Sing me a story, laugh me a lullaby

I keep meaning to post here and then I keep not getting around to it. Oops! But hi! How are you? I hope you are doing well, and enjoying/have enjoyed/will enjoy all the festivities of your chosen holiday or lack thereof this season!

I've been battling a quite vicious round of kidney stones which, thankfully, did not cause too much pain but pumped so much adrenaline through me my heart was pounding for, like, four days straight. It's a very strange feeling when your body is going 'alert, be on guard, there is a bad thing occurring!' and you're like, 'but why?'. Like a panic attack, but without your brain racing, just your heart going 'bad thing, it's a bad thing!'. It was exhausting. They've calmed down now, but I passed about five very large stones and it was not fun. On the bright side, I'm on a different birth control and it is so far going super well! The one I tried before made me cry all the time for no reason at all, so I didn't last long on it, but I'm on just progesterone now (the 'mini-pill') and I feel really good on it, and this month had an almost normal period. Apparently, if I'm on it long enough, they'll get lighter and lighter and may stop altogether, so that's super groovy.

We have new bathtub, finally. It's very nice, and the installation went really smoothly except for a slight leak that was easily fixed and everything seems to be going well now. It's so nice to have a bath without half the wall missing and to be able to stand up and have a shower instead of holding the shower head over yourself because half the wall is missing. I wish the tub was a little deeper (our old one was jetted, so it was super deep and this one is about five inches shallower), but it's much longer and you can stretch out in it, so overall, I'm stoked.

We went to my sister-in-law's family's Christmas get together on Saturday, which has been postponed for two years due to COVID. It's my brother's wife's family, but they've invited us for the last two that it occurred and we had a really great time, so we were bummed that we had to miss out on it. This year, my SIL's father and his partner have moved into a retirement living place, not a nursing home but an apartment building with facilities if needed, and they rented out the private dining room for the occasion. We all had to have negative rapid COVID tests to get into the building, which offered a layer of reassurance for all of us, even though I know they're not really that helpful if you're not symptomatic yet. My family is freshly boosted with the bivalent, too, and everyone there seemed to be as cautious as us about safety protocols. We had a really great time, except my brother assured us they were doing Secret Santa amongst themselves and we didn't need to bring gifts, but then they gave us a gift and my mum was horrified that we hadn't brought anything. My SIL gave me some socks that come with matching socks for Pax which is adorable and fun, but he'll never, ever let me put them on him. He still doesn't like his collar put on.

He had his checkup and we were able to learn a little more about what's wrong with his legs which is, the vet doesn't know what's wrong with his legs. Apparently there's just not a lot of flexibility in them. He's given us some medication to help reduce inflammation, and maybe that will make the poor boy a little more willing to go on walks. He's still very happy, though, and being mostly well-behaved, except for his perpetually stealing of socks from the den. It just makes him so proud of himself and he doesn't eat them, just 'kills' them, so we let him do it. He has to have some fun being bratty.

I've fallen into a giant Sims 4-shaped hole for the last couple of months. The base game is free to play now and I got hooked on it. I bought a bit of DLC during the Black Friday sales, and I'm having a really good time. It's character creation and story-telling and house decorating! All my faves! I admit I like the house decorating the most and it's a nice way to feel creative without pushing my brain too hard.

I think that's all there is to report right now. We're Christmassing it up here and we'll have my brother and SIL over for Christmas Eve, as is our tradition. Hope you all are coping with life!

Pax is four whole years old!



He’s looking concerned because I am holding a birthday biscuit hostage behind the camera. (He got it a moment later, I am not a cruel mistress.)

Hello folks! I have once again gone a while without writing, but today is my 36th birthday so, it seemed a good time to check in.

Things have pretty much been the same, which is why I haven't bothered to post about anything. Lots of stones, mostly small and not too much pain, except for last week when I had to induce a period and therefore got the dreaded Period Cramps + Stones Mambo that at one point made me seriously think I was going to have to go to the hospital. Thankfully the TENS made my muscles relax enough that the stones dropped down to where my mum could corral them out of me and prevented such a measure. Which is good, because God knows how seriously I'd be taken presenting to the ER with pelvic pain during my period.

