Skylark Rogers

M texted around 8:45AM to let us know he'd arrive around 1PM. I was already awake and got up shortly after he texted, got breakfast, and let Dad know the expected arrival time. Around 10:30AM, I called Mom to ask her about lunch and if she wanted us to wait and bring M when he arrived. She'd had a rough morning and did not have any appetite, so was fine with waiting. 

I was feeling groggy, so went back to bed around 11AM to try to nap. I didn't really sleep; I read some and lay in bed with my eyes closed for a while instead. It was restful, though, and I felt better when I dragged myself out of bed at 12:50PM so I'd be dressed when M got in. As I dressed, I felt ridiculous for taking M's estimate as Exact Time Of Arrival because no one's gonna know the minute they'll arrive when they're driving 4+ hours.

Then at 1PM, as I emerged from the laundry room, I saw Rosie, M's dog. "Rosie! You must have brought M." After a minute or two, when M did not appear, I told Dad, "Look! We've mysteriously acquired a dog. This is great!"

M came into the living room (he'd been putting stuff down out of sight in in the guest bedroom) and said, "Your new dog has brought a dog walker with her."

"Ooh best dog accessory."

M remembered it was Father's Day and wished Dad a happy Father's Day, so I did that too. We are not big on holidays in my family anymore.

Lyric came downstairs to check on me and saw Rosie. 

Rosie: (OwO what's this?) *comes over to investigate*

Lyric: (OH HELL NO) *bristles up and hisses*

Rosie: (New fren? Fren? Sniff?) *attempts to sniff*

Lyric: *jumps at Rosie, landing claws on her face, then springs back, otherwise standing her ground* (you can't turn your back on a monster because then they'll CHASE YOU and that's worse)

Rosie: *starts back, puzzled*

Rosie: (but we're still gonna be frens right? new fren?)

M came over and verified that Rosie was unharmed (she was). I came over and sat down between them to reassure Lyric and to protect Rosie from further assaults. 

Lyric: (okay well this is craptastic I need to hide in the garage now)

I let Lyric into the garage, which is fortunately her happy place anyway. I brought her lunch and a bowl of water into it for her (it already has a litter box). 

When I went upstairs, Rosie tried to follow, but I told her "No" sternly, and she didn't attempt to come in the room. I closed the door on her, because I wanted to keep my room free of dog-scent for Lyric. I called Mom to ask about lunch again, and she asked for subs, so I ordered those. Dad, M and I left together; I drove because M had his rental car set up with a dog hammock in the backseat. 

At the nursing facility, we asked about bringing Rosie. Dog visitors are fine! They wanted proof she'd been vaccinated, but the receipt M had on his phone for her last vaccinations was sufficient. We figured we'd bring Rosie with us on Monday. 

We chatted during the visit, then headed home around 3:30PM. We drove through a rain squall on the way home. It'd stopped by the time we got there, but I drove over to the gym anyway because the clouds were still threatening and I don't like walking in rain. I asked M if he wanted to come with me, but he passed. I'd thought this was a weight day and was disappointed when I checked my phone and discovered I'd done weights on the 14th. Oops. I used the stair climber for 21 minutes. My pulse rate didn't get as high as usual on the 2 setting, so I moved up to 3 for most of it, yay: slightly less boring. Still listening to Tress, but only while at the gym instead of during the drive, since M and I talked during the drive.

At home, I convinced Lyric to come upstairs and get a snack, then sat at my computer for a bit. Lyric started growling from her perch on the back of the loveseat, and I turned to the door to see Rosie peering through the opening; I'd left it cracked so Lyric could go to the litter box downstairs if necessary.

Rosie: (I know I can't come in but I can LOOK right??)

Lyric: (OH HELL NO).

Me: "M! Please call your dog."

M got Rosie back downstairs. Lyric retreated behind the computer, where she stared distrustfully at the door. The next time I went downstairs, she wanted to return to hiding in the garage, so I let her.

It was garbage night, so I stuffed the last of the packing paper into the recycling bin, and then started on the cardboard boxes. The flattened boxes were too big to fit in the recycling bin, and folding them further did not work for cramming them in. So I spent some time tearing them into chunks small enough to fit. I strained my right wrist doing so; it still hurt the next day.

In the evening, I watched most of a "Poker Face" episode with Dad & M. I checked on Lyric a few times, but she was unwilling to emerge from the garage. Even hours after M went to bed and took Rosie with him, closing the bedroom door so Rosie would stay in, Lyric preferred the garage. She'd come inside, sniff at the laundry room floor for a minute, go "NOPE", and return to the garage.

I did a little drawing and editing as it got late. Started over on the hair for the Delphia portrait. It's coming out better this time. Mostly I caught up on journaling, though.

