elainegrey

Thursday morning

Tested negative yesterday afternoon; Christine strongly positive. Fingers crossed. Do i have a sore throat this morning, i wonder. (Every morning i go through latching onto some symptom to identify myself as coming down with COVID.)

Sick of masking. I am sitting outside (6:30 - 7:30 am) and have a collection of red spots which appear to be midge bites. Fie. I'm not sure our effective thermocell mosquito repeller is working on midges, and i don't remember having midge issues before... but i may have mistaken bite sites for something else like "chiggers."

Lunch time: I'm having one of my (mild!) trimengial neuraligia flares. But is there also a sore throat? I remembered our old scan-the-forehead thermometer: i'll start using it every time i am thinking, "Fever now?" and save the sanitation sleeves for once or twice a day.

Friday morning

No fever, but some sort of right side, ear to throat discomfort. Christine's sister, who seems a day ahead of Christine with symptoms, tested negative yesterday. Christine hopes to test negative today.

Carrie seems to have made it through two nights without her muzzle wearing just "pants" to protect her leg wounds. I did tape the cuff on the leg with the healing wounds one night, and the next just wrapped the one on her ankle so the pants (damp from the wet yard) could dry out.

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Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion ... He acknowledged the “fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy and propriety” of the treatments, but wrote that those questions should be resolved by elected legislators

I have nothing nice to say about scientific debates being resolved by legislators.

Good news: No emergency medical visit for 7 days! Carrie's been to the vet twice after coming home. Healing well.  We're getting better at bandaging the open wounds. Carrie is off fentanyl, so she's gotten better this weekend at getting out of the muzzle and pulling the pads out of the bandage. So, i need to up my skills at wrapping.  I do wonder how long we need to keep bandaging. Two open wounds are each about a square inch, another is about four square inches. I think it will take a while.

 Sister in law D thinks she will be a widow in a week. Saturday morning i sent B a close up of an  elderflower cyme, all snowy petals wet from the rain with prominent creamy stamens. Later, checking the rain gauge, i saw that the white cala lily had bloomed and the flowers lay on the ground. I picked the two, dislodging the tiniest of snails, and then added a few lizard tail (Saururus cernuus) and an orange hummingbird mint (Agastache Poquito Orange) to make this morning's bouquet.  Elderberries are just beginning to ripen.

Other good news: i'd bought a bottle to deliver very targeted drops of herbicide to noxious plants (wild briers that have multiplied around the fig tree and on the other berm, honeysuckle twining on fences and out of control, trees on the septic field, poison ivy) and could not find it. I finally ordered a replacement, months after it should have been in use. And then i found it. And i was able to cancel the order in time. Yay.

Sequentially:

I left work early on Friday. ADHD rejection sensitivity probably is amplifying feelings about a meeting. I was just too emotional and so very very tired.  After an afternoon of reading, a visit with my Dad, and more reading, we watched the documentary about Ocean's Gate, the Titan submarine ... hubris, and the guy who ran Ocean's Gate sounds just like the exec director who is involved in my distressed feelings.

I did get a good bit done in the yard on Saturday, flame weeding while it was wet. Moved woodchips a short way to mulch an area at the end of the sidewalk that has been annoying to mow. Then i planted some annuals (coleus and lantana), some Trimezia gracilis ... babies? propagules? , and transplanted a chrysanthemum that survived the winter and has started blooming.   The lemongrass is in real soil for the first time in years, and i hope it multiplies. Finally, the native plants i bought are all in the new heavily mulched bed around the front yard apple tree.

Christine's been telling her siblings that "Carrie is avenged." I found a coiled copperhead in the woodchip pile when working yesterday, and killed it. I don't feel good about it but i would do it again.  There are brush piles in the woods and that's for them. But this was a little too close.

I then went on to have an ocular migraine and then a bad headache. Today has been less outside. I picked sochan and mint, spending time thinking about where i was putting my hands. I've got several Talenti gelato containers full of blanched sochan in the freezer, mint and bee balm on the dehydrator, and elderberry flowers hanging by the water heater. I imagine gifts of mint-elderflower tea.

I also made whipped cream cheese with the lavender syrup and pulverized dehydrated mulberries from last year. Very purple, not over sweet, and only mildly flavored.

I haven't seen the hawk this past week, and wonder if the smelly snake repellents have repelled the hawk. Instead, i've seen a rabbit almost every morning.

  I am avoiding feelings and reading and reading and reading. It;s been a fight not to go to the book and finish this.

I'm hoping the universe is done with sending us to the emergency room for a while. Carrie has spent the night at the veterinary hospital because she was bit  on her front left ankle by a presumed copperhead yesterday morning between 9 and 10 am -- probably more like 9:45?  And she's probably going to be OK, but there will probably be a long rehab of some sort with skin and tissue damage on that leg.

