Andy has Sundays mastered!

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Yippee! Today is the day the whole town will be back in the Dark Ages while city crews work on the electrical system. Nine hours – 1:00 PM till 9:00 PM – for the fix is anticipated. I ordered the taco pizza yesterday so have pizza left over for today’s lunch, which I’ll probably eat around 11:30 or noon.

Homebody.

I have a full charge on both my laptop and smartphone, so can piddle around a bit on either or both for some part of the dark times. After that, I will take a nap, my usual afternoon “activity” anyway.

I decided against driving out of town to the Twisted Turtle, leaving the trip for some time I’m not doing it alone. The hassle of carrying air, too, is a factor since I’m a novice at handling the small bottles, let alone the large ones! I’ll be safer at home, where I can navigate my apartment easily.

I don’t need to wash clothes until Monday, if then. I think I have a couple shirts and changes of underwear, the only things I would likely need anyway. If I work it right, I’m not going anywhere till Tuesday, dialysis. 

Andy wakes me up to remind me it’s “feed-the-kitty-time” – usually around 12:30 AM!

That inspires me to… 

…return…

…the favor!

Take this, Andrew!

OK. I’ll let you have your nap now. (Good move on your part, kitty boy! That recliner footrest fits you to a “t” and the recliner reflects body heat back to you. You should sleep better here than on the lapboard.)

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I think I’ll order a taco pizza in town today instead of driving to Rushville tomorrow. I’ll eat half today and the rest I’ll warm up tomorrow. Of course, taco pizzas have to have the lettuce taken off before reheating, but that’s a small job compared with a two hour round trip, eh?!

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Mostly, I just let Andy sleep. He’s so angelic in that state!

Now that there are Greenies, Andy has a new variation on his habit to get used to.

Greenies on the ottoman lapboard.

He hesitates, then…

…hops up on the lapboard for his treats!

A few left for later, then to take a kitty bath. Andy’s adjusting well to the change!

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Yesterday’s post wouldn’t publish when scheduled for no reason I could figure out. At a bit after three o’clock, I ended up copying the whole post, pasting it on a blank page, and, miracle of miracles, the miserable WordPress let it publish!

Thank goodness! Andy can…

…rest now that he’s had his Greenies!

On the other hand…

…it’s time to swat those irritating flies!

Much easier done if Andy’s not sitting on the swatter.

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The final day before the Greenies arrive was hell on earth, well, a bit tedious for all the kitty pleadings for a treat.

Pat-pat-pat “Gimme Greenies!”

There are none, kitty boy. NONE! They’ll be here this afternoon…or later. Damn! Give me a break!

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Just as expected, I got a double up on the auto-ship since I had to order Andy’s prescription KD chicken pâté wet food and Royal Canin Persian dry food earlier than the regular auto-ship.

Yes, I called them to reset the auto ship and yes they still reshipped at the old regular time, well before I needed – or wanted to pay over $100 again so soon – for more of these items I no longer needed so soon.

I give up on Chewy’s help people. I’ll cancel the auto-ship I think or threaten to if they don’t continue to mess things up.

Unfortunately, if I cancel the auto-ship, they will have to contact Andy’s veterinarian each time they ship the KD chicken pâté wet food, a prescription.

I don’t get anything for all this free “my-cat-won’t-have-any-treat-but-Greenies-oven-roasted- chicken-flavor-dental-treats” business, but Andy would be a perfect spokes-cat for the brand, I tell you!

Andy isn’t quite aware of the happy news here…

…but he quickly recognizes the container.

He wants to “examine” – devour! – the contents!

“There, my little piggy! The Greenies famine officially has come to an end!”

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Andy always leaves some leftovers. He will not eat them later. They are wasted. I end up tossing them to cats outside that rule the night and any birds that chose to try a Greenie.

Yes, Andy had to clean up after pigging out on his favorite kitty treat!

Andy is on a quest to find those darn Greenies kitty treats!

Ah ha!

He hasn’t looked there yet.

Andy could have sworn he saw Greenies in this box. Nope…sad kitty!

