Not for me

 I actually know a couple of people who would like eggnog flavored jelly beans. Maybe I'll get them some. With my daughter it would be dill pickle flavored.  She is everything dill pickle.  No, she isn't expecting.   I was shopping a couple of weeks ago and texted her to ask her if she needed anything and she replied back "Dill pickles!"  I put the phone away and said "At least she didn't add chocolate ice cream."  I searched to see if that combination was still associated with pregnancy and did not find anything. I did see lots of dill pickle flavored ice cream, though.  I had to quit reading.  I haven't had my coffee, yet.

Haven't doesn't look right.  Cripes, neither does doesn't!  Maybe I need to go back to bed.

I've been up for over 2 hours because of a coughing fit.  Well, I'm sure my daughter is going to be after me today to go to stat care. I'd much rather wait and contact my doctor tomorrow.  I thought I was getting better because the cough became productive instead of dry hacking but no - the coughing fits continue. In fact one is beginning right now.  I think I got overheated.  

In sickness and in death... oh wait - or is it health?

 I think I have only been prescribed an inhaler about four times in the past 30 years or so.  I always forget how to use them.  I was reading the instructions and it was telling me to prime the device. I kept trying but I never saw any mist. Meanwhile, the count ticker kept going down.  Finally, I moved on to the next step.  It was then the instructions informed me that I had to turn the device upside-down to inhale.  Why the hell didn't they tell me that I needed to do that to prime it?  I was spraying it like a room deodorizer.

I am sick. Very sick.  Not been this sick in years.  My cough is so bad I choke and can't breathe.  I had a follow up appointment at my doctor's office when this cough first began.  She prescribed Tessala pearls. They did absolutely nothing and my cough became much worse. I texted my doctor and she then prescribed an inhaler and prednisone.  That was last week.  I can't sleep.  Of course the holiday messed things up and I can't text the doctor any longer. It is all I can do to talk my daughter out of making me go to stat care.  I don't want to go to stat care.

If I am not coughing, I am fine. I can do anything (a bit tired, but that is every day all year long for me any more) that I normally do.  For some reason I don't feel like they want to prescribe an antibiotic. Which is fine by me but I keep hearing others are getting better a lot quicker with their scripts of an antibiotic. It's like my doctor and her associates just came back from a "How antibiotics are harming the human race" seminar or something.

Giving thanks. I am thankful that I have the ability to tell family that I choose NOT to go anywhere for Thanksgiving dinner.  I come from a super large family and I've had so many dinners and get togethers to last me 10 lifetimes.  I ate chicken noodle soup on bird day.  The prednisone is making me super hungry but I have not been grocery shopping in ages so I am working with canned food. I usually fix a turkey dinner on Friday or Saturday or even Sunday because I do like the traditional meal that is normally served during the holiday. Not this year.  I have not seen a grocery store in over 2 weeks. I've not left the house in a full week.

I did want to go to calling hours this evening. A good friend of mine's husband passed. I met him once or twice. She is one of the ladies I worked with 40 years ago and we still try to get together once a month or every other month. I called her and gave her my condolences and let her know I was unable to make it but wanted to visit her soon and wanted some good husband stories.

Reading, reading more reading

 

I've read a couple chapters of the above book, but have not returned to it.  It bothers me too much. So, I got an autobiography of a celebrity - Sissy Spacek and am reading that instead. Much lighter reading.

Then I found a real time waster.  A jigsaw puzzle site.  jigsawplanet.com   It has replaced the Christmas Hangman game.  I mentioned before I can't just watch a TV show or a movie or video.  I end up putting a jigsaw puzzle together and just listening to a show.  Currently, there are not many tv shows on that I am interested in and I can't remember the last time I was on Netflix.  

Years ago I recall watching the original pilot of "Gilligan's Island" on YouTube.  Characters for the Professor, Ginger and Mary Ann were not the same ones they had on the show.  And the theme song was quite different - (with a Spanish accented singer).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx7A4sxJi7c

I'll keep reading bits of the above book until I get upset and then go to something lighter again just to even my mood out.  

I am also trying to get through "Endless Love" by Scott Spencer.  After I read the Lionel Ritchie autobiography I came across his famous song he wrote for the movie.  I don't recall reading if he read the book or not.  It is a bit of a different read.  Written in the late 60's I believe.  No, wait.  The story line is in the 60's but I think it was written in the 70's.  

