Reading post: September

In September the plan was to read more nonfiction from my list. But first I had to finish my second book about JFK, which I got about 3/5ths of the way through in August. Then I continued with a lot of other serious books -- too serious, really. Last night when I was complaining about The Noonday Demon, Rocket Boy said, "It doesn't seem like you really enjoy all this reading." Hmmph. I stopped complaining. But the month is finally ending, and in October I get to read 100% fun books.

Books I said I'd like to read

JFK: Reckless Youth by Nigel Hamilton (1992). My second biography of JFK (797 pages of text plus notes). It was very interesting to read this after reading The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, because in that book, JFK's parents are treated pretty well. I mean, Joseph P. Kennedy was obviously a schemer and a racketeer, and Rose Kennedy was unhappy about many aspects of her life, but in this book they're monsters. Which book is more accurate? Who knows? This book only goes up to 1946, when JFK was first elected to Congress, so it doesn't include his diagnosis of Addison's disease. It does, however, include an exhaustive description of his sex life, leading to gonorrhea. I'm already tired of JFK, but since neither book I've read so far covered his presidency, I must persevere and read one more. Maybe in November.

Campo Santo by W. G. Sebald, translated from the German by Anthea Bell (2003/2005). Continuing my attempt to read everything W. G. Sebald ever wrote, I perused this compilation: bits about Corsica that might have formed his next book (if he hadn't died at age 57), reviews, and miscellany. His two pieces on Kafka made me want to read more Kafka; his piece on Bruce Chatwin made me want to reread Chatwin. I had just been to a concert when I read his piece on music ("Moments musicaux"), and while I disagree with his agreement with Freud that "the deepest secret of music is that it is a gesture warding off paranoia, and we make music to defend ourselves against being overwhelmed by the terrors of reality" -- I think it's almost the opposite -- still, I appreciated having another chance to tap into Sebald's brain. 

Spilling the Beans: Eating, Cooking, Reading, and Writing in British Women's Fiction, 1770-1830 by Sarah Moss (2009). Having read several of Moss's novels, I was curious to sample her scholarly work. The British women writers she considers here are Fanny Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria Edgeworth, and Susan Ferrier, none of whom I'm very familiar with. No Jane Austen. Still, it's an interesting book, even though I have limited patience for English department writing. Moss is looking at how these writers talk about food, cooking, eating, and breastfeeding (literally and metaphorically), and how it's tied together with money and power and virtue. Even back in that period, women who ate a lot, especially sweets, were considered "bad" in various ways, and of course, nothing has changed. 

A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy & Failure Across the Pacific by Hua Hsu (2016). I've been meaning to read this for a long time, but it isn't that great, to be honest, despite the fact that Hsu's next book, Stay True, is so wonderful. I think this must be Hsu's dissertation turned into a book, and there's a lot of repetition between the chapters, as though they had been written as separate articles. All that said, I enjoyed his portrayal of H. T. Tsiang, a Chinese immigrant writer in the 1930s who no one's ever heard of (he self-published his books and sold them on street corners in New York City). Hsu keeps asking: who was allowed to speak for China, explain China to America, back in the 1920s, 30s, 40s? Mostly it was Pearl Buck and other white Americans. Not Tsiang, or practically any other native Chinese person. I wonder who gets to speak for China now?

Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It by Geoff Dyer (2003). Is that the greatest title ever, or what? So silly, as Geoff Dyer often is. This is a collection of travel essays, sort of, but also about how Geoff Dyer took a lot of drugs, had a nervous breakdown, and then got better. But I didn't find the descriptions of his drug-taking and casual sex to be very interesting. My favorite essay (of 11) was the 9th, "Leptis Magna," about his trip to an ancient Roman site in Libya. In that essay he doesn't take any drugs or drink any alcohol (because it's forbidden), nor does he have sex. He just wanders around Tripoli and the ruins and experiences them. The last essay, about his trip to Burning Man, seemed really stupid by comparison. I'll probably go on reading Dyer, looking for those times when he's brilliant, trying to ignore those times when he isn't.

Silent Catastrophes by W. G. Sebald, translated from the German by Jo Catling (1985/1991/2025). Yep, more Sebald. This one really took work, because it's 412 pages of essays on Austrian (or sort of) writers, most of whom I've never heard of. A few I have -- Thomas Bernhard, Kafka. But most not. Reading Sebald when you know what he's talking about is fascinating, but when you don't have any idea, it's a challenge. I think I have one more book of his essays to read, plus there are works of criticism, and a collection of interviews. And then I can read writers who people claim are similar to him, plus books by writers that he liked...

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon (2001/2015). I was very impressed by Solomon's book about atypical kids (Far from the Tree) and I had read that his book on depression was a classic, so, as a person who has dealt with depression most of her life, I decided to read it. And it was depressing, plus it was 510 pages (including a chapter added in 2015 to kind of bring things up to date). Solomon covers a lot of ground but never really pins down what depression is, plus I felt as though his own experiences were really coloring his interpretations of the current research. It's supposed to be the definitive book on depression, but I don't think it is. The longest, maybe. Oh well, I finished it.

 

Books from the New Yorker's "Briefly Noted" reviews

Life as No one Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence by Sara Imari Walker (2024). So, in August I read a book called The Moral Circle about how we ought to include everything alive (even fruit flies) in our "moral circle," our collection of beings that matter for their own sake. Now, in this book, physicist Sara Imari Walker describes a new way to define life (which apparently is hard to define -- who knew?): Assembly Theory, which argues that for all things, you can calculate an "assembly index," which is "the smallest number of physically possible steps necessary to produce an object." All the examples of living things that have been tested have an assembly index of at least 15, suggesting that it takes at least 15 steps to create life. Assembly Theory also says that we are all "lineages," assembled out of pieces (amino acids and whatnot) that have been developing over the past 3.7 billion years or whatever. It's a fascinating book, and her take on AI, that it is the next step in our lineage, was mind-blowing. I keep thinking about that, and also I keep looking at fruit flies, trying to bond with them...

Other reading 

Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado, translated from the Portuguese by Harriet de Onis (1966/1969). The book group book. 550 pages. OMG. I thought this book would never end. Honestly, I felt as though it could have been a short story, or at most a novella. Not 550 pages. I read a Goodreads review from a Portuguese native speaker who said the book is entirely different in the original language, full of information and commentary on Brazilian society. Apparently that was too hard to translate, or it was felt it wouldn't be interesting to non-Brazilians. Why hasn't the book been re-translated, after 57 years? I got the 1976 movie from the library and thought it was much better than the book, with all the boring extraneous stuff cut out. The book group liked it a little better than I did, plus Lecia made interesting Brazilian food.

