I'm BACK

Did you miss me? No? Well...

I returned from a great time in Florida on Monday the 18th, scooting through Atlanta and Dulles just in front (or was it behind, or between?) a bad storm system. If I had picked THIS weekend to go, I'd probably still be at an airport, somewhere.

I haven't flown since, um, 2004, when we flew to Vancouver to go on an Alaskan cruise. At any rate, not since all these "security" measures were put in place. It was surprising how difficult it was to find specific information on the TSA website about what you could carry on the plane. For instance, I wanted to know if prescription drugs needed to be in their original bottles? Because I keep mine in those one-day-at-a-time dispenser thingys. The answer is no, if you're wondering. I got all flusterpated when I left Ft. Myers in the wee hours, all the people in the security check-in line kept edging me ahead, and I didn't put my laptop in a separate bin, and I forgot to take my shoes off, and then I laid my boarding pass in the bin with my coat, and thus had to be "patted down" while in the scarecrow position, I mean really, you could see my boarding pass there on top of my jacket, but after it went thru the Xray thing they wouldn't let me pick it up to show that yes, I actually was trying to get to Morgantown WV on purpose, until I had been searched. Sigh. I got up at 2:45 am to get to catch a 6 am flight. Once I struggled into my way-in-the-back window seat, a nice lady got in the aisle seat and then disappeared completely when the 400+ pound man came and sat? or crammed? into the center seat. Waaay too much infringement on my personal space. I can only hope the lady in the aisle seat survived and went on her way, since I certainly never saw her again. Maybe she wondered the same about me. Xanax to rescue, and claustrophobia more or less vanquished.

I haven't been back to Florida since 1983, when I went to visit my folks in Ft. Lauderdale with a three-year-old, a two-year-old, and a plaster cast with steel pins through it on my left arm. Have you ever had to change diapers in an airplane john with only one arm? Anyway, I am glad I went in February, the weather was perfect, the sky at dawn and sunset and star-studded night were glorious, and the company was well worth the effort. I missed my friend the minute I left her, we still had so much catching up to do. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times we have gotten together in the 40 years since I graduated from North Miami Senior High.

Here we are:



Not bad for a couple of old broads, huh?

Better Late Than Never

Gosh, I hadn't realized it had been so long since my last post. There isn't much new here, we're just trying to stay warm (low last night of 8 degrees) and get stuff done.

When I worked full time, I did a certain amount of "housework", but I had a regular house-cleaning service come every other week. When I retired, I stopped having them, partly because they weren't doing a very good job, even by my slacker standards, and "things" were turning up "missing" too often. And really, if I were home all day every day, I could easily do it all myself, right?

But I had no idea what a time-consuming chore it would become. Before, three women would come for 2 hours each = 6 hours. Maybe I'm being more thorough, but I would guess I spend a good 12 hours per WEEK on housework. And the worst of it is, it's all to do over again in a week or so. Here's an example:


That's mud, tracked in on ONE pair of boots to the landing by the front door, a couple of hours after I scrubbed every inch of it. The whole outside world is mud.

I'm off to Ft. Myers Florida tomorrow for a swell weekend with my BGFF. Taking WAAY too much stuff with me, hope I can lift the suitcase. I promise to post after I return!

System Overload

Getting older is damned hard. I feel like I am deteriorating in all functions at the same time. I went to my regular doctor last week, and I told him I felt lousy all the time, nauseated, GI icky, pain in my joints, blurry vision, my skin is itchy and painful, you name a part and I feel rotten there. I was hoping for at least something I could take for the nausea (like phenergan), because there isn't anything OTC that works worth a damn. I mean, what, Pepto Bismol? Emetrol? I toss a slug of them down, and it comes right back up, none the worse for wear. I have grown so used to feeling queasy that some days the first time I become conscious of it is when I realize I am clenching my teeth to the point that my jaw hurts. Anyway, doc's response was to have me discontinue everything I've been taking that isn't "critical", so now I don't take multivitamins, glucosamine, omega-3, aspirin, Zetia, or antibiotic. Result? The nausea is worse. Much worse. Go figure.