Monday, June 16

I woke around 6AM and went to the bathroom, then checked if I could coax Lyric inside. She was not enthusiastic, but came in and followed me upstairs after a bit. I opened the snack box for her, then went back to bed. Lyric came over to the bed, but took up a perch on the desk behind my head, where she could glare suspiciously at the door. When I came downstairs for breakfast around 9AM, Lyric returned to the garage. 

M had to take Rosie to a vet appointment at 2:30, so his plan was to bring Rosie to visit Mom, then drive from there to the vet. "So we can take two separate cars. Unless you want to go to the vet with us.

Me: *thinks about this*

Me: "If I go with you to the vet, I don't have to drive."

M: "Sure, we can take my car."

Me: "Sounds great." 

I don't hate driving, but it's so much nicer to ride than drive. 

When I called Mom about lunch, she didn't know what she wanted, so I suggested their favorite nearby Asian place. She was good with that. They had an online ordering page, but it wouldn't let me set up a pickup time before noon. So I got M's order, made sure Dad didn't want me to order something as leftovers for him (he was going to poker instead of visiting Mom), then called in the order a little after 11AM, for pickup in 20 minutes. 

I usually have my parents pay when we pick up food for Mom, but since I wasn't paying online, I paid in person with my own card. I could've brought Mom's card but eh, figured it wouldn't hurt to buy my own lunch for a change. 

When I remarked on this later to M, he said, "We can add you as an authorized user to their card if you want? I just use Dad's card when I'm buying something for them, but since you're here and buying things in person for them, might be more convenient."

Me: "Eh. I can use Mom's card when I have to. But it would be handy to have a card I could keep in my wallet. I guess if it's really easy to do--"

M: "Oh yes, you just ask for it online."

Me: "In that case, sure, let's do it."

M commented, "I also didn't want it to affect my credit -- you know, keeping everything separate. Not that it would have a big impact."

That made sense at first, and then I went, "Wait, does being an authorized user affect your credit? I thought it didn't because you're not responsible for the payments."

M thought that it could. I searched online on the subject that night, and the answer is "usually but not always." Most credit card companies report under the names of authorized users and not just the account holder, but not all of them. So it varies. I'm surprised it gets reported at all, or that credit scoring agencies incorporate it; it seems like "you know a person who will let you spend their money and that person pays their bills" would not be that meaningful in predicting if you will pay your bills. But there you go. Maybe knowing people who pay their bills is a predictor of individual behavior, idk. I am not concerned about it; I have excellent credit and so do my parents, and I barely use mine anyway.

We had a good visit with Mom, and she was really happy to eat something different -- she even ate more of lunch than usual -- so that worked well.

I had planned to go to the gym after the vet appointment. My wrist still hurt from tearing up boxes on Sunday night, so I thought it might be a good idea to let it rest and just do cardio. But by the time we neared home, I wanted a nap and decided to skip the gym entirely. 

While I napped, the social worker called and left a message asking me to call back about transport for Mom. It was after 6PM when I woke and got the message, so I just wrote down the number. I'll call tomorrow.

I watched some more "Poker Face" in the evening with M and Dad, though I went upstairs while M watched the episode with the pig-tailed demon child. I had seen most of that episode already, and the one bit I'd missed was a bit I really didn't want to watch. (It's a good episode but oof. M described it as "the darkest episode" of the show afterwards, which I thought was funny because most of the episodes are murder mysteries and no people get killed in this one. But I could see his point. I mean, it did have a bit that I did not want to watch because I considered it too painful.) I tried bringing Lyric upstairs, but she was having none of it while Rosie was loose, and even after Rosie was in M's room for the night, Lyric still wanted to go back to the garage the next time I went downstairs. 

Lyric is Not Enjoying this visit, poor kitty.

I had M give me the passwords for Dad's Amazon account, so I can order stuff for them through that and generate fewer confusing alerts for M. I also got the streaming passwords and the Tivo account password, so that hopefully if Dad's TV gets logged off, I can get it logged in again without calling M. We haven't had the issue with Dad's TV getting logged off in some months, though. They used to have internet access from one provider and phone service from another, and the second provider also had a wifi network that existed but didn't provide internet. We got rid of the second provider entirely and that may've made the TV less confused about how to connect and solved the issue.

I also discussed the Hoyer lift option with M; the nursing facility didn't volunteer to send her home with one, but we could get one and may need it. We decided to stick with not getting it for now. If it turns out we need it, I can always ask for it later.

I also finally remembered to take another look at the transfer-board-like object. It's not identical to the one the facility uses, though it's similar. I want to have them order a transfer board for me because while I don't know what else this might be, I don't think it's appropriate for the task -- it's got some reinforcing pieces of wood on one side that gives it an extra inch of height and that'd just make it more awkward to use for transfering.

I wanted to catch up on journaling tonight, and have done so, which is good. I haven't done anything creative today and it's now after midnight, though. Time to finish Time Princess dailies and go to bed.