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Monday, January 17, 2000 We can't save them all. I wish we could, but we can't save them all. Brian just buried a cat. A red cat. He left for work, then I heard him unlocking the front door. He came back to the office and said "I'm sorry, but one of the red cats is on our front lawn. He's dead." I just looked at him, speechless. He said he didn't know which one it was. I went out front to see this kitty and to say a small prayer of goodbye. I knew right away it wasn't OC or Angus. I touched him, looked into his scratched and scarred face. I stroked his nose, then I stroked his stiff, cold body, wishing there was some way I could make him warm again. His fur on his tail was puffed out, as if he had been fighting. His tail looked abnormally short and scared, and I ran my hand the length of his tail, feeling the tip. Thank God, it wasn't Big Opie. Last week, we started seeing a new red tom in town. He's at the rainbow bridge now. He was hit by a car. I gently turned him over and looked at him. There was a little blood from his mouth and he had black stuff on his side. Oh, I how wish these people would slow down while driving in residential areas. I wish we could take in all of the cats into our home. I just hate this. *tears* Please, say a little prayer for this kitty we never knew. Wish him well on his journey to the bridge.
Peter still has his little lumps. I looked into his mouth last night and his baby canines haven't fallen out yet. And his adult canines are coming in quickly. I'll call the vet today to see how much longer I should wait before I bring him in to have them pulled. Playing with him last night, I found out he plays fetch. When we were trying to sell cathouses at cat shows, we had purchased a bunch of stuffed cats, some that move. Two that we got move their arms and meow when you touch them on the nose with the magic "wand". Well, the cats are since up, but one of the wands is still around. It's a plastic stick with a little cotton fluff on the end. Peter loves that. If I take it from him and throw it down the hallway, he will retrieve it. I think he really likes this game. He will jump on me and meow to play with him. He brings the stick and if I ignore him, he makes sure I know he's there. He won't be held, he wants to play. He's so darn adorable.
Saturday, we didn't get too much done. Brian went and visited his dad, who's not doing well. He probably won't be around much longer, he's got no will to live. He hasn't had one for quite a while now. Maybe he finally realized that he will never be going home. There's no way that Brian's mom can care for him on her own and he needs twenty-four hour care. When he's around her, he's very, very demanding and it would kill her. So, he stays in the residential care home. That visit pretty much wore Brian out. He did fix the outlet here in the office. I thought the cat pee had killed it, but it seems a wire had come loose. Brian put in a brand new one. And the light didn't work either. I had mentioned that maybe it just needed a new light bulb, but Brian didn't really think that was the problem, especially since it was so close to the outlet he had just changed. But he tried a new bulb before tearing anything apart and guess what? All it needed was a new bulb. *whew*
We had considered going to Disneyland yesterday, if it had been raining down here. But it wasn't. So, we went for a ride through our local mountains. We were surprised to see some old snow on the ground, not much, but it was there. We had breakfast at a little roadside restaurant, then went up to the local Shrine Camp (my dad was a Shriner and mom had told me that the camp's ninety nine year lease was up with the California Department of Forestry...and the CDF raised the yearly lease rate on the individual cabins to a thousand dollars a year, up from one hundred that the Shrine camp charged....well, mom said she heard a lot of trailers were for sale....we didn't see any), then drove to Julian, where we stopped for a pee break. It was raining, it wasn't cold enough for snow. I would have loved to see snow.
We talked about our new home in Ranchita and Brian told me he could see envision in his mind what it would look like in ten years. I wish I had that capability, to see things how they will be in the future, but all I can see is how they are now. We talked about the yard for the cats. Brian says it will be large and that since it will be completely enclosed, that the cats should be able to go in and out twenty-four hours a day. No more getting them in at night before we go to bed (most of the cats come in at dusk, but first we let Georgie go out, then Benny, then Bart and now Maggie can go out at night; they are all good at coming in when called) which I agree with.
