Thursday, August 27

We were up by 7 a.m., so I could get ready to take Mother for a 9:30 doctor appointment. She has been complaining of being tired, and gets exhausted after walking only a short distance. The doctor ran a battery of tests, including an EKG, an X-ray, blood work, and urine specimen. She also ordered an echo cardiogram, scheduled for 2 p.m. tomorrow.

While we were at the clinic, we learned that the regular flu shot was available, so Mother and I got vaccinated, and I called Hubbie, who dropped by and got a shot, too, before going on to his dental appointment at 11 a.m.

Poor Mother, she and needles just don't seem to get along. Today, the nurse who drew blood, needed two vials of it, but Mother blew a vein before the nurse could get the second vial, so she had to draw that one from her other arm. I guess now Mother will have bruises on both arms, as well as the upper arm where she got her flu shot.

We got back home around 11:30, and I fixed cold boiled chicken sandwiches for lunch, which we had with grape tomatoes from the garden, cottage cheese, and a choice of pretzels or corn chips, and mixed fresh fruit for dessert.

After lunch, about 1 p.m., Hubbie and I traveled to another town, about 45 minutes away, to shop for a sliding glass door unit for the den. We found one at the other home improvement store, in a suitable color, at a much better price than the one at the home improvement store in our town.

Once Hubbie had finished the paperwork for the unit, we searched for a pressure washer. We found one at a sale price, and Hubbie had enough gift cards given him last Christmas and for his birthday to buy the washer. I expect that he'll be wanting to wash everything in sight now.

Mother stayed home with Shih Tzu while we were gone, and I called her as we were leaving the other town to be sure all was well. It was. We got back about 4 p.m. Mother went home, and Hubbie and I had a supper of leftover stew from last night. Then we went to the WDCS (mustn't let a day go by without going there!), to pick up a few items, including kitten food.

Speaking of kittens, this morning Hubbie went out to the garage and found the gray kitten there. "What are you doing way out here?" he asked, as he picked it up and brought it to the back porch, where the other kittens were.

But when he started to set the kitten among the others, he saw that the gray kitten of the litter of six was already there. "Who are you?" he puzzled, looking at the kitten in his hands. Taking it back to the garage, he realized that the kitten he held actually belongs to a young, black, female from Mama Cat's first litter.