Sunday, December 26, 1999 Ah, the day after Christmas. Get out there and take down those decorations, the holiday is over. Bah, humbug. Christmas just isn't the same when you can't decorate. And it seems it's more a holiday for the kids than the adults and there are no kids in our extended family. When I was single, I had friends with children, but they've all grown and we lost contact, anyway. I like Halloween, that's my kind of holiday. Where I can decorate and give goodies to the kids and it's only one day and it's over. And now I have money to spend and there's no way I'm going out to spend it. Too many people out there. I'll just sit here in my cozy little home.

My cozy little home, where I'm alone. *sigh* Brian left early for the Sticks this morning. He had to go over to his brother's house to get the tractor. I wish he didn't have to do this. I asked what he was going to do all day (he has to bring the tractor back tonight) and he said take pictures, play with his GPS instrument.... He's been gone a couple of hours. When he left, he took some coffee with him and a cooler with a couple of drinks in it. I didn't recall the camera or the GPS. I checked. He forgot them. *grin* Well, he'll have fun playing Farmer Brian with his brother. I really didn't want him to go and until I know that DeeJay will be okay (he gets his stitches out tomorrow and he's really fussy about eating; I know this is a bad precedent to set for him, but I don't want him to go hungry, so I feed him when he asks), I don't want to leave for long periods of time. Which Brian understands. Brian did say that maybe he could go drop the tractor off then come home and we could go to Julian for breakfast tomorrow morning and pick up the tractor and come home. I reminded him about DeeJay and his stitches, so that's out. When Brian left this morning, I walked outside with him. I gave him my saddest face. He just looked at me and shook his head.
"Are you going to do this everytime I leave for Ranchita?"
I nod my head.
"Well, maybe I'll just have to buy the best trailer and not even come home."
"I won't pay the bill and they'll repossess."
"They won't be able to find me."
"I'll give them your address and I'll tell 'em when they get there to tell you to get your ass home."
He laughed, gave me another smooch and off he went.

Red is warming up. A little. He actually came up to me on the floor last night. He's so sweet and so sensitive. I love that guy. And he's so soft, has the most wonderful purr. I miss him loving me.

DeeJay is still pretty restless. I don't know what it is. This morning, some kitten food seemed to do the trick. Then he wants out. Then he wants in. Then he sits in front of me. Then he walks into the other room. I wish I knew what he wanted. I wish he could just relax and take a nap. It certainly wouldn't hurt him. One thing he really wanted to do was to lay in my lap. I let him for about a half hour. I just can't sit still any longer than that. He's on the back of the armchair in the living room now, sun shining in and nice and toasty warm. He's very comfortable and is napping.

I'm glad today is the last of Kirby's pills. Last night he scratched the same finger that got the cuticle injury Friday night. Ouch.

Before the boss left this morning, he told me that he only had one clean pair of jeans left. That's nice. ;-) Well, I guess I should start doing some laundry. LOL!!

Tuesday, December 28, 1999 Brian had a good time up at the sticks on Sunday. I was surprised when he was home before dark. I had told him before he went up that I hoped it would get it out of his system for at least a month. He scoffed at my statement. Yesterday morning, he said I was probably right. There's no need to go up there again. I guess they cleared out a turn around for the lower piece of property so that one doesn't have to drive all the way to the top to get the vehicle facing in the other direction. They also put up new padlocks on the gates. Brian drove to a couple of places yesterday looking for pricing on new gates. One place didn't have any and the other only had one in stock. That disappointed him. He had a pretty bad day yesterday. He rotated the tires on his truck and left for Ramona. His truck wouldn't go over 35 mph, due to the tires. He's redoing them today. He came home, all ready to take my truck and I said "huh-uh, you leave my truck here." So, he took the car. That's fine with me.

I called the vet's office yesterday to find out when it would be convenient to take DeeJay in to get his staples removed. Oddly, the phone was busy between 8 and 8:30. I called again a little after nine and got the answering service. Seems they were closed yesterday. They hadn't bothered to warn the answering service. LOL!! So, I called them this morning. They were really swamped I was told. One of the techs could remove the staples and I said that I thought maybe the doc would want to look at DeeJay. I couldn't take him in right away anyway, because Brian had my truck. He got home a little after nine and I took a shower, then grabbed the carrier, got DeeJay in it and off we went. I guess I hit a slow period because there were no clients waiting to see the doc. I was taken into an examining room and the doctor came in, weighed DeeJay. He asked me about DeeJay's poop (I don't know what it looks like, he won't go in front of me) and started to take out the staples. I guess a couple of them got turned around and he had to use wire cutters to remove them. DeeJay didn't mind, he just laid there purring. The doc said he must feel a hundred times better, not constantly constipated. Maybe that's why he was always so grouchy. Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem any longer.

