This is all the faith that I have

    I was cooking yesterday. Nothing earth-shattering; just my apple-cinnamon mini-muffins. And the words came into my head: This is all the faith that I have. I suppose it's true. Cooking is about all the faith that I have. Of course, anybody would probably find it a more or less religious experience if they went along for 45 years dogged by anxiety, then got better by eliminating an ingredient or three from their diet. Not well, mind you, but better.

Patience is a virtue

    So today dialysis did not start so well. Or at all for the longest time. We had to wait more than a half hour. I didn't complain exactly; I asked for a chair time when there would actually be a chair available. A lady in the waiting area said, "Patience is a virtue." I smiled back; I confess I was amused.
    It's not that I think that I'm too big to wait; it's that I think Dad is. Not him personally, but him as a 91-year-old man. I recommend that he call his nephrologist and pull rank. As I mentioned, their practice owns nearly half of the dialysis facility. One would expect them to have a certain degree of pull.

My cutest time of the week

    Because I like breathing, I vacuum twice a week. Otherwise, even apart from my kitty allergy, the sheer volume of cat hair is just overwhelming. Amelia the cat is not a fan. I keep hearing about YouTube videos of riding the Roomba or Zoomba or whatever it is. They must be pretty quiet vacuums or pretty deaf cats. Amelia just runs and hides.
    This place has two rooms, more or less (one gigantic room partitioned by a double fireplace, to be exact). I always start with the back room and then go to the front. Amelia knows to go hide when I start moving the furniture. When I finish the back room and move to the front, I see a little kitty face on the other side of the double fireplace, as she creeps to her second hiding place, the fireplace, in fact. It helps that she's very cute anyway of course, but it always hits me as flat adorable. Some day I'll get her her Roomba, and she can ride instead!

Still crazy after not that many years

    Yesterday at Aldi, I demonstrated again that I'm not all that well-balanced. The lady in front of me had a bag of flour that leaked on the conveyor belt. And I flipped a bit. I just couldn't go through with buying anything. Even though I ate gluten for 45 years, and clearly didn't die from it. Even though there was an area by the checker that the conveyor belt didn't touch; I could have just put my stuff down there and carried out the transaction just as easily. Instead I flipped out and left. Time to switch to de-crazy I guess.
    Today, Margaret went to Abbeville for a christening, so William and I get to take Dad to Lizard's Thicket for lunch. Should be fun. Yay!

St. Pat's

    People from more than 50 miles from here are surprised that there's a major St. Patrick's Day celebration in Columbia SC, as there are no Irish people to speak of here. There are, however, a great many two-fisted drinkers, and an excuse to get stinkin' is always popular. This complicates my life insofar as the party is in Five Points, smack between where Dad is living and where he needed to go for dialysis today. Also, there was an underpublicised Run for the Cure event along Devine St., so my detour got detoured further. But we got there on time anyway, since I'm pretty good with detours, and I worked out the route back on my way home.
    In Dad news, he had some kind of bathroom emergency this morning and Margaret had to clean him up. She said "I didn't sign on for this!" I'd say I hate to say I told her so, but that wouldn't exactly be true. Also, the pharmacy can't give him his medicine because the prescription was written by a nurse-practitioner instead of a doctor. Hopefully, just getting the doctor's name will be sufficient. Seems stupid and sexist to me, though. Fortunately, he isn't on anything he'll die without, but it would still be nice to get through a whole week without this kind of unnecessary headache.

Pie nation

    Out on Bluff Road this morning, on my way back from Congaree National Park, I saw a tractor-trailer up ahead the back doors of which advertised Pie Nation. When I caught up and passed it, I learned that one of the doors must have been replaced at some point. The rest of the trailer declared itself to belong to Pierce National, apparently a trucking firm from Alabama. I much preferred the shorter version.
    Dialysis didn't go well yesterday, either, as it took forever to get his arm to stop bleeding. However, unlike the other facility, these guys actually listen. So they're cutting down the Heparin (which I'm pretty sure is also rat poison) they give him. And they may also cut back his aspirin dosage, as that's the only other blood thinner that he's on. So hopefully things improve from this point on.

Knock on wood and stuff

    Dad's new dialysis place is working out well so far. Everybody's very friendly, they seem quite competent, and they bring him to the back from the waiting area promptly. Just like at the other place, they had trouble getting his arm to stop bleeding at the end of his first dialysis session Tuesday. I suggested that maybe he should suggest in turn that they could stop prescribing him blood thinners, including aspirin. Maybe this would also help with his shortness of breath. Anyway, it's a thought.
    Unfortunately, 11:30 is a very busy time for them, so their excellent loading/unloading setup isn't a lot of use. Today, there was already an ambulance and a minivan in the way. But we coped. Also unfortunately, St. Paddy's day is going to prevent us using our usual route through Five Points Saturday. Again, I expect that we'll be able to cope.