What did you do today?

[zannej]

Congrats to your granddaughter, Rusty! Seems like you've got a good clan going.

My dog has put on a teeny bit of weight but not enough. I've about tripled her feeding & am now warming her food and water to encourage her to eat it. It was very cold (for here) last night. I left my door open so the cats could come and go & had 7 cats and a dog piled up on me. A couple of the cats were under the covers keeping me warm, another one sat on my head (I'm sleeping in a hooded sweater), and they were piled up on and around my legs. The dog burrowed under the pet pillow. She's sleeping on the couch in the living room which is the warmest room in the house. My room is the 2nd coldest in the house but I have soft blankets, pillows, and body heat to draw the cats in. There are 6 in here right now. It's already down to 46 degrees & the sun hasn't even set. That may seem like warm weather for the folks up north, but it's cold AF down here. LOL.

 

[highup]

Wierd weather. 59 degrees at 6am and the high is supped to be 60. Wind is whipping pretty good outside. On the weather stations along the coast, the highest I saw was 38mph. 28 at the airport. 57mph offshore and 25 to 30 foot waves... not a good morning for a boat ride.
Tomorrow and tonight a couple inches of rain. They keep changing the forecast so we'll see.

 

[Floorist]

In the ER last night, gout again.

 

[Don Monfils]

Hope you feel better soon Rusty.
Zannej, it was -7 this morning here.

 

[Floorist]

Hope you feel better soon Rusty.
Zannej, it was -7 this morning here.

Have tried everything. Special meds. Lost 40 lbs. No red meat. No beans. No dairy. No alcohol.

 

[zannej]

Rusty, I think my uncle had gout for awhile but I don't know how he overcame it. I'll have to ask him. I hope you can find some relief.
Don, that is waaay too cold.
It's 44° right now & has been raining. I gave my friend a box for an outside dog that hates going inside & chews things up anytime they bring him in. They put blankets & a fuzzy rug in it & the dog loves it-- apparently the outside cats do too bc they are curling up with the dog. The cats won't stay inside, the stray female cat won't come in at all, and the neighbor's kitten apparently craps on people's beds so it has been sleeping with the dog.
This weather is reminding me that we need a new barn or at least some sort of shelter for the cows where they can sleep & stay out of the rain. I need to look at pricing for structures & installation to see what we can get & put stall mats on the floor. We also desperately need to get the workshop fixed.
We got the Behr paint and the primer for the door. I'm going to see what the weather is like tomorrow to see if I can do the first coat of primer. I think the hardest part will be getting the drop sheet under the door without tearing it. When we were in the store we saw what looked like rolls of thin cardboard. My mother was asking what it was & I explained it was to protect floors when work was being done. May end up getting some once we get the floor down in the reno. But, have to finish demo and cleaning first.

 

[highup]

In the ER last night, gout again.

Dang, that's not good. Hope you are doing better.

 

[zannej]

I unloaded all 6 cases of water from the truck (bc my brother refused to help) and two of the 25lb cat food bags before my back decided to nope out on me. I did also unload the paint from the car for now.

My dog is not doing great today & was extra needy this morning. She was yelping every 5 to 10 minutes for several hours- & every time I went out to check on her. A few times it was because she wanted more water, then she had pushed her food bowl too far away for her to comfortably reach (I think she may be going blind or is just very addled). I had to heat her food up a couple of times to get her to eat more of it & I gave her some dog biscuits but she didn't finish them this time. I also had to pick her up a couple of times to help her move but she just kept putting her nose to the floor and lilting to one side. I got her on to her memory foam mat & she's been quiet for a few hours (or at least if she's barked I haven't heard her). I've still been going out and petting her and checking on her, cleaned her bed sores, & made sure she has water & food. Last I checked she was curled up sleeping. If she gets worse tomorrow I'll have to take her in on Monday & see what the vet says, but I'm pretty sure what the option will be. :-(

We've had the dog since at least 2004 (possibly 2002 or 2003 but I have to check photos to see if she's in any of them) & she was already full grown when she showed up & never left so I've grown attached to her, but the vet thought she was a goner years ago-- said dogs of her breed don't usually live past 11.

Rusty, I hope you're feeling better. I can't remember if I commented on your grandkids or not, but it sounds like they are great kids & it's awesome that they are doing well in gymnastics.

