WILDLIFE REMINDER

I posted this on Facebook today, as I see these things every spring, and I thought I would use this forum as well to try and get the word out to people...

It's that time of year. Spring is when nature is pretty hyperactive, and danger is high for wildlife. Some things to keep in mind while you are out and about:

1)  Keep an eye out for turtles crossing the road. Females and males are on the go, seeking out new venues and females looking to dig nests and lay eggs. If you see one crossing the road, please try to stop and help it in the direction it was heading. They commonly get run over and need all the help they can get. Sometimes they can't get over the curbs to get back to safety. Sometimes people forget how tall the turtle shells are, and how low their cars are, and they think they can safely straddle them. They are often wrong.

2)  Likewise look for squirrels and such. Remember that squirrels are prey animals, created to avoid birds of prey. Their avoidance technique is zig-zagging. So people think they can just straddle them with their car, not realizing that the squirrel will dart in the opposite direction and run in an unpredictable zig-zag path. When you see a squirrel, slow down and just give it time to realize you are coming and head back to safety. It really isn't that difficult. I do it all the time!

3)  People also believe that they can just head down the road at 50 mph, and birds will always get out of the way. Especially this time of year, that may not always be true. Birds are focused on courting rituals and building nests right now. They are distracted. And you may easily see something like I saw the other day, with a bird so distracted with the nesting material he was collecting, he didn't think to get out of the way of cars leaving the intersection at the light, and he was plowed over before he could get out of the way, because the drivers are too impatient to edge forward to warn the bird and get him to move. Often the birds are in the middle of a dispute, chasing one another, and are so focused that they forget the cars.

4)  And, in situations like the above, realize that birds are often stunned for awhile after being hit. So they may appear dead, but are actually just in stasis. Like the one I saw get hit last week. He actually laid on his back, feet in the air, for several minutes and appeared dead. Then he flipped over, as cars whizzed inches from him, but was still too stunned to fly off. I grabbed him and given time to recover, he wound up being fine and I could let him go back in the area I'd found him a few hours later. I've picked up stunned birds from the side of the road a few times now.

5)  Remember that animals that are hit by cars aren't doomed. They often can recover, if given an extra hand. If you see an injured animal, try to capture it and get it to a wildlife clinic like CROW on Sanibel Island. They have pick-up locations all over Lee County. (I picked up an injured opossum a couple of years ago that I spotted in the road. He had a broken jaw. They monitored him and were able to release him after a week or so.)

6)  Speaking of opossum, realize that if you see a opossum hit (or hit one yourself), that they are often females carrying young in their pouch. If possible, check for babies. I once had a maintenance crew find a dying mother opossum and a pouchful of babies covered in fire ants. They took the babies from the dying mother and gave the little pinkies to me. I took them to CROW. Unfortunately that bunch couldn't survive the fire ant venom, but often they can be saved!

7)  And, just in general, be patient and thoughtful. If you see an animal in the road, or near the side of the road, SLOW DOWN! Don't expect it will just get away from the road and be fine! If it is in the road, don't keep speeding on, assuming it will just get out of your way!

We are the keepers of the earth and its inhabitants, and let's keep it well!

Getting Inked: Part Two

Last night was the day-- the day to finish up the tat! This time it was just me and Woodrow, and we didn't have the long wait. The appointment was at 5 PM, and I was on the table and getting inked by 5:20 PM.

Stevie started by doing some "clean up" work on the outlining. As I stated in Part One, I wiggled a lot, and this resulted in some lines being "wiggly", and some perforation, causing some "skipped" spots in a couple of lines. So the first 30 minutes or so was clean up work on that. Most of that went much better than last time. First of all, I knew what to expect. Secondly, most of the line work wasn't long, extended lines. If all tattooing was that easy, I would likely do it again some day.

After that we started on the shading. That was really hit and miss. Occasionally he would hit a spot that I barely even felt. But a lot of the time (around my side) it was quite uncomfortable! I found the closer to my side, the more painful. Some spots closer in to my back didn't even hurt. I got to know by the way he was positioning whether the work he was about to do was going to really hurt.

Stevie agreed that I did much better this time around, not wiggling too much at all. And he said that, thanks to the clean up work he did, I no longer need to disclaim to everyone that I wiggled a lot and it affected the quality of the work. After cleaning up the lines, the piece is now something of which Stevie can be proud!

