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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Empty. The house is empty, even though Ollie didn't chirp all that much in the beginning and didn't make many noises even when he was sick. No one to share my peaches and plums with. No one to eat out of my oatmeal spoon. "How quiet, how quiet the chamber is..."

It wasn't exactly the world's most sterling week otherwise. We saw a different vascular surgeon (Dr. Austin is off for two months) and apparently the fistula James was so proactive in having put in last August is not viable at all (Dr. Austin had the choice of his inside elbow joint and the wrist and he did the wrist because he said the vein was bigger, and now it seems the elbow joint should have been the place after all), so James will have to have fistula surgery again in September. Dr. Coyle said if the fistula won't work in the inside elbow joint, she will just do a graft instead, so he will have some sort of port besides the permacath in his chest which is Not Safe. (Ironically, the graft will be ready for dialysis before a fistula will be. But if he has the graft, he has two wounds to heal rather than one.)

And we spent the entirety of Saturday afternoon at Urgent Care because the Fosfomax they gave him last time we went there for a UTI did not work (I could have told them it wouldn't work; it never works). This time he has Augmentin.

The one good thing that came out of this week is that Bruno finally got off their duffs and the chair lift "actuator" arrived at Mobility Works on Monday. We dropped the pickup off there on Tuesday afternoon and it was fixed by Wednesday morning and James could finally wheel himself into dialysis.

I miss Oliver.

Labels: birds, events, health, pets, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:45:00 PM

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By this week, Oliver had turned into Beth March. He seemed sometimes to gain ground—once, for instance, we uncovered him and found him up on the high perch that both Snowy and Schuyler had favored—but despite the antibiotics and the anti-inflammatory, he never seemed to totally gain. I was losing him little by little as each day went by. I think he's been sick for so long that, like Beth, he just couldn't fight the tide going out any longer. He'll pretty much just sit in my hand and fluff up and sleep.

Tuesday I totally forgot the appointment with the vet wasn't until Thursday and took the poor guy all the way over to Vinings. Dr. Bostick wasn't even in the office, but the nurse tried to cheer me up. On the way home, as we were turning off South Cobb Drive, a big wedge of geese flew overhead, right over our heads, honking loudly. I told Oliver maybe someday he could fly with the geese.

He was so droopy Wednesday morning, plus he had fallen off his perch at one point (I put some hand towels at the bottom of the cage so he had a soft place to land), but after eating some millet and being vaporized he seemed to perk up. And then I took a nap and when I got up to dress to pick up James, he was doing badly again. He bobbled when he sat on his perch, and otherwise he's asleep or sort of out of it.

He was so bad by the time I had to leave I took him with me because I thought he was dying. Cuddled him for the rest of the night. Instead of letting him sleep in the cage, I put food and water in the carry box and covered him with facecloths and he slept on my night table Wednesday night. At six he fell off the perch and I had to cuddle him before putting him back in and going back to bed.

Our appointment was today at eleven and I knew what I had to do. Oliver went flying with the geese at about 11:30 a.m. Dr. Bostick took one look at him—but she didn't have to, I already knew. They were all really sweet once they saw how bad he was.

Fly, little one, second star to the right and straight on til morning.


My dad died on August 1 in 1985. God, I hate summer.

Labels: birds, budgies, death, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:46:00 PM

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Well, now I know I'm depressed between James' medical troubles and Oliver being sick: I took about an hour to myself on Monday, since I had to go to Kaiser after dropping James off at dialysis to pick up some meds for him, to go to Barnes & Noble to cheer up. It didn't work. I was totally miserable walking around, even though I did buy Leather and Lark and Ashley Poston's new book. If going to a bookstore can't cheer me up, how will I manage?

Something very odd happened Monday night. We buy snack cakes for desserts; you know, Hostess cupcakes, things like that. We had a box of Ding Dongs which we had already eaten two of the cakes. When I opened one for dessert and took a small bite of it, a terrible chemical smell came out of the cake, like...I don't know, like some kind of floor or counter cleaner. I opened the cake I was about to give to James and it had the same smell! I threw them both away, and Tuesday I was terribly sick, sleepy and nauseated and burping all day, so I just threw the rest of the box away, too. So glad I didn't ignore the smell and eat the whole thing, or let James eat it.

We had leftover turkey and rice for supper on Friday, and a good thing because dialysis caused us to be ready just in time for Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. Bon spectacle on the Seine for sure, although some stuff was just bizarre, like the decapitated Marie Antoinette projections. We were surprised at all the furor about "the Last Supper" because we watched the whole thing and never interpreted what happened in that manner. Later they explained this was a tribute to pagan gods or whatever? Ah, well, they're French after all. (Just kidding.) Anyway, I loved that they rang the bells of Notre Dame for the first time since the fire! Also the wonderful light show from the Eiffel Tower and the fact that the Olympic torch is actually a balloon in honor of the Montgolfier brothers! Enjoyed the fact that the countries' teams got to ride in boats down the Seine as well, but felt bad for everyone being drenched with rain.

I had no idea why Snoop Dogg was getting all this attention and Lady Gaga performing was okay, but Celine Dion singing was quite beautiful. I looked up the "stiff person" disease that she has and the symptoms sound gruesome, and even loud sounds can trigger an attack. I hope she was okay after the performance.

Saturday James got his new glasses. Finally! Costco was a mess to navigate on a Saturday.

I don't see any improvement in poor Oliver. He's asleep most of the time although he has been eating, and I've been vaporizing him every day. Sometimes I can get him to eat fruit or some oatmeal, but he is letting me cuddle him more and more, not because, I think, that he is getting used to me and likes it, but because he's just too worn out to fight back.

Labels: birds, books, budgies, food, Olympics, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:18:00 PM

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We are getting into the rhythm of the three-times-a-week dialysis, but still had a horrendous Wednesday.

It looks like Monday will be my day at Kroger, to pick up milk (alas, at a higher price than the Mableton Kroger) and yogurt, and burritos if needed (and of course I could always survey the manager's special meats). Maybe I can do Publix on Wednesdays.

