I can’t do anything about it.  That’s what really sucks.  I can talk to him through the door, but if I go outside, he runs off.  He won’t go into a trap. 

I mixed some A/D with water and l-lysine powder and took it outside.  The food from this morning had blood in it.  *sigh*  I pulled that up and put down the A/D.  When I went out, Gilly ran to in front of the house.  KittyMeeze came in and ate some of the fresh food. 

Ten minutes later I looked out and Gilly was back.  This time on the outside of the gate.  He’s in the meatloaf position.  I called Brian and told him to let me know when he’s close to home and I’ll unlock the gate and he can come in via the side of the house and not bother Gilligan.

This is one of the worst parts of taking care of ferals. 

Not being able to do anything.

That’s how my head feels.  My neck can’t hold it up for very long because it hurts. 

Sometimes it feels like it’s getting better (like when I first get up in the morning), then it feels lots worse. 

Somebody really needs to come fish for me and read to me.  *lol* 

Maybe I’ll set up the laptop next to the sofa and just reach out and fish there.  And figure something out with my book.  Damn thing is so heavy.

The Mariners are nice, but the white stitching on the black leather seats had me looking for a black Sharpie.  Seriously.  I was impressed with the audio system.  The back seat passenger seat was much smooshier (and more comfy, in my opinion) than the front seats.  And the back of the driver’s seat, when I put my body back, my head was pushed forward. Does that make any sense?  I don’t think it was designed for short people.  I really did like the audio system, six CD capability as well as a jack for an MP3 player.

Brian had already looked at the new Escapes and wasn’t happy with the leather that it came with. But since the leather in the Mariner wasn’t all that much to write home about, he figured maybe we could go look at Escapes and I could give my opinion on those.

We stopped at a Ford dealership on the way home and I liked the Escapes.  The salesman tried to steer us over to the Edge.  We have no idea why, we weren’t shopping for just any car, we were looking at Escapes.  But no harm in looking.  Gotta say I didn’t really care for it. My first thought was “geez, it’s short” when I was in the driver’s seat and looked at the headroom.  Brian’s hat was hitting the roof on the passenger’s side.  And I flashed on rolling over.  Nope.  I want more headroom. Besides, I think the car was ugly.  Not very stylish. Brian said later ‘it’s trendy’.  I’ve never considered myself trendy.  I want a car that has classic styling, not trendy.

So, we came home and we’ll most likely be going with a new Escape. 

Now, just how to pay for it.  There’s supposed to be discussion with the insurance next week. Brian will take care of that. 

But for the couple of hours we were out walking around, I can’t believe how bad I feel.  By the time we got to the car after looking at the Escapes (I had to sit down inside the showroom while the salesman went to look for brochures) I could barely hold my head up my neck was hurting so much. 

I fell asleep on the sofa last night for a couple of hours, watched the last hour and a half of Mean Girls, then went to bed and slept until after seven this morning. This is unheard of.  I rarely sleep past seven.

I’m hating this.  I hate being achy.  I miss my little car, too.  I was sad looking at the new ones.  Very sad.

I don’t think this is what the doctor meant when he said to “take it easy and rest”, but damn it, someone has to clean around here and the maid quit (wait, we’ve never had a maid, just me).  Didn’t help this morning when he says before he walks out the door “gee, they’re sure peeing a lot in that corner, a lot more than they used to….” 

The same corner I’ve complained about cleaning for months now, that corner that I had to clean three times in four hours just a couple of weeks ago.  WTF? No, they’re not “peeing more” I’m cleaning less.  You know why?

I was in a fricking car accident last Sunday that could have ended a lot worse than it did. He tells me “not to dwell on it”.  Huh? Well, at least I’m not in denial that it ever happened, you know?  I just get the feeling it’s “well, you didn’t die, you’re not in the hospital, so now get back to work” type of thinking.  I’m just not feeling the love.

Bad mood. Bad, bad mood.  Angry woman here.

My head hurts from just behind my left ear down into my shoulder. My ribs hurt.  My left leg is having some sort of sharp pain mid thigh.  My left knee has hurt from day one, but it’s hurting worse.  And something’s going on with the lower part of that leg. I can’t flex my left foot without shooting pain in my lower leg.

Bleh. 

I just took some blue CostCo pain killers.  If they don’t help, I might just take one of my mom’s vicodin.  I saved those.  Never taken any in my life, but I hurt.

I’m achy all over, I’ve got chills, my head hurts and warm and sleepy sounds so inviting.  It hurts my back to sit up straight.

Oh, yeah, and I keep crying.  Not a lot.  But I just start to tear up and then they fall for a minute, then it’s over.  Until it happens again.  Maybe the enormity of the bullet I dodged is sinking in.  I dunno. 