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The Greenies famine came about by confusing Chewy auto-ship workings. I end up with too many containers too soon or not enough when I expect them. When I try to work with them to get an early shipment of – for example – Greenies, they end up sending the Greenies when the auto-shipment is supposed to ship, that is, too late and way more than even Andy can handle! Drives me nuts. 

So, for those of you I’ve worried with poor Andy’s lack of his favorite treat, here’s the new status:

Yes, tomorrow as I type, today as you read, Andy will have a goodly supply of kitty treats, not from Chewy, but from Amazon Prime, my back-up “dealer” to sate Andy’s “addiction”. Now, I’ll be getting too many Greenies till I work out how often I need to auto-ship from my alternating sources. Why not make life as complicated as possible – all for mah kitteh!

Chewy’s late auto-shipment of Greenies was prepared for shipment on Saturday the 13th. I even called them to try to get an early shipment. As usual, they clumped the needed shipment with the future shipment that ended up being too late. The new shipment will arrive early in the week but after the Amazon Prime Greenies. Andy’s suffered too long, yet if this gives Andy too many Greenies, all’s well by his standards! Don’t forget the boxes, too! Andy is about to become a little piggy in Little Piggylandia! 

You awake, Andrew?!

Zzzzzzz…

Yes!

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My recovery from the recent hospitalization is moving along. I’m weak still, but getting better navigating with air lines. My doctor’s determined for me to have a colonoscopy. It’s been a while, so…. I’m in the “poop sampling” stage at the moment. Yippy! The joys of being a senior citizen.

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Andy’s Moved over to the recliner footrest for the next phase of his most-of-the-day cat nap.

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I finished an antibiotics course this morning. Good! Having to work it into my dialysis schedule and weird sleeping routine is a genuine pain. I usually miss the pill time for one or two times, and this time around worked out exactly that way again.

Andy’s not handling the Greenies famine well. Frankly, neither am I!  Several times an hour, he stops by to pat my arm and make sad sounds. Fortunately, a shipment is due Monday…if Andy and I can make it!

Sometimes Andy comes around to knead the blanket and look at me. “Are you my Mommy?” he seems to ask!

Then he takes a nap, perhaps to dream about his real Mommy, long gone from his life.

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MOTHER’S DAY 2023

In two days, Sunday the 24th of May, it will be one more Mother’s Day I’ve been without my mother, She died the 5th of January 10 years ago. Had she lived a few more weeks to the 24th of February that year, she would have been 99 years old at time of death. Amazing!

Mom was a teacher by training, starting out in the country school where the creator of Alliance’s Carhenge, Jim Reinders, had her as a teacher, then the Hemingford school system where in the 1930s her contract stated she couldn’t marry, go to bars, and had to go to church. The only place she could get lunch, she said, was a bar, and there she lived on bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches, a favorite of hers (and mine!) all her life.

She became a substitute teacher in the Alliance school system after her children were mostly raised, helping pay for the home she and Dad built on Mississippi Avenue from wood salvaged from a WWII warehouse on the former Alliance airbase. 

Mom and me, her little helper, building the house on Mississippi Avenue.

Mom’s passion and lifetime “job” was teaching hundreds (thousands?) of people to swim through the Raed Cross swimming program. She taught 60 years, acquiring a life free pass to the swimming pool and a proclamation by the City Council after 50 years of teaching swimming.  After 60 years, the bath house of the then-new Big Blue swimming pool was named after Mom.

My Dad’s comment was typically supportive of his wife for over 70 years at the time, “They should have named the whole darn pool after her, not just the bath house!”

I think the “Big Blue” means something to someone, but I think Mom was just pleased to get the recognition she got.

That summer, Dad had to go into the care center after an illness, Mom and I moved to a retirement village, and our lives took an end-of-life turn for my parents, a slow decline. Fortunately, they were mentally alert till they died and as active as possible at each stage. (I know the feeling!)

I think the four children Mom and Dad had came out pretty well and we all were well loved by our parents. Just Kathy, my sister in Seattle, and I are the only ones left, yet we got good work values from Mom and Dad, a wicked sense of humor, a love of children and animals, appreciation for life, and more.

I am sure I don’t have to ask Kathy if she, too, misses Mom almost ten years and a half after her death.