Thank you, those of you who voted for Gracie in the Greenies contest over the past few weeks. As we went into Friday evening – voting was supposed to stop at midnight Friday – Gracie was in first place and whoever was in second place was about 300 votes behind. They didn’t shut down voting at midnight, which I’d expected they would, so Saturday afternoon Gracie ended up in second place to a dog I hadn’t even noticed before. I don’t know if Gracie made it back to first place again before they finally got around to shutting down the voting, and I don’t know if they’ll count the votes that were cast after midnight Friday or not, so Gracie ended up either in first place or second, depending on how they’re planning to do that. At this point, it’s up to the judges to decide who won anyway, so maybe she wins and maybe she doesn’t – I’ll certainly let y’all know if I find anything out!
Renee has a question that some of you might be able to help with:
I guess you’d call me the neighborhood cat lady. A month or so ago I caught the local mama kitty and well she’s currently pregnant and living isolated in a room. Until recently I am not allowed to touch her. If your hand gets too close she’ll pop you. Recently she’s gotten very loving – on her terms. At night when I go in, she runs over to me and will rub all over me. I am still not allowed to touch her even though she rubs all over me. I know as they get closer to giving birth they can get very loving. Lately though I can barely get out of the room. When I go to stand up she runs around and tries to block me. Tonight she put herself between me and the door and would hiss or pop at me if I tried to move towards it. I’m not sure what’s up with the possessiveness and I”m not sure how or if I’d ever be able to get her to allow me to touch her, but I didn’t know if you or any of your readers might have some advice or experience.
Advice/ suggestions very much welcome!
The Goathouse Refuge in Pittsboro, NC needs help raising funds! If they can raise $10,000 by November 30th, they will receive $10,000 in matching funds! Go read more about it here, and help out if you can, please?
I came through surgery just fine, thankfully. The worst part of going into any surgery (this is just my opinion) is having the IV started. When I had the (non-cancerous) tumor on my knee removed when I was a teenager, they had a hell of a time getting my IV started, and had to poke me three or four times before they finally did. In all the surgeries I’ve had since then, though, they’ve never had a problem. But it’s the anticipation of having the IV started that just sucks, and nothing else about surgery fills me with dread the way that does. What’s that, I’m going to be laying there stark naked surrounded by 45 strangers, all casting judgemental looks at me? Whatever, I’ll be asleep, ask me if I CARE (I do not).
So I felt my usual dread Wednesday morning when the anesthesiologist came out to start my IV. And he injected first one vein with that god-awful local that numbs the area (which, if you ask me, is worse than the fucking IV itself) and couldn’t get the IV into that vein, so went after another vein and nope, that one didn’t work either, and so he tried poking around a little to see if he could make it work.
And he hit a fucking NERVE, a literal NERVE. I am stoic, and don’t let anyone tell you different, and you could probably be hacking at my arm to remove it, with no anesthetic, and I might mildly say “Oh, that stings just a teeny bit.” while inside I am screaming, but when he hit that vein, and that zap of PAIN went jolting up my hand, I pretty much levitated up off the bed and made him decide to give up on that hand.
He went on to my right hand and just did the IV without the local (thankyoujesus) and got it in, and then it all went very quickly (in a private clinic, shit gets done quickly as opposed to a hospital where you show up at 5:30 for an 11:00 surgery time and they ultimately get you back there around 3 in the afternoon; in a private clinic there are not those pesky emergencies taking up operating rooms, I guess), and Fred came back to kiss me and say goodbye, and off I went.
The surgery took a couple of hours, and I was home in my recliner a little after noon.
Since the day of surgery, I’ve been doing a lot of snoozing in the recliner. It’s comfortable enough, but I really wish we had one of those really big recliners that you can really get comfortable in. The dressing they put on my head after surgery was absolutely huge, so I was glad to see the surgeon on Friday and have the dressing and drain removed, and a smaller garment put in place.
I was able to shower on Saturday for the first time since Wednesday, and it was really nice.
