Into 2023 We Go...

 

Stephanie, who was visiting with Michael and Anna in Sacramento before Christmas, sent me a few pictures of Mom, Michael and baby Adeline.  Four Generations had I been there, but Michael's mother was there, just not in the picture...so there were Four Generations at the gathering, pictures I showed in my last blog.  This one picture, however, has Michael in it.

I think all of us know someone who was affected by the Southwest Airlines debunkle.  Stephanie had a hard time making it to Sacramento and back to Salt Lake City.  But she then, a few days later, flew to Little Rock to spend Christmas with her mother...and her flight was canceled heading back to Salt Lake City.  Michael finally got her on a flight with another airlines, and just before it was set to take off Southwest informed her that she was booked on another SWA flight (without even asking her if that was ok or not).  She flew on the other airlines and made it home.  In the meantime, Ryan and Kaelyn were flying to Sacramento so that they could spend a week in Yosemite.  They got stuck in Saint Louis for a night, and then got a flight to San Jose where Michael agreed to pick them up and drive them back to Sacramento.  They got to San Jose, their luggage did not.  Had to borrow clothes from Michael and Anna to be able to spend a week in Yosemite.  Not sure if they have made it home or the status of their luggage.  With PILES of luggage in Airports all over the nation, as shown in the above picture, chances are they may NEVER see their luggage again.

Evie and Ramona

          

Sam                                            Marcia and Alissa

The Friday before Christmas we were going to go over to Marcia's daughter Evie's, home.  Unfortunately the elevator to get to the upper floors had broke, so we were delayed by a week.  One good thing about that delay, Evie was able to get her children, Alissa and Sam to be there too.  Her youngest, Joey, who has autism, lives with her.  Unfortunately he fell asleep and I did not get a picture of him.  Alissa has two children, who were sick most of the week.  Lucky for us, Ramona was well enough to come with her.  All these extra people being there was a surprise to Marcia, but I knew since we were picking up lunch for everyone.  It was a wonderful 3 hour visit.

Indy had a VERY HARD night on New Year's Eve.  The fireworks started going off in the afternoon, and grew more and more as it came closer to midnight.  It was real heavy from 8 till well after midnight.  Poor Indy, who had no problems with fireworks last time, was very frightened this time.  She huddled up on me or next to me all night, shivering, and panting.  I tried taking her for a ride in the car, but that did not help because the bangs and the booms were just everywhere.  Well, we got through it, but it was hard.  The next day was the first of January, and fireworks went off again.  It was not nearly as much, but a few of them were very loud and Indy came snuggling up on or next to me again.  But she did not pant, and her shivering was very mild, and not hearing bangs and bombs after awhile, she would move over on the couch and sleep...just to have another BOOOOOM go off, and she crawled back to me.

I decided to take her to the Doggie Park on the first, and there were very few dogs there.  She did not want to interact very much with the other dogs because doing so meant she had to leave my side.  The picture above shows her looking out over the park, but just not showing interest in going over to play.  Took her back again today, and she was much more interactive.  Until one of the dogs jumped up on the bench next to me, and when she saw me petting him, she jumped up on the other side of me and tried to crawl into my lap.  I sent the little guy away, and she jumped down and played some more.

So our solution is to try and get her "high" with ThunderWunders Hemp Dog Calming Chews so that she will be more mellow.  It is recommended by Vets for Situational Anxiety, including Fireworks, Thunderstorms, Travel and separation anxiety.  Made with Hemp Seed, Thiamine, L-Tryptophan, Melatonin & Ginger, one 'chew' should last up to 12 hours.  Amazon delivered a container of 60 chews today.  I immediately took a quarter of a chew and gave it to her to see if she would eat it...she did.  Even this small amount had a small affect on Indy.  It took a good 90 minutes, but she got real sleepy.  Tomorrow I am going to give her the rest of the chew and see how she does.  A good test will be later this month when we (Marcia and I) have doctor appointments and she will be alone in the Condo for the first time since we got back in August. 

I would be amiss if I did not talk about our cold weather.  Yes, it did a little chilly...all the way down to 31 degrees twice for about two hours each morning.  The lowest the daily high was during this 5 day cool down period was around 42 degrees.

Above is bar graph of our electric usage from December 22nd to December 28th.  Duke Energy's website allows you to track a given day, a week, a billing cycle (but not current billing cycle) or a year.  Since their weeks end on a Saturday, I had to combine part of one week to a part of the following week to produce this graph.  We have all electric with no heating strip to go with our heat pump.  But we do have a DeLonghi Oil-Filled Radiator that we use in the motorhome, and with it being right next door to us, I went over and brought it to the condo.  Set it up next to where Marcia sits to use her computer all day, and it kept the area nice and warm, and lowered the use of our heat pump.  Christmas Eve and Christmas day that heater was cranked up as high as it could go, and our heat pump came on a few times each hour.  Other parts of the condo were cool, but not really cold.  This is the second time we have brought this heater into the condo...the last time was five or six years ago.  That folks, was our winter.  Our next cold streak is this Friday when they think it will be a 63/48 degree day.  Gotta love winter in Florida.