It's Official - We're Old!

St. Patrick's Day - party time! And we were in San Antonio! A party city. I can usually find something green to wear even if it's only my black socks with the bright green shamrocks. (Those socks will last forever because they only get worn one day a year.) But this year we were in our RV and I didn't really bring anything green - not even my shamrock socks. Poor planning on my part. So we planned to go downtown to buy some of those little shamrock antennae to wear. Festive without being over the top.

Mark had his seminar in the morning and when he got back we set off for downtown. I thought that the Riverwalk might be crowded because of St. Patrick's Day combined with spring break so we planned to eat lunch at the Mercado. More poor planning on my part. There was some kind of music festival going on at the Mercado. It was even more crowded than the Riverwalk, if such a thing can be imagined. The two restaurants worth eating at both had wait times of over an hour and a half.

I've never been a big fan of crowds. I'm not tall (I guess that makes me short) and all of the tall people breathe all of the air - none of the air gets down to my level. Not only do they take all the air, they stop without warning. They change direction without signalling. Sometimes they stop and head back into you in one move. One of them was holding his cigar in front of him like it was a flashlight. He probably ended up burning somebody - just glad it wasn't me. Then there was another guy walking with his drink extended out to his side and looking in the opposite direction from the direction he was walking. That probably didn't end well, either.

We got out of the crowd and headed toward the Riverwalk because we were starving. Getting food became more important than shamrock antennae, geckos, or music festivals. We stopped in to the Esquire Tavern and Grill for cheeseburgers. When we left, we had a decision to make. Go left or go right? Left would take us in the direction of the Museum Reach and The Pearl. Right would take us into the most commercialized section of the Riverwalk. In other words, crowds or no crowds.

We opted for no crowds even though the parade was getting ready to start. I think the parade was probably going to make several passes over the course of the evening. (Only in San Antonio do parade floats actually float.) There was very little foot traffic in the direction we were headed.
We walked all the way to The Pearl. La Gloria, the establishment closest to the boat landing was extremely crowded but that was okay, it was far too early for dinner. We walked another block and the area near the Culinary Institute was full of empty tables and benches where you could just sit down and enjoy the weather without being crowded. But since it was a long walk getting there, we didn't want to walk back. And since we'd eaten lunch so late, neither of us wanted to eat dinner, at least not at that time.

Bottom line? On St. Patrick's Day, a major party time in a major party town, we were at home by 7 pm. We missed the parade, we had no shamrock antennae, no corned beef and cabbage, we did not see the Riverwalk water turn green, no Riverdance, absolutely no shenanigans - and we didn't care. We are officially old.

A Special Day

Let's see. Where was I forty-eight years ago? Oh yeah, St. Thomas Hospital in Akron. Giving birth to my only child.

I remember preparing fish with a tomato-based sauce for dinner the night before. I was dreaming about fish when I went into labor. And for the record, I am unable to eat fish with a tomato-based sauce to this day.

We left for the hospital in the middle of the night. It seems I wasn't as ready to be a mom as I thought I was and they made me walk up and down the hall for what seemed like hours. I remember that swiss dot green and yellow quilted robe that I was wearing like it was last week. Thankfully there are no photographs of it - all the pictures of it are in my mind.

Natural childbirth was just coming into vogue, and my doctor wasn't necessarily a believer but they did wait until the very last minute to give me anything for the pain. What I remember is that my husband left the room the first time I grimaced. Wimp! He left waaaay before it got serious.

Early that morning, my husband called my mother and his mother to tell them we were at the hospital and that they would be grandmothers soon - a first for both of them. In all the excitement, he forgot to tell them which hospital and Akron had more than one. And they couldn't call him back because there were no cell phones, no answering machines, and no way for them to find out where we were until he got around to calling back with the news that we had a boy which was over five hours after the first call.

