Notes and observations on living in Kansas
We are now entering our fourth year in Kansas
and I think we've settled into a routine.
You can click the Ancient History link on the left if you
need to catch up on previous entries, the last being May of 2004. Most of
the summer was documented on the cowboyjunkies fotopage so I probably won't
do a lot of rehashing.
December 30,
2004
The year is winding down. For the most part
it's been a good one. Personally I have a great life. I'm surrounded by
people who love me and I love them right back. I not only have a roof over
my head, it's a beautiful roof on a beautiful house. I am never hungry or
cold and I am rarely scared. I want for nothing. I have five wonderful
animals who gladden my heart no matter what is going on in the world. I wish
nothing but the best for all my family and friends and hope that 2005 brings
good things to all of you. As you celebrate on New Years Eve, do it safely
and sanely 'cause I want you to keep coming back and seeing what we're up
to.
December 27,
2004
Ouch, ouch, ouch. My lower back is in spasm.
Hasn't happened for quite a while and I am hoping that all the exercise of
the past month has put me in better shape and it will not be as severe, nor
as long lasting as times past. So I am not going to spend a lot of time
sitting here at the computer as it's not the most comfortable thing for me
to be doing right now. Then again, not much is comfortable. Too bad I
don't drink anymore as that always was an exceptional pain reliever...
I did however want to stop in and say that
Elmo is almost 100% again. His eye is looking almost normal and his attitude
is 100% normal again.
|
December 26,
2004
Are you ready for the great trivia
challenge of 2004? Now, I get the New York Times emailed to me every freakin'
day and I still sucked on it. If I was my kid, I'd be grounded for not
studying for the test. I scored 51.85% (14 out of 27 correct) which gave me
a ranking of 11-14, Sensibly detached. Seriously, it's all good fun and you
can take the challenge yourself here:
Pratfalls, Catcalls and Spitballs: A Year in Ephemera. Sensibly
detached. I like that.
Elmo's eye looks much better today and I am
greatly relieved. I think it's because I put the drops in his eyes a bunch
of times yesterday. The Vet said I could do it six or eight times a day, but
based on Elmo's cooperation (none) I would be lucky to get them in three or
four. Well yesterday I went for broke and did seven times and I think that
made the difference. He hates it, but I think he's become resigned to it and
I hope he knows it's helping.
It was a quiet day in the country. I played
with my new camera, installed the software for it and just generally lazed
around. The three of us played Scrabble with Judi being the big winner and
even DJ out-scored me. It was a nice day. Hope you all had a great day too.
|
December 25,
2004
Merry
Christmas
Everyone!
It's a lovely day in Kansas. Temperatures
almost made it to 50 degrees. It was clear and sunny. There was the usual
mad scramble for gifts this morning. We all did very well for ourselves.
Judi got all sorts of golf stuff to flesh out her new hobby, a subscription
to her favorite magazine, some DVD's and of course some classic Pooh stuff
from Lenox. DJ got golf clubs, paint ball stuff, a really cool Sharper Image
Fishing Video Game that actually has a pole and fishing line, and other
assorted teenage boy stuff. I got jewelry, gorgeous stainless steel pots
and pans, a new addition to my Cracker Barrel squirrel collection and the
piece de resistance, a new camera. Now you would wonder why my family would
get me a camera when they complain all the time about how many pictures I
take, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah. Well as near as I can tell, they love
me.
DJ's friend Marshall came over and we had
made the mistake of mentioning earlier this month that we'd gotten him a
present. We got him the same Sharper Image fishing thing we got DJ and let
me tell you, it was a hoot to see them sitting on the couches in the living
room fishing. He brought gifts for Judi and I even though we told him we did not
want him spending his hard earned money on us. He gave us flavored coffees
and the most beautiful mugs I've ever seen. Huge! Perfect for by my computer
so I'm not constantly getting up and refilling my mug. What a sweetheart.
Anyway, he joined us for an early very simple Christmas day dinner. Turkey
breast, mashed potatoes with gravy and stuffing. Yeah, just the good stuff,
none of those pesky vegetables and crap. Just good old comfort food. He and
DJ are in the basement and I don't know where they found it, but they have
Quiet Riot blasting and boy does that bring back memories. Come on feel the
noise.
