A self-indulgent post

Yes, I was supposed to be gone all this weekend, not back until late on Sunday night. But things didn't go as nicely as I had planned, plus I was feeling extra-sensitive for some reason this weekend. I normally am overly sensitive but it turned practically into a depression. I usually can keep my head up and keep swimming despite feeling down or blue. But this weekend I just couldn't, and so instead of writing privately in my notebook journal, as I really ought, I'm being self-indulgent and writing here in the blog.

Let's start at the beginning, and no, I won't bore you with the intricate details but more of an outline form:

(1) I loaded up the washer and dryer into the jeep all by myself. They're apartment-sized, not the full-sized, but the washer is still quite heavy and both of them were rather awkward to fit into the jeep. I also loaded up a bunch of other things, like chairs, golf clubs, vacuum cleaner, full boxes, etc.

(2) No, I shouldn't have done that by myself. I've already been suffering from sciatica, which sounds like a funny little granny ailment but isn't at all funny. The first time I had it I fainted and every time since then have wanted to scream with pain--it's that bad. If you don't know what sciatica is, try looking it up in Google. I did, even though I unfortunately knew what it was. It was reassuring to know that I wasn't being melodramatic in my description which is: like a butcher knife stuck into my thigh and twisted back and forth! On Google I found a diary sort of thing by a young girl who described it almost exactly that way, the way I've been describing it. And others like that, too.

OK, I've already lost the outline form and have gone into those intricate details-- but I bet you aren't that surprised!

(3) I drove down to see son and his girlfriend, stopping on the way to buy the particular fast food that girlfriend loves which isn't available anywhere near where they live. Nobody was home. But they were expecting me and had left the door unlocked. My little ex-dog was glad to see me!

(4) After 5 hours of waiting and boredom I sort of figured I might not be seeing them until the next day, especially because Friday night was the launching of the new Harry Potter book. I had known that they were going to go there shortly before midnight, but didn't know that they weren't going to be there early in the evening to greet me and help unload the jeep (they live on the second floor). I brought up pretty much everything but the washer and dryer, also took the dog for a short walk.

(5) They did finally come home, apologized for the lack of greeting and brought me the brand new Harry Potter book! We talked for about an hour, then went to bed. I got the very comfortable air bed in the spare bedroom.

(6) I got up shortly after 7:00 a.m. and they didn't get up until well after 12 noon. So guess what? More hours of boredom, another short walk for the dog, getting and reading the paper, etc. They had carried the little lamp into their bedroom, so the light wasn't good enough to start reading the Harry Potter book.

(7) By this time my back was killing me and I was feeling very down. I suggested to them that I just wanted to go back home. They were somewhat upset about this but son's girlfriend had to work so we brought her there and came back home. I insisted that he unload the washer and dryer out of the jeep so I could go home when I wanted to leave. He disappeared upstairs (I think to get the dog) but when he didn't return right away, I took both items out of the jeep myself. He did carry them upstairs, though as I couldn't have done that.

(8) Son moved his computer and table into the living room, with my help. I helped him move the TV and entertainment center over to a wall. Then he sat and played on his computer, put the 4th Harry Potter movie in the DVD for me and ate some of the food I'd brought for girlfriend. He (like his girlfriend, earlier) insisted that he wanted me to stay, yet I wasn't feeling very welcome! I found the home-cooked food that I had brought them last time rotting in their refrigerator, so I dumped it out and then washed my dishes. I didn't do up all the dishes lying around nor clean the apartment like I did the last time I visited them.

(9) I left when the movie was done, son carried down my heavy suitcase. Gee, I sure wouldn't have needed all that stuff for one night! While watching the movie I did eat a small pizza (one of those little frozen ones that you bake) all by myself, which wasn't good, but I was hungry by that time. As I was driving the couple of hours to get back home, I did wonder if I had returned to visit them too soon? Yet they had encouraged me to come down again and we had planned the exact date according to their work schedules.

(10) So now I am home again and glad of it, even though it's a day earlier then planned. The real estate guy had left a message on my answering machine about renewing the listing contract. It made me tired to realize that I will have to explain to him why I want to list with another company (his company barely advertised my house).

So, I'm finally done lamenting over my "lost" weekend and ready to go to bed now. I feel much better after writing all this down even if it was quite the "poor me" self-indulgent post! Thanks for reading (if you managed to get this far...!) But hey, I have the new Harry Potter book.

