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      Saturday, April 03, 2010


catstuff
08:58 AM - 04/03/2010

The topic: A sight for sore eyes
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So, KittyMeeze is still around. No sign of Gilligan.  I think he’s probably gone to the bridge.  It’s a tough life for an unneutered feral cat.

Kitty stays on property.  He’s been staying hidden untl mid- or late morning.  He’ll come in to the entry way for water or food, then go back out front and find a ray of sun to lay in.  I don’t put the food out until I see him. I’ve been taking him food during the day.  I’ll slide the bowl towards him and he usually eats. Not much, but any amount is good.  As all of us know, if a cat won’t eat, the cat’s in pretty bad shape. 

I’ve been adding a lot of water to his food since it seems he’s having a hard time chewing.  For a week or so, we were putting out Fancy Feast, but Wednesday, I started with the Hill’s A/D again.  I took it up to him on the bank and he lapped.  When he was done, I’d take it away and put it back in the entry way.  Hours later, I’d find him laying on the driveway, I’d bring the food to him and he’d lap some more. 

Thursday, over the course of the day, he ate almost an entire can of A/D, along with some Fancy Feast.  Yesterday, he did eat a full can of A/D over the day and before he went to bed, he came in and ate a good amount of Fancy Feast (during the day, there is always some wet food out there for him).  This was the first time he’d done this in weeks. Come into the entry way to eat before bed.

Of course, I’m not leaving food out overnight.  I go outside around 8:30 and throw out any food that’s left over.  Sorry possums, but you’re not the only critter it attracts.  Last week I chased a raccoon away.  I don’t want them here, they’re not cat friendly when they’re fighting for food. 

So, this morning, I get up, and as usual, the first thing I do is turn on the computer. Then, while it’s booting up, I feed the cats.  On the way to the garage, I look out the front door to see if maybe KittyMeezer is out there.  This is the same thing I do every morning. And this morning, Kitty was there!  Waiting for breakfast!  The first time in weeks.

I tossed the dry kibble for the inside cats, then emptied a can of A/D into a paper bowl, added water and heated it up. I took that out to him. He waited, he didn’t run.  And when I squatted down to place the bowl, I put my index finger out to him.  He sniffed it!  Just like he always did, every morning!

Seeing him out there this early in the morning was certainly a great start to my day.

      Tuesday, April 06, 2010


otherstuff
09:42 AM - 04/06/2010

The topic: It’s starting off as one of those “I’m gonna scream!” days…
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First there was Brian and the piss smell (1. the litterboxes NEED to have the litter topped off to refresh the litter on a regular basis and 2. the areas where the cats spray/pee NEED to be cleaned on a regular basis, neither of which is getting done).  Then the stupid Fish Wrangler is burping badly and I keep getting white pages and I’m not thrilled about that.

And after my cleaning this morning (see item #2 in the first paragraph) my back is hurting. Then the frikkin’ allergies kick in, I start sneezing and I’m having one of those bladder days when I keep feeling like I have to pee, but can’t.  Until I start sneezing.

Grrr…...


otherstuff
09:57 AM - 04/06/2010

The topic: Then there’s the insurance….
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Brian’s dealing with the car agent, I’m dealing with the injury agent.

The last we saw of Brian, the first agent made an offer, it wasn’t accepted. That agent said “fax over your maintenence invoices and we’ll see what we can do”.  What they did was raise the offer a thousand dollars because the car was well taken care of.  Still not enough.  Brian left messages for the supervisor, it took almost a week before they spoke.  The offer then was “we can have an appraiser actually LOOK at your vehicle and make adjustments if they’re warranted”.  Brian doesn’t know how looking at a totalled car will be of any help, but he was told it’s doable.  And from the forms that we’d gotten after he rejected the first two offers, there were comments of “minor body wear” “minor interior wear”...figure we probably took people in the back seat no more than ten times in the whole time we had the car and when people weren’t there, we had towels in the backseat to protect it. Like for when I took the cats to the vet.  The interior was like new.

So, that should be done some time this week.

Then the injury agent calls last Friday and we talk. He wants to make an offer. He stresses how inexpensive the treatment is. (That’s not because the chiro is a quack, it’s because he’s reasonable, Brian’s been seeing him since high school.)  Hmmm….  Only a month and a half in, the chiro told me it takes the body ninety days to heal….  I have a feeling the offer is going to be reeeeaaaal low.  When I went in for my appointment yesterday, I discussed this with the doc.  He said usually the insurance company takes what the doctor is charging and doubles that.  That would be less than four thousand dollars, total.  For my back.

