Woman in the Middle

Today is Eldest Daughter’s birthday. Last night, as we were getting the house settled for bed time (and with four pets, that takes time) Eldest said to me, “Can you believe that 27 years ago you had a baby?” “No,” I replied, “Since I am 28 it would be impossible. You must be adopted. The fact that you look like me and my grandmother is just coincidence and happenstance.”

I didn’t realize, until I gave birth to Eldest, that you give birth to someone you know. Until she was about 18 months old, she didn’t have much hair. But when it came in, it was curly as can be. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, said she looked like her dad, because he has the curly hair in this marriage. But, when I looked at my baby photos, there was that unmistakable resemblance to me. Then, when I looked at the photo of my grandmother taken when she was about four, there it was again, further proof that I had brought the the right baby home from the hospital.

Then, 27 years later they tease you about one of the momentous occasions in your life. But, that is OK. We laughed. That is the wonderful thing about Eldest, she makes me laugh. So here is to 27 years of joy and laughter, which has more than made up for a few tears and slammed doors. Happy birthday Sweetie! I love you!

Below is Nanny, in about 1914 or 15, me in about 1963 or 64, and Eldest Daughter in 1991. We aren’t all quite the same age but I think you can still see the resemblance.

Last weekend, it rained and rained and rained. So what do we have this weekend? Wind! That is our pattern around here. Mother Nature likes to get the ground all soft, and then see if she can blow some trees over. From what I have seen on Facebook, she has been somewhat successful so far.

Meanwhile, all that nice moisture is being blown away as well. It is dry as a bone again around here. Of course, there is some moisture left in the soil, but the air is dry, my skin is dry, and it feels like we never had any rain at all.

Here at my homestead, we continue the great dance of animal feeding. We have two that are picky and skinny and we are always trying to get them to eat. Then we have two who have porked up so much this winter they are hardly recognizable.  Yep, the kittens are fat. We don’t free feed, and yet, there they are. They like to get into Blackie’s food, but otherwise I keep careful track of what I give them. Yesterday Hubby said they need to go on a diet. Sure, I thought. While trying to get two to eat, I will also try to get two to not eat.  I am not anticipating great success with that. Given how active they are, we are surprised by the weight gain. Who knows with cats.

I belong to the local historical society board. (FYI – I belong to a lot of boards.) We have been meeting for years at a local college. But it was off the beaten path and, like any college I have ever visited, a confusing place to find parking and to find the meeting room.  So, we made the big decision to move our meeting place. The new place is in a more centrally located spot with much more parking, and easy to find elevator, etc… Already we have more reservations for lunch than usual, so we are all crossing our fingers and hoping this is a successful change.  Any time you are dealing with people, it feels like a crap shoot, in my humble opinion.

Well, I hope you all have a delightful Sunday, and I will talk to you again soon!

I have decided it is a slippery slope when it comes to cats. One day you just have one pet cat, the next you are a certifiable cat lady. I feel I am on the slippery slope between the two at the moment, and thank goodness I have a family to reign me in. But my soft heart certainly makes me want to help any creature in need and there ALWAYS seems to be cats in need. Sigh…..

The good news is I am trying to do my part to help cats in need, without actually taking a couple dozen more into my home. There is a cat rescue just minutes from my house. Eldest Daughter and I go once a week to meet the cats and gather info on them, then I write up descriptions about each little ball of delightful fur for the rescue’s website. I am working on the premise that each cat that gets adopted opens a spot for a cat in need.

Of course,   there is a certain amount of risk in going to hang out with 80 or so adorable cats. Yesterday when Eldest and I went,  Eldest ended up picking up an orange tabby named Croc. He was a love bug! He loved to be held, and purred like a motorboat in pleasure. When Eldest brought him over to me, he was ready to leap out of her arms into mind. Such a cutie! No, we didn’t bring him home. I have vowed no more new animals to disrupt the elderly cat and dog in our house. I would be willing to add another cat after they go to the other place, but not right now.

Then there is the situation in my own front yard. Double sigh. Due to the proximity of many coyotes, we don’t have an over abundance of outdoor cats in our neighborhood. We have seen only a handful of savvy, coyote avoiding felines in the 6+ years we have lived here. They have all looked like someone’s cat, decently fed, etc….So Eldest names them all for the fun of it and we see them in the yard on occasion, and otherwise we leave then alone and they leave us along. Then this one cat appeared…. 

It is a little heard to not notice a cat who is covered in long white fur. At first, we saw it only occasionally, at a distance. Then it started sleeping every once in a while in our front yard somewhere. But it always jumped up and ran if we happened by. We didn’t even try to get close, as it seemed to be feral. But we are having a hard winter, with cold and rain, and I began to  feel very very sorry for this fluffy dirty white thing with a squinty eye, a mangled ear, and the best resting b**** face you could ever ask for in a cat.