Oliver went back to the vet on Tuesday. She said he's not worse, but not a lot better, but she stopped the medicine and asked me to just keep him warm and vaporized and encourage him to eat, and she'd see him in two weeks.

James has been doing well with José, the physical therapist. He is giving James exercises to take down the back pain and also a way of walking that helps his diaphragm expand properly. We also have Shanté (the occupational therapist), who comes once a week and gives him a different set of exercises.

Thursday we couldn't rest from our long, long Wednesday because we had to go to Costco in the afternoon to order James' new glasses. We also tried out the "new" gas station: they added four pumps so that now there are twelve—that Costco gas is always packed—and they also have lights on the uprights to tell you which pumps are occupied.

Wednesday was the real bear: James had another 7 a.m. chair so we could go to his afternoon eye appointment that it took us three months to get. Up at six again with only three hours sleep; after I dropped him off, I figured, hey, who's going to be at Publix at this hour? and I was right, only two other people were there. Also noticed that milk is cheaper now at Publix; who would have thought it? So I got that done, except they didn't have enough Smart Balance to restock the fridge (I took care of that on Friday after I dropped him off; drove down to the Publix across from Sprouts to get three more tubs—now it should last until the next time Smart Balance is on twofer).

Anyway, when I picked him up at eleven (never having gotten any more sleep) we had to go directly to Kaiser Cumberland for James' followup appointment (from Urgent Care on the 13th). The appointment was at noon, but we didn't see the doctor until 1:30, and it was so cold on the front side of the building that even I was cold, and James, with his anemia, was absolutely freezing. The nurse didn't have a blanket, but she brought him a sheet that we doubled up as a shawl.

When we arrived, I'd had half a stale Poptart and a slice of toast with butter to eat. I mentioned this to the nurse this--I'm terrible with remembering names and I don't remember hers, but she's always so nice--and she gave me her homemade fruit cup! She said I needed it more than she did. She makes them on weekends so she has them for the week: grapes, strawberries, and pineapple. (I shared the pineapple with James.) Very thankful for small kindnesses.

And then we had to hotfoot it up to Kaiser Townpark for the eye exam. Pushing James in the rollator at TownPark is So Much Fun. Not. By the time we got home, James could barely make it up the four steps to the foyer and the chair lift. Canned soup was all we could manage for supper.

Saturday we slept in and, after walking the dog, all I did was watch the ChargeTV marathon of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and I fell asleep several times during that!

Sunday we got to do the one fun thing for the week: Juanita's birthday party at Longhorn. Unfortunately they're building an Olive Garden next door, and half the parking lot is gone, so I had to drop James and the rollator off and go park the car elsewhere. It was hot and sticky, so no love. But seeing everyone was so great!

Labels: birds, friends, health, pets, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:28:00 PM

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This has been an eventful week in many aspects.

Our own particular hell started on Monday evening. At two-thirty, I dropped James off at DaVita, bought a couple of things at Kroger, and went home, sorted meds for the week, cleaned the master bathroom, chatted with a friend, edited a story. At six fifteen I went to pick up James. Out we tooled to the truck. James got into the passenger seat. I rolled the chair on the lift, it started to lift, got about two inches high, and then it dropped back to the ground with a bang.

You guessed it, guys. The lift broke again. This time the hydrolic pole that lifts and lowers the platform broke.

At this point we were stranded, because, while the chair has the range to trundle home, the truck can't get anywhere dragging the ramp behind it. I called AAA, to see if they could get me a rope, because I could (barely) hold the ramp closed and lift it up, and if I could tie it together, the truck could get home. But when I tried to tie it up with a bungie cord, it snapped in half. AAA says they couldn't get me a rope; they could give me a tow, which wouldn't work.

Well, God/fate/someone sent Eduardo, who was doing business a few stores down. He had a ratchet strap in his truck, and he lifted and tied the ramp upright with it, and then we had a couple of shorter bungee cords to keep the folded-up base parallel to the lift pole.

Now I started to worry. What if I drove home and it let go? And James would have to trundle the entire two miles home by himself. What if the chair lost power or he had some medical problem? He's only out of the hospital ten days.

Eventually, I called Alice. To make a long story short, she and Aubrey [her daughter] came to the shopping center, and Alice drove home behind me to watch the ramp (it did drop vertically slightly, to the point I couldn't get the truck in the garage due to the curve in the driveway), but we got it home. And Aubrey walked all the way home with James. She found the easiest route via Google Maps, with the least ups and downs, and after about an hour Alice and I saw them approaching on Life 360 and we walked out to the corner to meet the wayfarers.

There's that saying "God never gives you more than you can handle." God apparently thinks I'm Supergirl or Wonder Woman. If I'm not at the end of my rope, I can see it from here.

For the rest of the week I had to trundle James around in a wheelchair, and later in his big rollator, which I didn't realize that I could push if James tucked his legs up (the rollator is actually easier to maneuver than the big wheelchairs). The rollator is heavy, though, and my back is really feeling it.

Wednesday was really a nightmare: because James had a followup appointment with Dr. Mobley in the afternoon from his sojourn to Urgent Care earlier, we had to be at DaVita at seven in the morning, the only seat they had. We both had four hours sleep. I went to Kroger, then went home to get more sleep, but it doesn't seem to be helping. Friday I did a Lidl/Publix run and made chicken cacciatore for supper.

Tuesday Oliver went back to the vet. He scolded Dr. Bostick the entire time he was in the weighing box. She took him off the medicines! But she wants me to continue vaporizing him and keeping his cage enclosed so he's warmer. I wrapped three sides of his cage in Glad Press'n'Seal so he gets more light; maybe it will perk him up. He looks so sad. I am wondering if he's suffered neurological damage from being sick for so long, because when he's not eating or sleeping, he just sort of sits, sometimes with his head down, looking sad. And she says to make him eat.

