The Cliffs of Insanity

Aunt Tudi and I went over to clumsycake's abode this morning so I could get her to witness a document sent to me from SC Vocational Rehabilitation. It's a release form allowing my case examiner access to my medical records. I had to sign and date the document, fill in some information like my street address and phone number, and they also wanted a witness to attest that s/he knew me by signing the paper and leaving a phone number. She was happy to be my witness and I was happy to finally get to meet one of her cats, River. He has a stumpy tail like Smidgen, but he can move his. Her other cat, Storm, is a shy and moody Tortie, so no luck on meeting her. clumsycake was my first choice because her last name isn't Evans and she knows me...boy does she know me! We've been friends now for twenty years. It's hard to believe. We have pretty much a lifetime of memories stashed on our mutual behalf now. Anyway, we had a good, albeit short, visit before heading to Spartanburg so Aunt Tudi could give blood for some lab work Dr. Ebrahim wanted. Her potassium is a little on the high side so they're wanting to keep a close eye on it.

We got everything we needed to do done today and got in early before the worst heat of the day came to kick our butts. The heat over the next few days is going to be scorching with high humidity. God, just kill me now.

Sent to the Dungeon List in response to my "The Cat Came Back."

I pernear swallowed my tongue yo.

I'm looking for the song "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus. I have the song, but only on vinyl (that's a record, young people. 33.3, round, flat, black. you put a needle on it and it spins around and music comes out your speakers; thus, the Dead or Alive song "You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record baby, right round round round.").

Does anyone have a copy of this song I can download, like for free, mebbeh?

I can't believe I don't have this song! I mean, I have a cat named after Nervous Norvus because the poor creature was very very nervous when he was a kitten. Norvus is Steve's brother and, truth be told, he's still a tad nervous, but not nearly as much as he used to be.

Llew went to his family doctor today, who believes that this may be a case of Bell's Palsey rather than an actual stroke, since the effects are localised in his face and have effected his ability to speak in that it's like he's had a shot of Novocaine. He also changed his blood pressure meds since the meds Llew was on were apparently not working. We checked his blood pressure last night and it was 193/131. I tried to persuade him to go on to the E/R, since this was one of the danger signs noted on his hospital paperwork, but he flat refused, damned stubborn man. So.... I don't know what to think.....except I'm going to work on having him change doctors because the MRI indicated a clot in his brain and indications of TIAs. More grief. I hate that doctor of his.

Aunt Tudi has taken over household duties way too early. She just has to do it her way and insisted on wresting the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, and whatnot from my grip. I know I'm lacking in such things but damn! I feel like a total failure-slacker-loser. On the good side, she's doing fabulously with her hand. It has healed much quicker than her left hand. Almost immediately after her surgery, she had all the feeling back in her hand whereas, with her left hand, it took several months before the numbness went away. So I'm happy about that, but I'm really pissed that she's not following doctor's orders and letting me do what she usually does. I'd stop her but it's kinda hard to do if you're asleep in the middle of the night and she does a laundry or you're at work and she does whatever dishes were created at breakfast, or she vacuums the house. She's a sneaky old hag and I'm a total domestic failure.

This is Mike's unpaid week off at work. As a reminder, Mike is my route driver, the dude who delivers all the goodies I need on a daily basis at Rochling. The dude, David, who's covering for him knew nothing about Mike's route, so I figured he'd be late today. Mike usually arrives between 9 and 9:30 in the morning. David got there a little after 11, after the lunch rush (between 11 and 1) had started. So I had to try to fill the drink machines while people were trying to buy drinks. That's a tad difficult to do. It's not his fault. He was just thrown into the situation, which is no good considering Mike's route being very big and very difficult. But it threw me majorly late in what I do in the last half of the day and I expect tomorrow to be just as bad because David is off tomorrow and another guy who doesn't know diddly about Mike's route will be driving it. Whee!