After dinner the dogs and I took our walk.
Which is good, it staved off the l-tryptophan sluggishness I usually get
after eating turkey meat. Two days ago I was walking them in long underwear,
jeans, a sweatshirt, a hooded jacket, thick gloves and earmuffs. Today it
was light jeans and a sweater. Not even gloves. We had the entire road to
ourselves as we ate early so when we got out, everyone else was still inside
gathered around their tables. When we got home, the boys were outside
sliding around on the ice on the pond. Apparently all the cold we've had has
frozen it pretty solid for the first time since we've lived here. It's never
gotten thick enough to walk on. They had a blast. The only thing that kept it from being a
perfect day was the fact that Elmo is still not feeling well and I hate it
when I can't cure what's wrong with my animals in less than 24 hours. Say a
prayer for him, he's a big part of our family and I am worried.
|
December 24,
2004
Today was a day of exchanging gifts with
friends that have family commitments for the big day of Christmas. Bonnie
flies out tomorrow morning to be with her family in Wisconsin so that was
our first stop. She is my best friend and the exchange of gifts this year
was unusual for us. Unusual because there were no big surprises in store. I
had a very bad day a few months back and in trying to cheer me up, she
showed me the big gift she'd gotten for me. She found out about mine to her
one day when we were out shopping and she was determined to buy some
particular thing and I finally had to say, "You can't buy anything for
yourself until after Christmas. Someone might be getting you that." There
were still the little surprises like the hand made ornament she brought me
from Poland and the lovely fancy decorated sweatshirt that I picked up for
her.
Our next stop was Al and Monica's, who are
turning into a regular farm family. Monica started raising chickens last
year (wonderful fresh eggs) and now they have a novel college fundraiser for
their grandson, Zack. They have two young steers that they will raise in
their pasture each year and sell at the end of the 'growing' season. The
money goes into Zack's college fund. Better return than stocks and bonds.
We finished our rounds at Tim & Jeanna's. Two
folks who have been very good to us since our move to Kansas. Tim nursed our
furnace through three winters before he finally had to declare it DOA and
replace it. He did it at a fraction of the cost we would have had to pay a
contractor and really didn't want anything beyond the cost of the materials
because apparently that's what friends do for friends in Kansas. Well Tim
races stock cars and we finally got him to agree to letting us purchase a
new fire suit for him since his is nearing it's expiration date and the
track will be making him get a new one whether he wants to or not.
Now it's quiet and bitterly cold out. I'm
listening to music and waiting for the weather report to see if they've
changed their minds about no white Christmas for it sure does look like it
could snow at any second out there. Merry Christmas everyone.
|
December 23,
2004
Added four new photos to the
Christmas Gallery.
DJ has a job babysitting this winter break
for a friend who has no child care when school is on break. He did some
short sitting jobs just to make sure he was ready and able, but now it's
early in the morning until their mom comes home from work at night. Today
was his second day and he seems to be liking it and doing a very good job of
it.
So while the kid works, Judi and I are on
vacation. We went to lunch with my friend Bonnie and did some shopping for
food and stuff at Walmart. It's about two million degrees below zero so we
have the wood stove fired up and the lights are twinkling and DJ and his
friend Brandon (who is spending the night) are downstairs being silly
teenage boys. They came up at 10 pm and wanted to order a pizza for a snack.
Now this is a small town. I know the pizza place is closed and you know the
pizza place is closed, but try to convince the boys that the pizza place is
closed. So they called both pizza places...which both close at 10 pm. Live
and learn, right?
Those of you who read my drivel know how much
I enjoy my life here and if I haven't mentioned it, I am grateful for all I
have. How very blessed I am was made clear to me tonight. Last year we
adopted a family through the local Christmas Bureau and provided them with
gifts for under their tree and all the fixin's for a traditional holiday
meal. Bonnie did the same for another family. This year we 'adopted' Brian,
DJ's older brother, who lives in California and hopefully our gift to him
will make his Christmas merrier. Bonnie adopted another local family this
year and tonight she and I went to give them their holiday gifts and food.
