Woman in the Middle

2017 has been an interesting year. And as the old curse says, “May you live in interesting times.”

Around our house it saw the loss of two beloved pets and the addition of a new rescue cat into our lives. It also saw me start to feed and get way too attached to the feral cat that lives in the neighborhood.

We saw both daughters make big strides forward into adulthood. However hard that is for us as parents to deal with, I am very proud of my girls.

We had some epic vacations. The girls went places on their own and we went as a family to Disney World. Hubby and I had the amazing experiance of seeing the total eclipse with the addition of the adventure of trying to get back to our hotel when it was over.

On the local, state and national political level, things didn’t go quite as I had hoped. I feel like we are, at every level, being ignored while our leaders act like they know everything, we know nothing, and we should all just sit down and shut up while they have fun playing with their power. Sigh. Yes,  I have strong feelings about this.

Most of all, this year has gone by amazingly fast. I didn’t get anything done around the house that I had hoped to get done. I spent way too much time in doctor’s offices, which is likely why those home improvement projects didn’t get done. I am determined to see at least some of the projects through in 2018, however.

Finally, I enjoyed writing this blog and hearing from all of you.  It is a highlight of my day, week, month and year.

I wish all of you a wonderful 2018. See you next year!!!! In other words, tomorrow!

You could say life was a bit of a roller coaster in 2017. But, like on real roller coasters, I believe in clenching my teeth and getting though it! LOL!

This is another post that got lost in the shuffle. But, before the year is over, I wanted to remember David Cassidy, who died this year.

When I was in elementary school my very best friend was a girl named Myra. Every recess we played together. Other friends came and went but we were besties. Our favorite thing to play during those recesses was “house.” In those days our playground was dirt, covered in a layer of fine gravel. We would dig the heels of our leather school shoes into the dirt and drag them along, making lines to represent the walls of our houses. She had one house, I had another right next door.

Of course, if we had houses, we had to have husbands. Mine was always teen heart throb Bobby Sherman. Myra’s was another teen heart throb, David Cassidy. On so many days, it was just Myra and me and Bobby and David, having a good time on the playground.

Of course, I also watched the Partridge Family. Boy, what a wonderful night of TV it was the night the Brady Bunch followed by the Partridge Family was on. My very fist album was a Partridge Family album. The second was Bobby Sherman, each bought with my own money.

Rest in peace, David Cassidy. You were a great neighbor, back in those long ago days on the playground.

I was not able to go to Room 8 for much longer than I would have liked, primarily because I was sick, but also because of the holidays. I went back today, with a bit of a dread feeling in my stomach. Call it a psychic moment, but it was a real one. Dear drooling Joey is no longer at Room 8.

Joey, the girl cat with a boy name, lived many years with an older husband and wife. When the wife got Alzheimer’s and the couple moved into a senior facility together, they could not take Joey along. Room 8, whose original mission was to take in elderly cats that had nowhere else to go, took in Joey. They were told she was 25. She was not, of course, as she lived for several more years. Any visitor to the elderly cat room who sat down would soon have Joey in their lap. purring and drooling all over them.

As Joey grew older, she became less content hanging out in the elderly cat room. She came up with pitiful and demanding cries, as only a cat can. Those cries led to her being let out to roam the place as she saw fit, which, or course, led to more pitiful and demanding cries. The last several months of her life Joey could often be found curled up sleeping on the only office chair in the place, near the front door. However, she was fine if someone walked in, scooped her up, and sat on the chair themselves, as long as they held her and let her drool and purr.

In spite of her advanced age and scrawny self, Joey was not above taking a swipe and a growl and a hiss at Dagwood, another much younger cat who is also allowed to roam the place. Everyone assumed Dagwood was starting it, but direct observation showed there was still some pep left in Joey. Sadly, the elderly dear broke her leg and it was decided, due to her advanced age (they think around 18) to not put her through the pain of trying to set her leg.

Joey was well known to the many volunteers at Room 8, had a comfortable place to live out her life, and is missed by many. If only every cat had as much at the end of their life. 

“Time spent with cats is never wasted.” Sigmund Freud

“If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.” Mark Twain

“When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction.” Mark Twain

I am behind in posting this but another birthday rolled around a little over a month ago. I am now 56 big ones. The girls expressed great surprise that I am that old, as it seems to them I have been hanging out in my early 50s for quite some time. I fully admit that my early 50s seemed to go on forever to me as well, There was a lot of water that went under the bridge during those years. However, I am now really and officially out of my early 50s and am now in what I am going to call my “mid fifties.” I think I can stick with that term until I am 59. Then I will only have to spend one year in my late fifties before I go back to being in the early category again.

