Friday Cats Blogging

Air Horn Week Something

Don't believe what you may have heard. North Carolina did not repeal HB2, it replaced it with a very slightly watered down version of the same bill. It is just as loathsome and keeps it in place until 2020. It also takes bathrooms and control mover them out of the control of the city and towns that they are located in and puts them under the control of The State.

Roy Cooper failed us. And he lied.

The Air Horn Orchestra had another concert. It was with a heavy heart, we voted for this guy! and now we are protesting at his door! This is sad. Some of our members chose not to perform with us because they found the pig attractive once there was lipstick on it, this is disappointing.  We did a few new members this time though, you could tell because 1) they spoke with the reporters, 2) they played with their horns before "time".

Its bad airhorn etiquette to make noise before we all make noise. Besides the true air horns run out of fuel very fast and are expensive, its foolish to waste it just fooling around. And they are ridiculously loud and they hurts everyone's ears! We wear ear protectors for a reason. Dummy.

Wednesday

Continuing on the On This Day Theme : On This Day in 1973 the last of the troops were withdrawn from Vietnam.

Thinking positively. Good things.  Today I received my Hamilton soundtrack . I am listening to it now. I want to see it, I had to admit my knowledge of early US history is lacking and all I actually know about Burr/Hamilton is that one shot the other in a duel. The sound track is two CDs,  there was more to it than a duel.

Its very pop and R&B, not the traditional musical theater music, however more and more the music of the theater is not the traditional music of the theatre. You aren't going to walk away humming it because you aren't supposed to walk away humming it, times have changed. Tastes change.

 It reminds me of  a slicker, less white kid Hair or less white kid JCS. the same speaking to a very specific audience in a very specific way. The same way that they were hugely popular with their target audiences, Hamilton is cleaning up with theirs instead of trading bible verses, they are exchanging passages from history books. The makers of Hair and JCS  were not interested in the old blue haired ladies either... Its really the same. I mean JCS was right out of the Bible and it was for and by a very young audience that was not usually going to the theatre, much less Broadway. Hamilton is going after this same audience.

Its very interesting music. Exhausting.  Would not make sense outside the show, does reprise "Not throwing away my shot" so far 3x.

Its good, its very factual. Its  like a School House Rock for a whole new generation. But a lot longer. And a lot less white. A touring version is supposed to come here - even with HB2 in place? it shouldn't, decent shows bypass us, as they should.  I would like to see it though, to see what all the excitement is about.

More History.

While I didn't remember anything about the plan crash, I do remember this. Mostly because my family live just outside the evacuation zone and I think if the threat has lasted a little longer they were going to increase the area that had to evacuate but fortunately, they got it under control before they had to bug out ( still? the plume? that place spewed nuclear fallout into the air, for gawd knows how long. I still would have left, I would have loaded up the car and driven the kids down to Texas to see us.  Today in History Cheeto willfully gutted the EPA and its rules to protect us from disasters like this.  Expect more disasters like this befall us as we move into the future. Russian steel is not as good as American steel

So in its entirety:

At 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, the worst accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry begins when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island fails to close. Cooling water, contaminated with radiation, drained from the open valve into adjoining buildings, and the core began to dangerously overheat.

The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was built in 1974 on a sandbar on Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, just 10 miles downstream from the state capitol in Harrisburg. In 1978, a second state-of-the-art reactor began operating on Three Mile Island, which was lauded for generating affordable and reliable energy in a time of energy crises.

After the cooling water began to drain out of the broken pressure valve on the morning of March 28, 1979, emergency cooling pumps automatically went into operation. Left alone, these safety devices would have prevented the development of a larger crisis. However, human operators in the control room misread confusing and contradictory readings and shut off the emergency water system. The reactor was also shut down, but residual heat from the fission process was still being released. By early morning, the core had heated to over 4,000 degrees, just 1,000 degrees short of meltdown. In the meltdown scenario, the core melts, and deadly radiation drifts across the countryside, fatally sickening a potentially great number of people.

As the plant operators struggled to understand what had happened, the contaminated water was releasing radioactive gases throughout the plant. The radiation levels, though not immediately life-threatening, were dangerous, and the core cooked further as the contaminated water was contained and precautions were taken to protect the operators. Shortly after 8 a.m., word of the accident leaked to the outside world. The plant’s parent company, Metropolitan Edison, downplayed the crisis and claimed that no radiation had been detected off plant grounds, but the same day inspectors detected slightly increased levels of radiation nearby as a result of the contaminated water leak. Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh considered calling an evacuation.

Finally, at about 8 p.m., plant operators realized they needed to get water moving through the core again and restarted the pumps. The temperature began to drop, and pressure in the reactor was reduced. The reactor had come within less than an hour of a complete meltdown. More than half the core was destroyed or molten, but it had not broken its protective shell, and no radiation was escaping. The crisis was apparently over.