All Cats Are on the Autism Spectrum by Kathy Hoopmann (2020) (previously published as All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome in 2006 and updated to reflect current terminology)
All Birds Have Anxiety by Kathy Hoopmann (2017)
All Dogs Have ADHD by Kathy Hoopmann (2008)
I ordered these three children's books from Amazon, when I couldn't find them in any stores. They're so cute, and since Teen A has ADHD and Teen B has autism and anxiety, it seemed appropriate. I thought Rocket Boy would like them too, but he immediately got confused by the cat book, thinking it was actually about cats. Oh well. I enjoyed them -- and the cat book is the 9th book I've read this year about autism.

Finally Fall

I always feel as though September 1st is the first day of fall, but now it's also astrological fall, and it really does feel like it. Nights are cooler, we don't have to run the fan (unless the cats have made it smelly and we need to circulate some air), and the leaves are starting to turn, even down here. It's kind of early for that, but oh well. The trees and bushes are stressed, they need to get this year over with.

And it's almost October! The best month of the year! I have a lot of plans for October this year, plans that will probably not all come to fruition, but it's fun to think about them. First of all, I have sixteen (or is it seventeen?) books lined up to read, all of them fun: spooky books, mysteries, thrillers... Nothing even remotely serious. I know I won't read them all, but I will enjoy my reading month, that's for sure. I'll post a picture of all the books next week (I'm waiting for two to arrive, one from the library and one from a used bookstore in Montana, I think it is). 

To make up for the lack of a book picture, here is the animatronic raven that Rocket Boy bought last week. It has red eyes (when it's on) and moves its head from side to side and makes raven noises. Just what our living room needed.

Second, I am planning to sign up for Apple TV and watch the spooky show "Widow's Bay" all month (there are 10 episodes). I didn't even know about this show (because we don't watch TV except a little PBS and the Criterion Channel). But I read about it when it won a bunch of Emmy awards and I thought: why am I not watching this show? It's practically made for me! So that's another fun plan.

Third, I am going to write my November middle grade novel, that is, sort out all the messes and finish it. It currently consists of 39 pages (21,409 words), but there's no mystery (it's supposed to be a mystery) and none of it hangs together properly. This past week I forced myself to sit down and think about it, and I think I've finally come up with something that will work. Maybe. Anyway, I get to spend October thinking about it and writing it. (And then in November I can start the December novel. Maybe. We'll see.)

Fourth, I am finally going to buy a new vacuum cleaner and get the house cleaned up (somewhat), because my book group will be coming back here at the end of the month (or the beginning of November). I hate cleaning. But we'll see.

Fifth, I am going to embrace the season by cooking October-ish foods (sweet potatoes, apple dishes, soups, things like that). I am already very much in a baking mood, because it has gotten cooler. This week I made really delicious muffins (with walnuts, dried apricots, and dried blueberries) on Tuesday and these lovely snickerdoodles (already half gone) on Thursday. Basically, any weekday I don't have to make dinner, I think about baking.

This coming week, I have my book group (at Lecia's house) on Monday and another concert on Tuesday, so I won't cook until Wednesday, probably Wednesday and Friday. So I could bake on Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday. I'll see. The trouble with baking is that then I EAT what I have baked. Teen A helps a lot, and sometimes Rocket Boy, but still.

Sixth, I will try to get serious about walking again. When I went in for my follow-up appointment on September 8th, I asked if it was OK if I started going for walks again, and she said "Sure! Do it!" but did I? Mostly not. I've been doing some stretch videos and lifting weights (not as often as I plan, but a few times a week), but very few walks. In fact, according to my notebook, in the past three weeks I have only taken three walks (plus a couple of short ones that I didn't use my app to time). I took a walk last evening, only 6/10ths of a mile, and I didn't do very well. It took me 15 minutes, and it HURT. It hurts less if I slow down, so I will try to go slowly from now on. But clearly this recovery period is going to take some time. I see the orthopedics person again on October 6th, which is almost 6 weeks since my surgery, and by 6 weeks I'm supposed to be all better. Hmm. Better start walking.

Seventh... I don't know. I think that's enough plans for the month. After all, I'm supposed to be enjoying myself. Too many plans equal no fun at all. But Rocket Boy will be working to get out the vote, and I'll probably help him a little. Oh, and I will also go to as many concerts as I can, AND the Haunted House at Boulder High later in the month. Looking forward to that, as always.

The concert this week was enjoyable. It was the Colorado Cello Quartet performing a lot of pieces not written for cello quartets (which are fairly unusual). I think they were mostly doing things written for string quartets, which meant that two cellos were pretending to be violins and one a viola (I think -- don't quote me). I figured out afterwards that I was watching two married couples, which was also interesting. One of the couples is currently based at the University of Wisconsin and was visiting that week.

This coming week the concert is being given by the new head of percussion at CU Boulder, and he will be assisted by the CU Boulder Percussion Ensemble, so that should be a lot of fun. October concerts include a performance of French chamber music on October 6th, an evening of piano trios on October 13th, guitar music on October 20th, and cello & piano chamber music on October 27th. I will try to go to them all.

This week, a funny thing happened before the concert. I always park in the parking garage right by the music school, and the other old people who park there sometimes have trouble with the machines where you pay. I walked up to the machine on Tuesday night, and sure enough, a couple who looked, oh, maybe five years older than me? were having trouble. The man kept putting his card in, and the machine kept saying, "Could not read card." I stepped forward, "Could I try?" and I put my card in and it worked fine. I paid $2 for their parking and then put the card in again and paid $2 for my parking. But the man was upset: "Now I owe you two dollars, and who carries cash anymore?" He managed to find a dollar bill and handed it to me, and I remembered that you must always accept things like that, so I did, and thanked him. The whole experience gave me a very warm and fuzzy feeling. And I'm sure if they're there this coming week, he'll give me the other dollar. 

We are still having cat problems, and it's starting to wear on me a little. Every morning after I make the bed, I cover it with pee pads, both reusable and disposable. Here are both cats lying on a disposable pee pad on top of a reusable pee pad. That was this morning. Later, Baby Kitty left and Sillers peed all over the disposable pee pad. Yesterday she threw up, peed, and pooped on various pee pads. This morning, Baby Kitty had diarrhea in or near two litter boxes. And on and on. They both seem perfectly happy, though, not sick at all. 

I constantly refer to "when Sillers dies," in conversation, and both of the kids have asked me, "when Sillers dies, will you get another cat?" and my answer is NO. I need a break from cat problems. If both cats were to die (Baby Kitty is continuing to exhibit worrisome asthmatic symptoms, despite the prednisolone), I think I would take a break from fuzzy creatures. 

