Baby-cat [Emma update]

One other hypothesis I haven't mentioned yet is that this most recent bout of lethargy could have to do with Emma having yet another urinary tract infection. When S took her in to see the emergency vet on Saturday, they shot her full of fluids and an antibiotic, just in case.

Yesterday at the grocery store, based on several suggestions I bought a packet of beef-based baby food that consisted of beef, kale, and sweet potato. Wow does that stuff look disgusting. To my surprise, Emma ate it all up right away.

So she might actually be partially recovering from the worst of this, at least for now. This might be something of a rollercoaster, with continued declines in between extreme episodes; July/August 2020 was her first major UTI+thyroid crisis; her second crisis happened in August 2021, and it's now only November. Her bloodwork did show kidney failure at this point. I also just learned that the bloodwork tests for kidney failure generally don't diagnose it until it is pretty severe.

Based on further conversation with S plus ongoing litterbox observations, I suspect that the first UTI caused kidney damage to the point where Emma wound up with generally heightened urine production. So that has been chronic since August 2020. I'm a little annoyed that wasn't directly addressed by her primary vet in spite of my repeatedly bringing up the observation of dramatically increased urine production. But oh well. I have to imagine that the initial kidney damage has only made her more susceptible to future UTI's and made her health more fragile overall, and once the damage is done there aren't great ways to undo it. But what else can I do with an elderly cat, except try and keep her as comfortable and happy as possible for as long as I can.

New Yorker

Two of the benefits of having briefly traveled are: (1) having some time to just think instead of constantly doing things, as I am wont to do; and (2) a chance for perspective on my life in this place.

That leads me to: When talking about New Yorkers and what it's like to live in New York, S's overall summary is, "New Yorkers have no chill!"

I've been continuing to try and think about how else to articulate my experience of the place and local culture, because just as Texas wasn't entirely comfortable, New York isn't entirely comfortable, either, but in different ways. I can point to New York weddings as a clear example of things: a huge amount of fuss goes into the arrangement of an experience to try and make the experience as close to some conception of "perfect" as possible; all the expectations that feed into that concept create a tremendous amount of work for the parties involved, and as a West Coaster I can't help thinking that there are easier and simpler ways to do things with dramatically lower personal costs. But I guess not everyone views a wedding as a simple celebration and community affirmation.

In addition, the whole New York wedding standard isn't a standard that's equally achievable by all of the people who live here, but anything else that anyone else does still winds up happening relative to that standard, because that standard creates context. Even if a person tries to escape it, they're still acting in reference to it.

An alternate way to articulate the New York experience, for me, is to think back to that high-pitched whining noise that electronics make, that most people stop being able to hear as they get older because we all destroy the sensitive hair cells that can detect sounds in that range. Living here is like being subject to that high-pitched whine almost all the time. It's a noise that one can mostly ignore, except the long-term impact of being exposed to it is draining. When I step away to a different place, I notice how peaceful and quiet it is.

I think I might need to put more effort into finding either bike friends or ceramics friends out here. And for the bike friends, it may wind up being up to me to create the activities/events to attract the kinds of bike people I'm after. When I look back to the people who have been chill and fun to be around, the common denominator has been bicycling.

...in my copious spare time, of course.