Thursday we took the truck to Mobility Works. This new part will cost $1700. Now we're nearly up to the price of a completely new chair lift. Plus Bruno [the manufacturer] apparently can't believe the lift is breaking down like this. They keep asking if the chair isn't heavier than the lift can tolerate. Well, dudes, when the idiot bashed in the previous lift at the Kaiser Glenlake office, we sent the specs on the chair to you, and this is the lift you sent. This is on you, not on Mobility Works or us. The manual says the chair weighs 326 pounds, the scale at DaVita says it's 317, and that's what we told you.

Anyway, someone finally called to make an appointment for a followup about the fistula and why dialysis doesn't want to use it. It would be with another doctor. It also wouldn't be until August 20 and I was very disappointed. I logged on to Kaiser to put all of James' appointments on his phone, and only then realized the fistula appointment was at the Southwood office. No. Just no. That's an hour's drive on a treacherous stretch of highway and every time we have had to go down there we have had our hearts in our mouths because the traffic there is so bad. It's either bumper-to-bumper or racing at 90 mph with cars darting in and out of traffic. There's a reason we quit driving to Warner Robins although we miss seeing Maggie and Clay.

I sent Dr. Austin a terse note that said neither James nor I were in fit health to make a trip to Southwood, and wanted to know why Glenlake was not an option. I also asked straight out for the results of the two ultrasounds of the fistula we had at St. Joe's. (Someone did eventually get back to us with an appointment for Glenlake, and, as a positive note, it's sooner, on August 2. We got no report about the fistula.)

Saturday should have been a fun day, but after we went to Hair Day—James was so tottery that Ron left the driveway clear and we came in through the garage; it was a busy day for Sheri, too, as she had a bumper crop of haircuts—we had to go up to Urgent Care, because since James got out of the hospital, due to the Foley catheter he wore all week, he had another UTI. It wasn't crowded and we weren't there all that long. This time the doctor is trying him on two doses of the powdered stuff, Fosfomax. I don't hold out much hope for it to work, as it's only two doses, and James has had it before, three doses, and it didn't work.

This all paled to what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, at a rally for Donald Trump. Despite all the Secret Service presence, a shooter was able to get on the roof of a nearby building. Luckily Trump turned his head and all they knicked was his ear, but a man who was at the rally threw himself over his family and was killed. The shooter was some kid—twenty is a kid to me!—who had researched killing both Trump and Joe Biden. Of course now this has made a martyr out of Trump.

Labels: birds, events, friends, health, pets, repairs, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:44:00 PM

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I finally picked up my new glasses on Tuesday! They were actually ready on the 14th, but no one called. As I said, this is a totally new prescription; usually my eyes change very little in two years, but in one year I've changed from a 4.25 to a 3.50, so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to see. But I can, quite well, which explains why I was having trouble seeing with the old ones; they were now overcompensating.

Tried the computer glasses out when I got home, and they were also a treat. Maybe I can now work on my web pages again.

Thursday was also a good day for James: stitches are out of his toe and he doesn't have to wear that plastic bag on his right leg any longer! This is great because he slipped on the damn thing a couple of days ago and now has a rainbow of bruises on his back because he did kind of a controlled slide to the bathroom floor. Unfortunately we had to call the firemen to get him back up.

We were able to go to Books-a-Million on Sunday (last time I got a bunch of them there, this time none), ate at Uncle Maddio's, and went to BJs for maple syrup and fruit cups.

The week also had its annoyances. I have been fruitlessly looking for a vet for Oliver, because he just doesn't act right. He's used to being here now and he should be more lively, but he isn't. Also, his droppings are very loose and wet, and it looks as if there's a lump behind his legs. I called every "avian vet" I could find on Google. One Google said was in the "Atlanta area" was over an hour's drive. Our own vet said to take him to Athens to the University vet clinic! The place I liked close by, near Douglasville, isn't taking new customers, and they sounded so nice. Riverview, down the road from us, has an avian vet again, but she was gone until the 31st.

I finally called the breeder back and they said they usually take their birds to For Pet's Sake, all the way in Decatur, but, if I wanted, I could take Oliver to see them, to see what they thought. So on Friday we drove out to Norcross to Fancy Feathers. One of the owners, Irene, looked at Oliver...and believes he might be an Olivia, and the lump is an unlaid egg. She gave us some coconut oil to give him, and told me to make sure to keep his bottom clean.

Giving him the coconut has almost restored the droppings. and the wet spots aren't as bad, but now he...or she...is getting fussy about his seed. Sigh.

I need to call Riverside eventually...

Labels: birds, books, food, health, injuries, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:21:00 PM

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Sometimes nothing happens, and sometimes it's like the seven plagues of Egypt.

James had a good post-op checkup, at least, but it could be until the 29th until he has the stitches out, depending how quickly it heals. The toe looks very nice considering it was operated on only five days ago, no swelling or general ickiness.

Next morning James dropped his medical alert bracelet down his sink in the bathroom. After two fruitless hours of trying to lift it out with my collection of super-strong magnets (if I'd had one inch diameter ones it might have worked), I had to get to my eye appointment. So James called up Superior Plumbing, and they charged us $200 to get the bracelet out of the trap. ::sigh:: The plumber was nice enough, because James wasn't able to bend over, to take all the stuff from under the sink, and then put it back. James gave him a very good rating.

While the plumber was here, I had my eye exam. Man, they whizzed through it, and, surprisingly, my nearsightedness has improved, according to them, and my prescription has changed. I suppose this is why I haven't been seeing quite as well as I used to, so perhaps it's providential that the glasses broke. I was going to go directly to Costco, to order the glasses, but the dilation of my eyes really hurt and my eyes were watering copiously even with sunglasses out in the sun, so I went home to lie down.

