cat pee has ammonia. Did you know that?

If you are thinking about pouring undiluted bleach on an intensely gross, 18-inch diameter cat poop and pee spot on a concrete basement floor.... Don't. Heed my advice well - if you don't, you will find, as I did, that the combination produces bubbles like peroxide and an intense horrible feeling in your sinuses. Oh yes, bleach, ammonia.... who would have thought? And don't forget the fans.

On another note, I'm down here for another week, about, and then home if Dad is still stable. Right now we are all just waiting, visiting, eating, trying not to drive each other totally crazy.

See you soon, I hope.

still around

We are still south, some of us. Dad is in a nursing home, receiving care and lightly medicated. Yesterday I thought we would be here a long time, and today I am rethinking that.

We've had more refined sugar than I care to think about, and everyone misses home terribly. Oh for a local library card...

More updates and I promise, more phone calls to all of you who are local.

the end of one man's life

We all survived Yule and Solstice and Christmas and the coming of the new calendar year. But my dad is not going to live long in to this new year. After a kind of lengthy kidney failure he has started hospice care, and will be there for a week or two, we think. I'm coming down with the family in the next couple of days to visit and lovingly hunker down at the end of one man's life.

Mostly I am glad there was no question from anyone in the family about honoring his wishes for hospice care. This is so different than his last hospital stay.

I've been asked to write his obituary. He wants a picture of the girls on his grave.

Wish us well.

If you would like to know more, please email me or call before Thursday morning.