The tat is large and partially covered by my pants most of the time. And, being a bit of a tomboy, I love that my tat is rocking tough and not some frilly little feminine rose or butterfly. I'm curious to see how it turns out when all is said and done. Stevie said it is much darker right now than it will be. He said it will fade by 30-40% over the next few weeks, so much of it will actually be more of a silvery-gray that is sort of transparent. Right now, it is a pretty deep black across much of it. Note to family (read: MOM!): The tattoo is in a spot that is generally hidden. So most people will never even know that it's there! It shouldn't affect my future job possibilities, and I won't be a 70-year-old with a fading sleeve or anything. It's okay! Really it is! There is no need for panic or distress! (Mom really hates tattoos!)

So today I have that sunburned feeling, and I don't want my shirt to even touch me, but past experience tells me that tomorrow I'll just be a little sore, and after that my biggest issue over the next couple of weeks will be the itching! Oh, the itching! That is enough to drive you mad!

 

I'm happy with how it turned out, but I look forward to the fading, as what I had in mind was a silvery-shaded and reflective tat. So I'm excited to see the changes that occur in it over the next few weeks!

Looking for a tat in the Fort Myers area? Check out Howl Gallery/Tattoo! I'm sure that all of the guys there are great, but I can't recommend Stevie Bananas enough! Patient, professional, laid-back and good-natured, and a great artist to boot! Additionally they have an awesome art gallery, and a great show by Derek Hess going on right now. If I had a spare $500 to throw around, I'd definitely pick up one of his pieces!

Rock on!

Surprise Encounter

Yesterday morning I went to take Zook out for the first time of the day. I opened the french doors to the porch, and I found Zook was hesitant to go out. I finally coaxed him to the screen door, but after sticking his head out the door, he backed up and decided he didn't want to go out. So I had to toss his butt out, and order him to "go to the bathroom!"

He quickly did his business and ran back to the door to be let in. I let him in and we were walking back through the french doors when I heard rustling in the leaves next to the porch. My first thought was "snake", and I glanced over to see what might be in the corner beside the porch, only to discover a small opossum on its back with my large opossum (that lives under my shed) on top of it. There was no other sound- no hissing or anything. I ran to get my camera, and turned it on just as the small opossum tried to get away from Big Boy, and Big Boy decided to go around and pursue her


Then the little girl decided she really wanted to get away from Big Boy, and tried climbing the trellis to get away.


When that failed, she gave up and just scampered off under the bench on my deck.


I left to go get ready for work, and went back awhile later to check the backyard and found Big Boy running around on the deck in front of the shed. Then he disappeared under the deck where I have seen him go before.


Then he reappeared seconds later, only to run around the back of the shed (where he or some other critter has torn off the lattice work across the bottom), and presumably disappeared back under the shed again.

I just never know what I will encounter around here-- and I live in "suburbia"!

Foods Dangerous to Dogs

Being a new owner of a young pup, I just wanted to take a moment to remind people about all of the foods that are dangerous to dogs. Most people are familiar with chocolate, but there are so many other things from which you need to protect your family dog.

Here is a list provided by peteducation.com. However, in addition to this list are a few things that I don't see listed on it. Pantry items such as baking powder and baking soda are toxic. Also spices like nutmeg. And I have also seen mentioned that they shouldn't eat raw potatoes or potato plants, and when feeding them fruits as a treat, be sure to remove seeds, stems and leaves and such.

NOTE: A friend mentioned itching caused by food, and I thought that I would mention that as well. If your dog has a problem with itching not caused by fleas, look at his diet. The number one cause is corn. Go with a high-end dog food that doesn't contain corn, and see whether that resolves the issue. If the itching continues, try eliminating wheat, and then the last two contributors are chicken and beef. My dog is on a lamb and rice food that contains no corn or wheat to help alleviate his itching (FYI: The food he is on is Nutra's Lamb and Rice for puppies.) 