Thursday I was perturbed already because Oliver has been pooping very loose out of nowhere, and it makes a wet, sticky mess at the bottom of his cage. Maybe he's getting a draft? I will have to half cover him at night when the A/C kicks in. Then we went to Costco to order my new glasses. I found a frame I had already picked out last week, plus ordered new computer glasses as well, finding a very lightweight frame like my sunglasses have. I thought about ordering sunglasses, too, but even using my own frame they would be almost $200! (I didn't think until afterward to ask how much single vision rather than progressive sunglasses would cost. I just use sunglasses for driving and really don't need progressives to drive.

Well, when we went outside I was perturbed because the chair lift on the truck didn't seem to be working well. I could stick my fingers under the far end of the bar and I don't remember being able to do that before. Scared me so much that I drove home (James still can't drive) with flashers on and very slowly.

Friday Butch got towed to the mechanic and thank goodness, it was only the battery; the AAA guy seemed to think something was wrong with the electrical system. I didn't realize Butch still had the same battery from when I bought him (2018); the battery was actually from 2017! So seven years was a good term for a battery. Wow, batteries are expensive now!

James did drive me over to pick up the car; he said he's not having any trouble driving with the surgical sandals he has to wear until his toe heals, but they are really a bear to walk in because of no arch supports. His left arch has been paining him fiercely since the surgery.

Labels: birds, cars, expenses, eyeglasses, health, home repair, repairs, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:59:00 PM

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This was the week of six health-related appointments. But the thing that was the most special was an instance of the kindness of strangers.

You see, sometimes you find angels where you don't expect to find them. Tuesday was our semi-annual inspection of the HVAC system. The HVAC guy's name was "Ferris" and he went up in the attic and then out to the compressor to check everything out. Well, the filter was toast, so he went with me into the garage to get a fresh one (they warned me when we installed this unit that it was cheaper to order the filters from Amazon, otherwise the company would charge us about $150 each) because I couldn't reach up high to where it was stored. He was very jolly and funny, and said if I needed anything else to be "fetched up high" he'd get it for me while he was here, so I confessed that the help I needed was a little different—I needed a hole dug.

You see, since the 21st Snowy's little mortal remains have been stored in the freezer (yes, with the poultry, in a plastic bag). I'd hoped someone could bury him for me, but most of our friends have physical problems as well. So after the inspection was finished, James and Tucker went out on the deck, and Ferris dug a hole next to Pigwidgeon and Schuyler's graves, and we were able to lay Snowy to rest. He was so sweet; even asked me if I wanted to say a few words. I told him we missed him, and laid the little cardboard Amazon box into the hole, and Snowy was covered up and that was done. I have a little place out there, with a garden ornament I hand painted with Testor's paint: a butterfly and "WISH" at the top, and a resin stone with bluebirds on top of it.

In the meantime Monday we had to go to Kaiser Cumberland to get the second of James' shingles vaccine. Wednesday I had a bone-density scan in the morning and then James had physiotherapy in the afternoon. Thursday James went to the podiatrist in the morning, who said I'm doing a good job trimming his toenails instead of us going every six weeks. In the afternoon I had my annual visit with Dr. Mobley. Made the mistake of getting a pneumonia shot; could hardly lift my arm for the rest of the weekend. Friday James had another iron infusion.

That's quite enough, thank you. We also picked up Pill Pockets for Tucker because we have to start giving him antibiotics before his teeth cleaning on Tuesday.

The one fun thing: Ken's birthday party at Outback!

Labels: birds, friends, health, pets

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:12:00 PM

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Snowy died at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, February 21.

He was very sad on Monday and was definitely having trouble moving. I'd rearranged his perches on Sunday night to make it easier for him.

Ironically, for the last few weeks, Snowy has been so hungry he's been eating most of what I give him. Every morning James makes oatmeal and then I feed him one oat at the time; he seems very happy about it. He also was still loving the wheat bread. Still didn't like sweets like fruit. The only thing was that I noticed he could only eat a few bites at the time before he began regurgitation, and he was drinking a lot. So it could have been something wrong with his crop, or his kidneys. And I noticed that a lot of the time he didn't want to be scratched under the chin anymore.

When I emerged from the bedroom Tuesday morning he was fluffed up on his sleeping perch looking about normal, but when I put my hand in the cage a little later on he didn't want to be touched and slipped off trying to get away from me. He usually climbs right back up, but now he couldn't, and he was cawing at me to get away from him. I finally had him out and cradled in my hands where he just lay there helpless. I had to cath off James, so I put Snowy in his carry box to be safe, and rushed back. I called the vet who asked if I wanted to bring him in, but it was obvious he was dying right before my eyes and a ride would take an hour, so she stayed on the phone with me through the whole thing. (I got a condolence card in the mail a few days later.) I was going to reach in and cradle him again, but he cawed at me when I tried so I just held the box and talked to him softly and told him it was okay to fly away. Snowy finally crawled into a corner of the box and took his final breath.

It's hard to write about this. Poor little thing. He was hurting so much and I couldn't even comfort him.

 

Snowdrift Stormy Young, November 15, 2013 - February 21, 2023

And I still had to finish the laundry and do the chores, same as always.

I took an Amazon box and cut it down, then lined it with part of his flannel cage cover, and put Snowy in with his favorite toy. He is in the freezer until we can find someone to bury him, as neither James nor I have the strength to dig a hole. James can't even walk into the back yard because it's so uneven.

We did not remain unscathed. At bedtime James had shoulder/chest pain and we basically spent the night at Urgent Care. There was nothing wrong with his heart, but his creatitine was in the 4's and he has another UTI. So we got to bed about five a.m. and cancelled out of physiotherapy. Thursday we had to go to James' infusion, where he mused about the results of the test. He's afraid that he's going to have to go back on dialysis soon.

There were things to elevate the week, but they didn't quite register. Wednesday night Barnes & Noble had an online seminar with Rupert Holmes about his new book The McMasters Guide to Homicide: Murder Your Employer. This is the first in a series of mystery books about the McMaster's school which teaches you how to commit the perfect murder. Think of it as Hogwarts for adults who want to kill. It's delightfully twisty, following three characters, Cliff, Gemma, and Dulcie, who all want to kill three reprehensible and deserving characters for different reasons.

