October 22 through 28

[chochiyo_sama]

Friday, October 22

I made out a grocery list and called in the order this morning.  Usually I do that on Wednesday or Thursday, but I was not on top of it this week.  It was not a very big list this week as I didn’t need much.  I just increased my stockpile a bit.  Ross delivered it earlier than expected, so that was a good surprise.  I got all the refrigerated stuff put away then wiped down the canned goods and got them stowed away too.  I dried the last load of laundry and got that stuff put away too.

It was a lovely fall day.  It is getting cooler now, but the sun is still bright and cheerful.  Lily went up to Hailey’s to take care of little Cora.  She has a lot of fun with her little great-granddaughter.

 

Saturday, October 23

I spent a quiet day watching TV, poking around on the internet, and cuddling Peaches and Ollie whenever they came to me for some loving.  Little Oliver is a total snuggle bug.  He is very easy to love.

Kim came down to spend the day with Mom and brought a French Silk pie from Perkins for Erik, since Jeff ruined his birthday by screaming at him for dropping his phone and breaking it.  His own phone, not Jeff’s.  Jeff is such an asshole.  Erik said that he hates his birthday and Christmas because his dad made every single one of them horrible.  Jeff could not stand to see his wife and kids having a good time.  So he made damn sure they NEVER got the chance to enjoy themselves.  I wish he had sunk up to his eyebrows that time he sank into the mud in the swamp.  If his phone had been dead, it is likely they never would have found his body.  He’d have toppled over and sunk into the mud.  Mysterious disappearance.  I would have shipped the idea that he was abducted by aliens.  It would have been a suitable end to his miserable existence.

I hope Erik enjoyed his French Silk pie.  It is his favorite.

Cora is doing good.  Her Covid has just about run its course.  She seems to have no lasting ill effects.

We had another lovely fall day today.  It is turning out to be a long, lingering fall.  Lots of sunshine, even with cooler temperatures.

My refinance is just a matter of time now.  I will soon be able to pay off the siding and the deck and my house payment will still drop to below what I am paying now.  I look forward to that.

 

Sunday, October 24

This morning, I got up early enough to refill my pill caddy and order a refill of my diltiazem prescription.  Hopefully they will get it in the mail sooner this time.  Last time they dragged their feet for over a week.  I almost ran short and had to call in about it again.  So much incompetence in the world.

DeAnn and I had another good Zoom meeting.  We didn’t discuss the book much again—but the stuff we discussed did dovetail into the general topics of the chapter nicely.  In so many ways, our meetings are like really effective therapy sessions.  They are inspirational for both of us, and they have helped me to move forward on a lot of things that I have been dragging my feet on. 

We had a little rain today—not a lot.  Just enough to settle the dust.  I folded the last load—white clothes, mostly socks and underpants—and dragged my basket of clean laundry into the bedroom to put away. Then I set up the new litterbox in the laundry room.  Leah (aka LeeLee) has been peeing in my laundry baskets and on random towels and things in the laundry room, and I am hoping that she will use a litterbox if I put it in there for her. She is so filled with anxiety that she will not stop hiding until it is dark.  Then she slips through the house like a shadow to eat and visit the litterboxes in the breezeway. 

I have only caught brief glimpses of her as she scoots through the house.  I wonder how long it will take her to feel at home here.  Oliver already feels completely at home.  He thinks he owns the entire house, all its contents, and me.  I already love that little shit so much!  Peaches does not have similar warm feelings for him.  But they have co-existed without bloodshed so far and have even eaten out of the same dish.  I hope they will eventually be friends.

 

Monday, October 25

My days are filled with kitty snuggles these days.  Oliver loves to snuggle and will lay across my chest with his head nestled in my neck for hours at a time if I let him.  We have had a few nice naps in the afternoon with the sun shining in on us.  Peaches sneaks in a few snuggle times too, but she waits till Oliver has gone away.  He has tried a couple of times to have a three-way snuggle with us, but Peaches finds that reprehensible!  I hope one day she will open her heart up to him.  I think they’d both love it.

It was a pretty quiet day again.  I sorted and started this week’s laundry, cleaned the litterboxes which get full really fast now with three cats again, cleaned a bunch of old food out of the fridge, and did a bunch of dishes.  I just haven’t felt like cooking lately.  I microwaved a Schwan’s breakfast croissant and cut up a very delicious, perfectly ripe pear for supper.  I need to start eating better.  Lots of days, I just don’t eat much.  You’d think I’d wither away into a skeleton, but nope.  My ass stays as wide as ever.

