Well, it is the end of another year. Every day just seems to blend into another one and the way I know it’s the end of the year is because there is an onslaught of adverts on TV for fitness equipment and weight loss solutions! I always consider attempting to exercise more and eat less, but in order to not cause myself any angst or depression when I fail (and I WILL fail), I prefer to adopt a healthy living lifestyle – at least I will try…
I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I think it’s a plot generated by a very clever marketeer to get people to do or buy things that they really have no interest in. There’s a moment of brief delight when you’re able to stick to your resolution but a more lasting hatred and depression when you cheat or fail to keep it. I don’t have time for that, and why would I add to life’s already difficult issues?
Even though January 1st is the start of a new year, it’s really just the day after December 31st, a Sunday this year! Just another day full of cleaning, clearing up, cooking and routine. On the upside, for me at least, it’s winter, my absolute favourite time of the year. The craziness of Christmas is over, time to reflect and reset my thoughts and time to put aside all the sadness and chaos of 2022. I’m ready!
So, how was 2022?
In January we had quite a big vet bill because we had all 3 cats at the vet for various reasons. Weight check for Bear, dental and calcium checks for Aggie and checks on Sylvester for asthma and kidney disease (Sylvester is stage 3). I had a Covid booster, and we both got back into our routines of attending meetings, some by Zoom and some in-person.
February was Greg’s birthday – the big 60! He handled it very well and is taking 60 in his stride. In fact, I don’t think he’s ever been in such great shape and health! He is obsessed with the Apple Watch which encourages him to exercise and be healthier. He’s doing a great job. I threw him a little party and in order to keep us from any large groups, I’d asked his friends and family to send me an audio message that I could play for him. He was very touched and surprised. It was also Bear’s 14th birthday. He had a little party with us but was too scared to blow out his candle! I’ve been dealing with trying to close my dad’s estate and not getting anywhere. I finally found a great attorney in South Africa and had my first phone call with her while she totally put my mind at ease and promised to do WAY better than the bank I was dealing with. I also celebrated 18 years of being in the USA.
March was “all systems go” with dad’s estate. Our main aim was to get me appointed as executor, fire the bank and get a gazzilion documents signed and notarized and sent back to South Africa. It takes time, but I got it done. It took her a day to have me appointed as executor – considering that the bank had taken over 2 years and done nothing, this was nothing short of a miracle! I also did a lot of cat sitting for a couple of friends. It was potato planting time and I got my spuds in, a little later than normal, but they were in. Then the rain started and they kinda drowned, but sprouted so I left them alone.
April – the cat sitting continued! I had to redo all the paperwork to sell dad’s house and managed to get everything notarized for that and resubmited everything. Greg and I signed up to take part in a local “walk to Jerusalem” during Lent. Together with a bunch of people we aimed to jointly walk the equivalent of the distance to Jerusalem. It was a great incentive to get moving and we’re hoping to do it again in 2023. Sylvester ended up at the emergency vet with gastritis after stealing and partially eating a pork loin that was defrosting in the sink! I also got my hair permed! Yay, curls!! Sylvester celebrated his 13th birthday and had a little party with Bear and Aggie. We were enjoying wonderful Spring weather and the temptation to plant seeds, flowers and plants was nearly overwhelming, but I know better and I’m glad I waited.
May saw some more cat sitting for friends. It was Bear’s turn at the emergency vet due to him limping badly. He has arthritis pretty badly, but I needed to check it out as he was in pain. We had the first of our neighbourhood association’s concerts in the park – Lindenwood Live. We had perfect weather for it and a fantastic turnout. I planted most of my garden.
June: guess what? More cat sitting! Bear and Sylvester had a vet checkup and all was good. We had the house treated for termites. It was interesting to watch, because they had to drill a hole every 18” all the way around the house – difficult for them because we have concrete all the way around the house. We should be good for 10-15 years! Our area is prone to termites and I’d spotted them so we wanted to take care of it right away. We had another concert in the park and again it was well attended with perfect weather.
July, we drove up to Phelps to be with Greg’s mom who celebrated her 82nd birthday and for the 4th of July. Summer is pretty in Phelps, and she got some of her garden growing. Covid is still on our minds, so we didn’t go anywhere or mix with groups. Aggie had a calcium check up and she’s doing pretty well and has no need for any meds at this stage. With LinFest coming up and some issues with people dropping out of the committee, I got involved again. I have some contacts and experience so was able to help quite a bit. LinFest is all consuming for me, so I got stuck in again. We were able to dig up all the potatoes. Didn’t get a great crop this year – not sure why but I’m sure it was weather related. We’ll try again this year!
