Chewy McChewerton

My dogs continue to chew at their skin. Fleas and a staph infection. Slurp, chew, lick lick, scratchscratchscratch. My heart goes out to them. But I seriously want to buy them each the 'cone of shame' to put around their heads so I don't have to keep listening to the sounds they make. Again, I am not without empathy. But... C'MON!!!!! I've given them 847 baths -- flea baths and antifungal baths -- and I don't have the money to take them both to the vet, and the vet won't just prescribe an antibiotic over the phone, and I can't just go and pick up the flea medication. At least, that's my assumption because that's how the last vet we had was. I went outside to get the dogs back in and there's Nikita, rolling around on the ground with all four legs up in the air. *THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE FLEAS AND A STAPH INFECTION!* I yelled at her. She glanced at me, but continued her rolling until I forcibly removed her to the house. It's like dirt is crack to a dog. Digging, rolling, sniffing... it's the XBOX of the canine universe.

So, my car. It has almost 180,000 miles on it and has been pulling to the right lately. When I say pulling, I mean that if I let go of the wheel for a nanosecond, I will be off the road. I took it in to get an alignment and the guy said, after I waited 40 minutes, I needed to get the tie-rod fixed before I had the alignment. He quoted me $125.00 plus tax. I didn't have that amount of money falling out of the oh-so-unreliable never-ending money river in my back yard, so I said I'd have to reschedule. In the meantime, I called TIRE STAR in Middlebury who had just done a very inexpensive oil change for me. Sure, they could replace it. I was there a half hour and it was $61 and some change. Less than half. You will now go to TIRE STAR and get whatever you need done, because they are saints.

This weekend is our son's Semi-State performance for the Northridge marching band. His last year, and definitely the best show they've done all four years he's been there. They came in 5th out of 14 at regionals this past week (and props to Concord and a shout-out to my friend Malachi because they came in 1st, and were pretty fantastic -- just don't tell my son I said that!) We're going to Indy to watch the performances. My least favorite place to drive is Indianapolis, and I don't much like the city, either. If he makes State the following week, that's at the stadium in Indy, so another fun drive... but well worth it. The state performances are something else! And they've made it every year before, so I don't see why they wouldn't this year. Good luck Northridge!

I am continuing to work on my writing lately. Reading has sort of fallen along the wayside and I'm trying not to let that distract me, because the writing was the real purpose in all of this. I want to publish my first eBook very soon. The cover art is going to be spectacular. My sister Savannah, who has an avid interest (and a lot of talent!) in the area of photography, is doing the cover art for me. I gave her the general idea of what I wanted, and she just rolled with it. I cannot wait to see the finished product! I'm close to being done editing this round, which means I'll probably edit another 40-50 times before I'm happy... but it's coming along.

I'm working on my next short story, too. Not sure where it's going, but I'm liking it so far. I love to let the story take me somewhere. It's more fun that way.

Time for food-making. Just Cheeseburger Macaroni and french fries tonight. Nothing fancy. But I've got some KILLER buffalo cheese dip I stole from my mom's house. She made it Sunday. I ran out of chips or it would all be in my belly right now, so I bought more chips at Harding's and I'm ready to roll!

Ahh... silence. No chewy dogs. Now I'm wondering what they're up to...

SJS