Tomorrow, the Neuterscooter rolls into Corvallis. I believe they might be half tired out. They fixed 245 cats in Pendleton Milton Freewater, in two days. Then on to fix 133 in Tillamook, and about 60 today in Veneta. I believe about 85 are registered for the Corvallis clinic. Do you think there might be a need for low cost spay/neuter out there, by any chance, seeing these numbers?
She'll be doing Springfield, North Bend, and Gold BEach, too. The Albany clinics are a wash out, with only a few cats registered for each day. I knew this would be the case. They need a rest anyhow I bet. I doubt Albany will be scheduled again, not unless grants are secured to pay for nearly every cat.
The five I'm taking are Pekoe, if she's well enough, Feather, and three ferals I just trapped tonight. Those folks told me they'd pay, then offered up no money. I can't figure it out. I've got to make sure they pay, because now I'm going to have to pay for them. $75 for the three. I'm already paying $100 for Feather and Pekoe. I'm a sad case, nearly broke, and in the red, all from taking responsiblity for other people's cats. That's really really pathetic. I do need to stop this behavior.
Anyhow, these folks are already feeding seven fixed outside cats. Two weeks ago, four more suddenly showed up. Together, too, but they're feral. I bet somebody moved and stopped feeding somewhere. Don't know.
Anyhow. I'm not volunteering tomorrow. They have enough people just with their crew. I'm selling cat toys Midori made up in WA, to try to make some money for spay/neuter and maybe if I sell some, I won't be in a hole so deep just paying for these five.
I don't know why, but the Neuterscooter won't do billing to Poppa for me, so if I take in cats to NS clinics, I have to pay myself. I don't know why. They billed for KATA, almost every cat was on a billing. I don't really see anybody and I get sooo lonely, so I do like to go to at least one of the NS clinics when they are in Oregon, almost just for human contact. But I shouldn't go, because it costs me so much money that I don't really have free to be spending on other people's cats. I guess I've really catapulted into the pathetic zone.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Pekoe
Pekoe, the little orange and white female kitten, came back from a day at SafeHaven a different kitten. I hope she's just tired out, but she is also favoring one leg. I don't know what is going on. She has no energy and walks like an old old cat, stiff and very sore.
I don't know if her URI might be about to get worse, or if she's worn out, tired, just needs more sleep, or if maybe she has an absess beginning in perhaps a bite wound. Her cousin, Miato, a full two months older, is rambuncious and maybe bit her in play. It can be hard to find those bite wounds. They take a few days to infect, too. Or if she has maybe a congenital defect that is getting bigger as she does.
But why the sudden change I wonder? Why did she come back from one night and half a day there so changed? It is probably only coincidence. But, I have to get her in to see a vet is the bottom line, if she shows no improvement by morning.
She came to me horribly underfed and sick. And yet she was active and playful and ate tons and would leap onto my lap from the floor. She's still eating, which is a good sign, but now the stiffness and favoring of one front leg and lethargy. I can't figure it out.
Maybe she is just worn out. I thought that yesterday after she returned here, and that she would snap out of it. It was stressful for them to go there, then come back. Change is hard on little starved kittens and sometimes they don't sleep enough. She's so frail and underweight. She has a home waiting for her once well and spayed. But now, I wonder what is wrong with her and if she'll even survive.
I'm trying to leave them alone, but they're in my bathroom and I've been having stomach issues and have been in and out of there a lot tonight.
I should probably get Miato out of there. The boys never have much empathy for anybody else at that age and jump on her, tromp across her, even if she doesn't feel well.
Miato does not have a cold but since he's so young, I hate to expose him to the rest of my cats, all of whom now seem over their colds, but the virus is going to be out here. The colds my cats got they quickly got over, except for Shady, who at least now is over hers.
It was a strange virus I'd never seen before, in regards to its symptoms. None of the cats with the exception of Shady, had any drainage, eye or nose, with the virus. Shady's eye drainage I believe came as a result of a simulataneous exasperation of her chronic herpes. However, this cold virus seemed to cause extreme congestion, that drained down the cats throats and sometimes caused repeated sneezing and coughing that sometimes ended in sneezes. It's duration was short, four or five days for those who had it the worst.
The usual cold causes cats to have eye and nose drainage and gunk. This more resembled the human cold virus that went around last year. That virus caused misery to a lot of people with drainage down the back of the throat, sparking coughing fits.
I still have a couple of cats who did not catch it. Surely they will. I don't want Miato to catch this virus. It seems to be caught by the cats in direct contact with each other more so than those who do not interact directly with others or who sleep in areas where affected cats have slept. For example, my oldest cat here, Vision, who is a lone sleeper, has not caught the virus yet, despite her age and despite the fact she often sleeps in the box bed where Shady will sleep. Vision is a tough old gal to have survived all she's survived in her life. The feral calico has not caught the virus so far either, but then again, she is one tough cookie, too.
I don't know if her URI might be about to get worse, or if she's worn out, tired, just needs more sleep, or if maybe she has an absess beginning in perhaps a bite wound. Her cousin, Miato, a full two months older, is rambuncious and maybe bit her in play. It can be hard to find those bite wounds. They take a few days to infect, too. Or if she has maybe a congenital defect that is getting bigger as she does.
But why the sudden change I wonder? Why did she come back from one night and half a day there so changed? It is probably only coincidence. But, I have to get her in to see a vet is the bottom line, if she shows no improvement by morning.
She came to me horribly underfed and sick. And yet she was active and playful and ate tons and would leap onto my lap from the floor. She's still eating, which is a good sign, but now the stiffness and favoring of one front leg and lethargy. I can't figure it out.
