Well it is the beginning of the season where I start living at the Opera House. Our season began with a huge success by M&M productions, The Sound of Music. And this coming Thursday we will perform our "pre-show" for the Altrusia and then opening night is Friday for Sin, Sex and the CIA.
I got up after posting that last post on my blog. I swear I was asleep when I wrote it. I mean asleep. I remember sitting down and thinking I needed to post so people would not worry about me. I remember ideas of things to write about floating around in my head, I do not remember writing or anything else. I have done a lot of things in my sleep. After all I post on drugs (my chemo) I believe I may have posted after having a tiny tini (very small martini) and I am sure I have written a post while under dire duress in mood or health, but I do not believe I have ever posted in my sleep. I used to write soap labels and soap recipes in my sleep. I once figured out a missing piece in a new tea I was trying to come up with for sleeplessness. hee hee It was ginger. That was what was missing. It took the tea from bland, but a good sleep aide to delicious, soothing and a good sleep aide.
I wrote Larry's tie dye tangerine soap label in my sleep. I came up with Larry's tie dye tangerine in my sleep. It was one of my all time popular soaps. I can be pretty amazing when I am asleep. No wonder I am so tired all the time. hee hee
I went to bed last Sunday and 90% of my time between Sunday and Thursday morning I stayed in bed. I slept for 5 - 8 hours at a time. I ran out of dog food and cat food. Friends were worried about me. I was so drugged with pain meds, anti-nausea meds, antibiotics, chemo and a sore jaw. I was one little wimpy baby.
On Thursday morning after I opened a can of spaghetti sauce and poured it over the dog food thinking I was opening a can of chicken soup, I knew I had to leave the house. I sprinkled some shredded cheese over their food and told them it was a dog pizza. I don't think they thought I was as clever as I thought. So I drug my tired drugged bottom to Wal-mart. Harry does not like pedigree which is what Costco sells. I got animal food and I got me some food and then I went to the bank and then to the Halloween store where I finally settled on a handlebar mustache and a middle of the road brown beard. All in all it looks pretty good. So with about 30 lines with 2 parts I have to wear a beard, a mustache and a long strawberry blond wavy wig. I got home and put the food away, talked to my friend Jan in Wakulla and was so exhausted I thought I would lie down and take a nap before rehearsal, when I realized I had to take Bob and Endarose to the Vet. So I loaded the 2 younger kids in the toy and off we ran up to the vet. As soon as we got out of the car Edna decided to do this fish impersonation. Every few seconds she would leap up in the air and struggle with the leash like a tarpon fighting the good fight in Gasparilla Pass. Then she would walk along for a second or two and then repeat. She looked like she was having some kind of fit.
I dreaded walking into the vets because part of the reason of being there is because Bob is gaining weight and his leg is not getting better. I needed some help. So sure enough, since April he has gained 8 pounds. A lot for a dog. Edna had also gained 8 pounds in a month, but as a puppy, that is just fine, not so for a 3 year old. I met the new vet. She seemed quite competent and nice, but she kept harping on me about Bob's weight. I finally stopped her by reminding her that was one of the reasons I was there. And that Bob was a dog, not a human and yet it was not all up to me on whether or not he lost weight. The more I put him on a diet the more he counter surfed, so that was not being productive. She also brought up about a dozen times that instead of giving my dogs carrots, I should give them low sodium canned green beans.
What?!?!?!? OK, I can give them green beans, I would prefer fresh.
But carrots are not bad.
OK, I agree they have sugar
that is one of the reasons the dogs love them
They are also crunchy and and are a good replacement for other choices like, oh, I don't know, say,
raw hide?
milk bones?
snicker bars?
OK, maybe I don't give them snicker bars, but carrots are just not the same thing.
I will continue to give them a carrot a day. It is not like I leave an open bin of carrots and they are addicts like crack addicts. They eat a carrot a day. It is crunchy, good fiber, sweet, tasty, anti oxidants, etc.
low sodium canned green beans are not a good substitute for carrots. They are not crunchy, they are not sweet, they are not........ well you understand.
