Almost A Tragedy

I have a scary story to tell you, but if you read this you have to promise not to tell Joe.

I've been doing a very good job taking care of Ellie while Joe is in Florida. I don't hold her and carry her around as much as Joe, and I admit I don't watch her as closely as Joe when she is outside but none the less she is pampered compared to most dogs. Joe is coming home tomorrow so it's only a matter of hours before Joe and Ellie are reunited and I can relax a little. You see, I'm still convinced that if anything ever happened to Ellie that was my fault, I would be kicked to the curb.

With that in mind, you will understand why the events of this evening could have changed the entire course of my marriage.

I had Ellie dressed in a sweater to help keep the chill off while her and I were out in the yard. I went to the barn to see if I had another squirrel in my live trap (the count is up to 4). Ellie followed me into the barn which kind of surprised me because the chickens were in there too. She was sniffing around while the chickens were doing their thing. I even thought that it was good that Ellie and the chickens could finally be in the same area without an incident. When I first got the chickens Ellie tried to take a stand and show them who was boss. The chickens however had a different idea and chased Ellie until she was a quivering ball of fur. Ever since then Ellie kept her distance.....until today.

So, Ellie and the chickens are close to each other but not interacting at all. I make the mistake of talking to Ellie which got her a little excited. I said: "You're not gonna get the chickens are you?" I think she heard "get the chickens" and she made a little attempt at intimidation by doing a little lunge toward one of them and letting out a little growl. Now, if Bear (who weights 45 lbs.) lunges at the chickens, they run. When Ellie (who weighs 5 lbs) lunges at the chickens, they attack. In a split second, the chicken that Ellie lunged at ran away a few steps then turned around and jumped on top of Ellie who by this time had rolled over on her back in submission. The chicken is on top of Ellie with it's wings flapping and squawking. It reminded me of the Mutual Of Omaha Wild Kingdom episodes where they showed huge birds grabbing their prey from the ground and taking off. By the time I got to Ellie, the rest of the chickens were ganging up on her and jumping on top of her as well. I'm screaming: "DON"T KILL HER!!!!!!" I grab Ellie; who is now in a tight little ball, from the midst of the chicken frenzy. Surprisingly she isn't shaking and seems actually calm. She's probably in shock.

I think the whole event looked worse than it really was, so I didn't feel so bad when I started to laugh uncontrollably. I was laughing out of relief that she was ok and that I wouldn't have to find another place to live. She doesn't have a scratch on her. I'm pretty sure the sweater saved her from claw marks. Joe never need know of the events of today. It would only hurt him. Remember you promised to keep this a secret. Some things are just better left unsaid.

I Am Small And I Have Nothing To Complain About

Now I know why sales has never been my thing. I'm too much of a softy. I hate asking people for money and if they have any sad story I'm ready to give them whatever they want for free. Even selling crochet, my main goal is to deplete my inventory and get enough money to support my habit. It's never been about a profit.

I told you that I sold the breast cancer awareness scarf. I hadn't had any correspondence from the person that bought it until today. I sent her verification of shipment and she wrote me back the sweetest note and told me about her 32 year old daughter that has a rare form of breast cancer. This is her daughters second occurrence. When she finishes her chemo, her mother is going to give her the scarf.

I wish I could adequately describe how this makes me feel. I feel small and that family's issue is huge. I feel guilty for taking money for it. I feel proud that in some weird way I will touch her life and hopefully make her smile. I feel connected and so sad. I feel privileged that this woman shared her story with me; a total stranger. Who would have thought that selling my crochet would make me cry.

I'm definitely not making another one of those scarves. It's too emotional from every angle!

When Is Doing It Yourself Not Really Worth It?

When the Dish Network people came to install the new dish, they cut through the dogs invisible fence line. It wasn't their fault, I forgot about it. Joe and I used a metal detector to try and find the wire to no avail. Bear is so old and senile that I thought maybe he would be ok without it. Apparently not; he's a wanderer. It would cost $90.00 plus if invisible fence came out to fix it. So....tonight, in an effort to save $90.00 I decided to try and find the break in the wire myself. After digging close to 100 feet of holes and fighting with a huge pine tree, I finally found the two ends! My trenching made the mole tracks in my yard look like ant hills. Right now the leaves are covering the messed up grass so maybe by spring it will look ok. All I have to do now is get the supplies to splice it together and Bear will be back to being zapped in no time, and I saved $90.00. Oh yeah, I have to rebury the wire too.

I'll probably have to pay $90.00 to fix the yard, and I'm going to need a $60.00 massage to fix my back, but that's not the point. The point is......I did it myself!
Yah me!

Visiting MaMa

I was visiting Mom yesterday and we were all watching the roommate's TV. I've mentioned before that Mom's roommate is quiet. She only speaks when she knows I have candy and if I get too close to her space. Even then she uses as few words as possible. I met her daughter yesterday. Her daughter is as loud as she is quiet. She's pretty over the top even for me. She gave a full commentary on the Oprah show. I felt like I needed to agree with her on everything she said. She wasn't rude, just in your face. She kind of scared me. Her Mom scares me, but in a different way. I was hoping Mom didn't make one of her wrinkly nose faces, or say something like; "why is she talking so loud?" It wasn't all unpleasant. At least it broke up the monotony of the day for Mom.

I still have a really hard time visiting Mom. I feel helpless and that word is not in my vocabulary. At least I bring Mom some pleasure when I refill her candy dish with Almond Kisses. The roommates daughter brought her an avocado. Really??? who just eats avocados with nothing else????? And why is that a treat????? If I told Mom I brought her an avocado, I would definitely get the wrinkly nose face.

I'm In The Money

I did it; my first Etsy sale.....and quess what I sold???? It was that damn scarf that caused me so much grief from the crochet nazi. My controversial scarf is going all the way to Utah. I'm halfway tempted to make another one just so I can have it up on my site, but that would be wrong and I just need to let it go.
IN YOUR FACE BIACH!!!! I feel better now.