A Walk in the Woods of Augusta

It's early morning and we're going on a walk behind our house in Augusta. Care to join us?

It's very important for you to dress properly if you walk in the Maine woods in July.

The gear, modeled here by DP (with Cooper), begins with a mosquito net for your head.

A long sleeved shirt (this one is a special mosquito proof shirt), long pants, water proof boots (DP wears Muck Boots) and light weight gloves to cover your hands. Dogs and leashes are optional.

For additional ammo against the 30 odd deer flies and innumerable mosquitoes which will surround you during this adventure, a dabble of Buzz-off ecofriendly insect repellent is a must (okay for dogs, too)!

We'll steer clear of the bogs and swamp areas as much as possible today.

The area was recently logged by the owner (our land lord).

This is my favorite shot from the outing and is now my wallpaper. I love the mix of rich textures and lush greens against the starkness of the fallen tree with a misty background.

That's Buzz in the lower left.

This is where some turkeys slept the night before. 

We didn't see them, but the dogs enjoyed a bit of turkey scat (yuk)!

All sorts or wildflowers sprinkle color here and there (this is where most bloggers will name the flowers in the picture...um, I think there are some clover, hens and chicks, no, butter and eggs...yeah, well never mind that).

 Hey, I know these are daisies and little yellow things!

Anyway, this is our destination, a boardwalk courtesy of Central Maine Power.

They are replacing the power lines and poles. 

The boardwalk makes a temporary road with a lot less destruction to the environment.

Cooper, still on leash, Stanze to the right and Buzz and Rex on point.

 Okay, here is a picture of me...It's okay, I laughed when I saw it too :). This boardwalk is the reason why I'm able to make this trek, as it makes it easy on the ankles. 

See the turkey feather sticking out of my breast pocket?

It's a souvenir for the kitties.

The boardwalk is very simply constructed.

This is a fledgling osprey in his nest, watching us carefully.

...and here is his mommy.

A smidgen of red breaks through the greens.

Oh, look! These are cat-o-nine-tails!

Although not the best looking ones I've ever seen.

Here is the end of the road! 

DP usually keeps going and takes a left into a clearing through the woods and loops around. She makes this trek almost every day.

Today, we'll just turn around and walk back.

Thanks for joining us!

~Lisa

Comfortable Shoes for Not

All my life I’ve worn comfortable shoes. I’m 5’3” tall but I have never felt the need to buy high heel and pointy toed shoes to be tall and stylish. I do own two pairs of “pumps” that I wear with certain business suits. They are not spiked heels (one is an inch and a half and the other maybe two inches at best) and again the toes are moderately pointed and tolerable for a few hours of wear. I’ve probably worn them less than two dozen times total over the last 15 years – always to a job interview or “dress-up” party for work. My daily wear shoes are blocky-toed, stocky flats or barely an inch off the ground.

I thought I’d be safe.

I was wrong.

For the past couple of months my big toes have been hurting me (my right more than my left) and mostly at night when I’m laying in bed. I finally did some research and a self exam with my glasses on (don’t laugh) and have come to the sad conclusion (and self diagnosis) that I’ve got…bunions.

WHAT…THE …F#@K?!!!!

Me?!  Bunions!?

In my research I learned that if it wasn’t caused by tight fitting pointy shoes, it was hereditary. Oy! Since I don’t recall my mother complaining about having them (and she wore heels), it has to have come from my father’s side of the family.

Joy and thanks, Dad! Please have Aunty Mary give me a shout to tell me about her feet issues (btw-they have both passed on to the afterlife).

I also have to add that I find it ironic that a week ago, DP and I went out to lunch and sat nearby a woman with crutches and a special booty wrapped around one foot. We could hear her talking loudly to her companion about bunion surgery.

My eye rolling days are over.

Me and my humble bunions are out of here…

This Blogging Thing

So I've had a reprieve from daily blogging, although I've kept up my cat blog (which is much easier for me to do), and I realized I don't know where I found the time to write a daily essay/blog!? I know I haven't been doing it long, only 50 something days, but jeepers creepers! I thought I'd have time to be writing other stuff, but I've been so busy I haven’t written another thing!