I didn't do it

Yesterday I was weeding and hoeing my garden. The neighbor cats (there were at least two who visited my cat box--I mean, my garden!) seem to be leaving it alone after the excellent suggestion of putting coffee grounds around the perimeter of the garden. Like I have a shortage of coffee grounds, ha ha. I was putting them into the compost pile but now they go directly into the garden. And no new cat diggings and smelly little piles, yay! Thanks for the great, and effective suggestions.

Here's a neighborhood who takes their pet ordinance a bit too seriously:

Family’s cat beheaded, then another one goes missing
Minneapolis Star Tribune Published Sunday, July 08, 2007
Shortly after moving into their home in the town of Carver, Minn., last year, Tammy and Barry Erickson were given a friendly warning: Their new neighborhood wasn’t very cat-friendly.
The couple found out just how unfriendly last week when one of their five cats, Soon-Yi, was killed and its severed head tossed into the family’s front yard, where it was found by Tammy Erickson while she was watering her plants on June 28. The next day another pet cat, Louis, went missing and hasn’t been seen since. “We think the same person did the same thing to him,” Tammy Erickson said Friday, wiping tears from her cheeks as she looked at pictures of her dead and missing cats.

The decapitation is being investigated by the Carver County Sheriff’s Office, which reports no similar cases in and around the town. “It’s a terrible thing to do to a pet,” Chief Deputy Bob VanDerBroeke said Friday. “We’ve been canvassing the neighborhood but have not come up with anything yet. We’re taking it quite seriously.” The incident has become the talk of the town of about 1,850 residents. An e-mail was circulated to City Hall workers telling them about the situation.

Though the Ericksons say a resident warned them about the neighborhood’s bias against cats after the family moved in last September, they said that none of the neighbors have complained to them about the cats. The Ericksons said the decapitation, while shocking, was not a complete surprise in retrospect, considering some of the incidents that happened since the family moved into the home last September. Weeks after the neighbor’s warning, someone stuffed a copy of the city’s pet ordinance in their mailbox. The sections on cats were highlighted, but city officials say the family was not in violation.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” Tammy Erickson said Friday. “There are other cats in the neighborhood.” Tammy Erickson said her children are taking the death and the disappearance very hard, especially Chloe Hetland, her 13-year-old daughter, who she said went into shock when she found out about Soon-Yi’s death. “She was the baby of the family,” the teen said of her pet. “I remember I was crying and in such deep pain.” Carver is just southwest of the western Minneapolis suburbs.

OK, this is a terrible thing to do to a beloved pet, or any animal. Not my idea of how to keep cats out of my garden. But are these people stupid, or what? Wouldn't YOU keep your cat safe inside your house after that very first warning? And I can't figure out what exactly the pet ordinance for that city would be, if the family wasn't in violation. Most leash laws mean exactly that--people are prohibited from letting their pets run loose in the neighborhood.

Anyway, no cats in my garden and I saw them both today, too, so nothing bad has happened to them. But the real news is that after the weeding and the hoeing I decided to thin out the radish rows. I had barely started doing this when I noticed that some of the radishes felt, rather, well--fat. I pulled up a chubby one and it was ready to eat already! So I thinned the radish rows by feeling around and pulling up the ones that were ready to eat, ten radishes in all. Then I took them in and washed up two of them and ate them. The first fruits of my garden, even if radishes aren't actually a fruit. It seemed like a miracle and I was positively glowing about it all the rest of the weekend. You'd think I'd never grown anything before, rather than having been raised on a farm as a child. It's a wonderful, spectacular miracle! And an edible one, best of all. And it has been two years since I had a garden. The one before this was at my little studio house in the country. Do you have a garden this year?

I got that call!

Well, son finally called. Actually, he called while I was still at working. I worked some minor overtime last night. Minor compared to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. with no lunch or breaks on Monday!

The phone message was garbled and barely understandable but he called back later. So now I have an actual address and assurance that all is going well. He's put in three days of FT work already and loves the job.

Our little dog had a rough couple of days getting used to all of the other animals (they have 3 other dogs and a ginnea pig--plus son had brought Ricky the chinchilla there a couple of weeks before he moved). But now she is happy as one of the pack, has her own special doggy friend and loves the piggy, they sleep side by side. Contrast that with being alone all day long until 9 p.m. and having only the two ferrets (who she doesn't like) as companions. It was the right thing to do to let son take her with him when he moved. So I am pleased at how it's all turned out.

