Cassie part 2

Adendium- (Hey using that latin post from years ago again!!) She came home on Tuesday afternoon. THe sky threatened snow while it rained lightly. I wasn't sure they had a leash for Cassie, so I went to a local pet supply place and paid $17.00 for a pretty leash.

The Nurse went over instructions about Cassie’s medicines, three in total. One for pain, one to keep her calm, and a third to help her liver repair itself. The Doctor, a nice person went over what had been done to Cassie and how she should spend the next week. Her biggest health concern, that kept her in overnight was air leaking into her chest cavity from her lungs that could stop her from breathing. She needs to stay calm at home, and not run around. Difficult with Misha, the bully. My fear bringing her home alone is that she would pull her collar, run into traffic, and do another Lake road, but this time her luck would have run out. To my surprise, she jumps right into the car, crisis averted. On the ride home I see her out of the corner of my right eye looking out of the side window, then I look back again, maybe a moment later, and she is gone. Then I look back again, she is on the seat looking out the rear window. It’s like she is a ghost in my car. It’s raining, and gloomy, dark even for an early December afternoon. She moves so quietly I feel her superpower has been revealed to me. I pull into the driveway, open the door guarding against her darting out of the car to freedom again. I realize I feel like she really doesn’t need us until now. She calmly steps down out of the car. The drugs she is on must be really good. We enter the gate and take a walk around the yard. Even in her drugged up state she checks out all of the repairs I’ve done to the gate. She stops at the part of the where her latest escape happened. I believe I hear her call this tunnel Harry (Another Great Escape reference). We walk into the house where we are greeted by an excited Misha, who has moped around for the last two days. She is all excited and she will eventually take a nip out of Cassie. As the night proceeds we have to put Misha on a lush to let Cassie find a place to lay down and heal. This will go on for a week.

Cassie and ‘The Great Escape’

The title is light hearted, but this entry is less so. I still couldn’t resist though. We got Cassie about two years ago in late February. She is a great jumper, and Teri and I always joked that one day in her excitement while barking at something on the other side of the fence, she’d jump over it. We never took her for a tunneler. Now in ‘The Great Escape’ there are at least two characters who are tunnelers, but I’m going to ignore both Charles Bronson, and a Scottish actor played by Angus Lennie, called Ives, and I’m going to go with Steve MsQueen. If you’ve seen the movie, and it is well worth watching you see Steve McQueen, and yes he is the original Steve McQueen, not that guy who won an oscar or something for directing, and is fast forgotten. In ‘The Great Escape’ Steve McQueen, the original has been discovered by the Germans and they are in pursuit. Steve is super cool on his stolen motor cycle jumping the barbed wire barrier. He jumps the first barrier, it’s amazing, but the Germans are closing in and he might not make it. He has to turn around, they are on both sides of him, until he spins out and crashes into the barbed wire. This is another reason I don't want Elena to get a motorcycle. She doesn’t need to crash into barbed wire. When Steve McQueen, the original, crashes into the barbed wire, the Germans capture him, and return him to Stalag Luft 3. Fun fact ‘The Great Escape’ really happened, but the motorcycle chase didn’t. What does this have to do what Cassie you ask? Well I have watched her sitting on the back porch looking out into the yard. I thought it was to see if any squirrels or birds, whatever, have decided to invade her territory. What I believe now is she is looking at the fence, looking for holes, and weakness, like Steve McQueen, the original did when he first arrived at the camp. She tunneled out from under the gate, sort of like the prisoners did when they hide in the trucks and with the Russian laborers. She managed to get out a do a Steve McQueen, the original, minus the motorcycle, and run like the wind, having a ball. While we, the sudo Germans chased her in vain. At least until she decided that she’d had enough, and came back home to Stalag Luft 3. She did this several times. I’ve been involved in at least three of these chases.

