Today is Neo's birthday.
Happy Birthday!
Her birthstone is garnet and every year I try to get her a small garnet piece of jewelry. Today we're home, looking at the gray drizzle out our window. We had plans to go down to a fabric store in Berkeley today, but I have to take Hobbes to the vet for a follow-up visit (He's home now, stable, but needs to see his vet for long-term care.) and, here's a bizarre thing, Saul doesn't have school today. He goes back Tuesday. So he's here unexpectedly. The trip to the fabric store is off. OK. Let's go to some funky small antique shops and find a cute piece of jewelry. Then this afternoon I'll bake your birthday cake.
Oops. It's Monday. A lot of shops here are closed on Monday if they're open on Saturday. I'll call first.
Brring, Brring, Brring.
"Hullo?" someone says in a very sleepy voice.
"Um. Hi. Is this Jewel of the Night?"
"Mmm?"
"I'm sorry. I may have the wrong number. Is this the store Jewel of the Night?"
"Yeah... I mean it's my house. But yeah."
"I was calling to see if you were open today?" Good lord this is weird.
"Well, I was going to, but then I looked outside and you know. It's kind of gross out there. Right?"
"Uhh." Hang up. Hang up!
"I mostly work by appointment these days. What did you have in mind?"
You work by appointment? Really? There's an interesting plan for an inexpensive jewelry shop on Main Street in a small town. It's not like you're selling first editions or something. Soldiering on I offer, "Well, today is my daughter's birthday and we thought we'd come in. You know. See what you have."
"Unh." Lots of rustling noises here as if newspapers are being moved or bedsheets dragged across the phone. "OK. Like, what time did you want to come in?"
I can't believe I'm setting an appointment to buy earrings. "I have to take my dog to the vet's this morning. I dunno. Twelve? Sometime after twelve?"
"Oh good. That gives me time to take a shower."
Boom! Head explodes. I don't need to know how clean you are! What a weird person. Heck of a business plan you've got there, lady.
We're going to the art studio down the street instead.
2 comments:
Happy Birthday, Neo! Sorry I'm late in saying so.
And poor Hobbes. His legs look so thin. Is he okay?
That's actually an older picture from when he was healthy. I think he's leaning forward in the picture, pressing into the futon, so his legs look thinner.
Now that he's lost so much weight this picture has changed. All that thickness around his neck is gone and his neck droops down from below his jaw. And you can see his spine now.
He's on insulin shots (NPH) twice a day and Pepcid AC. The weight is slowly coming back, and his energy level and water consumption are coming back to normal, however he is really picky. He's acting as if his stomach is upset, although he hasn't thrown anything up. So we're trying the pepcid to see if it will help. He still has ketones in his urine -- we're waiting to see if we can get his appetite back to address that.
The vet thinks he probably needs to have his insulin levels increased. I'm going to be playing his game with him for quite some time. It discouraging. But all's not lost yet. I just have to figure out a way to get him stabilized.
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