some preoccupations

[constance]

1. Rachel's newest habit
   Rachel the Cat has always been a quiet thing except right around mealtimes, but lately she's taken to sitting at the edge of the hall and meowing, starting at about 10pm and stopping only when I get up and start my bedtime routine. I can only guess that she's talking to me: "hey get up and get your butt in bed so I can jump all over you and lie on your forearm while you contort yourself to scratch my belly and read at the same time okay that would be great thanks." I mean, at least I like to think that.



2. my pulse rate
   Man, one thing about losing weight and getting in shape is that your pulse rate tends to, you know, drop, and if your pulse rate was normal back when you were fatter and more easily winded, once you can walk a fast four miles while barely breaking a sweat, your pulse rate drops to Practically Dead. My resting pulse rate now runs somewhere between 45 and 50, which for the record is not quite high enough to run the apheresis machine down at the Red Cross donor center. Which means that platelet donations now take about two and a half hours and I have to be monitored and reset about fifteen times. Which also means that I have taken to taking my own pulse at random times during the day, something I've never done before but which is becoming a kind of compulsion.



3. little shots of hot sauce
   Specifically, a hot sauce called Texas Pete's, which is not, interestingly, bottled in Texas at all. (In case you were wondering, there are few foods that a squirt of Texas Pete's from the little bento bottles laurelwood gave me do not improve.) And then when I'm done doctoring my chicken-and-artichoke sandwich, I just suck the rest of it straight out of the teeny bottle, which has earned me a few Looks but is totally worth it.



4. my pathologically careless boss
   who this weekend cut the tip of his finger off using a bandsaw. He had to have surgery and a skin graft to repair it, and every time someone so much as mentions it I get a sympathetic cold shiver down my spine. I haven't seen him since the accident, and I am having these ridiculous visions of pedicles and horrific disfigurations that are definitely informed by a long-lived and ongoing obsession with Harold Gillies. I mean, reconstructive surgery's come a long way and I know it. But my irrational brain is fixating. And shivering sympathetically.

Comments

[xanthophyllippa.livejournal.com]

My father once put a drill through, or maybe just into, the palm of his hand while at work. He still has a small scar, but that story alone was enough to scare me off the power tools when I was in high school shop class.

As for the pulse rate, congratulations! I don't know what my resting pulse rate is, largely because my blood pressure is rather low (something I inherited from my mother), so I'm often not sure I even *have* a pulse when I'm resting. I have to walk around first, and once I walk around enough to confirm that I'm still alive, I'm no longer resting. (Someday, when we meet in person and are lounging around lying on the floor reading and scratching cats' bellies, ask me to stand up quickly. I'll fall over again almost immediately. It's wildly entertaining for the casual observer.)

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I cut the tip of my finger off in a table saw about 10 years ago! Not bad enough to need more than a few stitches, though. Um, you probably didn't want to hear that. Sorry.

Also, I am a studly in-shape person and my resting heart rate is WAY MORE than yours. I am absurdly envious.

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

Pulse rate: wacky! Did you ask a doctor about this thing? That seems almost dangerous! Like, if you ever need to stand up suddenly!

Your cat: is no fool. :)

Hot sauce: eek!

Fingertips: double eek.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

1. That is the cutest thing ever. And of course that's exactly what she's saying with those meows. My aunt and uncle had a dog who had a similar habit, minus the meowing. (His ploy was just a disapproving stare. Spaniels are good at that.)

2. Like isiscolo, I'm envious of your super-low pulse. I've always wanted one, but mine's more rabbit-like no matter how fit I get. What are you doing for exercise again? Whatever it is, your body sounds delighted with it. (Though the same can't be said for the machines at the Red Cross!)

3. I can see how mainlining hot sauce out of a tiny bottle (glad they came in handy!) might look suspicious, but condiments and seasonings really do make all the difference, don't they? My favorite new embellishment is fresh mint. It doesn't work in everything, but wow, in the right combination, it transforms an ordinary dish into something sublime.

4. Oh, my, your poor boss. What a scary mess that must have been when he had that accident. Here's hoping he recovers without disfigurement!

[badgermoonhare.livejournal.com]

Och no, that Harold Gillies-related website broke my heart surely and sorely and of course it is not that I did not know of these things, but it was just so terrible to read and look through the case stories. It was really terrible, but also fascinating and thank you for posting alloftheabove.