post war hump day...

Thistle is doing much better today and so am I.  I have a slight shiner on my cheekbone, which I think adds to my character quite nicely!  We managed to make it through last night , in bed, without incident.  Dear Rob let me sleep yesterday evening in my lounger while he watched the puppy, so I’m feeling pretty chipper this morning!

I know this adventure is far from over but I feel better prepared to face it with a little more sleep. Thistle is handling everything like a trouper. She’s still playing and running around with a bone in her mouth despite having to fit it inside her E-collar.  She’s going to have to wear that collar until she gets her stitches out in another 8 days. Well, she doesn’t have to wear it all the time, just when I can’t watch her closely.

I had to pull a lot of old knowledge from when I was a vet tech out for this experience! Amazing the stuff you have stuck in the back of your mind but are able to pull out when you need it! I just remembered this morning that we used to use a piece of cloth wrapped around the mid section of the bigger dogs  as a sling to hold their rear ends up to keep them from dragging their butts while they are outside doing their business. I’ve already found the perfect piece of cloth.  Now maybe I won’t bung my knee up so bad bending over and chasing her at the same time!

Poor Rob didn’t have a very exciting birthday.  I did manage to make him a nice Italian dinner while Thistle had one of her naps yesterday afternoon.  He really didn’t want to make a big deal out of turning 60.  He’s more excited about the fact that we’ll be getting his military retirement pay.  Poor guy thought he’d never see the day he would finally get that. He’s been saying that he’d never live to receive it since the day he left the service back in 1993.  I made him finally retire back then right after the first Desert Storm. 

He was part of a reserve unit back then that had no active duty counterpart, the Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit.  It was his unit’s job to place buoys out in water that monitor sea traffic, right down to the little fishes, and he would monitor them from land. Rob is also the only one out of any of them that has put the equipment on a oil derrick and they were talking about taking him along to do that. The Navy was talking about putting these buoys out in the water around the bays in the Middle East and on the derricks and was starting to call up the reserve units that do that work. Every week, they’d have a telephone tag call, where they’d make sure they could reach the unit members.  It got so that every time the phone would ring, I’d go into panic mode, fearing it was the Navy calling him to go overseas. I think Rob was secretly hoping he’d go. It was bad enough when he did his two week deployments ever year to Puerto Rico with them.  They were doing drug interdiction out there with those buoys, calling in the Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement when they detected unusual activity off the coast.  Once a whole group of drug smugglers walked right through Rob’s camouflaged camp with big guns, not even knowing they were surrounded by armed Navy guys. See why I made him retire?

For those of you who don’t come from military families, you may not know that just because you have left active service, doesn’t mean you can’t still be called up until the date of your “official” retirement.  So I was celebrating yesterday, for sure.

Just went and checked on Rob and Thistle sleeping.  They look just adorable.  Thistle is sleeping in the bed with Rob, all sprawled out on her back, in her E-collar (so her face looks like a flower inside) and Rob is sprawled out next to her.  I was surprised she did so well sleeping all night with that collar on.  I think it’s all going to be just fine now.

 

We’re going out to dinner tonight to really celebrate Rob’s birthday with some friends tonight.  Our biggest restaurant in town, Winchester’s, sends its regular clients birthday cards every year that include a coupon for a free dinner so Rob’s dinner is on the house.  Our daughter had sent us a really nice gift certificate to Winnie’s for Christmas that I still haven’t used up so we may end up not paying anything but the tip tonight!  It was so funny when she got us that gift certificate.  She called from Chicago and said she wanted to send us one and as soon as she said Rob’s name, they knew who he was and where we lived.  I think it shocked her a little since she lives in a big city where no one is familiar with one another. Being the only Yinglings in the entire County, it doesn’t shock us, though.

That reminds me of a funny story when we first moved here that will show you how small Wyoming really is.  It may be one of the largest land masses in the country but the people population makes it like a small town.  We had only been here about a month when I got a phone call from a sweet little old lady in Casper, WY.  She said her name was also Yingling and she’d been talking to a Buffalo girlfriend who told her that a couple had moved here with her last name.  Well, she was curious if we were related to her late husband and just had to call! I ended up having lunch with her in Casper on one of my doctor runs down there and we had a grand old time.  All Yinglings are related.  The first one, Jacob, moved here back in the early 1800’s from Germany and had 19 sons. Back then the name was spelled Juengling.  It was later changed to Yuengling, which is America’s oldest brewery and some darn good beer if you ever get a chance to try it. We are related to them but not close enough to get any of the money or free beer.  Lastly, it was basterdized down to Yingling, which is how we spell it.  Anyway, if you think about all the family tree that descended from 19 sons, it can be mind boggling!

Some people think Yingling is Chinese.  Ying is Chinese and Ling is Chinese but Yingling in German, folks.  I can’t tell you how many people are surprised when they meet us that we are not Asian!  And my favorite is the nicknames we get!  I have a friend here that calls me Ying Yang, I just love that.  I’m not as happy about the ones that call me Dingaling, although it probably fits better. Back in Maryland and Pennsylvania, where Rob is from, Yingling is like Smith…they are everywhere.  It’s kinda fun that we are the only ones around here.

Well, today is gonna be a great day.  I have made it over the post surgical hump with the puppy and I think we’ll be okay now.  Of course, I’m still awaiting my own surgery next Monday but that will be a breeze after this one!! Hope your week is working out wonderful.  It’s hump day, we’ve made it halfway through the week!!