As mentioned earlier, the weather has been...confused here. Rain more than snow and the temps are way too high for this time of year. The animals are miserable and I've been hanging my gear to dry every afternoon after chores.
I've been pretty busy with everything I have to do nowadays so I haven't been able to visit here much. It's been kind of an emotional roller coaster ride, too. Now my left hip is on it's way out and I have doubled the pain. It's getting that much more difficult to get into and out of cars/trucks. I cannot help but reflect that I would now be four months post-op for the right hip and maybe even able to schedule surgery for the left hip come Spring. Alas, I have been condemned to a couple more years of pain. Everyone I know who has had the hip surgery tells me it's like night and day and the hip pain is pretty much immediately gone. After the surgery heals, life is so much better, so they tell me. I guess I'm just a whiny whimp and I owe y'all an apology.
I asked what my partner was thankful for last week, he told me: that the animals are healthy, the cars all run, and the mortgages are paid to date. There are a few puzzling points to all of that. One of the wethers is sick and I am not sure why. I suspect he's dealing with urinary calculi and am treating him with ammonium chloride drenches. Three of the nine vehicles on my place run. And, finally, he's catching up the mortgage payments for his house in Anchorage because he missed on while he was in the hospital. So, of the things that make him happy, not one is true. Somehow, I am disappointed that I didn't make that list. You know, like having a friend who will go that extra mile to ease your transition after a life changing event like a stroke. I'm pretty sure that as soon as the new year turns, he will be returning to his own place. I'll give him that much time to recuperate. I've been doing his work as well as mine. I've overcome my fear of chainsaws and have changed oil and filters in all the operational vehicles. I loaded and unloaded the Honda generator without his help (that was quite the event). Better to be wanted than needed and I've told him before he's not needed, it's just convenient to have him help by doing stuff like this. And I'm no longer wanting to put up with the shit-show that is his life.
