What Will Be

Tomorrow I’ve got an appointment with the Neurologist. To most people it’s just jump in the car and either drive a few minutes or across town and you’re there. For me it’s preparation. I wrote earlier about trouble with the car battery. Well today I had to get a new battery and install that. All went well this time. This is how my day will go.

I have to get my Sunday Go To Meeting clothes ready. Not that I wear them that much, but I do have to beat the dust off, maybe do a little ironing. Now I’m ready to walk out the door. I forgot to take George out and feed Tom and Cat. Go back in and get all that done. I’m ready now, but I forgot that I needed to put gas in the car, so it’s downtown to put gas in the car.

Car is gassed up and now for the 2 hour drive into B’ham for the doctor’s appointment. I know the route pretty well now, but I always miss my turn off. Whether its too much traffic or just subconsciously I don’t want to get to the appointment, I don’t know.

So I get to the right place, find a parking place and make it in anywhere from 30-45 minutes early. I hate to be late for an appointment. At this place you check in and they give you this little round thing with lights on it. Instead of someone calling you, this thing lights up and starts vibrating. Yes Laura I know. :) Anyway when it starts it’s thing, you get up go to the desk and the nurse escorts you back. After that it’s the normal thing of checking in, wait, wait and wait. The Doctor flies in asks you some question, how’s it been going, that didn’t work huh, OK lets try this and see you in 3 months. So far, I’ve spent the entire morning of preparation, driving and waiting for 15 minutes with the Doctor. But this isn’t all. I’ve got to maneuver out of the city and drive another 2 hours to get home.

As soon as I pull up to my street, I know when I walk in FMom will want to know what the Doctor said. George will be so happy to see me, he’ll be using me as a trampoline for at least 15 minutes and Cat will get in there somewhere.

I already know that the Doctor will probably recommend another Occipital Nerve Block and that will have to be scheduled for later. It just seems it would be easier if I could call and go through the whole 15 minutes on the phone. It would have the same outcome and save me all the hassle.

Trying For Normal

Last week wasn’t the best for me. First I pulled my back and then a migraine. This week I’m hoping will be better. At the moment the back is about the same, but no migraine. I’ve got a neurologist appointment on Wednesday, so I’ll see what new thing he wants to try this time. Other than that, just trying to return to normal.

Another Experiment

Today I’m hosting the café over at Booman Tribune. To any newcomers and lurkers out there in Cyberville, drop by and see whose in the café. Better yet, drop by and introduce yourselves. We’re mostly a good group of people and the café is a very relaxed, or if the café doesn’t interest you, the tribune has the most talented writers in the Cyberworld.

Another experiment today with making movies. Instead of a movie from my camcorder, I pieced together a lot of pictures of the pond and added music and titles.

I hope you enjoy.

Things Could Be Worse.

I’m pissed. I pull my back yesterday and it’s not as bad today as yesterday, but it’s still stopping me from daily activities. Not that I do that much anyway, but it’s messing up my nap times.

Yesterday I was being energetic and decided to get the lawn done. I got the yard picked up for limbs, pinecones, etc and got the riding lawn mower out. I start it up, engage the blade and loud knocking started. The blade was hitting the iron casing. I stopped and decided to lift up the front end of the mower and place it on a support to get a better angle to pound out the casing. Yes I know, it was very stupid. I have everything set up; start lifting and half way up, something went POP in my lower back. I drop everything and fall to the ground. Movement was impossible for about 15 minutes and while I’m on the ground, the whole world is tuned out except for my back and me. I manage to get up, get in the house and from there to the doctor’s office.

At the doctor’s office, I was in and out a lot faster than normal. She prescribed a shot for a steroid and pain reliever and gives me a prescription for a muscle relaxant and OTC pain reliever. I get home and finally lie down and sleep for awhile. When I wake up I find I can sit in one position without it hurting to bad or lay in one position with the same. I tried yesterday to make a couple of post at sites, but found that my concentration or typing abilities were not up to par, so I just gave up on that.

Now with all the medicine you might be wondering how is it messing up my naps? To a true nap connoisseur, it’s not the sleeping that is the goal. It’s that between time when you are still a little awake and just about asleep. It’s the time when your body is saying this is the most comfortable I’ve ever been and your mind is off playing in fields or solving the world’s problems. The back and the medicine have shot that to hell. No matter how I turn there’s no comfort and to say I think clearly un-medicated would be untrue. The medicine just produces disjointed thoughts or straight to sleep.

Hopefully things will be back to normal soon and I’ll be able to nap contentedly while my mind soars in the dreaming half sleep state.

Other than that, everything is peachy.

