A Better Day

Yesterday was a better day. After last weekend's fighting with siblings about mom, and revealing the true depth of my sorrow and anger, there was an agreement to some sort of family mediation. I can get therapy for myself, but the source of much of my angst is the conflict between my sister and the rest of us siblings. So if that scenario is still the deal, it's pointless to seek help.

As always, my caveat is that my sister works harder at this than all of us. But I don't think that my mom had to be taken to the Midwest, come back, quarantine until her Covid test came back negative and then have my sister take care of her solo for a week or more in order for things to be where they are right now. I am grateful and not grateful, I guess. Mom's now off all of her psych medications and taking Benadryl to make her sleepy.

Yesterday I got to hang out with both the sister and mom for a few hours in a park. It was relatively pleasant. No barbs were thrown. I socially distanced, but mom didn't wear a mask, and we sat by a path where lots of people passed by. It was fine. I made a flower arrangement for mom and she seemed to like it.

Having done that, today feels like a better day. Boy Kitten is feisty, having waged a successful battle against Rainbow String.

I cleaned his room and washed all of his bedding in hot water and bleach, gave him flea bath, killed a bunch of fleas, and tomorrow he will get a flea treatment.

Our friend, the hardest working man in Hawaiian show business delivered both mussel and limu poke today, and we are having it large.

Mrguy bought lots of potting soil yesterday, and we fixed up the dozens of succulent pots on the upper deck. I gave fertilizer (worm castings) to our plants.

A little more kitten play-time, some Indian food and Hamilton! I admit that things go so fast that I caught the lyrics on my laptop, and we stopped about a third in, because it was so interesting. The desire to sleuth about all of these people who you read about in school was too strong.

The desire to sleuth means that this is a better day.

Boy Kitten, 3 Weeks In

Boy Kitten is still living in the bathroom. Probably for two more weeks. We can't wait.

He's such a sweet and fun little boy. He makes this sound, kinda like SKWEEEEEE! at every moment. The sound reminds mrguy of Avery Shoaf, from Rust Valley Restorers.

Anyhoo, I took some cute photos today from when we were playing earlier with Rainbow String, on his scratching post.

Here he is all cute and stuff.

And then here he is in fierce playtime frenzy.

Celebrating the good stuff : )

Flowers For Mom

Tomorrow I'm going to see my mom for the first time in several weeks -- since her trip to the Midwest and back, constipation, quarantine, negative COVID test, move from Zyprexa to Haldol, and all that that entails for her and for my sister who is in charge.

I hear she's eager to see me, but I also hear from my sister that my idea of a sidewalk visit (which is what I feel safe doing) "simply *does not* satisfy and never will." To her credit, my grumpy sister has been taking care of mom for weeks, now, and it's been awful for her, I'm sure. Not to her credit, I think this was all her idea, but she thinks it all had to happen because I wouldn't take my mom for drives.

Neat!!

So tomorrow I will walk into the lion's den, where I never satisfy and hand over some flowers that I think are pretty that my family will turn their nose up at and rearrange.

Meantime, I think the flowers are pretty. The blue berries are Dianella tasmanica (Tasman Flax Lily), which really pops with the orange succulent flowers.

Unfriending

I believe in listening to opposing views on the political and human spectrum. I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh 20 years ago while commuting to school, mostly so I could hear what the other side was thinking. I also listened to Dr. Laura, and was once treated to her condemnation of the American Library Association as I was driving to library school!

So when I was introduced to some of my Texas cousins, I wanted to keep an open mind about their political views. Not all of them had strong right-wing views, but one of my cousins does. After our trip the two of us connected on social media. It's super interesting that she is pro-trump but works in the medical profession, and I had held out hope that maybe she wasn't such a racist, or any kind of a racist. Recently, however she started reposting online petitions, (like one against retaining a Confederate statue in the town our ancestors lived in). Please -- our ancestor fought for the North. I just signed the opposite petition, in order to cancel out her vote.

Today I had to give up. When someone says "I didn't do anything" in response to discussions of white privilege and racism, there isn't anything that sharing opposing views will handle. Plus her friends are worse than she is. One said that people should be able to shoot at protesters who deface monuments. Another said that the knot used in the noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage is a blahblah knot used by the Navy, and any sane person would use that knot in that circumstance (only he's the only black driver in that circuit and nobody used that "knot" in the other garages.

I just said my peace: "Would you like to be treated the way your black friends are treated? No? I rest my case." and unfriended. This is the post she agrees with wholeheartedly that elicited the comments above.