I am still trying to sell our many many books on ABEbooks.com and orders have been dwindling this month. Today I got an order for a $2 paperback, an ex-library one no less, so the condition is only fair. But the guy ordering it is in the UK and the shipping charge is $9 ! I mean, why bother? I guess the dollar is doing so badly compared to the pound that this must seem like a bargain? I still have thousands of books to enter in the database, and when I feel bad this is the last thing I want to do...

And the rotten weather! The temperatures have been OK for January, but the last three nights the WIND has howled so much I can't sleep. We have trees down, part of the screen around the pool wrecked, trash can lids disappear, and why don't they sell the lids separate? The fireplace chimney funnels the sound down to the bedroom while also imparting an echo-y other-worldly WHOOOO to it, and the power, cable, and phone have all gone out over and over. Can't we send for some boring old drizzle?

I know, this isn't a very uplifting post, and that I am repeating stuff I've written before. And at the same time, I know that it doesn't really matter because the main proportion of readers here have surfed in via BlogExplosion, and are only waiting for the thirty second timer to release them, and they won't be back. So if that's you, your thirty seconds is almost.....

Dogs + horse meds = vet

The formula above sums things up pretty well. Yesterday, between dog breakfast at 9 am and us going back to the barn at 11 am, the dogs managed to paw the door to the tack room open. In addition to making a mess of plastic bags, insulation, and whatever was in reach, they got hold of a tub of "Equiease", a palatable horse supplement that we give to the 24 year-old mare to help her with aches and pains. The active ingredient is aspirin, and dose is 2.5 grams in a single scoop, with around 55 scoops in the tub. There are 10 or so scoops missing, as nearly as we can estimate, which for a dog is a HUGE dose of aspirin. How much they ate versus scattered on the floor is unknown. We called our vet, who is of course out of town. Then we called the horse vet, who said to make them throw up, so we squirted two 15cc doses of hydrogen peroxide down each, and shortly received three enormous puddles of ex-breakfast. We kept an eye on them all day, hoping that all that food in their bellies prevented the aspirin from being absorbed. Maggie, the 7 month old, seemed fine throughout: excited, hopping about, moving well, normal. But by 11 pm, Raven, the 13 month old Newfy, was subdued, reluctant to get to her feet or walk, very fast respirations. A call to the emergency clinic, and off we went, where they kept her overnight to give tummy meds, IV fluids, blood work, etc. She came home this morning, and seems pretty subdued, but not distressed, so hopefully there will be no further problems; she also came home with a bag of meds and instructions for a repeat blood work-up next week.

Cost? The tub of supplement =$50. The vet visit = $400+

There is a new latch on the tack room door.

Ding ding! Tax time!

I started the annual Gathering of the Papers today, in preparation for The Submission to the Great IRS. I don't actually DO the taxes now, because we always end up paying, and I don't want Uncle Sam to get money (more money) from us any sooner than legally necessary. But I like to get things organized a little at a time so I don't have to dig through 16 months worth of unread magazines to find that receipt.

So today I started to gather the checking account statements together. We hardly ever write checks anymore, we mostly pay electronically, and we track the balances online too. So the statements are really only necessary to document charitable contributions, medical co-pays, and so on, and thus when an envelope comes from the Bank, we don't open it, just stow it in a handy wicker basket until the end of the year.

I started noticing several months ago that we seemed to be getting a LOT of mail from the bank. Like, daily. Usually three envelopes a day. We'd joke and call it our daily bank correspondence.

Tonight I opened it all, and within the first 4 envelopes it was plain what the situation was. We have three accounts at the Bank, a checking and two savings. Somewhere in the inner workings of the accounting office, a wrong entry was made, and starting in mid March of 2007, they have been sending us a DAILY account statement. NOT monthly like any sane place would do. I counted the checking account statements for 2007, and there are---tada---207 of them. We actually wrote fewer than 100 checks for the entire year. The mailings came to around 33 cents in postage, times three for all three accounts, times 200 for the year= around $200 in postage alone. Why not deposit $200 in our account, keep all the statements, and I'll swing by in January and scoop the lot?

