Just updating

So, anyway, life rolls on.

Ryker has been home since January 27 and continues to gain weight. He’s off the enzymes, which really were instrumental in rapid gain. I’m wondering if he was missing something in his gut and the enzymes in his food kick-started his own system. In any case, his mama has changed his formula and he’s eating all kinds of food. He’s doing really well and is up to 16 pounds and gaining. And he’s making up missed milestones. So that’s all good. His mama and papa are getting married for real in May, on the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend. #2 Daughter has demanded to be one of the witnesses.

#2 Daughter is struggling in the big city. I wish she would update me more often, but I can’t force communication. I do see updates on Facebook, though, so that’s good. She has been living in a youth shelter and is one of maybe two kids there who haven’t done jail time. On the one hand, I would like her to come home, and on the other, I admire her determination to live life on her terms and doing what she has to do, or what she feels she has to do. As long as she’s safe and happy, it’s certainly very valuable life experience. I won’t say I don’t worry about her, or wish that I could be living in the city so she could have a place to live, but this is her kick at the can. I wasn’t that brave and independent at 18.

Son and his fiancée seem to be doing well. They drop in on me from time to time when they come down this way to visit her parents and go to the movies, but they never have the kids with them. I’ll have to tell them to bring my grandbabies for a viz.

Pet mice Zoë and Blizzard are still alive. Zoë has developed mammary tumours, poor old lady, but, like Dot before her, they don’t seem to be causing her pain or distress. She’s just lumpy. Her appetite is good, she still gets in her wheel–and she turned 2 in November!! She’s OLD!! Blizz spends a lot of time in his little tower room. I took two segments out of the tower when he started having a hard time climbing up to his sanctuary. He turned 2 on January 4. I have old mousies.

Work is crazy busy and I’m enjoying it. I’ve been doing a steady 4.5 to 5 hours of actual massage a day–that might be as many as ten half-hour appointments, and that is sustainable. I’ve "stolen" a couple of my co-worker’s clients when they’ve been scheduled with me instead of her, and she has a few of mine, so it’s all balancing out. Two of hers that I acquired asked me if it was okay to switch therapists since they found my techniques more effective. I suspect the ones of mine that she’s taken over prefer a lighter approach. I do a lot of treatment with no oil/lotion whatsoever, and more myofascial release techniques. And this summer, I’m scheduled to take the basic course in Manual Lymph Drainage in Toronto. That should be interesting. My boss is paying the fee (almost $1000) and I just have to get myself there. I’ll be staying with friends or family–I’d like to bring #2 Daughter, and she’s trying to contact her uncle on her dad’s side to see if she can stay with him and his wife. Whatever happens, it’ll all work out.

I got a one month membership at a local gym, and although I like it well enough, and they have great equipment and such, it occurs to me that a Wii Fit Plus costs less than two months at the gym, and should last longer than that, so I’m thinking of splurging on one next pay or so. We’ll see.

I also have to finish paying for the parts to get my brakes done on my car, but I can do that the next pay as well. I took it to the Community College and had the students fix it and the teacher check it over and all that good stuff. That way, I only have to pay for parts, not labour, and I know the work has been gone over with a critical eye, because the teacher wants to make sure his students are learning. And one of the students is a client of mine as well. Nice kid, actually. I don’t *think* he’d plot my untimely demise! lol

Listening to the news channel on TV right now. There’s some talk about possible meltdown of one or two of the reactors in northern Japan. I have to admit that my mind does wander toward images of Godzilla coming up out of the ocean as a result. I think it’s a defense mechanism against the potential horror. As if the horror of the quake and tsunami isn’t enough as it is. They’re saying now 10,000 or so dead and another 10,000 missing, most of the missing (9500 last night) from one town alone. It boggles my mind that half the population of a town can just vanish in the waves. There was also a report that four whole trains have disappeared. How does that happen? I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around it all. I think what makes this more shocking than Haiti is that Japan is possibly The Most Earthquake Ready country in the world. But no place is safe from a 9.0 (it was upgraded overnight) quake. It’s the biggest quake to hit Japan since they began keeping records 150 (140?) years ago.

It also makes me wonder what the world is up to. And I wonder if the dead fish that turned up off the coast of California might not be related to something released from the ocean floor just before the quake really got moving. And I see there was a huge solar flare not too long ago, and that makes me wonder if there was a big EMP before that which might be responsible for flocks of birds plummeting dead out of the sky. Not much we can do if the sun and the earth get pissed off at us, really, is there? Live our lives being as decent as we can be to those around us, I guess.

Enough for one entry, dear friends. I’m off. "The Vinyl Café" will be coming up on the radio soon and I don’t want to miss it. Check out CBC radio for the link to the show. It’s available in podcast as well, and is my favourite show.