Everything but the kitchen sink - hmmmmm...and maybe that too.

A nowhere weekend...lazy, lazy weekend...just plain l-a-z-y.  Tulip bulbs waiting to be tucked into the earth, and they're still waiting this late Sunday evening.  Finally fully dressed 6 pm tonight...kind of had to since the cupboards were full of too much empty space, and I haven't as yet joined that growing group of oddies that traipse to town in their PJ's.  Just remembered I was to gas up the wheels on my way home from shopping, but I bloody forgot...I hope everyone else hasn't done the same thing...wonder how early the pumps start to get crowded...like I ever do anything that early.

As I gathered up Chloe from the vet last Friday afternoon, he had good news...doesn't appear that she is suffering from too much pain, and bad news...all that yowling, growling, and chomping of my hand seems to be more of a personality trait - one that is seen often in calicoes.  They're known to be a stubborn lot, and not easily persuaded to go against their will...and the point was given an extra boost of creditability when she tried to destroy the vet as I was shown how to apply the aloe gel to her wound twice a day...ya right.  Why is this vet always giving me life threatening tasks to do?

The not-being-in-much-pain theory flew out the window at sonic speed when quite a bit of growling was heard from behind that closed door to my workroom.  Cut her pain medication in half and decided to continue it for a bit, so I could get some sleep that night.  She didn't even notice that all the cubby holes for kitty hiding were crammed full of junk.  Do you think when she gets to feeling better, that she will make me pay for that little inconvenience to her existence?  It's not easy these days for me to crawl around on the floor trying to extricate her from some dark hole to make her do what she doesn't want to do and still remain in one piece.

Husband will be calling soon...hmmmmm...talk about husbands, I have a question that no husband should ever ask his wife if he even remotely values his life.  Husband does too much browsing of anything to do with his Thompson Contender collecting...twerks me a bit, but can't complain while he is still working overseas.  He gets bored with always working and he needs a bit of something different, so his closet is piling up with boxes on his many internet quests to have the most complete collection of silhouette shooting in the history of mankind.

He pesters until I open up each package to tell him the contents so he can leave timely feedback.  Priority mail boxes already have glue that requires one to break their fingers while trying to open them up, so why do people cover these boxes in six yards of shipping tape?  I've resorted most times to using a saw to cut off the end of the box to extricate the contents.

Opening up a pocket knife box to see if the knife was okay...it wasn't securely tucked away in the recesses of it's display case, and it flipped shut before I could blink an eye or remove my finger that was in the way.  Upon informing my sweet husband what had happened earlier that day he asked something that no man should ever ask if his brain is in thinking mode...the first thing he said was "Did you clean the blood off the knife?"  He thinks he's safe now...a month has gone by...I doubt he even remembers...but a wife never forgets...never.  

Miss Chloe's has been a bit lazy herself this weekend.  Weekends mean absolutely nothing to her, since she's not even remotely related to humans.  She doesn't have weekends, she just has days.  Weekends are for people who work...just days are for cats who mooch off of people who work.  I think she knows she's found her sugar mama, and she plans to mooch big time for the rest of her life.     

She's been improving quite nicely, and she has even given me the benefit of the doubt and not chewed my fingers off when applying the aloe gel.  She has a much bigger room now with a south window that lets in buckets of sunshine.  Her attitude seems to have brightened up quite a bit.  Spent part of the day with her to soften the reality of her prisoner status.  What to do...what to do after I've petted and loved her for an hour...oh ya...that scrapbook journal that I never make any time in any day for.  I guess I have lots of time right now.

Sunny part of day with this pic, but right now it is way too late to be spending any more time on this post, plus I've just about wrote a book here.  If you made it this far, I hope you have a frightfully delightful Halloween eve, and am leaving this slight tongue twister as my trick of the treat.  Haven't a clue what it means anymore.  I always have a huge dictionary by my side when I write my posts, and the gobbledygook word caught my eye, and I never can leave anything as intriguing as that alone.  I knew what it all meant two months ago when I started playing around with it, but that was two months ago and I'm too lazy to look it all up again.  Sleep tight...don't let the goolies bite.

The goaving gobbledygook

gobbled up the gobbet

before gulping from

the goblin's goblet.

Aw...come on...she's such a sweetie.

What was that?

Why did I close the bathroom door behind us?

Oh...you know how dogs are...

it's just to keep that bad dog out.

Ha-ha...you thought it was to protect the dog?

Protect him from what?

Such a sweetie.

I swear she has your name written all over her.

She's so perfect for you.

Look...she's even smiling at you.

What's that you say?

These five bandages taped to my left hand?

I hit myself five times with a hammer...

I'm such a klutz.

Oh, come on...she's just bored.

Why would you think she was sizing you up for the kill?

Oh...the toilet.

Let me explain...

Just ran out of storage space, that's all.

Hahahahaha!!!!!

You thought it had something to do with the kitty?

Just look at that sweet face...

