The Dynamic Duo

Too much and too little going on in my life at the same time. Sound impossible? Not at all. Lots of my life is taken up in necessary, if not always wished for activities. I like my job, but don’t always like everything I have to do, or want to do it everytime I have to do it. I like being part of Weightwatchers, but it can be kind of a drag leading meetings every week, and sometimes twice. Always there is cooking/eating/cleaning up; laundrey; and some basic house maintenance, which should actually be taking up more of my time than it actually does. It seems there is too little time for exercise, daily devotions and keeping in touch with my kids, though THAT is not entirely MY fault! And, of course, I still waste far too much time on Bookworm and Turbo Solitaire.
Yesterday, the new puppy, Rowdy, really seemed to be getting on Murphy’s (the old puppy) nerves. The kid follows him everywhere. If Murphy grabs a toy to entice me with a nice little game of Keep Away, Rowdy turns it into a Tug of War. If Murphy jumps in my lap, Rowdy has to get up there too. I actually saw a half-way serious fight with growling and snarling for the first time. Today things seem to be a bit better, but its gotta be an adjustment going from being a spoiled only-child to sharing Mom and Dad. Any thoughts, Ultrabob?
UDad and I actually had the weekend off together and actually spent a little time together. He is trying out some awesome new hearing aids, and it is amazing what a difference it makes. He can hear birds. The TV doesn’t have to be turned up to Mach level (for him anyway), and his “Huhs?” and “Whats?” have decreased dramatically. The age-old hearing aid nemeses seeem to have been eliminated in this state-of-the-art model. No distorted loud and tinny sounds, no whistling in the wind or when he moves, no sweating and scalding in the ear. This model goes behind the ear and has some little flexible tubing that goes into the ear canal; the ‘aid’ has been programmed to UDad’s particular (massive in high-pitched sounds) hearing loss, and automatically makes adjustments for particular situations such as crowds and telephones. Of course it is also awesomely expensive. Just hope the insurance comes through as anticipated.
Wow, that was a long sidetrack, huh? I said HUH? Anyway, back to our day….................the weather was sunny and gorgeous, so we decided to drive up to Lamoille Canyon and have a picnic, and we brought the “boys’ with us. We picked up some “Wendy’s” and drove up the canyon, noting the outstanding fall colors. We would have photographed them if either of us had managed to reach the car with the cameras we meant to bring. A temporary damper was put on the day when UDad discovered his camera was not in the car, and he was not sure where he had left it; maybe outside? I think it also made UDad a bit grumpy that so many other people were also out and about enjoying the day. He much prefers to experience nature in relative aloneness, and I must admit to somewhat sharing that view. But we did manage to find an area where, if we walked a while along the trail, we could find a picnic table surrounded by enough ‘forest’ to give us the appearance of aloneness, if we ignored all the motoring noises. Yesterday we picked all the tomatoes out of the garden. Covering the with tarps every night is getting to be a real drag. I did NOT cover them a couple of nights ago, and felt a little sick when I woke up to a 30 degree F morning temp, but not much seems to have been hurt. I looked upon it as a reprieve; one last chance to harvest the mostly green tomato crop.
Now UDad is back at work, greatly anticipating his vacation which begins this Friday, when he drive for several hours to an area near his sister Kathy’s house and hunt for deer. His brother Chuck is planning to meet him there with his camper, and hopefully, a good time and a successful hunt will occur. I am also anticipating a weekend outing with brother Dan and Mary from NJ and sister Debi (Panther) from Boise in Yellowstone Park. A good time for sure.    
Okay, a prison post next time, I promise. For now, goodbye….just time to squeeze in one more little Turbo game before work.

UltraMom

LATE BREAKING NEWS: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it looks as if I might actually be going to Japan in early Dec for a very special family wedding party. Stay tuned for updates.