Noise Pollution

Mom and Dad are back home in Arlington, and today, the Schnauzers came home too. The Schnauzer hotel bill was almost as much as the bill at the RIBM, although, I bet Dr. Van Hoosier doesn't offer a complimentary happy hour four days a week. I captured some video of Jerry and the Schnauzers as they were reunited, and will try to post that very soon. The small Schnauzer, Silver, was most ecstatic. He was very Tasmanian Devil-ish--like the one on the cartoons, not the actual Tasmanian Devils in Tasmania. The medium Schnauzer, Sterling, was excited also, but it is more difficult to tell in the video because Medium Dog is blind and has a more difficult time finding people. Here is a picture of Medium Dog. (Sterling)

Medium Dog started losing his vision at the end of 2005 when Jerry was in the ICU recovering from his stroke. I'm pretty sure he's totally blind now, because he bumps into everything: Walls, people, tables, doors, toilets. I've started calling him Bumper Pool.

Jerry had blood taken today, at a lab here in Arlington. I don't think it was a lab at a doctor's office, but more like a Quest Diagnostics, which is where I send housekeeping applicants for pre-employment drug screenings. Who knew you could just drop by the local meth screening joint and get your cancer tests done? The challenge is that the results won't be ready for a couple of days, and in a couple of days, they'll be back at M. D. Anderson for the next regularly scheduled blood work anyway. The blood work was to check Jerry's Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) level, as well as his Creatinine, which are both measures of kidney function. These values were high when they left Houston, and had they not already removed the IVs they would have administered more fluid. All in all, I do see value in getting to come home, if even for just a few days, and especially if you get to see your dogs, but overall I think the whole blood work thing today seems like a poor utilization of time and resources.

The hardest thing for Nolie about being away from home for so long is having to share a television set, and having to watch television programs at the times they are broadcast. It seems like old times today at Case de Nolie y Jerry. Mom is in the back of the house with a couple of television sets on watching a couple of different shows at once, and Dad is in the den watching his show. The kitchen television is on and tuned to something that no one is watching, but someone was, and so it's still on. Dad has his hearing aids out, which means that his television is turned up pretty loud for him to make out all the dialogue; therefore, Mom's televisions are turned up so she can hear her shows over his. All this noise pollution is compounded by the fact that during the last major house renovation, all the carpeting was replaced with ceramic tile, or hard wood floors, neither of which absorb sound as well as pile, or for that matter, the shag that was here in the '70s that came with the house. If the phone rings, the noise pollution is off the scale, and I wouldn't be surprised if the EPA came knocking on the door. Jerry's hearing ability is so measurably low, that he qualifies for a very special phone that is very, very, loud, that the State of Texas actually paid for. When it rings it reminds me of those black and white "duck and cover" films on 8mm from elementary school.

Even with all the Schnauzer/television/air raid sounds, I know it's nice for them to be home, and it's nice to be here with them. I wish I had checked the weather forecast, though, so I could have brought a jacket to wear for Schnauzer Duty. You see, Bumper Pool isn't allowed in the back yard without adult supervision because he doesn't swim so well.