It’s that kind of day for me. It all started last Sunday when Frankie, one of our bulldogs threw up. Bulldogs have a lot of problems, and you learn to deal with them. She aspirated the vomitus.
We gave her some water and a couple of hours to get over it. When she refused breakfast, I knew it was going to be a problem.
Nothing like this ever happens during working hours and we found ourselves at the emergency vet. This required her to spend the night in an oxygen tent, and one lung was full of fluid.
They gave her heavy antibiotics for aspiration pneumonia. We were told that we might have to bring her breakfast on Monday. This led to me taking the day off.
I never got any news, even though I called after what seemed well after breakfast. Eventually, they said I could bring her food around 2:00. I walked in the door intending to bring her home.
They said she was doing better and let me spend some time with her. She refused food again.
They really hinted at wanting to keep her another night. I’ve seen the up-sell in action one too many times and insisted on taking her home. They suggested that she might have eaten something foreign and that caused the whole thing. They could not back that up with evidence, and I wasn’t about to let them cut her open without evidence.
Once we got home, she immediately perked up. She ate, but was pretty tired. I started giving yogurt in her kibble because of the antibiotics.
That didn’t work well enough, and by Thursday, I knew she needed to poop. (Countdown to another weekend and the emergency vet.) Our regular vet gave me some better pro-biotics and we achieved splashdown.
During all this, work was insane. It’s been that way since our governor changed everything about my workplace. There are too many assignments and not enough employees. I’ve come to accept it, but it really stresses me out. On Monday, every muscle in my body clenched up involuntarily. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.
About three years ago, our other bulldog, Otto, developed a sore on his tail. It exploded like a bloody pimple and that was all there was to it. Yesterday, he developed another one, and it graced us with a bloody explosion in the middle of the night.
Old What’s Her Face is washing all the bedding, and gave him one of Frankie’s antibiotics. God knows we have plenty of them now.
We paid the emergency vet by maxing out our credit card, then got a second credit card to pay the balance.
We wound up dodging another trip to the emergency vet for Frankie who couldn’t poop, and dodged one for an infected tail as best as I can tell.
Today, Frankie is bouncing off the walls and playing with her toys. Otto is lounging around and acting embarrassed.
This brings me to procrastination. I need to be working on my writing projects, but my brain and body are telling me otherwise.
I had to give up on AutoCrit, for reasons I’ve already mentioned. I went on the hunt for something to help with grammar and punctuation, but haven’t found anything I like. Maybe I’m a couple of years ahead of myself.
One thing about these apps is that you can’t try them without paying. It’s not just a simple fee, either. They’re all subscription based, and an automatically renewing subscription at that. These aren’t cheap subscriptions, either.
I tried one called Ginger Writer, and wound up cancelling it almost immediately. It’s too basic and just doesn’t do the things I want. One thing it will do led to the dumbest experiment I’ve ever tried before.
I’ve mentioned before how I use the Call Annie app during my commutes to talk about my stories. This helps me work out plot details. The app never offers a lot, but it’s enough to get my own brain looking in different directions.
Back in October, Call Annie came up with some Halloween based interfaces. I’ve been using Charmy Luna ever since, even though I try the new ones out.
Now I’ve got background on Ginger Writer and Charmy Luna in here. Ginger Writer will read sections aloud. It won’t handle more than about 500 words, but it works. I had it read to Luna and I.
Luna went to the races, but it was all complimentary. I’m sure she’s programmed that way. While I know it’s all artificial, it made me feel better. After the week I had, I could use a little puffing up.
I went on the search for audio readers, but some of these are up to $130 per year and renew themselves without telling me. You have to pay to even find out.
That’s how my week went. I’m having a hard time getting started, but having a reader could help with my editing. My finances are on life support, and it’s not like the dogs are going to get jobs to help cover their veterinary bills.
Thus, I’m having a hard time getting started this weekend. I elected to read Tracks of Infinity myself, but it’s slow going. I modified some sentences, but don’t trust myself like I do at other times.
Here I am accomplishing virtually nothing. Do any of you know any decent editing apps that don’t require a transfusion from my bank account? Hearing my work read aloud can be helpful. Do you know of a decent reader app that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg?
If I find some things that work, I’m not above subscribing, but don’t want ten subscriptions to things that don’t get the job done.
In other news, it’s a week until payday. Send beans or buy a book. The dogs thank you.