But perky is certainly not a word that would be used to describe me today. When we get back from the chiro (lucky for me the work Brian was scheduled to do today isn’t happening since the people he was supposed to do the work for didn’t make it back to town) I might lay down and sleep.

You know, if you were really my friends and really loved me, you’d come to my house and read “Under the Dome” to me so I wouldn’t have to hold the heavy book myself.  And you’d “Fish NOW!” for me, so I didn’t have to move my arms.

You know.  If you really loved me.

I think it gives more perspective to the incline and you get a better idea of exactly why the car rolled.

He took x-rays and did some testing.  I have some whiplash and there’s something out of whack in my lower back.  Maybe from when the car was rolling over.  Lots of soft tissue damage on my left side, probably from banging against the driver’s door as the car turned.

I had printed out the pictures, he was just amazed I walked away. 

He asked if I’d gone to any other doctor before coming to see him and I said “no”.  And that the only reason I wanted to see him is because of what he’d told me after I fell down the hill. I didn’t go in until our regular monthly visit and I was feeling pretty bad.  He said if I’d come in when I’d fallen, the problem wouldn’t have had a chance to get as bad as it did.  I kind of figured that would be the best thing to do.  I’m glad I did.  He was pleased I hadn’t gone to anyone else yet, he said “they’d do a lot of unneccesary stuff”.  And you know they’d charge for it, too.

He told me to up my calcium intake (and he said that taking the calcium before I left on the trip most likely helped me do as well as I did (calcium is a natural relaxant)) and ice down the parts that hurt the most.

Anyway, so that’s where it stands right now.  I have to do litterboxes, this should be fun since I can’t lift the bucket if it’s full. I’ll have to do lots of little half full buckets. 

*sigh*

I told her to call Disney and cancel the reservations.

This is what they did to her.  She calls to cancel.  “Well, it’s too late to do anything about it now, we’ll have to charge you for the first night.  You have to give us five days notice.”

“But she rolled her car on the way up!” 

“I’m sorry. Will you be staying here tonight?”

“No, she rolled her car.”

“Will you be here tomorrow?”

“She rolled her car!”

Jolene ended up being transferred to a supervisor (who she said sounded suspiciously like the person she’d already been speaking with) who told her to change the date of the reservations to sometime in the future, then they would accept the cancellation.

I cancelled it this morning.

Honestly, you just have to sit and shake your head at some of this stuff. I’m sure it happens that people call to cancel lying about the reason all the time. But gee whiz….adding insult to injury….

By this time I was obviously out of the car.  There were three or four CHPs around.  They were taking statements from me and the guy who caused this to happen.  I was shaking like a leaf.

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You can see the skidmarks on the road.  I can’t thank God enough that there was little traffic this afternoon and the freeway wasn’t busy at all.

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You can see from the skidmarks that my car was going sideways when it hit the side of the road. Then I went for a couple of rollovers.  Very interesting, rollovers.  Both front passenger windows were blown out.  Brian said both tires on the passenger side popped loose on the rim.  It landed with the passenger side up.  All the side airbags deployed, the steering wheel airbag did not.  My head was never near the front of the car.  I remember reaching to turn the key in the ignition when I realized the car was still running.  I think the CD player might have been working, too.  It was a stretch, but I turned the key.  I couldn’t get it out.  I couldn’t get the seatbelt undone.  I was yelling “hey!  hey!  Help!  Get me out of here!” and I remember reaching up with my hand and waving it. A man came down and was yelling “are you okay? are you okay!” and I said “yes, get me out of here!”

He said “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you”.  I wasn’t really paying all that much attention to what he was saying at that point, I was hanging from the seat by my seatbelt.  He had to climb on top of the car and reach in and unbuckle me, then I had to maneuver out the driver’s side window.  I was actually a little worried about stepping on the seats.  But when I got out of the car and on land, I didn’t have any glass or anything on me.  I seemed to be unscathed.  Shaken, but in one piece. 

When the police were asking me what happened, I told them that I was just driving and I noticed the truck in the lane to my left (the fast lane) pulling into my lane.  I turned the wheel to the right and I guess I went just a little too hard because I lost control of the car.  The CHP officer asked me if the other driver turned on his signal.  I told him I didn’t know, I couldn’t see it.  He said “oh, he was right next to you?” and I said “yes”.  I was in his blind spot (a good reason to not rely 100% on mirrors).  He asked me how fast I was going and I said “I had it on cruise control, 68 MPH”.  (Three miles over the speed limit.)

The police had taken both of our statements and the driver of the truck left after giving his insurance information to the CHP.  Then Brian showed up and he surveyed the damage.  The tow truck showed up and it took a couple of hours to get the car out.  Brian had emptied it of everything and that was in his truck. 

Sadly, the donuts that we got for Jolene ended up inedible.  Brian just tossed them for the animals. 