Anyway, I really wanted to spend more time with the cats too, playing with them and focusing on my bad boy, Snafu. At this point I don't think the herbal remedy we are giving him is doing anything anymore. His behavior (off Amitriptyline) really depends on how much one on one attention I give him and how much exercise he's gotten.

That really proved out a couple nights ago when I came home from work late. I'd gone to get some groceries right after work so by the time I got home, it was the dog’s bedtime (7:00) and all the cats were starving for dinner (they usually eat about 5:30).

Instead of going into Snafu’s room and giving him his ten minutes of one on one and play time, I just let him out (like I did in the not too distant old days) and tried to engage him while I put groceries away, and then I fed everyone.

What a nightmare!

After he ate dinner, he never, ever slowed down. He kept going after Penny and BJ and pacing back and forth from the kitchen through the living room and down the hall and all the way back. He'd pick fights along the way and then Angus decided to block him from coming down the hall, which always ends up in a fight. I had to keep stopping what I was doing and extract him from situations or try to redirect him.

Even when I settled down to eat, he kept going. He had to explore all the cabinets in the kitchen and kept meowing and meowing…until he finally wanted to go back into his room.

I was still trying to eat my Chinese take-out dinner after 9:00 that night!

I felt really bad for him and vowed not to do that again anytime soon!

Last night he was a lot better. DP was home during the day and the sun was out so he got to spend a lot of time outside in the cat enclosure. I spent extra time with him when I got home from work, too. He was good and napped some, but he still wanted to pace, but was just too tired.

Finally he got himself over-stimulated (like a four year old human does when they get over tired) and started being aggressive towards me, so I suggested (by the shake of his food bowl, because I wasn't going to pick him up), that he might want to go to bed early. After he nibbled a bit of kibble in his room, he conked right out!

Here is a sample video of him when he doesn't slow down. This was recorded a couple weeks ago. It doesn't seem to be much, but it's after 9:00 at night when everyone else has found a cozy spot to nap, and he's been going on like this for hours - just wanting my attention.

Anyway, I need to spend more time with the cats and with Snafu especially. So I’m good with blogging when I’ve got time and something to say.

So my next blog post will actually have a subject and not be about blogging!!


Thanks for stopping by.

Everything Dogs Hate

Yesterday was everything dogs hate day.

First off, it was Saturday, my cleaning day. When I vacuum the carpets, the dogs go outside or in their crates depending upon the weather. While they enjoy being outside, I don't play with them like DP does when she is here, and so they wait for her to come home from work…and they wait - outside or inside, they wait.

Second, it rained. So it was an in the crate day. It's only for 2 hours maximum depending upon my laundry schedule and other projects that may come up. They waited for DP to come home in their crates.

Third, it thundered. To them it was indeed the apocalypse, jolting them into a tight fit of barking when the boomers rang overhead. A sharp "that's enough!" pretty much quiets them right away. But when they are full of anxiety, like during a thunderstorm, they go in their crates, so even when I finished vacuuming, they stayed in their crates and waited.

To ease their predicament I gave them frozen peanut butter bones I found in the freezer. They were licked clean in ten minutes. Then the thunder boomed again and they were abandoned altogether in favor of panting.

Dogs in crates, waiting and panting…

Sorry puppies. Today is road trip day. I hope you have more fun today.

Stir and Repeat

I have realized that writing for this blog is a little like writing in my journal. It’s only “a little” like my journal because I’m certainly not writing everything in a post I’d write in my journal. I don’t edit a journal entry (much).

Another thing not so similar is that I usually don’t read back over my journal entries unless it’s a year or more later. What I’m seeing and learning about myself in reading back over blog posts (before I write a new one) is that like everyone else, I deal with the same issues over and over again. On a blog, they are topics that I do not want to keep repeating unless I have a fresh new take on the old issue.

Therefore…I’ve decided that, like my journal which I do not write in everyday, I am not going to post daily.

Yay!

Whew!

I get myself into some crazy self imposed promises, but luckily it is only me this time who really cares if I break this one.

From this point forward I will post when I feel I have something new to say.

Thanks for reading!

The Suffering of Wants

Every once in a while (okay, usually every 28 days or so), I go through a continuous craving and wanting stage that I have to talk myself down from.

