Back in bed for a couple of days…

Monday turned out to be a really slow day for personal care so I doubted I would be able to get up but I did. I thought we got everything done yesterday so I could get up early today but it didn’t work out that way… at least I got up. I went to take Robby for really long cruise and I ran into Otis in the yard so I talked to him for a while. He had 3 of his dogs with him so he showed me their Halloween costumes, they all look so cute. I told him about wanting to put planter boxes in the front yard to grow my own vegetables next summer and he thought that was a great idea. He is such a sweet man. Robby and I went on through the lagoon, to the end of the wharf and back, through the boardwalk where we stopped for a while because it was so beautiful and so deserted, down the river and to Ross. I was going to go in Ross and look around but I got such a late start I decided I better just get home and I will check out Ross tomorrow, that way if I find anything I cannot do without I can have Teresa meet me there. I cruised back home through town and got back just in time to go to bed.

Tuesday I got up and took off to my appointment at Claudius for manicure and pedicure, it has been almost a month. I stopped and talked to my uncle for a bit and as I was cruising towards my appointment, which was at 11 AM, my mom texted me and said Claudia called to see if I can, at 12 PM instead. I decided to go down to the end of the wharf and lay back and watch the ocean, it is so gorgeous there. I heard a voice behind me, sounded very intoxicated, saying “oh what a beautiful dog you are, are you friendly” I said “I’m sorry he’s working” I heard the footsteps getting closer and I could see him petting Robby so I said, as I was sitting up in my chair because I knew he wasn’t hearing me “he’s supposed to ignore people when he’s working” I sat up and rolled away. I decided to cruise down by the Boardwalk and try laying back again. After a couple of minutes I heard another intoxicated voice saying “what a beautiful dog, are you going to bite me” again I said, knowing it probably wouldn’t do any good “I’m sorry he’s working” I heard the intoxicated voice say as I was sitting up again “you look too friendly to bite” again I said “he supposed to ignore people when he’s working” as I sat up and rolled away I heard him say “you take care of your mom.” It is so frustrating that I can’t get people to listen to me. I went to my appointment at Claudius and then took Robby for a cruise and then went back home.

Wednesday I got up and took Robby for our regular long cruise and decided I’m not going to stop anywhere I think I will be approached, I have to lay back 15 min. out of every hour so it’s really hard. I try to put Robby in the corner or up against a wall so nobody sees him. There’s so many intoxicated/on drugs people and people who don’t put their dogs on a leash that it’s really hard to keep Robby’s attention from straying, we are trying really hard. I came back home and Teresa brought some buffalo wings from wing stop, plain ones, Parmesan and lemon pepper ones, french fries and for some reason they give you carrots and celery… I can’t imagine anybody eating the carrots and celery, we never do. Teresa put me to bed and my mom and I played cribbage with my uncle and aunt and Lee and Claudia, I lost $4.

Thursday was kind of a bummer day. On Wednesday morning for some reason it took us a really long time to get my back brace in place that we had to redo it a bunch of times. In order to put in my back brace I have to lean forward and we put it down my back. Apparently by doing it so many times we rubbed in bruise on my back. It’s not a good thing but it really won’t hurt anything, it just takes a couple days to heal and go away. Personal care took a really long time but at the end of it I got a nice long hot bath and went back to bed, I’m usually exhausted with the personal care takes that long so I was ready to relax and watch TV.

Friday was of course my weekly massage, it always feels so good. I decided to just stay in bed because the visiting nurse was supposed to be here at 11 AM, of course it was almost noon when she got here. She didn’t have very good news, I’m back to staying off my butt as much as possible. I guess when you get older your skin gets thinner and hopefully this isn’t a preview of what is to come.

Saturday was supposed to be my support group meeting. Of course the visiting nurse and Teresa said that I should not go so I missed another one, I hope more people showed up this time. I have a couple of groupon's that expired today said Theresa went out and got lunch for everyone. The rest of the day was just flipping from one side to the other and me flipping out, it is so frustrating but you got a do what you got to do. Hopefully I’ll be okay by Thanksgiving.

Sunday was another long personal-care day spent in bed. I do love to get a nice long hot bath before I go back to bed but it would be even nicer to get up and out of here, I’m sure Robby agrees. Thankfully it was cold and rainy all day. Heather came over and cooked a bunch of stuff, the smell of everything she cooks is also a treat when I have to stay in bed but I want to eat EVERYTHING right now.

