C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 5
May 4, 2018
Chondrite, glad you’re ok: hope everybody clears out in time…
Most of us are familiar with the footage from some years back, with an advance into a small town, but this seems to be moving somewhat faster. Very sad for these people who are caught in the path.
Jane and are just back from another trip, this one to Seattle area and back, also family business, absolutely exhausted—that’s 4 hours on the road each way. The pond is a mess. I’m going to have to deal with that…sigh. And the house is chaos. The yard is a mess. We’re a mess—so sore we can hardly move. And way too many potatoes, which does not help the soreness. I think, however, I am going to kit up today and try to deal with the pond. While we were gone, Scott continued to work, and we now have tile up, or a lot of it. Unfortunately—this glass tile means that you have to go in with fine tools and chip out the mortar in a very precise way so that the grout (black) doesn’t have white bits showing. It’s extensive, in one case going up and surrounding the over-sink light. Jane is better at fine work; I specialize in destruction, and am going out to destroy the spongy cladella algae that has infested the pond.
April 27, 2018
The pond is running again…
We now have both pumps in operation, and Goku, Maddy, Ichigo, and Sanzo have all made official appearances out toward open water. The others are lurking under the bridge. Just sayin’. Scott came by early today, which was fortunate, because he was able to grab that growth of equisetum that was causing the pond overflow (blocking the outflow from the Matala filter) and get rid of it. A lump of grass and dirt the size of a three-year-old is now on the pondside and not in the water stream.
April 25, 2018
So—here we are, again in mid-remodel, with the pond backing up, and all sorts of things needing doing…
And Jane dislocated her little toe. She is in serious pain. Has it wrapped, which is about all you can do: little toe joints are one of those evolutionary things that just are not the best engineeering job—more of a shallow cup than a real joint, and supported by not-very-much.
April 21, 2018
We nearly had a confrontation, but not…
Kitties knocked my Greek-English lexicon into their water dish, drat the luck of how it fell. We have it in the freezer being dried out (a technique used in document rescue: freezers extract moisture.) But it wasn’t their fault. They are climbers. We have 2 cat trees in there with them. Tanner is being a glutton for petting now, loves it. Tracker just hides. I didn’t give him his med last night because he was out of his hidey-hole and I didn’t want to upset him, but I think he needs the little calmative dose for a while, so he will get his treatment.
And….Shu got into the room and came within sight of Tanner. Fortunately it WAS Shu, who is actually fairly easy-going except with people. It’s gentle Seishi you have to fear, though I can personally attest, if Shu gets his teeth into you, it’s doctor-bill time.(we had our set-to the morning of the eclipse, when he nearly broke my control getting into the car. I could save my arm, or him, and I wasn’t about to let him get away from me.)
We’re starting to get the pond into operation. It’s a mess. We’ve also hired a gardener, because Jane just isn’t up to taking care of the yard this spring—we’re both pretty well at our wits’ end re schedule and stuff there is to do. But we’ll handle it. And the guy is doing a good job.
April 19, 2018
April 17, 2018
Needed to take one kitty to the vet…
…diagnosis, minor UTI infection, possibly surfaced due to stress and long trip confined, but now under treatment and much happier kitty. The other was willing to cross the room and sniff my hand this morning, still not inviting touch, but trying to assess who I am. This is progress.
We are still sleeping at 8pm until 6:30 Am, just worn out. We watch telly and just crash. But so far all is well: the boxes shipped made it here: the whole house is awash in packing tissue—and we are still sorting.
April 14, 2018
You may have heard…
Jane’s sister passed away unexpectedly. We left the kitties in the capable care of good friends and took out for Chicagoland by car…Jane had always promised her sister that should anything happen to her, she would take care of her two kitties, elderly fellows, both, not the sort who could find other homes, for sure. So we drove it in 3 days—1785 miles. Jane is doing well: the time spent in driving and talking was a benefit; and we were able, in a handful of days, to take care of what had to be taken care of, including legal matters, calm two very upset kitties, and pack up or ship those things that are family stuff, including the two kitties (who had never been further than the vet by car)—and who were troopers on the trip back. Very gentle, very nice kitties, and they are now living in our basement library until we can gradually introduce them to our two far more territorial lads.
It was a very hard couple of weeks, physically. We would work ourselves to exhaustion, reach the hotel, fall asleep when we got there, rise at 6 and go do it all again. We took one additional day to rest up (and locate the kitties: one is an absolute master of escape and hiding.) And then we drove 3 days back, trading off at the wheel. We got home about 2:00 pm yesterday, had lunch at our local pub, went home and made contact with our own kitties, and collapsed about 6 pm and slept until 6 AM.
We are up and functional. Our kitties were glad to see us and only hissed a bit at the ‘other cat’ smell about us. I have a dental appointment Monday—and that’s kind of an important one. The Prius is packed literally to the overhead with boxes and items—we could not fit in so much as a hairbrush, with the job Jane did in packing it, and it managed the trip through a major winter storm we were timing-it trying to Not Get Caught In. We made it first to Oacoma SD, to a hotel we know. We came into our next stop at Livingston MT with snow flying sideways and wind gusts rocking the car, after a dicey afternoon drive through the mountains with a lowered cloud deck and rain, meaning foggy conditions, and made it by 6 (we’d booked a room by phone in Livingston MT, halfway between Billings and Butte, and a good thing we had, because storms fill up hotels.) We made it in with snow going sideways and wind gusts rocking the car, got up to drive on through snow and chain-up for trucks through Bozeman Pass, then had much easier time on toward home. Tired. Definitely. Today we start unpacking the car. I just saw Jane out there starting that job, and have to get at it.
March 29, 2018
New ceiling fan…
Not a ceiling hugger, but a light and fan combo that is going into the living room to save us some cooling bills during the summer: this baby has a fan in its heart, but is otherwise compact and quiet until you set the fan on stun.
March 26, 2018
Popped two stitches and back to the dentist: liquid diet until 4/16
This was not the way I planned to go on a diet.
I can have potatoes, both sorts. If baked well. But outside of that—yogurt, ice cream, shakes, and soup with nothing in it.
Waaa!
Deal is, I’m apt to pop the new ones if they put any in, so I just have to protect the artificial membrane atop the graft and keep it from floating or getting nudged. It’s starting to grow in—that’s the graft—but for the success of this whole project, I have to protect it.
Sigh.
March 23, 2018
Had the dental surgery Wednesday, had to go in again today.
The seal and cushion they installed started to ‘float’ within hours after I got home and began to come apart last night. On liquids-only. So today being the last day before the weekend I called the dentist for a lookover. Not right, they said, and revised it, working me in at a slack time this morning. Went with Jane for a cup of coffee and her breakfast, and the darned thing came completely loose. Return to the dentist, and this time they removed the seal and just added more stitches.
Turned out the mask-like redness I’d had on the bridge of my nose, the minor jaw pain, AND the rather painful eye dryness I’d suffered since going on the meds (antibiotic/steriod combo) that I had attributed to maybe the steroid—wasn’t. Those symptoms began clearing the hour they removed that seal. So I’m allergic. The product is called Barricade, lovely if you aren’t allergic to it..
Doing much better this afternoon. Three weeks and I get rid of the stitches…but at least I’m nearly over the steroids and antibiotics.