My day didn't stop at 2. After 2, I was obligated to go get Fat Boy Boo Boo for his Spring shave-down. I picked him up at 2:30 and had him finished by 3:30. Easy-peasy except for one thing: I almost cut a skin growth right off the poor doggie. Boo Boo is a wire-hair Parson Russell Terrier, so his fur is medium length and very wiry. When I went to shave his tail down, it encountered what appeared to be a mat right at the end of it. I tried to shave it again, and Boo Boo was all like "OH HELL NO!" so I backed off. I took my shears and began to trim the area one teeny bit at a time. Then I saw it - it was a growth about a quarter inch long (a little over 6 millimeters for you metrically-inclined folk), just dangling obscenely off the end of Boo Boo's tail. So I had to shave his tail down, but trim his growth. His tail looked like crap as a result. Otherwise, the dog looked faboo, if I do say so myself, and Gwen was thrilled with the results of his Springtime shave.

Once I got home at around 4:30 from taking Boo Boo home, I set to clipping our dogs' nails since they could out tap-dance Mr. Bojangles in the state they were in. I'm so ashamed. I clipped all their nails, cleaned up the bathroom from Boo Boo's bath, cleaned my equipment and the table, put everything away, and took one breath. After the one breath, I went outside to feed the Backyard Pride and the Front Porch Pride and give them fresh water. The bowls of water were nasty, thanks to the almost three days of rain we had, so I cleaned out both bowls and gave them fresh water, then poured out the food to the delight of all the cats. Whilst outside, I got swarmed by mosquitoes and got bitten several times, but the worst bite was on the side of my index finger. That's an extremely uncomfortable spot to obtain a bug bite. I began to wibble. It was a little after 5 o'clock and I'd been awake and non-stop for twelve hours. Wibbling, I finished the feeding of the Prides and brought my achy arse indoors.

After all this, I began to ponder my mental state over the past few weeks. Many people have asked me how I was and where my mind was, as they knew I'd been under a lot of pressure. I could never adequately answer them until about an hour and a half ago. If you could crawl into my head and peer inside my mind, this is what you'd see.


I don't anything else needs to be said after that. It pretty much speaks for itself. I'll let it speak for me now.

Autumn, Motley's sister, has decided to have her babies on our front porch in the quilted sleeping box Aunt Tudi made a few years ago. She's agriculturally pregnant, so she's due any day. Riley has decided that it's amusing to stand at the box and bark into the small opening at the cat he can't get to. We're all trying to persuade him that this isn't an acceptable past-time. Autumn, however, appears to be unconcerned. She knows that nobody can reach her and her kittens as long as she's in that box. With all the blankets inside there, she's both comfortable and warm, and the box shelters her from the elements. This is truly a perfect place to give birth. I'm looking forward to seeing her babies, but I'm not going to be intrusive in the least. I don't want her to move her kittens before I have the chance to plant the seed of domesticity. If they're tame, I'll be able to get them to the Doc if need be, and I'll also be able to get them neutered and spayed when the time comes. Unlike Autumn, who is firmly entrenched in her feral nature, her kittens will have the chance of finding good homes and maintaining good health. ::crosses bits:: In the meantime, Aunt Tudi and I are doing our best to provide Autumn with the best food we can, and we're watching over what's now The Birthing Box to make sure idiots like Riley don't distress Autumn in her time of labour. If Autumn has any complications, I can always reach in or take the front off the box by force so I can reach her, and get her to Doctor Patch if I can't fix the problem at home under long distance supervision. Hopefully, she won't have any problems, although this is her first litter and she's around 2 years old now. That's uncommon for a female cat. If she successfully gives birth, though, Autumn will be an official queen. Good on her!

Here's a picture of The Birthing Box.

This has been a pretty good day, the first good one since Thursday, and I owe it all to that dream I had. I had written Barry to let him know that there may be a delay in getting the music up on his site due to my dad's death. He wrote back to tell me not to worry about the site. Despite my irrational terror of him, he's really a sweet soul. I think getting that letter yesterday and seeing a Gospel choir on "The King of Queens" is what prompted the dream. Whatever it was, the dream was an undeniable gift.