Far too sensible. Tuesday I'll go to the bank and see what can be done for this year. Meanwhile, the wicker basket is straining pretty badly to hold all this vital information, but heaven forbid I pitch any of it, an audit would certainly follow, right?

Happy new-ish year

I hadn't intended to be quite so lazy about posting. I've had a change in meds, and they have left me either 1) Too tired to get dressed, or eat, or even read, or 2) So wired I jangle and quiver whenever I stop moving. In between these mood swings, I have a short little span where I am awake and focused, but instead of blogging, I seem to do things like scrub the bathroom, straighten the linen closet, OR... shop! The sales! The springy weather (well, except for the 10 inches of snow). I've sold some more books on ABEbooks.com, several of them the high-priced SF classics. I wish it didn't take so much effort to list each book. I have to describe the condition of the book (cover faded, corners bumped, 1/4 inch tear at top right spine, bookstore stamp inside) and then I add something to describe what the book is about. Sometimes I just copy off the cover teasers, but sometimes they don't really say much. So instead I write a little 3 sentence plot synopsis; it's a little like writing a book report, only doing one hundred a week. I still have to do a price comparison (can anyone enlighten me why a paperback book by Eve Forward called "Villains by Necessity" is selling for $25-40?) and then decide if my copy is equal, better, or worse. Rinse. Repeat. At least there is a database program to organize all this.

The puppies are about the same size now, Raven the one-year-old is heavier and longer through her body, while Maggie is just as tall, but of slimmer build, at 6 months old. They enjoy being outside where they can run in and out of the barn and the back yard, or they come up on the back porch for a nap, or come in to torment the cats. They track in a HUGE amount of dirt, as you might imagine.

Update: Man, I have really sloughed off on getting this done. Let's see: tonight the low is forecast to be 9 degrees. We rugged up the horses in their down-filled blankets (oh, they are so spoiled), and switched the water buckets to the heated ones. This is the first winter with the new barn, and it holds in the heat very well, as long as the doors are shut, there is a small oil-filled electric heater for the corner where the dogs sleep in the hay, and some heat from the two heated rooms. The ceiling is insulated, and all the stalls are double walled, and one fourth of the barn has 600 bales of hay stacked to the rafters, which is a really thick insulation itself. [ Edible insulation! What a great idea... you could put it in your house too for the winter, a nutritious mix of bags of marshmallows, shredded wheat, crackers, flour sacks, you get the idea, and then in the summer you eat it all up so the wind can move freely through. Then the next winter you won't need to replenish the insulation, because, like polar bears and whales you now carry all that, um, fat, to keep you warm, your own biodegradable, 100% natural body insulation.] And of course the horses themselves throw off a lot of body heat too. I'm writing this mostly to convince myself that it will be OK. If this turns out to be a rough cold winter, I'm going to see about getting an industrial force air heater/blower before next year.

I think I have bored everyone enough so far, the two readers who have made it this far show your fine perseverance, I thank you both.

And now I'm going to sleep... perchance to dream... ah there's the rub!
Nothing like stickin some Shakespeare in to classy-up the blog...

Radio

When I was 10 or 11, the big Christmas gift that all the kids were getting that year was a transistor radio. Up until that time, radios were big, not as big as a breadbox, but almost, and had to be plugged in. But with the invention of the transistor and reliable batteries, pocket sized radios hit the market with a bang. There was, from my point of view, only one drawback.

They were expensive.

No, I can't remember the actual price, which would seem trivial by now, but that scarcely matters. They were expensive enough that I knew I couldn't ask for one. Because of my parents and their problems, I had learned as a toddler to 'read' the moods of adults, and I knew how my mom, who was the keeper of the purse strings, felt when she couldn't afford something I wanted, and so I stopped asking. Added to that is my sister, 4 years physically older but much younger all her life, who would automatically ask for the same thing, even if she didn't really want it. She wanted what I had, maybe to prove she was loved.... but at any rate, two radios were out of the question. And really, I didn't mind. I mostly chose things that were in the Green Stamp catalog, because my folks always saved them, and the stuff in the catalog were pretty cool, even if I had no idea what you did with some of them. Like, what did one need sleeping bags for? I never went camping and never knew anyone who did. I figured a camper would roll up in a blanket, like in the cowboy shows. And all the fishing stuff was a mystery; we used a cane pole with string and a hook tied on, and an earthworm for bait, and we only fished in little creeks and ponds. At any rate, my Christmases were filled with Green Stamp joy.

