Happy Birthday

How did I spend my holidays? On Black Friday, which I consider a holiday because I have off and my wife Sue works, I visited the Book Barn and got a good hour and a half of Quality Lap Time, mostly with Tiger (pictured)-- I didn't see Mrs. Howell, my favorite lap-kitty. Tiger is okay, a bit cranky because he hurt his hips at some point, and if you are too aggressive scratching there he will snap at you. Once, before I learned this, he took a swat at my hand; I let him, rather than pull away. He wasn't actually attacking: what he did was just grab my hand (with his claws, half-extended: how else for a cat?) and pull it up to his head, which is where he wanted me to scratch. After that incident I saw the note the Book Barn staff had posted telling of his injury, and then I understood. So we had a nice time, he all curled up on my chest (my belly makes a nice shelf) and me reading the book I bought, "Dreadnought," about the buildup to WWI.

The following Tuesday (Nov. 27) I had off, too: my 45th birthday. Birthdays are given as a holiday by my employer. I went this time to a local insurance company, Bailey's Insurance, who I can recommend as a friendly, cat-loving establishment: even though I don't do business with them, they welcome my visits. Mr. B lives there, and on the weekends I would see Mr. B in the window (their office is next to the Post Office). I finally stopped in during the week and they were more than gracious about me meeting the cat, and Mr. B loved it. It got so, they told me later, that anyone sitting in the chair I always used had Mr. B right there wanting his cuddle. He is a polite cat, though, and waits to be invited before he will jump up. Pictured is a photo they took on 21AUG07; that's me and my chins on the left,
and Mr. B on the right. They just aquired a kitten, already a young cat (7mos or so, now), a stray. Also affectionate. So that's my birthday: I enjoyed it, but rather pathetic, no? I don't even have my own cats to blog about. I have to grab my chances as I can. Vern the neighbor's cat still comes by, but the last time, Sue was home, and I couldn't let him in. He didn't want to be petted: he wanted his fix, and left in a huff (oh, you can tell, all right).

Steve

Worth Noting...

Reading about lobbyists reminded me of this, which I did first hear of via Molly Ivins:

"If you can’t take their money, drink their whiskey, screw their women, and vote against ‘em anyway, you don’t belong in the Legislature” is a quote by Molly Ivins (1944-2007) that’s often attributed to Texas politics. It was first used by Jesse Unruh (1922-1987) in California politics in the 1970s. Unruh was talking then about lobbyists.

--The Big Apple

--Steve

Big Game

Since my wife had to work yesterday, today she wants to get in some shopping. By god I am going to be in the house with the TV on by 4:15 if I have to drag her out of the checkout line. Pats-Colts: can't miss it.

Quality Cat Time

I got in some quality cat time yesterday: my wife was working, it was windy, cool, and raining (thanks, TS Noel), and the cats at the book store were bound to welcome some cozy laps.

Mrs. Howell and one of the several black cats were on the porch at the Book Barn in Niantic; thanks to a kid who grabbed the black cat (Mrs. Meow, I learned later) and brought her inside, I was able to claim her chair. Mrs. Howell on my lap, a good book I found to read; I was set. Then Mrs. Meow escaped the kid and got back outside, making a beeline for "her" chair. I persuaded her to try my chest: I am so fat there is a nice shelf on my belly, with an assisting arm. She was happy to curl up, and I got a good double-cat hour in before duty called and I had to leave.

Steve

Pet Peeve

Hitting the button to activate the "Walk" signal, and then, looking up, seeing no traffic and crossing, threreby leaving the cars to sit there for another 30 seconds or so. I've seen people do this without breaking stride.

I understand that in some places, including NYC, some or all of the buttons are disabled: placebo buttons. In downtown Hartford where I work there is never so much traffic that a healthy person cannot cross with the light. Of course, I don't mind justified use: old, wheelchair, kids in strollers, and so on; who bugs me are the same bozos that get on the elevator and hit the button for their floor and the "close doors" button in rapid succession: screw everyone else.

Steve

Cat Tales

Sunday I saw Vern the neighbor's cat in the yard-- we have a bird feeder, and access to the woods-- and he was acting frisky, climbing a bit up a tree and sharpening his claws on a stump. Then he looked up on our deck to see if I was there. I went to the sliding door and he ran right up.

He's sort of friendly; he will rub and be affectionate, and then suddenly start hissing and bite and run off. I have let him in the house before, where he does a quick tour and then leaves. Needless to say, this is when Sue isn't home-- she is mildly allergic, but mainly just doesn't like animals. I have given him catnip on the rug by the door, and that's what he wanted Sunday: he knew just where I keep it and was all excited when I took it out.

