Catching up

It is hard work catching up on five weeks of recorded favorite weekly TV shows. I'm exhausted. "Criminal Minds" day was the most strenuous. These are serious and ghastly stories. Will Mandy Patinkin ever come back? I miss his deep, suffering, black laser eyes. Today I found Abby drinking again on "ER." Yesterday, Izzie and George stumbled painfully through their faux-fairyland greener pastures in "Gray's Anatomy." "The Closer" spoiled her parents' Christmas, but "Bones" keeps edging closer and closer to the pit of consummated love. Will it spoil the show when they do it? "Dexter" is wigging out.

Homie is slowly getting better. I take warm water for his baths out to the backyard in every large plastic container I can find. He likes that much better than the cold spray from the hose. He had swollen toes on three of his feet, and all but one are looking close to normal now. I can see scattered hairs growing in on the black areas of his shoulders and hips, but he still licks himself raw in spots. He gets a Benadryl at night, but he itches and stinks. Even so, he enjoys his meals and walks and acts happy. I'd be a real bitch if it were me.

My ex-sister-in-law was stabbed and left bloody and nearly died by the hand of her live-in Vietnam vet boyfriend (met on the internet, of course). I watched a video of the news report, never imagining I'd see such a thing about someone I know. I feel sick about it. She was a troubled soul, but I never thought she'd be one to fall so low, to live with such a man. Yes, it has been ongoing violence that peaked -- a pit of hell, no place to have a life. She was always so "in charge," or seemed to be, when she and my brother were together. Shit happens. Really bad shit happens.