Anyway, remembering the small things I did get at Christmas, I marvel that it never occurred to me that we were poor. All my school friends could have been better off financially, but I never picked up on that. Not even when I played in the house across the street, which had an entire ROOM just as a playroom, with every conceivable doll, toy and game available. That was, for instance, the only time I "played Barbies" -- with Susie's dolls, not mine. I never, in fact, had a doll at all. And never missed one.

Anyway, I hope that all of you got just the right things for Christmas and that all your memories will be fond ones too!

Ickyness

Sigh. I got an *extra* gift this year for Christmas. It seems to be the latest thing in a rotavirus, and boy howdy it sure is, ah, potent. Every time I tried to lie down in bed last night, I ended up dashing for the powder room OUT OF MY WAY!!! I was forced to prop myself up in bed and doze, feeling nothing but nausea all night. The pharmacist said today that it is "everywhere" in town. Misery *does* love company.

There were more book orders to send out today, I had gone almost a week with no orders at all. Guess everyone was busy with holiday shopping, etc. I received 4 new books as a gift, but two of them I already have. They are by Jim Butcher, and part of the Dresden Files. If you are familiar with the SciFi channel, it was a miniseries earlier this year, and it piqued my interest in the books. So tomorrow I'll return them to B&N and pick out something else, I think I'll concentrate on the books on the lower two shelves, it is so awkward to creep along the row on my knees, and there is always the fear that I won't make it back up again! But it will be unplumbed "depths" so hopefully I'll find *something*. One of the drawbacks of being a voracious reader is that I have read so many of the books already. Typically, I read one book a day, or in two days. I recently read a statistic that said that 57% of Americans have not read ONE book in the last YEAR!! Incredible. Guess they spend a lot of time at the boob tube instead, whereas I watch very little on TV. When N used to travel out of town for a week or more, back when the kids were 7/8, I would go to the connection for the cable outside and unscrew the coaxial cable. I told the kids that the cable was broken... then the day N was due back, I'd re-connect it. One time #1 son said, "I know. You forgot to pay the cable bill!" They were real vocal when N got home, telling how horribly they suffered with no TV. The peace and quiet were heavenly.

Sleepy. Bye.

Merry Christmas

In general I hate Christmas songs, It makes my ears bleed to hear them beginning in October, it's a bit like Chinese water torture. That said, this rendition of Drummer Boy by Bing Crosby and David Bowie makes me go all soupy. If you like, watch below. And if it doesn't at least give you a little glow, you are made of sterner stuff than I, Gunga Din.

Near catastrophe

Today I was tidying up the desktop PC, you know, emptying the trash, dusting in the corners. I re-formatted the "old" hard drive... this computer was bought last year, and my previous computer had an 80 G hard drive that had tons of photos, documents, etc. on it, and I couldn't think of any good way to transfer them en mass. So we had the Geek guys put the old hard drive into the new computer, which thus has a C: drive (new) with a partitioned D: drive for system backup/restore, and now also a K: drive (old). Now I wanted to wipe the old drive so that I can use it for file backups, and the simplest way was to reformat. No problem doing that. Then I updated Spy Sweeper to the newest version, and after that it needed to be restarted. When it restarted it only got to the boot screen and showed a message, "Failure of hard drive is imminent! Back up files and replace drive!" Not a good thing. But I realized the "failing" drive was the 80 G old drive, that it was apparently trying to install the operating system from a blank drive. But, knowing that it had made the K: drive a "master" instead of a "slave", and putting it right was two different things. I sweated for an hour until I finally got to the screen that identifies hardware, and moved the 80 G from position one to position two. Then, at last, it would boot. What I wonder is, has the computer been booting from K: all along, but since the OS was on it too, from the original computer, it worked fine? I dunno. As long as it works now, I'll go with the flow...

