This is Rico Ramone! He’s about 14 and I just brought him home today. I actually adopted him a couple weeks ago but he was in foster and the people agreed to keep him until i got back from my weekend in Pittsburgh which I’d had planned for a while.
Most of you are probably on Instagram and already know this but here he is anyway!! 😁😁
As always, I haven’t been around in ages. I’ve been running around a lot.
I told you about my mom breaking her wrist and being in the hospital and rehab. Well she was there 30 days and then went to another place for 30 days which she hated and now she is in yet another place for 2 weeks and she likes it better and hopefully will want to stay there. It’s been difficult for all of us. She has some really bad days and the 3 of us are doing a lot of running around and 2 of us are taking her to doctors appointments (3rd daughter has a less flexible work schedule, but she put in a lot of years doing a lot of this anyway). We are hoping for a bit of a lull before we have to deal with her condo and worst of all, its contents.
In worse news, I had to put Rocky to sleep on October 27th. Yeah, I know. I think the reason he bit me (a total of 3 times since the end of August, only one resulting in a visible scar) was low blood sugar. So he was being treated for that, and I was back and forth to the vet for that and some other stuff, testing, checkups, meds, etc. This on top of the mom stuff. He probably picked up on some of my stress, especially with me going out more without him, but hopefully it didn’t affect him too badly. I still took him to work every day (when I went) and was on top of his care. Anyway, his last week he was vomiting a bit and wasn’t eating much, and was pretty weak and wasn’t getting all his meds either, since he wasn’t eating. I took Friday off because I had a feeling I was going to have to make that dreaded decision, so we spent a long morning in bed snuggling and then a lot of time on the couch hanging out. He was still drinking and peeing, and didn’t seem to be suffering but he was hardly moving. I recalled the vet saying without one of his meds he could start having seizures, and as far as I saw he never had any, and I certainly didn’t want that to start. It was surprisingly not that difficult a decision. I had known he was going downhill and wouldn’t likely make it another year, but this did kind of come up quickly. I kept thinking, well maybe the vet can give him something, and then I thought, no, that’s dumb, he’s really not going to get better. But that thought kept coming back I guess because my decision seemed to come pretty quickly and easily. I guess I just knew it was the end and didn’t want anything to get worse. I don’t know. I’m still learning things about myself.
It was hard because he was the best little dewd, I couldn’t have chosen a better dog, but we had a good 3 years. I think we were both pretty darn lucky. It’s weirdly quiet, even though he was quiet and was just on the couch most of the time, I’m still getting used to spending uninterrupted time doing stuff without having to constantly check on him since he was blind, but I need a break too, especially with the Mom situation.
I would prefer another long break, 6months minimum but…I torture myself and go to shelter sites and I found out that Ruthie Sue (did I tell you about her last year? OMGGGG) is still up for adoption. Then there are 2 others I liked who are 10 and 12 (I think RS is 14). If I do apply for any of them I will see if I can at least wait till after Christmas, due to that time being hectic and stressful for humans and pets. We’ll see. I think old dogs is my thing. I’ve never been one for long term commitment anyway, and I could have 1 dog for 15 or 16 years or else I could have 3 or 4 in that same time span. (provided our fake president doesn’t kill us all of course)
Anyway. I had Rocky cremated (Elvis is in the back yard). I also had a portrait done of him in September.
The artist is Julie Pfirsch of Pittsburgh. I found her online and am super pleased with the result. I mean, look at his lil face! She does sketches, oils and acrylics. The sketches really got me.
So that’s what’s going on with me. Nothing fun. This year is a big bucket of shit. And it’s not over yet!!
Also my Graves disease is back. Thank you Stress!!
(if anyone cares anymore! I haven’t been the best turdpresser)
Okay here is a crapload of pics, I will try to organizize them a bit
first my ugly face
Next a slideshow of some Storm King pics
next…the Transatlantic Twins in Cold Spring
There are more which I will try to add later but they haven’t uploaded to my Google Drive yet and I have to get myself together & go visit my mom.
But that’s all the news that’s fit to prick. Unless you want to hear about how I ordered a new computer, the new one was verkakte when I went to pick it up and then my old one died and I have been to the office like 3 times in 2 weeks.
Oh my god you guys this is all the entertainment I need.
I keep going I LOVE YOU to my computer screen
There’s an outdoor one too
You’re welcome
here is a video of my baby angel Rocky getting his morning medications, taken less than an hour ago!