Before I left, I made an appointment for little Pete's final set of vaccinations. Next Tuesday morning. Then it will be time to get him neutered before too long.

Speaking of neutering, when I called this morning to ask about DeeJay, I explained about Jackie. I told them my trepidation about catching him and putting him in a carrier, so there's no set time I'll be able to do it. I can't make an appointment for him like I can the tame cats. No problem, I was told. If they have to, they can keep him overnight and do the surgery the next day. I'll most likely try to get this done the second week of January. Hopefully, this will help our relationship with him. I doubt if he'll ever be a cuddler, but maybe he will be a little more affectionate.

It looks like we may have a respite from the heat of the past month. It's cloudy out today. I do have the doors open, it isn't cold, but it's not so darn sunny outside.

My mom has been sick. She thought maybe it was the pills she was taking and she called about it yesterday. She was told the it *could* be the pills, but it could be something else. They suggested she not take them for a couple of days to see if the problem (extreme diarrhea) cleared up. She is feeling better, so it could be something else. There's been a bad virus going around this month, so it might be that. I hope she gets better soon. Her next chemo treatment is January 6th.

You know, we haven't made any plans for New Year's Eve. The last time we attempted anything on New Year's was a few years back. New Year's Eve is also our anniversary (fourteen years this year) and we went to Disneyland. We will never do that again. We were both borderline sick (it seems so often we're borderline, but never full blown, our immune systems at work) and that place was so crowded. It took forty five minutes to walk from one side of the park to the other. We went back to the hotel, had dinner at the now non existant monorail cafe, then went back to the hotel room. We were fast asleep by the time the new year rolled in. We'll never do that again. We don't seem to like heavy crowds. To be honest, I don't really miss the hoopla. Brian was just mentioning this the other day, how we don't "party". We don't mind being around other people, we just don't seek it out. I would think that meant we're pretty secure people. We were talking about how long we had been married last weekend. It seems like we've always been together. That's not a bad thing. We just don't remember life without one another. I certainly wouldn't trade my life with Brian now for anything. Not just because he spoils me silly. But because I really enjoy being with him. I like him. I think I'm pretty darn lucky to have found him. Of course, we didn't meet until I was thirty-one. I had already made up my mind (because of past relationships) that I wouldn't settle. And I didn't. I like being comfortable. It's warm and cozy. It's a good thing.

Friday, December 31, 1999 Well, this is it. The last day of the year. Tomorrow it will be the first day of the last year of this millennium. I'm one of those purists who count a decade as 1-10, not 0-9. *grin* Someone posted somewhere earlier this year that the new millennium doesn't start until January 1, 2001, because the person who started the counting, Dennis the Short I think was his name, didn't start counting with year zero, he started with year one. Anyway, I'm sure there are lots of debates about it, we've had them right here in this house. And Brian finally understands how it is. I was looking around for a countdown java program and it's funny. More purists. I saw a counter for Y2K, with the disclaimer that it wasn't a countdown to the end of the millennium until *next* year. I wanted a countdown program to countdown to the October Disney trip.

Brian is making a little concession to the possible problems of Y2K. He's going to take all of the vehicles to get gassed up today. We have tons of catfood and dogfood and about fifteen gallons of drinking water, since we drink bottled anyway. We went shopping yesterday and have plenty of stuff to munch on, so we're set.

