General Updates

So much going on, yet so little happening…

~ Robin and I are still talking, although not more than once a week or so. She’s having a lot of testing on her heart this week. I haven’t heard yet what’s going on with that. Tone-wise, though, she’s very calm and kind and it’s obvious that having her own apartment away from her soon-to-be-divorced husband is helpful to her sanity. She’s talking openly about never living with a man again once she’s divorced, and honestly I think that would be the healthiest decision for her. She picks men who are poison to her.

~ Cat and I are doing okay, which is better than we were. Things were starting to deteriorate, but she started therapy (though it’s slow to start due to how booked her therapist is) and is making more of an effort. I’m trying to not wig out on her due to my impatience. It’s easier to be a little more patient when Cat is actively trying to help herself, it’s the weird spoiled-child evasion of self-help that’s brought me to face sides of myself I’m not proud of…

~ I continue to stabilize and my energy is nearly at it’s version of normal– which is low, but functional on a limited basis. I’ve missed it! Now I’m adjusting to re-evaluating my capabilities given the switch-up. How much is enough? How much is too much? I have more spoons, but I’m not always sure what to do with them. I’m always a little scared I’ll do too much and send myself back to bedrest for months.

~ My cat, who turns 14 this winter, is starting to slow down and seek out warmth by the wood stove most days. I’m spoiling her a little with Fancy Feast as a treat in the evenings since she has a harder time with dry food and I can’t cuddle her as much with my allergies. But I try to talk to her and pet her when I can several times a day so she doesn’t feel rejected.

~ Cat is finally starting to feel more casual and relaxed around Mike, even joking around with him a little. It took her a while to not feel so… anxious and weird about a man living in her house. But Mike is the least obnoxious dude I can even imagine, and she just had to get over being so defensive. At long last, she’s starting to trust that his motives are just to live and let live himself.

~ Mike is our morning “Burn Master”! His bedroom suite is off the Salon/Family room, and so it’s a bit more convenient for him to get up and start a fire in our wood stove. Between our own downed trees on the property and the woodmill waste products of “press logs” from saw dust, it’s cheaper to heat with that stove than with the furnace once the temp gets under 50 degrees. (Above that and the heat pump actually isn’t very expensive to run at all.) That one stove heats the WHOLE HOUSE. It’s amazing. Well, the whole house except my room, which is off in a downstairs tower with the door closed to keep cats out due to my allergies. (I run a space heater in there a couple times a day and it’s fine.) Mike starts the fire and keeps at it for a while, and then Cat and I jump in if it’s still cold in the afternoon/evening. Lather, rinse, repeat.

~ Due to this new regular wood stove fire thing, I accidentally found out (I think) what triggered my flares. Allergies of a different type…

More tomorrow.