I began to feed it. It started coming around more. It will actually stay within 4-6 feet of us now when we toss down the food.  Because it is white, we can really see any issues it has. There are ear mites. There is that ear. There is that squinty eye. And then, yesterday, we saw a bloody scratch on its face.

Folks, I am in agony here. I can’t stand to see an animal in discomfort, let alone the mess that this cat is. I remind myself that I am making these cold and rainy days and nights better by offering food. I hope it will eventually let us  near enough to better access its health.

Meanwhile, my family is sizing me up for a crazy cat lady shirt, because no matter how hard they try to keep me from it, they can see the inevitable day when I will meet the criteria for being called a “crazy cat lady.”

Blackie was just never a toy kind of cat. IF we could get to play with something for 60 seconds were were doing good. The young cats, however, are all about the toys. We have lots and lots of them. I now have a basket on the fireplace that holds all the cat toys. Everyone in a while I toss them all back into the basket, and the, Lumos starts pulling them all out again. Last week, there ere toys scattered all over the family room, form Lumos getting hem out, Not an unusual occurrence. Blackie was walking across the room and when he walked passed one of the toys, he actually reached out a foot and bated at on e of them for half a second, just two or three little bats. Eldest Daughter saw it and about fell off the couch.

Our new next door neighbors picked last Sunday, the 22nd, to move into their new home. It was pouring down rain. Hubby and I decided we would leave them alone and go over another time. They had enough dealing with moving in the rain. I saw the lady of the house this afternoon and went over and introduced myself, gave her some oranges (hey, they need to step up immediately and do their part to help us use up those things) and explained if they hear us yelling at the dog, it is because she is deaf, not because we are mean. This weekend we plan on getting the husbands together to meet.

File this one under “I” for Ironic. I told my new neighbor that we have a pretty quiet neighborhood. But, when Eldest Daughter and I got home from shopping this evening, the house directly across the street from our neighbor  was booking. It sounded like someone was bouncing  a basketball in front of a microphone, and amplifying it for all the hear. Well, it is usually a quiet neighborhood…..

For once in a good long while, our hills are green with the fresh growth caused by all our rain. It looks beautiful. I will put off thinking about the fire risk until later in the year.

Eldest Daughter and I headed out of Subway tonight with our dinner. I knew where I was going but she had forgotten where we had parked. My Camry is that metallic green they have that takes on a different color, especially at night. I headed between two cars and I saw her go down the other side of the car I was by, the passenger side. In something under a second my brain registered the fact that she thought this grey car was ours, but worse case scenario she tries to open the passenger door and can’t because it is locked  Well, that is exactly what happened. She tried to open the door but it WASN”T LOCKED! IT opened right up. I looked at her in horror and yelled “This isn’t our car.” Just then she registered the fuzzy puff ball thing in the passenger seat and the rosary beads hanging from the rear view mirror. Oops!  She closed that door fast and we hurried away. Meanwhile, I can’t figure out why that car wasn’t locked!

Hope you are having a wonderful week!

The weather forecasters got it right for once. The storm that hit So Cal on Sunday was a big one, bigger than the one that hit us on Friday. As I write this at 4:45 am (couldn’t get back to sleep when i woke up at 4 am) it has been raining for 24 hours straight. The forecast says it will continue to rain on Monday off and on, with heavy rains possible in the afternoon.  Hum…I guess those errands I was planning to run will have to wait until Tuesday, when the sun is rumored to be making an appearance. If the rain will ever stop, most of the water will drain away quickly, but the rain has to stop first!

On Saturday Hubby emptied some water from our pool, as it was almost full. It was a good thing he did that, although I bet it is almost full again. Meanwhile, I spotted a big old mushroom in the front yard yesterday. We are certainly having the kind of weather that encourages moss, mold, and fungi to make an appearance.

It will be another day of having the dog look at me like I am insane or just mean every time I put her outside. Just so you know, those Facebook posts celebrating the rain and talking about how much they love it and how much we need it have stopped.

We so do love our extremes here in California. I think I will make a cup of hot tea.

We love our extremes in California. Drought, then torrential rains, then drought again. Right now we are experiencing that rain part of the cycle.  Hubby and I had to run some errands (must buy Blackie the only food he likes, available only in pet stores, whatever the weather) so we were out in the rain. I had taken a shower just before we left. Interesting fact – if you keep getting out and walking through the rain, it is almost impossible to get your hair to dry!

It was very nice to get back home to our dry, warm, and cozy house. Homes are always cozy on rainy days, for some reason. I think even the biggest house becomes cozy on a rainy day. Add a few sleeping cats, and the cozy factor goes up exponentially.

Since I love history, and local history in particular, I thought I would share with you an interesting historical bit about these cycles of drought and flood we seem to have here in California. In 1861 the residents of California had been having dry weather for approximately two decades. Then, in December 1861, rain started and lasted for 43 days.  In January 1862 there was catastrophic  flooding in California. It is considered to be the largest flood on record in my state. The rain actually affected the entire west coast as well as portions of other states and Mexico, but California was hardest hit.  It was a monster and is still studied today as the other “big one” that will hit California. Researchers feel mega rains such as occurred in 1862-62 will happen in California every 100-200 years.