I sound stupid but I have no excuse, that’s how I always am. Stupid.
I should post other pictures too while I’m here. New York, Nick Cave, but they’re all on my instagram too so if you want you can just look there.
https://www.instagram.com/ruthenator/
A LOT OF BLAH BLAH BLAH FOLLOWS….feel free to bail out now!
It was a tough winter/spring, getting my sleeping pattern back on track, trying to clean up the house a bit, Rachel’s death, my mom getting needier and needier, busy at work, etc.
Since this last bout with Graves, I realized I really fucked myself up by letting it go so long (due to disliking my doctor and not bothering to find another one) and there have been lasting effects. One thing is I definitely need more sleep. I can’t get by as well on 6 hours. I’m better closer to 8. Getting to bed earlier is not that easy, but I’m trying. I’m lucky I have a job where I don’t have to be in at a certain hour, though I do prefer to get in earlier than I do. Another, related, is I just wear out easier & quicker. Part of it I think is due to the stress I put on myself of needing to clean up the house before I go away for the weekend (New York) or have visitors (Nick Cave…okay Nick wasn’t the visitor, I had visitors for the concert). If I was further along in my unfucking, I’d have less stress and a weekend of fun might have less negative impact on me. But I get worn out. Also the dog gets stressed, I don’t know if he’s feeling mine or if he gets upset at me leaving or having people stay there (he is very much a one-person dog) but after NY he didn’t eat much for a couple days and same when my friend Lucia was here for Nick Cave. She came for the weekend, and Mariser & Lord Kalvan just came Monday afternoon & left Tuesday late morning. Also I think when I was cat sitting at Puff The Magic Vegan’s, we stayed over there (it’s just down the road) and were back and forth and I think he wasn’t eating too well then either. Routine is important to him.
Anyway, New York was fun. I got to see my peeps. Stayed with my English penpal Rachel in her swanky 27th floor midtown jawn, and was able to have dinner with Joan & Dora on Friday, and then Dora & Gene on Saturday! Saturday Rachel & I went to the Cloisters, I finally made it there, and it was her first time as well (she has seen and done a lot since she got to NY in late November, she’s quite the local already) and it was so beautiful. Hard to believe it’s actually in the city. On the way back we stopped at the Met since it was still early and we could get in free with our Cloisters pass. So we had a look around there and then had a drink on the rooftop which was also quite nice. Sunday Oh right, Sunday we went out to Astoria and had brunch with Gene & Dora, and Joan met us a little late to eat but then we all went for a walk. Almost farted around too long bc I had to get my bus back, but I made it with plenty of time. On the bus back a German girl sat next to me, and long story short, it was her first time in the US and was coming to Philly for an internship at University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center. Which is their large animal hospital. Which is about an hour outside the city. I was like….um how are you getting there? and she didn’t know, I didn’t think she was going to be able to get public transportation out there, at least on a Sunday night, at least in any kind of reasonable time frame, and she said maybe a taxi and I said, look, I will drive you, if you’re okay with getting a ride from a stranger on a bus and going back to my house first to take care of my dog. So I had my sister pick us up at the suburban rail station and take us to my house, then I drove her out there. Well, first we went to the supermarket so she could get some food for the week, and then we went out there. It’s an area I am familiar with and not difficult to get to especially on a Sunday evening. She was so grateful, she kept asking how she could repay me, I was like, I’m sure you’d do this for someone in your situation, so just do that when the need arises. She was really sweet. She’s a horse person and is supposed to take a riding vacation when she’s done with her internship (which should be over by now) so I told her to send me a postcard from there (either Montana or Wyoming). I think she’s in the states till the end of July, she flies home from Miami, so she has to get there somehow. In the dead of summer! Anyway that was my good deed. I had put my headphones on in the bus to avoid being bothered but when I heard her accent and saw her trying to look at maps on her tablet, I just had a feeling she was going to need help and once I started talking to her I couldn’t disengage myself from helping her, lol, I’d never have slept if I was like, oh just get a taxi, byeeeee. I kept trying to think of how she’d get out there by SEPTA all the while knowing I was going to drive her out there.
