Ta Da and Teddy Tuesday

First the TaDa:

KB fine-gauge Flexee 20 links. Tie-up starting with Kitchener cast-on. German short-row heel. Cuff two-by-two purl/knit. Stretchy cast-off. Now passed on to charity.

Now the Teddy update.

As you may have noticed, I have many names for this feline, and he reenacts them all at will. Saint Theodore. That’s when he does a CAT scan and finds my hurty spots and purrs it away. It works like a miracle. Not for others in the house, but for me, it is true. Then there’s Teddy, the Terrorist. That is the demon that has decided we can’t have nice things. No matter how many scratching posts or pads we get, he chooses the arms of the furniture, even the newest chair. It’s embarrassing to have scratched up furniture, but he’s the one in charge of our Feng Sui. Teddy the terrific: That’s the one that is having zoom meetings down the hallway. No, not the kind people have. The kind of crazy cats and dogs have running around to show their joy of life. After three days of antibiotics on board, and Tedster seems back to his original multi-personable self. I’m so happy he’s back! And the plus is that he is quite talkative now, and he hasn’t been since he was a kitten. I’m so delighted!

Misery Monday

Well, not for me necessarily.  In fact, my day ended looking like this.

For Teddy, it was a horrid day that has lasted 24 hours. After a long trip
in the car (four hours) and a stressful time at the vet, he was tired. So he
slept until I finally started to get to sleep at 1 AM. At that point, he
started drooling again. Chris got up to give him the pain meds. Not one I like
the idea of. Gabapentin.

They told me to video the subsequent seizure so they could tell more about
it. So I got up to follow The Tedster around. He vocalized his unhappiness with
the world for a couple hours. I swear he likes to pace and chat. He told me
about Mariah. Said a lot more things, and sometimes it felt like he said,
‘Anyways.’ So maybe he likes Ms. Carey’s Christmas albums or something? By the
time he was circling the coffee table, it wasn’t so loud as a constant chat. He
finally had said enough. He hopped up onto my lap and fell asleep. 4 AM. I’d
listened and given the support that whole time. I was exhausted. But getting up
from the chair was nearly impossible as tired as I was.

I managed to get back to bed. Wow! Having pets is more challenging sometimes
than having human baby newborns! Or maybe that’s why Septuagenarians don’t have
babies.

My son and I managed to get in a bit of walk. We didn’t make the mile
because Kali got tired. I nearly had to drag her home. We stopped as she caught
her breath. I gave her water. But she didn’t drink. We got back home, and she
crashed on the couch. So I guess she’s next to see the vet. She doesn’t run out
of energy. This is odd. Maybe Teddy kept her awake, too?

Well, maybe I should take the hint and go to bed while I can!

Crazy Sunday

This sweetie scared me to tears this morning. He’s been more vocal than usual. He sounds like a newborn when he cries.

Suddenly he was on the table drooling and running in circles. He fell off the table and still drooling and more chasing his tail, then suddenly he was on the floor seizing.

I thought for sure he was dying. He’s my buddy! No!

Then he calms down. I called the vet and they asked us to bring him in.

He has had a bad tooth infection. So we figured it was back.

Teddy loves to ride in cars. He came to us as a kitten.

My son’s girlfriend was driving from Garden Grove to Reno. She chose to drive at night. Less traffic, cooler. Just as she got into the car this ginger kitten jumped in.

It was too late to see who he belonged to. She did have her mom call around and never found his owner.

He loved the trip. She bought a kitty litter, food and water for him at a pit stop.

He loved the moving trip here five years ago.

I tried to find the picture couldn’t find it. Sorry.

Anyway, he loved the trip to the vet today, in spite of his pain. 

The vet said he declined the butt-temp check, he declined the check for the the bad tooth, and he declined the poke for hydration. I think that was kind for he wasn’t about to have any of that!

The vet did manage to give him an antibiotic shot that should last two weeks and she gave us some pain killer if he should be in pain.

The trip home was so nice as he loved watching the world go by or nap.

Now we’re all home and ready to sleep.

 

Yay, Friday!

On Tuesday my husband had another successful cataract surgery. He got home safely. After that it was downhill for the week.

Teddy started getting sick. He is getting better on the antibiotics.

What I forgot to mention, our poor white mama hen and one of the chicks got taken by hawks.

Only one survives. At least the five other hens and the rooster are letting the chick stay with them. And at least tonight it won’t be freezing.

What a rollercoaster week!

This Guy

Teddy

Has had us scared for the last couple days. Falling instead of jumping off beds. Walking around like a drunk. Last night I felt him and he was cold and not moving. He’s about thirteen, so too young to leave this world.

My touching him was irritating. He left my bed for another.