I had mentioned to Brian that I would like to go to the Good Guys and look at speakers and CD recorders. I tried explaining to him that the reason I've only made two CDs is because it isn't like making a tape. With a tape, you screw up, you rewind and retape. With these CDs, once you've recorded, that's it. If you screw up, well, you screw up and it's there forever. Unless you record on a CD that is rewritable, but then, you can't play it anywhere else but on a CD player that records. I used to make tapes all of the time with different flavors of music. A song from this album, a song from that, a tape with no two songs by the same artist, a tape with an original tune and then a cover of that same tune by a different artist. I really had fun making those. But this CD thing is a major pain in the butt. It's only practical if you are recording another CD in it's entirety. That's not what I want to do. So, I figured if I could find another CD recorder that was affordable, I could record on a rewritable disk til I got it perfect, pop it into one of the players which can record and record it over onto a clean CD, cook that CD, then be able to play that CD in regular players. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it's one of those things that I really enjoyed doing. And I told hubby that one of these days all of the vehicles will have CD players in them (remember we bought those two at CostCo last year, which Brian still has to install) and it would be nice to have CDs that we like. So, we stopped at home, checked on the cats, then went off to the Good Guys. Good lord, they didn't have any cheaper recorders than when I got my first one almost a year ago. I would have imagined they would have dropped in price by now. Wrong. And they only had two models for the full sized CD. The prices were $450 to $600. Not what I wanted to pay. Then we asked about speakers, to replace the ones in the television room. I told the salesman what we needed and what had happened to the old Infinity speakers we have. The foam disintegrated. He said that they make them differently now, they use butyl in the foam and it lasts much longer. I asked if they had any that weren't boxed, because I know you can save money that way. It so happened they had one set that someone had gotten for Christmas, opened the box, knowing that these speakers weren't as big as they wanted, never used them, and returned them. I saved twenty dollars. I got a seven year extended warranty which was thirty dollars, so I was happy. We walked out with speakers in bags. Once home, I looked at our old Infinity speakers and was kind of bummed to get rid of them because they have such nice cases. A nice solid oak. These other ones were some sort of painted particle board. I said something to Brian about it, that it was a shame to get rid of them. He mentioned an ad he had seen where they can repair speakers, so I think that's what we'll probably do. You never know when you'll need more speakers. And I still have the big JVC speakers that need to be fixed, too.
I told hubby I wanted to check online for CD recorders and found a small Philips brand for $299. I asked Brian what he thought and he said "go ahead and get it if that's what you want." I did. I don't know when it will be here, it said it was subject to product availability. I'm in no hurry. Not me.
Saturday afternoon, we opened both sliding screen doors. Jackie came out for a little bit, ate a bunch of grass, went back inside, barfed it up, then came back out and ate some more. Then he went back in the house and laid in the sunlight that streamed in through the door. Peter and Ciara both went outside and had a blast. Peter was climbing up the plum tree and chasing leaves around the yard. He played so hard in the half hour/hour he was outside, that after he ate dinner, he slept the rest of the night. He was one worn out kitten. I took a bunch of pictures of him playing.
Speaking of pictures, I guess I really should work on the visitor's section of my website. I haven't added a picture in over a year. And I have them to add. Bad me. Bad.
Wednesday, January 19, 2000 Well, Ciara has the runs again. And when she has them, she wants to curl up on my shoulder and cuddle because she doesn't feel good. *sigh* I guess she got into some of the soft food I've been feeding DeeJay.
Speaking of DeeJay, he's doing so much better. He's eating regular cat food now, he's not in here begging for garbage all the time. I'm so glad. I'd rather he ate quality food. I still give him as much kitten food as he wants, but it's Max kitten, so it's okay.
