In Which I Have Good Days and Bad Days

To wit:

Saturday was a Good Day. The mailman delivered “stuff” to me! One was one of my guilty pleasures, a soap opera magazine. Then there was a package, containing my new CPAP mask. And, finally, the first of my ARC books to review.

The book was the one I couldn’t remember much about. It’s called I, Robot, but it not by Isaac Asimov. Someone, a scientist, has decided he can somehow “fix” what Asimov wrote by updating the science. And, I guess, the storyline and I don’t know what all. I am skeptical and it doesn’t help that I’ve never heard of the publishing house. However, I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised! I haven’t started it yet; I’m about two-thirds through Elizabeth George’s newest, Careless in Red and I want to finish it. And I’m loaning it to a friend when I do. So, the ARC will wait till I finish it.

Sunday was Not a good day. I had a lot of trouble sleeping Saturday night. The new mask didn’t fit well. It’s a very different design than anything I’ve used previously (which I believe I’ve mentioned before). The ones I used before were all variations on this theme. A triangular, cushioned thing to completely cover the nose (which delivers the airflow), headgear to go over the head to hold it on, and something on the forehead or the bridge of the nose to hold it all steady. That design almost always eventually leaks air around the nose and eyes, but I’m used to that and have developed strategies to deal with it. The new mask looks like this. It doesn’t probably look all that different to someone who hasn’t had to deal with these things before, but it is. And I probably spent 30 minutes Saturday night adjusting the headgear and the pads that go over the cheeks. Still it wasn’t just leaking air; it could have cooled the room with the air flower. Not only was it probably not doing the job properly, but it was very uncomfortable.

I didn’t sleep well at all and when I got up Sunday morning I had no get up and go. About the best I could do was get up and go back to bed and get another couple of hours sleep. At that point I could sort of vaguely think and through the fog I thought of something.

On the new mask, the middle area where the nose goes (nasal cushion) comes in three sizes, small, medium, and large. On the other masks I’ve always used a small, so I just opened the package for the small and clicked it on. After the nap, it occurred to me that having too small a “nasal cushion” might very well lead to air leakage. So I tried to remove the thing, but I couldn’t get it off! Fortunately, DH had no trouble getting it off. I popped the medium sized cushion on last night. I probably spent 5 minutes readjusting the cheek pads and the headgear and then it just sort of went into place and the vacuum seal all the masks are supposed to create was suddenly there! Very little air leakage and an extremely comfortable night’s sleep was the result. I think this is by far the best CPAP mask I’ve ever had and I am extremely happy. In fact, when I sort of woke up this morning, I just lay there with my eyes closed, enjoying the whole thing and dozing. I decided to get up just a few minutes before a friend called me. Very happy, am I.

Today was also a Good Day. First, the good night’s sleep. Then the phone call, which was about a super secret project that she had finished her part on and needed to get it to me. Then the doorbell rang. More good mail! Today I got the first of the donated yarn for the friend of my friend. Some lovely alpaca and some mohair, in brownish red, white, and a lovely blue. And the person who sent it to me also sent me some homemade, wonderfully smelling soap! That wasn’t necessary at all, but it was very nice. Really, I enjoyed petting the yarn!

I don’t think I introduced our newest foster kitten. We still have Winthrop and Marion, but probably not for much longer. Humphrey, the very active and loving kitten, went back to the shelter a couple of weeks ago, but we kept his sister Minerva, as she was still underweight. This morning Humphrey was still on the shelter’s website, which surprises me, but I can’t imagine he’ll be there long! And I suspect Minerva will be going there soon, too. When I took Humphrey back, I picked up a poor, sad little girl. They named her Goldie Hawn, for no discernable reason. She’s another dilute tortoiseshell, looking a lot like Willow and other dilute torties we’ve had. The sad thing was that she had stopped eating. She (and I think some siblings) had been taken from their feral mom and were doing just fine. They had their operations and the rest were fine, but Goldie stopped eating. They had to force feed her, in fact. And she lost a lot of weight (for a being that size). They thought perhaps she was depressed and lonely and would be better for being fostered. So I brought her home.

She in fact is very social and loving. For the first few days all she wanted was to sleep on a person. And she wasn’t shy about asking for that! She integrated in with the other fosters pretty well and is getting along well with Willow and Xander. She and Minerva especially seem like friends, albeit friends who growl and snap at each other (mostly in play. I think.). Goldie refuses to eat wet food at all; in fact, she doesn’t like to be in the same room with it! I’m sure that’s because of the forced feeding. Then she began sneezing and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, so everybody’s been being treated for that since last week. Goldie has perked right up and eats plenty of the dry kitten food and dry adult food, too. Someone on Ravelry (the stuff I learn on Ravelry is simply amazing) suggested something called Healthy Indulgence by Wellness, so I’ll be looking for that tomorrow. It is not absolutely necessary for her well-being that she eat the wet food, but she’ll gain weight more rapidly and be ready for adoption that much quicker.

I was going to go today to pick up another new girl. She was brought to the shelter on Friday by a good Samaritan. She is evidently about four weeks old and small for her age. But on Sunday they thought she was walking funny and might have a problem with her leg or hip. If so, it’s possible she was abandoned by her mother; they do that. But even if there’s something wrong, it doesn’t mean we won’t get to foster her. The shelter is already caring for a cat with hip problems, who has had several operations to fix the problem. So that might be an option, but in the meantime she’ll probably need some fostering and some loving care and we’d be happy to do that. I hope to be able to pick her up tomorrow.

I just realized that I’m actually looking forward to going to sleep tonight. I always like *being* asleep, but going to bed and going to sleep, not so much. How cool is that?