The Saturday before the Nick Cave show (which was June 5th) was Rachel’s memorial celebration at her parents’ house which is just down the road (actually just around the corner from where I catsit). I picked up Lucia at the airport around 1 or so (she lives in VA but was in Miami for the week w/her mom & her mom’s friends) and then came back here and then went to the thing at 3. I was really dreading it because emotions, of course I wanted to go, I needed to go, but I was stressing out about that as well as cleaning the house for weeks. Her parents aren’t religious and had her cremated, no service or anything, I knew I was going to have to say something. It was nice though, first we were just standing around talking, her mom was introducing me to various family members, her sister was there too, so we hung out, and then we moved the chairs into a circle and each said something about her. Of course when it was my turn I immediately started crying. I held it together enough to say my thing, I guess somewhat coherently, I didn’t say all I’d intended but I got most of it across. And I was the only friend of hers there. That was really sad to me. And all the more reason I had to be there, I knew she didn’t have that many friends, I didn’t know who would be invited or go, but I knew I was her closest and oldest friend so, not that there was any question about going, but I knew it was important to her parents for me to be there. Her family mostly had memories of her when she was a kid, and her cousins were all quite a bit younger (in their 30s, whereas Rachel was 47) so didn’t know her much until more recently, but still had nice memories of her. So I guess for me, of course the most recent memories tend to stick with you, and I was still annoyed and angry with her for being so unreliable, the bullshit she pulled over the last year or so (and well before that too), so for as much as I’d tried on my own to forgive her and focus on our high school memories, it wasn’t until this thing that I was able to do that. Her sister brought up a couple things I’d forgotten and just seeing the old pictures they’d hung up and talking about what her friendship meant to me, and how we’d met and forged our friendship, it framed everything in a better way for me to remember her. The person who she was in junior high and high school is who she always was and will be to me, that’s why I always cared about her and remained her friend, the drugs may have wrecked her life but not who she was to me. I’m still mad she chose that path, she had a lot to offer and chose drugs. In the end it turned out that the heroin was cut with the deadly fentanyl, so she never had a chance. Anyway, she’s at peace now, I hope. I am more at peace too.
That night I went out to dinner with Lucia and between the wine at the party, the headache I kind of had, the drink at the restaurant, and all the stress and emotion, I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. Then on Sunday we went to the Magic Gardens in Philly, came back here & ate at my fave Vietnamese restaurant where I stupidly ordered an iced green tea and once again did not sleep that night. So I was on very little sleep for the Nick Cave show but adrenalin helped. The show of course was amazing, we even got a free parking space right in front of the venue and also managed to get up close to the front again, well except for poor Lord Kalvan who was abandoned by Mariser when she somehow escaped from me & Lucia (patdowns were separated male & female so the 3 of us got in first) and he went to look for her and never found her and ended up about halfway back) but we found her after the show, she’s fine!!!
So I am finally caught up on sleep and my next Thing is going to my mom’s shore house for a few days after 4th of July with my penpal & her kids. So at least I don’t have to clean my house for that. Doubt there are any big vacations in my future, between the dog and my job, it’s not really easy for me to get away if I can’t bring the computer and/or the dog.
Trying to think what else I can bore you with. I’m just trying to keep on truckin’ doing the best I can, which is sometimes not very good at all!
Maybe I will post only pictures next. Don’t hold your breath but it could happen.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Cuddling goes next level as a veterinary clinic is looking for someone to fill its “cat cuddler” position. Just Cats Veterinary Clinic in Clonsilla (a suburb of Dublin, Ireland) created the full-time job Tuesday and the phones have been abuzz. According to the job posting on the clinic’s website, the ideal “cat…
VOORHEES, N.J. (CBS) — One kitten in New Jersey is a genetic anomaly. Dr. Erin Henry, a veterinarian at the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees, discovered that a 3-week-old orange and black tortoiseshell kitten named Burrito was a boy. Only one in 3,000 of those types of cats are male, according to a 2012 study…
I don’t really have anything to say but I’m sure I can blah blah blah for a while just to check in.
It’s been a pretty blah winter too. Weather has been warmer than usual, then this stupid fucking snow/ice storm this week is just for shit.
