A May 30 MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Painty I had neighbors with 3 barky dogs. We were on a “hi, how ya doing “ basis. After a weekend of the very large dog barking while they were gone all day, I asked her if very large dog was ok since she barked all day. Oh, she’s fine, we crated her and she’s a pain in the a$$. I told her “I don’t think you realize how much your dogs bark when you are gone.” Her reply oh, they are just a pain in the a$$.” A few months later she left for a 4 day weekend and the dogs barked for 4 days straight. Someone came over twice a day to take them out. I was mental. Our condo rules state only 2 dogs, and since she felt the dogs were PITAs, I called the management company and she had to get rid of one of the dogs. Of course she never spoke to me again and I didn’t care.

Point being, talk to neighbors. I hate notes. Knock on their door and ask about the health of the dog.

82

(sigh) I keep trying to go to bed now that DH is up to wrangle cats. Buddy isn’t having it. Close bedroom door, mournful howls ensue until I open it.

83

Waaaaaaay back when we were still living in FL, I started work at 6AM, so I went to bed by 9. Even tho FIL was also still working back then, he didn’t go to bed till after the news at 11. And it apparently never occurred to him that other people don’t stay up that late. It was also the days of landlines, and the phone lived on my side of the bed. You can see where this is going…

I wound up telling FCD to tell his dad that unless his hair was on fire, PLEASE don’t call after 9! Thankfully, he listened. And these days it doesn’t matter because they’ll call FCD on his cell which he doesn’t bring into the bedroom. Besides, he generally stays up later than I do.

I think I have some orange somewhere. For now, we’ve got an afghan hanging where she was clawing - she won’t entangle her nails in that.

Speaking of cats, Taz didn’t try to break in our room last night, but my stoopit bladder kept waking me - I think I had too much lemonade before bed. Dammit. But I mostly got sleep.

Waiting to find out if I’m going to have Roxy today, but I need to put her car seat in my car just in case. That’s all on today’s agenda so far.

Happy Wednesday!!

84

Good morning everyone. I’m late to the MMP party again, having lost track of what day it was. Will try to keep up better in the future.

Up and enjoying coffee, 72 here on the Outer Banks, planning more coffee and a day reading in my lawn chair. My laziness has even affected my dog, and he managed to journey two whole feet from the door before concluding his business and collapsing for another nap.

Hope everyone’s having a good week, and I’ll keep up a little better now that I’ve figured out accessing the site from this phone.

85

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN 'Tis < snerk > 69! < snerk > Amurrkin out and N.O.S. with a predicted high of 95 and N.O.S. for the day. The big item on today’s agenda is to procure provisions. Other than that a day of high sloth, nappage, and some quality cee-mint pond time is in store. Sup shall be boxed lasagna (don’t judge!), sallit, and cheesey garlic bread.

sari sorry about the bad news on your mom.

JtC I think either “Dogs of Our Lives” theme would work. I’m glad a place was found for Tony. If hospice care is what he wants, then the both of you can feel good about findin’ a place for him so that can be done.

pully I am in awe of doggie’s sloth skills! He can teach us a thing or two about that.

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, alas, alack, and bother of all bothers, I suppose I must purtify and don clothin’ appropriate for bein’ amongst the great unwashed. Life is just so hard!

Happy Hump Day Y’all!

86

Morning all. Off in about 15 minutes to get the car checked over. Then onward into the day.

Hugs, tears, smiles and caring for all in substantial doses.

87

Trying to get Toby to nap and to keep Roxy quiet. Yeah, that’ll work…

88

Anndddd I’m back. Only took them 45 minutes to do what I asked so car should be good for another few thousand miles (they wanted to change the rear differential fluid and stuff for $300 but said it could wait until the 65,000 checkup). So now need to figure swimming into the plan of the day and maybe mowage (it’s already 86F at 9:15am, so maybe not). Garbage also goes out tonight.

JtC, I hope Tony can adjust easier to his new digs than before.

OK, OK, it’s called The Whiteboard, about a Polar Bear who plays paintball in Alaska and does…other stuff. It may be an acquired taste but I enjoy it. https://www.the-whiteboard.com/

Sari, lived at home with my parents until I was 27 and like Sah-son, pretty much paid a share of my paycheck to them every week/month. But one of these days he is going to be on his own…and {{{{ }}}} to you and Mom-unit.

OK, need to forage for sustenance, take care all.

89

Happy Hump Day!