Maybe she is just worn out. I thought that yesterday after she returned here, and that she would snap out of it. It was stressful for them to go there, then come back. Change is hard on little starved kittens and sometimes they don't sleep enough. She's so frail and underweight. She has a home waiting for her once well and spayed. But now, I wonder what is wrong with her and if she'll even survive.
I'm trying to leave them alone, but they're in my bathroom and I've been having stomach issues and have been in and out of there a lot tonight.
I should probably get Miato out of there. The boys never have much empathy for anybody else at that age and jump on her, tromp across her, even if she doesn't feel well.
Miato does not have a cold but since he's so young, I hate to expose him to the rest of my cats, all of whom now seem over their colds, but the virus is going to be out here. The colds my cats got they quickly got over, except for Shady, who at least now is over hers.
It was a strange virus I'd never seen before, in regards to its symptoms. None of the cats with the exception of Shady, had any drainage, eye or nose, with the virus. Shady's eye drainage I believe came as a result of a simulataneous exasperation of her chronic herpes. However, this cold virus seemed to cause extreme congestion, that drained down the cats throats and sometimes caused repeated sneezing and coughing that sometimes ended in sneezes. It's duration was short, four or five days for those who had it the worst.
The usual cold causes cats to have eye and nose drainage and gunk. This more resembled the human cold virus that went around last year. That virus caused misery to a lot of people with drainage down the back of the throat, sparking coughing fits.
I still have a couple of cats who did not catch it. Surely they will. I don't want Miato to catch this virus. It seems to be caught by the cats in direct contact with each other more so than those who do not interact directly with others or who sleep in areas where affected cats have slept. For example, my oldest cat here, Vision, who is a lone sleeper, has not caught the virus yet, despite her age and despite the fact she often sleeps in the box bed where Shady will sleep. Vision is a tough old gal to have survived all she's survived in her life. The feral calico has not caught the virus so far either, but then again, she is one tough cookie, too.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Celebrate
Celebrate with me tonight. Celebrate life in all its beautiful agony. The sorrows of rejection by SafeHaven are nothing. Not really. Petty and minor. When I die, I will be forgotten quickly, as we all are. Life is cheap and fast, over in a whisper. There is no sense wasting a moment of it over petty ruminitions. Well, ok, a few moments spent in darkness, if laughed over later, perhaps can only improve on a person.
What am I saying? Celebrate. Life is beautifully imperfect. I embrace my faults. And yours, too. Faults and mistakes are nothing really. Think about space and time and the universe. My faults and yours, our worries equal the worries of ants. Or dust. Or nothing.
We're all fuck ups and I celebrate that, too. List your faults for me! Ohhhh, you're ten pounds over weight, twenty? Wow, the world may end. Ohhhh, you're out of money and in debt? Walk away, live under the bridge. Live with your parents or a neighbor, a friend and you'll be ok one day. You're ok now. We can lose everything and still retain our senses of humor, our souls, our selves. It's hard, but it can be done. To shed everything and stay the same.
There's a whole lot of judging going on in this world. Of ourselves, of one another, of people we don't know and have never met. We should all meet naked of all possessions and forgive one another each his or her faults. Nobody's perfect. Celebrate this moment we are all alive!
Here's to you, all of you. I mess up all the time. We all do. Let's forget it, at least tonight and marvel at that glorious sky of stars.
What am I saying? Celebrate. Life is beautifully imperfect. I embrace my faults. And yours, too. Faults and mistakes are nothing really. Think about space and time and the universe. My faults and yours, our worries equal the worries of ants. Or dust. Or nothing.
We're all fuck ups and I celebrate that, too. List your faults for me! Ohhhh, you're ten pounds over weight, twenty? Wow, the world may end. Ohhhh, you're out of money and in debt? Walk away, live under the bridge. Live with your parents or a neighbor, a friend and you'll be ok one day. You're ok now. We can lose everything and still retain our senses of humor, our souls, our selves. It's hard, but it can be done. To shed everything and stay the same.
There's a whole lot of judging going on in this world. Of ourselves, of one another, of people we don't know and have never met. We should all meet naked of all possessions and forgive one another each his or her faults. Nobody's perfect. Celebrate this moment we are all alive!
Here's to you, all of you. I mess up all the time. We all do. Let's forget it, at least tonight and marvel at that glorious sky of stars.
Cat Photos
Well, I'm on a new computer. I've been trying to work out a way to alter photos, since on this PC I am using, I have no photo altering software. On the other one, I had several including Adobe Photo Shop but that computer is toasted. I used Photo Shop to fill in flashed out eyes. I downloaded Irfanview and Picassa, both free and both software I like, but neither have a "paint" capacity.
This computer does have a simple Microsoft Paint program and that is what I used on the flashed out eyes in photos below, to fill them in. However, Paint is hard to use for this purpose. The color looks added on and does not fill well. The colors are not natural, either. Anyone out there know of a reasonably priced decent photo manipulation software? I like the paint and pallet features and the clone feature to repair photos.
Sam atop a chair, flirting.
Solomon, who has been here now for two years.
Sam with one of his cult teen members--Buffy.
Tweetie, one of only two of the 12 cats I took in from deceased old woman, left here, and up for adoption.
Here's Button, Tweeties' sister.
Button again.
And Calico Triangles calico Agent 99. She's rather feral.
Tweetie asleep (but I woke her up).
Thanks for the suggestion, Diane. I downloaded GIMP and love it immediately. No need for Irfanview with GIMP. I still love Picassa however. It's free, easy and I love it's features. GIMP is a GREAT free program. Love it.
This computer does have a simple Microsoft Paint program and that is what I used on the flashed out eyes in photos below, to fill them in. However, Paint is hard to use for this purpose. The color looks added on and does not fill well. The colors are not natural, either. Anyone out there know of a reasonably priced decent photo manipulation software? I like the paint and pallet features and the clone feature to repair photos.