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You can see the turned up dirt in this picture, where the car was in a sideways roll.  I know I went over a couple of times, but I have no idea how I ended up facing the opposite direction.

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I also took out some of the U.S. Navy’s fence. 

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I’m lucky. I know that.  This ain’t the purtiest picture I’ve ever taken, but it’s one of the best. Because I’m alive! 

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Brian’s looking up stuff on new cars now. He’s bummed because of the value of my car.  It was low mileage and it excellent condition, yet it’s not worth much on blue book, I guess. It’s totalled, we need to get a new car.

I told him to not get real upset just yet, not until we’ve spoken to the insurance company. After all, the other driver was also insured and he’s the one who caused the accident.

I just thank God I’m okay. I thank God it was a light traffic day.  This could have turned out so much worse than it did. 

I’m alive.  I’m starting to get sore, though. And tomorrow I’ll be visiting the chiropractor.  But I’m pretty sure there’s no extra damage done.  Not 100% sure, but pretty sure.

Last night, I was in the bathroom (weak bladder, when we’re at Disney in a group, the tease me about calling the restroom “the Dianne ride”) and he came in and sprayed the cupboard doors.  Right in front of me. And guess what?

The urine wasn’t yellow, the urine was pink.  *sigh*  He has a bladder infection. 

I showed Brian the papertowels I used to clean it up. This isn’t a good time since I’ll be gone for a few days.  Poor Brian will be stuck pilling him.  I tested him this morning with a pill pocket and he ate the pill down.  Good.

Later that night, I picked up the crock with water, since it was dirty (there are a couple of cats who put their paws in the water, don’t ask me why).  It needed to be washed. Anyway, next to that was a spray mark on the side of the tub and bright red urine on the floor.

Probably Spot.  At least he has a strong flow, that’s good, he’s not in danger of blocking.  He should be feeling a little better by the time I leave, the antibiotics usually take three days before there’s any improvement.

I was wondering why he was fighting with the other cats.  That’s just not like him. Now, I know.

Yet, sometimes when we walk into the house, the smell is overpowering (to me, anyway) and I just get so discouraged. 

Yesterday I cleaned. Washed the sofa and futon covers and the towels I have draped over the front of the armrests.  I cleaned the floors of urine, pulled out the cedar chest and washed under that (seems I’m doing that a couple of times a day now, since I realized that the pee was going under it).  I thought I’d done a good job.

We went to dinner with Brian’s family last night and when we got home and walked into the house, I almost wanted to cry.  It smelled. All the work I’d done and it smelled.  I walked into the laundry room and it hit my like a ton of bricks.

You know those white shop towels I use for cleaning the cat urine? When I’m done with them, I put them in a laundry basket in the laundry room.  And sometimes, they’re still damp. 

Guess where the smell was coming from?  Yep.  My cleaning towels.  Damn. I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m not going to wash them until I’ve got enough to make it worth running the washing machine.  I’m thinking about a different storage idea.  I put them in the wash last night (there were only about eight of them).  Before we went on our walk this morning, I put those clean towels in the dryer and put the micro-fiber wash towels in the washer and got those started.

And when we walked in the door from our walk?  No smell.  None.

*sigh*

A little while later, she called me again and here’s the situation. The people who moved out are having the people next door take care of it until the people who moved out move into their new home (they’re buying a home). With all of the rain we’ve been getting, that’s put them behind.  But the new place has a pond where the turtle will live, instead of in an aquarium. The turtle should be gone by the end of the weekend. 

The AC officer told me to feel free to call next week if the turtle is still there.  She expressed her concern over the condition of the water to the woman who is feeding the turtle, pretty much telling her that that amount of algae doesn’t happen in a short period of time.

So, we’ll see what happens next week.

I’m happy the turtle might have a new home, but I loathe his living conditions right now.

Anyway, they moved out, there’s a “for rent” sign on the fence.  Earlier this month we talked about an aquarium they had left behind, how nasty the water was.  This is a concern because we’ve got West Nile virus in the neighborhood and stagnant water is a prime breeding ground for mosquitoes. 

Well, last week Brian says “there’s a turtle swimming around in the water”.  I thought he was joking.  This morning, I saw it. It was swimming to the top, looking for food or air, I don’t know, but there’s nothing for it to sit on to be out of the water.  Was it always this full or was it the rains? Doesn’t really matter, nobody is feeding the thing, the water is nasty and it’s just not a good thing.

So, we took down the address and I called animal control just a few minutes ago. The recording said they were closed for the day, but if it was an emergency to press 1.  I did.

She asked my name, my phone number, got some information about the residence, did they have a dog (she was using this to look up owner’s name, I suppose), what kind?  Big black fuzzy thing, maybe a chow?  I have zero knowledge of dog breeds.  So, someone will be going out today to pick up this poor abandoned turtle. I hope it finds a good home.