I am suspicious that maybe Carrie didn't see the snake? And that's how her foot was bit? Marlowe is so tiny, so Christine has insisted on keeping her in, but i don't know that that's actually going to help unless we plan to keep her in forever. Once Carrie is home and we need to let her out in the back yard, Marlowe is going to dash out.  However Christine's got to work through her anxiety and i need to let her take the lead on this.

I think the best we can do is the snake repellent (that Christine had distributed before she left to spend the afternoon with B--) and trying to keep the weeds down.

I'm off to meet my sister and dad to drink coffee in memory of my mom at the hospice where she died, and get my sister's weed burner/flame thrower.  Mine had it's final failure when the control knob fell off somewhere in the yard yesterday as i burnt it all -- well as much as i could of the stilt grass, particularly at the fence line.  I didn't burn it all : i kept noticing poison ivy and worrying that i was going to send myself to the emergency room by burning then inhaling the urushiol. I am not that sensitive to poison ivy. I occasionaly get blisters that i suspect are from blowback from fragmented leaves in the weed whacker, but i know i've brushed by intact plants and had no reaction.

In the past week I've watched a hawk survey my garden and other parts of the front yard for prey, and have clearly seen it carry off two snakes. I assumed it was mainly getting DeKay's brown snakes: it's welcome to all the copperheads it and its brood can eat.

(While on the topic of pests: Christine's found two ticks - before they could attach - but so far my pants-in-socks seems to have discouraged any interest in me.)

Made an absolute disaster of a loaf of soda bread. Don't ask, not worth recounting the horror, but one part of the failure involved mistakenly adding a cup of melted butter. I ate some and was both attracted and repulsed. I think one of the flours was stale. I dumped the loaf in the compost.

I also made a "Mexican sweet corn cake" which actually called for a cup of melted butter. That seems to have turned out better, but i'm turned off and won't have any. I had a headache before the disaster loaf, so it may not just be the disaster.

The fig tree is producing SO MANY FIGS. Figs were involved with the disaster loaf. I don't know what i am going to do about the figs, particularly the ones so hard to reach. Ants and wasps are going to have fun feasting. Is this bad? I suppose i should get a jar out for fruit vinegar making.

( Read more... )

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Tuesday morning: i feel a little better. I spent time with a colleague at work who was a little triggered about new requirements. I hope she felt i was on her side, but i fear i am ... oh, Gandalf arriving at Rohan, what was he called? Stormcrow and Láthspell -- nothing but complexity and more work and a blizzard of new concepts and ideas.

In good news, the contact at the optometrist and i had a conversation where she noted that they were setting up new systems and she along with some other person was shocked to hear what i was reading. It sounded like it was a fairly new system and i was asked for screen shots and other troubleshooting material. She sounded genuine and didn't pressure me to fill it out anyhow or other sketchy behavior. Instead i felt her gratitude was real. So, i feel much better.

Some teeny resentment of doing QA work for them, also a small hope i'm a very early guinea pig.

I am reminded of how often i do the online paperwork hoop for my medical provider and am handed the same documents at the office, because no one does the online things. With the link to the paperwork so sketchy in this case, maybe i was the first person. I dunno.

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In sad news, i failed to rescue a bluebird fledgling from Carrie and got to watch her crunch and swallow. I am a little horrified in my heart, even if my mind understands how so much of the natural systems reproduce so abundantly to cover the eat and be eaten quality of wild life.

I and Christine, my spouse of thirty years, live at our home in Chatham County, NC with our three cats and dog. I try to give Christine some privacy here while allowing myself to write about the intersection of our life together.

As our pets change more frequently, here are our current companions:

Edward is a cream ticked tabby, with coarse short hair. He joined us on 2008-07-01, and we think he is currently eighteen years old. He has always been a very large cat, and he's over 20 lbs. He has diabetes and, for over a year, we've been dosing him with seven units of insulin, 8 am and 8 pm. These days Edward spends most of his time on the bed sleeping. If he sees us in the back yard, he might come out to join us. He's begun to come into the living room a little more.

Luigi is a orange ticked tabby, with incredibly soft short guard hair and a plush undercoat. For some years now, he hasn't been grooming well, and the soft coat gets matted. Both Luigi and Edwards were strays in our neighborhood in the late 2007 and 2008 period. Luigi might be six months older than Edward. Luigi was adopted by our neighbor, and we got to know him well. When our neighbor was forced to move and couldn't find a place to live with him, we adopted him in 2015. Luigi is large, around 20 pounds. He has arthritis and Christine is giving him laser treatments several times a week. Luigi spends time with Edward in the bedroom, but also comes out to join us in the living room.

