The cats ate very well late last night, and what's more, they kept the food down! I did a happy dance when I woke up this morning, right after I called the vet to cancel their appointments. The fumigation stressed them out more than I thought, so if possible, we're going to hire a cat / house sitter whenever we need to be away for an extended period of time.
The happy dance was tempered a bit because the right lens of my glasses kept popping out of the frame. Relying on one good eye to see the world was marginally better than having one focused eye vs. one blurry eye, which threatened to give me a headache really quick, so I wound up wrapping an old grocery receipt around the frame so I only needed to worry about the one good eye.
To add a bit of spice to the morning, Inkblot brought in a fledgling mourning dove (I believe), which I managed to separate from the cat and put in a safe place to fly off - except it didn't fly off. An hour and a half later, it was still sitting in the same spot. Fortunately, we have a wildlife rescue through the San Diego Humane Society, and there was a vet close by that gladly accepted the fledgling. Hopefully it can be rehabilitated.
I got to the eye doctor after Himself's chiropractic appointment, and the wayward lens was popped back into place and secured. It was nice to be able to see again! Himself dropped me off at home before heading down to San Diego for a Board Meeting of the Club he is a volunteer at, he's the Secretary of said Board.
At that point, I had a choice: veg out or take out the trash, because it was smelling like an open (raw) sewer. I took out the trash, which led to some recycling, which led to some tidying up around the recycling area. It looks like tomorrow will be a good day to recycle the empty plastic bottles of flavored fizzy water that have built up, so we will see if we can pencil that in for tomorrow. (Himself loves his flavored fizzy water; I suppose I should be happy he drinks it as much as he does, or he wouldn't get hydrated at all!)
I also took the time to sit down and look at the set of to-do lists I had made up for each room of the house, along with the two patios we have. They didn't need any updating; they just need doing. Additionally, I sat down and got out of my head and onto paper what "adminstrative" tasks need to be done (and prioritized them), along with what needed to be tackled in the patio, which is equal parts jungle and junkyard. That is going to be tackled piecemeal, as I feel up to it and as weather permits. (I'm not so much concerned about rain as I am about heat, since the hottest months of the year are just around the corner. I may be a Jaguar, but I'm not stupid.)
It wasn't until I had turned that corner today and stopped to look back that I realized just how Heavy my Depression had been. It had really settled in late Sunday night, had been exacerbated by my Monday headache, and didn't really dissipate till this afternoon. The old tape of What's the Use? and Why Bother? had been running through my head. and it wasn't until I chose to get active and take out the trash and recycling that it finally loosened it's grip.
Good thing I worked it out of my system, because we seem to be in a holding pattern in DC: the staff at the Board of Veteran's Appeals is once again getting ready to submit Himself's case to a judge. Apparently they had to Drop Everything and convert about 1500 pages of medical evidence into a suitable PDF after Himself's attorney submitted it as an "addendum." Why they didn't do this previously, I have no idea. Basically, the mists finally parted - to reveal yet another mountain to climb at the summit of the one we had just finished climbing. We have no firm timetable, though Himself's attorney believes the case will be resolved "in less than a year."
This is why both of us are going to start seeking out sources of financial aid. Himself will cover the Veteran's side of the coin, and I'm going to cover the Disabled Senior side of the coin. Our error in judgment was in Waiting Until the Money Came, and it's now become super apparent that we can no longer wait. We need to take action ourselves, NOW. Hopefully the final action won't be bankruptcy.
Tomorrow will be a full day, between recycling and a trip to the VA Medical Center in La Jolla, with a possible trip to Scripps afterwards. With all of these appointments and errands, I don't think I could actually fit a job into my schedule. This is my full time work now: the job of Caregiver.
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