I can't take too much of this excitement

First of all, Penny was indeed spayed yesterday, and she came through it like a champ. She also had her upper puppy canines pulled, because the adult teeth were coming in, and the baby teeth were getting impacted. The vet kept them for us, and they're in a little bottle which the vet techs labled "Penny - Tooth Fairy". I suppose I should get some more gravy bones to put underneath her pillow! She's feeling pretty good... she has pain meds to take once a day with food (which I translated this morning as "with a can of chicken"), and she's relaxing and snoozing for the most part. She occasionally rouses to investigate whatever paper I may have accidentally left on the coffee table, but she goes back to the sofa soon afterward for a nap.

But, you may have heard that we've had a little bit of bad weather here in the Atlanta area. That's like saying Hitler was a little bit of an unpleasant person. Rain. Buckets of rain. Over a 48 hour period, I heard that our area had an estimated 15 inches of rain, and we weren't even one of the hardest hit areas.

It stormed all night Sunday night and into Monday morning. Got up and took Penny to her appointment at the vet, then went home to monitor the weather. Got a call that Penny was ok... and I was making plans to go get her shortly after 3. Except I looked out my window shortly before 1 and saw this:
Well, that's not exactly true. I saw water creeping up the street from the lake. The street that you can't see in this picture, which was taken from my across-the-street neighbor's porch. The street sign is in my next-door neighbor's yard. The bench you sort of see sticking out of the water in the distance, next to the sign that's just about submerged, is in the park where Penny goes to sniff and run around on a regular basis. The lake's regular banks are well beyond the trees...

Now, my Hummer can drive through 2 feet of water. Problem is, I had no clue how deep the water was. And it was rising.

Called the vet, because I was worried that we wouldn't be able to get there to bring Penny home. They said she could stay there. As you know, I love my vet and her office, but there was going to be nobody there between 7 PM and 7 AM. I knew we had to get our girl home to look after her in case there were post-surgical complications.

Emailed this pic to Richard. He planned to leave work, buy a crate (which my mom generously offered to fund), head to the vet, come home, park as close as he could, then walk through people's yards avoiding flood waters if at all possible. Unfortunately, this plan got complicated, because roads were flooding all over the place, and he had to make detours. When he got close, we decided to forego the crate in favor of speed, since conditions were rapidly deteriorating.

But... when he got to the exit where the vet's office was... it was flooded. He had to get back on the interstate. We tried to find alternate routes, but we decided the best move was for me to get the Hummer and try to head on back roads that might not be closed to get to the vet. Richard headed home... and I think the police were right behind him closing the interstate as he was dodging the flooding on the roadway.

The neighborhood flooding had receded some, so I was able to drive out and take the long way around to get to the office and get our girl. About 2 1/2 hours had passed since we first hatched the plan to get her. She was still very groggy, but I think she was happy to see me. Drove carefully home with our precious cargo and made it without much problem. Thank goodness I was driving south; northbound traffic out of the Atlanta area was a nightmare.

I hope the folks at the vet's office got home ok. Many of them were worried that they wouldn't be able to get home last night because of the road closures. I read one report that said the "express" bus from Downtown Atlanta to Woodstock (where my office is and where the vet is), a 30 mile trip, took 4 1/2 hours.

Too much excitement for my taste!

Richard said we undertook a small "Penny rescue" of our own. That minimizes the horrible damage that people have had here. People have died. Babies were swept away from their parents and killed. Schoolkids weren't able to get home and had to spend the night at their school due to the flooding. An entire small town north of my hometown was flooded and evacuated. People have lost everything, because they were told they weren't in a flood plain and didn't need insurance. Folks who were at work haven't been able to get home to check on their pets.

A friend lives in a heavily flooded area. Her house was ok, but the two houses across the street were flooded and the residents had to evacuate. She woke up at 3 this morning to the sound of scumbags looting the houses that had been evacuated. She called the police, but they were busy trying to save the idiots that insisted on driving around barricades into the floodwaters. I pray there's a special circle of Hell for predators who would take advantage of people like that.

We're blessed, because we were all able to go to bed in our own house, in our own bed, safe and dry. We're not having to boil our water before we use it. Things could have been much, much worse. We were inconvenienced, but everything turned out ok for us. Please keep the people who weren't so fortunate in your prayers as their long road to recovery begins.

What is my Role?

Thanks to Ria for the meme! You Are the Philosopher

You love thinking things over and developing theories. Learning is very important to you, and you pursue knowledge relentlessly. You love to talk about the things you know, often in more detail than people would like to hear. And you know a lot! You're always taking on new subjects, interests, and hobbies. You are at your best when you are left alone to ponder your newest ideas and experiments. You tend to withdraw from environments that are loud, contentious, or passionate.

What Role Do You Play?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

Change in Plans

Our wonderful Dr. Weaver is ill, so Penny's spay has been postponed till September 21st. We appreciate all the good thoughts you've been sending, we hope you can continue them till then. :)

Hitting another deadline

And I've been quiet again. It's because another tax deadline looms: September 15, which is the deadline for all those corporate extensions that were filed in March. While I'm used to it, this is Penny's first big tax crunch. She's not understanding why she has to stay out of Mommy's office (there's so much interesting paper to munch on in there! and just look at those power cords that could use some chewing!) while Mommy works. Needless to say, I have a bit of an unhappy puppy right now.

Richard tries to get her outside when he comes home from work as much as he can.It's amazing the change in her since June when we first started leash training with her. She is now confident and will walk all over the place on her lead whereas in June she'd just lay down in the grass and refuse to move. She and Richard are going for walks through the neighborhood -- they're gradually getting longer, and Penny is likely to take off running when Richard lets her! It's a great opportunity to work off some of that puppy energy.

I'm trying to join them when my foot permits. I'm working on the third month in the air cast due to the plantar faciitis.
It's better, but we're still not at a point where I can go completely to the orthotics in my shoes. I've learned how to maneuver with it pretty well. It's still annoying and hot, but if it keeps me from having surgery on the foot, which sounds completely unpleasant, it'll be worth it. I still think I'm secure in my status as "Queen of the soft tissue injury" between this, the carpal tunnel, and the rotator cuff tears in both shoulders. :)

We spent Labor Day up in Rome visiting Mom. Penny spent two nights away from home for the first time. She found Mom's house to be big and very interesting. We still have a few potty training issues, but for the most part, she did really well. It was an orgy of puppy junk food for her, since Mom fixed her roast beef, bacon, eggs, and biscuits. And yes, you can imagine the gastrointestinal effects that had... I'm happy to report that she was doing better once we got her diet back to normal. :)

As for stitching and knitting... still not much. I don't get a chance to work on a lot since Penny takes a real interest in anything I'm doing and offers a great deal of assistance. Sometimes her assistance comes in the form of grabbing the ball of yarn and running across the great room and into the dining room, wrapping the furniture with yarn as she goes. I'm happy to report that she has excellent "taste" in fibers, as she has shown no interest in embroidery cotton but has stolen a couple of skeins of silk while I wasn't looking. You might know I'd raise a pup who wants the good stuff.

Back to work with me.... If you can spare some good thoughts on Monday the 14th, we'd appreciate it. Penny's being spayed that day (I tried to get the vet to do a "twofer" and spay me at the same time, but Richard said he couldn't deal with both of us in those collars...). I'll report back and let everyone know how she's doing.