We also went to Books-a-Million on Friday and had lunch at Uncle Maddio's, and on Saturday James went to his model contest. I couldn't stand the quiet house, so went to Sam's Club, and Walmart, and also to Book Nook.

Labels: birds, books, death, health, pets, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:27:00 PM

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It's been a very medical week. James started out the week with a visit to Dr. Shash; this was very positive. His EKG came out fine, he didn't need another echocardiogram, and we got his prescriptions refilled. Plus the ride out to Glenlake was pretty painless.

Wednesday James had his usual physiotherapy. Karen says he's doing very well, but she didn't have to say it. He's so much better than he was, especially when he got back from the hospital in October. He was so weak and his hands shook.

Thursday we went to the first of three iron infusions for James because his iron is still too low. I'm not sure what goes on with the infusion clinic; they can always tap James for a blood test when he goes for a blood test, but they took an hour to find a vein to run the infusion through. Then there was another 90 minutes for the infusion itself. I'm spending the time uploading the finished story to Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net, and, yes, editing as I go!

Ron and Lin have been splitting Hair Day into two parts to save Sheri's carpal tunnel problems, so Friday James went for his haircut. We are not the only ones with medical hassles: the doctor wants Juanita to have a very scary-sounding infusion.

And on Saturday I gave in and got a vet appointment for Snowy next week. It's another drop-off, which I hate; I want to be with my boy when he sees the doctor. He was brighter on Sunday and even said "Hi, parakeet!" to me, but I noticed that when we were watching Alan Cumming and Miriam Margolies that night that he seemed to have some problem moving. I should go to the emergency vet, but they aren't avian qualified.

Did get some neat books for Valentine's Day: James bought me In Search of Jefferson, and I also got A Book, Too, Can Be a Star in the mail, along with the new "Rivers of London" graphic novel.

Labels: birds, books, friends, health, pets, sickness, Valentines Day, writing

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:32:00 PM

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It's been kind of a frustrating week. By the 18th I had all the Christmas things put up, and the regular fall items back up. I did not put up all the winter things; it felt like there were too many of them and I need to trim them down. I won't be getting rid of the winter village, but I didn't put that up. What I had up suited how I felt.

On Thursday I had an occurrence where my heart started to race (not palpitations, but in the 80s and 90s) for what I thought was no reason. I was feeling off for most of the end of the week, even though we did go out to lunch. I'm a little harassed because I don't think Snowy is feeling well. Since James retired and we changed our schedule, he's seemed a little quieter. James figures it's because he's not talking on the phone all day, giving Snowy some feedback. He says Snowy still sings when he gets up to make breakfast, and he's been doing something cool since the beginning of the year: he gets up and makes oatmeal for the two of us, real oatmeal. He says it doesn't take long, and he sits and has a cup of tea in the five minutes he has to stir it to keep it from sticking. I put real maple syrup on it, and it tastes so much better than the instant; I didn't realize how much until I had to have an instant the other day.

In any case, I've bought Snowy some new seed which has pellets in it, hoping that as he gets older he might get a little wiser. He has already been eating James' wheat bread for a while, and he recently sampled a pretzel. Sylvester, Merlin, and Bandit all loved people food; not sure why he won't even try good stuff. Birds usually love fruit or certain veg.

Saturday we just rested up: I worked on my story and after we sat through Raiders of the Lost Ark, I put on The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler. Finally tonight we watched the film 1917, about two soldiers tasked to deliver a message to another platoon to warn them. It follows both, and then one of the soldiers as he is committed to carrying the message to prevent a slaughter. Mesmerizing. Wonderful. Amazing.

Labels: birds, chores, Christmas decorations, food, health, movies, pets

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:56:00 PM

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I'd packed yesterday and sorted two weeks of meds on Sundays, so that was the hardest part. The annoying part is all the stuff you have to wait in the morning for, like the charge cords for the phones and the last-minute meds. And then you have to wash the breakfast dishes so they don't sit for the weekend, and toss the trash.

Then, of course, one must decant the budgie into his carry box so you can wrap the cage in a trash bag to ride in the back of the truck. Snowy has discovered it's spring and it's time to mate. On Tuesday when I spring cleaned his cage he did a credible effort in trying to mate with my right hand, wings outspread, tail feathers open, the whole shebang. When I put him in the carry box he instantly crushed on the bell toy and spent the entire trip to the vet (a 45-minute drive) trying to make love to it. Tucker wanted to look outside, but finally decided he wanted to just lean against James and be petted on the ride (with a look on his face that said "can't you get Brother to shut up?"—probably not; Snowy sang all the way there). At the vet they let me set him up in his cage, and he attempted intercourse with my hand again. Yep, it's spring.

We had a nice ride up there except for being hungry. We tried one exit to get to Wendy's, but the road T-boned and didn't tell us which direction to go, left or right. So we went up to the next exit and a Krystal. I had three plain Pups and some fries and hash browns, and I was full and still hungry at the same time. It was sunny and high 60s, and a beautiful ride, but I was so sleepy! The trees are just blooming up here, so we're seeing the Bradford pears white again. Lots of cattle out grazing in the fields that haven't been pre-empted for houses.

Arrived at the hotel to check in just at three, with the Spiveys, Butlers, and Gibsons all waiting, too. We pretty much stayed in the conference room for the rest of the afternoon, and were wi-fi less, so did a lot of chatting. For dinner over a dozen of us went to Spice55, the Thai place, for supper. I love this place; they make the best pad thai. James had some sort of ginger dish and we shared a ginger salad and potstickers. I had enough to take back to the hotel for lunch tomorrow.

James gave a big tip to the waiter. I think he was the only waiter working, and he was on the run throughout the night (literally—he loped to and from the kitchen most of the time).

On the way out, we saw someone sitting on the terrace eating who had a white pitbull puppy. Oh, she was adorable, tail-wagging cute.

Spent the evening in the common room chatting and sharing computer stuff.

