10/8/13 - Tuesday Thoughts

 
As you can see, it was a lazy weekend at Chez Em - at least for some of the residents.  The unseasonably hot weather meant that I kept to indoor chores like laundry and cleaning....no vaccuuming because I didn't dare disturb their highnesses.

Speaking of which, we had a vet appointment last week and Batcat is in great health and at a perfect weight...the vet was impressed.  Jez might be better off losing a few ounces, thought she's much closer to her ideal than her owner, lol.   I let them run some bloodwork and the only issue is that she's diabetic - and we knew that already.  But the disease is well under control, so I can't complain.

Well, I mean - I could complain - work is really frustrating because of the impending debt ceiling problem.  Our company doesn't want to spend any more money than necessary to protect against cashflow problems if the government stops paying us on time.  But we don't want to antagonize anyone - so we can't just come out and say that - we have to try to just "not do things" without explaining why.

However, I have a job, I got paid last week, and I know I'll get paid again in two more weeks - which puts me in a better place than many folks around here - not just my government worker friends who are furloughed, but the businesses in this area who are dependent on consumer spending.  If you aren't working, you probably don't want to pay for child care or dog walking.  The leaves are starting to change, but a fall vacation to the local mountains isn't nearly as appealing if you can't visit Shenandoah or Catoctin National Parks.

Last week's heatwave was a lovely extension of summertime - but this morning there was a chill in the air again....and each day is a bit shorter than the one before....reminding me that soon I'll be needing to put away the tank tops and pull out the sweaters, sigh.

I tell myself that having seasons is good.....but as I look out into the cold darkness.....I'm thinking I could manage just fine with summer all year long.....


 

6/13/13 - Thursday Thirteen

Its been a wonderful and busy week so far, and I thought the easiest way to remember it all would be to do a list....

1.   Sunday I went to Ocean City  to pick up my best friend - she was staying at her parents condo so we spent the night and came back the next afternoon.   This is the beach that practically every parent in Maryland took their children too for vacation.....and I have many memories of the place - some of which probably deserve their own blog., and I'll get around to that one of these days.

2.  Things change, but OC remains much the same - high rise condominiums along the beachside shops and restaurants in the middle, and more condos/townhouses/mobile homes along the bayside.
I'm kind of embarrassed to say I didn't walk the beach or even stick my toes in the sand this trip - but to be fair, the water is COLD until August, and once you've been to the Caribbean, or even Florida....its just not "all that" any more. 

3.  What I loved most was being able to sit out on the balcony smelling the salt air and listening to the waves....it reinforced my thoughts about retiring to a beach condo somewhere.

4.  With a bit of luck I can make "retiring" a possibility in  six more years.......not that I will - it would just be nice to have that option.

5.   My BFF is delightful company......we had a great time and the only disagreement we had was about who would pay for what - she kept trying to pay for stuff and of course, I was as well :). 

6.  She got me good though - at one point she borrowed my car to go meet one of her friends - when she brought it back we headed out to meet up with her nephew and I discovered it had a full tank of gas.  She blamed that on the "gas fairy".

7.  If you've read me for a while you might remember my "watch guy" - the man who had been replacing my battery for years and years.  They tore down the mall where his stand was and he disappeared....I bought my own tool to change my own battery.....but when I was in Adelaide the back fell off somewhere and I ended up having to buy a replacement watch.  Anyhow - I noticed an article in the paper about someone taking over a jewelry store....my BFF and I headed over there - and it was my Mr Lee....and he remembered me.  I didn't need a battery but I had several rings to be resized and an earring to be repaird.....and I likely will eventually take that old watch of mine back to him and see if he can put a new back on.

8.  Speaking of old friends - as we were driving through town, I noticed my old mailman sitting on his borch.  I'd noticed his car had disappeared sometime last year and I never saw him out so I thought perhaps he'd gone into a nursing home or even passed away.  (Our local paper now makes you pay for an obituary - so many folks no longer have their family members listed).  I was so excited to see him I had to stop...and since BFF used to live a few doors down - she was remembered by all the neighbors and it was a reunion of sorts....one of those awesome random moments.

10.  We also went to visit a couple of pet boarding facilities-  one at my usual vet and one at the vet up the street.  I have to say I was really sad because neither measured up to my expectations.   I was thinking I'd find something similar to the space given to rescues at Petsmart but these cages were much smaller.  One was a wire cage facility associated with the grooming room...so the positive part was that Jez would have people and animals to watch during the day....but there wasn't any place for her to climb or perch or run around.  The other was a taller cage - plexiglass instead of wire, with a perch and the litter box kind of hidden beneath a shelf.  The tech said that if it wasn't a full house they'd let the animals use two adjoining cages which gave them a bit more room.  But the cages looked out at a blank wall and the room was closed off so there was no one to watch except when the staff came in to feed/clean the place.

11.  The experience has convinced me that if I can possibly let Jez stay home when I travel it would be the best thing for her.  So I'm experimenting just giving her one shot a day to see if she can manage OK .  If it works, I can just have my regular petsitter come in and give her insulin and feed them both their canned food - they can have dry inbetween.  Hope this works out.

12.  Vacation - its only two and a half weeks until I'm off to Seattle and BC....I'm really excited not just to have an adventure, but to get to spend some time with my friends Lisa and Carol.  It was such a lucky accident that we met online in the first place.....and they are truly amazing women.

13  Hmmm - what to finish with?  How about the storms we had today.....which turned out to be not anywhere near the big deal that the forecasters were predicting.  And apparently it wasn't just local forecasters - I had a couple of people ask if I was OK after they'd heard of a tornado in my town.  I honestly have no idea where that tornado was - as far as I know we had one tree hit one roof a couple miles away from me.  But its nice to have people who care about me.

Wishing everyone a great rest of the week and weekend.....

6/8/13 - Saturday Stuff

Goodness, its been almost a week since I blogged....but my excuse is that between work and actually having a life I haven't spent much time at the computer.

Yes, I do seem to have a life.....and as always I'm having a bit of anxiety over it.  There should be a Couch to 5K for introverts so that we can ease our way into social activities over an eight week period :)

But its all good...without the folks who (generally unknowingly) drag me into the world....my life wouldn't be much fun.

Lets go backwards....today is take Dad his laundry, run errands, and clean house a bit more than usual because I'm having a houseguest.  My BFF is at the beach with her parents, and I"m heading out to visit them for an overnight, then bringing her back to stay with me for a couple of days.

If you have visited me or even if you've seen a lot of my photos, you know I'm apparently a bit of a neat freak.  I say apparently because I don't notice how other people's houses look except perhaps marveling at a planting bed, or an architectural detail, or a picture or something similar that catches my eye.  But I've had comments from friends about how tidy my place is - and perhaps growing up in chaos has led me to overvalue order.

 So I shall be vacuuming/dusting/changing the linens in the guest bedroom and giving a thorough scrubbing to the downstairs bath at some point today.  I need to make a wine/liquor store run as I'm out of rum which just won't do since its Mojito season.

Last night was bowling - we're bowling duckpins only this summer (its an east coast thing that you can google if you are thinking huh).  The games were unusual - one game was a version of no-tap where an eight count on the first ball was marked as a strike - one game everyone was automatically given a strike in the third, sixth, and ninth frames - and one that was a version of scotch doubles.  Each of us rolled a ball - and then we decided whose shot we'd use - and their partner would shoot the second ball.  A bit confusing, but definitely different - and I think we did quite well.  I've kind of gotten the hang of the game - as long as I manage to keep my arm straight - I hit what I aim for.

Thursday night I went out to dinner with one of my old neighbors to catch up - we had a great time and declared that we need to do this monthly...I hope we manage to do that.

And then last weekend was another great lunch with a friend who was up from Myrtle Beach - I was thrilled she called me to say she was in town and again we had a marvelous time.  You know the kind of friends where you can just pick up wherever you left off the last time you saw them?

I'm especially glad she came up because I had been planning on coming down to visit in the fall, but with all the other things I have scheduled, and a diabetic cat, I don't think I"ll be able to manage it.

Oh, that's right - I'm overdue for a Jezebel update.  She's doing well....I had to skip a shot when I went to a concert last weekend....and her blood sugar level made it clear that really does need insulin twice a day.....but nothing terrible happened.  That's good because when I head out to the beach tomorrow, she'll miss a days worth of shot.  I just couldn't see trying to board her for one day....and I've found some low carb dry food that they'll eat....so I'll do what I did before her diagnosis - leave food and water out and I've no doubt they'll both be fine.

I am going to have to board her when I go away the end of this month - I know she'll hate it, but not only is it really expensive to have someone come twice a day - I think its better if she is somewhere being watched.  So, one of next week's projects is visiting a couple of the local vet boarding facilities and deciding where to leave her.  Generally you can have two or more cats boarded together, but I really think Batcat would be happiest if I just leave him home with food and water and have someone come in and check a couple of times.

You can probably see that I've become a lot more laid back about feline diabetes.  For a while I was obsessed with the Feline Diabetes Message board and testing and trying to find the perfect dose so perhaps she'd be cured .....but I realized that I'm not "that" pet owner.  I love my cats and they add a lot to my life. But for some people their pets are their lives.  Imagine getting laid off and not looking for another job because you've been convinced that you need to stay home and test your cat every two hours.  The experienced advice givers had me quite upset for a bit thinking I was a bad pet parent because I couldn't do exactly what they wanted me to do....but I eventually realized that their approach is based on a single study performed by German cat owners on a total of about 60 cats over an eighteen month period.  That's a pretty small sampling considering there are probably a million cats worldwide with diabetes.  So, I've come up with something that seems to be a good compromise between following the various recommendations and having a life.  Jez is eating well, looking good, and enjoying life....and so am I.

There I go rambling on and on and on again (anything to avoid actually having to start cleaning, I'm afraid)...but I do need to go get cleaned up myself and head over to Dads...hope all of you are having a great weekend.