Not independence exactly

My sister tapped me on the shoulder as I was eating breakfast: I’ll be outside so call me if you need anything.

A little while later, Mom stopped in: I’m just outside so call me if you want me to use the lift to get on the toilet.

I didn’t call either.

It wasn’t a desire for independence exactly. It wasn’t that a I didn’t want to bother them either.

I just wanted to use the toilet when I wanted to, which does sound like independence.

The difference is if I had butler at my beck and call, I would have taken advantage. One could argue that in Mom and my sister, I do have butlers.

I don’t see it that way.

I transferred fine. Going back to my chair my legs buckled.

Fortunately, Fame barked, Mom walked in and got my sister.

Oh,damn it all.

Kidney-er

In the supercool movie Tombstone, people refer to Doc Holliday as “lunger” because he has tuberculosis. By that logic, I guess we need to start calling Fame “kidney-er” because she has kidney disease.

That’s what an ultrasound this week showed.

I am scared her service dog group is going to make me retire her, I hope not. Even ignoring the pandemic’s effect that has kept me home, I hardly ever go out. Retirement ill-suited Claren, my first service dog. I hope they trust me.

I also worry about paying for the new food and supplement she needs.

Mostly, though, I’m afraid for my wonderful companion.

Wyatt never Doc “lunger,”so I won’t use “kidney-er.” It doesn’t sound cool either.

I’m not passive-aggressive; I have Friedreich's ataxia

One of my nieces said recently that young people view thumb’s-up emojis as passive-aggressive when they don’t include text.

I use that emoji without text all the time.

I am sometimes accused of being passive-aggressive, usually by my sister but also, I think by a counselor. But my thumbs-up texts aren’t passive-aggressive  on purpose.

Two things to learn from this:

• Young people (except my housemates) are dumb.
•  Friedreich's ataxia continues to. Find new ways to screw me over.