Items to avoid	Reasons to avoid
Alcoholic beverages	Can cause intoxication, coma, and death.
Avocado	The leaves, seeds, fruit, and bark contain persin, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea.
Bones from fish, poultry, or other meat sources	Can cause obstruction or laceration of the digestive system.
Cat food	Generally too high in protein and fats.
Chocolate, coffee, tea, and other caffeine	Contain caffeine, theobromine, or theophylline, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea and be toxic to the heart and nervous systems.
Citrus oil extracts	Can cause vomiting.
Fat trimmings	Can cause pancreatitis.
Fish (raw, canned or cooked)	If fed exclusively or in high amounts can result in a thiamine (a B vitamin) deficiency leading to loss of appetite, seizures, and in severe cases, death.
Grapes, raisins and currants	Contain an unknown toxin, which can damage the kidneys. There have been no problems associated with grape seed extract.
Hops	Unknown compound causes panting, increased heart rate, elevated temperature, seizures, and death.
Human vitamin supplements containing iron	Can damage the lining of the digestive system and be toxic to the other organs including the liver and kidneys.
Macadamia nuts	Contain an unknown toxin, which can affect the digestive and nervous systems and muscle.
Marijuana	Can depress the nervous system, cause vomiting, and changes in the heart rate.
Milk and other dairy products	Some adult dogs and cats may develop diarrhea if given large amounts of dairy products.
Moldy or spoiled food, garbage	Can contain multiple toxins causing vomiting and diarrhea and can also affect other organs.
Mushrooms	Can contain toxins, which may affect multiple systems in the body, cause shock, and result in death.
Onions and garlic (raw, cooked, or powder)	Contain sulfoxides and disulfides, which can damage red blood cells and cause anemia. Cats are more susceptible than dogs. Garlic is less toxic than onions.
Persimmons	Seeds can cause intestinal obstruction and enteritis.
Pits from peaches and plums	Can cause obstruction of the digestive tract.
Raw eggs	Contain an enzyme called avidin, which decreases the absorption of biotin (a B vitamin). This can lead to skin and hair coat problems. Raw eggs may also contain Salmonella.
Raw meat	May contain bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea.
Rhubarb leaves	Contain oxalates, which can affect the digestive, nervous, and urinary systems.
Salt	If eaten in large quantities it may lead to electrolyte imbalances.
String	Can become trapped in the digestive system; called a "string foreign body."
Sugary foods	Can lead to obesity, dental problems, and possibly diabetes mellitus.
Table scraps (in large amounts)	Table scraps are not nutritionally balanced. They should never be more than 10% of the diet. Fat should be trimmed from meat; bones should not be fed.
Tobacco	Contains nicotine, which affects the digestive and nervous systems. Can result in rapid heart beat, collapse, coma, and death.
Yeast dough	Can expand and produce gas in the digestive system, causing pain and possible rupture of the stomach or intestines.
Xylitol (artificial sweetener)	Can cause very low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), which can result in vomiting, weakness and collapse. In high doses can cause liver failure.

The End of an Era...well, a moment at least

No more Katy. Tonight she is home with Mom. We had a nice final day together though.

You know, Katy would have been a great service dog, if she had been given a different start in life. Her early abuse and neglect has created a dog full of anxieties, so she would not now be suitable for the position. But she is so obedient and smart and eager to please.

Whenever we go somewhere, it is her job to carry her toy. That is the one thing that I expect of her, while I am lugging everything else inside! This is how it goes...

She's such a good girl! And today she got to meet a local news reporter and cameraman! We've been having some trouble at work with recyclable pickup (or lack thereof). I got sick of hearing the boss and office girl sounding like helpless victims, so I took it upon myself to email a few local news stations and the local news paper. I told them of our issue and asked whether or not they were interested. You can even see in the video above that I have bottles all over my office floor. This is due to me having no where to put them, since Waste Pro won't pick up our recyclables as they are contracted to do!

Well, today we had a call from the local Fox 4 news reporter asking to do an interview with me. I told her that the boss would be the better person to speak with. They came over, and we are now due to see the boss on the news in about an hour.

Yesterday I wrote the date all over a bottle, and stuck it in the recycle bin. Today I put a dated paper by it and took a picture. I was going to do this everyday until the recyclables were picked up, before we received the call from the reporter.

 

 They interviewed the boss...

...and got a shot of the bottles stacking up in my office, since I have no place to put them. Mom periodically hauls some off, or I take some home to recycle.

They say that they will pick up the recyclables on Thursday, but they have been saying that every time that we call. We'll see if being on the news makes a difference.

So Katy is gone now. I enjoy having her around. She's a good girl. However I'm glad to leave the feeding responsibilities of all of the other animals back to Mom and Tommy. It was about 2 hours per day being spent on traveling to three other places and feed 8 extra animals. Whew! I'm due to start my vacation in two days, and I can use it!

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

Mom bought me this the other day...


You have no idea how fitting this is!

And here is the flipside...


'Nuff said!