Lately, I've been noticing that Buddy hasn't been walking well. He hasn't been spending much time in the doghouse on the bank, so I'm thinking he might have slipped or something and hurt himself. I found Sandy's Rimadyl yesterday and the expiration date is April 2001. I called the vet and explained the situation with Buddy and asked if I could give Buddy these pills. I can, but I have to give a half a pill, since Sandy was so much bigger than Buddy. It seemed to work, because he was more active as the day wore on. Poor old guy.
We had new rain gutters installed this morning and the cats had to stay inside and the dogs were put up in the shop. Boy, were they glad to get outside. Right now, Peter, Ciara and Jackie are out, too. Peter loves to play on the bank. He made a tunnel under the pine needles yesterday and now he and Benny are playing hide and seek. Well, that was okay until the neighbor dogs came out and Pete was going to stalk Maddie. Then Maddie went nuts barking at the fence and Alex came up and joined in. All the cats scattered and Ciara ran along side the fence back towards the shop, Peter ran into the house and Jackie ran to the side of the house where the fencing isn't real secure and he doesn't get the catdoor yet and I freaked about him going over the fence so I ran up along side the fence to keep him away from it and he turned to run back into the yard, but Junior was standing in his way. Luckily Jackie darted around Junior and came back into the house. Whew. That was enough excitement for one day. Looks like Jackie, Ciara and Peter all feel the same way. They are all sleeping soundly in various parts of the house. Peter is up in the rafters in the garage. The safest place from dogs. *grin*
I have to take mom to the doctor tomorrow. This is to find out about the radiation therapy. This morning she told me that she doesn't want anymore surprises and if they tell her she has to have more chemo, she's gonna tell them no. I know this is a reference to the fact that when she first started chemo, they gave her tickets for three treatments. This surprised me because the doctor had said four treatments. She was happy about this and I was skeptical, told her I didn't understand why they only scheduled three when the doctor had specified four. Well, after her second treatment, they gave her two new tickets. Which would make a total of four treatments. For some reason, I think she feels like she's been had. I told her they weren't going to do more chemo because the oncologist originally said four. Why would they make her take more? It's a pretty easy drive to the office and she thinks she'll be able to make it by herself, once she knows the way. I don't know, it's a fairly long drive, and I've heard that radiation therapy can make you very tired. We'll see how it goes.
Friday, January 21, 2000 Here are some pictures I got developed yesterday. The top one is Peter, the bottom one is Jackie.
They sure like being outside during the day. But it wears me out, trying to watch three very active kittens. Ciara's out there, too.
My mom's appointment went well yesterday. The doctor mentioned that she would like mom to have a final week of super radiation at a clinic in downtown San Diego. There's no way I could drive down there. Brian said last night that if the appointment could be made for late enough in the day, that he would be able to take her down. We have about two months before she starts radiation, so she can think about it.
Georgie was acting really, really strange last night. He kept meowing and nothing we did would calm him down. I tried feeding him different types of food. I would stay and shoo the other cats away from him as he ate. We held him. We put him outside and he just sat at the door, crying to come back in. I let him into the exercise room and he walked around, sniffing and jumped up onto the table and started to purr. I picked him up and cuddled him on my shoulder, walked into the hallway, shut the door and Brian came down the hallway and we both petted and cooed and asked Georgie what was wrong. We went into the bedroom, me carrying Georgie and all three of us laid on the bed. Georgie stayed there for a couple of minutes, purring, back and forth between Brian and I, then jumped over to the dresser. Brian went back to watch television and I came back to the computer. Georgie started to cry again. This time, I picked him up and took him outside. I walked around the yard, holding him and talking to him. He looked around and stared up at the dark sky. The lunar eclipse was last night. His tail quit moving so quickly and I walked over to the swing and sat down with him, still holding him on my shoulder. It must have been a half hour before he finally was relaxed enough and he got down on his own. I felt I should hold him as long as he wanted to be held. He went over to the rock and started sniffing around. He was fine the rest of the night, staying outside until it was time for us to go to bed and then he came right in. I told Brian we might watch him a little closer. If he continues, I'll take him to the vet for a check up. He could be having eyesight problems or hearing problems. It could be something else. Or maybe something outside scared him one evening. Earlier this week, the neighbor's daughter's dog was in their yard and she's a barking dog. That could have frightened him. All I know is last night behavior wasn't normal. He's not acting sick, but last night just wasn't right.