Aunt Tudi and I are about to go up to Janice's and Uncle Michael's for the Independence Day brouhaha. If they want me to do anything remotely "American" there's gonna be some hard feelings. Whoever thinks we're independent, especially after the "election" debacle of 2000, is living in a fantasy world. We're a freakin' dictatorship just going through the motions of being free. The only reason I'm participating in this holiday get-together is to try to get Aunt Tudi out of the house and get her mind off losing her brother and best friend. 'Nuff said.

When we get home, I'm going to try to get the ladies indoors tonight and keep them in for the night. They'll be terrified of the fireworks and I want to make certain they're safe. I wish I could bring all the cats in, but most of them wouldn't have it. They have shelter in my two out buildings, though, so I'm sure they'll be fine.

Another kitten showed up, as did two cats I'd forgotten about, so we're now up to 28 cats. I think that's all of them. I hope so.

I'm needing to get the cats straight. There've been some changes over the past few months, so the last list of felines is no longer valid. For shits and giggles, I'm including the dogs and opossums as well.

Dogs

• Winchester Napoleon (Chester) -- Yorkshire Terrier


• Riley -- Dachsund/Scottie mix (Bratwurst on legs)


• Sheba -- Bassett/Cocker mix

Indoor Pride

• Smidgen -- Ginger Manx (half-tail that doesn't work)


• Shmoop -- Full Tabby (she thinks she's a dog)


• Motley -- Tortoiseshell Manx (no tail at all, she looks like a bear)


• Foley -- Pastel Calico (a big brute of a cat named after Dave Foley)

Outdoor Pride

• Theodore -- Ginger Manx (half-tail that does work, mostly tame, will eventually become part of the Indoor Pride)


• Aloysius -- Long-hair Tabby (broken jaw that's healed wrong. He gets a lot of canned food now. Partially tame, we're working on getting him indoors as well, and getting his jaw fixed)


• Sluggo -- Surly black cat with flat ears, flat eyes, and flat face (grandfather cat, retired from the competition, named after Ron White's bulldog)


• Goldie -- Tortoiseshell Manx (half-tail that does work, mostly feral but she will allow me to pet her on occasion)


• Agro -- Tabby cat with orange spot on her head (Shmoop's mama, mostly feral).


• Festus -- Tabby cat with a bad eye (Shmoop's daddy, mostly feral, will tolerate petting, but will then turn on you and bite you. Schizophrenic).


• Joe -- Young Tabby Tom. (follow's Theo's lead and will let me pet him)


• Flakes -- Solid white cat (totally feral)


• Moo -- Mostly white with black spots (looks like the Gateway cow, totally feral)


• Speck -- Long-haired black cat with one one white speck between his eyes (totally feral)


• Biafra -- Pastel Calico with one bad ear thanks to a hematoma (mostly feral)


• Iggy -- Ginger cat with very unusual eyes and herpes (50% feral)


• Hook -- Tabby and Tortoiseshell Manx (half-tail with a hook, it does work, mostly tame)


• Bagheera -- Calico Tabby Long-hair (mostly tame, very hateful to the other cats)


• Spiteful -- Ginger kitten (beat the crap out of me the first time I encountered him. He's calmed down a lot now)


• Norvus -- Ginger kitten (very young. He will be tame. Goldie's son. She brought him and his siblings to me)


• Scrumpy -- Norvus' sister, Tabby (she'll also be tame)


• Shades -- Another brother, soft grey with three dark grey stripes on his rump (another tame one)


• Ghost -- Another sibling, indeterminate gender as this one is a bit feral. Mostly black, long-hair, possibly a Tortie, but I can't be certain.
  
• Jolsen -- Yet another sibling, also black. Looks like s/he is wearing black face; thus, the name (for Al Jolsen).


