It’s November!

Between the rainstorms of the last week, I’ve finished mowing here on our little slice of heaven. Here’s hoping it’s the last time till next year. Don’t get me wrong…you KNOW how much I love my riding mower, but I tell ya…by this time of year, I’m ready for a break. My bonus son called today and asked his dad to go to the driving range to hit some golf balls, so I was at home alone for a few hours.

I decided to attack the stuff we took out of TOW-Wanda when we hauled her up for the trade in. I bought several big tubs at Sam’s the other day to use for storing camping gear, but I’m determined to only save what we will actually use. In that vein, I sat with a trash can in front of me, going through the baskets and storage tubs I hauled around in that big camper for the last eight years.

There were bits and bobs…things that will come in handy. Connectors, tools, markers that actually still work. There were name tags from several camping events I attended, which brought back some wonderful memories. There were birthday cards, a picture of Daughter #2 in her Halloween costume when she was probably nine or ten, a couple rolls of foil. I whittled down three baskets into one. I put bigger items in the tubs, labeling the lids with their contents to make things easier to find later on. These will all be placed in a storage room downstairs.

The light started to change in late afternoon so I set everything aside and went out with my phone to take some photos of the colors. I love when the light is golden and so are the leaves. It just sets the tone and the hills are ablaze with glorious color. It was so beautiful!

I put Pumpkin kitty in her building early because…you know, a black cat on Halloween. It’s dangerous to leave them outside. Mr. FixIt came home and, not knowing she was in there, opened the garage door to put his golf clubs away. Zip…out she went. He did everything he could do to entice her back inside but she was having none of it. I would have given anything to have a video of him trying to herd a spunky kitty back inside for the night. I went and got her treats and set one down. Here. Here. Here. Till I walked her close enough to the building to pick her up, give her a little scritch behind the ears, and tuck her in for safe keeping…again.

We are heading to Columbus today to stay the night for an early doctor’s appointment tomorrow. This is just a physical exam before they schedule me for the selective parathyroid venous catheterization that’s been ordered. The sestimibi scan was negative. So was the 4D-CT scan. This is the next step. It’s done like a cardiac cath, but the catheter takes random blood samples from different arteries in the neck and chest area. Each sample is labeled for its particular location and the PTH (parathyroid hormone) level is tested.

Ideally, there will be a high level in one artery that indicates the offending parathyroid gland is swimming upstream there. This allows the endocrine surgeon to hone in on the correct area and hopefully remove that bad boy and get this disease over with. Yeah…I’m not real excited about this one, but I can’t ignore this disease. It never goes away on its own and it can knock many years off your life. So I don’t really have a choice. I’ve got the ultimate Healer walking with me every step of the way, guiding the physicians and surgeons to fix me.

I hope you had a beautiful weekend!

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