Deluge

Inspirational song: Love, Reign O'er Me (The Who)

Long have I maintained that the absolute best kind of weather is rain. Hands down, no other options come close. But wow, tonight was something else. Where yesterday we drove across town to see a distinct line where there was a gulley-washer (as the Mr called it) on the south side of town, and nothing over us (literally, zooming in on the radar showed the rain ending at the alley behind our house), tonight was another story. Thunder and lightning rolled through right as full dark fell, and then all hell broke loose. It was the kind of rain I live for. It wasn't until I came in off the front porch, where I was admiring the downpour, that I remembered how well my garden was growing. Now I have to wonder whether I will still have any of those dainty tomatoes or tomatillos left on the vines. It scoured everything clean out there.

Strain

Inspirational song: Strawberry Fields Forever (The Beatles)

Chairs are evil. At least dining room chairs that don't recline are evil. To me. I did a lot today to put strain on my back--lots of bending, lots of standing around chopping vegetables. So when we went over for game night, and sat around the dining room table in straight-back chairs, my fatigue turned to agony. Whatever I planned to write about has gone straight out of my head. All I could think about was getting home to my fancy new bed with the memory foam and adjustable base. I'm there now, and I have no intention of moving for about 10 hours.

The baby sat with her grandpa while we got established in our game, connecting with the folks who were dialing in. She is showing early interest in screens, I've noticed. She's just like the rest of us, eyes glued to the flashy lights. We will have to work towards getting her into other, more tangible things too.

Forgiven

Inspirational song: Listen Like Thieves (INXS)

Athena has been eating slowly, and not eating a whole lot when she does, for months. I assumed she was just dainty, compared to the other three who inhale their breakfasts, and then literally sit in line behind Athena, waiting for her to give up halfway through a meal. I worried about how thin she was getting, underneath her impressive floof. It didn't occur to me until she got home from having five teeth removed yesterday that she was eating slowly because it hurt her so much. She has been screaming and begging for food all day, swearing to me that no one fed her at all (which is a lie). She felt she was being abused, getting only canned food and no kibble while her mouth heals. So to prove how much we were starving her, she was super aggressive with us over our dinner. We had steak, and when I set aside a piece of unchewable fat, she tried to lunge for it. I prevented her from stealing it. So she looked over at her daddy, saw him do the same move, and lightning-fast, she was on it. She jumped down (we were eating in front of the TV), and ran off with her head and tail high, as fast as her tiny legs could prance. What a dork. At least steak fat wasn't as hard and abrasive as cat kibble would have been.

She has apparently fully forgiven me for taking her to an all-day vet ordeal. She keeps hopping in my lap, and snuggling with me. I haven't put the carrier back in the closet yet, and she gives that thing a wide berth, as if she is afraid it can whisk her back to the vet like a dimension door.

I got a photo and story about Dino today, about her fussing and fussing, until she finally fell asleep in her swing, clutching the stuffed horsie her other grandma gave her. My takeaway from the story? "Is she finally interested in toys? Yay! I need to run to Target!" I got four little things to keep at my house: a fox with lots of details, a goofy unicorn that rattles, a set of silcone "keys," and a white kitty, because of course. I looked at a basic wooden blocks set, and decided to wait until she can sit up unassisted. And I need to find the classic ABC wooden blocks. It is almost go time!

Teef

Inspirational song: Can You Picture That? (Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem)

I was a very nervous kitty mama all day. I dropped Athena off at the vet for a much-needed dental cleaning at 8 this morning. When the vet techs came to the car to get her, they were looking over the pages printed for her procedure, and asking me whether I had any concerns first. I told them how she gets very scared when anyone other than me picks her up, and that she has been rubbing her face on me for a while, like she wanted me to look in there. (Once I did, and got past the crypt-keeper breath, I saw inflamed gums and tartar, and I explained that to the ladies.) The techs got confused expressions, looked at the clipboard, and then asked, "she's here for a spay?" Oh, God, no, I said. Please don't cut my baby's belly open for organs she hasn't had for over six years. Once they looked at the last page, they saw the estimate was for a dental, and we all nodded sagely and said, someone entered the wrong code.

I waited hours for them to call and say she was going under anesthesia. It was the same tech from this morning, so I verified they were working on her mouth, not her belly, and we laughed. Y'all scared me this morning, I told her.

I didn't get the all clear until after 4. I was a jumble of nerves by then. She did well under anesthesia, and all was well, except for her teeth. She lost five more of them. F I V E. All back teeth. She lost one molar and all of the tiny front teeth (that just fell out at a tap) two years ago. This kid. They said her x-ray showed a horrible mess at the roots. She doesn't have much more than the fangs left, and who knows how long she will keep those. I can only hope she loses those at home, because crap, this was expensive. I had pondered replacing my old laptop that wants to die, and I almost did it last night. Good thing I didn't. Athena's mouth cost as much as a really nice laptop today.