My baby was perfect. He looked just like a porcelain doll. I still remember the woman I shared the semi-private room with remarking on what a beautiful white baby I had. She thought hers looked a bit purple but it wasn't her first and she said her other one had been a bit purple, too. But mine looked like a porcelain doll.

I also remember that they gave me something to help me sleep. What it really did was help me hallucinate. It was horrible. I was convinced that they had done something with my baby and I couldn't be quieted until they had taken me to the nursery to show me that my baby was fine.

After I calmed down I wanted to talk to my husband. I phoned home. (Remember there were no cell phones or answering machines.) I never got an answer, which only upset me again. I found out the following day that he and his cousin had gone to a place called The Fez for a celebratory drink. And much to their surprise, it was a gay bar.

Being a mom has been great. And it did get easier after the first 25 years.

Saying Goodbye to Heidi

The decision to euthanize a beloved pet is never easy. But this one was the hardest. In fact, we made the decision at least three times and pulled back from it. We kept hoping that the situation would improve. It took an hour long conversation with the vet for me to come to the conclusion that not only would the situation not improve, it would deteriorate over the coming months.

Heidi had Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency. I now know more about it than I ever wanted to know. I know that even though it's rare, it probably isn't as rare as we think because the diagnosis is often missed.

While it's been a serious struggle over the past six to eight months, I suspect she may have had the condition far longer. Thinking back to when we first adopted Harry as a kitten (nearly three years ago), Heidi was a healthy 11 or 12 year old adult cat. We often called her "Tubbykins" because she'd become a bit pudgy. She started losing weight shortly after Harry arrived. Not a great deal of weight but "tubby" no longer described her. We just thought she'd lost some weight because she was chasing after a kitten. More exercise! All good! The idea that she might be ill never crossed our minds.

Then came the camping trip two years ago where Heidi decided to go back to being a feral cat. To this day I don't know how she opened the camper door. She lived rough for a week in North Little Rock before we found her and brought her home. We had her checked out by a vet in Arkansas before bringing her home and she'd lost a few pounds but it could be explained by the fact that she didn't have a steady, reliable source of food and had to rely on her hunting abilities. (She was a good hunter, but she was better when she was younger and quicker.) Again, she'd been checked out and we had no idea she might be ill.

But she never gained that weight back. She looked like she might be losing more but only going to the vet once a year, it was hard to say. Other than the fact that she seemed to be losing weight, she looked quite healthy. Her coat looked good and her eyes were bright and she behaved normally.

Then last July she wasn't well. Cats frequently "hide" when they don't feel well and Heidi was hiding under a table in the spare room. It turns out she had a bladder infection. After the round of antibiotics, she was feeling much better but seemed to be having frequent diarrhea. I got some feline probiotics to give her but they didn't seem to help. 

She had a round of steroids. I know that we struggled with finding a diagnosis. All sorts of blood, urine and fecal tests were turning up nothing. We started experimenting with different foods. The weight loss continued.

Without getting overly graphic, let's just say that the diarrhea problem reached epic proportions. It was taking both of us hours to clean up the mess. The vet was in unfamiliar territory, as well. The elimination of just about everything else left us with the exocrine pancreatic insufficiency diagnosis. I read every thing I could find about it. It seems that roughly 60% of cats respond well to the treatment and about 10% don't respond at all. The rest were somewhere in the middle.

Heidi was somewhere in that group that didn't respond well. She continued to lose weight even though she was eating like a horse. She would be starving to death in the morning because she just wasn't getting the nutrition she needed from her food. She was on a special prescription diet (roughly three times the price of grocery store cat food) and two of her three meals had an enzyme powder mixed in. She didn't much like it, but it was critical for her to have it. She wasn't able to properly digest her food without it. She preferred the one meal where she got to have the probiotic powder mixed in instead of the enzyme powder. (A one month supply of the probiotics cost about $30 and a one month supply of the enzyme powder cost about $100.) But the real challenge with all of this was keeping her from eating Harry's food. And that wasn't easy. Being the food monitor was a serious job. Heidi was very sneaky and would take any opportunity to dip her nose into Harry's bowl if Harry walked away. And very frequently, the phone would ring and I would have to go into the office and by the time I got back she had polished off Harry's food. This would usually result in what came to be known as a "blow out" poo.

