Milk Mustaches and Goatees

Yesterday was the first snow of the season, and although rather skimpy at just under three inches, still quite pretty. It also came with a winter weather advisory, which meant that it was much too cold to be out in it, but lovely to look at through the windows inside a toasty family room with a fire in the fireplace :) Of course I still had to take dogs out in it and also feed the cats out there, but it just made me appreciate the indoors more. And I didn't get a darn thing done all weekend, but that's not the only reason why...

I mentioned in a recent post that I've been taking care of some kittens in our carport and that I saw another mama cat with kittens in the immediate vicinity. Well, that particular mama cat, or at least I assume it is her, has abandoned a baby in that same planter mentioned in the post, (which is why I'm pretty sure it's her) The poor thing was left out in the cold sometime during Tuesday night and Wednesday morning right out in the open with no shelter. And it was so cold and windy! Hubby kept an eye on it for a while, and when he couldn't stand it any longer, went and got it. (LOVE that man!) Then upon noticing that it's eyes appeared matted shut, immediately took it to the vet. (I probably would have gently cleaned them myself first, but I tend to have a cooler head) And that is the story of how we came to belong to a tiny feline. I'm calling it Little One rather than she or he, because I can't tell if it is male or female yet - the vet seemed to think it was about 2 weeks old, but didn't take a look at the undercarriage, so being the cat novices that we are, we don't know. We will be going back in a couple of weeks for a check-up anyway, so hopefully we will get a definitive answer as to gender then. Little One is sweet and loving, and has its purr set on 'high'. After it has had it's milk and I've cleaned up paws and chin (quite an impressive milk goatee!) L.O. likes to snuggle up under my chin, purr and pat my face with tiny, soft paws.

Little One

Isn't that a sweet little face? No wonder we are all smitten :) ...Well, all of us except maybe the dogs...but they will adjust over time. L.O. is quite smart and has figured out the litterbox in the crate. The crate is quite large for a kitty cat, but just the right size for a Bassett Hound, so L.O. has plenty of room. I got to spend the whole weekend with the kitty while Hubby worked, but now he is off, so he gets to spend the day feeding and entertaining L.O. I texted him earlier and asked how it was going. Apparently they ate, played, and slept the morning away. 

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

"I'm sorry. I just can't do this anymore. I'd like to be able to say it's not you, it's me, but the reality is...it is you. I'm tired of the drama, the thinly veiled insults, the game requests. Why do people I don't even know want to friend me just because we happen to know someone in common? And, this is really shallow, I know, but your name - it's just weird. Things used to be great between us but what used to work in this relationship just isn't working anymore. I think it's time to say goodbye, Facebook"

I've been thinking about this a little bit, can you tell? It isn't hard feelings over being insulted by family - let's just say it was a contributing factor. I don't know that I will actually do it, but it's fun to think about. I probably will just do a really serious bit of house-cleaning instead.

I managed to swing an invite to the new social media site Ello and although I know absolutely no one there yet, I like it. The appearance and functionality appeals to the designer in me. And I even get the name :) It is simple and modern and no ads - a big plus! You can follow people as friends or as "noise" (general chatter). It's a system I like because they don't know how you have them classified at all, allowing you to filter through what you see without hurting feelings. You can click on Noise and visually skim through it all, landing on whatever looks interesting for a closer look. I have a bunch of invites I can send out, but the problem I see is that unless people are really fed up with Facebook, they probably won't leave it. Most people will stick with what's familiar even if it sucks. 

I personally don't really care for Twitter. I don't like using abbreviated speech/text patterns and I find it awkward. Also, it seems like it is mainly for celebrities and wanna-be celebrities. I think some people have a Twitter account so that they can post on celebs feeds and act like they are friends. And every company has a Twitter account, but has anyone beside me noticed that they don't respond to you if you have a real problem? I have tried to get info from Verizon, Belkin, and a few others about various situations, etc. and never get a response. A scenario pops into my head of a social media powered helpline in which a person, feeling invisible and voiceless, makes a post asking for someone to acknowledge their existence and gets ignored. (Yes, I have an appreciation for dark humor and irony)

Don't get me wrong - I'm not against social media at all. I just wish we had more control over it, better filters, etc. If your grandmother posts tons of pics of abused animals and your stomach can't take it anymore, what do you do? You can't 'un-friend' Grandma. You want to block the images, not Grandma, right? But right now the options are clumsy and wind up blocking more than the intended target. If there are more sophisticated filters available on Facebook that can weed out those offensive posts while leaving everything else intact, I sure don't know where they are. The filters they currently have in place are complicated and awkward and don't always work as expected. 

