Change is the only thing that stays the same in life

We braved the thrift store to get Badger a large lizard Beanie Baby.
Neither of us have seen any that size before.
As far as we could tell, the scratching posts had been sold.
I’m not kidding, you could barely move in that store.
It was just wall-to-wall people.

They have a card-only register in one room, a cash or card register in another room, and a middle room between them.
The lines were so long they stretched through the middle room until the two ends bumped right into each other.
That made it difficult for customers who were still trying to shop to get around.

We were home before 1 pm today, barely.
With just the three of us here now, we could start buying groceries every two weeks.
However, Cowboy refuses to change his routine.
Autism is genetic, Cowboy has a lot of traits that remind me of autism, and it seems like every other cousin on his side is autistic.
I'll lay claim to ADHD.
That seems to run on my side strongly.
But like Badger, Cowboy has a very rigid set of routines.

Cowboy and I unloaded the groceries while Badger quickly put dinner in the oven.
Then she put up the groceries while Cowboy went out to take care of his chickens.
He's increased the flock.
The plant gets truckloads of dead chickens, I assume from slaughterhouses, and they get processed down into meal for pet food.
Sometimes, though, a live one slips through and ends up mixed in with the dead birds.
The last two nights, Cowboy has brought home a cage of chickens.

Dinner was warm by the time Cowboy came back inside.
Badger and I ate early, but he took his nap and had dinner at his regular time.

Badger and I watched our new series for a while.
We had to wait until Cowboy went to work, and the school traffic cleared out before we could go walking.

We walked down toward the creek church, and just before it is an abandoned house.
We call it the squirrel house because it’s absolutely full of them.
The whole lot, and probably the house too, is covered in honeysuckle.
It smells just heavenly.
I’ll admit sometimes I’ll point out a bird, cow, or squirrel to Badger just because she takes so long taking pictures, and I can stand there and enjoy the smell of the honeysuckle.

It was a good day for picture taking.
We saw two hawks, which is unusual, but we also saw either a crow or a raven.
I used that Google Lens thing, and it says a raven.
We’ve not seen those before, although without Badger's special lens it was mostly a black speck in the sky.
The hawks at least swooped down just enough we could actually see them.

We ran into trouble walking home.
There’s a house by the cemetery that has tons of dogs. 
Their Pitbull has chased us up the road growling and snapping before.
When we got to the cinder block house, Badger grabbed my arm to stop me.
The owner of those dogs was in the road chasing two loose dogs, trying to catch them, and that blocked us from going home.
There wasn’t any safe way to get past them.
So we went up through the Presbyterian Church’s Prayer Garden, edged between their wall and the cinder block house’s yard, and hightailed it across the yard where they tore the house down.
Then we went up Pappaw’s hill, which we avoid at all costs because Cowboy’s nephew sometimes has loose dogs, and there’s a house with a snarling dog on a chain.
He’s broken off his chain before and chased us up that hill.
Luckily no trouble today.

We came home, cooled off, had supper, and settled down to watch TV the rest of the evening.

Heron and Ladybird got home at 8 pm.
He took Lady to the veterinarian and then went to Rural King, I think he said.
Lady got all her shots, which is good as she likes to tree raccoons.
Heron bought fencing for his girlfriend; they’re going to start raising goats.
It’s entirely possible at some point my Heron is going to leave my backyard to move in with the girlfriend full-time.
He quickly planted my Mother’s Day flower Peacock got me so it wouldn’t die.
He came inside, took a shower, and got caught up in our apocalypse TV series.

Cowboy called on his break as he always does.
The best I could understand over the squawking radio was that a bunch of employees made several giant messes over the weekend, or maybe yesterday.
He has to carry a radio, and it’s so loud they’re always yelling over it.
So on Monday Cowboy will start going to work at 4:30 pm and get off at 3 am, which puts him getting home at 4 am.
That means he’ll eat at 4:15 pm, which totally messes up mine and Badger’s routine.
It also really messes up doctor appointments; it’s going to be hard for him to make a 10 am appointment on four hours of sleep.
Right now, that’s how I have everything scheduled, and I’ll be darned if I change them.
It’s too hard to reschedule.
I don’t know the logic behind changing his schedule, unless they think he can control the younger employees, or maybe they think he’ll clean up their messes.

It could be worse.
He could go on day shift; doctors don’t stay open late around here.
Or he could go back on that 12-hour shift with so many days on and so many off.
That was confusing.
Or he could be on a true 3rd shift.
When he worked that, it was brutal.
Right now he’s kind of a hybrid, not really 2nd but not totally 3rd shift.

As Badger says, we’ll get used to this shift, and then they’ll change their minds again, and who knows what he’ll be working.

This is the time when it would help if I could drive, but my stupid anxiety means I just can’t.
Living closer to stores and doctors would also be helpful.

We finished watching our show for the night.
There aren’t many episodes left now, but we decided to save the rest for tomorrow.

Heron and the dog have gone down to the RV, Badger’s already gone to bed, and I need to do the same.

If she doesn’t change her mind by morning, Badger and I are planning to get up early and go bird stalking again.
I don’t know if we’ll head down toward the creek church that early or not.
Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.

I think I’ve rambled enough for one night, so I’m heading to bed.