The Beat Goes On

Life can just keep floating past you if you don't stop to notice it. While many things have been happening, none of them have been remarkable and we've mostly just been plugging along at the business of living.

I took Katie to the vet on Thursday. Actually, Thursdays are usually full of appointments and busy things, because that's the day I don't go to work to do Science Things, and I do People Things instead. I visited the audiologist, who took 45 minutes to get around to me because her airy-fairy business partner strolled in and wanted a meeting with all the health care providers in the building. I suppose that if the person with the purse-strings showed up unexpectedly, I'd make some time for them, but not 45 minutes of time. Very annoying. My hearing aids had last been set at Head Explosion levels, and after a week of that I was out of my mind...so the adjustment was necessary and I had to wait. It did occur to me to walk out, but the fact that hearing too much along with whistling feedback was making me rather more edgy than usual, kept me in my chair. Church pew actually, they have no chairs there. So I sat, and turned my hearing aids off.

The adjustment took about five minutes, and of course there was no apology regarding the lateness of the appointment, and I didn't broach the subject either. It was obvious that she was late, it was obvious why, and so she did what needed to be done and made me more human, and I left. I'm not going to get the things adjusted again for a while, not because the appointment was late, but just because I'm sick of going to appointments all the time on Thursdays. Cutting one out is good.

Now I have an earache. (Today is Saturday.)

Back to the vet. The vet appointment was late in the afternoon, which is a bit of a problem because The Darlings play soccer on Thursday evening, but the next appointment next Thursday was also late in the afternoon and wouldn't save any hassle. The vet that I deal with is a tall woman, not terribly attractive, with man hands and greyish-blond hair tied back in a rough ponytail. She wears lots of makeup: her eyes are blackened and shadowed and mascara'd, she wears blush and lipstick. I can take the eye makeup. The blush and lipstick are unnerving, however, and mezmerizing. They are pale purple/blue. It looks like she has giant bruises on her cheeks, and her lips are pale and dead-looking. You stare at her while she's talking to you, and she rocks you into a vortex of new treatments and blood tests and the like. Or at least, that's what happened last year, when I found out that Katie's liver function was down a tad. This year Katie has dropped three pounds, and since she doesn't have any weight to drop, that's not good, but I resisted the purple and did not go for further tests. Katie is over 13 years old (she'll be 14 in the fall). She's an old dog, who is nervous and high-strung and who suffers from great separation anxiety. When we're not home we crate her, because she's destructive, and when we're home, she curls up on her bed and sleeps very deeply. She eats a lot, and her bowl always has food in it. She chews a bone when she's nervous. She's the same way she's always been, except for the deep sleeping, but she's old. I was able to resist the pull of the purple cheeks and dead lips and I did not go for further tests or anything else, and paid my $425 for the 30 minutes of visit and three shots and the heartworm medicine and got out of there.

Yes. $425. For 30 minutes. Honestly, I should have gone to vet school like I wanted to in Grade 12...but sadly, I had a clarifying moment when I realized that I didn't want to be a vet.

This is a long weekend, but the weather is going to be yucky and cold and raining and so we won't get the garden in, although we might get it dug up. The house needs a good scrubbing so maybe I'll finally get around to that too, although it's easy to find other things to do rather than cleaning, which I hate. It is the Big One's birthday on Tuesday and her party is next weekend. I am not fond of birthday parties in the least, so I hope that the three hours of pool party and cake-eating go well and that all the little girls enjoy themselves and that I don't have to deal with them very much. Hahahaha.....