Okay, so I can't really quit FB because I have some friends and family there that wouldn't know how to function any other place. Well played, Facebook - well played. You've won this round, but I will do some tidying up and continue to contemplate my options.

On a Roll (Not the Kind You Butter)

I feel like complaining today. I think I have run across every inconsiderate moron in the world so far today, and the day is only half over. Is it really too much to ask that you stay in your own lane while driving? And what about texting and driving - have you not SEEN the commercials? It causes a person to become distracted and thereby fail to stop at stop signs! All that before work and it was two separate occurrences - not even the same person, if you can believe that! I wonder sometimes how these people survive at all. I assume it is because the rest of us are on the lookout for idiots such as these.

Okay, so since I'm on a roll: This is why I hate Bing: Clicking on any of the "stories" below the top third of the MSN home page leads you to, not a story, but to a page with search results. For example, at the top of the second third of the page is what you would think is an article entitled Find: Celebrities' Strange Final Wishes and a photo of Marilyn Monroe. If you click on that it takes you to a MSN Money page with a slider of photos. Clicking on  a photo gets you a blurb about a famous person  and then a bunch of links underneath where you have to do more clicking if you want to find out what the person actually stated in his or her will. That's ridiculous! And I don't care about what other people are searching for! I keep seeing these commercials about how different and better Bing is. Well, it's different alright! Half of the time it brings up search results that result in more searching. It makes me furious most times, and I don't agree that it is better. If you have to click more than twice to find out about a topic, then you're clearly not better than your competitor - just more frustrating. By the way, the only reason I am even on Internet Explorer is because its the only browser that is compatible with the death certificate site.

And furthermore: It's important to note that when attending a funeral or visitation, stay or go, but stop running in and out the door! Sometimes there is so much activity outside that I begin to wonder if someone brought a keg and is handing out beer from the back of a pickup. Another interesting tidbit is what passes for funeral wear for some folks: for women, any black skirt or dress, with or without stains, and flip flops, and for men, jeans with holes and any shirt with a collar, regardless of holes, stains, or cigarette burns. I had no idea strapless cocktail dresses with sequins and nine inch (pardon the expression however accurate) hooker-heels were appropriate funeral attire.

These things are all minor irritants, but what really has me upset is how friends and family - people who claim to love one another, now! - seem to lose all sense of respect and caring when it comes to politics. This past Tuesday was Election Day and the Democrats are mad because the Republicans are now in control and they are throwing all kinds of slurs out there and even calling their own fellow Dems stupid because they allowed the Republicans to gain ground. Members of my own family went as far as to call Republicans in general racists by the simple fact that they opposed Obama. By this so-called logic, if I say that I don't like the job Obama is doing as a president, or if I didn't vote for him that makes me a racist. Well, I didn't care for Bush either, what then? Two of my cousins posted on Facebook how stupid Republicans were and how they pretended to be Christian but in reality they were rich, racist poor-punishers, yada, yada, yada. I commented that, unfortunately, there was plenty of stupid going around on both sides and that Americans should vote according to the issues and the candidates's record, and not strictly by the party. Is that not sound advice? Shouldn't you know the issues and the candidates before casting your vote? I got blasted by one and then the other one ganged up on me with a "Well said, ____(insert other cousin's name here)!" These are two people that I love and respect whom I thought loved and respected me also. Apparently I was wrong because instead of offering a simple "I don't agree", I was blasted. I do happen to be a Republican, but that doesn't mean that I agree with everything they do as a party, and the last time I checked I was neither rich nor racist. My parents were not wealthy or anything like it, and they taught me that God did not see color when it came to people and neither should I. Honestly I don't closely identify with either of those two parties because they neither one resemble their original founding tenents, but if I want to vote in a primary election, I have to be registered as one of them. 