Then I let this new vet do something that I should never do, and would normally never had allowed, but I was trying to be open and not difficult after not liking her diet ideas and constant nagging on my dogs weight, which as far as I could tell, was not helping Bob loose any weight.
What I did was let them take Bob away from me. He was not thrilled. They took him to Dr. Matt, who Bob knows, for a second opinion. I do respect this new vet for that much. Well, it scared Bob so bad that he let loose his anal scent glands. These are glands that many male animals have. Bob had not apparently released them before based on the amount of fluid he spewed forth 6 feet away on the wall of the big exam room in the back. He nailed half the people in the room and caused a mass exodus while everyone ran shrieking and holding their breath from the room, which then caused Bob to run through the office looking for me. Which only meant that "run over in the middle of the road skunk scent" was spread through the entire office. He then circled back found me calling him at the door and literally jumped his 80 pounds into my arms. At which point I realized that the horrific reek was coming from Bob. It took a while for them to get it through my head that this eye watering, throat gagging odor was coming from my special little boy. All of this turmoil caused Ednarose to start peeing. And she peed everywhere on everything and everyone. I kept suggesting that they just keep a roll of paper towels in their hands, but they insisted she must be almost done. I looked doubtful, and hate to admit it, but I was right. She kept right on peeing and peeing and well you know. So I got the two of them out to the car, thanked the gods and goddesses for a convertible and just before I opened the lid, I went to push what I thought was a pine cone off the top so I could open it, but was actually it was cat vomit. fresh. very fresh. I got in the car, I called Ms Moon. You know your day is not going so great when the high light is a handful of moist cat vomit. She agreed that did not sound like the best day.
I got home in time to shower, repeat, repeat, washing my hair each time. I still smelled like Bob's stench and I swear I kept scrubbing cat food out from my finger nails. I was not a happy camper. I ended up diluting some bleach and pouring it over me, and that took most of the smell away. sigh
Rehearsal went well. We should be ready to do a great show in about 3 weeks. hee hee we always say that the week before we open when the reality of what is happening starts to become more then real.
Friday I was determined to do something to make myself happier. I could go shopping, but that meant driving into town, spending money for no reason, I really don't need anything, after having gone grocery shopping the day before and I don't really like leaving my house or dealing with human beings. No, there is about an 8 foot by 4 foot spot at the end of my flower bed that was really really ugly. Four of the dreaded cherry bushes were there and weeds had grown up all around and that was the first thing I saw each day when I looked out my door. So I put on my overalls, which I have not worn for a long time because of my port, but I think I have this figured out. I have missed my overalls. I then put air in my lawn tractor tires and drove over to those cherry bushes, dug the big roots lose, and then attached them to the lawn tractors and pulled those suckers right up. I felt so manly. So competent. I prepared the bed and then planted the garden with a small water feature using plants that I had propagated or already had on hand. I didn't want to put a lot into the plants a month or so before the first frost. Here is what I see when I walk out my door now:
There is a Panama Pacific water lily in the Mexican pottery bowl. It is gorgeous. Deep magenta petals with an almost iridescent golden yellow throat. I planted day lilies, and butterfly weeds, hydrangea, 2 roses, Artemis and amaryllis. In the spring I can better make a decision on what to plant there so there is continuity throughout the entire bed. I cut back some of the dead and fading plants and found this lovely big fat monarch butterfly larvae munching on my milk weed.
