Oliver, as tiny as he was, left a big gap in the household. Even as late as Thanksgiving, I was still having nightmares about him.
One day, checking out Pet Supplies Plus next to the DaVita Bellemeade facility, I heard a familiar sound. Having gone into the store once before, I thought they only sold dog and cat supplies, but when I walked to the very rear, there, up over my head, were two small cages with about ten budgies total in them.

Over the month of December, I was in there once, maybe twice a week. There was a yellow adult female and the rest appeared to be juveniles with baby stripes down to their ceres. There was one problem: I'm 5'2" and these budgies were literally over my head. I wanted to see them close up. But I had three I had my eye on even from my lowly viewpoint: a yellow and olive-green one with very dark wings, a lighter yellow and green one (marked sort of the way Bandit had been), and a blue one with a white face. I was avoiding the very last, because I didn't want a budgie that looked so much like Oliver. I was worried that my memories of Oliver would overwhelm the new bird.

Finally, today I walked into the store and told the friendly employee who greeted me about my problem. He got permission for me to stand on a store stool and there I could look all those cute little budgie faces in the eye. It was warm and I was wearing my sun hat, and the birds looked a bit askance at it, but none of them was  panicked. I talked to them awhile, and it turned out that the blue one with the white face was the most curious. I was nervous as I paid my bill up front, and talked to the little guy all the way home.

I had already scrubbed out the cage and under the cage two weeks earlier. I filled the food and water containers, and then took the little fellow out of his cardboard carry box. He actually sat in my hands for a few minutes and let me scratch him under the chin before I put him in the cage. And then, to start him out on the right foot, I put on some Christmas music for him.

I said nothing to James until he had gotten to the top of the stairs, then commented, "You might want to check out things to your left." He blinked and looked searchingly at the bookcase, the secretary, the bird cage...and then smiled and said, "Well, hi, there!" The bird blinked back.

I'd thought about names even before I went to the store. When I got him home, he felt brave enough to pipe up a succession of baby chirps, and I remembered Disney's Piper, the short about the sanderling chick who learns not to be afraid of the water. What better for this piping fledgling but Piper?

[Later: I'm bringing this one up right. He's already watched Law & Order, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and sang along to the theme music!]

Labels: birds, budgies

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:09:00 PM

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James had dialysis two days in a row this week. Since Christmas fell on a Wednesday this year, and they obviously didn't want to take the dialysis patients away from their own celebrations, they scheduled James for Monday and Tuesday dialysis. Monday went fine. I bought last minute foods at Kroger and made gravy with boneless pork ribs for Christmas Eve dinner. James watched Landman and Battlebots on his tablet.

Tuesday seemed to go as well. James had dialysis. I did some last-minute grocery shopping. We had spaghetti and pork ribs and watched The Homecoming and some of Midnight Mass.

We had plans with friends for Christmas which went down the drain on Wednesday morning. After making and eating breakfast and post gift opening, James suddenly got lightheaded and giddy. It happened twice. His blood pressure was something like 83 over 45. I looked it up and this often happens after consecutive dialysis sessions. So we rustled the emergency turkey out of the freezer, paired it with Yukon Gold potatoes, and a cucumber salad, and had a Christmas dinner on our own after giving James some salt and more liquid, and we both had a nap. Then we watched this year's Call the Midwife special, which was fabulous; there were several intertwined plotlines, including a tense but sweet incident involving Reggie, the young man with Down Syndrome.

Before bed, it was time for The House Without a Christmas Tree. A quiet ending to a quiet day.

Thursday we had a better day: James was feeling much better and we drove out to Books-a-Million and then had lunch at Brooklyn Joe's. We got a large pizza and once again brought half home. [Later: We had it as another meal several days later.] On the way home we stopped at Barnes & Noble.

Early Friday morning we got a call from DaVita. They were shortstaffed and couldn't accommodate James at Bellemeade that day. They had found a seat for James either that afternoon in Hiram at three or Saturday in Douglasville at 10:15. We chose Hiram even though it was a chilly, wet day because Douglasville was just too far to drive. However, getting there at three meant James wouldn't be out any earlier than 6:30. It's only fourteen miles, but it would be in the dark. I wasn't driving back that distance in the dark. Driving the two miles to the one near the house had been bad enough. So I basically packed up the laptop and planned to spend most of my time in the lobby waiting for James.

