Three steps forward, one step back.

The Princess didn’t take any Aleve last night. She reports that she awoke with “ a headache in the pelvis” and some other indications that her ‘innards’ got scrambled yesterday. The heating pad and Aleve were her friends today. We think we’ve traced the change to the increased amount of coughing and sneezing due to allergies she’s been experiencing (Ah, to be in Ohio now that Summer is here). At any rate I’ve placed her on “light duty” here at home tonight while I take care of the laundry and supper. After a quick nap she's working on her needlepoint. Supper was chicken cordon bleu (from the freezer) and lima beans (also from the freezer) with Catawba Grape juice. I’m now fighting the desire to have some ice cream that I saw in the freezer while I was poking around for dinner. Julie loves lima beans (I do not). I have to be on the road tomorrow, but if I’m home in time I think we’ll grill steaks and asparagus (that I also saw lurking in the freezer).

I'll get back to my musings on the 'deliberate' life tomorrow. I HAD to share this story with you today.

Well as I said in an earlier post (I think), these updates are coming from the ‘funny farm’ where we live. With that in mind let me tell you about my evening. In addition to my duties a ‘domestic goddess’ this evening (dinner and four loads of laundry), I also had to be “the destroyer”. Ely the Corgi had something cornered under/in my Blazer which was parked behind the house in the barnyard. Anticipating something exciting (as things in my life usually are) I armed myself and went out to investigate. At first glance I couldn’t see what he was barking at so I figured I’d start the engine and rev it up to scare out the bird or rabbit or kitten I suspected was under the hood. No such luck. I shut the engine down and went to investigate more closely because the dog was still barking like crazy and wouldn’t back off. As I had feared by this time, Ely had gotten a groundhog somewhere it really didn’t want to be. He had it cornered on top of the axle, between the right front tire and the wheel well. No chance of a clean shot. Not one to be outdone by a rodent, I figured I’d take the truck out onto the road and hope the ‘critter’ went off the front axle and under the rear wheel. Again, no such luck. After backing all the way out of the barnyard and through the vineyard (did I mention we had a vineyard?) all the while watching closely so as not to run over Ely, I backed onto the road and turned the wheels hard to the right. The groundhog sensing himself to be exposed by the turning wheels “bailed out” and headed for the trees. After parking the Blazer I determined that there would be NO sleep tonight (for animals or humans) with Ely ‘barking treed” on that groundhog. I reluctantly decided to dispatch him and looked for an angle to get a clean shot. Of course there was no such thing. Ultimately, after what must have looked like a Keystone Kops show, I can say my mission was a complete success because the groundhog did not survive and I was not injured (somewhat to my surprise on both counts). To my target shooting friend Detective Snyder I proclaim “your position as champion marksman is safe”. Let’s just say my grouping wasn’t the greatest (but hey what do you expect from a partially blind man). It took an entire clip to do what should have been a single shot job (I need more target practice). Since I’m not one to post a picture of a dead rodent, here is the vineyard I had to back the Blazer out through.

Check back soon (and often).

Dave (the Destroyer) and (the achy Princess) Julie