She hasn't made a sound since I picked her up. Her face is swollen, and when she ate just canned cat food this evening, she got it all over her face. Poor kid is a mess. I won't embarrass her by describing how she jumped, and almost missed twice, getting on the cat feeding counter, but I laughed when I probably should have been nicer.

I'll bury her stoned face blep pictures behind one of Jackie sleeping in the baby cradle, so I don't hurt Athena's feelings by putting the unflattering pictures where they show up first on the Facebook link.

Make Me Laugh

Inspirational song: Chantilly Lace (The Big Bopper)

We got a bonus visit from Dino today. We weren't originally scheduled to sit her today, but the Mr asked for some help ripping carpet out of the game room downstairs, so we can put in a different flooring. That meant I got to hold the baby while they worked downstairs. 

She was a real charmer this time. Her growth spurt seems to be fading, and she is eating a little less, griping a little less. In fact, she was full of smiles today, for all of us. She is getting the hang of reaching for things, but actually grasping is still hit or miss. She has fully mastered bringing her fist to her mouth, though. She can self-soothe, and that means soon all toys and some foods will be heading into that face hole soon.

We keep waiting for the first true giggle. With all the smiles and cooing, we know it is coming soon. The kids sent a video after they went home, that sure sounded like a giggle while she was being tickled and talked to. Man, this is a fun age all of a sudden.

Floor Dancing

Inspirational song: You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (Leo Sayer)

By necessity, this needs to be a mostly pictures kind of night. I'm flat-out tired from babysitting all weekend. It went much better today than yesterday, but I'm still just tired. Also, today is the one year anniversary of Rabbit's sudden and untimely death, and I've been trying to hold myself apart from that while the wounds are still fresh.

Babies of Dino's age (9 weeks) don't yet giggle, but man, I felt like she wanted to today. She kept ducking her chin and smiling in a way that looked like she thought she had just told a joke. The rest of her wake time, she did a whole lot of floor dancing. I can't wait until next year when she's flitting about the place.

Dainty

Inspirational quote: "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" "I think so, Brain, but isn't Regis Philbin already married?" (Animaniacs)

There is a reason baby-rearing is primarily the dominion of the young. It's exhausting! It's worse when you fail to sleep until three in the morning, as I did last night. I had no excuse to have skipped falling asleep; my brain just woke up and wouldn't let me go. So when the grandbaby came over for a full day, with just me to care for her, I was challenged to the very edge of my tired, old body. She's a perfect child, but she does not like to be put down. Put her on her back, and she shrieks like you have ripped her feet off (until she figures out you are just ridding her of a poopy diaper, then she gets cheerful for a few moments.)

I'm enjoying her tiny babyhood, but I recognize how much easier it will be on me when she can sit up unassisted, reach for toys that gain and keep her interest, and learn a few ways to communicate other than crying. A month from now, I will look back and think the early infancy went by in a flash. The self-governing stage seems light years away for now.

We ended the evening (after the baby went home) playing board games with T and A next door, and then started watching Raising Arizona when I started to wear out. The babies in that movie, the "Arizona Quints," are all about six or seven months old. They seem enormous compared to my grandbaby. It doesn't seem possible that she will be such a bruiser like those kids, by Christmas or New Year's. She is so dainty and cute now.

Calm and Cool

Inspirational song: Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin)

Phase two of the 90 day Hashimoto's cleanse/diet thingy I've been working through focuses on the adrenals. They are the organs that suffer most when stress gets overwhelming (and they make us suffer in retaliation). So the thrust of the lesson is learn how to rest, eat better, sleep better, and supplement with vitamins and minerals that do right by the system. For the last three or four days, I have felt like a super boring human, because I was doing exactly as I was supposed to. Then tonight it occurred to me, I was doing exactly as I was supposed to--and it's starting to work! I'm not claiming I'm like totally healed from all the challenges I have or anything, but I distinctly feel a little less stressed out, and that is the point of it all. I dig this. I hope it lasts.

The sudden change in the weather contributed to my new mellow feeling. The summer pattern has progressed to the monsoonal flow times, which I absolutely love. Temps have dropped and the long dry spell is over. Cooling rains down here are one thing, but it has made things difficult up at the cabin. The Mr and the dogs have been up there a couple days, working on the paneling on the inside. He made progress, but the rain stopped his ability to make cuts, so it appears work ground to a halt. He sent some pictures of muddy dog footprints all over the floor, where Murray was snoozing, and piles of junk clogging the rest of the space where he had to remove shelves to hang wall boards. It's cold and misty up there, and I admit to being jealous.

And can we talk about how cute Elsa is in her mountain shirt?

Contentment

Inspirational song: Daydream Believer (The Monkees)

I sat in front of the teevee, watching A Late Show, waiting for Inspiration to fall out of the sky. And darned if it didn't! My grandbaby-mama went back to work this week, and I had asked her to send a picture of Dino's smile when she was reunited with her mommy after a full day of work. I was disappointed. Baby almost instantly fell asleep as soon as she was with her mom. I mean, the picture of her sound asleep in the carriage on a walk was heckin' cute, but I wanted to see that thousand-watt smile. So just now, I got sent a collection of goofy faces on a freshly-washed baby. Suddenly I felt like writing and sharing.