A break that would probably last about a month. But we'll see.

Teen B came home for a short visit yesterday, so that was nice. He stayed long enough for us all to go out to eat at Efrain's, a Mexican place that used to be a little hole in the wall in East Boulder but now has a very spacious space near McGuckin's. The food was OK, and quite inexpensive (compared to everywhere else). Even with tip, we got out of there for significantly less than $100, which doesn't even happen at IHOP.

Teen B had two tests this week, and while he was home, the results of one test popped up: a 94. So it's good to know that he's hanging in there with his classes. Earlier this week I observed Teen A doing an assignment for one of his classes, so that's good too.

I'm currently reading a book about depression (The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon) and it's of course making me think a lot about my own experiences with depression. I'm only about 150 pages into it (it's 510 pages, so I have to get busy to finish it before October), but when he talks about how one depressive episode will lead to another, and how going on and off medication is bad, he made me think. I've had one very serious depression in my life, when I was in grad school, and several less serious episodes. I've never felt as bad as what he describes, where you can't get out of bed. My official diagnosis, such as it is, is dysthymia or persistent depressive disorder. I am not sure if that is really what I have, or if I still have it. I don't really know what "normal" is anymore. 

I've taken several different antidepressant medications and I've always gotten off of them as fast as I could, because of the side effects. The only one that really worked was the first one, Nardil, which had terrible side effects. I took it for a year. Prozac did nothing for me, Cymbalta made me so lethargic I couldn't get off the couch, Zoloft made me paranoid and hungry, Wellbutrin made me irritable, and Lexapro made me happy but I couldn't stop eating. I don't like those drugs! But Solomon is making the case that it's better to be on them than not, and risk a terrible major depression again. I don't think that's something I have to worry about. It doesn't seem to be how my mind works. But it's something to remember. I've got a lot of big changes happening in my life and the lives of my family members -- a lot of changes that have already happened, and a lot of changes coming up. How will we all cope? Will I need help? I don't know. Right now, we're OK, but I will try to keep in mind that there could be problems ahead.

A little cooler

Yes, it was cooler this week! And boy oh boy, did that make a difference in my energy level. On a couple of different days I had enough energy to do most of my to-do list, even some yardwork on Thursday. It's wonderful to have the temperature drop. I sleep better, I just feel better overall. It's going to be nice this week too, mostly highs in the 70s.

It wasn't a busy week, particularly, no appointments for me (although Rocket Boy, as always, had several). I cooked three times, on Monday (zucchini pesto orzo from the NY Times, surprisingly good), Wednesday (Grandma Peg's goulash, Teen A's request, and steamed broccoli), and Thursday (roast garlic corn chowder with garlic bread, an old recipe from the Ann Arbor News). We had leftovers on Tuesday and Sunday. 

We would have had leftovers on Friday, except that Teen B came home, and we decided to eat out with him at Aunt Alice's in Longmont (Teen A didn't join us), which meant that we could take him to the Flex bus where it stops in Longmont, just a few blocks from the restaurant, at about 8:15 pm. I offered, over and over, to drive him all the way to Fort Collins, but nope, he wanted to take the bus. It just blows my mind and kind of breaks my heart how independent he's acting these days. It's really a wonderful thing, but it brings back so many memories of Baby B and Kid B and so many realizations that he's not that little kid anymore.

I don't know what it's going to be like when he comes home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, though. Teen A has just absolutely taken over their room. When Teen B comes home, he always looks in the room to see what's been changed, but he doesn't express concern, just "hmm" and that's all.

Cooking just three times a week (and eating leftovers) seems to be working out well, both for the family and for my mental health. This coming week I am planning to cook on Monday and Wednesday (already planned the meals and made a grocery list) and then make fancy sandwiches on Friday. 

(The photo is not of a dinner I cooked, it's from eating out at the Gondolier restaurant, which we did on Saturday, with Teen A. I had a lovely pear & goat cheese salad with a cup of watermelon gazpacho, Rocket Boy had mussels, and Teen A had a meatball sub. Each to his own.) 

Leftovers on Tuesday is a good plan, because I'm enjoying these CU faculty concerts so much. I went again this week: the concert was called "Stolen" and it was mostly pieces written for one type of instrument being played by a different instrument. So, they began with a bunch of saxophonists playing a piece written for trumpets, and continued on from there. One piece for cello was played by a flutist and another was played by a trombonist. A pianist played two Schubert pieces written for voice. Things like that. And at the end, all the musicians got together and played "Careless Whisper" by George Michael (sung by Wham! in 1984). That has a major saxophone solo in it, but I don't think it has parts for flute, trombone, trumpet, etc., and they were all in there. It was great.

This Tuesday it's the Colorado Cello Quartet, which I am less interested in, but I'm sure it will be very good as well. My book group was going to meet on Monday, but it's been postponed until the following week because Sally hasn't finished the extremely long book (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado). I did finish it, because I forced my way through it, and on Thursday and Friday night Rocket Boy and I watched the movie, which I got from the library. The movie came out in, I think, 1976, and I feel like my parents went to see it, but I could be wrong about that. I don't think I saw it. My "book of lists" doesn't start until 1980, unfortunately. The movie has a lot of nudity in it, and I kept wondering, did my parents watch this? I don't know, and there's no one to ask. 

I thought the movie was better than the book, but I have read that the book is a bad translation and leaves out a lot. I'll be interested to hear what the rest of the book group thinks of it, whenever we do manage to meet.

Rocket Boy and I went to the cabin today, our first trip all season. When I looked at the log book we keep up there, I saw that our last trip had been on September 21, 2025, so exactly a year ago. 

We got a late start, but it didn't matter, since it was just us. We had our usual lunch in Bailey at the Cutthroat Cafe, and then drove on into South Park. I had read that because of the drought, it wasn't going to be a good year for fall color, and that was right. We saw a lot of trees that had clearly just gone from green to brown, no pretty colors. They also said that the trees would change early this year, because they are so stressed. There were plenty of leaf peepers out and about, but I wondered if they were enjoying the brownish trees. We did see just a few pretty patches of aspen, in orange and red, not just yellow.

We stopped at Al-Mart in Alma for some snacks (I always want chocolate at 10,000 feet for some reason), and then drove on to the cabin. And there we found the aspen completely done (although on the other side of the road they were still yellow, go figure). In the log book for last year I had written that they were in full yellow plumage on September 21st, so that shows how the stress from the drought has affected them this year.

