Friday

All I've done, it seems, lately, with Mama cat, is stuff her in a box and take her off to have procedures, blood draws, injections, exams, and surgery.  I worried she would hate me, but just now she came and loved on me as I sat at my computer.  She wanted lots of petting, scent-marked me, and purred very loudly.  So she understands it was all for her long-term benefit.  What a nice cat.  You can see why I had to make room. 

Speaking of cats, one popular toy around here is the squeaky mouse.  In fact, it is so popular, if I made a kit for new cat adopters it would have a metal litter box scoop (I love mine), and at least one squeaky mouse.  It has a circuit in it, when it is patted or moved in any way, it squeaks.  All the cats love it.  We always have a couple in circulation.  I also had some wand toys with a squeaky mouse on them.  Spotty was playing with the wand toy last night and, after I went to bed, dragged it out in the hall. 

I went to bed, I didn't sleep great so I wasn't surprised when the squeaky mouse woke me up.  I smiled, thinking of Spotty the fierce hunter.  It went on for a while, then stopped.  I went back to sleep.  I didn't mind this. 

This morning, Ron mentioned he had so much fun playing "mouse" with Spotty, he held the wand and moved it, he could feel Spotty pulling on it and hear the mouse activate.  I thought it was great and didn't mind.  I don't think it even occurred to Ron he might wake me up. 

I was very sluggish this morning, but I finally got going.  I forgot to lint-brush Ron's shorts, something I still need to do.  Our first driver complained about the cat hair, even though she had vinyl seats.  We went to work, we had made some sales but not much considering it had been 3 days. 

Ron made some mistakes, but fixed them.  I have my own theory about that but have to consider management might very well find my blog one day.  So I will keep that theory to myself, if you make a comment I can confirm without posting it but that's all. 

I stocked what I could, which, at the end of it, wasn't much.  One customer yelled at me because "we were out of everything".  I asked her a few questions, because I knew that was not the case.  Turns out "We were out of cheetos for one day" hence the crisis. 

I did my work and most of Ron's.  We finished up and left early.  We went straight home.  I had had a lot of caffeine but tried to take a nap anyway.  I got about an hour of very fitful sleep with Torbie and Biscuit. 

I finally got up.  Still somewhat depressed and fatigued - caffeine abuse really happens when I am depressed.  Ron was right when he guessed, of all drugs, I would probably abuse stimulants.  I thought about taking a kratom but worried it might mess up my ability to sleep tonight.  So I got up, took a salt tablet, drank half a diet Dr Pepper, and went to the bank.  It was very slow at the bank, a teller waved me over when I finished filling out my form.  I made my deposit. 

I went to the grocery store I don't like, but it's close.  No beggars this time.  I looked around, not impressed.  They do have a store brand cat food Mama loves, so I got some of that, and a couple bottles of Diet soda for me. 

I ended up in line behind a woman buying a lot of processed food, snacks.  I realized she was using food stamps to pay for them.  What a waste of taxpayer money, hydrogenated oil, trash carbs, and corn syrup.  She had literally 2 pounds of ground beef in the order, out of the whole $90 she spent in food stamps she bought 2 pounds of hamburger.  No vegetables, no fruit, no whole grains, nothing unprocessed. 

Now, I get what Ron used to call "Quick foods" - tv dinners, precooked meats like a chicken patty, hardboiled eggs, stuff like that.  I like the precooked quinoa for instance, it's very good and can be eaten as the meal or the side.  I do a lot of that 'cause zero energy, caregiving, depression, brain damage, cooking from scratch is not going to happen. 

I wasn't mad, just sad and resigned.  If this is the way the nation feeds people no wonder everyone is fat and sick. 

The cashier was pretty sullen with me.  Good thing she didn't work for me or she'd have got a lecture on customer service. 

I paid ($11) and put everything in my backpack once I got outside.  The store had a big sign up about no backpacks but I wore mine anyway.  I do not fit the profile of a shoplifter and I am sure they watched me on the cameras, found nothing of interest other than the fact I spent more time on cat food than I did on the rest of my shopping. 

I took about 3 steps across the parking lot and there goes my bus.  [curses]  I took my time walking over to the bus stop.  They recently put in a bench so I sat on it, in the sun, while everyone who came after me hid under shade trees in the parking lot. 

I got on the bus and found a seat.  It was pretty crowded = good.  I want a good ridership.  They will not cut the route and may add more runs.  So that was good. 

I realized one guy was being lewd at me, licking his lips - like that, doing little hip thrusts, etc, trying to I don't know.  I was about twice his age, twice his weight.  He came and tried to sit next to me, I stood up quickly and knocked him down (sorry!).  We were almost at my stop so I stood up until we got there, had my hand on my stun gun as I got off in case he tried to follow.  He did not. 

I am sure he was just clowning but things like that scare normal people away from riding the bus.  Uneventful walk home except for Cujo the aggressive dog tried to break the fence down.  I said, quote "MEOW Mother f*cker" as I walked past on the other side of the street. 

I got home and found Cleo on the porch, squeaking at me for dinner.  She doesn't meow, she squeaks.  It is adorable.  I set her up with some chicken and salmon dinner, it looked like worms in gravy but she thought it was great.  They still had the work men next door at #2, so they spooked her a few times, but she kept coming back.  She has so much potential. 

I came in the house, everyone said hello, I fed Mama and Spotty some dinner.  Unfortunately Biscuit got into it which always worries me because he could get another stone, and the vet said she can't always save the cats.  But later I did catch him eating his "good for you" food and treats so I felt a little better about his diet. 

Mama and Spotty like pretty much anything I give them, they are very easy cats.  I had already cleaned the litter box so no worries about that. 

I helped Ron with some stuff and ran a load of laundry.  I had gotten pretty sweaty waiting on the bus.  I just threw pretty much everything in the wash along with the clothes I had already accumulated.  Ron does a VERY good job of giving me his dirty clothes, respecting the clean clothes hung on the chair, and hanging up his clothes when he gets home (we both like to run around in as little as possible, when at home).  Very pleased with Ron re: clothes.  And I have a good washer and dryer. 

I did start using the scented detergent, he didn't notice but I think it is better.  It doesn't irritate my skin so I will keep doing that.  When I have workout/sweaty clothes I will use the scent beads in the wash.  I want to be fresh 100% of the time. 

I made sure everyone ate and ate garbage carbs for dinner.  Just processed sugar crap, but tasty and worked with my pills.  I did have a protein shake "with", though.  :p 

Now I'm about to make a Walmart delivery order.  I'm pretty tired so hopefully I will sleep OK.  It's been a long day.