Refreshed, alert and ready for action after four stinking hours of sleep.

In this post: Kvetch report, food groups, double whammies.

4:45 A.M. Hi, everybody. In case you’re trying to figure out why I’m awake in the middle of the night I’ve got another major outbreak of very crappy neuropathy pain in my hands and feet, plus — if that’s not enough, right? — I also scratched up the inside of my left arm something awful and don’t know when or how it happened. I look like I’ve been clawed by a cat and it STINGS. And I have a headache, dry skin and a hangnail. Other than that I’m just swell at this hour so I think I’ll sit here for a while and eat TicTacs. (They’re my second-favorite food group after Slim Jims.)

10:20 A.M. It’s me again ... refreshed, alert and ready for action after four stinking hours of sleep. I’d go back to bed in a heartbeat except I had to strip the sheets and throw them in the laundry so the maid can make up the bed for me when she’s here this afternoon. Plus I’ve already missed four calls this morning from Sam on Face Time and I don’t want to miss another one. So much turmoil, so few functioning brain cells ...

11:05 A.M. Sam and I finally connected. He’s still living at Kaiser Hospital in Panorama City, California, keeping my mother-in-law company while doctors attempt to treat her for a double whammy of congestive heart failure and blood clots in her lungs. We’ll know more about mom’s prognosis later this morning after the doctor stops by to discuss her options for palliative care. In the meantime here’s my favorite photo of Sam and mom, taken three years ago. Do these two have the same smile, or what?

I need food. Thank you for reading this.