Hello and happy Friday. I am so glad to see the weekend. With being gone a couple of days at the beginning of the week my actual work at work week was shorter but I think I am still tired from my trip.
I have some favorites from this week I would like to share with you. My Friday Favorites are made up of things I have gotten or fun things I have done during the week so here goes:
First up is this black dress I got at Walmart. It is so cute and you can’t tell from the photo but it is swingy at the hem line and it has pockets. I paired it with this denim jacket but you could add lots of things to it. And it was only $9.99 what????
I will be going to Texas in a couple of weeks and I think I may just have to wear my boots with this.
Next are these short scarves, ascot, neckband whatever you want to call them. I sometimes like to wear a scarf but it’s still a little too warm for a big bulky scarf. I had a shirt on last week that just needed something around the neck. I couldn’t find anything in my huge pile of scarves so I ran by Walmart on my way to work and found these two. I tied the reddish orange one on right away. And they were only $1.99. I think they add a little color and neck cover if you feel you need that.
I was in Dollar General earlier in the week and I bought these cute fall things to put on my entry table.
I love pumpkins, I can’t get enough of them.
But the most fun thing I did this week was hanging out with some of my co-workers. We decided to treat ourselves to a little end of season celebration. We went to a great place near Knoxville for wings and then spent a couple of hours at Topgolf. We had so much fun!!! We are together at work almost every day. But getting to just have fun and laugh and not have any work stress was just the best. If you haven’t tried Topgolf you should. It is so much fun. You have your own bay, there are several levels,we were in the second level, and you can order food and drinks.
We shared a couple of appetizers. So Good!!!!
I tried several sauces. You can tell I am a big Ranch fan. The Honey BBQ Ranch was my favorite.
Hello friends. It has been a sad week here. But as life happens life just keeps going. I miss my little Scruffy more than you could imagine but I don’t think that is something that will ever go away.
I took last Friday off because I had to leave on Sunday to go to North Carolina for an Attractions meeting. I felt like I needed an extra day off to get some things done. This group meets three times a year and I always love getting together with them to share ideas.
Last week while we were dealing with the terrible decline of Scruffy our sewage started to back up. We live in the country and have our own sewage system. The backup wasn’t bad but it caused some pressure on pipes in the basement and they started to leak. So we had to turn off the water until we could get the septic tank pumped. Last Monday was Labor Day so it slowed the process down a bit. Luckily we still have my father in law’s house next door and we were able to go there for showers. However my laundry piled up pretty bad. That is why I needed the extra day on Friday. Thankfully everything is back in working order.
I left out on Sunday morning for North Carolina. I wanted to stop in Knoxville. I have been working on a project I saw on TikTok and I need some of those cheapo silver platters. I was able to find two at a nearby Dollar Tree but I need three and haven’t had any luck finding another one. The Knoxville Dollar Tree had even less items than our local stores. Maybe I will find another Dollar Tree on my North Carolina trip.
Blowing Rock NC was my destination this trip. I have been there several times but I always forget that it is not an easy place to get in and out of. There are no interstates that take you close to the attraction. It was very rainy and foggy for most of the drive over and I ran into a bit of fog. Especially when I got on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a bit scary.
Look at this fog. It was only 3:30 PM!!!
We stayed at Chetola Resort. I will have a full post in a few days of all the attractions we visited. And of course lots of pictures.
The first night of our trip we had dinner at the resort in the Evergreen Room. The salad was amazing.
We had a few hours of meetings. But the main objective to these trips is to visit other attractions and get ideas about the way they do things.
I am ready to take a short hike at Grandfather Mountain and cross the Mile High Swinging Bridge.
After our meetings on Monday we went to Grandfather Mountain in nearby Linville NC. We were able to attend a very special luncheon for one of our members who has been a part of Grandfather Mountain’s team for more than fifty years. He was actually inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, one of North Carolina’s highest honorary society. It was a surprise luncheon for him with more than 100 people in attendance. It was so much fun and I was so happy to be a part of this.
After the luncheon we visited their Wildlife Habitat and took a walk on the mile high swinging bridge.
I was a little nervous here. The elevation behind me is 5,280 feet.
We made it back to the hotel with barely an hour before heading to the Blowing Rock attraction for a reception and view of the mountain from the rock. The legend here is that an Indian maiden and her Cherokee brave were standing on the rock when a strange red color appeared in the sky. The brave told the maiden that it meant he had to leave her and return to his people. She begged him not to go. He was so conflicted that he flung himself off of the rock, falling to his death. The young maiden stood at the rock every day and prayed for the great spirit to bring her Cherokee brave back to her. one day a strange wind blew up the mountain and returned the brave. It is said that even to this day a wind blows up the mountain and has caused snow to fall upside down.
