I don’t know whether I’m back to blogging regularly. I’ve had the intention, but not the energy. For a long time, I thought I was being hounded by “the Black Dog” as some have so humorously put it. But I became ill in September, had emergency gallbladder surgery, and – lo and behold! it wasn’t a Black Dog at all so much as a “hot” gallbladder!

As soon as I recovered from the anesthesia, I began to feel wonderful – with more energy, interest,  and just general “give-a-damn” than I have felt in years. Yes, years.  This illness has crept up in little increments, waxing and waning but never allowing me to feel completely well.  I’ve wanted to do so many things, only to look at them and immediately feel as if they were too great and difficult for me to do “right then.” I’d do them later, I told myself. When I felt better.

Well, by the grace of God, I am feeling better, only things had deteriorated so badly that it is taking a while to catch up. I still have limited stamina, you see, and weak knees…   but brick by brick, one step at a time, one task at a time, sometimes one item at a time, I am recovering my home and my life.

Over the weekend a young friend came out and tilled part of my yard. I bought a load of composted horse manure a month ago, and I’ve added several buckets-full to places where I want to plant…  and D. came over and finished shovelling it on the garden square for me, and tilled it in.  I’ve planted garlic and swiss chard, and several pots of pansies, and taken clippings to root from the buddleia, a sage, and a lavender. I pruned back the wisteria (and might even cut the horrid thing down — it’s only bloomed once, three springs ago!)  and just sat in the sun enjoying temperatures in the 60s and counting my blessings.

The Mouse Saga has revved back up for the new winter season. Between the dog, the cats, and the traps, 11 mice have been dispensed with over the past three weeks. In one 48-hr period 10 were killed or transported to the big creek down the road, and I knew of two other little ones that were seen peeking out from behind the bookshelf. I emptied the shelves, moved them, cleaned behind them (oh, the stink!) and replaced and refilled them. Little Mousies navigated to another facility – a small cabinet in which I store office supplies, primarily printer paper and file folders — but have not been seen now in two weeks. The mouse Simon caught and killed on Saturday ( #11) might have been one of these, but of course there is no way of knowing with certainty.  Others remain on the lam — and the stinking rascals have figured out how to remove peanut butter bait from my TomCat traps without springing them. I knew mice are clever, but this is really too bad!  One even figured out how to exit the humane trap I had set up.

My one complaint is insomnia. Some women my age suffer hot flashes and night sweats; my hardship is a great difficulty in falling asleep at night. Once I do fall asleep I sleep like a log! but getting to sleep in the first place is difficult. It can be a hardship at times, but fortunately my schedule allows me certain indulgences, such as sleeping in.

We might have snow flurries tomorrow night. I was thinking earlier how fortunate it is that I went by the store on Saturday and got a half-gallon of milk for my coffee and tea, and two loaves of bread, for sure as God made little green apples, the local stores will see a run on both, tomorrow, in anticipation of our very early winter weather. Our 70% chance of precip will almost surely come in the form of rain, and any snow we might possibly see will almost surely have melted before we are even aware it has fallen… but Just In Case rules our lives, here in the South, and no one could survive a storm without milk and bread.