Picture Tuesday

No deep thoughts today. Hah as if I ever have any. No rants, problems or words of wisdom. Hah again. So it's just a little picture posting.

George As His Usual Self

People Fishing On The Pond

Are You Talkin To Me?

And One of my Old Friends.

That's it for the day. Hope everyone has a good one.

Short Vids and Snakes

FARfetched mentioned something yesterday that I hadn’t even thought of. Using the video mode on my camera for a few short vids and seeing how that works. I think it’s a great idea and I had one of the Duh moments for not thinking of it earlier.

I had been looking for a free panorama or stitch program because I wanted to show the whole pond out back. Now I’m thinking with the vid mode I might be able to do that. Now the big decision is whether I want to show the whole back yard with George doing his business while panning by or just the pond. I think it will just be the pond though. Some things are just too much even for dog lovers.

On to something new and a short rant. I hate snake movies! That snake in the jetliner movie is at number 1 and it seems every channel on TV is putting something on about snakes. Yesterday there was nothing but snake horror movies on sci-fi. Yeah that another rant about calling a channel sci-fi and showing horror movies all the time, but I digress. Even on the hallowed airwaves of the education channel they had snakes. Is no place sacred? I usually flip through channels all the time, but to flip from one snake to another snake to even another snake is too much! It’s bad enough to have to put up with them when I got down by the pond, but on my TV all the time. That’s just too much.

OK monthly rant is over. I must be getting better at this because they started out as quarterly rants.

Added: OK here it is and I'm really not satisfied with it, but I decided to throw something up. The next experiment will be taking the shot with a camcorder instead of a camera vid. I'm sure the quality will be greatly imporved.

Forgot to add that this was taken at dawn without a tripod. OK that's all.

Mowing at the Speed of Light

I thought I would put up a little something I've finally figured out how to do. This is me awhile back mowing the yard. I used to be a lot faster than now.

Played by a Cat

After all my planning for the lawn this morning, I got side tracked. Darn it! As soon as I went into the kitchen this morning, Cat was standing by the door, and I thought that’s good. I let her out and go about my business.

Well I get ready to go out to do the lawn and walk into the den. The smell hits me and I start cursing. No wonder she wanted out first thing. She knew she was in trouble. So instead of mowing the lawn, I find where she decided to go and start cleaning the entire den. I had been needing to give it a deep cleaning, but had been putting it off. So the entire den is now spotless and smelling of spring flowers.

Cat on the other hand is outside at the moment and will probably stay out for awhile. I had been worrying about Cat’s paw. She’s now putting weight on it. When I took George out, Cat walks up to me on all fours and I start fussing at her. I know she doesn’t realize what I’m mad about, but she looks at me, turns around and starts walking with her right paw held up again. She is limping badly now that I’ve fussed at her. Once I get back inside, I look outside and see her walking on all fours again.

That damn cat has been playing me!

Sundry Things

I finally got my wireless router yesterday and had the whole thing up and running in about five minutes. First thing I did was go into the den and start blogging. I have to admit it was very cool, but as with anything there are problems.

First, I disabled my left/right buttons on my touch pad. I remember doing it, don’t know why, and now can’t remember how to enable them. I’ve been going through all the F1 help and everything else, but no go so far. I hooked up a wireless keyboard and mouse a long time ago and I think the drivers are in conflict. I’ll just have to dig more.

Second, I’m not used to the laptop keyboard. I know that’s not a problem and that I’ll learn, but it is such a hassle to cut and paste, and the touch pad seems so slow. I know I can fix that and again it just getting used to it.

Now on to more, er, sundry things. Yesterday morning when I entered the bathroom, I saw the relatives had put a second new toilet seat by the first one. Kind of frightening really. I’m wondering why their minds are on or in the toilet lately. I’m waiting to install said toilet seats because I want the excitement to build. Yesterday when I went into the city, I bought a cake. I think I’ll save that for the installation of the thrones. Who said there’s never anything exciting going on around here?

Today it’s cleaning the house and the lawn again. It’s amazing how messed up the house can get with the relatives here. For the lawn, we’ve had just enough rain for the grass to keep growing. One good note, the gas tank on the lawnmower had a leak and I did fixed that. Being on fire and running screaming through the yard didn’t appeal to me, so I doffed my slackerly ways and did some work. Again what would have taken anyone else five minutes to do, took me over an hour, but it’s done and my lawnmower awaits.

Have a good day to all.

