Tag Archives: lack of sleep

The Saga of Jack and BobCat

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These little shits are driving me insane.

In October, we took BobCat (above, right) to the vet and had him neutered, vaccinated, dewormed, and had his ears treated for earmites. We just wanted to give BobCat a better life than being outside and exposed to the weather, the road, and wild animals. When we brought BobCat into the house, to my surprise, Jack (above, left) and BobCat didn’t fight as I expected. But, that only lasted about a week. Then, all hell broke loose. Every chance he got, Jack would attack BobCat. It was so stressful. We had to be on the lookout all the time. Jack finally settled a bit, but we still had to watch. At night, we locked BobCat up in the small bedroom we refer to as the cat room. All was peaceful at night with the exception of BobCat playing with his toys or kicking cat litter all over the place. But that changed…

Fast forward about a week ago, BobCat started going berserk at night in the cat room. I mean, literally tearing the room up! It sounded like he was climbing the walls and throwing himself against the door! He made so much racket, I couldn’t sleep. (I sleep in my power chair which is right next to the cat room!) I didn’t sleep for 2 nights because of this so the 3rd night, I threw BobCat outside. It was finally quiet. But that didn’t last either.

After a few hours BobCat was throwing himself against the front door wanting in. I tried to ignore the noise. When he didn’t get any response, he went around to the window, then the next window, and so on. Then he was back at the front door. Holy crap.

The next night, I just let BobCat run loose in the house. I told him, “If Jack kicks your ass, it’s your own damn fault.” Things were peaceful with a few exceptions. As long as BobCat stayed in my chair (on me) or in Dad’s chair, then Jack ignored him. But as soon as BobCat decided to get up and play, eat, or use the litter box, Jack decided to give him a hard time. So, I’m losing sleep every night.

Oh my gosh, I am so exhausted! I can’t function without sleep. Having chronic pain and mobility issues is bad enough! I just can’t take much more. I’m at the point where I’m ready to find BobCat a new home and that makes me sad.

Last night, I guess I was so exhausted I fell asleep fast and slept hard. I didn’t wake up until almost 9am this morning. I feel so much better! With body and mind rested, I can function somewhat…and that’s still not much considering my pain and mobility issues never go away.

I don’t know how many times Jack (above, left) kicked BobCat’s (above, right) ass last night, if at all, but they are both still alive and well. I would ask them, but I’m sure they won’t answer.

Busy, Busy, Busy

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Well, really not that busy. Just busy not getting anything done, if that makes sense. Lack of sleep coupled with pain and mobility issues seem to keep the wheels spinning but I get nowhere.

Dad had his 85th birthday yesterday. I took him out for lunch since he says he doesn’t need anything. We had a fried shrimp basket with fries at one of our favorite places. I finally figured out the best time of the day to go there. It’s always so busy and being a small space, it’s just too damn loud to enjoy a meal when it’s crowded. Around 2pm is perfect except for one thing. Employees are cleaning during the slower hours and normally that doesn’t bother me but yesterday, one of the workers was cleaning the legs of the tables and chairs. It seemed like he was pissed because everytime he grabbed a chair he turned it upside down with a great loud bang on the table top. Then when he finished wiping down the legs of that chair, he’d pull it down onto the floor with another great loud crash. Then he’d move on to the next chair. The restaurant is very small and so we were right there within 10 feet of what he was doing. It was hard to even have a conversation! I wanted to drop kick the little shit but I behaved my damn self. When the guy finally finished Dad and I had a nice lunch and conversation. I still can’t believe Dad is 85 years old! Shit, that makes me…well, too damn old.

I’ve been trying to get my “book” ready for printing. Remember my series of posts called The Ex Files? When my ex passed away in December of 2020, I decided to stop the blog series and compile them all into a book of sorts for my children all about their father. It’s been over a year now that I’ve been editing and proofreading…and perfecting every paragraph. I want my adult children to know about my relationship with their father and why I had to leave him; why I had to get them away from him. At the same time, I want them to know that he did have good qualities.

Anyway, I do a little work in the mornings on the book and then try and catch up on sleep. By the time I wake up, it’s lunch time and then I have chores to do around the house. Chores aren’t easy for me. The house looks like ass. That’s something I picked up from my sister. Snort.

As soon as my book is finished for my kids, I’ll be moving on to my cookbook. I will probably try to recruit a few people to test recipes and take photos. There might be a free cookbook in it for those who choose to assist! Who knows how long it will take me to finish that project!

Next week, I hope to get back to writing in this blog. Writing steadily is hard for me. I always think I’ll write a bunch of posts ahead of time and schedule them but then I just never get to it. Sorry if you miss Friday’s Funnies. I miss doing those posts, too! Maybe next week I’ll have the time and energy to put into it.

Also, I’m so far behind on reading the blogs I follow that I will never catch up. I do miss reading them!

Nap time now.

aunt-debbie

Hypervigilance Rears Its Ugly Head

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Oh, boy. I had a rough night. My anxiety is at full throttle. I don’t mind staying at home because it’s pretty normal for me anyway, however, I miss the option of going out IF I so choose. That’s not what’s causing my anxiety. My anxiety is coming from the deep, dark crevices of my feeble brain…and my brain wants to know “will this nightmare ever end?” It’s worrisome. It’s frightening. Not knowing what’s going to happen, how it will all play out is what’s causing my anxiety. My therapist once told me that I most likely had PTSD from some rather nasty personal experiences in my life and I’m sure this pandemic has added to it. Anxiety and I had an agreement; I will chill if anxiety would chill. We were doing well until last night.