Yesterday morning there was quite a bit of food left from the previous night for the outfront cats. This worries me. I start thinking that someone is trapping the cats or that maybe the coyotes are here. I haven't seen Meezer in a couple of weeks, I haven't seen Big Opie in over a week, and I haven't seen Angus this week at all. After finding the one kitty dead earlier this week, I wonder what's happening to the other cats. I can hope that Big Opie and Meezer have families that are keeping them in. I don't hold out the same hope for Angus. One thing it may be is heat season. Yesterday, when I had to leave to get Brian at Ford (he took his truck in for some repairs) one of the neighbors stopped me, the same one who hated Blackie and asked about trapping cats, where did we take them to get fixed. I was in a hurry and explained this to him, but he kept talking. I told him where to get the cats fixed cheaply and that we would help pay. He doesn't have a trap, so I told him he could use ours. He doesn't know how to use a trap. I told him we would show him. I'm really not up to trapping cats right now. He finally let me go and when I picked up Brian, I told him about our conversation. I told Brian that *he* could show the neighbor how to use the trap. Since all of the cats are congregating over there, it would be best that they were trapped and released over there. The neighbor is only interested in getting the little girl fixed (Jackie's mom) but I told Brian that we should foot the bill and try to get as many cats fixed as possible. I told Brian that one of the reasons I think he should talk to the neighbor is that if I do, I'll end up having to do the trapping. Like I said, I'm just not up to that right now. It's very emotionally draining. But, what I was thinking, is that maybe Angus is hanging out over there, because he's not neutered. I'm hoping that's what it is. But this morning, all the food was gone and when I opened the front door, a red cat ran from our front bank. I couldn't tell who it was, though. Most likely OC.
I'm going to wash the kitchen and laundry room floors this morning. They've gotten pretty icky.
Monday, January 24, 2000 SCREAM!!!!!!
If this day doesn't straighten up, and soon, I'm going to declare it over and done with. I swear.
Okay, you may remember my rant earlier this month about my mom and her friend taking my mom to her chemotherapy treatment. I told my mom at that time, just don't have her do it any longer, I'll take you. Remember, I had to clean the house before the cable guys came the next day and I ended up being an on-call taxi service, because her friend got sick (but was well enough to go play video poker at the local Indian reservation). My big bitch was that if we had set it up that I would be taking my mom each time in the first place, I would have set a different day for the cable guys. Well, mom insists on still having her friend take her. Her next appointment is Wednesday. Now, you may recall that last week, we had new rain gutters installed. Brian had changed his mind about how he wanted one side to drain. When they left last week, I was told that they would be here Saturday to finish the job. Saturday am, I asked Brian if he wanted to go to breakfast. "No, we have to wait for the gutter guys." Oh, yeah, that's right. After noon, I called them. "Any idea what time they'll be out here today?" "Oh, gee, they made the appointment? Well, we have to special order the gutter parts needed to finish the job. We don't have those sections in stock and we don't want to do a paint touch up because they don't always look the same as they fade. We won't have the parts until Wednesday. That won't be a problem, will it?" *sigh* No.
