Wednesday, February 21, 2018

A Little This And That

It came to mind in the middle of the night that I shouldn't have returned the call to the cardiology office yesterday afternoon. They must have wondered what kind of crazy woman was at the other end of the line. The message I left was convoluted, so this morning I called back, apologized for the gibberish and went on with the scheduling of my procedure for the end of March. You see, yesterday, was the second portion of dental surgery for implants, under anesthesia and by the afternoon pain medication was added to that recipe for gibberish. The surgery went well and Brenda took good care of getting me to the office and then back home, with a quick stop at CVS in between.  Oops, in my delirium, I might have asked if we could stop at Duck Donuts too.

Even little Buddy checked on me in the middle of the night. She must have wondered what in the world was going on when I went to bed at 7:30 pm. She stayed close and then once settled, she moved to the end of the bed. Around 1:30 am, the sensation of something furry under my nose woke me up. Guess she was checking in to see if I was still breathing and once she had assurance that breathing was taking place, she laid down on my arm for the rest of the night.

So Roy requested that I take it easy today and stick around home. No problem man. It is a beautiful spring like day. There are hints of its arrival all around because the daffodils have shot up through the dirt to open air and pear trees are beginning to have buds, so are red bud trees, at least in Biltmore Village. Ours isn't quite there yet. Over the past few days the Feral Fam has dispersed and if and when they come back is always a surprise. MJ and Camo have been inching toward going on their own for a little bit and Cali, well Cali didn't prepare and she was left behind by her siblings. She kind of moped around for a couple of days and then crawled through the hole in the fence, not looking back. Mama Cat has been around but not at the normal times. This morning I couldn't go out and feed her so she gave up and moved on. The ebb and flow of the Feral Fam over these last few months has been a learning experience and a delightful gift. Only Mama Cat seems to be the only one around these days. Think the kiddos had itchy feet to go and discover the world.
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This morning at CA Diner, I read that Billy Graham had passed away at the age of 99. The diner had a rock station on as background noise and here in NC, where he was from, the DJ's are talking about Billy Graham in between each song. Wow! The newspaper and TV stations are blowing up Twitter and Facebook with stories and asking that we share our stories, pics and videos with them to honor this great man of God. The low key talk this morning in the restaurant was about Billy Graham.What a great man of God.

The day began early as SequishShawn needed to be at Jimmy's for his 5000 mile check up and to have the fuel injectors cleaned. They gave me a loaner car which is an old school Mazda...from back in the day before cameras and blind spot warnings. I actually had to put the key into the lock to unlock the car. The next stop was at C A and I have already written about that. Since it was raining at a good clip, I came on home to wait it out not trusting myself with the old school car. And the electricity just went off...well not off for us because we have a generator. Twice in a week's time.

Last night after midnight I finally got up and changed out my heart monitor patch. The alarm notification kept going off due to a weak skin connection. No one was getting any sleep around here.  After hearing numerous horror stories about removing the pad, it came off quite easily and without a problem. Putting on the new patch...well, I read and reread the brochure. I did do all the instructions but I have a feeling that I could be in that low percentage of people where the patch doesn't stick as well. So, probably calling for more patches will be in the future. While falling asleep the alarm went off just one time but the gel felt like it was already pulling away from my skin.

Last week when I was in Walmart and you have to know how much that pains me to write this...anyway, while checking out the clerk made mention of the cat food, that they sell a lot of Little Friskies which my reply was it was a good price. Then I mentioned that it was for my little Feral Fam and the clerk said, well you know ferals and animals on the street can't be picky, they should be happy for whatever they get.That raised my hackles...wherever they are located...to which I said, in the past few months while feeding them, we have ruled out turkey and tuna flavors because they don't like them, love salmon and chicken and tolerate beef every now and then. She said, well they are just trash animals, you shouldn't be so flexible with them...more hackles raised but it was clear this woman had this opinion and a little shudder went down my spine and probably over the hackles as well because her thoughts on this probably extended past animals to people who need assistance and expands past unknown people and onto her friends and family. Sometimes, those little things like that speak more to what is indicative to the large. And sometimes not. I don't know this lady at Walmart, these are just some thoughts and I hope I am wrong. Are we truly generous or are our gifts and words merely a hook to give opinions or desire something in return? I certainly have been on the receiving end of generous hearts this week. Food, phone calls, texts, emails...offers to help and the like before I even got home from the oral surgeon's office. Dan Rockwell writes on leadership on Twitter and he says:
Generosity is about your heart not about how much you have.


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