Life Update!

Wow.  Things are crazy.  Little things, old things, and things that have been brewing for a long long time. 

Rusty is probably 20.  His kidney disease hit at stage 4, he's had heart disease for 4 years, and intestinal cancer for 2 years and he occasionally has a really bad day.  Most of the time he's fine, but sometimes he just loses it.  Always fun finding little piles of poop across your room. And piss.  And barf.  The last week has been horrible: other than his incontinence, he's been sitting in the middle of the room an howling like he is lost and no one loves him.  So, Saturday, he went to go back to his first Mom Margaret in heaven.  I've been crying all day. 

New Knee.  Scheduled for June 21. Finally. I'm not really ready.  I'm trying to get all the parts sorted out, but I'm dealing with 3 medical providers and 1 insurance company and I can't get a straight answer from anyone.  It's Saturday, surgery is Tuesday, and I don't know where I'm going after surgery or if the insurance will cover any of it.  The stress is not helping. 
    I tried to get an appointment for the EKG.  I tried to schedule online.  It said Call.  I called.  The recorded message said that I had to schedule online.  Uh??  So I just went and stood at for 15 minutes at the lab while they took everyone in the "has an appointment".  When they finally got to me, they said I could have scheduled.  I explained that NO I COULDN'T.  I left 4 messages over 4 days, and still NO ONE HAD CALLED ME BACK.  And, I it really hurt standing for 15 minutes.  I still had to wait another 20 minutes to get seen, but at least I was sitting.  

Music: found out when I installed Barry's radio that he has an old iPod, absolutely full of music off of CD's.  And, he has all the CD's.  So, I'm feeding them into the Mac 1 by 1 with covers.  I had to buy a new TimeMachine backup drive.  His 10 year old iPod still works perfectly.  

Google has finally dropped the other shoe, and is getting revenge on Apple for the "less secure app" and "app specific passwords".  Unlike Apple, they have crippled POP access for gmail.  Zilch.  Zip.  Not Happening.
    Option 1: go for 2 factor, face up to IMAP.  Problem: the work computers don't have a 2nd device.  Google does have a nice option to produce 10 codes so you can log in without the 2nd device, but it's annoying having the office phone ring every time someone logs into google.  And they don't say what happens after you use all 20 "permanent" codes.  And, 16 character RA# Passwords.  And, IMAP - so if you do have 2 devices you have a problem. The new IOS mail program does NOT have the option to leave email on server for IMAP.  oops.  
    Option 2: used this on my work computer: since it has an Apple ID, I created a new iCloud email for the AID.  Then I got that installed on the computer.  Then I just forwarded my gmail to iCloud.  I had already moved all the shared Google calendars to iCloud calendars, now that most of the work computers have iCloud.  
    Option 3: used this on the 4x4 Club computer: old Win10 running Office 365. Strangely, the SMTP still worked.  Theoretically, the IMAP would work.  Not going there.  But, POP stopped working.   So, forwarded the 2 gmail addresses to the Comcast email address.  Then used rules to move them to the correct inbox.
    Option 4: used on my Mac.  Since I have unlimited email addresses on my domain, I created Gmail@my domain, and forward my gmail to the new address.  
    So, I mostly avoided the whole issue by forwarding my gmail to more useful email addresses.  

Time flies when you are having fun? Rusty turns 19!

 

And here we are.  It's 2021 and almost everyone in my family survived the plague.  I lost a cousin, and almost lost my other cousin and uncle.  

Rusty turned 19 (best guess).  He's surviving.  He's usually a happy cat, but he doesn't purr as much as he used to.  

He's 4 years into a diagnosis of kidney disease, 2 years into heart disease, and was diagnosed last year with small cell intestinal lymphoma.  He doesn't like his nightly dose of anti-inflammatory, but it helps him feel better. And not throw up. None of the cancer drugs seemed to help the cancer.
    And, he lost a tooth!  One of his canines fell out.  He still bites me. 

His fur is a little ragged, and full of little clumps, but he's still a neat, clean and tidy cat.  And, he's still the smartest, friendliest feline I've ever owned.  He comes when called.  I'm going to miss my furry Rusty when it's time. 

What this is

I started a blog as Notes on Facebook, then moved to my old Mindspring page, but had to stop because I ran out of room.  Later, I moved it to my GDrive page, but updates were really difficult. So now, I'm trying Blogger.  We will see if I can get it to work. 

Originally, the blog was to document the acquisition of my 2 cats from my downstairs neighbor (and the trauma that involved). But, now I want to add more: about cats, science, Jeeps, and other topics where I want to do longer posts than FB will allow.  And now, you can add comments. 

