Its been a while. Nothing memorable to say.
Lots of little annoyances this week. Nothing big, not like the big stuff some of my friends are going through.
Up dates on their big stuff, then maybe listing my insignificant little things, will make them annoy me less.
A friend in AZ, J, is practically living at the hospital. Her 31 yr. old son was diagnosed with leukaemia Christmas week. He started Chemo Christmas day. He was supposed to get a bone marrow transplant from his brother last week, if all went well. Still waiting to hear. My friend has always been so positive, but she is just a basket case. They say has chances with the transplant are 50/50.
I tell her those are pretty good odds, but she is in such despair, I don't know if she will ever come back from this.
My friend Mark (with the ALS) continues to worsen. He had more mobility in his hands and arms a few months ago then he does now. He is still able to eat real food, which is very good. He was on pureed food for a while, when he had some trouble swallowing. He thought the food was bad before....but after that, he was thrilled to get it back. I think he may have gained a few of the pounds he lost back, looks a little less frail.
But his voice is almost gone. I don't know what part is going. Is it the tongue and lips, or vocal cords, or what, but it became almost impossible to understand him. Last month he finally got a talking machine. Not sure the technical term....its like what Stephen Hawking uses. He is able to use a sensor to make a cursor spell out what he wants to say, then he can hit a button that says Speak, and it speaks it. Its pretty cool. It takes a lot of work for him, but at least he is able to communicate again. It was looking like he would not get it until his Medi-Cal kicked in. (they are $10,000!!) Its on loan, but he desperately needs it. Imagine having a fully functional mind and no way to communicate.
His Medi-cal has not kicked in yet. He has been in the nursing home almost 8 months. Pretty sure insurance is not covering it now.
His sister is handling all his stuff. She is out of state, but comes out fairly often to get stuff done. I told her she needs to walk the Medi-Cal application in to the office, mail-ins take much longer. But it was mailed and received in Dec. It is unlikely to be looked at for several more months.
Then his house rabbit. I was going to take it if he could not go home again, and it is looking like he will not be able to live at home again. Live in help would have to be hired, and it does not look to me like his sister plans to do this. He can't do it. I can't do it. A friend has been coming over to take care of his rabbit, but other wise is home alone. Its great he has the run of the house, but he is probably getting lonely. I discussed with Mark, he would probably have to spend some time in my outdoor hutch while I got him and my house bunnies used to each other, but hopefully he would eventually be living in doors. He hated to see that, but thought it was probably the best alternative. The sister is now saying, well Mark does not want him outside, he is going to go to some vet place who will him find a home. Yeah, how long will that take? My girls were at the shelter a year before I adopted them, and can they be sure they will go someplace at least as good as here? For all I know the vet could sell them for snake food, or animal experiments. We will never know. No updates for Mark. It bothers me and I am worried about the bunny, plus I felt like I was just dismissed.
Then my massage person dismissed me yesterday. I had been going for years. The really good one I had close by for years, was stopping to get another type of job, and I knew this person, M, from something else. I think I had been paying L. about $45. and went every 3 months. Well when she quit I asked M. what she charged. I think she said $70. That's a lot for me. But I didn't want to totally stop, and since I knew her, figured maybe twice a year I could come up with that, so made my appt. After I go to write my check, and she says $30. is fine. I say "thanks, but I can't do that if you charge $70". She says its fine, she knows I can't afford that. So I go every 2-3 months, paying $30. for several years. She never says anymore. When I started making more I started writing my checks for $35. Lately I had thought maybe I should bump it up a little more, but had not done it. I go Sunday and I am 15 min. late. I just lost track of time, thought I could still make it, and raced there. I can't remember the last time I was even 5 min. late there. I apologize, she says its ok, but it will have to be just 45 min, not 60. I say I understand. After I pay, and make an appt. for 2 1/2 months.
The next day I get an e-mail saying basically, sorry, but with the bad economy I can't afford to give you reduced rates anymore, you might want to look for some place you can afford better. Dismissed again. I would have been fine, if when I gave her the check she would have told me then, $70. next time. I probably would have said fine, see you in 6 months, and started saving my pennies. But instead I was just dismissed, after all these years. I kinda felt like we were kinda friends. It felt bad. Like I did something wrong. Other than the one time 15 min. late, I can't guess what I did.
My utilities keep going up and up. I am not a phone person, hardly ever use it, but I guess I have to have one. I think the number of calls I make each month divided into my bill by the time they get all the tax and fees on is coming out to average at least $1.00 a call.!!! I called 411 last month. First in a long time. They didn't even have the number I was looking for. The last I heard, you could call 3 times a month before they charged you for calling. Nope. That one useless call was $1.50. When did that change?
All my hanging out friends are unavailable. Everyone is so far, and or so busy with jobs, significant others, kids, or just way too tired, etc. Its not even worth the trouble to try and get together more than once a year of so. Yeah, I guess I do still have some friends, but it sure does not seem like it most of the time. I go everywhere alone. Which is fine 98% of the time. But I hate telling other people I did this alone or that alone. It sounds too pathetic. And there are times when just chatting about stupid stuff like today's blog with a real live person would be nice. Or the occasional dinner or something without weeks of trying to arrange time to get together.
I have nothing in common with most of the people at work. Last job I did. One before that I did, but not here. Its all pretty much being quiet, or boring small talk. Why yes, I am single, and that's fine. I am not the kind of person that thinks any relationship is better than none. 99% of the time, its just more trouble than I want. But....one of my favorite lines about not having a relationship is "Then who do you tell your stories to?"
Then throw in some difficulties I have had lately doing stuff online or the computer in general. Some are just me, eventually I would figure it out. Its just frustrating. Others are the site/system problems, I have to wait for them to fix.
What else. Rain...I love rain, don't get me wrong. And we need it desperately here in S. CA. But...I have been working on some out door projects for several months. A big hunk of it was moving a lot of plants around my back yard. Of course everything always takes me longer than I expect it to. The other part is the rain. We went at least 6 months with no rain. When it came I was thrilled. But for the last 6 weeks or so we have averaged 2 days a week of rain. Except for 1 weekend in the past 6 or so, either it was too wet and rainy or too muddy to do anything out back!!! What are the odds of those 2 days having to always be on the weekend? I have plants I dug up weeks ago, and can't get replanted. There isn't time after work. At first it was like, oh, well I will do it next weekend. But no, it rained. This weekend? Another storm is expected. I could finish in a day and a half. Please, just one good weekend to garden. This is sunny California.
I think that's the bulk of it, must go eat and shower before Lost comes on. How will I survive it going away permanently?
