Thursday 26 April 2001
Oops
My humble apologies for my absence over the last week but I've been a very very very sick little puppy. The hiatus was perhaps predicated in my last couple of entries, with pain levels rising ... These kept rising despite all efforts to sandbag, and even calling in the cavalry (ie, lots of opiates of increasing heftiness; and presence of concerned parents). By Tuesday, muscle spasms and consequential pain levels had hit about 12/10 on the Julesian scale which was No Fun At All.
After a few days of that, things began to calm down - mostly due to aforementioned opiates finally kicking in. Oxycontin is certainly the shit, but being a slow/sustained release type, doesn't help when I'm in need of immediate relief. I need something faster acting in such situations, so will have to discuss with the Lovely Doctor Person. Having Pethadeine on the premises would be great; certainly save a lot of hassle, Emergency Rooms are soooo tedious and stressful, with not a Clooney in sight! Misleading advertising, I call it ...
I'm loads better now, and have already decreased and now stopped the Oxycontin, with no ill effects, and pain levels are sitting on a nice 3/10. I am totally exhausted and zombified though; a mix of physical and mental fatigue following that kind of pain and also the drugs (... man) easing out of my system.
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So I've been sleeping pretty much 18/24, haven't been eating properly (which is a goddamn stoopid thing to do when you're seriously hyperglycemic yeah?) yadda yadda. I've generally had the energy of a torpid giant tortoise, which I loathe; wanting to get back into the "normal" swing of things, but being totally dragged down. Imagine total mind and body quicksand-suckage. If that makes any sense.
The only good aspect of enforced rest is I do get time out to think. Yeah I know, its a tough call, but we all gotta do it some time. So I've been planning new little projects, and thinking about my beloved, and making little plans/dreams there. All will be revealed if/when they actually come to pass. In the meantime, its simply wonderful to have the sheer, utter, absolute luxury of time to plan and dream and think about, well, stuff. As responsible adults (even if we're just pretending to be) there's no time for that kind of activity. And I believe it is a necessity of life, survival almost ... but I digress and meander and what else is new?
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But fancy that, I've already got two projects up and running. The first necessitated a visit to Jackson's Art Supplies (yes, not only am I a Gadget Whore, I am a stationery/art supplies junkie). I was good at art at school - I had no talent, but I was good, and really loved it ... until I made the mistake of doing Art as one of my subjects for TEE (Tertiary Entrance Examinations). Here's a tip: don't ever ever ever, under any circumstances, do a "hobby" for leaving exams. Do whatever subjects you don't actually loathe, and that you get good marks in. Trust me. Hobbies, never. By the end of Year 12 I never wanted to see a sketchblock or a tube of paint again.
See, what I was good at was reality style drawings/paintings of animals, people, landscapes; tending toward the impressionistic a little perhaps. And sculpture; clay or plaster of paris on wire armatures, depicting figures of humans or animals, whatever, in action. Not bad, if I do say so myself. My Art Teacher, on the other hand, was a dyed in the wool dada-ist. And if you didn't do dada ... well, you were pretty much died in the wool. So. Art became Not Fun.
Anyway one of the things I have started to do as a lady of leisure, is begin to get my hand back in. Sketching, from life or memory; using aquarelles or inks, just playing. I still have no talent, but it has become fun again.
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I've also been doing a little research on puppiespuppiesPUPPIES, and have been getting along beautifully, with props to Anna.
My sweetie and I have discussed getting a puppy a kitten for some time; we ruled out the kitten idea fairly early on though. Sam isn't really a cat person, and our future home town isn't exactly a safe place for cats. People have a tendency to use strays for rifle practice.
[Which, perhaps surprisingly, I find a hell of a lot easier to deal with than the usual fate? destiny? of strays; the wanton but perfectly natural destruction of native flora and fauna by stray cats (cats evolved as predators, people), and the wanton but NOT perfectly natural end most of these animals meet; either as shattered roadkill taking a long time to die, starving to death, or if they're lucky, gassed in a Cat Haven. Go read Sars' rants on spaying your cats if you're not convinced.]
So a puppy it is to be. The next step; which breed? Neither of us wanted to go for a bitzer; I have pretty strong views about mixed breed dogs, I want to know for sure what's in their ancestry. If there's cattle dog or pit bull terrier somewhere, I want to know. Until Dog Havens can tell me the exact percentage breakdown of which breeds are in a mongrel, I leave them alone. It's a personal thing, so please please don't blast me with how gorgeous your shepherd/rottweiler/chihuahua mix is ...
We decided on a number of basic criteria; good temper, intelligent, medium or smaller sized, not a yapper (though barking is fine - there is a difference, honest!), low maintenance as far as grooming and care, medium exercise requirements. This meant I had to give up the idea of another Border Collie (waaaah!) and also the Siberian Husky (*sniff*)
I narrowed things down to a few breeds of terrier/working dogs ... The overall and outstanding winner - and here's where Anna was a marvelous resource, answering my queries as to her Jacster in great detail - was a Manchester Terrier. They are gorgeous looking dogs, black and tan, very elegant and slim, whippet like almost, but on the small side; about 16 inches at the shoulder. They look like a miniature or baby Dobermann, actually. They have lovely natures, and filled all our requirements. So as soon as we get settled ... PuppypuppyPUPPY!!!!!! I can't wait.
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