Well, Friday the 13th probably can't be any worse than Thursday the 12th, so I'm not too worried about today.
I don't know what we did to anger the powers that be, but apparently it was something.
Chad had the day off yesterday. I had to run off to an appointment at 10:00, so I got up and got dressed, and was headed out the door, when I noticed that Pig-Pig was sitting with his nose in the corner of his cage. He doesn't usually do that. I thought it was funny because he looked like he was in time-out for something. I called Chad in to look at him, and then I reached in to pick him up. He didn't struggle at all, whereas usually he tries to run out of my hands when I reach in to grab him. We noticed that his eyes were a little crusty, and I knew something wasn't right. But I put him back in the cage and headed off to my appointment. On my way there, the check engine light in the Subaru came on, as well as the ABS light and the "At Oil Temp" light. None of the gauges on the dashboard were working (speedometer, odometer, etc.). The radio wasn't working. So I called Chad, thinking that the battery cable might need to be jiggled. When I came out to get back in the car on my way home, it wouldn't catch, and eventually just clicked, as if the battery were completely dead. So Chad came over, we went and borrowed jumper cables from a guy that worked at Walgreens (we were trying to buy some, but they don't carry them) and jumped the car. It seemed to be fine, so I drove it home. However, I noticed that the gauges still weren't working, and when I flipped on the windshield wipers after running through a sprinkler, it took probably a full 30 seconds for them to come up and go back down again. The car was also running kind of weird, sounding like it wasn't switching over to the next gear smoothly. But I got home, and was idling in the driveway when it died. I hadn't even put it in park, it just turned itself off. And there it sits. In the driveway. Chad's dad thinks it's a problem with the alternator. I so hope we get to replace it, because I hear they're pretty cheap. But at least we have some tax money left, and it shouldn't be a huge deal if it does need to be replaced.
Anyways, but getting home meant coming back to my sick little Pig-Pig. I picked him up and cuddled him up in a towel, and held him on the bed while I watched TV and Chad mowed the lawn. He hardly moved at all, except to cuddle up under my chin. To make me feel better, Chad made an appointment at a vet that told him they treated guinea pigs. At about 2:00 we drove over there and got him checked out. The vet didn't know much about guinea pigs - which is understandable - but then, don't tell us you treat guinea pigs. He checked his lungs, and his temperature, and his weight and came up with the conclusion that there was nothing medically wrong with him. $50 later, we left under the impression that we were overreacting pet-parents, and that he was just a little under the weather, and with some antibacterial drops over the next week, he would be back to his good old self. So we took him home, cleaned his cage, gave him fresh food, and left to go up to Rexburg to help our friends move. This was probably around 3:00 or 3:30.
We didn't get back until around 8:00 after stopping at the pet store to buy some vitamin C drops for Pig-Pig's water. When we got home, he was laying along the side of his cage with his nose in the corner. It didn't take more than a millisecond of touching him for me to recognize the stiffness that sets in when a little animal dies. We had lots of pets when we were little - and we buried lots of pets. He felt like a rock covered in fur. Poor little guy. So we don't know what happened to him - how he got sick, or what he got sick with, but he died sometime between 3:00 and 8:00 when we got home. I only had him for about 4 months! I only have about 6 pictures total because I was expecting to have him a lot longer than that. Luckily Chad was playing with the camera on his new phone and got a few pictures just a couple of days ago.
He was so cute!
So we went to Porter's to buy a box to bury him in. It was black and white, so we colored some of the flowers, laid him in it on top of the old sweater he liked to hide in, and buried it in the yard, next to the baby bird.
We loved our little Pig-Pig and we will miss him.
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In other less sad news, we bought a piano with our tax credit money. I have enjoyed playing it and being able to practice things here at home. It's been a long time since I could practice/play the piano in my own home.
For the last few months, we had been keeping an eye on this piano at a local piano store. We finally decided to just go for it.
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Also our garden is finally producing some vegetables. We planted carrots and cucumbers (for Pig-Pig), zucchinis, pumpkins, and corn. The pumpkin vines are spreading out nicely and we're glad we followed the directions to plant them far away from other things. The cucumbers struggled and out of 5 mounds, we got two plants that are only now starting to come back. The neighbor said the other neighbor's cats will eat them and that's probably what happened. But the zucchinis are doing really well, and we have tons of little zucchinis. The things is - I don't particularly like zucchini. I planted some so I could make zucchini bread, because I like zucchini
bread. But it is becoming obvious that we are going to have a lot more than I'm going to know what to do with. And feeding them to Pig-Pig is no longer an option, so - does anyone want some zucchinis in a couple of weeks?
I don't know if I'm really a gardening person, but it is nice to finally have something to show for it.
Anyways, I guess that's all for now. I should be out painting the house, but I threw away my paintbrush (it was from the dollar store - and it worked just fine!) because it was getting crusty. But without the Subaru, I can't just go over to the dollar store and get a new one. Until next time, dear blog readers ...
