AVR Weekly News ~ 422nd Edition

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by 
Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. 
~ Recap the past week ~ 
~ Show what's upcoming ~ 
~ Share news ~ 
~ Display book hauls ~

• Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 421st Edition

• Tuesday ~ Tour Review ~ The Girl of Dorcha Wood by Kristin Ward
• Wednesday ~ Tour Review - You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus
• Sunday ~ Meme ~ AVR Weekly News ~ 422nd Edition

Hello and Happy Sunday!

It's December already!!

On the Home Front: So, I haven't been around for a couple of weeks. That's because the week of the 15th I was getting everything ready for our trip to Ohio. And right before we left on the 19th Trip started cutting himself again after being 5 yrs free. We adjusted his meds and so far he is fine. We'll reassess now that we're back home. For newcomers, Trip is my 22yo who was diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder 5 yrs ago. He doesn't handle stress well and November 11th was a milestone that tipped him over the edge this year, making the "voice" very loud. I'm lucky he talks to me about things or I could lose him to suicide.

So we left on the 19th at 9:20pm and drove through the night to southern Ohio to see my father-in-law and his long-term girlfriend. I should really just start calling her my mother-in-law. They've been together 21 yrs FFS. Anyway, I'm never driving through the night ever again. At least, not when I've had a stressful week and only 5 hrs of sleep the night before. Hubby was supposed to nap when he came home from work then later admitted he couldn't sleep. We switched out several times driving, but we were totally and completely exhausted. However, there was virtually NO traffic on the roads, so that was nice.

We usually take my Pilot, stuffed full with our crap and a super large cooler on a hitch carrier. I would put things like our winter boots in the cooler, but we were still pretty cramped in the Pilot. Years of driving a van had us spoiled. There is just not as much room in the Pilot, much as I love it. However, this year I had a brainstorm. We bought a 4x8 trailer earlier this year, to bring home things like plywood when we have projects. And I thought out loud to Trip that week, "Hey. We should pull the trailer this year. We could free up more room in the Pilot." The more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea. We have two super large coolers we could use and then I had another idea. I bought a soft-sided cargo carrier on Amazon, the kind you use on the top of your vehicle. Except I put it on the trailer. And I grabbed a spare tire for the trailer at Northern Tool because I just knew, if we didn't have one we'd get a flat 100s of miles from home. We did not have any problems. See? It worked. lol Anyway, the carrier held all of our suitcases and our winter boots with room to spare. Wow. That was a great idea, if I do say so myself. One cooler held extra drinks and stuff I was taking to leave in Ohio (like the Red Oak beer my son loves) and the other cooler held odds and ends that we find essential for traveling, like slippers, extra pillows, heavy jackets, blah, blah, blah. Basically we took a smaller version of our house. LOL I tarped it all against bad weather (we didn't have any) and the Pilot pulled it like a champ. 

Since we were leaving for 9 days and we didn't have anyone who could house sit, we boarded the dogs Vengeance and Artemis, and the cats Captain Kirk, Sugarcube, and Eevee. We took Rocky and Mr. Puggles with us since they were small. Another first for us. We had no idea how they would travel such a long distance or how they would do at each of our stops especially mom's since she has a rescue cat named Gracie. They did very well and everyone loved them. However...just as we were pulling out of mom's drive on the 28th at 5:20 pm to drive most of the night (not all night - remember I said we were never doing that again lol) Puggles and Rocky got into it (we think Rocky stepped on Puggles and it pissed him off) and Puggles bit Rocky on the nose. He was bleeding and had a puncture and we didn't trust them together for the rest of the trip. So Rocky had to sit on my lap for 8.5 hrs. Holy fucking shit. Never again. He's little but weighs 20 lbs and that's a lot for that long a time. Anna cleaned Rocky's bite with an alcohol wipe from a first aid kit and I took him to the vet Weds which is the first I could get him in. It looks ok. Still a bit swollen. He has antibiotics just in case and a pain reliever to bring the swelling down. A dramatic ending to an otherwise uneventful but nice trip. Oh, yeah. Trip has fish now so we HAD to find someone to come in and feed them. Finally, a friend of Anna's said he could do it and he did a great job. He said though that coming to our house in the evening was super creepy down here in the dark woods with things rustling in the leaves. I guess we're just used to it. LOL

