It is a BEAUTIFUL dry sunny day in the 70s. The kind that makes me glad I’m not in humid Florida (until the temp drops tonight). Bike riding in the direct sunlight was almost too warm, but we rode down to the lake and back. The ducks were pretty relaxed today.

My doctor’s appointment went well, but as usual, one appointment has led to not just one more, but two more. Not with my primary, but with an ear specialist as well as a podiatrist. She wants the podiatrist to give me her opinion as far as my ingrown toenail goes and the fungus that I have in both big toenails and one smaller one. As Doc A knows, I’m still wary of taking medication unless it’s absolutely necessary. Although this fungus isn’t dangerous and I’m not in any pain, she said it could get worse if I ignore it. I guess the medication for it would be for 12 weeks and the only slight risk she mentioned is to the liver, but she thinks I’ll be ok because I’m only taking thyroid medication and not a whole bunch of medication.

It turns out that I fasted for nothing because they did not test my cholesterol the last time I had blood work done. They only tested my thyroid. My T3 and T4 came back normal as it always does; it’s the TSH that’s the problem. I was mistaken too, in thinking that the TSH settled in in just two weeks after starting medication or raising the dose when it’s actually closer to 6 weeks. It’s the other one that settles in and just a couple of weeks. So my TSH will probably be under 13 by the time I have the next blood test which is anytime after April 6th at which time they will also test my cholesterol.

My heart rate and my blood pressure were amazingly normal, just like when I first saw both new docs.

After the appointment, we stopped and ate at Jack in the Box, but instead of getting my usual burger and fries, I got a piece of chocolate chip creampie and fries instead, along with my beloved strawberry soda.

After we ate I spotted a PETCO and wanted to go there to see if they had fleece-lined hammocks for the rats. They not only had those that I grabbed one with a zebra print and another with a leopard print, but they had tons of cute rats, too. One adorable little fella stood out with a dark head and light body. He does have some dark lines along his back but since there is a gap between the dark “cap” on his head and the stripe down the back, he is not considered a hooded rat like Hoodie, but a capped rat and therefore I named him Cappy.

Unfortunately, as adorable as he is, he is extremely timid. I need to stop judging things by their appearances! I don’t know why, but other than Sugar and Tink I’ve had shitty rat luck since coming to Cali. They’re always so timid here! So I guess that when we lose Sugar, which could be anytime now, we’ll consider a kitten and let Hoodie and Cappy be it for a while rat-wise.

I’ve never had a problem introducing baby rats to adult rats, but Hoodie terrified the shit out of Cappy so bad that we put him in the small cage, which is better anyway because he could probably squeeze through the bars of the big cage. Hoodie’s new nickname is Mr. Neidich. Neidich is German for jealous, and not surprisingly, he was jealous of the attention Cappy was getting. Romeo reacted the same way when we got Hoodie.

Later…

I guess I should start writing down some of the dreams I had over the last two nights before I forget them. I didn’t really like the dream I had a couple of nights ago because I was in some kind of psych ward, and my mother and brother might have been alive in the dream, too. I didn’t seem to know Tom. Shortly after I was admitted I asked for a cup of coffee and was told that that would be the last one I would have because my new meds were “too strong for coffee.”

I’m not sure if this was part of the same dream or not, but I was mandated to take regular guitar lessons and promised to be made a very good player for it. Although I once had an interest in the guitar in real life when I was younger, I was trying to tell the people in the dream that I had no interest in instruments these days and that I wanted to write.

In last night’s dream, it seemed I was also somewhere, against my will or not. Some black guy who seemed to be in charge placed a large bowl down on a table and announced that it was the week’s soap, and it was my understanding that we were each to take a box that contained a small bar. I noticed that the soaps were scented and the one that caught my interest was strawberry-coffee.

I commented to a pale-skinned girl nearby that I was looking forward to trying it and she said she wanted to try it, too.

Then a petite black girl with very short hair came up to me and asked if I would brush her hair for her. I said, “Yeah, I guess I can do that,” and I took the brush she handed to me even though she hardly had any hair on her head to brush to begin with.

In another dream, I was having dinner with somebody (female or male?) and I guess I must have said something that really pissed them off because they crumpled their napkin up in their fist in an angry manner and tossed it down onto the table really hard.

Then next thing I know I’m walking down a snowy street barefoot of all things when I come across a tall snowbank that blocks my path. A car with a plow in front of it drove up to the snowbank and motioned for me to get out of the way. So I climbed on top of the snowbank and thought it was pretty amazing that I wasn’t even cold as the person plowed enough of the road so that cars and pedestrians could get by.