I get this bubble of discontent that bursts with a varied list of wants and just recently it went something like this:

I wish we had a bigger house, if we had a bigger house I could get another kitten. I want another kitten. I’m supposed to have nine cats for Cat of Nine Tales, but Snafu couldn’t tolerate another cat unless we had a bigger house. I wish we had a bigger house.

Once I’ve awakened from the suffering of wants, I counter this kind of thinking with this kind of thinking:

You can’t have a bigger house unless you have a lot more money. If you had a bigger house, you’d only need to spend more time cleaning it and you wouldn’t have more time, because you’d be working more hours to earn more money to pay for the bigger house.

AND YOU DON’T WANT TO WORK MORE HOURS.

If you worked more hours, you’d be miserable and you certainly wouldn’t have enough time to spend with a new kitten (never mind writing!).

Be grateful and enjoy the cats you have! Enjoy the small manageable house and work less hours so you can enjoy life and have time to write.

Most of the time I understand this choice, because it was a choice DP and I made to live simpler, smaller lives with no debt and as stress free a work life as we can manage.  But, the suffering of wants can get to me sometimes. 

Yes and Hey That's Enough Now

So when I told myself to say yes more often, I didn’t actually mean yes to ice cream every night after dinner, or yes to those incredibly delicious gourmet chocolate chip cookies from the Hannaford (our local supermarket chain) bakery. Nor did I mean yes to Cheese Doodles or Cape Cod Kettle Cooked Mesquite BBQ chips (I don’t care that they have 40% reduced fat) or Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies or Butter Snap Pretzels.

But somehow (oh, I know how) they made it through the gates of No and I’ve got the tight pants and shirts to prove it. I don’t have a scale because I gave them up a while ago along with a few other things, so I’m not going to stress over numbers.

However…

It’s time for the NO gates to come together just a little bit. Denial doesn’t mean for ever, it just means, “hey, that’s enough for now!”

I’ve got to leave room to lose so I can have available “space” to fill come the winter holidays!

No more!  Just as soon as I finish the Cheddar Bunnies and Pretzels…

Theme Music to Life

If I was to choose theme music for my life. This piece would be my theme.


When I hear it, I listen for the silence between the notes and I'm transported...


I love the way Mstislav Rostropovich performs it, but I couldn't embed his video here. DP gave me the entire work a couple of Christmases ago. It's wonderful to write to.


I hope you enjoy it.


I've had different theme music at different times of my life. What is your theme music?

Powerless Again! But Not Really.

Wow. Blogger goes down a day and the world does not cease.

Facebook provides.

At least Facebook provided a way to know that you weren’t the only one who couldn’t get into Blogger, and it provided a place to complain and trash Blogger.

It kind of gave me a lesson in “how important is this, really?”

That’s probably why I’m posting so late today. It’s not a big deal.

What a relief.

Don’t get me wrong. I panicked and kept trying to get into Blogger from different ways. I freaked when I couldn’t access specific posts. I ran a virus scan and tried again. Finally, I went to the Source of All Information…Facebook. 

Whew! And then...what just happened?

Deep down I've always felt there will come a time when I will disconnect from social media entirely. It would be easy since I do not use Twitter and I do not have a “mobile device” other than a basic pay-by-the-minute cell phone. For me it’s just Blogger and Facebook and that is enough to connect and keep up with.

Delete and Erase would take care of all of it. Unless, of course, I actually get a book published and then it would be a whole other matter entirely.

So, until then I’m here to enjoy!

Too Sleepy for Yes

It's 8:00 at night and it is still light out. This does not feel natural to me. The night time is a time of pulling in, of winding down, of being still and resting. To have it light implies I should be doing something other than that.

I should be out consuming, spending money and getting into debt like a good citizen.

It’s after 8:00 PM and birds are chirping outside!

I had an opportunity to say yes, but I chose no.

A Maine author was scheduled to speak at our local city library Thursday night at 6:30. She is Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Strout, creator of said prize winning novel, "Olive Kitteridge," which is set in Maine.

I was too tired. I was anxious to get home after a full week of work for the first time in three weeks (sick days led to long weekends). I gave it some thought, but I could not find the motivation to say yes.