Even though I blew all the leaves (didn't want the place to look abandoned) and the trees looked mostly bare we came back to ankle deep leaves everywhere. Where the fuck did they come from?! So Backpack Blower and I have battled twice since we've been back. I think I'm done now? Maybe? Hubby and Kyle had eye doctor appts Mon and Tues after work and we picked up our Christmas tree Tues evening, but hubby managed to go out and play on the new tractor Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. He's digging holes around stumps trying to get them to come out. And I think he's having a lot of fun doing it even though it looks like a giant mutant gopher has been digging on our property. LOLOL

We accidentally ended up with tickets to the Hurricanes on both Thursday and Saturday nights (we actually only wanted Sat night) which is why I'm writing up this post Saturday morning. Hubby took Friday off since we would be getting home late-ish Thurs night. They lost, btw. *cries* We took his CR-V to get an oil change in the morning which was way overdue because we were so damn busy. Then he played on his tractor the rest of the day. Our old Ford 8N which we sent out to be repaired finally was picked up and brought back home Friday also. Things are falling into place and getting back to normal around here.

Trip and I have been decorating for Christmas, which we normally do Thanksgiving weekend but we were in Ohio so we're behind. I bought shingle clips (just were delivered this morning) for the icicle lights because we had gutter guards installed on new gutters this year and we can't clip the lights on like we used to. I hope it doesn't look stupid. I really love Christmas lights and if we can't do the icicles I'm going to be disappointed.

Anna started her new job at Goodwill this week and she may have started off with too many hours. She isn't getting school work done so she'll have to cut back for next week and see how it goes.

Holy fucking shit. I'm writing a book. And I feel like I'm forgetting a ton of shit. I hate missing my Sunday Posts. Shit just piles up. lol

The trip to Ohio was great. My mom is doing fine, Gracie is one chonky girl, my brothers, sis-in-law, niece, and eldest spawn are doing fine. My eldest is down about losing his other grandma recently, but that's to be expected. He'll be sad for some time and that's normal. My father-in-law and Dee are hanging in there. They are not in the best of health. Holy shit! Thats what I forgot. 

Man, I have a long story to tell about Dee, but I'll try to make it short. She's had 4 strokes in the last year-ish. She's doing better but her memory is shit. She has other issues, but this is what I wanted to mention: she has fallen victim to scammers and oh my god. She has sent them money and keeps answering the phone when they call. Even though my father-in-law has repeatedly told her to stop answering the phone, she does anyway. She tells them info she shouldn't be telling them and then never remembers she did so. We took control of the house phone and her cell while we were there, setting ringtones, blocking numbers, anything we could to keep her off the phone for the short time we were there. We called the Cincinnati field office of the FBI to report it and filed a report online on the site we were given. Which is all we can do right now. Other than I'm going to look into a Jitterbug phone or something similar for her to give her for Christmas. She's changed her cell number twice and they got her home number. They've filed a police report and put a notice on her bank account. But if she keeps answering the phone there's not much anyone else can do. It's so fucking frustrating. The best part though was when we let Trip start actually answering when the guy called. I mean, 53 missed/blocked calls in a row on the 2nd day deserved some schizophrenic action, right? After several hilarious calls, the last time the guy called, Trip called him rude for hanging up on him. He stopped calling for quite some after that. LMAO 

Touching Nature: Here in NC it wasn't too bad. In Ohio we froze our titties off. The wind at the farm was wicked! It even snowed! Not much but SNOW! Which we rarely get here in NC. I miss snow. Yes, I do! This week it's been chilly at night but warm during the day. Nice. I have completed several battles of Leafageddon, and the Leafy Horde is mostly done for now. There are stragglers I've been rounding up and evicting, but, for the most part, I have emerged victorious.

Book News: Nope

Don't Touch That Dial!: Nope

At the Flicks: Nope

Cyberspace Playground: Nope

Randomness:  It's a dogwood. You can tell by it's bark.

Carol's Nuggets of Wisdom: Keep a close eye on elderly relatives and what they are doing. The elderly fall victim to scammers more than any other demographic so we need to step up and help them with new technology or set protections in place. This is especially difficult to do when you live 100s of miles away. It sucks.

That's it for me. AVR News Update signing off. May all your books enthrall you.

From the library

Nope

Kindle First

Murder at Teal's Pond

Freebies

Free at time of drafting.

Gaze twice, click once.

None