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Thursday, 6 December 2018

Day 44 of 100, Thursday 6th December


I woke up earlier than yesterday! Oh, sure, I still struggled to go to sleep – but I stubbornly refused to allow my mind off the leash! That’s the key in my case: force the mind to rest.

I keep having these strange dreams about a recently departed close acquaintance. I keep dreaming he haunts his workshop – but as he was thirty years ago. I didn’t attend the whatever-it-was they did in lieu of a service when he passed away, so I’m having some trouble accepting. Knowing and truly accepting are different things – intellectually I know he is dead, but it isn’t completely real to me, yet.

I forgot about load shedding and got caught off-guard today. Sigh. I chose to give the paper-stick idea a try during the outage – managed to produce 21 sticks so far. I’d take a break whenever a mippie mipped for attention, though. Lady Jane fell in love with the brush! They don’t like to lie still for a brushing but prefer to rub their faces along the brush getting their whiskers brushed in the process! Today, Lady Jane discovered just how lovely that feels!

My mind went wandering off on yet another tangent … I think I need to start a journal for all the ideas I keep having. They may not be practical quite yet, but with some work? All of them do have potential and sometimes I come up with an improvement on a past idea, or combine some half-baked concepts.

I’ve just gone through my stash of stationery – sigh, don’t ask! I like stationery, different types of medium to write or draw on or with. I’ve got blocks for water colouring, for pencil drawings, line paper, blocked paper, blank paper, stretch paper, labels, cardboard, spiral books, hard cover exercise books, A4 or A5 and a lot of tracing paper as well. I’ve also got water colours, several sets of coloured pencils, oil pastels, acrylic paint, stencils, stamps, felt-tip coloured pens, coloured ball-point pens, coloured card board … I think that’s about the lot, ha ha! But it makes it hard to choose which to use for my jottings. Oh, sure, I have a jotting book but it isn’t lined at all. I’m torn between a pocket-sized spiral and a hard cover A4.

I settled for an A5 lined spiral pad. Now I don’t know how to start. I like to have the whole thing laid out in my head before I put it on paper – but I can’t work every detail out in my head, so I need to jot it down to avoid forgetting any details. Ha Ha, I have a tortuous mind! My biggest problem turns out to be that I press to hard when I’m writing – I can clearly read the imprint.

Well, my basket is taking shape, now! I’ve stuck the paper rolls between two pieces of cardboard and am now waiting for the glue to dry. I’ve put the chalk paint and the stone pestle and mortar on top to flatten it.

Hmmm, I’m wondering whether I should use round paper sticks for the weft (thread woven around the waft, which are the longitudinal threads) or whether I should flatten them?

I was busily rolling paper sticks when Rose called … I went downstairs and heard her cat, Abby crying almost non-stop. I saw Rose had unlocked the gates so I walked in … to find poor Rose in a state! Abby appears to have had a stroke, she’s crying almost non stop her pupils are wide, when she tries to get up, her left side doesn’t seem to support her and she’s drooling helplessly … she was already in the carrier, so I carried her to the car for Rose. They are rushing off to the vet now … Abby would be sixteen years old mid December.

Rose was telling me yesterday that she fears that it may be time to euthanize poor Abby. Rose woke up at three in the morning to find Abby had soiled all over the bed while Rose had been asleep! She’s no longer getting down to the litter box, though she does still climb up to the bed. Abby had also wet the bed badly. Rose was having trouble sleeping, waking at every noise and sound in fear of finding herself covered … that’s why she got the cat carrier from her daughter, for Abby to sleep in, so Rose can get a night’s sleep.

I’m afraid the vet confirmed that Abby had a stroke. They gave her something to calm her, because she was crying and thrashing about, trying to regain control of her body … there was nothing they could do, except release her.

She had a long and good life. She was loved and cared for her entire life, up to the last minute. So loved, in fact that Rose could not bring herself to make the decision – which has now been made. As soon as she returned, I went to see Rose.

Shadow came in for a good, long munch and drink, then went out again. I’m quite sure that whatever ailed her, is now behind her and she’s recovering – and will hopefully be back to her old weight soon! Hopefully she’ll spend more time with Rose now, as well.

I couldn’t stay too long, since it was getting on seven and I don’t want my mippies out after dark again; no worries today, though. Ziva isn’t too keen on being indoors this early (by her standards) and was quite restless for a while, mipping at me for scritches – but eventually she settled down on the chair with Lady Jane.

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