General Update...

We're hanging in there with Quinn. We can see changes; we know what's coming. Now, it's all in the timing. Not letting our hearts rule, but our heads. Or in the words of our vet, "Better a day early than a day late." She's moving slower. She's taking longer to eat. She can't get on the couch as easily as she used to. She's going out MANY times per day, and drinking a lot of water. She paces, and sometimes stares out into space. The lymph nodes are increasing in size and her stomach is a bit bloated - but rest assured, the poop factory is working well!

Hubby takes her for short walks, and she seems to enjoy them - when she's done, she turns him toward home and they come back. 

She's getting "reasonably" spoiled. I'm not about to totally toss all the food she'd like at her -- no sense cleaning it up when it comes back up. Quinn has always had a dicey tummy, and even though she might WANT to eat stuff, there is a lot she should NOT eat. She gets to lick out my yogurt cup, she gets frozen blueberries, a snik of chicken or turkey (no skin or fat), her usual toast, half a banana at bedtime (this has been a life-long thing, so she has a little something on her stomach overnight)... lots of treats, considering. She got salmon skin the other night when we had it for dinner. 

She still gets the occasional "back rub zoomies," and seems happy. But there's an air about her, and I can't put my finger on it. Hubby has asked me "how much do you want to know," because he's keeping a tighter track on her. I told him that a lot of me is in denial. I just don't want to know. But it's not fair to him, so I told him I would like to "judiciously" know. I'm not using the internet to look for symptoms (he is). I'm not doom-scrolling the pet-grief pages. I'm trying to be present with her, as she is, right now. Some days, it's easier than others. 

So. We wait. 

The First Cold...

Not of the season. I'm talking common cold. Round about Tuesday, I wasn't feeling great, but hey - not like there's nothing going on around here.  

Started out feeling stuffed up and then it moved, as it typically does, down my throat. I have a lovely situation where, instead of being able to blow my nose with any results, all the gunk goes down my throat (sorry...TMI). Results are, of course, a cough. 

I took Thursday off, because I woke up without a voice. Cancelled my yoga class. Then Friday, just as bad -- thankfully no worse, and not The Plague (I tested Tuesday & Wednesday to be sure). It's fine, as long as I don't talk. So I'm also cancelling my Saturday sub job and Sunday Yin class. It's hit me like a ton of bricks, and I just want to sit and stare at a blank wall. 

Maybe it'll go away by Saturday, but I'd rather not pass these germs to anyone else. I want to be able to attend our family's Thanksgiving, which we do on this Sunday. Not like we're Canadian or anything (all due respect to our neighbors up north), we just have a lot of kids who have to carve up their holiday like you'd carve that bird...so we just have it the Sunday before and it seems to work ok for everyone. 

This year, it's back at my mom's house. She just wants what she wants, and it's hard to change some folks. We're doing the following:

Turkey, vegan stuffing, gravy

Vegan Lemon cake

Homemade whipped cream with our own vanilla

Bread & mashed potatoes

Cranberry sauce

Soba noodles & roasted veggies for the resident vegan

Other family members are also contributing, but we usually do the turkey and the vegan stuff because --- we do it better!

After he gets done roasting the turkey, I get the carcass, add more veggies and herbs and reduce it down for broth for later. Turkey soup with noodles is delicious! Just have to have a robust broth. So I use carrots, celery, onion, bay leaf, salt, pepper, and Penzey's Tuscan Seasoning, which is a salt-free blend. 

And then on the regular day, Hubby  has ordered a take-out dinner - not like we need the food, but that way, my mom doesn't have complaints about "never being invited anywhere." Personally, I'd shove an old movie on, eat a turkey sandwich and call it a day. Instead, we're doing the catered dinner and the following:

Vegan pumpkin pie & vegan whipped cream

Gnocchi and roasted brussel sprouts with tomatoes for the resident vegan

There will be a non-vegan dessert included in the take-out. 

So... random memory: Raisa used to howl like the dickens when Hubby got out the electric carving knife. He's carving up the turkey (we bake it before then reheat, and yes, it's usually delicious!). With the electric carving knife. And there's not a peep, because if she IS howling along, it's over the Rainbow Bridge, and we can't hear her. Just one of those "jabs to the heart," as we try to grapple with her loss and the pending issues with Quinny...

The Knitting...

As a result of All. The. Stuff. -- I'm sticking with a mindless knitting project and am trying to finish what may well be my oldest, or nearest to, WIP. It's the Bias Before and After, which I've mentioned. Well, I finished the peacock one, did the beading (which I'm now all jazzed about) and undid the provisional cast-on to bead that end. 

There are some Things I Would Do Differently. So on the matcha-colored one (which, when I bought it, I thought it was lime, but it's not "lime" enough and it's not "sage" enough - it looks like my matcha latte, so that is what I shall call it) -- I did a different provisional cast on, over the needle and used a slightly smaller yarn. I think it will help when I tink it and do the beading. It will also help that the thing isn't going to be 10 years old... Just sayin.

You can see here why it's called "Before and After." This thing definitely needs a blocking. I will likely block them both after Christmas. I will need space, and some time to get the blocking wires just right. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks blocked out. The matcha green matches that green in the yarn. Due to vagaries in lighting and camera quality, the pictures aren't as nice as I would like. In real life, it's actually quite pretty. Though maybe I should have picked that light blue as the contrast, I really loved how the matcha green looked. While I don't wear green a lot, I do wear basic colors such as black, navy blue and grey, so this could go with a few sweaters I have. 