In the past when we traveled, Heidi would stay with friends. She'd been doing that all her life and felt as much at home with Alex and Jeannette as she did with us. (In fact, I think she liked them better until they got a dog.) But given her condition, I couldn't ask them to look after her while we were gone. Especially since in addition to their two cats and dog, they were also looking after a toddler. There was no time to be food monitor and no time to clean up the resulting blow-out if Heidi ate the wrong food.

The only option was to board her with the vet while we were away. I know they do their best there and get the cats out to interact with them. But I know this about Heidi - she wasn't big on that type of interaction. She saw herself as your equal. That meant you didn't pick her up and hold her. She would sit beside you but she didn't like to sit on your lap. (Harry, on the other hand loves to be on someone's lap.) There were no windows there for her to look out of and I know she hated going there. But it did solve the food monitor problem. She ate exactly what she was supposed to eat and there was no chance that she was going to get into another cat's food. But sadly, she had the blow-out poo anyway - at least once or twice a week.

We knew that this was a chronic condition and that she would be on the enzymes and probiotics for the rest of her life. I was okay with that. But I wasn't okay with boarding her when we were away. I'd hoped that she would respond to the treatment and stabilize enough to the point where even if she did sneak a bit of Harry's food, it wouldn't be disastrous.

But that's not what happened. She continued to lose weight and the disasters continued to happen and sometimes they happened even when we knew she hadn't eaten anything she shouldn't have. (They also happened while she was at the vet with her food intake carefully monitored.) She stopped going outside except for very short periods and she wasn't keeping up with her grooming like she used to do. And I was faced with boarding her for another ten days.

I was certain that we had done and were doing everything that could be done and her situation would only deteriorate. It would never improve. I wanted to hope that she would improve but was finally forced to accept that she would continue to waste away. It was so hard to reconcile that with the fact that she still wanted to be with us - still wanted her ears rubbed. And we were both with her at the end - rubbing her little ears until she slept.

The Perils of Domestic Air Travel

I don't think it's a big secret that I hate American Airlines. But for our trip to New York I was using air miles, American air miles. And when you're using air miles, you're lucky if you can fly direct one way. You are certainly  not going to fly direct both ways, unless perhaps you want to stay for longer than a month. Another option for getting a direct flight is using double the air miles required for the trip. I personally don't like that option. It's like saying "Oh yes! Let me pay double the price for that!" That's just not something you're going to hear me say.

So our flight to New York was direct from Dallas to LaGuardia and our flight home was from New York JFK to Baltimore and then Baltimore to Dallas. Even though our flight wasn't until 4:00 we went to the airport around noon - because once you check out of the hotel, there's just no place else to go with your baggage. (Yes, you can leave your bags at the hotel in their storage area, and we've done that on occasion but it didn't seem like a good option at the time because you never know how long it will take to get to the airport.) It was okay. Mark likes to be early. In addition to not knowing how long it might to get to the airport, you never know how long it might take you to get through security and there were plenty of choices for food and drink.

We got suspicious when an email came through about 1 pm that told us that our flight "might" be affected by a winter storm and that we should consider changing our plans. I went to the American Airlines customer service desk (I honestly don't know why they call it that) to try to make other arrangements to get to Dallas. I was told that the direct flight to Dallas was oversold but that she would put us on the standby list. Other than that, my best bet was to hope that my flight to Baltimore left on time. It was still listed as "on time" for 4 pm and the Dallas flight was scheduled for 5:30 pm.

