Handy (wo)man

It's an overcast windy cold day here, and both husband and I are feeling rather poorly. I suspect we have merely caught a cold, but it sure does take the starch out of the sails. I've been trying to get my hands in better condition, so today I did a hot wax immersion thing followed by gloves that massage and heat, and my hands look great! For a while anyway. The thing is, you have to take your rings off, because being metal, they conduct heat rather too well from the hot wax. I could barely get mine off, which means they won't be going back on, either. For some reason, a ring I can't remove irks me, like a hangnail, and I can't bear to slide it on once it's off. Most of my rings are oversized, and in fact, my wedding band falls off in the shower, clang! So I can't risk it going down the sink drain, and have left it off as well. (Have you ever had to remove the sink trap to retrieve something, and seen all the yuck in there? Were you tempted to leave whatever it was that went down?) Anyway, ringless for a while.

Handy

Today's Bumper Sticker: "This is just a STUPID BUMPERSTICKER but you're still squinting to read it."

Letting it slide

Food in Lab

This is the sort of thing I looked for when I audited labs at the WVU Health Science center for OSHA and safety code violations. Do you watch NCIS? Do you remember seeing Abby, the lab tech, always has a big cup of soda/slurpee whatever that she drinks in the lab? And that Dr. Mallard sometimes is eating his lunch in the MORGUE (Ewww...)? These two violations alone would close a lab, lose Abby her job, or at the very least mean a fine and/or a visit from OSHA, if reported to them. It really is a BAD idea to eat or drink in a lab; labs have usually been in use for decades, with dozens of workers spattering who knows what where. Once you touch some chemicals, all that stands between you and death is not putting your finger in your mouth. Some chemicals will penetrate directly through unbroken skin and kill you long before help can be gotten; I used to routinely use such a chemical, called DFP, which is a protease inhibitor. I was very very careful with it, more even than with isotopes.

Anyway, I am very tired tonight, so this is a post only in so far as NaBloPoMo goes, so I don't miss a day. If it's boring, move along, nothing to see here...

Bumper sticker: "It's as bad as you think and they're out to get you."

Moving along

I recently ran across a web site which posted "found" photos in an effort to re-unite them with their owner. At the time, I was just curious, and read the notes on successful postings, but I didn't bookmark it, and when I tried to find it, I couldn't. So here is my story:

I bought my Sony dsc 5 mpxl camera from a pawn shop here in WV. It had a memory card, but showed "no photos" other than the ones I took at the shop. But I knew the memory card should hold more space, and yet it gave me "full" when I tried to put more than 2 or 3 photos on it. So I did a download to my computer, and all was clear. The memory card held some 150 photos taken in San Francisco (we used to live there) in Nov. 2006, and featured mainly two men who were sight-seeing. I have no idea who they are, but for the sake of serendipity, here is a sample photo:

Look familiar to anyone?

New bumper sticker: I may be slow, but I'm ahead of YOU.

Tick-tock part two

As you may remember from This Post , I recently bought a wind-up chiming wall clock on ebay. It arrived in less than pristine condition, so I sent it off to the local clockman, and after a few days, got it back. He told us a bit about the clock, that it dated to around 1900, was made in Japan for export to the USA, and that prices for these clocks has not gone up like those from, say, Germany, although in some cases they are the same mechanism inside. I've never pretended to understand any part of the antique market, and I knew when I bought it, that this clock was a small unpretentious specimen. What I wanted it to do, was run. Thus the clockman, and $85 later we have a functional clock.

Except it wasn't. Functional, that is. We tried three different places to hang it, since few if any of our walls are truly plumb, and used all manner of shims to make sure the clock was level in three dimensions. But alas, it failed in the fourth dimension, and thus a call to the clockman again. He had it for a day or two, and then called us to come get it. When we asked what was wrong with it, he asked, "What side of the road do the Japanese drive on?" and Norm said, well, like the English, they drive on the left. Clockman, he say the clock will work now that it has been wound. We had tested the winding CLOCKWISE like any sane person would do, and it was tight and we opted not to force it. However, it actually winds COUNTERCLOCKWISE, which would have been a nice thing to point out when he was giving us the history of the thing. It is now hung satisfactorily on the wall, and every Sunday night I wind it, along with the chimes (which do wind clockwise, go figure), and everyone is happy. If somewhat embarrassed.

