Ch ch ch changes

 I have a theory, which I may have mentioned before.  That all families  or individuals have a "Year."  That is a period of time, usually a year, when bad shit happens to them or those closest on an almost continuing and overwhelming basis.  It is not that bad things don't happen at other times, but there are times when they happen continuously, regardless of what is going on in the greater world.  I think this is my year and I still have five months to go.  I suppose I should look on the bright side, I'm no longer doing illegal drugs or drinking so I stand a less likely chance of being arrested for those things, although knowing the competency of the police, perhaps I should worry even more. And the tax man is still nipping at my heals so there is that to worry about.

What has been happening is that things are happening so fast and hard that I am finding it very hard to do much more then the bare minimum at work or for that matter outside of work.  We are eating out a lot more because neither of us has the energy to cook, or the patience for that matter.  So a lot of cheap greasy Mexican food which I like, but I somehow feel is not the best thing for a gentleman of my advanced age.

Every time I turn around I'm unable to make, what I think are necessary changes or just things I want to do.  Luckily, I appear to be good at my job and I'm able to function, in court, which I find a lot of fun although stressful.   The preparation time is what is being cut and one must normally prepare after all.  Can't wing 'em all.  Luckily I'm helped by clients who will often just drift away and not participate in the preparation for their case.  I say luckily because that does take a load off my shoulders, if they do not help then I often can't do it by myself, so that does free up time.

Looking back at this it looks like I'm whining, but that really isn't it.  I figure shit as they say happens and unless you are a 1%er you've gotta ride with it, that doesn't mean you can't bitch about it.

UPDATE:  I'm told that the above kind of made a reader sad because it seemed to be well kind of depressing.  I had intended it to be more or less humorous or perhaps wry or maybe rye if I could have found the liquor.   I like to think of myself as the kind of :A little song a little dance a little seltzer down your pants kind of guy.  Damn it is hard being funny.

I"m Nearly There

Arghh.  I think I know what I did wrong.  Fighting with Linux/Ubuntu and with Android.  My only Microsoft computer seems to be experiencing early onset Alzheimer's.  Speaking of which:

Brought my Mom back from Florida and installed her in Primrose Retirement Community because she could no longer live by herself.  We got the call from her caregiver just the say after I posted last.  My brothers were going down for Mom's 90th and I wasn't, but after the call I cleared my schedule and flew down.  We had been looking around and found a place just literally 5 minutes from our house.  My brothers live in opposite directions from me about  five and six hours each.

Four days later I brought her back on a non-stop from Orlando to Columbus then an hour drive from Columbus to here.  She has been in the place for 9 days at this point and it is exhausting.  We have a friend who put both his parents in Primrose at about the same time and ran into him when he was leaving the other day.  He told us he was planning on hanging himself it was so stressful.  He would hang his parents, but he didn't want that much interaction with them.  I think he was kidding.

My mother has turned into either a 2 year old saying no to everything, or a 13 year old who will not be happy no matter what.  There is no, as my mother used to say about me,  pleasing her.  Payback?

My Mom wasn't eating or leaving the condo nearly at all.  She was forgetting to do the simplest things.  But at any rate I am exhausted as is my wife.  Come home and just stare blankly at the TV or right now where the TV was because we put the TV in my Mom's apartment.  Yes, apartment, about 850 square feet every inch usable.  I think there may be more usable area then is in my house.  One good thing that was to come out of this was that my Mom would get our old TV and I would get a newer and bigger one.  My niece said that she had a TV they weren't using which was bigger then ours so my Plan was for naught, curses.

Anybody Still There?

Life almost seems with me too much near and far recently.

Flew down to Florida to see my mom and to see what was going on with her.  We now have a person going in for two hours every day and that seems to be helping things, but she keeps losing weight. My mom not the caregiver.  Also, unfortunately all the Internet I had been stealing while down there, are now secure with passwords, so I ended up not posting while I was down there.  Not because I couldn't go to coffee houses to use their Internet, but I just didn't seem to get around to it.

Also, the goddamn touch pad continues to be hypersensitive.  Now that I'm using Ubuntu, I haven't figured out how to turn off the touch pad while I'm typing.  My wife's Acer has two keys you can hit to turn the touch pad off and then hit them again to turn it on.  This didn't used to be a problem, I don't think with any computer.

At any rate took mom to the doctor who was a pretty nice guy, but he was essentially no help.  My mother doesn't eat and doesn't clean herself any more, nor does she wash her own clothes.  Now when I say she doesn't eat I mean almost.  And when I say she doesn't clean herself, I mean she will do a sponge bath every other day or so.  So the doc. said based on our reporting, that she is definitely in the early stages of dementia.  Then he regaled us with stories of his elderly relatives, most of whom are in Africa, most of whom were doctors, and who are losing it in one way or another, but whose lives  he doesn't think he should intervene in yet.  Not a lot of help.

Back home and my chow had been throwing up every day since shortly before I'd left.  We thought that she might have some stomach irritation from the drugs from the surgery.  Nope that that simple.