I just love M$Windows, don't you? I should note, the re-formatting has to be done from the (ta da!) MS-DOS command prompt screen. I felt fortunate to remember how to do that, because for sure nothing on Windows tells you how. I remember when, with our first computer, a 286-16, **everything** was done in MS-DOS (no windows back then), and to get games to run you had to mess with extended and expanded memory, with LOADHIGH commands in your config.sys file or the autoexec.bat file, that would preserve the (imagine!) 256K low memory for use. I'm amazed they ever actually sold computers that were so cumbersome and user-unfriendly. Of course, all PCs still run MS-DOS, but Windows is "laid over" it so that its functioning is transparent to the user. Gone, but not gone. Sort of like a toothache.

Oh wait, our first computer was a TI-99 (Texas Instruments, who have gone back to making calculators these days). It cost $100 and ran programs that were on cassette tapes that you stuck in the back. Basically, you put a blank tape in, typed in your program and saved it to the tape. Whee. I think it's still up in the attic somewhere, maybe it will be collectible some day....

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas. In my deepest heart, I know that were it left up to me, I'd skip the whole thing. My whole family is tough to buy gifts for, since we largely buy anything we want at the time we want it. And as we all get older, we want less, too. I mean, how many wrist watches do you need? Two, tops. And purses, can you use more than one at a time? (No, but that doesn't stop me from getting more and more.....) And at some point, women stop being gifted personally and become their house. On one memorable Christmas, I received >>3<< vacuum cleaners. Do you think that implied anything about my housekeeping ability? And how many husbands do you think would be thrilled to receive a set of dishes?

Anyway, I've made a credible attempt at getting things that will please the recipient, even if it leaves me less thrilled. Like what? you say? Two words:

Gift Cards.

And they're easy to wrap too.

Traveling Salesman

The traveling salesman was visiting the farmer when suddenly he sees this pig with a wooden leg running by the barn. So he asks the farmer, "What's with the pig with the wooden leg?" And the farmer says, "That's not just any pig! That there pig saw my son fall down the well, and he came and got me and led me to the well. He saved my son's LIFE!" And the salesman says, "Yeah, but what's with the wooden leg?" And the farmer says, "And that's not all! One day a stranger in the woods was trying to rape my daughter, and that pig got me to follow him, and I saved my daughter and shot the rapist!" And the salesman says, "Wow, that's some story! So what's the wooden leg about?" And the farmer says, "Mister, when you've got a special pig, the way this pig is special, you don't eat him all at once!"

Pointless

It is 6 am here and I still haven't managed to get to sleep tonight. I took a sleeping pill, and two Xanax, and still don't even feel drowsy. That will probably happen around 8:30 this morning, leaving me a zombie the rest of the day. I know no one out there gives a hoot about my insomnia but I'm compelled to complain about it. Maybe someone will have a sure-fire cure? Yeah, right.

My christmas shopping remains in limbo, in that I've decided what to get but can't find them. I also can't seem to resist buying stuff for myself, making me feel guilty, but damn! Have you seen the sales going on? I bought a $78 pair of Ralph Lauren slacks for $13. Not even eBay does better, and I get to try them on. I can't imagine what the after-Christmas sales will be like -- will they pay us to take the stuff off their hands? Clearly bad news for retailers this year.

Saturday marked the one year anniversary of my last day of work. I gotta say, I don't miss it, although I would like to hear the latest gossip from work. I called a couple to times to ask or answer various questions, and always they would say, "We'll have to get together for lunch some Friday--we'll call you when everybody can make it." Of course it never happens, and what's more, I asked to be contacted when the other "old-timer" retired so I could come to his party, and no one called then either. I sent flowers to the funeral of one of the main office guys, and never got an acknowledgement from the family -- is that passe now? And I feel, not quite hurt, but, but not good either. All the comments before I left about how they couldn't get along without me...guess I wasn't so irreplacable after all. N says, out of sight, out of mind. I did pop in one day about a week after I left, no one was in, but my entire office, including the computer and the furniture had been replaced. They even got rid of my chair. So...I took it with me, from where it was sitting in the hall with the "surplus--take me" sign on it. I ordered that chair special because of the lumbar support...