Bumper sticker for today: "Not always right but never in doubt."

Election Day

AT last election day has arrived. I am so sick of hearing all the rhetoric I could scream. Of course now, we'll have to listen to post-election analysis of what went right/wrong and what this will mean for the country, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

I kind of like the new voting machines we have, electronic but with a paper copy generated at the same time that you can read to verify for yourself. I remember the first time I voted, in 1972, it was those huge old mechanical machines, you stepped inside these musty old grey curtains and pulled a lever, and the curtains closed and the ballot choices were revealed. For each selection you flipped a little lever, like a flapper, and when you were all done, you hauled on this big 'ole handle again, the curtains opened, the votes tallied in the innards of the machine, and it was ready for the next voter. The only refinement this year from last, is that instead of touching the screen with your finger, they give you a little rubber gizmo that reminded me instantly of an ear syringe, used to touch the screen more accurately. I can imagine the finger active screen being a real problem, especially in our area, between crippling arthritis and industrial accidents making hands less than fully functional.

The ladies who do all the work at the voting place must have the patience of Job, repeating the directions over and over. We had to wait about 20 minutes to vote, unheard of in our little precinct, so the turn out must be huge state-wide. It always makes me feel more content when there is a good turnout, thinking of all those people exercising a choice that few people in the world have the luxury of doing. I wouldn't want it to be compulsory to vote, though, like it is in Australia, having all these voters just going through the motions without ever even getting informed about who they were voting for or against.

I sure was sorry, though, to hear abour Obama's grandmother passing today, win or lose I'm sure she would want to share it all with Barack.

Bumper sticker for today: " I'll procrastinate tomorrow."

Cleaning up

Just about this time a year ago, the three stall barn with tack room and workshop was finally finished. We had stored all the tack gear in a u-store-it place because we dismantled the old barn and tack room to re-use a good bit of the wood in it. I had fully intended to clean everything, either while it was at the storage place, or as I put it away in the new tack room. Such a dreamer! It all just got sorted a bit and then shelved. The saddles all got a new saddle stand that held three saddles, one on top of the other, free-standing, but that was it. Imagine how I felt when I took the saddle covers off (those I did wash), and saw this:

Before


After

The second photo is, as you can see, the other side of the saddle, as it was only half clean at this point. It took ages. And this is the easy saddle; the other Western one is carved, not smooth leather, and every inch has to be cleaned with a toothbrush and leather cleaner, before oiling it. And it is sterling silver trimmed, and a lot of the the trim is in the form of lacing, which means being careful to not get silver polish down in the holes where you can't reach to polish it out. You'll notice I haven't put up a photo of that one. I'm still debating whether cleaning the silver is even worth the effort; no showing any more for me.

Anyway, the third saddle is a Wintec English all-purpose saddle, made of something sort of like neoprene, and you can clean it by (can you believe it?) hosing it off. Not that I have ever actually done that; it, of course, was not dirty after storage anyway.

Saddles are just intrinsically lovely, don't you think? All handmade, a dying art in the USA, good for virtually forever with care, so much skill and centuries of refinement in the structure. Not much that's made by hand like this anymore in our use-it-then-discard society.

Bumper sticker: "Come the Rapture, can I have your car?"

Kitten update

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, we made a poorly thought-out trip to the local animal control shelter (aka the pound) and came home with two kittens, one a very small black? dark brown? female, and a mixed Siamese female. But I kept having thoughts of another cat there, and I kept calling to see if anyone had adopted her, or if she was nearing her "expiration" date. Monday I, against even my own better sense, went to the shelter and brought her home. We call her Dottie, because other than a grey smudge between her ears, she is an all-white cat with polka dots.










BC is on the top







Mellow is in the middle
















This is Dottie on the bottom. Don't those ears look like satellite antenna?








So today's Bumper sticker is a button instead: "I smile because I have absolutely no idea what I am doing"

(Such a friendly clerk today at the store. Clueless, but friendly).

it's November already!