The family is a single, disabled mother with a four year old son. They live
in a trailer down near the river. The living conditions were very poor, but
they have a roof and heat and food and thanks to Bonnie, this year they have
a Christmas to celebrate. You could tell from the display of crafts that the
son makes in school that there is a lot of love in that trailer, but there
isn't much else. I walked away feeling almost embarrassed at my wealth, both
emotionally and physically. I have the love of many special people, the best
animals in the world, a house to die for, warm clothes, a refrigerator and
cupboards full of food and I lack nothing. I am the luckiest person on
earth.
|
December 22,
2004
Remember that email that circulated a while
back? The one about "How to give a Cat a Pill?" Yeah, well re-read it only
exchange the word eye-drops for the word pill and you will have an idea of
how Elmo and I feel about each other. I am the only one that takes these
animals to be tortured at the Vet and the only one that shoves things down
throats, up butts and into ears and eyes. It's a wonder I haven't been
mauled to death in my sleep as revenge...
Our neighbors have a dog that I would like to
be able to walk my dogs with, unfortunately my dogs together do not take
well to adding a third into the mix. I think if I had one or the other we'd
be just fine, but we've tried twice now to get all three going as a pack and
it ain't working. Maybe since they'll have some time off from work during
the holidays, we can make a date to try the dogs one-on-one. Murphy's Mom
was just going to walk Murphy today and I was headed out with mine at the
same time. Now mine are unleashed until something occurs that makes me
connect leash to collar. When I noticed Murphy and Mom hitting the bottom of
their drive, I had only leashed one dog, Dallas. Of course Maverick does not
listen as I call her to come back, or at least stop where she is. She
trotted up to Murphy and Mom, they touched noses, sniffed butts and then
Maverick totally lost interest and continued down the road. I was amazed. So
I think, was Murphy. So
M & M started walking towards Dallas and I and that's when Dallas decided she was
going to be the obnoxious one. Maverick came to see what all the fuss was
about and I was able to connect her leash to her collar. Once it was clear
that Dallas wasn't going to back down and play nice, I encouraged M & M to
go on without us. They walk a different direction and once the dogs were out
of sight of each other, things returned to normal. Until the deer...
I'm not sure how the carcass came to be where
it was. It wasn't there yesterday and judging by the animal activity, it may
not be there tomorrow which is a bummer. I didn't have my camera today
because it always slows the dogs down when I stop and snap. Face it, the
whole point of these walks is weight loss and that requires sustained
cardiac activity. But today is the last day I will walk them without the
camera because you just miss those special Kodak moments when you leave your
camera behind. Kodak moments like looking up to see your dogs playing
tug-of-war...with the hind quarter of a deer.
|
December 21,
2004
Well, it's not re-hash but it is catch up on
journal entries I should have made this summer but haven't. My father
moved from Bakersfield to Oregon this summer and in October I went to visit
him. He has a nice place on a little bit of pine covered land just south of
the town of Bend. It will be interesting to see how he feels about the place
once he's been through a winter there.
Mom, having a new lease on life after a
battle with lung cancer—one she is currently
winning, decided life was too short to be
miserable so she also left California but moved to Arizona. She and her
husband have a brand new house that they've just finished fine tuning with
gorgeous landscaping, a pool and spa and I can hardly wait to visit them,
but right now it's looking like that won't happen until early next year.
DJ decided this year that he was tired of
hearing me nag about emptying his pockets, pulling off pickers from the
woods, etc. before throwing clothes in the laundry basket and stated that
from now on he would do his own laundry. Can you hear me cheering in
California? New York? Possibly the U.K.? He's learned that laundry is not as
simple as it sounds. Of course he's also learned how to do laundry from the
Queen of Clean so he does do it right. He says he's learned his lesson and
would like it to go back to the way it was. Needless to say he's learned the
lesson that once you prove you are old enough to handle a chore, it's quite
difficult to shift it back to someone else...
Can't decide which is funnier. The page about
my battles with the moles, or the comments people leave on that page...
|
December 20,
2004
Add to the list of things I cannot eat
anymore: Pringles. I used to be able to eat an entire can in one sitting.
Not anymore. It gives me indigestion, just like donuts or sausage. Getting old sucks.
