Here is Shawn playing some bass and serenading Steve, who is trying to contain his interest and look non-plussed, but he is totally infatuated with Shawn:
Here is Steve five minutes later, getting some heavy petting:
I will also point out that he is wearing a Ravens sweatshirt and hat, in a Steeler house, and I am ok with it. I think I should win some sort of tolerance award, because really, we’re pushing new boundaries here. My mother didn’t even look disgusted when she met Shawn and he was wearing the hat.
Regardless, he is seriously an animal whisperer. Rosie and Steve are completely smitten, as is Lily when I am walking around and not providing lap time, but unlike the others, she has stayed true to her daddy and not slutted herself as overtly out to Shawn like Steve and Rosie.
Shawn’s blood sugar is so rock solid in the 130’s or so that I don’t even feel the need to talk about it anymore, although we are going to work to get it lower by tweaking a couple things. He’s taking me up on my offer and moving in for a couple of months (or as far as I am concerned, for as long as he wants) and finding a job around here and then getting his own place. It’s a win/win for me, because I have been calmer and more centered and my head has been clearer the last couple of weeks than for as long as I can remember, and it is extra incentive to stay with this new style of eating. Not to mention, he can use tools and fix things without having to be rushed to the hospital with blood spraying everywhere while screaming “Game over man, game over.” So that is kind of cool, too.
Shit is good in the house formerly run by Tunch, and I am very content. You?
Mnemosyne
The giant rainstorms in So Cal are mostly over and no one had to build an ark. Now the real mudslide watch begins — the nasty ones take a few months to build up until the water gets deep enough into the soil.
To repeat myself from the dead open thread, if any movie fans are around, I finally got around to seeing Hugo. Never thought I would say this about a Scorsese film, but it was friggin’ adorable (and yet perfectly pitched not to be saccharine).
I like how Scorsese is sneaking more and more very subtle classic movie references into his films (or else I’ve finally seen enough of the same movies to catch them). One of my first thoughts was, Where did he find a clone of S.Z. Sakall? Also, too, the Young Frankenstein references with the Sacha Baron Cohen character.
Pogonip
Couple of dudes, roomies, chillin’.
With John in the background, taking pictures.
Steve, you ignorant slut.
asiangrrlMN
This post made me smile, Cole. You deserve happiness and contentment in your life. I’m so glad that Sir Willie Whiskertons III is contributing in that area. He’s a magnificent bastard, isn’t he?
Yatsuno
So when’s the wedding?
I KEED! I KEED!
(maybe)
Amir Khalid
Drought season is over in Peninsular Malaysia. It’s raining again, and the reservoirs are filling up. This will be a big relief to Selangor state where taps in some areas have been dry for weeks. (KL, I hasten to add, has been doing all right, but my goodness it’s been a hot February. The cooler temperatures are a relief.)
Plus, Liverpool are up to second in the English Premier League!
Narcissus
Just make sure Shawn doesn’t try to horn in on that sweet, sweet incense tray
Calming Influence
Tunch. He would have been the “Shawn Whisperer”.
[Shawn rolling on his back, arms and legs in the air] Tunch: “Who’s a good human?!? GET ME A BEER!!!”
Allen W Snyder
I’ll admit that *some* dictionaries now list a second definition for “nonplussed”, and I am far from being a proscriptivist when it comes to language—language does, will, and should change. But the second use is subject to misinterpretation or ambiguity if the sentence itself doesn’t provide enough context. From Encarta:
Calming Influence
@Amir Khalid: Rain is good. I live in what is (inaccurately) known as a super rainy place (Puget Sound: we get 3 ft. 6 inches of rain a year on average). So I Googled “Peninsular Malaysia rainfall”. You get an average of 8 feet(!) of rain a year. Of course, that may not seem like a lot, because East Malaysia gets 16 FEET of rain a year!!!!?!?111
Based on these data, Mr. Balloon Juicer Amir Khalid, is it safe to assume that you are always damp and wrinkly? Please advise. ;)
NotMax
Well, some time back, you did say you were considering adoption…
seaboogie
Why does Shawn wear a ball-cap + shades seemingly 24/7? Is he in the witness protection program (undercover as a pincushion diabetic chez Cole – for moment to moment blood-sugar readings?). Great though that Shawn’s issues have inspired you to undertake a serious dietary effort for him and you too – and you have inspired me as well. And Shawn, lose the cap – you are indoors and it is night. No sun to shade yourself from.
NotMax
@Calming Influence
Rain? Mt. Waialeale.
? Martin
@Calming Influence: In the last 12 months, we got a total of 2″ of rain here in SoCal. In the past 48 hours, we’ve topped that. Had to call the roofer in to fix a small leak today. Minimal damage, but that opening may have been there for 2 years for all we know.
Calming Influence
@NotMax: OK, that’s a bunch of rain. But I live in the rain shadow of the Olympics, which get 12 feet of rain a year, and everybody I’ve ever seen who lives around there is always damp and wrinkly. So I think it’s reasonable to ask Amir Khalid, who lives in such a climate, if he is also damp and wrinkly. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I just thought that we might be able to send him some dry towels or whatever.
Calming Influence
Hey, it’s not like I have a thing against damp and wrinkly people, OK? I’ve had plenty of relationships over the years with people who were damp and wrinkly, damp but not wrinkly, and wrinkly but not damp. I’m not prejudiced. (I know, I know, I said it wasn’t as rainy as people assume here in Seattle, but it drizzles all the fucking time, OK? ALL THE FUCKING TIME. If you’re not moldy you’re obviously a tourist.)
