All by myself

So my mom and dad are away this week visiting my sister Liz in Sioux City. I am here alone, taking care of their diabetic cat. Yes, this includes giving him shots. UGH. I can't tell you how awful I find this. In truth, it's really no big deal, just a really quick shot in the shoulder twice a day. But it's disturbing to me. I'm not a good cat-shot-giving-person. I don't want to hurt him. Mom says the trick is to distract him with food. So far that's worked in my favor. Now Pippin's not a bad cat. But he appears not to know the difference between 4:30 am and 7 am. We're working on that. He is not easily persuaded that it actually is not time to eat.

Being alone has been a both a blessing and a curse. I'm in a bit of an emotionally fragile state these days, having left Pittsburgh and all that entails behind me this past weekend. It's very nice to only worry about myself. Get up. Eat whatever I want. Shower whenever I want. Do whatever I want. But it's also been a bit lonely. Growing up in a family of 6 children, you don't get much time alone. Though any of my siblings will tell you that I certainly did my best to try to be alone whenever possible. And I do like to be alone. But sometimes, you need distractions too. Fortunately I have two friends coming to visit from Philadelphia tomorrow so I won't go mad and become crazy cat lady. I do occasionally worry about that.

So this is what I did today.

Not a whole lot. Sat in that chair and read between thunderstorms. We had a couple of them, early, early this morning and one this evening, but the sun did come out for a few hours, which was really nice.

Oops. Looks like the cherry tree will no longer be with us.

When I first got here on Saturday, Mom said, "Look what happened!" and pointed to the yard. I was like, "what?" Seriously, it took me several minutes to realize it'd fallen over completely. Granted, it was always a little sideways, but never quite laying on the ground...

Dad's awesome new compost bin that he made himself.

The beginnings of the garden!

By the stream. This is technically our neighbor's yard, but I don't plan on letting that stop me from going back there to read some more tomorrow.

Obligatory stream photos.

Thank goodness I brought my wellies! There are probably some crawdads just waiting for me to catch them in there. Not that I won't just let them go. But whatever. It's the thought that counts.

Raspberry bushes! We've had so much rain in Pennsylvania, these are pretty much the only thing that's thriving so far in the garden, and that's because they were planted last year. But they're doing splendidly!

Future raspberries. MMmmmmmmmm....

My loyal companion. Roooosco, the wi-ld cat of the oooooutdoors!

So there you go. Exciting update on my life here in New Providence! Now I must go eat some turnovers a 10 pm. It's just how I roll.