We had a wonderful party Saturday night. Lots
of good food, good drink and good company. My house is detail cleaned and
should be good until next year when I have to detail clean it for the next
holiday party. I believe we are all ready for Christmas now.
The dogs and I have resumed our daily walks.
There was a deer walking along today, crying out for something. Maybe momma,
I don't know. The dogs heard it, but didn't see it. I slowly reached down
and attached leashes to collars in case they did see it and decide that the
barbed wire fence wasn't enough of a deterrent to the chase. But they never
saw it and we walked on and the deer remained unmolested. The dead opossum
warmed up today with the heat spell but the dogs still have no interest in
it. I was sure Maverick would want to roll in it, but apparently it doesn't
smell "good" enough yet. Then again maybe the scare she got yesterday has
put her off inspecting things too closely. We were in the pasture where I
let them run free and I heard her yip and the next thing I knew she was
hiding behind me with her tail tucked. I went over to where she was but I
could see nothing alarming. Maybe she stepped on a thorn or got a nip from
some rodent.
Elmo had another trip to the Vet. His
eye is swollen and runny and it's not allergies as the shot he got last week
would have taken care of that. So now he is on antibiotics to treat a
probable sinus infection. I'm not seeing a lot of improvement after three
days so I think we may need to switch to another antibiotic if there is no
improvement by morning.
|
December 14,
2004
Feeling guilty. The holidays are
interfering with my dog walks and we did not take one today. I guess I (we)
will have to walk longer tomorrow. Drat. Although that is probably a good
thing. I spent so much time standing, staring at the meteor shower last
night that today I am walking abnormally. Like there is something wrong with
my hips or lower back. I just figured out why. You didn't need to know that,
did you?
I am most relieved. I finally finished my
Christmas shopping. I wrapped everything that needs to be shipped and
tomorrow I will take care of that so that things will actually arrive at
their destination in time for Christmas. I was going to send my standard
Hickory Farms package to Dad at his brother's house, since that is where he
will spend the holiday. But what I ended up getting, the bird lovers
package, would require he lug a cumbersome bird feeder back to Oregon on a
train so I just sent it to his place in Oregon and he will either get it in
time or it will be waiting for him when he returns. I can tell you what I
bought Dad because he is a Neanderthal. He does not have the internet.
He
does not even have a computer. How I ever became an IT pro with him for a
parent I do not know.
On second thought, I (we) probably will not
get that walk tomorrow. We are having a holiday open house this Saturday and
since half of the hostesses are out of town for the week, I need to
coordinate that. Usually when we do this, it's a collection of people from
Judi's work and their spouses, but we did a ladies only get together last
month and it went so well that we are doing the holiday thing just for the
ladies and we are actually expanding our circle outside of Judi's work!!!!
We're referring to it as the first annual Estrogen Extravaganza. Hee, hee.
Last time we banished DJ to a friend's house for an overnight, this time
we've invited two ladies who have kids that are friends of DJ's and they
will have a blast down in DJ's space.
Today's daily photo is the car wash I got
today. Before I moved to Kansas I used to wash and wax my own vehicle by
hand as needed (which in SoCal was once every—what—two
years?) I haven't washed a car/truck/whatever by hand since we moved to
Kansas. It's not that I don't enjoy it anymore, it's just that the auto
washes are so good and so cheap here, that I don't feel the need to expend
the effort myself. Ok, ok. I'm getting old and I'd rather spend the money on
someone/something else washing the car. PLUS, when it is below
freezing, I think it's rather stupid to be washing your own car just to save
a measly buck. Besides, when it's cold they are
constantly spraying the roads with salt to keep us all from doing
Disney's Car-Scapade on Ice so you have to wash frequently else your
vehicle starts falling apart, one rust flake at a time.