Another Unexpected Gift

The relatives finally made it in yesterday afternoon. These relatives usually bring along something every time they arrive. Usually it’s a large amount of fruit or produce or some odd and end type thing. This time they really surprised me though. I was presented with a brand new toilet seat last night. I wasn’t aware we needed a new one, but I now have a shinny seat still in the wrapping. Don’t ask me why, but I thought I’d google toilet seats. I never realized there was such a variety of them.

For the musically inclined.

For the Scottish.

For the Cowboy.

For the artistic and lovers of the sea.

Finally my personal favorite. Lights for those late night trips.

If you dare, click all for larger image.

So after perusing all the seats out there, I'm sort of a little disappointed with just a plain old white one. However, a gift is a gift and I'll install the new seat with all the pomp and ceremony it deserves.

Filamentous Outgrowth

Well it looks like after threatening to show up for the last week, the relatives will be here today, at least that’s the opinion of FMom. So today it’s off to the city to get groceries and stock up the pantry again. I got to get a lot of stuff done in the city. One is I’m looking so shaggy now I need to get a, oops wait can’t say that word. In deference to the squeamish about clippings, I need to see a coiffeur to have the filamentous outgrowth on my head coiffed. See I didn’t say haircut.

I remember back in my early 20’s when I let the hair really grow what a hassle it was. Plus all the extra stuff you have to buy just for long hair. Plus-plus there’s not to many old men who look cool with long hair. Plus-plus-plus it just doesn’t fit in with a slackerly life style. I figure first thing in the morning if you spend more than a few minutes combing your hair, then you’ve started off your day non-slackerly. I could go the opposite direction and shave my head, but I feel that’s pretty non-slackerly also. I hate to shave every morning as it is, so I can’t see prolonging the whole experience that much longer. So today I’ll try to get coiffed, otherwise it could be this.

Cat and George are still asleep, so I’ll see this morning how Cat’s paw is doing and then try and force down the kitty Advil the vet gave me. I think Cat is starting to get used to me picking her up and carrying her outside. I can’t keep that up.

Other than that I see a non-slackerly day ahead.

Cat

I took Cat to the vet this morning and he couldn’t find any puncture wounds on her leg or paw. He did say there was a swollen spot on her paw and that’s the reason she wasn’t putting any weight on it. He ended up prescribing a kitty Advil for her. He said it would take care of the swelling and pain, and if it got any worse to call him.

You can see on her right front paw she's hold it up.

To a lot of people, their pets are more like children. I’ve always thought when you took a pet that you took also the responsibilities that go along with having a life in your care. Of course I don’t like the vet bill, but I was happy it was nothing serious. Cat, just as George and Tom, is part of the family. You don't shirk your responsibilities to the family, or for that matter, anything that's in pain.

Office

I was thinking today about times gone past. Some of the times I hated to see go past, and some just could not go fast enough. Unfortunately I was thinking about my time working in offices and the worst office I ever worked in.

In all the places I had ever worked in, I was always able to get along with everybody. I’m really a non-confrontational type person and it takes a lot to get me mad. I ended up in one office where there were two co-workers there who took and instant disliking to me the day I walked in. I never understood that since I had always been nice to them. I had never liked playing the office politics and I have to admit they were masters at it.

In this office besides all the routine stuff we had to do, there were seven major programs we had to oversee. By the end of the first year there, I had five of these major program to do by myself. In an office with seven people this was just not right. I would talk to my boss about it, but he would use the old line the rest weren’t experienced enough. Hell they had been there longer than I had. Anyway I never could get this boss to spell out what each persons job responsibilities were. To give you an example about this boss, we would put our reports in his in box for his signature. He would let them sit there for weeks. His boss would start asking where the reports were and my boss would turn around and jump on me for not making sure he got his work done.

Now every office I ever worked at was not perfect, but this one was beyond anything I had ever experienced. To have co-workers and your boss gunning for you is not a good situation. Keep in mind I had never had these problems at any other place I had worked at. I figured my number had just come up. That sooner or later, you’ll get to a place that no matter what you do, you can’t get people to like you or have a good working situation. At this time I was in the military and didn’t have the option of telling everyone to screw off. I was stuck here and there was nothing I could do about it.

Oddly enough, before I finally left, this was the longest I had stayed in one office. The people who strove to make my office time miserable had left and new people and bosses came in. However, this was during the end of my stay there. Although things had gotten better, it was still very intense.

When I finally left this place and gotten to my new office, I had extremely good people I worked with. I remember my first weeks there my boss kept telling me to relax. My boss at the new place made the entire atmosphere of work enjoyable and a place where everyone got along with each other. I’ve gone through the whole gambit of bosses and co-workers. Some are still good friends and others I wouldn’t give the time of day to. I guess I just never understood why some people would want to make a place you spend 10-12-14 hours a day at, one where people hated to go to. I always chalked it up to some people just like to stir up trouble, other just don’t know how to get along and still others just don’t know what a good working environment is.