I think I'm just feeling down today. The holidays are always a tough time, too many painful ghosts, and no sign of christmas cheer. We went to Gassaway last Friday to put the holiday decorations on the graves, it was cold and spitting snow, no one else was there, the wind whipped away anything you set on the ground. I'm ambivalent about doing it anyway, really we do it because my aunt and uncle appreciate it, as they decorate the rest of the family graves, but it's a melancholy task at best. Traffic on I-79 was atrocious coming home, even for a weekday, and that makes me an anxious passenger.

Oh hell, no one wants to listen to this whiny drivel. Move along, nothing to see here...

Sunday blues

Thanks to all who pitched in on the messages to the FCC about the re-assignment of the toll free suicide hotlines, the last I checked they had received 345 comments on that proposal. Not all of them were in support of leaving the numbers with the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, but most were. Over the years, I've circulated petitions, written my congressmen, even gone to the state capitol to pitch to the state reps face-to-face. But I gotta tell you, none of it has done a damn bit of good. The idea that we have a representative government of the people seems to be a little idealized (duh), as some people obviously carry more impact than any member of John Q Public. Oh wait, I lied...I did sign a petition recently to change the state motto back to the traditional "Wild Wonderful West Virginia" instead of the one currently placed on the signs as you cross into WV that say "Open for Business". It always made me think, "Oh, and closed for vacation?" which is absurd since WV has depended heavily on those who come here for the skiing, white water rafting, camping, etc. for many years. Anyway, much to my surprise, it worked, and the slogan has been changed back. One for the little guy....

This has been a yicky day, cold (24 degrees), windy (30 mph gusts) and snowing (3 inches). I was restless all day, but with no good reason to go out in the weather. So I cleaned the kitchen (ick) and did the laundry (yawn) and bought stuff online (but nothing really fun). It is now the time to turn in, which is good since I've lost track of whatever it was I was going post here....

1-800-SUICIDE Hotline

Once again our wonderful federal government is preparing to meddle and take control of something that has been handled privately just fine. The Kristin Brooks Hope Center has operated several toll-free suicide hotlines for people in crisis. They operate largely by trained volunteers, and there are links on a huge number of web sites that direct people to these phone lines. Just as an example, you may be familiar with the Post Secret blog (the Link for there is on the right side under links---------> ) , a site which gets hundreds of thousands hits every day. Now the feds want to re-assign these toll free numbers to SAMHSA, a fed program, and I ask, why? Calls to suicide hotlines are, by their very nature, likely to contain information of a personal nature, and do we really need Big Brother, with their ability to wiretap and eavesdrop on citizens without warrants, listening in when people are in crisis? I think not. Below is the email I received from KBHC on this, feel free to contact the FCC at www.fcc.gov (link just below in large type) and file your own comment on this. I am also deeply suspicious of the FCC's motive in doing this during the holiday season, and in having such a short public comment period, and I wonder who stands to gain by having Uncle Sam try to take this function over by bootstrapping on the reputation of a private charitable group of proven effectiveness?

And if you wanted to donate to KBHC, they can always use help in paying their telephone bills too.

The links probably will not work, but go to
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi
for the proceeding number, enter 07-271

fill in the form, and enter a brief comment at the bottom, then "submit". You should get an acknowledgment reply, with a number.

E-mail received today:

Dear Friends of the Hopeline,

We thank you for your support of our organization and 1-800-SUICIDE over the last few years.

We need your help ... again. This time in addition to financial support what we really need today is a letter of support.

The feds (SAMHSA) are moving to try to take permanent control of 3 of our hotlines using the timing of the holiday season hoping no one will be around to file a response. They filed the day before Thanksgiving and gave our attorneys no notice of the filing. Not very cricket of them.