Sam atop a chair, flirting.
Solomon, who has been here now for two years.
Sam with one of his cult teen members--Buffy.
Tweetie, one of only two of the 12 cats I took in from deceased old woman, left here, and up for adoption.
Here's Button, Tweeties' sister.
Button again.
And Calico Triangles calico Agent 99. She's rather feral.
Tweetie asleep (but I woke her up).Thanks for the suggestion, Diane. I downloaded GIMP and love it immediately. No need for Irfanview with GIMP. I still love Picassa however. It's free, easy and I love it's features. GIMP is a GREAT free program. Love it.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Kittens Back. Me Tired.
I am still worn out from that darn FCCO clinic. I can't seem to recuperate as quick as I used to. Getting old I guess. Joints aflame still. I suppose it didn't help that various asundry appliances, like my phone and answering machine, have been failing and I've been trying to repair too many things at once and finish MY SPACE, this exclusion room and that Miss Daisy went off on some of her loud happy ripping around sprees the last two nights, keeping me waking up repeatedly.
I'll get rested up and be ok. I get cranky when I'm tired out and my neck, back and knee are hurting.
It hasn't helped to have colds running around the cats, too, and having to chase down many, like Shady, for antibiotics and steaming with a vaporizer. She is the WORST cat here to try to medicate. She just hates having ointment put in her eyes or taking oral antibiotics. It is a tough sell.
Some are also trying to cough up hairballs.
Isolation hasn't helped me either, never does. Nor has the lack of any real recreation available within close range. I do wish I could move back to Corvallis.
That likely may never happen. I've been looking for a place in Corvallis, quietly now, for three months. Finding a place that takes both cats and HUD in Corvallis may prove impossible. I have set a goal to be out of Albany within six months. Achieving that goal, that's another thing again. I have expanded my search to Philomath. Why would Philomath be ok? Because it's a small town, and there is actually a bike path all the way to Corvallis. When I lived halfway in between Corvallis and Philomath, which is a really ideal location, I walked that path both ways.
That area is so set up for exercise. It's so easy there to get away, to de-stress in woodsy hiking parks, only right in town. You can do it on a lunch break. The bike and pedestrian paths go everywhere, all over town. There are so many wonderful parks right at all edges of town. I didn't know I'd miss them so, but I do. I don't do anything here, unless I"m out trapping or transporting cats. I've got to change that. I suppose I could walk city streets and I have, but I can't seem to make myself do it at least for a bit of exercise, because I don't like doing it. I know. Not a good excuse.
I've gone back to Corvallis now and then, intent on hiking, a couple times, but it takes some planning, twenty or thirty minute drive each way. It's a time and gas issue. And an exhaustion issue. I'm always so tired out, that driving that far to take a hike seems out of the question.
I'm just spoiled is all, from living there. For now, I have to figure out something here.
Most cities don't have the parks Corvallis has and all the bike and pedestrian paths. Corvallis is a stand out in that regard. So once you've lived there, you're spoiled!
Well anyhow, as for the thing with SafeHaven, I am not going to have contact with them anymore. I always feel bad afterwards. I've still got cats here that came as a result of helping them out. I say that in defense of myself, that it isn't like I haven't helped them out plenty.
I should have kept my mouth shut, I know, about the fixing the kittens thing and whether it was a good fosterer or not. I only asked about the fosterer because I've had to fix bunches of cats associated with two of their fosterers, who I wouldn't adopt a pet fish to. So that's why I asked and hoped they'd checked the person out. Better if I have no contact with them, because it never works out well.
When something like this happens, it does make me feel like hiding from the world, however. That is exactly what I plan on doing, not like I don't pretty much hide from the world every single day. Most days, I don't want to hide, just works out that way, since I don't really have a network of people to talk to in person or do things with. But right now, I don't want to talk to anyone or see anyone. That's the difference.
I'm all mad at myself for opening my mouth when I shouldn't have.
When I'm upset, I used to run right into the forest somewhere close, and the exercise, fresh air, quiet and forest would make me feel better. It has been hard for me to adjust to life without that option. I take my frustrations out here, in the written word, but it is not the same. It's like if you're addicted to smoking and suck instead on a pencil. The satisfaction isn't there. I guess I just need to wean myself off the addiction, is all. Takes time.
I'll get rested up and be ok. I get cranky when I'm tired out and my neck, back and knee are hurting.
It hasn't helped to have colds running around the cats, too, and having to chase down many, like Shady, for antibiotics and steaming with a vaporizer. She is the WORST cat here to try to medicate. She just hates having ointment put in her eyes or taking oral antibiotics. It is a tough sell.
Some are also trying to cough up hairballs.
Isolation hasn't helped me either, never does. Nor has the lack of any real recreation available within close range. I do wish I could move back to Corvallis.
That likely may never happen. I've been looking for a place in Corvallis, quietly now, for three months. Finding a place that takes both cats and HUD in Corvallis may prove impossible. I have set a goal to be out of Albany within six months. Achieving that goal, that's another thing again. I have expanded my search to Philomath. Why would Philomath be ok? Because it's a small town, and there is actually a bike path all the way to Corvallis. When I lived halfway in between Corvallis and Philomath, which is a really ideal location, I walked that path both ways.
That area is so set up for exercise. It's so easy there to get away, to de-stress in woodsy hiking parks, only right in town. You can do it on a lunch break. The bike and pedestrian paths go everywhere, all over town. There are so many wonderful parks right at all edges of town. I didn't know I'd miss them so, but I do. I don't do anything here, unless I"m out trapping or transporting cats. I've got to change that. I suppose I could walk city streets and I have, but I can't seem to make myself do it at least for a bit of exercise, because I don't like doing it. I know. Not a good excuse.