Ferret playground

Oh, I'm still tired. Guess I didn't get caught up on my sleep with son asking to borrow the car after I was in bed and had finally (barely) gotten to sleep. Then I lay awake for a long time but finally got back to sleep but am still groggy now. I've already made the bed, started coffee and got the bathroom ready for the ferrets.

I ferret-proof the bathroom every day before I shower, go and grab them from their cage in the basement. It's easier to let them have some unconfined time every day in the bathroom with me (with the door shut!) while I shower than to let them roam the house. Nebby, in particular, is very difficult to catch and return to the cage when I have to go to work--if he's loose in the house.

I have two sets of "ferret playgrounds" which are a mixture of various sized boxes into boxes for them to play in. They love boxes and blankets the best, just like little kids. I don't use a blanket in the bathroom for them, but two "dog" towels draped over the boxes. I have the drain plugged when I shower, so after I'm done with my shower and out of the tub/shower, the ferrets go into the bathtub for a swim. They're sweet but stinky little animals and much of their daily care consists of trying to tame the smell!

They love their playtime in the bathroom while I'm showering and then getting ready for work. Yesterday I had to re-do the polish on my toenails. They would come over close and then sneeze and leave. Yet they would come back again, because they're so friendly and curious of everything I'm doing. In fact, when I'm getting out of the shower, I have to dry off and apply "ferret-proofing" before putting my foot out of the tub! People always ask if they bite, and no, they're the most gentle animals, so much so that if our dog attacked them, they wouldn't fight back (it's never happened because we're careful to not leave them alone, unchaperoned) but they, for some reason, love to nip at freshly showered warm and puffy feet. They pretty much just touch their teeth to my foot, yet it is unpleasant, so I put lotion on each foot before stepping out of the shower/bathtub. It's the only time they nip or bite. I think freshly showered feet are more spongy and soft/slippery and the texture intrigues them. Some Bath and Body Works lotion on each foot deters them to a safe distance, though. They will rush up and pretend that they're going to bite me, just to get me to react. The ferrets whole life is all about play and playing.

Someday I'd like to make a video of the ferrets playing in the bathroom. But the room would look a mess with a stack of soda boxes stuffed into a beer box and a round oatmeal container sticking out of that, partially covered by two clean but stained "dog" towels. Not a pretty sight to anyone but the ferrets! Have a good day!

Monday is here

We had a very warm weekend, up into the 40's and the snow piles are melting. I can hear the water dripping in the "pit" in the basement and the sump pump has been running. So far so good and it's worked well.

I had quite a restless night. The time just doesn't feel right. I woke up a lot, the last being at 3:00 AM--and I didn't get back to sleep. Now, Monday is here, the coffee is on and I'm going to collect the two ferrets to bring them into the bathroom while I shower. Have a good Monday and start to your week!

My new dream pet

My last post was pretty cranky. Oh well, it's Friday. I had a series of three cool dreams too. Here are just the highlights:

The first dream was the coolest. We were putting on a show called "Snow Dance" with a group of dancers in white fuffy parkas--well, dressed all in white on one side, and that blue like a shadow in the snow on the other side. Their forearms (on the parka) each had a strip of red, so they could make beautiful moving patterns by using those colors. They all were on short skis to get around. The IT guy from work was the director, and the dancers each had a password that he had to put in, sort of like an animation, but they were real people (well, real dream people!) and the Training Manager was in the dream too. Somehow people were all getting stuck in their cars and I had to break out of the windshield to get out!

In the second dream I was telling the two real co-workers about the first dream! The Training Manager and I were getting dressed in bathroom stalls for a meeting with Headquarters. When we went to the meeting, the CEO was a different guy, I even saw his name in the dream and wish I could remember it. Probably it has some sort of significance. Anyway, he was scolding our department for using up too many of the agency resources, and then all the equipment started breaking down.

In the third dream, just before I woke up we had an aquarium with fish in it. A visiting kid took the largest fish out to play with it and left it on the floor. We adults were upstairs talking and drinking coffee. Soon the fish sort of grew legs and was walking around harassing our other pets. I did scoop it up and put it back into the aquarium where it ate all the other fish and then climbed out again. The fish ate the dog's food and grew bigger and bigger, its teeth got razor sharp and I had to put on these huge fishing boots to go after it before it started eating our pets! I woke up when the fish started snarling and attacking my boots in the dream.

I think maybe I saw a commercial or something that prompted the first "Snow Dance" dream, but have no idea where the last dream came from! Happy Friday to you, have a great weekend!