We walked down to the beaver ponds, but I decided not to go all the way, because of my knee. Rocket Boy went all the way down and walked around a little. The ponds looked healthy. I guess the South Platte River has plenty of water, even if nothing else does. We noticed that there were no patches of snow on any of the mountain tops (as there usually would be, even this time of year).

We left relatively early, around 5 pm, and got home just after dark, so that was good. We might have stopped at the Cutthroat Cafe again on our way home, maybe just for a piece of pie, but I saw online that they now close at 3 pm every day, no more evening hours except on, I think, Tuesday, when something special must happen, some meeting or something. So we just had leftover soup when we got home. Teen A and his girlfriend arrived right after we did, but they'd just had ice cream, didn't want any soup. Teen A is very independent these days too, although he sometimes eats what I cook.

So, now here comes the last full week of September. No book group, but another concert on Tuesday. Three meals to cook. Lots and lots of time to work on projects, if I have the energy. This past week I only went on one walk -- last Sunday, with Rocket Boy -- so this week I will try to take a few walks. Last week I did manage to do two stretch videos, and I also lifted weights twice. The goal is three stretch videos and three weight-lifting sessions each week, but I would settle for two, especially if I could also take at least two walks.

I also did some writing this week, on I think at least three different days. I'm starting out slow, re-reading my October middle grade novel and making little tweaks in it. Once I finish that, I will go back to my November novel, which I haven't touched since last November. I'd like to get that draft done -- I remember that it was giving me trouble, but maybe since it's been almost a year, I'll be able to look at it with fresh eyes.

The photo is of a darling toy stroller that came in the mail this week (from eBay, natch). In the October book, my character Bryony pushes her little sister Maudie in the stroller at various times, so I wanted to get a stroller, the better to act out the story. I know it's a little weird to have my characters represented by dolls, but I'm probably not the only writer to have ever done that. I remember reading a novel that featured a mystery writer who built dollhouses for each of her mysteries, showing how each murder was committed. Of course, that was a novel. But probably someone besides me has done it in real life.

Poor Sillers is still peeing on everything, but we're kind of getting the hang of preventing big problems. Both Rocket Boy and I go around sniffing bedding and cat blankets and pee pads all the time. As soon as we smell that telltale odor, I grab the offending item and take it to the washing machine and we put something else in its place. 

And I guess that's about it. I was going to show you Rocket Boy's latest acquisition, but I forgot to take a picture of it, so I'll save it for next week. It's an animatronic raven that moves its head and says "Caw! Caw!" It's motion sensitive and Rocket Boy got it for some project of his. Teen A saw it and said, "Why do we need a raven?" I said, "Well, we have everything else, why not?"

September: still hot

It is supposed to be cooler this coming week, highs in the 80s some days and even 70s some of the others. But today it is 91 and it feels so awful. It might rain later, so that will help, although I have a lot of things on the line right now. They should dry quickly though. I just have to remember to bring them in before that first clap of thunder.

This was a busy week for me, with three trips to Boulder Medical Center, among other activities. On Tuesday I saw the orthopedic PA, the first follow-up appointment after my knee surgery. She was very pleased with my progress, very impressed with how much mobility I already have. Her helper removed my stitches and put some steri-strips on the incisions. I still can't go swimming, or in hot tubs, or take a bath, for another 4 weeks. But that's fine. I go back in four weeks, and after that I should be free to do whatever I want.

On Wednesday I went in for bloodwork, which was not fun, but not a big deal either (I remembered to make an appointment so I didn't have to wait for two hours like last time). Unfortunately my fasting glucose was as always too high (112) and my A1c went up this time, from 6.2 last September and 6.1 last March to 6.3. This is still within the "prediabetic" range, though, which is very good if you actually have Type 2 diabetes, and I think it's probably partly due to not getting any exercise all summer, due to the knee. If I start walking more, as the knee gradually heals, that will probably help. All my other numbers were perfect. She tested my Vitamin B12 level, because that's the kind of thing that people on GLP-1 drugs tend to have trouble with, especially if you also take Metformin as I do, but it was 1017 (normal is 232-1245). I almost never have anything wrong with anything except sugar.

On Friday I saw my regular doctor for my 6-month check-up. She seemed preoccupied with something, didn't even ask about my surgery. We mostly talked about nausea, and ways to treat it. After the surgery I was given Zofran, but I haven't taken it yet. She suggested I try taking it on the two days after my shot when I have the most nausea. I also showed her an anti-nausea medicine I found at King Soopers, but she didn't know anything about it. My plan this week is to take a dose of the King Soopers medicine tomorrow, Zofran on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the King Soopers medicine again on Thursday. Then I will also buy some ginger chews and try those. I never had any luck with ginger when I was pregnant -- it had exactly zero effect. But this is different, a different cause, so I'll try it again. It feels good to have a plan.

An example of how distracted my doctor was: I had told her assistant that I wanted to talk about nausea, and before Dr. T. came in, she'd glanced at the notes and thought it said "marijuana." She realized what it said after a moment, but she told me she was very surprised to think (for a moment) that I'd become a marijuana user. I assured her that I do not indulge (not mentioning my involvement with the substance at age 14), and explained that it's because marijuana is believed to be a trigger for schizophrenia. While I have no way to prevent the twins from using it, I have told them to be careful, and I figure it helps if I don't use it. (Not that I want to!) She said she felt exactly the same way with her kids.

The week also contained fun activities. On Tuesday evening I went to the Faculty Tuesday concert at CU, I think the first of the season. It was "Double Reed Faculty and Friends," and of course I wanted to hear that, because the oboe is a double reed instrument and I just love the sound of the oboe. The other double reed instrument is the bassoon, and there was a lot of bassoon music, too, which I enjoyed, just not as much as the oboe. Still, the bassoon quartet playing Bach's "Suite No. 1 for cello" was pretty amazing. 

Rocket Boy said, "Maybe I should come too," but I knew he didn't really want to. "No, no, you're fine," I told him. "Stay home, eat leftovers, relax." Instead, he and Teen A went out to eat at the Nepalese restaurant near us, which is the last thing I would have wanted to do on a Nausea Tuesday.

I am going to try to go to a lot of these concerts this year. There is absolutely no reason not to, no kids I have to help with homework in the evenings, etc. And Rocket Boy absolutely does not need to come. It takes me perhaps five minutes to drive to campus, park in the huge parking garage, and walk across the street to the music building. The concerts are free. I find a seat in the auditorium and sit down to enjoy some absolutely sublime music. I love it.