April Fools: I have practical experience in practical jokes

OK. So today is April Fools. I've never been much on April fools. However, as previously mentioned, I used to work with some practical jokesters. I even got in on the fun myself. Here is a list of the practical jokes I can remember:

• The aforementioned joke involving my "Seize the sock" coffee mug.
• We had a rubber roach that made its rounds around the office. I came in one day, sat down to work, and jumped when I saw a giant roach on my keyboard. I kept the roach for quite awhile, but eventually a couple of years later I put it on the digital readout of Paul's phone, so he would just see the silhouette of the roach on the lighted readout. It wound up being effective!
• Jon asked Paul one day to change his voice message. Paul (who naturally has a pretty deep voice) left a message on Jon's voice system in his most feminine and lilting voice: "Hi! You've reached Jon!" You had to hear it to get the full effect!
• Likewise Paul set my voice message. The generic computer system left the message that you've reached the voice mail of..., and in Paul's deepest voice he filled in HEATHER. It was hysterical! Just think of Jim Carrey as that female bodybuilder character Vera DeMilo he used to play on In Living Color.
  
• Tom took Jon's phone and hid it in the freezer. He's lucky that it didn't kill Jon's battery. At the end of the day, Jon went to leave and couldn't find his phone. Tom had forgotten he'd hid it in the freezer. It'd been in there for hours! Jon wound up calling his phone to track it down, and found it ringing in the freezer!
• Once, while Paul was gone for a few days, I got the bright idea to use the Auto-Correct feature in Microsoft to have Paul's computer auto-correct with certain terms. For instance, I set his computer to replace "Heather" with "The Goddess". Jon set it to replace "Jon" with "My Master". So when Paul returned to work, he would type "Heather", and the name would change to "The Goddess" in front of his eyes. He thought his system had been infected with a virus or something!
• I bought an Annoy-a-tron and used it on a number of individuals in the office. The Annoy-a-tron emits annoying beeping sounds and such, and is magnetized to hide in obscure locations. I would stick it under a table in a corner or on the back of a desk and leave it for a few hours or a day. People would begin to hear strange beeping sounds in their office, and couldn't track down where they were coming from. Jon was the only one who knew about it. So I can still get away with buying a new one and continuing to use it on people in the office!
• Paul took Brian's cell phone once and hid it in the ceiling tiles. Then we just waited for Brian to get a phone call (which happened quite often). Brian was trying to figure out where in the heck his phone had disappeared to, and eventually tracked it down to the ceiling! He had a harder time getting the phone down than 6'4" Paul had putting it up there!
  
• After Paul left the company, we stayed in touch. One day a month or two after he left I mentioned to him that we were having our monthly meeting, where we used to have pizza and such provided by the company for us. Paul mentioned, "Save some pizza for me!" So I did. I saved a slice of pizza, wrapped it in foil, and packed it in a priority mail box along with that rubber roach I spoke of earlier. I put this in the mail to him. Paul and his then-girlfriend/now-wife Jenn had to go to the post office to pick up this mysterious package. While in the car, Jenn opened the package while Paul drove. I guess she was startled by the roach, and then proceeded to open the foil to unwrap a several days-old piece of pizza. She didn't know what the heck was up with this, but Paul laughed and explained it all to her!

Those are the jokes that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there were other small ones that occurred over those years. Good times!

Also a quick note: Today is 13 years without even a single drag off of a cigarette. I didn't think that I could ever quit, but it's amazing what you can do when you just get pissed off at corruption in big business.

From Ugly Duckling to Swan

Woodrow and I recently attended the burrowing owl festival. This was the same festival that we attended last year and enjoyed. Unfortunately this year there was a huge downpour in the morning, and by the time that it let up enough for us to go, we found most of the booths had shutdown and we were left with this...

...mud and muck. But while we were there, we stopped by the butterfly house and took a quick trip through it. There were a number of beautiful butterflies.

This is the Florida state butterfly, the Zebra Longwing...


I think that this is an Orange-Barred Sulphur...



This looks to be the 'oft spoken of Monarch...


Another Orange-Barred...


I'm not sure whether or not this guy was alive...


This might be a Great Southern White, with his wings smudged from the rain...


This might be an American Painted Lady...


...and another Orange-Barred...

Before we left, we bought a couple of American Painted Lady caterpillars in cups to take home and "hatch" into butterflies. I know they don't really "hatch", but humor me. It's late and I'm too tired to be clever. This was my caterpillar Little Joanie. Unfortunately the other one didn't survive to metamorphoses.

It was amazing how quickly Little Joanie grew. You could almost watch her grow!


Within a week or so, she had attached herself to the top of the cup.


And by that evening, she was wrapped in a cocoon.


About a week or so after that, I opened the cup to this...


