the dog days of summer

I hadn't realized how much I wanted a second dog until we started "casually" looking. Sarah is a wonderful dog and we love her very much, but she's definitely in her golden years and isn't much of a roust-about hound anymore. Rich and I went to the SPCA yesterday to browse for dogs. We thought we found a really nice dog named Hailey, who is clever and sweet. The SPCA has a checklist of things you have to cover before you can take the dog home. Much like my parents' lengthy rental applications, I know that every question on the SPCA's application is because they've been burned by that very situation.

I brought Sarah over to meet Hailey this afternoon for the required dog introduction before we could adopt her. Part of it is the setting there (really warm outdoors and fine gravel lot for dogs to romp), but Sarah was really stressed out about the whole thing. I knew this was a bad sign since she's normally a very low-stress dog, but Hailey wouldn't take a hint that Sarah didn't want to playplayplayplayplay and just wouldn't quit hassling her. The SPCA rep and I agreed that Hailey was too much puppy for our poor old dog and no amount of growling or snapping on Sarah's part would get her to stop.

It was disappointing to find a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hound that we thought was so mild mannered and ended up being a butthead to our dog, but I'm glad we found out about it before we brought her home. I looked at another dog there that got along with Sarah much better but it still younger and energetic. We'll see how it plays out. I'm trying not to get too worked up and rush into a dog, but once I finally made the decision to expand our canine family the house seems very quiet without another pooch.

Sarah however is curled up on her dog bed completely wiped out from her big day of going for a ride and meeting new dogs.

feeling disconnected

I should have worn a dress today if I was going to be without my insulin pump. My Minimed 515 has been acting up for the last couple of weeks every time I try to prime it. Meanwhile, this morning I was supposed to take Rich to his doctor's appt and wait on him since we're using one car at the moment (another entire story and his to tell since it's his truck). I wanted to take five minutes to change my tubing before we left. 20 minutes later, we were running late for his appointment and I still didn't have a working pump.

According to the Minimed help desk, the sensor that tells the pump that it's done priming and ready to be used is damaged so it will never kick into the "ready to use" mode. I wasted a lot of insulin this morning trying to get it to work and came close to wasting a lot of tears about the whole thing.

I wrote just the other day that going without my insulin pump would be like suddenly cutting off your hair after spending years growing it out. But trying to get my pump to work again, I felt more short of breath than short of hair. I have come to rely on having that pump with me and working 24 hours a day and when it fails me I get a little panicky.

Thankfully, Rich's doctor appointment was in the same complex as my endocrinologist. After dropping him off, I was on their proverbial doorstep with a ziploc bag of medical supplies and a pitiful face. Dr. Saadeh came in the office about 5 minutes after I got there and told me how much Lantus insulin to take to last me until my replacement pump gets here tomorrow. I've been kicking it old school with syringes all day today and it's getting old. I've already had 2 cans of Coke today to "fix" my blood sugar because I can't dose for meals as accurately with the syringes. I'm grateful, though, for the free bottle of 24-hour insulin I hope to never need again before it expires and the helpful folks at my doctor's office who had me back in business by 8:15am.

But I may throw my arms around the UPS delivery guy when he shows up with my overnight package tomorrow.

no one here by that name

I grabbed the mail on the way inside this evening and was surprised to find a newsletter from my old high school addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Surname. I know they're aware of our recent marriage since we had it on school grounds but I'm not sure how that implies that my alma mater - the prestigious private school my parents were still paying off loans for not so long ago - should send all correspondence to both of us now using only his name. I think I'll send them a note reminding them whose picture is in the yearbook from the class of '94.