That’s not acceptable.  At all. 

Sure, I don’t have much of a life, but that makes the few things I do even more important to me.  I can’t clean properly (the ceiling needs to be vacuumed, the floors need to be washed, the screens need to be taken out and scrubbed, the windows need to be washed, the floors that can be waxed, need to be waxed).  I’m not driving anywhere.  Don’t have a car I feel safe in.  I’m a nervous wreck in traffic.  My back still hurts. 

Then there’s that kink in my spine.  It wasn’t there before the accident.  It’s there now.  Is that going to go away?  Will it cause problems down the road?  I’m no spring chicken and older people do not recover as quickly as younger people.  The doc said if they want a deposition, he’ll say that there’s a chance it will never be normal, that there’s a possibility I’ll have more problems with it as time goes by.

I can’t imagine I’ll accept the offer I get this week.  It’s a good thing our backs aren’t to the wall.

      Saturday, April 10, 2010


catstuff
06:12 PM - 04/10/2010

The topic: No Kitty this morning
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And it makes me crazy.  He was doing so well, then this morning when I got up and looked out to see him, he wasn’t there. 

I went out to get the paper and lookeda around for him, no sign of him at all. But there were three dogs running loose.

I hate these f*cking loose dogs, I really do.  Brian told me he heard somebody calling for a dog and I went out and checked.  It was a woman up the street and I saw one dog come running up to her and she sounded like she was in tears “where’ve you been, I was so scared…”

But no sign of KittyMeezer all day.  This just makes me sick.

Asshole dog owners.

      Sunday, April 11, 2010


catstuff
12:44 PM - 04/11/2010

The topic: So, all day long
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I check and watch for KittyMeeze.   At least twice an hour I was outside looking around, calling him.   Nothing. The food I’d put out in the morning was untouched except for a lizard (which was pretty cute, the lizard on the side of the paper bowl with it’s head in the food). 

After Jolene and I finished our quest on Fish Wrangler around 8:45 last night, Brian and I shut down our computers for the day.  We were watching “Quantum of Solace” on Showtime and I figured we’d just leave the food out until we went to bed.  You know, just in case.

At 9:30 I looked out and there he was, eating.  Yay! 

And he’s been here all day today, almost finished his first can of Friskies.

Lord, it’s nice to see him.  He must have run and hidden somewhere because of the dogs and didn’t feel safe to come back out until evening.  He doesn’t seem to have an obvious trauma, so wherever he was, it wasn’t a bad place to be for him.  He’s up on the bank and stretched out in the sun.  Where he likes to be.

Good kitty, Kitty.


otherstuff
03:08 PM - 04/11/2010

The topic: I hope I don’t regret this tomorrow
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But I just couldn’t stand it any longer.

I haven’t used the big vacuum on the house since February.  The cats are shedding like crazy.  The little Electrolux only runs for fifteen minutes at a time. It does an awesome job, but it was time to get out the big guns.

I vacuumed everywhere and it was good.  Well, not the ceilings, which really need to be done, but I did lots of places that the wireless vacuum can’t get, like the cat trees.

Much nicer.  My back isn’t happy right now, will probably be even less pleased tomorrow. 

Oh, well, it had to be done.

      Monday, April 12, 2010


catstuff
09:20 AM - 04/12/2010

The topic: So, I’m layin’ on the sofa
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last night, watching television. Brian’s already gone to bed.

I had a light fleece blanket over me, the lights were off. Cats were snugged up against me. Mickey was by my face.

I sneezed.

Mickey sat up and looked at me. If he’d had no fur on his face, you would have seen a furrowed brow. 

I sneezed again. 

He slapped me! A clawless slap.

I looked at him and asked him what his problem was.

Then I sneezed another time.

And, once again, he slapped my face. 

Blowing my nose got rid of the tickle, but this was one of the funniest things these guys have ever done to me.

      Thursday, April 15, 2010


foodstuff
11:48 AM - 04/15/2010

The topic: Finally…
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I finally did it.

Last year we tried our hands at upside down plants.  A tomato and a pepper.  Not successful at all.  Brian used some sort of special soil and I did not know this. This special soil retained water. 

I overwatered said plants.

So, this year, we’re starting from seed.  Forget the upside down part.  We were saving egg cartons to start the plants in, but they’re the cardboard kind.  Then we bought some apples at CostCo and they came in clear plastic containers, with little compartments for each apple.  I thought these would be much better for germinating the seeds.   When the lids are closed, light still gets in and they’ll stay moist longer.  And they’ll retain some heat.  Both good for germination.

