Stories and Not So Tall Tales

 This is the screensaver on my phone of my youngest daughter's hedgehog, Harley. Harley came into our lives in a peculiar way. You see, my daughter was attending Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania and wanted a pet. Now, pets are pretty much frowned upon in dorms, especially by those who are supposed to maintain the rules in the dorm.  Some call them Resident Assistants, some Campus or Community Assistants.  Alyssa at the time, was one of these.  As a CA, she had a room to herself, and being a person who likes social interaction, found herself sorely lacking.  She found someone wishing to rehome a hedgehog--but they were across the way in Ohio. The story was sad.  This hedgie had an original owner who moved away and left the hedgie with her friend, who ended up terrified of a 6oz Danger Mouse.  The friend barely did more than feed, water, and clean his cage for over a year, and finally decided he would be better off with someone else.  Enter ...

 Normally I am an Airbnb host, but after 6 years of nonstop hosting and not having a summer off, my hubby and I decided to block off some time to enjoy ourselves. All excited, I plan an epic road trip to cideries in the NW. That was AWESOME and will be discussed in a later blog.  The veggie garden is rocking, and I am making all kinds of plans for things I am going to can and pickle and otherwise process for future eating. Anyhow, not quite mid-July, when things are going great and more vacations are being planned, I take a step up to the house, loaded with groceries, and something goes snap in the back of my knee. I can no longer stand. Even the thought of trying to put any kind of weight on it is a huge pile of Nope. I can, however, scoot backwards on my butt and work my way up the steps while dragging the groceries. I am NOT going to waste all the yummy junk food I bought by leaving it set out in the sun to melt or attract allthewaspsandflies.   The end process of...