I always liked to think I made a good working environment for people around me, but just as in every story, other people have different views. Obviously I told one or two things that went on during that time and these were pretty tame looking back on all that happened. All I know is, I never tried to make anyone’s work time miserable. I look back upon that time now and think, if I could get through that, then I can get through most anything. That’s the great thing about life. Everything is static and never remains the same. So even with bad situations, I always look at it, as things will get better.

I guess hope is the word.

UN Top Ten Under Reported Stories

Liberia (olivia)

Democratic Republic of the Congo (vieravisionary) Part I

Democratic Republic of the Congo (vieravisionary) Part II

Sanctuary (Nanette)

Refugees (Kahli)

South Asian Earthquake (Poeschek)

Behind Bars, Beyond Justice (Man Eegee)

The Water of Life (Captain Future)

Côte d'Ivoire (ejmw)

SOMALIA (ask)

Nepal's Hidden Tragedy - Thanks ask for pointing me to this.

As most of you know, I’m a member of Booman Tribune. I mostly stay in the café and don’t venture out too much to the main page or diaries. One thing I saw there is the community effort started in May of 2005 by susanhu and sprearheaded this year by Man Eegee for diaries on the UN top 10 underreported stories. I saw the community come together in this and was very proud of the effort each person put into these diaries. As with most diaries they will scroll off the page sooner or later and I hate to see this happen. I feel these are important diaries that should be kept for a long while.

So I’m cross posting from Booman’s and I hope he or the diarists don’t mind.

As with any blog, this diary will scroll off too, but I'm adding a link on the left side under blog roll to bring you back to this diary, and to where it will be more visible.

Added: I use foxfire as a browser, but I took at look at this site in IE. The whole site seems thrown off and everything is to the right. It looks fine to me in foxfire. If anyone has any suggestions or the know how in how to fix this for IE, I would appreciate it.

Geese and Cat

Yesterday in our small pond we had about 25 geese/ducks (I don’t know) dropped by for a little while. I got my camera and took some pictures, but as you can see they didn’t come out that well. FMom told me in years past that she had seen hundreds of geese out in the pond at one time. She has been here for over 35 years so I’m sure she has seen her share.

Click to enlarge.

I’m a little worried about Cat today. She came in not using her right paw at all. She doesn’t seem to be in any distress, but she won’t put any weight on that right paw. I felt all over the paw and didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary and she didn’t flinch during my exam, but she still won’t put any weight on it. Our vet is gone until Monday and if this keeps up I’ll take her in Monday morning.

Added: Since I've finally learned how to do a youtube embed, I saw this one and thought about conservations on geezers. Hope I can be this geezerly when I get his age.

Palmer and FMom

Years ago while I was away, my brother bought home to my Mom a small cat. My brother said he had picked it up at a service station. He said the man he got it from was going to kill it if no one took it and my brother said he could tell the cat had been abused.

My brother told the man he would take it, but since he was a truck driver he couldn’t keep it. So my brother loads it into his truck and brings it to FMom. This was during the period when FMom was working and all of us children were out of the house and in our own places. At first FMom refused to take the cat because she was gone all day and there would be no one to take care of it. My brother is pretty persuasive though and FMom relented. She named the cat Palmer.

Because Palmer had been so abused he trusted no one and he was like hairball lighting if you came near him. FMom told me when she came home from work; she would have a broom ready for entering the front door. Palmer upon seeing anyone would be in the attack mode and FMom said a few times she barely got through the living room. Time passed and after a few months Palmer saw that FMom would never hurt him, and he starts to warm up not only to her, but to all of us.

Palmer had already been around for awhile when I came home for a visit. I always knew Palmer as the most laid back cat I had ever seen. During this visit I bought my two daughters. They were very young at the time and they loved playing with dolls. They took an instant liking to Palmer and being as laid back as he was, he would let them dress him in doll clothes. I really wish I had a camera then, but I can remember the girls dressing Palmer up and putting him in a baby carriage. They would stroll up and down the street in front of the house with palmer lying on his back staring out. During the strolls, I always thought Palmer had a look on his face that said, “I can’t believe they’re doing this to me.” But being Palmer he was good-natured.

Palmer was good-natured with us, but he mostly definitely loved FMom and she loved him. Palmer finally died some years back of old age. Except for his early life, he had a good life. He was lucky enough to have found someone who loved him and he loved back. I don’t know about every living organism, but I think that’s what’s the most important thing for all. Love, understanding and acceptance is a need we all have.

