Powell, WY

This week was a short one.  Tomorrow is Friday and we can wear jeans to work on Fridays!

It snowed lightly this morning.  The snow was very dry and easily blew off of the hood and windshield when I started out.  When I was about half way to Cody I got stuck behind a snowplow.  It pushed up such a big cloud of snow that I could not see the flashing lights on the truck if I got too close to it!

Teecee had an exciting time as she was coming down the hill into Cody.  She went into a spin right in the middle of the four-lane highway!  She said she almost had a come-apart!  You have to be careful in the winter - it's slippery!

Later, it warmed up and everything melted.  The moisture made it feel even more chilly.

Daisy seems to be feeling better and her bowel movements are a little more solid now.   She's still taking one-half of an antibiotic tablet three times a day and half of a Prilosec antacid pill once a day.

No real plans for this weekend.  I will probably spend part of it in the basement working on tooling the leather checkbook cover I am making.

Long Weekend

On Saturday morning we got up and got ready to go to Billings to shop.  We put Daisy in to the crate and went to Pepe's for breakfast.

The drive up was sunny, clear, and importantly, the road was dry.

We went to Home Depot to look at washers, dryers, refrigerators, and dish washers.  We also looked at floor coverings and blinds.  Next we went to Petsmart to get treats and pigs ears to chew on.  We had a dog tag engraved for Daisy with her name on it and our contact information on the back.

After this we went to the used book store to browse.  I had wanted to book titled Hetty Green, The Witch Of Wall Street, but when I took it down and looked at it, I changed my mind.  The book was copyrighted in 1925, and I was afraid it would not survive another reading!

I got a couple of books and Bob got a couple of books.  Then we went to Target to look at electric griddles (ours just bit the dust).  We also browsed mens clothing.  The camera that I wanted and liked was out-of-stock.

For lunch we went to Salad Creations and ate healthy.

After lunch we went to Best Buy were we bought two 2.0 Gigabyte hard disk drives for our file server.

Next we headed down the interstate to Laurel, MT where we looked at dumping trailers and then went into the Wal*Mart to get some groceries.  Again, the camera I liked and wanted was out-of-stock.  It was getting late in the day and I was worried about leaving Daisy in the crate for so long.  I was sure she had barked and cried the entire time we were gone.

It was almost dark when we pulled into the driveway.  We left Daisy in the crate until we had all of the groceries inside then we put her into the backyard.  She had pooped in the crate and had open cuts on her muzzle from trying to bite and chew her way out of the steel crate!

We did not know it yet, but we were about to have some health issues with Daisy.  She pooped on the living room floor and it was very thin and runny.  During the night I got up and let her outside.  She peed and  then we came back in.  A few minutes later she pooped on the bedroom floor.

All day Sunday we had more problems with her diarrhea.  We tried Pepto-Bismol tablets, but they did not seem to help.  Also, she had some bad gas with the diarrhea.  Her appetite was not affected at all.

This morning Bob decided to take her to the vet.  We had her tested for Parvo and it came back negative, so Dr. John Knudsen prescribed an antibiotic and Prilosec for her.  After she gets better, he wants to see her so that she can get her rabies and distemper shots.  Today's bill - $89.

I began carving and tooling my leather check book cover project this weekend.  It will probably take me a couple more weekends to finish it.

Today was a day off of work for President's Day.  Tomorrow I got back to work, but it will be a short week!

Friday

Today Leonard came in with Torczon family friend, Kandy.  Jeri, Leonard, and Kandy provided the clerk's office with some live entertainment!

I am not sure what the customers thought of all of this, and it was difficult to talk on the phone while they were playing, but it sure was fun!

We were a little short handed today.  Teecee was home with the "flew" (sic).  Laura called in with the flu too.  Carol was taking the day off.  Barb left at 1:00 to go to a funeral, so there was just three of us on the line during the afternoon!

Bob made a dinner of onion rings, clam strips, and breaded cod fillets.

We are planning to go to Billings tomorrow while the weather is clear and dry.  The forecast calls for more snow on Sunday.

Valentine's Day

Buddy and Daisy.

Daisy is gradually adjusting to living with us.  She hasn't had an accident inside the house in over 5 days now!  Of course, this means that we get up at 1:00 AM, 3:00 AM, whenever.  When ever she cries in the morning and licks our hands or faces, and we take her downstairs and let her out into the backyard to go!

She lost one of her milk teeth last night.  I noticed a small tooth dangling in front of her teeth.  It was small - the size of a small grain of rice, and it was just held on by a small strand of gum.  It was holding on enough that I could not break it free.  By the time we went to bed it was gone and we imagine she just swallowed it.

