What Day is It, Anyway?
Jan. 2nd, 2019 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseAll I know is that it's 2019. I have no actual idea what day of the week it is. Wednesday is my best guess.
My family all went back to school and work. I stayed home with kitty, who is still with us, but it's unclear how long (more under the cut at the end.) I was extremely grateful whennaomikritzer reached out to offer to bring lunch and chat. She brought some potato/leek soup that was left over from a New Year's Eve party that she'd gone to. I supplied some day-old French bread, and she also brought a spinach and cheese stuffed naan that needed to be rescued from a freezer that apparently stopped freezing and used up. All and all a lovely meal, made more lovely by the chance to chat with a dear friend about anything OTHER than a sick cat for several hours.
It is also "What Are You Reading" Wednesday, and I can report that I read another short story last night. "Sour Milk Girls" by Erin Roberts which I kind of hated. There's no hard and fast rule that stories have to have a happy ending to be satisfying. Lots of people will tell you that they sometimes feel that grim endings are more realistic, but what "Sour Milk Girls" felt like to me was "mean girls being mean, the end." There was a clever sort of word-building going on, but one of the main plot points (memories being wiped) was never explained in context of the world. What was the point of it? What did the people doing the wiping (institutionally, and then, later, individually) get out of it? What was the benefit? And, then it was just "ha, ha, we were mean."
Or, so it seemed to me.
Well, I will keep hunting. I have five slots I can fill in my nominations for the Nebula, and I only have three filled so far. There are lots and lots of eligible short stories out there.
I'm also revisiting Starhawk's Truth or Dare.; Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery, which is a book I tried to read when it came out in the late 1980s. I'm not sure how this type of book bills itself. It's not non-fiction, though it tries hard to be, with footnoted research and a lot of academic language. It's kind of like creative nonfiction, maybe? With a dash of memoir and a lot of poetry? Starhawk (a native St. Paulie!) is one of those people that a lot of pagans my age read back in the day. She's probably best known for Spiral Dance, which is a bit more of a how-to. Possibly my revisiting of Starhawk should have started there, because I'm finding Truth or Dare tough going. Reading it has made me think about how little has changed and how many revolutions are still needed.
When I need something lighter (or to pass the time at the vet's office), I've been SLOWLY making my way through the first Longmire book, The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. Shawn and I really enjoyed watching "Longmire," and Shawn found a copy of this at on the library friends bookstore's free shelf.
Meanwhile, Ball has taken a turn for the worse. Despite all our efforts (so much and such variety offered--soups, broths, treats, pates, milks, CatSure, vitamin treats, her standard favorites,...), she stopped eating and drinking last night.
We even tried dosing her with the Entyce (an appetite stimulant that the vet prescribed), but... to no avail.
I'll be honest, I didn't think she'd make it through last night.
Today has been tough, and we called the vet to see what they thought, but their only advice was to bring her into the emergency clinic after 7 pm. Our family discussed this and decided that a trip to the vet would be unnecessary suffering for her. She's been sleeping curled up under a blanket on Mason's lap most of tonight, and so long as she doesn't seem in pain or otherwise actively suffering, that's where she can stay.
I wish the news were better.
It really seemed as though she might rally, SEVERAL TIMES, but now that she's turned away from food, even with Entyce, it seems unlikely. We're keeping our vet appointment on Friday, and we'll see if she makes it to that and what the doctor has to say, if she does.
My family all went back to school and work. I stayed home with kitty, who is still with us, but it's unclear how long (more under the cut at the end.) I was extremely grateful when
naomikritzer reached out to offer to bring lunch and chat. She brought some potato/leek soup that was left over from a New Year's Eve party that she'd gone to. I supplied some day-old French bread, and she also brought a spinach and cheese stuffed naan that needed to be rescued from a freezer that apparently stopped freezing and used up. All and all a lovely meal, made more lovely by the chance to chat with a dear friend about anything OTHER than a sick cat for several hours.It is also "What Are You Reading" Wednesday, and I can report that I read another short story last night. "Sour Milk Girls" by Erin Roberts which I kind of hated. There's no hard and fast rule that stories have to have a happy ending to be satisfying. Lots of people will tell you that they sometimes feel that grim endings are more realistic, but what "Sour Milk Girls" felt like to me was "mean girls being mean, the end." There was a clever sort of word-building going on, but one of the main plot points (memories being wiped) was never explained in context of the world. What was the point of it? What did the people doing the wiping (institutionally, and then, later, individually) get out of it? What was the benefit? And, then it was just "ha, ha, we were mean."
Or, so it seemed to me.
Well, I will keep hunting. I have five slots I can fill in my nominations for the Nebula, and I only have three filled so far. There are lots and lots of eligible short stories out there.
I'm also revisiting Starhawk's Truth or Dare.; Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery, which is a book I tried to read when it came out in the late 1980s. I'm not sure how this type of book bills itself. It's not non-fiction, though it tries hard to be, with footnoted research and a lot of academic language. It's kind of like creative nonfiction, maybe? With a dash of memoir and a lot of poetry? Starhawk (a native St. Paulie!) is one of those people that a lot of pagans my age read back in the day. She's probably best known for Spiral Dance, which is a bit more of a how-to. Possibly my revisiting of Starhawk should have started there, because I'm finding Truth or Dare tough going. Reading it has made me think about how little has changed and how many revolutions are still needed.
When I need something lighter (or to pass the time at the vet's office), I've been SLOWLY making my way through the first Longmire book, The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. Shawn and I really enjoyed watching "Longmire," and Shawn found a copy of this at on the library friends bookstore's free shelf.
Meanwhile, Ball has taken a turn for the worse. Despite all our efforts (so much and such variety offered--soups, broths, treats, pates, milks, CatSure, vitamin treats, her standard favorites,...), she stopped eating and drinking last night.
We even tried dosing her with the Entyce (an appetite stimulant that the vet prescribed), but... to no avail.
I'll be honest, I didn't think she'd make it through last night.
Today has been tough, and we called the vet to see what they thought, but their only advice was to bring her into the emergency clinic after 7 pm. Our family discussed this and decided that a trip to the vet would be unnecessary suffering for her. She's been sleeping curled up under a blanket on Mason's lap most of tonight, and so long as she doesn't seem in pain or otherwise actively suffering, that's where she can stay.
I wish the news were better.
It really seemed as though she might rally, SEVERAL TIMES, but now that she's turned away from food, even with Entyce, it seems unlikely. We're keeping our vet appointment on Friday, and we'll see if she makes it to that and what the doctor has to say, if she does.