RIP Scotchie

We took our cat to the vet yesterday for a check and she agreed with us that he was ready to leave this world.  So, of course, we helped him on his way.  The vet has a room especially for people to spend some last moments with their pets.  We were shocked but it was actually quite a nice experience - much better than some sterile exam room.  We came home and had a bit of a wake with both alcohol and tears.  Today we are entering into the next phase:  seeing all the places we used to see him but without him.  We are thinking that he may be our last cat.  We love travel and want to spend more time overseas and you sure can't take your animals with you.  Well, not easily!  One last cat photo and that's over; it's his Christmas photo from a couple years ago.  You can see from his look how happy he wasn't!  Now we have no more cat to make fun of.

My wife's folks are in their 80's and just aren't up for travel any more.  That's embarrassingly close to my own age these days so we want to travel NOW!  We have a trip planned to visit Ireland soon.  Even though we both have Irish roots, we've never been there.  In the summer we hope to spend some time in Alaska.  We visited Anchorage once something over twenty years ago but this time we'd like to check out more of our largest state.  It's just one of those places you have to see.

Anyway, today is going to be quiet even by our standards.  Things will start improving but for the next couple of days we are going to be a bit down.  We are planning a big trip to the shelter later today to donate lots of food, litter, toys, etc.   

Hope you have a good one!

A few interesting things

Life isn't really in high gear but we do have some interesting things going on here in the boonies.  First an update on our cacti; the new parts are coming along nicely (I can't figure out if they should be called leaves or what!).

At any rate we are glad to see them growing.  When you only have two plants in your life any advance by either is great and happily both ours are doing well.  Here's the staghorn.

We did just observe St. Patrick's Day in our own quiet way, no green beer or drunken parties required!  However we did have a lovely dinner of corned beef, new potatoes and cabbage (two ways).

We found this recipe for a 'sauce' for the potatoes and cabbage so tried it.  It consisted of butter, horseradish and mustard and was about a thrid of the way to a success.  It basically melted off the potatoes leaving them pretty much unchanged.  It did sink into the quarters of cabbage (at 10 o'clock in the photo) and pretty much obscured the flavor of the cabbage.  So if you want to eat cabbage but don't like the flavor; it's made for you.  My wife likes a lightly sauted cabbage (1 o'clock) but not 'well done' so she got the one and  I got both.  My wife did a potato bread that was pretty different.  The recipe called for a mashed potato and a raw one that was grated.  It is both dense and fragile.  Anyway, it was pretty darned good!  Pretty too.

On a sadder note, our cat who would be 20 this summer is not doing well.  He hasn't eaten since last Tuesday and is drinking far less than usual.  Here he is just a couple of weeks ago trying to lick up an ice cube that fell from the ice maker.

He's a skinny little guy who has been running about 7 lb for the past couple of years.  It's not like he can hibernate so I'm thinking he isn't long for this world.  If I give him a 'treat' he'll eat it but the regular kibble just sits there in the bowl.  He's getting weaker every day so the end has to be near.  Since my wife and I both believe in euthanasia for people, it's safe to say that we'll be saying 'goodbye' to our kitty before long.  RIP Scotchie!  And yes, we will undoubtedly hold a wake for the little guy.

Off to do exciting things. 

Not a lot going on!

It's smmer in the desert so outside activities aren't as popular as on the shoulder seasons.  If we haven't taken our walk by 07:00 it's going to be pretty sweaty.  The extra attraction is that we see more wildlife; not that there is a lot.  We see bunnies and jack rabbits mostly.  Aside from finches we mostly see doves, quail and the ocassional hawk.  If we walk in the desert, away from any of the houses, we might see a coyote.  Of course walking on the roads we get to check up on what the neighbors are doing to their houses and all but that .  I think we prefer the wildlife.  So we are staying inside a lot.  The tv is interesting to all of us. 

It's really odd what gets the cat's interest.  He spends a lot of evenings either on my lap or my wife's.  (Yes we watch tv most evenings at least before the sunset.)  Every now and then there will be some sort of animal segment on and he is ON IT!  He's almost 19 and doesn't hear very well and I'm not sure about his vision but he does know what he likes.  One time he even went around behind the tv to see where the animal went when he disappeared. 

Here's my excuse for sitting at the computer so much these days.

This was day before yesterday about 6 p.m. - the one on the left says 105F the one on the right says 101F.  That's 40C & 38C for the rest of the world.  One remote is on the north side of the house and the other on the south.  We usually have a difference like this.  Happily the interior temp is 78F (25C).  Makes you feel for the folks who lived here before the invention of air conditioning.  Our local museum has one of the houses built by an early pioneer.  They managed to find some spare railroad timbers and built the house from that.  Those huge chunks of wood actually did a pretty good job of insulating the place.

That's all I've got for today.  Have a good one!

