'Tis the season for freezing and merrymaking, depending on your perspective. Ben finds a bit of warmth on a chilly fall day on the living room sofa next to the "Phyre place." Meanwhile, Glenn is getting into the Christmas spirit during a shopping trip to Lowe's. Less than a month to make our lists, check them twice, and get ready for Christmas. Photos by Roni.
November 30, 2022: Somehow it’s gotten to be holiday season once more, which means that the days fly by until before we know it, it’s the end of another calendar year. And regardless of life’s circumstances, everything seems to be on fast(er) forward once Thanksgiving arrives. So before the time gets too far away from us, let’s delve into our busy November.
Katy came home. Photo by Glenn.
Katy's favorite spot was at the top of the cat tree in the living room. We thought she'd want to hang out there while we figure out how to create an appropriate memorial marker for her. Photo by Glenn.
It's Halloween around the homestead, and while we were behind on our decorating as usual, we still managed to get things looking festive for the trick-or-treaters. Photo by Glenn.
We were so bust this year that we didn't get around to carving a jack o'lantern. Yoda is still serving us well after many years. "Use the Force..." Photo by Glenn.
One of our favorite Halloween season activities is to check out The Spirit Store, where there are more than enough creepy props to keep us entertained. Yeah, even the monkey looks frightening. Photo by Roni.
May I have this dance? Photo by Glenn.
Glenn and Ben have discovered the steampunk collection. Ben was in search of the perfect costume, but the COVID mask was purely functional. Photo by Glenn.
The wall of masks is appropriately frightening. Some of those facces resemble us on a good day. Photo by Glenn.
There is this recurring nightmare we have where we wake up and it's 2020 again. Does anyone really want to relive those early months of the pandemic?... Photo by Glenn.
...Um, apparently some still do. Photo by Glenn.
Happy Thanksgiving! We're in Hayward for a family feast, and it looks like Jenny is already sizing up the spread. This is just the appetizers. Photo by Glenn.
That's one tasty looking bird that just popped out of Mom's oven. Photo by Glenn.
The baking expedition was on a roll until the rolls rolled off their tray and into the blazing oven. Mom and Jenny were swiftly to the rescue, and Thanksgiving dinner was saved with only minor braising. Photo by Glenn.
This is Kitten Kaboodle, or "Boodle" for short — the newest addition to Mom's feline family. Boodle is a rescue cat that showed up on Sean's doorstep one morning before he wound up being adopted here. He's a friendly bugger who took no time getting used to the three of us. Photo by Glenn.
Ben and Boodle play in the living room while waiting for the Thanksgiving feast to commence. Photo by Roni.
Our contribution to the meal was a loaf of French bread crafted to resemble a turkey — or a sea serpent, which is what Jenny thought it was when she saw it for the first time. Whatever it was called, it sure was tasty. Photo by Glenn.
Animal-shaped food was definitely in for our meal. Tom found some butter at the store molded into the form of a turkey. Photo by Glenn.
Time to dish up the grub. The kitchen island is full as Jenny, Allen and Sean are first to fill their plates. Photo by Glenn.
Sean and his girlfriend Chi laugh during a video chat with our dad and Grandma Rose, who were both in Hemet for the holiday. Photo by Glenn.
Grandma Rose celebrated her 104th birthday in early October. She enjoyed her Thanksgiving dinner at home in Hemet while catching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade between bites. Photo by Norm.
Back in Hayward, things got a bit goofy while we watched the Macy's Parade rerun. Glenn does his craft paper impersonation of Miss America riding on a float with sash and tiara. Honestly, he only had one glass of wine with dinner. Photo by Roni.
Not Miss America, but Mariah Carey. She lip-synced "All I Want For Christmas Is You". Photo by Glenn.
We "believe" that the rerun of the 2022 Macy's Parade is over. NBC barely even showed Santa on his sleigh. How disappointing. Photo by Glenn.
Our family gathering is breaking up. Sean and Chi have to drive down to her folks' house in San Jose for what will be their second Thanksgiving feast in about four hours. As Sean said on the way out the door, "Pray for me." Photo by Roni.
We're doing some holiday baking, but guaranteed you won't want to be sinking your teeth into these cookies. They are literally as hard as rocks, being that they are cast from concrete. Photo by Glenn.