She has esophagitus which is a narrowing of the esophagus which in all probably occurred from some sort of reaction to the anesthetics used in the surgery.  We took her to the OSU Vet E.R. Clinic and they took her in right away.  It was so serious she was near death, but because she is so brave and impervious to pain we had no idea.  We gave permission to do anything possible to save her (thank god we'd paid off our credit cards in January).

So what  they have done is to scope the esophagus and put a balloon down it to increase the size back to normal.  There will be another one to eight procedures at approximately one week intervals.  She is unable to eat through her mouth and for the time being she is even unable to drink.  She has a feeding tube directly into her stomach and we have to put food into it every four hours even through the night.  The first feeding was a 8:00 a.m. this morning and didn't go badly.   Noon was better for us, she took both well.

She is at $5gs and we may be only half way through the treatment.  In addition we are simply emotionally overwhelmed.  What with everything.

Fine Whines, Why Do You Ask

Knowing more than I want to about the inside of a dog's knee right now.

And this is more or less what it looks like inside right now.

I've been very over whelmed recently.  I've kind of taken it out by remaking the visuals on the blog on a daily basis, a slight exaggeration, but not much.

Flying down to Florida to be with my Mother on Monday.  This was going to be a vacation with my wife, but it hasn't turned out that way.  Our chow has had to have ACL surgery.  Actually they don't call it that on a dog, but that is what it is.  She is the third dog I've had that has had to have this surgery, it is the fourth surgery.  One knee on the first chow, both knees on the pit and now hopefully just one knee on this chow.

Took her to Med-Vet in Columbus last Tuesday.  Got her there at 6:00 a.m. Then came back here to an all day custody hearing which didn't happen because one of the parents is deaf, doesn't use a regulation sign language and the interpreter said we would need two interpreters.  So that has all be continued for about two months.

The vet called and said the surgery went well, but our dog was "feisty" and we could certainly take her home that night which we did.  She was nuts from the anesthetic and not very happy for the next thirty-six hours. A mean drunk.   It turned out that the cost to us by bring her home was cut by $500.00.  There were times that Tuesday, that I think I might have paid them twice that to keep her.  However, as she came out of the anesthetic she got to be more and more like her old self. 

Now, according to the vet we will have to limit her activities for six weeks.  Some chance of that.  We have her on a long lead in the house and a short lead when we take her outside.  She is not a happy camper.  She feels fine and doesn't understand why she can't run and jump.  She can run and jump we just are not to let her do it.  The St. Bernard is freaked because she isn't being allowed to play with him.  Good god I should have kids it might be easier.  Thank god also, for pet insurance.

Unfortunately I have to go to Florida to visit with my mother who seems to be deteriorating mentally.  She refuses to bathe and refuses to wash her clothing because neither she nor the clothing are dirty.  She eats chips and sweets and won't eat balanced meals and refuses to leave her condo.  We have a person coming for two hours five days a week, who is cleaning her clothes and getting her healthy food, but at this point it looks like it will be assisted living, sooner rather than later, while she can still do it.  What that means is that we will have to get her up to Ohio some way and it looks like there is a good shot that I will have to be the one to make the final push to make her do it.  Well, as I told my wife it is just practice for me later on.

Oh yeah I see we're screwed on the foreclosure fraud settlement.  Boy is that a surprise.  Well it is kind of since I expected the AGs of California, Massachusetts and New York to hold out for something better.

Its Time

I Live In The World You Deserve

I'm drifting around and around today and I've been as I said earlier reading and watching about the upcoming elections. As usual things are getting more and more frantic as we come closer and closer to the actual election day.

Greenwald today and Ehrenstein yesterday both touch on issues that directly affect the LGTB community. Greeenwald writing about Obama's defense of DOMA and Ehrenstein writing about, well his general disgust with Obama and the democrats, which mirrors mine or visa versa.

I find it interesting that Obama argues (without a lot of real legal support) that he is required to defend any law (in this case both DOMA and DADT) passed by congress (something that no other president in recent history has argued carte blanch). Assuming for the sake of argument that is true, then why does he insist on appealing when he loses and why does he feel the need to fight to stay the lower court orders?

If one jumps to the various I do too believe in fairies and Obama blogs one sees the ability of the easily led or the true believers or the ones who are part of the tribe and proud of it writers defending both the laws' defenses and the appeals and even the battles over the stays. Obama as best I can figure out is just the poor president who has so little power himself that he must to the death apparently (well at least to the death of the party he suposeldy is the leader of) defend laws he really really really wants to just go away, please.

Over The River

It's off to my brother's place to visit with the fam and the new addition, a St. Bernard puppy. I am a llittle anxious to see how everybody gets along. It's a four hour drive with stops maybe four and a half. So we'll see how things go.

We've got various sprays and doggie valium to keep everybody calm. I'm told they all work on people too, so everyone should be really calm. Back tomorrow, I hope.