So, what kind of trouble have I gotten into since returning from the fun in the sun? Well, sit back and I'll tell you some stories. :-)
Sunday and part of Monday I spent on some yard work. I just wanted to be outside! I made two different trips to Home Depot and basically worked like a dog to get things cleaned up in the backyard. I edged, I mowed, I planted some annuals (which I usually think is a waste of money but this year, I just don't care, go figure, ha!), I planted grass seed, I watered, I.....well, as I said, I was a busy little bee.
It's looking pretty sweet back there now. Next is the front yard. I need to do some major weeding and get the rest of the annuals in the ground before they really DO become a waste of money.
Monday afternoon I went golfing for the first time this season. Okay, I didn't actually golf. Baby doll golfed, I rode along in the cart and kept him company. It was his first time out since his last hand surgery so I think he said it had been ~10 months since he last swung a club. He parred two holes, bogeyed one, and double bogeyed all the rest. Not that great but honestly, not that bad either after such a long spell of no golfing and now a bum hand to work around. It was a gorgeous day out although I think the course may have been a little on the wet side. If there's ducks swimming in the middle of the fairway, well, I'm pretty sure that's a good sign that drainage isn't what it should be. We even got the cart stuck for a good 5-10 minutes in a swamp area. Poor baby doll had to get out and push and got himself all muddy. Bleah.
After golf we stopped at baby doll's sister's house per her request. It turns out that after I admired the wooden box that her hubby had made her to keep "treasures" in, he made me one too! Woo hoo! On top of that, when they were her for dinner a few weeks back he noticed how small my spice rack was so he fixed me up, big time! Aren't these beautiful??
On Tuesday I decided that it was time to have a talk with my next door neighbor, Linda, about what was going on with me. She's very upset. I ended up giving her a key to my house, just in case, and we have a sign system set up for the windows on our house that face each other. If I hang a piece of red paper it means I'm in trouble and I need help ASAP. If I hang a piece of green paper it means I need something but it's not an emergency.
I thought it was really sweet that she's so worried and that I had to put things in place to make her feel better. Luckily these measures are only a stop-gap for the month of June. I sat down and talked to Jamie. I told him that unfortunately NYS does not have a physician assisted suicide program in place like Vermont and a couple of other states but we DO have Hospice which is about as close as we can come. It turns out that his sister worked in Hospice for many years. Who knew? So in order to 'open' with Hospice and start getting their help, I need to have 24/7 coverage of someone being here to 'help' me if needed. Basically to give me the drugs I need to keep my out of pain I think but we'll learn more at the opening. So I asked Jamie if he might be willing to move in early. The only difference between moving in now or when I pass is that he's basically signing up to watch me die. That's a lot to ask of anyone. He didn't even hesitate. He said that he will do whatever it is I need him to do. God I love that guy. So, the current plan is that he'll be moving in on July 1st and I will start the process with getting signed up for Hospice. I want to set it up so that both Jamie and baby doll are at the 'opening' meeting since they are basically co-primary caregivers for me. When Scott isn't here, hopefully Jamie is, when Jamie isn't here, hopefully Scott is. Meanwhile, there will be Hospice volunteers likely spending about 20 hours a week here with me to give both guys a break. And maybe some of my friends will offer to come spend a couple of nights in the guest bedroom now and then to give the guys a little relief. All in all, I'm not sure how long it actually takes to die. I can't imagine it would take all that long though. So, that's my current plan. Meanwhile, I'm really not in too much pain, the weather has been nice, and I've still been finding some joy in life so all is well.
Jamie was here on Wednesday night so that he could help Scott move my bedroom back down to the first floor. I am now once again ensconced in the room that was my original bedroom when I first moved in. I got a little bummed when they first put the bed in there. They thought I was napping, I was actually trying really hard not to bawl my head off. I felt like I was taking this huge step backwards by moving into that bedroom again. It's been two night now though and I have to say, it was a good move. I like that I'm back to using the bathroom instead of the porta potty. The porta potty was kind of humiliating. And I only ever sleep 3-4 hours a night. Sleep is super hard to come by for some reason. You would think this would lead to a lot of naps but not so much. But now that the bed is RIGHT THERE, I've been taking naps. It's just so convenient to walk in and flop for an hour. So, this has been a really good thing. I'm also thankful to not be doing the stairs as much. They really are starting to kick my ass.
So I saw Sterling Monday afternoon and then he disappeared. He's chipped but based on a weird phone call I got a few weeks back, I think they have the wrong chip number written down for him so I started to get worried when he didn't show up for two days. The city pound opens at 11:00 on Wednesday mornings and I got there at 11:07. They escorted me around to all three drop off rooms. No Sterling. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Maybe he was just out wandering. Anyway, as I'm walking out of the building there's an older, roly poly, Italian man standing there with a woe be gone look on his face. I walked over to see what was going on. It turns out he found 3 kittens in the dumpster next to his apartment that morning. He was trying to drop them off at the pound but they were telling him they were full and that he'd have to go try Lollypop or someplace else. Poor guy, he looked so lost and confused. I took the box.
Yeah, I know.
On the bright side my will stipulates that Jamie gets the contents of my house including my vehicle, pets, appliances, and what not. It doesn't say how many pets are going to be included in the contents. Ha!
Sadly, one of the kittens was too far gone and did not make it through the night. So there are only two of them now. I'm guessing them to be 4-5 weeks old. I named them Shelby and Mouse.
Did I tell you that I managed to lose my passport on the way home from the cruise?? I'm pretty sure it fell out of my purse on the shuttle bus from the ship to the airport. I sent a query in to Carnival about it but they said nobody has turned it in yet. I'm not sure what else to do. Am I supposed to report it to the state somehow that I've misplaced it? You would think this wouldn't be a big deal except I was kind of hoping for a 3 day weekend at a bed and breakfast at Niagara on the Lake in June if my health allowed it. Niagara on the Lake is in Canada. So, passport needed. :-( I've never been to a bed and breakfast. Not really a bucket list item but almost. I'd really like the experience I think.
My girlfriend Terri sent me a note recently that pointed something out about me that I know but that I lose sight of once in a while and I'm glad that she made me aware of it again. It's that I simply love life. I could watch paint dry for an entire afternoon but then when telling someone about what I did I could make it sound like a truly exciting adventure. I've always loved the premise of Seinfeld, a show about nothing. I think I've kind of lived my life like that. I get so excited about the smallest, mundane things. :-)
Okay, I haven't sung baby doll's praises lately so I'm feeling a need to end this with a baby doll anecdote that highlights what an absolutely stellar human being he is. I mentioned that I got drunk one day on the cruise. Sloppy can't remember shit drunk. Baby doll having to call for a wheelchair and everything. It would seem I decided peeing on the floor of the cabin was a good idea as well. I don't even want to know what else he had to put up with. But at the end of the day you know what he told me? He said "Honey, at least we can say that we had absolutely as much fun as possible on Grand Turk. Nobody can accuse us of leaving ANYthing on the table with that outing. We squeezed every drop of experience out of it.". I'm sorry but is he the coolest person you've ever met or what. I can just imagine other guys being pissed or disgusted that I let that happen to myself, whereas my baby doll actually applauded my gusto. God, I love that man too.
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