So, this morning, my mom says "Can you take me to my chemo Wednesday? Betty is having the painters in to paint her place." (Betty is selling her place and needs to do something to it before she'll get any money back. She's a heavy smoker and the place reeks and the walls are filthy.) I start to answer okay, then I remember the gutter guys. I tell her I'll call and rearrange the schedule. "Well, let me talk to Betty first, she shouldn't have to be there when they're painting, they're people we know." After I got off the phone, I started ranting to Brian. And I said "you know what irritates me?" and he thought he did. I ask him what? Well, after last Thursday morning (I didn't completely explain last week how rotten Thursday morning was; I knew I had to take mom in, so I had it timed that I would get up, do a little computer stuff, take a shower, then take the film in for processing, drive to mom's, then onto her appointment. But what really happened was I got out of bed, there was trouble in the "cat fights forum" which I had to take care of, and Brian told me right before I was going to take a shower, "could you please pick me up at Ford?" which pissed me off, because if he had mentioned it the night before I would have taken my shower sooner and not felt so pressed for time, I asked could he wait til I had finished my shower, then we decided that he would leave and call me from Ford when he was ready to be picked up, I got out of the shower, was dripping wet, the phone rang, "can you come get me?" I say "can I get dressed" the phone cuts out, I'm getting dressed, the phone rings again, I answer, yell "what!" as irritatedly and annoyed as ever, it was him, "I just wanted to make sure you heard me when I said you can get me", I finish dressing, get out to the truck, I'm backing up when the neighbor stops me to talk about the ferals, I'm in a hurry, time's a wasting and he's yapping, I'm sitting in the truck, the truck is running and Brian is waiting and I've got places to be, it wasn't a good morning, believe me), when I told him that you can take any twenty five days of my life and I'll be sitting here with my thumb up my butt for twenty of them, but everything has to happen on the other five, complaining that why can't things be spread out evenly over the entire twenty five days. And as busy as I was Thursday morning, that I'd have absolutely nothing to do Thursday afternoon. So, this morning, Brian thinks my rant is going to be "why does everything have to happen on the same day?" but that wasn't my rant at all. My rant was "why doesn't my mom just have me taking her for her treatments, forget about Betty doing it?". edrfffff (it's really hard to type right now, because Peter is demanding attention...one of the things he's doing is walking on the keyboard.) Grrr....
Now, last night I didn't get a good night's sleep because Buddy kept barking. I'd start to doze off, be in the beginning stages of sleep and he start. Bark. Bark. Barkbarkbark. Then nothing. "Maybe he's done," I would wishful think. Bark. Bark. Barkbarkbark..... I got up. Opened the door. "Buddy, NO." He would walk in the direction of the doghouse. I'd go lay back down, get comfortable. Doze.... Bark. Bark. Barkbarkbark...... After the fourth time, I got dressed, went out, grabbed him by the collar and we both walked over to the shop. I opened the door and in he, albeit reluctantly, went. It was after one when I finally got to sleep for the night.
I decided that today would be a good day to take Jackie in. I didn't realize exactly how bad this Acepromazine must taste. And I didn't follow the vet's admonition to not feed Jackie for twelve hours before giving him the drug laced food. I got a can of Fancy Feast and was able to get Jackie in the garage. I shut the door, just after Red ran in. Well, I think, I'll watch Jackie eat the food and make sure Red doesn't get any. Just about then, Kirby came in the catdoor. Dammit. I forgot. So, I grabbed Kirby and walked out with him, leaving the drugged food, Jackie and Red in the garage. I went back in to see how it was going and Red ran back into the rafters. No problem. Jackie still isn't interested in the food. I add a little mixed grill. Nope. I think, if I can get Red back into the house, I'll just leave Jackie out here with the food. I look up at Red. He's licking his chops. Oh, no!! He was eating the laced food. I look at it more closely and sure enough, someone's been eating it. I pick up the food, open the door to the house, figure "the hell with it". I just checked on Red and the drug has affected him. His eyes look weird. Jackie's fine. *sigh* I called the vet, asking them what they suggested. Giving Jackie the same laced food tomorrow isn't advisable. I need to go in and get more pills. I washed all of the bowls, flushed the food down the disposal. Right now, I'm ready to not feed Jackie for a week to get him to take the damn pills. But I'll start with the twelve hours as recommended by the vet.
I cut back on the amount of food I put out front last night. I only used one can of soft food and only put out three bowls. If Meezer, Angus and Big Opie are still alive, they aren't around here. OC is looking really good. He's finally putting on weight, not such a skinny thing. And I've seen Chipper, George and Gracie's mom, bouncing away into the night a couple of times. It's been a while since she ate here on a regular basis.
My new CD recorder showed up Saturday. I was so excited!! I came into the house and started rearranging stereo equipment. I hooked up one of the new speakers, putting the other one into the exercize room with the JBLs. I reattached some of the speaker wires to the switch box, which is next to the turntable. I found a box that Brian had made years ago, it was the perfect width, but too tall, to put next to the turntable with the switchbox on top of it. I had Brian cut it down to the proper height and set it up. Now, the cats wouldn't be able to get back into all of the wires. Yay, a problem I've had for years. I detached one of the cassette players and figured which switch went to which component. I put the new recorder up on the shelf and it was a perfect fit, when I moved all of the existing equipment all the way to the right. It was time. I hooked it up. I turned it on. Nothing. No power. Huh? I double checked how it was plugged in. It was all correct. I took it down and tried plugging it in to a different outlet. Still nothing. Aw, spit. What a pain in the butt. I don't want to wait....she thought, whining. So, I called them today, ordered a new one which should be here this week, and they are sending a label for me to return the one I got Saturday. Once they get it in, they'll credit back my account. *sigh*
DeeJay was being a real pill this morning. Talk about grouchy. He even attacked Lucky when I put him outside. Poor Lucky. She's sitting in front of me now. I saw Deej poop last night and it's looking a lot better. Not much there, though. The first little bit out was pretty loose, but the rest was better formed. So, his system is adjusting, just like the vet said it would.
We watched a couple of football games yesterday. I dozed off during the first one, Maggie on my chest. A cat bumping my nose woke me up. It was Rusty. Brian was laughing. He was watching Rusty, knowing what he would do. And my nose is sore. This darn dry weather has the inside of my nostrils so dry that they hurt when I touch the outside of my nose. Rusty wasn't on my chest for too long. And it wasn't funny.
Tired of sitting around, Brian got up during the second game and started working on redoing the barrier for the cats. When he was done, I mentioned taking down what remained of the dog run. He had fenced off part of the yard and had gates up. When he painted the house, he took part of them down. Since it didn't look like he was planning on putting them back up, I suggested taking down the rest. Especially since it's such an easy jump for the cats over to the fence he was working on. He said he will, but he didn't do it yesterday. I'll just keep after him.
Wednesday, January 26, 2000 Well, I have good news from Monday night. I saw both Angus and Meezer. I was so relieved to see them both. It was early, a little after six. I don't usually feed them until after eight. But Monday was such a mild day, that I had the front door opened. Now, all I need to see is Big Opie.
We went to Disneyland yesterday, had a pretty good time. Aunt Flo stopped by before we left, kind of put a damper on the day, though. I hate that old hag.
When we got home and I walked in the front door, the urine smell about knocked me over. It was awful. I'm ready to throw out all of the furniture and get plastic stuff. I'm serious. I turned on the hepa filter, hoping that would help and I'm going to be more diligent about cleaning litter boxes. I'll do it twice a day if I have to. It's something that has to be done. I'm really good about doing the ones in the garage, like Brian said, most likely because they don't have lids. But I'm not so good about the ones in the rest of the house. So, I just have to get into the habit, not put it off for one day. Can't do it. Just like I get out of bed every morning at six, I have to clean ALL of the litterboxes EVERYDAY.
Well, I've been having such a hard time loading lvdesigns.com again, that I notified the host. Again. He's going to move the site to a different server. Hopefully, this will fix the problem. And I'm going to move the chatrooms and Benny's Fun Forums over to Catler.org. I found another server with five times as much bandwidth and four times as much webspace for twice as much money. I recently added more bandwidth to the current site. Five gigabites for thirty dollars extra a month. This other site gives me ten gigabites for twenty five dollars a month with 100Mb of webspace. Plus, it's a whole lot faster. I'll just have to figure out the CGI stuff again. *sigh* Just when I get comfortable......
LOL!! I forgot to upload this this morning!!! Sorry....
Saturday, January 29, 2000 Boy, this has been a long month.
I got the benny's chat and forums moved yesterday. Now, they're over on catler.org. It took awhile to do. I saved all of the messages and they had links to lvdesigns.com and I had to change all of those to catler.org. Thank goodness for cutehtml. It can do multiple pages at a time. Figure I had close to 800 pages to change. Whew. But I had both the chat and forums up and running last night. Now, hopefully, I'll be able to get some money back for the extra bandwidth I paid for.
The cats are doing well. Peter is such a little cutie pie. He loves to climb up on me and just be held. This morning I walked around with him in my arms, he kept putting the top of his head back to my face for kisses. Georgie was on the dining room table (which is only used when Brian takes off plans) and Pete pawed him from my arms. "Hey, Georgie, look, mom's carrying me around and I can smack you with impunity." I opened the doors yesterday and we spent a couple of hours outside. I don't know why, but I'm nervous about Jackie outside, so I watch him closely. I shouldn't be, because any barking or loud street noise, and he's back in the house. He has no problem knowing where to run. Pete and Ciara have so much fun together outside. I guess it looks like so much fun that the other cats join in. It's fun to try to keep an eye out for the young ones. They don't always play in the same area. Usually, Jackie is the first to go back indoors. I guess he's not real gung ho on being outside. He's more secure inside, which is good. Peter, I have to chase down to get in. He thinks it's great fun. And Ciara is pretty good about coming in when she's called after being out for awhile.
It's been on the cool side. I can tell when Benny wants in soon after going out in the morning. *grin* And Lonee doesn't want to go out at all, not until the sun is higher in the sky and it gets warmer. Geez, the heat even came on yesterday at five(it's automatic; it's set for sixty between the hours of ten and five, after that it's at seventy until ten pm, when it drops back to sixty until six am) it's been quite a while since it's done that. Good sleeping weather.
Well, the gutter guys never showed up. Remember they were supposed to come out last Saturday to finish the job? Well, I called last Saturday and was told that the part wouldn't be in until Wednesday. Nobody showed up Wednesday and Brian called Thursday morning. He left a message. Well, apparantly the owner of the company didn't like the message and called back and was snotty with me. "I said the part came in on Wednesday, not that the job would be done Wednesday. We'll be out late this afternoon to finish up." Well, late Thursday afternoon came and went. So did late Friday. Now, it's Saturday and still no sign of them. Brian will wait until Monday and call again. What burns him up is he asked the guy at the time if it would be a problem. If we would have known that it would be, Brian wouldn't have changed his mind about how the gutters drained. The worker said it wouldn't be. I guess he was wrong. Brian isn't very happy right now. I guess the owner of the company isn't either, because it's a part that had to be ordered, and they have to make another trip out. But that's not our fault. The worker said it wouldn't be a problem and why wouldn't we believe him?
My mom wasn't able to get her chemo treatment Wednesday because her white blood count was too high. They told her if it didn't drop, she may need a transfusion. But when she went in yesterday, the WBC was okay and she got her chemo treatment. That was kind of scary. I think she was working on a little cold.
We are so out of food and supplies. I can't believe how long the list has gotten. We need just about everything. But Brian had to go measure a job this morning and the rest of the day he'll be working on his tractor. You know, he thinks he has to do one thing a week for Ranchita. Last week, nothing was done. And if I try to say "well, do it on Sunday" we know that's not going to happen.
I got the payroll tax stuff done. All the yearly reports typed and sent out and the W2s finished. That's always so much fun.