I've gone back to Corvallis now and then, intent on hiking, a couple times, but it takes some planning, twenty or thirty minute drive each way. It's a time and gas issue. And an exhaustion issue. I'm always so tired out, that driving that far to take a hike seems out of the question.
I'm just spoiled is all, from living there. For now, I have to figure out something here.
Most cities don't have the parks Corvallis has and all the bike and pedestrian paths. Corvallis is a stand out in that regard. So once you've lived there, you're spoiled!
Well anyhow, as for the thing with SafeHaven, I am not going to have contact with them anymore. I always feel bad afterwards. I've still got cats here that came as a result of helping them out. I say that in defense of myself, that it isn't like I haven't helped them out plenty.
I should have kept my mouth shut, I know, about the fixing the kittens thing and whether it was a good fosterer or not. I only asked about the fosterer because I've had to fix bunches of cats associated with two of their fosterers, who I wouldn't adopt a pet fish to. So that's why I asked and hoped they'd checked the person out. Better if I have no contact with them, because it never works out well.
When something like this happens, it does make me feel like hiding from the world, however. That is exactly what I plan on doing, not like I don't pretty much hide from the world every single day. Most days, I don't want to hide, just works out that way, since I don't really have a network of people to talk to in person or do things with. But right now, I don't want to talk to anyone or see anyone. That's the difference.
I'm all mad at myself for opening my mouth when I shouldn't have.
When I'm upset, I used to run right into the forest somewhere close, and the exercise, fresh air, quiet and forest would make me feel better. It has been hard for me to adjust to life without that option. I take my frustrations out here, in the written word, but it is not the same. It's like if you're addicted to smoking and suck instead on a pencil. The satisfaction isn't there. I guess I just need to wean myself off the addiction, is all. Takes time.
Kittens Returning
SafeHaven is mad at me, for asking who was going to foster them, if it was a good place. The first name of the fosterer person was the same as the first name of the person who contacted me and Nick, about a bunch of cats she wanted us "to come take care of trapping like the FCCO did before", which confused both of us. Turns out Sharon, another trapper, had trapped there before. Nick did call the woman and they brought in four tame ones, no ferals, so it is likely not even the same person, just had the same first name. But I had to ask, if it was the same person. Stupid of me.
Anyhow, I shouldn't have asked, because now they're mad at me, and told me to go pick up the three kittens. They're upset too about me being so concerned that they'll be fixed before adoption.
I can't say anything right or question anything. I get questioned all the time however. I understand I am on the outside of the accepted groups in this area. But there is nothing wrong with wanting those kittens fixed before adoption and wanting to know if the fosterer is a good one. Fuck it all anyhow.
Anyhow, I shouldn't have asked, because now they're mad at me, and told me to go pick up the three kittens. They're upset too about me being so concerned that they'll be fixed before adoption.
I can't say anything right or question anything. I get questioned all the time however. I understand I am on the outside of the accepted groups in this area. But there is nothing wrong with wanting those kittens fixed before adoption and wanting to know if the fosterer is a good one. Fuck it all anyhow.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Kimo Leaving Tomorrow
I had a hit off a remote site that AdoptaPet automatically uploads cats for adoption to, from a WA couple interested in Kimo. I was thrilled! They check out completely. I called their vet reference too and despite the fact Kimo may be catching the cold going around here, tomorrow he is leaving for a home in WA. We'll miss him for sure.
In addition, SafeHaven has offered to put the three kittens from Crabtree into their foster care system. I am hesitant. I'm waiting to hear from Christiana. I am rather protective of them now and concerned for them. In a way, I'd rather find them homes myself, once I've assumed the responsibility.
I think SafeHaven probably does about the same adoptee screening I do, i.e. calling a vet reference, making sure they have no unfixed pets in the household and that a landlord allows them pets. I also provide informational sheets on common parasites and vaccinations the cat will need and if the person asks, a guide to local vet clinics. I have found widespread ignorance about common parasites among cat owners in the mid valley.
I am however not willing to turn over unfixed kittens to SafeHaven as they have been adopting out kittens unfixed and that drives me insane.
UPDATE: I softened when SafeHaven called here and said if I brought them tonight, they would take all three.
Kimo is leaving tomorrow morning, heading all the way to WA state. And the couple who adopted Snowman, a stray who showed up here, in my yard, whom I'd gotten fixed a year before that, over on Lyons, have expressed an interest in Sam. They're a really great couple and he would be well cared for and well loved there. So, I am crossing my fingers.
The next cat I want to focus on finding a home for is the disabled nearly blind Stinod.
In addition, SafeHaven has offered to put the three kittens from Crabtree into their foster care system. I am hesitant. I'm waiting to hear from Christiana. I am rather protective of them now and concerned for them. In a way, I'd rather find them homes myself, once I've assumed the responsibility.
I think SafeHaven probably does about the same adoptee screening I do, i.e. calling a vet reference, making sure they have no unfixed pets in the household and that a landlord allows them pets. I also provide informational sheets on common parasites and vaccinations the cat will need and if the person asks, a guide to local vet clinics. I have found widespread ignorance about common parasites among cat owners in the mid valley.
I am however not willing to turn over unfixed kittens to SafeHaven as they have been adopting out kittens unfixed and that drives me insane.
UPDATE: I softened when SafeHaven called here and said if I brought them tonight, they would take all three.
Kimo is leaving tomorrow morning, heading all the way to WA state. And the couple who adopted Snowman, a stray who showed up here, in my yard, whom I'd gotten fixed a year before that, over on Lyons, have expressed an interest in Sam. They're a really great couple and he would be well cared for and well loved there. So, I am crossing my fingers.
The next cat I want to focus on finding a home for is the disabled nearly blind Stinod.
