Talking To Each Other in Everyday Ramblings

There were no cancer cells in Diego’s biopsy. He does have something unusual going on in his pancreas and has thickening and inflammation in his intestines so the diagnosis for now is chronic Irritable Bowel Disease. It could be caused by any number of things, allergies, genetics, a combination. I now have him on chicken flavored oral steroids and need to organize a ride to the vet to get some injectable B-12.

Oh joy, more cat shots. I did it with Sammy, and it isn’t near as bad as giving fluids every day. I am skipping the actual surgical exploratory option. We’ll see if this makes the little guy feel better. It is certainly making him hungrier.

After a firm follow-up phone call yesterday to the property management company to calmly express my displeasure, a knowledgeable handyman showed up late yesterday afternoon to take a look at my heat unit. It is the first time all year I think I have had a stranger in the house. We were both masked but still we were not six feet apart for most of his two visits as I was assisting.

He had to get overtime approved and go get a new unit and return, but he got it done! I have heat. It was apparently a worn-out thermocouple. He, also, with much standing on an overturned plastic milk box because he said the step ladder was too heavy, replaced both of my smoke detectors and we ended up replacing the batteries in the carbon monoxide detector as well. It was quite an adventure and I learned a lot.

Including the fact that I was coveting a power screwdriver with a flashlight built in like his. Hey, as a woman I can have tool envy too, ya’ know.

He made a couple of comments when we were talking about security around the building and the situation folks are finding themselves in that were so kind and compassionate, I was touched. It was unexpected. A truly nice guy, that for all I know is a Trump voter. He fit the profile.

People, we need to talk to each other not just express opinions. It is so hard with physical distancing…

Thursday, I had a fun walk with Charity across the river into a neighborhood I have only wandered through a couple of times. We had to drive part of the way because we have run out of places to walk to from here that are novel. She finally admitted that she is not interested in walking in the woods. She was determined to park in the huge convoluted cemetery on our side of the river and walk over the new Sellwood Bridge. It was a hoot. We did see a bald eagle near the river, gliding gliding.

Just after we turned into a residential neighborhood, we spotted an amazing array of dahlias in a circular front side garden open to the sidewalk. We were discussing petal shape and color and inching closer to the bed when the gardener herself addressed us from an appropriate distance from behind a back half-fence.

We had this 20 minute engagement with her ranging from tulip bulbs, the fact that she was a retired elementary school teacher originally from New York, 73 and her husband is a long term recovered alcoholic and she still goes to Al anon meetings online, the name of her Feldenkrais teacher, her miracle hibiscus and the fact that she had dinner guests coming and needed to finish up cleaning the back yard. Her garden is fabulous, she has been at it for 30 years.

I was impressed at how resilient she is with shoulder issues and sciatica. As Charity said there was nothing of the victim about her, only this burbling joy in life.

And can I just say Charity is an amazing judge of character. She knew the gardener was a schoolteacher; she knew what part of New York she was from. She reads people as if they were broadcast signs. She is way more interested in them than I admit I am. Although this is a woman who got so excited about learning about these amazing Indian Malabar giant squirrels that she stood outside my window when I was teaching Wednesday night and waved wildly at me because she wanted to share.

By the way, those squirrels are amazing. Snopes says they are real. How can you resist a feathery blue tail? Even in a rodent.

Oh, and if looking at crazy natural adaptations are not your thing may I recommend Fable the Raven. We are all in love with her. You can search for her on YouTube. She has a wide vocabulary and speaks with an English accent.

Charity was wondering if she moved to America would she lose it.

Naw. Boop Boop Wow.

Last updated October 18, 2020