We took him to the vet today. We think it is an inner ear infection. She started him with an antibiotic shot with more drops for us to continue twice a day for the duration. He’s back to eating and drinking.

He loves traveling, even when he’s sick. He got out of the carrier to watch the world go by. Nearly three hours of his favorite pastime. Even if he was the only drunk in the truck. 😉

Sunday, August 2nd, 2020

I have nothing to report today. All is well, bad tooth seems to be behaving properly. Though not as hot as earlier this week, it was still warm enough to be draining. So the day was spent playing games on the phone, or knitting while watching the Jurassic Park trilogy and an early evening siesta. Oh, and I managed two loads of laundry, washing in the morning and drying right now at 9:30. I just didn’t want to add to the heat.

Kali gave me chuckles. She looks at us like we ordered this weather and we should fix it. She lays around all day. Then around 7, she wanted out. The breeze was amazing. I nearly joined her as she frolicked all around the yard. Jumping like a white rabbit all over. I knew if I tried that I’d break a leg, but I enjoyed her romping.

The heat affects the cats a little differently. They find places on the floor to just spread eagle. Teddy (my ginger) loves the towel I have on the bathroom floor in front of the shower. He likes things that are close to his color. Rosey (my black polydactyl) is more like my young kids were. If they were too hot they wanted to snuggle and share the warmth. Ugh! You love the love, but the heat!

The sunset this evening was beautiful but I was too busy to take a picture. I think it is so colorful because of the fires on the other side of the mountains. I feel bad for the people living closer to that mess. Still, it is gorgeous. Maybe it is time to take some pics of everything. Ah, but that would take effort, and there are clothes to fold.

Happy Sunday everyone!

What Day Is It Anyway? May 17, 2020

A Day In The Life

Country Style

When we moved into this mobile in the country we knew that there were sacrifices in lifestyle we’d have to make. We’re still getting used to it. In the first year, we only had heating in our bedrooms so we spent the winter there. I was closest to the bedroom door. These guys:

Rosey (sorry, I never seem to get a good picture of this shiny beautiful black cat.)

and Teddy,

had me opening and shutting the bedroom door all night long. Not only did I lose a lot of sleep, but it chilled the room.

One day, kind hubby made a pet door so I didn’t have to do that anymore. The room stayed warm and the cats could come and go as they needed.

Rosey is a sweety. She likes to share with her humans. In the middle of the night, she will bring in socks or other presents.  Here are some of the gifts:

The Snoopy and the Phantom were gifts from a very good friend. I tried to keep them on the piano but Rosey thought we’d needed them in the bed with us.

Teddy is a sweety and lays on our shoulders and purrs. It helps me. It hurts my husband. Teddy switches between us all night.

Oh, the Ninja Turtles? They came with Kali. She never plays with them. But Rosey knows we need them. They are nearly as big as she is. It is difficult for her to get through the pet door with them. But she manages to yell in kitty meows about what she is bringing from the livingroom. She has brought us big hiking boots, even my rainboots. I don’t know how she does it!

Anyway, last night or rather ‘at stupid o’clock’ as my friend Willow21 calls it, this time it was about 5AM, we hear the meowing and thumping that let us know we were in for a present. But there was a jingle sound that didn’t sound like her tags. I got out my phone to put a flashlight on the situation. There she was flopping something that looked like this around.

 

Pixabay.com

 

Yeah, not my picture because the phone was the light.

Most of the years we have lived here there have been mice. But not many and things were generally okay. This year before COVID19 we were inundated. So we were already fighting Hantavirus. We’ve, well, my brother mostly, set traps all around. We had been catching two or three a day. It had calmed down a lot lately, so a mouse wasn’t what I expected.

I hate killing them. They are so cute. One day, a few years ago, I went into the bedroom and saw one like this on my made bed.

Pixabay.com

Except that the one on my bed was more cinnamon with white on his/her belly and feet. It had its hands folded together in prayer form like it was pleading for its life. My heart was broken. I wanted to pick it up and pet it. I wanted to sit and draw it so puffy and soft. But I remembered Hanta and called my brother to see what he could do about it. He didn’t have the heart to kill it either. He scooped it up with a kerchief and set it free outside. We didn’t have the rooster yet. Nowadays the poor thing would be eaten. We have tried the live traps hoping not to kill them. But I think, no matter how far away from the house we set them free, they call their friends and tell them about the big house full of free meals. Yeah, they didn’t read the contract. Sometimes I’m tempted to put them in cages to tame them and hold them. But we barely have enough money to feed ourselves and the three furry friends. I don’t need to start a colony of more pets. So the quandary stands. The only choice is to trap them then feed the chickens.

So this was Sunday, yeah the usual Zoom church and CBS Sunday Morning defined it for me, even though it’s been a long, long day since rooster crow time. Let’s hope tomorrow is kinder to all of us furry or not.

