Post-Op Day 1

Lightly snowing

Well that didn't go like I had hoped it would! It has been a lot more painful than I was anticipating, and I can't find a comfortable position to either sit, stand or lie down. I am, however, a good patient for once, and am staying on top of the pain meds to keep ahead of the pain. Pain meds in this case are big-ass doses of Ibuprofen, and teeny, tiny doses of Oxycodone. But the surgery went well, and my "angry" little gallbladder (honest to Pete, that's the word the surgeon used to describe it) is out and gone. I was going to post a picture of the gall bladder since I got one as a souvenir, but decided the snowy day would be more reader friendly.

I didn't realize going in that I was having what was considered two separate procedures--an endoscopy of my stomach and upper intestine, and a cholecystectomy--so I was in and under a lot longer than I thought I would be. Went in at 8:15 and didn't leave till about 3:30. 

Today it is lightly snowing, and I am in a cozy robe with no plans to do anything but laze around, sleep, read, work on my cross stitch or afghan projects, and watch Only Murders in the Building with J. It feels really good to be able to just relax and not fret about how far behind I'm getting on things. I'm retired! There is no behind!

Next up? A visit to the pancreatic specialist for a sepated cyst >2.5 cm on my pancreas! Joy of joys. An aging body is really a pain in the... well, everywhere.

Some of Us Know What to Do with Our Sundays

Rémy knows what to do on Sunday

It's Sunday and it's snowing. We got an inch or so last night, and i's still coming down in dainty little flakes. The weather poses a bit of a conundrum for me because what I need to do today is go to the other Polson house and load up my tool storage from there (one of those big rolling drawer-thingies from Home Depot that comes in two pieces) to bring it here. I'll probably have to unload it to move it, and I need to wrestle it into the back of the pickup... in the snow... with the pickup bed already full of snow. Well not really full of snow, but enough snow to be a hassle. 

Then when I get it here I have to put it in the garage, but there isn't room for it in the garage because I still have all the boxes of tools from the Austin move to put away in the other new tool drawer-thingie from Harbor Freight--as well as all the 50-lb boxes of glass frit. that are going into the glass shed (I would say glass studio, but it's not a studio--it really is a shed). I can't put the tools away till I have both drawer-thingies set up in the garage so I can decide what to put where. 

In order to get the boxes of frit out of the garage, I need to have the wall storage and attached work table installed so I have somewhere to unpack and put the frit as I move it. I also need to unload the sheet glass from the crates, and reload it back into them after they have been set up vertically--and I need the attached storage pieces to be in place before I set up the freestanding ones like the crates. All the attaching requires tools. the tools are difficult to access because they are mostly still packed. They are packed until I have storage for them.

The above-mentioned chicken and egg scenario is common in most of the home projects I am working through right now. And everything but everything is compounded by the fact that it is snowing today--and I don't want to muck around in it, and I am having gall bladder removal surgery Wednesday and won't be able to lift more than 20 lbs for a month after it. I have two days left where I can lift sh*t, and it's snowing!

Screw it. I am retired. I don't HAVE deadlines anymore. I'll do it after the snow is done, and I can lift again. Today I'll putter in the office/sewing room and finish setting it up. No, I'll leave that till tomorrow. Today I'll just listen to an audiobook while I cross stitch, drink hot tea, and watch the snow fall. (Yes, I said cross stitch... Welcome to the madness.)

Self-Cleaning Cat Boxes

The Cat Link

There are many things I could post about today from the advanced state of the sewing room, to the settling into a bit of a routine, to the great progress on in-progress craft projects, but the thing that is most pressing on my brain is how the hell to get the cats to use the litter boxes. Three floors in this house. Three litter boxers--one per floor--for their highnesses' convenience. Yet cleaning up messes is a daily struggle.

I even upped my cat maintenance game this year and got two fancy schmancy self-cleaning ones--one is a Cat Link and the other a Popur. (Jessie still has a plain vanilla you-gotta-scoop-it one in her bathroom on the ground floor. )When we got the first one--the Cat Link--Kaiju and Pavlova seemed to take to it right away. Pippen, however, seemed too big to get into it comfortably, and I didn't think he was using it. He is over 21 lbs of round orange tabby, and the opening is kind of small and spaceship-capsule-like. 

The Popur

So for the next one I got a Popur which is supposed to be for big cats, and is more open on the top. Pippen used it fine, but it scared the crap out of Kaiju and now he won't use it. The Cat Link both looks like a space capsule, and when it cleans it also revolves like one. The Popur, on the other hand, does this alien-from-space movement and rears up making a big hood when it self-cleans. I think the motion--combined with the not insignificant noise--is what scared Kaiju off. He is at least somewhat considerate, and mostly pees in my shower instead of on the carpet or in one of our chairs, but this is not the outcome I was hoping for.

Yesterday I threw in the towel and put a big corner litter box in our bathroom, and that seems to have pleased both Pippen and Kaiju. I am less pleased as I have to get down on my hands and knees to get to it to clean it. 

Meanwhile I don't know what Pavlova thinks about the new cat boxes, but I know she is all in favor of spraying on any cardboard box left on the floor. And if she does it, the boys have to follow--including Rémy who isn't even a cat. The solution for that one doesn't seem to be catbox-adjacent, and requires me to finish unpacking and get all the cardboard boxes recycled.

The moral of the story? No more cats. I am too old for this sh*t.