Home Owners Responsible for Sidewalk Repair
If homeowners are responsible for the repair of sidewalks in front of their houses or property, even though they don't own the sidewalks, then I would think property owners could also regulate the use of those sidewalks or even charge a toll to pass on them?
Am I wrong on this?
Click post title to go to DH story about man complaining Albany sidewalks are in a sad state of repair.
Am I wrong on this?
Click post title to go to DH story about man complaining Albany sidewalks are in a sad state of repair.
Pharmaceuticals Declare "Rollicking Sickfest" to be Psychiatric Condition. Announce Pill to Combat This Disease.
Only days after a rural Oregon woman coins a new term to describe the American economy, Rollicking Sickfest, ailing pharmaceutical Pfizer announces that the American Psychiatric Association has declared it to be a psychiatric illness and quickly added it to the DMSO. Pfizer will very shortly unveil its new little pink pill to combat this deadly new illness.
The FDA says the pill will likely be approved for sale throughout the world in a few hours.
One Rollicking Sickfestonomist believes the little pink pill will become the little engine that could, and drive world money markets into black ink. Already Americans are lining up at pharmacies, community health clinics and emergency rooms, clamoring for prescriptions.
Fearful violence will break out, some ER's have begun handing out sugar pills and charging $200 for a 30 count bottle. One hospital administrator was quoted as saying, "our hospital is already beginning to prosper. To think, last week, due to soaring debt, we considered closing our doors."
One mother, asked about her purchase of ten bottles at the ER door said candidly, "When we heard on the news about Rollicking Sickfest being a disease, my husband and I met eyes. We then knew why we couldn't pay our mortgage. I'm sick and so are my kids and so are our neighbors. We'd rather spend the money on pills to get well, than on fancy foods like fruits and vegetables. We'll be all right now." She smiled stoically, clutching the pharmaceuticals in one hand while fumbling for car keys with the other.
Will the little pink pill spark a "rollicking" new start to economies worldwide? This reporter is feeling a whole lot better about things. I took my little pink pill with a good long slug of whiskey. Maybe I'll take another. There's still whiskey in the bottle.
The FDA says the pill will likely be approved for sale throughout the world in a few hours.
One Rollicking Sickfestonomist believes the little pink pill will become the little engine that could, and drive world money markets into black ink. Already Americans are lining up at pharmacies, community health clinics and emergency rooms, clamoring for prescriptions.
Fearful violence will break out, some ER's have begun handing out sugar pills and charging $200 for a 30 count bottle. One hospital administrator was quoted as saying, "our hospital is already beginning to prosper. To think, last week, due to soaring debt, we considered closing our doors."
One mother, asked about her purchase of ten bottles at the ER door said candidly, "When we heard on the news about Rollicking Sickfest being a disease, my husband and I met eyes. We then knew why we couldn't pay our mortgage. I'm sick and so are my kids and so are our neighbors. We'd rather spend the money on pills to get well, than on fancy foods like fruits and vegetables. We'll be all right now." She smiled stoically, clutching the pharmaceuticals in one hand while fumbling for car keys with the other.
Will the little pink pill spark a "rollicking" new start to economies worldwide? This reporter is feeling a whole lot better about things. I took my little pink pill with a good long slug of whiskey. Maybe I'll take another. There's still whiskey in the bottle.
Maybe I'll stay in Albany
Not that the 15 miles seperating me from Corvallis would be of much help if the worst happens. I just read in the Gazette Times that OSU got a grant to build an experimental nuclear reactor far hotter than any conventional reactor. Any mistakes by students and profs designing and building that thing and Corvallis, well, I'm 15 miles away from you now and right on I5. I might make it out. Maybe I can outrun or outwit the radiation clouds! HAHAHAHAHA. Below is the article:
"Oregon State gets grant to test nuclear reactors
CORVALLIS (AP) — Oregon State University researchers have gotten a five-year, $6 million grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to test and study new designs for nuclear reactors.
The Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics is researching a type of reactor that operates at temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees and uses gas instead of water for cooling.
Although the new reactors are three times as hot as existing ones, they are also 35 to 50 percent more energy-efficient, cost less to construct and create 50 percent less nuclear waste.
OSU will build a one-quarter-scale reactor as part of its research to test the new reactor designs at a cost of $3.6 million."
The words I don't like in above article "to test it". They're going to build and test it? And what if it fails the test and sends up a nuclear reactive cloud. I guess Corvallis could kiss its green image goodbye, for one thing. I'm cracking myself up tonight. The upside might be maybe I wouldn't have to get any cats, or people for that matter, fixed in the entire state. Survivors would be sterile! Now I'm really cracking myself up.
I hope they're careful in their building of this experimental nuclear reactor because if they're not there could be some major fallout (hahahahaha, get it?) Actually, it's probably not funny. I suppose this will up OSU's target approval rating for terrorists too. Will terrorists, try to blend into the Corvallis culture sipping coffee at the Beanery, while making their plans to get at that reactors fuel?
I remember right after 911. Talk turned to the safety of small university reactors and if they had nuclear material that could be stolen to create a dirty bomb. Somebody tested the security levels at several of the universities, entering the facility without letting the department know ahead of time, that they were going to try to gain access.
I forget how OSU did in the security tests. At that time, a campus security worker had asked me to trap a cat she fed near the OSU reactor. This was right after 911. During the night, a stranger, me, with a suspicious object, cat trap, walks right up to the OSU reactor building and disappears under the front steps and comes out, without the suspicious object. Nobody said a word.
Later on, I needed to use a bathroom badly. I"d been sitting in my car in the rad center parking lot freezing. Even though it was the middle of the night, students and staff occasionally were still entering or leaving the building. I just slipped right on in behind one of them. The door was on a delayed sort of spring, so when someone opened it, took it awhile to actually close all the way behind them.
