May 3rd marked what would have been Mario’s 53rd birthday. So it was one of those anniversaries.
In life, Mario never made a big deal out of his birthdays. Like I’ve mentioned before, I think it was because he knew he’d get a more limited amount of them than some people get. But rather than really cherishing and savoring them with lavish parties and fun activities, he took the approach he did with many things and that was just try to ignore them.
I’d typically suggest something low-key like just going out to dinner, or if we happened to be planning a short trip somewhere, I’d say, “It can be your birthday trip!”. The very last birthday was in 2020. No one knew at the time it would be the last birthday, which of course hurts more looking back on it.
I totally get that line of thought like, “enjoy ____ as you never know if it might be your last!” and that doesn’t just apply to something as final as death. One day, there will be a last time you physically pick up your child and hold them … or a last time you go camping … or a last time you visit a certain location… you usually don’t know it at the time though.
Completely random …
I got sucked into watching YouTube shorts this evening and one of the “Gen Xer” accounts I follow did one where the intro was a much younger person asking if someone could describe what it was really like in 1984. I was only 11 in 1984, but I totally remember what it was like. The gist of the short video was that we actually did one thing at a time. The cults of multitasking and productivity hadn’t kicked in. No cell phones of course. We didn’t have to live-post everything we did to a social media platform and everything was NOT being recorded (thank god, truly). We were actually living in the moment. She ended the video by stating that she’d go back to 1984, “in a (expletive) heartbeat”. To be honest, I would too, even if it was just a temporary thing. Just to experience it again for a week … like a vacation from the reality we all currently live in.
Anyway, I don’t know whether this week went south because it kicked off with the birthday that never was or what, but it was a bumpy ride. There has been a lot of stress on the work front lately and I got to the point where everything was urgent, which always gives me a special type of deer in the headlights paralysis where I have trouble (1) prioritizing (and yes, I make lists), and (2) staying focused on a single thing until it’s done rather than jumping around.
Add to that, Monday one of my kitties was clearly not herself. She was not eating and drinking like normal, not interested in playing and very much keeping to herself. I let it ride for a couple days to make sure it wasn’t just a fluke, but the whole time I was seriously worried. She’s a young cat, but that’s not a get out of jail free ticket. There is only ONE urgent care vet where I live and by noon Thursday they were “at capacity”. I texted the mobile vet I usually see to see if they could squeeze her in, even though they don’t really do “urgent care”. They agreed knowing I really had no other options, which I was grateful for.
The bill was astronomical, but I’m not complaining. It is what it is and it’s the price you pay for your beloved family member who isn’t feeling well. She got antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory, subcutaneous fluids, anti-nausea medication and a blood test (results will be in over the weekend). Prognosis is good and she already seems to have perked up a bit and right now, is actually sleeping (really don’t think she’s gotten much sleep the last 3 days). The vet suspects some sort of intestinal infection. The only theory is possible bad food, but we’ll never really know, which is unsettling. But much like the human food supply, the pet food supply can also sadly contain contaminants. I’m just thankful it wasn’t worse.
Then, is the universe’s dark sense of humor and timing, I got an issue going on with my Jeep. Long story short there, I’m going to be replacing the thermostat (again) and 2 radiator hoses on Saturday then running it to one of those quick change, service drive-through places to do a radiator flush. Thankful to have my dad’s “fix it” genes in some capacity there (and also a vehicle I actually CAN fix things on). I secretly love doing mechanical stuff like repairs. There’s also a kind of satisfaction that comes from completing something like that which is hard to obtain any other way. I feel like when I get into stuff like that, my dad is also out there somewhere looking out over me, making sure I do it right.
My goal to get the Jeep fixed this weekend is so that I’ll be ready to go for trip with the little trailer #2 of the season. It’s rather hard to book at the State Parks here in Oregon from May – September. It’s peak season and people book months in advance. I managed to snag a few days at Humbug Mountain State Park mid week. So hopefully I’ll get some nice down time and a pacific ocean recharge. I’ll be bringing my new MacBook Neo, but I definitely don’t plan on putting in more than a couple hours work each day while I’m there… mostly just managing/delegating and answering emails. There’s also something uncanny that happens every time I do go away for a few days – new potential work comes in.
So next week’s post I’ll be writing from “The Gnome Home” 😉