It was another lovely fall day.  I dread winter, but I do love fall.  It is my favorite season.  I have been putting stale sunflower seeds (no salt—I like to put them on my lettuce salads, and I am not a big salt fan) and in-the-shell peanuts on the railing of the deck for the squirrels.  Today, a big, beautiful blue jay was on the railing eating them.  The cats and I enjoyed watching him eat.

 

Tuesday, October 26

I was awakened early this morning by a phone call from my mother.  She sounded horrible.  She told me she felt terrible.  She had gone into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee and passed out.  She fell onto the floor and laid there for what she figured was half an hour before she was able to crawl into the living room and up into her chair.  She said Mojo, her cat, kept nuzzling her face and twining himself around her neck as he was so concerned about her laying on the floor.  He just could not figure it out.

I told her that I needed a few minutes to get dressed but that we would probably have to take her to the ER.  She said she didn’t think she could get through the kitchen into the garage.  I told her that we would have to call an ambulance, then.  She did not want to call an ambulance, so I told her I would call the nurse line and see what they said.  I did that right away, but I was on hold for at least half an hour.  I finally hung up and decided I would take a quick shower before getting dressed as I had not showered in a few days and I literally stank.  I showered, brushed my teeth and got dressed as fast as I could.  While getting dressed, I called again and got through this time.  They agreed that she needed to come into the ER since she was 87 and had lost consciousness. After I talked to them, I called my brother at work and left a message on his voice mail to the effect that we had trouble—Mom had passed out and I was on my way to her house to take her to the ER if I could get her into my car, otherwise I would have to call the ambulance.  Before I could get my stuff together, Jack called me back. He was already on his way back to Ellendale and told me that he was sure she had Covid.  He had tried to get her to go to the doctor a few days ago as he suspected it was Covid, but she dragged her feet and said she’d wait a few days and see if she got better. 

He strongly advised me to stay away from her since I have at least four co-morbitities myself and this strain is supposedly very contagious.  I called Tammy and told her what was going on, and she got a bad feeling about it and immediately packed a bag and headed straight here.  It takes her a good two hours to get to Ellendale, so Jack was already at the ER with her. Generally, she goes to Albert Lea to do her doctoring, but today, he took her to Owatonna since they still have a fully functional hospital while Albert Lea’s hospital has been gutted by “mother Mayo.”  They would send her to Austin, and Mom despises Austin. 

They did a bunch of tests and gave her a C-T scan to make sure she didn’t have any blood clots as they found something in her blood that is associated with the formation of blood clots.  I have no idea what that might be.  They doubted she had covid, but they gave her a covid test anyhow.  They let Jack into the waiting area at the hospital but they did not let him go back with her since there was a possibility of covid.  They didn’t do much for her at the hospital, sending her home after a few hours—but she later got the notification that she DID have covid. 

Tammy spent the day cleaning at Mom’s house.  Her macular degeneration makes it hard for her to see details, so what she thinks is spotless is actually pretty nasty.  Tammy ran into Owatonna to get some things, including some extra clothes as she only packed enough for a couple of days.  She plans to stay through the whole week to help Mom as she is very weak and kind of fuzzy-brained.  When she fell, she hurt her leg so badly that she is having serious trouble walking.  Tammy came over to my house to borrow my walker since I do not use it in my house—only when I go out somewhere—and I very rarely go anywhere. 

The walker made it possible for Mom to get to the bathroom and to her bedroom with assistance from Tammy.  Mojo immediately parked himself on her chest and did his best to comfort and heal her with his snuggles and purrs.

I kept the whole family updated through phone calls and texts and informed Patrick, her old minister, and the new minister whom I do not know at all.  He said he would see about getting people to bring her over some meals. 

I am certain that she caught this shit at her church because it is full of anti-vaxxers, mask refusers, trump loving morons, and attenders of super spreader events where masks are eschewed.  Also, those plague rat kids of our trump-loving pandemic deniers always flock to her every Sunday and want to hug her,and SHE LETS THEM.  Also, she refused to wear a mask at church because “nobody else does.” 

This is really frustrating as Mom has had both vaccinations as well as the booster.  And she still got this shit because of the people who refuse to accept reality.  And now she will expose all of us to it too.  Only God knows how long this crap will lay her low.  She is 87 years old.  Even though the ER people said it was a “mild” case, it has put her on her ass.  It could easily kill her if it turns to pneumonia, and she has had a very bad cough for over a week already—and I was exposed to that as she was coughing her brains out when I took her to Walmart on Thursday.

