Sarah’s wedding

If you happen to be in Galeton, PA today, track down my friend Sarah Biddle and her guy Jason Williams and wish them all the best on their nuptials. I know I do. Congratulations, guys!

Five years later

It only took five years and a fatal disease scare to get me to update the site. Kris, you can stop fussing about this now.

The blog will be my primary way to keep people updated on health issues, the cat’s health issues and all the rest of the things that periodically necessitate talking to a dozen or so people about something. (Yes, at least that many people are interested in the affairs of furry spinster Motley Sue. Go figure.)

Really opinionated stuff most likely won’t show up here, simply because it would be A Bad Thing for the people I cover in Hesperia to feel like they could see my personal biases slipping into my work at the paper. A few already do think they see it, but since I’ve done my best to be a blank slate, what they see tends to be cancelled out by what other people see, and over time, most people who care about such things have grudgingly accepted that I’m trying to be fair all around. Coming out as a staunch believer in X, Y or Z would make that a lot more precarious.

I will have opinions about other stuff, but fair warning up front, it won’t be heavy duty “Economist“-inspired discussions of world issues, but more along the lines of what I felt about the last book I read (“Monstrous Regiment” by Terry Pratchett, amazingly good) and such.

I will slowly be strip-mining and then closing the old Secret Identity and Wandering Star sites, incorporating that content into the new set-up. Where appropriate, I’ll actually be backfilling in the blog with dated entries, so don’t be surprised to see past months and years fill up with entries, much like the sarcoidosis-related mass e-mails below have appeared, months before the blog actually opened.

Oh, and if you miss the old classic LBY3.com front page, I liked it too, in all its simplicity. A stripped-down version that just points to the sites that still exist can be found here.

Talk to you soon.

Removing the stitches

Six weeks later, a small knot of string, the external portion of the internal dissolving stitches, was still extruding from my body. When I sneezed or yawned or even laughed hard, I could feel material inside my neck. Maybe some of it was simply the stiff gash of scar tissue (still very red and noticeable), but at least some of it was string inside my neck.

So Anne, my nurse, took a look at it. She reached out, touching the knot.

“Does that hurt?”

“Ow, yes.”

“Huh.” She quickly grabbed the knot and yanked it, pulling out a pink string about three inches long. “That wasn’t going to dissolve.”

All that stands between me and a career in medicine is a larger streak of sadism.

The cat, again

Dr. Ahmed: “This is the toughest cat I’ve ever seen.”

We know what will eventually kill Motley — kidney disease — but it looks like, once again, reports of her death have been greatly exaggerated. She has severe cataracts, and had diarrhea earlier today (such fun to clean out of a cat’s tail and nether regions), but all seems pretty much normal. At this rate, she’s going to outlive both of us.

The cat

(Above: Motley Sue takes advantage of me being sick)

Motley went to the doctor earlier this week. She has been indifferent to wet food (but eating dry food, in a strange reversal of normal behavior). She’s had diarrhea and her pupils were enlarged — a sign of stress and/or pain.

The doctor confirmed that her kidney disease had advanced significantly. He gave her appetite boosting shots and fluids to flush out her kidneys, but her appetite for non-dry food has been so-so at best.

She’s home right now, with pills to take (antibiotic and appetite boosting), but if she doesn’t start eating a lot more soon, it’s bad news. Her pupils are still enlarged as I type this, but she just got home, and the stress of the hospital may still be in effect (at her age, de-stressing takes a while).

We’ll know more about where she is health-wise in early next week. But right now, she’s clearly grateful to be out of Kitty Jail and relaxing in her cat bed.