"Things"

Song of the day: “Things” by (originally anyway) Dean Martin and Nancy Sinatra. My head is alternating between that one and the one Robbie Williams did with Jane Harrick’s. Both are awesome.

Bad news first. Sonia, big brother’s Cocker Spaniel is not well as of yesterday. She didn’t get up during the course of the evening, was shaking, and when she finally did get up, she went straight through her legs, held her head at an odd angle, and seemed unable to hear us. This morning, it was only worse, so we left early and went right over to the hospital. The vet is ambivalent between a problem that can be caused by ticks, and a hernia of sorts, something for which she prescribed antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. I doubt this is it. In fact, I think she either had a spike in fever, or had some sort of stroke, but who am I, right?
Anyway, she’s not actually doing better now, but also not worse, so we’re just going to have to wait and see how it goes. We have agreed, however, that if she gets worse, we’re not going to drag this out for her. She’s and old girl, and she deserves to go without long days filled with pain, and with some dignity.

But alright. Time to get to yesterday. I woke on the late side, partly due to the fact that I’m constantly busy on the computer until way too late. It didn’t help that it was a restless night, with Knight II constantly pushing himself up against me. He is such a baby.

Had a wonderful panic attach that lasted through most of the day, yesterday. It’s been a while since I had that. Heck, except for the few incidents, it’s been years, in fact. I can’t say I liked it. From sheer frustration I decided to pound the kickboxing bag for a few minutes, to get rid of some of the tension at least. It calmed me down a little, at least.

I see you wondering. What the heck’s she been worrying about? I don’t really know, actually. The usual, maybe. Getting on in years and still not having achieved some of my goals? Could be. Money toils? Heck, who hasn’t got those. No reason to get a panic attack about that, darn it. The dogs getting on in years? Sure. But I worry ‘bout that a lot, and try to be realistic about that by seeing it as a good thing that the pack is slowly getting to be less in numbers. Let’s face it, if finances get worse, it is not a good idea to have as many dogs as we used to. I have to remind myself that it is a good thing that they are passing on, in particular since they have all led a wonderfully full life, and enjoyed it to the fullest…on the most part. No. this is not a good reason to have a panic attack either. I’m just going to dismiss is it as silly fears that have no place bothering me at this point in my life. I am doing the best I can, in the only way I know how, and that is all anyone can ever do. Right?

Had to go out for a small donation yesterday (that was after the usual chores, of course) and go over to a specific bazaar where we needed to get clamps for mom’s market stand. You know what I mean, right? One of those metal contraptions with fabric over it? All very professional, and most likely giving a rather quaint image. Hah. We’ll see how it goes on Saturday, when big brother and I use it in town for the new market we’re going to be trying out…if all goes as planned. We still have to hear from the person who owns the spot how and when we can use it.

Tomorrow, or the day after is going to be busy for me. I’ll be doing some experimenting in the kitchen. First of, I need to make that pumpkin chutney for Sunday. The lady who really liked it basically ordered a pot (let’s hope she turns up), and I’m going to try some others out as well. You never know, I might be onto something here. I’m going to try to just experiment and see if there is a market for it.

Had a talk with Sally yesterday. She’s having her ups and downs, being bothered by all sorts of discomforts, and is understandably concerned. There’s very painful cramping, for which we decided to try alcohol free beer. Since cramping is mostly caused by shortages in calcium (which she should have more than enough of due to milk products) and magnesium, it won’t hurt to try. Added to that, since grandpa is now regulating her medication (she can’t keep track of it herself anymore) he noticed that she is holding back on painkillers. It worried us a little, but she volunteered an explanation by telling me that when she’s not in pain she will postpone taking it until she really needs it. Phew.

Tenant has, it seems, reverted a little to her old ways now that her family is gone. Eating is a bigger problem again. In fact, she will say that she wants to eat pieces, but then when you give it, she doesn’t finish her plate. I’m afraid we’re going to have to go back to mashing it all.

Cooking these past two days involved mashed potatoes with baked carrots and broccoli today, and chili sin carne yesterday (I know, I should have added meat, but I couldn’t make myself, darn it) which went down well with a bunch of lentil burgers. Yay. Today’s desert was yogurt with cream. Hah.

Today was Spanish lesson day, of course. It didn’t go bad, despite the fact that I slept way too little (big brother was out and about with Sonia, and once I heard she was still doing bad, I couldn’t go back to sleep anyway). Didn’t get to bed until three, and was up before nine, darn it.
But anyway, Spanish didn’t go bad. We talked with our teacher (she works on a new technique that is based on what works best for her students. It is very intuitive, and unstructured, which works for big brother and me, I think.
Were a little late arriving at her place (due to Sonia) and had Knight along. It was rather hot, so he was more than a little fussy. With a little luck I’ll be able to leave him home again next week, because he disrupts lessons quite a bit. And what with the heat, I couldn’t leave him in the car.

Summer appears to have arrived, by the way. The clouds are pretty much gone, and the temps have peaked well into the eighties. Yay. With a little luck I’ll be cleaning the pool tomorrow morning, but it’ll depend on how things work out.

Once we got home today (which was late because we had to go to town for another pickup) I was so friggin tired, I decided to take a nap and literally passed out for an hour. Seriously, when Cousin Ed called me awake, I felt like I had to drag myself out of a near coma, for crying out loud. Jeez.

Edits. I did quite a bit on the paper edit, actually. I’m almost at a quarter now, so, Yay! Which reminds me. I better wrap this up so we can get started on applying the paper changes on the computer. Gotta go.