Blue-Footed Musings

This was a week both good and bad.

• The kids finished school. I have no idea how we made it through the whole year, but congratulations to Marshall and Livia, and hooray for summer!
• Livia complained so many times about her stomach hurting that I took her to the doctor. After waiting at least an hour to be seen, the doctor could find nothing wrong with her. They said she probably has a mild stomach virus.
• Marshall hit his head and opened a small but deep gash in his forehead. My husband took him to the urgent care center. They don’t do stitches there, but they attempted to glue the wound closed. The glue seems to be holding. His brain hasn’t fallen out yet, anyway. But why do the kids always do the worst damage to themselves just before big photo ops like Father’s Day and birthday parties? On the bright side, he didn’t have a concussion. And though he was bleeding left and right, very little blood got on his clothing or the carpet.
• There were more troubles for my husband to deal with at work. Such is the nature of his job, but every problem eats into our time and our income, and that bites.
• I played the piano almost every day this week, even twice on one day. I’ve made a commitment to learning a special repertoire of piano songs. The point is partly to have some pieces that I could theoretically play for company. But my main goal is, really, more of a psychological one. I have a bad habit of not finishing things. So, by mastering these pieces now, I’ll be finally finishing them. I have chosen pieces from my childhood, teen years, and early adult years. But, because I don’t want to live in the past, I have also started looking for some new songs to play. I ordered yet more sheet music this week, plus some CDs so that I can hear how these new tunes are supposed to sound. The first package of goodies arrived today.
• While searching for new piano pieces, I discovered some new composers, among them Charles-Valentin Alkan. Alkan was a contemporary of Chopin and Liszt. He wrote some interesting piano music. Much of it is beyond my ability to play, but not all. For example, this pretty piece sounds like it might be easy enough for me.

• Some of our caterpillar-ravaged trees have managed a second flush of leaves. It’s so wonderful to see green on them again. Now we know that these trees are still alive, and it is a relief. I’m glad that the big oak on the side of our house is among the survivors. But some of the other trees, both on our property and around town, haven’t leafed out again yet. That could be an ominous sign.
• I struggled every day to do my work. I’m still irritated by some work-related criticism that I received recently. It was not particularly constructive criticism, and it was poorly timed. It killed all enthusiasm that I had for my work. I’m trying to let the hurt feelings go, but it’s hard.
• Things are turning out well for Father’s Day. I remembered to mail the photo album to my dad. I wasn’t sure if I had shipped it in time for Father’s Day, but I went to the USPS website today to track the package, and they said that it went out for delivery this morning. Whew! The gifts that my husband ordered for his dad also miraculously arrived in time.

You know you’re getting old when your midnight snack occurs well before midnight and it includes fruits and veggies.

I took the cats to the vet today. It was just a routine visit for check-ups and vaccines. Peeps is fine, but we’re not sure about Mojo. Apparently he has lost nearly two pounds. Weight loss, the vet told me, is the first (and sometimes only) symptom of a great many bad things. I believe it. That was certainly how Zoulie’s decline began.

So I shelled out for some blood work for Mojo. It was the only thing that I could do. But now, having done that, I’m not sure whether I want a positive result or a negative one. A positive result would mean that he’s sick, but at least we’d know what was wrong. A negative result might mean that he’s fine, or it might mean that he’s sick with something that’s harder to diagnose. So either way, I will have to worry about him.

I hadn’t realized until today that he was old enough for major health problems. But the vet says he’s in the senior age range. He even has cataracts. If he were a human who wanted to drive, he’d need surgery. Since he’s a cat who only needs to navigate between the couch, the food dish, and the litter box, he should be fine. But still. How can he be having health problems? To me, he’s still like a brand-new kitten, and kittens can’t get sick.

Update 6/11: Mojo’s test results came back normal. There is nothing wrong with his kidneys, liver, or thyroid. We’ve decided to keep an eye on him and bring him back for another weigh-in in two months.

Note to Self, Part III: The problem with doing a little cleaning is that it leads to the discovery of things that require BIG cleaning, and dammit, you don’t want to do BIG cleaning, but if you stupidly uncover the mess, you’re obligated to deal with it. This is why you should only clean for company, and only the areas that visitors might see. Everything else should be left as is. Forever.

Note to Self: Never put a calendar date on a to-do list. It’s bad enough when you find the list months (or even years) later and realize that you still haven’t done most of the things on it, but to know exactly how much time has passed can be truly depressing.