Wednesday afternoon around 3 pm, I was hanging out with the cats when I got a text from Teen B: "Marg are u home?" Pretty soon, along he came, walking up the driveway. He doesn't have class on Wednesday afternoons, so he'd hopped on a bus. It turned out that he wanted help with an assignment that required writing. Sigh. I *TOLD* the kids I was not going to help with homework in college.

But on the other hand, I don't want him to fail a dumb class like "Health and Wellness for Everyone" just because he finds writing so acutely painful. What am I going to do with this kid? I helped him. I didn't write it for him! But I gave him ideas, kept him going, wrote a couple of extra sentences for him. He managed to finish the assignment and submit it.

I don't know. He's doing so well in some ways, but in others... well, we'll just see how it goes.

I took him to the bus at 7 pm, and we haven't seen him since. He didn't come home this weekend.

On Friday after my doctor appointment I made Rocket Boy a birthday cake (his birthday was yesterday). I made a plum cake, out of the Barbara Pym cookbook, with some variations. Her recipe calls for chopped glaceed cherries, raisins, sultanas, chopped almonds, and chopped candied lemon, orange, or mixed peel, plus an optional glass of brandy. In my cake I put chopped prunes, chopped dried apricots, dried blueberries, raisins, golden raisins, sliced almonds, chopped pecans, and chopped walnuts, plus two very squishy bananas. It's a fun cake. But I think I baked it too long. Her recipe says to bake it for about 3.5 hours at 300 degrees. I baked it for 2 hours at 325, and I think 1.5 would have been plenty. Oh well, another time. As you can see, it is getting eaten, although it's mostly me eating it for breakfast (don't tell my doctor).

On Saturday Rocket Boy brought home another cake -- but this one wasn't for him. It was for the twins, whose half birthday was Wednesday. When they were little, we used to enjoy celebrating their half birthday, but now it seems a little ridiculous. Happy 37th birthday, for heaven's sake. And Teen B wasn't even around to try it. Teen A looked at it, said hmm, and then went out with his girlfriend. So Rocket Boy and I each had a piece. This was after going out to eat at Boulder Social, and I was full of golden beet salad (with goat cheese, raisins, and pecans, plus grilled salmon on the side, so delicious), so the cake was a bit much for me, but I finished it.

Oh, I've forgotten to mention Saturday's other activity -- the annual Pancake Breakfast! It was somewhat controversial this year, because it's always held on the second Saturday in September, and unfortunately this year the second Saturday in September was Rosh Hashanah, which the organizers either didn't know about or didn't think was important enough to move the breakfast. A lot of angry words were exchanged online about this, but in the end, the organizers promised to never do this again, and the breakfast went on as scheduled, it being too late to reschedule everything. 

I decided to volunteer this year, which I've never done before because I was always so involved in taking care of twins, trying to get everyone to the breakfast, etc. This year I figured everyone could go, or not go, as they pleased (Rocket Boy went alone, Teen A and his girlfriend slept through the whole thing, Teen B was of course in Fort Collins). However, there was the issue of my recently operated-on knee. I decided to sign up for a half shift, 9:30-11, and Rocket Boy actually drove me there, but I walked home (slowly) with no trouble. My job was serving fruit toppings, rhubarb and peach, so to each person who came up with a plate of pancakes I said, "We have rhubarb syrup, peach syrup, and traditional maple syrup," and then the person next to me would add, "We also have whipped cream, walnuts, and chocolate chips, plus the butter is self-serve." 

Volunteering was really fun. I had been nervous about it -- I'm just afraid of committing myself to anything right now -- but it was great. Everyone was so friendly, I talked to lots of people, I got to know new people... Usually when we go to the breakfast, we sit next to some people we don't know, talk to them a little, and then go home. This was MUCH more fun. So I'm going to try to remember that, and volunteer for more little things that come up.

I was really tired Saturday night, just could not keep my eyes open, so I turned off my light and snuggled down before Rocket Boy had finished his hour-long session on the pump. Then, he woke me up. "What's that weird noise?" 

What noise? I didn't hear a noise. 

"It sounds like there's someone in the living room, working on something." 

There's no one in the living room. It's probably just Sillers. 

Rocket Boy took off his pumping paraphernalia and went out to investigate. But Sillers was sitting innocently in the middle of the kitchen floor and there was no one in the living room. Suspiciously, Rocket Boy came back to bed and we turned out the light.

The next morning, maybe an hour or so after her breakfast, Sillers threw up all over the kitchen floor (don't worry, I don't have a picture). The thing was, it wasn't just her regular food, it was something sort of bluish. The picture has already given it away, so I'll jump to the solution: when Rocket Boy was hearing something weird, it was Sillers, who had gotten up onto the dining room table and opened the cake box (which I had closed, but not tightly enough). She had licked all the frosting off Teen A's side of the cake (his name was written in blue). I cut off a big chunk of the cake and put it in the compost bin -- I think the rest is still OK to eat.

After that initial vomiting episode, she vomited I think five more times, here and there around the house, and also pooped, I think eight times (in every room in the house), the last time serious diarrhea. And I imagine she's not done, and I also imagine there are messes we haven't found yet. But she's subdued now -- I found her hiding in the corner by Rocket Boy's side of the bed, and now she's asleep on top of the bed. 

Honestly, it wouldn't be the worst thing if this digestive nightmare was the end of her. I said that to Rocket Boy and he actually agreed. But I think she's getting better. Sigh. I just can't take her to the vet and have them put her to sleep, I just can't, but her lack of bladder control is driving me somewhat crazy (this is in addition to all the vomiting and pooping going on today). Every single day I have to wash multiple pee pads, plus blankets, rugs, etc. Thank goodness I invested in a lot of reusable pee pads, because it would be quite expensive to keep buying more disposable ones. We now own two big ones and I think six smaller ones. Most are either currently in use or on the line. Sigh.

Well, on we go. This coming week should be simpler, no medical appointments for me, though Rocket Boy usually has some. He has two types of physical therapy, plus his various doctors, so he goes to a lot of appointments. I don't know how he has time to work, plus commuting an hour each way. He's tired a lot. 

The only thing I have on the calendar this week is the CU Faculty Tuesday concert, which I will try to attend, and of course I will be experimenting with anti-nausea medicine. And I'll try to do some writing and some genealogy, and make dinner, and hang out with Teen B if he comes for another visit. Just a pleasant week. I hope. You never know! Hope you have a good week too. 

September plans

It occurred to me that since it's September, I should review my summer achievements (or lack thereof) and make fall plans.

I'm not really in the mood to do either thing. I'm weirdly apathetic these days. I think it's partly the endless heat, partly the recovery process from my surgery, partly feeling strange with the twins being in college. 

