Winter Doldrums

It had to happen. A major winter ice/snow storm is forecast for this week. Temperature won't be above freezing for several days. It's bad enough feeling "trapped" because the roads are bad, but we also live in constant dread of the electricity going off. Since most everyone at the Lake has a well, this means no water in addition to no heat or light. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the forecasters are way off the mark.

Terrie got rid of that pesky tooth last week. She's still hurting some and her jaw is still swollen a little. She doesn't handle annoyances well, and this annoyance is getting very tiresome for her.

On the bright side, things fell into place this week for a trip to California in March to see my son and Terrie's mom. We were accepted into three shows along the route. We're really looking forward to this extended road trip. And we think we'll do pretty well at the shows. A new wholesale account opened up this week. Oak Creek Canyon in Scottsdale, AZ, will soon have Ozarklake hummingbird feeders in their two stores. So although the weather is depressing, we have something to look forward to and have a reason to be busy creating.

Hummingbird fact for today: Though the smallest of all North American hummingbirds, the Calliope hummingbird migrates over the immense distance between Mexico and western Canada each year.

New Addition and Major Pain

Terrie really mourned George's loss. I must admit, I was rather attached to the little guy, too. So on New Year's Eve Day we went out to the local rescue shelter and this little 8-month old female cat adopted us. So far she's a perfect cat - she likes to snuggle and sit in our laps, she follows her people around, she likes to torment Ozzie. The shelter had named her Izzy, so it seemed to be fate that we found her to join our 6-year old Ozzie. So that has been the bright spot.


The Jeff Dunham performance was everything I hoped it would be. We had a great time. Unbeknownst to me, Terrie was hurting. She developed a toothache and was popping Alleve. She hoped to "ward it off" as she said. And it did go away for a couple of days - until it came back with a vengence.


After a week of hurting she finally sucked it up and called for a dental appointment. I have to add here that Terrie is the world's biggest dentist-phobe. When she was a kid, some jerk who should have had his license pulled, totally ruined dental visits for her. She breaks out into a cold sweat just dialing the phone. And the news wasn't good. Her back bottom molar is abcessed. She apparently ran into another jerk who put this huge filling in that tooth, rather than just crowning it, and now the decay is down into the root pulp. So her choices are a root canal followed by a crown, or an extraction. With her phobia, there is no way she could physically sit through a root canal on a back molar. She takes medication for high blood pressure as it is. And she's never had a tooth pulled. So in order to get the "happy" drugs for the extraction, she has to see an oral surgeon. That's not for another two weeks. Finally today it seems that the antibiotic may be knocking down the infection because she's not in as much pain. She's like me in that she absolutely hates having to admit there's anything wrong with her. And I know the pain of toothaches - it wears you down. So I hope this gets better, the "happy" pills help her get through the extraction, and she gets back to normal.


Despite the pain she's been in, she's been busy on the internet locating garden shops and botanical gardens with gift shops. As a result of her efforts, we have a new wholesale account. Ozarklake feeders will soon be in the gift shop at Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden in Claremont, CA.


She's also been busy completing applications for 2009 shows. Each application is different. Each application requires different pictures, in different formats, with different information. It's time-consuming. And it's very discouraging when you don't get accepted for a show. She deserves all the credit in the world for plugging away like she does.


Hummingbird fact for today: The adult male Ruby-throat has an emerald green back with an iridescent red gorget. The gorget feathers are not actually red and may appear to be black in some lighting situations. The male may sometimes display by raising the feathers around the gorget and shaking his head to show it off to the best advantage.