August was a difficult month with a couple of friends passing away and one f my cousins. All 3 cats were at the vet for various bloodwork and checkups – new medications issued and rechecks done – this will be ongoing as they are getting older (13, 14 and 15). More meetings, funerals and Aggie had her 15th birthday party! Greg and I celebrated 19 years of marriage. Where did that time go…?
September was my birthday month. Stuff always seems to happen around my birthday and this year was no different. We went to our first in-person meeting and in a moment of stupidity, did not wear a mask. BAM! Covid! It’s inevitable that we all get it at some stage. We were fully vaccinated and boosted, wore masks at every opportunity…except ONE time at a neighbourhood association meeting! We knew better but took the risk and I’m still mad at myself for not masking. It won’t happen again! I got it first, and Greg and I immediately distanced ourselves. He stayed off work and rescheduled all his clients and then 5 or 6 days later, as I was recovering, he tested positive so more client cancellations while he recovered. Just like everyone says, Covid is exhausting, and it took us a few weeks to get back to where we were. In between that, Sylvester needed to go to the vet and a friend very kindly stepped in for me and took care of that. We were very careful with the handover of the cat carrier but she didn’t get sick so we must have done it right! The timing of us getting Covid couldn’t have been worse as we were in the last week or 2 of LinFest planning. I had so much to do but couldn’t go anywhere until I was negative and then it was all systems go! I was exhausted, but it was done.
October was the time for LinFest, our neighbourhood association’s Fall Festival. I’m one of the co-chairs (again) and the day started off very early. Vendors, artisans, food and beverage vendors, musicians, kids’ entertainment all arrived mostly on time. We had a dog parade with doggies dressed up, prizes, raffles and so much fun. We had the perfect weather for a change, and it was a great success. Kudos to my co-chair, Emily, who is a fundraising monster! I was so relieved to get home and get some rest. The week after LinFest was a medical week for us. Sylvester’s bloodwork check, my 2nd shingles shot (OMG!) and my first colonoscopy prep and procedure – all went well. We both got our flu shots and Greg got his first shingles shot. Our arms are full! I dug up most of my veggies, although the weather was so good that some of them were still producing fruit. I packed away my fairy/gnome garden too – sleep tight!
November, we packed up the car and headed back up to Phelps to be with Greg’s mom for Thanksgiving. We lucked out with the weather and had a totally uneventful drive there and back. It was the first time since 2019 that we saw most of the family and it was great to reconnect and marvel at how much the nephews had changed. We have a new family baby on the way too! Thanksgiving generally consists of food, food and some more food, and this year was no different! On our last night we had a bit of excitement with the CO2 detector blasting at us, and we discovered that the gas fireplace threw a wobbly and tried to kill us! We called 911 and they sent not one, but two fire trucks to the house and used a detector to find out if there was any issue. There was, so the gas to the fireplace was switched off and we had to air out the house for half an hour. It was late and we needed to be up early to head home so we were pretty tired. New detectors were ordered (thank you Lisa – Greg’s sister) and the house is safe again. The day after we got home was “decorating day” at the Roggemanor! I, unashamedly, have a lot of Christmas decorations, and I’m not afraid to use them. It takes me the whole day and Christmas officially threw up all over the basement. I only decorate in the basement because I’m able to close the door at night and the cats can’t get down there and destroy it all. More cat sitting for a couple of friends. More vet visits!
