Daily Update, October 4, 2023

    Today, I sent a slightly worried text to my housekeeper, since I hadn't heard from her despite less worried texts asking how they were. They got marked "read," but no reply. This one got a reply from her husband. She's taking care of a family emergency and left her phone behind. He promised to have her text me when she and her phone get back together. {Smile}

   I got a call from Alan, too. He wanted to know when Val's vet's appointment was. I looked it and told him it was at 1:15. We arranged for him to pick us up at 12:45. {Smile}

   Alan came promptly at 12:45, and I took Val and the rest of my things out to his car. We had a nice talk on the way down. They checked Val... they want me to stop the insulin and measure his blood sugar before every meal. I'm afraid I decided to start before lunch tomorrow, because I felt rushed with the game, and then late feeding times, and tomorrow breakfast... Lunch should give me more time to figure things out, I hope. They were indeed getting long and digging into his paws again. They've started do that, instead of shedding the sheathes. The other vet said this can happen with age. {Smile}

   When we were done, I called Alan, and he came and took us home. We had another nice talk on the way. {Smile}

   I ate dinner with Mom and read to her before that. First, I read scripture and thoughts about it. Next, I continued reading Mom's niece's long family Christmas letter from 2019. After that, I showed her a couple of pictures in _Visions of Scotland_. I stopped after a couple because she was particularly sleepy, and not looking at the pictures as much, though I think she heard more than she saw. So I moved on to a story from _365 Bedtime Stories and Rhymes_, where hearing is more important than seeing. I finished with "Maria's Clogs," from _366 Stories for Bedtime: A Tale for Every Day of the Year_. Maria was the daughter of a woodcutter who was pretty poor. He could cover basic necessities, but extras were hard to come by. One winter, Maria's leather shoes wore out. Her father apologized, but he'd have to save up to afford another pair. She'd have to stay home and help with the chores. At first, she didn't mind not going to school, but two or three days of being cooped up inside with no other children to play with made Maria bored and grumpy. Then Maria's father had an idea. Without telling anyone, he took a couple of pieces of beech wood, and cut, carved, and polished until he'd made her a pair of wooden clogs, with a blue daisy on one, and a red daisy on the other. Maria was delighted! {Smile}

   I did my head exercises, arm swinging exercises, and arm resistance exercises after teaming with Kitten and quorty in the evening. {Smile}

   I read comics and articles in the morning and over lunch. I also hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming after lunch, just long enough to tell Div, Perogies, and maybe kitten that I was taking Val to the vet but would be on after that. They all wished us well. Div said he would probably leave before I got back. Sure enough, Div wasn't on when I got back, and back into City of Heroes: Homecoming. Neither was Perogies, but Kitten was on, and we were preparing to team up when Mysty said hi and wanted to show us a base she's working on. She invited me, and Kitten when I asked, adn we got to see how it's coming. Then another friend from the same chat world I met Mysty in came on., and joined us, too. His visit was short - he was the first to leave, too, but it was so nice seeing him again. Then Mysty left, and I looked at the time. It looked like we had time for one of the missions that Kitten still had, but I'd done with Perogies. We did it, and it ended earlier than I expected. We squeezed in the other one I'd done with Perogies and ended just in time to read to Mom. Taht worked out pretty perfectly! {SMILE}

    After dinner, I hopped back into City of Heroes: Homecoming, and found Kitten wasn't there. But i messaged them on the chat server, and they soon came in. WE teamed in and finished the story arc we'd worked on before reading to Mom. I checked with Phonso, but he was busy Trick-or-Treating, and I didn't really feel like joining him right then. Next, I said hi to qworty, and invited him to join us, which they did. The three of us ran another story arc. It ended slightly early... I coudl have done a mission or two, but not another whole story arc, so I started my exercises early, watching videos, reading articles, and writing this up around and after the exercises and salsa dancing. {Smile}