I'm also kind of incensed by the sweeping generalization that because I'm a registered Republican I'm also a fake Christian. My feelings have been wounded, and because of that, I haven't made any response to my "offenders". If I was only angry then I would have fired off something snarky and been done with it. But this hurts, and it came from an unexpected direction, too, so I'm still processing and haven't addressed the issue yet. I did, however, post on my feed a quote by JFK, which is probably too subtle for them to get, though: "Let us not seek the Republican answer nor the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future." And, um, yeah: he was a Democrat.

That Thankful Feeling

Now that it is November, it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving. A lot of people I know on Facebook are posting what they are thankful for everyday until the holiday and I think it's a nice way of forcing yourself to focus on all of the blessings instead of all of the crummy stuff. Am I doing it also? Well, no, but I still think it is a nice idea and just because I'm not posting it on FB doesn't mean I'm not being thankful every day ;)

Last year the Holidays were different with Hubby's parents having moved to Oklahoma. Peaceful, quiet and nothing burned. This year we'll have my cousin Larry with us. His wife left him, for the second time, and he felt like he had nothing in California to keep him there, so my dad (who is his uncle) flew back to California to help get him packed up and they drove back here. Larry lived here when he was a kid, so it isn't totally foreign, but he's lived in California so long, that I'm sure there will be some culture shock. He seems to be enjoying it so far, but of course it hasn't snowed yet.

My dad and Larry are not all that far apart in years, with my dad being the elder of the two. My dad now has some company around and someone to cook for him on a regular basis. Larry is an excellent cook and my dad is reaping the benefits of that talent. He is in hog-heaven because he doesn't have to cook for himself.

My relationship with Larry is different because he is a lot older than me - a grown man with kids my age to be exact. I always loved Larry even though he teased me mercilessly when I was little. There is a picture of one such occasion in which it is my birthday and he is insisting that the birthday cake is his and not mine. I of course, being the spitfire that I was, informed him hotly that it was MY cake! Funny what we remember. I can recall many of those types of conversations between us, but last Wednesday's dinner details are a little fuzzy.... He has had a couple of mild strokes, but it has left him different. Of course recent circumstances may play a part as well.He was always impulsive, brash, and boisterous. He's now more quiet and reserved and seems a little beaten down. I'm hoping that this change will be good for him and give him back his spark.

I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving and I'm already planning what to fix. Apparently Hubby is also, because on his day off he went shopping and picked out two turkeys - one for us and one to fix for the church Thanksgiving dinner. Last year we went simple since it was just us and my dad, but this year we'll have Larry and maybe even Chris and Stacy and the kids, so I want to do a little more. I'm taking the day before and the day after off as I have found out that it works better  that way. I can clean and do all of the make-ahead stuff that day so that I'm not a frazzled mess the next. Having the day after off is nice because then I can recover from all of the work and food from the day before.

Oh I remember last Wednesday now! We had McDonald's because parent teacher conferences were that evening. HUGE success, it was, and what a joy! Both of the boys had excellent evaluations and it is always heart-warming to hear how well your child is doing and what a pleasure they are to have in class. Our boys typically have good reviews, but still, the conferences are always something that cause apprehension. What if it's not good? What if?... you know the drill. "Anything can happen and probably will" is our motto when it comes to parent teacher conferences. That way we are prepared for the worst and overjoyed at the wonderful news that our children aren't deadbeats: they can read, write, and do math, and are not beating the living tar out of their classmates. Thumbs up - it's all good! We did have a little "attitude" trouble last year with our teen, but he has pulled himself out of it and is enjoying high school which is such a blessing. Freshman year can be such a scary, nerve-wracking time, and it is such a relief when kids adjust to it well. 

Okay, so let's see: I'm thankful for my family and friends, especially new old friends (you know who you are), and that my children are doing well in school; I'm thankful for my church family, opportunities to serve, and I'm thankful that I am able to put my talents to good use. I'm also feeling especially thankful for the upcoming holiday and the opportunity to spend a few days off with my family. On that note, I leave you with an image of last year's smoked turkey: