Some Small Updates

So, what's been up around here?

Weather: It got better! After the deeply disappointing Thursday and Friday, Saturday didn't start much better, though not quite as chilly, but the sun came out later in the afternoon, enough that I took a short walk to a little park near me and sat on a bench in the sun for a few minutes, ahh. Then Sunday was actually warm, and sunny, and lovely! I brought out my camp chair and sat in the sun, knitting and drinking ice water, and it was blissful. Later I stopped on the way home from an errand and sat on a bench next to a pond, enjoying the sun again. Double ahh.

Mind you, yesterday and today have been stickier, to the point where I go between having the windows open but starting to stick to things, then switching to a/c but getting too cold. And today went between clouds and sun, with some dark skies and the potential of thunderstorms later. Still, I'd rather deal with this than be where I was Friday, wearing long johns under sweatpants, and two shirts and a sweatshirt, and socks and slippers, but still being chilly. That was ridiculous in July.

Carlos: Since Carlos has been losing weight, and his blood work came back fine, I am testing out whether he will gain some weight back by going back onto dry food. You may recall (though it is years back, now) that he used to eat dry food only, and he was overweight. When I switched him to wet food only, he did not like the change, but adjusted to it, and went down to "ideal" weight for a few years. So maybe being able to pig out on the dry food will help!

I hope so, because otherwise the vet's next suggestion is an ultrasound to see if he has a "mass" or anything that might be causing problems, and the idea of both the ultrasound and the potential mass make me very unhappy. I'll try this for a few weeks, see if he gains some weight, and then talk to the vet again. Meanwhile, he's sure enjoying it!

Next: I have solved the shower curtain liner problem! Wait, I haven't written about that here? All the angst I have felt about it was delivered like a soliloquy, only to myself? Well, how nice of me to spare you miles of that nonsense. Let me sum up (and believe it or not, this is shorter than the constant updates would have been).

Back story: The rod that holds my shower curtain is, apparently, higher than standard, since if I get a regular-length shower curtain liner, it just barely reaches to the top of the tub, and once the water is on, it blows around and lets water out onto the floor. This means that I have to buy extra-long ones, and I have also learned that it's handy to get the ones with little suction cups on the sides, and weights in the bottoms, to keep them somewhat in place. However, I don't change them as often as I did during the Harold era, when he made such enthusiastic use of the bags they came in, and this means that I don't always remember where I found the last one, and I end up replacing one with something problematic.

Which is what happened in the spring, when the new one wasn't the same as the previous one, and was kind of bugging me. It didn't have weights in the bottom, the suction cups weren't sticking (one side had been located where the thing was folded, so it was curved and wouldn't even try to stick), and it just wasn't working out. I have a Thing about the shower curtain blowing onto me and sticking to wet skin (shudder), it just creeps me out, so I want to avoid that, and this one wasn't working.

To the point that, a few weeks ago, I went to Bed & Bath after work and got a new one. I spent a ridiculous amount of time pondering the two extra-long options before taking one, and I soon found that, although better than the previous one (has weights; suction cups stick better), it was still billowing in a bit; this one is longer even the previous extra-long one, which means the weights are lower down and not holding the curtain in as much, and good lord why is this little thing so annoying!

I spent many a shower pondering solutions and soliloquizing about the problem, and then one day last week, my eye fell on the large shampoo bottle in the corner. I moved it over to the edge, since the shower curtain is plenty long enough for me to pull it up enough, so the shampoo is on the edge holding the curtain in.

Solved. Just like that. And such a relief!

It really is the stupid little things that drive you crazy some days.

(And yes, this time I kept the package, so next time I'll know what I got.)