This stuff is 20 years old: I got it when I first got Alice and Trixie as kittens in Florida; it was some special "weed", not your run-of-the-mill Hartz stuff. I keep it in an old peanut butter jar. It's a mark of how often I treated the cats that I still have any left after all this time.

So Vern got a good dose, rolling and rubbing in the pinch I put on the carpet. Sue was squalling all the while-- "Get that cat out of my house!" but I let Vern have his fill, and then he left. I had to vacuum immediately. The picture is Vern on the wall in the back yard, taken that same Memorial Day weekend before I went to the hospital.

Today, Tuesday, I telecommuted, as I try to do once a week to save some gas (110 mile round-trip commute). I took advantage of the weekday at home to visit a nearby office, Bailey's Insurance, in a shopping plaza. They have an in-house cat, Mr. B, who just loves me: a long-haired orange tabby. They have just adopted a stray kitten, but Mr. B, who was hiding from the kitten in his play tunnel, came right out when he recognized me and jumped in my lap. He loves to be scratched and rub his chin, and I was covered with hair. I had a good 15-20 minute visit, lowering my blood pressure, before I had to put him down and leave.

This is what I'm reduced to in order to get my pet fixes. I also play with Sophie, the black Lab next door. Come the cooler weather, when the cats come back inside, I can visit the Book Barn in Niantic, who have about 20 cats-- grab a book and a seat and get a good hour or more of Lap Time (Mrs. Howell is my favorite).

Knock, Knock, Knockin'

I was feeling tired leading up to the long Memorial Day weekend, and by Sunday was panting for breath just standing up to walk to the next room. Must be some bug, that will go away if I just rest, huh? Memorial Day I did nothing but sit in my La-Z-Boy. Just getting up to pee was a major event-- being a Type-II diabetic I pee often, and I would stand there with my head spinning and heart racing. Tuesday I stayed home from work, and finally I got the hint when I threw up some bright red blood. Ah-ha! Bleeding ulcer! So *that's* why I was shitting this black goo (oh, yeah, that's what digested blood looks like: now I remember). So when Sue got home she drove me to the clinic (the bloody sink really impressed her). Thinking I might pass out, I told Sue to tell them I had an ulcer and needed blood. The clinic doesn't do blood. Hunh. They sent me right over to the hospital via ambulance.

At the hospital I went straight to ICU where they gave me four units, did an endoscopy, and patched up some severe bleeding in my stomach. I put off going to the hospital for so long I almost bled to death. The doctor later told me that it was one of the longest endoscopys he had done in 30 years; I was coming out of the sedative they give you (no anaesthetic) towards the end-- not pleasant.

They were poised for emergency surgery the next morning because the doctors weren't sure they plugged all the holes, but they had. The remainder of the time until Sunday --two days in ICU, four days in a private room-- they spent pumping blood back into me-- nine units total! --and checking to see that my blood count was going up as it should: checking for leaks, as it were. The long time in hospital was due to it not going up as they expected, but neither was it going down as if I were bleeding. They finally let me go home, with me feeling fine and out of ICU from Thursday on, just lying and sitting around the hospital room. I finished a large book, and enjoyed looking out all week on the bright sunshine. The day I was released, it poured rain. Figures.

I actually went back in for an overnight: I was released on a Sunday, and beginning on about Tuesday my legs/ankles/feet were swelling up: I was retaining water. I called my doctor and he had me come in, and he gave me a high-powered diuretic to take Thurs/Fri/Sat and come see him again Saturday. It was like turning on a tap at first-- peeing every five minutes. Finally died down but I was still up every 20 minutes: hard to sleep (I had the same issue during my hospital stay, once they restored my fluids). The swelling went down: between visits to the Doc, Thursday to Saturday, I lost 25 pounds in water! The overall hospital stay I lost for real about 20 pounds.

So now the swelling is gone, but I am beginning to feel dizzy standing up again Sunday night and Monday morning. Am I still bleeding internally? No other symptoms, but better safe than sorry: Sue drove me to the emergency room Monday morning; I was dizzy and sweating profusely but still ambulatory. They did a blood test and I was down, way down, on potassium, and my other levels were screwed up, too: between the transfusions and the diuretic, I was AFU. So they kept me overnight (had to share a room this time) and pumped me full of fluids again. Since then I've been okay, but taking plenty of iron pills while I build up my red blood cells.

