Blue Ball

A pleasant morning spent in the garden yesterday wound up being a crazy afternoon plying the freeway in the afternoon. I had a cortisone shot in my knee in the orthopedic office a half hour away near the airport to be followed by an appointment for Spike at the vet which is quite near to our house. I had no idea how long the cortisone injection would take and was dithering about how I would manage both with only one car. In the end my trusty chauffeur put Spike in the back of the car and said we'd save a bit of transition time that way and we would just have to 'get to the vet when we get there.'

The orthopedist's office was very busy...especially as there are several doctors and a physical therapy office there. The injection was done efficiently with the aid of an ultrasound machine which was pulled into the room on a little cart. I made some crack about how my dilemma had been making a choice between my knee and my hand and the doctor said I didn't have to. He could get me in for an x-ray and do an injection in my thumb as well. I had been laboring under the misapprehension that each doctor in there concentrated on only one body part. I thanked him and said I'd wait and see how this one went before deciding about another one. 

We seemed to have plenty of time to get to the vet's office and did, in fact make it there in time although the traffic was awful. Dana met the vet, Steve, when they were both students at UC Davis, lost track of him after they graduated, and was completely surprised to arrive at the vet's office with her cat and find out it was Steve. There are several vets in that office and they too had a waiting room full of dogs, cats and their people. One dog was there looking quite fit, but most eager to get out of there. She had eaten rat poison a couple of weeks earlier and spent a very unpleasant, and expensive, two days at the emergency vet. I'm sure she had no interest in a repeat performance.

By the time we got home, we were both tired and elected to have our pre-dinner drinks out on the porch a bit early. 

Today, was more relaxing, beginning with our coffee group gathering, and moving on to a lovely walk around Spring Lake. It's been a long time since we've been to Spring Lake and I think all three of us enjoyed it. Although Spike had to be on a lead, he behaved himself, and we could keep him out of the stickers and foxtails. The hills are already getting dry which means that foxtails season is upon us. Steve said he had just taken an inch long one out of a small dog's nose! They are evil things .

No sitting on the porch today as the earth movers have returned again, moving rocks from where they were deposited in a huge pile up the hill from the house back to more or less where they were taken from in the first place. One worker is following the Caterpillar moving the rocks with a hose to keep the dust down, but, judging from the layer on every surface in our  house, it's not doing much good. Somebody further up the trail has been doing major tree cutting and the sound of chainsaws and wood chippers is joining the outdoor chorus.