The last chase was today, or maybe the most recent, I don’t know. I’m at work, just leaving a meeting when I see Teri has called three times. I call her back, Cassie has gotten out again. This is after I’ve replaced the entire gate on the North side of the house. I drive home, meeting Teri with KJ looking for Cassie. KJ in his car seat, not yet able to be seen from the window calling out Cassie’s name. I go home, open the gate hoping Cassie will decide to come home. Her usual route has been centered in and around South Harrison, and a little east on Rockland ave, near the rail road tracks. This time she is on South Conger Ave, further west. She runs real fast when she sees someone who she knows calling her name. For her, it’s a game. She heads several times toward busy Lake Road, only to come back. She discovers the open field of the old Conger’s Elementary School. On one of these runs she decides to run toward Lake Road, my nightmare. Some poor lady in a BMW is heading east on Lake hitting her and launching her around thirty feet into the other lane. I’m not hopeful at this point. SHe lands in the other land and slides under an oncoming car. The driver driving slowly manages to stop. He backs up as I give him hand directions. Cassie is yelping, and I don’t know if I can pick her up. Traffic is backing up. I slide her out from under the car feeling her belly to see if it is safe to pick her up. I pick her up thinking maybe it’s only her leg, maybe it’s broken. I wave the drive on and step to the side of the road. Cassie clutched in my arms. Teri is on Grant Ave, a one way street, so she has to come around to get to me. As I stand there waiting for Teri, the woman in the BMW comes over. Tears are streaming down her face, she is apologizing, “Oh, I’m so sorry.” I tell her it is alright,and not her fault. She says she knows this but she is sorry. I immediately take a dislike to her. I need to forgive her, but she doesn’t need it. Teri pulls up and we start to race to the vet in Valley Cottage. Teri insists we call them. A young girl answers the phone. When we tell her what has happened, she tells us to go to an emergency hospital, and almost hangs up on us. We head toward Nanuet, and you might remember how I have talked about God, and his wicked sense of humor with me. We pull up behind an ancient woman in a moderately new car, maybe it was expensive, I don’t remember. What I do remember is she is going maybe thirty when she is going down hill. I know Teri will not pass her. Cassie, feeling a little better, has pulled from my arms and is laying on the floor of the car’s backseat, underneath KJ’s feet. I’m sitting in the back seat too. I look down at the seat and I see blood. For the life of me I can’t remember seeing any on Cassie. My fingers are bloody, but I don’t remember where the blood could have come from on Cassie. When I pulled her from under the second car, I guess she clawed me. I have two cuts on my pinkie, and ring finger, and one was dripping on the seat. I never felt them happening. At the vet they do $1,874.00 worth of tests. They discover she has an issue with her lungs, and air is filling up her chest which could kill her, if nothing is done. She is staying overnight which adds another $3,000.00 to the bill. I got a call, and they had to withdraw some air from her chest, so in case they need to put in a chest tube, they request a prepayment which ups the $3,000.00 to $4,900.00. We will wait for a call when we can pick her up. It might be tomorrow, it might not. Nastia, and Sean have gone over to see her. I don’t want to. I feel it would be too sad, and it would bring back memories of Cody. She was fine one day, but not eating. We bring her to the vet, and they say her kidneys are shot, and we have to put her down. But she was just fine yesterday. She was happy, friendly, herself. And here I am dredging up memories of her making me sadder. At least Cassie will be fine, they say.

Halloween Parade, Ring worm, and still hunting for that apartment

Halloween Parade, Ring worm, and still hunting for that apartment

Teri, Nancy, and I went to the Nyack Halloween parade. It was mostly the usual things. All three of us bought folding chairs with us. Everytime I think about the folding chairs, I smile how everyone looked at me as if I’d grown a third eye when I first bought one to the parade. I was so uncomfortable about it, I offered the chair to an older woman who looked like she could use it. For the last several years chairs have gone from a luxury to a necessity/ luxury. I could stand for the entire parade, but I don’t want to, and I’d pay for it later. It was cold, and the jacket I bought with me turned out to not be an unnecessary excess. Nastia, and Sean went somewhere. Either to a casino upstate or to a friend of Sean’s, who is also upstate. So they didn’t go. Elena, she might have just said, “I don’t want to go.” She worked, it was a Saturday, at 6, and she’d just gotten home at maybe the time we were leaving. I think the highlight of her evening was having Ramin delivered to the house from a noodle shop in Nanuet. Some time in August or maybe September Nastia had a spot on her arm that looked like a bug bite. She scratched it and it scabbed over. No moe thought was put into it until one Saturday afternoon her, and I are having lunch at Panera, and I see this circle on her arm where the scab was. I the distant reaches of my mind, I remember reading the book ‘Old Yeller’, and in it Travis got a case of ring worm on his stomach, I think. It’s been more than forty years since I might have read it. I remark to Nastia, in that off hand way I do, “What’s going on with your arm?” Before I know what I have said, I say, “It looks like ring worm.” She gets all freaked out, and wants to go to Immediate Medical care. I was raised like Travis in ‘Old Yeller’. Spit on it, rub some dirt on it, and go back to playing. I’ve tried to evolve since then, but if it don’t hurt, leave it alone. Well she was all freaked out about it, most likely because I called it ring worm. So after lunch we head over to Immediate Medical care. I am such a loving, and caring person, I leave her there to go get gas. When I return she is just finishing up the form on her phone. Most of the people before us have been seen, so our wait is not long. We are escorted to a room. I ask Nastia if she wants me to come along. She gives a most definite yes, and I follow. The medical tech comes in, asks questions to Nastia. I try to stay out of the conversation to give her freedom to answer, and to give her a chance to act like an adult, and handle something on her own that will come up again.