My mom's hair is falling out from the chemo. It took a couple of weeks. Wednesday morning she sounded better, but was pissed off because here she's losing her hair and those damn whiskers on her chin are still there. She had to shave. The medication is also causing a vaginal discharge, which she had been warned about. She said she's also losing her pubic hair. So, with the discharge (which the doctor warned her may happen, from the medication she is on) and the hair loss, she says it's a real mess. She said when she woke up, she thought the cat was on her face, but when she opened her eyes, her face was in her pillow and the hair was hers. *sigh* She found out Tuesday that she can get a free wig. She had planned on buying one, but there is a program for people who are going through cancer treatments and she won't have to pay for one. She mentioned a good wig costing $500. She asked if the wigs were *used*. That's my mom. So, Wednesday, her friend, Betty, took mom down to the store where the wigs are. Now, I've mentioned this before, that Betty is a smoker. And Betty is adamant about the fact that she'll never quit dadgum it, it's her God given right to smoke herself to death, if that's what she wants to do. She will not go to parties where smoking has to be done outside. She feels she should be able to smoke wherever she wants, which I think is inconsiderate of people who don't smoke. And she's one of those smokers you can smell from ten feet away. Always has that smoke odor about her. She's in real denial about the damage cigarettes cause. Her husband died of emphysema, his last years were miserable and he was in a lot of pain and on constant oxygen. And he still smoked. She says now that he died of a bleeding ulcer, he had been misdiagnosed. And since my mom had told her that mom's breast cancer had estrogen in it when it was biopsied, she told mom "well, you can smoke, then, the cigarettes didn't cause it." *sigh* Like the doctors don't know a damn thing and Betty knows it all. It makes it hard on mom, because she doesn't like to have to justify her decisions, like the decision to not smoke. Mom now understands that smoking may be the trigger to get a cancer growing that wouldn't otherwise. Anyway, I digress. Mom and Betty get down to the wig store and mom looked at some. She found one she liked. And it wasn't a story, the wig *is* free. About a $150.00 value and I think it's great that they do this for people in my mom's position. So, Betty, who spends at least three hundred dollars each time she goes to the local Indian Reservation on gambling, and she tries to go three times a week, says "My hair is falling out, too." The woman looked at her and asked "do you have cancer?" (now, this woman is a cancer survivor and most likely frowns on smoking, kind of like my mom does now) and Betty said "no". "Well, you'll have to pay for one if you want one." Nice try, Betty. Sheesh. This morning, my mom told me that she had done a pretty good job of styling the wig and she set it out on one of her plastic plants (I guess she didn't get a wig stand). This morning, she found the wig in the living room, up against the couch. Her cat, MissE had done the right thing and killed the intruder.

Bid Opie was by Wednesday night for dinner. I like that guy so much. I would love to take him in. Yesterday, Brian asked if I had ever seen which way Opie goes when he runs off. Nope. I haven't seen Meezer in a couple of nights. I hope he's okay.

DeeJay's appetite has suddenly taken off. It's nice to see him eating as if he's hungry. One problem is the other cats. DeeJay gets Fancy Feast mixed with Kirkland Brand dry catfood, because he seems to prefer that over the regular food. So, the other cats try to get into the bowl and this puts pressure on DeeJay and he'll just quit eating and walk away. He won't put on any weight if he doesn't eat. Since he eats a lot here in the office, I just put the other cats out of the room and shut the door.

Aunt Flo stopped by Wednesday. She's still here. Lucky me. I'm still fighting the cold, have the worst headache in the world. Brian talked to our neighbor yesterday and they usually go to parties for New Year's Eve. I guess all of their friends are sick and the festivities have been canceled.

Peter is so darn adorable. He's started coming up onto the couch for snuggles at night. He just plops down next to me or on my lap, purring away and he falls asleep. Quite different from the first week he was here and he hid from us when he saw us coming. Ciara slept on me last night. Not something she does. And a couple of nights ago, Maggie draped herself over me and slept.

The cable company called Wednesday to tell me that they wouldn't be out Thursday. It seems they didn't give Pacific Bell enough time to get the information transferred over, so we made the appointment to get it all done next Thursday.

Well, I guess I should get busy doing stuff around the house. There's always laundry. And it's time to vacuum and dust again. You all have a safe and happy new year.

SCREAM!!! Okay, if what just happened is any indication of how the rest of this day is gonna go, I'm gonna just turn off everything and go back to bed. Brian came back to the office to make invoices for me to pay. I also have to pay bills. I came back here, I'm barefoot and the carpet was soaking wet. I asked what was that? Window cleaner. He gets this window cleaner and this stuff is so potent it eats the finish off of wood. So, we have to be really careful when we use it. He won't even use it on the doors, because he's afraid of what it will do to the paint. I look at him. Window cleaner? I came unglued. I made sure there were no cats in the room and shut the door. I looked at him. I told him, I step in it and my foot is soaking wet. I don't lick my feet to clean them. I shut down the computer and stomped out of the room. He just sat there cleaning this little plastic thing. I would have taken it to the kitchen and washed it out in the sink, not used a ton of window cleaner on it. But the window cleaner was convenient I guess. I have such a headache. I opened the window and sliding door in here, then went and got the carpet cleaner. I had planned on doing a thorough cleaning in here tomorrow, wash the mirror doors, windows and wall, along with vacuuming and washing the carpet. I cleaned the wet spot over and over, hopefully we won't get any sick cats. He knows I'm pissed. I can't believe what a stupid thing that was to do. Geez, I don't even want to think about how sick that could have made the cats.

lisaviolet is fifty something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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