I went to bed at 2am and I wasn’t even sleepy. It took about an hour to drift off. I slept for about 2 hours before waking up. As I lay there, trying to fight through my pain so I could go back to sleep, I became very aware of every sound known to man. That’s an exaggeration…I think. I heard the clock in the kitchen ticking…tick, tock, tick, tock. I heard one of the cats walk across the kitchen floor. I usually hear them when they run through the house but walking? I’m pretty sure it was Alice.

A few minutes later, I hear this horrible rumbling and I had to get up to see what it was. The water heater. I never hear the water heater! Then, coyotes in the distance. It sounded like they had pups. Then gnawing… Damn critters in the walls. Gnaw, gnaw. I pound my fist on the wall above my head. I’ve spooked them and now I hear the little footsteps running. A few minutes later, more gnawing. Good grief! The refrigerator is making some gawd-awful noises now!

Getting close to daybreak and I hear an owl at a fair distance so it wasn’t too loud. Now, a fucking woodpecker is in the tree outside of my bedroom. Knock, knock, knock. I hope he knocks himself cuckoo. Crunching. Crunching? What the hell is that? One of the cats is eating dry kibble. Drip, drip. Kitchen faucet dripping. Honey Bear is snoring at the foot of my bed. I hear a whistle and realize it’s my damn nose. My stomach growls and at first, I think it’s another critter. Nope. But now something is in the crawl space above my closet. I can hear it moving around. I hope it’s big enough to fucking kill me and eat me, I thought. I hear a cat scratching on the scratching post now. Ssshhh….I thought I heard a door open. I got up to check it out. I never figured out what it was. Maybe that critter in the crawlspace found his way in and is going to kill me now.

I turned on the a/c in my room just to drown out the noises. I should have used my earplugs. Earplugs are a wonderful invention! With my earplugs, the only sounds I hear are the sound of my heart beating and my own breaths. It’s very relaxing; I wish I’d have thought to use them. It’s 7:30am by this time. I wasn’t having any luck going back to sleep so I just got up.

After chores and lunch, I crashed in my lift chair and took a nice 2 hour nap. I slept hard. I wish I could sleep like that at night and in my bed. Ugh.

Ramblings of My Mind

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Well, Happy June! It’s still raining off and on here in SW Missouri. I wish it would stop for a bit. Some parts of the state have had major flooding, not to mention tornadic activity, and that’s never good news! We’ve had some tornado warnings, which is always worrisome, but we’ve been lucky in that regard. The rain is another story, though. A couple years ago it was so bad that one of our major roads suffered damage and the bridge was totally destroyed. It wasn’t repaired for months and months! It was a high bridge, too! It was so unbelievable that a bridge that high above the water was even in danger. I just wish it would stop raining for a bit.

I woke up at 5am this morning and never could go back to sleep. I just couldn’t shut my mind off. I thought about things I hadn’t thought of in years. It was driving me insane so I just got up. I tried watching some tv but being Sunday there’s not much on in the way of entertainment. I’m sure not going to listen to some preacher telling me how to live my life. I saw a few gadgets on infomercials I’d like to have…but I have no room to put them so off went the tv. I’ve been piddling about the house ever since, getting little things done a little at a time. I have a feeling by lunch I’ll be ready to fall asleep.

Last month, I was able to reconnect with an old friend who moved back to the area after being away for a few years. We’ve shared lunch, drinks, and some shopping since she’s been back. It’s been great catching up…and laughing. We’ve done a lot of that!

To the lady at the intersection who ran through the 4-way yesterday without even stopping: Try staying off your Goddam phone before you kill someone! It’s a good thing I was on top of things because you would have been in a heap of swear words and chin deep in a can of whoop ass if you would have hit me! (Too bad I don’t know who she is and that she’ll never see this.)

So sick of people insisting that we shouldn’t be eating this or that. Good grief. Give it a rest. People have minds of their own. If they want to eat bread, let them eat bread! If they want to eat sugar-coated cereal, then leave them to it. If they can’t afford to buy organic, stop telling them they can. How the hell would you know?? Mind your own damn business.

I have a ghostwriting job this week. I hope this leads to more work. I’m not the best writer in the world and never claimed to be, but someone likes my writing style enough to hire me, twice. I’m looking forward to it and I think of it as another way to improve my skills.

Jack is doing well, knock on wood. He hasn’t had any major asthma episodes for a while now. As soon as I hear just one cough out of him, he gets an extra dose of his prednisolone, as per our vet’s instructions. It’s working so far.

Poor Sammy. The stray black cat who has been hanging out here disappeared for about 2 weeks. When he came back he was covered with ticks and had scabs and bare spots where he had scratched himself so much. I felt so bad for him I treated him with Frontline Flea and Tick. He disappeared for another 2 days and then when he came back, I didn’t see any more ticks! The scabs and bare spots will take a while to heal but he’s on his way. Poor thing. He’s a very friendly cat, so I think he belongs to someone. The sad thing is, they must not really care much about him to have let him get in the condition he was in. It’s so sad. Some people don’t deserve to have pets.

So, that’s the ramblings of my mind this beautiful day…