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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Green Tower

My uncle Ron just phoned to let me know my mother is safely checked into her hospital room for another stay in the green tower. Her two dogs are in the kennel and he was in the room with her. Glad she's there and that he called to let me know her status.

Joy O Family

So my mother phoned me just to let me know she is going into the hospital tomorrow morning. Her red blood count has gotten dangerously low again. Her doctor wanted to put her into the hospital immediately today but no, she had to take care of things at home - things she won't let me do for her -  before driving herself to the office of her doctor, who will immediately put her in the hospital.

My brother and nephew are leaving for a father-son trip. I'm not even sure my of my brother's family know she's going into the hospital tomorrow. I could, if she would only let me, take tomorrow  off work, take her to the hospital myself, and take her dogs to the kennel or Rancho de WereMonster. It would not be easy or convenient but I could certainly do it and she could already be in the hospital. 

As things are, I will do nothing and just hope I can keep up with how she's doing. 

File this under Irish Martyr Syndrome. 

Monday, May 27, 2013

the Memorial Day weekend

So I missed the Twistin Tarantulas show at the Star Community Bar during Bubbapalooza Saturday night. I felt bad physically - a bit queazy from the greasy lunch we had at Six Feet Under with John and Kathy English, who were visiting from Birmingham, Alabama - and so tired I could hardly hold my head up at 8p.m. I had also failed to get in a good nap before the show, which was going to be the last set of the night, starting at 12:30 a.m. I started to take a nap at the house in Buckhead after taking care of cats there but I woke up thinking I was going to be ill because I felt so nauseated. As it turns out, I did not get truly sick but I was not well enough to go out.

I came home and went to bed and stayed down all night. I still got up pretty early the next morning. The low-paying part time job I have in Tucker has me on a schedule that forces me to get up at 5:00 a.m. to make it to work on time. The only partial mercy this week is, because the upstairs A.C. is out in the House Of Cats, I can't really sleep there well and their downstairs room mate has agreed to give the cats their morning scoop of dry food, since she's there anyway. This frees me to have a shorter commute in the morning and I can go there straight after work to handle feeding and cleaning and other miscellaneous duties at the house in the late afternoon. It really has been a life-saver this week, with the AC partially out in the house, to be able to spend the night at home this time. Of course, the holiday weekend helps as well.

Yesterday, we spent some time in Snellville with Clark and Beth, who had a very small gathering of friends at their house for burgers and games. We brought fresh pineapple and watermelon. There was some good potato salad and chunky guacamole there as well, so I had plenty to eat other than red meat.

They got some bad news on Clark's health this week. It seems his cancer has spread now. He's having to make some decisions on whether to change his treatment or not. He told me that he kinda wants to just play it through, like Wayne did, and keep working and making music as long as he can. I agreed that seemed like the best use of time to simply keep living. Doctors would like to stick him into a hospital and make him into a lab monkey but that seems like a great waste of time and energy for him.
I would imagine whatever he decides to do also depends on how Beth and Nate feel about his future. I plan to stay close.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Ages

Roommate is beginning to forget things and it is worrying both of us. He can't seem to keep up with his inventory lately and has had to decline buyers of things he has on sale because he can't find the items and doesn't recall if he should still have them or not. He's also loosing simple things around his office and the house. He asked to borrow my xacto knife today because he can't find the one that he keeps in his office. He sleeps a lot more now too. I don't know if this is a sign of being under stress or foreboding something worse. When he is short-tempered and needy simultaneously, it already gets to be too much for me. I feel sorry for him and I want to bitch-slap him at the same time.

The 600 pound gorilla in the room is how his mother's family has a strong occurrence of Alzheimer's disease. I would think he should have at least 15 to 20 years before he has to worry about that but he has been breaking apart on a daily basis lately. He is normally someone with a better than average memory and sense of organization. Now, when I'm home, I have to manage him. In a way, the time I get to spend house-cat sitting in away from home is a bonus, not just because I get to take a vacation from home, but because it also shows him that things get out of place or go missing when I can't be blamed for it. It gives him a bit more humility when undeniable lapses of memory occur that he can't blame on me and he has to face up to. He appreciates me a lot more when I'm not there.

Still, he could just be suffering from too much stress. Here's hoping this problem will be past us soon.