I kept looking at the weather radar. There was rain in NYC and snow in Pittsburgh. Rain in Washington DC and Baltimore. I monitored the weather radar every half hour or so because that snow in Pittsburgh was inching its way toward the eastern seaboard but when we went to the gate a bit after 3 pm it still looked okay.

To avoid making a long story even longer (and boring) let's just say that the flight was delayed for 30 minutes before it started boarding. But because I cancelled that credit card that guaranteed us Group 1 boarding, we were in Group 8. (That's last.) The entire plane had been boarded except for Group 8 and we were just about to go through the jetway when they stopped us. We didn't get to board. And everyone who had boarded were made to get off. We all stood and watched as the crew for "our" plane was reassigned.

Then they flashed it on the board - Canceled. Due to weather. Seriously? They don't have to pay for your hotel or other expenses if it's due to weather. (More on this in a moment.) In the meantime, the people at the gate would help us get rerouted. The same story "customer service" had given me earlier -the flight to Dallas was full but they could put us on the standby list. I told them we were already on the standby list. She looked and told me that we were not. Really? Why did the other woman tell me she'd put us on the list when clearly, she didn't? Why do some people feel it's necessary to lie when the truth will do just as well? Although in truth, being on the standby list on an oversold flight is an exercise in futility.

I wanted to go home. I wanted to go home on Saturday because I only packed enough medication for the days we were going to be gone. I'd assumed I'd be home Saturday night.

The next flight to Baltimore wouldn't be until 4 pm on Sunday afternoon. Although, if we wanted to go back to LaGuardia we could go to Baltimore as early as 7 am. We didn't really care about going to Baltimore. Dallas was where we wanted to go. She offered Pittsburgh but again not until Sunday afternoon. Remember that I'd been watching the weather radar all day long. Why on earth would I want to take a chance on getting in and out of Pittsburgh? I knew it had been snowing there for hours. As it turns out, she couldn't route us through any other city.

The best choice was becoming obvious. The options for going back to LaGuardia all included early morning flights to cities where it had been snowing all day and night and hoping to get a flight out to Dallas later in the day. The options leaving JFK were Pittsburgh around 3 and hope to get out of Pittsburgh to Dallas. Baltimore at 4 hoping to get out to Dallas OR direct to Dallas at 5:30. Guess what we picked? Somehow or another, they could now accommodate us on the direct flight home even though this wasn't an option when we booked the ticket in the first place. Do you see why American Airlines disgusts me?

Now back to the weather issue. No other flights were cancelled. It had been snowing in Pittsburgh for hours but that flight had gone. The airports in Baltimore and Washington DC are less than 50 miles apart and the flight to Washington DC left AFTER the canceled flight to Baltimore. The Delta flight to Baltimore which was scheduled to leave after the canceled AA flight left on time. (It wouldn't have done any good for us to take that one because we would have likely missed the connecting flight to Dallas - although I was informed later that even though it was scheduled to arrive around 9:30 it didn't actually get in until close to midnight.) Does American want me to believe that the weather in Washington DC is significantly different from the weather in Baltimore when they are about 50 miles apart? Or maybe they'd prefer I believe that Delta airlines has better planes and better pilots so they are able to fly in weather that grounds AA, although it seems their planes and pilots can go to Pittsburgh where it had been snowing for hours longer than it had been snowing in Baltimore.

Just not buying what they're trying to sell. They canceled it for reasons that had nothing to do with weather but didn't want to say so because then they'd have to reimburse the displaced passengers for their expenses associated with the cancellation. With hotel, additional meals, and taxis it probably cost us an extra $300. Not to mention the lost day. And aggravation and stress.

And to top it off, when we checked in for our flight the following day, they tried to charge us for the baggage again. Good thing I still had the receipt in my handbag. After we were back home, safe and sound (and with all our baggage) I got an email from American Airlines advising me to let them know where to deliver my "lost" baggage. Nothing to worry about folks! They are right on top of it!

We may be through with domestic air travel...

How Can You Smile?

