Late Thursday Snapshot

Took PG to the area hospital this morning for a follow-up visit.  The appointment was for 8:30, but the woman at the window warned us he was running 15 minutes late.  Around 9:15, she was at last called in.  While we waited, we played the New York Times Spelling Bee, working on the last half-dozen words of the day's puzzle.  

Nothing but Bluesky

Actually, the code came through two weeks ago, only it was in a mailbox I don't often check.  But the code was still good, so Hello World.

 

Reading out loud

From CBSNews.com.  I’m pretty sure they mean “voraciously”, not “vociferously”.

Fenek

I'd been thinking about doing this next, and tonight was the first time I tried.  I started the phone in video mode, recording myself walking to the sofa and musing that it would be so nice if I had a cat on my lap.  

I pointed the camera toward the chair behind which Good Queen Swirly sleeps, and for several seconds nothing happened.  Then she emerged onto the hearth, and I kept her in the shot as she walked across the coffee table and climbed onto the fleece blanket I'd put over my lap.  

Camera was vertical as she approached, but switched to horizontal when she lay down.  I can do better, I thought while petting her and switching on the TV.

The phone rang, and the screen showed a familiar name.  Only one guess:  the cat I was sponsoring had died.  PG picked up and called to me, but Swirly didn't move, and I didn't want to hear the news anyway.  PG came downstairs with the phone and handed it to me, Swirly still didn't move, and KJ gave me the sad story and cried.  

Fenek was OK on Sunday, no better or worse than other recent visits.  He got up and walked away from a child who was petting him, and jumped onto my lap to the delight of everyone else in the room.

Today his heart gave out.  

He was a good cat.  

I think I can be forgiven for a few days of sertraline about now.  

After

The landscaping project that began in May came to an end today.  The neighbors must be overjoyed that the house near them doesn't look shabby anymore.  But the delays, as frustrating as they were, helped us accumulate the money to pay for it without taking out a loan.  

It's not just the cost of a house, it's the upkeep.  Last year, a new HVAC system.  This year, landscaping.  Next year, hoping to have engineered wood floors installed downstairs.  The front lawn needs to be improved, up to the same quality level of the landscaping.  (The back yard is different.  I want a small meadow of wildflowers surrounded by natural area plants.)  The driveway has one large crack completely across it and smaller ones starting along the edges.  And don't get me started on the windows and the roof.  But we're not planning on moving out, so we need to make sure it stays livable.

Two things

I was listening to Kaleidoscope, a radio program I'd listened to when I was growing up 50 years ago.  Today's show recalled highlights in the life of Edward R. Murrow.  He died at age 57 of lung cancer, the fate of many heavy smokers, when I was 9.

Kaleidoscope used the quote in the screen shot above, a quote I'd never heard.  I typed it in a text editor and saved it while some music played between audio paragraphs of the program, then searched for it online.  

Not only did the search turn up the quote, but I was able to download a PDF of the book it came from, Prime Time: The Life of Edward R Murrow.  I would have been happy with a simple citation, confirming that I'd transcribed it correctly, so acquiring the book about the journalist who did so much in the 1940's and 1950's was an unexpected added benefit.  Being able to do that in an instant, using the internet as an enormous reference library, leaves me mentally in monosyllables:  "Wow."  

It struck me that's how I write, too.  Until I heard that quote, I hadn't thought about it in those terms.  But the writing I've done for Tabby's Place, the descriptions of cats for the website and the correspondent letters for the special needs cats, it has been dependent on observing the cat and its surroundings.  If I witness it, I can describe it.  Making stuff up isn't the way I work.  

Begging off the question

Sounds like a gag setup to me.  "What happens when you cross the Taiwan Strait with the U.S. Navy?"  

"You get a ..." (If I come up with a punchline, you'll be the first to know.)

Shopping alone, eating together

PG wasn't 100% today, so I did the shopping by myself.  There was cat food at Petsmart, bird food at Wild Birds Unlimited, and more bird food plus cat litter plus a prescription for PG at Walmart.  Then in mid-afternoon, she felt better and we had an early supper at Longhorn Steakhouse.  

Cheat Day

Breakfast was mini-wheats and juice, lunch was Crispix, supper was skinless chicken breast, mashed potatoes and corn with lemonade.  That part's OK, and eating sensibly like that is why I'm 20 pounds lighter than I was in early July this year.  

Then there were the between-meals calories and the after-meals calories.  The better part of a six-ounce bag of pistachios.  The rest of the Tootsie Pops I bought yesterday afternoon.  A bottle of Mexi-coke.  And, after a pause of some four months, I made chocolate chip cookies and ate four of them.  That has to be a one-time aberration.  Back on the wagon tomorrow.  I don't like feeling that I am unable to control what I eat.