I swear that little darling's falling in love with you.

A growl?  Not a growl...just her quirky purring.

She already thinks she's your little sweetheart.

I'm

going

to

miss

 my

little

*Disclaimer*

I still have my little kitty, although I do have the bandages on my hand from the kitty bites when she went skitzo with the pain after the shock of her ordeal began to wear off...so to preserve the rest of my limbs, she's on pain medication; although it doesn't sedate her as I had hoped.

She began hiding behind the toilet making pill popping impossible, and the need to be able to put her in the carrier on Friday when she goes in to be stitched up was giving me nothing but stress; sooooo...I eased her out of her hiding place by removing the over toilet shelving, then stacking kitty litter bags in the empty spaces and used a cardboard box to gently ease her out of her safe-from-mommy space.  She finally laid on the towel I put down allowing me to pull it out with her on it and plugging up the rest of the area around the toilet with cardboard boxes, litter bags and bath towels.

She made a wobbly escape to the only safe place left...her carrier.  And to think, for a while I thought I was up against an impossible quest.  Sometimes it pays to keep coming up with alternatives until the right one finally pops into ones head.

Is life ever simple?

I'm looking at this little leaflet that was included with the simplehuman trash can I ordered to store the peanuts-in-shell I mostly feed to the bluejays and squirrels.  It doesn't quite hold the entire box of nuts, but I'll live with that cause I need to be able to reach the bottom of the can without having to go to the chiropractor afterwards.  Its purchase is a last ditch effort to restore my barnyard looking kitchen back to some semblance of a lovely place to enjoy preparing and eating a meal. 

Love this brand of trash cans...I found them when the need arose to curb a trash loving junkie hound from eating used kleenx, and scattering the leavings all over the floor as he picked out what he thought was the gourmet of the lot.  I'm trying to multi-task as I attempt to write this post off the top-of-my-head, and lately I've sucked a bit at that crazy idea...so I'm trying to go back and forth...writing a bit, then checking on the potato and onion pierogies that are simmering in the skillet to have with my lunch with a steaming hot cup of Lady Grey tea...mmmmm.

Tools for simple living...as if simplehuman products are the answer to making my life simple.  My panasonic microwave died a spectacular arcing and fireworks death several weeks ago, so I bravely decided to not replace it and learn to live without it...thus the need for the chef's choice electric glass kettle to prevent me from ruining my small sauce pan, or better yet burning down my kitchen.  I've discovered a watched pot never boils, but if you leave the room it bubbles up at sonic speed and cremates the pot innards.

A little 8-inch (believe me...8-inches is little compared to all the food guzzling people do now days) waffle iron now sits beside the glass kettle.  It makes an adorable round waffle that is divided into five hearts.  I fell hook, line, and sinker for that review of the lady saying now she could make those little heart waffles topped with strawberries and sour cream that she loved on her visits to Europe...mmmmm.

Buying the all-clad cookware to pamper myself in my older age, was a luxury time saver as well...the stainless steel clad around an aluminum core is the easiest pan I have ever cleaned.  If anything is stuck to it, soak it a bit and it comes right off.  Of course, it's stainless and stainless steel scratches, so I find myself searching out all the old cleaning products that my mom used, as they were so much more friendly with your belongings.  I already know that I will never have scratch less pots and pans, because a life of trying to make my pots and pans look like they have never been used is pure craziness to me.

I do have the ones I use most sitting out in the open on a hammered steel triangular tower, as they hogged up the cupboard space and all my bake ware was piled shamelessly in a mess on top of each other.  The clatter of pulling a pan out of the stack would send the felines and canine scattering for cover to the bedrooms.  I've been munching on my pierogies and sipping Lady Grey tea...so soothing for my headache that has been hounding me for most of a week.  It eases up...gets ugly...eases up...gets ugly...right now it has eased up; I haven't found that magic combination yet that will send it far away, but I'm trying.

Miss Chloe, dog wrangler apprentice flunky, is much better now and becoming a little testy.  She's tired of living in my bathroom...heck, I'm tired of her living in my bathroom.  Taped the shower curtain to the outside of the tub to keep her from falling in.  Vic's bathroom is Yvonne unfriendly and taking spit baths isn't a way to go for very long.

Her leg reopened because part of the tissue was dead or dying and infection set in.  She's been on antibiotics, and I apply a concoction the vet made to dry up the infection and help the healing process.  She has about a five inch gash on the backside of her leg that is fairly deep and still draining, so she stays in the bathroom until she is stitched up.  She's scheduled for another vet visit next Friday.  If all is still good, then she will be stitched up.  Also suffering a broken rib, she will always sport a nub on her right side after she heals.

I am amazed at how she manages with no pain killers...puts all the bitch-about-the-little-things people to shame.  She moves around quite a bit, loves to be loved, she's started to play a little, puts up wonderfully with all the doctoring I do to her...she's a survivor, and dare I say...the perfect feline.  No ear mites, no diseases, no worms, she clearly was someones pet...how could anyone discard her is beyond my comprehension.  A mother cat and another kitten showed up the same time she did, so I don't know if they are connected or not; I'm not checking out the other two, I don't have the time, money, or room.

