No Place Like Home

I'm back, and Bob's run in with Pepe Le Pew.

I’m sitting here at my kitchen table surveying the absolute mess in front of me to clean up, while trying to concentrate on writing. Not an easy task for this house wife! I just got home from my three weeks away in Colorado, and there is so much to do. So much to put away, so much to trim in the yard, so many overgrown flowers, so many normal activities to resume.

And yet…it feels so good to be back home.

So, let me catch you up on all the things.

First, the main reason I ran off to Colorado was my niece’s wedding. I don’t yet have any photos to share of the wedding, but my brother did the videography and put together a highlight reel of the wedding to tide everyone over until the long version is available. So, you can catch a glimpse of the wedding dress I made for her in that reel. Here’s the link: Constance and Jordan's Wedding

In short, the wedding was beautiful and Christ honoring. It was a happy day.

I participated in a string quartet consisting of my mom, my sister, myself and a friend of my mom’s. We played for the processional and the recessional. I also played Vivaldi’s Largo from Winter for the seating of mothers and grandmothers, and I played well. That was a relief for this rusty violinist. I don’t practice regularly anymore and I felt so stiff and out of the habit when I began practicing for the wedding. Yay for not bombing the wedding music!

A gracious couple from my sister’s church hosted us at their beautiful home perched high above most of Colorado Springs. The views were stunning and nearly every day, we got fun glimpses of a doe and her two fawns, several bucks and lots of bunny rabbits. That was awfully fun.

We grabbed a photo opportunity with a beautiful double rainbow one evening!

Meanwhile, back at home base, the young lady I hired to take care of my flower business did a great job. She brought bouquets to market and sold out several weeks in a row! She also kept my online sales business running smoothly by shipping my sales promptly and accurately. It was such a blessing to have everything in capable hands.

You all remember Bob, right? Well, he was the only thing that didn’t go smoothly. Naturally. Oh, Bob.

Here’s the scoop: Both of our dogs, Argos and Bob, went to our friends’ house (the Kaufman’s) for the last three weeks. Not two days into our trip, Reva Kaufman called to inform me that Bob didn’t seem to be feeling well. Things progressed. There were gross developments which I will spare you from. Suffice to say, it quickly became obvious that Bob had gotten himself a serious case of intestinal parasites…probably from the rabbit he caught and ate whole back in June. It was absolutely disgusting what my friends had to deal with and I think they deserve a medal. Despite all that, they’re still happy to keep the dogs in the future. My heroes.

The drama with Bob did not end with the trip. Jonathon and I pulled in to our property in the early evening with the big truck we used to haul his rocket inventory. (Jonathon also vended a rocket launch event in Pueblo, CO while we were out there.) We hopped straight into our Prius to pick up the dogs and bring them back home. The light had gone by the time we reached home once more, but I had such a hankering to check on my big flower garden out back, I went out there with a flashlight to have a look, Bob and Argos trotting out ahead of me.

It all happened so fast…two gleaming, beady little eyes reflected the flashlight back to me. Before I could even yell, “Bob, leave it!” Bob was on it. And just as soon as he was on it, he was off it in a big hurry. I moved forward to catch a better look and discovered an adorable little…skunk.

Not ten minutes home, and Bob got himself sprayed right in the face by a skunk. He was staggering around, reeking, rubbing his head on the ground, gagging, and drooling by turns.

So, guess what I had to do at 9:30 at night? He still stinks now, but it turns out a mixture of rubbing alcohol, vinegar and water does seem to cut the smell significantly. Bob spent the night in a kennel on the porch after I sponged him down with the above concoction and rinsed out his eyes with some of my contact solution. It must have done the trick because his eyes and face aren’t red and inflamed this morning.

Will this sad experience teach him some caution in the future? Time will tell, but somehow, I don’t think it will have any effect on him whatsoever.

In other news regarding the natural world, I threw some watermelon rinds and seeds out in the garden to compost and one of those seeds rooted and took off. Now, it was a biggish vine when we left for Colorado, but by the time we came back, it had completely taken over about a 10 by 8 foot patch of ground. We have four melons in the kitchen right now and about twelve on the vine at various stages of development. I couldn’t have done that on purpose. I know because I’ve tried to grow watermelon before. Volunteer plants for the win!

And now, a quick update concerning my health. Before my Sinking Sands series, I told you the reason I was publishing that series from my old blog here was due to some symptoms which were becoming increasingly difficult to manage as well as all of the traveling I had to do on top of that. I recently (as in this spring) weaned completely off two medications I had been taking for years. This had been my goal and I was extremely excited about meeting it. However, I contracted a respiratory infection which I have reason to believe was Covid. After that, I just started feeling a good bit worse over all. This is more common than most people realize after viral infections: a post-viral syndrome. It can happen after influenza, the common cold, Covid, etc… This is my doctor’s working hypothesis and I’m back on the two meds I weaned off of, which has been disappointing to me. But they have done their anti-inflammatory work, and I have had a massive reduction in pain and fatigue, so I’m grateful for them all the same. My most recent bloodwork shows a positive ANA which indicates an autoimmune process of some sort. So, I wait for the doctor’s comments and thoughts on that. Meanwhile, I’m just really grateful to be feeling so much better. This summer was difficult, to say the least, with all the migraines and the grinding fatigue. I feel a lot more like my normal self. Thanks to all of you who prayed for me.

I will conclude this installment earlier than I normally do because I have a pile of unpacking and catching up to do.

But before I go, I have to tell you one last thing. My brother, Justin, connected me and Jonathon to a friend of his with a podcast. His name is Dave Warn and he has invited Jonathon and I to record a podcast with him next Friday to discuss the topic of Christians in politics. I am quite delighted to have this opportunity, and of course, I will link to the finished product here as soon as it’s available. In the meanwhile, do check out Dave’s podcast, Forerunners of America. Also, go buy his recent book, Called to Contend.

I know this newsy, breezy installment is not my usual fare, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. I’ll be back to my normal, serious self next week with a question:

How much do you love the truth? Because I don’t think the Republican Party for whom I have voted so many times over the years, and particularly avid supporters of Donald Trump, love it very much right now. That’s likely what I’ll be discussing in the coming weeks.

Take care!

That’s all for now. Until next time, folks…

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