February 26, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

If it is a sunny one, I hope you are enjoying it as much as Miss Allie is.  

She's my chunky monkey!  Karma was a fat cat, too.  I had one other chunky cat years ago whose name was Chakra.  Chakra and Allie refused/refuse to eat anything but dry cat food.  No canned food or people food, either.  Miss Karma ate both dry and canned cat foods and a very tiny little select bit of people food.  They never seemed to eat in excess.  Probably genetics.  Some of us are born to be chunky.  Like me--lol!

Anyways, Monday was Presidents Day.  Dagan and Leah were off work and the boys were off school, so they did some grocery shopping while the plumbers were working at the house.  Liam had an appointment with his speech therapist in the afternoon.  They asked Ian if he wanted to stay here with me.  Yes!  So Ian and I had a few hours of a Gramma Day!!  He showed me how he could draw 2D shapes vs 3D shapes.  I let him try out some mechanical pencils and a couple types of erasers from Gramma's drawing supplies.  We measured my apartment in comparison to my new one.  (Tape measures are such fun for boys but scare cats--lol!)  Finally Ian introduced me to a new cartoon show he likes where the kids have dragons.  Was a fun afternoon!

 Tuesday Keanna came to clean.  I did more cooking and baking and laundry.  But every day I have been up at the table and this wasn't a one-off for Allie!

Allie is up next to me every day.

Totally relaxed and sawing logs after while.

Happy cat.  Happy house. ;)

Something has been making a nest in one of my planters.  Pretty good sized.  A partridge?  A rabbit?  I'm kind of thinking a rabbit.  But it could be the two partridges I still see coming to eat, I suppose.  If they are brave enough to try to spend the night here. 

I've only caught a glimpse of the two partridges together.  As you may have noticed, no pics of partridges the past couple of weeks.  I am kind of afraid they are off nesting somewhere.  I've not seen the bigger covey of six.  Only the two that come together.  Last year there were the two that came all the time and never disappeared to nest.  I figured they were kind of the left-overs--lol!  Two boys or two girls that didn't have mates.  I only see the two come, but one of them is the limper so I know it is the same two.  

They very often are coming when it is too dark to get pictures anymore.  I hope they don't all think it is spring and are off nesting in February!  Who knows?  And it is always possible with this crazy spring weather that they could be right and I am wrong...but I think we could still have snow any old time.  Not sure how things are supposed to go in a brown winter with no snow to speak of.

The plumbers were there working for three days and they were done, too!  Well, like the electricians, as done as they can be before the drywall is finished.  Then they'll be coming back to finish things off...both the electricians and the plumber/HVAC folks.

I have some pictures.  They're nothing pretty yet, of course, but it is exciting to me to see what's been done.  This is the water hook-ups from the kitchen that run behind where the washer and dryer will go in the maintenance room/my laundry room--under the stairs.

From the other side you can see where the dryer vent is.  The cats will have to learn to go along under those pipes to get from my laundry room to their cat boxes and the rest of the house.  Will Allie be brave enough?  I know Blink will be.

My shower walls and floor are in!

Doesn't look like much yet, but I think it is very pretty fake tile.

Behind the right side of the shower--the wall that is shared with my studio.

There were all kinds of pictures of stuff in the ceiling--lol!  Metal tubes, silver crinkly tubes...

...white tubes, grey tubes...

...and vents.

This shot is from the living room looking at the wall where the kitchenette will be.  The doorway to the left will be my apartment door.  The doorway to the right goes into the maintenance/laundry room.  The washer and dryer will be tucked under the stairs. 

So--lots getting done.  Next will be the drywall people, I think.  I haven't heard from Leah about when they might be scheduled.  We're working around the dates we just got for Dagan's pacemaker replacement surgery (March 11-12) down in Minneapolis.  They decided to just do the replacement and not the open-heart surgery to replace the leads and move his pacemaker pocket to his chest.  Glad.

Dagan hasn't had major heart surgery for like 30 years!  Pacemaker replacements and minor surgery, but no open-heart surgery.  Since it is kind of a mystery to his cardiologists as to why he has done so well all this time (was never expected to live in the first place--lol!)...well, kind of feels good to leave well enough alone for as long as possible, you know?

He got his first pacemaker when he was about 12 after a life-saving surgery that his heart wasn't crazy about cooperating with how they had altered it once again. Barely beating at all--too weak and tired to sit up.  So, he had another surgery to have a pacemaker installed.  He was so young that they couldn't put it under the skin on his chest.  They had to put the pocket down under his rib cage in his abdomen--where it's been ever since.  

Those two surgeries really did change his life!  He'd never been well more than two months in a row for 12 years.  He got to be more like a regular kid after that.  (Not that I didn't treat him like one.)  But after the pacemaker when he ran a fever...he just ran a fever.  He didn't turn blue/gray and become semi-conscious (because he went into crazy arrythmias) until I could get his fever down.  We'd laugh about how much easier it was for him to be sick when he did get sick after that.  He could go months and months without catching something or another.  Usually respiratory illnesses.  It was a whole new world.

His last pacemaker replacement was only about two years ago, but his battery is dying already.  Pacemakers usually last more like 8-10 years.  Which means the leads are probably getting old and shot.  And when they cut his pacemaker pocket open last time there was so much scar tissue...he didn't even bleed.  Which is why they will need to move the pacemaker pocket to his chest one day.  They didn't think that cut would heal up last time, but it did.  We're hoping they can super glue him back together this time, too.  

So...any good wishes or prayers in Dagan's direction would be appreciated.  If anyone is a proponent of prayer and healing thoughts and energy sent, I am.  Dagan is living proof.  (I think recently I may even be living proof, for that matter--thank you all.)  We are hoping everything will go smoothly...and maybe this pacemaker will last longer than they expect.  

Anyways, meanwhile...

You'll laugh!  Best laid plans...again.  I keep thinking I am going to get finished with the birthday cards...well, I did get the envelopes all stamped and addressed, but still don't have the cards colored.  So they are still not finished--lol!  Other projects keep bumping them down on my to-do list.  You know my to-do list has to be pretty short and I have to reevaluate priorities every day.  Well, since I can now get up to the table for a length of time every day...reorganizing my rollie carts jumped up higher on the list.

I've been moving letter writing and journaling supplies over on to these two rollie carts off the kitchen.  Doing things like testing all these old VersaMagic chalk ink pads was one of them I just finished on Sunday.  They used to fill this container, but a lot of the ones I used most often and the lighter ones were too dried up.  No refill inks for these little cats-eye pads, either.  

They are the best for stamping in letters and journals because they don't bleed through the paper.  I bought them years before Covid and cancer--and they haven't been touched for probably close to four years.  Let's say these do still work.  But the ones that work the best are the darkest colors.  I have a feeling more of them will be tossed as actually try to use them (out of frustration--lol!) but I was trying to save as many as I could.  Actually was surprised any of them still worked, to be honest.

Little projects like that are what I have spent the week doing with any energy I have for "extras".  Another one this week was making beef soup/stew in the crock pot again.  (One of my favorites.) 

Allie has been wanting more time with me whenever I AM over in my chair now--ROFL!

And I am delighted that Allie is conked out next to me while I am typing here at the table.

OMGoodness!  Just looked on my phone.  Predicted to be 61 degrees today--and snow showers tomorrow morning!  Could get an inch of snow.  What did I tell you--lol!  Says will stay cold through Wednesday (below freezing) and then back into the 50s by Thursday!  Just bizarre!  

Anyways, have a really good week wherever you are and whatever the weather.  

Just...thank you.  Thank you. :)