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Preparing for the change of seasons, for an upcoming trip, even preparing for less pleasant eventualities like hurricanes or surgery are something that can be managed.
If you know what is coming, you make arrangements.
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But when you have no way of anticipating the form of what is coming, how then are you to prepare?
If you saw my previous, terse post, you may deduce that I am referring to the upcoming election, or more specifically the aftermath that will follow.
It would be foolish to deny it is comng.
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After 8 years of insanity, it would be nice to know that the end is in sight, but it is by no means certain and the dread lately has got the better of me.
But enough of that.
We can only live in hope.
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The sudden need for another trip to the vet did nothing to improve my mood yesterday.
A suspected urinary tract infection saw us booking a 1030 appointment and Little Man ought to have been quietly rounded up in anticipation.
But at 10 am he had retreated to an inaccessible corner of the basement ceiling causing sense of humour failings.
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UTI infections in cats must not be neglected as they can very quickly lead to blockages which may be fatal.
Previously, Little Man remained in hiding for entire days and I pointed out that we might have to make a hole in the house in order to extricate the boy.
He had not responded to pounding on the floor beneath him and there was no way to poke his behind short of dismantling Grant’s bedroom ceiling.
Luckily in the end this was not necessary and our reluctant feline got to the vet, albeit a little late.
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Overnight, the lad demonstrated his ability to pee in volume. Without evidence of other deposits, we now wonder if there is a different sort of blockage, but our Little Man is bouncing about in his normal exuberant way, so there too we hope for the best.
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Over the course of a lifetime, one is called quite often to hope.
I was very young when I opted to give it up in order to avoid disappointment and I remained that very cynical person for most of my life.
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These day it is hard not to be cynical, but even I hope for some things.
You may remember my mentioning this little nuthatch we saw at the beginning of September.
There are various reasons a bird’s bill can become crossed but often they manage quite well.
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Such was the case with that little bird. We watched it for days coming back and forth, scooping up the shaved suet I put out for it, though it also managed to pick up seed.
Then suddenly, it came no more. They migrate, but we still see numerous nuthatches currently.
So I choose to hope the cross-billed chap just moved on and is still happily flying around somewhere.
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Scooter the disabled groundhog has not appeared either, for weeks. But she was well that last time we saw her and there is no reason to assume anything untoward occurred.
Is it significant that I hold out hope for animals?
(Not Scooter. One of our skunk friends.)
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The un-programmed vet visit led elsewhere.
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Our last shopping expedition, which saw us traipsing our frozen food around the state, somehow failed to obtain certain needed items which we discovered when hoping to launder newly-anointed chair covers, our first clue about feline UTI.
No laundry detergent? Oh no!
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You think living with cats is easy?
“Why do you have boxes on all the furniture, Ms Smith?”
“That’s to prevent cats peeing on it.”
(Additionally, the covers are waterproof.)
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Having managed an early dental appointment and a late veterinary visit, we decided to use the afternoon for a short drive in which we would obtain said laundry soap.
“We’ll go to Whitehall!” said Grant.
But we wanted to use back roads, so we planned to detour off route 22, past Lake Lauderdale.
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Which we did, except…
Well never mind. We went left instead of right, ending up back on route 22, not far from where we’d left it.
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So my driver took the first left turn which took us on a circuit of Dead Lake and potentially further back…
A right turn at the end of the circle save us from that.
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And we sailed off who knew where.
No one said we had to go to Whitehall, after all.
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Still maintaining the vague intention, we, or perhaps just I urged northerly turns where possible.
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But there seems to be a trend just lately, of zigging when I say zag. Unintentional, as far as I know…
Though one could begin to wonder!
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We didn’t intend being here just yet.
This is another of those alternate routes to Greenwich, but we turned in the opposite direction.
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Soon darting off on another side road.
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We came to a fork where north was right.
So we went left.
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Promptly coming upon a stationary car with a young man under its hood.
Grant pulled over to offer help leaving me to gaze at the canopy.
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The car could not be recusitated, so it was abandoned and we offered to deliver the stranded couple home.
It turned out their car had stalled moments before we came up the road, which was providential considering how little traffic goes that way and that the man had no signal for making calls.
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They were a refreshing young couple. She had been on the way to a doctor’s appointment which she told us was her first fertility evaluation.
Some women would have been making a fuss. Instead, she was philosophical saying that if it was meant to happen it would. If not, they intended joining the Peace Corps.
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It wasn’t just a flippant remark.
Clearly they meant it as they told us of a friend who had worked for the Peace Corps in Africa.
We dropped the couple off and resumed our drive.
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Because we were now in Salem, we decided to stop at the Salem Art Works.
There is always something to photograph.
Burdock pods.
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As we started up the hill, Grant noticed three people talking and pointing vaguely.
“Do you want a ride up?” he asked.
They gratefully accepted.
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It was immediately obvious we have picked up three Australians and they were a little bemused to hear our voices.
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We had an interesting chat and it turned out the reason they had been so glad of a lift was that they had been in a boat accident the day before which had caused a hip injury!
Clearly, not a serious one, but such things can cause a lot of discomfort not ameliorated by climbing steep hills!
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It has been 23 years since I was last in Australia and I have always had a fondness for the people who were so kind and helpful to me in an hour a need, so I was delighted.
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It was a fabulous afternoon and at the top of the hill, we even managed to meet up with two sweet dogs!
Any day with a dog fix is a good day!
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Then we dropped our Australians off and went on to see who else we could collect.
In five years we had never had a passenger in the car until yesterday.
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There were no more pick-ups but we meandered slowly home, arriving without laundry detergent.
It could wait another day.
What a super day you had! The passengers sounded like the proverbial British bus – You wait 2 hours for one and then 5 come along all at once!
Your unintended diversion provided serendipitous encounters for the people you helped with lifts. Given that it is America, I might ask any potential passengers to prove they are not carrying guns before letting them into my car though. 😊 Are you a member of Amazon Prime? If so you can buy all kinds of household products for next-day delivery. That saves running back and forth to the shops by car, so we use it all the time. (But then you wouldn’t get the photos, I know…)
Best wishes, Pete.
I couldn’t manage without ans we get most of our cat food from a company called Chewy that delivers by Fedex.
We should all be hopeful — perhaps like that couple at the car hoped for someone who would help them. And it seems like it was definitely your day to help stranded people. And yes, I laughed when you said that you showed up home without the laundry detergent. At least my hope of seeing beautiful photos on your blog is never in vain.