 

[zannej]

I'm trying to reduce my procrastination. I still haven't gotten around to painting the door yet (weather has been too crappy & I haven't had motivation) but I decided not to let the year end before I buried the two cats who passed away in the summer that I've had in the freezer. I kept forgetting about it and putting it off and finally decided around 7am that I would go see if I could find a spot to bury them and see if the ground was soft enough to dig. It was still damp & not too cold so the soil was softer. I found a spot next to the shed the two cats liked to sit on top of. I found a pvc waterline but fortunately didn't damage it & had to change direction on my digging. Had to do additional digging once I realized I needed the hole a little deeper so it wouldn't be too shallow. I'm really out of shape & got so winded I was having trouble breathing and felt like I might pass out when I was heading back inside. We had some bags of cement mix that my father bought shortly before he died. They never got used & got rained on so they hardened up. I used a chunk of one of the bags of mix to put as sort of a tombstone over the grave. My dog & other cats were confused about what I was doing but were more interested in being petted than in checking out the hole. Fortunately, the two dogs we have left aren't diggers (at least not with dirt-- they sure like to burrow under pillows, blankets & laundry though). Mom's little chiweenie likes to pull her clothes out of the laundry basket & make nests on the floor.

I need to catch up on her laundry but it's hard to get in to the laundry room. The hallway is covered in junk & my brother's laundry. I'm waiting for him to get 2 consecutive days off so I can see if he'll help me clean it up. I'm suspecting he will find an excuse not to help at all or will only help for a minute or two so I may end up resorting to getting my best friend to come help. He's actually offered to take some paid time off to help me fix stuff up here when he gets the chance. I'll need to get some plastic tubs for stuff & figure out what can be salvaged, what can be donated, and what needs to be tossed. I hate throwing things away so the last part will be hard for me. A shirt can be full of holes but I'll think "This can be used as a rag, or the fabric can be re-used," then it sits somewhere & takes up space. I'm a bit of a hoarder.

I'm going to try to set goals for myself on when I want to complete certain things by. Like 1 thing a month or maybe 2 things a month.. Or more.. I'll have to see how I do with my motivation and my body & mind both cooperating with me. LOL. I have all of these ideas & things I want to do that I can figure out in my mind- planning stage is fun-- but the execution tends to be a problem since I'm not as strong or coordinated as I wish I were.

I'm exhausted from the digging so I'm going to take a nap & then try to get myself to do something else productive later. If it warms up enough I may go down and paint the door & the trim.

 

[highup]

The hardest part is to actually get started. Once you do the easy part begins. I just finished one of those procrastinated projects and delivered it to it's owner. I did some flooring work for a friend's father. We have known the family since grade school days. Gene turned 90 in November.
Gene owned the local ship pilot business in town, bringing log, lumber and wood chip ships in to port and piloting them back out of our tricky bay entrance. It's 12 to 15 miles long.
Genes best friend Bill was CEO of a local bank chain. At one time they had 7 banks along the coast.
Long story short, when I worked for Gene, he showed me an old 1970's image of himself, his youngest son, and his good friend Bill at his ranch on the Elk River, 50 miles south of here. The photo was with them kneeling on the grass with their salmon catch displayed proudly in front of them. The image was quite faded. I asked him if I could borrow it so I could bring the color back using my scanner and photo shop. He said fine..... That was over a year ago.

His friend passed away so this was motivation to get the image back to him. The photo work was done, but I wanted to make a special two sided frame. I wanted it easily reversible because of a humorous undertone.... One side was the fresh and bright new image.... On the reverse side, I had made his fish considerably larger .
I made a photo stand from a black slate tile with two 1/4 inch stainless steel pegs protruding at a slight angle.
The fame can be lifted from the base and reversed easily.
He likes the large fish side best..... typical fisherman.
It made his day and took a load off my shoulders finally getting this wonderful memory back where it belongs.
Get off your butt Zan!

 

[zannej]

I ended up being exhausted for the rest of the day. Slept until dark & when I told my mother I had buried the cats, she knew how emotional it was for me so she let me rest. I cooked dinner & went back to sleep. I sat in the living room for a little bit because it's nice & warm & watched a little TV while eating a snack for breakfast (Ritz crackers with cheese). I need to eat healthier snacks. I'm going to see what the temperature is when the sun comes up & hope it's warm enough for painting. The workshop is warmer than the outside but it still gets fairly cold. I need to replace the heater in there & troubleshoot the electrical because some of the outlets no longer work.

 

[Floorist]

Doctor thinks I have PMR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymyalgia_rheumatica We shall see.

 

[highup]

I get stiff upper shoulders in the morning. After showering I crank up the heat and do some slow twisting and stretching and the heat helps loosen the muscles. I do that more often on days when I have work.

 

[Floorist]

This makes the fluid inside the bones swell. With no way to expand, it gets extremely painful.

 

[highup]

Does the weather play a part? I know some people say they can sense a storm comming.

 

[Floorist]

Does the weather play a part? I know some people say they can sense a storm comming.

Not that I notice.

 

[highup]

If you did, you could have created a weather app. The professionals aren't very accurate.
I hope there's some treatment available.

 

[Floorist]

Steroids daily. But there are side effects.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Steroids daily. But there are side effects.

Makes you sterile.

 

[Floorist]

Makes you sterile.

Then all the women are safe.