Our two feline furballs are about as different as can be these days. Phyre, ever the lovable buffoon, lets it all hang out while enjoying his spot on our bed... Photo by Glenn.
...Phoenix, looking wary and malnourished, huddles over his food dish as we desperately try to coax him into eating so he can get better. The pile of kibble is shaped into a heart deliberately, but it's going to likely take more than love for Phe to regain his health. Photo by Glenn.
Phe and Phy came to us as a bonded pair, and occasionally there are still tender moments like this where the brotherly love is on full display. Love him all you can, Phyre. We want many more years of photographing you two together. Photo by Roni.
First, we have to provide an update on the health of our little cat, Phoenix. Things have not been good, and although he has been soldiering on in a greatly weakened state, we aren’t sure if anything we have done has been of much help or if his body is doing its best to help him recover from… whatever this is.
It’s been a bit more than two months since we took him to the vet after noticing him suffering from diarrhea and gradually wasting away. The vet had prescribed steroids to help his colon and X-rayed him to check for obvious signs of cancer or an intestinal blockage that could have explained a lot and made our pathway to a decision about the cat’s future much clearer. Unfortunately, those early tests told us little more than we probably needed additional tests, and the vet sent us home with a bag of antibiotics and very expensive prescription food.
We administered the prescribed dose of the steroid for three weeks with some improvement. Phe obviously had a strong appetite and was even showing signs of sitting more comfortably and having firmer stools than had been the case. But once off the steroid for a few days, he slowly reverted to his previous state and the weight loss resumed. We agonized over the next step, which would be an expensive ultrasound that theoretically would give us a definitive answer on his condition. But instead we decided to put him back on the steroid, thinking that perhaps we’d taken him off too soon.
Again, Phe’s condition seemed to improve. He was eating better and staying active. He no longer hid himself under our bed, but instead hung out in the living room and looked more comfortable. We convinced ourselves that he was bulking up (and certainly from how he fought us every time we had to administer the steroid, you’d think he was regaining muscle mass!) But the proof of success would be what happened in the litter box, and to that extent we noticed no significant change — that is, when he actually used his box, which seemed to be more infrequently, preferring instead to poop on the tile entryway next to our front door, which has very obvious drawbacks for unsuspecting humans trying to exit or enter the premises.
We weren’t sure why the sudden aversion to the regular litter box we house in a cabinet we keep in the entryway, so we placed a temporary box on the tile in hopes he would use it. He didn’t, at least not much. We constantly have to keep on Phoenix to “use your box” and burn through rolls of paper towels and disinfectant when we fail to intervene. It’s getting rather tiresome.
So here we are, closing in on December with things no better. This week we started him on anti-diarrhea medicine we picked up at one of the pet chain stores; strange as it might seem, the vet never prescribed this, so we figured we’d at least give it a try. The medicine smells a bit like Milk of Magnesia and is supposed to be administered at a rate of one teaspoon several times a day. Just for comparison, we were doing about a third of a syringe of the steroid once per day. The anti-poop med takes about two-and-a-half syringes full to equal one teaspoon, so good luck with that. Our cat is not a model patient, so force-feeding him anything is like trying to make an infant like creamed spinach. Just not happening. We decided we’d be happy to get as much of the medicine as we could down his throat, so who knows if it is doing its job.
This is our final try before we break down and do the ultrasound. It won’t be cheap or likely to provide us with the answer we want to hear, but it’s time to move forward.
* * * * *
S
PEAKING OF TIME to move forward, our fireplace makeover is about to reach its one-year anniversary and still has far to go before we can call it finished. We’ve gone months with a gaping hole in the wall where the mantel is supposed to be, and while it makes a convenient shelf to rest tools and such, it’s pretty unsightly.
But Christmas is on the way, which means it’s time to get busy decking the halls, which isn’t easy to do when you have nowhere to hang boughs of holly or place candles. And because Roni loves to do those things, she was eager to get Glenn to finish the task he started last December and finish the fireplace.
Okay, perhaps a compromise: at least finish the mantel.
That much Glenn thought he could do, so this past weekend he sketched up some quick plans for a “temporary” mantel and we went to Home Depot in search of the materials. Glenn thought his idea was simple and elegant enough to work, but Roni started questioning it once we were standing in the lumber aisle, and so for the next three hours we debated about the design and materials, eventually winding up coming home with nothing more than a decision to study the project for another day.
