ProfessorTomoe

No, she babytalks Baker and cuddles the living daylights out of him. I get the feeling that he's associating the babytalk without him around with the appearance of another cat.

Both sound like good advice. Baker's already a bit less edgy, from the lack of Loudmouth and from no babytalk from Mrs. Prof this morning. Let's hope he stays chilled out.

That wouldn't have anything to do with your avatar, now, would it?

Why is it that you get more gassy after taking a gas pill?

A single leftover Usinger's wiener with currywurst ketchup. Got the Usinger's from my local Sprouts. Not bad, but have given up on convincing Mrs. Prof to enjoy traditional German sausages. (Get your mind out of the gutter, there.)

6:20 a.m. CDT 20170719. Got an early start on the morning at around 4 am. Thought about going back to sleep and was already as far as my head hitting the pillow and eyes closed when I heard Mrs. Prof getting up to get coffee. Figured I'd get up and see her off. The good news is no right side throat pain today, although the left foot is still hurting. I discussed the left foot with Mrs. Prof last night. Of course, she brought up the "fix your back so you can drive" argument again. However, this time I had a counter. I've had two—or is it three?—doctors tell me there's no surgical fix for my back. From what I researched yesterday, there is a surgical fix for my foot. Basically, I need to get the foot pain fixed first so I can get it out of the way and then concentrate on the pain management for my back/hip/side. No riposte from her on that one. It's still weird to learn that the doctors who brought you into this world should have broken your feet and put them in casts when they did so that you wouldn't have the problems you're having now. I wonder if any of them are still around so I can sue them for malpractice?

One thing Mrs. Prof and I had a bit of an argument about last night was the tone of voice she uses when she goes into Loudmouth's room. She's been baby talking, in English, but with her voice up high. I looked down the hall at Baker while she did that, and he looked like an Arkansas Razorback. I mean, the hairs along his spine were standing up. I figured out that Baker's been associating that voice with tense incidents, so I yelled to her to lower her octave. Baker's hairs went down a bit, slowly. The argument came when I told her she needs to remember to do that every time. Good lord. To hear Mrs. Prof, you'd think she has the worst memory in the world, based on her arguments. How can you forget something that important? She claimed she can't remember something like that. I told her the cats can. Argument ended without resolution. I did have to remind her this morning when she went in and fed Loudmouth. She kept it down. Baker ate more comfortably as a result. Today's big deal is going to be a lack of meet & greet time, since Mrs. Prof will have to go in to work early. I can't hobble around fast enough to follow the two cats and prevent problems. They're going to have to wait until Mrs. Prof gets home tonight. EDIT: Bed pee again. Loudmouth's got his own problems.

Tedd having sympathy for an immortal in the last panel? Last thing I would have expected.

Baker is walking on pins and needles. He is nervous as hell that Loudmouth could be released at any minute. I'm starting to think that Loudmouth's trips out need to be timed to a certain point each day for now. @CritterKeeper, what do you think?

This is sort of a combination irritation/happy situation, with a happy outcome, hence posting it here. We still have a landline for phone connectivity. We've got one hardwired phone in case of power outages, and a group of four Panasonic DECT 6.0 phones. They're semi-old, and they'd been losing power faster than usual lately. One day I popped the back on one, and lo and behold, they take NiMH rechargeable batteries! Even better, genuine Panasonic brand with a longer mAh life (700 mAh vs. 550 mAh) were available and cheap on Amazon Prime! No-brainer, right? Order two four-packs of the new batteries for $20 and extend the life of my current phones. The batteries were supposed to arrive along with something else (the Feliway replacement) yesterday, although I'd forgotten about them. At the peak of the afternoon heat, I stepped out to check for the mail. Amazon Prime had left the box sitting directly in the Texas sun, for two hours (I learn after checking online) without even bothering to knock. I open it up and find the Feliway. At this point I'm still not expecting the batteries to be in the box. I am, however, pissed off about how Amazon's delivery people left something without knocking for the umpteenth time. Screw this, I'm calling and complaining. During the first call, I am advised that the batteries were supposed to be in the box. Surprise! I dig around. One four-pack is deep under a flap at the bottom. Behind this flap is an open gap in the taping where the other batteries probably fell out. I get connected to another person, who asks me to check around my front door. As I do, I get disconnected. Gah! I ask for another callback, which comes quickly. The problem is understood and a refund gets issued for the missing batteries, since they were sold by a storefront and fulfilled by Amazon. What I get for my trouble is free next day delivery of another four-pack. I also get to vent not only about the packaging, but about the failure to knock. End of call. Next thing I do is pop a pair of the batteries into a test phone. They briefly power up the phone, then the power bars start going down. Put it on a cradle overnight. About an hour ago, I took it off its cradle, and it's been rock-solid stable at full bars. Success (so far)! As long as the batteries keep my phones in business, and as long as Amazon freaking knocks when they deliver the other four batteries tonight, I will be a happy camper. ADDENDUM: I am not a happy camper. Free one-day shipping has turned into free two-to-three-day shipping. The package did not arrive last night. Complaining will do me no good, because this was done on a complaint in the first place. AAUUGGHH.

Dear Lord, what next? A Zofran emergency from a glass of Crystal Light lemon tea. Not a major emergency, but bad enough to prompt me to pop one.

5:01 p.m. CDT 20170718. I haven't been awake very much today. Got up at 4:30 a.m. to use the bathroom, stayed up until around eight, had breakfast, then had a major crash and burn. Got up for lunch, crashed again. Stayed crashed until Mrs. Prof left the house at 4:30 p.m. to do cat things. I've just been tired as all hell, probably from the hydrocodone and the infection the Augmentin is fighting. Pain continues on the right side of my throat, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. I don't know if another ENT visit is warranted now.

