The Day After

I am very proud that our country has elected Barack Obama, and his beautiful family. Even many moderate conservative Republicans voted for him, because the situation in the U.S. right now is so dire on so many fronts and it's time for someone else to get a chance to govern. McCain's concession speech was extremely dignified and gracious. I wonder if there wasn't a part of him that was almost glad that Obama won. I cannot imagine at age 72 running this kind of campaign, and then being faced with the huge number of challenges ahead should he win. And I appreciated Obama, in his acceptance speech, acknowledging that problems are not going to be quickly fixed in one year, or necessarily in one term. And that he told his kids they could now have the puppy they wanted, they had earned it! Now I can't wait to see who the first dog will be! The Jon Stewart show tonight did a funny bit about the campaign for the first pooch, with John Oliver at a shelter showing off a pomeranian and a Chihuahua puppy as the two contenders, then a cat whom he introduced as the maverick. Cute.

Today I went to a new knee surgeon, and liked him, and will have him do the knee replacement in March, the first opening he has anyway. I even let him shoot up my knees with cortisone, and it didn't hurt as much as when I had my first shot by another doctor. And his staff apologized for the 45 minute wait I had (they had an emergency), and offered me coffee! When I asked for a big glass of water, they brought me two smaller glasses. Very thoughtful.

Tomorrow I go talk with Jale human resources about my retirement package, then yoga, then M & S for dinner. Did more leaf raking today, cleaning up the yard. Still a couple of flowers in bloom in the garden, a deep red snap dragon and some of the fall mums. Was in the 60s today and yesterday. Got yet another walking cane off Freecycle, so now I have three, which makes me feel more secure. Will put my phone number on all of them. My lost one had my email address on it, but no one has contacted me. Odd. Maybe they needed it.

Was worried about the new puppy across the street, where RJ used to live. Rosie, the new airedale, had been left in the garage alone, like RJ, and she was wailing and crying. No one was home, so Bindi and I went over there to see if we could comfort her, she's only 4 months old, but the doors to the garage were locked. I called one of her owners later to report the crying. I offered to go over during the day if I hear her crying again, and take her for a walk or something. She said she would ask her husband. How could she not immediately take me up on the offer? Animal control is right down the street, and I don't want to report them, but it was breaking my heart. Even Bindi knew something was wrong, cause we could hear it clear across the street. Poor Rosie.