Two days later, however, on March 30, a bubble of highly flammable hydrogen gas was discovered within the reactor building. The bubble of gas was created two days before when exposed core materials reacted with super-heated steam. On March 28, some of this gas had exploded, releasing a small amount of radiation into the atmosphere. At that time, plant operators had not registered the explosion, which sounded like a ventilation door closing. After the radiation leak was discovered on March 30, residents were advised to stay indoors. Experts were uncertain if the hydrogen bubble would create further meltdown or possibly a giant explosion, and as a precaution Governor Thornburgh advised “pregnant women and pre-school age children to leave the area within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility until further notice.” This led to the panic the governor had hoped to avoid; within days, more than 100,000 people had fled surrounding towns.

On April 1, President Jimmy Carter arrived at Three Mile Island to inspect the plant. Carter, a trained nuclear engineer, had helped dismantle a damaged Canadian nuclear reactor while serving in the U.S. Navy. His visit achieved its aim of calming local residents and the nation. That afternoon, experts agreed that the hydrogen bubble was not in danger of exploding. Slowly, the hydrogen was bled from the system as the reactor cooled.

At the height of the crisis, plant workers were exposed to unhealthy levels of radiation, but no one outside Three Mile Island had their health adversely affected by the accident. Nonetheless, the incident greatly eroded the public’s faith in nuclear power. The unharmed Unit-1 reactor at Three Mile Island, which was shut down during the crisis, did not resume operation until 1985. Cleanup continued on Unit-2 until 1990, but it was too damaged to be rendered usable again. In the more than two decades since the accident at Three Mile Island, not a single new nuclear power plant has been ordered in the United States. history.com

 Well, History. com doesn't update often, there are  more than a few new builds out there including a a very new one, and it's in Tennessee. Somewhere there is a picture of me, taken years later. with one of the 3 Mile Island towers in the background, to prove that I was there and didn't grow a second head. We drive past the now mothballed power station going to and from the airport to see the family.

 Today, I live near the not even all that new but History. Com is not as smart as it thinks it is, Shearon Harris Nuke plant. ( opened in 1985). Something happened out there late last year that caused it to need to be shut down for a time for some reason, but I found no mention of this though, and I only know because a friend at work had a friend staying with her that was working out there on the shut down. I visited the creepy Face Book page dedicated to  the somewhat quaint idea of permanently shutting it down and they didn't know about anything out of the ordinary going on out there.  Ta da.

Lest we forget

Just to remind us that we aren't the only ones that experience bad things being visited upon on and it could be much, much worse. Saturday marked the anniversary of the  Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that killed 123 young, mostly immigrant women and 23 young men. In response 80,000 people took to the streets  of New York to protest poor working conditions that led to the grisly and unnecessary deaths of these young people, in 1911!

 If I was good at math I could figure the number of people who lived in NYC at the time and the number now and factoring in values and calculating percentages and  how many 80,000 1911 people versus the population 2017 would be now, and I bet it would be in the millions.  This is why we have unions and why we regulate business and why we have many of the government agencies that Cheeto wants to end. If we don't regulate business they lock the doors and let girls burn to death. Cheetos and his minions believe then as now that it is more important to save a few cents than to save lives. Unions and oversight save lives. Cheetos  desire to gut the laws  and remove  over site will lead to move deaths like these. These young people did not die in vain, don't let Cheeto roll back the clocks and piss on their graves. Never forget.

What of the owners? Those Job Creators:

What happened to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory’s owners?

Not much. They survived the fire by fleeing the the roof and were later indicted on charges of first and second degree manslaughter. The two men were acquitted, but they lost a subsequent civil suit -- the plaintiffs won $75 in compensation for each deceased victim. Two years after the fire, one of the owners was arrested a second time in for locking the door in his factory during working hours. He was fined $20.freelancersunion.org

Another fun anniversary today is the 40th anniversary of the Tenerife Airport Disaster  , from Wikipedia and here is another retelling of the day Tenerife Airport Disaster, from the surviving captain of the Pan Am plane. Fascinating  reading.

The Tenerife Disaster was a huge loss of life and they should be remembered. My only actual connection to either airline is that my grandmother had a very cool  round Pan Am bag that she had for years and years and I coveted it, but it went its own way years ago.

I do have to admit that I have no active memory of this. I was eight or nine when it happened and I don't think it would have been talked about at the dinner table with air travel uncomfortable father present or on the playground or in third grade current events. It was too awful, but I'm not sure anything could have been done there. I don't think we would have spoken of it at school as DFW is very close by, and many  of my classmates parents worked at DFW and for the airlines and we probably didn't focus on bad things happening to airplanes. It was  a good fifteen years later before we had two back-to-back  ( it seemed) massive crashes at DFW, and by that time the jig was up. I did learn something from that though - NEVER fly Delta into Dallas. Ever.