Marlowe is a blue ticked tabby, with soft short hair. She joined us on 2019-11-09 as a very young kitten. She's looking much more a cat these days, although she is so much smaller than the boy-os. She's approaching eight pounds. She's very active and busy, spending much time in the orchard, but very recently she's begun to be much more of a lap cat.

Carrie is a found hound who joined us in 2017-01-14 at about a year old. She has a primarily a black coat, with white ruff, stockings, and tail tip. Her ears and face are a warm brown. Her ruff is much more collie like, and so is her flagged tail, and when we have watched her with broider collies there's a strong resemblance. Mostly she is hound, with a strong chase and hunt instinct. She sleeps most of the day, but has restless periods when she is in and out and in and out of the house. In the late afternoon she's ready for us to play with her.

Delight yesterday was enabled to being alerted to something outside by Carrie. Marlowe was stalking towards the wild back corner. I released the hound, on the theory that Carrie might startle off a mourning dove that Marlowe might actually catch. I watched Carrie bark-barking towards the woods and Marlowe staring towards the glade and finally saw what Marlowe saw. A nice sized raccoon rolling-strolling towards the "pool" -- the wading pool sunk into the ground which a pickerel frog has been frequenting. The raccoon got into the pool and, i presume, was hunting around for said frog. Marlowe stared, Christine and i stared. The 'coon hoisted themself out of the pool, and began to amble back towards the woods. Finally Carrie sees the 'coon and begins even more barking. The 'coon turns and stares at Carrie. Marlowe bolts to the deck (GOOD CAT! COME TO SAFETY!). After a good long stare, the 'coon resumes ambling back to the woods. Carrie continues barking. And barking. And barking. The poor dear finally came in, exhausted.

I am more confident now that raccoons (and maybe possums) are what she is barking at in the evening in the dark. I do think the deer are not that bold.

Later my mood was smashed. Carrie came running from the front room and wanted out NOW. I looked out to see Marlowe with a yellow form in her mouth. Carrie gallows over, steals it from her, and it takes me a few minutes to recover the hooded warbler's body. I take it to the glade, and bury it in the leaves underneath the copse of trees. I sit on the bench in front of St Francis and hope that i am doing more good for critters on the whole than not, knowing the lithe, grey angel of the hunt that is Marlowe has years ahead of her. Edward was a competent hunter as well and could probably still manage rodents, reptiles, and amphibians. (I can't imagine him catching birds now; he did in California.)

I know people have more enclosed spaces to keep cats from expressing all their predatory instincts. We've compromised on our fencing investment: deer out, dogs and cats in. Big enough for Carrie to run laps. My fruit trees have to cope with shade, but the chestnuts will be more or less protected from squirrels by Carrie. Part of the compromise is there is no separate "catio" and Marlowe is hunting. I guess i should prune the lower limbs of the spicebush plants back in that wild corner. I think one of the young dogwoods is already infected anyhow. Maybe a bigger gap between ground and branches will help the song birds.

On a slightly different note -- how was Carrie able to know that Marlowe had the bird?

I'm not sure where therapy is headed, except in a few months my therapist is leaving the insurance group, ( Notes )
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Yesterday, I saw another another hawk, this one a red-tail, just outside my work window at noon yesterday. They perched for several minutes, turning on the perch, allowing me plenty of time to look at the feather patterns and both sides of the tail. Then they glided into the garden, ate something, and then flew off. After eating i walked a bit outside and heard two hawks calling to each other. Spring is in the air.

Also on the walk i noticed more daffodils sprouting and a clump of star of Bethlehem leaves near the driveway. I guess it's time to go looking for bluets.

In the early evening, coyotes called over a chorus of frogs. I suspect that the hawk had found a frog or toad in the garden, given the audible activity.

Marlowe is collarless this morning, much hissy-fit between her and Edward. And i moved Luigi on top of the hassock so that Edward can't bite him.

Yesterday evening, as in other evenings recently, Carrie is crawling up on Christine's shoulder when they are on the couch. Internet says either "aww, luv" or "dog is demonstrating she thinks she's dominant, nip in bud!" We discussed: not sure we are ready to go full pack theory. She's also licking her lips (internet says sign of anxiety) and trembling. Hound dogs are so different from shepherds.

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There was a slight unpleasantness at work with someone taking my behavior to my boss. I'm pretty sure it was (probably unconscious) retaliation for not backing down. If A is going to work as discussed B must be done*; B won't be done until May. But the Someone doesn't want to wait months and months. So Someone will do a partial solution that can be done without A. Then, 45 minutes into the meeting i called, we returned to my topic. At the end of the meeting, Someone wanted to know when the next step that i needed to do would be done. Not for two weeks was my answer, and when i was pressed to give a solid date, i balked.

