"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

8/27/15

Porcupine

It's been a very busy time since my last post. Never a dull moment these days. Must be August.

Last weekend was adventurous, if nothing else. The biggest excitement happened on Saturday night. We went to Dan and Sues for dinner. While relaxing and enjoying ourselves I suddenly noticed the dogs-Cable and Tripper- were not in the room with us. They were, in fact, outside. Ruth and I went out to call them in. After some time, Cable came running up the steps ------ covered in porcupine quills!



Tripper followed somewhat later, also porcupined. Oh what a nightmare! Thankfully, Cable cooperated while Doug and I removed them with a pair of pliers. She had a lot of them in her face, nose, chest, paws, and even inside her mouth imbedded in her soft pallet and under her lips. It was so painful for her and she bled quite a bit but she stuck it through as we pulled each one out.

Tripper was another matter. He did not cooperate at all! It took quite some time to get them out of his face even though he had less of them in him because he squirmed and jumped and tried to escape the whole time. He is an amazingly strong and slippery dog and he's much more afraid of pain. It took as many as four of us to hold him down while Dan pulled them out. Poor little guy.

I bet neither dog takes on a porcupine again.

Sweet hubby and I spent the daytime hours of the weekend shopping for a new pickup truck. Our Toyota Tundra is 12 years old and showing it's age. So we made the decision to replace it. We looked for something that will handle pulling our camping trailer better than the current vehicle and had a comfy back seat with plenty of leg room for all. We found what we want and 'bought' it. We have signed all the paperwork to purchase a Ford F150 XLT crew cab with towing package in Ruby Red Metallic. It will look somewhat like this (the front grill may be different.)

2015 Ford F150 XLT

However, the actual truck we bought is at another dealership. You see, we found the perfect model on our local lot except it had one flaw. It had regular side mirrors instead of the bigger ones for pulling trailers. Sweet hubby insists it must have the larger mirrors. The dealership claims that to install the larger mirrors on the one in stock will cost more than for them to go get one from another Ford dealer, so they did some research and found one about 800 miles away. They are currently trying to arrange an exchange and trip to that dealership to bring it here for us. It was supposed to be here tomorrow, but there's been a problem. So maybe next week. It's frustrating to go through all that hassle and take nothing home. Urg. And when did pickup trucks get so darn expensive?

I went to the fair yesterday. I'm working the North Idaho Secular Society booth for 3 shifts. I took the very first one on Wednesday morning. Of course, I dashed off to see how my four entries did. I got 2 blue ribbons, one red, and one white ribbon. I will have more details after I get good pics, which I'll be doing tomorrow cuz I've got my second shift in the afternoon. I took my camera with me yesterday, but I forgot to bring it home. Left it on the floor under a chair in the booth. Can't pull the pics off it and put them on the laptop if it's there instead of here at home.

We are still having blistering hot dry weather with thick smoky air. We've had some days of nasty wind too. The visibility has been between 1 and 5 miles for the whole week, with unhealthy air warnings.  It's miserable right now. I almost want winter to come, but not quite. Rain would be good. Rain would be really really good.  I could go for a whole week of rain! They are predicting some rain for the weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Some other news. Doug and I are registered to go on the Star Trek Cruise in 2017! I mean, we are going! Really going! (Barring any unforeseen circumstances between now and then) An email came telling about this cruise. William Shatner is going to host it. Jonathon Frakes (Commander William T. Riker), Mirina Sirkis (Deanna Troy), Robert Picardo (The doctor from Voyager), James Darren (Holodeck character from Deep Space 9), and Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar in Next Generation) are scheduled to go too-so far. They are working to add more.



I have wanted, my whole life, to go to a Star Trek convention but have never been able to. It's on my bucket list. William Shatner is the last of the 'big three' stars of the original series. Deforest Kelly passed away some years ago, and then Leonard Nimoy passed away earlier this year. Time is running out. William Shatner is getting old and I don't want to miss seeing him. When Doug got home from work I told him about the cruise and how much I wanted to go. We discussed it and decided to do it. I am so excited! It will be the trip of a lifetime!

Live long and prosper. \\//

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