But let's look at that list that I made back in May, see if I did anything on it.

1. Get Teen B to pass his driving test. YES! Done! He got his license!
2. Get passports for me and Teen B. NO. Did not do. Maybe this fall (for me). I doubt if we'll be planning any international trips before next summer.
3. Plan trip to California. YES! Planned and taken!
4. Prepare for college. YES? We screwed up on some things, but basically, yeah, we got ready and they're both doing it.
5. Teach independence, e.g., laundry, banking. YES/NO. They're both doing their own laundry now, although it was kind of a last-minute thing. I just said to Teen A -- Teen B has to do it at college, so you do it at home, and he did. I think he's done it three times now (but he won't put his clean clothes away, just leaves them in a pile). And Teen B is apparently doing his at college, since he hasn't brought any dirty laundry home, and each time I see him, he's wearing clean clothes. Both of them could use some more money knowledge, though.
6. Clean & reorganize the kids' room. NO. Teen A actually did some of this himself (see photo above). He cleaned off the desk in their room and set up his gaming computer on it. But I did nothing, no energy all summer long.
7. Work on files and piles in the desk room. NO. I did absolutely nothing on this all summer.
8. Write thank-you notes. YES (almost). One set of cards & cash came in very late (from our next-door neighbor) and we didn't write her a note (yet), but everyone else got thanked.
9. Flying lessons for Teen A. YES/NO. He took a couple, but then he stopped and it turned out he doesn't want to be a pilot after all, so it's fine...
10. Continue working on the yard. NO. Once it got hot, I stopped doing anything.
11. Convert my blogs to books. NO. I actually forgot about this. Maybe this fall?
12. Take Teen B's clarinet to be refurbished. NO. He told me it didn't need refurbishing. I could still do it this fall, because he doesn't need it until second semester. I'll see. 

So, four yes, two yes/no, and six no. Not a very good record, but oh well. Summer is hard. And we did some of the most important things.

OK, now it's fall (doesn't feel like it, but it's September, anyway). First day of astronomical fall is September 22nd, so 16 days from now. But the first day of meteorological fall was September 1st, so it's kind of fall.

And the hummingbirds are gone -- so early! Why did they leave when it's still so hot? I thought mid-September was when they leave, but this year it was more like mid-August. I should probably take the feeder down, maybe fill it just ONE more time, but I don't think any birds will come to it.

Hmm.

I was thinking that it occasionally snows in September, but I can't remember when it last did that. Looking back at old blog posts, I found one from September 11th, 2014 where I said "it's supposed to snow tonight." Then in another post, from September 24th, 2016, I talk about going to the mountains to look at leaves, and on the road over Boreas Pass the temperature dropped to 33 degrees and it began to snow lightly. Then in a post from October 9, 2017, I mention that we had the first snow of the season that day. And in 2019 our first snow came on October 10th.

Oh! September 8th, 2020, it snowed heavily! So there's a fairly recent one, only six years ago. It CAN happen! 

Wouldn't that be amazing, if it snowed this week? (Or any time this month?) Instead, it's supposed to be: 91 (today), 89, 87, 85, 91, 91, 88. I guess I should make plans to really enjoy Wednesday, the 85 day.

So, do I have fall plans? Well, there was that interesting schedule I made for myself a month ago, let's look at that again.

• 7 am: Rocket Boy gets up, goes to work.
• 8 am: I get up, feed the cats, have breakfast, do the dishes, start a load of laundry, do an exercise video, etc.
• 9:30-10:30: read for an hour
• 10:30-12:30: work on writing projects
• 12:30-1:30: lunch break, put the laundry in the dryer, do other miscellaneous things
• 1:30-3:30: do genealogy
• 3:30-4:30: read for an hour
• 4:30-7:00: put away the laundry, do other household tasks, take a walk, make dinner 
• 7:00-11:00: eat dinner with RB, spend a pleasant evening together, feed cats, bed 

I took a stab at following this schedule one day this week, Thursday or Friday, I forget. There are a few problems with it, to wit:

• I don't really get up at 8, when my alarm goes off. Sometimes I get up at 8:30, sometimes 9, sometimes even later. (Today it was 10, but of course it's Sunday.) I think it has to do with the heat. I'm just so lethargic This means that I don't have time to get my morning chores done by 9:30. But one day this week I was ready by 10, so I read for about 45 minutes and then moved on to writing.
• I simply do not want to cook. Not a couple times a week, NOT AT ALL. But Rocket Boy still wants to eat dinner when he comes home. Again, this may get a little easier when the weather gets cooler.
• As I noted back when I first made this schedule, there's no time in it for planning meals, going to the grocery store, paying bills, etc., except maybe in the late afternoon, but hmm.  

OK, I think that was enough planning. Realistically, it's going to take a while to get back into a fall routine.

I wish it would cool down.

We've been dealing with a lot of issues with the cats. Sillers is still peeing on everything. I ordered six more reusable pee pads from Chewy and they came today. We made up Teen B's bed with clean sheets and then put a giant pee pad on it, in case she decides to sleep on it, as she does sometimes (you can see it in the picture at the top of this post). We've been keeping pee pads on our bed, and I've been continuing to do laundry. But today, when Teen A and I got home from Starbucks, we discovered that she had peed on the living room floor. It got on a little washable rug, so I threw the rug in the washing machine. It's on the line now -- I should probably bring it in.

Baby Kitty got out briefly one day this week, ate something in the yard, and the next day had diarrhea in All Three Litter Boxes (and on the pee pads under the boxes). That was fun to clean up. Then we thought he was better, but today he had diarrhea in two of the litter boxes and on the floor. Why do we have cats, I keep asking myself. Is it worth it? I don't know.

Last night we went out to dinner at the restaurant at the golf course and brought Teen A's girlfriend along. I like her a lot, and it's nice that she's getting more comfortable with us. She and I both ordered the beet salad, which is very delicious. But for dessert, a sad thing happened. She and Teen A ordered the tiramisu to share, Rocket Boy ordered the lemon tart, and I ordered the orange pana cotta. But the waiter didn't bring my dessert, and he didn't come back to our table until the others were done with their desserts. He said, "Can I get you anything else?" and I said, what happened to my dessert? He looked stricken and offered to go get it, but at that point it seemed too late. So I didn't have dessert (I had some ice cream at home later). It was fine, the world is so full of misery, who cares about me not having dessert? But it made me oddly miserable, as though I had been found unworthy of having dessert. It brought back memories of childhood, when I was always thought to be too fat and thus shouldn't have various treats. Silly, I know. It sometimes seems as though we never grow up. 