Yesterday I moved from narcotic painkillers to Tylenol/ Advil, and it’s doing a good job at keeping the pain at bay. I go back to the surgeon on Friday, where I think they’ll remove my stitches and staples and look me over to determine that I’m healing okay.
Speaking of all that, when the nurse took the dressing off from around my face on Friday, Fred told me that (1) I looked like a chipmunk (because my cheeks were swollen) and (2) he was pretty sure they’d moved my ears (the nurse told me they did no such thing). He’s so helpful, isn’t he?
So anyway, so far so good on the healing. I can’t really chew anything, so I’ve been eating the hell out of Spaghetti-Os, grits, soup, and chocolate pudding.
I’m planning to take the rest of the week off from blogging, though knowing me I’ll pop in to post pictures once or twice – or maybe not. In any case, if I don’t post again between now and Monday, rest assured that I’m taking it easy in the recliner, and I’ll be back!
The original head dressing, which I had on my head from Wednesday to Friday. I post this picture because it is super KLASSY, with that bra hanging off the hook by the door. What can I say? I wanted to take the damn thing off as soon as I got home!
Yeah, my glasses are too big for my face and also crooked. Shaddup. This is what I’m wearing on my head now. It’s a lot less bulky and a lot more comfortable.
Luckily, cake doesn’t require much chewing, and I had a Groupon for Peggy Ann Bakery that needed to be used before mid-November, so Fred went by and got us a cake (the pigs got the better part of it because I found that I wasn’t all that hungry for cake when I was doped up on the narcotics.)
So, the pond is dug. The guys worked hard on it all week long, and round about, oh, Wednesday, they told Fred that hey – there’s a lot of dirt! They told him that there was more dirt than they’d expected (!) and, um, sucks to be us. So Fred put a sign by the side of the road advertising dirt for sale, and I don’t know what exactly is going to happen if no one comes along and wants some of that dirt. I guess we’re going to have a hill out there. Or something.
Anyway.
We have a pond!
The dirt from the pond.
The pond, which is about 60 x 120 feet, and about 8 feet deep at the deeper (farther) end.
Nothing to do with the pond, I just thought this was neat.
I have to say that I miss Buster an awful lot (reports are that he’s doing just fine at Petsmart, but hasn’t been adopted yet), but things are just so amazingly peaceful around here. I think I hadn’t realized just how UN-peaceful life had gotten and how tense it was making me until things went back to relatively peaceful.
The kittens are being pretty good while I recover from surgery – occasionally one will climb up in my lap for a nap, but for the most part they play around me and near me, and lay on the couch near my chair, but don’t run across my face or anything like that, which is good.
Everett, looking regal.
Charlie Peppers loves the big cats. He spends a lot of time snuggling up to Elwood and Tommy.
I love how it looks like Charlie’s gone all Tasmanian Devil on Elwood’s tail, and Elwood doesn’t even notice.
(Ignore the dirty rug by the door – Fred hadn’t vacuumed yet)
Charlie and Everett.
Charlie, Everett, and Tommy.
Elwood sure does love that Tommy.
Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: Questions answered.
2007: Then I’m sure they hung up and said “We just bought ourselves six weeks of NO CALLS from Mr. And3rson. Boo-yah!”
2006: Okay. I have a LOT of favorite things about the house, I cannot lie.
2005: “That makes me want to get pregnant and have a baby, just so I can name it Lavernicus,” I admitted. “That WOULD be an excellent name.”
2004: No entry.
2003: It took two days from the first time I called Stanley “Beanie-bean” in front of Fred before Fred started doing it too. He’s such a copycat.
2002: “She was giving me a handjob under the water, and I didn’t stop her, even though I’m not attracted to her, BECAUSE I AM ONLY HUMAN.”
2001: Fred is a freak.
2000: “Uhhhh….” I said, casting around for something smart-ass or impressive to say.
1999: My desk is a total shitheap, because I’m Robyn and I’m a slob