Thursday, January 5, 2017
Grrrr! Cell Phones...
There is nothing that compares to receiving a phone call, or text message, on your emergency telephone line at 4 o'clock in the morning. If my regular, old-fashioned home telephone (an honest-to-goodness land line) rings in the middle of my sleep, that's startling; but when my emergency phone rings, or buzzes, it scares me, because I think of all of the things that can happen to friends, family and pets. I waited a very long time to get a cell phone. I do not like the damned things - and I hate talking on them. I only got one when it became apparent that sometimes my clients felt the need to contact me while I was walking their dogs. I even had clients offer to purchase a phone for me, and put that phone on their plan, with them paying for it monthly.
I finally broke down and purchased my own cell phone. I give the number out to a very few friends, to family, and to my clients. When I start working for them, I tell the clients, this cell phone number is for emergency purposes only - call my home number, or e-mail me, if you want to schedule something. No one listens to instructions anymore. If I did not follow instructions regarding the care of these folks' animals and houses, I'd be in BIG trouble. But my requests and instructions regarding making contact with me are totally ignored. It's amazing... One of my clients calls multiple times each day, just to chat, and/or to ask my opinion of a certain pet product.
I don't seem to remember living anywhere as narcissistic as Boulder. Here, it seems that everyone believes that "the rules apply to others, not me." People walk across busy streets in the middle of traffic, not using crosswalks. People go through and turn on red lights, if no one is approaching. The law says that one must pick up your dog's poop - but less than half do it (I do, even though the dogs I walk are not mine). People on bicycles blast through Stop signs and red lights. I heard a teen-ager on the bus tell his friend that he'd left his tablet on the bus - and the other kid said, "Oh, I don't like that one. My folks will buy me a newer, better one, when I tell them I lost it." This stuff just astounds me.
Anyway, I was sound asleep at 4 o'clock in the morning. My cell phone was plugged in and charging on the stand beside my bed. I was caring for Bop and Tiko, two cats, whose owners were on their way back from Spain. They were due back at home between 6 and 7 that night... Suddenly, my phone started buzzing and crawling across the night stand - then it whistled three times in a row. That meant I either had three voice messages, or three text messages. My mind immediately flew to several older critters that I have cared for over many years, and I worried that one had passed away. I turned on the light, grabbed the phone, and saw 3 text messages.
Tiko and Bop's parents/owners were at Heathrow Airport, outside of London, on the way home - how were the boys, how was the weather, any problems with the house? Two pages of questions... Then the third text was - "Whoops! Forgot the time difference - you're asleep, aren't you?" "Not any longer," was my response....
Boulder is in a valley on the edge of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Even though there are plenty of micro-wave towers, reception for cell phones is very spotty. Sometimes the cell phone will ring in one part of a specific house, but nor in another. My cell phone only works in my bedroom of my apartment. Even so, people's voices fade in and out - that's why I prefer to use my real telephone - it doesn't fade in and out, and always has good reception. I still think that cell phones are NOT a convenience. Guess I'm still an old-fashioned so-and-so!
I finally broke down and purchased my own cell phone. I give the number out to a very few friends, to family, and to my clients. When I start working for them, I tell the clients, this cell phone number is for emergency purposes only - call my home number, or e-mail me, if you want to schedule something. No one listens to instructions anymore. If I did not follow instructions regarding the care of these folks' animals and houses, I'd be in BIG trouble. But my requests and instructions regarding making contact with me are totally ignored. It's amazing... One of my clients calls multiple times each day, just to chat, and/or to ask my opinion of a certain pet product.
I don't seem to remember living anywhere as narcissistic as Boulder. Here, it seems that everyone believes that "the rules apply to others, not me." People walk across busy streets in the middle of traffic, not using crosswalks. People go through and turn on red lights, if no one is approaching. The law says that one must pick up your dog's poop - but less than half do it (I do, even though the dogs I walk are not mine). People on bicycles blast through Stop signs and red lights. I heard a teen-ager on the bus tell his friend that he'd left his tablet on the bus - and the other kid said, "Oh, I don't like that one. My folks will buy me a newer, better one, when I tell them I lost it." This stuff just astounds me.