Weekender

Saturday was glorious. I slept through a lot of it, but that's fine, it's stays light a lot longer than it used to.

I pulled out the newly repaired mower and plugged that bad boy in and went to work on my badly overgrown back yard. I did really good work. I had it set on the very highest setting and I had just finished my first pass  knocking the worst of it down, and had just set it down to the real setting to go back over the yard to really get the lawn mowed and the mower stopped.

I went to the basement and low and behold, the breaker had flipped. I reflipped it and went back upstairs to finish the job.

Nope. They told me it was fixed and they lied. It was temporally fixed, they made it work for one mow and then it stopped working. That is not fixed. It is going back to the shop, and we are going to have a talk on Monday. I unplugged the mower and cleaned it out a little and rolled it in the driveway and folded it up and heaved it into to the back of the car and back we go to the mower store. I was pissed.

I was planning on getting the yard ready for the spring and now its only half done. It looks a lot better but, just putting my umbrella back up makes it look better. I wanted to mow the yard and I got thwarted.

Friday Cats Blogging

Friday

The people across the street are gone. I saw some car packing going on this weekend but I chalked it up to the brother in law finally moving out and taking his car with him.  I didn't think anything of it. Later on Sunday I noticed that all the cars were gone and the house was clearly empty in a way that was not in a temporary we'll-be-back-later way.

I expected it, they were renters, and they are temporary in nature and I knew that. But, I had at least thought they might have waved from across the street at the very least, you know?  We had a relationship ,  kind of, we said "hi", when we saw each other outside.

I don't know what that house does to people. People move in there with a bunch of kids and then you never see or hear them again! Children are not silent or invisible and that house magically renders them both . Its weird - Its not that I don't appreciate it, because I really do! I mean, trust me! I like silent, invisible children as much as the next guy, more probably even. but it is kind of weird.  I have lost track of how many families and how many kids have been through that place and absolute silence.  Maybe its a great house, maybe its really fun on the inside. I don't know...

But they're gone. Bye. I would have said bye. I wonder if that means the owners are coming back, HA! like that's going to happen, if I got a job in, well, I can't remember now, but it was a better city than Raleigh,  they aren't coming back. Maybe the real estate market has gotten better and they are putting it on the market again.

Another weird thing. This morning while I was taking Rocket out for his last pee before I went to work, I watched this elderly man coming down the street at a good clip, he approached my neighbors house, went up the walkway and  up their steps on onto their porch and took their paper. I was standing in my yard watching! I said "Hey, you just going to take their paper?!"  in my best, I am watching you Stealing My Neighbor's Paper voice, not so loud to wake the neighbors, loud enough to let him hear me, and he said "I know who lives there!" and he picked up the paper and hoofed it down the street. Rude. I have never seen him before.

(Dog was not impressed by what he was doing. Did not like him walking on their lawn or getting on their porch or stealing their paper. Woofed at him and strained at the leash. I don't know if he was picking up on my decidedly unsettled emotions or he just really hates having people come out of the dark, he does, really hate that. He did not like that man.)

I put my paper on their porch as a replacement.  Gah.

Wednesday

I dutifully went to my follow up appointment with my orthopedist today ( that I had forgotten about until I found the card at the bottom of my purse last week) and the office didn't have any record of why I was there.

We had a bit of a stand off. The gatekeeper kept looking at her calender and at me and then back at her calender., somehow, this was my fault. She asked if I had an appointment card and by some miracle, and it was a miracle, because I normally  they end up on my desk at work where I use them to clean my keyboard, I pulled out my appointment card out of my purse (on the first try!) and gave it to the  gatekeeper. She was somewhat nonplussed. "Whose handwriting is this?" She said. "Not mine?" I said.

They still got me in and the doctor didn't really seem to know why I was there either. We agreed I was doing very well, I discovered the doctor is either a really bad judge of character or  I'm a better liar than I thought. I told him I was religiously doing my exercises every night and he believed me!

I haven't done them since our last appointment when no progress had been made despite my weeks of religious doing of the exercises. Since then, a month of religious non-doing of those same exercises have produced the exact same effect. He told me I could cut back to doing them once a week! I think I can cut back my not doing them every day schedule to not doing them once a week with no problem.

If whatever it is happens again, I will call him and tell him it "flared" . Otherwise I'm an outy. He's very excited, and I am a good patient.

We did not discuss my head cold or my thrush. It is getting worse and is affecting my judgement. This evening at 8:15pm I discovered that I didn't have any apples in the house. Instead of saying "Well, no apples. Oh well. I went to the grocery and bought apples, and frozen  prepared salmon thingies and a couple of Atkins approved frozen mac and cheese things.  I did not need these. I blame the thrush for this. Which I still have, six days into the seven day treatment. Sigh.