BillinGlendaleCA
@Calming Influence: I lived in Seattle for 3 years, but close to Seattle on the OP they get about the same amount of rain as we do in LA. My parents wanted to retire up in Sequim, they even bought property. However my father’s health kept us in LA.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: We’ve had a warm and dry Feb as well, but then again, it’s normally warm and dry here. But NOT if Feb.
Calming Influence
@BillinGlendaleCA: Sequim is REALLY in the rain shadow. They get about 7 inches of rain a year, and yet you’re only a short drive to the Ho rain forest. Not necessarily sunny, but definitely drier.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Calming Influence: Yup, one of the pieces of property we owned had 100 shares of irrigation rights attached to the property and large irrigation ditches running along the property lines.
ETA: Amir’s in the tropics, they get ALOT of rain, think Hawaii. While I was in grad school at UW my GF was from Malaysia. Not from KL like Amir, but a southerner.
Debbie(aussie)
Sometimes, taking care of someone else helps you to help yourself. Glad you have a roomie, John, of the human variety. May things proceed as they have begun.
gnomedad
@Allen W Snyder:
*some* dictionaries allow “literally” as a hyperbolic form of “figuratively”. We are doomed.
gnomedad
@Allen W Snyder:
*some* dictionaries allow “literally” as a hyperbolic form of “figuratively”. We are doomed.
Amir Khalid
@Calming Influence:
When it rains here, man, it comes down in buckets. Peninsular Malaysia has the world’s oldest virgin rain forests, and they need that rain. Yeah, it’s humid here. I don’t know if it’s the cause of my wrinkles, though; those are more likely the result of anno Domini.
Elizabelle
Good post.
I like win-win situations.
eric nny
SNAP OUT OF IT COLE!
It’s a Ravens sweatshirt. This mustbnot stand.
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Was she from JB, by any chance?
Svensker
Glad to hear your plans, John. Sounds right and good. Yay!
jurassicpork
The response to our latest crisis has been very heartening but we’re still not out of the woods, yet. Luckily for Popeye, he’s very nonplussed about the whole thing.
Gex
I am just very happy for you. Sounds like you are living the good life and making a nice home for humans and animals alike.
TerryC
You’re a lucky man, John Cole. I’m also in a very good place right now and it’s a good thing to recognize while it’s happening. Did the diet change and stuff 3 years ago and lost 65 pounds. This spring we start turning our home 18 acres (just bought 10 more) at my house into a permaculture fruit, nut, and berry farm with a disc golf course woven through it :) Down to three pets, though, two dogs and a parrot. And the squirrels in the walls and the groundhog in the basement.
greennotGreen
I wish I had the time and will power to make the dietary change John has talked about, but I think that’s going to have to wait until I cut my hours at work.
In the good news front, yesterday was my one year anniversary since my last chemo!
Lynn Sutherland
I am very happy for you, John–happy for all of you. Don’t know why it’s so difficult to find that elusive peace and contentment–think that’s why I’m so attached to my pets as they seem to achieve that just by existing–but enjoy the experience while it’s happening. Sending you all positive thoughts as I do everyday when I read your posts.
Elizabelle
@greennotGreen:
Way to go re chemo anniversary. Hope it got every last bad cell.
Manyakitty
This is truly a win+ situation. It’s wonderful that you’re able to help, that Shawn is able/willing to accept it, and that you’re both better and changing in positive ways as a result. Huzzah!
WaterGirl
I think I get where you are, Cole.
Three years ago a roommate from 30 years ago called. She was moving back to town, her temporary housing had fallen through, and she had 5 weeks until she could move into her house. Would I consider letting her and her 2 dogs stay with me?
I said “Sure, it’s good to shake things up every once in awhile”. It was great, as if no time had passed at all, and while they were here it felt like all was right with the world. I was so happy; we all were. We were family, 2 humans, 3 dogs and one cat. We called ourselves “the pack” because even the cat would hang with the dogs. My dog adored her; her dogs adored me and I loved them like my own.
It was really a great time and I’m so happy that Shawn has joined your household, for however long.
CaseyL
Getting a roomie can be great for the mental health, precisely because it gets you out of your own head and minimizes those infinite-repetition, infinite-regression thought loops. In your and Shawn’s case, the chance to solidify healthy habits is a great bonus!
On a more prosaic note: just how big is your place? Do you have more than one bathroom? I decided years ago that 1.5 bathrooms was the absolute minimum in a dwelling because it is no fun at all to have to wait for a toilet to become available.
James E. Powell
Shit is good in the house formerly run by Tunch, and I am very content.
If you were a character on Downton Abbey, I would be worried about you.
MoXmas
I just realized this weekend that my favorite ongoing novel is “The Evolution of John Cole”.
Cole, I’m basically a lurker here and have been for years — since maybe ’06. We’ve never met, and we probably never will. But I find that I look forward to every new post about food, or travel, or quitting booze, or your family, or busting yourself up, or any of the shit you go through (or put yourself through). And animals, of course.
Probably the only writer I have found myself following in a similar way, like his life was a novel unfolding in my RSS feed, is Ta-Nehisi Coates. If you start learning French, I’m going to worry that I am hallucinating all of this.
That’s it. Back to lurking.
Uncle Cosmo
Yee-haw! Shawn rocks!! GO CROWS!!:p
Or maybe you should get the “light dawns over Marble Head” award for waking up to the fact that the Tar&Piss are gonna suck for the next couple of years minimum. Call it the Curse of the Yinzer Hokey-Pokey…
Sal leone
There are three supplements that are fairly inexpensive that can help with lowering BG, cinammon, berberine, and green coffee extract.
Trinity
Very best of luck to Shawn! I am so glad that you are doing well John. Life is actually pretty simple. Health, family, friends, and pets…what more do you really need?? :)