ProfessorTomoe

Come on, everyone! I can't be the only one who's willing to share!

6:16 a.m. CDT 20170722. The buzz is mostly gone, but the dizziness is still here. I almost repeated the accident that started everything by nearly tripping over my computer cables on my way to the kitchen. There's no way to move them, unfortunately, so I just have to remind myself that I need to be careful while I'm walking that direction—especially now that I'm wearing the SHOE OF PAIN on my left foot. (At least the shoe is easier to put on than the ortho shoe.) I'm going to go ahead and take my pills now. I have no idea as to what the Lyrica is going to do to me on the second dose. I almost feel like a junkie waiting for a fix. This is a strange drug.

12:36 a.m. CDT 20170722. I took my first dose of Lyrica around 7 pm last night. I am freaking stoned, I swear. It's one of the side effects of the medication. I'd had it before, but it didn't do this to me. Must be reacting to the hydrocodone and the Abilify. I almost fell over walking down the hallway to out bathroom, I was so dizzy. I think I'm going to shut down for the night.

More live Aussie Rules Football from Melbourne. Essendon leads North Melbourne 71 to 61 with just under 9 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. And no one is waiting for anyone to come back from the hospital, thank goodness.

BIG progress. I think. Mrs. Prof let Loudmouth out for a while, without locking Baker in the bedroom. Baker didn't come out at first. Loudmouth went through the living room and computer room, then came back into the living room and jumped up on the sofa. He walked around for a little bit, then settled with his head on "Baker's pillow." He then allowed Mrs. Prof to pamper him like she normally does Baker. During this time, Baker came out. His tail was high. He walked over to the sofa, looked at Loudmouth, and put his paws on his pillow so he could sniff Loudmouth. Baker then went to one of his resting places on the floor and relaxed like he usually does. No drama, no tension, no problems. Then the food delivery man knocked, and Baker split. Loudmouth froze, then went back to his room. Mrs. Prof put the food in the kitchen and then went back to Loudmouth's room to check on things. They were nose to nose briefly, but there was no tension as far as she could see. She finally let Baker out and left Loudmouth in his room for the night. Big progress, eh? Oh, one other item: Mrs. Prof cancelled the babygate with slats and ordered a gate with a net that's about the same height. I think that'll work perfectly.

We are cautiously optimistic: the bed litterbox worked. He peed and pooped in it. However, he did not use his litterbox on the floor. I don't know if this is good or bad. Mrs. Prof thinks it's probably because Baker marked the floor litterbox during one of his forays into the cat room. Now she tells me.

How is it surviving with ferals in your neighborhood? Also, we don't know if it will work with Loudmouth. We do know it won't work with Baker. He's catnip-proof.

Are you saying you met Irene Cara, or do I need to call the bailifff in here? Agreed. One other politician I met on the trip who is not so famous as Ron Paul, father of Rand Paul, would be congressman J. J. "Jake" Pickle, leader of the House Ways and Means committee and Representative from the district in which my grandfather lived. I went to his office on our off day, just wanting to get a ticket to see the House chamber, but when he heard who I was and who my grandfather was, he invited me into his office, making a military person wait while I went in! He was a charmer, who talked to me about the help he'd given my grandfather during the Great Depression (yes, he was very old), he talked to me about the age of his office room, and not much else, but he gave me time from his day just because he was friends with one of his constituents! I respected his privacy and did not take any photographs in his office. I'm still glad I didn't, because I've got that image burned into my brain forever. No one else would consider this a brush with fame. I consider it a brush with a great man.

4:29 p.m. CDT 20170721. I am home from the podiatrist, and per his orders, I am wearing my regular shoe on my left foot. HURTS It's pressing on my 2nd and 3rd metatarsals. They are not enjoying it. My big toe is stable, thankfully, although it is still healing. My sesamoid ... well, I'm just going to be stuck with that for the rest of my life, basically. He has prescribed Lyrica 150 mg twice a day in the event that it is a nerve issue. (I did not realize that Lyrica was a controlled substance.) I can't take a dose until this evening, since I didn't get home until after 3pm. I'm supposed to come back in two weeks. If it hasn't improved, I get to have another MRI. Incidentally, I'm going to be a busy boy in two weeks. August 2nd will be my consultation with the pain management doctor. August 3rd is my appointment with my cardiologist. August 4th is my appointment with the podiatrist. SHOE COMING OFF NOW

In case anyone wants to read the real world version of my foot problem, I do have a blog entry about it: https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2017/07/a-birth-defect-at-53/

Close-Up Foundation Continuation: We were led around by guides to meet with certain dignitaries, mainly on a listen-only case. A bit of explanation is warranted: we had two sub-groups in our tour. One was from parts of Greater Houston, while the other was from around Nashville. We'd split up and meet with our own representatives at times. In one instance, we met with our U.S. Representative, Congressman Ron Paul. He answered some questions, but one big ticket question—public transportation in our district—he sidestepped. Not once, but twice. I stood up and flat out called him on it, saying, "You've haven't answered this question twice, so now I'm going to ask it a third time ..." He still managed to dodge the question. Since this is not the political thread, and therefore not a thread for opinions, I will not give mine of him here. However, I will say that the entire district group came away from the meeting with the same feeling about him. More to come ...

