I find housework interferes with my life. There. That’s a simple statement. Last night I got hooked by an old movie “Remains of the Day” with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. I had never seen it all the way through. It is a beautiful tone poem of a British upper class way of life. Christopher Reeve and Hugh Grant were also in it. The ending, however, is disappointing. One wants to see these two find a way to be together.

So, when it was finally over at 10:30 p.m., I realized that I needed to spend an hour clearing counters, unloading the dishwasher that I hadn’t done that morning, putting in dirty dishes from the day, cleaning the kitty litter, emptying trash and garbage containers because today is the pick-up day. Ed, meanwhile, had gone to bed. I don’t mind staying up much later, and I do. It’s kind of a quiet way to do stuff.

Anyway, I put off a lot of stuff until the wee hours. Using a vacuum bothers my back. I will get on my hands and knees (easier than mopping – go figure) to wipe the kitchen tile (it always gets grungy no matter how carefully I do things) and that is also a late night chore. I kind of just do what I see until things get bad, then I make myself grab the back-breaking vacuum. Unloading the dishwasher is tedious. I sometimes make myself do it first thing.

Lately both Ed and I have been preoccupied with a new round of meds for Brunswick. I got rid of our blender because it wasn’t working (Ed doesn’t believe me – he thinks I throw out “good stuff”). So he bought a small unit used mainly for sports drinks – and pureed some kitty food along with chicken broth, and fed Brunswick with a 10 ml syringe. And this morning we gave him an appetite pill (every 3 days), an emulsion for pain – his teeth bother him – and his usual phenobarbital. And Ed gave him some puree. Later he went to eat wet food on his own and we are grateful for that. But not knowing whether or not we can get him healthy again is stressing us out.

On Tuesday, the vet took blood for another test and we are waiting to hear the results. If his anemia is worse, that will be really bad news. We also had an antihistamine emulsion because he is congested. But his reaction to it made me think he was going to have a seizure, so I prevailed on Ed not to give it to him again. At least not for a day or so.

Meanwhile, Max vomited everywhere during the night and is not eating this morning – I suspect he ate something bad, like perhaps a gecko. He does that periodically. Doesn’t get that it makes him sick.

About the late night clean-up, Ed sometimes says “leave it till morning” and my response is if I have to look at a dirty kitchen in the morning, I will kill myself.

This is the fun stuff, so far.

xx, Teal