Argh. I'm disappointed in myself but I'm glad I went home. We had a rough night Wednesday because Buzz was sick and whining through the night. I got up a couple of times, DP got up a couple of times. The cats were wondering what was going on and wanted to eat breakfast at 2:30 in the morning, and wouldn't let it go… So I was too tired to say yes.

Instead, I said YES to going to bed early!

There you have it.

There is always a yes in life.

Small Milestone

Yesterday this blog reached the 1,000 visitor mark!

A special “thank you” to those of you who return regularly and make up a significant portion of that count! I’ve taken the steps to make sure I’m not counted.

I seem to be averaging about 25 visits a day but I have 12 Followers. Hmm? Any of you wish to click the follow button? It’s easy!

So what is my progress on my Yes goals?

It’s hard to measure that based on the last week because of my “under the weather” status. I’m finally coming out from under that. I did take a sick day from work and did not go to church or choir practice on Sunday.  

Since my focus has mostly been on Easter, Snafu and then being sick. I have not created a lot of openings for opportunities to say yes. I have a pending invitation to visit my brother in Florida…(G - Anytime you want to send me possible dates, we’ll talk more). Otherwise, I’ve been told I’m “on the roster now for being a regular cantor” at church. I guess I’m okay with that.

I have seen and heard little dogs, but they have not crossed into our yard. By the way, this incident I consider a “Say yes to saying Nooooooo!” moment and so include it here.

 I’m thinking about starting a new business called “Screaming Banshee.”  Just hire me for a modest fee to run up the driveway and scream at the object of your frustration (neighbors, ex-lovers, mothers). I can come in various outfits, raincoat included, but the rake is optional.

Comments and Replies

Okay, I need to pause here and ask about blogging etiquette with regards to comments and replying to them. Now that I want to reply to comments more often, I want to be sure the commenter actually gets my reply.

I’ve known some bloggers who make the trip over to your blog and make a reply via the comments on whatever post you have up. Something like – “In regards to your comment on my blog post about such and such, blah, blah, blah…”

And then I see blog authors use a comment within that same post to make a reply. Something like – “@Lisa: I know what you mean, blah, blah, blah…”

I’ve done both those and I’ve written posts addressing everyone’s comments.

I don’t know what I’m doing.

I know WordPress does things a bit differently and allows specifically for a reply to a comment, but Blogger doesn’t.

Do you “subscribe” to the comments and then get an email when other comments are left? Do you check back on a comment you made to see if there was an author’s response? This I hadn’t done until very recently.

I’m just looking for your feedback on how you do it and what you’ve found that works best. Thank you!!

One note about yesterday’s post – I reread it later in the day and cringed. The grammar was horrible! Run on and on and on! Grammar has never been my strongest skill, but I try to edit and clean things up before I post them. Clearly I did not have my wits about me at 5:00 AM, because I pushed the Publish button before I did my editing. I usually set it up to publish about 7:00 AM just so I can look at it again after I’ve had a shower and some coffee. 

Oops! Not this time J.

Bizarroland

It's 5:00 AM and there is nothing in my brain but an odd dream I woke up with. I was with a small group of people who were forced to exchange lives with another group (who planned the whole venture), but they lived in a different dimension beyond a special room. We went in one door from our world into a small hotel room with a couple of beds, a bath room and a bureau and a door on the opposite wall. Walking through that opposing door gave you a head rush after which the people on the other side would slap a "device" on your wrist which made you comply with their wishes.


Odd thing was they were just ordinary people. I was taken in by a family headed by a real skinny man and a large woman. I remember being excited that I was going to cook as I sat at the womans bar while she chopped onions in a fry pan. 


There were children in the background but I don't remember them. An older woman, an aunt, I guessed, was sitting in an easy chair and hoping she'd studied enough to be the nun she planned to take the life of.


I remember being particularly concerned that I had good sneakers to wear and plenty of socks and underwear, and I was upset because couldn't find my Swiss Army knife which wasn't in the jewelry box where I keep it.


And that's the kind of thing that goes on in my brain when I'm asleep. Sounds like that makings of a short sci-fi story.

Hi Ho

What a luxury it’s been to stay home sick and write. Today, Monday morning, I must return to the wild world of insurance and continue my paid mission to spread the cheer.

Why don’t I work at a book store?

Because I’m well suited for office work.