I was feeling stressed yesterday, by things I cannot control. Today the existential dread was much less. I didn't run out and save the world or anything, but it was a whole lot easier to clean the bedroom and load the dishwasher when I wasn't catatonic with information overload. 

I have more time by myself through Saturday morning, so I suppose I should come up with something good to entertain myself. I'm already planning on sneaking out to get ingredients for a nice dinner (that still fits my elimination diet). Other than that, I need ideas for tomorrow during the day, that isn't overly expensive or out in full sun. 

Shrug

Inspirational song: Catch Me Now I'm Falling (The Kinks)

So here I am once more. I let the news overwhelm me, and I just stayed inside and moped. I even shrugged and said, "have fun," when the Mr went down to the newly renovated tubing/swimming area at the river. I've wanted to go there for two years, and I just couldn't break out of my funk to give it a try today. 

I am freaking out as if I have majorly cheated on my Hashimoto's protocol diet. I mean, I sort of did, but is it really the end of the world? I started taking a handful of new supplements (vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that are supposed to help with the cleanse), and I'm starting to think they are responsible for the sudden increase in my appetite. I have had one more serving of fruit each day than I was supposed to, and then tonight I really went wild. I put a few thin shavings of gouda in an omelette for dinner. The horror! I am supposed to stay dairy-free for 90 days, and I made it about sixteen days.

Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting, or at least slightly more active. I don't have any plans, but that could change.

The Heavens

Inspirational song: Always Something There to Remind Me (Naked Eyes)

It took a ridiculous amount of attempts, but we finally think we found the comet. We drove up into the foothills again, kind of parked on the edge of someone's private drive, and did everything we could to locate it. Our son-in-law warned us, you can't see it if you look directly at it with the naked eye. Our daughter told us to look just down from the big dipper. When it was hard to be sure we were in the right place, I thought maybe I could outsmart myself, and use the night mode which I had just discovered on my phone (hadn't needed it before). It was an automatic five-second exposure, and all I had to do was hold my breath and be still that long. I did capture the comet, but even blown up on my TV, it's hard to see. In the picture below, it's straight up from the left side of the power pole. When you zoom in, you can faintly see a tail on one of the "stars." 

Once I figured out the night mode, I had a little fun. I tried desperately to capture a shot of lightning in the very active storm to our north. Mostly I just got long exposure shots that belied the fact that it was well past full dark. It took a solid forty tries, but I eventually got one tiny burst at the beginning of a ball of lightning, and I called it right there. I was done. I also put the camera on the back of my car to steady it, and took a photo to the south, and that came out well.

We started the evening with the kids, where Mr S-P presented Dino with her first truck, a classic Tonka that he found at the Restore Warehouse yesterday. I'm certain it won't be the last.

Finally, it's probably weird of me to get so attached to animals that I have never and will never meet. But I have followed a lot (a lot) of cat accounts on Twitter, plus a few dog ones, and one sheep farm. I need the cute simplicity of pet pictures to provide relief from the dreary horror of daily life in Rona Times. One of my top three favorite accounts is Kevin and Scampi, two housecats in Great Britain somewhere. Scampi is a young tabby boy, and Kevin is his fluffy older sister. Or rather, she was. Out of the blue, they announced that Kevin had taken a turn and gone to the vet where they discovered an advanced tumor. They ended up letting her go. Here I am, thousands of miles away, getting upset at the death of a cat I never saw in person. This has been happening an awful lot lately. Kevin was probably the fifth or sixth one this month. I really don't know where to go to escape the stress and misery of day-to-day news if even Cat Twitter is so bleak right now. What's left?

Worth Waiting For

Inspirational song: You Shook Me All Night Long (AC/DC)

At long last, the whole bed has arrived and been installed. I've spent most of the day sitting on it, watching TV and generally just hanging out, because I can. I sat long enough to make my back stiff, which surprised me. I will remember to take more walk-around breaks in the future.

It sits far more forward than I expected. I'm now higher up (I had the old bed on the floor to make rolling out of it easier after surgery and during chemo last year), and I'm three or four feet further into the room. It feels weird, but the benefit is I am closer to the ceiling fan and almost directly in line with the window I keep wide open when the whole house fan is running.

Was it worth all this time, money, and effort to get an adjustable bed? Well, I haven't spent a whole night in it yet, but so far, YES. I still have a lot of fiddling to do to learn all its secrets. There is time for that. I tried the massage function while Jackie and Athena were on the bed, thinking I would scare them. Instead, Jackie just flipped even more on her back, and snuggled harder, and Athena just curled up on my hip. Athena was more startled by the fact the foot of the bed went up and down. I tried again with the boys, thinking at least Alfred would freak out. Again, they loved it. I've come to the conclusion that they think mama has finally learned how to purr properly.