Cruisin' On Autopilot

With everything going on in my life right now I apparently switched to autopilot this morning as I left the house. I was on the 1st switchback on Sierra Drive when I realized I should actually be on my way to Dr. Ching's office to have the antibiotic chips removed from the pocket left by my wisdom tooth removal! Fortunately I had left early enough that I still had enough time to get to Dr. Ching's office on time. I took a photo of the 2 prints in the lobby that I mentioned in last week's post.

The sunny version.

The shady version.

The view from the chair.

I was on autopilot last week also. When I drove to Curtis' house for breakfast I was in the lane to get off to go to Kaiser Moanalua! And on the way back I did the same thing! But it wasn't as bad as this morning, I stopped myself before I left the freeway.

Dad was up & picking at his breakfast when I did show up at Maunalani. After breakfast we went to the group exercises; I am doing the exercises, too, since I have no upper body workout program that I follow. Then Dad went to the Namaste session. And I went on my 1st walk of the day. There were 2 workers cutting the grass at the park with weedeaters and a Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) was following along looking for injured prey! I was able to get really close to it and get some good photos; its breeding colors are very apparent.

The Cattle Egret likes to stay close to the workers to get injured prey.

This is the closest of 50 photos that I took; you can really see the buff coloring and yellow legs that identify this as a breeding bird.

Later in the day I took another walk during shift change. The Cattle Egret was still searching through the cut grass for prey, but there were no other interesting birds. But I did see some interesting plants, they looked like Ficus elastica seedlings growing on the trunks of some of the trees.

The wide-leafed plants appear to be young rubber plants.

I needed many more than 2 walks today. Dr. Sox called; she had the results of Xander's biopsy: intestinal large cell lymphoma. I talked with Dr. McMillan, the oncologist, later in the afternoon. Although cats do not respond as well to chemotherapy than dogs and have a shorter survival time, we started Xander on the CHOP protocol. Response rates are 50% to 70% with survival usually between 3 and 6 months; the focus in treating him will be to maintain a good quality of life while he is receiving the chemotherapy. Today he received Vincristine 0.5 mg per m2 intravenously. I brought him home, he was still a little wobbly after dinner. He will be boarded at the Cat Clinic while I am on my trip to Green Bay and Michigan.


Since I haven't seen Kelly to ask him about what brand he used, I have been researching the sun protection clothing on my own. It's confusing but I made my choice, I'm getting 2 shirts from Patagonia. The Coolibar things appeared to be specific for either in the water or not in the water; there were warnings not to use them in the other environment. Patagonia did not have that. And even though Vapor had the lowest individual price for a shirt, you had to buy 6 of the same thing which made the total cost about 30% more than what a single shirt cost from either of the others. I am considering buying from them when I am finally settled in and doing much more outdoor activities. In the meanwhile, I will have one button down shirt that I can use as a light jacket and a long-sleeved shirt with thumb holes for use in wetter settings but still able to be used in casual dry settings.

I got a photo today from CJ; she just returned from a trip to Machu Picchu. I'd like to go there, too. Some day.

(Photo by Carol)

Happy Birthday, George!