K, is it just me that sees the ads for losing
weight there on the right?. Can't they be dog specific? Please? Lose 9 lbs every eleven days. In
253 days I would weigh nothing and you could send cool sympathy stuff to my
partner 'cause I would be gone. Yeah, morbid, but I been thinking 'bout what
my shrink lady said at our session this week. This year is the 23rd
anniversary of my bro's death. She said it takes just as much time as the
relationship lasted for you to get over it, which really puts me behind
schedule, but his death marks a half way point in my life and I am finding
this Christmas (for those who don't know, he died 12-28-1981) to be a
turning point. I'm getting into the spirit sooner and easier than I have in
a long time and with this past half year's therapy and aa, I am doing so
damn fine this year that I wish everyone could feel this sane.
|
December 13,
2004
DJ and I just came in from watching the
Geminid meteor shower. Living in the boonies has it's benefits in that
whenever there is a show put on in the heavens above, we have only to walk
out our front door. Of course out our front door is 20°
right now and when you factor in the wind chill, it feels like 13°. We saw
some big ones and some small ones. After about 10 minutes we came back in
because we were freezing. I will take one more peek before I hit the sack
for the night. You can see one or two a minute during peak viewing times.
More about the Geminids
courtesy of
Space.com:
Strong Meteor Shower Peaks Monday Night
What could be the
best meteor display of the year is scheduled to reach its peak on Monday
night, Dec. 13.
Skywatchers with
dark skies away from city lights could see one or two meteors every minute
during the Geminid meteor shower. The greatest activity is expected to be
visible from North America, Europe and Africa.
The Geminids get
their name from the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. On the night of
this shower’s maximum, the meteors will appear to emanate from a spot in
the sky near the bright star Castor in Gemini.
Typically strong
The Geminid meteors
are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing
the famous Perseids of August. Studies of past displays show that this
shower has a reputation for being rich both in slow, bright, graceful
meteors and fireballs as well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer
objects of medium brightness.
Geminids typically
encounter Earth at 22 miles per second (35 kilometers per second), roughly
half the speed of a Leonid meteor. Many Geminids are yellowish in hue.
Some even appear to form jagged or divided paths.
The Earth moves
quickly through this meteor stream. Rates increase steadily for two or
three days before maximum. So over the weekend, viewers between midnight
and dawn might see a shooting star every few minutes. The number of
meteors drops off sharply after the peak. Renegade forerunners and late
stragglers might be seen for a week or more before and after maximum.
Ideal conditions
The Geminids perform
excellently in any year, but British meteor astronomer Alastair McBeath
has expects a "superb year" in 2004. Last year’s display was seriously
compromised by bright moonlight, when a bright gibbous Moon came up over
the horizon during the late evening hours and washed-out many of the
fainter Geminid streaks.
But this year, the
Moon will be at New phase Dec. 11. On the peak night, the Moon will be a
skinny crescent, low in the west-southwest at dusk and setting before 6
p.m. That means the sky will be dark and moonless for the balance of the
night, making for perfect viewing conditions.
According to
McBeath, the Geminids are predicted to reach peak activity on Monday at
22:20 GMT, which is 5:20 p.m. EST. Locations from Europe and North Africa
east to central Russian and Chinese longitudes are in the best position to
catch the very crest of the shower, when the rates conceivably could
exceed 120 per hour, or two every minute.
When to watch
Indeed, under normal
conditions on the night of maximum activity, with ideal dark-sky
conditions, at least 60 to 120 Geminid meteors can be expected to burst
across the sky every hour on the average. Light pollution greatly cuts the
numbers, so city and suburban dwellers will see far fewer.
Generally speaking,
depending on your location, Gemini begins to come up above the
east-northeast horizon right around the time evening twilight is coming to
an end. So you might catch sight of a few early Geminids as soon as the
sky gets dark. There is a fair chance of perhaps catching sight of some
"Earth-grazing" meteors.
Earthgrazers are
long, bright shooting stars that streak overhead from a point near to even
just below the horizon. Such meteors are so distinctive because they
follow long paths nearly parallel to our atmosphere.
The Geminids begin
to appear noticeably more numerous in the hours after 10 p.m. local time
Monday, because the shower’s radiant is already fairly high in the eastern
sky by then. The best views, however, come around 2 a.m. Tuesday, when
their radiant point will be passing very nearly overhead. The higher a
shower’s radiant, the more meteors it produces all over the sky.
How to prepare
This time of year,
meteor watching can be a long, cold business. The late Henry Neely, who
for many years served as a lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium, once
had this to say about watching for the Geminids: "Take the advice of a man
whose teeth have chattered on many a winter’s night – wrap up much more
warmly than you think is necessary."
