I'm grateful for: good neighbours; warm cozy covers; artistic friends (glancing at the artwork I have on my walls).

I had more photos to put up, but I just haven't been up to it. I am *SO* ready to stop being sick!

Last night was another bad one - I did manage some sleep, but only about four hours. Now I get to try and avoid being grumpy and miserable while everyone else complains about what's wrong in their lives. The joys of being the mother... *sigh*

S1's puppy is doing much better, but she is completely miserable about being locked up in the family room, and whenever S1 leaves, no matter for how long, she whimpers and howls in the most heart-rending way.

And, to continue on our roll: the blind dog, Peppito, has a wound on his side that had us all very worried. Worried enough that since I could in no way take him to the vet, I asked a fellow from the other side of the moshav to take a look at him. It was clearly bothering him, he couldn't lay down comfortably, and he kept licking it. It looks bad, like someone took a belt-sander to his side. Poor puppy! He's not really a puppy anymore, but he will always be puppy-like because of the blindness and other problems. Anyway, this fellow, who is an American working on the moshav, worked as a vet's assistant in the states, so he was our best bet when Peppito wouldn't let us look at his side at all.

Aren't we the most wonderful collection of sick, injured, disabled and demented people? *sigh*

So, the former vet's assistant was actually able to get a close look at the wound after Peppito had settled down for a bit, and he was able to reassure us that it is actually healing. We were SO worried. So, while it is one more in our catalogue of problems, it at least seems to be getting better with no extra effort.

Not so much for me, I went to the dentist yesterday for a check-up, and to have him look at the שן שבורה (broken tooth). Such bad news! He does say that he can't tell if it needs just a filling, or is another candidate for a root canal and crown, but I have another cavity up top that needs filling, AND a tooth that has a big filling in it has a big cavity under the filling, and now either has to be pulled or - you might have guessed - another root canal and crown treatment. It's the furthest back molar on the right, and he says that it doesn't actually 'meet' the other teeth, so the only reason to save it is cosmetic. But, it's all the way in back, so I wonder, what cosmetic reasons are there for trying to 'save' the tooth? In any event this is huge.

I had 'finished' (so I thought) all of my dental work a while ago. After a couple of very bad years, I'd gotten fillings filled and the teeth that needed root canals done (almost all due to dentist screw-up, but mum on that for now), and I should have been good to go. I've always had strong teeth, so with the necessary work done, all I should've needed was a cleaning twice a year to keep it up, and no more dental problems. That was the theory. *sigh* I'm not sure why, and the dentist clearly recognized that something had changed as he kept asking me if my health or medications had changed in the last year. My teeth suddenly, rather than being strong and healthy, are literally crumbling in my mouth. I am not a happy person about this. *pout*

Lessee, has anything else happened? Not that I can remember. Dare I hope that this long series of illness, accidents and surprize health problems has ended - or is at least slowing down? I don't know. *sigh* I don't know.

I'm still living basically on hot tea with the occasional food-stuff when I can manage it. S1 is still dragging himself around, S2 is better, but still with occasional very bad pain in his side (ribs). D2, who is living away from us in Petakh Tikvah is quite happy not to be here, and D1, who phoned from Pennsylvania the other day, has so many problems herself she isn't even aware of, leave alone interested in, what is gong on here.

Her last phone call was to ask for pointers in doing her laundry in the sink. Apparently the washer isn't working, and she hasn't the money to take the clothing to the laundromat. In what seems to be her typical style, she just let the laundry pile up, hoping I suppose for a gift from heaven to make it all go away. Fortunately, I suppose, being somewhat typical Americans (in my experience), they have more than enough clothing to carry them all forward for quite a while. A month and a half apparently. Only, now all of that is dirty. Whee, fun.

BTW, no criticism is intended of Americans or of having huge amounts of clothing. Great if you can do it. When I lived in the states I had friends who were single moms on welfare, or even single moms working for minimum wage, who still somehow managed to have entire rooms full of clothing not only for the children but for themselves. People I knew who were not financially strapped had just as much clothing, just usually better quality.

Now in our family we generally went for seven days worth of clothing plus a couple of special or dressy outfits. We never really fit with the American consumer lifestyle - not that I"m claiming we were unique in that, but definitely not a part of the majority, at least in the places we lived. Here it is different. I can't think of one of my Israeli neighbours who wouldn't be shocked at the thought of so much clothing. And of course the houses don't come with closets, so where would you put it all?

Some possibly good news - simply amazing the way things have been going - our landlord appears to have had a bit of a change of heart, and now seems willing to accept the price he set for us when we first rented the house. Now TH has to go to the bank and go over the mortgage application again - we have a mortgage from the bank that was approved before the interest rates were cut in half, so we have hopefully a better situation now. If that works out, then we go back to the landlord with the mortgage, and start the next step in negotiations. Fun. I feel caught, I know I oughtn't to get my hopes up, but I can't help it. We might actually have a home. It would be nice.

Enough typing for this sick person. I won't be sick forever. I won't be sick forever. I won't be sick forever. Saying it three times makes it true? A person can hope. I am tired and cranky and still mostly happy when I can remember to be.

I'm listening to D3 scraping the frying pan (pancakes), and the whisper of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that S3 is listening to on headphones in my room.

:: Yesterdays : Tomorrows ::

~~~Last Five Entries~~~
Hi and goodbye - 2010-10-15
I'll be moving on - 2010-10-10
Gold membership and stuff - 2010-10-10
Decisions, decisions - 2010-10-07
Days to go - 2010-10-06