Shorty's problem

Shorty started acting funny on Wednesday afternoon, not quite in control of his front leg. We took him to the vet but by the time we arrived he was fine. She couldn't find anything wrong with him so she suggested we go home and monitor him, but on the way home he started having trouble again. The vet told us to take him on to the hospital so we drove up to the University of Florida Animal Hospital in Gainesville. Covid 19 restrictions are still in place so we couldn't go into the building with him, which was terrible. After hours of sitting in the parking lot, occasionally speaking with a tech or doctor over the phone, we learned that he had ruptured a disc in his neck. It probably happened when he was racing around the living room after toys, crashing into things. The doctor said he can recover at home but he needs to be constantly contained in a kennel while he heals. She recommended we get a wire kennel and put it in the living room, where he can see everything and still feel part of the family. For now he he is only allowed out to go potty and even then we have to carry him up and down the stairs. Since he feels fine, he doesn't understand any of this. He's bored but he usually spent the day sleeping on a chair anyway; now he does the same thing in a kennel, and no more chasing toys for awhile.  

Snapping turtle neighbor

This big common snapping turtle is hanging around our park. It's not in any hurry - it's been crawling around the large grassy area for a couple of days (yes, this is what passes for grass here). Someone said it's looking for a place to lay eggs. Wonder how old it is?

The hard part of being able to do everything

Any time Randy works on our place, he has be ready to fill every role:

A/C and heating

 Construction

 Installation

 Plumber

Electrician

And fix everything that the other guys did wrong.

Cat TV

To fill the time we are watching the entire Dowton Abby series. I declare, our cat Missy actually watches the show with us. She's focused on the TV.

But she doesn't understand it. "Why do those upstairs people still believe Thomas?"

Normal is whatever is going on now.

Our bank is closed. The drop-off for Baptist Thrift and Goodwill are closed. Most retail stores are closed. Restaurants are only take-out. Everyone has to stay at least 6 feet apart. But at least we are in this mess together!

Thank you to our First Responders

Randy wanted to say thank you to some of our local First Responders so yesterday he spent the day making pulled pork in the smoker, simmering baked beans, chopping and mixing cole slaw, and making chocolate chip cookies and peanut clusters. Today he added some chips and buns to round things out and took it all Fruitland Park Police department. 

So bored . . .

Boat problems

Our boat motor won't raise up. If we can't raise the motor, we can't transport the boat on the trailer to take it somewhere to get the motor fixed....

Randy spoke with a neighbor who has a dock with lift straps and she agreed we could use it. That would let him get a closer look at the problem and maybe be able to address it. Unfortunately the water level in the canal is down right now, so even thought the lift straps were lowered until they laid on the bottom of the canal, the motor still caught on them and we could not get the straps under the boat. After trying several ideas, it came down to the fact that someone had to get into the filthy canal water to help lift the motor over the straps. Lucky Randy.

A silver lining

Randy decided to put his new big mixer to work. He made a batch of bread dough, starting with 10 full pounds of flour. This commercial-grade machine can handle that just fine. 

It makes a lot of bread but that's OK with me. He has also started making sourdough bread again - yea!

And to go with it, he made some amazing potato and leek soup! This is wonderful, all I want is this. 

She's a little spoiled

Every morning I give Missy a little glycosamine for her arthritis. Sometimes she likes breakfast in bed. Propped up so she doesn't have to move anything except her tongue.