The Doctor arrives, and she asks some more questions. She says it looks like ring worm, and takes some blood to be sure. Who knew Travis all these years later. The Doctor asks if she has had skin to skin contact with anyone since the bit mark. Ring worm is highly contagious. Nastia stumbles a little in her answer, so I can’t resist stepping in to say “Yes, Nastia, you’ve had skin to skin with your boyfriend, you live with him. Oh boy what an enlightened parent I am (say that with sarcasm, because I needed to show how enlightened I am) The Doctor says she will put in a prescription for the spot as soon as the blood work comes back. Now how does a 21st century person get ring worm? Beats me, but with all of these anti-vaxing people willing to risk their children's health on disproven voodoo science, I guess ring worm is the least of their worries.

Tasha's wedding and the car show

Tasha’s wedding and the car show

The two last things that happened in that very busy August were Tasha getting married, and Caliper Tire’s car show. Tasha and her fiance decided to have two weddings. The fist, a traditional wedding to honor the traditions of her family, and the second to have an American style wedding, well soft of. I was asked to take a Thursday off in August way back in the Spring. Me being me decided not to worry about it then because it is in the future, and I do not live in the future. Yes, I did remember to get the day off in plenty of time, and I’d also agreed to rent a room down in Jersey to stay over after the second wedding, because it was going to be late when it is over. The first wedding, on a Thursday, started early in the day. I’m writing this after the fact, and I’m not totally sure, but it was some time around 9AM or so we showed up. We milled around with all of these brightly dressed people for a while until breakfast is served. I don’t know what I ate, but I’m told it is vegetarian. We find seats in the middle off to the left. Originally we were seated on the aisle, but Teri didn’t feel comfortable there. When the ceremony startsed, a group of men dressed in brightly colored clothes men walk down the center aisle toward the podium in the front of the room. I could almost picture the groom arriving from another village to celebrate the coming wedding.

The bride would arrive in the same manner. There were goings on between the two in the front of the room I couldn’t hear. I believe there was a game they played, and maybe a dance, I really don’t remember. The bride to be left and changed. When she came back, she was greet by matching rows of sparking fireworks like fountains on either side of the aisle. They were married, and again, I think there was a dance, they did. We were then invited to a feast of many different dishes, some I think I might have recognized. Teri, Nancy, and I sampled a little of everything. By early afternoon we were heading home. That Saturday we headed back to the same country club to their version of ‘An American Wedding’ . We were seated in a small outdoor court yard. The weather was perfect for the ceremony. This time the groom, and his groom’s men brightly colored clothing was replaced with black suits. The bride walked down the aisle in a beautiful white wedding dress. A woman performed the ceremony, and again they were man, and wife.

