September Chit/Chat

[stillstANNding]

I’d like to hear from Linda, too. I hope her feet are working better.

And Sunshine, I haven’t seen her for a day or two.

OTOH, SuzE-Q flew by Renee style.

ANN

[Sunshine 2]

Hi suzeQ and all.
Am still here. Struggling with asthma, a lifelong condition that flared up several weeks ago. Today is my annual with PCP , so I might not be around much, too much to do when get back home.

Hoping LAZ is okay.

IVIG yesterday was bumpy: I think the pump was broken. We set it at a FASTER pace, slightly faster, and it still took forever to infuse me, over 8 hours. She will use a diff pump next time and put it out of commission. She said the center is due for new pumps soon.

So tired of the suffering. As I imagine most of us are.

[stillstANNding]

Sunshine, I am so very sorry that you are suffering and have been for a good while. I hope your PCP can help you with a few things today. And good news on new pumps.

ANN

[Lazarus]

I’d like to hear from Linda, too. I hope her feet are working better.

And Sunshine, I haven’t seen her for a day or two.

OTOH, SuzE-Q flew by Renee style.

ANN

I’m here. I do read daily to see How everyone is. The farm is crazy busy. We started picking watermelon and today I washed priced and loaded about 25. John has another 50!
I also selected plants from the greenhouse and loaded my trailer. Tomorrow we pick and pack all sorts of sweet peppers and varieties of eggplant. Every item we sell is pre packaged so no customer touches the food. Expensive but seems safer than any other way.

Last week I had 20 boxes of figs which is about 80 figs and this week I will add squash blossoms to the foods I sell. Nice to be busy but my feet continue to be a problem and walking is quite wobbly. Still, it is nice to be busy!

[Virginia]

Linda, glad you are able to still be busy on the farm. I had no idea that this is watermelon season anywhere. Here it is in the late Spring and early Summer. After that if you get one it is kind of iffy as to how good it will be.

Agate and Rose, been concerned about both of you. As I watch the news it appears most of California is burning. This is worse than last year was and I thought that was bad. Now, it looks like Oregon is trying to catch up. Are either of you in danger?

Would love to hear from Jeanie. I assume she is in the same rehab. Just hope it is a nice one.

Ann, my stew turned out good, but with Jeanie gone I think Howie and I are the only ones on here that eat red meat. I eat more other stuff than red meat, but I do eat it. I think Sunshine eats chicken and seafood and the rest of you are vegetarians. I am not as bad as Nuthatch was though. She loved the recipe I had on here for potato soup, but she had David put ham in it. She tried to get to do it, but I have only made it once in about 6 months and I didn't do it. I would love to have some New and good recipes.

I agree Ann about SuZe-Q. She surely has taken lessons from Rene who just breezes in and then is gone.

[stillstANNding]

Linda - Sorry about the wobbles. Great that you and the farm are so productive. Come back from the market with something to tell. I love your stories. I think I told you that my one watermelon (Bene Kodama) was snatched by an animal in the night.

Virginia, I do eat meat including red meat and I worry for our people/families in Oregon and California. I hope you are feeling a little better after all of your housecleaning.

Good night,
ANN

[Virginia]

I know most of you are cat people, but dogs are fun I promise you.

My Niece has 2 labs that she got when she was in college. They are both 10 years old. One started several years ago sleeping standing up. I watched him on their doggie cam one time. He was standing and swaying against their couch and I asked her what he was doing and she said sleeping. She says he does it all the time.

Then he started kind of roaming the house at night. She took him to the vet who gave him some medicine (I assume something like anti-anxiety). She said it just made him worse so she took him off of it. Well, then he taught himself to open doors. So he goes through the house opening closet doors. This morning she got up and was asking her husband where Mason (the dog) was. Finally, she went in her bathroom to get ready for work and had to get some clothes out of her closet which is off the bathroom. He was in there. He had obviously opened the door, gone in and closed the door and it locked. He had taken all her clothes out of her clothes hamper and scattered her shoes around.

She doesn't know what time he went in because she and husband were asleep and didn't hear the door close. Her husband is working out of home right now and today that dog was laying at his feet whining. Finally, he said "Oh Mason, get up and go to bed". Obviously, he meant his dog bed. In a little bit he heard him going down the stairs, then he heard a door slam. He figured he better go see what was going on. Mason had gone in their bedroom, closed the door and got up on their bed and was laying across it.

My Niece said she told her husband that at least he went to bed like he was told to do. She is going to take him to N.C. State Veterinary Hospital for an appointment either next week or the week after to try and find out what is going on with him. My Niece diagnosed him with early onset dementia. She diagnosed him based on her Grandmother who they say has that. She says her Grandmother is pretty much alright in the day time, but gets confused at night. I don't think that is his problem.

Anyway, I think he is an interesting dog. Not sure I would want my dog going around opening and closing the doors in the house during the night.

[agate]

Dogs are really just people in disguise. Cats too. I'm not so very surprised to hear that dogs can open doors. One of my cats (Agate, actually) put her paw under any closed door in my apartment and kept trying and trying to open it. Sometimes she succeeded. I'd shut myself away from her in the bedroom when I needed to do some gift-wrapping because she wouldn't stay out of that project. I'd spend all my time removing her and wouldn't get the wrapping done--that's how persistent she was.

So I removed the project from her by shutting the bedroom door. She hated that, and I'd see that paw coming under the door. She'd keep pulling on the edge of the door until she would spring it open.

Thanks for asking about me, Virginia. I'm pretty sure Rose is in much greater danger from the fires than I am but this state is getting them too now.

Today the smoke was so bad that my eyes kept burning, and when I was outside, it was visible in the air, which smelled of smoke. The sky is always an odd overcast color that is also yellowish-orange. It seems to get very dark by 3 PM, which isn't normal. Usually at this time of year it's still fairly light even at 8 PM.