• Zsa Zsa -- Long-haired Tortoiseshell. Very elegant. (Mostly feral)
  
• Gotrocks -- Long-haired black. Also very elegant. (Totally feral)
  
• Caeser -- Tabby and white male, Festus' primary rival (totally feral)


• Autumn -- Tortoiseshell and white (Motley's full-tailed sister, mostly feral)

Opossums

• Sven -- big opossum. I assume he's male.


• Helga -- smaller opossum, camera ho. I assume she's female.

Rest in Peace

• Jacob -- She disappeared without a trace.


• Blueberry -- She disappeared without a trace.


• Lynx -- He was squooshed by some heartless asshole in a car. He was the most beautiful cat I've ever seen in my life. His name describes his appearance.

Of all the members of the Outdoor Pride, I have hope of finding homes from Spiteful, Norvus, Shades, and Scrumpy. They're all very young and already quite responsive to human presence. All four allow me to pick them up and give them medications. Like every child of Goldie's and Agro's they came to me with funky eyeballs and a runny nose, so they're on the normal regimen of Amoxil drops and erythromicin eye goo. By the time they're ready to be placed, they'll be healthy and happy, totally tame kittens.

On a related note, I got a great buy on cat food at Bi-Lo. They had 18 pound bags of Kit-n-Kaboodle for $5.00 a bag, almost $4.00 off a bag. So I got three bags. That should hold the hungry little buggers for two or three weeks. They aren't eating as much as they were 'cos it's too damned hot to eat. They sure are sucking up the water though. Aren't we all?

After work, I'm picking up Aunt Tudi and we're heading to Dr. Patch's to get some Amoxil Drops from Miss Marple and (hopefully) Spiteful. We're also going to the dump to drop off some rubbish and the post office to pick up more rubbish and, hopefully, a DVD. I'm waiting for Last Holiday starring Queen Latifah. Both Aunt Tudi and I loved that movie. It was also the deciding factor in my going to England. And the Gospel music in it never fails to give me chicken pimples, goose bumps, weasel pox, and a host of other animalistic flesh risings.

I was going to see Llew, but have put that off 'til tomorrow. Instead, I'm heading for bed early because I can't seem to keep my eyeballs open. I actually took a half hour nap at lunchtime, I was so sleepy. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, but I hate it. It's not like I didn't get enough sleep last night. I went to sleep during The 4400 and slept through til this morning, about 9 hours. It's a good thing I taped The 4400; otherwise, I'd be so pissed right now.

So, that's the agenda for today: Vet's office, post office, and sleep sleep sleep. I'd really like to write on The Chalice some, but that's not gonna happen, not for as long as I'm narcoleptic.

I did not want to get up this morning. I wanted to stay in bed and sleep, cuddled up under my blanket. The low this morning was 60, about 10 degrees cooler than it has been, so I was a little chilly and keen on staying warm and snuggly. But I couldn't. I had to get up so I can go to work.

It's been a half month now and I haven't dreamed one iota. There's something about this that needs to be incorporated in the myth of Cadmus, that he steals dreams. Maybe I can include that in the rework of "Embrace" for the book.

---

I had to identify a dead cat yesterday. Janice told me about a cat that had been mushed in the road and was wondering if I was missing a member of the Pride. She took me across the road to the edge of the wood and there, flat, mangled, and covered in maggots, was my beautiful Lynxie-boy. My heart fell. He was the most unusual cat we had, looking just like a lynx. I said a silent prayer over what was left of him and committed him to the natural way of things, and returned home to those who still live.

::sigh::

It hurts me to lose a cat, but I maintain a certain distance from the Pride because I know that they're in constant danger and could die or disappear at any time. If I allowed myself to become fully attached to these cats, I'd be a wreck at least 50% of the time.

---

I wonder how many Fundies are gonna fall out from fright if anything unusual happens today? It'll be a good day to keep one's eyes and ears open for any humourous news stories.

I must get ready the rest of the way so I can haul my slack arse to work. I'd rather haul it back to bed. Blah.