I rode to work with Teecee yesterday and Bob kept the truck.  He took it to Rimrock Tire to have the leaking front right tire replaced.  That cost $96.67.  I guess you get a bigger discount if you buy all four of them at one time.  Not this time!

After that he took the truck to a couple of body-paint shops for repair estimates.  Now, these guys did not quote the little bit I was looking for, nosiree.  No, they quoted everything that truck would need to make it look brand new.  New fenders from Toyota, new bumper, bumper bracket, plastic valance, etc etc... down to the pin striping.

One shop came in with an estimate of $2,709.65 and the other shop quoted $3,246.99.  Both of these are a lot for a truck whose Blue Book value is around $2,000.00, but I thought about it - it only has 189k miles on it, and it probably has 5 or 6 more years of good driving in it, so I am considering having it mostly restored.  We will see.

It snowed last night/early this morning.  The drive down to Cody was a little nerve-wracking at points this morning.

2 dozen roses.

Today was Valentine's Day.  I bought Reese's peanut butter hearts and put them on each person's desk as I got there first this morning.  When everyone came in they speculated about who brought them and criticized him/her for being a diet wrecker.  Of course they changed their tune when they learned that I was the one who gave them.

I received a delivery of 2 dozen roses from Proflowers.com today sent by Bobby.  Barb, Laura, and Carol also had flowers delivered.  Jeri was pouting because her husband never gets her flowers, so I went and got a skinny single-stem vase from under the sink, put water in it, and gave one of my roses to Jeri.  Everyone thought that was very nice.  Jeri bought everyone lollipops and cookies for Valentine's Day.

The drive home was okay because the roads were almost completely dry.  Snow flakes were dancing down out of the sky, but I do not know if we will see any accumulate tonight.

Miniature live rosebush.

Bob had a live miniature pink rosebush delivered today for Valentine's.  We will put it in a sunny window and transplant it into the ground when we move to Clark.

We had left over chicken soup and steaks for our dinner tonight.  It was yummy.

I will get paid tonight at midnight.  Tomorrow morning I will write checks for the land payment and my credit card bill.  I will even have some left over to put into my savings account.

Tomorrow should be a good day because it is "Casual Friday" when we can wear jeans, and some people are taking the day off for an extra long weekend.  We get Monday off for President's Day.  We are not sure if we will be going up to Billings or not because more snow is forecast for Sunday.

Lucky Day

We slept in until around 9:30 this morning.  Of course we took the dogs outside at 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM, but we went back to bed and slept some more.

It snowed this morning and the entire backyard was covered in white.  This is good because the dogs don't track in mud when the grass/mud is covered in snow and frozen.

Bob wanted to go to Billings to shop washing machines and dryers, so we dressed, hopped into the truck and headed down Lane 9 to County Road 18 (WY 294) and went to Clark.  We visited our property first.  The road was drifted with snow up to a foot deep in spots, but we plowed through and went back to our driveway.  We turned in and the lot near the house was clear of any snow.  Muddy, yes, but no snow.

We went back to down to the highway and turned right to head up to Montana.  The sky looked very dark and I wondered how the highways and weather would be in Billings.  The roads were very slick.

We were making our way north at about 50 MPH from Belfry to Bridger, when the back of the truck began to rotate to the left and we began to slide!  We slid across the centerline, off of the road, still rotating we went through a barbed wire fence, and came to rest pointing east with the back wheels down the slope to a ditch.  The engine was still running.

Nobody was hurt and we were okay.

Using Bob's cell phone we called Jeri and Leonard.  They were on their way to Cowley to celebrate Jerri's mother's 91st birthday, but they suggested we call Bob and Kay Torczon in Clark.  We called  Bob and said he would come help us.

In a few minutes a big green Toyota Sequoia stopped to help us.  The man turned around and got a towing strap out.  He put mats down over the barbed wire and backed down to the truck.  We hooked up the truck and I put in into first gear.  He was able to pull me all the way back up onto the road!!

The truck is pretty dented, banged, and scratched up, but we came through it okay.  I need to have the right rear fender pounded out, I need to have the bumper straightened, I want to replace the plastic air dam in the front, and I need to replace the cast metal mirror holder on the passenger side.  We won't worry too much about the scratched up paint.

Shaken, we drove back home. As we went it became apparent that warming temps were making everything melt - if only we had waited another hour to start out!  Back home we had some vegetable soup and I tried to push the dent out using my bottle jack, but it doesn't want to work in the horizontal position.

Life is so tiring sometimes!

Friday

Things have really changed for the better this week with our dogs...

Buddy and Daisy are getting along like best friends now.  She licks his nose and ears and follows him to meals and to go outside.  When they are outside they play really hard chasing each other.  Yesterday was her first day without an accident inside.  They get outside about 5 times each day, and I think she is catching on.  Sometimes she will cry when she needs to go outside.