A Painted Lady butterfly.

I coaxed her out onto a leaf, and left her on my spider plant outside the porch.





I left it there for the night, and it was gone in the morning. Here is a little video...

You never know what will cross your path...

UPDATE 03-12-10: This little opossum is a juvenile male. This occurred on the 9th, and today he is still hanging in there, but not yet out of the woods. They believe he has a fractured lower jaw, which I wondered about initially when I drove up and he was running in circles and doing weird licking things with his mouth and shaking his head. (I had a feeling they were going to tell me he had a fractured jaw.) I'll check in on him again next week, and see how he's doing. Here's to patient #662 of the Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife!

I started out this morning like any other, and little did I know that when I left for work I would be delayed and side-tracked for about two hours.

I was taking the little side-street I take every morning (the one that runs next to Hope Hospice), just a couple of miles from my house, when I spotted something in the other lane up ahead. At first I thought it was an armadillo crossing the road, as there are tons of them out in this area, and they are commonly out in the daylight. But upon closer inspection, I realized it was this...
An opossum. I saw it walking in circles and shaking it's head. Around and around and around. I wasn't sure whether it was hit by a car or if it may have distemper (you'll commonly see things like circling, lethargy and seizures in animals infected with distemper). I circled back and ran out to check on it. I could see a couple of spots of blood around it's nose and around it's back end, but no other obvious injury. However I suspected a head injury, as it had some obvious neurological impairment. But I still wondered whether it could be distemper causing it to circle around.

I started making phone calls, trying to figure out what to do. See normally I keep supplies in my Jeep to handle situations like this: heavy gloves, towels, cages, leashes. But these things were removed last year to make room for camping supplies, and never put back again. So here I was, all alone with an injured opossum, with no supplies and no one to help. I called CROW (Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife) right away, and they told me of the clinics nearby for drop-off. (I keep them programmed in my phone for times like this.)

I couldn't reach Woodrow for to ask him to bring me my supplies, and I wasn't sure who else to call to help. I was afraid to leave the opossum alone, for fear that it would either walk off and I wouldn't know where it went, or it would get hit by another car. There were already vultures nearby, patiently waiting for the opossum to die. I love vultures, but I was going to do what I could to rob them of this meal!

I initially tried putting my sweatshirt over it to see whether I might be able to pick it up with my bare hands. But it stopped circling and looked up at the sweatshirt and sort of hissed in a half-hearted way. If you are unfamiliar with opossum and why I might be apprehensive, here is a picture of one that my mother encountered in the crate she setup for a stray cat.
They can be quite aggressive when cornered and have lots of sharp teeth. They are pretty fierce little creatures when they need to be!

While all of this was going on, the opossum quit circling and set it's head down on the ground and seemed to be going into shock, but I still wasn't sure whether it had been hit or had distemper. Then I spotted this about 5 feet away...



So that seemed to confirm that it had been struck by a car. However that didn't rule out distemper. I simply am not positive whether or not opossum get distemper.

A couple of nurses from Hope Hospice stopped to see how the little gal was doing. The second one to stop was on her way to see a patient, but she pulled over and got out and looked at the opossum. By this time, I had called my co-worker and asked him if he could come sit with the opossum while I ran home to get supplies to transport it. So I was waiting on him. The nurse said that she was on her way to see a patient, but she would be happy to stay with the opossum for me until my co-worker arrived. I was about to take her up on this when I saw my co-worker approaching. So I thanked her for her kindness, instructed my co-worker to just stay with the opossum and flag people around her, and I would be back as soon as possible. At this point, the opossum was very still and you could only tell she was alive by seeing her chest rise and fall with each breath.

I rushed home, ran frantically around looking for a box, grabbed an old towel and my work gloves, and headed back.

After I got back to the spot, my co-worker gave me a piece of paper on which the nurse had written her name and number, and asked that I let her know what happened with the opossum.

I tilted the box on its side in front of the opossum, and she stood up when I did. I put the towel behind her and began to drape it over her, and she looked around at me and took a step away from me towards the box. Perfect! I continued to prod her forward with the towel and my hand on her butt, and she actually walked into the box in an attempt to get away from me. We then gently tilted the box upright, and I wrapped the towel around her in the box and closed the flaps up. I thanked my co-worker, put her in the front seat, and called CROW to get the address to the clinic for my GPS. I got her to the clinic, filled out the paperwork, and headed on into work. On the way, I stopped by Englund's and got a sub...
Mmmmmmm...Englund's!