So very sad how people discard these poor souls on our park all the time, all the years the park has existed.  So many people with no sense of responsibility or compassion.  These persons have absolutely no place in my life, except for their discards that I have rescued or mourned for.

Doesn't she just melt your heart?

Chloe went to the vet this last Wednesday - Andee on Thursday and he is on a type of thyroid pill to see if it will help kick in the production of the other type of T-cells he needs, otherwise he will be on two types of thyroid pills for the remainder of his life - Chloe again to vet on Friday.  Chloe's visits were emergencies, as there were no last minute openings.  I took her in at closing time, 6 pm, and I had several other people with closing time appointments waiting with me.  An extremely bad week of emergencies and lots of bad tempered people voicing their opinions at having to wait so long...what is wrong with people.  So one has to adjust...doesn't anyone know how to adjust anymore without bitching?

I've worked with the public most of my life and people can become nasty when they aren't number one, so all three days at the clinic I let everyone go ahead of me, no matter what order I was scheduled.  I was told that I was the only kind one of the bunch, the only one that still could laugh and joke after waiting so many hours.  I've had to wait longer than that at the emergency ward at the hospital.  Becoming irate in these circumstances is a waste of good energy.  I have a wonderful relationship with the clinic. ..they're my friends...they're my pets best friends.  I do get rewarded for good behavior...I get discounts and even have had a free visit here and there when I have waited way too long.  Kindness begets kindness. 

    

Well, I've rambled on and on...finished off the cooked-to-perfection pierogies and took the last sip of wonderful tea, and I'm thinking my life has never been simple...never.  Tools for simple living?  Okay...these are my tools for a simpler life...not a simple life...an endless supply of humor, patience that never runs dry, compassion and empathy.  Life is much simpler when one can go with the flow and not dwell on the bumps along the way.  I find that I am happiest when I make others happy.  Really simple.

Andee doing what Andee does best...

         

         

Falling for Fall in My Gardens

I've learned to harden my heart against stray animals...it's been a necessity for our household; otherwise, I would be well known around these parts as the CAT LADY of Upper Antioch Heights; you know, that person who at last count has 268 meowers and a few barkers thrown in for good measure carousing the jammed packed shredded interiors, dining on salmon chunk hor d'eouvres, and lapping up all the white wine in the cupboards before their maid, cook, and poop picker upper is dragged off to the Clover Bottom Estates for the once-upon-a-time-mindful mindless.

Sometimes I slip up...well, more like a voice from somewhere above nudges me and says not this one...you can't walk away from this one...period!  She's little Miss No Name for now...I've never been one to pick a pet name out of thin air in any manner of timeliness.  Sweetheart Jesse was Mr. No Name for two months...see what I mean...I think it has something to do with perfection, you know...that perfect name and no other will do.

I was told a kitten was in the culvert by the office.  It had been seen several times that afternoon, and I did what I usually never do...as cats are dumped at our park all the time by shit people (I'm sorry, that's the only word I have for people like that)...I took a look.  After being coaxed out, it was clear it was injured.  I called my vet...it's 1:45 pm on a Friday and my vet is closed on Saturdays, I'm 40 miles from home, another 20 miles from my vet clinic that can get me in at 5:00 pm...I tell my boss I have to go, take a potty break, and I'm flying home in my little toyota solara with half grown kitty as my very quiet passenger.

A stop at the house for cat carrier, then on through all that city traffic to the vet...couldn't believe I made it there by 4:30 pm.  We think something large with teeth grabbed her on the inside of her left leg and shook the hell out of her.  She had a hole in her upper leg as big as a baseball and her body was covered with bruises.  It was time consuming cleaning out all the maggots and disinfecting it all, and the decision to only partially sew it up to let it drain was made.  I almost got a headache waiting to see if she was feline leukemia free...cause if she wasn't she wouldn't be coming home with me...I had to think of Andee and Zoe.  No leukemia...yeh!...given some fluids, an all fleas drop dead pill, and we made it home just in time for Vic's 8:15 pm phone call from Afghanistan.

She's taking up all my time right now...plus I've had to actually start thoroughly cleaning my house for when I let her venture out of the bathroom, where she is protected for now from the other cats, so she can rest in blissful peace.  I'm not sure at this moment if she will be okay.  She's been up and around, but she not eating as well as I would like to see....time will tell.  She's due again at the vet this coming Wednesday.

My gardens wait for no one...and winter follows fall, so these photos will be seen this winter if I wait until I have time to apply labels and some witty clever commentary.  Enjoy, and I should be back before winter :)

Spider webs in the grass in fog

Vine with leaves of three, four, and five...

Friend or Foe?

Spreading Liatris

Milkweed Bug

Driftwood

Choose which you like best...