J.J.’s still here, still drinking and peeing, although the eating and pooping has slowed down. I’ve been giving him sub-q fluids and that seems to help, and he’s sleeping a lot. There are two beds set up on the futon and Jessie or Jeremy tend to join him at least once during the day—a couple of days ago I watched in fond amusement as Jeremy carefully climbed into J.J.’s bed and curled around him, and today J.J. was back-to-back with Jessie for a couple of hours. I don’t know if they’re trying to keep him warm or provide some pack comfort, but I’m glad they’re doing it.
I’m also bathing The Elderly Gentleman daily and sometimes twice a day, depending on how he feels and whether he’s gotten pee or poop in his fur. It’s not a big deal—I stand him on the bathroom counter with my hand bracing him under his ribcage and wipe him down with a warm, wet cloth until he’s clean, then gently rub him dry with a terrycloth square. I also have to clean his undercarriage and I’ve become more familiar with his penis than I ever expected to be (his pooper duper I’m used to).
And yeah, this may seem like a lot to some people. But J.J. is the cat of my heart, and if I was old and tired I’d want people to take care of me as well. He’ll go when he’s ready (and if he needs medical intervention we’ll provide that, but so far he hasn’t shown signs of wanting that yet).
In the meantime he seems happy to curl up on his bedding and watch me make dinner, hang out with the twins, and snooze. As long as he’s content, that’s all that matters.
The first major non-ice storm of 2023 just went over us and I have to say I was quite impressed. According to WFAA we had 80 MPH straight-line winds, lots of donder and blitzen, large hail in some areas, and a couple of tornadoes around the Metroplex (but none in Plano—yay for TI Skunkworks!). It’s now headed towards Arkansas and points east, and part of it is going to head north and dump a buttload of snow on the northern states from what the weather report is saying.
Now I have an idea for a short story that came to me while I was crouched over the back of my futon for five minutes holding a water bowl so that J.J. could drink from it undisturbed.
Let’s be honest, writers spend a lot of time sitting. Yeah, some of them have standing or even walking desks (and I have no idea how those folks manage to walk and type at the same time—I’d fall over within the first thirty seconds), but the bulk of us nail butt to chair while we’re churning out our wordage.
As of last night I finished the swing dress I’d started a couple of years ago. I’d already cut out all the pieces, but things happened so it got stuffed in the closet along with two other batches of fabric I’d bought to make two other dresses in the same pattern.
Now I LOVE swing dresses. They look great on me, and I have three or so of them from Torrid, but when I found this awesome skulls and roses fabric I knew I wanted to make a swing dress out of it (and prove that the pattern would work on my body so that I could make more if I wanted to).
About a month or so ago our ancient treadmill conked out, much to my dismay but not to my surprise (it was at least 17 years old and the picture above was taken when we were still in the apartment). Since replacing it was simply not in the budget at this time and even a new motor would require saving up for a few month I’ve been making do with walking around the house in laps (I’ve gone outside a couple of times when the weather is nice). But spoiled first worlder that I am, I really missed my virtual walks through Vegas, New Orleans, London, et al on my iPad while I walked on the treadmill.
Here is a shot of Mexican Nights, made from the scraps left over from the Dia de los Muertos quilt I did for my friend E. The quilt is 4.5′ square and uses the leftover Virgin Mary motif from the bigger quilt, as well as some of the specialty fabric I’d used on the back and for the 9-block squares I’d done for that quilt.
This is also the biggest quilt I’ve quilted on my home machine in years and I can tell. Man, my shoulders are aching from managing that much fabric as I pushed it under the needle. But I like the way it turned out and I really like the wave motif I used on the lattices.
The hearts were all hand-drawn directly onto the fabric before quilting so they’re not perfect, but I like the way they look. They work as quilting motifs, especially on this 9-block square.
So there I was, looking at the wall hanging that needed some freehand quilting to be completed, and I really wanted to take a crack at a wave pattern for the latticework.
There’s nothing quite as special as climbing into a perfectly clean bed that smells great, snuggling down to sleep … and suddenly your brain treats you to a 3-D presentation on all the things that could go disastrously wrong in the near future.
We’re catching just the very southernmost edge of Winter Storm Olive (and I am grateful for small favors), but now that I am a Woman of a Certain Age I can most definitely feel weather changes come in a few days before they hit. Quite apart from all my joints aching (still managed to wash the bedding and clear out the dead lantana from two flower beds, though, so go me), I’m just so bloody tired at the moment. I asked the Brit if we could forage for dinner tonight and he kindly went out and brought in a cooked chicken from the store, and I almost nodded off downstairs a couple of minutes ago. If my duvet wasn’t still in the dryer I think I’d give up and go to sleep right now.
Melanie Fletcher 