We got there and they were slammed. Two ambulances delivered patients that they weren't ready for yet. One of the ambulances would have to wait until 3:45 and they were expected in Douglasville at 4 p.m. and the driver was fit to be tied. Anyway, after 45 minutes they finally called James back.

I took the truck back down a mile and gassed up at Sam's Club. I have never seen that Sam's gas station when it wasn't five to eight cars deep at each pump! Today, only ones and twos--maybe the damp, chilly weather? Next I went to the next shopping center over, got some candy and a cool gift at Five Below, then went to Michael's.

If you're not looking for anything on clearance after Christmas, Michael's has to be the most depressing place on earth. I did get James a storage box. Went next door to PetsMart to get cheered up only to find all their budgies gone and one poor little lone conure left; I feel bad that I didn't stay longer and keep him company.

Finally I bit the bullet and went to Walmart because I was out of yogurt soon, then went back to DaVita. The Hiram location is in an area with all doctors' and dentists' offices (except for a gym) and parking was wide open.

The waiting area at the Hiram DaVita had a lot comfier chairs, at least (Bellemeade has nasty bucket chairs). They had a sofa, but there was no electrical plug at either end, and my laptop is old enough that the battery only lasts about an hour. There was a plug at a chair next to the Christmas tree, so I sat there. (No one turned on the Christmas tree, either, so I did that, too!)

James got home way after seven, at which time it was raining lightly. We stopped by Dragon 168 and had Chinese for dinner.

On Saturday we didn't do a blessed thing except I made a meat sauce so we could have spaghetti for dinner and Tucker got his two daily walks. Watched season one of Law & Order on Hulu (this began on December 16 and I've been looking forward to it, because as many times as I've seen the show on USA, WEtv, Pop, BBC America, and Sundance, I've never seen them in order and, indeed, have actually never seen some episodes at all, as first season proved), and then the final three episodes of Bull. I liked this series pretty well; it was enjoyable watching most of the characters grow and change, especially Chunk and Dani and Taylor. Jason Bull himself wasn't the most likeable character, but Michael Weatherly made him fun to watch. My absolute favorite character in the series was Geneva Carr's Marissa Morgan. It was nice to see her get her due in the final episode of the series.

On Sunday we found out that Jimmy Carter had passed away. Of all the presidents, I think he has had the most notable post-presidential career, and was just all around Good Folks. God bless, President Carter. You're back with Rosalynn at last.

Labels: Christmas, errands, events, food, health, outings, sickness, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:52:00 PM

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Sigh. James' restless legs have done it again. Now he's torn a hole through the dark blue sheets. So I had to go to Walmart on Monday to buy new sheets because I needed a bottom sheet, and had to change the bed again, although I just changed it yesterday. Plus Walmart's "hotel quality" sheets aren't as good as when I bought the first two sets a couple of years ago: they now have a satin quality that, even with the deep corners and thick elastic band on the bottom sheet, makes the sheet slips on the mattress (and I can't find my sheet "garters," even though I know I still have them). Plus they no longer label the "top/bottom" on the bottom sheet so you know the short end from the long end. Faugh.

On Tuesday we were thinking of going to Canton, but we simply just went to Woodstock and had breakfast at the IHOP. Do you know they no longer have silver dollar pancakes for adults anymore? You can only get them on the children's menu now! The waitress was really sweet and said she would say I was ordering a short stack, but ask the cook to make me silver dollars instead. Except the cook didn't and I got the short stack, but the waitress talked to the manager and they gave me a complementary order of silver dollar pancakes! We tipped her really well and, as I could barely get through the short stack, brought the silver dollars home. [Later: We had them for breakfast Christmas Day!]

Wednesday I finally gave Tucker a bath. He was overdue for one when he got so sick last month.

