Whew! Well, those of you who follow me on Facebook know I left a rather cryptically worded post a couple of days ago, to the effect that Wednesday had been a bit of a roller coaster ride.

First, for those of you who are easily startled, let me reassure you that, as of right now, 1:34 P.M. on Friday, November 4, 2022, everything is as right as rain!

But what happened on Wednesday was what we in the professional writing biz call a “real cluster-f&ck!” (profanity edited, to avoid unnecessarily shocking anyone)

First, our sweet li’l cat Pumpkin was acting really, really lethargic, just sitting very, very quietly next to the sofa and acting like she absolutely, positively did NOT want us to move her, much less touch her.

Since she’s normally bouncing off the walls at that time of morning, we were naturally alarmed and upon further investigation, found that the hair on the nape of her neck had somehow gotten twisted around inside the buckle on her collar, almost certainly a result of the flea medication we’d applied there the other day somehow turning itself into superglue and pulling a little skin in there as well.

Yeah, I know! (And I’d never heard of anything like that happening, so let me warn you, if you’re putting meds on the back of your cat’s neck, take their collar off for a while till you’re sure it’s dried!!) and the poor little angel hadn’t been eating or drinking all morning, just waiting patiently for someone to notice she was in distress and rescue her. And of course that someone was moi, who bundled her up and took her to the emergency animal hospital at once!

This is the same vet hospital she was at last year, when she had her last emergency (horrific looking wound right above the eye), and also it’s now sharing the parking lot with a pot clinic, which in case you didn’t know makes parking a real adventure, but I got her inside safely. They were super busy, but they checked her in and told me it was okay to go out and come back, so I went to my part-time volunteer job. Remember I said I’m an Episcopalian now?

Well, I’m working twice a week in their office, and Wednesday is the day they put the Sunday bulletins together. I’d actually gotten the hang of doing the layout and photocopying the last couple of weeks, but this week there was some extra stuff thrown in plus a special color cover which had to be printed elsewhere as they only have a b&w printer, and the nice neat layout I’d gotten used to was suddenly not working right, and add that to the concern about Pumpkin and it made for a rather stressful day!

Hence the Facebook post! Now, after leaving church I went to pick up Miss Pumpkin and she seemed better. Still not quite sure what was going on (me neither!!) but willing to let me pick her up, and when we got home she ate a little bit and seemed marginally perkier.

Which was a relief because next morning I had to go get a mammogram — the first one since my lumpectomy — and had already had to reschedule it a couple of times and wanted to get it done. Now, guess what happened there?

Well, the nice office staff told me they’d called my PCP (Primary Care Physician) to get the details on my last mammogram and breast surgery, only to be told that they didn’t know anything about it!!

So I had to dig up the names and numbers of (1) my surgeon, (2) my radiation oncologist, and (3) my current oncologist, and fortunately they were able to get the info from them, but it made me wonder what the h-e-double-toothpicks was going on at my PCP’s office. (Maybe they were ingesting some PCP?)

So Thursday might have been *almost* as stressful as Wednesday, except for two saving graces: 1) on my way there, I visited my favorite used bookstore, The Open Book, in Canyon Country,

and (2) after examining my mammogram pics, the doctor said that although they would send me a formal report in a few weeks, it didn’t look like there were any problems!

So that was good news, and then when I got home, Miss Pumpkin was almost back to her old self! And even though it was FREEZING COLD in Southern California last night (well, okay, not *quite* freezing but cold enough!), that warmed the cockles of our hearts, as I’m sure you can imagine!

And now I’ve finally managed to cobble together a blog post, so I can relax and enjoy the rest of my day — probably in a nice hot bubble bath ’cause it’s STILL freakin’ cold, plus we’re supposed to get rain soon!

(this meme was selected by Mr. 50by60!!)

I know, I know, it’s good for the crops, and the drought, etc. ad infinitum, so I won’t complain (much!). Hope YOUR weather is pleasant and fall-ish without being too winter-intensive! Enjoy your weekend!