The whole ordeal took me about two hours, and I hate to think that the opossum suffered for that long. Every minute counts in a situation like that.

Tomorrow I will call CROW to check up on her and see whether she made it through the night or not. I'll update the blog when I know more on her condition. You never know what will cross your path when you start out your morning.

David Naughton is a versatile king!

I had a thing for David Naughton as a kid, and today I'm having a David Naughton marathon and tribute! Come on. You know who I'm talking about.





Remember this guy?


And you may remember him from one of my favorite movies from the '80s "American Werewolf in London"...


But one of the things for which I remember him best is his hit song from the '70s "Makin' It".


I had this thing on 45. Heck, I may still have it stashed away! It was one of the only 45s that I owned, and I listened to it over and over again. I think that I got it from a friend, who got it from a friend, way back around 1979 or 1980. This song even made it into a scene in Meatballs.


David Naughton. He was an 80s king! And I leave you today with the classic werewolf transformation scene from American Werewolf in London".

One World One Heart 2010

It's that time of year again! It's One World One Heart 2010, and we're taking off together on a magic carpet ride!

If you are unfamiliar with it, this event was started by Lisa Swifka of A Whimsical Bohemian in 2007. She reminisces:

I created this event in 2007. The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way. 2007 had roughly 85-90 participants and many connections were made because of it......friendships that are still going strong.

We had a strong showing the first year for sure, and then in 2008 we had just about tripled that number. In 2009 there were 911 participants, to say I was amazed is an understatement. 28 countries were represented in the 2009 event as well.

I joined in last year for the first time. In fact, it was the book giveaways that I happened upon while touring around the OWOH participating blogs that led me back to books and into book blogging.


This year Santa was so excited about the OWOH event that he decided to fly in on his flying carpet to see what all the hullabaloo is about. (You didn't know he had a flying carpet? Well the reindeer have to recuperate after their all-night trek around the world, don't they? So this is his backup transportation...)

I have many blogs, but this was my first and is my heart and soul. I blog about my life in general, and often blog about my cooking adventures, outings to art and music festivals, nature adventures and my animals (I have five cats- plus a new backyard stray- a lovebird and a turtle).

So, while many of the participants in OWOH make their own gifts to give away, I won't be. This year I will be giving away the following to one lucky winner:

A $20 gift card to Barnes and Noble, and a neat little bookmark that I found that includes an emblem on it that has been embedded with wildflower seeds. So you take the emblem off of the bookmark and plant it, and it will sprout up flowers. Cool!

To enter to win, just comment below and be sure to leave an email address so I may contact you if you are the winner. The contest will end at 6 PM EST on February 15th, and a winner will be drawn and announced later that evening. Oh, and while you are here, feel free to check out any of my other blogs as well:

• Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World is my book blog. All things book related, including book giveaways!
• Freedom Gardening is about growing food for self-sufficiency and economy.
• Weedy Garden is for tracking my work (or lack thereof) in my garden.
• Snoop Dogg Adventures tracks the adventures of my good friend Snoop Dogg.
• Just Me Spouting Off is a place for me to rant on occasion.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy your stay. Leave a comment, and maybe, just maybe, Santa will be flying by your place to drop off a little something...

Non-Resolutions/Proclamations for the New Year

I recently saw on My Soul is a Butterfly that she posted of "non-resolutions". She said that she doesn't do "resolutions", but this year decided to do "non-resolutions":

This year, I decided to make some non-resolutions and yell them from rooftops. Or at least desktops, swing sets, sunsets, overseas via carrier pigeon, anywhere, everywhere at once - doesn't matter, as long as you hear them.

I liked this idea. I'm all for loving and accepting yourself and others. The world for me is a "come as you are"-kinda world. I'm always pronouncing "This is me, like it or not!" Some things I like about myself, and others I don't, but I accept all parts of myself. Even if I'm working to change some of those things about myself, there is still a certain level of acceptance, knowing that I may never be completely free of them.

So here is my proclamation-- my pronouncement of non-resolutions.

• I am totally disorganized with "things", but with data I am obsessively organized, utilizing spreadsheets of every kind. I look for patterns in data, and use it to make conclusions. I'm a natural-born researcher and analyst.
  