In good news, my dad's back is doing a lot better. Turns out doing what the doctor recommends helps. Who knew? We also got a new hot tub installed and working after much trial and tribulation, and it is lovely and very helpful. Still no work on getting the bathtub functional yet, but the hose is working fine for now and we're coping. Paxxie is also doing awesome; he is out of doggie jail most of the day now and gets up for cuddles in the evening and is living his very happiest life.

Otherwise, we've just been chilling and doing some jigsaw puzzles and watching the Chelsea Flower Show on Britbox. I'm sort of writing a thing that I guess is a novel? I don't know. It's just for fun, but it's nice to be writing again and I'm getting to do tons of really interesting research for it, which is my favourite thing. I've been pestering Mum with my 'fun facts' for a couple of months now, but she's game for them, so I don't feel too bad about it. I'm also building houses for my characters to live in, which is fun. I like to have them in my head so I can move through the spaces and not confuse myself while I'm writing. I think I'm a bit of a set designer at heart.

We've had some interesting wildlife encounters around here. Mum saw a raccoon out a few weeks ago in the backyard of the house next door and on Monday night, she went out to water the plants and found some baby raccoons along the side of our house! She made me go look because they were so cute and OMG, they are so cute! There were two of them cooing away and just learning to walk and had the biggest, most concerned eyes! So sweet. Neither of us got close or stayed long, but it was cool to see. And this morning, in the midst of a massive thunderstorm, I spotted a skunk who is apparently living in our shed out foraging in our backyard. She was also awfully cute. She kept diving under the shed and then coming out and you could just see the 'shit, it's raining!' reactions as she went about her business. Pax is in a gated pen in the backyard, so we're hoping no unfortunate incidents occur with any of the fauna living there. We have a real menagerie this year.

Speaking of thunderstorms, we had a derecho hit us a week or two ago and my God it was crazy. We were luckily not in the hard hit areas, but there are still people without power in some parts of Ontario and Quebec.

Anyway, hope all of you are doing well or at least your best!

Hello there, folks!

I haven't posted since Jan 1st, so I thought I should at least let people know I'm still here. Which I am.

Things that have occurred since we last spoke:

Mr Pax is a man no longer bound by the cruel mistress that is the dog gate. We let him have free rein of the house (barring a few rooms) and he's proved to be a very good boy. We still put him in the kitchen if there's no one up to watch him/listen for him, but otherwise he's free from morn until bedtime, and is enjoying himself. He's a sock thief, but that is the extent of his crimes. He just can't seem to help himself. He knows he can't have socks, yet he always tries to sneak over to the lost sock bag and steal one out. He also stole a napkin from a laundry basket, but we let him have that one. He loves to grab something with his mouth and wave it around, especially if it's unwieldy and/or makes a lot of noise.

I think I mentioned my dad hurt his back in the autumn, and he finally got an MRI a few weeks ago, which showed Degenerative Disc Disease. Not a great diagnosis in that it can't get better, but from our reading, it suggests you may have good periods and bad ones and there are things to do to help. The doctor put him on a long-lasting narcotic for the pain, because she wants him to be able to get up and walk and move around due to other health issues he has that really need him to be more active. It seems to be helping somewhat.

A little note about that: narcotics are hardcore and obviously you don't want to be on them if you don't have to be, but I find it really interesting that my mom ruptured three discs in her back eight years go and had bone-on-bone degeneration in both hips waiting for her replacement surgeries, and I have been chronically passing kidney stones, generally recognized as one of the worst, if not the worst pains in the world, for four years or so now, and at no point were either of us offered anything stronger than NSAIDs for the pain. I don't begrudge my dad the help he needs, and I don't really want to fuck around with narcotics if I don't have to, but there does seem to be some kind of sexism at work there.

Anyway, it's been kind of stressful around here due to that, especially Mum and I taking over some of the stuff he was doing when we aren't at our best ourselves, but we're doing okay. Plus, considering other events going on the world, we are doing more than okay.

Last year, I got two pairs of glasses--one for distance, one for close--to see if that helped things, but I haven't found it particularly useful, so we're trying progressive lenses now. I just found I never really used my distance glasses except for leaving the house (which I don't do often) and my close glasses were okay if things were a foot from my nose but for anything in a middle distance, which was most activities, neither were cutting it. The progressives should help with that, though I've been warned they are hell to get used to. My aunt, who has the same eye condition as me, but much worse, said she's been in progressives for twenty years and found them really helpful and didn't have trouble at all getting used to them, so that's hopeful. I get them in a couple of weeks and we'll see if I feel more motivated when I'm not bumping into things all the time.