I crave routine and I create it where there isn’t any. I’m a natural organizer. That’s not to say I don’t like to mix it up now and then…usually every twenty-eight days or so.

When I took two years off from the workforce to write, I created a daily routine and had a space within my day for writing, getting the mail, doing chores.

I know that in retail and many other jobs, they mix up your schedule so you work various slots of hours during the given work week. I hate that. Waiting for your manager to make the schedule to see when you’d be working…would you have a weekend day off? I never understood why it had to be that way and the idea of subjecting myself to it, well it’s worse than the idea of working in insurance.

And to be honest, I choose not to do much “selling” of health insurance. I choose to be the account manager, the support person for my salesperson boss. I do not need the sales goal pressure, or the client loss disappointment. Even though those affect me, they do not run or ruin my work.

I got a lot of organizing and writing done on my projects the two full days I managed to focus on them. I feel real good about that. I have no goal or deadline for finishing it, so I’m free to progress at my own pace. Until another day…

By the way, our neighbors treated us to an hour’s worth of Foreigner and other 80’s music  blasted through their speakers on Sunday afternoon.

Still haven’t seen any little dogs, though J.

Happy Monday.

Blurred Rage

Yesterday I was human…without any Being in sight. An episode added to less than handful of times in my life where “I lost it.” I become inarticulate, screechy, without plan and barely a thought of what I’m doing. Some may indentify this behavior with blind rage, but that seems extreme and violent. This was more of a “blurred rage” which I identify as my sun sign Aries fire bursting through the water of my planets in Pieces. All very pretty sounding - but it wasn’t.

The conflict?

An ongoing battle with our next door neighbor’s dogs charging into our yard. They do this several times a day. You can tell when they are let out of their house you hear the barking begin in the distance, and get louder as they appear beyond our shed running like mad dogs directly into our driveway, barking at our house or under our windows if our German shepherd is not out on her line.

They’ll run up to our fence to terrorize our dogs inside it which sets off our poor guys to barking, and frightened cats scramble to their safe places. They come several times a day, every day. When we come home from work they tear out of their yard (or sometimes our other neighbor’s yard, for they terrorize them, too) and chase our vehicles…four dogs running after our wheels, running in front of us and following us into our driveway. We get out of the car, they are right there barking at us in our own driveway.

There are three mobiles on our road and we all have dogs, but this person is the only one who lets his run free at all times. Everyone else’s dogs are kept well contained behind fence, on leash or on zipline.

For most of the winter it was four dogs until his daughter took two of them with her. Since then it has mostly been two dogs, but sometimes she visits and brings the other two back with her.

Yes, we’ve spoken to our landlord (who we all lease our land from), and yes, we have conferred with our other neighbor who has also spoken to our landlord. But nothing’s been done.

Although we've not been able to capture their barking arrival, here are some video samples, so you can get a feel for what we experience daily,

One

Two

Three

Four

So, yesterday when the daughter was visiting with her two dogs, it was after the four pack’s third excursion over here that my Aries took action.

In a natural alignment with Aries comes ego and vanity, which is how I explain why I grabbed my raincoat to cover my too tight sweatpants and shirt. I didn’t want to look fat, I guess. I also pulled on my LL Bean rubber mocks and grabbed a yard rake to defend my ankles from the bastards (and I’m glad I did).

After that, I had no idea what I was going to do or say beyond, “I’M SICK OF IT!”

And so, I charged across their lawn chasing four little dogs with a rake, walked right between their house and car with a nipper biting at my heels when the daughter came out of the house and onto their stoop.

I screamed a lot of variations of “I’m sick of your dogs coming into our yard and terrorizing us.” Mind you I have a horrible cold at the moment and my voice is quite the smoker’s grovel. That’s basically all I recall saying in response to whatever she said back to me. She, of course, called me a bitch and told me to get off her property. It sounded so funny to me at the time and even in retrospect, but I didn’t laugh. I felt like I was watching reality TV, but I didn’t feel like its star.

Eventually I woke up with a rake in my hand standing in their driveway and apologized for coming over in attack mode, but said that I felt like I was being attacked several times a day by their pack of dogs. Nothing she said to me made sense or made any difference. This wasn’t a conversation. There were accusations that our dog had done damage to their car, which was impossible because she is never, ever out of our sight.

