Candidate Stupidity

I don't know about you but, I'm sick and tired of the negative campaigning. Who should we believe during California's upcoming Gubernatorial race? Meg? Steve? Arnold? Who? Meg says Steve is bad news. Steve says both Meg and Arnold are the worst candidates ever. Who is truthful and won't play political games and be on the political "take"? Don't candidates running for any political office think we citizens have any common sense or intelligence? Don't we all know the truth is always hidden until citizens have had enough and the truth is uncovered? I, for one, would love to see an honest to goodness political race where we are told of the candidate's attributes and not his/her shortcomings. Come on now politicians! We are through with your bologna and political games. Be out with it - Tell us the truth for once!!!!

Cat Tails

I've written before about my two cats that just somehow can't really be chums. Sami is the real culprit of the unfriendliness - he's extremely jealous of any attention paid to Romeo.
A few weeks ago, they were chasing each other around the house and out into the garage - round and round they went. During the chase, Romeo's claw caught Sami's right eye. When I observed the blood dripping from his eye, I rushed him to our usual vet who in turn referred me to "Animal Eye Care Institute" in Pasadena. The doctor performed surgery immediately and told me to bring him back for a check-up in two weeks. (I might add this was all to the tune of $2,800 plus.) They released Sami to me with a collar around his neck so he couldn't rub his eyes and cause infection. Needless to say, Sami did learn a lesson - he despised the collar and paced back and forth for the full two weeks. Hopefully, the next time he wants to pick a fight with Romeo, he will remember the discomfort he felt with the collar - at least I'm hoping.

Missing The Mark

The two day conference was designed to help mental health professionals help their clients with 'mindfulness'.  An old concept with names to match the times, mindfulness is all about being in the moment, being present in the here and now -- whatever it's called its all about focus in what's going on right this minute as though right this minute was or might be the only minute we have.
Conferences by nature and crowded and not particularly comfortable.  The tables are too small, the lighting seems designed to trigger headaches, and the temperature is never just right but always at one extreme of the thermostat or the other.
The middle chair of a three chair table is never popular and generally -- just like on airplane flights -- the person sitting in that position has no other choices or is traveling with a loved one.  For this conference I had the perfect place to sit -- end of the row chair, last row in the room about two feet from the wall.  I didn't much care that there was an electrical outlet on the wall.  The guy who at the last minute moved from his front row aisle chair to that empty middle of the row chair between me and my quite companionable complete stranger never to see again conference pal explained himself this way -- as though his behavior needed explanation:
"I need the outlet for my laptop.  I've gotta use my laptop."
Whereupon he plugged in cords, ran cords under the table and up onto the table in front of his chair, and set up his laptop.  He then got several pastries, cups of coffee, a couple glasses of orange juice, water, plates and napkins.  Once settled in, he booted up his computer and immediately logged onto his Facebook account.  Throughout the conference -- on Mindfulness -- he switched between Facebook, email and sports news.
Perhaps he misunderstood the title of the conference and thought it focused on Minds Fullness.
Or perhaps he is proof of the new brain.
To each his own, I say.

HomeComing's Queen

Scraps the Cat came home today.  Rudy, who had spent the past few days weeping and screaming and, well to put it in the most graphic possible terms, throwing up his guts and probably his brains, approached her arrival in awe.  He spent the afternoon in a cross species activity of dogging her footsteps.  She seems happy about the whole thing.
And the good news is that since she will still be mildly radioactive until May 2 we won't have to use a nightlight.
All is well and the rhythm of the house has returned to its own.

All In The Family

While Scraps the Cat recovers in Orange County, her house and soul mate Rudolph Valentino Katz slips further and further into deep despair here in Glendale.
You see, Rudy has never -- since his rescue from a dumpster near Nordstrom's in the Glendale Galleria -- been separated from her.
He yowls throughout the day and is barely comforted by evenings of human companionship.  His burly physique belies his fragile disposition.  Scraps will have her work cut out for her when she returns home.
Rudy is proof in the pudding, so to speak, that illness and recovery are family affairs.

Not Quite Onomatopoetic

Perhaps simply redundant.  At any rate, Scraps the Cat had a CAT Scan yesterday.  Okay.  The CAT in this particular Scan refers to A Computerized Axial Tomography Scan.  I know that and you know that. Scraps sees things a bit differently, though.  But then, of course, she would.  She's a cat and therefore everything really is about her.

Her scan indicated two tumors on her thyroid gland for which she received the radioactive iodine injection.  Two tumors require a little more radioactive stuff and a little longer stay in Orange County.  The clinic staff called to say that Scraps is doing well and eating all of her food.  What those good folk don't realize is that it would take a lot more than two tumors and a mega dose of radioactive stuff to put Scrappy off of her feed.
Denied the live feed web cam, Scraps condescended to pose for this candid photo taken by a member of the clinic staff.
Life seems good -- even in Orange County.

Radioactive Scraps

Scraps the Cat, always a trend setter, has gone radioactive.  You may recall that a few months ago she was diagnosed as suffering from hyperthyroidism.  The main and most obvious symptom -- at least for Scraps -- was a significant weight loss.  For Scraps this wasn't such a problem because, put in the kindest manner, she had over the years packed on a few too many pounds.  Recently, though, the old girl skidded right past slim and was well on her way to gaunt.  Time at last to visit Dr. Michael Broome and his Orange County Advanced Veterinary Medical Imaging clinic.
Come to find out, hyperthyroidism is a really common condition in older cats.  A tumor forms on the thyroid gland and sends the whole feline system into a frenzy.  Left unchecked, the condition can eventually put too much strain on the heart and kidneys.  Medication can only keep things under control for so long.  So off we went to Orange County this afternoon to check Scraps into the clinic where she will receive an injection of radioactive iodine to destroy the tumor.  When the geiger counter shows a safe level of radioactivity she can come home.
That's apparently all there is to it.
Her prognosis is good.
Her mood, however, is not so good.  She screamed all the way to Orange County.  Wait a second.  Screaming all the way to Orange County is probably an appropriate and typical reaction to that quite terrifying and dismal journey.  I also scream every time I have to go to Orange County.
Here's what really upset Scraps.
For seventy-five additional dollars the clinic sets up a web cam so that anyone with the right password can -- from 8 AM until 8 PM -- view Scraps doing stuff like sleeping and eating at the clinic.  I figured that for free I could see her do the same things when she comes home.  Scraps saw it as her one big chance at fame.
Maybe she wouldn't mind constant hordes of paparazzi outside our entry way gate but I sure would.
Come to think of it, maybe I'll pay the seventy-five bucks just to keep Scrappy happy.
She's that kind of a cat.