My private assessment of the security of the OSU reactor was that it is nonexistent. It was also sort of reassuring, in the world at that time, that nobody would hassle someone who didn't need hassled, a cat trapper bothering nobody, being quiet without intent to harm anything. It kind of reassured me after 911 that people were not going to overreact and think of everybody as enemy. In a way. In another way, it was just another long cold freezing night out after a hungry unfixed kitty.
I guess some events just really don't relate to others. Who in the world would be dumb enough to try to find a smidgeon of usable radioactive material in an OSU nuclear physics teaching program. Nobody. And nobody would think blowing up the building itself would do anything to a reactor either. The threat posed by these small teaching reactors was overplayed big time, I felt, by media. Hahahaha.
This reactor will be much bigger. Well, I hope they're building it behind some heavy duty mass.
"Oregon State gets grant to test nuclear reactors
CORVALLIS (AP) — Oregon State University researchers have gotten a five-year, $6 million grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to test and study new designs for nuclear reactors.
The Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics is researching a type of reactor that operates at temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees and uses gas instead of water for cooling.
Although the new reactors are three times as hot as existing ones, they are also 35 to 50 percent more energy-efficient, cost less to construct and create 50 percent less nuclear waste.
OSU will build a one-quarter-scale reactor as part of its research to test the new reactor designs at a cost of $3.6 million."
The words I don't like in above article "to test it". They're going to build and test it? And what if it fails the test and sends up a nuclear reactive cloud. I guess Corvallis could kiss its green image goodbye, for one thing. I'm cracking myself up tonight. The upside might be maybe I wouldn't have to get any cats, or people for that matter, fixed in the entire state. Survivors would be sterile! Now I'm really cracking myself up.
I hope they're careful in their building of this experimental nuclear reactor because if they're not there could be some major fallout (hahahahaha, get it?) Actually, it's probably not funny. I suppose this will up OSU's target approval rating for terrorists too. Will terrorists, try to blend into the Corvallis culture sipping coffee at the Beanery, while making their plans to get at that reactors fuel?
I remember right after 911. Talk turned to the safety of small university reactors and if they had nuclear material that could be stolen to create a dirty bomb. Somebody tested the security levels at several of the universities, entering the facility without letting the department know ahead of time, that they were going to try to gain access.
I forget how OSU did in the security tests. At that time, a campus security worker had asked me to trap a cat she fed near the OSU reactor. This was right after 911. During the night, a stranger, me, with a suspicious object, cat trap, walks right up to the OSU reactor building and disappears under the front steps and comes out, without the suspicious object. Nobody said a word.
Later on, I needed to use a bathroom badly. I"d been sitting in my car in the rad center parking lot freezing. Even though it was the middle of the night, students and staff occasionally were still entering or leaving the building. I just slipped right on in behind one of them. The door was on a delayed sort of spring, so when someone opened it, took it awhile to actually close all the way behind them.
My private assessment of the security of the OSU reactor was that it is nonexistent. It was also sort of reassuring, in the world at that time, that nobody would hassle someone who didn't need hassled, a cat trapper bothering nobody, being quiet without intent to harm anything. It kind of reassured me after 911 that people were not going to overreact and think of everybody as enemy. In a way. In another way, it was just another long cold freezing night out after a hungry unfixed kitty.
I guess some events just really don't relate to others. Who in the world would be dumb enough to try to find a smidgeon of usable radioactive material in an OSU nuclear physics teaching program. Nobody. And nobody would think blowing up the building itself would do anything to a reactor either. The threat posed by these small teaching reactors was overplayed big time, I felt, by media. Hahahaha.
This reactor will be much bigger. Well, I hope they're building it behind some heavy duty mass.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
New Term to Describe Current Economy Coined by Rural Oregon Woman
A friend of mine, house bound for weeks, due to a virulent cold, has coined a new vibrant term to describe our current economy:
Rollicking Sickfest!
I love it.
Use it in a sentence. The Rollicking Sickfest, formerly known as the U.S. economy could be, in some ways, likened to the 60's music fest Woodstock, minus the drugs and the music and the hippies. When you take away the drugs, music and the hippies, what is left of Woodstock? Cigarette butts, condoms (used), cops, wandering without purpose, and miscellaneous garbage. There you have a fairly accurate description of what is left of "The Rollicking Sickfest" (a.k.a. our economy).
The Exclusion Room. It's done!
Exclusion room, right before I hung its door today.
The Exclusion Room, after I hung the door.
The latch, actually a gate latch I rigged with a piece of old phone cord, so I can open it from the outside.
Mops, on the outside, excluded! Bwahahahahaha!
Rollicking Sickfest!
I love it.
Use it in a sentence. The Rollicking Sickfest, formerly known as the U.S. economy could be, in some ways, likened to the 60's music fest Woodstock, minus the drugs and the music and the hippies. When you take away the drugs, music and the hippies, what is left of Woodstock? Cigarette butts, condoms (used), cops, wandering without purpose, and miscellaneous garbage. There you have a fairly accurate description of what is left of "The Rollicking Sickfest" (a.k.a. our economy).
The Exclusion Room. It's done!
Exclusion room, right before I hung its door today.
The Exclusion Room, after I hung the door.
The latch, actually a gate latch I rigged with a piece of old phone cord, so I can open it from the outside. 
Mops, on the outside, excluded! Bwahahahahaha!
Well anyhow....
I'm still chipping away at today's goals. Neck is on fire, makes it a little tougher. I just got removed from the Costco account. The people who put me on their account a couple years back, as a courtesy for helping them with a lot of cat issues, just called to ask if it was ok if they didn't renew it for me. I can understand that. Money is tight for so many people.
I don't know how that will work with my glasses I got there, that keep breaking. They're not the greatest frames. In fact, I've had better luck with dollar store frames that seem to be built far more durably. I'll have to find out what not being a member means for that.
And I was saving to buy tires there. The service is best there and I'm sure they would honor a warranty there. I had such a horrible experience with the tires I got at Les Schwab, and when they went bald 20,000 miles short of warranty, they not only did not honor the warranty but were just evil and nasty to me. I've never been back to Les Schwab since and never will go back. So I don't know where the next best place, other than Costco, to get tires would be, somewhere they will have good customer service and honor their own agreements. Any suggestions?
I do get all my dry cat food at Costco, but hopefully I can find someone with a Costco membership with whom I can go to Costco with, when I need to get cat food. Any local people out there who have a Costco membership?
I cleaned out the newest latest kitten arrivals ears this morning. They all have serious earmite infestations. I've had colds going around here, a bizarre virus, that causes extreme sneezing and congestion but no real drainage and no eye drainage. I've never seen the like. It doesn't last long either, at most, about three or four days. But it's been hitting cat after cat, one or two at a time.
Shady, who has a chronic herpes infection, has it the worst and is having a hard time shaking it. But in a way, it's brought us closer because I've had to confine her twice daily for steam treatments and antibiotics, which is hard with her, because she hates it. But she's also enjoying being petted and brushed and made over. So in a way, it was a blessing.
I got some more anti viral drops at the compounding pharmacy. Boy are they expensive! For a tiny little bottle---.1% idoxuridine--$38! For 15 ml's of 99.9999999% water, that's a lot of money. I'd love to figure out how to make that myself, if I can get my hands on the active ingredient. It is very effective in treating the eyes of herpes infected cats, however.
I haven't heard from the woman again, who was going to take in the Calico Triangles calico as a barn cat. Last night, she was trying to play through the mesh of the containment cage with the other cats, so I opened it and let her out. She explored awhile, but this morning, was back in the open cage, sleeping alongside Doc and Buffy, who had decided they like being in there, too. Cats are funny! She's a sweetheart, loves it here. They all do.
I"ve had big time phone problems here too. I just got told, when a woman called me, that the line always says it's busy. I know. The line is bad and so is my phone and the answering machine. Sam peed in the answering machine is why it doesn't really work. I can't stop it anymore and the messages are so muffled I can barely understand them and sometimes I can't. Lately, when the phone rings, I pick up the phone and try to answer but nobody can hear me. There has been extreme crackling on the line, too. It's been so bad I've been unable to return most phone calls. And for some reason, if I dial a number, that isn't necessarily the number that is connected. So I don't know what is up with that. I need to address this issues, however.
I don't know how that will work with my glasses I got there, that keep breaking. They're not the greatest frames. In fact, I've had better luck with dollar store frames that seem to be built far more durably. I'll have to find out what not being a member means for that.
And I was saving to buy tires there. The service is best there and I'm sure they would honor a warranty there. I had such a horrible experience with the tires I got at Les Schwab, and when they went bald 20,000 miles short of warranty, they not only did not honor the warranty but were just evil and nasty to me. I've never been back to Les Schwab since and never will go back. So I don't know where the next best place, other than Costco, to get tires would be, somewhere they will have good customer service and honor their own agreements. Any suggestions?
I do get all my dry cat food at Costco, but hopefully I can find someone with a Costco membership with whom I can go to Costco with, when I need to get cat food. Any local people out there who have a Costco membership?
I cleaned out the newest latest kitten arrivals ears this morning. They all have serious earmite infestations. I've had colds going around here, a bizarre virus, that causes extreme sneezing and congestion but no real drainage and no eye drainage. I've never seen the like. It doesn't last long either, at most, about three or four days. But it's been hitting cat after cat, one or two at a time.
Shady, who has a chronic herpes infection, has it the worst and is having a hard time shaking it. But in a way, it's brought us closer because I've had to confine her twice daily for steam treatments and antibiotics, which is hard with her, because she hates it. But she's also enjoying being petted and brushed and made over. So in a way, it was a blessing.
I got some more anti viral drops at the compounding pharmacy. Boy are they expensive! For a tiny little bottle---.1% idoxuridine--$38! For 15 ml's of 99.9999999% water, that's a lot of money. I'd love to figure out how to make that myself, if I can get my hands on the active ingredient. It is very effective in treating the eyes of herpes infected cats, however.
I haven't heard from the woman again, who was going to take in the Calico Triangles calico as a barn cat. Last night, she was trying to play through the mesh of the containment cage with the other cats, so I opened it and let her out. She explored awhile, but this morning, was back in the open cage, sleeping alongside Doc and Buffy, who had decided they like being in there, too. Cats are funny! She's a sweetheart, loves it here. They all do.
I"ve had big time phone problems here too. I just got told, when a woman called me, that the line always says it's busy. I know. The line is bad and so is my phone and the answering machine. Sam peed in the answering machine is why it doesn't really work. I can't stop it anymore and the messages are so muffled I can barely understand them and sometimes I can't. Lately, when the phone rings, I pick up the phone and try to answer but nobody can hear me. There has been extreme crackling on the line, too. It's been so bad I've been unable to return most phone calls. And for some reason, if I dial a number, that isn't necessarily the number that is connected. So I don't know what is up with that. I need to address this issues, however.
Grouchy and Tired Out
I'm still worn out from Super Bowl Sunday. I got a lot done on Super Bowl Sunday. I finally installed the water filter I'd bought months ago, on the kitchen sink faucet. I am hoping this will take some of the excessive chlorine out of the water so I will drink more water. I've tried to let bottles of water sit before drinking, on the counter, open, so the chlorine dissipates, which it will, over time, as it is a gas at room temperature. I seem to forget to refill them. There are weeks here I just don't drink enough water, because it is disgusting unless it sits out at least a day. I don't think ingesting high levels of chlorine is good for a person besides.