Hot cocoa or coffee
can take the edge off the chill, as well as provide a slight stimulus.
It's even better if you can observe with friends. That way, you can keep
each other awake, as well as cover more sky.
Give your eyes 15
minutes or more to adapt to the darkness before getting serious about
meteor watching. And have something comfortable to sit on; a lounge chair
will allow you to stare up for long periods without straining your neck.
Geminids stand apart
from the other meteor showers in that they seem to have been spawned not
by a comet, but by 3200 Phaeton, an Earth-crossing asteroid. Then again,
the Geminids may be comet debris after all, for some astronomers consider
Phaeton to really be the dead nucleus of a burned-out comet that somehow
got trapped into an unusually tight orbit.
|
December 12,
2004
I've recently learned how to use my software
to find out how people get to this site other than the usual method of me
giving them a link. Google sends an incredible amount of people here in
connection with my page about moles. That page has had thousands of hits and
I don't believe it's because all my friends are coming here to see how my
battle with the moles goes. I didn't really do an update on them this year
as the body count was relatively low. I think they've learned something that
makes moles disappear haunts my yard and stay away rather than find out why
there is a Bermuda Triangle for moles in the middle of Kansas.
I am also sometimes amused, sometimes aghast
at the ads that google thinks are context sensitive to my site...
|
December 11,
2004
Today we bought a Christmas Tree. Again we
were surprised at how inexpensive they are here compared to California. The
trees you would buy in CA at a private lot for upwards of $60 can be gotten
at the CA WalMart for $30. Here in Kansas the same tree at WalMart is $14.
It's a nice scotch pine. Seven feet tall and well shaped. Of course we'd
need a twelve foot tree to hold all of our ornaments so the tree is
positively packed. DJ picked it out, as he does every year and once again,
he's picked us a winner. I had a little trouble with the lights this year.
Somehow I ended up with the strings out of order and no way to plug them in.
Had to take them off down the first string to get my plugs in the right
order again! Hey, at least I remembered to keep the special plug with the
extra outlet near the top so we could plug in the star. DJ and his friend
Marshall did most of the decorating. DJ always ignores the ornaments he
doesn't like (these are usually the ones he made long ago and far away) so
he doesn't hang them. Judi and I come along when he is done and hang up all
of them because those are the ones that are memorable. Pictures are
viewable from the photo gallery. I'll add more to that page as the season
progresses so check back often.
|
December 9,
2004
We've been pretty lucky in the weather
department so far this winter. With daytime temperatures ranging anywhere from the
40's to the 50's it's warmer than normal. We've had sporadic rains and three
snowstorms, a one inch followed by back to back two inchers. All the trees
are gray with the exception of one species of oak that holds on to it's
leaves until new ones arrive in spring and those oaks are brown, but it's a
rich, deep brown and very pretty in the morning and late afternoon sunshine.
They almost look like they are on fire when we have a red sunset. Instead of
breaking my back raking leaves this year, I ran the lawnmower over them
frequently to chop them up and put some texture back into our sandy soil.
I've been eyeing trees that died this past year and I really need to get out
with the chainsaw and cut them up to stove length. I started splitting the
birch that we had to cut down, but it's not quite cold enough for it to
split easily. Once we get some extended freezing days I will try again and
if it's still to hard, maybe I will rent a hydraulic splitter and take care
of the birch and the two trees our new neighbors had to cut down. They don't
have a fireplace or wood burner and were kind enough to give it to us. They
even delivered it.
Elmo seems to be doing fine. He hasn't thrown
up since the day I took him to the Vet so hopefully this has just been a
transient thing. We had a beautiful walk today. I took my camera and I
stopped frequently to take pictures. I felt like I was really slowing the
dogs down so we walked an extra half mile to make up for it. Our walk is
now two miles round trip if we don't stop to romp in the pasture. Anyway,
I've posted the pictures of the walk here. Dallas
ran out of the arthritis medication and I really noticed the difference
today so I stopped at the Vet this afternoon and loaded up on it and she
should be better tomorrow. Also got more Heartgard as in spite of the cold
temps I've seen a ton of mosquitoes flying around. I was going to be frugal
and not give it to them over the winter, but after seeing that we get
mosquitoes anytime, I think I would rather not be cheap.