After hearing that Someone complained to my boss about not getting a when i felt shame -- until a few hours had passed and i realized that Someone had signaled that the work was of little consequence (having postponed the meeting once, having derailed the topic in the meeting for something else). If Someone had called the meeting and was driving the work, i am sure i would have behaved differently. My boss said he didn't think i was in the wrong, given the whole context. I didn't say i thought it was retaliation, but we did discuss Someone's snit over the delay.

* It is true that A can potentially be hacked with baroque programming that leaves possibilities for security gaps, but the division leadership we are in has made it clear that that sort of "debt" is not going to be supported. AND the person i was engaged with would NEVER agree to their team doing such a hack. So "doing it wrong for speed's sake" is not on the table.

Monday morning: Marlowe proves that cats can get in the way of work without lying on the keyboard, they can lie down on your hands on the keyboard. Fortunately a fussy Carolina Wren (CARW) came along and got her attention. The bird landed on the screen just inches away from her nose. Ha: when the masons drove up she growled (and then ran away). Carrie is barking alert punctuated with chuffs.

Earlier, over the weekend: while it has been wet, and grey, and my rain gauge has been down, it has also been warm. At night and sometimes during the day i could hear frog calls.

Later, Monday afternoon, the sun cam out, first i've seen of it since before Christmas. I harnessed up Carrie and myself and we went to join my sister for a dog walk while my niblings rode bikes. So good to have some day light!

In complaints, Evernote on my work machine is near useless.

I am watching the weather with bated breath: could the long weekend actually have low humidity? Dew points in the 60s? Even a dew point of 60°F? Today the humidity adds another 12°F to the temperature for the heat index.

There is a ripening fig on the fig tree. I am so tickled. And so many little baby figs. I ponder https://www.giverecipe.com/unripe-fig-jam/ for this year, recognizing how busy i was at frost last year with the last of the tomatoes, the hibiscus. This master gardener page suggests thinning figs in Sonoma; doing so myself would make green fig preserves a reasonable thing to do early. Anyhow, a ripe fig! (And, as i am taking forever to post this -- it was very ripe whien i picked it tonight (Wednesday). i gently pulled it in half and ate it. Very mild -- i think the wet weather caused it to be softer and less flavorful than i would have expected. Still: yay! Yum!)

The runner beans took in a few places along the orchard fence: i hope that those thrive next year. I had imagined i would also have them in the garden, but it seems they never quite made it this cool year. Other pole beans are just now blossoming, so maybe i'll have some beans yet. The most exciting bean news is the wild kidney bean, Phaseolus polystachios, native and perennial, has taken hold at the north end of the area where the sunchokes grow, undeterred by any chemical warfare (allelopathic effects) of Helianthus tuberosus.

The rain on Monday night knocked some of the sunchokes down, but a large Argiope aurantia guards the stand. Wikipedia validates my wariness. Apparently the bite is like a bee sting. If i wasn't irrationally afraid of spiders, i think i would admire these. I am trying to desensitize, but but but.

The little corner of native perennials is rounded out with some sochan, Rudbeckia laciniata. It's lovely forest wildflower, that grows large and tall like the sunchokes and other aster flowers, but the greens in the spring are the edible crop. I've some plants that have started inside the orchard that i want to move out as part of the Fight The Stilt Grass project. Apparently its not favored by deer, so perhaps some day all the plants will be moved out of the protected part of the garden.

I'm imagining making a trellis from the two twin bed springs of out old bed. Last weekend i calculated the angle i would need for good sun (our north slope property makes me so very aware of the angle of the sun) and the height of the supports. I'll need to survey the slope and add the fall of the ground to the height. I'm not sure how ugly the propped up end of the trellis would be as one approaches the house: a wall of sochan would be pleasant for almost half the year, and i think they could cope with the shade of the trellis.

I remembered my mother's birthday with plenty of time to mail order a dress for her: hopefully the higher quality will be something she can enjoy. She did not commonly wear dresses, and so her new invalid wardrobe of easy to put on pull over knit dresses tends towards the inexpensive and flimsy. She knew quality, through her sharp years, always buying classic items as they went on deep sale. I believe part of her distaste for these clothes is not just that they are dresses but also that they are not quality. I hope this sweater dress is something Dad can easily dress her in and that she finds comfortable and attractive.

Meanwhile, confirmation that all the cat messes we need to clean up are not from our diabetic cat Edward but many are from young Marlowe. I suspect there's a significant amount of territoriality playing out. ARGH.

And Carrie has decided she wants to sleep with us. She pants, which i assume is anxiety, but about what? One night we had five of the six of us in the household in the bed, and the one not in it is small Marlowe.