• I am physically lazy, but not mentally lazy. I have a very good work ethic, but I hate physical labor. Stick me at a desk or computer with a stack of papers, and I'll work tirelessly. Ask me to go do 30 minutes of house chores and I'll entreat, "Do I have to?!"
• I have a savior complex. I'm always drawn to the underdog, always trying to rescue one more animal or lost soul. It's almost an addiction. This is both a blessing and a curse. I'm trying to find a balance where it is a benefit to the world and my life without me putting my own life and security at risk. I'm working on making this a "healthy" aspect of my personality.
• I have a slightly cold and detached outer-surface that masks an extremely sensitive inner-world. That is why the cold persona was created-- to protect that sensitive inner-creature that was being eroded by the hard side of life. I didn't want to lose her-- she was too precious.
  
• I may lack tact and diplomacy, but any harm is done totally without intent. I don't try to intentionally hurt people, and only do so through reckless and careless use of my tongue!
• I am honest. I am horrified by the deceit people use in their daily lives. I try to only allow people into my world that are also honest. I don't want to question what people say. I want to know that what they speak is truth, even if that means that sometimes my feelings may get hurt.
• One half of my bed is normally covered in books and papers and stuff. The area around my bed is covered in the same. Part of the reason is that whole "lazy"-thing. I just don't want to have to get up to get things or put them back again.
• I like being surrounded by order. I don't like being surrounded by disorganization and clutter. This means that I am in constant turmoil, because I am anything but organized and my life is as cluttered as my mind.
  
• I've had a ringing in my ears for almost 25 years now. I realize now that it is one of the reasons I always like to have a TV or some sound around me. I can't stand listening to the ringing.
• Speaking of my ears, I've realized recently that I have a weird habit. I often tug or touch my left ear as I say goodbye on the phone and hang up. This is commonly done in a "professional" environment, but not with personal phone calls. It has something to do with me having some "autistic tendencies" and being uncomfortable communicating with people. So after an uncomfortable few minutes on the phone answering their questions, struggling to keep the tension out of my voice and sound pleasant, struggling (sometimes unsuccessfully) to not let the "are you stupid" tone enter my voice when people seem to be displaying total ignorance over things that seem so basic to me (usually this is during tech support calls), as I hang up and release the tension, I've realized over the last few months that I touch my left ear or rub behind it. Don't ask me. I have no idea why, and I have no idea when I started doing this. I've only come to realize it within the last year.
  
• I have a pair of loppers (for yard work) sitting in my bedroom right now. I don't know why. I don't remember why I brought them in here, but laziness has kept me from taking them back out again.
• I've admitted in the past that I organize my food. Given Skittles, I will obsessively organize them into flavor combinations when I get down to the final 20 or so, and woe to the person who just reaches in and grabs some with no consideration for the pattern going on here!
  
• I require a fair amount of time with no demands on me. I don't want someone talking to me, asking anything of me. I just want to turn my mind inward from the world, through the computer or a book. I just want to be left alone. Let's blame this once again on those "autistic tendencies".
• I sing everything! I hum theme songs, sing commercials. In fact, I will hear music in life. I used to sing with the copier at my old job, because I could hear the "song" it sang when printing off a bunch of copies. I would try to point out the song to others, but they wouldn't hear it. Let's blame this once again on those "autistic tendencies" (or perhaps it's simply because my mode of communication is audio), but I can still sing the copier's song today, even after not hearing it for 6 years.
  
• I'm a book collector. It is more about having the book than reading the book. I actually spend very little time reading the books (the computer takes too much of my time), but just love looking at the books and thinking about reading them! I know. I don't get it either. There is something about the knowledge contained within the tome. The idea that if I pass up that book, I could be losing some valuable knowledge or could be missing out on a book that could potentially change my life. So it's really about "knowledge" contained within the book, just waiting to be recognized.
  

That's me world! Love it or leave it! That was me in 2009, and that will probably be me in 2010. I continue to be a work in progress. So bring on the new year! Happy New Year everyone!

Oh, and by the way: I realized today that I missed my own blogoversary. I posted my first story on this blog on 12/26/08. I have so many other blogs and things going on now that I don't post quite as regularly as I used to, but I'm still here-- sharing too many inconsequential things about my life.

Take care everyone, and we'll see you in 2010!

Interloper

The other morning I looked up to see three of my cats transfixed with something beyond the french doors. I looked up and saw the neighborhood cat sitting at my screen door. He used to come around and sit outside the screened room and growl and hiss and cause all kinds of trouble with my cats. Now he tends to be more relaxed, and I even catch him laying around my front yard.

A couple of days later I looked out back to see him sauntering up to the door again. He laid down and yawned and just hung out there for a bit.
I am trying to keep an eye on him. I worry with all of the foreclosures around here that his "owners" could have moved away and left him behind. So I have to determine whether I need to start putting out food and water for him, and let him be a backyard stray. We'll see how he does. His coat is looking a little dull, but he still has some weight on him.

