It's a new year already! Where does the time go? I guess I'm about half busy most of the time. I still do genealogy and have been working on "dead end" family lines for myself and Danny as well as doing another case for the lawyer and researching paternal lines for a friend and a cousin. I've almost got a stack of crochet hats to take to the homeless shelter. I prefer waiting until after Christmas to take mine, knowing a lot of people take stuff earlier. I made more blankets for the nursing home too. For pure delight I read historical romance books while getting my miles in using the bike.
Our Thanksgiving was small with just us and my brother and his wife over for lunch. We had originally made reservations for Swan Terrace at CBN, but at almost the last minute we discovered that Publix had a complete turkey dinner available for the price of just 1 CBN ticket. We added a few things like corn pudding and more desserts and ended up with a terrific Thanksgiving dinner. The vote afterwards was a unanimous Yes, we would do it again.
With our new dog, Riley, I've definitely gotten more exercise. Luckily, Danny deals with taking him out at night. He's come a long way already. Now he let's us know when he needs to go out so we rarely have an accident in the house unless he gets too excited with a visitor. He knows commands for sit, leave it, wait, and backup already, although we're always in training and reminding him. He's learning we won't abandon him and is doing well in the car crate. I can trust him not to go into the woods alone (again) so as we head to the house I release his leash and enjoy watching him make mad dash circles around me. He has great curiosity about everything so much that we think his previous hoarder owner didn't allow him outside much. He and the cat love to play together each morning. If he loses her during hide and seek he checks every possible location for her. The house is no longer the quiet somber place it was after losing our other two dogs.
I am no longer in that music band. My friend and I quit recently after much discussion. Neither of us wanted to go back after the holiday and we both felt like we should be using our skills to sing about Jesus. Instead, the band only wanted to do 60s and 70s hits. It also didn't seem to be going anywhere after all that practice. She'd been with them almost a year and still they had never gotten to perform anywhere. I'd been going since May. Although I enjoyed singing, especially with my friend, it was no longer good there since they added another singer so in a sense we were starting over with new harmonies. We were good at doing the music. The third wheel wasn't helping much. Lately we've been discussing starting a choir at the nursing home. I had a choir at the assisted living facility I work at years ago. The people don't expect perfection like the band wanted to be. The residents expect time well spent to make the long lonely days better. We can do that and are looking forward to it.
I'd thought all my body parts would play nice now that I've had 12 surgeries. But my shoulders are getting worse. They crunch noisily and hurt when I put weight on them, like rolling over in bed. So I have an appointment with a surgeon to see what he thinks. Hopefully a few shots will be all that's necessary.