A forgettable day

Woke up at 3:45 and couldn't get back to sleep.  Ended up on the sofa downstairs, listening to H.V. Kaltenborn describe the events of December 7, 1941.  At last, nodded off from 6:30 to 7:30, then got up, showered, and began the workday in the spare bedroom that serves as my WFH office.

Landscapers have been stripping away the old overgrown greenery, preparing to plant the new stuff.  Snapped some for-the-record pictures of the yard late in the afternoon today.  (That's where the wild radish came from.  It's about two feet from the wheelbarrow containing the workmen's tools.)

Drove PG to her physical therapy just before noon, dropped her off and took a walk around the parking lots of the medical facilities in the area.  That consumed 15 minutes, meaning I still had a half-hour or more before PT was done for the day.  I drove to the shopping center a mile or two further south, picking up a bagel and then going next door to the Dollar Tree.  

I had a bottle of cleaning liquid and was checking out the remaining Halloween special Tootsie Pops (9 in a package for $1.25 instead of the usual 6) when my phone rang.  PG wasn't feeling well and the therapist had recommended going to the doctor for a professional opinion.  I got back as fast as the traffic would allow.  

Symptoms had eased, but only a little, when Dr. V entered.  He prescribed rest and asked her to keep track of her vital signs over the weekend, then let him know on Monday.  No increase in meds or additional ones until then.  Conservative with the medications, which both PG and I appreciate.  

After we got back home, I realized I wasn't wearing my wedding ring.  I know I had it when I left, and I knew I didn't have it now.  Not in the car, not in the drawer where it usually is stored.  I tried retracing my steps and phoning the places I'd been.  The PT staff member was willing to help, more so than the person who picked up the phone at Dollar Tree, but no one was reporting that a ring had been found.  Stressed, I downed a 16-ounce Pepsi and ate five of the 9 Pops over the remainder of the day.  

I found the ring on the floor beneath my chair at the kitchen table.  Still don't know whether I'd dropped it, or whether I'd put it on the table and it had found the floor because of the actions of a Good Cat.  

Around 7:00, I booted up the TiVo and picked up where I'd left off in Bells Are Ringing.  My little cat joined me on the sofa, and I quickly laid a soft blanket over my legs so she would be comfortable.  I don't know whether she napped, but moments into the movie, I dropped off and didn't reawaken until close to 8:00.  That's why I'm still awake in the final minutes of Thursday.  

Volunteer in purple

Raphanus Sativus, but you can just call it a wild radish.  It's sprung up just off the deck, right under the downspout from the roof of the deck.  There's decent soil and plenty of water for a volunteer to thrive.  

Moxie

Years ago, I went to Knoebel's amusement park, and on the way home stopped at a store where I found a soft drink named Moxie in the refrigerator case.  I'd heard of the stuff, and this was the first time I'd seen it.  I bought a bottle and took a sip.  Then another.  Then I poured out the rest down the drain.  I decided it reminded me of "carbonated liniment."

I forget when and where specifically I saw this next, but in a recent web story, the author described Moxie as "carbonated cough syrup."  Yeah, that too.  Neither one is palatable, but I still prefer to use liniment, both for the old-fashioned word and for the taste that implies this stuff shouldn't be consumed orally.

Ding Dong School - NBC - November 17, 1954

YouTube has multiple examples of early television that were before my time, but I still heard about them in my childhood.  Only now am I getting to see shows like Kukla, Fran and Ollie (I knew the song "Here We Are Again" but not until now did I know it was the theme from KFO) and Ding Dong School.  Miss Frances puts me in mind of Fred Rogers in her warm, patient delivery, although without the unconditional positive regard of Mr. Rogers for the very young viewer. 

Of course, there was no PBS back then, and even non-commercial NET was just getting started in 1954, so the show was sponsored, in this case by Ovaltine.  When she slides from the program into the commercial with barely a pause, she uses the same warm tone of voice that signifies she's telling the little members of her audience about another Good Thing.  At least Paul Harvey put a "Page Two" between the content and the sponsor's message.

Easy Come...

Medical:  A cat bit my hand and the bite area became infected.  A bill from the doctor, and a larger one from the x-ray place.

Dentist:  the cleaning and x-ray were covered, but they found the oversensitive area I felt on the lower right, and that re-filling cost me.

Car:  Registration for 2 years.  Inspection and emissions.  And since the car is five years old, a replacement battery.  Because there's a start-stop feature that can pause and re-start the engine at a full stop, the battery is more expensive.  

All that in the past month.  "Save your money -- you're going to need it."  Paul Hemphill, 1980 or so.  You bet I remembered it all these years.  He was right, and he still is.