kvetching up

 Entry 1     4:04 p.m.  After 6 days off, I'm looking forward to work so I can have a break. Mike helped me stand the tree up last night. Today the lights went on. I was about 400 short of a complete strand of lights, a living metaphor for my sanity. Tonight, after dinner and Advent, we will decorate the tree. I am tired. Chicken tacos for the omnivores and smart ground tacos for those who don't eat meat are on the dinner menu. This makes me happy. What is going to stay with me for a long time after this is done, is how bone tired I am. Jenny lost another lb. yesterday.  She has been eating small, high caloric meals, several times a day, to see if we can work around the lack of appetite. She isn't taking her megesterol, the appetite stimulant, for reasons I can't fathom or explain. I ask about it, and she shrugs it off.  Yesterday was so hard, but now I have an explanation. Jenny's ACUPUNCTURIST told her to cut back on her pain meds.  This, at the...

 Entry 1     6:11 a.m. Dogs are whining. I'm drinking yesterday's coffee--still warm in the Back when Buddy  had a little Marlon Brando flair. decanter--trying to have a few moments of peace in the dark.  I love these dogs. Yesterday, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, they slept until 8:20. It truly is the season of magic. They would have slept longer today if my bladder hadn't forced me out of bed after being awake for an hour fighting the urge to get up. Christmas tree  shopping today. This should be fun. I am sad Leiney won't be with us for the first time in 18 years, as we pick out a tree. She has to work. But the days of The Santa Train, Santa's lap and handwritten letters to Santa are consigned to the black hole of remembering now. There is something powerful about being alone, awake in the wee small hours of the morning , Crate mates. sitting in the dark. I felt it as a kid, when I would go out each morning at 4 a.m. to deliver the PI and...