Saturday, August 1, 2015

Yes, I'm still alive! :-)

Yeah, I sorta let my computer end up buried and just read for a year there... When I finally start adding these books to my book sites, it'll be a long day. Today has been long and all I've done was try to move my PDF files to my tablet, and I can't "see" the microSD card that I installed. It's making me nuts.

So, what's been going on. As I said, I'm reading obsessively. Sometimes as many as three or four books at a time. That is when I'm not sleeping or playing with the cats, of course. My energy is very low most of the time, and it doesn't take much at all to wear me out. I will sometimes sleep for days.

As I have mentioned on Facebook, my doctor has informed me that I will need to remain on chemotherapy for the rest of my life. I think it's because of the locations of the lesions on my liver. At any rate, that means there will be no surgery to remove the larger tumors in my abdomen, nor will there will be a reversal of the colostomy.

This year has been a rough one as far as the cats go. In late January, we were blessed by Bast with the arrival of Sif on our back step. She was a tiny thing, half-starved and covered in ringworm, so we had quite a spring mending her up. She's super smart, though; I mean seriously, I have never met a smarter cat. She had her name and where to poop down within two days, and the surprises just keep coming. She noticed where I keep the little rings she likes to play with and goes to grab them for herself if we're busy. She checks the depth of the water in the dish by slapping at it with her paw so she doesn't dunk her nose. She is not a cuddler, nor does she like to be held, but she will accept pettings sometimes. She also likes to be right in the middle of whatever is going on, coming out to greet us when we've been gone, and hanging out nearby when we're doing other things. It's hard to tell from the picture (best viewed in direct light), but she's a very dark brown color. She tends to wander around with her tongue sticking out a little; I think it's a bit overlarge for her mouth. It's adorable. Dmitry has some good pictures on his iPhone, but hasn't managed to transfer them to me.  So, Sif brought in ringworm and Erasmus needed to go through treatments, and Fluff had to take medications because they developed it, too.

But what about Tiger? some of you may ask. That's the rough bit. Bast gave, but Bast also took away. Our sweet, gorgeous Tiger's kidneys failed in February and we had to put him to sleep. It broke our hearts. He was a cuddler, a lover, and always such a happy boy and his absence is keenly felt in our household. I hit a pretty bad depression over it, which I didn't recover from until well into March. Sif helped a lot with her kitten silliness, but it's still hard. Tiger was the one I could always turn to when I needed a snuggle; none of the others will do that, except sometimes Erasmus. As you can see, Tiger was a handsome and loving fellow.

Other than that, just trying to take it day to day. I've been online way too long tonight and my neck and back hurt as a result. But I wanted to put up a post, since it's been so long. My thoughts are always with you and my thanks to you all for your continued support and encouragement.