It is just a number. But it is definitely a number that is on the downward slide to 60. The funny thing is, it is always Hubby’s age that gets me. He is two years older than I am, so I know whatever age he is, is just around the comer for me. One of our children was expressing dismay that he will be 58 on his next birthday. I  tried to ignore that remark!

I had a lovely day with my family for my birthday, in spite of the cold that I brought home from Disney World. We visited a decorated Christmas tree event we have been enjoying for over a decade. Then we went to the city of Orange (in neighboring Orange County), which has a huge historic downtown. I loved visiting the various shops, including several antique shops. We just scratched the surface of that area and I look forward to going back there again.

We had lunch at a BBQ place and later had burgers and birthday pie back home. Oh, and there were presents, too! All in all, a wonderful day!

Christmas decorations in Downtown Orange. 

Thank goodness there weren’t 56 candles on my pie. It would have melted away!

Back on December 14th, at 9:20 p.m., I realized, just like that, that I had a sore throat and running sinuses. And, just like that,the holiday season took a detour for me.   I managed to hold it together for two more days, until the children’s Christmas party charity I am part of made the season brighter for about 700 kids. Then it was lights out for me, and still is, to some extent. The cold went right to my chest and I developed a cough that was so loud and horrible I couldn’t leave the house. On the rare occasion I did it was not for very long. There were a couple of trips to the grocery store, 15 minutes in a Kohl’s, and the occasional visit to a Starbucks. Otherwise, I binged watched The Crown (which I highly recommend) and BBC shows. I watched so many people with British accents, it is surprising I haven’t developed an accent myself!

It is the pits being sick at Christmas time. I missed out on various events at church, including Youngest Daughter’s second bell choir performance.  I missed the first chance to meet the new boyfriend, as he cane to see the bell performance. I had entered a 24 hour period of not getting out of my pajamas at that point, so I didn’t leave the house that day. Meanwhile, I talked to a doctor on the phone and two days later I visited one in person. Not much they can do, but I got everything that I could get to try and calm the bronchitis and accompanying cough.

On the plus side, the house was almost completely decorated and almost all the gifts were bought when I went down for the count. That took a load off my mind and made the TV binge watching even more enjoyable. We had already planned to eat out on Christmas day, so I didn’t have to worry about planning and cooking a big meal, either. And I finally got the meet the new boyfriend on Christmas evening.

I am happy to report the coughing is …less….It has not gone away and does not give any hint that it will go away any time soon. However, I am getting out and about more and I still enjoyed Christmas, in spite of it all. Being sick at Christmas means you have permission to let go of any perfectionist tendencies. And, boy, I let those go! In the end I am just happy it appears no one in the family caught what I have and that I have had the chance to slow down and get better.

I hope your Christmas was lovely, with less coughing than ours, and I wish you all matter of wonderful things in the new year!

Christmas morning. Nox had to be in the middle of the action.

Wishing you a very Furry Christmas…

And a Happy Mew Year!

Nox is on the couch with my favorite Christmas pillow – a palm tree with lights! He is looking at the Christmas tree, which he finds so interesting. Every day he finds a new ornament to knock to the floor! He is definitely our Christmas cat!

December 2017 will be remembered for the wind. It just won’t stop. Cold wind, hot wind, just strong winds. Sadly, our orange tree has taken a severe beating from the wind. It has a terrible case of wind burn. The poor thing looks half dead. I don’t think it is, but it looks that way with its curled up, dry leaves over about half or two thirds of the tree. Even sadder, is the number of oranges that are now on the ground, just shy of being fully ripe.

Oranges on the ground. This doesn’t look so bad. It was about a bag full. But after I picked these up we got more wind, which knocked another two bags full on to the lawn. And that doesn’t count all the oranges directly under the tree in the ground cover that we have not picked up yet. 

A close up photo of one part of our sad, dry orange tree. 

We are probably up to about 200 oranges lost. There are still oranges on the tree, of course, but not nearly as many as there were. I need to grab one of the fallen oranges and see how it tastes. Maybe they are good enough for juicing. But we are going to have many friends who are sad about all the oranges they won’t be getting this year. Darn wind.

After the calico cat arrived a month ago, we posted all over the place on social media and looked up lost pets on Craig’s list. We also took the cat to the vet to have her scanned for a micro chip. All of this got us nowhere. Last Sunday, we did one last Hail Mary and Hubby put up signs around the neighborhood. “Found, Calico Cat” with our phone number. Less than 24 hours later I got a phone call about 9 am. I recognized the woman’s voice immediately (It is one of my super powers, recognizing voices. I may not remember your name, but call me and I will know who it is within about five words.)

It was one of my neighbors from up the street and around the corner. She got a new dog and 15 year old Cindy was apparently done with it. She left and came down to my house. That is a calico cat for you, in case you didn’t know. Cindy could have gone home at a slow stroll in about five minutes. I didn’t feed her for at least two days, at which point you would think she would have strolled home to get some dinner. But, no. Cindy had made a decision and was accepting all of the consequences involved, including, apparently, hunger.

I wish we had posted the signs sooner. To be honest, I really didn’t think they were going to get us anywhere. We were also gone for vacation for a week of that, dealing with Thanksgiving, etc….. So there were good reasons.  My neighbor was so happy. She thought Cindy was gone for good. Nope. Instead Cindy was scarfing down the Friskies at my house! LOL! Unfortunately, one of my super powers is not remembering my neighbor had a calico cat!

So Cindy is back home. If she comes back, I will know where she belongs.

Since we live fairly close to Disneyland, we have been there many, many times. That affected the way we experienced the Magic Kingdom in a variety of ways. We got turned around because we are used to a place that is very similar yet isn’t the same. We were left puzzled by rides that were the same yet different.   And we were seeing things that were removed from Disneyland decades before but were still going strong at Magic Kingdom. So, please read about our visit to Magic Kingdom with those things in mind. A person who has never been to Disneyland would experience Magic Kingdom in a different way, I think.

There are many moving parts to a Disney World Vacation. Being a newbie, I got one part a little wrong. All the travel guides say the week we went was a good week to go, crowd wise. What they did not mention is that the closing of Magic Kingdom at 6 pm on some days for special Christmas events changes the crowd dynamics considerably. Surprise! We decided to go to Magic Kingdom for the first time on a day that it did not close early. This allowed us to sleep in a bit and to take advantage of special extra hours that are only for people staying at the Disney resort, which on that day were from 10 pm to midnight. Good plan, except that everyone else had the same plan! The lines were very long for all the rides, and, according to one lady I spoke to, were comparable to lines in the peak summer season.

However, we still managed to get on some rides during the day and we took advantage of the extra hours to get on three rides pretty quickly. Most importantly, we got the lay of the land, so when we went back on our last day at Disney World, when the crowds were much more manageable, we were able to do everything else we wanted to do without feeling rushed.

As people familiar with Disneyland, one of the fun things for us was seeing what was different on our favorite and iconic Disney rides. We had fun figuring out the differences with Small World, Haunted House, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Big Thunder Mountain. I also got a big kick out of seeing, once again, three rides from my childhood that are long gone from Disneyland but still going strong at Magic Kingdom: Country Bear Jamboree, Century of Progress, and People Mover. However, nostalgia can have two sides. I admit I started crying in Country Bear Jamboree. It was one of my Mom’s favorite things at Disneyland, so seeing it again  gave my heart a little tug. However, tears aside, I enjoyed seeing it again very much. Who knew an amusement park on the other side of the country could play your heart strings like that?

Here are a few photos of our two visits to the Magic Kingdon:

Just inside the entrance, with the iconic train station in the background.

Me and Cinderella’s Castle.

On the Seven Dwarves Mine Ride, one of a handful of rides we don’t have here in So Cal. Note the thrilled look on my face! LOL!

Concentrating hard on the Buss Lightyear ride.

My trusty camera and I actually took this photo of the castle at night.

The Santa Ana winds are playing havoc in So cal right now. Sometimes we just have localized Santa Anas. They blow in my area like heck, but then we travel a few miles and it is barely a light breeze. Other times they blow all over So Cal. You would have to ask a meteorologist why that is. For the last few days we have been having one of those “all over the place” wind events. With that comes the fires.

While there has been a fire or two near my house, they pale in comparison to what has been going on in Los Angeles County.  Whoo whee! The news is full of flames and smoke and burning houses. It has been a cold wind as well. Sunday was still balmy and Monday I was pulling out my heaviest sweater and turning up the heat.

On the home front, my heavy metal patio furniture has been tossed about like children’s toys.  We bought the furniture from the previous home owners. It is obvious to me now that they bought the heavy furniture for a reason. Light or plastic furniture would be in the next county during these winds.

The most significant  thing to come out of this windy week is that the calico cat that decided to live with Cloud in the front yard is now sleeping in the spare bedroom at night.  On Monday evening I just couldn’t leave her outside any more. She is obviously a pet but we have not been able to find her owners. The wind was just awful and there was no place she could go to escape it. She has now slept inside for two nights and doesn’t give us any problems. I put her back outside during the day just so she gets some sun and exercise. We have put her photo all over social media, but no one has claimed her. We plan on putting out signs after the wind stops and if they don’t get results we will try to find her a new home with a friend. And if that doesn’t work….well, we will deal with that at that time.

Meanwhile, we have not seen Cloud for two days. I am worried, but there is nothing I can do, so I just wait, tuna at the ready, in case he reappears.