I haven’t really done anything all winter, it always seems to fly by and all my good intentions of making Real Progress in my house are gone with the wind. I’ve been getting small donation pickups over the last 2-3 months. It at least motivates me to do something. Also the yoga studio I used to go to near work closed and one of the teachers just opened her new studio so last weekend I spent quite a bit of time going through my old store displays in the attic, photographing them & measuring them, and subsequently looking alllll over the damn house for hardware for some of it. Found some, the rest they apparently managed with substitute stuff. The good that came out of it: I got rid of some stuff from my attic & made space, she was happy with the stuff I gave her, I wasn’t sitting around on the computer all weekend & got some exercise, and having gone through SO MUCH of my junk all over the house, well, now I am reminded about all the stuff I have. It’s kinda depressing and certainly overwhelming but the “unknown” factor is a little less I guess. Also I did put aside a bunch of empty boxes for recycling and a big bag of attic trash. There is a lot more where that came from, but it’s a start. I went to take the boxes to the recycling center to find the recycling center is no longer there. They are doing construction there so I don’t know if there will be a new rec. ctr or if they moved it or if they think our single stream recycling picked up once a week is enough for us. Anyway I guess I have to put it out tonight on the snow/ice bank at the curb and hope it isn’t windy. It’s been windy like 15 of the last 20 days I think. It’s really old.
I just can’t commit enough time to all this shit. My mom is very needy these days, having a blind dog cramps my productivity too, and let’s not forget about days where I am just plain lazy, tired, or have something remotely fun to do. This weekend my cousin’s 60th bday party is Saturday at 5. So I have to try to get a good chunk of work done early. Sunday I’d like to go to yoga then I have a haircut at 1. There goes half of Sunday. Of course there is the weekly shit I can barely keep up with. I am so far behind I will never catch up. But I am trying. If I wasn’t an optimist (or just in denial/clueless) I’d have been dead long ago. Every time I think I’m making headway something else happens. I had to call the plumber like 3 times a few weeks ago. Some was routine , then I had a semi-emergency problem.
I get easily thrown off then I get a bad attitude, fuck it, I will just die in this mess what the fuck do I care, then I do care and am even further behind. Whatever.
And Rachel (the BFF) dying cast a shadow over things lately too. I did go over to her parents’ house a couple weekends ago and talked & went through some of her stuff, and that was good but stressful, every time I saw her mom’s email in my box I’d get anxious or something. So that’s over for now. They didn’t have a funeral, but she was cremated and they will have a celebration of her life at the beginning of June. Poor thing overdosed in her room, it was a while before a roommate found her, then no one gave the paramedics her ID so she was in the hospital for a couple days as a Jane Doe, so her parents weren’t even called for like 3 days I think. What a sad way to go. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her parents and her sister.
Anyway…It’s been a pretty crappy year so far, especially government wise. I will leave it at that.
I’m trying to plan a weekend trip to NYC to visit my English friend, who is likely staying another year! But I haven’t made much of an effort to that just yet. Just got some info from Dora to see when she’d be around, I will stay with my English friend (also Rachel) but of course I gotta see my buddy Dora, and Joan too hopefully.
I have until the beginning of June to clean out my middle bedroom for Nick Cave visitors. I should be able to manage to get it done enough. I’d like to get it done right, like taking out the carpet and getting the furniture set up how I want it (and fix the back BR too, furniture-wise) but just getting it reasonably livable is good enough for now. *throws hands up in the air* Some days I feel optimistic about getting rid of stuff and getting organized enough to feel like I can manage, and other days I feel like I have a constant avalanche of animal dung being poured on me.
Oh and now I have to do physical therapy for my shoulder. Fun. But I am off my thyroid meds for now and have to go get my blood drawn tomorrow to see how that is going and how my antibodies count is. Generally I am feeling okay.
Okay I gotta end this post.
first time in…how long have we been here? 6 years?
why not.
I still can’t believe my bff is gone forever.
I clicked on a link about some music producer’s death to see if I knew who he was and caught sight of another obituary of someone I DID know.
Marc Spitz wrote an autobiographical novel called How Soon Is Never? about his youth discovering the band the Smiths (who have a song called How Soon Is Now? from which the title was derived). Rachel gave it to me in 2003, because she’d read it and loved it. Rachel was born Sept. 29, 1969. Marc Spitz was born October 4th, 1969. They died a day or 2 apart. (I’m not sure what day she died, she OD’s on Weds. Her parents found out on Thursday, not sure when the ventilator was removed, Thursday or Friday.) He’d also had a problem with drugs and I have a feeling his death is going to be due to drugs as well. Kind of another kick in the gut. Just strange I guess. I don’t know.
stale crap 
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