Oh. And it took me three tries to properly leave to walk the dog today. Three. The first time I didn't get to the end of the driveway before I decided it was really too cool out and I needed a better jacket, so I had to turn around and go back inside and get a better coat and set out again, the second time I got away from the house but discovered too late that I didn't have any bags and I needed bags five seconds ago and now I had to go back to the house and get the bags, so I went to the house and got bags. Then I had to go back to the scene of the crime to find it and had to walk back and forth for two long before I finally ran across it again. And then we started our walk. Finally. Again, the thrush is messing with my whole system. Brain fog is a side effect of treatment.

Blech Snort.

There are several viruses that can cause upper respiratory diseases in cats and dogs. None of these are transmitted to humans but can be very contagious to other dogs or cats. And of course, there are hundreds of viruses that cause colds in humans, but you can't spread them to your pets either.

Lying sack of shit. I have the same stuffed up head and congestion that Tiny had/has.   Despite the fact that I have been off the flonase since Friday, my nose is still bleeding - which is so fun! And I can't breath which I totally blame on the lack of flonase in my life!

It could also be this:

Candida die off symptoms are devastating: brain fog, fever, depression, joint and muscle pain, headache, bloating, constipation, fatigue, yeast infections, acne and many other discomforts. A common misconception about candida die off symptoms is that having them is a sign that the treatment is working.

I don't want to say that I am devastated, I don't think it rises to that level. I do have a headache. I am bloated. And my brain is fogged! That is kind of devastating The doctor hooked me up with Nystatin oral and she has me taking a lot of it, and maybe its killing it so fast, there is too much dead candida floating around it is getting toxic up in here! But I don't see any sign that the thrush is in any rush to leave the field so I don't see it working so if its not working, its not killing anything so there isn't anything to be toxic.

I'm going to call the doctor and let her know that I've been swishing and swallowing this mess for days and nothing is happening, except my head is more congested and I'm sneezing more frequently. Yay. I do think that Tiny is feeling better though.

Face Lift

You may have noticed this looks different now. They offered a  redecoration and I said "sure". I don't often look at it as it is, I see it in an entirely different view than the reader does, and so if the change is too much for you, please accept my apologies.

So much news today! Overwhelming news today and its still coming in, faster and faster and I am not qualified to explain it in anyway. I would suggest following me on Twitter,  @megjac, or go over to the far right of the page where it says "updates on Twitter" and that takes you directly to my feed, because I retweet people who are very qualified and do a very good job of explaining it. So much news today that I think we all need a little giant chicken in our lives. Those are real chickens, a real breed. Just really, really big.

Weekend

Friday I came home, went and got something to eat and fell asleep on my chair. Happy St. Patrick's Day ya'll!

Last weekend I slept through the parade and this week I skipped my chance to dress the dog up in his little St. Pats outfit and go be cute on Fayetteville Street. Bummer.  I was looking forward to that!  He looks so cute and it makes people happy and they smile and everything, its a nice thing to do - And then I sleep through it! I came home, went and got food and passed out.

I woke up at about 10pm and decided that I needed to go to bed in a real bed and so I roused my self enough to take the dog out to do his thing and then I emptied and filled the dishwasher and ran it, and then I went to back to bed.

And went back to sleep. Just like that. I don't think I'm well, I really don't. I tried to tell my doctor at my physical that since the election I have felt increased stress and anxiety and I'm feeling lethargic and gaining weight and I don't feel myself and she said "Yeah, You don't know how many people have told me that same thing. You just have to step away from it..." . I was like "Really? That's it? I have to live here! I can't "step away from it" I have nowhere to go! Jesus. Not helpful.

Saturday I tidied the house. I found out that I have a dining room table under all the crap that had been stacked on my table! I hadn't seen it since, apparently from the age of stuff on the bottom, December. I also hung up my coats and vacuumed the downstairs and did a lot of laundry and then put away a lot of laundry. It made me feel a lot better.

Saturday I went and looky-looed at the aftermath of the huge fire we had near downtown. Me and everyone else, I was a little embarrassed by the number of people doing the exact same thing I was. I took pictures. (to see many pictures of the actual fire , go to Instagram and look under #raleighfire).  I took pictures.

The concrete monoliths were the elevators. The wooden structure was five floors of wood. It went up like, well, five floors of wood. The pictures taken that night looked like the burning of Tara from Gone With The Wind , thoroughly nightmarish.

The first,  unburned cement floor. Odd, the only part that wasn't built of wood.

The back side of the elevators and a neighboring severely damaged building.

