Talking To Each Other in Everyday Ramblings
- Oct. 17, 2020, 9:32 a.m.
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- Public
There were no cancer cells in Diego’s biopsy. He does have something unusual going on in his pancreas and has thickening and inflammation in his intestines so the diagnosis for now is chronic Irritable Bowel Disease. It could be caused by any number of things, allergies, genetics, a combination. I now have him on chicken flavored oral steroids and need to organize a ride to the vet to get some injectable B-12.
Oh joy, more cat shots. I did it with Sammy, and it isn’t near as bad as giving fluids every day. I am skipping the actual surgical exploratory option. We’ll see if this makes the little guy feel better. It is certainly making him hungrier.
After a firm follow-up phone call yesterday to the property management company to calmly express my displeasure, a knowledgeable handyman showed up late yesterday afternoon to take a look at my heat unit. It is the first time all year I think I have had a stranger in the house. We were both masked but still we were not six feet apart for most of his two visits as I was assisting.
He had to get overtime approved and go get a new unit and return, but he got it done! I have heat. It was apparently a worn-out thermocouple. He, also, with much standing on an overturned plastic milk box because he said the step ladder was too heavy, replaced both of my smoke detectors and we ended up replacing the batteries in the carbon monoxide detector as well. It was quite an adventure and I learned a lot.
Including the fact that I was coveting a power screwdriver with a flashlight built in like his. Hey, as a woman I can have tool envy too, ya’ know.
He made a couple of comments when we were talking about security around the building and the situation folks are finding themselves in that were so kind and compassionate, I was touched. It was unexpected. A truly nice guy, that for all I know is a Trump voter. He fit the profile.
People, we need to talk to each other not just express opinions. It is so hard with physical distancing…
Thursday, I had a fun walk with Charity across the river into a neighborhood I have only wandered through a couple of times. We had to drive part of the way because we have run out of places to walk to from here that are novel. She finally admitted that she is not interested in walking in the woods. She was determined to park in the huge convoluted cemetery on our side of the river and walk over the new Sellwood Bridge. It was a hoot. We did see a bald eagle near the river, gliding gliding.
Just after we turned into a residential neighborhood, we spotted an amazing array of dahlias in a circular front side garden open to the sidewalk. We were discussing petal shape and color and inching closer to the bed when the gardener herself addressed us from an appropriate distance from behind a back half-fence.
We had this 20 minute engagement with her ranging from tulip bulbs, the fact that she was a retired elementary school teacher originally from New York, 73 and her husband is a long term recovered alcoholic and she still goes to Al anon meetings online, the name of her Feldenkrais teacher, her miracle hibiscus and the fact that she had dinner guests coming and needed to finish up cleaning the back yard. Her garden is fabulous, she has been at it for 30 years.
I was impressed at how resilient she is with shoulder issues and sciatica. As Charity said there was nothing of the victim about her, only this burbling joy in life.
And can I just say Charity is an amazing judge of character. She knew the gardener was a schoolteacher; she knew what part of New York she was from. She reads people as if they were broadcast signs. She is way more interested in them than I admit I am. Although this is a woman who got so excited about learning about these amazing Indian Malabar giant squirrels that she stood outside my window when I was teaching Wednesday night and waved wildly at me because she wanted to share.
By the way, those squirrels are amazing. Snopes says they are real. How can you resist a feathery blue tail? Even in a rodent.
Oh, and if looking at crazy natural adaptations are not your thing may I recommend Fable the Raven. We are all in love with her. You can search for her on YouTube. She has a wide vocabulary and speaks with an English accent.
Charity was wondering if she moved to America would she lose it.
Naw. Boop Boop Wow.
Last updated October 17, 2020
woman in the moon ⋅ October 17, 2020 (edited October 17, 2020)
Edited
Wonderful entry. All of it. My husband worked for propane companies and fixed furnaces. It's thermocouple. Two strips of metals of differing expansion rates are fused together, so that when the temperature changes they bend to activate a switch to turn on and off fuel. Isn't that a grand concept? It's a safety feature and doesn't require electricity to work.
As to him being a Trump voter, you might be right. Farmer son just got a 'big' check from the US Agriculture Department - money for each head of livestock, each bushel of grain he produced. It is money that will make a difference and there really are hard times for farmers. The money timed so closely to the election would encourage 'poorly informed' read susceptible people to vote for current administration. I asked if congress had voted for those payments and he said no, that the ag dept has the ability to send out payments on their own. My son made two donations to Democratic candidates.
Oh you should get a government check for your kitty farm.
IpsoFacto ⋅ October 17, 2020
Poor little Diego. He’s lucky to have such a dedicated mama. Animals are so funny a few weeks ago Poncho had his teeth cleaned. He had lost 40s on his own about which we had no idea. He also had five other teeth polled. He seldom goes in the car but of course he had to ride in the car to go to the doggie done. Today when we were going to pick my daughter up to bring her here to do her laundry I invited Allie and Poncho to come with us in the car. Fat Ollie was so happy. He can’t get in by himself and poor 83-year-old John has to lift always Ollie’s fat rear end into the car. Poncho ran and hid he ran back into the house and was hiding behind the chair. It finally dawned on me that he’s never ill, only Goes to the vet for his yearly check up and the rest of the time he’s a true homebody. I’m pretty sure he ran back in the house and hid because the last time he was in the car was when his teeth were pulled and his mouth was swollen for days. Dogs are very smart. Cats are too. I just don’t have any intimate relationships with cats.I don’t think either one of my dogs has ever even seen a cat. So it’s kind of like you say tomahto and I say tomayto or as the French say “courses for horses.”
mcbee ⋅ October 17, 2020
I remember having to do the fluids for a cat I had with kidney disease. It was awful. Cats don't cooperate at all, and then you feel like you are hurting them. I can imagine shots would be better because they are quicker. My heart hurts for you. I have two young cats, so we are all good for now...but I did go through so many older cats and it's never easy.
Marg ⋅ October 18, 2020
Very glad Diego’s results showed no cancer but IBS is no fun :( I hope the B12 shots make a difference but don’t envy you having to give them to him!
I love these random conversations that you can strike up with a stranger and find out half their lives in half an hour - I bet you and Charity have fun confirming her predictions about folk :)
OMG Fable! That was a very entertaining 20 minutes I just spent listening to her talk to herself - how lovely to see Amy’s relationship with her! That really warmed my heart :)
Zipster ⋅ October 18, 2020
I am so happy that there is no cancer involved. I hope he responds as well as my boy has to the steroids. I love the social aspect of walking, you never know who you'll meet and how they might impact you or you them.