What Day Is It Anyway? is another blog prompt by Linda G. Hill in her words:

Why I’m writing this post:

Because if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.

I want everyone to know that you can start discussions with each other in the comments, and if you’d like to write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post, you can link to this one. Hashtag #WDIIA.

Let’s keep in touch!

One-Liner Wednesday A, Animals

Animals

(Kali, Teddy, and Rosey) Social Distancing on my bed while I get morning writing done.

This is how it started.

Then Rosey (you can barely see her but the blackness with the blue tag on the right) wanted to join.

Yep, that’s when they all got up and chased through the house.

 

 

One-liner Wednesday prompt hosted by Linda G. Hill

And that was the start of #A-to-Z Challenge.

 

 

What Day is it Anyway? Friday, March 27th, 2020

 

 

Food, Friends, Frustrations,

& UNFinished

Pixabay.com

How many of you are finding it hard to finish anything? I’ll raise my hand.

Sure the lack of things in stores added to the end of month lack of funds, make creative group cooking takes some of my time. In normal times I cook about once or twice a month for group meals. Now we need to make things like potato/beans/rice burritos. Today pressure cooker potatoes, and frozen asparagus, were my contributions. I had vegetarian bacon with mine, the guys added their own proteins like frozen chicken breast or tuna. In the old days, potatoes and beans and rice were only for the end of month eats. And though it is exactly that, by now, the potatoes would be sprouted. But since the shopping was done a couple days ago, these babies were gorgeous! I love using my pressure cooker as everything is done so fast and tasty. But I don’t feel like sharing my pressure cooker or special pans with just anyone. Wait. I need to restate this: I don’t want anyone to cook in it, or my special non-stick ‘tofu’ pan. I have shared things like that and ended up not having them after one use by someone in the house beside me. So call me selfish. At least I share the food I make in these special pans. But that means at this time I become a chef. Since standing in one spot is the hardest of exercises for me I made a bargain that the guys do clean up if I cook. That worked out just fine. Tomorrow spaghetti. No need for the pressure cooker. But the people here don’t seem to understand how to cook pasta. Being married to an Italian the first twenty years of adulthood, I have an advantage. Darn! Did I mention I hate cooking? I do like to eat, though so this is in self-defense.

~~~

After I had my food ready I was able to get on Zoom with my friends. I love our Friday ritual. The three of us chat like there’s no tomorrow. Oh, wait, say that isn’t so. But at our ages, and health restrictions, we need to embrace love fully!

~~~

Due to this:

My handwritten journal with day to day entries about the pandemic and how it applies to us, some of my knitting didn’t get done. But it is fun to write and kind of keep track and reflect the lows and lowers of something scary but bringing out the best in most people. Yes, I include those, too. But no projects got finished this week.

Embarrassingly, here are a few more reasons things didn’t get done:

Onnect

For some reason, that game can suck me in and hours later when I look up from my phone, nearly blind with daylight changed almost magically to night. Thoughts to self, Stop playing this game when there are so many things you need to do. I have this game on my tablet, too. The phone, though smaller, has better graphics. Still, addictive and dangerous to your eyes. Play at your own risk!

 

While I’m at it. Here are a few of my favorite games to play while listening to audible books (Outlander 5 is the longest book ever!) In general, these games are fun. But I hate how you need to be socially connected or have money to keep playing. At 2 or 3 AM I am trying to quiet my mind, not find friends! And I certainly can’t afford to pay for cartoon games!

Toon Blast

Toon Blast is probably my favorite of these in that I love the graphics, the cute cartoons, there is a little bit of a challenge and strategy to use, without making me nervous. When any of these games tell me I’m out of lives I just move on to another. I don’t care that lives will be restored in 20 minutes. I usually go away frustrated that I couldn’t keep working at it until I complete a level. In fact, sometimes I enjoy a level so much that I’d like to keep on long after I complete the goal. I just like watching the blocks fall away.

 

Toy Blast

Though a lot like Toon Blast, there are fewer chances to earn lives or coins within the game. I quit discouraged. I don’t play for the challenge or social status. I play to relax and have something to do with my hands while listening. I can’t knit that time of night as that is too much light for my hubby.

Merge Dragon

I just got this and have played only a couple nights. There is far too much to read, in tiny print past the time of glasses to make me happy about it. It’s interesting, though.

Fishdom

This one was over-advertised so I refused to get it for the longest time, even though watching fish swimming through tubes and not get eaten by the shark or burned by lava. Finally, I gave in. It isn’t the tubed fishy thingie. Instead, it is a connect three or more, like the blast games above. The part I like is the opening scene is an aquarium of fish that swim around and sometimes they actually chat with you. Since the goal for me is to help me get sleepy the aquarium is the best part.

