February 7, 2012

Early in the night, dark and disturbing dreams centered on Emmanuel UC of C in Akron. What haunting memories could I possibly carry from there? My memory of the place is apparently very precise.

When I was driving to the Y, the moon hung in the north, directly over Merrimon, brilliant and round, like a portal one was almost high enough to enter. Driving back from the Y in the dim-but-brightening sky I saw the outline of a vast bird, far larger than a crow and wrong for a vulture. It was gliding down toward the willows along Beaver Creek, so I assume it was a heron.

Took Titus to the Cat Care Clinic, where the Vet’s first analysis was that his trouble was an abscessed gland. I drove to class rejoicing, thinking a few snips and all would be well. When I returned to pick him up, the solemn-faced Vet said that it was something she had never encountered before, that she didn’t know what it was, and that she had to send a sample of it to a specialist to see if it was operable or curable in any way. To say that my heart sank hardly does the moment credit. A further note of interest is that the original price of the procedure was $385. After not having done the procedure, and having omitting blood work that she decided against–she didn’t say so, but I knew–because the cat is probably dying, the price was still $305. They were going to get their money whether our problems were solved or not. For a moment I hated the Vet so much my fist was doubling in my pocket. Now Titus drags through the house, leaving a little pool of blood wherever he rests.

Dinner with JL, with fascinating stories of his time in China. When we were leaving, I swerved to avoid an oncoming car and went over an embankment behind the liquor store and into a pothole, smashing my left front bumper. It was been a fascinating day.