It’s a hot one too. Supposed to get up into the 90s, but it felt like walking into a sauna at 7 when I took the brats to daycare.

It’s going to be a tired day. I was up late last night, didn’t get to bed until after 11, then my son called at 1 am to let me know irk was done.
He volunteered to go with me to the daycare, so I didn’t have to get out of the truck.

I couldn’t wait to get out of my parent’s house. My father was very strict, and it didn’t matter how old you were, his house, his rules. A lot of wanting to get out was because of my sister too. She was constantly stealing my clothes, makeup, and jewelry. Always snooping into things that weren’t her business, always stirring up trouble and keeping tension in the house. I wasn’t necessarily a good kid, but I was discreet. I knew when to keep my mouth shut, and when to slink in and head for my bedroom. Not her, she’d come in rip roaring drunk, hours past curfew, and flaunt it in our parents’ faces.
Then she’d wonder why she was always getting punished and I wasn’t.
Maybe she failed at connect-the-dots in school.
My son doesn’t mind living here, there are no rules, other than common sense stuff like clean up behind yourself. I guess it would be different if he were laying around drinking and drugging. He does his share of the chores and doesn’t give me a hard time.

I have friends who will call me late at night, but OAOASO isn’t one of them. He knows the best time to get me is early, like between 5 and 7 in the morning. The friends who call me late are those kinds of people. They don’t do it often, so I don’t mind. And I don’t worry if I get a call from them late because that is what they do.

The honeysuckle is in full bloom. I love the stuff and it is looking really good this year. It smells nice out back. I need to stake the rose of sharon. Another thing on the list.

I agree that Tony probably doesn’t want to live anymore JtC. He’s not living anyway; he is existing. A state that is easy to fall into, and hard to get out of.

It really hit me last night when I saw my mother’s test results. I know she is going to die, but seeing the numbers made it real. She has chemo today, and a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. We’ll see what he says.

90

Same here when I went to get the grands. Here’s hoping the rain that’s promised for tomorrow will cool things down a bit.

Roxy just finished 2 bowls of strawberries for lunch. She’s watching Blaze and the Monster Machines on Paramount. Tobias had 5oz of formula and some applesauce, and he’s napping now - hope it’s a longer nap than earlier. FCD hasn’t come home from the Dr yet - I’m guessing they did xrays and such.

I need to defrost something for supper…

91

TGIW!! Rough irk week for me, so I haven’t been very responsive here. Been reading about all of your travails, and sending out various and sundry vibes as appropriate.

Sari, I feel so bad for you and your mother. These will be hard times ahead. You will have decisions to make about balancing quality of life with quantity of life. Every choice will seem wrong, yet none of them are. My only advice is to take care of yourself first and foremost. You are no good to others if you are a wreck. Good luck to you, and come here to vent as much as you need to.

92

I just saw a neighbour walking her dog. She’s very old. I think Sandy the yellow lab is very old too. The cute thing is that she got a cat maybe a year ago. Tigger looks like she has Siamese in her. She trails the neighbour and Sandy on their walks. Thankfully, because of the wildlife here, Tigger doesn’t stray far from home when she’s out.

Anyway, I just think it’s cute that the cat follows Cat Mom and Dog Friend. :slight_smile:

93

He lurves you. :heart_eyes: Does he settle down and just sleep with you, or does he keep you awake?

sari I love honeysuckle. Enjoy. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

This is cute. Tigger sounds like a charming young feline.

It’s colonoscopy prep day! Woo-hoo! I don’t eat much, so it won’t be bad. I’m dreading it anyway. Some of the directions are downright weird. No creamer in my coffee. Why? It’s a teaspoon and trust me, it won’t be there tomorrow when you’re looking for it. There’s a solid chance it’s the only calories that I’ll get today, so I’m doing it.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

94

He keeps me awake. Doesn’t seem to grasp the point of a bed in a dark room. Both cats are a bit miffed with me right now. They got dosed with flea gunk (the back-of-the-neck once-a-month style). They don’t like it, but they’ll get it when the human thinks it’s necessary.

First-of-the-month tasks (calendar page, switch DH’s bottle of insulin, run various appliance maintenance, change HVAC filter) are done, and I’ve even made an appointment with a doctor for Friday afternoon. Gotta check the mail again later (wasn’t here yet when I checked about an hour ago). At least the Walmart delivery went well, so that’s a plus. The rest of my day is TBD.

95

Irking on the 1st of the Month Datalanche.

