Injured Dog...

Just over a week ago my wife and I took the baby and dog over her uncles to help her mother do a little cleaning out of the house. Her mother, or my wife's grandmother, passed away not even a year ago, and still had many things in the household that had not been touched due to the strong emotions associated with such materials. Well, we arrived earlier in the morning on a sunny day. We let Mara have the back yard, although we knew she would sooner or later start barking for attention. Sure enough, within minutes she was yappin. What followed was unexpected. During her yippin' and yappin Mara did the usual hop onto the back door. Well, this door had a glass, instead of plastic, panel to it. It shattered, cutting her front paw. We were all concerned. We took her to the emergency vet. They told us it wasn't too deep, and that they could sedate her and glue her foot up. The vet provided a soft blanket for Mara to curl up on, because the sedatives would work pretty well. What followed gave me a brief glimpse on what Mara would look like in old age. She got really lethargic and slowly sunk to the floor. She wouldn't get up until the next day--basically. On one hand, my heart was stricken because I saw how frail she seemed with all the energy zapped from beneath her feet. On the other hand, I was glad everyone involved could have a rest. Mara's down time didn't last for long. Now, over a week later, she is still healing that paw. We have changed the bandages numerous times. We have kept her from licking it. We've let her foot air out at night (then she licks it). It is still bleeding a bit and has my wife and I worried. We're gonna give it a few more days of her mopin' around the house because she can't be out blazin' a trail.
Until next time...

Snowed in...

Took a little longer tonight getting the driveway cleared off. The snowblower was not working (Have used it about 3 times--BRAND NEW!) Ok, ok, so I snow blow half a block of sidewalk after hitting up the pavement from my house and my neighbors---Everyone seems to be liking it. During the last snow storm a guy on the corner came up to me and said he and his wife had been calling me the phantom snowblower since they would wake up to find their sidewalk done without knowing who did the work. He seemed like a decent spud. He had a cig dangling from his fingers. So did the younger guy with him (maybe his son?)

No school tomorrow means just getting to bed soon at midnight. I spent about 3 or so hours off and on clearing the driveway of snow. Glad I still had some shovels in the garage that were not broken.

THe kids I teach were picked up early today. The smallest child who just turned 7 was having such a good day he got to make cupcakes. He had frosting on his face for the entire school day. Nobody was acting too hyper today--

I still needed a fair amount of coffee to get the day going.

Maybe I'll strap on my snowshoes and plunk around in the park across the street tomorrow. Hopefully the guys responsible for fixing the snowblo will be able to come to the house tomorrow...

Beautiful Gina

Gina's growing up so fast. She is almost 5 months. She has grown out of many of her outfits that are rated until 6months. She will be starting rice cereal soon. This'll mean more interesting blow outs in the diapers of course. Had the pleasure of having a number 2 soaker through her garments onto my hands. All well. Its all for the smiles like the one in this pic--and for the many more joyful moments she'll give us.

Peace!