I never thought I'd be a cat beautician

We stayed pretty warm last night, we have a good gas furnace and kept our electric.  I also ran the heated mattress pad on the bed. 

It was pretty uneventful except for Ron getting drunk and watching his favorite romantic comedy - again - laughing, making noise, and generally waking me up.  I yelled at him, he yelled back, and we both went to sleep. 

I woke up around 8 this morning.  That seems to be my preset if I don't have any other plans.  I got on the computer for a while, then took a shower and did my God time. 

I was happy to see Ron had gotten "on board" with the dripping faucet concept, and even turned it to drip a little more.  It did not freeze. 

The side yard, front yard, parts of the backyard, and some of the catio were covered in ice.  For once, the cats didn't want to go out. 

Lately, I've been finding Baby Girl at good moments and trimming the mats on her fur, with some blunt tipped grooming scissors.  She is pretty good natured about it as long as I catch her at the right time.  She knows, I think, that I want to help her, to make her feel better.  I know those mats have got to be uncomfortable. 

So today I found a good moment and trimmed off a big mat the size of a quarter.  She was very good about it, then I gave her some of her special treats.  They are a soft fish based treat and smell ghastly.  She is the only one of our cats that likes them.  I tried to "get" her some more but she very politely let me know "that's all" and moved off. 

I put the scissors back and took a nap.  Baby Girl never sleeps with me, but Torbie did.  I slept pretty well until #6 dragged the kids outside again.  This time, since it was warmer and not actively sleeting, the kids played a little with the ice and then went back in the house.  At one point, though, I heard an adult male yelling in English "Give it back!" so I wonder what went on there.  Normally the father at #6 only speaks to his kids in Spanish. 

The garbage pickup came, which is a good thing because I had a lot of trash (all in my big can).  They took it away.  I got dressed and went outside to get the can.  I covered up the jasmine a little better, stepping on some ice to do so.  I checked on the purple things, the ones that are exposed are pretty dead.  Very wilted, at least.  I noticed the front yard still had a fair amount of ice, and we had ice in the driveway. 

Ron called in his Dr Pepper order, then got drunk and called back.  Let's hope we don't get two orders. 

Ron has been pretty quiet, but we need to go to bed early tonight.  We have an early wakeup tomorrow, at least I do.  We go to bed at a pretty reasonable hour. 

Ron wants to go to Walmart tomorrow to buy more cat treats (the kind everyone likes), and I need to get my medication.  My insurance didn't offer any sort of discount on this medication, just the antidepressant.  They may have also discounted it (the Wellbutrin) because it is often used in smoking cessation programs.  No insurance company wants a smoker on the rolls if they can help it, they have huge risks of cancer and heart disease, among other things. 

I remember when I was a teen, my stepsister's best friend's dad developed lung cancer and had to have an entire lung removed.  And he still died, later.  My mother was a chain smoker but my Dad was not.  According to my sister, Mom could either get off the smokes, or the alcohol, but not both at the same time. 

She didn't take her medication either, which makes a pretty big impact as well.  Anyway, I have to go cough up $90 tomorrow for it. 

It helps with my mixed episodes so I take it.  One time I forgot to put it in my pill organizer and I had horrible anxiety that week.  So it helps with anxiety, too, apparently (Depakote). 

I called my parents last night, told them how I was doing, and explained that most nights I go to bed at 7 PM.  They were shocked.  I remember my Dad complaining how he had to go to bed at 8 when his A-fib was acting up.  I told them it's my medication, we all want me taking that, and I am OK paying the price. 

My stepmom asked me when I got up, and I told her 8, if I can.  She's like, you sleep 13 hours if you can?  Yeah.  I didn't tell her I often take a nap in addition to that.  Medication, I assume.  All my blood tests come back OK.  I could probably use an EKG due to my family history of heart disease but I kind of doubt insurance will pay for that. 

So, anyways, only an hour before I can go to bed.  I'm trying to stay up as late as I can so I can leave the faucet dripping for as short a time as possible.  I want to save as much as we can on the water bill. 

It will get down to about 20 tonight so probably some more ice in the morning, but not much.  We don't have any more precipitation so nothing to freeze. 

Ron's only comment on my trimming "his" cat, was that if I made her look too good, he wouldn't be able to tell her apart from Torbie.  Right now he can feel Baby Girl's mats and know it is her.  He thinks he won't be able to feel the difference if I "fix" her. 

I don't think that's a good reason to keep her, most likely, uncomfortable.