I Made a Friend

Today Tanya had a meeting with the prosecutor about the trial coming up of Kenny Pawski. Kenny is going all the way to trial. So I attended the meeting. It was kind of interesting how they put things.
Anyway afterwards we were standing outside talking. There was this man a few feet away from us wearing a brand spanking new bail bonds shirt. I commented about having one just like it. That prompted him to come over and ask for a match. I had matches and gave them to him. As he lit his cigarette he informed me he did not smoke. Then he showed me his painted fingernails and told me the story of how they came to be. Asked how to get rid of it. I told him fingernail polish remover and you can get it at the dollar store for a dollar. Then he started asking other guys going by for a dollar for the remover. Seemed to enjoy the fact that he was asking for an off the wall reason..and not just beer or whatever. We had a little discussion about our heatwave and how the local newspaper lies. And then we parted ways. He was a little toasted.

Lull

The bookstore runs in cycles. We gear up before each quarter starts and slow down afterwards. We do this every quarter with fall being our biggest. So we just finished summer rush and are about four weeks into it. So we should be lazing around having extra days off. Yeah right. We were also told that this summer all the merchandise would come first and the books in August. Yeah right. Twelve pallets arrived today and all of them books. We expect at least four more this week and we had two yesterday. So anyway here is a picture that Amanda took today before Fedex came and filled our cart. That just about put us at full capacity. Brenda and I are going in early tomorrow to try and get some of the UPS and Fedex out of the way before they bring more. Yeehaw.

Not So Impossible

So Mica caught a second hummingbird and brought it in. This one she let loose in the laundry room. Dave caught it and set it free. We may have to bell that cat.

Hula

My friend Kaina made plans with me to picnic in the park during the Hawaiian Festival. The weatherman predicted hot hot hot weather for the weekend so we changed our plans a bit to go to the hula contest Friday night. I brought Dave and Kaina brought his mom. We listened to Hawaiian music and watched hula dancers. The contest lasted about an hour and a half and we ate Korean chicken, tortellini salad and vegetarian sushi (well not me). If you couldn't tell from the picture my friend is from Hawaii (but he wasn't born there).

Impossible

Before today I would have said it was almost impossible for a cat to catch a hummingbird. I was taking a nap and I awoke to this noise. I looked in my bathroom to see what was going on and realized a bird was flying around. Mica likes to catch things and put them in the tub because they can't get away. Well, except for birds. I called to Myk to come get it and he didn't come. So I got up and realized it was hanging from the exhaust fan. So then I thought it was a bat. Nope it was a hummingbird. Mica had brought it in and was trying to again catch it. So I scooted Mica out of the bathroom and took the screen off the window. Well the hummer was just too scared to figure out what she needed to do. So I caught her. Took some effort. They truly don't weigh anything. I let her go out the window and she was gone.

My Apologies

Wow. I did it this time. I have to remind myself that I can not fix things. I can NOT fix things. As I get older I have found that family is more important than we all realize at 20. And with that I tried to contact my cousins and at least have an acquaintance relationship with an ulterior motive. I haven't seen this particular cousin in thirty years. I heard she had cut off the family. And it was breaking my aunts heart. So I was hoping that maybe some contact would mend a fence. Ha. Not so. I sent an email telling her what a great kid she has (and she does) as I had had a bit of contact with him. And I said I wasn't sure if she had cut off the whole complete family (of which that answer must be yes). Testing the waters so to speak. I didn't think that through. I thought if she wanted to be left alone, she would ignore me and I would go away. Instead she must have contacted my aunt and was pissed at her.
So to Nathan....I think you are a great fabulous young man and I wish you well in all your adventures. If you want a relationship someday I am here.
To Cris....I am so sorry. Words cannot convey what I feel. I should not have harvested your daughter's email and tried to have peace. And I sincerely hope that it did not break the thin line of connection you have.
To Virginia....I'm sorry that my email caused you distress. It was not my intent. And since you ignore me I will go away.
But I will blog.

Oops

So Dave decided that Thai food sounded good tonight. That almost never happens, so I put the dinner fixings away and went to the Thai restaurant. While waiting a couple came in with their two year-old daughter. The girl wanted to follow Daddy and the Mommy wanted her to wait. Obviously the girl was testing her boundaries. She pushed and Mommy counted. One. She still stepped back and Mommy said that is one. Then the girl said "Two". I choked a laugh and the mommy saw me. Now the whole time she didn't say it like she meant it, so she didn't. But she comments to me about how much smarter than she the little girl is. I'm thinking she has already blown it. Wait until the girl is 13 years-old. Anyway the girl went the other direction while her mommy was distracted with me. Mommy then threatened a swat and the girl said she wouldn't. She did. That is something at least.

Garden Fare

Tonight we have salad made with greens from the garden and steamed zucchini. I love it when we can eat out of the garden. We also used hamburger the neighbor gave us so dinner costed me the price of the buns and condiments. :)

Kaina's Funny

So I found someone to take my beautiful bottle of tequila off my hands. I have a real hard time just pouring out money. At first thought I couldn't think of anyone to give the bottle to who wasn't a problem drinker. And I really didn't want to contribute to anyone else's problems. I made a comment at work about it and Kaina volunteered to take the bottle off my hands. Now he wasn't serious, but I was. When he realized the alternative was pouring it out he again volunteered. Said he would make me some tequila chicken.
So today I took the bottle to work. When I was done I made him walk out with me to transfer it from my car to his. Somehow he managed to spill some in his trunk. When I walked up he told me not to smell his car, but I said it smelled good. Then I told him he smelled like a drink. That did it...he had to sneak back into work through the warehouse so he could wash up before anyone else smelled him. :P
He also told me we could meet at the Hawaiian festival in a week and picnic and eat tequila chicken. Sounds like a plan.