There are other games, card games or Sudoku. I find the card games a bit boring after playing them most of my life in one form or another (like with real paper cards!) Sudoku can distract me from the story as I try to figure each puzzle out. During the day I will play different word games. I love them but I don’t get addicted. I can’t play them while listening to stories as the words distract from the words being spoken.

What helps me sleep the most?

Teddy on special blanket is leaning on my left shin.

and

Kali sleeping while leaning on my right thigh.

Best stress relievers ever!

So that’s my March 27, 2020 edition of What Day Is It Anyway? It is Linda’s prompt to help us all through this tough time.

Per Linda:

…if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are going to be hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.

What Day is it Anyway? Thursday, March 26th, 2020 — This and That Thursday

On Linda’s Page (prompter of What Day Is It Anyway?) she talked about not getting to sleep until the third hour. In comments, I mentioned how it isn’t fair that the senior hour for shopping is early mornings. That isn’t really fair and is assumptive of the rule-makers. (I do understand that the cleaning and shelving of products happen at night. Thank you shop-owners for being so kind. This is a life-long issue for me! A night owl by nature.) Though there must be seniors that are early birds, I would guess a lot of us fall into the tossing and turning and seeing holes in the ceiling and stars above, or mountains or monsters that are just clothes or bedding tossed on the corner chair or table–and those are the creative moments. Most of the tossing and turning is pain enhanced by what-ifs, worst-case scenarios, or guilts of what didn’t get done the day before, or that never-ending list of things that must be done tomorrow–which never get done. And we of the senior variety or high-riskers have the most to worry about.

And that leads me to the wake-up with a back story. It is a non-COVID19 story. <shock-face> One night a month or so ago I was rolling over in my sleep. I grabbed the blanket to cozy in. My hand felt crusty-gooeyness. Yuck! I was so sleepy I wanted to ignore it. But YUCK! I’m sure it was upchuck! So I got up and removed said blanket, washed my hands and donned another blanket with a note to myself to keep the cats off my bed. Yeah. That’s gonna happen!

Solution: I found an old pink blanket to put on top of my regular covers. My day starts with me waking because two cats are lying on my up facing side (I sleep on my side) while Kali is curled up near my tummy. I wake because I know that this cozyish moment could turn into World War III including teeth and claws if I don’t get ahead of the situation.

I get up. I yell, “Everyone out of the pool, now!” I do the fastest bedmaking because Teddy is impatient to get the special blanket. Which comes next. It is an old pink blanket. Though thin, it should protect a little against possible crusties. Teddy seems to smile at me and steps right on it and curls up with a sigh that says, ‘Finally!’

As the morning moves on one becomes two as Rosey joins him. These two can be the worst of enemies but it is obvious they like to be together.

 

 

In other news:

I love it when my nails get this long.

There are things you can do with nails that you can’t without. Like a good back-scratching. And they make my fat fingers look nicer. But regardless of the science that says nails stay cleaner when they are short, I tend to disagree. See how clean these sweeties are? When I have short nails, the free-edge gets blackish with dirty, greasy, grimey, crud. I use the brush and have to scrub harder. Without nails, there are things I can’t do with nails, like rub my face. It’ll be nice not to scratch my eyeballs! Though we are advised to keep them short during the pandemic, this is the stage I have to cut anyway–rebel much?–because they break down below the quick. That hurts! So bye, bye nails!

Guess what. I know it is Thursday because last night was Chicago Med, Fire, PD or the Josh Gates shows which are on at the same time so we watch them on the weekends.  I love C. Med. I like C. Fire. I tolerate C. P. D. I love all the Josh Gates shows. I will share the trailers in a moment. I just wanted to finish my thought, it is Thursday and we already took out the trash for tomorrow! Now the trailers.

 

I think of Josh as another of my sons, in fact, he looks and has similar humor to my step-son, so I love him! And I think the shows are very exciting while being educational.

I know. I just noticed this is two trailers from the same show. He has other shows but I didn’t want to wear you out with YouTubes–no, more like, I didn’t want to wear me out looking them all up. Sorry. <–I wanted to say, ‘My bad’ but I hate that phrase!

And now, for no particular reason, a picture of Kali. I think she wanted equal time with the cats starring on this one. Sorry that you had to see the (cleanish except for the cats’ scratchpad cardboard flakes) piddle pad and her ‘hide the biscuits’ (really dog treats not the other) towel. But hey, there’s Pictionary!

Gotta love that face!

😍😘🥰🤗

How is your day going? I hope you are all staying safe and well! Enjoy the close you can get or the internal reflections that can bring you peace, hope, and love. Whatcha cooking? Today we are having Lana Burritos.  Leftover beans and rice with smashed (pressure cooker) potatoes.