You guys and your desks... mine is a junk pile. So embarrassing. I still have to get rid of that desk top that crashed. What am I gonna do with that thing? I don’t even know if I can lift it.
My first two cats were George and Gracie too. Gracie was already named Gracie by the shelter. Then I adopted a kitten to keep her company while I was at work. Of course, I had to call him George.
Office or orifice?
yes. Second ex husband was German. I want to call the first one a testicle
I can barely do 20 minutes and lots of mind wandering during thatWow... Awesome... Way to go!!!For me it is a way of life.
Vipassanā (Theravāda, Pāli Canon) meditation, every day 2x (morning + evening) 1 hour each sitting. Mindfulness 24/7/365.
And to pinch a line from John Oliver...
We only have time for a quick recap of the week
I came as close to COVID-19 as i ever want to today, and it was quite close
But before that....Timeshare Cat - The Reunioning and COVID-19 Gauntlet running
Hint stories are in the spoilers, im wordy, you'll see...
Dateline: Saturday.....
After several reschedules i take 2 trains and walk 3.5km to kitty sit for a friend overnight. The cat in question is known by me and the folks on my home forum as Timeshare Cat. I havent seen her in 3 years. Short version, she belongs to a friend of mine in the country 3 hours away by train...i used to sublet a cabin from her back in 2012 when i lived there, and we remained friends ever since. I got to rent the cabin because her cat at the time, the original Timeshare Cat liked me, and that cat hated everyone except her, and me. Fast forward a year and i was back in Sydney, and she had moved to another village nearby in the country, but we remained friends, and so often she would, as she worked long hours away form home, ring up and see if i wanted a day out of town, "want to come down and get some cat time?"....Yes!!!!. so i would often take the train down and spend the day with the cat. Worth pointing out as an aspie, i dont do people a lot, and cats fascinate me and i like their faces (whereas peoples faces confuse me) and while i like animals over people as a general rule, and i have a special connection to animals, i find cats less cloying than dogs, who i petmind as well, but find work...cats are independent, like me.
Anyways, years go by and sadly the original Timeshare Cat passes away, but after a suitable grieving period, my friend calls and announces shes thinking about getting another companion, and seeks my input, which i love. The day comes and i go down because im told when i let myself in i will find a surprise, well not much of a surprise, because i know its going to be a furbaby. So i meet the new Timeshare Cat and she is a tiny rescue, and she fits in my hand. and we bond straight away. I visit once a month on average for the next year.
Then in 2017 i have a seizure that amongst other things leaves me bedbound for 2.5 years with crippling dizziness. So no Timeshare Cat visits. 6 months in my friend realises this is going to be a long haul thing, and now that im not coming to give the cat human time, she again works away from home a lot of the time, so she announces she getting another rescue...something we had talked about anyways, but now needed to keep Timeshare Cat company.
I get better finally towards the end of last year, and while i am down in the country near Timeshare Cat, im usually either volunteering at the nursing home ive volunteered at for years, or im petminding a dog close by. But i dont get the time to drop by, and im not up to travelling 6 hours round trip twice in a week these days. So months go by and i still find now window to see Timeshare Cat AND the new cat, known as Smitten The Kitten (i dont have naming rights folks)
6 weeks ago, my friend calls and asks if i would be up for petminding overnight while she goes away for a weekend and to put some money into the towns on the south coast that got decimated by the fires at xmas...sure, im there!
A few weeks go by as she has to rescedule
But this last saturday.......
It was finally, after 3 years, Timeshare Cat - The Reunioning
A short piece of man-cat love porn as she slobbered all over my jeans marking me, i dont speak as i was hoping to pick up her purring and carrying on...she stuck to me like a limpet for the weekend and next morning slobbered over my jeans again
So to get there and back was 3 trains going down, and 4 trains and a bus coming back...so i posted on my home forum about the awesome covid-19 gauntlet i was running....
As close to COVID-19 as i wanna get - more COVID-19 Gauntlet running
Dateline: Monday...
10:00AM I get a call from a friend that he's had to call an ambulance for our mutual (and my best) friend last night, and that because the emergency operator asked if said friend had a fever, when my friend who called them said yes, they turned up to get him in the full hazmat gear, it was very real apparently to those who were there. Anyways theyve taken him to an isolation ward is all he knows as of 10am yesterday. Ive been told theres no point trying to go up and see him as theyre not letting anyone in....
I spend the arvo trying to get an update from the hospital but theyre saying nothing except theyre waiting on a covid test and other tests but will only giving info to family...ive tried calling his mobile too, but no answer.
Finally he calls in the early evening to ask if i can drop a phone charger over to him as he didnt get to pack anything when he left. Tells me i wont be allowed into the iso ward and to drop the charger over in a bag with his name on it to the ward sister.
So before i cut&paste the update of what happened form my home forum today (Tuesday), heres some keys to understanding the following text:
The Bear Hater (or TBH) - my friend who ended up in the iso ward. Named The Bear Hater because a few years back i decided as i hadnt had a normal childhood to buy myself a Teddy at the tender age of 45, and bring him to our regular coffee mornings with friends (including him)....and because of course this sent him so badly sideways it only ensured that i always brought the bear along, and knowing it annoyed him upped the antics and annoyance of him by sometimes arriving for coffee at the local cafe with The Bear (named Crispin) in a baby harness. Theres pics of that on here in one post or another on the subject. Enjoy the mental scarring if you track the post down...
Woolies - supermarket giant
St Vincents - Large hospital in Sydney
The post:
Dateline: Tuesday...
So wonder why ive been quiet today, i mean really no one noticed i was quiet today, in these troubling times, and thought to ask "Are you okay?"
No one?