It Got By Me

So I had a zucchini that just about the right size for steaming. I planned on picking it yesterday, but that didn't happen. So I remembered today and went to get it. Yup. It is already too big for steaming. It is well on it's way to being bread. I'm sure it won't be the last one.

Elizabeth's Thursday on a Wednesday

Today is the last day of my unexpected week off. So Elizabeth and I decided to take today as our day, instead of tomorrow, and go to Wolfhaven.

http://www.wolfhaven.org

We wanted to see the wolf that we adopted. Naturally Cricket and her brother were laying down almost the whole time we were at their pen. But here is a picture of some other wolves who weren't hiding. We got to see about ten wolves and two coyotes. When we got there we were sitting on a bench waiting for the tour to begin. We heard one lone wolf begin to howl. Soon all the others joined in and it was fantastic. We liked it a lot and call it the highlight of our outing. It was a very educational outing.

On the way back we stopped at Aunt Cris's house and dropped off some raspberries. These are what I picked last night for her. A pretty nice little picking for the first picking. Looks like this year is going to be just like last. Short.

Farmers' Market

Mom and I ventured into Vancouver and went to the Farmers' Market. We both bought corn on the cob and cantaloupe. Then she added cherries and I added onions and garlic. There was a big number of people down there today. The crowd was getting to me a little bit and I was happy to leave when we did. We got to meet lots of dogs (one of the best parts about the market). I got out of there cheaper today than last time. I only bought food this time.

Eye Day

It was time for my check-up with the eye Dr. I still had not come to a decision about whether to treat recurrences or pre-emptively. I had a question about that. Anyway once there I realized that I could make light switches disappear and I knew. Wendy, one of the techs, gave me the letter test and said it was worse than last time, and I knew. She said he is going to want to inject and I agreed. He came in and told me he wanted to inject and I agreed. So I am back on a series of three and then pre-emptively stretching it out. It had been just over three months since my last injection. We also talked about a laser treatment, but both of us thought just the injections. For now anyway. The laser leaves scar tissue and I already have some of that.

How Much Did He Drink?

That was a shocking answer. He admitted to a fifth a day. Seriously? And that is just what I said and got told yes. Man, oh man. I am so oblivious to my own life. And I can't even fathom it. If I drank a fifth of anything I would be at the morgue, except I would be passed out before I ever got half way. That did explain why for the last couple of years any conversation I had with Dave after 4 p.m. he would not remember ever. And when I commented on him not remembering he would get snappy and that ended the comments, as well as conversations after 4 p.m. I was really beginning to wonder if I had two people with dementia going on. At least with Mom I knew for sure.
Obviously right now I am doing my own processing. And working through what emotions I am suppose to be feeling, but I'm pretty numb.

How Much Does It Cost?

Well that is a good question. I haven't seen the figures for what is billed to insurance, but Dave told me how much our out of pocket is going to be. $2140. A nice little sum of money. So I told him that the money he would have used for alcohol could pay for this. Sounds fair to me.

The Shoe Dropped

I live my life waiting for the other shoe to drop. Part of this comes from being the parent of an adolescent who is addicted. Part of this comes from being the adult child of an alcoholic. Part of this comes from being married to an alcoholic. So I am always waiting for that next bit of bad news. In my house I walk on eggshells. As time has gone on I seem to be doing that more. It isn't healthy, but it seems to be the way it is.
So, that all said, on Thursday I came home from work to the nice bit of news that Dave had an appointment scheduled at Lifeline for an assessment for treatment. A couple of months ago he came to the conclusion that he was an alcoholic and quit drinking. Thought it was really easy after the initial period of withdrawal. And then he crashed a bit. Not that I knew it. Sometimes while I'm walking on eggshells and waiting on the other shoe, I am just oblivious. But I did notice that the eggshells were getting thinner again. So he tells me about his appointment. Seems it came about because his boss scheduled it. It was an ultimatum....do this or be unemployed. Okay then.
Then we were quiet. Didn't talk about it. Everyone got to process. Today was the appointment. Dave did the assessment and was given the diagnosis of alcoholic and the recommendation is intense outpatient treatment. That means four days a week for 2.25 hours each day and two AA meeting a week for eight weeks. Then one day a week and the AA meetings for 16 weeks. So that is the plan. For the next eight weeks he is at home and working on this.
So that means the other shoe dropped, but again we picked it up and keep moving forward. Or at least I hope we are moving in a forward direction.

Best Friends

Marseilles has decided that she belongs to Minnie. They go everywhere together. They lay out on the deck and survey their domain. They play. And they sleep together. Aren't they cute?

Rodeo

Elizabeth and I attended the rodeo again this year. She got herself a cowboy hat. Now she says she needs the boots and belt.
The rodeo is always exciting. The calves won again this year. More of them didn't get lassoed than did. Two cowboys got kicked by the bulls they tried to ride. One got stuck in the stirrup and drug for a bit. That was kind of freaky. One little mutton buster got rolled over by his sheep. Elizabeth figures that doesn't really hurt too much since the sheep have all that wool on them. She may have a point. We won t-shirts so that was cool.
Before we went to the rodeo we had dinner at Burgerville. We ran into an old family friend Jerry. After chatting a bit he invited Elizabeth over to his house to ride his daughter's therapy horse. Cool. We'll be doing that as soon as they get back from Montana.