On Thursday something baffling happened. We went to see Dr. Ahmad at the Doctors Building at Emory St. Joseph. This was basically a waste of our time as we had already seen Drs. Hobson and Keel; all he said was that he concurred with their diagnosis. (Well, if we could, we'd get it done, because now Dr. Keel is saying James needs a current echocardiogram because he hasn't had one since 2022. That is bullshit because he had one in the hospital in June when his kidneys failed and another either in July or in August. [Later: it was August.])

Anyway, when we left the Emory garage, the power chair was fine. The back was folded down. We left the garage, paid the attendant, the barrier came up, and we were on our way. We made the mistake of going to the Trader Joe's on Roswell Road rather than our usual Trader Joe's at Market Square. There was intense road construction right before Roswell, and we had to inch along for what seemed like ages. I went in by myself to get more orange chicken and other Christmas goodies that will disappear on December 26. This is a big open parking lot, no overhangs. Then we went to Kaiser Cumberland to pick up some prescriptions for James. Again, big open parking lot, no overhangs.

When we got home, the head rest of the power chair (remember, the back of the chair was folded down so it was over the seat) was bent 45 degrees. This headrest support is made from steel.

All James can figure is that when we went through the exit gate at Emory, it somehow caught on the head rest and bent it. How? We don't know. Why wasn't the rest of the chair damaged? Dunno, but thank goodness it wasn't!

Saturday we were planning to go out, but James didn't sleep during the night, so we slept late and had Zaxby's for supper and watched Christmas stories. Sunday we did go out, then went to Big Lots because we heard they were going out of business. The line was very long, but the two cashiers were very efficient. We got some cool bargains.

I'm bummed with Big Lots going out of business, though. Where will I get my shampoo now?

Labels: chores, Christmas, doctors, events, food, health, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:43:00 PM

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We had fun with friends this week; yes, these days it's such a rarity that I have to headline it. On Saturday we went to Hair Day, although we were the only ones there except for John Campbell. So we had some quality time with Ron and John while Sherii clipped hair. The house seems so large and echoing without Lin there. It must be so hard for Ron, still cherishing the house they shared but living with the silence.

Went home to wrap gifts and then had Game Night at the Lawsons. I was still feeling a bit sad from the morning and preferred to spend the evening talking with Jerry, David, and John Bouler rather than game playing. Alice and Ken couldn't come because poor Ken had another kidney stone. We munched on pizza and came home with enough leftovers to have pizza for another meeting.

Wednesday was my 69th birthday. I'd like to say I did something really special, but I didn't. I hit a couple of stores, but the most important thing I did was go to Drivers' Services and renew my driver's license. Because I was over 65, it said I had to go into the office and have an eye test. I had an eye test in May and tried to send them the info, but I apparently didn't have the correct info.

Well, to my surprise, it took me exactly one hour and one minute, per Life360! Now, we're only four miles from the Drivers' Services building, so that was no problem. I took my iPad with me, but I hardly had a chance to look at it. I got the friendliest clerk, who noticed it was my birthday, and she was nice to talk to, and then it was done. I had a paper license to carry until I get the new license.

Did manage to put up the 1940s Christmas village, minus the Christmas tree lot, and a bit squished together, on the mantel shelf rather than on the longer board that usually goes on the mantel shelf. Strung line for the Christmas cards under the mantel shelf (the rest of the cards went on the medial bookcase) and brought up the stuffed Max and Rudolph and the Charlie Brown tree (missing the red ornament to dangle on it) to sit on the hearth with Rusty the deer in a Christmas bauble collar.

Finally did put up a Christmas tree: I used the new tree I bought for the library, the four-foot tree. I decorated it only with the glass ornaments that came in boxes (the satin balls, the holly balls, the old McCrory's ornaments, the "snow dusted" red ornaments, etc. and a few of the cellophane wrapped "presents" and two pine cones. I put "Little Blaze" the star at the top and tinseled the whole thing in layers of icicles. It was set on a temporary circular table with a silver tree skirt I found at Hobby Lobby for half price, with the manger set underneath. I managed to crowd most of the manger pieces on the table or in the stable itself, but five figures didn't fit, so I tucked a small teak table that sits in that corner all year under the circular table and covered it with the tree skirt and put the remaining five figures (two wise men, a camel driver, a camel, and the boy piper) on that. It gave the whole thing a nice 3D look, and then the wrapped gifts went around the base of the table.

