The wood stove is cold today because we have been given the gift of a short warm-up. Today it is going to be up to 55 degrees. We have been enjoying sun and warmth for the most part, but today it will be cloudy with a chance of rain.

Why did I bring you our local weather report? I have no idea. It’s just something I seem to do on our Saturday chats.

Can I make you some tea or coffee? Maybe some juice or water?

I’m drinking my peppermint tea today and loaded it up with local honey. For some reason, I’m often stingy on the honey. I don’t know if that is because I have a scarcity mindset at times, or what, but this morning I loaded that honey up. I have a huge, two-pound jar of it so it will last me a while.

I might as well get the full effect of that lovely sweet flavor.

Last night at 10 at night it was 44 degrees which was so welcome when most nights it is 32 or below at 10 p.m. at night. It was strange not to have the fire roaring in the woodstove or be huddled under blankets. It almost makes me think we might have the early spring that little rodent said we’d have after all. Of course, the temperature is supposed to plummet again on Monday.

Despite it not being super cold even this morning, I am sitting in bed under two fluffy blankets as I write this and I have disturbed our cat Scout who was napping in the middle of the bed before I set up here. I’d feel bad but this cat sleeps undisturbed quite a bit so I’m sure she will simply find another place to lay and fall back asleep again. She and her nemesis, our other cat, Pixel, have been outside almost all day for the last few days to soak up the warmth.

I was thinking the other day how sweet it is when Scout sees me after I haven’t seen her for much of the day and lets out a little excited trill of a meow and then runs toward me. Usually, she’ll do this if she is in the yard and I open the back door to check on her but the other day she even did it when I was in the kitchen and she came down the stairs in a sleepy fog after one of her morning naps.

“There you are!” I said to her and her eyes widened and she let out her trill and then came trotting toward me. It was the cutest thing. I’ve never had a cat who seemed excited to see me. My cats over the years have been fine with being petted and have even sauntered over and rubbed around my legs for attention, but they never ran toward me like they just loved me like Scout does. It’s a nice feeling and I remind myself of her love for me when she wakes me up at 5 a.m. by laying on my chest and rubbing her cheek against mine for attention. I’d prefer she want that attention not when I am asleep and not when I am in the middle of writing.

Both cats have no respect for my writing time and often choose that time to want to lay on my chest. I do appreciate their affection for me, however. They do not often lie on anyone else in the family other than The Boy. Little Miss moves around too much and The Husband only tolerates the cats because he has shut his heart off to all other cats since he lost his cat Smokey several years ago after he (we) had her for 17 years.

While some weeks I do very little other than running a few errands and homeschooling, this week I was somewhat busy as I spent one day in the emergency room with my dad and the next day in the office of an orthopedic surgeon after he injured his foot last week.

My dad is in a boxing class for physical therapy for Parkinsons. It is an amazing class where they work on cognitive skills, reflexes, and strengthening the things that Parkinson’s tries to steal from its victims. (Here is a site to learn more about it if you know anyone who deals with Parkinson’s. Maybe a similar program is available near them. Dad says that most doctors don’t even suggest physical therapy. He says when they tell a patient they have Parkinson’s they say two things, “Do you want meds?” and “See you in six months.”).

On Thursday morning he attended that class and was kicking a kicking bag but didn’t have any pain. Later that night he was stomping on cans to help them fit inside a container for recycling and it was after that that the pain started but he didn’t think much of it.

By Friday he really couldn’t walk well. By Saturday my ever-busy, always on-the-move Dad was sitting in his recliner with his foot iced, reading my book Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage (currently on sale at . . . Just kidding. I shall not slip into a sales pitch).

The discomfort continued through Sunday and by Monday I was on the phone with Dad telling me he thought he should probably go to the emergency room and at least have it x-rayed in case he broke something.

Luckily, he did not break anything.

What he had done was severely bruised the bottom of his foot and caused a condition called plantar fasciitis. It is essentially blood and bruising under the foot muscle. This was confirmed in the ER and then again at an appointment the next day by his orthopedic surgeon, who did his knee surgery several years ago.

I was grateful Dad let me drive him to his appointments because normally my dad pushes through the pain and does things on his own despite it. This time, though, he was concerned about causing more damage to his foot and I was called into action.

At the hospital, while waiting for his x-rays (which they now wheel right into the patient instead of making the patient go to it), there was a man across the hall who had fallen off a ladder and complained that the only reason he was there was that his wife and daughter had made him go to the ER. The man couldn’t even sit on the bed he was in so much pain. It sort of made me giggle because he was fitting the stereotypical opinion that men won’t go to a doctor unless they are dragged there while my dad had decided to go on his own because he was afraid he was going to do more damage.

The ER doctor had suggested still keeping the appointment with the orthopedic doctor, who used to be a surgeon, but now only sees patients for consultations and refers them for surgery or not.

The orthopedic surgeon is a very interesting man and seems to know as much about other medical topics as he does orthopedics. He’s very fascinated with all aspects of medicine and reminded my dad and I to take vitamin C and honey throughout cold and flu season before we left. He has worked in our area for maybe 40 years and used to provide orthopedic services to local athletes as well as support on the sidelines at sports for local school districts.

Dad’s foot woes were not over with the visit with him, however. On Wednesday he noticed blood under the skin on one toe on the injured foot. It was also red. So he called a podiatrist because the orthopedic surgeon was now on vacation and drove himself to that appointment and found out he had an infection in a toe on that foot – possibly unrelated to the injury.

It’s hard for Dad not to be going places and getting things done but he has been resting and taking care of the foot with Epsom salt soaks and his medicine.

Hopefully, he will be up and around later this week.

As for me, I am hoping for a week with a little less running around. Last week I left the house every day except Friday. I know. I know. I have such a tough life. (insert eye roll here). I didn’t end up getting our groceries yesterday like I usually do because Little Miss and The Boy both had friends over and I met the mom of Little Miss’s friend halfway from her house and picked The Boy’s friend up on the way back.

In the afternoon I took all four of them to the tiny playground in our town. The boys ate a couple of subs from the local Subway (yes, this town is tiny but it actually has a Subway in the gas station. And, of course, there is a Dollar General, though it is located about a mile outside town.), chatted, and waited for the little girls to exhaust themselves on the teetertotter and playground equipment.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching Psych and James May’s show on Amazon.

Today I hope to write a couple other blog posts, work on my novel, and read. Tomorrow we will go visit my parents for lunch.

So that is my week in review –  how about yours?

Do anything exciting or relaxing? Go anywhere interesting? Even if nothing you did was interesting, I’d love to hear about your week in the comments.

(P.S. Scout curled right back up at my feet in a little ball and went back to sleep. Apparently, I didn’t disturb her too much after all.)