Category Archives: Animals

Careful what you wish for…

How many times have I said that to my kids! “Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” I have been so backed up with work, WWD work, practicing, music, school work, Corn Allergen emails, brushing the dog’s teeth, filing papers from 2008, and putting my music room back together, that I have often found myself wishing I could just have a week off to catch up with everything. HA! It doesn’t work that way.

I got my week off, alright. I hurt my back two weeks ago, and it got better day by day. By last weekend, I was getting cocky, and pretended I hadn’t hurt it at all. Big mistake. Monday morning I was in even worse pain, and it hurt to even take a step. I went to the doctor Tuesday, and ended up being told to stay home the rest of the week! What a waste of time. I found out that I do not work very well when I’m in pain. For all the extra “work” I got done, I might as well have had a full week!

And just some random things I also discovered. One is that I am never in my car a 1:11, am or pm. Monday through Friday I am at work, so that makes sense. Most Saturdays I have a music lesson, and I’m usually home by then. If I go out on Sundays, it’s for a matinee, and I’d be anywhere I need to be well before 1:11. And of course, I’m asleep at 1:11 am. But I got to see the 1:11 Tuesday on my way to the doctor. (See, this is why I don’t have a digital watch; I’d spend most of the day trying to “capture” times like 12:34:56 or 2:52:52.)

I have also discovered Robyn Hitchcock. How can I have lived on this planet for 46 years without ever hearing of him before? He is my-kind-of-music. I have also been listening to Ralph Vaughn Williams Flos Campi over and over again; it is so beautiful. Last month I discovered George Butterworth (1885 – 1916), a student of Vaughn Williams who tragically died at age 30 in WWI. Oh, the beautiful music we lost when he died. I could listen to Two English Idylls (1911), A Shropshire Lad (1912), and The Banks of Green Willow (1913) over and over again. Actually, I do listen to them over and over again! The people at work must think I’m crazy.

But perhaps the most random thing I discovered was that Diamond carries stuffed animals in her mouth when she yowls at night! She is a weird cat. Old too, but she was weird when she was young as well. She’s a tabby cat, and they are supposed to be “feisty” animals. That she is. Pixel is also tabby, but she was never feisty. That is, not until we got her hernia removed, poor kitten. Now she’s feisty, and even a bit bossy! One night when Diamond was downstairs yowling, we brought her up to stay on the bed with us for the night. Well, Pixel didn’t like that! Not only does Pixel consider herself our “baby”, it’s her bed. She (Pixel) growled, howled, yowled, scowled, meowed, and pouted until Diamond left the room. Guess she told her.

It is going to be a long year without Kerri

She has been gone 3 weeks, and already I am done with her cat. Honestly, Diamond’s a sweet kitty and all…Actually, she’s not that sweet. She can be a real bitch, and she BITES too. You can’t pick her up to move her or she yowls at you (and may try to bite as well). But she’s old, 13 years old, and quite settled in her ways. She has decided that she prefers to be next to people instead of by herself, say, on the couch. Well, when I’m home, I’m not usually on the couch. I’m usually at my desk. So that is where Diamond has decided she needs to be.

So now I have to work with Diamond helping me, which she does this by continually hitting the keys on my keyboard.

It’s going to be a long year.

Grumble grumble

Unbelievable. I am working on my computer and suddenly a little system bubble pops up telling me that my C drive is low on disk space. I have two 145GB internal hard drives! How can this be? Well, darn it all, I really do have less than 1GB left on C. No wonder it takes hours for my system to backup, which I do on a remote server. And I have no idea what to get rid of; everything’s important.

I have been smelling poo all evening, but I can’t locate it. I’ve been all around the downstairs sniffing, turned Dot’s cage inside-out, and looked under all kinds of stuff, but it still eludes me. I know the dog needs a bath, but up close, she only smells like dog, not poo.

After grumbling the past few weeks about being invisible, what do I do? Neglect to tell Katie that her sister got her visa problem resolved and left for London yesterday. She cried. Boy do I feel like a shit. Maybe that’s why I smell poo.

I got a huge pain inside when I heard cars and voices outside the side of the house and realized it won’t be Kerri and her friends. This sucks. And with Katie planning on moving from Beverly to somewhere near Andover, we’ll never see her anymore either (even if it’s just for laundry). Must get another puppy to alleviate my empty-nest syndrome. Oh wait, that would mean more poo. Never mind. I’ll get another hard drive instead.