Going to the Birds

Yeah, I know it isn't much but I am pretty much out of news.  We took the cardboard that our new closet was shipped in off to the recycler.  It filled the bed of the pickup.  I used two of the boxes to hold all the little stuff and flattened the rest.  It was pretty impressive.  Our recyclers location is in the same place as the landfill so that was kind of interesting.  Even in a small town like this the landfill is a huge operation.  Did I think to take photos?  Duh, no. Sorry about that.

It was chilly this a.m. 18F or -8C.  We had a flock of doves in the backyard this morning.  It was kind of a nice change from the pigeons we usually get! 

In the front yard our borrowing owl was all puffed up trying to stay warm.  Don't know why but he seems to have adopted our culvert as a home.  It seems kind of big for such a little guy but he's been here a while.

We did manage to get the annual insult-the-pet picture.  Doesn't he look happy?

Well, I guess that's it for today.  Have a good one.

Wow!

The news this morning is filled with images of the terrible destruction from the tornado in Moore, OK.  What can one say?  Just in case anyone thought people were in control in this world; think again!  Our thoughts go out to all those effected.

I thought you deserved a photo of the terribly insulted cat after mentioning his lion cut.  Here we go!

Let's be clear; he is almost 18 years old and has trouble cleaning himself.  His fur is really long and gets tangles.  This cut really helps him out; without it he gets hairballs and throws up even with hairball medication.  He is really much more comfortable with his haircut.

We sat outside last night.  It was quite cool; say the low 70's (22C), which was a nice change from the day!  We enjoyed watching planes criss-cross the sky.  Gee, I'm going to be getting on a plane next month for the first time in a decade.  Cool.

Now if the damned thing just works the way it is supposed to!  Have a good one.

Sharing videos....

No, I'm not going to inflict any of my own videos on you.  That would be rude.  However I have come across a couple of YouTube vids that I thought were pretty cool.  For example here are some kids making beautiful music with instruments you can hardly believe.  It's entitled "Landfillharmonic".


This shows people doing fantastic things all over the world.  Makes my life look pretty dull I must admit.


We have officially  switched over to the early summer walking schedule - getting out by 07:00 is working for now but later in the year we'll be moving it back a bit more.  Walking when it's 90F (32C) or greater isn't all that much fun!  Otherwise there isn't a lot happening chez us. 

Gotta go.  We are getting the cat his 'lion cut' today and have to go pick him up.  He should be pretty insulted for a day or two.  Have a good one.

Animal blog?

No, not quite, but almost.  At least we'll have an animal post.  Sammie the dog is just doing her doggie thing.  She doesn't even seem to know she is ill.  Here is a shot of her sitting, not to patiently, since she was just playing with one of her Christmas toys.

You can see the odd growth on her chest.  Here is a closer view.

That wasn't there before Thanksgiving!  In little more than a month this growth the size of a man's fist has appeared.  It seems it cannot be long before it bursts.  We'll just have to see.

I spoke of a Christmas toy; well, we got toys for the cat as well.  One was a laser pointer, I though he'd love chasing that little red dot.  Turns out, he basically doesn't care, the dog is more interested.  Now we are betting that the cat is at least partially blind.  He is 17 years old and has fits of howling in the night as if he were frightened.  We are guessing that he wakes in the night, can't really see very well, no one is in the room and he gets frightened.  So he howls.  After three or four howls, he figures he has scared off anything that would attack him so he shuts up.  If there are any cat psychologists out there who have a better idea; I'm certainly open to learning more. 

If I may jump to a completely different subject, how do you store your photos?  I store my photos by date; my wife stores hers by subject.  I have started using 'tags' so I can search by subject but that is relatively new.  (This is all Windows PC stuff; even when I had an iMac I stayed away from that Apple proprietary crap!)  Finding specific photos is obviously a pain in the ass regardless of the system.  When looking for a specific photo I have to have an idea when it was taken; my wife has to sort through tons of photos of the same subject to find the one she is wanting.  Any advice would be appreciated. 

Have a good one!

Just a thought...

We hear constantly about obesity in America and how eating out is a primary cause.  Today I had an excellent demonstration of that.  We have a all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet here in town called The China Wok.  We never go because we don't eat enough to make it reasonable however we do get take-out from them.  Today I picked up some hot-and-sour soup for my wife and some chicken with broccoli for myself.  My wife has half of her soup left and I have a tupperware full of chicken-broccoli and another full of fried rice.  It's just amazing the amount of food you are offered; yet more amazing that some people actually eat that much!  Wow!