I did sneak out, though. I started a ‘retro M-16’ (civilian AR-15 style rifle patterned after the mid-to-late-'60s M-16) project a few years ago, but hit a road bump. I took it to the local gunsmith (that I just found out about last year) to have the rear sight disk, ejection port cover, and gas tube installed. Except for the disc, which I couldn’t get the roll pin into, I could have done everything else except for one thing: To make it authentic, it needs a straight-sided delta ring – which holds the hand guards – instead of the tapered one that’s on the barrel now; and I can’t get the front sight off. I also took my AR-180 in to have a front sling swivel installed, and to have three AR-15/M-16 magazines modified to work in it. I haven’t been shooting in 15 years, but I hate undone things – even if it does take me forever.

On the way home I got a cotter pin so I could put the wheel back on the hand truck. Which I did.

96

I sure do get that, I’ve got a couple of projects in that I probably won’t ever finish but I still pull them out and stitch on them once in a while.

Sari, I’m so sorry that your mom is going down hill so quickly. Cancer sucks. I also love honey suckle but don’t really have any place to plant it. I keep looking at the back fence, but that’s in full sun all day every day and most plants really don’t like that much.

It’s only mid 90s here, and the wind has finally died down to an acceptable breeze. Hubs bought an electric make-beer-from-grain pot and accoutrements that of course is some assembly required. It’s huge (big enough to boil 5 gallons of beer, grains included) so he’s putting it together on the back porch.

I’m glad he bought it and I’m glad it arrived now. He deserves a nice distraction.

We have a place reserved at a shelter for kitty, he will have to spend a couple of weeks in the catio but he has places he can hide if he gets scared at night.

I picked up our surplus produce boxes today and got a couple of pounds of cherries. I gave one bag to our housekeeper and because we already had cherries in the fruit bin, I’m making cherry jam. Sadly I don’t have any pectin and cherries aren’t known for natural pectin so I’m going to cook them until I get bored and then throw a little plain gelatin in and see how that works. They’ve only been boiling for 20 minutes and I am seeing a little progress so I’ll give it more time.

They also gave me a big bag of frozen catfish fillets. If left to my own devices, I would coat them with cornmeal and fry them, but hubs doesn’t like fish that tastes or smells like fish. Except tuna, he’ll eat tuna.

While I was out, I picked up one prescription which had gone up to almost thirty a month co-pay. Ouch. I drove through Taco Bell for a taco and the girl gave me a senior discount without even seeing me. Double ouch. Then I filled my car up. They need to have paramedics stationed at gas stations to help with all the heart attacks.

Well, Imma go stir my jam, wish me luck!

97

Thanks. It went very well; lots of laughter and kids playing. We celebrated near a park bench that was installed in my son’s memory. It was (and is) a favorite place for kids to play and to sled in the winter. His nephews and nieces loved him dearly. It reads: “In loving memory of (my son and dates). Sit and visit, laugh and dream.”

98

I’m sorry that the news about your mom isn’t better sari. Hugs to you and your son.

JtC, like you, it doesn’t sound like Tony really wants to live anymore. I hope that the time he has left and his passing are peaceful.

I hope that Bailey gets back on her feet soon oopsie. Like most of us, you’d likely rather take a beating than have your critter or kid sick.

Irked, came home, walked Nelson, paid the rent, et and will begin KP soon. Such excitement!

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

99

It’s quiet again. I invited my daughter to come for dinner - chickie nuggets, peas-n-carrots, tots in the air fryer, ice cream for dessert. We ate early and they’ve gone home. I’ll have Roxy again tomorrow - she’s still running a fever and coughing like crazy - poor kid. But having both of them wasn’t as overwhelming as I’d expected, thank goodness.

FCD’s surgeon pretty much said “Give it time” and prescribed a stronger NSAID for him. He doesn’t much like her. I didn’t like her when I saw her a few years back. Sadly, we have very limited orthopedic options in this county.

Kitchen is tidy. Chillage shall ensue.

100

Howdy Y’all! Provisions were procured, sloth, nappage and quality cee-mint pond time were had and sup got cooked and et followed by kitchen cleanup. Oh and I made up a beastloaf for tomorrow. I find it better if’n the beastloaf sets overnight in da fridge and lets all the flavors sorta meld together or whatever it does. Thus has been the day in swampland.

Cookie glad the family thing went well. I like the idea of the memorial bench. What a great tribute to your son!