After I woke up from being zonked out last night, I was informed that Baker and Loudmouth ate face to face—with the door wide open and no babygate between them! This was before Mrs. Prof put the Feliway in the cat room temporarily. She was as stunned as I was when I found out. Maybe the slats in the new babygate will not be an issue. Bed pee is still an issue, multiple times a day. Loudmouth's given up on sitting on the bed and is instead sitting on a large under-bed Rubbermaid container. So, to combat this, Mrs. Prof went out last night (after plugging in the Feliway), bought a separate basic litter box, waterproof pad, and litter, got some "cat attractant," and came home & went to work. The pad now sits below the litterbox on the bed, and both boxes in the room have "cat attractant" in them. She's not awake yet, but she did say that Loudmouth had climbed back on top of the bed and had stretched out, like he had before the bed pee got bad. Fingers crossed. One thing we've noticed about Baker's behavior when Loudmouth's out: it's not so much an attacking behavior as it is a "get in your face" behavior, from what I saw on the video Mrs. Prof shot. It might even be an extremely aggressive sniffing-out behavior, combined with an urge to play. Additionally, Mrs. Prof has noted that Loudmouth has taken an extremely protective posture around her. It might be possible that some of the growling he's shown has happened when he's been close to her. She hasn't really taken note of his position when the snarls happen. I think that needs to be audited. Baker is also very close to Mrs. Prof. Could it be that the two are arguing over her attentions?

5:18 a.m. CDT 20170721. Nothing dramatic overnight, which is a vast relief (pun intended) over Thursday. Good thing, too. I'm up because Mrs. Prof has a friend coming over who needs to borrow our washer & dryer. At 8:30 a.m. CDT. And I'm in no presentable shape for them to come over yet. A shower is definitely warranted, and I need Mrs. Prof's help to cover my ortho shoe with two layers of plastic so I can keep it dry in the shower. Same drill as always, just on a different schedule. I have an appointment with my podiatrist today at 1:30 p.m., at which time I'm going to ask him about fixes for the metatarsalgia of my left foot—my birth defect. The padding only did so much—it was little more than a band-aid, and I'm still getting pains despite it. I know Mrs. Prof's not going to like the answer, which will probably be more surgery. Honestly, I'm not going to like it much either, but if done properly, surgical pain goes away. This crap doesn't, if the padding doesn't work, and it hasn't. Surgery. I'm getting way too proficient at typing that word.

Bailiff, whack that reply with a large, floating brick.

She's going to do this when she gets home from cat duty tonight, she said. Mrs. Prof plugged it in and immediately noticed a difference between this one and the last one. No burnt plastic smell. I had her unplug it so she can re-plug it tomorrow where she can monitor it while she's awake. Oh, and we found the missing NiMH phone batteries from the first shipment from Amazon. They'd migrated into the Feliway box. Looks like I got a free set of backup batteries, thanks to lousy packaging.

Where will he get a phoenix feather for a really good one?

It is, isn't it? Like I said, I can't wait until I see the superspeedway configuration. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval with ground effects. Dear Lord, that's going to be sexy ...

9:09 p.m. CDT 20170720. I have been laid out all freaking day long. My initial success turned into a painful ordeal. You'll have to read the spoiler for info, if you really want it.

Mrs. Prof is taking steps in this direction by replacing the babygate used at feeding times. She's ordered one that has slats. I argued for one that had mesh, but she said they were "too short" and that the cats could jump over them too easily. I'm afraid the slats are too far apart. That can be fixed with chicken wire or something else, but I'd rather not have to do that. Sigh. She's going to do this when she gets home from cat duty tonight, she said.

Catspaw!

This makes me VERY happy indeed: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2018-indycar-universal-aerokit-chris-beatty The 2018 IndyCar road course and short oval universal aerokit. My God, that thing is SLEEK. It outdoes Formula 1 in sheer automotive sexiness. I can't wait to see what the superspeedway configuration will look like.

11:16 a.m. CDT 20170720. I overslept both my 4am and my 10am hydrocodone doses. That renders me pretty damned useless. All my pains are coming back to greet me, in the same way that a debt collector would greet a person from which they have a debt to collect. A camper happy not am I.

Mrs. Prof took some video last night and posted it! ... on Facebook. The first one was of Baker basically stalking and rushing Loudmouth. The second one was of her playing with Loudmouth in the cat room with a cat toy, bringing out the kitten in him, while Baker peeked over the babygate. Baker eventually leapt over the babygate and began exploring the room while Loudmouth's play continued. Today, she had Loudmouth out while Baker was dozing in the master bedroom. Baker eventually woke up, so she let him out. She said Loudmouth hissed at him several times. As we feared, Loudmouth is going to be a hissing bully unless we can do something to correct it. We've got the Feliway, but after the last try Mrs. Prof is afraid to put it in the cat room. Then there's the JG stuff, but don't get me started there. We need another point of attack.

Got a small shipment from GermanDeli.com. Included was a pack of Asendorfer "sour cream" butter. Very good stuff. Had some on a Club cracker. The only problem with it is that they use Comic Sans for the label. Also in the shipment, and I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with this one, was a pack of smoked goose breast meat. From the pictures, you'd think it'd be sliced, but it wasn't, and I'm no expert meat carver. At least it's boneless and "fully cooked," thank goodness.

6:07 p.m. CDT 20170719. Several short words. Gas. Pain. Tired. Phlegm. (Okay, the last one's not spelled short, but it's one syllable.)