The house is decorated, save for the tree,
which we will get this weekend. Most of my holiday shopping is done and I
swear if I don't sit down tomorrow and do cards, none of you are going to
get your holiday greeting from Kansas until 2005!
Wrestling season is officially over so DJ
will be getting off the bus at a normal time instead of me having to pick
him up every day at dinner time or later when there's a meet. Yippee, I have
my slave labor back! Now I can have some help with all those dead trees...
|
December 8,
2004
If it's not one animal it's another. Elmo has
had his little trip to the Vet this week and it wasn't for his yearly
checkup. He's had soft stuff coming out of both ends for a week now and over
the past month he's gone from frequent small piddles to output that rivals
Lake Mead. Puking up green Christmas ribbon that he stole off a holiday
decoration was the last straw. Who knows what else he's swallowed that might
be blocking up his system. A complete physical and blood work shows nothing
to panic about. Slight temperature and elevated liver and kidney counts, all
of which may be attributable to some type of intestinal blockage. He got a
shot of antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory and twice a day I get to shoot
some Cat Lax down his throat as unlike most normal cats, he won't lick a
dose of it off my finger. But remember, he thinks he's a dog, not a cat. The
relief in all the tests is that fat cat is not diabetic and the white counts
do not indicate any major infection running rife through his internal
organs. The worry is that the tests don't really indicate anything so it's
just a wait and see and hope that whatever seems to be bothering him will
either pass or pass out of him.
Today's walk was quite enjoyable. The dogs
know that when I sling the leashes over my shoulders it's yippee time. They
dance around quite happily and when I head across the front yard they get
down to the business of going for a walk. Nature has been at work as
all the deer guts are gone. I've heard what I believe are coyotes barking
and howling at night and they are probably eating good. One of our neighbors
has a stand of decorative tall grass in their yard and the wind sounded so
lovely sussing through the stalks.
|
December 7,
2004
Today I wear the official title of
~ Food
Nazi ~. Dallas is starting to have trouble with stairs and jumping up on
the bed to warm it up for me. I was hoping it was just the fact that she's
overweight, but the Vet also says there is a little bit of arthritis
involved here—not good since she's relatively
young. She probably would show no symptoms were it not for the extra weight.
Maverick is also on the husky side as is every single creature in this
household, save DJ and Darwin. So it's less food, more walks for all of us!
Yippee! I had the Vet write out a prescription for how much food to feed the
dogs and how often so I could show it to the big dog aka Judi. The amount
prescribed includes treats and god knows these dogs got treats ALL DAY LONG.
Well none of the doggie treats lists a calorie count on the package so I had
to go online and fortunately the Purina website had the calorie count for
Tbonz right there on the web for me to find. What the hell did we ever do
before the internet?
I'm enjoying the
walks although they are a sort of a pain when it's wet out. Once you get a
quarter mile from our house the traffic on the road dies down and it's
pretty safe, but I did find some open pasture about 3/4 of a mile away that
is perfect for dogs to romp in. The walks are a pain when it's wet out
because that fine gravel dust on the road turns the consistency of glue and
it's impossible to get it off the dogs until it dries and then it's a lovely
white powder again—all over your floor. Today on our
walk we passed what must have been the dressing ground of a happy deer
hunter as there were fresh guts all over the place. Fortunately for me,
there was a fence between Maverick and the guts else I'm sure she would have
been rolling in them.
On one of our first 'lose the weight' walks,
our neighbors cows were in the pasture very near the road and I thought that
Maverick would dive right through the barbed wire fence to get a closer look
so I clipped the leash on until we were far enough past for that temptation
to fade. Further up the road another neighbor has chickens and roosters and
I can tell from the set of Dallas' nose when we pass that she'd love to get
up close and personal with them. I wonder what she'd do if they weren't in a
coop?
All us folks are
fine. Judi is traveling and DJ's wrestling season comes to a close this
week. We're half decorated for Christmas, with plans to buy the tree this
week and then we can start putting gaily wrapped gifts under it for the cats
to dismantle while we sleep!
|
