Woman in the Middle

She has her father’s hands, her mother’s lips, and her great grandmother’s face. But, she is her own unique self and has graced my life for 26 years.

She is my craft queen, the family cat whisperer, the person we all go to for all questions about grammar, the only one in the house who knows any Spanish at all, and she loves all things nerdy. She is my Eldest Daughter and she is celebrating her birthday today!

Oh, how time flies! It was just yesterday, it truly feels like, that I was chasing around a little laughing girl. Now, we laugh our you know whats off over poop jokes. So glad she has my sense of humor!

You may not have the same definition of “madness” as I do. Here is what I am currently defining as madness:

1. Blackie is not feeling well and that is causing him to dribble poop here, there, and everywhere. Every flat upholstered surface in my house is now covered in towels and I am doing laundry and cleaning up the floor like mad. Thank goodness for bleach wipes! It appears, over the last few hours, that this madness may be stopping. Thank goodness!

2. I took Youngest Daughter out car shopping, Now that she has a job it is time to replace the 2000 Dodge Stratus that has 178,000 miles on it. I hate car shopping. I really do. It is so unpleasant to get trapped there waiting for info and to have them ask, fifteen different ways, is there some way to get the car bought today? Sorry, no.  She found a car she likes but we need to do a little more research before it is all settled. Mom had to go toe to toe with the sales people. Double sigh.

I hope you have a pet poop free, non car shopping, peaceful  weekend!

Occasionlly, when I am out shopping, I see something that looks interesting and is a good price, so I pick it up to give as a gift. As I was digging out the last of the Christmas presents, I ran across a book I had picked up to give to a friend of ours. It is called “101 Thing to do Before You Die.”  I apparently didn’t look at it too closely at the time I purchased it.

I started flipping though the book and I happened to stop at number 7 on the list. It was “Have a three way.” What??? They sure weren’t talking about a new drink at Starbucks, or a game of gin rummy with two other friends.

The book listed helpful hints to get you to this goal such as drinking to reduce inhibitions.  It also helpfuly pointed to the reader to other similar goals in the book such as “getting it on with a rock god.”

I don’t think our friend’s wife would appreciate us giving him a book that encouraged such activities. I also feel fairly certain that he is not interested in “getting it on with a rock god.”

So, I guess I will have to come up with another birthday present for him. And, in the future, if I see a book that is all about what you should do before you die, I will look at it a bit more closely before I buy it!

My Daddy used to say, when I would complain as a kid about some minor ache or pain, “You can go to a doctor and spend a lot of money, or you can just live with it.” I think I can guess which one he was encouraging me to do! That being said, I do just “live with” a lot of things. Annoying things, not life threatening things. But one thing that has gotten more annoying lately is some pain I have been having. When it started to interfere with what I want to do, then I knew it is time to do something about it.

I went to the regular doctor. He ran some blood tests. Then he sent me to a specialist. Both the regular doctor and the specialist wanted me to try a medication that, while not a pain reliever, should help with the pain. Yesterday was day one of the new medication. All I can say is, “Yuk!”

I won’t bore you with the details of all of the side effects, but one that was really annoying was the nausea.  What was even more annoying, in a way, was that the first dose did make a difference in my pain. Sigh. So, exchanging one thing for another, both equally annoying. Actually, in some ways the nausea is more annoying. At least with the pain I can pop a few Ibuprofen and get on with my day, Nausea is kind of limiting, at least to me it is.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow, when I take the second dose. Here is hoping the side effects go away soon and I can just enjoy a life with less pain. That would be really nice.

Honey gets out of bed at 7:15 and the tip tap of her toenails on the wood floor wakes me like no other sound. I know if I don’t get out of bed soon I will have a mess on my hands. So I jump up, put my feet in my slippers, grab a robe and GO! I find Honey on the kitchen, where Youngest Daughter is getting her breakfast, got the deaf dog’s attention, and hustle her down the hall and to the garage door.