We went into a hall for the cocktail hour with what seemed an unlimited number of food stations. Definitely more than one person could visit without getting full, and not eating dinner. The three of us wandered around separately, coming back to report what interesting stations we’d found. Trying to not fill up there was difficult. I could have been happy if this was all the food they offered. After an hour we went into the main dining hall, and sat down. The bride, and groom were introduced, some speeches were made, and at that point I expected to get up and share the brides, and grooms fist dance together as man, and wife, but this is a Tamal version of an American wedding. Soooo, the wedding party comes out. First the grooms, then the bride, or maybe the reverse, I don’t know, but dancing there was a lot. They danced, and danced these choreographed dances they’d obviously spent a lot of time on. The music was too loud, and it’s not because I’m getting old I say that. Everyone said that. The bridal party put on a great show, then dessert came out. After that I was tired, and the party was coming to an end. We took the shuttle back to the motel and it was the end of a nice night. The next morning Teri says, “Hey lets go out to breakfast. If only the Red Barn was close to here.” She checks, and it is twenty minutes away. We have a very good breakfast, than head home. The caliber Tire car show

Caliber Tire decided to have a car show on Labor Day weekend. I thought maybe I should have been asked if I wanted to bring the Mustang over to the show. So I was very pleased when Sean and Nastia asked if they could take the car over to the show. It was another wonderful late August, early September day. Not too hot, sunny, just really nice to be out. I went with Nastia to the show to see what was there and to take a picture of the Mustang in it’s first show. No prizes were awarded, the Mustang wouldn’t have won, but some gift bags, and discount coupons were handed out. I stayed a short while, and left. It’d be interesting to see how many coupons have been redeemed since the show.

KJ goes to the beach

It was Labor day, I believe, the weather was global warmingly pleasant, so someone got the idea to go to the beach. Since it was not really ‘the summer’ anymore because as we all know summer starts on Memorial Day, and ends on Labor Day, Teri says, “Hey, lets all go to Rye beach in Westchester. I looked it up on line, as we were leaving, good preplaning, on my part, and all I got were bad reviews. Parking is expensive, the bathrooms are disgusting, it costs a lot to get onto the beach. There was nothing good about the place, and we all should go to Orchard Beach in the Bronx, a couple of miles south of there.

I mentioned these ‘facts’ as we headed toward what promised to be an expensive day, at an awful beach, in an expensive area code.

As the headline read, it was going to be KJ’s first beach day. He was going to go to Sea Side, but his mom had a reason to cancel, I don’t remember. She came along,as did Nancy, Teri, Elena, and I believe Sean was the only one who had to work. In my past life as a milk man, been there, done that, so I felt for him, until I forgot he was working. Like I said, been there, done that, time to enjoy the advantages of working at a 8-5 Monday through Friday job, with Labor Day off.

We got to the beach, before the parking opened. I thought this was the first of many awful things to happen. Then everything changed, they opened parking, and instead of $25.00, parking was $10.00. We get out of the car, walk past the gorgeous pool, and find the rest rooms. I grit my teeth, and walk in expecting to see wallboard torn off the walls, and gaping holes. It is a cool, late summer morning, I walked into the overly air conditioned, still spotless bathroom. I am even able to adjust the air so it is not so cold. The beach did not open until 10, so we waited around the ticket booths talking, looking out at teh beach watching the life guards do late season and yes I willingly accepted the senior discount on my beach pass even though I didn’t ask for it. And yes, it was $10.

The beach never really filled up even as the weather got warmer. KJ was afraid of the whistles the lifeguards used early in the day to run life saving drills. He went into the water at the beach for the first time with his mother, Nastia, and Elena. I watched from the shore in my comfy chair, sipping my water, yes, I’ve had to get mostly away from Diet Pepsi. I keep telling people I started drinking it when it was the health alternative, so I’m safe. Yeah, I know it doesn’t work like that. Sometime after one in the afternoon I went for a walk to see what was around the area. I walked to the end of the Boardwalk where a restaurant and an open dance club were. Prices in the restaurant were above what I’d want to spend. The food truck was the only other alternative, and the food turned out to be very good. Nastia, and Elena joined Teri, and I to eat hot dogs, and french fries, sitting on a bench overlooking the beach with its little waves, on that bright beautiful sunny day. We didn’t stay late, and made it home early.

And finally to the beach we go.

And finally to the beach we go. I started this edition of the blog on August 26th because we were going to the beach for the first time this year. Actually I was going to the beach for the first time this year. Everytime I turned around it seemed Nastia, and Sean were heading to the beach.

We went to the usual Sea Side in New Jersey. We got there early enough, but it was a Sunday late in the season, so the beach was a little crowded. More so than usual. It was also a little windy, so when I set up Elena’s tent, the wind pushed it a little close to some people next to us. I was struggling with everything, and I was going to move the tent, then I think Teri called me and someone else, Nastia, or Elena took over setting it up. When I look over the people are gone, sorry, I was going to move it. I set up my chair, umbrella, cooler, all the necessaries. After the tent Nastia and Elene unfold a sheet, push the edges into the sand and run into the water. I’m still setting up.