After some design modifications, we returned to the big box stores the next day with our shopping list. We decided on Lowe’s for the lumber because they just have a better selection of the premium wood products — specifically pine. Yes, we would have loved to craft our mantel from red oak or walnut, but we loved even more the idea of not spending over $200 for boards we might ruin with this fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants construction endeavor. Besides, there is nothing saying we can’t come back at some point and replace our temporary mantel with a permanent and more elegant solution, so for now we were content to stick with the premium pine…
Except it wasn’t all available in the sizes we needed. There were only two 1x8s in the bay and both had serious defects that made them unusable for our project. So rather than let Glenn use this as an excuse not to proceed with our Plan B, Roni convinced him to substitute a poplar board of the size we needed. Heck, poplar and premium pine look quite a lot alike, and once they are stained we might not be able to tell the difference. Theoretically.
Anyhow, we’ve got our wood in hand, and a plan of sorts. In the coming days there will be sanding, sawing, drilling and (hopefully) installing of a mantel to help complete our indoor winter wonderland.
* * * * *
E
LECTION SEASON IS behind us at last, thank goodness. Despite the predictable outcomes of most of our local races, it was made somewhat more interesting because our brother-in-law Tom Ferreira was making his third attempt to win a seat on the Hayward City Council. Despite the good fight, Tom placed fifth in a two-seat contest.
At least in Hayward they have at-large representation on their City Council. Here in Oakley, we got our first taste of district elections, meaning that now instead of voting on all the candidates in one large pool we only get to vote for one person to represent our little fiefdom. That task was made easier for us because there was only one person on the ballot in our district — Shannon Shaw. We know nothing about Shannon, but hopefully she will represent us well.
We are both political junkies, borne mostly from necessity as we both work for the news media and have to stay on top of local and national politics, which frequently drives our son Ben nuts because we are forever following the news on TV.
Here in the Bay Area, Glenn has been on top of most of the key races while engaged in his web production work for Local News Matters. On Election Day alone, Nov. 8, he posted more than two-dozen stories with updated results late into the night, stumbling off to bed around 4:30 a.m. just as Ben was getting up to begin his workday. We’re both ready for a vacation, but it appears doubtful one is in our future until sometime next year.
* * * * *
H
ALLOWEEN IS ONE of our favorite days on the calendar, but this year we got so wrapped up in election preparations and our individual projects that it mostly passed us by. We did manage to get out to The Spirit Halloween Store on a Sunday afternoon so Ben could round up some supplies for his costume he planned to wear at work the next day. But that was about as prepared as we got.
Although Roni bought a couple of pumpkins worthy of being carved, Glenn never got around to doing them. And her good intentions of putting out lights and decorating the front yard for the trick-or-treaters mostly went unfulfilled; with Ben’s help, Roni did manage to liberate a few storage boxes of decorations from the garage that they put up a day or so in advance. Ben, the only one of us with a bonafide costume, did the honors of passing out candy to a modest crowd that visited our doorstep.
For Thanksgiving, we skipped out on turkey duty this year and headed to Hayward to spend the day with Glenn’s mom and siblings. The plan was to serve dinner around 2 p.m. — much earlier than normal for us, but we all went for it because Sean had a commitment to spend the evening with his girlfriend Chi’s family down in San Jose.
We were uncharacteristically the first to arrive at the party. That gave us some time to unpack our loaf of French bread we’d brought to share and visit with Mom and her new cat Boodle before Glenn’s sister Jennifer arrived with her collection of Thanksgiving grub. Sean and Chi followed a bit later, along with Tom and our nephew and niece, Allen and Shannon.
The only person missing from our gathering was Glenn’s dad, who continues to care for Grandma Rose down in Hemet. We were at least able to say hello to the both of them via a video conference call during which everyone took turns passing around the phone. Grandma is looking every bit of her 104 years these days, but she was at least awake for our phone visit and able to enjoy a small bit of Thanksgiving dinner while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from her home.
We watched the parade ourselves after dinner, enjoying the colorful balloons and costumes and laughing at the lousy lip syncing during the musical interludes. With Santa’s arrival at the end of the event, there was no doubt we’d just embarked on the month-long drive to Christmas. We are so not ready yet!
Well, this was a little shorter than usual. Hope your December is filled with happy moments, and we’ll check back with you at the end of the month.
