Ed is really ticked at me. (Ed is the cat……Edward Scissorhands, formally.) I’ve known for about two weeks that we had to go see the vet. Ed is an indoor/outdoor cat. He eats ground squirrels and chases birds, and he develops worms. YUCK!
He follows the same pattern every time. He gets surly, looses his appetite, upchucks all over the place, and then gets really picky about what he will eat. I made the appointment on Monday, and took him in at 5:00 tonight. We went through all that just to put two pills down his throat.
My stepson is really good with Ed. I can count on him to help me if it’s necessary to care for the cat, but we have both thrown our hands up in the air and said “I give” when it comes to pilling the cat. I’d rather pay the VET to pill him. Ed figured out what was going on when I went into my mother’s bedroom and gently scooped him up tonight. He was struggling as we got near the cat carrier, and had all four feet splayed out. He managed to hook a claw in my t-shirt…and leave a hole. I think I’ll save this t-shirt for future trips to the vet.
So, now we let him grouse around the house, and make dashing forays to the basement, and tomorrow we will have a brand new, happy cat.
Thank god for pharmaceuticals!

The last few days have been unusually busy, and I’m finding it difficult to squeeze everything in. The crash of our hard drive put me back in office work, and created a bit more to do, so I’m trying to play catch-up and still take care of the daily flow of work. Exercise has resumed, and yesterday I visited a friend in the hospital. I’ve taken the car for it’s emission testing, and swapped a waiver for a check for the company. I’ve grocery shopped twice this week, and taken the cat to the vet, and all this is on top of the normal laundry, cleaning, watering and dishes and office work. I’m dying to get back to my quilting frame and my sewing table, and it looks like it might have to wait until Monday.

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Our house is 14 years old. In the scheme of things, that’s not very old. But…..when your house reaches ten years, things need to be repaired and replaced. I have a list of things that need to be done and a husband who is NOT interested in doing them. That wouldn’t be a problem if he was satisfied with the work that others have been hired to do.

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I’ve talked about Defer, our senior-citizen Beagle/Shepherd. I have two disposable cameras floating around with a little bit of film I want to use up. I thought it might be a great idea to get some pictures of Defer. I was going to take a picture of him lying on the floor with his ears standing straight up, but as soon as I pointed the camera at him, he got up and left the room.
The same thing happened today. I was going to take a picture of him walking up the front sidewalk toward me, but as soon as I lifted the camera, he whirled around and headed away.
We’ve finally figured it out. He’s afraid of the flash. Lightening scares him. So do storms. He equates the flash on the camera with storms.
Poor baby. It’s hell to get old.

Have you ever looked back over the past and realized how much has changed in your lifetime? When Dear Husband and I traveled, we used to have a conversation about how the world would change in our lifetime. My grandfather was born in the time when travel was by horse and buggy. He died shortly after the U.S. put men into space, and travel by air was commonplace. Television existed by the time I was born, and we’ve lived to see the boom in Internet communication. We think that miniaturization will be one of the major accomplishments of our generation, as in nanotechnology.

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Why do Mothers-in Law have such a bad reputation? Just this week I’ve heard several jokes on the subject, and it’s been discussed on the radio. Is there really something that happens to your mother once you marry, or is this just a convenient subject for comedians?
I have no doubt that there are mothers who pester about grand children, and it’s probable there are mothers who want the best for their children, and don’t have the sense to mind their own business. But I find it difficult to believe that it’s universal.

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Johnny Cash lives on in the hearts and minds of his fans, now. I’m of an age where the icons in my life are slipping away, and this is one icon I hate to see go.
I’m not much of a country music fan. My family didn’t listen to country music when I was a kid, but you couldn’t miss Johnny Cash in those days. He was a STAR, and you watched whether you were a fan of country music or not. He lived large and entertained well, and he became part of the fabric of our lives.
There was always the hint of danger, a bit of roughness, or a little of the unexpected about him, but he had the ablilty to be gentle, too. I liked the stability that came into his life with his love for June Carter, and I liked the fire he brought to her. They were married to others when they met, and went through hard times before they could be together. June Carter Cash wrote “Ring of Fire” for Johnny, about that time in their lives.
I liked the black he wore, and I liked the long coats. I loved the interaction on stage between Johnny and other performers, and I loved his sense of humor. Most of all I loved that I could sing along, or just sit and listen. I liked his music either way.
Both Johnny and June had been ill for the past few years. A life on the road as an entertainer is a hard one; it took a lot out of them. June died in May, and I’m not surprised that Johnny has followed her so soon. I expect that there’s beautiful music in heaven today.
Farewell, J.R. Cash, and thanks for all the good times!

I know it’s not official, but today as I was out driving I realized that the soybeans have begun to turn yellow. The fields are no longer masses of knee-high deep green plants. Now they are mottled with several shades of yellow and green.
And the goldenrod is in bloom.
So…..Fall is here. Can Indian Summer be far behind?

Do you have a Windows Keyboard? Perhaps, like me, you don’t know how some of the keys work. I came across a list of functions that can be performed with the keyboard rather than the mouse, and thought I’d share the list with you.

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I moderate a YahooGroup for herb growers. Many of the members have interesting signature lines. One of them was: “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.”
One of the other members asked if it was a line from a poem, and she said that it was an excerpt from a Buddhist “poem.” She thought it went this way:
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth through the doorsill where two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
I won’t pretend to understand the meaning, but I love the first two lines, so I thought I’d share it with you. I hope you have a lovely day, and that you got to see the sun rise.