Yanno...

I have an alarm clock. It works. It is set. However, this morning I was rudely woken up at 6:45 AM by a BRAYING Beagle. Braying! Seems the ex let Cooper out before he left for work & when the poor kid across the street was standing out by the road for his school bus, Cooper started braying at him non-stop. LOUDLY.

Braying Beagle [TM] aside, I did wake up to a few other things that were much nicer, such as...

• The smell of tomato sauce. With approximately 413 tomatoes in my kitchen & more due soon, I had to start doing something more creative with them. My very first pot is cooking now in the crock pot. While I've made sauce from canned tomatoes before, I have not made truly "from scratch" sauce before. Wish me luck!
• Having the ex put an extra quilt on me before he left & tucking me in to boot.
• Another stellar morning that is crisp & cool.

Yesterday's visit with Dr. Truong went well. She says I am doing so well that she decided not give me the cortisone injection (WHEW) she had planned on. Instead she will "save" the injection for the cooler weather; she feels I may have some issues once the cold sets in. She said the muscles in my lower back were very tight & cramped; the trigger point injections did their magic. The next step is that I see a chiropractor she works with to get my back aligned.

To combat the issues that I am having with the Voltaren, she suggested that I take a Xantac with it to see if that helps. The ex takes Xantac on a regular basis so we already have it in the house.

In other news, I learned yesterday that the property next to us is going to be sold on the courthouse steps next week. Now we are scrambling to see what it would take to make such a purchase. 10% percent of winning bid is required.