Various small signs of progress
Animal updates cut for scatological content, in hopes of not squicking out my flist.
- Kiska appears to be getting better. Yesterday she didn't seem to have to go out as frequently as before, and I was actually able to go out for several hours in the evening without coming home to any messes. On her last outing of the night before I went to bed, she only peed, as is more usual for her final outing of any given night.
And... she did not wake me up at all during the night to go out, and even once I got up, didn't seem all that frantic to go out. I took her out anyway once I got some clothes and sunscreen on, and she didn't poo until after walking up a block, peeing, sniffing things, nibbling on grass, etc. -- in other words, it was pretty much like a normal walk. When she did poo it was still a little less solid than usual, but on the whole things seem to be getting back to normal.
Also, the vet called back to say there were no signs of parasites or anything in her stool sample. So I guess it was either just a passing bug of some kind, or the result of her having eaten something off the ground that she shouldn't have. I do try to prevent her from doing stuff like that, especially with the various dog-poisoning stories in the news over the past few years, but sometimes she can find and eat stuff before I can notice and stop her. Oh well. I'm just glad she's getting over it, whatever it was. - I think lgbtech called it correctly on Rosalind -- in a comment on one of my posts, she said she'd noticed reading my past journal entries that Rosalind's episodes of getting worse, with the stress peeing and what not, seemed to coincide with the construction outside being at its worst. And sure enough -- she'd mellowed out and been super-sweet over the past week or so, while the construction had hit a quieter stage, and then this morning I was awakened by the shrill whine of what sounded like buzzsaws cutting through concrete right under my window (at 7-fucking-30 in the morning, I might add) -- and once I actually got up (a few hours later, having been up until 4:00 am and resorted to earplugs to deal with the buzzsaws), I found that she had dug up my herb planter again and left a present in it.
I don't think she peed in it this time, so hopefully my newly planted sage and coriander (replacing the sage and Thai basil that died due to her previous visits there) will survive. But I have covered the exposed areas of soil with tinfoil as a deterrent in the meantime.
I'm also trying to give her extra attention and reassurance when it's noisy out. I think I am starting to understand her better -- she really is a very people-oriented cat, and I think her staking out my desk as her haven is precisely because it's where I usually am, and she feels safest when she's right with me. Claribell, on the other hand, gets competitive and jealous due to that, and so I'm also trying to give her extra attention whenever I see her giving Rosalind the glare of death. It does seem like the two of them are getting along a little better.
So, Rosalind is not going anywhere for the time being. If things do get bad again and I really can't find a solution, I may revisit that, but for now I'm trying a psychological approach and we'll see how that goes. - Speaking of construction, I was delighted to see a cement mixer outside my building earlier today. Not as delighted as I would have been if it had been in the act of pouring cement right there, but still... It was obviously getting ready to pour cement somewhere, and I can only hope that it was doing the road surface a little east of me, as that would mean that soon it will do the road in front of my building and then this will all be over. Or at least, the part of it in front of me will be. As far as I can see, pouring the actual road is the last remaining thing that needs doing here, other than stuff like painting lines on it, replacing the signposts and things, etc., all of which will hopefully be a little quieter.
I am also ridiculously pleased that at least one tree on my block survived the whole construction project. I suppose I could equally well be upset that the others didn't, but on the whole I'm trying to focus on the positive. I'm not sure why they took down all but one of the trees, but it did look like the one they left was the biggest. Maybe there's some city by-law about not killing trees above a certain size or age, or maybe they just figured the smaller ones wouldn't be robust enough to survive and the bigger one would, I don't know. But I'm glad we have one left, and I really hope they replace the others.
Also, I am very glad that the tree immediately outside my eastern windows is growing out of Filippo's patio rather than on the sidewalk, and thus not subject to any of this. I would be seriously upset if anything happened to that tree. - Very happy to have finally started my Deliria game, though I had to do so with only half the players, as it turned out. One player was sick, and another (her spouse), had to stay home to take care of her. And the original opening scene I had in mind needed them. But I was able to come up with an alternate opening that focussed on the other two player characters, and kept the story on track such that I can still do the original scene I had in mind next time.
Gaming really is an essential sanity-saving measure for me. There's something about the particular kind of collaborative creativity it involves that feeds something in me that nothing else does. I suppose it's the same part of the mind that, as a child, loves playing make-believe. Maybe some people lose that as they get older, but I don't seem to have, and I'm very happy for that. Writing fiction is probably the closest "respectable", grown-up activity to that, but it doesn't (usually, at least) involve the same kind of interaction with other people, which for me is part of what makes gaming especially enjoyable. It involves not just exercising my own creativity, but bouncing it off of other people's. In some ways that aspect of it reminds me a little bit of playing in a band, but again, slightly different.
Well, whatever the reason for it, it really does feel like an integral part of my life -- more than just an enjoyable time-waster. When I don't have it, I really miss it, and when I come back to it after not doing it for a while, I have that satisfied feeling like an empty spot in my psyche just got properly filled and all is now right with the world, or at least my corner of it. - And that seems like an appropriately upbeat note to end on, as I have to get to the gym and from thence to a Drupal Users Group meeting. Hope everyone else is doing similarly well.