I Wasn’t Dreaming Of A White Thanksgiving

I may not have been dreaming of a white Thanksgiving, but nevertheless, it is absolutely snowing this morning with only a week to go until the Holiday.

A few weeks ago I had to have my 14 year old golden retriever put down, and his best little friend (one of my several house cats) named Mischa escaped the house a week later and has since, not returned home.  She’s nearby.  I see her frequently.  She eats the food I put out for her but only when she is certain no one is around.  Each time I see her, she is in the company of a neighbors cat named Duncan.  Duncan is also not returning home according to his family.  Mischa and Duncan are both spayed/neutered …. are all up to date on shots …. and were house cats until just recently.  I have never in my life known of a house cat to purposely stay away for so long …. but it is obvious she is staying away intentionally.

My remaining dog (a 12 year old min-pin) always barks at her, and the remaining cats have not been exactly kind to her.  She always was low on the totem pole amongst all my pets with the exception of the big old Golden love bucket of a Retriever …. he loved her dearly …. and she loved him.  They were always cuddled up together somewhere … sofa, floor, bed ….. one couldn’t take a step without the other …. and now …. as it is snowing …. I am just heart sick.  I’ve opened the sliding patio door (in a snowstorm) just in case she returns.  My daughter’s are afraid I’ll have all kinds of things coming inside if I do this too often …. so I just won’t tell them!

On a different note …. next Thursday (Thanksgiving) I am travelling to New York City  by train to spend a long weekend with my youngest daughter and her husband.  I do not walk well due to advanced joint disease so my daughter says she has rented a wheelchair and will meet me at the station.  I think that’s a little drastic …. but she insists it will be necessary due to the long walk from one station to the other …. not to mention there will be a parade going on ….. I wasn’t thinking of the Macy’s Christmas Parade when I planned this trip …. all I was thinking is “I have four days off in a row!  My daughter has wanted me to visit since they moved to New York!  I should go!  In fact, I ought to take a train so I can relax!”

Now it has occurred to me that I will need long term parking for my car that is close enough to the departing station for me to walk ….. or I will need to get a cab to take me and pick me up from the train station on my end …. I’m sure I’ll think of something.  I was going to take a drive to the train station today to see what arrangements there are for 3 day, handicap accessible parking …. but the snow kind of put a damper on that idea.

Instead, I headed to the local grocery store on my way home from work this morning (night shift worker) and rather than buy the typical “bread, milk, eggs” that most people buy before a snow storm, I picked up my free (local rewards grocery points) fresh Turkey and popped that into the oven this morning.  I’ll be eating turkey for the remainder of 2018.

At work, we are still waiting for word on how our co-worker is doing since his gastric bypass surgery a few weeks ago.  The last we heard (Monday) was that he had to undergo a  second procedure, was in quite a bit of pain and would be out on leave for the rest of the year.

Now that Miss Stir the Pot has returned (after quitting a few years ago) the office is once again a madhouse of misunderstandings, miscommunications, and misinformation.  The difference this time is that EVERYONE (not just me) realizes who is “stirring” said pot including our boss.

For instance, on Sunday I arrived to work to relieve Miss Stir the Pot, and as I was logging in, I received an odd computer error message that the firewall had been compromised, so I called Information Technology and they worked out the problem within a few minutes.  I had said hello to Miss Stir the Pot in passing, and I’m sure she heard me on the phone with the I.T. people, but she didn’t ask me why I had called or what the problem had been.

Instead she told me all about how jealous she was that I was going to New York City to visit Radio City Music Hall and see the Parade for Thanksgiving.  Oddly enough, I never mentioned about my travel plans to anyone other than one person at work …. and nothing was ever said about Radio City Music Hall and like I said before, I would prefer to skip the parade altogether ….. and then she told me how she had upset a doctor but apologized and told the Doctor that she was new.  NEW?  She worked the job 15 years, left for a year and half and is now back ….. how is that NEW?  Then she told me that one of our other co-workers had spilled an entire cup of coffee on the rug because it didn’t have a lid, and ask me if there wasn’t a rule that said our beverages had to be covered at our workstation (to which I intentionally did not reply).  Then she said “it’s a good thing it didn’t spill into our radio equipment or keyboards”.  To which I intentionally changed the subject to how her mother was doing.  (incidentally, her mother is in bad shape.  she has cancer but can’t get chemo because she has a heart problem and needs surgery, but she can’t have surgery on her heart because her blood count is so low from a bowel bleed, which she also can’t have fixed because she can’t do the prep because she has diabetes and her blood sugar goes so low so quickly, and her insurance won’t cover the medicine she needs to build up her blood but will cover a transfusion, which she won’t have because she’s afraid she’ll receive contaminated blood, and in the meanwhile her mother who is in her late 70’s continues line dance very Friday night, Bingo every Wednesday night, and hasn’t mentioned any health concerns to her other children (she has 7 children total and I happen to be friends with one of them) …. but that is another story for another day.

The comes Monday.  I arrive to work and am greeted by Miss Spill The Coffee, who apologized profusely to me for spilling her coffee …. and when I giggled and told her it hadn’t bothered me, that I wasn’t even there and was only told about it …. she informed me that she heard that I was very upset about it and to be prepared for me to confront her about it.

No ….not even a blink in that direction…

Then Tuesday morning, another co-worker arrived to relieve me from my shift, and mentioned that she’s been having trouble logging on to the computer just like I did, that maybe we should call I.T. and put a ticket in since it’s happening to both of us.

But I’m not having any trouble logging into anything …. my only problem was Sunday when I had to call I.T. because I had a firewall error message …. logging in wasn’t my issue ….

“OH ”  she said “but (Miss Stir The Pot) said you had trouble logging in”.

Again no … not even close.

Then today ….. the same co-worker asked me why I hadn’t mentioned I had CAP (community aquired)  pneumonia when I called off sick three days in a row a couple of weeks ago.  That all of us could have gotten it!

I told her I didn’t mention pneumonia because I never had pneumonia.  That I hadn’t called in sick, they were pre-arranged vacation days.  Then she asked me if it was true I was taking my dogs medicine for a cough.

What?  Why on earth would I take dog medicine for a cough?  In fact, for curiosity’s sake, what type of dog medicine would even help a human cough?  Besides … who had a cough?

I said “let me guess?  Miss Stir The Pot?” and we both giggled.

Nope, I did however go to my family physician …. no pneumonia …. no cough … just a routine follow up to see how I was doing on Avortistatin since I’ve never been on it before (and it’s for high cholesterol, not a cough, and definately not dog medicine).  However, when I called the pharmacy from work (where Miss Stir The Pot was at the same time) to refill all of my prescriptions, I asked that they not use childproof CAPS ….. and a little later, I made a lousy joke with a security guard about my Dogma eatting my Karma …..

I’m off today and tomorrow …. I can hardly wait to find out what I’ve said or done when I return on Saturday!