They hold fourteen apples.  In one I planted seven brandywine seeds and seven beefsteak seeds (both tomatoes). In the other I planted fourteen pepper seeds.  Since I’ve never had much luck with pepper plants I’m hoping the more I have, the better chance I’ve got of some decent peppers this year. 

I took pictures.  And if anything happens, I’ll take more.

I don’t claim to possess a green thumb.

      Saturday, April 17, 2010


otherstuff
08:43 AM - 04/17/2010

The topic: Insurance (feh) update
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Well, Brian went around and around with them this week.  They’re playing games now.

Per the conversation yesterday afternoon, around five o’clock, there are red flags.  Because it was a non-contact accident.

WTF?  They’re thinking fraud?  They’re thinking it was a set up?  WTF?

Yeah, that’s it.  I had it all planned out.  And to make it look good I made reservations at the Paradise Pier Hotel over a month in advance.  Jolene made reservations at the Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland for Monday.  I shopped for food the week before.  I made special shirts with the date on them for both Jolene and me. All of this was done to make the “story” more believable. 

And then I planned it just right on the freeway so that I’d go sliding sideways off of the road and have the car positioned perfectly so that it went between a huge cement pole and a guardrail.  And then have it roll perfectly over and hit the fence so that it went over a part of the fence and missed the fenceposts, which could have killed me if I’d hit it differently.  There were so many opportunities for me to end up much worse than I did, but I’m just such a great stunt driver that it all worked out as planned. 

Of course, we all know that I’ve taken many stunt driving courses in my life, just waiting for this opportunity. 

And all of this because I want a new car. 

Once again.

WTF?

Oh, and Brian was told yesterday that they’re waiting on the official accident report from the California Highway Patrol. Brian was all over that. He told the agent “it’s been out over a month, I know because I have a copy”.  And the agent told Brian we’d be better off if there had been contact!  Both of us going around 65 miles per hour?  That it would have been better?  For who?

Yeah, the driver of the other vehicle, someone I’ve never met before in my life, is in on it with me.  The highway patrolman is in on it with me. 

I’m ready for a lawyer.  I’m ready right now. Brian wants to give the insurance company another week.  After this last conversation, I have no idea why. 

.

      Monday, April 19, 2010


otherstuff
07:14 AM - 04/19/2010

The topic: Tired of doing nothing
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Last Friday I started on finishing a website I started last year for Brian’s brother.  Did I ever mention he sells windmills?  Anyway, last year he said if I made him a website, he’d pay me a commission on every mill sold via that site.  Okay, sounded pretty good.  I got the domain ordered and paid for, I set it up and made two pages last September.  Then I needed more information from him, which took a while to get. 

He’s busy.  I’m not.  *lol*

Anyway, I’ve had the needed information for a while now and, as I said, I started on finishing up what I had last Friday.  And I found this out.

I hate coding tables.  I kind of cheat, I use Netscape Composer (remember Netscape?) for the basic table configuration, the copy that code over into Globalscape’s CuteHTML (editing software) program.  Then I plopped it into CoffeeCup Software’s Visual Site Designer.It wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to look like, but it was better than doing it in Paint Shop Pro and making a graphic.  Then, Saturday, I found an awesome websitewith information on coding tables.  There were things like COLSPAN (which I knew about) and ROWSPAN (which I did not).  And now I know what cellPADDING is and what cellSPACING does.  Once I got the basic table down, I did some more searching and found out how to use style to make the font and color and size just the way I wanted it.  I found all this information late Saturday, so yesterday,  I did this with the second table, liked it so much (because it looked so much cleaner than my original), I redid the original.

I plopped it into VSD and used the preview function.  Nice, really, really nice.  I won’t mind having my name associated with this site.  Then I uploaded it to the internet.  I looked at it in Internet Explorer.  Oh, it’s perfect! Then I looked at it in Google’s Chrome.  Still looking good. Then I went into FireFox.  What? What? What happened to my beeeeyoooteeful tables?  The bottom one overlapped the top one!  The font was all wrong. Things weren’t lining up as they should!  I was devastated!  It was awful! 

I tried changing where the tables were, but when the positioning was right in FireFox, they were miles apart in IE and Chrome.  I did some more research and found that FireFox is very unforgiving in coding. But I coded the tables, my software coded the positioning!  Many forum posts advised using an html validator to find the mistakes and fix them.  So you know what I did?

