February 16, 2006

February 16, 2006

Rainbow's End SKP Park, Livingston, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 244

 

Today was partially cloudy, warm, and humid.

This morning we took Bo and Teddy to Arena Veterinary Clinic nearby. While we were driving to the vet clinic, Roger, my investment broker in Ottawa phoned to discuss a reset of our segregated funds. Bo had an examination, and vaccinations / inoculations. Teddy had an examination, and blood drawn for a thyroid hormone blood test. Our animals behave oddly at the vet. Bo is excited and eager. "Oh, boy, oh boy, somebody is going to shove a thermometer up my ass, yippee !" Teddy hisses. Nothing else, no other aggressive motions, just hissing. And he doesn't even really know what hissing signifies. He learned that behaviour when he was a few years old, and was in a veterinary clinic waiting room. He saw another cat hiss. He thought it seemed neat, he tried it, he liked it. Teddy's blood will have to be sent to Texas A & M University to be analyzed, so we won't have the results for a couple of weeks.

We returned to the trailer and had lunch. After lunch we drove to Livingston and found Timberwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center. It was a little bit north of Livingston on Hwy. 59. We went to visit Rodney Elam, our friend from CARE last year. When we worked at CARE 13 months ago, we walked Rodney’s dog Ginger 3 times a day. Rodney was recuperating from heart surgery at that time. He was hoping to be well enough to get back out on the road in his motorhome by last summer. Unfortunately, he did not get better, and had to “hang up the keys”, a concept all full time RV’ers dread. Rodney has deteriorated quite a bit in the last year, since we saw him last. He expects that his son will relocate him to a nursing home in Flint, Michigan soon. I wanted to visit Rodney, mostly to reassure him that Ginger is being well cared for by Donna and Bill, the couple who have adopted him. I thought it would put Rodney’s mind at ease to have an “independent, third party” opinion of how Ginger is doing. I was right. It was somewhat sad for me to visit Rodney. He kind of reminds me of my father. It’s a tad disconcerting to be reminded that a failing body can prevail over a determined mind.

We drove back to Rainbow’s End, and drove into the permanent residence section of the park. We found Ray & Susie Gearing’s place. Ray was working in their small yard, doing “spring cleaning”. I guess spring comes early to east Texas. I wanted to once again express our appreciation to Ray, and especially Susie, for helping find Rain a home a year ago with Phyllis Bridge. Ray was working outside in the yard with their new 3 month old puppy, Dolly, and the oldest of their 4 cats, 18 year old Cocoa. Susie wasn’t home.

Back at the trailer, we brought Teddy outside, sat at the picnic table and trimmed his claws. Then it was Bo’s turn. Bo’s rear dew claws seem to grow faster then the rest of his claws. Or maybe they just don’t get worn down from friction, like the rest of the claws do. I trimmed a bit too much of one of the rear dew claws, and cut the nerve. Ouch ! Lots of blood. Darn ! Sorry, Bo. His nails are black, and the nerves can’t be seen. To distract him from the slightly sore, slightly bleeding dew claw, we immediately took him for an obedience training walk. Good dog, Bo. By the time we finished an obedience walk, the claw had stopped bleeding. Joanne went to visit with Arley at CARE, while I did today’s accounting and started working on this journal entry.

We went to the communal spaghetti dinner at the Activity Centre tonight. We volunteered to be part of the clean up crew after dinner. We returned to the trailer to watch Survivor, then some Olympics coverage. I went to the modem room to get online and retrieve updated investment data. I spent the balance of the evening updating my investment records while we watched the Olympics.

DSK