We went to ground zero. The 9-11 memorial.World Trade Center. Whatever you call it, it is a sobering experience. At least it should be - which is why I couldn't understand the people who were posing for photos with big smiles on their faces. Do they not know what happened there? Do they think there are two gigantic holes in the ground because someone had a cool idea for some fountains?

When we visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, Mark took my photo outside the door - but I wasn't smiling. It didn't seem appropriate. Perhaps if Anne Frank's story had a happy ending it would be different but when you think of the horror of what ultimately happened there, why on earth would you smile?

I'm a big fan of selfies. Mark and I take them all the time. There are plenty of places in NYC to take smiling selfies. Times Square comes to mind. The Statue of Liberty. Central Park. All kinds of places -  but not the World Trade Center Memorial.

But then I suppose there are people who would be grinning outside Auschwitz.

On Broadway

No trip to New York is complete without a Broadway show. We saw two - A Bronx Tale and The Book of Mormon. We liked both of them but must admit that both of us enjoyed A Bronx Tale more.

When The Book of Mormon first came out on Broadway there was a great deal of hype about it - funny, irreverent, etc. At that time, I wasn't sure I wanted to see it, because it's just not in me to make fun of someone else's deeply held beliefs. But then when the Mormon Church came up with their ad campaign - "You've seen the play! Now read the book" - I figured if they were okay with it, then I was okay with it.

And yes, it has its funny moments. Irreverent? Absolutely. But also chock-full of profanity that didn't really add to the story - which by the way, was fairly preposterous. (And I'm okay with preposterous.) Let me say that I wasn't "offended" by it. It reminded me of the old days when Eddie Murphy was on Saturday Night Live. He was the funniest thing on television! And because of the FCC regulations, there was no profanity. And he was incredibly funny, but his live show was nothing but a jumble of four letter words. If you aren't funny without dropping the F bomb, you're probably just not funny. Believe me, if the F bomb gets dropped at our house, it is NOT a laughing matter.

I prefer the gentle humor of A Bronx Tale, which was based on a true story. And even though I didn't think the romantic story line was as well-developed as it might have been, it was a good show. I'd go see it again. There are any number of shows I've seen more than once, Hairspray, Mama Mia, Wicked, and Lion King to name a few. (And some I'd like to see again - Kinky Boots, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.) The touring company for Book of Mormon will be in Dallas next year but I don't think I'll go out of my way to see it again. And that sums it up.

Hitting the High Spots

No trip to New York is complete without getting a good look at the Statue of Liberty. Up until this trip I'd only seen it from a plane window. We went on a bright sunny day even though it was cold. We thought about visiting the Ellis Island Museum, but I don't think my family entered the country through Ellis Island. I think they were here before it opened. Definitely one of the high spots of the trip.

And speaking of "high spots" we also took a stroll through High-Line Park. It's an abandoned elevated railway line that's been turned into an inner-city green space - complete with gardens and art installations. Of course, in February the gardens were brown, and while I made a few attempts at photographing them, I wasn't especially pleased with the results. So all you can see here is a view of a street from the park - and my favorite art installation - shoes. (What else?)

And the highest spot of all was Top of the Rock - the observation decks at Rockefeller Center - the perfect view of the Empire State Building. Their marketing is brilliant! If you go to the Top of the Rock, you'll have a view of the Empire State Building. If you go to the top of the Empire State Building you won't be able to see it. Excellent point!

A few more photos of the sights of New York.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday in New York was rain. No problem. Rainy days are perfect for visiting museums and New York City has plenty of them. We bought tickets good for five days on a double-decker sightseeing bus - one that had a clear roof so that we could see and not get wet if it was raining.