We are asking our supporters to file comments with the FCC before they grant permanent assignment of 1-800-SUICIDE to the SAMHSA. If you could file a comment in support of us and ask any of your friends and colleagues to stand up for us it would make a difference. We need your public support more than ever. If we shine a bright enough light on them they will not be able to hide from the truth.

It is important to note that our organization operates 13 national suicide hotlines and while 1-800-SUICIDE is our largest program we will continue to prevent suicide among our veterans with our 1-877-VET2VET, new moms suffering post partum depression with 1-800-PPD-MOMS, teens with our 877-YOUTHLINE as well as many other targeted populations with 10 other specialty hotlines. We are not in danger of being shut down but we are about to lose our primary outreach of help and hope. Either way we will continue our life saving work. (see www.hopeline.com/programs for a complete list)

I hope you and your family have a great holiday. All we want for the Holidays is the return of the control of our numbers.

Suggested minimal language...


We urge the FCC to grant the Kristin Brooks Hope Center Application for Review and return the toll free hotline numbers to KBHC promptly. If necessary to accomplish that, we support a temporary extension of the 12 month temporary re-assignment.

But please feel free to add or write your own comments about why it is important that 1-800-SUICIDE remain non government owned and controlled.

To file comments CLICK HERE http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi
Type in 07-271 for the proceeding (docket) number.



To read what others have written CLICK HERE 
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/websql/prod/ecfs/comsrch_v2.hts?ws_mode=retrieve_list&id_proceeding=07-271&start=1&end=20&first_time=N


The postings just began today and the window closes on the 12th of December. It is a very brief window for public comment. This is so unfair. Last year when they did this we ran a campaign that generated over 800 letters written and filed. They do not want a repeat of that and are counting on us having no show of strength in support from people who care. So please help us today. It will make a difference. Your financial support in the past has helped us survive to this point. We hope you will continue to support us in the future.

http://www.hopeline.com/donate

Best always,



Reese Butler - reese@hopeline.com


President and Founder
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
National Hopeline Network 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433)
Administrative Office:
615 7th Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
202-536-3200
202-536-3206 fax

www.hopeline.com


Click to go to the Save 1-800-SUICIDE site and read more details

Feed Me

Sigh. I think I have successfully added RSS feed to this site, and over there>>>> is a "Subscribe " place, not very elegant looking, but as far as I can tell it works.

And that is about all I have accomplished today, other than bringing Cookie (cat) home after her "procedure". For details of this, look at the last post. Anyway, she now has a pink bald spot on her bum, and her new nickname is "Baboon Butt" (snicker). #1 son says she is "Butt ugly" now. Poor baby.

Small rant.

You know how, when you have a lousy night because of a: sick kid/barking dog/crack house raid next door, and then you go to work in the morning, and at some point throw it out as a conversational topic? And after a few minutes, you get that out of your system and move on? Well. I don't work anymore. And I had a lousy night last night. So I'm going to grumble here.

If you sleep like a log, never have insomnia, you might want to move on to the next blog now, you know?

Are they gone? Good. Weirdos.

Last night I had a lousy night. I woke up at 2 am, after going to sleep around 11 pm, and right away I have a headache. What works best for me (as long as it isn't migraine) is Excedrin, which works well because it has caffeine, which I don't really need at two am. But I get up (brrrr) and take some, hoping. This wakes me up a little more.

So I start reviewing stuff in my mind, you know, laying there, fussing over some problem from the day, and I find myself mentally composing a: letter to the editor/blog entry/ransom note, knowing full well that: a) I won't remember all these carefully polished sentences and b) I won't even remember the topic of them. I have wasted hundreds of hours mentally composing brilliant scathing retorts for that time when she said.... when at the time I sat there dumbfounded and I *should* have said... Knowing that the next time the same thing happens I won't have a snappy comeback then either....

And then there was the cat. Because I was obviously awake, she comes over to get a little ear rubbing time, which is fine. Then she settles down next to my pillow and proceeds to take a bath. Lick, lick, lick. I look over at her, and there she is, licking her butt (we call it the "Pablo Casal playing the Cello" pose), hind leg raised high, lick lick... Blech! I give her a little poke and she stops. I start to relax, relax, drifting,,,and she starts up again, lick lick, very moistly, you know?

