Let me preface this by saying that I’m really not seeking sympathy, but am basically just venting. THIS JANUARY SUCKS!!!!!!! Why? Because it feels like eight zillion and counting things have gone wrong from the teeniest to the most monumental. A list:
1 - My DVR, which has always been flaky, gave up the ghost twice, both times losing everything that had been recorded. On the plus side, got a bigger capacity one and three new remotes to replace the three that had also stopped working. On the negative, despite signing up for better internet speed, the wireless still stinks.
2- My brand new in September MacBook Pro refuses to hook up to the shitty wireless. It used to. And then it did sporadically. And now it doesn’t. Online chat says “hardware problem” so into the shop it goes.
3- My eyes. I have had an annoyingly large cataract in my left eye for a while, but we were waiting to see if the right one would grow enough to get rid of them both in a short time frame. Nope. Just lefty. And that’s not really the problem. It’s the glasses. Because I wear gas permeable contacts, I have to go without them until I can get a clean measurement for the replacement lens. That means glasses, which I haven’t worn for more than an hour at a time once a year since I was 13. This is not good. I have really, really bad eyesight and my glasses are thick! And since the prescription is based on my contact lens one, it’s not exactly as accurate as it might be. I can see well enough, but not as good as I like, and sometimes things are a little wavy. Erp. Hopefully, my eyeballs will round themselves up by my appointment next Monday, but the doc said she’s seen it take up to a month in some people. Do. Not. Want. I have to say, I especially enjoyed the part today where my glasses fogged up while I was riding Gracie this morning. I’m now on the hunt for anti-fog spray! Grrrr.
4- Being sick. I had that horrible head cold that’s been going around. It lasted almost two weeks, one of which I spent alone at home, sleeping, while Jim was suffering from the same thing in DC. No barn, no knitting group, no nothing. I did get a lot of tv series watched, but damn I was bored. Although I shouldn’t really complain. Poor Jim had to try to go to work everyday. Frankly, I don’t know how he did it. I think there was a lot of snoozing on the desk involved. Good news - both well now!!!
5- Mittens. As many of you know, I had to have sweet Mittens put to sleep last Saturday. He had stopped eating and it turned out he had cancer in both kidneys. Because nothing we did could induce him to eat, we had to make the hard decision to let him go. Despite the kind vet who came to the house, it was horrible and we all took it very hard. Socks seems ok for the most part, but from time to time, he sniffs the back of the couch where Mittens liked to roost, looks around, and then plops down in his own place on the couch. I know he’s wondering where Mittens is from the confused look on his face. It’s been just over a week, and I’m still looking for Mittens, too. So sad.
6- Cancer stinks! My dear friend and riding instructor, Mark, has just been diagnosed with Stage 2 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I know there are a lot worse cancers and that this one is pretty responsive to treatment, but damn it all to hell, this is just not right. Mark is the most giving and caring person I know and it makes me mad as hell. If you want to do something, send healing thoughts out into the void. I know that doesn’t really work, but it doesn’t hurt, either.
So, let me see what the happy news might be. Gracie, who I’m trying to ride every day now that I’m feeling better, is doing fairly well. We had a fabulous ride on Saturday with no limping and lots of energy. She was a little more reluctant today, but then again, so was I due to trying to look through the fog of my glasses. Haha! I’m off to a good start with my 2018 knitting. I’ve also begun cleaning out some of the excess stuff in the house. How does all this stuff accumulate? I go back and forth between the idea of a yard sale and just doing what I have been and taking it to the charity shop. Thank goodness I have lots of room in my car to haul it over there.
I guess that’s enough babbling. I’ll leave you with the last photo I took of sweet Mittens. He was one of a kind and is dearly missed. But my lap is always full of Socks, and that’s a very good thing, indeed.