If you live State-side, I hope you have a great holiday!
Oddly enough, I woke up at my usual 4AM this morning, but WASN’T exhausted at all!! Funny how that works when I know I don’t have to get up and go to work…
However, I’m still not 100% sure I will get that Christmas tree up today. We shall see how it goes. It feels a little overwhelming right now, but my mood could change as the day goes on.
That terrible wind we had all day/night yesterday damaged part of my new gutter, so I’m super excited about that! I sure was so hoping I would have to find yet another handyman — this one who can go up on my roof and re-attach part of my new gutter… for, you know, a nominal fee.
Aarrrgh!
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Okay. Yesterday.
Jesus, gang. I will at least say, upfront, that the day ended very nicely once I got home from my shift.
But the minute I arrived at the home of my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man, I discovered that he hadn’t eaten in TWO DAYS!!
His private nurse was away on vacation. I had no clue she was leaving town or I would have done his grocery shopping on Saturday, when I was last there. (The nurse usually does all the grocery shopping, but I leave her a grocery list on Saturdays.)
There sat my grocery list on the counter. And there sat his fridge with almost nothing in it. Not even cream for his coffee.
I was super excited about the thought of getting him out of bed immediately and heading to the grocery store in the rain, the plummeting temperatures and the high winds — the day before fucking Thanksgiving! (When you can’t find a parking spot that’s anywhere near the store!)
He’d also had a caregiver from the Agency at his house on Monday & Tuesday, who did not know that you can’t prepare food for him and leave it in the fridge. It has to be on the table beside his chair in the living room where he can see it, otherwise he will forget to eat. And that’s what happened. For two fucking DAYS.
Her notes said that he was being really, really difficult on top of not eating. He hates when he has unfamiliar caregivers. And reading over her notes made me, of course, feel guilty about planning to retire. I realize the Agency will have me train someone before I leave for good, but still. I pictured him starving to death and dying in short order.
Anyway, I was so fucking upset from the minute my shift started. Mostly because the private nurse had not texted me that she was out of town. She’d only texted, asking me to pick up his Thanksgiving dinner.
So I got him out of bed and off we went. He was so disoriented and weak, which of course made me more upset. I stopped in at the Agency, which was on the way to the store, and I politely vented to the receptionist about the client not having eaten in 2 days!
I didn’t want anything in writing/typing on the Agency app, where the family in Seattle could read that their 95-year-old dad, who lives alone and has no short term memory left, hadn’t eaten in TWO FUCKING DAYS!! Meanwhile, the family pays the Agency a fucking fortune to make sure that their dad fucking EATS…
Jesus fucking Christ, I was so angry. But luckily, the receptionist at the Agency is just incredibly efficient and really nice, and she started emailing the right people, right away. So I felt a little bit better when I left there.
And I ended up taking him out for breakfast at the same place where I was picking up his pre-ordered Thanksgiving dinner. So that saved time. And the day wasn’t totally ruined.
And he collapsed in his recliner in the living room the moment we got back, and he slept there for the remainder of my shift until I woke him to say goodbye and have a happy Thanksgiving….
….wherein, as I was preparing to leave, a text came in from the Agency: Could I possibly work with him again on Thanksgiving because the scheduled caregiver had just called off sick…
ME: “FUCK! “
ME (also): “NO. I CAN’T.”
(But I said it a lot more politely than that.) And then I left post-it notes written with a big black sharpie all over his kitchen in hopes that the caregiver who gets sent in there today will have some sort of chance in hell of getting him to eat his Thanksgiving dinner…
AAarrrgggh,,,,
Then I got in my Honda and drove away…
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However, when I got home. I got texts all evening from friends, hither & yon — old and new — wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving (and other stuff). Which was so nice.
And then my birth mom called! Right at a moment when I was actually holding my phone! So she didn’t go straight to voicemail!
We had such a great chat.
I ended the evening just feeling great about everything–
(except maybe about work…).
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Okay!
Here’s this!
Back when the Boys Next Door really were Bad Seeds!!
And this, from Nick Cave Official—
A reminder that their new “LIVE GOD” album will be out December 5th!
“Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds announce their new live album Live God, a stunning testament to The Wild God Tour, which wowed audiences across the UK, Europe and North America in 2024 and ‘25, and which travels to Australia and New Zealand in 2026.The album will be released on 5 December 2025….”
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And I think that is it for now!
I’m gonna go have another cup of coffee and try to decide if I want to just relax today (i.e. — watch classic Yogi Bear cartoons??)
Or put up the Christmas stuff.
Or perhaps BOTH!!
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Have a great holiday and/or Thursday, wherever you are in the world.
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guy. See ya!
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I leave you with this!!
As my CD player in the kitchen prepares for that most wonderful season to get underway!!
Andy Williams, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. Enjoy, gang.






























