TV? Who watches TV at these things? We are too busy having a reunion (even if some of us saw each other last week—hi, Alice and Ken).

Labels: birds, dogs, food, friends, pets, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:15:00 PM

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Well, James' foot is slowly healing. However...it's been a weird trip there.

First, I unwrapped it on Groundhog Day to do the twice-weekly sterilizing and rewrapping, and on either side of the stitches were big fat blisters! Really strange because otherwise the foot looks great (except for the betadyne stains); even the minor swelling, which he has had ever since he got the infection last December, has gone away. (And heck, maybe this was a sign all along that the bone infection was lurking under the surface all year even though his white count didn't increase nor did his blood test show any kind of infection, even when he was in the hospital to have the pus in the toe treated.) I can only conclude this is the result of his not wearing the compression socks.

Thankfully, the thigh portion of his left leg was still relatively blister free (one broke out right before our doctor visit, but it's not even a half inch in diameter, so it's one of his smaller blisters) and isn't the holy mess the leg was last year after his hospital stay. I treat that every other night with the leg cream recommended by the dermatologist.

So, I was worried about what the doctor was going to say on Friday the 4th at James' next followup appointment, and I didn't sleep well, and then we got to the doctor's office and the nurse took James' blood pressure and it was too low all three times. Well, I've been worried about this happening. When he was in the hospital, his blood pressure was way up in the 160s, and they not only doubled his beta-blocker (the carvedelol), but they pulled him off lisonopril and put him on both hydralazine (three times a day!) and amlodipine. Nobody seemed to be sure if the high numbers were due to the infection or from the combination of two antibiotics. I asked the doctor smack up front when he was released what to do if his blood pressure started to fall, and she gave us the numbers to watch for. Well, the moment he came home his blood pressure started to fall (surprise!) and when he came off the antibiotics it dropped like a rock. First I pulled him off the amlodipine. Then I took him off his afternoon dose of hydralazine. And it seems to have finally stabilized. We'll see this Friday. It was okay at his Urgent Care followup this morning.

(I am still flummoxed why they told us that the lisonopril was bad for his kidneys. Because the person who prescribed it was his kidney doctor! Also glad when he finished the antibiotics, because the combination of the two completely fucked up his blood sugar and gave him diarrhea as well.)

Anyway, to get back to February fourth... James does as he always does at Kaiser; the exam rooms are not large enough for his power chair, so he parks it outside the door and limps to the examination table.

Except when he stood up on Friday, his left pants leg caught in the top of one of the "outrigger" wheels on the power chair. He dropped like a felled tree on his left side and had the wind knocked out of him. Ironically, unlike the other three times he's fallen, he didn't hit his head, or even scrape his elbow. It did hurt him, but he didn't think it was that bad. However, since he really has limited mobility, he could not get to his feet on his own—it's always taken two strong firefighters unless he can buttscoot to the top of the stairs and then get up that way—so they had to use this lift gadget they have to get him off the floor. Only then did he finally get the stitches removed, and nobody suggested he go downstairs and get an x-ray. The doctor did prescribe a limited amount of hydrocodone for any pain, and we picked that up and we got home and he took one and leaded against a heating pad and figured it would help. It got later. We ate something. We watched Steve Canyon to take his mind off the pain.

The pain was getting worse.

So, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it was off to Urgent Care we go. At least they let me sit inside, on the opposite side of the doors from the Urgent Care area, even though we apparently hit Urgent Care on a dead night and no more than two people were ever in there at the same time. Still wouldn't let me go back with him. So I sat there with my laptop and worked on a story (I had made a major blunder referencing a past event, so I pretty much had to "rip up" over two pages of story; however the rewrite actually did improve the tale). At midnight they were going to throw me out to the cold (or inside Butch, which was just as cold, since his heater doesn't work), but luckily, after a CT scan and scads of bloodwork, they released him just after midnight. He had compression fractures in his T6 and T7 bones in his spine, and a stress fracture in the T8 spinal bone. All this from falling on his left side and there wasn't a bruise on him!

(As they released him from Urgent Care, the nurse asked, "Did Podiatry file an incident report?" Hell if we know! If they did, they didn't ask us to read or sign anything.)

He was in pretty bad pain for the first couple of days; anything that caused him to bed over, like putting on or taking off underwear and pants, literally leave him seeing stars. Basically he had to take two hydrocodone tablets (and he hasn't ever needed two hydrocodone in his life) and a muscle relaxant before bed, and then hydrocodone in the morning, and another muscle relaxant in the afternoon, and, of course being on "hard drugs," he can't work. So he had to call in sick abruptly (and now IBM is whining about having someone "dependable" on weekend duty—he's done this for three years now, and this is the first time he's been "undependable"; otherwise he's worked their damn Sundays and only taken a few of them off with prior approval). So he's been on total rest all week and the days have kinda blurred together. When I get frustrated I duck into a story and that really helps; it's much more pleasant living inside my head.

In other news:

Did the taxes and we owe a lot, but that's okay because I have been saving money monthly from every social security payment in my savings account, earmarked to pay taxes with, rather than having the IRS hold my money interest-free. I'll up the withholding on my pension this year, though, because I got penalized $23 for not having enough money taken out for taxes! You really can't win with the Feds.

Wellstar is still sending us "shame on you" letters because Kaiser hasn't paid them. Dude, I pay Kaiser $500 a month and then the Feds pay them at least another $1300 a month to take care of this shit for me. You can "shame me" all you like; go talk to Kaiser. I'm done.

Both Vincent D'Onofrio and Jonny Harris liked one of my tweets (two different ones). I celebrated by ordering the former's book. (Actually, now that I think about it, I celebrate nearly everything by ordering a book...)

I made a Goren and Eames Appreciation Page, mainly to "hold" all those screencaps I've posted to Facebook.

We have called him by the nickname for so long that Snowy is now saying "chickie boo."

And this is the second week in a row I've gone into Popshelf and they've been out of Tina Burritos. I think our run of luck on these has come to an end.

