This Week

 This week we have been having foundation work done on our home.  We knew for a while this was coming, and decided it was finally time.  Apparently the people who built the house made the spans too wide, so it allowed the house to sag.  Ah, the joys of home ownership.  

The men have been working hard for 3 days out in 100+ degree days with jackhammers and shovels, and installing steel beams in the crawlspace, so I am definitely not going to complain about noise and/or expense.  Milo the dog will complain about strangers walking in HIS yard and coming into HIS house though.  He can't hear anymore but he can feel the vibrations.  Apparently they dig underneath the foundation, and then they insert steel until the house is back to where it should be.  

The cats are also freaked out.  They walk around quickly and low to the ground.  Norman spent the first day hiding under the bed covers, as he usually does if there's any kind of stranger in the house or working outside.  

Here I am checking on Norman, after he's been hiding for 5 hours. Please note the panting of the anxious dog in the background.  

After they left yesterday, it still felt like 105, but I was determined to get some time out on the deck.  I had my patio umbrella open and brought the fan outside to give a little air circulation.  

 Reading is a big love of mine, and I especially enjoy reading outside while watching the hummingbirds zoom around the feeder that's a couple feet away from my chair.  One often will fly right by our heads when they are chasing another hummer off.  We call that "buzzing the tower."  

Currently I'm reading "The Good Life" by Scott and Helen Nearing.  I've had this book since we went to our very first Vegetarian Summerfest in PA.  It's pretty good.  I'm about halfway through.  I'm also reading the most recent Thursday Murder Club on Kindle from Libby.  I try to have one fiction and one non-fiction book going at the same time.  

Also this week, Cosette, 13 years old and mom to the 3 "kittens" who are now 12 years old, and also big fan of the RBF, had a dental.  In the end she needed 7 teeth removed, including all 4 canines.  Three had cavities and one had an abscess.  With an abscessed tooth most of us would be begging the dentist for antibiotics and pain meds but Cosette never drooled, stopped eating, or acting like anything hurt.   Cats:  hiding pain and/or sickness since they evolved probably.  She is currently zooming around the house due to the transdermal opioid pain med she has.  Yesterday she loved up against me over and over in an aggressive way.  Ha!