I Aten’t Dead
. . . just terminally stressed out. (Apologies to Terry Pratchett and Granny Weatherwax for stealing the line in the subject; it just seemed appropriate after my prolonged absence. Er, the latest in a string of prolonged absences.)
Basically, there is too much crap going on, and not enough time to deal with it all. The dog situation is slightly better — at least, Nigel seems ready to kill Moliere slightly less often than he did previously — but it’s still not great. Moliere has added book destroying to his already impressive repertoire of peeing randomly, savaging yarn, obsessive human licking (er, obsessive licking of humans, that is), and driving Nigel insane, so a crate was added, which led to my first neighborly complaint of canine noise. (He was nice about it, but still not a good thing.) Thus far, Moliere has continued to resist the idea of his crate as his own special room, preferring instead to yip constantly. Anyone in my building during the day Monday will probably be driven insane.
Nigel continues to have accidents most weekdays, but at least those are easily spotted when I return home and there’s a spot on the rug that goes squish.
On the positive side, I have confirmed that hydrotherapy helps a lot when my stomach starts trying to kill me. If I act quickly enough, a hot bath or shower actually makes the pains go away reasonably soon. (Possibly more evidence that it’s stress-related.)
I also note that I need to trim my fingernails, because I’m making a lot of typos. If I’ve missed cleaning up any, please blame the nails, not me. Really. Honestly.
Oh, yes, and the situation with my grandmother has entered another weird phase. Nothing life-threatening, but just enough melodrama to drive us all insane. (Example: calling my parents or me sounding oh, so sad and saying that she needs us there right now, and then, when we either arrive or get the message and call her back, she doesn’t remember calling us.)
On another positive note, I have managed to channel most of the stress into reorganizing, cleaning, and decluttering my flat, which sorely, almost achingly needed it. The main room is, well, not organized, but is a damned sight better than it used to be, although I must admit that the kitchen is now a disaster zone. Oh well. I’m trying to tackle it at least a little each day, and tracking my progress on Chore Wars. It’s only been a couple of weeks now, and I’m already a third-level barbarian. :-)