So I'm lying here in bed, noodling on about the stitchery I'm doing, and suddenly it hits me! November! And that means, as all you NaBloPoMo followers know, that means I need to post every day for the month of November. I tried to come up with a list of topics beforehand, so I could just pick one, but they all sounded so trite or were about subjects that I knew nothing about ( which is a topic in and of itself). So I decided to write about football. I only attended one of my high school football games, at the Orange Bowl. As I recall, all our games were played at the Orange Bowl, the local schools were so huge (our school had 4000 students). The only thing I remember about the game is shouting "first and ten let's do it again!" without the slightest idea what that meant. The other main impression was seeing the dolphin jumping out of it's pool near the scoreboard. I never saw the Miami Dolphins play, but we did go to the Orange Bowl game once after I was married. It was Notre Dame and Alabama, and we rooted for Notre Dame (the quarterback was Joe Montana, I think) and we were seated in a sea of red, and not very popular, especially with the kids seated behind us. I swore then and there I'd never attend another game, the benches were excruciatingly painful and dumb me had no idea that the 15 minutes per quarter would take 45 minutes or an hour to play. Each. And I never have gone After all these years watching (reluctantly) on TV, I really can't understand why anyone would bother to go, you can see so much better on TV, it doesn't cost you the GNP of some small countries to attend, you're warm, comfortable, don't have to stand in line to use the bathroom, can make your own snacks instead of patronizing the local roach on wheels, and best of all, when the game is over, your only responsibility is to hit "off" on the remote, and not fight traffic for three hours getting home again.

But then, i don't understand NASCAR either, all those cars going round and round and round; wouldn't you think they should have pop-up targets or something to liven things up a bit? I can see a race like Le Mans, but Nascar?

Anyway, I've stretched my limited wit around something I know nothing about, so tomorrow it will be onward, onward, to a new topic.

New bumper sticker: Buckle Up! It makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car.

Question

OK, I'm sure there is some simple solution for this. I want to save all my posts to this blog (about 200) to a file on my computer (or a thumb drive). Other than using "select all" and then "copy" to Word, one page at a time, is there any way to do this in one, so to speak, stroke? So many pages this way.

Any suggestions gratefully acknowledged.

My Evil EBay Addiction

Well, first I need to explain that I began EBaying in 1997, back when I still had to explain how it worked, and the response would invariably be "What, you send them money and THEN they send your stuff??!!" But as we all know, for the most part it does work. Or maybe I've been lucky, or naive, or too cheap to spend much over $45 for anything. Anyway, even after all this time I am constantly amazed at what you can find for so little effort.

As an example, I wanted a copy of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, you know, the three ring binder one with the red and white checked cover? But not just any version, I want the one I have, tattered, spotted, missing pages and broken spine. I check ebay and there it is, apparently unused, sitting on someone's shelf all these years (1972). Naturally I was high bidder, and it arrived Friday. I'm having the pages with my favorite recipes laminated and punched, they'll be easy to find and won't tatter so that tsp looks like Tbsp. My version looks so-- so-- abused in comparison.

But it is all getting out of hand now. I bought a wind up chiming wall clock, and then spent $85 (so far) and it still won't run, just sits there dinging sullenly on the hour-- but which hour? It needs rehab.

I bought a lovely winter jacket, even though I have 5, not counting the mink, which we won't if I have any say and I do. It was so lovely, and so cheap! Who could resist?

I bought cartridges for my fountain pens; three silk blouses; one pair of Tencel pants so the blouses would match something; a set of king size sheets; two other shirts, a loony tunes mug for N after he left his on the car roof; an embroidered jean jacket, a suede jacket, underwear, oh the list goes on and on. All the above is just for Oct.

So the only way to control myself is to NOT LOOK. Well, I do need to do feedback, but that's IT.

Though I've heard Ruby Lane has a good bit in the way of antiques....

Bumper sticker: "I bet Jesus would use His turn signals!"