Yesterday we spent the day in Las Vegas.  We went to a place called Bachi Burger for lunch.  It's in a little strip mall well away from the Strip.  They do $7 to $25 hamburgers with an asian twist.  You can get Wagyu beef if you want and toppings include things like kim chee or hoisin mayo or a fried egg.  We each had the $7 burger and split some salt and pepper garlic french fries.  It was all quite good.  They did my wife's burger rare as she requested; mine was also rare though I had requested med-rare.  The fries were tiny - most were about an inch long and thin but they were quite good and the garlic aioli was excellent.  We'll probably go back but I couldn't rate it as fantastic.  The reviews are good, probably better than I would give it but that's what makes a horse race.

We also got to see our daughter's new cat.  She adopted a rescued animal and we think she got a nice little critter.  She's part Siamese with big blue eyes and has six toes on each foot.  The front paws are especially odd with four toes together then a gap and then two more.  Odd looking but the cat seems to have a great personality and is quite friendly.  She's supposed to be four years old and seems quite happy in her new home though she doesn't let our daughter out of her sight for long.

Otherwise we did our usual shopping; coming home with the RAV full of scotch and wine and paper towels and such.  Life in the fast lane!  LOL  It was a bit over 80F (27C) and we were both wearing long pants so we got to run the a/c for the first time this year.  No fear, it will be on every time we start the car before long.

When I can force myself to do it I've been copying old photos to the computer.  It does get dreadfully boring even for me and I took most of them.  Still, having them in digital format means we will be able to share them much more easily.  We haven't decided yet what is going to happen to the photos themselves; I think it will depend on the amount of space required.  I'm already got half a pail full of duplicate photos weeded out.  Anyway, here are a couple from Florida in the 1980's.  Have a good one.

Working around the house

Lots of stuff going on but nothing exciting to anyone but us.  We have been looking for a hot tub but first we needed a place to put it.  For months we've talked about where it should go and finally got a place selected.  We interviewed some contractors and selected one.  This week we got the pad poured.  While we were at it, we got an uncovered patio poured as well.  I was getting up at 05:00 or so to be here when the guys started work.  Boy, if that isn't fun!  Yes, it's still dark but apparently it was ok with them.  The equipment has lights for a reason I guess.  Anyway, now we have our concrete work all completed.  The electrician is coming on Sunday to install power.  Sunday, you say?  Yep, apparently there isn't enough work here to keep him employed so he is going to California to work all week then visits his family and does whatever work comes up here on the weekend.  Well, at least he's keeping it together.  So here's the pad - it is 12x12 ft (4m x 4m give or take).

The other thing we've been doing; doing personally this time, is replacing the toilets in our house with elongated bowl versions.  We've been living with these small round things for too long.  The new ones are more comfortable, quieter and use less water - 1.28 gal (4.8L) per flush.  Not bad, we should have done it years ago.  I'll save you the photographic evidence!

Here is one last photo.  Don't know if you remember but we had to have the cat's fur cut off because he was just so tangled it was impossible to get the mats out.  He's recovered.  This is him sleeping on the couch in the den the other day.  Just part of the 16 year old's everyday ritual.

I also got a new toy:  a Epson V500 Photo scanner.  I'm scanning a bunch of old slides.  Maybe I'll find one or two to share later.  Whatever, have a good day.

Not so quiet

This has been a week.  I'm glad it's almost over!

Wednesday we took the cat to the vet.  He's got an undercoat that gets all matted and there just doesn't seem to be anything we can do to help him.  He's 16 years old so isn't as good at cleaning himself as he was when he was younger.  We brush him, buy special brushes, whatever, he still gets mats.  Our vet worked on him once before and, after sedating him, was able to just comb the mats out.  Not this time!  When we went to pick him up, we got back a lion!

Actually it seemed as though this procedure didn't bother him as much as the combing.  Perhaps the sedation was more complete?  Who knows.  He seemed pretty normal after we got him back home.  Now the DOG thought he was from Mars and just could not get enough sniffing and carrying on.  Pretty funny!

Today it was my turn to go to the vet, er, quack, er, dermatologist.  I had a growth on the top of my head that I was told was a basal cell carcinoma.  I saw the doctor's PA a couple of weeks ago.  He's here one day a week but for the surgery you need the doc and he's only here one day a month!  So you can imagine he's got patient upon patient to see.

It's an out-patient procedure but can be a sort of pain.  Depending on the position of the carcinoma they want to remove the entire thing but, of course, no more.  You wouldn't want a larger than necessary scar on your face for example.  So they numb you up and cut it off.  Then they go check the removed tissue with a microscope to be sure they have a 'clean edge'.  If they haven't gotten all the cancer, you have to get numbed again and cut on again.  Some folks who were there when I got there were still there when I left!  They were getting to see the doctor two or three times in one office visit.  Jeez.  Because mine was on the top of my head, there was no scarring to worry about and they got it all out on the first try.  But, as they say, now I'm cancer free.

I've got stitches that will have to come out and I'm on antibiotics for a few days but that's about it.  I'm on aspirin too since the head is kind of sore.  This growing older thing doesn't have a lot going for it but I guess it's better than not.  Have a good one!