By the way, that mega rain storm was followed by several years of severe drought. Hum, we seem to have seen this pattern before…..

I am back from Tennessee! I had a wonderful time visiting with my cousin and her husband and seeing our mothers’ cousin as well. It didn’t rain there nearly as much as it was in California, I am happy to report! I returned last night  to rain and mud everywhere, flooded roads, and what not. Gosh, I leave for a few days and it all goes to heck in a hand basket!

While in Memphis, I had two BBQ pulled pork sandwich meals with all the fixings, a fried chicken meal, a pimento cheese sandwich, lemon ice box pie, fudge pie, and a fried peach pie. That was all eaten out. Also, my cousin in law fixed a delicious meal one night of baked BBQ chicken and a pancake and bacon breakfast one morning. By Thursday night, all three of us were basically ready to go on a lettuce and water fast to recover from all the good food! There is nothing like southern food, at least in my mind. But, then, I grew up eating that kind of food, so southern food means good home cooking to me.

I hope everything has been going well in your neck of the woods these last few days. We have a day off from the rain and then it is coming back again tomorrow, or so the weather people tell us. Oh boy!

My Cousin Linda and me, with Jack, her sweet puppy dog. Linda made that beautiful quilt on the wall behind us. 

I am flying off this morning to visit my cousin in Memphis. We are going to go through old family photos, eat barbecue, and visit one of our mothers’ cousins. I am looking forward to our visit very much, and I am sure Hubby is looking forward to having the computer all to himself.

Meanwhile, our flight to Hawaii back in September is very much on my mind. I don’t think I told you about all that. We left the house very early, and drove through McDonald’s to pick up Egg McMuffins on the way. The plan was to get something else to eat at the airport before our food free flight. But the traffic to LAX was horrible. We got to the airport just in time to run to our boarding area and stand in line to get on the plane.

It was all good, I thought. The plane does sell food, however over priced. But we were sitting in the back of the plane. By the time they got to us they had one can of Pringles and one small snack pack left. That was it. I bought them both and we divvied that up along with the snacks we brought. I wanted to keep us from gnawing on our seatmates during the long flight.. OK, I admit, I would be the likely gnawer. I don’t enjoy being stuck in a metal tube for six hours with no access to food. When picking my seat, I made sure I am not in the back. I want food to be available just in case I want something!

I also seriously underestimated the amount of reading material I would need. So I have been hording magazines to take with me. I do not currently have a subscription to Reader’s Digest, but I decided I wanted one to take with me. Then, out of the blue, the February issue showed up in our mailbox on Friday, to try and entice us back as subscribers. Thank you Reader’s Digest! I will have to get a subscription again, just to thank them for saving me a trip to the store to buy that magazine!

So off I go. I won’t be on the internet while I am gone. I will say hello and tell you about the trip when I get back in a few days.

Thought you might like to know that Honey is doing better. An overnight stay at the vet, some fluids and steroids, and she is feeling pretty good. We still don’t really know what is wrong with her, but it seems that whatever it is it keeps coming back. She could be having something like mini-strokes, or have an ulcer, or even have a tumor. Or it could be none of these things. The mystery of what may be going on inside a living thing….

In reality, Honey is 16 1/2, so what we decide to do (in consultation with the vet) may be different than if she was 5. But, up most in our minds, is quality of life. Right now, Honey seems to be pretty happy. She has her appetite back and she has a bit of her kick back in her step as well. So now the house revolves around not just a high maintenance elderly cat but an equally high maintenance elderly dog.

A few weeks back we took Honey to the vet for some eating issues. After an examination and blood tests, the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong. But, after about a week, Honey was back to eating and her old self (literally) again. Well, the eating problems started back up again and, after not being able to get her to eat hardly anything Monday, back to the vet she went on Tuesday. Mind you, she was otherwise acting like her normal self.

We saw a different vet on this visit. It was a frustrating visit for both the vet and for me. I was asking a whole lot of questions, and the vet only had partial answers. Face it, medicine is not an exact science and she got stuck with a pet owner who really thinks things through with her pets. In the end, she admitted it could be a combination of things, but she felt, in the end, it was likely bad teeth. So, we went home with antibiotics, pain meds, and a decision to make about putting Honey through tooth pulling and anesthesia at 16 1/2. All of that is complected by the fact that I will be out of town next week.

Honey was doing a bit better Wednesday and Thursday. She ate a good enough amount, and was still her normal perky self up through last night. But sometime in the night she seemed to have gotten sick again, or off…or whatever you want to call it. When she got up this morning she was staggering around like someone with vertigo. She doesn’t want to settle down much, and staggers about the house. So back to the vet we go this afternoon.

I think further tests are in order and we shall see what we can come up with to make her feel better.