Yesterday I got up early, and depressed. I got ready and we went to the warehouse. Ron was only getting 11 cases of drinks, so I got a lot of snacks. I had made an extensive inventory of what I did, and did not, need.
Torbie didn't sleep with me, but she was fiending for treats, so I felt pretty confident she was feeling OK. I also "caught" her eating both the wet, and the dry, food.
For the last couple days, I had noticed we had a lot more wet food than usual. I think she had been "off her food" for a few days, being sick.
While waiting for me, Ron struck up a conversation with another paratransit client. They were talking about how they had added a "for Spanish" option on one of the automated reservation lines and how "Those people" etc. etc.
I couldn't understand why the greeter seemed angry at Ron until he told me.
Now, I don't like some immigrants. But I don't care what color you are. I don't like people who move here and refuse to learn English, expecting all the natives to accommodate their language, like that little girl on the beach last month. Why would you take a vacation in America if none of you speaks a word of English? I don't like immigrants who move here and wear hijabs, like we're going to cane them if they get caught showing an inch of leg, like they would back home. I think that is rude and disrespectful. Wear a headscarf and something modest, but at least TRY to fit in. Some of them do.
We have a lot more freedom here, enjoy it, but at least learn English and try to make a living so you can contribute BACK to the society that is taking care of you.
I understand why a lot of people move here, conditions in many countries are abysmal. Tijuana was a classic example, the whole city is a giant slum sitting on a hill. The streets are strewn with garbage and everything reeks of raw sewage. Entire families live in makeshift shanties half the size of my garage (200 square feet), and everyone is skinny and hopeless. They don't have a lot of stray animals, I am told, because they are eaten. I'd want to get out of that, too. I stayed there for weeks, total, on various mission trips and I hope I never have to go back.
Others, of course, come here to escape persecution back home. As long as you wish my country well I have no problem with that.
So, I bought everything we needed and got it all to work. I helped Jack unload the truck (I paid someone to help him load it, he's very particular about how everything is loaded, and I don't blame him because it is his truck). I got Ron in the building and unloaded the carts. I had a lot of stuff on the carts, it took a minute.
Then I dragged the carts outside and Jack and I loaded them up. He lets me "help" more if Ron isn't around. I think he was a little ashamed of "letting" a woman work at manual labor. Hell, it's my job.
I waved goodbye as he left and shoved everything back into the building. I stocked everything, helped Ron, filled the fridge after Ron emptied it, etc. We did it all.
The coffee machine is giving cups of cream, in addition to leaking terribly, so I turned it off. No sense adding ripped off, pissed off, caffeine fiends to my list of enemies. I just hope it stops leaking now. We have some parts on order.
We came home and I got a nap. Torbie has been hanging out with Ron, but not me. She probably hasn't forgiven me for taking her to the vet.
I only got to sleep for about an hour before Chuck came. He was taking us to the BBQ place. We had a good meal together. He is going to help us take ALL the cats to the vet later this week.
I had trouble falling asleep due to the caffeine in the diet soda I drank during dinner. I am just really sensitive to the stuff.
I finally dropped off.
Today we had a trip to Walmart. I needed to get more litter, garbage bags, etc. Ron wasn't too happy about the trip but he went.
I did NOT get him any trail mix. No sense him breaking more teeth.
He did ask for some Advil, which prompted an interesting discussion. I read the warning label, and it says if you drink more than 3 (Ha, we are WELL past that) alcoholic drinks a day, you will have an increased risk of stomach bleeding, taking the drug. It did not, however, have a liver damage warning like the Tylenol.
Are there any good alcoholic pain killers? I haven't found one.
So I ended up calling Ron and asking him if he'd rather run a risk of bleeding, or ruin his liver. He opted for the bleeding. Ideally he would take neither, but he wants to and he is an adult. I'm not happy about it but it's not up to me.
That done, I went off and got my protein powder, the one he ruined, then I got some protein bars so I have some breakfast.
Garbage bags and plates for the cat food. I put the cat food on a foam, 6 inch plate. Horrible for the environment, but like Ron says the universe is going to melt and burn anyway (see 2 Peter in the Bible). The cats like it and they get a fresh plate every time. I just throw away the old food, whatever's left.
Then onto treats for the dentist. My dentist is a diabetic with heart trouble. He doesn't do beef, sugar, or pork. I found him some Turkey Sausage bites I think he will enjoy. If he doesn't want them, he can give them to his dogs. I also bought candy for the dentists office and the vet's office.
I went to the cat section and bought litter, then looked at the cat food. They didn't have any urinary formula wet food so I didn't buy anything. I want to wait and see what Torbie's urine test shows before I buy any more cat food.
I did get some treats for the vet, she mentioned she feeds Temptations to her cats, too. Then I got a big container of Temptations for Ron because Torbie has been eating a lot lately. Her weight is down 2 pounds, eating Ron's amount of treats, so apparently that is an OK maintenance diet for her. Besides, poor thing, she's been through a lot.
Then I got us a couple of t-shirts because Ron is always ruining his, and I saw a really pretty turquoise one for me. Then I remembered the pee pads.
We want to line the cat carrier with pee pads so, if Torbie pees in the carrier again, it will just soak up and pull away from her. That would be awful to be a cat, sitting in a lake of her own pee. Later on I went back and got some Gorilla tape so we can tape them down.
I made sure to tell everyone they were for the cat so they didn't think Ron had a "problem". He appreciated that.
I was pretty much done, so I checked out, gulped over the total, and paid. They checked me at the door. I found it interesting. She was checking white and latino carts, but letting the black people just walk out. I guess they were worried about claims of discrimination. One group actually set off the security alarm, but they let them go and didn't bring them back.
We were sitting right next to the security office.
We had to wait a while for our ride, but it was a big van, easy to load. Ron was so eager to get out of the sun he climbed the stairs. We picked up another client who had about 20 bags (I had the litter and 2 bags) of stuff, it took them forever to load the vehicle.
But she was a sad old lady so who's going to call dispatch and demand they enforce the 4-bag rule? It doesn't happen often. Sometimes people try to move furniture, that doesn't work, or bring 2 shopping carts full of stuff. They get stopped. The smart ones get one of those rolling hand carts and stuff that, then put a note in the file saying they have the handcart. Paratransit will allow that.
Happily we have Chuck so we don't have to take 3 cats in their carriers on paratransit. 1. Most of the drivers really loathe cats 2. They make a lot of noise and 3. They take up a lot of room. Although I was sure able to find a cab to take Torbie to the vet on Friday.
We came home and I put away Ron's TV dinners.
I took a nap. It started out bad, I had a nightmare about my family of origin (I still have those), but Biscuit came and laid on my legs. I could feel his weight on me even while dreaming so I went off to happier places. I was pretty stiff when I woke up.
My phone woke me up with flash flood warnings. We had a thunderstorm, apparently a line of them, but there are good long breaks between the rain so everything can drain. My tree, and bushes, can use the rain so I am happy to see it. We really do need the rain.
Biscuit and I got up and Ron told me he is enjoying reading "Strangers" by Dean Koontz. It is a long book but a good one. It's an older one, too, it came out in the 80's. I remember reading it and really enjoying it. You might want to check it out of you have time to read.
We lost power and the fridge made some really alarming noises as it attempted to start again. Eventually, it did, but it scared us.
So I'm all done for the day, I just need to put my sunglasses (they go over the regular ones), and Ron's hat into a bag on the back of the wheelchair. Ron is paranoid about becoming sunburned again. I think, due to liver damage, he lost the pigment on the top of his head and forehead. That's what caused that nasty sunburn last month.
He has never had that problem before.
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