December! Christmas! My favourite holiday. I like to recreate the Christmas story in my head and while I know that Jesus being born in a manger with the 3 wise men present and everything going according to plan is not a reality. The reality in MY mind is that there might have been a storm, the stable smelled and was filthy, Mary was in chronic pain, Joseph was freaked out by all the fluids, the wise men were late, the animals were in the way, the roof leaked etc. My experience tells me that man plans, and God laughs! Don’t get me wrong, I am a believer and I totally believe in what the Bible tells us about Jesus’ birth, but I’m sure there’s a lot not mentioned. I’d love to write a modern-day rendition of what I think might happen, but I’d be worried it would come across as sacrilegious, which is not my intention at all. We were cautiously optimistic this year and had a couple of very small gatherings at the Cheesehead Saloon at the Roggemanor. We invited a few of our neighbour’s over to help us celebrate and had a few lovely evenings catching up with them and wishing them well. Christmas Eve, we had a couple of friends over for dinner and chilled with them. Christmas Day was a lovely quiet day with just the 2 of us. We opened presents, let the cats play with the wrapping paper and just chilled out at home all day. I cooked and we stuffed ourselves and then dutifully nodded off in front the TV “watching” Christmas movies – like one does! Boxing Day is not celebrated here but since Christmas Day was on a Sunday, Monday was observed as a holiday. We ate leftovers and again, nodded off in front of the TV…! New Year’s Eve was no different. We got some snacky food together and got comfy in the basement by the fireplace and watched a couple of movies. We managed to stay awake (mostly) until midnight, guzzled down a quick glass of champers and went to bed.
And there you have it!
Looking back, it was an interesting year, full of stresses, disappointments, and frustrations, but also a time of joy, fun, laughter and relief. My dad’s house was finally sold and out of his name and my responsibility. The estate is not yet closed, but the house is done – it took over 3 years! This was a huge relief. It is incredibly difficult to try and deal with a late estate from a million miles away. Add African time to that and it’s near impossible! I’m so thankful to my attorney, realtor and most of all, my friend Clancy who is my power of attorney and gave me perfect advice and ran around all over the place to take care of business for me. I’m incredibly blessed to have friends like her and wish that on everyone. “Friendship is a responsibility, not an opportunity”.
Greg had a great year again, hitting some new records, despite having Covid and not working for about a month (quarantine, vacations etc.). He’s pretty much at capacity and still loving what he does. If only his wife could find an open slot for a booking…
Whatever you have planned in 2023 we wish you strength to accomplish it, joy while doing it and prosperity as you reap the rewards from having done it! Be blessed!
Tag: covid
Bulk Up Little Girl
Our teeny, tiny grey-haired domestic short hair cat, Aggie, who is 14 years old went to the vet on Monday for a scheduled dental cleaning. The process has been interesting!
The night before the procedure we had to remove all food access – that meant removing the other 2 cat’s food bowls too, much to their disgust. She was allowed water. In the morning I still had to feed the boys, so I sent Aggie down to the basement with Greg while I quickly took care of them. Aggie ran back up to the top step and screamed and yelled and cried to come out. When I opened the door to let her back up, Greg was sitting on the top step with her trying to calm her down and equally distraught.
We caught her quite easily and got her in the carrier and I took her to the clinic. The staff at the St. Louis Cat Clinic are so kind and compassionate and took her from me and told me the vet would call to explain the procedure. I hate leaving the vet clinic with no cat and those pesky tears pricked at the back of my eyes as I drove home.
About an hour later, Dr. Howard called me to explain what would happen. She would be under anesthetic for anywhere between 1-3 hours, and as she’s an older cat, they take great care to monitor her and if she goes into any kind of distress they will stop the procedure. Dr. Howard told me she’d call me as soon as she was finished with Aggie and let me know how things went and that she would be 2nd in line for the procedure.
I kept myself busy all day to try and keep my mind off of it. The boys barely realized she wasn’t home! At around 1pm I got a call from Dr. Howard saying that Aggie did great and that they didn’t have to do any extractions, but they did have to do a gingivectomy on one tooth where they cut back the gums that made a pocket over some nasty tarter. They also did an EKG to monitor her, which was all within normal limits, and they drew 3 lots of blood to test her calcium levels which were slightly elevated at her last visit in October. She told me that Aggie was awake and alert and I could collect her between 4-4.30pm.
The clinic is doing curbside drop off and pick up right now while trying to keep the inside as people free as possible to reduce the risk of Covid infection, so by the time I got there to collect her, there was already several cars in the lot waiting to be helped and I had to wait a while. The procedure is that when you arrive, you call the office and tell them you’re there to pick up your cat. They will go through all the at-home and post-surgery care with you and again discuss her health and then take your payment over the phone and then they will bring her outside to a collection point and give you any meds needed and then you can take her home. When I finally did get through to them the process went smoothly.