As long as he behaves himself and doesn't cause problems!

Looky-looky here!

You know, I have a friend who once said that I am very "animalistic" in a way. I am very alert to my environment and notice things that no one else notices.

So today as I walked into work, I happened to glance down and spotted something as I walked by my co-worker's car. I took a closer look and saw this...
This is a baby snake. It looks like it may have had a neck injury. To give you better perspective on just how small this little guy is...
Raise your hand if you have ever seen a snake this tiny! I didn't know such a thing existed!
So what do you do with a dead and crispified baby snake? Well if you're me...
...you display it with a toy car that a security guard brought back for you from Disney when he thought that you "needed a new car"! I mean...duh! What else do you do with a dead snake?

On another subject, I returned from lunch today to find that the boss' son had left me reindeer cookies on my desk...
How cute is that?

My Reflection on Being 40...

So today I'm 40. It seems all throughout life you hear people talking about turning "40". Most seem to approach it with dread and fear. Me? I've actually been pretty excited about it.

Even as a teen I was always saying that I was "born to be 40", and that I believed that my life would begin at 40.

So now that it is here, how do I really feel? Am I still happy to be 40? Do I still feel that life is just beginning? Well, a year or two ago I did hit a bit of a panicked stage, realizing 40 was rapidly approaching, and I still hadn't accomplished the things I had expected to accomplish by 40. So I bought a house, and got over it! :)

It's not that I feel that life has just begun. I've had a wonderful life up to this point. I've had some wonderful people in the first half of my life. However I do feel that this is something of a rebirth for me. This is the start of my second life. I've been going through a sort of metamorphoses, and this is my shot at doing it all over again, and even better the second time around, now wiser and more patient, and now living my life with awareness and a consciousness that I lacked in my younger years. In my earlier years, it's as if I were on auto-pilot. I "reacted" to things and wasn't always aware of how I and my emotions and actions can affect others. Now I try to live a more proactive life rather than a reactive life, and I try to live consciously, aware of the impact that I make on the world and others around me-- and conscious of the consequences of my actions.

I feel strong and confident and empowered. (Do I hear "I am woman, hear me roar" playing in the background?) I'm glad to be 40. I'd never go back to 20 again!

Here's to second-zees (geeky Lord of the Rings reference)! Let's hope that the second life is even better than the first, and that this time I get it all right!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And Happy 40th to me! Here's to 40 more!

UPDATE: Where the heck have YOU been?

Where have I been? Around. I've just been busy-- busy with work, busy with home, busy with Facebook, busy with my book blog, and just plain busy with life! But I'm still here! I'll see whether I can get something that will link to my Facebook posts, so even when I'm not posting you can see the little things going on. But I'll try to get back here soon in any event. Take care everyone!

For Louis, on his birthday

Last weekend we gathered together for the 87th birthday of a family friend. Louis is educated and genteel with old-fashioned southern grace and manners. He leads a more active life than I do, and can be ornery and cantankerous.

He also happens to be one of my favorite people on earth, for all of those reasons!

Louis has everything he needs or wants. So what do you do for a man like him on his birthday? In his birthday card I wrote:

Happy Birthday! What do you get for the man who has everything? Nothing! You buy for his dog instead!

And that's exactly what I did (and I found it was what many of us did.) See, Louis lost his beloved dog Davey awhile back. Davey was his baby. After a period of mourning, Louis decided that he was ready for a new dog. So Mom set out to help him find one. He knew he wanted a dachshund, and that he would be better suited to an older dog, given his own advanced years. So Mom started checking rescues in FL, and they finally found Mya.


Mya is a blue merle dachshund, and it seems to have been love at first sight for the two of them. Mya has been with Louis a few weeks now, and they seem to be very happy together. I haven't gotten to meet Mya yet, but Mom and Tommy have, and they got a few photos of her.






(Mya likes to sit up for attention, even though it isn't that good for her back.)

So last weekend we got together for Louis' 87th birthday. Everyone met at the Olive Garden for lunch.


Due to Louis' young-at-heart attitude, the waitress brought him a kiddie menu and crayons, bib and kiddie drink cup.


I gave Louis a gift bag full of dog toys and treats.


I LOVED the gift bag, and thought it very appropriate!


It was a nice day, and while we look forward to Louis' next birthday, I am looking forward especially to finally meeting Mya. I mean, just look at that face!