I was disappointed by the Denver Broncos game on Sunday. At least Kansas City and Green Bay were winners. Yesterday was a weird day. Kathy had a mid-afternoon appointment with her surgeon for drain removals and her first follow-up after the surgery. She also had a pile of paper work from her employing company that both she and the surgeon were supposed to fill and and return. When she first spoke to the corporate staff, they told her they were sending information and paperwork immediately - that was on 3 November. She was told on the phone that the paperwork needed to be returned to the company by 14 November. On 14 November she received the paperwork in the mail, and the cover letter was dated 4 November, but the packet wasn't stamped until 12 November. The paperwork inside said that she had to return all paperwork within 14 days of the dated cover-letter. - Hunh? - She managed to work herself into a panic attack about the paperwork, and I sat her down, and we wrote out questions to ask corporate, and she called them We got everything cleared up (supposedly). Thursday, Kathy and Jim will visit the Care Team leader and then see her oncologist. That's when we'll find out what is planned for her recovery after the surgery - chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or hormonal therapy. I have the feeling she'll be wiped out physically and emotionally today. I'll find out pretty soon.
I'm making their supper for tonight - will cook the main item at their house after walking the doggies today. I'm making a small portion of homemade marinara sauce and turkey meatballs; they'll have vegetable pasta, a cranberry-walnut-spinach salad, and Parmesan-garlic bread sticks, too. That ought to fill their tummies on another cold night!
My kits are still a little bit upset with me - I won't let them roam outside for long periods of time. It's warmer than it has been, but it's still pretty darn cold. And I'm keeping a good supply of nuts and seeds out for the squirrels and birds - they definitely won't starve.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Scenic Views
Creek-side cabin
Carpathian Mountains of Romania
Derelict boat near Oyster, Virginia
Manchester Farms round barn in Ohio
Gordes, Provence, France
California piano
Barn and swing
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Recently Extinct Critters - Photos
Capra ibex - extinct since 2005
Bubal hartebeest - extinct since 1954
Zanzibar leopard - extinct since the 1990s
Tasmanian tiger - extinct since 1936
Spix macaw - extinct in the wild since 2000
Javan tiger - extinct in the 1970s
Books, Critters and Snow
Three and a half inches of snow fell yesterday - today the sky is cloudless, bright and sunny. Even though it's 8 degrees outside, I keep seeing pieces of icicles and clumps of snow falling from the roof and balcony above me, and snow is falling from the leaves and branches of trees in the back yard. The majority of college football teams that I like were able to win, with the exception of Mississippi State, which fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Gamecocks won, Northwestern upset Notre Dame, and Mizzou won handily. It was a good football day for me. I also finished reading The Bootlegger by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - a lively read, as always, from those two.
The kits want to go out and hunt, but I won't open the doors when we have flocks of birds on the patio. Rodney, next door, has three hanging feeders, but perches to feed are limited. My wide, flattened bowl of food draws flocks of small birds, and most get seed that is being tossed out or scratched out by others inside the bowl, seeking the best grains. There is a mixture of sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, and several small grains... There are usually five to fifty birds on the patio, and my kits sit on the cat tree, or on the floor at the patio door, and watch intently. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the sound of small birds chirping in concert.
I found a delightful series of books to begin gifting to my grandniece - the author is Judy Schachner, and the main character is a Siamese cat named Skippyjon Jones. Skippyjon firmly believes that he is a Chihuahua - and performs acts of daring-do wearing a black mask, like el Zorro. There is also an English/Spanish book titled Say It With/Diga Con Skippyjon Jones. Since Evie's father attended the university in Columbia, and he speaks Spanish like a native, I think it's a good choice.
The kits want to go out and hunt, but I won't open the doors when we have flocks of birds on the patio. Rodney, next door, has three hanging feeders, but perches to feed are limited. My wide, flattened bowl of food draws flocks of small birds, and most get seed that is being tossed out or scratched out by others inside the bowl, seeking the best grains. There is a mixture of sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, and several small grains... There are usually five to fifty birds on the patio, and my kits sit on the cat tree, or on the floor at the patio door, and watch intently. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the sound of small birds chirping in concert.
I found a delightful series of books to begin gifting to my grandniece - the author is Judy Schachner, and the main character is a Siamese cat named Skippyjon Jones. Skippyjon firmly believes that he is a Chihuahua - and performs acts of daring-do wearing a black mask, like el Zorro. There is also an English/Spanish book titled Say It With/Diga Con Skippyjon Jones. Since Evie's father attended the university in Columbia, and he speaks Spanish like a native, I think it's a good choice.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Friday Review
I spent a great afternoon with Kathy yesterday - Jim was in and out, running errands, and Sarah brought my grand-niece Evie, who kept all of us occupied. Sister-in-law Tracey stopped by and joined us for lunch, and we had a great family meal. Kathy received a pile of get well cards yesterday, and a couple of neighbors stopped by with cards and flowers. Evie finally hit an overload point without her nap (she is, after all, only 15 months old), and Sarah took her home. Kathy finally had some quiet time time for a nap, and Jim went shopping for essentials - toilet paper, milk, and some fresh vegetables and fruit. After returning, Jim ran me home before Lynn was to arrive with last night's meal...