I also have Apollo 13 online to read.  I am juggling 4 books.  My Mom was always reading 4 books at a time.  I also have a few magazines that I plan to read or browse through.  I'll probably ditch Endless Love and Apollo 13.  I don't seem to be going to them very often.

We saw a few spits of snow this evening.  Kind of a rain mix.  It was gray and dreary all day. I did my usual Sunday ritual.  Cleaning my plants and looking them over for white mold.  I started turning my desk fan so it blows over them to dry up the soil.  I read that the dampness can cause that white mold and to keep the air flowing around them.  Found absolutely nothing today.  

Taking Cheech to the vet tomorrow for an x-ray.  I think this might be all for him. He is not enjoying his life at all right now. Scratch that.  We are having him put to sleep tomorrow.  He is sixteen years old and he is miserable.  His new medication keeps him from crying in pain but he has no quality of life. He can't move. We have to turn him and prop him up to eat and drink.  He is still eating and drinking and usually I say if they are doing that then....sigh.  We have to carry him outside to do his business. Which today he did neither.  He was still urinating as of this morning. No BM for two days. I think he may be shutting down.

A very sweet dog

 This is our dog, Cheech.  The date on the photo is May 2015. I brought he and his brother Chong, home in the summer of 2009.  Some degenerate had left four puppies in a box at the end of a farmer's long driveway.  He had two left (both males).  When I went to pick them up, they were running around the patio at my sister's house and dodging in and out of the lawn chairs.  They were so darn tiny, we thought for sure they must be chihuahuas.  Even the vet when she first saw them said how tiny they were.  They grew to about knee high on me.  I almost called them Thing 1 and Thing 2 but Cheech and Chong popped into my head and over the past 16 years we have received several chuckles when we said their names.

Chong passed in 2024. Cheech isn't doing so well.  He was stiff a year or so ago and the vet prescribed carprofen.  That helped for a year as I have wooden floors and a tiled kitchen floor and he had trouble getting up.  He took a turn for the worse about a week ago.  The doctor added gabapentin. That just wiped him out so that he didn't even get up to go to the bathroom he just pooped in his dog bed.  Then he was in the kitchen getting a drink of water, turned around and fell. Then peed all over the floor as he lay there. My daughter and I gently cleaned him up and we have had to carry him outside three times a day to do his business.  He can stand for short periods and I have noticed he will move about 3 feet to another dog bed.  He will cry in pain if he can't turn over. He is eating and drinking water.

I have a message in to the vet and waiting for her answer.  She told my daughter if the gabapentin didn't work, she had one more thing to try but he would need to go off the carprofen.  If she needs me to bring him in, I will have to prepare myself for the worse.  Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.  She might just say there is nothing more that can be done.  At his age any surgery on his back would not benefit.  We are at the "quality of life" decision. My daughter pointed out that when it gets snowy and icy outside we will have a hell of a time carrying him outside to do his business. Sigh.  

After he goes, that leaves me with just my old dog Milton.  My daughter brought him home to me. He is an older rescue.  No idea how old he is but he has a lot of gray/white on his muzzle.  He has very short hair so I have sweaters for him to wear during the colder months.  Cheech and Chong had a super double coat of heavy fur.  My daughter and her husband have two big dogs downstairs.  And my cat Moses who I believe has always thought of himself as a dog.  Yesterday after caring for Cheech, Moses walked over and started making biscuits next to Cheech on the dog bed.  My cat has NEVER done this since I got him in 2018 as a baby kitten.  It was sad.  He always lays with Cheech or Milton and is very attached to them. 

*Making biscuits is a term used for when a cat kneads his paws onto something and looks as if he is kneading dough for bread or biscuits.  (From when they nursed off their mother and had to knead the area around where they suckled to keep the milk flowing). In 1982 I had a cat that would knead on my head. That just felt weird.

So, it won't be long now for Cheech.  I dream of having no pets so I can be free and come and go without worrying about feeding them or letting them out.  But, when I am in the house alone with no pets, I will hear all kinds of noises.  A dog will bark if somebody is close so I always knew if the dogs were sleeping and quiet everything was alright.  My imagination gets the better of me.