I've got my annual month of Ancestry subscription to keep me occupied at the moment, and it's been fun to see what mysteries I can solve, but they only get weirder the more records I find. My mom's great-grandfather and his siblings were so bizarre, and I don't think I'll ever know the full story. They had multiple spouses, lied on census records, went by each others names, lied on marriage records, and one of them disappeared from all records and I literally cannot figure out what happened to her. I want to try to figure out that generation, since my mom's grandfather was an illegitimate child adopted by her great-grandfather, but her Ancestry DNA matches shows he was definitely a blood member of the family in some way or another, and a lot of the stories we were told don't match up with records. I may not ever know, but it's fun trying.

Anyway, I hope you all are coping in these troubling and stressful times. If LJ goes down at some point, my journal is backed up at Dreamwidth and you can find me there as 'awanderingbard', same as LJ, and, of course, if you are reading this on DW, you already know I'm here!

Continuing in a our 'oh dear' saga of late, we have a problem with our bathroom. I was having a shower the other day and there was water dripping through the basement ceiling, which is obvs not good. The plumber came today to take a look and couldn't see what was going on without cutting a giant hole in the wall, so doesn't really know how bad the damage is. And it comes down to the fact that we're already having issues with our tub (which has jets in it that are falling) and the wall crumbling a little, and he suggested if we're planning on replacing or renovating, we're better off doing that than him coming in and cutting a hole in the wall for a temporary fix. Which we agree with. But now we don't have a bathtub. And that is one of the main sources for pain relief for me, so that's not good. Especially since I'm still in a bad flare of stones. And we don't know how long a renovation would take or when it might be completed and it's Christmas time, and my dad has also hurt his back, so my mom is the only real functional member of our family and even that is kind of iffy at best.

On the bright side, we do have a shower in the basement, though we haven't used it in many years since we originally put it in because there were four of us trying to get ready in the mornings and now no one is getting ready in the mornings, so we don't need it. But we can clean it out and such. And, you know, these are first world problems and there is so much worse going on in the world right now. But it does seem like one thing after another here lately. This all in the middle of the worst surge of COVID we've had during the whole pandemic in my area of the province. Still not a big surge comparatively, but for us, quite alarming.

Anyway, I hope you are doing well and enjoyed your Thanksgiving and/or Hanukah celebrations! We have been enjoying the holiday TVS very much, which is a nice distraction for us.

ETA: After some brainstorming, we think we might be able to run a hose up from the laundry sink to the bathtub through the laundry chute quite easily, and fill the tub that way. A bit of a hassle, but at least available in an emergency.

You might recall me talking a lot on here about how Pax is so difficult about putting his leash on and we were never really sure why, and we'd tried all sorts of things to convince him and sometimes he just decides he's not going today.

Well, we've noticed he's had a funny gait and sometimes limps if he's been walking for a while, so we asked the vet to check it out yesterday when he went for his annual check-ups and shots. And it turns out he has elbow dysplasia (or something similar, my dad has both hearing loss and a terrible memory, so he couldn't remember the name of the term, only that it was common in Basset Hounds, and that's the best match we've found for the symptoms). It's not serious or life-threatening, we just need to watch his weight so there's not so much pressure on the joint and he may need some NSAIDS later in life because he'll likely get arthritis in the affected joint. So, we think some days his leg might be hurting and he doesn't want to go for a walk, so he won't put his leash on for us. I feel bad we didn't check it out sooner but a) pandemic, b) Scotties are super stoic and he's never shown signs of pain, just sometimes walking funny, and c) he's so active and cheerful, we just assumed it was another weird quirk of his. Anyway, now we know about it we can do better about it.

