Daily Update, September 7, 2023

    Wednesday was not a quiet day. It started with counselling after breakfast, which I was maybe 5 minutes late to because that's when I noticed the time. It was quite a busy session, too, but I think we got some stuff talked about that needed it. {Smile}

   Then after lunch, Melanie came, and picked up Val and me. We parked just below Hilo High School, and waited for her granddaughter, who texted that she was coming as fast as she could just as Melanie was wondering where she was. Melanie and I had a nice talk while waiting, and all of us but Valetine, my cat, had a nice ride to the vet. Melanie's granddaughter was happy to share the backseat with Val; she said she likes big kitties, and he is a big kitty. {Smile}

   Val did not like them handling him, and even managed to scratch the vet's assistant, despite padded sports gloves that went to his elbows. But they weren't upset, understanding that it wasn't me, and that Val was just expressing his feeling about not wanting this visit. The good news is that Val's diabetes has improved: his blood sugar was well within the range the vet wanted. The deworming medicine and the antibiotic seem to be working, too. So that's a huge relief. Also, he doesn't need to go back until January. {Smile}

   Melanie came in to visit with Mom, but Mom was too tried to respond much today. {smile}

   I ate lunch and dinner with Mom and read to her before dinner. I started with scripture and thoughts about it. Then I read more from her niece's long family Christmas letter from 2020. After that, I showed her the next few pages of _Mele Kalikimaka: Christmas in Hawai'i_, with its mostly Christmas themed pictures. She does seem to like that book, though the pictures of fancy foods that I had a couple of pages of today weren't as interesting to her. Next, I read a longish short story from _365 Bedtime Stories and Rhymes_. Then I finished with _The Stork's Nest_, the September 7th story from _366 Stories for Bedtime: A Tale for Every Day of the Year_. Hans lived in a traditional house in Alsace in France that tourists liked to come and look at. Hans was proud of the geraniums int eh window boxes, and the traditional white walls with dark timbers, but he liked the stork's nest in the chimney the best. Especially that two babies had been born that year and grew up in that nest. He was disappointed when they disappeared one day and didn't come back, until his mother explained that they'd gone to warmer lands for the winter and would be back next year. {Smile}

   I stumbled a lot when I started my salsa dancing, and had to quit a little over one minute in. I thought it was blood sugar, but I think the sweater and long socks helping me warm up did more than anything else. I did manage to get 8 1/2 minutes of warmup done later, but too late to do a second set. That was almost 10 minutes of salsa dancing, at least. Then I did my walking exercises, my arm resistance exercises, my arm swinging exercises, and my head exercises before it got too late, and I got too tired. So not one of my good days for exercises, but it could have been worse. {Smile}

   I read an article or two before my counselling appointment, and more comics and articles between the appointment and lunch. Then I hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming after lunch, but only for some paperwork before Melanie came. I knew I didn't have time to really get into anything. I hopped back into City of Heroes: Homecoming after Melanie dropped of Val and me and said hi to Mom. I just had time for a bit of badge hunting before reading to Mom. {Smile}

   After dinner, I hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming, and found Perogies on a brand-new character. He wanted me to make one like it. When I had, I found Kitten with him, with a similar character, too. We teamed up and did a couple of missions, but the third mission wasn't the same for all of us. Perogies left, and Kitten and I caught Kitten up in level, because their experience had been turned off, so they didn't gain level when Perogies and I did. Then Kitten said goodbye and went quiet. I was just going to start looking at paperwork when Phonso came on and invited us to a taskforce. Kitten was out of it, but I wanted to join. While I was switching characters, I disconnected and had to restart my computer. I got it up and running again and got back in time to join the taskforce. Phonso had some insight into the recent disconnection. The task force would have gotten done just in time to start my salsa dancing if I hadn't needed to warm up or something before I could dance. I read comics and wrote this up around the exercises I did do, shifting to making notes when I knew I couldn't finish writing it properly before the next day. {Smile}