End of the season?

 To which season am I referring?  Meteorlogical or tennis?

Well, we have finished the season of summer and tennis season will be over soon, so in another couple of weeks everything will change for us again.  We are having cool nights but are again in a run of hot summer temperature days... I'm running the A/C at least in the late afternoons/evenings or it is too hot when we go to bed.

Hubby is in a major grouse.  Things are not going well for his team and this past weekend they went to a Meet that was an over-night event which did not go well. Transportation was insufficient, the hotel was not good, food was hit-and-miss (and that is never a good thing), his team didn't win anything, and the bus broke down on the way home. He has been in a foul mood ever since.

Visiting Coach Grandpa at a Meet

My recent concern has been with the dogs.  El has had an increasingly serious cloudy eye and it is affecting his vision to the point that his behaviour is changing... He is reluctant to go up or down the steps from the deck to the lawn.  So I took him to the Vet.  Turns out it is not cataracts but a build-up of water between layers of eye tissue.  It can be treated with an OTC eye drop which is sometimes successful but other times, not.  We are giving it a try but it's tricky... drops are to be administered as often as every 2 hours as much as possible.  The first day, that was fine (El is very easy to work with), but subsequent days it is getting harder and harder to get him to cooperate.  And to top it off, today we went to another Vet to have his and Archie's teeth cleaned.  For non-emergency putting-them-under things, I take them to my former Vet in Yankton whom I trust with anesthesia, and since this is about the only thing she does with them, they know going in that its not a simple check-up and start dragging their feet.  Dragging doesn't work though,  she's a pro and knows just how to manage them.  We were in and out in record time - no drop off and leave your dog all day, just wait and watch if I want to!  We also had a good chat.  Great Vet and good friend.

Archie is still glaring at me... If looks could kill....
El is showing off his shiny choppers. 

On the gardening front, I got busy one day and started to process all those pumpkins!  I just baked three of them but I got six, 2-Cup bags of tasty pumpkin!  And more are in storage, as well as 18 Butternut squash.  Not a bad haul!

Into the oven

Done and taking out the meat.

Mashing and measuring into the freezer bags.

Ready for the freezer!  And this is all there is room for!

On the grandchild front, this is what most afternoons look like.  Sitting at the island, with my tablet plugged in to play Minecraft.  

On good days it's only for a while, but when granny has a headache, the little beggar gets almost the whole time with the digital babysitter....  Granny fail....  But that's just an occasional bad day.  Most days he gets some screen time and then something better - reading or playing a game or helping me cook...  Today it was errands and visiting Grandpa at the tennis courts, then some soccer play outside.  It was a Granny win day today.