When I open the door to the garage, two sets of eyes immediately open and give me slow sleepy blinks. I put the dog out and go over, turn off the space heater that gives the kittens a warm night’s sleep, and they come over, yawning ands stretching. I grab them up, two big furry babies making a fluffy scarf around my neck, and bring them inside.

I get a good look at Youngest Daughter for the first time and get to admire her in her work outfit before she flits out the door. Perfect ballerina bun, black and white top paired with black pants. I get a bit of a lump in my throat as I look at this perfectly put together creature, and think on the miracle of it all that she is mine. Of course, being a mother, my mind immediately goes to the dark side, and I say a silent prayer that God looks over her and keeps her safe today.

I run to put out some dry food for the kittens and let the barking dog inside. As I walk passed Eldest Daughter’s bedroom, I shut her bedroom door, hoping to keep the sound and animals out of her room  to let her sleep a little longer.

I open the front door and go on the hunt for the newspaper that Hubby has kindly picked up out of the driveway and thrown up by the front door.  But the hard wind we are having has already blown it into the planter. I finally find it and, as I walk in,  I scan the headlines. I tell Youngest, as she runs off to another day at work, that the winds are blowing hard and to be careful.

And that, my friends, was my first fifteen minutes of this bright, sunny, and windy Tuesday. How was yours?

Last week, for some reason, Nox was determined to get Blackie to play with him. Blackie, old man that he is, was having none of it. The hisses of an annoyed Blackie were common on Monday and Tuesday, and we were getting concerned that Nox was picking on the old guy, in a run up to trying to become the dominant cat, or at least higher in the pecking order than Blackie.

It all came to a head Wednesday morning. One again, Nox batted at Blackie, and Blackie gave a warning hiss. Blackie stood up and walked to the back sliding glass doors, sat down and stared outside. I watched as Nox actually stalked Blackie all the way to the doors. Nox walked up beside Blackie and sat down about 12 inches away, looking at the Old Guy. Blackie deliberately turned his head and gave Nox THE LOOK. I have no idea what was in that look, but what went down next was hilarious.

Nox absorbed THE LOOK for about two seconds, and then jerked his head back liked he had been bopped on the nose. He took a step back, absorbed the look for another two seconds, and jerked his head back again like he had been bopped, hard. He then turned away, walked away for two or so feet, and plopped down on the floor with his back towards Blackie.

We have had no further incidents. of Nox trying to play with Blackie. It is very clear who the dominant cat is. The message Blackie sent to Nox with THE LOOK was also very clear, whatever that message was. Although, I think we can guess.

For those of you who may be experiencing a bit of bad weather this weekend, like epic snow storms and winds, and for anyone who needs a vacation for the eyes, here is a photo I took back in September 2014. It was taken on the grounds of Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Stay safe out there!

I use the WordPress template for this blog ( which means nothing to those of you who don’t blog). It was the template I started out with and the one I am comfortable with. I like that it comes with pages of statistics about how many people visit my blog and what they read while they are here.  I find it intriguing that, on an almost daily basis, someone is going back and looking at older posts of mine. Like, two years ago older.

Day before yesterday someone looked at a post I did from two years ago this month titled “The Year Without Winter.” I had no memory of what that post was about so I went back to read it myself. I was reminded that, as of January 2014, we hadn’t had much of a winter. I was very tired of warm weather, sun, and all that jazz. Without that blog post, I would have never remembered that.

I am here to tell you, I won’t be writing a post like that this year. While the anticipated El Nino rain storms have not quite materialized (which I blame on all our efforts to get ready for them – roof repair, sandbags, trenches dug…) it has been a cold winter, at least for us thin blooded native Southern Californians. For those of you who live where there is snow, I will rephrase that – It has been a slightly cool winter.

When I mention to Hubby that it is colder than normal this year, he just blames it on me setting the heater at 68 degrees.  What can I say, I am trying to be both environmentally conscious and fiscally prudent. However, this year I have not been either. I actually set the thermostat at 69 or 70 on a fairly regular basis, in a desperate bid to get warm. So that isn’t a good argument.