One of the damaged neighbouring buildings. Those units are not habitable. There are three buildings surrounding the site that are all or in part uninhabitable now. And yes, I did get hollered at by a cop to get this. The cordoned off area is enormous, much. much larger than it has to be. Its ridiculous. I saw some very attractive barricades that Rocket would love to play on and I headed off to take him to go play on them, and the cop told me to turn back and I said "Hey, I'm on foot!" And he did not care, he said "Its barricaded!" and I'm like "Yeah, I know, that's why I'm going over there!" He didn't care.

On our way out we found this on a light pole

 We went on our merry way and ended up on Glenwood Avenue with all the  green hued, drunk undergrads and assorted douche bags, male and female. So. Fun. Not really. Rocket charmed the drunks though and he was wearing a green color. I wasn't wearing any green as it was March 18th, but the bars and the undergrads and the douche bags didn't care. I was also the oldest person there and Rocket as by far the best behaved.

Friday Cats Blogging

TGIF

Wednesday Rocket and I discovered that it can be too windy to walk the dog and that Rockets ears are not quite enough to get him airborne they are close enough. 

I had to change our trajectory because the wind was gusting too strongly and we were not enjoying ourselves. Rocket got to the point he was strongly encouraging us to take shelter in the leeward side of a  delivery van because at the least we would be out of the damn wind for a second.

It was not fun.

I thought if we got off of Fayetteville Street Wind Tunnel and onto  an adjacent street that I thought might be less wind tunnelesque, but wasn't , we would be happier. But we weren't. It was slightly less because the buildings on that side are less uniformly tall so it's less of a natural wind tunnel than Fayettville Street is, but it was up for the challenge.  I don't know how strong the gusts were but they were almost enough to get a 73 pound dog off his feet. Too much wind, we should have stayed home.

Thursday was better, but it was still colder downtown than it was in the neighborhoods. I should be very grateful hat the snow is gone and it's so much nicer here than it is elsewhere on the east coast.

Thursday, the Trump Administration decided we don't need Meals on Wheels or after school programs for poor kids  because there isn't enough return on the money. They also decided The Wall needed  Two Billion dollars ( no doubt to be be built with leftover Soviet cement and workers from Belarus). The entire administration should burn in hell.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. May he come back and the lead poisonous snakes from our Government, And while he is there, may he save their damaged, ruptured souls and bring them like the people of Ireland, the fable says, to Jesus. Because they have never been there before. And then let Jesus meet with them, because if there is a group of people who need a Come to Jesus Meeting, it is them.

Tiny Vader

I took Tiny to the vet to day to make sure the cold he caught from Ace hadn't morphed into something worse between Cat A and Cat B. It could, there is a slot of air between Cat A and Cat B and a lot could happen! Things morph and change and get twisted and freaky! I don't know anything about animal contagions, they are probably terrible! I bet they morph like crazy!  A mere cold could become pneumonia or even worse! I mean, if you were only nine pounds a few ounces, it doesn't take a whole lot to take you completely off your feet. You can't be too careful.

For example:  Cat A never sounded like Darth Vader and Cat B was about twenty minutes from telling Rocket he was he was his father. For all I know Cat As head cold had morphed into some sort of feline plague by the time it landed in Cat B.  Darth Tiny

I was worried! I also couldn't sleep with him sitting next to me all night - Yes, sitting, next to me all night  sawing away like an asthmatic leaf blower. So to the vet we went, he thanked me for being such a good pet owner/ paying his electric bill this month. I don't remember Tex ever catching a cold, but everything was wrong with Tex, I don't think either of us would have noticed an upper respiratory infection amid all the other things going wrong simultaneously. Poor Tex. Both the current Cats are such pictures of health a mere cold makes them look like they are on deaths door. Good for them. And me.

The good news was that it is a head cold and his lungs are clear. The vet gave him the same meds he gave Ace and sent us on our way. Ace's cold cleared up within a couple of days and he's back to normal. I imagine that Tiny should follow the same path, maybe an extra day or so as he has done more work on his Darth Vader impersonation and Ace never got that far.

I think the meds are already working, Tiny Vader is up and chasing Ace around the house and I'm sure that Ace is thrilled to have Tiny getting back to good health.

Feeling Taxed

I got sucked into watching Rachel Maddie because she said on Twitter she had Trump tax returns.

2005 returns. They were given to a well know financial reporter and they were incomplete. They only turned over the 1040 and it was scrubbed clean. They day he was a rich man who paid some taxes but over all less than I do.

Its one more ploy to get the public and the press off of his relationship with the Russian mafia.

Donald Trump has a relationship with Russian thugs and the Russian mafia. He is in deep. They own him. Now they own us.and the U.S.

The big They

I've gotten several calls from various folks identifying themselves as being from the " computer department". I think they mean me and my computer harm.

I decided that it would be the better art of valor to take the computer offline to keep it safe.

So. Instead of writing an entry I am watching various groups of masochists building structures off the grid in ridiculous locations and suffering accordingly. I would like to see someone ate by a bear, but thus far, God has had a soft spot for fools. Which I guess I should be glad for.

