Peninsula Living, Part 2

SUMMARY: But don’t you have to drive a while to GET someplace? Lol

Answering this friend's question on Facebook Sept 11, 2023

Depends on what you mean by "someplace". Within 5 minutes I have Costco, Home Depot, Safeway (and 2 or 3 other local/organic/nonchain groceries), Walgreens, Rite Aid, YMCA, local medical center, hiking opportunities, Dairy Queen, Burger King, McDonald's, Papa Murphy, Applebees, Taco Bell (plus nonchain restaurants and cafes)... and Walmart if you're inclined. 15 minutes to Toyota dealer if I want them to do things on my car, Wendy's... trying to identify local places by familiar names.

I *do* miss: Target, Macy's, Trader Joe's, Penney's (yes there is one up here!), Panera, major movie theaters, ... but all and many more are in Silverdale usually <60 minutes from here, so we just make it a day (or morning or afternoon) and go enjoy ourselves and do the shopping we need.

The biggest issue: Closest 24 hour emergency vet is also in Silverdale.

Most of my doctors are in Port Townsend (by choice--that's where I started up here and I like the facility and the docs etc) which is 35-45 minutes, but I'm so used to driving it that it doesn't bother me at all, AND... no traffic! The only traffic lights are at the onramp to 101 by my house and maybe one in Port Townsend--and within town they use roundabouts.

But NO TRAFFIC getting to all these places is such an amazing benefit--

I mean, it could take me an hour to get home from work in San Jose because freeways were jammed (15-20 minutes on a weekend). So driving freely through quiet mostly wooded areas for 40-60 minutes is nothing.

Not everyone else up here thinks that way. They just shop at walmart and online.

Yes, then I do have to consider gas prices. [shrug] I'm far from wealthy, but it's not like I make those drives every week.

I do avoid going to events in Seattle--it looks close, but it's either a 2-plus-hour drive or a 2-hour trip with less driving but waiting for and riding a ferry, less gas, plus ferry ticket. Ferries are pretty reliable.

You can drive around locally and find eggs and fruits and veggies and flowers and more at people's homes or at local small farms etc. And often it's just a small booth with the product and a sign stating the price and a place for you to drop your payment. Pretty cool. Of course, as population grows and more thieves arrive, that might go away.

Any more-specific questions? 😉

• My previous post about ferries: https://dogblog.finchester.org/2023/04/peninsula-living.html 

Photos from various  visits  to Silverdale (I have selected a whole bunch more, but from blogger into photos on my iPad, there's no way I can find the ones that I want. So I'll have to come back later on my Mac and figure it out.) ...(OK, I give up, the captioning and things don't even work right on my iPad. Here's what I've got so far kinda.)

This is a couch I've been considering for months. Then I bought that tie-dye thing. Oh well.

Sister and husband buying rugs at Macy's in Silverdale.

The Really Bad News

SUMMARY: The technical cancer details. But wonderful vets.

Backfill: Most from Facebook June 17; posted here July 3

My regular vet, a wonderful human, took my phone inside to take photos of Chip's x-rays for me. (All appointments are outside for the humans; dogs go in.) And then he sat with me in the parking lot to explain them, AND he brought out a book with sample x-rays from a German Shepherd (appropriate, given his DNA test earlier this year) to compare and let me photograph them, too.

Four x-rays: What his looked like yesterday and what it should look like. Cancer nodules in lungs and other places (?), chest filled with fluid.

Chip's x-ray--fogginess around center is
fluid in his lungs/chest.
Also when zoomed in, you can see
lots of small dots, circles, whatever.
Lots of them. 

What it should look like. Clear. 

Again, fogging is fluid in his chest cavity.
And fuzzy dots/ovals/circles also visible in many places.

What it should look like.

The next vet, Dr. Maria Kuty, who helped me with Boost at the end 5 years ago, came this morning with less than 24 hours notice to ease Chip carefully and comfortably into a deep sleep and then out of his misery completely. One couldn't ask for a better mobile vet for this crushing event.**  She talked and listened and loved Chip. She delivers him to the crematorium and will bring his box back when it's ready.

http://www.drkutyhousecallvet.com/dr-kuty/

** Note: In my mind and heart, it is the cancer that is killing Chip. If I weren't able to give the gift of relief, I'd have had to watch him slowly die over the next day or two, or worse, even a few days longer.  It has been painful to see him the past 4 days get worse and worse and worse. It is Chip dying that hurts so much, not the actions that I requested from the vet.

Flea Fly Flo Flum

SUMMARY: Boost might have fleas. So much cleanup to do!

Since I started using Advantage or Frontline, I've had almost no problems with fleas on my dogs. Occasionally we pick up a couple from somewhere, and then I do a thorough cleaning and bathe the dogs and the problem goes away again.

"A thorough cleaning and bathe the dogs." Aye, there's the rub. I wash everything in sight--all my bedding (since the dogs sleep on the bed) and all their bedding--in bedroom crate, on kitchen beds, on office beds, in car crates, in mats used for agility crating...so much bedding! It takes ages to do all that--unzip things, unwrap things, get from all corners of the house and garage--and then wash, and then put back in place. And some of the stiffer mats don't wash very neatly. I've been at it for hours, it seems, and have barely started.

I vacuum all carpets thoroughly. Bedroom, even under the bookcase headboard--THERE's a challenge. Office--move even the printer tables and such. Living room, although we don't go in there often. Then there are the crevices around the mattress on the bed and other odd places. It's a lot of vacuuming! Usually I just sweep my kitchen, but for this I ought to vacuum around the edges anyway.

And bathing the dogs--ugh, I just have no energy for that this week.

And why am I doing this? For the last week or two, Boost has been scratching more and more often, and last night she woke me up several times scratching scratching scratching. I'm not seeing any obvious flea signs, but at Scottsdale in the trailer we rented, one evening I caught a flea hopping on the bed. So I'm thinking that she picked 'em up from the trailer or from being around zillions of who knows what kinds of dogs with what kinds of flea care for 5 solid days.

I'm only a week late with the latest application of Frontline because I ran out and I wanted to get it on sale this coming weekend--it's a bit pricey. But it sure beats all this work!