Electric Day

9:00 The electric day really begins now with electromyography, not unlike tripping over the electric fence while wearing the dog’s training collar while the dog is standing on the switch and then landing into a pile of thistles. Good news is I’m not crazy, the test shows that I have valid reason to think my toes feel numb because of the bad news that I have peripheral neuropathy. So step one is done, now for step two, hopefully finding out what is causing it, there are a slew of causes, and getting it stopped or better yet, reversed.

10:21 After the electrifying test, we, the girls and I, head up south hill for a blood draw for a thyroid follow up. I dash in, dash out and off to Costco for some quick shopping,

10:39 Costco, ah lots of carts in the parking area, not crowded, yay. I get some undershirts, jeans, dress shirt and a pair of shorts for Phil and groceries for the house.

11:35 We hustle our bustles to Stephie’s, eat our sushi lunch while she finishes her dishes. Kai has a small taste of pickled ginger, thinks it is good, has a big chunk and it ends up in the sink. New experiences don’t always go smoothly.

12:00 We jump in the cars head over to Michelle’s get a bucket of ice for my oysters to stay cold since we forgot the ice chest at home and then head to Point Defiance.

12:30ish and we have a fun time in the fuchsia garden while someone, we won’t mention who, complaines that she just wants to get to the zoo and why do we have to do the garden too.

1:00 As we head back to the car we travel through the rose garden and now someone is wandering around smelling everything, picking out the best flowers and guessing their names.

1:30 No parking in the zoo parking lot, circle, circle, circle, circle, got one! Did anyone else hear musical chairs music playing? Off to the zoo. Quick stop at the ladies room and that means a quick stop to see if they have anything on sale in the gift shop. Yahwhoo a way cool pitcher or is it vase, well it is a fish and too cool to let the 50% off sticker get overlooked. Okay now off to the animals.

The draw for the day is clearly the lemurs and the meerkats; the mole rats, pygmy owls, poison dart frogs, elephants, tigers and penguins are just extras today.

3:00 But now my achey legs (you go sit on an electric fence on high and let me know how your legs feel) are really done and so we head out to the parking lot, trade passengers, Michelle rode out with me so I get Anna back and Steph takes Chelle and head off to finish the rest of our day separately. All very much to Anna’s chagrin, she would like for the day together to continue for ever.
3:39 Since we’re in the “neighborhood” I stop by the downtown Tacoma’s Group Health office to pick up earrings I left there back in May but not until we swing through the Proctor district to see if Auntie Gee Gee is home, she wasn’t. While I am on the same floor as radiology I stop at their desk to see if I can schedule an appointment for a lumbar series that was ordered with the EMG. Well, I can’t make an appointment but I can just get it done as a walk-in, how ’bout now. This is too easy, but okay! And I am still out in under 3o minutes so my stay in the parking garage is free!

4:00 Okay so we’re in the “neighborhood” lets stop at the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=21 In the door and immediately hit with the beautiful fragrance of lilies, some really cool things inside, like the pitcher plant, many different orchids, Vireya rhododendrons and other botanical treasures.

4:40 Tuling down Yakima I can not help but pull into the Dollar store that inhabits the old Elvin’s store in the old Hi Ho shopping center building that I used to frequent during my late childhood. Having fun finding things like boraxo bar soap, paper doilies, a hairbrush for in the car (coulda used it today), hand lotion, a cream pot and a few other things all for a buck!

5:47 Home, Anna jumps out runs in the house and changes her clothes while I show Phil his new ones, they kiss me good by and head off to shear a couple of sheep at the bottom of Muck Creek Hill. Bet and I unload the groceries and the dollar store finds.

5:59 An old man named Jessie calls for kittens – I thought our ad was done yesterday, he wants a female, he is on limited income, I ask Bet if she is willing to sell the tabby female that she and Anna want to keep (a couple of our mom cats have gone missing (maybe with the little blue rooster Who’s Poop Is This? )).

She says no and so I ask the fellow if he can’t do with a male. I listen carefully to his story about how he has always had two cats at a time, three or four sets, most of them living for 13 to 15 years, always females, usually sisters, always allowed to have one litter each, indoor cats. I listen to how he can’t spend much on a cat and how one of his wives spent $20 bucks on a cat back in the day when the military didn’t pay much (they pay a lot now?) and that caused him to call the cat “Riches”. I get sad as I listen to him tell the tale of how his latest set of sister cats are two and a half years old, and how they are strictly indoor cats and when he was gone back east to a funeral one escaped and got run over. Okay, I’m not in tears but I am close. I take his name and number and I tell him I will try and find him a black or nearly black female cat.

I hang up and go talk to Bet. Having successfully talked Bet into giving up her little kitty to this nice old man and his sad and lonely cat, I call him back tell him that my daughter is willing to sell the tabby she was keeping for herself and give him directions from his Hawks Prairie home to our house. I just hope he can get here and get out of here before Anna comes home. I can handle one crying girl but not two.

6:30something As I am watering containers and Bet has the puppies out playing with them she tells me to grab them cause “that guy” is here. As I am trying to grab them I see his car and ah yes, Phil‘s truck pulling in the driveway. “That Guy” gets to know the kitty while I quickly and quietly explain things to a shocked Anna, Dirt steers completely clear. Of course Jessie buys the kitten puts her in a cardboard box that he says his latest two kitty cats rode home in (I believe him).

6:46 I finish watering the plants down in my nursery beds. Anna consoles herself with a visit to Mercy (I’ll have to tell you all about her soon, thanks Cindi)

7:27 I find some old frozen burger patties and go in and make dinner. Hey it works. Bet sets her trap for mystery killer or a raccoon whichever. Gee, I recall I bought a chunk of meat yesterday to put in the crock pot for today. I’m sure its got something to do with the peripheral neuropathy (why I can’t remember the things I set out to do)

8:12 The girls and I join Phil in the living room for “So You Think You Can Dance” (he has been staring at the frozen face of Kat Deely for twelve minutes) and I start writing this post which seems to have taken longer than the actual day. But there it is, proof that I can get something done.

Nearly Midnight I don’t believe that any of today is on my “To Do List” for July but I still feel pretty stinking good about my accomplishments today.