I worked most of the day on my garden. It felt wonderful and now instead of weeds, I see a new garden. And here are pictures of the babies. Ednarose is getting so big:
After doing manly man things with the lawn tractor and gardening I came into the house and baked dark chocolate espresso Carmel pecan brownie cookies and milk chocolate brownie cookies with chunks. I then made myself up to look like a fortune teller, using clothes, not from my costume closet, but from my clothes closet and headed down to the Opera House. We had the Poe Readings last night. Tim, Jack and Mary read and Marcy did an intro. It was wonderful. We had about 50 paying customers and everyone loved it. It was a great success for our first little starter year. The readers were each so different. Tim, would become Poe. I watched him I don't know, it was like he sank into the chair, the angle of his head changed, his voice deepened, was there a touch of an accent? He just became Poe reading his work satisfied, complete. Then Jack read one of my favorites where the person telling the story is made and looses their mind by the end of the show. Jack does a find job loosing his mind. He becomes quite agitated by the end of the show. Then Mary came in and sat down in the chair, her hair expertly braided close around her perfect head. The colors of previous shows and a life well lived hallowed her through the glow of the spot light. Her Velvet cover a patchwork of bright colors as she read a story that described seven rooms with windows with seven brilliant colors. Her words painted my mind with Poe's words and I sat back and watched the story of the red death. I heard so many good things. Next year I already have ideas.
This morning I got up and worked a little bit around the house, finished the laundry I started yesterday, talked to my friend who always make me smile, and then headed down to where else, but the Opera House. I finished the tin can necklace and one for his foot. I painted sets, set blue lights, and did all kinds of odd jobs. Then I went downstairs and went through the napkins to remove stained ones. Lisa is working alone in the office right now, so I asked if she needed any help. She needed things from the WD, so while she finished the last minute things that need to be done before Monster Mash I ran to the Winn Dixie. After delivering my goods I came home and here I have been since. I have chatted with friends, watched sappy movies on Hallmark and now, late, and exhausted I shall lay my head down and get some sleep. Tomorrow is rehearsal and the eve of Samhaim (Halloween). This Thursday we will do our pre-show for Altrusia. Here is the first sneak preview of our cast:
That is my favorite part, the group photo. A motley looking group, wouldn't you say. We are having a lot of fun and it is amazing working with so many talented people.
It is getting cold. I think I shall go crawl under a quilt and my pendleton wool blanket and a dog or two, and maybe a cat or three. To sleep and to rest. To rejuvenate. To dream of pulling cherry bushes and planting gardens, of baking cookies and rehearsing lines and painting sets and living the life of the luckiest woman in the world alive. With a smile on my face, and a song in my heart I will count my blessings and sleep the sleep of those happy with their lives. It may sound cliche, but I am happy.
I am Kathleen Osgood. I have Stage 4 Lung Cancer, aren't I lucky? I have a friend with Lou Gehrig's disease. We chatted tonight. I enjoy talking to him more these days. We both have a chronic disease. We can talk and joke with each other. We know what the fates could bring us. We know what science can and can not do. We accept our lives just as they are. Maybe that is why I know that tonight I will sleep well. I know how truly blessed I am. Just the way I am.
I got up after posting that last post on my blog. I swear I was asleep when I wrote it. I mean asleep. I remember sitting down and thinking I needed to post so people would not worry about me. I remember ideas of things to write about floating around in my head, I do not remember writing or anything else. I have done a lot of things in my sleep. After all I post on drugs (my chemo) I believe I may have posted after having a tiny tini (very small martini) and I am sure I have written a post while under dire duress in mood or health, but I do not believe I have ever posted in my sleep. I used to write soap labels and soap recipes in my sleep. I once figured out a missing piece in a new tea I was trying to come up with for sleeplessness. hee hee It was ginger. That was what was missing. It took the tea from bland, but a good sleep aide to delicious, soothing and a good sleep aide.
I wrote Larry's tie dye tangerine soap label in my sleep. I came up with Larry's tie dye tangerine in my sleep. It was one of my all time popular soaps. I can be pretty amazing when I am asleep. No wonder I am so tired all the time. hee hee
I went to bed last Sunday and 90% of my time between Sunday and Thursday morning I stayed in bed. I slept for 5 - 8 hours at a time. I ran out of dog food and cat food. Friends were worried about me. I was so drugged with pain meds, anti-nausea meds, antibiotics, chemo and a sore jaw. I was one little wimpy baby.
