Message board topic:

Last week I made an appointment with my car dealer to do some work, oil change and remove my studded tires. THursday we topped 80f. My car goes in the dealer at 7am tomorrow. Of course we are now under a winter sorm advisory and expect 5 to 20 inches (depending on your altitude) late tonight through tomrrow evening. I suppose I was the cause of this. Had I not scheduled my car, it would be warm and sunny! Still, I will have it all done. I have a 15% off discount and it ends tomorrow. GRRRRR

John: How are you and Cheri doing? I still do a special prayer each morning for ya'll.

Thanks for the good thoughts David.  We're going back to Columbia today just to get checked out.  I'm pretty worn out from the uneven sleep hours.  I got a Long, 9 hour sleep yesterday, but only 5 hours last night.  Cheri doesn't have a lot of energy but she's having me take her out to eat some days.

Your kitty was on the couch this morning!  About 7:45 your time.  Van Gogh is full of energy this morning chasing and pouncing on imaginary prey.  Yesterday the house was full of flies!  It looked like the Exorcist in here!  Van Gogh was chasing them around, jumping in the air trying to catch them.

I cleaned Piggy's cage Sunday and Cheri took him outside to play in the grass, though he mostly just ate it.  I always remind her to watch for hawks.  I've been letting him spend some time on the couch with me.  I put down a little throw blanket in case of accidentsand give him a handful of spinach, his current favorite.

Saturday I played 2 hours from home.  Trips like that make me think all the more seriously about quitting.  Still haven't quite worked up the nerve to do that...yet.  People are too nice and the money is too welcome.  John

Well, thankfully the storm hit around Helena. I see cars here with like a foot or more of snow on them, but we received NOTHING at the house and a dusting in the valley. The mountain that Helena proper is on seems to have snow (I see it from here).

Glad Cheri is having you take her out to eat, that is good, no?

Does Piggy get nervous when outside in the grass? I wonder if he has ingrained fear of hawks, even if he never has seen one.

Do you ever gring Cheri to where you play?

I was watching the weather last night.  They talked a lot about Montana and North Dakota getting blizzards with 2 feet of snow.  We were supposed to get severe thunderstorms last night, which we did not.  It did start raining around 4:00 AM.  It's still raining and there's a little thunder, and it's cooler, but that's it.

With all that's going on, my sleep schedule is really getting beat up.  For days now I've got 5 hours of sleep here, 3 hours of sleep there, then 9 hours.  Last night I got 9 hours, making up for the short sleep the night before.

I took Cheri to the doctor in Columbia yesterday where they pulled out the staples from her surgery.  There were a lot and I guess they hurt coming out.  The doctor himself said it looked like a railroad track.  Thankfully, I think the worst is over.  There will be more surgeries, including one in about a month to repair the damage from the first surgery, then another later to remove some lymph nodes.  This is going to be a 5 year process!  But again, presumably, the worst is now over.

Cheri used to go with me when I played but it's probably been almost a year since she's been able to get out that long.  She's good for short trips, out to dinner, shopping, etc., but nothing so long as a gig playing out.

Piggy does have an ingrained fear of hawks.  In my research I learned about that early on.  As affectionate as he can be, the one thing he doesn't like is being picked up.  Nothing else seems to worry him.  We have a small pen we put him in when he's outside, but he doesn't seem worried.  He mostly runs around eating the grass.  He's never seen a hawk but they are around and I know how fast things can happen, so I'm reluctant to take him outside very often.  He's a sweet little guy.  John