My girls are happy again!
I swear, I thought I posted yesterday.. I must have did a preview and thought I posted without submitting?
Anyhow, I got in late Wednesday night and the girls were at the door to greet me. They knew I was gone to long this time but they forgave me quickly. It was so GREAT seeing them again and getting all that loving. They had an experience themselves while I was gone.. Rie and her family went to Colorado the day after Christmas and a neighbor was checking in on them. She called me on the boat Sunday to tell me my heater had went out in the house and had been out for a few days. Rie and them got back Sunday and Monday they had a man out here to look at it. He fixed it temporarily so they would have some heat until the part it needs comes in.... then I get home Wednesday. My neighbor said she would cut on the kitchen oven and hold Amy in her lap by that heat but it was cold in here! The girls managed to survive the cold without heat and last night, it went out again.
I ran to wal mart last night and got a couple of heaters and slept on the sofa with them last night so we all stayed toasty and warm.
I was SO stunned when I saw Boo when I got in, On one of her hips, she is missing a lot of her fur, she had a huge bald spot. I am wondering now if while she has stopped limping from hurting her leg just before I left, if it still doesn't hurt and she chewed on it, pulling out the fur because it still hurt? Or was it a side effect of the pain medication? I called the vets office yesterday and I am going to watch her close and see if there is anything odd going on with her. Wouldn't do any good to take her in without observing her and not being able to answer and questions or having anything to tell them other than she has lost a lot of fur.
I came home wore out! Not because I did 5 weeks this time but because ole Murphy's Law got on with us. Anything that could go wrong did! I have a new relief cook and soon as I walked on the boat, I came unglued! She had put EVERY pot and pan I had in the dishwasher and they all were so tarnished and ate up that there was NO WAY I could use them. For those of you that don't know, there is something in the dishwasher detergent that has a chemical reaction with aluminum and terribly discolors them so all my pretty silver, shinny pots and pans were now a dull, dark grey and some almost black. See photo of before and after
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...s/IMG_0126.jpg
So, soon as I got on, I had to start scrubbing and I scrubbed the whole trip bringing their finish back..
On about 2 1/2 weeks and the dishwasher went out so I was having to wash EVERYTHING by hand. In replacing the dishwasher, they discovered the galley hot water heaters tank had a hole in that and it had to be shut down and drained so I was having now to wash everything in the sink and heat water on the stove to do it! They rerouted some water connections from the boats hot water heater after a few days and I had hot water BUT, it had to run a good 20 minutes before it got hot EVERY time I cut it on!
During all this, Christmas is coming and I had a LOT to do. I only did about half of what I had planned but the meal I did put out, knocked their socks off. Then it was time to start on New Years Dinner... Soon as that was over it was time to get things cleaned up and ready for crew change. Wow! I feel like I hit that boat running and didn't stop until I walked off the boat. I was wore out every day by supper time so most suppers were quick and easy, they ate a lot of stuff on buns at supper time this trip but I made sure they understood I HAD to have my pots and pans looking nice for Christmas..
The guys were all excited over Christmas and we did have a wonderful Christmas on the boat. Everyone was happy all trip... except for me about my pots and pans.
I hope all of you had a great Christmas and New Years!