On the cat front : Ace seems to be feeling better, and is a lot less congested and is being more social, but Tiny is still sneezy and congested but social.

The Weekend

I'm almost embarrassed to report how little I did over the last two days. I did laundry earlier in the week, so I didn't have that to do, I did my shopping ahead of the storm, just in case it turned into more of a thing than was forecast, so that was off the list. I slept through the St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday that I didn't know was this weekend anyway - I was in the parade last year so maybe it was a good year to sit it out.

I watched a lot of TV, I spent a lot of time on the chair with the dog. I did take the dog for a nice walk on Saturday because I thought it might be too stormy to take him out Sunday - it wasn't.

It did snow Sunday morning, enough to stick and look kind of nice for about two hours. I walked Rocket in it and he was delighted by it. I had thought it might stick around a little longer but it was gone before noon. I showed up for our Urban Agility class at 1pm but apparently, the snow stuck around longer outside of Raleigh. It was so stormy that it prevented the instructor from calling me and letting me know that the class had been canceled. It was bone dry and warm where I was and class could have gone on easily, I am aware that one of my classmates does come in from Goldsboro and I could understand why she might not be able to make it, but the instructor could have made it and I think there is at least one other member of our class who does not live in another area code. Or the instructor could have CALLED ME.

Rocket and went on a nice walk and found a couple of nice concrete barricades  to climb on.

And then we went home and watched TV.

Tiny has caught Aces head cold. He seems to be handling it better and he doesn't seem to feel nearly as sick. He is sneezy though and a little more clingy, which is really sweet , right up to where we were curled up with the dog watching TV and he looked up at me and sneezed in my face, twice. Lovely.

I took a shower later and made sure both cats were in the room with me. I thought they could both do with a good steam treatment. Tiny is always up for a good steam. but Ace was not a happy camper and wanted o-u-t.  Well, he might hot have liked it but I bet the steam made him feel better.

Friday Cats Blogging

Ace, as Camille

Friday

Took Ace to the vet and it turns out he does not have cancer- thus far. He does seem to have a nasty head cold that has not yet made the trip down into his lungs.They sounded clear.

The vet noticed his little nose was running! I hadn't even noticed that! So bad! Poor little kitty feels so bad he didn't even fight me when I swept in to grab him up and force him head first into Tinys cat box. It did help my cause that before I left for work that I trapped him and Tiny upstairs to limit the square footage where he could hide. I've been to this circus before and I knew I would be working with a ticking clock. I didn't want to waste what time I had racing around the whole house playing hide and seek with him. It's a testament to just how bad he must have been feeling, as I caught him and had him boxed up in record time.

I got him to the vet and he saw him right away and listened to his chest - clear! took his little temperature - not feverish! and gave him a shot of antibiotic and something for his congestion. Ace is a big strong cat and he was very brave and well behaved  He is so not Tex, he didn't make a sound or need to be sedated or held down or anything. It was a lovely change of pace.  I didn't even have to muzzle him. How many people have a muzzle for that cat? I do!

The vet told me to keep an eye on him and to keep him updated on his condition.  Its only been a couple of of hours but I think he already seems a little more perky. I mean at least I don't know where he is now, but I saw him an hour or so ago, and he was moving around, and that is more than he was doing since this weekend so I feel better about him getting better.

The whole visit took almost no time and I got home really quickly and I could have gone back to work, and in all honesty, I really should have because I have so much to do and Friday is going to suck because of it. However, I would have had a total of an hour of time  and while I would have gotten some done, I wouldn't have gotten all of it done. I stayed home and watched some TV and relaxed and got my laundry done and that was also work that really needed to get done.

Thursday

Did you strike? I wore red and posted memes. I did what I could, I heared that the scheduled rally in downtown Raleigh was canceled. I was disappointed in my workmates, only three of us wore anything in the red family -but those of us in red did know why we were wearing it, so there is that.

The test of us wore navy, they got a different memo. I'm not sure what that represented.

While I was working, but slowly, I worked slowly because I was on strike damn it, I called my vet to tell them that Ace has a stuffy nose. He does! I heard his sneeze from another room over the weekend and I thought he was choking, he wasn't. It sounded like someone was stepping on a squeaky toy. It wasn't until later when I was actually in the room when he did it again that I was able to suss out what the noise meant, if it wasn't so cute it would be very sad. Poor thing. Ace has a head cold and he feels just awful, I went to pick him up and he let me! I know he's sick.

I called the vet because this morning when I came downstairs for breakfast, all the animals came down with me, like they always do. All the animals came down except for him. I had to go looking for him and I found him curled into a little cat ball under my old computer desk, just so miserable. He didn't come down until it was time for cat snacks as I was leaving for the day. He is not a well kitty.