An awesome visit from my brother David and his son JohnPatrick…

Monday I got up and JohnPatrick and I took Robby for a cruise over to the wharf and back, JohnPatrick is so smart he just amazes me. We got back and decided after hanging out for a while and order pizza, pizza is always good.

Tuesday was a day for just hanging out and having fun. Stanley was supposed to come down and stay for a couple days but he wasn’t able to make it. We decided to order Mexican food, David and I decided to split one, my mom got cheese enchiladas and JohnPatrick got chicken nachos.

Wednesday I got up and Teresa took me to get my mammogram, It went really smooth and fast, 1st time ever I think because of all the maneuvering we usually have to do. I came back and just wasn’t feeling very good. We were supposed to go out to dinner with my aunt and uncle so I stuck it out but it just felt awful, after I got home Teresa told me that I should have taken Xanax because even if I didn’t notice it the mammogram is a lot of trauma to your body. We went to the wooden nickel in Watsonville and have an awesome meal, even though I brought three quarters of mine home. I think EVERYTHING at the wooden nickel is killer. David decided to leave on Wednesday evening instead of Thursday morning because there was more flights and he really needed to get home by Friday.

Thursday I got up and took Robbie for a nice long cruise through the lagoon, to the end of the wharf and back and through the boardwalk. We stopped on the boardwalk for a while to just watch the ocean and enjoy the beautiful day, it was perfect. We came back and Teresa brought me some noodles from Hong Kong Charlie’s, my favorite is pad Thai with garlic tofu. After that we went to the post office to mail something to my brother David, of course the package that we ordered got here the day after he left. Part of it was to be left here and part of it to be shipped to him.

Friday my morning routine took so long and I was so exhausted I just went back to sleep, I didn’t even take a bath. Lee and Claudia, my uncle and aunt and my mom and I played cribbage and I did pretty good again. Karen Mason gingersnap cookies and we usually have a lot of snacks, although I try to stay away from them.

Saturday I got up and took Robbie for a next or long cruise, we haven’t been able to go very long cruises lately so we took advantage of today. I was going to stop at pet Smart to get a soft rubber brush for Robby but by the time I got down there I forgot. We came back and practiced some of our commands and Robby did really good. I was down for 3 weeks and we seem to have had company a lot so we neglected our commands and I thought I was going to be sorry but Robbie is always such a trooper.

"We try to replace them but never quite succeed. A new Dog never replaces an old Dog, it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many Dogs, your heart is very big”

Sunday was a really long and miserable day, we barely got time to do the morning routine and take a bath, I think Karen went home at 6 PM. She did make these really cool pinwheel things that we saw on the Pillsbury site. You just roll out the croissants and put bacon, cheese, green onions and it says to put ranch dressing on it but that didn’t sound good so we just left out the dressing. They were really awesome, while we were looking we found a recipe to make stuffed crust pizza. Pillsbury has a dough for pizza crust so you print that out and let it hang over the pan a little bit and then string cheese and put it around the edge and then cover it. Then you put on the marinara sauce and then you put on any toppings that you want, it looks awesome and we are going to try it.

Halloween and brothers…

Monday started off really boring. Teresa came over in the morning to get me some breakfast and coffee. Karen didn’t come in until 1 PM because we were going to get dressed and go downtown for the evening, Halloween downtown in Santa Cruz is always an experience. Cassy came over to hang out for a while, it was really good to see her. Karen came in about 1 PM and started getting me dressed for Halloween. My plan was to be a convict in a electric chair but things started not working out so I was just a convict. I bought some black and white striped boots to go with my outfit and they wouldn’t fit, I got some leg warmers with straps on them but they were too tight around my leg bag, we didn’t have time to put the lights around my head but everything else looked great. We put the convicts Costume on Robbie with a hat that said “bad dog” everybody just loved it and thought he was so cute. We went down to the Palomar and had dinner, checked out the costumes for a while, listen to the music and then came home. It was a really nice evening.

