Monday, August 20, 2018

I'm Back & Will Be Catching Up for a LONG Time!

I didn't fall off the face of the Earth, really.  I am back and I want to thank everyone for all the notes in the meantime.  Life has gotten in the way - yet again!  It will take me a VERY long time to get back into the swing of things are caught up so for the foreseeable future I'm sure to have a lot of mishmashy type posts.  Hope you don't mind!
One of the main reasons I have been avoiding a blog post is because we lost our dear Paco to his immune issues back in Early May.  He was just shy of his 7th birthday.  It all happened so fast and I'm not sure if I can fully explain everything that happened within the 12 hours of it actually happening.  Plus it was very graphic when it did happen because he was dealing with clotting issues.  Not only was he dealing with his ITP but he also had IHMA.  Up to this point he had dealt with 1 immune disease but that dreadful night he developed a 2nd one.  In addition, he was developing Cushing's again.  Because he was on a high dosage of long-term steroids he was losing muscle mass, too.  Since he was diagnosed at about 2 and a half we knew something like clotting could be in his future but NOTHING prepared us for what actually took place.

Eventho, I haven't been able to take down his pen area YET I was able to 'keep busy' and that seemed to help a little bit.  I know it sounds weird but I have to keep busy to deal with certain things.  It's not that I'm running away from my problems - it just helps me to focus on multiple things to help me heal in the meantime.   

I'm not sure if I blogged about this before my hiatus or not but back in March, I traveled to the Capitol Building.  It was my first time there.  It was a rainy day but I'm glad that I was part of it.  It was a Rally for Fair Districts and to stop Gerrymandering which is a HUGE problem in our state.  Over the past several months it's been a whirlwind and eventho we didn't get the results we had hoped we are still fighting for VOTING RIGHTS!


The county I live in doesn't have a large Refugee population but we neighbor a city that does.  Back in January and February our League of Women Voters invited the director of the Multicultural Resources Center to do a Refugee 101.  We wanted to do this because there is a lot of misinformation and incorrect assumption about how Refugees come to America and integrate into life in a new country.  The feedback was positive and a group of citizens decided to start hikes for Refugees locally since we are smack dab in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest and have other natural beauties in our area.  So...the middle of May we hosted our first of 2 hikes.  The first one was for Refugee Kids.  Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, Eritrea (a country bordering Somalia), and Nepal were the countries they fleed from.

A little over a month later we hosted another hike.  This time for a group of Senior Citizen Refugees.  Some of the participants were part of a sign language group, too.  Within this group were mostly people from Bhutan and Pakistan.


In the beginning of the Summer another outing we had was to Erie, PA, where we went to a Food Truck Festival in hopes to have one locally some day.  I was thrilled that there were vegan options!


Another thing that has been on my mind is a local tragedy.  K9 Choper - our local K9 Officer - passed away from his injuries during a training day.

During the end of June I was a committee member for the annual car and craft show at our fairgrounds and I was pleased to see more vendors that offered vegan friendly products.  One of them being these Vegan Lip Balms.

Of course we have been busy with work, too, an have had many live remotes lately including a few at local businesses and during fair week.  More on fair week in a future post but here is a neat snapshot from Employee Appreciation Day at a local business.

Another thing that has been keeping us busy has been trading in our vehicles on new ones!  Here is the new Fiat I traded my old one in for.  I LOVE it!

A few months ago I became a Zonta Member, too!  It's been fun so far and I'm looking forward to getting involved with more of the service and advocacy end of things.  Each summer they have a Summer Surprise and members don't know what it is until they get there.  This year we went to the Lucy-Desi Museum.  We had dinner in The Tropicana that they set up to look like the real TV set.  There were also recreations of the sets from I LOVE LUCY, too!  Since I'm in radio I found this tidbit extra interesting!
In other news...our local mall is going thru a major redesign and revamp.  They are turning it from a shopping mall to a strip/plaza type thing.  A co-worker has gotten me into indoor plants more the last year or more and she was upset when I told her that the indoor plants at the mall were going to be trashed.  We asked the project manager if we could take some and he said YES so we are trying to save some of them.  More on that in upcoming posts, too!

And before blogger gives up on me I think I will end this post right here.  But I will be regularly blogging again so please check back.  I really didn't scratch the surface of the stuff I have to share with you and I know I will be adding more to the list very soon!  Thanks again for staying with me the last couple months!  I appreciate you all!

15 comments:

  1. Hi! Glad you're back! Been checking but no updates. That new Fiat of your looks good! RIP, Paco, so sad to hear that he has passed on. I did send you some coins a month or so back - if you have not got them by now, it probably has gone astray.

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    1. Thanks for the welcome back! And THANKS for the coins! I did get them! I forgot to send you a note! So sorry! We sure are missing Paco - that is for sure! LOVING my new Fiat more and more each day!

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    2. You're most welcome. Sure am glad that they got to you safely.

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  2. I am so sorry about Paco. It is just so heartbreaking to have to say goodbye, and nothing really prepares you for the end. *lots of hugs*
    I am glad to see you back with blogging, sounds like you have had many things going on. <3

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    1. Thanks so much! It's been pretty hard...eventho I have had things to keep me busy! I still haven't taken down his pen area.

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  3. I'm so sorry about sweet Paco. He went through so much in his short little life. I'm glad you were there for him!
    What kind of training did they do that made that poor beautiful dog die?? That's terrible.

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts on Paco! From what I understand K9 Choper's injuries were from a fall. It was incredibly sad for our small community and his partner. The funeral and services were very emotional.

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  4. I'm so so sorry about Paco. I know it's so hard and I'm sending so much love your way. Also so sad to hear about K9 Choper! What a beautiful animal and to dedicate his life to serving the community... Such a loss.

    Congrats on the car and thanks for sharing all of the vegan finds! Glad to see you back!

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    1. Thanks so much for the kind words and welcome back! It feels good to be back!

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  5. I'm glad you're back, but I'm so sorry to hear about Paco; sending lots of hugs <3

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  6. Really sorry to hear about Paco. Good to see you blogging again. Are you going to do Vegan Mofo?

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    1. Thanks for the welcome back! And for the reminder on Vegan MoFo! I signed up yesterday!

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  7. I am so sorry about Paco! So sad, he was such a sweet guy. Love the Fiat, perfect color. Our mall is going through updates here too focusing on more entertainment places instead of shopping. So glad you're back!

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    1. Thanks for the thoughts on Paco! We miss him! I'm loving the Fiat more and more each day! I think I will be posting more about the mall morphing! Stay tuned!

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