Looking up "cats with head colds" isn't helpful either. thousands of entries about cats with stuffy noses and they are all different but they all boil down to: Its either allergies or cancer. Very helpful, very comforting, it's either nothing or time to get the cat put down.

This is why I stopped taking cats to vets. I had a good run, after years and years of constant visits to the vet with the cat I lost the cat and decided that I was never going to take another cat to the vet. I stood by that for a long time. I didn't take a cat to the vet for years, I didn't even have a vet for the cat until I had a vet for the cat and now I have to take my cat to the vet.

Tuesday

I was afraid I overslept this morning. I got up at what I imagined was my regular time. I brushed my teeth, I washed my face I took my pills. I got dressed I took the animal downstairs. I turned on the coffee machine, I found the dog's leash and I took the dog out.

There were people other there. I saw people going about their daily work. At 5: 30 in the morning! I saw a guy taking his trash out, a woman putting stuff in her car... This is when I started to think that I somehow radically overslept. I never see people out doing chores at this hour.

It's not a traditional time to casually take out the household trash! He didn't appear to be sleepwalking either, he said good morning to me and everything. Like it was a reasonable time, daylight even! I started to really worry about what time it really was. The woman kind of scared me, she is new, just moved into a rent house and I'm not familiar with her schedule yet.

 I think its a new job for her, she wasn't up and moving around yesterday, but I think I remember there being a light on inside. A warm up for her first day, if she is smart. She appears to be a school car driver, one of those people employed by the district to pick kids up who are not on a bus route but need a ride to school -  so she may be an early person. I will have to make sure she is aware I am part of her morning routine so she doesn't accidentally run over me some morning. I think she leaves later though, she was busy loading her car  or something , but she was still in her bathrobe so she wasn't ready to leave quite yet but she seemed quite intent on her carloading duties. Too intent for that hour! If you having to rush at 5:30am you should have done this last night. Just saying.

It still freaked me out. First this new lady and a few houses later, a cheerful man taking his trash out  like it was 9:30 or something. Who takes out trash at 5:30am? I don't casually take out my trash at that hour and I'm always awake at that hour! Taking out the trash is a much later on job, a reasonable time in the day job. I don't go outside at stupid o'clock in the morning just the take out the trash!   And by the way, Tuesday is not their trash day, Wednesday is their trash to the curb day. I know these things.

I also know that the house at the end of my street is empty now and it has taken approximately four days for the beer cans and bottles to start to collect on their side yard. I also noted that no one bothered to take their trash container and recycling thing back to the house after the wind blew them over and they lay there in the street on their backs like dead turtles until I did it and that no one is going to pick up the cans and bottles until I pick up the cans and bottles and if I don't do it it is not going to get done. Take it to the bank.

People pay 300k to live here now but they don't pay for upkeep. God Forbid they pick up some trash now and then. They go and clean up the greenway because that makes them feel on good inside and aren't they good citizens and aren't they doing their part! but picking up their own neighborhood is not their job. Assholes.

Taxing

And So I sent in my taxes for the eighth time, this time I rounded up again maybe they don't like 49, maybe they will like 50 better ( edited to add NO they did not! rejected again!). Who knows? Turbo Tax told me I could call the IRS and get my corrected AGI number. That was a LIE.  I called the IRS to get an appointment to go to an actual brick and mortar office to talk to an actual person, and the IRS was not warm to that idea, I told them why I needed to come in and the IRS won't give me that number in person or over the phone.

I was told that I can apply for my tax transcript that will have that number on it, so I did that and I think I ordered the wrong one because they confused me throughly. I asked for 2015 but they told me I couldn't have 2015, I could have 2014 - which may be part of 2015? I don't know! I wasn't allowed to talk to a person so I won't know until it shows up in 5-10 days.

My best bet is to just mail my tax form in! I have never mailed my tax form in! I don't know how to mail my tax form in! How do you mail your taxes in?! How does that  even work? Where do I send my state Income Tax to? I've always done it online! I need help and the IRS no longer has the staffing available to help actual tax payers! Thank you Cheeto, you giant tax cheat! I hope you die in jail and burn in hell. May all your lineage be forever under audit.

My Grandfather worked for the IRS, I deserve better than this.

Not Okay.

I got up very early SAturday morning. 5:30 Saturday morning feels just about the same as 5:30 Wednesday morning, when I was walking the dog it could have been  any day at all - I don't know what I was expecting, if I thought Saturday at that hour was going to be somehow different for some reason. There may have been more road traffic but there wasn't more foot traffic. No one wants to be awake at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday, its a stupid time to be awake and out and that seems to be universally accepted wisdom.

But there I was.

I was awake at that hour so I could go to my parents to do my taxes and turn around and come home so that I could take Rocket to his Urban Agility class Sunday afternoon. It was a busy weekend.