"I explained it to St. Peter,
I'd rather stay here
Outside the pearly gate.
I won't be a nuisance,
I won't even bark, I'll be very patient and wait,
I'll be here, chewing on a celestial bone,
No matter how long you may be.
I'd miss you so much, if I went in alone,
It wouldn't be heaven for me." ~Unknown Poet

Tuesday was a mess. I have a Mac so I needed to install this thing called the lion but in order to install the lion you needed to 1st install the snow leopard. Luckily Karen was here and did all this for me. Now that I have upgraded that my DragonDictate needed to be updated so I had to call and do that. Then the buttons on my trackball got all messed up and when I tried to go in and change that they wanted me to install a driver, which I tried to 3 times and they’re still not working. It’s one of the buttons that I use A lot, especially to play words with friends. Thank goodness my brother will be here in a couple of days.

Wednesday I got out and Robbie and I went for an extra long cruise, through the lagoon, to the end of the wharf and back, through the boardwalk, down the river, I even braved it and went across the red steel bridge and back, down to Ross and back through town. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was at the wharf in the middle of the week but then I remembered everybody is watching for the whales. I had a couple of people ask me if they have been cited already got morning, I saw a picture on Facebook of one of them before I left. I didn’t stay on the wharf for very long because it was just way too crowded and hard to see anything. I came back home and my neighbors left me about for big beautiful stock’s of brussels sprouts, they looks so fresh. She makes tamales and I buy some from her every Saturday but the last couple of Saturdays I haven’t seen her very much. Apparently she got a job which is awesome, I am so happy for her. I’ll still get my tamales when I can.

Thursday I got up and took Robbie to the vet for a follow-up appointment, his itching is almost gone and there is no more yeast. After that we cruise down to the wharf and sat there for a long time, it is such a beautiful view. We cruise down through the vacant Boardwalk, down the river and back through town. I came back home and watch Teresa start to take down my Halloween decorations, goodbye until next year. Next weekend will be putting up Thanksgiving decorations, I need to call Melissa and see if she will come and take my Windows. I got some really bad news tonight, it’s just for breaking. A friend of the family, Steve, is on hospice daily and is basically than just living on pain meds. Steve’s wife, Elaine, was my boss for over 10 years until my injury. Steve has come down here a couple of times and stayed for a while and that’s when I really got to know him, he is an awesome man. I remember we had a surprise party for him a year ago and they didn’t expect to live very long than, he is very strong. We got to be really good friends and him going to be very sad when I hear that he’s gone.

True friendship isn't about whom you have known the longest... It's about who came, and never left your side..."
- Unknown

Friday was a little colder but not raining so Robbie and I took advantage of it and went out for a long cruise. 1 min. it would be nice and warm and then the next minute the sun went behind the clouds and it would be cold. We managed to make it through the lagoon, down to the end of the wharf where we sat and looked out for a long time, through the deserted boardwalk, down the river to Ross and back through town. As we were cruising along the river a guy came by on a bicycle and he was practically laying down flat and peddling with his arms. He asked me if I how spinal cord injury and when I said yes he asked me what level I was and I told him I was C6, he said he was C67 but gained a lot back. I talked to him for a while and told him that we had a support group that met at Dominican rehab the 3rd Saturday of every month and it would be nice to see him there. He said that him and Roger started a support group several years back but people just quit coming to the decided to call it quits, I told him I hoped we didn’t have to do that again but it’s kind of looking like that. I will keep offering people food and hopefully they will keep showing up. We are talking about having some guest speakers so hopefully that will bring people in. Robbie and I cruised back home and watched Karen and Teresa put away almost all of the rest of the Halloween decorations. Heather came over and made us these absolutely killer crab and shrimp filo cups. Lee and Claudia, my uncle and aunt and my mom and I played about 4 games of cribbage and I want every single game, I love winning!

Saturday by personal care took a really long time but I expected it to so I got it out of the way and got to have a nice long hot bath so I can get up tomorrow and spend it with my brother and my nephew. My brother and my nephew are coming tonight instead so I am excited. They’re going to stay until Wednesday or Thursday. Stanley is going to come down on Tuesday and stay for a couple of days also, it will be nice to be all together again.

Sunday was Robby’s 4th birthday. I hung out with my brother and my nephew and the day went by way too fast. John Patrick and I took Robby for a cruise through the lagoon, we even went on the boardwalk over the water. Uncle Dick made some killer stew and brought over that and some really soft French bread, I ate way too much but it was awesome.