Gas Prices, Needles, Formaldehyde and Kittens

 Gas prices keep going up. I want to take a trip; I really want to go somewhere. My biggest obstacle is not the fuel prices, but appointments for both of us. Every time I think I have carved out a two-week span with nothing to hold us here, another obstacle steps up to block the way.

Yesterday I had the stitches in my hand removed. Still so swollen and ugly. The nurse and I took the tight stitches out and I had imagined I would feel instant relief. High expectations, I know. In came the needle and syringe. No numbing, but the only part that stung was the needle piercing the skin.

He was as surprised as I was that no blood filled the syringe, just a tiny bit of clear fluid. He ordered a pressure bandage and another visit in 2 weeks. It didn't start to really hurt until almost bedtime. A dull ache all the way through my hand, up my arm and mainly my wrist. I am hoping the swelling will go down and my wrist will regain some range of motion that doesn't hurt. 

Remember when they would let you keep the removed body part? Like tonsils. I wanted my tonsils removed one year more than anything. No, they didn't need to come out, but I longed for the experience of some of my classmates. The hospitalization and time off school, but mostly, I wanted to bring my tonsils to school in a mason jar bobbing around in formaldehyde. I was a strange child, avoiding attention and yearning for it all at the time.

If I had been allowed to have the cyst that was probably incinerated, I would have let in dry out, then built a little Voo-doo doll around it and let it hang around my neck on a chain. I could use it to cast imaginary curses on people I don't even know. The people who use two spaces to park, the ones who jump in line in front of me, the people who drive around with toddlers not in car seats. So many that I would be casting ill will constantly. Just a thought and a little insight into my creepier side.

Alas, I still cannot immerse the offending hand in water and can't give my kitchen the cleaning it deserves. The Man is still in charge of dishes. I cringe and chortle at his dilemma all at the same time. He wants to go out to eat every night. This way he looks good for taking his wife out and avoids kitchen clean up. I tire of eating out. I like my own cooking.

Last night a storm hit just before bedtime. Kevin stayed inside, but we worried about the kittens. A few days ago, we moved the cat dominium to a more sheltered place against the house, with a shed on one side and a stretch of ivy-covered lattice on the other side. We put a shade sail above it and several empty flowerpots on their sides for the kittens to play in. I opened all the dominium doors (they swing both ways) so they could enter easily. and a Home Depot bucket that had a hole in the bottom. The kittens enjoy climbing in and out of that hole.

The hole may have raised your eyebrows as you wonder if I bought a bucket with a hole in it. I did not, The Man drilled that perfectly round hole in the bucket he purchased for a solution he thought up for a failed project he attempted. I might tell you about it one day.

I carefully carried the tiny trio of Lucy's to their new home. They loved it and started playing immediately. The towel I had provided for them while they were on the deck went into one of the apartments available on the ground level, hoping the familiar towel would draw them in. I went about my day and checked on them frequently since Lucy was ignoring me. They stayed all day in the new environment.

Next morning there they were on the deck with their mama as she looked up at me smugly. Determined to have them in a more sheltered place, I gathered them again and took them to the new place and later watched her lead them back to the deck. We are in a stand-off, me and Lucy. I will wait until she can no longer carry them in her mouth and try again. The Man went out into the storm and took them back to the sheltered area. This morning she had them back on the deck.

Determined cat, Lucy. We stared into each other's eyes this morning and I told her she might just be underestimating my determination!