Palmer was lucky to have been bought to FMom, she was lucky to have Palmer in her life and I think we were all lucky to know some hairball lighting that showed us that kindness and love can change everything.

I'm Done For Awhile

OK I think I've gone as far as I can with the newest new blog. At least I've gone through every line and changed something. I really do like this newest format instead of the first new blog I did. If you get a chance drop by and take a look.

It's Raining Here Too

What I want to do is incorporate what I have there into this blog. I like the 3 column format a lot better and there seems so much more space with a lot more places to put things. So many places in fact I'm trying to figure out what to put. I'll be deleting the first new blog today. I did save everyones comments though.

I read a comment about people who post on blogs some while back. The commenter was saying the only reason people posted on blogs was to be read. I tend to agree and disagree. I would be just as happy posting a diary with one word in it as long as I got comments. I've said before that the comments mean more to me than seeing a site meter with numbers on it. Sure everyone likes to hear that was a great diary, very incisive, very cutting, three pats on the back work such a scholarly work. Well I'm none of that, but I do like to hear from people.

To everyone that has dropped by and made comments, thank you.

Still Working To Hard

A little rain from yesterday.


Click to enlarge

Found out last night I’ve got more relatives coming in on Monday. It’s freaking Grand Central around here. I got to thinking though that the breaks between relatives are like my weekends. They might be here for awhile, but when they leave it a weekend and I have time to relax. What am I saying, I relax all the time.

As you all know, I’ve been working on an experimental site to see what I can do with html. The last site I directed ya’ll to will be deleted soon, but I did find out how to save all the comments. The newest new site I like a lot better because it has the 3 column template. I’ve found you can put a lot more stuff in it. I’m still working on it, but once I’m finished I’m going to try and incorporate what I like into this blog.

For a slacker, I’m doing a heck of a lot more work than I set out to do.

OK I just learned how to put youtube stuff on the blog. I saw this one and thought these guys are great. If for nothing else for thier exercise machine acrobatics. Enjoy

Too Much Work

I've been working on a new blog. Nope not the one I directed ya'll to the other day. This is completely different and I've been working on it a good bit of the day. Olivia directed me to what I had been looking for, the side panels on the left and right. Now I'm wondering what the heck I'm going to put in all the extra spaces.

I figure I'll keep this one by itself and when I'm finished I'll let everone know and see what ya'll think. The reason I'm doing this is because I can't keep three blogs going at once, and if I do delete one or two I don't want to loose everybody's comments.

You know I've tried to get Laura to open up her own blog, but she says it's too much work. I'm beginning to agree with her.

See ya'll later.

More Experimenting

I'm thinking today with what I've learned so far from the experimental blog that I'll try out some of the new knowledge on this site.

As Olivia always says, "Make a copy." I will and hopefully I won't screw up this site.

The yellow flower I had as background at the other site.

Added:

I just got the crap scared out of me. I hadn't seen George around and I figured he was out on the couch. I went out there and he was no where to be found. I start searching through the house calling his name and no bark or anything. Then I remembered I let Cat out early this morning, and I thought OMG what if George went out without me seeing him, and he's been out there all morning. Obviously the worse came to mind. I ran out all around the house yelling his name and nothing. I came back in to search the house and I finally found him. I don't know why I didn't look there, but he hasn't used this spot in a long time. Anyway, when I started getting on him he laughed at me.

I guess he was still mad at me for carrying him to the vet yesterday. Arrrggggg!

Thanks Everyone

Thanks to everybody for their comments yesterday over at the experimental blog. Being the slackerly individual I am, I’m sure it will be a work in progress for a long time. I figure I’ll keep at it and try to keep figuring out how to do stuff.

I decided what I’ll do is keep posting questions as diaries and anyone who drops by and know the answer can leave a comment of how to do something or where to go to find out how.

Of course as with anything my hours of work vary.

This got me to thinking about the kindness of most people on the net. I think I've said it before, but it comes down to acknowledgement. Whether it's posting a comment or a picture in a blog or making up your own one, everybody wants to be acknowledged. If for nothing else, just a hello.

So thank you everyone again for dropping by. It does make a past middle aged, pot bellied, but extremely handsome old man feel good. :~)

New Blog - Experimenting

I've put up a test blog to just start experimenting around with. I didn't want to screw up anything on this site, so I decided to screw up another one. I've only made a few little changes, but if I say so myself, I've impressed me. :~)

If you get a chance, drop by there and leave a comment, and let me know what you think or any suggestions on what would make it look better.

New blog, It’s Raining Here.

Thanks

FM