God Bless us one and all!

 Well, Campers, it's been a busy week.  Mrs. J has been slowly getting the house ready for the familial invasion starting this next week.  The pick up of Little J last week went well.  He's now able to sleep through until about 4AM and doesn't necessarily need a nap in the afternoon.

However, just because HE doesn't need a nap doesn't mean that Miss B doesn't, so he tends to take one at the same time.  Frankly, I'm jealous.  LJW also seems to be a bit less stressed now that he's home.  I can understand that.

On a related stanza in the song of my life nowadays, we are in the process of moving his family into my Sister's house on the property.  It's quite a bit bigger, and although a mobile home, is much nicer than the cabin they've been living in for a year.  With a little bit of luck, they'll be together in their next assignment  sometime next year, but this should be a bit nicer quarters in the meantime.

Once they've moved into the new temporary home, we'll do a little bit of renovating on the cabin and return it to the B&B role it had before.  Got to keep the Turista's happy and divest them of a bit of vacation cash.  

Ain't America Great!

In the ongoing "I'm not the Executor, dammit, I'm the Administrator" saga, I am meeting with my lawyer as you are reading this.  We're getting closer to closure on this excruciatingly painful period.  My Sister's car is all but sold.  I've got the cash in hand, but...

You knew there had to be a "but" dinch'a?

When we went through my Sister's papers, I found all sorts of certificates in a file, so I grabbed that file and put it safely away in my file cabinet at home.  We're leaving to meet to exchange paper with the buyer and I search the file for the title.

You know what's next don't you?

All sorts of official papers in that file, except one. I asked my Sister several times that day to tell or show me where the title was as I searched her house for it. For some reason, she declined to reply.

So, off to the Courthouse.  "Yes, Sir, for $42.50, we can get you a new title.  You'll receive it in the mail in about two weeks."  Fortunately, the buyer is a friend and knows where I live. She said "Keep the money cause it'll burn a hole in my pocket".  So, thankfully, that bump in the road is not the Grand Canyon. 

Yet.

On the Mrs. J front.  She's doing ok, not great.  A daily nap and reasonable bed time have helped. And the good news is she's finished her second cycle of Chemo (4 to go). The Doctors involved gave her an early Christmas Present.  This time, she's got a two week recovery period instead of just a single one.  No meds, no infusions, nothing but rest, recover and regain strength for two weeks!

I suspect that all involved in the process are celebrating Christmas and that might have had an impact on the scheduling.  I'm ok with that, Mrs. J is also.  Thank you Lord and Happy Birthday.

On the Dog Front.

Well, the melding of two dog families (three in each) has been an adventure.  We've had to make a lot of compromises on all three fronts, the human front, the Black Dog front and the inherited dog front.

The Inherited dog front.  L to R. Gryndll, Bentley, Atticus

 The Inherited Dog Front are, based on size and age, expecting to be ruling the roost. As my Sister's sole duties were working and feeding the dogs that expectation could be understood.  However  my Sister's house is completely fenced in, so they're used to being outside when she's at work.  Unfortunately, due to a poor fence design on my part, our fence has one gate and the fenced in area includes the garage.  So, if we need to leave the house, we need to open that gate.  Since the dogs love to explore our 40 acre property, they gleefully make a beeline for the open gate.  Consequently,  I've learned an awful lot about the layout and topography of the property as well as how effective Mesquite needles are at drawing blood.  My duty for this week is to find someone who can fix this fence for less than a brazillian dollars.

But, it also has had an impact on the other dogs, making them a bit timid about going to "do their thing".  Sometimes they're even artistic about it.  For example, I don't think Rembrandt could do this as well as Annie did.

Dad! When I say I need to go pee, I need to go pee...NOW!

Oh well, I've gotten pretty efficient about cleaning up things lately.

On a separate note, I got invited to Lunch with the Old Gang from the IT department in the school district.  Of the 5 people who attended, only one was still with the district.  The last replacement they hired is getting paid $14/hour.  That should tell you something about how things are going.  Holy Crap!  Only $2240 per month before taxes and such!

No wonder only one is left.  That having been said, it was very nice seeing them and telling "Remember when..." stories.  The one remaining at the school, gave me a small present.  I had had it hanging over my desk when I worked there, but forgot it when I left.

I  think it fits nicely on the door to my workshop, helps me get in the proper mood and relax.

I just figured out that next week's post will be on Christmas.  Hope all y'all (especially you, Beans) have been especially good this year.

God bless us one and all!

Peace out Y'all!

*Just learned that another of my Heroes passed.  Don Pardo of the Famous "Pardo's Push" has entered Valhalla.  Never met you, but your story influenced me tremendously.

Pardo's Push.  Read it, or we can't be friends.

Source

 Risking your life for your wingman.  The absolute definition of a "Fighter Pilot". Rest in peace, My Friend".