We've got to stop meeting like this

It's 1 AM again; still tired; drugs soon. I spent most of yesterday painting N's bedroom, now that the stinking carpet is gone. Since all the furniture is gone, we might as well paint the ceiling, too, right? Only I ran short of ceiling white and had to get more. N was out of town (DC! As if they DO anything there that couldn't be done in a conference call, saving 7 hours on the road.) but before he left, he selected and bought the paint. No ceiling paint, didn't bring in the ladders, didn't hunt up the paint roller handle, OR even more critically, the extension pole for the roller handle. No little hand held bucket for using with paint when cutting in around windows, ceiling, etc. No brushes hunted up by me that didn't look like green enamel, including the one I bought just for this job. He bought wall paint (and left it in the car!) and 4 roller covers, bringing the household total to around ten. So needless to say, I was off to a slow start. I got the ceiling painted, one wall including trim, and one wall almost finished (slowed down by window trim). I'm feeling pretty puffed up, 'til N call to see how it's going. I honestly think he expected it to be all done; but the way I see it, I painted 3 sides of a six sided box (we will paint the floor too, to seal out kitty effluvia). So I've done my part, assembling all the tools = taking the place of the little bit of the second wall not finished. With extra credit for reaching over my head for hours to do the ceiling, once I bought a new pole extension for the roller.

So my plan today is to stay clean until after my therapy session at 11:30, and then "help" afterwards, while N does the heavy lifting.

oh yeah, and he picked the paint. It had been a blue-gray color, but he bought a teal bedspread etc., so he wanted a more aqua shade. I suggested the first one he picked was a little dark? don't you think? The color he chose is bright robin's egg blue. I think it sucks, but I won't have to look at it much either. The many benefits of separate bedrooms. At least it is covering the cat piss sprays and coffee slop. When all the old rug came out, it apparently was a record-breaker for the crew, smell-wise. What a claim to fame. N, natch, has almost zero sense of smell, and couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

Meanwhile he is sleeping in the LR, and none too pleasant in the morning.

Bumper sticker for the day: "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

Wish us luck...

One A.M.

I am so tired I can't sleep, because I ache like a sumbitch. Two nights ago, I took double Ambien before bed, just so I'd finally get a solid night of sleep. But I got up to use the bathroom, got dizzy and fell on my butt. This would have been merely embarrassing, but I fell on top of a large ceramic pot (like an old style chamber pot) and smashed it into smithereens. In addition, it contained clean kitty litter. I got shapnel in my butt too, and BIG bruises. It was a Christly mess to clean up. The cats were Thoroughly Entertained. Me, less so.

Yesterday I worked on cleaning out the computer room, most especially the desk that sits just inside the door, so handy for dumping whatever papers or receipts or whatever, until the desk disappears and everything is slithering to the floor. The computer itself resides on a "cockpit" desk (I don't why it is called this, when the user can scarcely be called a pilot) which is corner shaped, with the big desktop being a drawing-board sort of thing that tilts. We built it from a kit in this room, which was empty, and I know that it will never make it out of here except with the help of an axe. But the desk--it goes. I want a double doored metal cabinet for supplies, on wheels, but I had no idea they were so expensive (to me). $300 dollars and up! For $300 I could buy a lot of Banker boxes and store them on the floor, of course I wouldn't be able to find anything, that's not too different from now. Have to check out used office supply places. Meanwhile I'm campaigning to get the desk off to Goodwill before our possessions expand to once again occupy the space. It COULD happen. I do have a metal lateral file cabinet shoved under the stairs, but I think we'd have to demolish the stairs to get it out. Such are the perils of living 28 years in the same house.

Meanwhile N has been clearing everything out of his room in preparation for the removal of the most stinking carpet I have ever seen. I don't in god's name know how he could sleep in such a stench and NOT NOTICE. We had a cat, you see, who... well, you get my drift. They rip up the old stuff tomorrow, then put in hardwood flooring on Friday, giving us time to paint, most particularly, to paint the plywood subfloor with polyurethane to seal the stains, since they resist any attempt with any solvent except gasoline and matches to de-gag them. It should improve the air quality in the house immensely. There are also new shades and new curtains and bed linen, although one comforter will need to go to a commercial laundry to be washed. This weekend has been one wild and wonderful time, rest assured.

New Bumper sticker: My mind is like a steel trap. Rusty and illegal in 37 states.

And watch out for those pollsters, they hide behind every phone pole and leap out at the unwary. That's why the call them "POLEsters".