It's funny, because we've always had what we lovingly call 'reject Scotties', dogs that for one reason or another needed a special home or weren't the most desirable or needed extra care. Fergus, our first one, was the last in the litter because his ears were too big and no one wanted him. Randy was so sick as a puppy they didn't know if he'd survive and our dog groomer recommended us to the breeder because we'd taken such good care of Fergus when he was dying of kidney failure that she thought we could handle him. He was a nervous wreck and had horrible skin and scratched all the time and we loved him. Puzzle had pyometra after her last litter of puppies and the breeder adored her so much she wanted her to have a good home in her 'retired years'. Ascii was similar; no infection but only had one puppy in her last litter and so the breeder decided it was a sign she was done and wanted her to have a nice retirement home. Shilling was too big for a Scottie and was fence fighting with the other dogs. Pax is the first 'normal' dog we've had here and it turns out he needs special care, too. I guess that it's fitting he was chosen for us, even if we didn't know it at the time.

Anyway, I feel bad for the little guy but genuinely seems to be super happy despite any achy joints he has and we'll be a little more understanding on days when decides he's not going out.

It's Pax's birthday today! He's three years old! Here he is post-birthday cookie:


He's decided to be difficult about his leash again, but other than that, he's being a very good boy and getting more mature and less busy. Though still very busy.

I haven't posted in a while, sorry about that. We're still having a Series of Unfortunate Events around here, but mostly benign, annoying ones than actual problems. I hurt my back on Sunday, which was NOT fun, but it's feeling much better now, and Mom is having an autoimmune flare-up because of the seasonal change, but the rest of our problems are ephemeral and not serious. I'm working on my autumn ornaments for my 'tree of all seasons', and doing some colouring on my tablet, and such. And writing, which is nice. It's been a while since I wanted to do that.

Anyway, hope y'all are doing well in these still very crazy times! You are doing your best, even if it's not as best as you'd like it to be. Take care of yourself.

Here is our completed Summer Tree:




A few of the ornaments we kept from Spring, as they still fit the theme.

Got my 2nd COVID shot today! Due to me having to refresh the pages and snipe spots out as they opened up, I actually got mine before my parents. They're on Sunday and Monday of next week, though, so not too much later. So far, it's a little worse than the last one, but not much. Very sore arm, little bit tired, scratchy throat. We'll see how I do over the next 24 hours, but I've been surprised that I haven't had a stronger reaction given my body's love of overreacting to foreign substances. Potatoes? The enemy! Actually foreign invaders? Sure, come on in. But I'm not complaining. At least about this. I'm still bitter about the potatoes.

Hello, world! I speak to you as a wise woman of 35 years, and not the immature 34-year-old I was when last we corresponded. As of June 1st, my age is now a blue-yellow number in my synesthesiac mind and not a blue-raspberry colour, and honestly, that's the biggest change. I don't feel any different. My mom says she's going to be depressed when my brother turns 40 next year, though. :-)

We're still in lockdown here in Ontario, so no get-togethers, but I did have a nice day. My mom got me some strawberry plants since I kept eying strawberry seeds when we were out flower shopping earlier, and now I am tending them and they are very cute and growing little tiny, dopey-ass, deformed strawberries and I love them. I'm not growing them for anything other than entertainment; if they make edible goods, then yay, if not, I'll just have fun looking after them. My brother got his first dose of vaccine on my birthday, too, which is also a nice present. My sister-in-law was vaccinated on the 5th, and we're hoping by my mom's birthday in July, we might be able to get together outside to celebrate if laws allow. I think Ontario will start to open soon, but we're still getting a fair amount of cases per day on average, so we'll see.

I was fine after my vaccine, thankfully. A little fluey for a few hours, then a mild itchy throat over the weekend and really tired, but nothing horrifying. I'm generally a sensitive person and react to everything and figured I'd be hit hard, but it wasn't bad at all.

Stone-wise, things are okayish. Still passing a lot, but I'm managing well enough. I honestly don't know what makes them flare and I wish I did so I could replicate or eliminate what I'm doing. But it's a mystery.

In other news, I got an Apple Pencil with the money I got for sending in Issie for recycling, and am having fun playing around with it. I've been following drawing tutorials from the Drawfee crew on YouTube and, like, making not good drawings, but, you know, faces that look like faces and stuff, so that's nice. I had to be talked into making the purchase (my parents are far too encouraging of me!), but I'm glad I did. When you're chronically ill, you have to keep yourself occupied somehow. In the same vein, we're also making some summer ornaments for the Tree of All Seasons.

Hope everyone else is doing well!