to give my cats in these circumstances. You can give painkillers to babies but not to you pets, seems unfair.

Anyhow, Happy Independence day, hope Q is enjoying herself (I was going to say having fun horsing around but not sure my brand of humour is always apparent)

At 11:05 Blogger Cecily said...

I have mixed feeling about the whole outdoors independence...Yes I survived my youth...but I would be lying if I didn't say there weren't times where it was narrowly and it wasn't without scars. So my kids get time outside without me, but it isn't entire neighborhood roaming. It's close and it's in groups. And I can definitively say that it is not video games/news/popular hysteria related. It is purely drawing from my own childhood. Oh the stories I could tell...

As for conflict resolution, my husband and I are talkers. We will let the kids argue to a point, but often intervene and try to teach good communication skills. As an adult one of my biggest pet peeves (aside from women who can't fucking pee IN the toilet) is that my peers are unable/afraid to hold real conversations. They have a preference for the bickering that was learned as a child and in high school, and I find it to be a immature and ridiculous way to go through life. I am a very honest talker. So I don't have a lot of close friends. I am not cruel with my words, I don't use honesty as an excuse to be a dick, like my ex husband does. But I do express how I feel and my observations on things. This turns most people off. People seem to like the bullshit sunshine up their ass way of dealing with people. I'd rather know what someone actually wants form me or feels about it...even if in the short or long run it hurts, because that IMO is the only way to have true relationships. Like I said, I don't have a lot of close friends, but the ones I have, you bet my ass we'll always be there for each other, no matter what.

No quite sure why that got so rambly...uh...Happy 4th!

At 12:48 Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Rain. Home. Tired. And I smell.

Thank you!!!!

Will do a nice blog after shower and nap. Or nap and shower. Hard call.

At 13:08 Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Oh, and She who owns it all, gots it!

At 14:24 Blogger vampi said...

ok i take back everything i said, and my neighbors kids should be forced to play in a sound proof room.

unsupervised at the pool again, and screeching up a storm. ugh.

when i said unsupervised play, i did not mean in a pool. we used to play unsupervised in a field.

At 16:05 Blogger Marjorie said...

Seems quiet around here. I guess (almost) everyone is out being Independent. Have fun!

And those of you who have tomorrow for a long weekend - Enjoy! I've been remembering this time last year, when I was still in MN after FiendFest, & spent the day at the Museum of Modern Art, and the evening with Gayle - lots of fun.

At 17:35 Blogger Dragonsally said...

Is it a year ago? Seems like yesterday. *sigh*

I am enjoying all these child tales.

At 17:40 Blogger Precision Grace said...

I'm with Cecily on the mixed feeling re: childhood that's foot loose and fancy free, I too have some tales that are of the toe curling variety but I'm not sure that being outdoors is all to blame. I did love roaming my little town and discovering every secret hidden alley - considering I was walking all over town at the age of 9-10 and never got attacked once is probably a miracle but there you go.
It really was fun spending you whole day outside (even if you did lose the key hanging from your neck quite often and had to ask the neighbours to let you climb across their balcony into yours so you could get into your flat.)

At 17:45 Blogger Dragonsally said...

Yeah, in all honesty I guess I did too. And I had 3 big brothers and their friends keeping an eye on me.
And of course, both parents home on the farm who were probably keeping a closer eye on us than we knew.

Still, I wouldn't exchange that childhood for anything.

At 18:43 Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

New camping blog is up!!!!!

No slacking away at 4th celebrations here!

(Ok, so I slacking for a three hour nap after my shower, but hey..)

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