Part of the problem is the house we live in now. Our old house faced west. It always got a good dose of sun on its back in the morning and an even better dose on the front in the afternoon. This was wonderful in the winter and horrible in the summer. This house faces more northwest. That makes it much nicer in the summer but it stays much cooler in the winter.  I run around in sweats in the house, then go outside and discover it is actually a reasonably pleasant day.

I finally have scientific proof that this winter is colder. Honey had stopped shedding! That dog produces so much hair! Since she is a 90% indoor dog now, in her old age, her shedding has ramped up to be a year round thing. We sweep all the time. But, in the last few weeks, I realized that   I haven’t has to sweep as much. On closer examination, I realized Honey has gotten furrier and fluffier. Spring is going to be a misery, but, right now, she is keeping all that fur to herself, to keep warm in our rough California winter.

FYI – we had a warm day yesterday, for some reason. It was 78 degrees. Now, that is my kind of winter!

This has been one of those mornings! Here is hoping it goes up from here.

The litter box situation in the garage is apparently not to the kitten’s liking. Sometimes stuff is not in the box where it should be and then it gets where it shouldn’t be. That happened again and I had one stinky kitten this morning. I got Eldest Daughter out of bed to help me with that. We got rid of the stink and she went back to bed. I strolled towards the kitchen to finally get my breakfast, and I saw the front door standing open about an inch. Oh oh….

For some reason that door has gotten harder to latch lately and the last person through the door didn’t get it shut all the way. The second I saw that door I realized I hadn’t seen Blackie in a while. The door wasn’t open enough for him to get out, but….So back to get Eldest Daughter up to help me search the house. No sign of the elderly cat. I looked outside, still no sign. I called Hubby and he suggested looking in the back yard. I doubted the almost 17 year old cat could have gotten over the fence, but checked there anyway. Sure enough, as I got near the bar area, Blackie casually strolled up to say hello. When I bent over to pick him up he immediately realized his mistake. I guess he thought we would be hanging out together in the morning sunshine. But, he doesn’t move very fast, so I got him in half a second and he was back inside, safe and sound.

So, to recap, Mr. Stinky is no longer stinky and the escape artist is back inside. Whew! I FINALLY had my breakfast after that and Eldest crawled back into bed. We are both ready to let the pets fend for themselves for a bit.

Hope your morning is going a bit more smoothly!

This is how I prefer my cats. Clean, inside the house, and being cute together.

The Coachella Music Festival has become a very big deal. Amazingly enough, that big deal happens right here in the very county where I live. I admit right up front, that while I have been to many concerts, including Rolling Stones,  Billy Joel, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Supertramp, Styx, Bruce Springsteen, and on and on, I have never been to the mother of all modern music festivals, Coachella. However, to those seeking advice, I do live less than two hours away and my local newspaper is filled, and I mean FILLED, with news about Coachella before, during, and after the event.

I read so much about Coachella every year I feel like I have been to it. I want to give a little motherly advice to anyone going to Coachella, because every year we get to read about people who didn’t check the weather, who know nothing about the desert, and who regret this in a very big way when they attend.

Number 1: It gets very warm during the day. You will need lots of sunscreen and lots of water. Yes, it is spring, but it is spring IN THE DESERT. Those girls wearing nothing but bikinis look like a case of skin cancer waiting to happen.

Number 2: The desert can get really cold at night. It can cool down an impressive amount after the sun goes down. Remember, this isn’t August. It is still spring. Again, those girls in bikinis are very unhappy that they didn’t bring a jacket.

So, in case you aren’t getting my motherly drift – Do not wear a bikini! Wear a hat! Plan on hot days and cool or cold nights! Read the website and figure out what you can bring to deal with the temperature extremes! Do not give the residents of Riverside County something to laugh about when that bikini girl is interviewed about her sunburn or how she froze her bikini clad you know what off after the sun went down. Because we will laugh. And shake our heads. And wonder why you didn’t listen to your mother!