Labels: accidents, birds, books, errands, health, sickness, television, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:29:00 PM

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After a Thursday of shopping, we were all prepared to have some fun on Christmas Eve. So we woke this morning, had breakfast, and I took Tucker on his long walk. We headed out early for lunch, intending to stop at Popshelf first for burritos, but traffic was so bad on the East-West Connector (since Walmart was between us and the restaurant) that we just went directly to O'Charley's and waited for everyone else. Juanita couldn't make it today after all, Mel and Phyllis were still being careful, and John never showed up, so it was just us and the Spiveys (including Aubrey). We talked about Marvel films (but not Hawkeye which they haven't seen) and other stuff, and Alice took a photo of us for Facebook.

On the way home we hit Popshelf. It was very crowded at that end of the shopping center because Popshelf is two doors down from Target, so I had James drop me off at the end of the sidewalk and he parked behind Office Max. Well, no sooner had I hit the sidewalk than I heard the weird honk/coo noise that the sandhill cranes make when they fly over—saw two small flocks of them the other day—and looked directly up to see them right overhead, so close that I could make out their long necks with the naked eye! I got two nice photos of them on my phone!

Bought twenty-five burritos and then brought them and James' leftovers home. We were feeling kind of bad not seeing Mel and Phyllis since we still had their Hanukkah gifts, so after I put the food up I grabbed the gifts and we drove back out to their house. We sat in the driveway and chatted with them for a while, and then drove home, stopping at Bruster's for ice cream on the way. James had peppermint stick Oreo, which was a lot more pepperminty than Oreo, and for once they had coffee ice cream (although theirs is nowhere as good as Baskin-Robbins, which is nowhere as good as Newport Creamery's, but them's the breaks) for me. I thought of Billy Joe in the Lassie episode "Yochim's Christmas": "This sure am the life."

Compared to last year, yes, it is.

We got home and settled in to watch Christmas things. First played The Gathering, with Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton. Forget Hallmark Christmas movies, this is a Christmas film for adults. Then The House Without a Christmas Tree while we ate a light supper (the soup we brought home from Chattanooga). Caught the weather report, watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, then went on to The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which is absolutely my favorite Christmas film ever (you can take It's a Wonderful Life, thanks).

Labels: birds, Christmas, events, films, food, friends, television, treats

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:05:00 PM

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Labels: birds, books, friends, health, shopping, writing

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

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The autumn equinox arrived this week to great cheering by the folks here at Autumn Hollow. Now only if it would feel like autumn—although we did have to wear flannel shirts Thursday morning to drive with the windows down on the way to Costco. But by the time we got to Costco (ten minutes) it was too warm for them. (We were also windows down a couple of other times, one early morning, one nighttime return trip. But it's not enough!)

I have been attempting to go on my longer walks again after just surrendering due to the heat and my inability to get outside before 10:30 in the morning (blame needing sleep and that extra trip to the bathroom), and have come upon a large patch of "Scotch" thistles among the weeds that grow along Smyrna-Powder Springs Road (these combined with goldenrod, pin oak, timothy, Virginia creeper, honeysuckle, holly, and others). They were in great purple bloom a few weeks ago, attracting yellow swallowtail butterflies, silver spot skippers [a type of butterfly], and big fat bumblebees, but now they are starting to go to seed, and two days in a row, sans camera, I ran into a beautiful male goldfinch who let me get into six feet of him. Third time's the charm and I finally got a photo of him.

Went out to walk the dog Wednesday night and discovered abruptly that sometime today they changed out all the streetlights. I think they are those new lights that only aim at the street and don't glow upward, and so don't interfere with migrating birds. It's a weird effect; they make what they're shining on brighter, but the light doesn't extend as much, so our front yard is now darker. There's also a rather large dark area near the upper cul-de-sac because all the lights appear to have two light fixtures except the one on the cul-de-sac itself.

We hit Costco Thursday morning because Procter & Gamble was doing their "buy $100 worth of stuff, get a $25 gift card" thing again. Since we can easily spend that much buying Swiffer pads, Oral B toothbrushes, Metamucil, and Downy, we went for it, plus we needed "plastic cheese" (Kraft cheese slices) as James calls it, and both BreatheRights and generic Flonase were on sale...needed almonds for my oatmeal and mandarin orange cups as well. It is so nice when it's not broiling outside and we don't have to rush into one store, dump perishable items in a insulated bag with an icepack, rush to the next store, etc. We were able to drive to Publix in a leisurely fashion and finish most of the rest of the shopping (although I still had to go to Kroger on Saturday morning for milk, yogurt, and no-salt-added mushrooms).

Friday we did a little of everything: paid our property tax, picked up a gift, had lunch at Okinawa with all the Spiveys and John Bouler, drove down to Kaiser so James could have blood drawn for what the doctor says is a minor problem, and then went to Barnes & Noble. James bought a book and I didn't, which seems ironic, but I'd already gotten three in the mail this week: a used copy of Madeleine L'Engle short stories (The Moment of Tenderness), a used copy of Hal Borland's Book of Twelve Moons (nature essays), and the new Vanderbeekers novel.

We also bought a new gadget that is three plugs that are operated by one remote. Since I was depressingly unsuccessful in trying to set up a "smart home" system to turn on the lights through Amazon wifi plugs and Amazon Echo devices—two of the wifi plugs worked flawlessly for a month and then quit working; I contacted Amazon and they walked me through all sorts of remedies that didn't work for one and they finally told me to send the plug back for repair, but when I tried to set up a third plug I had bought, brand new out of the box, it wouldn't work either. They supposedly work on the 2.4GHz portion of the router, and I tried resetting the 2.4GHz, which reset perfectly and everything else that worked on them, like the Roku box and James' Kindle, worked perfectly. Then we ended up resetting the router anyway, and the plug still didn't work. We have to press a remote button instead of doing a voice command, but it works!