Sometime in the distant past I promised Nastia I’d go into the water. As I walked to the water with her leading me, I thought about the last time I’d been into the ocean above my ankles. I remember my mom taking me into the water when I was a little kid, and I couldn’t touch the sand. I knew I’d been in the water after that, but I honestly couldn’t remember. So I ball parked it at about 35-40 years. I walk deeper and deeper into the water. I’m waist deep looking at Nastia, she is still holding my hand like if she lets go, I’ll run back to the beach or a wave will sweep me away.

A wave comes and I ride it floating above it. Nastia says I should duck under it, and let it go over. I’m not ready to put my head into the ocean yet. THe next wave comes, it’s bigger, and starts to push me towards the beach. I let go of Nastia’s hand so I didn't pull her along with me. I brace myself with my right leg firmly planted in the sand thinking I can…but I can’t. As I’m rolling in the surf, it feels like everyone on the beach is looking at me laughing at that fat old man who thought he could resist the ocean, so after rolling what seems like the length of a football field, I pop up like nothing has happened, listening for the audience laughter, there was none. No one noticed except Nastia, and I. I could feel a sting on my knee, but I refused to look at it. Nastia came towards the shore a bit and encouraged me back in the water. On the next wave I ducked under it. I don’t know how long I was out here, but I was tired when I came out. I enjoyed the water, but had little or no interest to go back in later in the day.

Last year for lunch we went to a very good, but expensive place to have lunch. This year we went to a Mexican restaurant where we could sit outside. In the real world the dinner would have been expensive. At the beach it was reasonably priced. Teri and I stayed longer than the others with us. It was relaxing sitting there on the boardwalk watching the world go by talking to Teri. I went into the restaurant to use the bathroom before going back to the beach, and at the bar sat Elena. I’ve seen her at a bar before, but this kind of made me want to tell her to get herself out of this place, and how dare you, you know all of that parent stuff. I just smiled at her, maybe I asked her what she was drinking. I think I told her not to have too much, or maybe that was Teri. Either way she didn’t drink too much. A few hours later we packed up our vast camp and decamped, As the Left head of three headed giant said in the Holy Grail "They buggered off!", and the Third Head replied "So they have! they scampered”

Nastia ans Sean go apartment hunting.

Nastia has been wanting to go and live on her own for a while now, but with bills and not a great salary, it’s been tough.

I don’t remember what changed, it might be that Teri came up with some apartments in a range that were affordable. Maybe it was Teri who kept asking what can you afford to spend on an apartment? If you get the drift, it was most likely, like it always seems to be Teri, the driving force. If it wasn’t for her, I’d still be trying to finish up the paperwork to adopt, wait, no, to get them over here for the summer.

Sean and Nastia found an affordable place in New City to look at and they invited me. While talking I find out they have filled out paperwork they had to pay $500 each for, with the promise the landlord would pay them back. It sounded fishy to me. When he asked for a cosigner, I said yes., I’d be the cosigner. Then the landlord wanted me to fill out the same paperwork. I told him I’d give him my credit score, nothing else. That ended that apartment. I told them to cancel everything they did with him through the bank and get their money back.

Teri gets together with Sally, Sally Ann’s mother. She owns several apartments. She says it is what landlords, what she does when she is looking for a new tenant for her apartments. A few days, maybe a week or so later, they tell me they have a real estate agent who over the next hour or two or so will help them fill out paperwork for future landlords. A few days later, on a Wednesday, I think, the real estate agent has a nice apartment to see in Nyack, at a good price.

We walk up three flights of stairs, they are the back stairs and are narrow. The apartment is small. There is a small shared balcony, the other tenet seems to have taken over completely. Maybe a future problem. The front ‘room’ big enough for a queen or maybe a king bed, with maybe two chest of draws. A small living room, and a small, but functional kitchen. I’m marveling at how nice it is trying to figure out what they can fit in it, when I think Sean opens a corner cabinet and a bunch of about quarter inch bugs scramble for the far corners. My knowledge of cockroaches is you don’t see them if they are alive. I think all that need to be done is a trap or six to fix the problem. Everyone else is grossed out. I don’t know what type of bugs they are so I take my app out and snap a picture. These little buggers are German cockroaches! They also breed so quickly that you’d have to spray every couple of weeks for a while to get rid of them.I am now as grossed out as they are. Everyone leaves quickly.

