Thankful for a New Week--Long!

Hello everyone! I know that I haven't been around much lately. It was just SO hard to get my head together last week. It was first one thing and then another. I've taken Bear's loss really hard. Much harder than Slate's for some reason. I guess with Slate, I knew it was coming. I consider his problems to go along with old age. Bear's was sudden and unexpected. He was still what I consider a "young dog". He was still playing and appeared health and happy. I'm better though. Hopefully it won't be long, until I'm back to my old self.

Last Wednesday I was heading out the door for lunch, when I was met by the sight of Casey by the car with the hood up. THAT can NEVER mean anything good. The car had started to make a weird noise and smoke. Rather than take a chance of doing more damage, we decided to have it towed to the shop. It turns out that we had some bad belts, because of a bad idler. The idler is usually no big deal. Notice that I said usually. The big problem was that Nissan, makes the idler into the engine casing that is usually a factory part. Our great mechanic, Bill, shopped around for us for some aftermarket parts and found one for $60.00. The factory part would have cost us $445.00! We had to leave the car overnight, so we had to figure out a way to get home. We finally decided to take the easy way and rent a car for the night. We got ourselves a nice, comfy Corolla. Now, I'm a fan of Toyotas. I've had four in my life. Every one was a fantastic car. When I traded my last Corolla in for the car we have now, it was eleven years old and had 297,000 miles on it! I had never had anything done to except regular maintenance. GREAT car! I cried when I traded that car off! I've missed having a Toyota ever since. Don't get me wrong, the Altima has been a great car, but it's just been little things the whole time. Not to mention the fact, that it SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS on a wet road. Doesn't matter if I'm going 20 mph or 60 mph, it wants to hydroplane. I don't need to tell you that I hate wet weather, because of this. SEVERAL times, Casey and I have done complete 360s in this car and have been lucky enough to tell about it. We're looking to trade it SOON!

Thursday night our spare dog, Trixie, didn't show up. It's not unusual for her, since she's somewhat of a neighborhood dog. We didn't think much about it. When she didn't come up on Friday morning, I started to worry. After I got to work, I started making phone calls. I had my friend, Elaine, making calls and searching too. Turns out, a Pitt Bull had gotten loose in the neighborhood and attacked Trixie, while another neighbor's three year old grandson was petting her. No one knew if she was dead or alive. After more investigation we found out that Trixie was alive, when she ran off. So we started the hunt. Casey and I suspected that she was under our house, and we were right. Casey coaxed her out. She was hurt, but not badly. We took her into the vet early Saturday morning to check her out. She had several puncture wounds and a LOT of bruising, but she was lucky. They gave her a shot of anitibiotics and pain medication and sent her home with the same in pill form. She's still limping this week, but she is doing better.

As you all can probably tell by Friday afternoon, I was ready to run screaming and throw myself off a balcony or something. I was physically and emotionally drained. The whole week had just been the worst kind of awful. That's why Casey and I decided to take a short trip on Saturday. We decided to join all of our friends in the 501st Legion, MidSouth Garrison at a March of Dimes, black-tie, fundraising event in Chattanooga. It was a chef's competition gala with a space theme. We were all dressed in costume and there for atmosphere and to participate in the sketches. One we finished our schtick, we were pleasantly suprised when we found they had reserved us two tables and served us the $500 meal. It was a really neat event, and we all enjoyed it very much. The most fun for me was watching all of the ladies come in wearing their evening gowns. It was like a red carpet fashion show. To see a few pictures taken by my friends Kell and Alex, you can check HERE and HERE. It was just nice to get out and have a great time, after a long, hard week.

Before I finish, I want to give out a big HOORAY for one of my bestest friends, Jennifer. She had her second cochlear implant this week. She had her first, on her left ear, last fall. It has been successful. Everyone stop by and visit her and wish her well on her second!