The weather folks said we'd have a clear, but cold, morning here with temperatures dropping again, and with snow in the afternoon. I walked to the store this morning, grabbed a couple of bagels and some crunchies for the kits, and walked back home. On the way back, I realized that teeny, tiny snowflakes were falling - they looked almost like glitter on the ground. Right now, the snow is falling and swirling as if we were trapped inside a snow globe. As soon as I returned this morning, I put out more nuts and dried fruit for the squirrels, and I re-filled the bird seed bowl. While writing this, I keep seeing squirrels peering in the window and quite a few birds flying in and out, grabbing seeds. And, just for the heck of it, it was 21 degrees when I went to the store; it's now 17 degrees.
I am still shaking my head over some of the "news" stories I seen over the past few days. I agree that the story about the 35-foot sailboat that ran into the pilings along the Chesapeake tunnel of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was news. The captain of the boat lost his engine, and the boat hit the bridge pilings, breaking a part of the mast. The Coast Guard transferred a man over to aid the sailboat captain, the sail was untangled and taken down, and the engine was started. There was no damage to the bridge-tunnel pilings.
The story about the "medical miracle" of a young man who survived "internal decapitation" might be news-worthy. If the young man had been wearing his seat belt prior to an accident that threw him out of the back seat of an SUV, this probably would not have happened. The impact moved his skull away from his spine - usually, there is a space of 1 millimeter or less between the top (C-1) vertebrae and the skull. This young man had a 6 mm separation - and his spinal cord was not compromised. He was extremely lucky to be up and walking about in a neck brace and expecting a full recovery.
The story about the young man who had a 100-plus pound tumor removed from his scrotum, however, seems to feed the prurient interest groups. I'm sure it was a wonderful moment to have this tumor removed - in a surgery that took 16 hours - but it's not something I'd want reported all over the country and/or world. And the surgery was not without complications - a nerve was "touched" during the surgery, and the man no longer has any feeling in his legs. He will have to learn to walk all over again. Again, I can see letting a few friends and family know this - but to have USA Today coverage seems a bit much.
I have to admit it was curiosity that led me to read the story about the lady who set her underwear on fire, draped over the telephone in her cell, causing the destruction of the telephone, and making scorch marks on the wall to the ceiling of her jail cell. It appears she had been carrying her cigarette lighter in a space available only to females. She had originally been arrested on drunk and disorderly charges.
The only big news around here is that the motion picture "Christmastime" is being filmed on the Pearl Street Mall (here in Boulder) for the next week; and that the Denver Broncos are re-signing Champ Bailey to a one-day contract, so that Champ may retire from the NFL as a Bronco...
Have a great weekend!
The weather folks said we'd have a clear, but cold, morning here with temperatures dropping again, and with snow in the afternoon. I walked to the store this morning, grabbed a couple of bagels and some crunchies for the kits, and walked back home. On the way back, I realized that teeny, tiny snowflakes were falling - they looked almost like glitter on the ground. Right now, the snow is falling and swirling as if we were trapped inside a snow globe. As soon as I returned this morning, I put out more nuts and dried fruit for the squirrels, and I re-filled the bird seed bowl. While writing this, I keep seeing squirrels peering in the window and quite a few birds flying in and out, grabbing seeds. And, just for the heck of it, it was 21 degrees when I went to the store; it's now 17 degrees.
I am still shaking my head over some of the "news" stories I seen over the past few days. I agree that the story about the 35-foot sailboat that ran into the pilings along the Chesapeake tunnel of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was news. The captain of the boat lost his engine, and the boat hit the bridge pilings, breaking a part of the mast. The Coast Guard transferred a man over to aid the sailboat captain, the sail was untangled and taken down, and the engine was started. There was no damage to the bridge-tunnel pilings.
The story about the "medical miracle" of a young man who survived "internal decapitation" might be news-worthy. If the young man had been wearing his seat belt prior to an accident that threw him out of the back seat of an SUV, this probably would not have happened. The impact moved his skull away from his spine - usually, there is a space of 1 millimeter or less between the top (C-1) vertebrae and the skull. This young man had a 6 mm separation - and his spinal cord was not compromised. He was extremely lucky to be up and walking about in a neck brace and expecting a full recovery.
The story about the young man who had a 100-plus pound tumor removed from his scrotum, however, seems to feed the prurient interest groups. I'm sure it was a wonderful moment to have this tumor removed - in a surgery that took 16 hours - but it's not something I'd want reported all over the country and/or world. And the surgery was not without complications - a nerve was "touched" during the surgery, and the man no longer has any feeling in his legs. He will have to learn to walk all over again. Again, I can see letting a few friends and family know this - but to have USA Today coverage seems a bit much.
I have to admit it was curiosity that led me to read the story about the lady who set her underwear on fire, draped over the telephone in her cell, causing the destruction of the telephone, and making scorch marks on the wall to the ceiling of her jail cell. It appears she had been carrying her cigarette lighter in a space available only to females. She had originally been arrested on drunk and disorderly charges.
The only big news around here is that the motion picture "Christmastime" is being filmed on the Pearl Street Mall (here in Boulder) for the next week; and that the Denver Broncos are re-signing Champ Bailey to a one-day contract, so that Champ may retire from the NFL as a Bronco...
Have a great weekend!
Friday, November 14, 2014
Assorted Photos
Australian beach
Japanese dragons at Longleat Park
Rainbow Peak, Glacier National Park
Rainbow lorikeet
Woodies and 'boards
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