A Flying Fox?

I am fed up with the snow, it has stubbornly refused to go away and we have had ominous warnings of more snow for the weekend. Each morning this week I have paused on my early morning trip to the bathroom to look out of the landing window to check on the snow situation. The window looks across the flat roof of the utility and the garage towards our neighbour's garage and the side of their house. The snow has remained deep and undisturbed except for the tracks left on the surface of the snow by a passing bird. However today was different something had got on to the roof and walked from the front to the back. 

At first I assumed it must have been a cat, but when I thought more about it I was sure that the tracks were made by something a bit bigger and heavier than a cat. I took a closer look at the prints and having checked on the internet I realised that they were not feline prints, a fox had walked across our roof! It seems that the trellis and climbing rose near the utility room window make a perfect ladder. I didn't know that foxes could climb but there are plenty of clips on YouTube which prove that foxes are very determined and if they need to climb to get to their desired destination they will do so. 

Lost For Words

Photo by ZoofyTheJi

It is not really true that I am lost for words. I could write about Robbie's missing pants (again), he got so wound up about two missing pairs of black pants yesterday. One pair wasn't missing at all, they were folded in the pile of laundry that I had taken up to the bedroom the previous evening. Apparently I hadn't folded them correctly and on the way to the station he patiently explained how to fold his underwear and amazingly he survived - I must be mellowing in my old age!  The other pair of favourite pants were not far away either, he 'found' them this morning and stood there waving them at me triumphantly in the style of a bull fighter - it isn't the best sight first thing in the morning! 


I could write about the roof leaking when we had torrential rain last Saturday night. It dripped through the ceiling on to Robbie's side of the bed, it ruined some of his precious railway books and it spoiled the covers of some of his vinyl records. He was so angry about it. After rescuing his things and finding a container to catch the water he stormed off to sleep on the sofa and I was left wide awake worrying about how much it is going to cost to fix the roof. It will be a huge amount because it will require scaffolding. 

Photo by Laura Jones

What I really want to write about is how much I love Robbie and how useless I feel sometimes. I am not a soppy, sentimental sort of person but I do care deeply about him and I have been terribly worried by the level of pain that he has been experiencing in recent months. Pain is exhausting and constant pain can be really lowering because it affects everything you do and it changes the way you feel about yourself. Robbie is so strong and so determined to be 'normal' (in his own unique way) but it gets him down when his back hurts and his legs misbehave. I can't take his pain away but I can be strong and help him to accept the need for more effective long term pain management. I can make sure he takes his tablets and help him to cope with the rather unpleasant side effects. The tablets make him very tired, waking him up in the morning is like trying to raise the dead. Sometimes he gets very cross with me and he has been known to tell me to go away in no uncertain terms, but I don't take too much notice of that. One way or another we will get through this. It will take a long time and a lot of trial and error to find the correct medication and the correct dose to manage the pain without devastating side effects. I need to be strong, I will not let him give up.

Decisions, Decisions. 14.01.07

I suppose after my first entry on the blog, you didn't ever think you'd see another entry from me....!!!

Well, what a weird weekend it has been. As Chris explained yesterday the garden fence had blown down and was laying on the lawn trying to look like decking. Meg (our neurotic border collie) does not like to be looked at especially by the scraggy mutt from next door but one and she was afraid to go out in the garden while the fence was down because everyone could see her. She likes walks, but the garden is her domain, she likes to have a wander and sniff around the garden, she checks on the rabbit and trades occasional insults with Archie the little dog next door. Meg may be a bit mad, but she is a lovely dog and we couldn't risk losing her, so while the fence was down she couldn't use the garden. She was disgusted!

The fence wasn't just a 'quick fix' job, it needed some DRASTIC first aid! I was faced with quite a dilemma, to go 'Plastic Pig' bashing for the last time or to have some 'QUALITY TIME' with Chris and do my duty and fix the fence. Decisions, decisions.....In the end I made as Chris described it 'my FIRST adult decision', to have a lie-in with my dear wife and then to fix the fence. I don't mind so much getting up to go 'cranking' or 'bashing' but on a weekend especially in the winter, you need to charge your batteries and think of yourself rather than trying to replicate the Monday to Friday getting up time of 05.45.....! In the end I made the RIGHT choice! The fence is now restored to an upright position, it will need more work, but at least Meg's routine has returned to normal. Tomorrow I have to re roof the shed!