On Thursday morning after I opened a can of spaghetti sauce and poured it over the dog food thinking I was opening a can of chicken soup, I knew I had to leave the house. I sprinkled some shredded cheese over their food and told them it was a dog pizza. I don't think they thought I was as clever as I thought. So I drug my tired drugged bottom to Wal-mart. Harry does not like pedigree which is what Costco sells. I got animal food and I got me some food and then I went to the bank and then to the Halloween store where I finally settled on a handlebar mustache and a middle of the road brown beard. All in all it looks pretty good. So with about 30 lines with 2 parts I have to wear a beard, a mustache and a long strawberry blond wavy wig. I got home and put the food away, talked to my friend Jan in Wakulla and was so exhausted I thought I would lie down and take a nap before rehearsal, when I realized I had to take Bob and Endarose to the Vet. So I loaded the 2 younger kids in the toy and off we ran up to the vet. As soon as we got out of the car Edna decided to do this fish impersonation. Every few seconds she would leap up in the air and struggle with the leash like a tarpon fighting the good fight in Gasparilla Pass. Then she would walk along for a second or two and then repeat. She looked like she was having some kind of fit.
I dreaded walking into the vets because part of the reason of being there is because Bob is gaining weight and his leg is not getting better. I needed some help. So sure enough, since April he has gained 8 pounds. A lot for a dog. Edna had also gained 8 pounds in a month, but as a puppy, that is just fine, not so for a 3 year old. I met the new vet. She seemed quite competent and nice, but she kept harping on me about Bob's weight. I finally stopped her by reminding her that was one of the reasons I was there. And that Bob was a dog, not a human and yet it was not all up to me on whether or not he lost weight. The more I put him on a diet the more he counter surfed, so that was not being productive. She also brought up about a dozen times that instead of giving my dogs carrots, I should give them low sodium canned green beans.
What?!?!?!? OK, I can give them green beans, I would prefer fresh.
But carrots are not bad.
OK, I agree they have sugar
that is one of the reasons the dogs love them
They are also crunchy and and are a good replacement for other choices like, oh, I don't know, say,
raw hide?
milk bones?
snicker bars?
OK, maybe I don't give them snicker bars, but carrots are just not the same thing.
I will continue to give them a carrot a day. It is not like I leave an open bin of carrots and they are addicts like crack addicts. They eat a carrot a day. It is crunchy, good fiber, sweet, tasty, anti oxidants, etc.
low sodium canned green beans are not a good substitute for carrots. They are not crunchy, they are not sweet, they are not........ well you understand.
Then I let this new vet do something that I should never do, and would normally never had allowed, but I was trying to be open and not difficult after not liking her diet ideas and constant nagging on my dogs weight, which as far as I could tell, was not helping Bob loose any weight.
What I did was let them take Bob away from me. He was not thrilled. They took him to Dr. Matt, who Bob knows, for a second opinion. I do respect this new vet for that much. Well, it scared Bob so bad that he let loose his anal scent glands. These are glands that many male animals have. Bob had not apparently released them before based on the amount of fluid he spewed forth 6 feet away on the wall of the big exam room in the back. He nailed half the people in the room and caused a mass exodus while everyone ran shrieking and holding their breath from the room, which then caused Bob to run through the office looking for me. Which only meant that "run over in the middle of the road skunk scent" was spread through the entire office. He then circled back found me calling him at the door and literally jumped his 80 pounds into my arms. At which point I realized that the horrific reek was coming from Bob. It took a while for them to get it through my head that this eye watering, throat gagging odor was coming from my special little boy. All of this turmoil caused Ednarose to start peeing. And she peed everywhere on everything and everyone. I kept suggesting that they just keep a roll of paper towels in their hands, but they insisted she must be almost done. I looked doubtful, and hate to admit it, but I was right. She kept right on peeing and peeing and well you know. So I got the two of them out to the car, thanked the gods and goddesses for a convertible and just before I opened the lid, I went to push what I thought was a pine cone off the top so I could open it, but was actually it was cat vomit. fresh. very fresh. I got in the car, I called Ms Moon. You know your day is not going so great when the high light is a handful of moist cat vomit. She agreed that did not sound like the best day.