This coming week is going to be mainly taken up with medical appointments. First we've got Labor Day, tomorrow, so the kids don't have school, but I think Rocket Boy may go to work anyway. He's considering it. He's had a hard time the last several days -- another bout of cellulitis, and then a head cold -- so he'd like to get back on track.

Tuesday I have my follow-up appointment at 2pm, for the knee, and I'll find out if they want me to have physical therapy and all that.

Wednesday I have a 9:45 am appointment to get bloodwork done. I am not sure if I have to fast or not, have an email into my doctor's office to find out.

Friday I have my half-yearly appointment at 1:30 pm with my regular doctor. 

Saturday is our neighborhood pancake breakfast, and I have signed up to work for part of the time. I hope my knee won't object. They've had a hard time getting people to sign up -- there was a big brouhaha because of course Saturday is also Rosh Hashanah, which the breakfast organizers apparently didn't realize, or didn't care about, I don't know, but anyway, many people in the neighborhood got upset about this when they noticed the schedule conflict. The organizers promised never to do it again, but it was too late to change the date this year. 

Saturday is also Rocket Boy's birthday, but since he doesn't like to be reminded of it, I don't have to do anything special for it, just get him a card. If I feel ambitious, I might make a cake on Friday. I like to make him cakes full of fruit and nuts, the kind that the twins hate. I'll see how it goes. 

I hope it's a good week. 

Reading post: August

It's the last day of August, so I must quickly do a post. In August the plan was to read more biographies, specifically, to get caught up with my presidential biography reading for the year. But since everything I wanted to read had to be requested from other libraries, I started with more of the fiction I'd planned to read in July but didn't get to.

Books I said I'd like to read

The Fell by Sarah Moss (2021). For me, Sarah Moss is hit or miss: sometimes brilliant, sometimes irritating. This book falls more on the brilliant side, although it's about the pandemic. I've read a few novels about what it was like to wear masks, practice social distancing, etc., and they make me angry. Maybe because reading about it brings back bad memories, I don't know. But this is a decent book about Covid. Kate, a single parent, breaks quarantine to go for a hike, though if she is caught the financial penalty (in England) will be high. She falls and injures herself, triggering a rescue operation. That's the whole book, but it's kind of mesmerizing. Also, there's a raven.

Extinction by Thomas Bernhard, translated from the German by David McLintock (1986/1995). Oh dear. I want to like Bernhard -- I liked Wittgenstein's Nephew -- but I'm beginning to think maybe he's not for me. This book is his magnum opus, and I just hated it. It's one 326-page paragraph (at least it's not one sentence, like Septology), and it's mostly just a rant from the estranged son of a wealthy Austrian family whose parents and older brother have just died in a car accident, making him the heir. He rants about Austria, his family, how he hates almost everything, he hates pigeons, he hates the Catholic Church (even though he now lives in Rome), he hates... I forget what all he hates. Some of his hatred is intelligent (e.g., Nazis), and some is very sus, to the point where I thought he was probably certifiably insane. So glad to finish it, not sure why I made the effort. Now I have to decide whether I want to read anything else by Bernhard. Hmm.

Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower by Kaye Summersby Morgan (1976). My second Eisenhower book. It was ghostwritten while Summersby was dying of cancer, and it's hard to know how much is really from her. However, it sounds very believable. It's fascinating how hard the Eisenhower machine has worked to erase her from his biography. She isn't even mentioned on his Wikipedia page, except that under "See also" there's a link to her page, and she's listed as "chauffeur and secretary." Her page says:

It is generally agreed that Summersby and Eisenhower became extremely close during the war; some writers have suggested a sexual relationship between the two, although people who knew both of them at the time have rejected that claim, as have most of Eisenhower's biographers.

But Jean Edward Smith, who wrote the best biography of Eisenhower (the one I read) absolutely accepts the claim. I think Summersby's getting a raw deal on Wikipedia, just like the raw deal she apparently got from Eisenhower, when he dumped her with no warning and no explanation.

The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys by Doris Kearns Goodwin (1987). My first JFK book. I am planning to read three in all -- we'll see how that goes. This one is really a history of his family, almost a genealogy book, and it's very interesting. It was also hard to obtain. None of the local libraries had it, so I had to get it from the Regis University library via Prospector. The text was 817 pages and it took me FOREVER to get through, but it was worth it. I imagine the other books I read about Kennedy will also talk about his mother's and father's families, but this one went into so much detail. I would have liked to read more about JFK's younger siblings, but I learned a lot about his brother Joe and sisters Rosemary and Kathleen. When "Kick" (Kathleen) died, the life went out of the book in the same way it must have gone out of the Kennedy family.  

Books from the New Yorker's "Briefly Noted" reviews

The Moral Circle: Who Matters, What Matters, and Why by Jeff Sebo (2025). So, ever since AI began to explode and there's all this talk about how it's going to take over everyone's jobs, etc., I've been thinking a couple of things. First, general annoyance because it sounds as though AI is very good at doing exactly the kinds of things I'm good at, organizing and sorting and whatnot. Second, I've started thinking about other species and where they fit in. If AI is gradually going to get much much smarter and more capable than us, won't human exceptionalism go by the wayside? (as it should) and then will we become just another animal, like bears and wombats and dragonflies? This philosophy book is about why we ought to expand our moral circle (our collection of beings that we believe matter for their own sake) to include everything that's conscious -- possibly including robots, in part because we need to train them now to include us in their moral circle. There is one example in the book about what if your house was burning down and you could only save either one person or one fruit fly, and the author argued that there wasn't an obvious choice between them, they were both important. I'm OK with accepting insects into my moral circle, but shouldn't we include trees too? Sebo argues against factory farming of animals and insects, but if plants are also conscious, is it OK to factory farm them? Anyway, a very interesting book, lots to think about.

Other reading 

Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Guide to Parenting Neurodiverse Children by Katie Rose Guest Pryal (2025). My eighth autism book (I didn't read any in June or July). This was a very good book, one I would recommend to parents -- but it's a little late to be much help for me. It's mainly about parenting school-age autistic kids. And oh how her stories and comments rang true. Some of them, anyway. I never had a principal accuse my kid of provoking other kids to bully him. When Teen B was being bullied, the teacher and principal worked with us to find a solution. I think it really helps to have your kids in the same school, same district, all the way through, to have the other kids in the school live in your neighborhood, to volunteer in the school so the staff have a good feeling about you. But also be flexible: sending Teen A to Hillside School for his dyslexia was the best decision we ever made. I was also lucky enough to find a parent network group to support me through the preteen and teen years. But it was still always really hard to be "that mom," and I think a book like this would have helped me.