I came home, cried for a while; looked at the calendar to see how close my period might be coming; got frustrated because the calendar never is accurate anymore; then sat down to write.

It’s been almost 24 hours and I haven’t seen any of their dogs since.

Whirlwind

Moments after I posted yesterday’s blog entry (which was right after I’d eaten breakfast and taken my morning Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride), DP announced that she’d be taking all the dogs with her on her errands.

All the dogs.

So much for being whooped.

I got a sudden rush of adrenaline and immediately after she left, I picked up the clutter and toys strewn about the floor, pulled out the vacuum cleaner and took full advantage of not having to juggle dogs, baby gates and cats to vacuum the house (cats really juggle themselves where the vacuum is concerned).

It wasn’t the most thorough vacuuming I’d ever done, but I just wanted to get through a broad sweep while I had the chance, seeing as I didn’t think I’d be vacuuming at all due to my decrepitness.

Have I mentioned I love Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride?

Problem is – it does wear off.

With vacuuming done, I can spend today writing (while doing laundry). With hours in front of me I’m left with the dilemma of which sorely neglected project I should take a look at. I usually go by what I’m feeling at the moment and I’m not feeling anything. At times like these I usually organize a project or begin with reading a paragraph or two from where I left off.

Since I’ve taken up blogging the personal blog, it’s been a full time writing venture. Granted I am forced to write daily, which I wasn’t being very good about before. But then writing was all about the project and not such “random abandon”.

It’s all good.

Whooped!

This chest cold has got me whooped! I have lots to write about but nothing is coming together in my “feverish” mind. It has been a long time since I’ve had a cold this bad.

Anyway, I won’t bore you with details. It’s enough to say I don’t have the energy for much more than my daily pet chores (and eating J). I’ll be back when I have a post.

Powerless

Well this is disappointing. My power just went out and now I’m on battery to write this. Just when I think I have nothing to write about…Ping! I have an idea handed to me.

Got to love the power of creativity.

All winter long we got a flicker here, a flicker there and kept our electricity flowing. I think we had one ½ hour outage. Tonight we have a little rain storm and…Ping!

I say “Ping” because that’s the noise the microwave makes when it goes out with the power and also “ping” when it comes back on.

It scares the dogs to no end.

That ping is heard several times a day everyday when we cook stuff in the microwave, but when the power goes out…the ping becomes the boogie monster. When I let Buzz (our female Jack Russell Terrier) out for potty, she went into the woods and planted herself with ears flat and tail tucked. She would not come no matter what treats I promised her. I had to go retrieve her physically…all this in the rain, of course.

Why is it when the power goes out, I immediately feel like I have to go to the bathroom and I get hungry?

Well, luckily we store lots of bottles of tap water for just these occasions, so at least I won’t go thirsty for the next two hours. That’s what Central Maine Power’s recording said when I just called them from my cell phone (digital phones go out with the power). It must have been a big accident or major issue because they listed not only my town and the surrounding towns, but also the city of Augusta. It’s huge!

I managed to swallow a luke warm dinner that was sitting in the microwave. I only got through the first half of the cooking process. Not totally bad, but not recommended for daily consumption. The temperature of it wasn’t the worst, it was just not cooked through and a bit chewy in places it ought not to be.

Well! There now, the power just came back on! That wasn’t even a whole hour. And now I’m done!

I love electricity {big sigh}.

Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride

Wow! I have rediscovered Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride, common brand named Sudafed.

When they put it behind the pharmacy counter years ago, I stopped buying it. Too much trouble. I did try the alternate version, but didn't think it helped much. 

This morning I ventured to my neighborhood grocery store (Hannaford) to buy myself tissues and cough drops and thought I'd try that alternate version again. The shelves were bare of the product (lots of people with colds this time of year) so I had to ask about it at the pharmacy counter.

The pharmacist told me they had a Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride product, but I'd have to show my license and sign for it. It sounded really fancy and a lot of trouble to obtain so I asked how much it cost. When she told me it was only $1.77, I couldn't believe it! I dug out my license and waited until she filled my information in her log book and had me sign it. I forked over $2 in cash...