I did a preview of the webpage in my VSD.  I used a screen capture program to capture the table.  I saved it from there as a bmp image. I used Paint Shop Pro to clean up the edges, then I saved it as a png image.  Then, I deleted the table code from the webpage and inserted the table graphic. And I uploaded it to the internet.  And I looked at it in IE, FF and GC. And it was all good.

If you’d like to see my work (yeah, you see it here all the time) check out Breezy Windmill and Equipment Company. There will be more to come as I get it and the title should be a special font, I have to figure out how to make that work. (Another offering of Coffeecup.com.)

      Thursday, April 22, 2010


otherstuff
04:06 PM - 04/22/2010

The topic: The “injury” agent called this afternoon
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Started out nicely.  Didn’t end that way. 

Brian was told last week that this guy was the one who would be responsible for the final offer.  He started talking about “well, I heard there was some action last week…” and I told him right out “if you want to talk about the car, you have to talk to Brian”. Then he said “well, what about the injury?” 

Okay, let’s talk about the injury.  He asked how I was feeling. I asked if he’s spoken to the doctor yet (he hasn’t).  I tell him that x-rays were taken last week and that I’m not healing as quickly as he’d like.  The agent says “well, I don’t have a problem paying for additional treatment if you need it, let’s see, you’ve already paid that bill, $1,300.00, right?”  I said “no, it was over $1,500.00” to which he replied “that’s right…” 

I told him how frustrating it is for me.  That we haven’t gone for our morning walks since it happened. That we walked five days a week, weather permitting, for over ten years.  I told him I’ve started gaining weight, how I’m not real small anyway, and this is just making it worse. That I’m crabby and I’m not in a great frame of mind.

And then he brings up that since there was no contact at the time of the accident, it causes a problem.

Okay, here we go.

I told him if there’d been contact things would have been a whole lot worse. And that it upset me last week when Brian was told that there were “red flags” because there wasn’t any contact. He told me that because of that (no contact), California law says that their hands are tied, they can’t pay 100%.   No, I think it’s because the guy who caused the accident has coverage with AAA. Just like we do. Like Brian told them last week and I told this guy today, if the guy who was at fault had a different company, we’d never be speaking to AAA in the first place.

What?  California law says that?  I seriously doubt that.  And I don’t think at this point, he’s talking about my injury. I think he’s also talking about the car.

So, I told him “you know, when this started all we wanted was a new car and to be reimbursed for the medical bills. And you guys are just drawing it out and I think at this point, we’ll just talk to a lawyer.”  To which he replied “I really wish you didn’t feel like you had to go that way.”  Well, it doesn’t look like we have much of an alternative. 

His attitude was like “well, do what you have do.”

I called the chiro’s office after that and left a message for the doctor to get us the lawyer information so we can make arrangements for legal counsel.

Brian’s frustrated with this whole thing because he really and truly thought they’d do the right thing. He didn’t want to go with a lawyer.  He didn’t want to do that.  But right now, it doesn’t look like we’ll get satisfaction without one.


catstuff
07:01 PM - 04/22/2010

The topic: There’s an Angel in the house
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She cruised through the house yesterday afternoon.  Then I saw her in a basket in the living room. Last night, she was on the sofa. She stayed there at least as long as we were out there, was still there when we went to bed.

And right now, she’s back on the sofa after being under the loveseat all day, probably snugged up with Gracie. 

This is just so cool.  It’s been years and years since she’s been visible in the house. And now, she’s hanging out in there, laying on laps, purring, letting us love on her…

It’s so nice.

      Wednesday, April 28, 2010


otherstuff
04:53 PM - 04/28/2010

The topic: The irony….
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We got in to see the lawyer this afternoon.  Can’t really say much about it, not much really happened.  He said there’s not much to say or do (if anything) until I’m back to normal.  And who knows when that will be.

The ironic part? On the way over to his office, right after we pulled onto the street where his office is, the transmission went out on the car.  Heh.  This has not been a good car year. 

So, after the appointment, Brian calls AAA for a tow.  They only tow for free for seven miles.  You pay after that.  This tow company charges eight bucks a mile.  We’re ten and a half miles from home.  Leaving Brian to work out the logistics, I walked over to the Windmill Farms next door and bought whole wheat flour and some green peppers (I can take those off of my list now).  Came back and he’d called Mark, Mark got the number of a transmission place by Brian’s shop, Brian called the tranny company, they said if we do the work, you can be towed to our lot for free. 

Guess what we did?  We got towed to the lot for free.  Mark brought us home.

Brian is liking AAA less and less….

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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