She isn't afraid of the crate any more either.  It is in the living room and they both take turns laying inside of it.  She realizes that there isn't anything to be afraid of now.  We are going to start shutting the gate with her inside for a few minutes at a time to get her used to it.

Yesterday I gave both dogs a smoked pigs ear as a snack.  Buddy crunched and gobbled his up in two minutes.  The ear was as big as Daisy's head, but she carried it away to a corner and began working on it.  It took her twenty minutes of licking and chewing with her tiny teeth, but she ate it all up too!

Tomorrow we are going back to Wal*Mart to (hopefully) get Bob's taxes finished.  Then we are going to Kari Smith's house to get his hair cut.  On Sunday he wants to go to Billings to shop for shoes and washing machines. 

Monday

Daisy was unhappy about being in the crate last night.  She cried and barked for a couple of hours before I finally got up and drug the crate to the next bedroom and shut the doors.  She barked all night long except for about three hours.

Tonight she will be sleeping alone in the basement.  We have to have our sleep, you know.  I think Buddy was even over all of the crying and barking.

Otherwise, she's doing okay.  She's made up with Buddy and she follows him around to meals and when it is time to go outside.

Because she peed in the crate last night, Bob washed her bedding, cleaned all of the floors, and gave her a bath today.  We have to make sure she gets outside right before we go to bed.

It got up  to the 40's today and most of the snow on the back yard melted.  We have to keep a rag near the back door to wipe the dogs' feet when the come inside or else they will track mud in everywhere.

Teecee is going to get a towel and have Daisy's mother and sister sleep with it and then she will bring it to me.  We will keep the towel in her crate, and perhaps it will comfort her.

Tomorrow morning we are meeting with Greg Borcher at First Bank of Wyoming to discuss our mortgage pre-qualification.  I hope we can make some more progress.

Saturday

Daisy, Bob, and Buddy.

We got up around 6:30 AM.  I played with Buddy in the back yard until he pooped, then I picked it up, put it in the dumpster, and we went inside.

After Bob got dressed, we drove to Cody and had breakfast at the Sunset House.  Bob had the sunrise breakfast and I had breakfast burrito.

Next we went to Wal*Mart where Bob had an appointment with Jackson-Hewitt to have his taxes prepared.  Oh boy.

While Bob was with the tax preparer, I shopped the store.  I got some seeds for onions, broccoli, carrots, and radishes.  I picked up a replacement air filter for the truck.  I looked at magazines, men's clothes, and cameras.  I got a bag of ankle socks.  I got a bag of Puperoni treats for the dog(s).  Then I went to the front, checked out, and sat down on the metal bench  to wait for Bob.

I didn't know it, but I would spend the next two hours on that bench.

While I waited, I saw a lot of familiar faces pass by.  I saw Christine Houze from the Wyoming Workforce office - the lady who helped me get a job when I first got here, I saw Joy Gonion from the courthouse, I saw Roly and Kendra Hernandez from work, I saw Eric Murphy from the courthouse, and I saw Kay Bessey from Valley Federal Credit Union.

After Bob was finished with the preparer, he came to me and told me that she did not know what she was doing.  Her first attempt at the taxes had Bob owing the government $720 Million!  Her next attempt brought that down to about $240 Million.  Bob said, "There is no way my taxes are that high - I only made about $30 k last year!"  Finally, she arrived at a tax refund of $35k!  She gave up in frustration and said that her supervisor would have to look at it.

We had lunch at Subway and then went across the street to the vitamin store.  Here we got some flatbread, some onion-fig jam, a cake of sandalwood soap, and I got a ceramic neti pot.

We drove back to Powell and stopped at Linton's Big R store.  We got a turkey baster and a large stainless steel dog water bowl.

Teecee came over to our house at 4:30 PM with her sister, Evee, and the newest addition to our family, Daisy, a three-month-old English shepard who weighs about 15 pounds.  It was chaotic for awhile because Buddy was extremely excited, and of course we had a misunderstanding between Daisy and Buddy.  She snapped at him several times.

After Teecee and Evee left, we took the dogs to the backyard to play and do their business.  Daisy peed, but didn't do much else.  Buddy played and peed too.

I had the crate set up for Daisy and she seems to like it as her bed.  We had some drama as she learned how to climb the stairs and later descend the stairs.  She was crying and making so much noise, but she eventually made her way down!  The next trip was even faster.  She will become good at it soon.

Later I mixed up some salted water in the neti pot and took that to the bathroom sink to pour.  Oh man.  I blew so much snot and blood and stuff out of my nose!  Two hours later I had salt water spontaneously draining out of my head!  We will try this for awhile and see if it works.

Now we are all about to go to bed.  I hope we don't have a lot of drama tonight and everyone gets some sleep.