Dec. 29, 2019 - Jan. 4, 2020

Weather | 12/29, 1.30" rain, 49°, 53° | 12/30, 27°, 32° | 12/31, 29°, 36° | 1/1, 22°, 49° | 1/2, 37°, 52° | 1/3, 31°, 40° | 1/4, a few snowflakes overnight, 31°, 39° |

• Sunday, 12/29: Today is our 29th anniversary. Bill left, after a venison stroganof dinner, at 2:30 pm. Katie finished her moose cross-stitch and took Plato and Amber on a walk on the East Trail. We played Sorry, a game that Katie picked out, in the evening and then watched the WW I movie, They Shall Not Grow Old, along with its extras.
• Monday, 12/30: At 9 am, we got a call from Dr. Carson, our vet in Hannibal handling Mocha. He said he's given her several enemas. X-rays still show something he can't recognize, but she's eating and seems normal...said the unrecognizable item might be just something "kitteny" that she'll grow out of. Said we could proceed with exploratory surgery, or take her to Quincy for an ultrasound. Both cost about $250, each. He recommended getting her home and seeing if she can come out of it on her own. Mary said fine to his recommendation. After morning chores, we went to Hannibal. One of the vet assistants said Mocha demands attention anytime anyone enters the cat kennel area. The 3-day stay, 8 enemas, 4 x-rays, and stool softener medicine cost us $237.15, which we thought was very reasonable, considering all that they did. Mocha snuggled with Mary on the way home. Decided to introduce her to our herd...normal cat reaction from our cats to Mocha...they hate her and hiss at her. Plato went up sniffing her and got too close, so Mocha smacked him on the nose. First, she ate 6 cat food pieces, then 8 pieces. In the evening, she ate for 10 minutes straight. Katie and I left for St. Louis at 3 pm, so she could catch her flight to New Orleans. Dropped off cat dewormer that we didn't use at Tractor Supply in Troy, MO. Katie's flight was delayed. The screwed up St. Louis airport, Lambert Field, has 2 terminals, 1 for departures and 1 for arrivals. Went to Terminal 1, which is departures. Southwest, who Katie is flying with, wasn't listed there. Went to Terminal 2, which is for arrivals, and Southwest is there for both departures and arrivals...what a stupid mess. Signs indicated arrivals and departures based on terminals. You're just supposed to know that Southwest's departures are at the arrivals terminal. Dropped Katie off and went to Bill's apartment. He shopped after work, so I waited a little while for him, then we drove to a nearby Best Buy and recycled more electronic junk...a printer/scanner, a Gateway 12-volt AC/DC converter, and an HP laptop. Ate at the House of India restaurant. Food was delicious. Went to Bill's apartment and watched the 2002 Bourne Identity movie.
• Tuesday, 12/31: An early morning text from Katie indicated she got to New Orleans, but her luggage didn't make it with her. After a shower, woke up Bill and ate an egg breakfast in his apartment. Bought gas for $2.09 a gallon and drove home. Stopped at Hannibal to buy a couple items at Aldi, including a New Year's celebratory bottle of Irish Cream. Got home just before noon. Enjoyed a chicken, sweet potato meal. We let Mocha out. She's eating and drinking with gusto and most importantly, pooping. Katie texted that her bag came in. We watched 3 sessions of Ken Burns' Civil War miniseries, but dozed off through the third one.
• Wednesday, 1/1: Kind of tired from all the driving in the past 2 days. Mocha seems to be doing well. Eats on a regular basis. She's getting along best with the dogs. She explores every so often, so we chase her around the house while she's doing this, since we don't want her getting hurt from other cats. Mary washed sheets and furniture covers. We took down the Christmas tree, dusting ornaments as we put them away. Moved living room furniture back into better positions, giving us more room. Watched episodes 3 (since we slept through it last night) and 4 of the Civil War. Katie texted photos, videos of her visits around New Orleans.
• Thursday, 1/2: Feeling tired again today...attribute it to after holidays "ahh!" moment. Mary washed clothes. She wrapped up some skeins of yarn she got for Christmas into balls. I applied labels to my 27 pear wine bottles, placed them horizontally into 2 boxes apples came in and stored them in the upstairs north bedroom, turned to the wall to keep them dark and the wine corks away from cat claws.While bringing back mail and the garbage can from the gravel road, I heard a bald eagle, looked to the east and saw 3 large lumps in a cottonwood tree. Told Mary when I got to the house and with glasses, she saw 3 bald eagles sitting in that tree. They let out with their song every so often. Had venison General Tso for main dinner. Read in evening. I finished the 4th book of the Captain Jack Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brian, called The Maritius Command. Mocha was very busy exploring the house today.
• Friday, 1/3: Seemed like we babysat a kitty all day. Mocha didn't poop overnight, so we gave her a dose of stool softener. She found a liter box in the freezer room and did her duty. She wasn't eating, so Mary cooked up a little piece of sweet potato and a bit of turkey meat. She snarfed the sweet potato, then the turkey, then a few pieces of cat food. Mary made chili. We watched more of The Civil War. After the movie, Mocha vomited her sweet potato, then drank a bunch of water. I slept with Mocha in the recliner in the north bedroom to keep her warm.
• Saturday, 1/4: About 4 am, Mocha crawled out from under a blanket and barfed up more sweet potato on the Mid-Rivers wall calendar under the litter box and on the carpet. I cleaned up, told Mary about it, and went back to bed. After getting up and eating breakfast, decided not to call the vet, since Mocha ate and drank yesterday. After the vet office closed at noon, she drank a couple times and barfed liquid vomit. She's not eating today. Left a voice mail with the vet explaining that we will show up at opening time (8 am) on Monday with Mocha. Katie got tickets to the Vikings/Saints football playoff game tomorrow and she texted us that she "volunteered to be one of the military big flag people in Sunday's game." She added to watch for the military person with the red ball cap. I updated our checkbook register, did some checkbook balancing, and assessed the credit card balance. Mary worked on a puzzle that Katie gave her for Christmas in the evening.