I got home in time to shower, repeat, repeat, washing my hair each time. I still smelled like Bob's stench and I swear I kept scrubbing cat food out from my finger nails. I was not a happy camper. I ended up diluting some bleach and pouring it over me, and that took most of the smell away. sigh
Rehearsal went well. We should be ready to do a great show in about 3 weeks. hee hee we always say that the week before we open when the reality of what is happening starts to become more then real.
Friday I was determined to do something to make myself happier. I could go shopping, but that meant driving into town, spending money for no reason, I really don't need anything, after having gone grocery shopping the day before and I don't really like leaving my house or dealing with human beings. No, there is about an 8 foot by 4 foot spot at the end of my flower bed that was really really ugly. Four of the dreaded cherry bushes were there and weeds had grown up all around and that was the first thing I saw each day when I looked out my door. So I put on my overalls, which I have not worn for a long time because of my port, but I think I have this figured out. I have missed my overalls. I then put air in my lawn tractor tires and drove over to those cherry bushes, dug the big roots lose, and then attached them to the lawn tractors and pulled those suckers right up. I felt so manly. So competent. I prepared the bed and then planted the garden with a small water feature using plants that I had propagated or already had on hand. I didn't want to put a lot into the plants a month or so before the first frost. Here is what I see when I walk out my door now:
 |
| View from my back door |
 |
| Here is a close up. |
I worked most of the day on my garden. It felt wonderful and now instead of weeds, I see a new garden. And here are pictures of the babies. Ednarose is getting so big:
 |
| Bob |
 |
| Ednarose |
This morning I got up and worked a little bit around the house, finished the laundry I started yesterday, talked to my friend who always make me smile, and then headed down to where else, but the Opera House. I finished the tin can necklace and one for his foot. I painted sets, set blue lights, and did all kinds of odd jobs. Then I went downstairs and went through the napkins to remove stained ones. Lisa is working alone in the office right now, so I asked if she needed any help. She needed things from the WD, so while she finished the last minute things that need to be done before Monster Mash I ran to the Winn Dixie. After delivering my goods I came home and here I have been since. I have chatted with friends, watched sappy movies on Hallmark and now, late, and exhausted I shall lay my head down and get some sleep. Tomorrow is rehearsal and the eve of Samhaim (Halloween). This Thursday we will do our pre-show for Altrusia. Here is the first sneak preview of our cast:
 |
| Sin, Sex and the CIA |
It is getting cold. I think I shall go crawl under a quilt and my pendleton wool blanket and a dog or two, and maybe a cat or three. To sleep and to rest. To rejuvenate. To dream of pulling cherry bushes and planting gardens, of baking cookies and rehearsing lines and painting sets and living the life of the luckiest woman in the world alive. With a smile on my face, and a song in my heart I will count my blessings and sleep the sleep of those happy with their lives. It may sound cliche, but I am happy.
I am Kathleen Osgood. I have Stage 4 Lung Cancer, aren't I lucky? I have a friend with Lou Gehrig's disease. We chatted tonight. I enjoy talking to him more these days. We both have a chronic disease. We can talk and joke with each other. We know what the fates could bring us. We know what science can and can not do. We accept our lives just as they are. Maybe that is why I know that tonight I will sleep well. I know how truly blessed I am. Just the way I am.
What beautiful pictures.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful life of a beautiful woman.
I just discovered your blog today. I am so glad to be your friend!
ReplyDelete