Friday, 18 through Monday, 21 June 2021
Before I forget, my blog company has been posting a notice to me that says, "Email subscription service discontinued in July 2021." It says I should notify my readers. I have absolutely no idea what that means, but in case any of you do know, consider this my notification.
Before I left Cedar Hill State Park, I was lucky enough to get a really close view of a Scissortail Flycatcher. I'd never realized how rosy red they are under their wings. This photo is off the internet (and you have no idea how much trouble I've been to to convert the .jfif version that insisted on downloading despite telling me it was a .jpg into the .jpg that is required by this blog program) and the bird I saw was actually much rosier than you see here. I knew Scissortails have a pretty buffy color underneath but had never really seen this rosy shade. It was a delight.
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| Scissortail flycatcher |
And speaking of birds, I've been noticing the male Cardinals are much more red than they've been. Their color is almost startling among all the green leaves, and I finally realized they've probably gotten new plumage for breeding season. They're absolutely gorgeous now.
On the drive over I saw a semi with 2 signs on the back:
Passing Side Suicide
← →
I don't remember seeing that before.
We've stayed at this KOA so often that, when I called to make the reservation and asked for the campsite I've used a couple times before, the woman said, "Are you the woman who has the 2 dogs who comes here now and then?" So I guess we've made an impression. At least it wasn't such a negative impression that they don't want us to stay here again.
I don't remember ever seeing it so green here before, and there's thick healthy grass in several places where I know it didn't used to be, like in the doggie playground. This is the KOA with the enormous fenced play area that includes a sheltered leafy corner that Gracie especially loves. I don't think she remembered it at first, but when I pointed it out to her, she settled right in just like she used to.
Speaking of Gracie, I'm seeing signs that her stroke left some damage. I'd thought she was pretty much well, but she's having a bit of trouble negotiating stairs, which she has to do to get in and out of the RV. She can do it, but she's not comfortable with it. I really think what I'm seeing is that she has lost some or all of the vision in her right eye, which means she's got defective depth perception. Now when she hesitates at the top of the 3 steps out of the RV, I've started patting the top step to show her where it is, and that seems to help. Going up the stairs is a little easier but she's still awkward at it.
Not long after Gracie's stroke, David and I did a fair amount of online research into ramps, in case she continued to be as unsteady as she was in the beginning. Unfortunately, all the many variations we found had a fatal flaw of one kind or another that would keep them from fitting into our lives. Some were designed for smaller dogs than mine or were just plain flimsy. Some had a lip on the side (good) but others didn't and I was afraid Gracie'd be likely to fall off without a definite edge. Most didn't telescope down enough to fit behind the driver's seat, which is where it'd have to go, and one that did had several user comments saying it telescoped so fast they'd been injured beyond just a broken fingernail. Almost all of them weighed more than 15 pounds (I regard a 20-pound box of kitty litter to be heavier than I prefer), and since I walk the dogs a minimum of 4 times a day - even up to 6 or 7 - portability is important. Most had a walking surface described by users as sandpaper, which bothered some dogs and not others, and I was afraid Gracie would be one of those bothered.
She's just so fearful of such an incredible number of things in life, and it's reasonable to assume a ramp might be one of those. I'd have to spend a lot of time and effort and massive amounts of patience teaching her to be comfortable on it, and unfortunately food is useless as a training tool for her. Still, if I could have found a ramp I thought I could live with and she might be taught to use, I'd have bought it. But as it was, I was seriously relieved when I saw how well she seemed to be recovering from the stroke.
Now I see that her recovery was real but not complete, and I wish I'd been able to find a solution for her. In the meantime, though, she and I are both adjusting to our new reality and I think we'll be okay. It's just different.
We drove into town one day so I could go to the grocery store, and I stopped at 2 different parks I'd found on previous trips here. One park has a pleasant paved walking trail and, luckily for us, we were the only dogs there that day, though there were several parties of humans using it. That park has a fishing pond in the center, and I saw 4 medium-sized turtles on a rock in the sun and several tiny turtles on a branch in the sun. That was nice.
And we went to a very small park right in town that we've often visited before - mostly when I wanted to walk the dogs but couldn't do it easily in the campground because of too many other dogs. I hadn't realized it before, but this park has a splash pad, and a family with very young children was enjoying it. That's how I learned that the water flow for the splash pad is activated by a switch - I saw one of the little girls push the button and, like magic, water started shooting up. So that was nice too.
One evening here I had a little celebration to mark being back on the road again. I started with some champagne - Pol Roger - I'd bought in Cedar Hill. I've never tried that kind before but heard about it in a Dick Francis book and was curious. It tastes really good. I didn't have much of a feast - just some Parmesan I'd bought for something else and never used, an avocado Anna gave me when I left, some crackers and some strawberries (Richard Gere's character in Pretty Woman tells Julia Roberts's character that the strawberries bring out the flavor in the champagne, but I couldn't tell any difference in either the champagne or the strawberries). But it wasn't the kind of supper I usually have and made it seem more of a celebration.
I think I've gotten the RV organized again. I unpacked my summer clothes and packed up my winter clothes, figuring that even though I'm going to the northern US, it's still the middle of summer. I expect July in North Dakota and August in South Dakota are likely to be quite warm. It's taken me some time but I've finally gotten a handle on how to set the AC temp to make it comfortable overnight in here - one of the skills I'd forgotten while I wasn't living here. As far as I can tell, I've gotten things back in their regular places once more, which means less work for me in figuring out where things are.
Speaking of muscle memory, I've discovered that I get more exercise in the RV than I thought I did, mostly because of needing to go up and down stairs all day long. Stairs into the RV, 2 levels inside the RV, I have to use a stool to get into bed. I've got some muscles that are a little sore at being used again after weeks of living in a level-with-the-ground house. I can't expect to lose any weight over it, but I guess I do feel a little more physically fit.
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