People in the next county over are almost at the point where they'll get an evacuation order but things are much worse there.

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Today I had to go to the dental appointment that I've missed out on twice before. I thought I was facing at least an hour and a half of molds, followed by a return visit a couple of weeks later for a crown, but a miracle happened.

When the dentist got looking into the tooth, he said he thought it would be better just to fill it because the tooth turned out to be a lot stronger than he'd thought. It had fractured about a year ago, and a piece or two of it broke off. He was sure it couldn't survive without a crown. Today he changed his mind--and saved me a huge amount of money ($650!), as well as the need for a follow-up appointment. The filling wasn't easy but I've had worse dental sessions. They were very nice and made me comfortable.

I had good rides both ways. I was done over an hour early and had to wait in the dentist's small waiting room for over an hour but I had no way of knowing I wouldn't be there nearly as long as scheduled. While waiting I was in a sort of cubicle they have rigged up. They've suspended some thin sheets of opaque plastic from the ceiling from hooks attached to clamps, and you can move them back and forth slightly. I was sitting in between two of these partitions. It's a different look--the latest thing in social-distancing interior decorating, maybe.

[Lazarus]

I know most of you are cat people, but dogs are fun I promise you.

My Niece has 2 labs that she got when she was in college. They are both 10 years old. One started several years ago sleeping standing up. I watched him on their doggie cam one time. He was standing and swaying against their couch and I asked her what he was doing and she said sleeping. She says he does it all the

Then he started kind of roaming the house at night. She took him to the vet who gave him some medicine (I assume something like anti-anxiety). She said it just made him worse so she took him off of it. Well, then he taught himself to open doors. So he goes through the house opening closet doors. This morning she got up and was asking her husband where Mason (the dog) was. Finally, she went in her bathroom to get ready for work and had to get some clothes out of her closet which is off the bathroom. He was in there. He had obviously opened the door, gone in and closed the door and it locked. He had taken all her clothes out of her clothes hamper and scattered her shoes around.

She doesn't know what time he went in because she and husband were asleep and didn't hear the door close. Her husband is working out of home right now and today that dog was laying at his feet whining. Finally, he said "Oh Mason, get up and go to bed". Obviously, he meant his dog bed. In a little bit he heard him going down the stairs, then he heard a door slam. He figured he better go see what was going on. Mason had gone in their bedroom, closed the door and got up on their bed and was laying across it.

My Niece said she told her husband that at least he went to bed like he was told to do. She is going to take him to N.C. State Veterinary Hospital for an appointment either next week or the week after to try and find out what is going on with him. My Niece diagnosed him with early onset dementia. She diagnosed him based on her Grandmother who they say has that. She says her Grandmother is pretty much alright in the day time, but gets confused at night. I don't think that is his problem.

Anyway, I think he is an interesting dog. Not sure I would want my dog going around opening and closing the doors in the house during the night.

Interesting story about the dog. he is definitely saying something. My dog has suddenly changed her bathroom behavior! I told my husband it is because he has changed where he parks his car and trailer to keep it out of the sun. He has parked right in front of her space and she can’t reach it. She did not just go somewhere else outside but started using doggie pads in the house which I leave for times we are out for hours. I don’t yell at her as she is obviously unsettled to have her usual outdoor space blocked.

[Howie]

Any Ren and Stimpy fans here? They had a guy they used to visit, and he only ever said one word. MEAT!

Just checking in. Nothing really happening, just wanted to say HI!

[agate]

Hi to all. I'm still celebrating the way my dental appointment turned out. I'm getting over a bit of "discomfort" as a result of the filling that was done but the tooth looks and feels ever so much better than it's been for several years.

Doctor Howie could have fixed this tooth with his pliers, I realize, but I didn't feel up to getting past that Sam who is probably playing watchdog there at Howie's. At least thanks to this dentist, the tooth no longer has the sharp point that was cutting into my tongue.

Today I have a phone appointment with the neuro. It seems kind of pointless because so much of what a neuro does (with MS anyway) involves personal observation with the reflex hammer and so on, but at least I don't have to schedule rides and turn up anywhere by a certain time.

[Virginia]

Agate, my Neuro hardly even bothers to check my reflexes anymore. I guess he thinks I have had MS so long it doesn't matter. He asked me how I am doing and I say something like, my walking and balance are not as good and I am weaker, my hands are a little worse. It really doesn't matter too much what I say he maybe does a little blood work and sometime he doesn't. However, this enables me to get my prescriptions refilled until I go back in another six months or so. I have to go week after next. I am seeing the NP.

So happy for you about your tooth. That surely is good news. Glad it turned out just the way it did. Also, it will save you a trip to see Dr. Howie and Nurse Sam.

I hope they are able to get the fires under control there and in California. Fires are extremely scary. Hurricanes are really bad and can be very destructive, but fire scares me worse than anything.

Linda my Niece is concerned that her dog has early dementia. I personally think he is just smart and bored. He and the other Lab they have are two of the sweetest dogs you could ever hope to see. I think it will be interesting to see what they have to say at the NC State Vet's office.

[agate]

Local news item--people around here have emus and llamas among other livestock:

Residents fleeing their properties stopped strangers with trailers on the highway and transferred their livestock before moving on.
The fairgrounds in Canby took in 1,000 animals Thursday – including emus, donkeys, llamas, pigs, goats and horses – but was out of capacity Friday morning. Emergency officials said they were looking as far as Columbia County, on the far side of Portland, in search of accommodations for more livestock.

[stillstANNding]

Rose, please check in.

ANN

[Howie]

Sam, take off you nurse outfit, seems our patient saw someone else.