Doing better, touch wood

My psych. dr. started me on Abilify last week, and by gum, it really seems to make me feel cheerful. Only one crying spell, talking to my manicurist (or as I call her, my second therapist). I have been going to the same lady for, oh, I don't know, 20 years? We know each other well. She is having a pretty tough time financially, fewer people do an every-two-week, it is a luxury, and her daughter and grandchild live with her. She's had to take a second job, she works as a private duty caregiver for two elderly women. I know for damn certain I couldn't do it.

Also, I went yesterday to the neurologist the G.P. referred to me, and I think I've come up a winner in this too. He told me much more about my migraines, and that the med I was taking (MaxAlt) to try and kill them at the beginning of an attack wasn't being taken as I should, they should work better now. He emphatically told me he would not give me any new 'scripts for new treatments, as I am taking too many for too many conditions as it is. He did give me a cortisone shot on my left neck for my neck spasms, which he said are directly related to the migraines, and a short (10 day) course of prednisone to hopefully stop the "rebound" headaches that lay me out in bed with a dark hot mask, no noise, no bad smells, no food, for hours. He said the sensation of an "ice pick" pain is very common in migraine sufferers, showed me a description in a med textbook that I could have written--who knew? I thought I had a brain tumor! Anyway, if any of you out there are migraine-ous, I'd see about checking with a neurologist.

And finally, we adopted two pound kittens on Tuesday, we call them Mellow (siamese) and Monet (long hair black or chocolate kitten), both females already spayed. They are supposedly 12 and 9 weeks respectively, but I'll eat the kitty chow myself if Monet is over 5-6 weeks. She is half the size of Mellow, and not too good with the litter box yet. Peed twice on my bed (sob). Confined both in the bathroom last night, and since Mellow uses the box consistently, we're hoping the little one will learn what her mama didn't have time to teach her. Photos soon.

We didn't "need" these kittens since we already have 4 house cats, but two of them are very old (not sure exactly as they were strays we took in) and the other two are getting up there age-wise, so these new ones should infuse a little playfulness and variety. Once they finish hissing and running away, that is.

That's the news (such as it is) from here.

New bumper sticker--
Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

Tick tock

For a long time (30+ years) we have had a chiming wall clock in the living room, nothing fancy or expensive. We stopped winding the chimes because N found they drove him crazy (a short trip at the best of times). Recently the clock has been losing time in a major way, maybe 10 minutes a day, causing us to miss the first 10 minutes of NCIS, obviously a serious oversight. So I decided to look into getting another clock, and bid and won a nice clock of similar type on ebay. And THEN! in a lightning moment of insight that has long been the hallmark of my cerebral faculties, it occurred to me that a pendulum clock can be slowed by lengthening the pendulum, and sped up by shortening the pendulum, and for this very purpose, there is a little adjustment screw on the end of the pendulum rod, to move the weight up or down. So viola! the clock now keeps perfect time again.

But the new clock...when it arrived, the minute hand was unattached, the top of the case was broken, and the whole thing is, well, a mess. How do people get photos to post on ebay that make their stuff look BETTER than it really is? When I take photos for similar purposes, the newest slickest most perfect condition item looks like I unearthed it at the dump, dusted it off, and put it up with a reserve bid of $$$ dollars! Anyway, there is an actual CLOCKMAKER locally, who didn't bat an eye at the battered clock, and in 8-10 days I should have another, smaller, sweeter chiming clock, which I will try out in the dining room. The clock guy says this one dates from 1900 or so. Will post an "after" picture, but here is the photo for the eBay "before" listing:






Favorite bumper sticker: "CAUTION I swerve to hit cars at random"

Little Progress

This post is going to feel a little different from those in the past. My therapist and I decided to drop our sessions for a while. I have been drifting, just visiting while I am there, and while that is enjoyable, it didn't really get me any further along in my search for peace and ---could it be?? ''a modest modicum of happiness?''

Currently, my major problem seems to be finding the get-up-and-go to accomplish anything, and for the first time in my life, I can't blame the pressure of my professional career work. Indeed, the lack of structure of any given day seems to lead me to take long naps while the laundry is slowly gaining sentience, I think, as it does bulk. Granular white powder seems a weak defense. Dinner has become a fairly slap-dash affair, we fill our plates with what's on offer, and scatter to the four winds to eat it. Lots of paper plates to follow, then to be stuffed into bags and hauled out to the curb to disappear quite early in the morning. We frequently seem to run out of spoons and table knives, i don't quite know why.