Anyway, I was sound asleep at 4 o'clock in the morning. My cell phone was plugged in and charging on the stand beside my bed. I was caring for Bop and Tiko, two cats, whose owners were on their way back from Spain. They were due back at home between 6 and 7 that night... Suddenly, my phone started buzzing and crawling across the night stand - then it whistled three times in a row. That meant I either had three voice messages, or three text messages. My mind immediately flew to several older critters that I have cared for over many years, and I worried that one had passed away. I turned on the light, grabbed the phone, and saw 3 text messages.
Tiko and Bop's parents/owners were at Heathrow Airport, outside of London, on the way home - how were the boys, how was the weather, any problems with the house? Two pages of questions... Then the third text was - "Whoops! Forgot the time difference - you're asleep, aren't you?" "Not any longer," was my response....
Boulder is in a valley on the edge of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Even though there are plenty of micro-wave towers, reception for cell phones is very spotty. Sometimes the cell phone will ring in one part of a specific house, but nor in another. My cell phone only works in my bedroom of my apartment. Even so, people's voices fade in and out - that's why I prefer to use my real telephone - it doesn't fade in and out, and always has good reception. I still think that cell phones are NOT a convenience. Guess I'm still an old-fashioned so-and-so!
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
My Favorites of the Tournament of Roses Parade 2017
The amount of planning and time that goes into making a single Tournament of Roses Parade float is mind-boggling. Every single millimeter of the exterior must be covered with organic material - no paint, no metal, no plastic. Here are some of my favorite participants this year:
The stripes on the chameleons changed colors...
The Cat's Away...
Doing Good in the World
The Monkey King
From the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a wonderful tribute to the 49 people
who lost their lives at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Waves of Hope
From the United Sikh Mission
The 55-foot long bus cover would almost close, then rise to show the dogs swimming in a house full of water - from a Farmer's Insurance advertisement
Field of Dreams float from Armenians in America
A huge hit was the Lucy Pet's Gnarly Crankin' K-9 Wave Maker -
multiple dogs participated in a heated wave pool, surfing for 5 1/2 miles.
Teammates In Life
Home Tweet Home
The Buhos Marching Band, in Azteca costumes, from Mexico
Best photo I could find of the New Buffalo Soldiers
Miramar Saddlebreds, with riders dressed as jockeys
And, with all the equestrian units in the parade -
this is one of the Pooper Scooper units...
Monday, January 2, 2017
Dogs and Owners
Over my years of dog-walking and dog-sitting, I have never ceased to be amazed by how well-trained dog owners are. When I first go and visit and new client, I get the owners to tell me all about their dogs - their little quirks and cute tricks, and things they will do and won't do for the owners. One of my favorite items is being told that the dog will "never" do this or that... and they do it, happily, for me. I easily and readily admit that my two cats have me wrapped around their whiskers, and that they are spoiled rotten. (And their Auntie Bea, my room mate, spoils them worse than I do.) But dogs and cats are very different - cats may run in a clowder in the wild, but they are not pack animals with an alpha leader, like dogs. When I start taking care of any dog, I am the alpha leader, not them.
I have been told by one client that their older dog will only eat if she's fed by hand - she eats out of her dog bowl for me. I'm told several dogs are extremely picky eaters and that I need to offer them multiple things for their meal, until they deign to choose something. With those dogs, I'm happy to alternate different foods at meal time, but I put one item down and tell them, "That's what you get - eat it or leave it." The dogs might wait a few minutes, but they always eat what I give them.
One of my favorite items involves short-coated dogs and weather. I've been told that if it's less than 35 degrees outside, these dogs must wear a sweater or coat just to walk into the back yard and relieve themselves. If it's below freezing, they must have their booties on. I've been told that one dog in particular does not handle cold weather well - that if it's below freezing, his feet get so cold that he can't walk, and he falls over on his side and lies there, stiff-legged, until his owners pick him up and carry him inside. That same dog is supposed to be allowed to wander for 20 to 30 minutes each time he goes out to potty, because it "takes him a long time to decide it's safe enough to poop." I can tell you that that specific dog, and several others, will run outside, and do their business quickly if they don't have a coat or booties on when it's cold.