One quibble: she recommends "unschooling," which I am 100% against, based on the experience of some people we know. But otherwise there's a lot of good stuff in this book.

The Dry by Jane Harper (2016). The NY Times recently published a list of "the 50 best thrillers of the 21st century so far" and this was #24. I studied the list carefully, but didn't see many that I haven't read and would like to. I had already read 10 on the list (and with this book, 11) and there are maybe 5 more I'd like to read. Anyway, this book is more of a mystery than a thriller and for a debut novel it's quite good. It's set in rural Australia, a five-hour drive from Melbourne, so probably somewhere in the middle of New South Wales, which appears from the map to be the middle of nowhere. Federal agent Aaron Falk comes home to the drought-stricken town he and his father fled from 20 years ago, for the funeral of his former best friend who has apparently shot and killed his wife, young son, and himself. But are things really what they seem? Harper has written other books, so I may check them out too.

End of summer

I know, I know, summer doesn't officially end until September 22nd, and the traditional end of summer is Labor Day, which is very late this year, September 7th. But I've always felt that the end of August is the end of summer. So there.

This has been kind of a weird week, due to my knee surgery on Thursday. I had to spend Wednesday consuming only clear liquids (Sprite, iced tea, a lemon popsicle, some hard candy) so that my stomach would be really and truly empty when they did the procedure. This is a Mounjaro thing, because it makes your stomach empty more slowly. 

They sent me so many instructions (take this, don't take that, stop this a week before, stop this two days before, wash with this, don't wear that, on and on) that I was getting kind of confused. But the one thing they didn't mention was what time we had to be there. On Wednesday I got a text asking me to confirm that I would be there at 6:45 am (I thought it was at 9 am). I called and sure enough, that's when we had to be there. Oh well, good to know.

We arrived at the very pleasant and new-looking surgery center in plenty of time, filled out paperwork, and signed a bunch of things. At about 7:15 they took us back to the preop area, where I was put in a lovely gown, a hairnet, a sock on my bad leg, and a compression stocking AND a sock on my good leg, oh, and a heated blanket. 

A nurse studied the veins in my hand and decided to put the IV in the crook of my arm instead. She said, "They don't like me to do this, but the vein there is much better." I was happy about this because I hate having an IV in my hand. They tested my blood sugar and it was 105, which is very good for me. My blood pressure was 129 over 69, which is a bit high, but I was probably a little dehydrated.

Then Rocket Boy went off in search of a cafe (he'd had breakfast, but that man is always hungry), and I was wheeled into the surgery room. The nice anesthesiologist asked me if my heart rate was always slow. I thought about that. When I was younger, yes, I had a very slow heart. But not in the last 10-20 years! 

The surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurse all stood around waiting for me to go to sleep and at first it didn't seem like I was going to. Hm hm hm, OK, when's it going to happen? And then I was out and then I was awake and it was all over.

I was in a lot of pain when I woke up, kind of cramping aching pain in my leg. The surgeon came by and he said the back of my knee was "very tight," whatever that means, so they had to kind of dig around to do what they needed to do. I guess that was the explanation for the pain. My nurse gave me first one thing and then another, and finally she got permission to give me something called Toradol, which is like super duper ibuprofen, and that did the trick. The pain finally subsided and then I could go home. 

I spent most of the rest of the day sleeping, only waking up to take more pain meds and eat a little something (wheat thins, a banana, a piece of banana bread coffee cake). Rocket Boy had made his famous 4-cheese macaroni & cheese, so we had some of that for dinner. They had stuck a scopolamine patch on my back (for nausea) and I kept it on until Saturday night because it was so wonderful not to feel any nausea.

Friday was much the same as Thursday (except I didn't have surgery again). I could hobble around slowly, so I fed the cats and did some dishes, but mostly I just lay on the bed and read and slept. And took meds. 

Saturday was the same, except that in the middle of the afternoon Teen B showed up again! He had taken the bus that gets to Boulder at 2:48 pm. I don't know if we're going to see him every weekend or not, but it was certainly nice to have him come by. Again, he only stayed a few hours, caught the 6:10 bus back to Fort Collins. While he was here, Rocket Boy was nice and went to Starbucks for us, getting me an iced pumpkin cream chai and Teen B an iced pumpkin spice latte and a hedgehog cake pop.

I am a little worried about Teen B because he is already convinced he is going to fail Freshman Comp. I dragged him, kicking and screaming, through 9th grade language arts, 10th grade language arts, 11th grade language arts, and 12th grade language arts, so this is not exactly a surprise. But I had told him, you're in college now, I'm not doing your homework for you. It is not clear whether saying that is going to be enough. He still expects me to help him. And of course he seems to have an impossible teacher who has already assigned a whole bunch of stuff for them to write, much worse than I ever did when I was teaching freshman comp at CU. Arrrgghh.

He may end up dropping the class. Maybe it would be for the best. 

We're continuing to deal with our peeing cat, Sillers. I washed the blankets on our bed twice this week before my surgery because she had peed on them. Fortunately I had put a pee pad under the blankets, so the urine didn't soak down to the sheets and mattress pad. But still. She's also peeing on the carpet in our room, and quite possibly elsewhere as well, since she wanders all over the house and I don't think she has much control over her bladder anymore.

Finally I got annoyed and ordered some big fancy reusable pee pads from Chewy, plus more Nature's Miracle and a package of cat diapers. They arrived on Friday. I figured she could wear a cat diaper at night, when I can't watch what she's doing. But so far I haven't managed to get a diaper on her. You have to stick their tail through a little hole, and while I'm doing that, she wriggles away from me and the diaper.

At least both cats like the new pee pads (you can see Sillers rolling around on one in the picture at the top of this post). It's soft, like a blanket.

Well, I think this is about all I'm going to write today. My knee does not like me to sit in a chair for long periods of time, it wants to be elevated and iced. I did take the bandages off this morning (after 72 hours) and my knee looks very nice! Three little incisions, each with their little black stitches. The knee is very swollen and tender -- the other knee is swollen too. When I weighed myself on Friday morning I was up six pounds! But that's from the swelling. It will go down. I decided to stop taking the oxycodone today, and that seems to have been the right decision. Still alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen. I miss the scopolamine patch -- my usual nausea is back. They gave me some other drugs for nausea, but I feel like I shouldn't take them, because this is Mounjaro nausea, not from the surgery. Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll ask my doctor about it.

On I think September 8th I have a follow-up appointment and then after that I think physical therapy. But at some point I should have a more functional knee. Looking forward to it.