The dogs, all 200+ pounds of them seem to revel in the fenced area they share with the horses. I do wish they would stop splashing in the water troughs,making them too mucky for the horses to drink. In retribution, the horses occasionally leave a fecal decoration in their water buckets, so I guess it works out fair.

As far as golf goes, N decided we might benefit from a home pitching cage to practice driving. The kit arrived, but we are to supply the metal supports for the frame. N and son went to Lowes and had them cut to length, but alas! The Subaru Forester was a wee bit shy in the length department, and so the metal poles broke the windshield. $200 repair. I"m sure the neighbors will be endlessly entertained. N is pretty good. But I keep thinking of all those years I bowled on a ladies league, week by week. I even came in on weekends to practice. I think my all time high game was 135. My average at the start and the end were the same...105.

I think I may just be the cart-driver.

New bumper sticker: Draft SUV drivers First!

Back at Ya

Well, here it is, the Labor Day weekend. WVU just finished their game against Villanova, and won. By tomorrow the extra 60,000 people in Morgantown will be gone, and we will reclaim most of the town, given that the students have mostly gone home for the long weekend. Hopefully, at least some of them will leave their cars there, because truly there is no place to park them, certainly not near campus. Math example: 30,000 students - 2000 parking spaces = 28,000 people going 'round and 'round and ....

The barn is still a bleak reminder to me, and I should be out there with the other two horses so that they don't become entirely sour with the winter coming. We had a huge load of hay delivered last weekend, I think enough to last us until hay season next year. Good stuff, too. The weather here has been very dry, our lawn crunches when you walk on it. The lawncare guys came Thursday and suggested we water it more often; I don't think we have ever watered it. Never even thought of it. The pool developed a leak somewhere on the liner, or else the humidity has been really low, and the water is only 2 feet deep, so it must be a leak on the wall. We've decided to just cover it (for safety) and plan on a new liner next year. This one is well past its "use by" date.

All the news about hurricanes G and H reminds me of the hurricanes I went through as a kid living in Miami. Our house, like virtually all of the ones constructed at that time, was made entirely of cinder blocks, with curved concrete shingles. We had aluminum storm awnings over the windows, they provided shade, let you leave windows open without worrying about rain, and (best of all) folded up and covered the entire window, fastening with wing nuts to the concrete. Took about 15 minutes to close the house up; then we covered the front or back doors with plywood, depending on which side of the hurricane we were to get. One year we had the eye pass directly over the house, we went out (tho you shouldn't) and checked out a tree that was looking a little iffy. It survived that hurricane, but we cut it down just after. It was an "orchid" tree, I have no idea what the real name of it was. Anyway, when the hurricane is there, you're supposed to open windows on the down side of the wind. The year we got the eye, the wind of course switched sides and blew from the opposite direction after the eye, so we had to scurry around and close one side and open the other. That's because the wind pressure can lift the roof right off, and higher pressure inside the house will aid the lifting if the house is not open somewhere to equalize inside and outside pressures.

But somewhere between the time our house was built (1952) and when hurricane Andrew hit southern Florida with such devastation, it became apparent to me that someone had monkeyed with the building codes, and built "stick" houses, which in my opinion was criminal. Does no one read the Three Little Pigs anymore? The part about the house made of straw? My main recollection of the hurricanes (let me think...Donna, Camille, others??) was that they were exciting, using flashlights, Sterno cans, and so forth. But the aftermath!!! A total drag. Everywhere you drove you picked up nails or glass to make the tires go flat. No power for several days, so no refrigeration, no cooking (on an electric stove), no lights once it got dark, doing homework by candlelight (like Abe Lincoln!). Never lost the water, and once we changed to a gas stove, we could cook (no electric sparkers for the flames, you had pilot lights on all the time)(a great place to raise bread), and after maybe as much as 5-7 days of it, you just felt cross and ill-done-by. Mom worked in a grocery store, and of course everything got stripped before the storm, people grabbing and running for the registers, and after the storm, the delivery trucks were all messed up schedule-wise, and had to cope with closed roads, missing sign posts, and the tire thing too. It was a huge relief when fresh milk and produce became available again.