Finally I got my little Aggie back and she was very anxious to get home. She was still a little loopy from the anesthesia but had recovered enough not to hurt herself. She was starving! Ravenous in fact! She is typically not a very good eater, which is why she only weighs around 6 ½ lbs (less than 3kg), but that night she wanted all the food – like all the food in the house!! The vet said to feed her about a quarter of what she usually eats to make sure she didn’t vomit from the effects of the anesthesia, but Aggie was having none of that. I emptied half a can of food in her bowl and left the can out so that I could refill it when she was done. She bounced from her bowl to the can and back to her bowl again several times so I just emptied the rest of the food in there. She wolfed it down so I opened another can and she ate more than half of that too. We gave her some pain meds at bedtime and she slept on the bed with me all night and slept hard, but at least her tummy was full and she was home.
The day after surgery she was hurting and stayed under the bed all morning and came out about mid afternoon to eat. She didn’t sleep with us that night, which was strange and 2 days post surgery she was still under the bed all morning, but seems to be in less pain. The trauma of catching her to give her meds is worse than her pain, so I’m just giving her treats and catnip (which she inhales) and letting her come to me when she is ready. This is typical Aggie behaviour so I’m not worried. Hopefully she will perk up soon else I’ll have to send Sylvester under the bed to flush her out.
Feel better soon, my little Aggie-poo! There are leaves to watch, squirrels to glare at, brothers to hiss at and laps to sit on!
Vaccines
On March 26th, Greg and I got our first Covid/Anti-Covid vaccination. Both of us fared very well, with Greg having a sore arm for a couple of days and me being hit by fatigue 24 hours after the vaccination. We both bounced back well, and, on April 23rd we received the 2nd dose. We were both excited to get it and we feel a sense of relief about it. In 2 more days we will be considered “full vaccinated” after allowing the vaccination to vamp up our immunity. We both had a few side effects from the 2nd shot. Both had a sore arm, intense fatigue, aches, elevated temperature, but nothing serious, and they disappeared after a couple of days.
The brain is a funny thing. I’m constantly arguing with myself about a lot of topics. Greg is away most of the days at work and I’m alone in the house, surrounded by 3 sleepy cats who get annoyed when I prod them awake for a conversation. To avoid this annoyance, I talk to myself.
One question I go back and forth with is “is it a Covid vaccination or an Anti-Covid vaccination?” Surely it’s an Anti-Covid vaccination? The word “anti” refers to against, so if I don’t want a disease, surely I want an ANTI something? Then again, the word vaccination refers to protection and I want to be protected AGAINST something. This makes my head hurt, but these are the things I ponder! Here is a good source that can help to explain it better than I can – although the brain arguing continues!
There seems to be so many pros and cons to getting the Covid (anti-Covid) vaccination. Some seem realistic to me and others are just plain ridiculous and full of human fear. NO, you will not turn into a robot, Bill Gates isn’t going to control you, you are not being microchipped, your DNA is not being altered, you will not be infertile and so many other weird hypotheses. Where do these ideas come from? I’m sorry to say but some of them come from people who are uneducated about vaccines and science, and misunderstand information given and put their own fears and ideas into their explanations to others. Some even come from ministers who turn it into an incorrect religious theory with the aim to control their flock. I suspect they are uncomfortable with the idea, so they project their fears onto a greater spectrum of folk who trust them. How sad!
Humankind have been through this many times over the decades. How do you think the flu vaccination (or is it the anti-flu vaccination) was invented? Or how was smallpox eradicated? Or cholera, or polio, or tetanus, or diphtheria, or measles, or mumps, or German measles and so many more. We all line up to get those vaccinations without any quibbling and they all follow the same testing procedures before being made available to the public. In fact, a couple of years ago, I was bitten by a dog and went to the Urgent Care for treatment. The paramedic said to me “we’re just going to give you a tetanus shot, ok?” I said “sure” and whammo, I had it. I didn’t question it, I didn’t ask what was in it, I was just thankful for the protection.
Yes, we are right to question what ingredients are in a vaccine, but when it comes to a pandemic where millions (MILLIONS) of people have died from it, then I feel that you just need to suck it up and take one for the greater good of mankind. How dare you refuse to take something proven to protect you and stop you from passing it on to someone else. Who do you think you are? I believe your arrogance and selfishness is totally motivated by fear and the mistaken ability to listen to others before doing your own research from reputable sources. Don’t get me started on people who refuse to wear masks! It’s over a year later and we are still in the pandemic. Wear the mask, wash your hands, socially distance from each other and please, get the vaccine!