I can't just throw her out of the room, because if she's with them, the upstairs cats will begin relay races on the hardwood floors just over my bedroom, they sound like ponies on parade up there (remember that Carl Sandburg poem, where he writes about fog moving in on little cat feet? Obviously HE never had cats). I don't know why, but I know from bitter experience that they will make enough noise to keep *everyone* awake all night.

I know she won't quit if she isn't distracted, so I get my little tube of dried Cosmic Catnip and sprinkle a little down by the foot of the bed. WHOO. That gets her attention. Now she's rubbing her face in it, rolling in it, snuffling it up and sneezing, etc. and soon she's...well...mellow. Now I really start to feel sleepy, close, close....

And then I hear her on the floor, biting and riiiipppping at the carpet. Apparently we have tracked in some delightful bit of stinky-ness. This will never do, she has been known to tear a whole patch of carpet into loose threads doing this, so I get up and try to cover that bit of floor with a box, or a throw rug, or whatever I can find. It has to be large enough to cover a fair bit of the floor, because I'm not sure of the precise spot that is so enthralling. Disgusted with me, she retreats to the easy chair.

By now I am wide awake. Every 20 minutes or so I steal a peek at the clock, to see how long I've got until the alarm... maybe I should go ahead and shower now... just give up.... and finally feel so drowsy and warm and the cat is quiet, and and and the alarm goes off.

Sigh. Turns out, when I check her this morning, the cat has, in fact, a nasty raw spot on her bum, infected/ inflammed or maybe abscessed, and so I take her to the vet, who diagnoses an infected anal gland, poor thing....

BUT!! He will keep her overnight so he can treat it after sedating her and THEREFORE

No cat in here tonight!

Hope all of you sleep well too!

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I mostly have science fiction, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and I'm adding more every day.

Update:  as of May 25th, 2013, the Four Readers store at ABEbooks has been permanently closed.  Thanks for your purchases.
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Sunday sunday

Ah, a nice rainy relaxing day. We have dinner in the Crock pot, and no need to go anywhere. The dogs are sacked out again, and take up nearly the entire living room floor. I'll go add books to my ABEbooks account. I got the NaBloPoMo badge over there>>>>and did it without crashing my entire template. I'd like to change the looks of this blog, but frankly I don't know how to do that without losing everything, so best to leave everything alone. I even slept fairly well last night, so all in all this is shaping up to be a Good Day. Hope you and yours are fine as well, and staying out of the mad rush at the malls.

And I won't even THINK about the fiasco that was the WVU vs Pitt game yesterday.....

I DID IT!! NaBloPoMo

I couldn't get to the "official" NaBloPoMo web page so as too post an official "I did it" image, so the title here will have to do. I posted every day!! for the entire month of November (smug smile). I will admit that not all of them are quality posts, but I did the best I could given what has been going on here. For example, I spent from 1:30 am this morning until 7 am at the Emergency Room of the local hospital with my daughter, who is doing much better now, especially since they did not have to admit her. Still, only about two hours of sleep in the last 24, YAWN.

Today we also took the pups to Petco for a sudsy groom, they now smell (you'll have to take my word on this) like gingerbread instead of...well. They were both tired pups by the time we got them home, here they are sacked out in the kitchen. Ordinarily, me kneeling down to take these would have brought them to tongue waving delight one inch from the camera lens, but today they could hardly muster a sleepy blink:





Maggie, the black and white Newf, is 5 months, and the black one, Raven, is 10 months old. They are best buddies, of course. Raven doesn't show the dirt like Maggie does, but both of them had burrs and tangles and mud ground into their coats, and now their coats feel lush and smooth, well worth the $$. We will give the local car-wash doggy washes a try this winter too, anything to avoid crouching over the bathtub for what feels like hours, and then having to clean the bathroom and wash doggy towels too.

Too tired to think of any other great news today, I won't need a sleepy pill tonight...