As for New Orleans, I myself would have put serious effort into moving north somewhere after the last disaster, walk away with whatever money I got from homeowners' insurance (and I do realize that in the poorer quarters that was not possible), and never go back. How can you go to a shelter and leave all your pets behind? And what about livestock like horses? Do you just turn them loose and hope for the best? A nightmare. And now we will get to see just how badly FEMA and the Army CofE have done repairs, and who got paid off big time when all the federal money was flowing. It will not be funny. I blame Bush and all his rich white oil buddies who frowned and shook their heads over the devastation--while they were on camera, that is. And then cried all the way to the bank.

Oh well, here's the beginning and end of political commentary on this blog: If you're not appalled by the state of the USA, you haven't been paying attention. Obama '08!

Favorite bumper sticker: Stupidity Kills! -but not fast enough.

bad news

Yesterday we had Blondie put down.

I have had this horse for 23 years (I bought her as a 4 year old), she gave me two beautiful babies, one of which I saw being born. We have shared many many rides, and she has been a favorite with all our neighbors for all that time. Except for the two trips to be bred, she has never been away from home. When she ran and kicked up her heels, she was poetry in motion. She never offered to bite or kick, and anyone could ride her.

We still don't know exactly what was wrong with her; the only way to find out definitely would be to take her to the equine facility in Ohio, and by then she could neither stand nor walk, so a trailer ride was out of the question. She did have a hoof abscess, and both the vet and the shoer were unable to find "the spot" from the sole of her foot to relieve the pressure. Two days later the abscess broke through above her hoof, at the coronary band, and usually once that happens the horse is sound immediately. But she still was down, only rose briefly to relieve herself and then she tried to lie down, but actually collapsed to her side. It was unsafe to be with her in the stall once she was up, since she could fall anytime and anywhere, including on top of us. I used epson salt poultices on her foot, but each time I changed them they gagged me, and the smell would linger on my hands for hours. It was draining on both sides of her hoof and at the heel, and as the days passed, it became apparent that she would eventually slough off the entire foot. bloodwork showed her kidneys were failing, although she ate and drank all the time, and would nicker at us. Her pupils were unequal in size, and she had mini-spasms for no apparent reason. And a horse who lies down all the time can't live. I think she had either spinal or brain damage or had torn up her hip in a fall while running, and at the same time formed the abscess from a stone bruise, puncture, something. She developed pressure sores on her hocks, elbows, thighs, stifle from pawing and spinning herself around while laying prone, so no matter how much bedding we forked under her, she would end up laying on the bare stall mat. I know the sores hurt terribly, but they were largely in places impossible to bandage. Late Monday night I gave her another shot, and as she lay there, it struck me that she would never be better, not even to amble around the paddocks; that I could see the weariness and pain in her eyes, and I realized she had given up. When the vet came last night, I stroked her and rubbed her ears, and it was over very quickly. N and I left, and a friend with the equipment came to take her for burial.

I feel very fortunate to have been owned by Blondys Girl.
But no, 23 years isn't enough time, for such a friend.

Blue

We're feeling a little down for some time about Blondie, the grand dame equine of our barn. Back in late June/early July, while bringing in the horses from the paddocks, we noticed that Blondie's "gimpy" leg, the left hind fetlock and pastern, had become more swollen and she was pretty lame. When I checked her in the morning, she was putting weight on it very gingerly, so I gave her two butazolidin tablets. Later in the day, I saw she was down and we couldn't get her up (outside of foaling, I've never seen her lying down). When the (replacement) vet arrived, he gave her banamine, dexamethazone, an antibiotic, and took two xrays of her pastern/fetlock. Temp was up a bit. But the hoof itself showed no tenderness, so probably not an abcess. Maybe a snake bite? He left me banamine and syringes/needles, and said to keep up the bute and give her two IV injections of the banamine a day. Her stall had just been cleaned (in fact, that is why she was out) but we raked the sawdust level and then bedded her down in hay. The next day the vet said the x-rays showed no ringbone, best of all no bone cancer, not even much in the way of arthritic changes (exceptional in a horse 27 years old). We kept on and also wrapped both hind legs with standing bandages. As soon as our regular vet got back from vacation, we called him. His thought is that Blondie had been dashing about and slipped, and did a partial split damaging her hip, and also twisted her foot, but rest is the only cure, and keeping her comfortable. It is, of course, brutally hot just now, the flies are thick, and I don't care what the ads say, there is no fly repellant worth a hill of beans. We put a stronger fan in her overhead fan support.

