SissyLue has become a victim of the site no longer being maintained, and cannot log in with her own username, and cannot change password. So, if anyone has a throwaway account, or an account you no longer use, please let me know, or join FAFO Chronicles to let her know directly. Anyone can help, I'll post the email associated with my username to sent info to, in the event you'd rather not join the other forum. Thanks.

OK, so, first my little girl is 15 years old. A couple years back, she began developing a milkiness to one eye. I took her to the vet who told me she surely had a couple more years of progressively worsening vision before it needed to be addressed...especially considering her age. The last 2 years have not been kind. Not only is she going blind, but seems to be going deaf, too, as she no longer turns directly toward me at the sound of my voice, I have to be kinda loud, and then she's looking around, searching for the source of my voice. Otherwise she is in generally good health. This little one has been my very best friend and constant companion for my entire life, it seems like, but factually, I only got her when she was 5. Her original owner, who loved her dearly, had a situation in that her living arrangements got intolerable and she had very limited options...so she gave toe little one to her ex-husband, who was also her only child's father. He also was a great doggie daddy, but he developed lung cancer, and his biggest concern was finding the little one a good home. Which is where I came in. So, the little dog has never been neglected, abused, or any of that heart-rending stuff you see in click-bait ads. But, I think it's time to revisit the cataract surgery option. So, now I have this little. old dog, who means the world to me. I myself will need cataract surgery before too long, and I can feel the difference in my own vision, so far it's mostly annoying, but it's getting to the point where it will need to be done. And, my opinion is that her own eyes need repair, sooner than I'd thought. She still navigates the house and farm fairly good, but has fallen off the bed a couple times playing her favorite game of running around the perimeter of the bed at full speed, terrifying me with her sharp turns, etc. I watched a couple videos on you-tube, but those people had some difficulty with the language, and I lost a lot of what they were saying. Anybody here had any experience in this? I gather that they'd do the worst one first? One of the things I found worrisome about the video I watched was, apparently one of the dogs ended up wearing the collar of shame for weeks on end, since she kept scratching at her eyes. and would her age make her not a good candidate? She DOES develop phantom itches and stuff, and from time to time I've had tp put socks on her to keep her from chewing at her feet, of an ace bandage to keep her from chewing at the top base of her tail. So, no doubt she'll be a candidate for excessive scratching and rubbing.

I've thought a lot about this, from time to time. WHAT IF....responsible-minded corporations started opening their new plants in red, or better yet, marginally red states, and transferring personnel to start and run the new office, for instance, if Microsoft were to open a few plants in, say, nearby Wyoming and ask for volunteers among their employees to move. I'd think a few thousand blue votes here and there could swing a state or 2. In 2020, which the democrats DID win, 36,000 votes coulda changes Alaska. 100,000 woulda put MY state, NC with its 15 electoral votes, into the blue. And so on. 2016, 140,000 woulda put NC blue. Also, look at the house of representatives for even more exact names that could have been avoided. Less votes to swing one district. They're talking about an 83% chance or repubs retaking the house, with 16 districts switching from Dem to Rep. Not all that many votes needed, if they went blue 2 years ago! A few million people leaving a few states that are heavily Dem. would make a huge difference in presidential elections AND both House of Representative, AND Senate races. It would take some thinking and planning, but it doesn't seem to be a difficult plan to implement. Hell, if my vote wasn't needed so bad here in NC, I wouldn't mind moving for the cause. We stand to lose democracy, and while we are on our hands and knees looking for it, one of the remaining super-powers have every chance to just move in and take over. Desperate times call for desperate measures, we need some serious changes made, and the republicans are clearly up to doing dirty tricks to ensure their dystopian hope for a dictatorship. And what happens in such a place when the dick in dicktater dies? Either the first born son takes over, or there is a multiplayer fistfight until the dirtiest fighter wins. In this case, if the dick is trump, the possibilities are trump jr(unless his sister has him killed) or a fight between people like Kevin McCarthy, Gym Jordan, MTG/Boebert double presidency, get a free blowjob if you vote for us??? Matt Gaetz? I mean, there is no limit to the dangers if we let Republicans have the presidency and both houses to go along with their supreme court. Democrats are a clear majority in the country, a little moving around we'd be able to win with our populat vote majority...Look at 2016, Hillary won. 2000, Gore won. Adjust the Supreme court to nullify the illegetimate stacking by the popular vote loser. Get rid of the electoral college. Improve education. a zillion things could be improved by moving a few million people.

