JudyJB wrote:Glad I don't have pets to worry about fireworks.
I am still recovering from my infected leg, it has been three weeks. I had intense redness, swelling and pain from below my right knee to my ankle. Three visits to Urgent Care, two to the Emergency Room over this period. Ugh.
Visited the doctor again this morning, he prescribed a different antibiotic, stating that since I had been taking the first one for three weeks, and my infection still had not resolved, it obviously was not working. He said with the new antibiotic, I should be over the infection in about another seven days. That will make it a full month that I have been down. I can't remember ever being this ill, for so long a span of time, high fever included along with everything else.
No complaints, though. Without antibiotics I would likely be on the wrong side of the dirt by now.
After Bullard's Beach I had reservations at two Oregon state campgrounds, one after the other, planning to be away over the 4th, but have had to cancel these reservations one by one (hoping all the while that I would be well enough to go to at least the last of them). Nope.
I have intentionally been gone over the 4th for the past three years, ever since Big Joe came home to me. He is terrified of loud booms (and basketballs! Go figure!) and the first year that he was mine he tried to claw through the sheetrock in my living room.
Well, tomorrow is the 4th, and the booms have started over the last few days. Tomorrow night in my neighborhood it will sound like a war zone. The booming will start in the morning, now and again, and by about 8:30 or so the really intense noise begins, and generally goes on until midnight. Luckily, at least so far, he has not reacted as drastically as he had the last time we were home for the 4th. He "comes to attention" for a bit (so far!), as if to tell me, "Mom! Something outside!", but soon settles down.
I am trying different tactics with him as well, because I know I will be home tomorrow night (if I were well enough to go somewhere, I would go). If I see him becoming upset, I gently but firmly scold him (cut it out!), which surprises him and makes him focus his attention on me, rather than what is going on outside. In the past, I have tried gently reassuring him (it's ok, Joeboy), but this seems an acknowlegement (at least to him!) that there really is something to fear, and with each successive boom, and each successive reassurance, he would just get more and more wound up.
Odd, really, that it would work this way - and it seems to, at least so far - and a bit counter-intuitive.
If I can see he is really starting to get wound up, I crate him, and in his crate he usually settles down. But, as I say, the really bad booming won't be until tomorrow night, so we shall see.
Many people around here set off bottle rockets (which are illegal here). I hope to heck that one of the dang things doesn't land on my roof. Keeps the fire department busy, anyway - constant sirens from about nine p.m. until whenever.
Anne
After Sunday's great ride with friends, yesterday I met my niece and her 3 at the Richmond Children's Museum. What a terrific place. The 2 year old has come out of her quiet being and is a hoot! She really made my day. Stopped to get butyl tape for a project and it was $3 cheaper than in Lynchburg!