That's what Mrs. Prof has begun doing—letting Loudmouth out for brief, supervised forays, staying with whichever cat needs her the most. She carries a slim cardboard box with her in case of brouhahas, of which there has only been one tiny hiss from Loudmouth. She then lets Loudmouth return to his room. I'm not 100% sure what's gone on today, because I've been laid out until around 4:30 p.m. (see Changing Medications thread). That's pretty much what Mrs. Prof's doing. I don't know about the bed pee, but Baker is slightly on edge, not knowing when Loudmouth's going to appear again.

I don't think I qualify yet. I'm only 53. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Barbecued Brisket.

No apology necessary, but unfortunately, no. My only friend in the area has an autistic son who is non-communicative, and neither he nor his wife can give me a lift.

Well, right now Loudmouth is out of the cat room and Baker didn't even know it until Mrs. Prof led Loudmouth back into the room. It's a very fluid situation right now.

Okay, now Mrs. Prof surprises the hell out of me by letting Loudmouth out of the cat room. Baker follows him around for a bit, as does Mrs. Prof. No confrontations. She gets antsy for her coffee, lets Loudmouth go back into his room, and closes the door, leaving Baker outside. I'm flat-out confused now.

How about musk?

Sigh. Mrs. Prof overshot the door. I told her, "One foot away from the door." What does she do? She puts it one foot past the door, instead of in the middle of the hallway where each cat's scent can commingle through the gap in the bottom of the doorway. Sigh. Earlier, I found that Baker had barfed bile again overnight. No clue why. I can only guess it's due to stress. More bed pee from Loudmouth. This is perplexing as well. I'm starting to think that both cats need Ativan or its feline counterpart.

6:34 a.m. CDT 20170718. Got my report from my latest podiatrist visit. Two new items were added: congenital metatarsus adductus and metatarsalgia, left foot. I haven't had a lot of time to research either of these, but my initial impression is that, for serious cases, surgery is called for. Just what I needed. Mrs. Prof's gonna love this. Her response to the whole situation has been, "Get other things taken care of first." "Like what?" I've asked. "Like getting yourself to where you can drive!" Right. Like I'm going to be able to drive if they install a drug pump onto me or do something else that involves major opioid medications. God help me.

More IndyCar stuff. This happened during a trip down to Galveston and Houston in 2013 that Mrs. Prof planned for our 30th anniversary (sort of—it was a bit early, but the idea was what counted). We went to the first race of the 2013 Shell-Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston doubleheader, which is best known for the second race crash that brought Dario Franchitti's career to an end (we didn't go to that one). Well, my health was deteriorating, so we parked in the handicapped spots (I had a placard). Unfortunately, there was no path to get from where we parked to our seats without climbing stairs to a tower bridge. Mrs. Prof went into action, talking to this policeman, that official, and so on. We weren't the only ones with this problem, so they worked something out for us. We just had to wait a few minutes while some pre-race prep took place at a gate next to the front stretch of the race course. That pre-race preparation involved a parade of every IndyCar in the field, so close you could touch them, followed by each of the drivers on their pre-race scooters, again close enough to reach out and touch their fire suits. Mrs. Prof is a huge Tony Kanaan fan, and she saw him up VERY close and personal. We even saw Dario Franchitti drive out for his next-to-last-race. After the entire field went past us, we got to walk across the track to our front stretch seats. Man, what an experience.

11:43 p.m. CDT 20170717. Didn't have a chance to research metatarsals tonight like I'd planned. Still painful. Still no gut movement yet, either. Had a major crash & burn late in the evening, when we were dealing with Loudmouth and Baker. I came into the living room and almost passed out on the sofa. Had trouble swallowing when I took a drink of tea. Not fun. Mrs. Prof asked if I used the magic mouthwash today, to which I answered yes. (She made the CVS run for me, BTW.)

An accidental but major breakthrough was made tonight. Baker slipped past us and into Loudmouth's cat room during feeding time. Loudmouth was up on the bed during the entire episode—scrunched up at first, but relaxed later on. Baker reconnoitered the entire room, from one corner to another, every square inch. Mrs. Prof sat down next to Loudmouth and petted him, while I gave Baker encouragement from standing at the door of the room. The pair met face to face one time, for a couple of seconds, while Loudmouth was scrunched. Baker had extended up onto the edge of the bed to see him. They quickly separated. There was only one other time when the two were on the bed at the same time, and Mrs. Prof was in between. Baker only spent a couple of moments up there before jumping down. The entire episode ended with me leaving the doorway (I had a physical crash & burn), followed by Baker shortly afterward. Mrs. Prof said she tried to pick up Loudmouth, but he gave her a bit of a grumble. She aborted the mission at that. It was an exciting, yet somewhat scary episode. We can only hope that things go better when we permanently open the door!

Baker is being stubborn today. Mrs. Prof has been checking to see when he'll go up into his hammock in the master bedroom and chill so that she can let Loudmouth out and roam for a bit. I think Baker's on to that little game. Baker has gone up to the window, but only as high as the cat tree we have placed for him. He won't let the bedroom door out of his sight. I think this might be a perfect night for "base camp swapping." Put Baker in the cat room and let Loudmouth out. I don't know if Baker will play along, but we can try. Mrs. Prof agrees. She's got some chores to run first before we try it. In the meanwhile, she found an old plastic translucent babygate. It slides to fit the door, but it doesn't allow direct sight between the two cats. My main worry is that the only way their scent can get through is over the top. All I know is we're not using it tonight or tomorrow.