And I did buy wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too many beads. I only needed 1 tube of each color and I have 3 of each color. So there will be Things To Bead at some point. Who knows? Maybe I'll bead some socks. (Yeah, probably not, but I know it's a thing) Or maybe a scarf, which will be nice. Wristlets or fingerless mitts would also be good. Lots of ideas. But they'd have to be fingering-weight or less, because these beads are going on lace weight. 

The green is knitting up pretty fast. It's a simple increase/decrease on the K side, and purl back, and I've got about 14-16" even though it doesn't look like I've made a dent in the ball of yarn. The other colorway went the same till ZAPPO --- I was near the end. I have to have 2 feet or so (and I'll likely do a bit more) to bind off with the beads. I use a crochet hook to put the bead on the stitch, instead of pre-stringing them. 

This is definitely one of those "knit when you're tired" or "knit when you're stressed" projects. I can zip along when I'm watching a movie or reading. Or as a wind-down before bedtime. 

The lace yarn is like butter in my hands. The alpaca will have a bit of a halo to it once it's rinsed and blocked. I love that - because you don't have to wear pounds of yarn to stay warm. 

So the Drops sweater will wait till 2024. I just don't have the bandwidth or the brain power to deal with it right now. 

The Ornaments...

This year, I'm doing 7 of them, because of the new baby. I had to order the whole 18 years, plus a few more in case of breakage. So the theme for this little one is "angels and stars." I finished out one (theme of trees) and I have another one who's ending in about 4 years (theme of wreaths). 

It's probably a condition of "doing them for decades" -- but I generally have, in the past few years, picked a color scheme and I manage to do them all in that same scheme for everyone. Back in the very, very beginning, I think I used all 300 of my colors (not actually that many, but I did it more as individual ornaments rather than an assembly line). 

I know I will be doing white, black, and some shade of green (though now that the tree series is over, maybe less green??). And some years, I stain some of them. Others may get a different varnish. Some get artificial "snow" effect paint, and most of them get glitter. 

I still enjoy doing them, and I still get enthusiastic responses (or maybe just polite and I'm extrapolating). Doesn't matter to me, I will keep doing them as long as my hands are steady. 

These are them - finished. I did blot out the names on the "name tag" themed ones. Just my own plug for safety. Regardless of how the parents handle social media, I will omit names where necessary. Call me old-school, won't make me lose any sleep. 

Four of these all got glitter and a bunch got metallic paint. There was a happy accident on the angel's gown. The copper paint leaked over to the barn red, so I blended the two of them. It looks cool to me. I did an angel series a few years ago, and it was nice to have some fun with the garments. These angels are a little more old-fashioned, but I can work with them. 

Random Picture...

And a rant. So since I've been feeling rotten, I've had the TV on just for noise. This commercial has been on every single time. That, or the one with "Martha," who's screeching about her Medicare. Or the frosted blond who screams at her husband about Medicare Part C. Or Medicare Advantage. Or The Great Rip-Off Perpetrated by Big Insurance... People. It's the biggest scam going. Big insurance companies, such as Humana, Aetna, United Health Care and others have bought & paid for politicians. Who allow them to use the "Medicare" name, which is trusted as a solid government program which helps elders receive medical care. We've all paid into it since we started working, just like Social Security.

The ad has a sonorous male voice urging you to CALL NOW. NOW. RIGHT NOW. Drop what you're doing, grab the phone and talk to a "licensed insurance representative" (there's your first clue to the scam) to see if "plans are available in your ZIP code." The ad voiceover tells you in reassuring tones that it's good to "check your Medicare benefits" each year. 

Is it? Probably. I know my mom does it each year. But she does have Medicare Advantage, because our trusted insurance guy worked it out for her. 

Personally, I'm going on regular Medicare. My doctors have already told me they don't take Medicare Advantage because those "free plans" are basically HMOs full of "benefits," like a gym membership, but as far as health care, there are a crap-ton of gag orders they don't tell you about. So you will get sub-par medical care because your doctor is forbidden to mention certain treatments. 

Because the insurance companies treat patients like cogs in a wheel - they want our money but don't want to pay out in claims. So they tell the doctors they simply cannot give a good standard of care by mentioning Treatment A, B, or C. Because it's expensive. 

In the Hitchcock classic, "To Catch A Thief," Jessie Royce Landis was the actress who played the mother, often dripping in jewels. She says to the insurance adjustor, "If you can't stand the risk, you need to get out of the business," or something close to it. 

I say to insurance companies and CEOs with billion-dollar bonuses: If you can't provide the care we contracted for, get out of the business. I didn't contract for 'the cheapest care' - I contracted for at least the standard of care. And because the insurance lobby is powerful, they have their stable of purchased politicians, and they get huge profits while cutting care. 

The Maga-psycho-nutballs would have you believe that Social Security and Medicare are "entitlements" which is now a bad word, because it's a "hand-out." Um. No. 

I paid in to both Medicare and Social Security for decades. That's MY money. And YOURS. 

If Congress would stop raiding each of these, they'd be financially stable. If we could get legislation passed to have Medicare for All, Medicare would also be financially stable - open it up to the 40-50 year old crowd. Yeah, it would hurt Blue Cross and the other big boys. But hey, they can lop off a zero from that executive bonus... they won't even feel it. Honest.