 In between all the Covid issues, I got a phone call from my mortgage company.  My refinance has gone through.  A pair of people including a notary will be coming to my house on November 2^nd to sign the papers and I assume give me the money.  I hope they will be able to directly deposit it into my house or write a check out directly to Arlen Brekke Construction for what I owe him.  I am so glad that I will finally be able to pay off that debt and be done with it.

Also, my prescription arrived today—they must have been on top of things this week.  Normally it takes at least three days for it to come.  So, yay.

It was a very stressful day.  I’m pretty worried about my mother and her ability to get through this Covid crap.  I hope she has at least learned to keep her freaking mask on at church and to avoid letting all those little plague rats slobber all over her.

 

Wednesday, October 27

Well, the good news is that Tammy is planning to stay with Mom until Friday night when Kim will come down and stay with her over the weekend.  Then Tammy will return on Sunday if Mom still needs her, which I assume she will.  I doubt she will bounce back from this shit quickly.  When she fell, she hurt her leg, knee and foot.  Tammy is worried about how hot it is to the touch.  She fears there might be blood clots, so she is going to make an appointment to take her to the clinic and make sure there is nothing seriously wrong with it.  The appointment will be for tomorrow, most likely.

Lily called and told me her doctor is worried about her blood pressure and wants her to buy a blood pressure cuff and take her blood pressure at home every day.  She called me from Walmart, all upset because they did not carry the blood pressure cuff the doctor recommended and she wanted me to see if I could order one on line.  The one on Amazon was nearly double the price it would have been at Walmart.  I told her to ask them if they could order one for her to pick up at the store, but they said they don’t do that.  So I looked at Walmart’s online store.  Nope.  None in stock.  So, I went to Target.com.  They had it for the price the doctor had quoted her--$32.98.  I told her she could check the Target store in Owatonna, but she was tired and stressed out and JUST COULD NOT do it, so I ordered it for her on line.  The shopping cart info said it would be here on Friday, which I found hard to believe.  We will see, I guess.  She also asked me to order her some frozen chicken breasts and Toffee ice cream bars from Schwan’s, so I ordered those for her too. 

She could easily order stuff for herself, but she just doesn’t have the self-confidence or skill with a computer. Likewise, one of her kids could do this for her and have it shipped right to her house, but of course, they are always so impatient with and critical of her, so she comes to me.  I don’t mind helping her, but I get very annoyed that her kids should be the ones helping her but they do not.

I love my little Oliver so much.  He is busy all day long, getting into things he should leave alone, knocking stuff off shelves, licking my butter, and cuddling with me so sweetly that I just want to cover his whole body with kisses.  He is so cute.  I bet the little fart has gained 3-4 pounds since he came to live with me.  He is eating very well—he gets soft food twice a day—first thing in the morning and right before I go to bed at night.  Anything that Peaches doesn’t eat, he cleans up too.  LOL.  He is a caution.

Comments

[the_godiva]

I have a wonderful recipe for French Silk Pie. Haven't made it in years.

How much longer until you and DeAnn finish your book? Will you continue on after that. Your weekly Zoom discussions seem to be good for both of you.

This morning when Freyja jumped on the bed for her morning snuggle Diana also leaned over for some snuggles and I was petting the both of them. I think Freyja would like to groom Diana or snuggle with her but Diana still isn't OK with it. She'll tolerate her but there is still some jealousy over my attentions between the both of them. When I'm petting one of them outside the other wants to squeeze in and take over. But this morning they seemed to be fine with each other. It was almost a three way, but more like I was split between them. Time will tell, I guess.

That blood clot thing was probably related to the Covid positive thing since clots are part of Covid.

They won't actually give you money. I think they just deposit it directly in your account. At least that's what happened when I refinanced.

I wonder how his former owner or any of the family could just throw Oliver in the barn, he is such an affectionate fellow. I hope Leia comes around soon. It sounds like she is starting to lose a little of her fear if she is venturing out at night and has been watching you cuddle Oliver. Those two lived together for a while and I'm sure she is watching him interact with you. And if Peaches isn't having a drag out fight with Oliver (sharing a food dish? Really?) then as long as Leia respects Peaches, which I'm sure she does, no problems from Peaches. Leia will just decide one day that I guess this is home and it will be like flipping a switch. Suddenly she will just be there. Either that or she won't get any better than she is. Could be that has been her life long behavior. But Oliver more than makes up for any shortcomings affection-wise from either of the girls. You do always seem to attract the Mama's boys.

[cmcmck]

I suppose you can be grateful that she at least got the jabs rather than saying 'no one else was'.

And these people call themselves 'Christians'?

Hope everything turns our okay!