So Saturday I did the Kroger thing and James had to cook meat and breakfasts for the rest of the week, and we broke up the time with original Law & Order episodes on WE. I've become so besotted with Law & Order: Criminal Intent that I am reading fanfiction, most of it of the "shipping" sort, but I appreciate that the stories that I really have enjoyed have chosen to actually have a mystery plot among the romance. One story has Mike Logan down so pat I can hear Chris Noth doing the dialog. Unfortunately I think that was the one that got to part eighteen and then never was finished—and, darn, I wanted to know the solution to the mystery!

This week I also worked out a way to get all the videos I've saved on YouTube to show up in the YouTube app on Roku. I have so much saved that the idea of re-bookmarking them gave me the horrors. It's a great big dog's breakfast worth of stuff: old British black and white films, 1930s black and white films, the Old Indiana Jones segments they cut out of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles DVD sets, an uncut version of the 1960s animated The Night Before Christmas with Olan Soulé as the voice of Professor Clement Moore, Lucy Worsley specials, Lassie episodes, and more.

Today I got all my weekly chores done and there was still time to go to Alice and Ken's house after James finished work to celebrate Aubrey's 28th birthday.

September 22 was the Autumnal Equinox! All hail Queen Autumn and her colorful court! (Now for cryin' out loud, do something about that big bully the Sun!)

Labels: birds, events, exercise, food, friends, plants, reading, seasons, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:36:00 PM

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Labels: birds, books, chores, food, friends, organizing, pets, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:54:00 PM

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Labels: birds, dogs, events, family, food, health, pets, sickness, traffic, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:58:00 PM

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Last year at this time we had need to make a serious decision: did we want to go to Helen at all? Everything in Atlanta was closing down due to coronavirus, but the hotel had begged us to come, said that they were taking additional precautions and there would be pre-packaged breakfasts instead of the breakfast bar. And we were desperate to get away before being housebound, for how long we didn’t know. In the end, some people did drop out of the trip, but most of us went. Helen was surreal that weekend. The streets were nearly deserted and some places had already shut down. We had dinner at Spice 55 (Thai) and the very next day they closed for dine-in. Bigg Daddy’s was already social distancing with a vengeance the following night. Some restaurants were already closed, as was the place we usually went for ice cream. On the Sunday we left we took up a collection for the hotel staff , knowing they would have tough times ahead. Next day Helen closed down for business.

This year, prep was about the same: James worked on the phone and I worked packing, checked off lists, added more stuff, and then packed more, including seed for Snowy and a shirt of James’ for Tucker to sleep with at “camp.” We had to remember the charger for the chair, the chargers for the phones, the charger for the tablets… And then there were the cookies for the crowd.

But it was eventually all in the suitcases, then all in the truck, and we even found a proper plastic trash bag that the birdcage fit in. As always, Tucker was harder to load than Snowy, so the bird was the last one out of the house (twice, because I had to run back in for James’ glasses and his kangaroo bag). There happened to be three hawks overhead wheeling and calling out, Snowy spotted them with huge eyes, and he was jittery on the drive as we started. Thankfully they let me into the vet’s office–they’re still doing the damnable curbside service–to place Snowy in his cage and prep him to stay (food and water), although the rest of the arrangements were made over the phone as we stared into the office from the parking lot.

And then we were James and Linda again instead of pet-Mom and pet-Dad, and by then it was after lunch time. We crossed Jett Ferry to the Williamsburg shopping center and I ran into the East 48th Street Market to get us both Italian sandwiches, a couple of zeppoli (since tomorrow is St. Joseph’s Day), and of course I bought a pack of fusilli (twisted pasta) to bring home.

It was the warmest day of our four-day weekend, so we were able to drive to Helen with the windows down, eating half of our enormous sandwiches and sharing a couple of mandarin oranges in the cab of the truck. When we first started driving to Helen over twenty years ago, our route was mainly country. At least one shopping mall (North Point) in Alpharetta, a small outlet mall in Woodstock, and a huge outlet mall in Dawsonville have gone up since then, and we remember when the North Georgia Premium Outlets and a couple of restaurants were the only thing on the road in Dawsonville! Now there’s a Publix, a Kroger, a Walmart, nearly two dozen restaurants, and more nail places than you can shake a stick at. It’s only when you pass the last of the stores that you’re in the country again: horses grazing in pastures along the river, places selling boiled peanuts and baked goods, little antique stores, and of course, our favorite little bookstore, the Mt. Yonah Book Exchange. When we pulled into the Country Inn and Suites we were greeted by Alice and Aubrey. After setting up things in our room, we were able to finish our lunch in the common room, spread out our cookie contribution, and talk with folks as they wandered in. It was a good thing we ate so late because supper took forever.

This was at Spice 55, which has killer food, but man, the service was s-l-o-w Thursday night. I’m not sure if they were down some employees or they just weren’t prepared for a crowd on a Thursday night, but we got there at quarter to six and didn’t get out until after eight. This wouldn’t have been so bad had we been able to talk properly, but they had very loud music playing in the background, so people had to talk loudly to be heard over it, with the result that the cacophony was dreadful. The food was still killer–I have had pad thai in several Thai places (and they all seem to make it a little differently), but Spice 55’s pad thai is by far the best I’ve ever eaten, with a rich, deep wonderful flavorfulness, and you get a great portion with a lot of meat. I was able to take a third of it back to the hotel. Juanita ordered some beef noodle soup that was a whole meal unto itself, but she didn’t like the cinnamon flavoring they had put into it, so James was the happy recipient of the remainder. The heat of the day (and the light) had gone by the time we emerged, and the wind was delightfully cool.

Then it was back to the hotel for the best part of Atomicon: talking to each other! It was especially sweet this year when some of us had been separated for so long. Shari even managed to make it from Alabama this year. Some folks colored as they talked, and the subjects ranged from coronavirus to other events of the past year to television to books.

I remember the days when we stayed up until one or two in the morning playing games and talking, but except for the young ones these days, we mostly wandered off to bed around midnight, looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

Labels: birds, dogs, food, friends, pets, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:36:00 PM

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