Nastia on vacation and saying good bye to Uncle Tonny.

Maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s an age, her’s or mine, I don’t know. Nastia seems to not be able to stand still. She is either working or looking to do something when she is not. It’s almost like she is afraid she’ll miss something if she doesn’t keep moving. Sean took a week off. They went camping up past the Roscoe Diner, I think in Mongap? It was 100 degrees during the day here and no lower than 75-80 at night. Up there, I’m sure it was cooler, but you’re upstate and it's cooler. I texted her, asking how she slept the first night. It took a couple of days for her to reply, “It was fine, why?” I didn’t hear much about their camping trip, and there were no pictures. They then went to the shore and there were also no pictures. I assume they had a good time. As June turns to July I looked forward to our annual fishing trip to Moriches Bay on Long Island. For the past two years I’ve cancelled the trip because of the weather. This year we were going come hell or high water. Elena’s new job gives her off Tuesdays and Sean has had Tuesdays of forever, so instead of Thursdays, we were going on a Tuesday. I figured it would be slow, and because of the weather I didn’t reserve a boat until that Monday night. Actually I forgot about it until everyone had gone to bed. I went on their website and to my horror, they had no boats for rent. I thought a Tuesday before the 4th of July must be a big rental day. I was flogging myself for not renting a boat earlier when I realized they are closed on Tuesday. IT’S THEIR SEASON TO MAKE MONEY!! WHY THE HELL ARE THEY CLOSED!! The guy who ran it before them, Gary, never closed in season. I was heartbroken when I told the girls and Sean. Nastia immediately said, “Okay, we’ll go to the beach, want to come?” I couldn’t go and leave Teri, who was watching KJ, that day, and Elena, skipped to sleep in. My biggest fear happened on Tuesday and hopefully will inspire me to keep working for a while. I experienced babysitting JK. It got to the point around Noon or so after I’d had a fight with Teri and KJ and I exchanged throwing toys at each other that I felt it was time to go to ‘Home Depot’ to get something, anything. I came back around 5-6 o’clock. I got a heart cut, walked up five flight of stairs to donate blood to find out they closed the location. Next I went to see my mom. I did something else and figured about 5-6 pm was a safe time to return.

We went to Pearl River to see the fireworks. There was a Four Seasons tribute band that I had to be reminded we were seeing for free. The fireworks started around 9:20. The band was nearing the end of their second set when they played that awful song by Lee Greenwood. In these overly divisive political days one side has sort of adopted that song. There was a story going around that the US government was paying him when they used it when they swear in new citizens, but that was not true as far as I can tell. The song has all of the words to make a MAGA man cry, but it is truly a very poor song. The band wanted to end with ‘God Bless America’, but they were told they’d run out of time.

The night had started to get cold and the quicker it ended, the happier I was. My mom and Bruce went with us. Nancy and KJ were there too. KJ being a handful, but with four people to watch him and no toys to launch, it went off without a hit. The nation is 249, I remember when it turned 200, it seems like just yesterday.

On June 16th, my mom turned 91. We took her out to Sangria's for dinner. She had a good time. I'm not really sure she enjoyed the food. She took most of it home. A few days late we got word that my Uncle Tonny, aged 94 had died. They had a wake for him in Bedford Massachusetts where he spent the better part of 40 years. He’d only recently moved to the panhandle of Florida to be near his kids, grandkids, and I think great grandkids. I met several people I didn’t know when Karl and I went up there to represent our side of the family. My mom said she didn’t want to go, because she didn’t want to see him in a coffin.I can’t blame her. He was buried on Thursday, which would have been his 95th birthday. At the wake they told the story of how his family lied about his age so he could enlist. According to the Air Force he was 16 when he enlisted,not 15, like he was.

One of my favorite stories about him is when he was stationed in New Mexico during all of the UFO hoopla. There was this building that if you got too close to it, crossed a certain line, you’d get shot. Was there a UFO in that building? I guess we’ll never know