This view is from the rock at Blowing Rock. Resident kitty at Blowing Rock. She is so precious.
Next we headed to a most wonderful place for dinner. The Restaurant at Gideon Ridge, The views were amazing. The food, well it was so delicious I will just have to show you.
Some excellent wine.
Just look at the views from this restaurant.
I will have lots of pictures in just a few days. I wanted to catch up with you and share these last few days.
Hello friends I know it has been quiet over here on the blog. It has been a really hard couple of weeks. I told you in a previous post that my sweet Scruffy was in congestive heart failure. The vet was optimistic in the beginning telling us that he could still live a couple of years if he responded well to the meds he was given.
At first all seemed better. He stopped the horrible coughing and still continued to eat. He didn’t act like he had a lot of energy. We stopped going on our long walks. He had a little trouble climbing the stairs. And then he stopped eating. After about four days of eating almost nothing except a few treats we took him back to the vet. They did more bloodwork. They found no issues with his kidneys or liver. They gave him a shot to settle his stomach. Another couple of days went by and he still would not eat. We were getting desperate. We decided to get a second opinion about the heart failure and everything that was going on with him.
I called University Of Tennessee Veterinary Hospital where Scruffy had gotten his cataracts removed years before. They had to have a referral from our local vet before they could schedule an appointment. I called our local vet and they sent a referral that day. UT called back to schedule the appointment. The first availability they had was September 27th. I was so upset and told them he might not be alive at that time. They told me they would put me on a cancellation list and if he got worse I could bring him through their ER but only during the hours of 5:00 Pm and 7:00 AM. So I had that option. In the meantime I messaged my niece who is a vet tech nearby. She told me the name of a veterinarian where she worked who also took care of her babies. She got me in with her the next day. She was wonderful with Scruffy and she confirmed the congestive heart failure and upped a couple of his meds. But she took the time to show me exactly on the ultrasound just what was going on. She didn’t like that he wasn’t eating and she gave us some food that could be given to him in a syringe. Force feeding him is actually what we were doing and I had a really big problem with it and he hated it. He could drink water and I knew he could eat if he wanted to. It was like he had given up. We only did that for a few days. He got weaker and weaker and his breathing was worse than ever.
On Tuesday evening he collapsed and just couldn’t get up. We knew it was time. We took him to the vet who had seen him last. It was very quick but the longest time of my life. He passed with his head on my arm with me whispering into his ear that he was soon going to see his big sister Molly and the kitties, Buster and Milo. Having to do this is the most horrible thing you can do for you but the most compassionate thing you can do for your fur baby. You have to be the strong one for them. Mark and I were a wreck and still are. For the last two weeks I have been an emotional mess worrying about Scruffy and not knowing what to do. In that respect not having to see him breathing rapidly, and not eating, and not being able to do all the things he could do before is a sad relief.
Scruffy was a rescue that I took in four and a half years ago. He had cataracts and a terrible skin condition. I knew the day I put him in my arms and he looked up at me and I looked down at him that he had my heart. We got the cataracts removed and the skin condition cleared up. But we couldn’t do anything about his heart giving out. He settled so perfectly into our family. Everywhere he went people loved him. I took him to the Assisted Living Village when my mother in law was there and we visited the rooms of many of the residents. They loved him and he loved them. He would go into their rooms and sit while they stroked his soft fur and talked baby talk to him. He was the center of our family in a quiet, non assuming, gentle way. He will simply never be forgotten.
Sleeping in my arms was his favorite place.
This was just after he had cataract surgery. He hated this cone.
We were waiting to see the vet for a check up on his cataract surgery. He did so well with it.
He loved his big sister Molly. We lost Molly only two months ago. It has been such a terrible time for us. Not having these two has left such an unbelievable void in our family.
He loved his sister Kitty Kitty. We got them at almost the same time.
This was one of the first pictures I took of Scruffy. He had a terrible skin infection that took some time to clear up.You can see why we named him Scruffy.
My sweet boy, I will never forget you.This was the last picture I took of Scruffy. It was just a few weeks ago. You can tell he wasn’t feeling well.
I still hear him, and see him out of the corner of my eye. I feel him jump up on the bed at night, and hear his nails clicking on the floors. He followed me everywhere I went. I even joked that I was going to get one of those baby carriers and strap him onto me. When I had Covid a few weeks ago he stayed right beside me. He never left my side when I was at home.
So I wanted to share this with you. A way to get some of my feelings down and to let you know the reason behind the quiet time here on the blog. I am sad, lonely for my sweet boy and a so lost without him.
Southern Patches 