I did my taxes and they were rejected a total of five times. Thank you Turbo Tax! Now I have to call the IRS on Monday and talk to them about why my AGI number is suddenly not acceptable. It was okay and now its not.

Not Okay. Donald Fucking Trump didn't pay his takes for decades and now the IRS won't let me pay mine.

Friday Cat Blogging

And then it was Friday.

Carter Page said on MSNBC that he met with Kislyak in Cleveland prior to election.

Sergie Kislyaks classified job title is Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the USA & SVR Liaison to the Trump Campaign and White House

Multiple sources report Jared Kushner along with Flynn met with Kislyak in Trump tower during the transition.

A current list via Robert Reich and multiple other sources, of who has been caught committing treason so far.

1. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager. Forced out.

2. Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer;

3. Roger Stone, a longtime political associate;

4. Carter Page, an oil-industry consultant who acted as one of his foreign-policy advisers;

5. Michael Flynn, Trump campaign advisor and, briefly, national security advisor. Forced out.

6. Jeff Sessions, Trump campaign advisor and now attorney general;

7. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and top White House aide

8.J.D. Gordon - National Security Advisor Trump Campaign, rewrote RNC platform to be more Russia Friendly.

Wednesday

Pouring rain. Pouring with such energy that it gave me the incentive to do my laundry. Or at the very least part of it. I had been avoiding it, no reason. just every time it seems like I should be doing it, I find another thing I want to do more - like watching more reruns. I like reruns. Reruns are my happy place.

I am also hoping my basement stays dry. I think I'm avoiding my  laundry because I now have bad associations with my basement and going down there. It apparently represents more stress for me than I had thought, and the world is so stressful now I don't want to submerge myself in more of it, and, I have a lot of underwear.

I'm glad I started the process now I can get the rest of it done.

Rocket and I just went out to let Rocket do his thing and and Rocket was significantly turned off by the rain. I'm sure he can hear it but he must have been hoping it was coming from the  blinking box thing and not from the outside. He just stood in the drive way and looked at me like I was the meanest dog Mom ever. I would have thought that the increased humidity and the change in the barometric pressure that he must have sensed, then the thunder and the loud rain sound on the car port banging away, would have been a  give away that there might be an increased chance of precipitation at some point in the next few hours or sooner - that  maybe it might be wet outside. But he is a dog and I don't think they have the brain function to have that kind of advanced thought.

He must have noticed the change in the barometer though, at the leastish. He can't be surprised by changes in weather! He's a damn animal! Even well bred animals are still animals at heart.

Stand Up. Fight Back.

Note to myself, during my lunch hour while I'm not eating lunch or attending Ash Wednesday Mass - not enough parking or time in my lunch hour -  I need to buy more coffee and protein bars . The grocery store is the ideal place for a fasting person to spend their lunch hour.

Today on our walk Rocket and I decided it would be a good idea to go and take a look at our Jewish cemetery, get a baseline on it and make sure that it still looks like it did the last time I took a good look at it.

It helps that it is at the corner of Poverty and College Ghetto, and very few people come to this neighborhood for no reason. It helps that few people even know that Raleigh has a Jewish cemetery in the first place, and even if you do see it, it is not well marked at all and that it probably a good thing. It could use a better fence, a lot better fence, its part of the larger Oakwood Cemetery and while it has very sturdy, heavy, iron fences all the way around, right up until you get to it - and then you get not at all sturdy and that is not at all alright. The next Purim carnival needs to be a fundraiser for a better fence.

 In its favor it is over looked by dorms and those kids may or may not be keeping an eye on it, if they know what they are keeping an eye on. Or they avoid that gross cemetery at all costs. But if anything is moving over there, someone is going to notice.

Not in its favor, I could have snuck in there with the dog and no one would have seen me and that includes the news truck from that was there to let everyone know 1) there is a Jewish cemetery in town!, and 2) Where it is!

I told the guy I thought it would be a better idea if maybe he was to not do this but he seemed to think this was  a great idea. On the upside it was a local news station that isn't carried on any of the local cable stations. We'll see how this works out for it.

We have to keep an eye on each other. We came out for the Muslims, we need to come out for the Jews. Go walk to the Jewish cemetery in your town, drive passed it more, be eyes on it, be aware of what its baseline is.

Today the Cheeto blamed the one hundred attacks and threats to the Jewish Community across the country since he took office on the Jews and  their friends the Democrats themselves. He said it was part of a false flag operation to blame "other people". Those "other people" are anti-semites, the kind of people who set up robocall threats to Jewish schools and community centers and tip over  hundreds grave stones at cemeteries. Guilty anti-semites . He pulled anti-semites to his bosom and  comforted them, because their feelings are hurt?  And then he accused Jews of threatening themselves to makes anti-semites look bad. President Bannon does amazing work.