Willa's Journal

This weekend felt like kind of a frenzy of shopping, I guess because Bob participated. I started the day yesterday by getting my oil changed, then while I was at the Hallmark store buying some birthday cards, Bob called and asked if I could look for some shorts for him. I'd seen an ad that SteinMart was having a 12-hour sale, so I headed over there and bought several pairs of shorts for him in several styles--I generally buy most of his clothes and we have a little fashion show at home, then I return the ones he doesn't like.

This time, he liked two of the four pair, or rather, he actually liked three of them, but one of them didn't really fit. I can't even remember what else I did yesterday. It's been incredibly hot here the past couple of days--highs of over 100 degrees--which kind of wears me out. Before that, we had a few days of slightly cooler weather, with what felt like much cooler evenings, although Thursday night while I was out walking, the tape I was listening to broke, so I had to resort to the radio, and I heard them say that it was 87 out. Funny how 87 can feel cool after several days of 100+ degree weather . . .

Today one of Bob's friends came by in the morning after taking his wife to the airport, and he and Bob went out to breakfast. When Bob came back, he said he needed some new walking shoes, so I suggested Kohl's, where I'd bought mine. He said that sounded good, so we headed out, found him a nice pair of Avia's and another pair of shorts, both on sale, then he said we might as well go return the shorts I'd bought at SteinMart yesterday.

While I was standing at the customer service counter returning the shorts, he wandered around and found a shirt he liked, and I found a fleece sweatshirt for when the weather cools off, both of them on sale, too.

I went up a little later and he was looking at his shoes, and said how he liked the ones that had the little air chamber in the heel, how much that helped make them comfortable, and I said I hadn't even thought about that when I bought mine. So he said, "Well, why don't you go look and see if you can find another pair?" I didn't really want to spend the money for another pair of shoes so soon, but he encouraged me, and said that since I was walking every night, it really wouldn't hurt to have two pair anyway.

So I did. I went back to Kohl's and found a pair of mesh and leather Avia's with the air chamber heel--on sale for $29.99. I don't know if they had them before and I just didn't notice them, or if they were new, although I'm pretty sure they probably had them before, since there weren't very many pair left.

And then I went to Target and bought mostly groceries, although I also got a couple of big Rubbermaid containers to consolidate the Christmas gifts I'm buying (and making) this year. At the rate I'm going, I really should have a considerable amount of it done early, which is pretty unusual for me.

In addition to all the shopping, this week has felt like a lot of driving. I usually stay in for lunch, maybe going out to walk around the block, but I almost always bring my lunch. Last week, though, I ended up driving all the way home twice.

Over the weekend we noticed that Dinah was having some litterbox issues. I'll spare you the details, but I called the vet's office on Monday and made an appointment for late that afternoon. I figured I could leave work around 3:30, swing by home and pick her up, then get to the vet's by a little after 4:00. But the vet called me back and asked if I could go ahead and bring her in, that if he "needed to do something" (unspecified), he'd rather have the rest of the day. (Okay, the problem was blood in her stool, which we obviously didn't want to let go on for too long.)

So I rushed out at about 11:00, raced down to the basement and got a cat carrier, scooped up Dinah and stuffed her in it before she knew what was happening, and dropped her off at the vet's by around noon, then headed back for the office. He called after a couple of hours and said he thought she was okay, that it probably just an irritation (he called it colitis), and she was fine. Of course, if it happened again, we'd re-evaluate. I called Bob, who was able to go pick her up and take her home.

And then on Wedneday, Bob woke up with kidney stone pain. When I woke up that morning, I heard the water running in the bathtub, which I thought was sort of odd, but I just figured Bob had woken up and couldn't sleep, so he was taking a bath. When he came in, though, and I asked him what was wrong, he said his back was hurting in the way that he knows from experience is the precursor to a kidney stone attack.

I asked him if he thought we needed to go to the hospital, and he said it wasn't bad enough yet, that he would just try to drink a lot of water, and lie around with the heating pad to see if it would either move and stop hurting, or if he could pass it. I was worried about him, and drove home at noon to check on him and bring him some lunch.

The pain has ebbed since then, but his doctor wants him to come in for an x-ray in the next couple of days to see if they can figure out for sure what's going on. He's had several kidney stone attacks, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to make sure that's what it is, and I guess if it's a big one that there would be no way of passing, they can decide if they need to do something about it before it gets worse.

So that was the week. Oh, and on Thursday afternoon we cleaned the office--swept and mopped the floors and dusted and cleaned windows--it looks really good. And I just remembered what else I did on Saturday--bought a new bird feeder. This one is another finch feeder, but the feeding holes are beneath the perches. Supposedly goldfinches are the only birds that feed upside down, so this feeder is supposed to give them a place to feed that they sparrows, house finches, chickadees, etc., won't knock them off of. We'll see, I guess. As far as I can tell, not one has even checked it out yet.