The header for this thread is the punchline/introduction for a very old, and stupid joke, but it fits. A couple of days ago, my ex-wife got a call from her doctor's office to discuss some tests she'd had run the day before. Not surprisingly, she has cancer. Of course, she was shattered, and I put the best spin on it that I could, it's not liver or pancreatic cancer(usually a fast track outta here, along with lotta pain) not is it colon cancer, which could lead to a colostomy bag, or maybe repeated surgeries, and so on. I am NOT a medical professional, so lot of what I say may be couched wrong, or maybe even somewhat misinformed, but I am pretty sure I have the gist of what was said. Anyway, I was of the "It could be worse" persuasion. She's not yet 60. My first wife died as a result of a botched colonoscopy(at 52), which led to E. coli, which led to C.diff which led to what they termed "failure to thrive" which was the term given to "just giving up after being violently ill for 9 straight months, all day every day" So. I thought back to the efforts I made to make my previous wife's life salvageable...even a massive weight loss, 94 pounds, to donate a kidney... and getting my whole body, along with the house sterile in order to do home dialysis 4 times a day. Of course, that wife was still my wife, and she adored me(as I did her) whereas this one tossed me on the trash heap of used husbandry after only a couple years. How deep, exactly do my obligations go here? Other factors at work...My father died of cancer at 54...my mother died of cancer at 72, and a couple years after that, my only sibling died of cancer, also 54. I am now 71. My back, knees, and hip hurt so much it can't be described. How much CAN I do?? Her house needs cleaning, her garden needs picking, her dogs need watching. Some time next week or so, when she goes to surgery, even more stuff will need doing, and I may well have to make the trip to take her, and bring her back, the 50 miles or so to an actual town big enough for a real hospital. Don't sound like a lot, but throw in that back/knee/hip thing, and it is. What's so lucky about all that? You may well ask. Pretty simple, really. From Bob Dylan's Idiot Wind..."I can't help it if I'm lucky".... I'm doing stuff for her in her time of crisis, she's not having to do stuff for me during my time of crisis.

I have congenital anosmia. Don't have to look it up, I'm gonna tell you, it's the lifelong inability to smell. Like someone born blind, I cannot miss it, I never had it, Also, I can't actually understand the concept on a personal basis, only as an abstract. As a child, people would sometimes talk about something smelling good(a flower maybe) and hold it to their face and inhale deeply. I'd imitate them, but there was nothing there. More people complain about it than not. So, it can't be much. However, I have a deep paranoia about having rotten garlic that rolled behind the refrigerator or something, And not sure if people tell me everything smells fine because it's true, or because they don't want to offend me. How could I know? So, when loss of smell was listed as one of the side effects of covid, I was thinking...all those curses from covid, along with this one blessing! When I shock my well every few years....I cannot smell the bleach, so have to talk somebody into coming around to let me know when the water has bleach in it, and when it's clean. Covid patients wouldn't be able to smell the bleach Dr Blump prescribed!!(I can tell you from actual experience a little bleach still in the water burns the tip of your tongue) They couldn't smell their bodies rotting, like one of the earlier SAV ladies, nor could they smell the constant diarrhea. Or their fingers(and toes) rotting off. Lucky, lucky, lucky.( I hope you know the joke that was the start of...Don't call me Lucky Lucky, call me Lucky Lucky Lucky!)