Two things I didn't count on. 1. The ear buds they gave you so you could listen to the pre-recorded tour information were barely long enough to plug in. Every time Mark moved, my ear bud came out. (I was only using one because using both of them made it too loud.) Mark couldn't use the ear buds at all because he would have to remove his hearing aids and he hadn't brought the container for them. 2. It was raining so hard that you couldn't really see anything. And you'd think that you should be able to see something the size of the Empire State Building! It also didn't help that the recording may have been a bit out of sync with where we were. Traffic can be quite variable, after all. But we went around again on a day with no rain and it made all the difference in the world. But it still wasn't that great for Mark because he wasn't getting the background information - like Macy's being the largest department store in the world. (If I hadn't told him, he might still think it was Harrod's.) So I had to double as a tour guide, pointing out Macy's the Flatiron building, the Apollo Theater, etc.

We take a tour bus in any city we visit to get an idea of the things we'd like to see more of and get our bearings. All in all, New York is a very walk-able city. In fact, you can probably walk to your destination (in Manhattan) just about as fast as you can take a cab, depending on how far you're going. When our bus passed the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday, we noticed that there was a line that snaked all the way outside. We decided we'd get there early on Sunday. We would skip the bus tour because it would take us all around the park before arriving at the museum. We'd decided to walk. We had a vague concept of where it was - we knew it was on one side of the park so we set off on foot to find it.

Before we got there, it started raining. Not one of those fine misty rains like you get in London but a torrential downpour - more like what we're used to in Texas. And when it rains like that in Texas, we stay home unless it's just something we have no choice about.

Mark always says that there's no such thing as "the wrong weather", only the wrong clothes. He has a PG Field waxed duster and a wide brimmed hat. This is probably "right" for rain. On the other hand, I had a down coat - knee length - but designed to keep out cold. Not quite as effective with rain. It was water repellent and all the rain rolled off it and straight on to my pants, which quickly became soaked from the knees down. And somehow, water was getting in on my arms. Mark had on waterproof hiking boots. I have a pair of rain boots, but they were in my closet at home. (I didn't want to overpack!) I had on running shoes and they were soaked through, as were my socks. The faux fur collar on my coat was soaked through and dripping everywhere. We can probably sum it up by saying I was miserable! And to make it worse, I was not convinced that Mark was leading us in the right direction. (Let's just say he has a history of leading me astray.)

When he realized that I was essentially soaked to the bone, he decided that we should abandon the museum and go back to the hotel to put on dry clothes, even though we should have been very close to the museum. Initially I resisted - Had I come that far and become that soaked for nothing? At that moment, I didn't care if I got sick and died but he was opposed to that idea. In the end, I gave up and we hailed a cab and returned to the hotel. It was easy to change clothes and shoes but I did have to wait several hours for my coat to dry out.

It is possible that Mark is right about clothes and weather. However, if there are "right" clothes for that kind of weather I don't own them. Nor do I want to own them. I will be happy to minimize my time out in the weather.

Welcome to New York!

I got an email from American Airlines back in November informing me that a significant number of my airmiles would be expiring in three days. Three days! That doesn't give you enough time to think clearly. But we didn't want to wait. If I slept on it, I would have forgotten about it and the miles would have been lost.

Where should we go? There weren't enough miles for a European trip (well, maybe for one of us but not both). So someplace in the US. For some reason, New York popped into my head. "How about New York?" Neither of us had "really" been there. Changing planes and having dinner in the airport doesn't really count. Nor does an overnight stay in an airport hotel (unless you leave the hotel). So without much thought, we booked a trip to New York City. In February.

We weren't too worried about the weather. New York is accustomed to dealing with winter weather. It takes a lot to shut it down. And last year we went to Ireland in February. It couldn't be any colder than Ireland. (Last year there was one day that was sooooo cold I wouldn't leave the hotel.)

So, as you can see, some thought went into this, although not much. If I'd been thinking clearly, we would have booked a flight to Miami and gone on a Caribbean cruise. If we take a trip next February, that's probably where you'll find us.

We arrived on a Friday evening and it was cold and a bit rainy and rain was in the forecast for the next two days. We were determined not to let that deter us.