We'll deal with this betrayal later, but for now let me tell you why i was quiet today
Why was i quiet, i hear you ask (albeit too late to be meaningful...nice post-fact enquiry)
I was quiet because i was out running the
(when i read that , in my head theres a catchy theme tune stab, you try it, ill wait)
Good?
Okay
So The Bear Hater (TBH) didnt of course have the frame of thought, like most, to grab his phone charger when the men in hazmat suits took him away the other day
So first thing today was to go to Woolies town hall to buy a USB A to USB C cable (i had a spare plugpack part) as i dont have anything recent enough to use USB C lol
Got on the train at 10am from St Peters to Town Hall, usually sardine land, 1st time ive ever had seat, and plenty of them
Got to Town Hall and usually a crowd towards the barrier, today a nice leisurely walk, i could get used to this, society, please stay away after COVID-19 if you like...
Grabbed the stuff for TBH from Woolies, and grabbed some Nice bikkies, havent had those in 2 weeks, winning
Walk through town to bus stop to St Vincents mid Hyde Park, not many people around..again, please feel free to stay home forever society, this is how my city should be
Get to hospital and go up to level 7 and the contagious patients ward, ive been told by TBH in a text this morning i wont be allowed in to put the stuff in a bag and label it with his details and drop it off...
When i get to the ward, the place is in lockdown, and i join a lady also holding a bag to drop off, shes told me noones getting in
So im prepared to drop and dash when the nurse comes out and asks the lady who shes dropping the bag off for...and takes her bag
Then she asks me who im dropping off for, and i tell her TBH (aka Robert) and she says, he's just been confirmed as not having COVID-19, so i can go and see him for 5 minutes
Her: "First, hows your health?"
Me: "Well i have no immune system, and just came off 2 lots of AB's for an ear infection, but for me, im good"
Her: "Well id recommend you dont go in because this is an isolation ward and beyond this door are active COVID-19 cases"
Me: wanted to say "But im doing this epic covid gauntlet run thing..." in reality "i'll just stay 5 minutes, we've been friends 20 years, and he's like my brother"
Her: "Well i'll let you in, as long as once you leave you don't even come back to the hospital at all...even through the front door, because thats been compromised as people arent waiting in the ED and starting to come into the general reception, and we've had confirmed cases do that. So visit your friend, but dont come back"
Me: " Okay"
So im directed to walk to the right, turn left and head up to his room and dont deviate from the line
So as i get near the room, just to amuse myself mostly, but also let him know all 4 of the horsemen of the apocalypse have arrived at once and in one package i say loudly, in full Hunter S Thompson mode "Where is that rat b@stard?"...this is my standard greeting to The Bear Hater
Oddly he was glad to see me....
He was in good spirits and sitting up with a cannula feeding the greedy fudger antibiotics intravenously for his blood poisoning
Usual mood level so we had a nice chat and gave him a bit of a bollocking for doing a "Henry" - our mutual friend who used to suffer in silence in his room until it was ambulance time...the time i had to put him in an ambulance at 4am to have a quad bypass 6 hours later comes to mind....
Was wrapping things up and about to leave when i caught site of something out of the corner of my eye
"Yes", i thought, "Has to be done, its traditional"
When Henry was alive and in hospital, which was often because as mentioned he left things till they got critical, i started a running tradition of adding my own notes the patient wall chart, which is a whiteboard where they track things like meds and goals for the day. With Henry, who i may have outed once in the past for famously checking himself out of hospital against doctors orders for them continuing to bring him yoghurt with meals when he asked them to stop, id often write int he goals for today section "Eat more yoghurt". He regretted checking himself out over the yoghurt weeks after he did it, but in the final days of his life, when i was there and another friend of his that i hadnt met, and even the odd nurse, was about, he;d get me to tell the entire story of his battle with trying to get the kitchen to stop sending yoghurt, and ultimately checking himself out because of it...became a badge of pride in his final days.
So being as this was TBH's first visit to hospital since ive known him and i had little data to use against him i thought, best ease him into things, so heres a quick snap of his patient board, and his goals for the days
I look after my friends
So i was as close to the Corona Virus as i want to get folks
Spent the rest of the day checking in with some friends to do things and touch base while i was out, because now i am basically going into self iso for awhile
Came home on a train that would usually be sardine land again, at 4:30 and again very quiet, me likey
But i was running the gauntlet like a boss, sure some healthcare workers were prolly a bit closer to it than me, but not by a lot....
Walking up King St from St Peters station, and saw a bunch of hippies sitting packed into a small cafe, obviously fricking clueless wankers, internal dialogue was "good luck with your patchouli and crystals you ****its". no other cafes on the street open, even for takeaways.
An epic journey, indeed, fellow fan of Nice cookies. And I'm glad you finally got to spend some time with Minx. What did you think of Smitten?
Well friends, I think all this self-isolation is beginning to take its toll. I just spent about 20 minutes looking at pics of cats with toothbrushes.
Dunno what it is but I find these absolutely hilarious right now
Dunno what it is but I find these absolutely hilarious right now
You are sweet, and so is everyone who agreed with you. I am touched.If you didn't come here anymore it would make me sad too
OMG! I need some sleep. I grabbed my Spade, filled up the bottle and threw in a fresh 30T. I hit the fire button and I thought "What in the hell is wrong with this thing?" Barely any vapor. Sooo I took the top cap off the Vital and the coils looked like small licorice jelly beans. Cleaned the coils, new rayon wick, DIY Rootbeer Float ejuice, DRIP IT & RIP IT! YEESSS! All is well again.
Who posted all those pics of cats, what the hell is going on, why'd you get all off topic, were you raised in a....oh that's right .. I'm not the one that cares.
Good job.
Carry on.
Good job.
Carry on.
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