Rant: 
Blogger is NOT user friendly, and has no way pin a post to the top.  Stupid.  Even more stupid, no shortcut links to the Archive, top of bottom.  Sorry.  This post has to stay dated in the future to stay at the top.  All the other dates in the Archive are the post dates.  Not the original dates.  Sorry. 
Rant over.

UPDATE
The website is back up.  Try www.ellenjeep.com.  Yep, my very own domain name. 

Video Games

Oddly, despite my love of computers, I've never been good at video games.  I'm OK with logic puzzles like Minesweeper & Sherlock. Love Tetris.  By despite years of tennis I could never play Pong.  Hopeless at Pac Man.  Anything where I needed to control something with a joystick.  Don't get me started on model cars...

But I realized that the reason I was hopeless is they were not true to life. No real world feedback.

I love my commute. But sometimes it's a real life video game.  

Things I have to miss on a random day:

3 point bucks walking down the street.

Flock of wild turkeys. 

Flock of peacocks.

Baby turkeys following mom.  They look like a puff of feathers on top of chopstick legs.

Male peacock in full display - in the middle of the street.

Male turkey in full display in the middle of the street.

Herd of deer - with fawns. 

Rabbits

Skunks!

Feral cats

Bobcat (once with kitten)

Puma (haven't seen one yet)

Coyote (I know they're out there - you can hear them)

Foxes!  2 little gray foxes. 

Random dogs

Bike riders (every day)

And random crazy drivers and gigantic trucks. 

And when the weather turns nasty, it's through the river and over the trees.  I got a flat tire on a fallen branch.

So, I have my fun every day in a real world video game, just getting to work.

Turning 60 - part 2

The last 6 months are a black hole.  I remember the loquats just becoming ripe, and then nothing.  I missed the berry season, and the fig season.  

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years were spent with my "sister from another mother" and her family, and my brother's family.  Thanks to them, it was a really nice time.  

I started to notice the first early February flowering Magnolias and Acacias, then the early fruit trees, and now in April, spring is still fighting with winter.  

The deciduous trees have thrown off their dead leaves for new ones.  The oaks have donned their bright green new growth.  And the seasonal creeks rattle and gurgle with flowing water.  There is a green carpet of grass everywhere.  

So, I turned 60.  
The first weekend was getting the gray out of my hair, and a lovely lunch with friend from former work.  

The 2nd weekend was my first bicycle ride since August.  Short and slow.  It's the next day, and I'm still sore and not moving much.  Spent the day typing.  Too many computer things to get done. 

But it's a start.  

Now I just have to keep going.  

Turning 60

It's been a rough 6 months.  
Started in August (2018) when my mother called and asked me to take her to urgent care when it opened the next day.  Raised by a Christian Scientist, my mother doesn't like to go to doctors, and usually delayed seeing one until she couldn't manage on her own anymore.  So, this call sent a shiver down my spine.  
The next morning it got worse when she opted for Emergency at her favorite hospital.  A very long day later, and she was admitted pending surgery on a tumor in her colon.  
A week later, the surgery seemed successful, and a week after that she was up and walking.  
And then it all went sideways.  

She died October 7th, 2018.  She couldn't eat or drink - even water.  Her system was just in pieces.  While there was some temporary hope, it evaporated as she became unable to eat and just got weaker.  
Lowlights: me arguing loudly with the Hospital Doctor who wanted to discharge her when she was in so much pain she was crying - a first in her life.  Mom never cried from pain.  Luckily our friend Leslie had her cardiac doctor on speed dial, and he showed up in jeans and a sweatshirt, and put her in intensive care.  She survived the night.  
Then there were the battling oncologists: 2 different doctors with 2 opinions on treatment.  
And then there was Trident, who took over a month to file for her Death Certificate, and then 2 more months to deliver it to us.  

There were highlights: Mom's friends and neighbors all contributed to making our life easier.  Watching her house and feeding her cat until I could find him a good home.  
Leslie, our angel with more hospital experience than should be necessary.  
Mission Hospice who made everything easy at the end.  
And, the whole family coming to Pajaro Dunes to give her a lovely goodbye in the waves of her favorite place in the Pacific.  

I realize I didn't mention that my wonderful brother was there the whole time  -  visiting her in the morning, while I visited after work.  

The sad part: she didn't make it to my 60th year.  I remember hers.  It was a big surprise party, but she wan't surprised.  She died the youngest of any female in my family for 3 generations.  

---- continued

Ok, finally broke down and did it.  I purchased a domain name of my own, and can now post on my own webspace.  And email addresses.  Forever. 

www.ellenjeep.com

Simple, since I've been using it as an email address for years. 

So, the website it back up, please visit if you wish.  I can now add to it to my heart's desire.  And, technically use it for cloud storage, but I'm happy with my current clouds.  If they change, maybe I'll look into it then.  

Not a bad price:  $170 for 3 years.  Pretty much unlimited.  Great technical service.  Decent interface.