But today she seems much improved! She is up and standing on both hind legs (well, those and the front ones, too) the swelling is way down, she drank half of her water bucket, and nickered when I came in with fresh hay and grain. She got pretty tired, and laid down again, which for the legs/hip strain is the best, if we can avoid GI bleeds caused by the meds, and pressure sores from laying down, and colic because horses need to stand to help digestion and elimination. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Do you think a little cool weather would be too much to ask for? Well, maybe so...

What's new?

Well, let's see what is new these days.
Golf--Why does it look so easy on TV, and so hard when I'm just trying to look like I know what to do? If I could get the drive right, I don't care if it only goes 100 yards. Already my thumb hurts and my knees are creaking. At least a new pair of golf shoes are on their way. Everybody else has shoes that resemble sneakers. Mine resemble old lady orthopedic shoes..

Dogs--Man are they strong. They have gotten out twice, going under a gate where the dirt has been pounded down. Zoom! Once we had to go after them, and once they appeared on the front doorstep, pleased as punch with their romp. Maggie just turned one year old, Raven is 17 months. Raven weighs 110 lbs, and Maggie is taller, longer, and has better conformation (Raven is pigeon toed in the back), I'd guess her weight at 130 or so. They are greatly enjoying the pool, although I think 76 is MIGHTY cold. They are in desperate need of some firm basic obedience work, most likely with a trainer. Nothing elaborate, just, say, walking on a lead without ripping my shoulder out of its socket?

The weather continues to be thunderstorms with hail and torrential rain. Then it will be overcast, the humidity so high I can squeeze water out of the air. Also, the bug season has scarcely begun, and already I have to use my teeth as a bug screen when I drive the Miata with the top down.

We celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary on June 6th, it hardly seems possible. I heard the story of a couple who decided to invite two other couples to celebrate for all of them their long-standing marriages. The party was all planned, but before it happened, the other two couples got divorced! Ya just never know...

We've been watching the sci-fi miniseries "The Taken". Never saw it when it originally aired, but from snippets here and there we decided it looked interesting. My only problem is, if we go too long between viewing the episodes, I lose all track of who is who, given that it is a four generational cast, and younger versions don't much look like their older characters, it's confusing. But good.

Sleepy sleepy. Have a safe weekend, and stay away from those bleepity bleep Fireworks stores. Talk to any ER doc or nurse if you still think they are harmless.

Just as I am

Can't seem to shake this headache, it even wakes me up at night. I went to the driving range yesterday, and did OK for someone with two golf lessons. It was a lovely day, but the club swimming pool is directly behind the driving range, and I couldn't help thinking how good the water looked, and how much fun the swimmers were having. Today I feel like I've been rode hard and put up wet.

Update: back at the old homestead, torrential downpours (RED on the weather channel) have completely swamped the driveway and are beginning to fill the garage. The ditch/grate in front of the garage door is barely running. The floor drain inside the garage can't keep up. Once the garage water gets to the inner door, it rapidly floods the entire downstairs, so three of us are out there in a monsoon, bailing water out of the ditch and pouring it down the street. Finally get that mostly under control BUT the downstairs bath...... 3 inches deep in water. Coming in under the walls, under the tub and shower, and rapidly goes beyond the door and into the carpeted bedroom. It is now nearly 3 am, I have a huge fan and heater blowing on the carpet, after blotting up gallons of water with every towel and throw rug we own. The bath itself got partially mopped, before the mop head snapped off, cheap made in china crap.

I have 4 laundry baskets filled with wet towels and throw rugs, and so of course, the dryer, which worked fine yesterday, now refuses to produce any heat. So tomorrow it's out to a laundromat before Monster Mildew sets in. See what a great life I live?

So anyway, on the blog "sweetney.com" , I'm posting a "Just as you are" photo, lying here in bed with the laptop. Can you tell how lovely my beamish face looks, after therapy for rosacea, and laser removal of yukky spider veins? No? Ah well, another conceit blasted away. Well, can you tell that I am suicidally depressed? No? Just goes to show ya......