And lo and behold, it works! Yay! Some relief at last! I recommend it!

Now maybe I can get some sleep tonight.

Spring Furver

The coming of spring brings many rites, traditions and ailments. Sure, Easter, flowers and birds are nice, but black flies, mosquitoes and ticks...not so much.

Along with the bugs, mud and sniffles (my aforementioned cold from yesterday’s post) comes the Annual Shedding Ritual.

How many pets do we have?

A dozen.

The dogs get away with very little shedding since the three terriers have hair rather than fur, but the shepherd loses her nice woolly undercoat in tufts. That pretty much takes all summer, it seems. DP hangs out bundles of shepherd fur from old onion bags so the birds can line their nests with it.

The cats, well now there's the rub.

I don't notice so much as a change of "hey, they are starting to shed" by looking at the cats. It comes about more like a discovery of finding myself not doing anything else except picking up fur. Gradually, I'm running late everyday for work because my normal chores are taking longer. Making the bed takes about 20 minutes if I want to slip into a fur free zone later that night.  Cooking requires major cleaning before the meal preparation; laundry requires precleaning, too.

After feeling frustrated that I’m somehow no longer able to keep up and that we have (God forbid) too many pets! I remember. Oh, yeah, it must be spring.

What do I do?

You've seen my vacuum, you've seen my chemical cleaning arsenal, now it's time for me to reveal my fur removing paraphernalia:

My first line of defense for the worst fur coverings is the small hand brush. Brushing fabric like curtains, dog beds or blankets in tight circles picks up quite a bit of fur and it's a surprisingly useful tool.

The rubber brush is good for gathering the fur into one spot and then picking it up with something else - also for the worst cases.

The old fashion lint brush with the velvet-like surface is great for smooth surfaces like sheets or bedspreads, but the sticky lint roller becomes an extension of my arm this time of year (note there are two). DP is always teasing me about finding discarded used sticky tape sheets (a used one is shown down in front in the picture) all over the house (sometimes I need a new sticky surface, but the old sheet may not be completely full and could be used more).

The packing tape comes in handy as a back-up if I'm low on replacement sticky rolls or if I'm going to do a big job.

Swiffers (not shown) also do a good job picking up fur from smooth surfaces and I've taken to using them seasonally despite their "disposableness." Spring demands we take desperate measures.

What do you use to remove fur?

Nothing but a Cold

Today I start the week with a little cold. This is a typical rite of spring for me. I'm surprised I did not get it earlier. Two weeks ago I sat in a closed room for a meeting with a woman who had a horrible coughing, sneezing cold.

There was no escape.

I wished I’d had one of those surgical masks you see people wear in Asian countries, but no, that would not have been polite at all. And, unless they come in black, gray or navy blue, it doesn’t look very professional. (Hmmm…is there a business venture there?)


DP has been fighting a cold for over a week now. Maybe I gave to her. Maybe I have a whole new strain. 


Delightful.

For those of you interest in Snafu’s status, please read my update on Cat of Nine Tales.

Not much to say today. Even though I’m going back to work after a four day weekend, I’m not feeling rested, but that may be due to the cold.

The Temporary Truth

I wrote a guest post for my friend's blog Love on the Run. She's blogging about her separation and divorce "as it happens." Since I've been through a breakup, I offered her stories of my experience. She told me she likes how honest I am. Read the post here if you’d like (got to love the comments on that post!).

Writing that piece for her blog led me to more that I wanted to write, but did not include in that post. So I thought I’d finish it out here - more on the Temporariness of everything.

One thing I have learned through my own long term relationship and subsequent divorce is seeking security and "forever" in another human being is complete foolishness. It's not fair to the other person to depend on them for your happiness and it is not a mature and conscious way to live…expecting another evolving person to be and stay the same way to make you happy. People need to grow and evolve consciously as individuals. I believe this leads to a lot of relationship failures.

I believe in monogamy but I don't believe in forever. It is a lie, a myth, because even if you do stay with the same person for the rest of your life, death will take one of you first. Feeling this sense of temporariness ensures that I appreciate the person I am with right now so much more. There is no time for complacency, no trap set for taking someone for granted. The relationship is always in a place of gratitude. At least this is what I've found.

Everything is temporary. That is one of the greatest truths.