The new CD recorder showed up yesterday. It works!! Yay!! Then I couldn't find my only rewritable CD. I spent hours looking for it. I finally found it last night in the exercise room (where all my CDs are stored). It was at the bottom of a pile of disks I have to put away. Now, I'm ready to go make more CDs for the truck.
I guess I'll try to get the visitors' pictures added to the website today. It's been too long.
Monday, January 31, 2000 Boy, do I have a headache this morning. My sinuses are really bothering me. It's cold out and it's drizzling and I'm freezing. Guess I should put on a sweatshirt.
One of the things I plan on doing today is to empty completely all the inside litterboxes and put new litter in them. I've already done one. And I'm going to wash the walls where the dining room is supposed to be. My sewing machine is in there and I had a cardboard box there for years to keep the cats from spraying the machine. Well, I've had the machine itself covered in plastic for years to keep it from getting marked. But I got tired of the plastic getting wet and put the box up to protect it. I've been after Brian for years to make something that I can just take outside and hose off, but he never did. So, this morning, I finally got rid of the box and covered the front of the machine cabinet with aluminum foil, putting a little trench at the bottom to keep the urine from going into the carpet. Which I heavily doused with enzyme cleaner.
Two more boxes to do.
One more box to go. Oh, my aching back. Figure each box I've changed out I put 30 lbs of clean litter in. Who knows how much the dirty litter weighed.
I've been letting all the cats out for a short while each day. Yesterday they were out for the longest time yet. Brian and I got up early and went to breakfast. I wanted to put a light over the stereo stuff so I can see what I'm doing. The light I have would be too hard to reach the on/off switch. So, I wanted to get one of those inline on/off switches. We went to Home Depot after breakfast and they weren't opened yet. So, we went to Wal-Mart. When we walked in, I asked Brian if he wanted a cart. "No, we'll spend too much money." After visiting the garden center, I had to get two carts. Brian bought some palm trees. I had cut my hair Saturday, took between 3-4 inches off and cut alot of the perm off and most of the frosting. So, I got a perm kit and a frosting kit. After we paid for the merchandise, we went home and unloaded the truck. I let the cats out. It was great. Benny and Maggie already know about the nip garden. DeeJay got into it and after a half hour in it, I had to kick him out. He was very possessive of the nip, chasing the cats who dared enter while he was partaking. Kirby, a real niphead, hadn't tasted the fruits of the leaves on the stalk and I called him back. Boy, was he a mess when I finally told him he had had enough. His neck was soaking wet from drooling and rolling on the nip plants. I'm glad they're so hardy. He ran down by the pool, but by the looks of it, he found some nice soft dirt and rolled in it. His neck was awful. All that drool mixed with dried dirt. Yuck. After we had been outside for a couple of hours, Brian said it was time to go to CostCo. We hadn't been in weeks and our cupboard was bare.
We got the cats in and took off. We knew we needed litter, among the other things we needed. Since I had discussed changing out all the indoor boxes, we knew we needed a lot. So, we did our basic shopping, I waited in the book section with the overflowing cart and Brian went out and got a flat. When he came down the main aisle, pushing the fifteen boxes of thirty pounds each PurrFect litter, I noticed he had also picked up some solar light kits. "How much are those?" "Eighty dollars each." Well, they weren't, they were ninety dollars each. "What about the lights you bought years ago that you never installed?" He answered back "they need to be installed." *sigh* Our CostCo check was over $650.00. And it wasn't very long. Two hundred for the lights, a hundred for the cat litter, it adds up quickly.
When we got home, he played with his lights. I was after him to make the box for my new CD recorder. He finally did and I got it put up. It looks so much nicer. The switch I got for the lamp didn't work, it was much too small. So, I rummaged around in drawers and found an on/off switch that you just plug the appliance into, then plug the switch in to the wall. It works just like a wall switch. It does the job.
The gutter guys never showed up. Brian called this morning and was given some sort of "employee" problem excuse. So, why can't they call and let us know? The jerks.
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