In annoying medical news, James went to see Dr. Keel, the guy who's supposed to do the "cement." Look, I'm glad this dude is being careful. I don't want him "just winging it" on this procedure. But now he's saying we need permission for James to go off his blood thinner for a week. Until he gets that, no treatment. Sigh.

Did a whole bunch of usual chores this week. Braved Walmart for yogurt, since neither Kroger nor Publix carry my flavor any longer. (Food Depot doesn't, either. I checked. We don't have an Ingles close by.)

James got an early seat at dialysis on Friday, and got approved for an earlier seat starting Monday. 10:30 is too early, but it's better than my picking him up after dark.

Labels: birthday, chores, Christmas, Christmas decorations, friends, games, health, illness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:00:00 PM

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Well, it was a bad week for medical solutions for James.

Dr. Connally was very firm that she wanted James to undergo some kind of aquatherapy, so on Tuesday we went to the place where he would have the therapy. This turned out to be a swanky retirement home that included a fancy dining hall with white tablecloths, flowers on the table, and Muzak; a little coffee shop type place, meeting rooms, a big gym, and a huge pool with a lift.

The therapist was very nice and said because James had trouble walking he would probably be better off going to their other location (on Dallas Highway) because their pool has only stairs and the Dallas Highway pool has a ramp. She said she was very confident that, especially once James had the "cement" in his vertebrae, the aquatherapy would help him regain some mobility.

Except he can't have the aquatherapy now because he has the permacath and it might get wet, even though he's only going into the pool waist-high. Which we kinda figured.

Then we saw Dr. Connally on Thursday. She was pissed off that James hadn't had the "cement" yet, as she had ordered that something be done immediately. James thought she was being unrealistic.

I've managed to rouse minimal interest in decorating for Christmas inside this week. On Wednesday I cleaned out the foyer of Thanksgiving decorations, ditto with the dining room and other bits of upstairs, and then later in the week did the foyer, and then the gingerbread-and-candy cane kitchen decorations and the dining room old-fashioned feather tree and the "1910 tree." I put up what was left over in the dining room boxes on the media bookcase in the living room.

In useful things, I got and used bolts to fix the hand truck (the last time I tried to use it, a whole bolt and nut were missing—how?—and another bolt was missing its nut), and also dropped off two full shopping bags of toys for Toys for Tots. I cleaned my desktop keyboard. I got my car inspected so I could renew my registration.

I've tested out the Christmas tree; there are still lights out on it. I don't feel like putting it up at all.

Labels: chores, Christmas, Christmas decorations, donations, exercise, health, illness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:32:00 PM

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Tucker did have the ultrasound to make sure he had nothing nasty going on inside him on Monday. He passed with flying colors.

Next day and on Wednesday James had doctors' appointments, podiatry on Tuesday and cardiologist on Wednesday.

We had a dinner invitation for Thanksgiving Day, but it was across town and we would have to drive home in the dark. Instead we spent Thanksgiving on our own; we made extra turkey so we could have leftovers (and indeed, we ended up eating turkey for weeks). With carrots and stuffing it was a sufficient dinner, and we watched most of the Macy's parade and the National Dog Show.

At night we got a treat: Lower Decks! Alas, the final season.

We were able to go to Second Thanksgiving, as we call it, at Alice's house. Juanita made a killer turkey and Kayla brought an even more killer ham. The company was even better than the food, even if I've been suffering from a lack of sleep.

All this was beside the point. We had gotten a call from James' sister some days ago. Her husband had been cleaning up some debris left over from Hurricane Helene and hurt himself. He was taken to the hospital to get checked out. The doctors found a virulent cancer throughout his body and gave him days to live.

He died on November 27.

They told my sister-in-law that the cancer was so aggressive that if they had taken the same tests in September, it would not have shown up.

Today I put up the outdoor lights and the candoliers, but I hardly feel like Christmas this year. I'd prefer to crawl under a blanket and forget about it.

Labels: Christmas, Christmas decorations, death, dogs, family, food, friends, pets, Thanksgiving

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:00:00 PM

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