Now, if I'm taking the dogs out for an hour's walk, or more, then, yes, they get their coats and boots put on, as well as a good coating of Paw-eeze. The little guy who falls over stiff-legged from having cold feet (for his owners) has never pulled such a trick on me... Dogs that owners can't control when on the leash, or loose and on voice-command, I have no problems with. I know that I'm guilty of letting my cats do crazy things - but I guess I'm the strict disciplinarian when it comes to others...
I have been told by one client that their older dog will only eat if she's fed by hand - she eats out of her dog bowl for me. I'm told several dogs are extremely picky eaters and that I need to offer them multiple things for their meal, until they deign to choose something. With those dogs, I'm happy to alternate different foods at meal time, but I put one item down and tell them, "That's what you get - eat it or leave it." The dogs might wait a few minutes, but they always eat what I give them.
One of my favorite items involves short-coated dogs and weather. I've been told that if it's less than 35 degrees outside, these dogs must wear a sweater or coat just to walk into the back yard and relieve themselves. If it's below freezing, they must have their booties on. I've been told that one dog in particular does not handle cold weather well - that if it's below freezing, his feet get so cold that he can't walk, and he falls over on his side and lies there, stiff-legged, until his owners pick him up and carry him inside. That same dog is supposed to be allowed to wander for 20 to 30 minutes each time he goes out to potty, because it "takes him a long time to decide it's safe enough to poop." I can tell you that that specific dog, and several others, will run outside, and do their business quickly if they don't have a coat or booties on when it's cold.
Now, if I'm taking the dogs out for an hour's walk, or more, then, yes, they get their coats and boots put on, as well as a good coating of Paw-eeze. The little guy who falls over stiff-legged from having cold feet (for his owners) has never pulled such a trick on me... Dogs that owners can't control when on the leash, or loose and on voice-command, I have no problems with. I know that I'm guilty of letting my cats do crazy things - but I guess I'm the strict disciplinarian when it comes to others...
Sunday, January 1, 2017
New Year
Happy New Year! It's now 2017, according to the Julian calendar, and I am hoping that this year will be, truly, "good." Good to me means: peace, health, happiness, and earning enough to pay all bills and have a little left over to participate in a few fun things...
My parents always told me that we learn something every day we're alive - and that when we stop learning, or cease being amazed, that we might as well die. A few years ago, I learned, to my amazement, that humans have anal glands, just like cats and dogs. I don't know why that surprised me, given the reticence that society imposes regarding the act of defecation. .... That's just my lead-in to the two new things that I learned during the last two days of 2016.
I learned on Friday, 30 December, that one-quarter of the world's population has a small heart abnormality. When babies are in the uterus, surrounded by amniotic fluid, they don't breathe. They get their oxygen supply through their mother's blood through the umbilical cord. Since this blood supply doesn't need to be "scrubbed clean" by going through the lungs, there is is small opening between the upper chambers of the baby's heart, the right and left atria. The opening is called the foramen ovale, and once the child is born and is breathing air, the opening closes by itself during infancy. However, this opening does not close completely in almost 25% of the population - and it is then called a patent foramen ovale, or PFO. Most people never know whether or not they have a PFO, unless a specific test is run. I had that test during my echo cardiogram of my heart Friday it's called a "bubble test," and mine was positive. Meaning that my heart leaks uncleaned used blood, in small amounts, over to the clean, oxygenated blood in my left atria, which then recirculates through my system. It doesn't bother most people, and surgery is not known to help, except in extreme cases. Once all my test results get back to my regular doctor, we'll have a conference about it....
Yesterday evening, while following a my family tree back, I was found myself laughing like an idiot. I found my 54th-great grandfather was named Kenneth, son of Old Cole. I thought - "Oh, no! Not the Old King Cole of nursery rhyme!" - but it was Old King Cole. His name was Coel ap Tegfan, and he was known as Coel Hen - or Cole the Old. He was head of several post-Roman Brythonic Royal families of the Hen Ogledd, the "Old North" covering modern Northern England and Southern Scotland. His titles were King of Northern Britain and Dux Britanniorum. Of course, the nursery rhymes are based on ancient stories and legends, so a person can't swear that Old King Cole and Coel ap Tegfan were truly one and the same person - but it seems likely.... Which leads to a consideration of Old King Cole's pipe - did the Romans and early British Kings actually smoke? I don't think so - but the old illustration of the nursery rhyme shows the King with a hookah... Was he merry because of hashish - or opium? Who knows....
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