I went for a follow-up endoscopy a couple months later: nothing. They see an old, healed ulcer, and this current one is healed. Nothing to indicate a cause, no tumor, nada. I'm still on stomach pills, but that's it: goodbye, have a nice day, don't come back. Go figure.

Scribendi Cacoethes

I have lots of things to post about. I compose marvelous essays on many topics, but when it comes time to set them down I run out of time. Tonight I have Things To Do, and I have to get up a bit earlier than usual in order to drop my car off at the shop (safety inspection for buying out my leased car, and timing belt replacement). There's another topic for you.

I will give up most of the political stuff (after all, I have been so verbose on it lately), and just tell the none of you that read this about my daily life and the random thoughts that cross my mind.

I can bore you with the thrilling saga of my Recent Brush With Death, via an upper GI (gastro-intestinal) bleed-- procrastination on my part carried out until I almost bled dry, literally. My adventures with my PC: I am having a Mac thrust upon me. And more!

Stay tuned...

Department of Wretched Excess

People driving RVs will frequently tow another vehicle behind them-- a small car, maybe, for tooling around in while the RV is at a campsite.

Today I passed a large RV towing a Hummer H2. Not only does an H2 suck up gas (about 9.6 mpg around town), but it weighs three tons! Imagine towing that around, just to cruise to the convenience store! Let's be generous; maybe they go off-roading in it at their destinations... no, who am I kidding. This thing was tricked out and immaculate.

People are just amazing.

Outrage Overload, Again

By the end of the day, I'm just weary-- tired of the constant beat of news, the sense that the world is going to hell while the powers that be do nothing. Heck, the Senate won't even debate the issues, much less do anything about them.

Global warming, Iraq, Iran, for Pete's sake; Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and on and on.

Healthcare, taxes, the economy, income disparity, jobs (or lack thereof), energy policy, environmental policy, et cetera, et cetera.

I am reducing the list of blogs to my right to better represent a good list of what I keep up with; for example Froomkin's White House Watch is a good daily summary.

I guess the most immediate thing to worry about, and work to prevent, is an attack on Iran. Via Froomkin, among others, here's a snippet from James Fallows:

"Deciding what to do next about Iraq is hard -- on the merits, and in the politics. It's hard on the merits because whatever comes next, from 'surge' to 'get out now' and everything in between, will involve suffering, misery, and dishonor. It's just a question of by whom and for how long. On a balance-of-misery basis, my own view changed last year from 'we can't afford to leave' to ' we can't afford to stay.' And the whole issue is hard in its politics because even Democrats too young to remember Vietnam know that future Karl Roves will dog them for decades with accusations of 'cut-and-run' and 'betraying' troops unless they can get Republicans to stand with them on limiting funding and forcing the policy to change.

"By comparison, Iran is easy: on the merits, in the politics. War with Iran would be a catastrophe that would make us look back fondly on the minor inconvenience of being bogged down in Iraq. While the Congress flounders about what, exactly, it can do about Iraq, it can do something useful, while it still matters, in making clear that it will authorize no money and provide no endorsement for military action against Iran."

Super Bowl

Today is the Super Bowl, and I am rooting for the Colts in a half-hearted way. I am a Patriots fan, and was sorry to see them lose, but at least now we'll see if Peyton Manning can overcome his past. He has been winning Big Games lately to get this far, and I suspect he will be able to pick apart the Bears defense with little trouble.

On the menu is my famous chili, to which I will add a bit of leftover sausage: chili is a work of art, with no set recipe. The downside to "flavoring to taste" is that as the process continues, I get inured to the spiciness, and the end result is a little hotter than others care for: I always have to make it a bit less hot than I think is proper.  Not that anyone will be with us: the problem with a football party is that I want to watch the game, and with a bunch of people around it's hard to concentrate.

I just thought: maybe I'd want some beer: but now it is Sunday, and this is Connecticut: package (liquor) stores are closed.  Ah, well, no big deal.

From the gathering yesterday we brought home some pastry and such, plus I have my creampuffs. We have some cheddar cheese, but will have to pick up some more crackers. Tomorrow it's back to eating properly.

Get-Together in New Jersey

Yesterday I went to a get-together in New Jersey; a bunch of school friends we met again at the class reunion in November. It was a very pleasant gathering; we were able to talk now as we weren't able in the party noise, and the food was good. I had made the Stella D'oro Anginetti Creampuffs, but left them in the fridge, and so I am eating them myself.

I am starting up a group blog that I am hopeful the others will want to join, and maybe we can keep in touch better that way.