So I got that onto the faucet head on Sunday.
I also built the door for this little teensy hideaway room and painted it. I haven't installed it. Paint had to dry.
The other thing I did was take down those vertical blinds I have disliked to greatly. I put up three sets of horizontal blinds in their place, side by side, because the window is large. That involved a lot of arms overhead work, which is not something I should be doing at all, with my metal spine. So that caused consequences, the pain and grumpiness that accompanies pain.
But I got a lot of projects done and that's good. I don't have any appointments this week to take cats in. I got forgetful and suddenly the vets books were full up.
Yesterday I did take back in the long hair white and black male kitten, who indeed was not yet neutered and so he was yesterday. Diane of Corvallis made a donation to help cover a rabies shot and FIV/Felk test (he was negative).
I never heard from the sheriff's department again, about the situation out there with those people who demanded that starving kitten back but refused to provide food for the cats. I had hoped they would enforce the law. It is unlikely if they did nothing that I will contact them again. I have run into some horrors over the years and called the sheriff's department a couple of times, or someone there has, only to be shocked by the response.
The usual is no response or to somehow blame the person helping. The latter result happened when I was asked by Linn County Mental Health once to help a man in Lebanon with too many cats, they said. Too many? He was a collector and living in absolute jam packed filth. There was one corner of the trailer with three feet high piles of cat shit. There was cat urine pooled everywhere and he slept on a little urine soaked folded over foam pad in a corner of the back room pack ratted with useless computer parts and boxes of parts he said one day he might need.
Another woman who came to look but refused to enter the trailer or help called the sheriff's office. The deputy couldn't even enter the trailer either. The moment he tried, he began coughing and put his hand over his nose and had to get out. He screamed at myself and the woman, saying this is why he hated animal people, that they don't care about people. Then he left. And did nothing to help that man, or his terribly neglected cats.
I wrote him a searing letter, that it was people like him who didn't care about people, that nobody was helping that man except the animal people---not his church, not Mental Health, not his neighbors, not his Men With Mental Health Issues faith based group and not the sheriff's department either. I got no response of course.
I took 27 cats out of that trailer, got help with the very last cats removed from there with a couple other cat groups, and I even shovelled out that huge pile of cat shit.
I had nightmares about that little calico kitten. If they were dogs starving like that, there would have been action. When it is cats neglected, abused, starving or abandoned, law enforcement finds it easier to look the other way I think.
The only person who faced consequences for their behavior was me. I now have three more cats to care for, treat and vaccinate and house, fix and try to rehome.
They handed over to me the really really sick kittens, of course, and took back the starving calico. They claimed ownership, leaving me no choice when the sheriff's department wasn't really going to do anything. So the animal neglectors ran the show, tossing the sick kittens my way and taking back the starving calico kitten, so I could have nightmares about her fate for many months to come.
The corrections officer told me the real problem is that it is not the job of patrol deputies to enforce animal neglect and abuse laws, that that is the job of animal control but that the county has no animal control paid to do anything but pick up loose or dangerous dogs.
I suppose it didn't help much that I stopped by the rest area yesterday and set a trap for that tabby on white. I did park in a place that is no parking, but ODOT has let me park there numerous times before, to make it easier on me to set and check traps. A state trooper pulled up beside me. I was walking back from checking a trap and wanted to know if that was my car and why I was parked where I was, that that was a no parking zone.
Guess what I did. I slobbered at his feet, apologizing all over the place, saying I would move immediately. I felt it useless to say I am getting old, have a couple metal spinal plates, in pain, worn out, and just trying to trap the latest cat dumped at the rest area. I felt it useless to point out two other cars parked in no parking areas or the two people beside one of them with a big huge dog running off leash in a No Pets area and that all dogs in the rest are supposed to be on leash. But oh how I grumbled to myself as I took up my trap and got the hell out of there.
Funny how helping can turn into becoming a slave for people who are abusing animals. How pathetic it would look, from an outside vantage, to see me down there licking the shoes of people like the starving calico people. I had to, I would defend, to save a couple of sick kittens lives, and the law was not on my side. But it does affect me to always be slobbering at the feet of assholes.
So I got that onto the faucet head on Sunday.
I also built the door for this little teensy hideaway room and painted it. I haven't installed it. Paint had to dry.
The other thing I did was take down those vertical blinds I have disliked to greatly. I put up three sets of horizontal blinds in their place, side by side, because the window is large. That involved a lot of arms overhead work, which is not something I should be doing at all, with my metal spine. So that caused consequences, the pain and grumpiness that accompanies pain.
But I got a lot of projects done and that's good. I don't have any appointments this week to take cats in. I got forgetful and suddenly the vets books were full up.
Yesterday I did take back in the long hair white and black male kitten, who indeed was not yet neutered and so he was yesterday. Diane of Corvallis made a donation to help cover a rabies shot and FIV/Felk test (he was negative).
I never heard from the sheriff's department again, about the situation out there with those people who demanded that starving kitten back but refused to provide food for the cats. I had hoped they would enforce the law. It is unlikely if they did nothing that I will contact them again. I have run into some horrors over the years and called the sheriff's department a couple of times, or someone there has, only to be shocked by the response.
The usual is no response or to somehow blame the person helping. The latter result happened when I was asked by Linn County Mental Health once to help a man in Lebanon with too many cats, they said. Too many? He was a collector and living in absolute jam packed filth. There was one corner of the trailer with three feet high piles of cat shit. There was cat urine pooled everywhere and he slept on a little urine soaked folded over foam pad in a corner of the back room pack ratted with useless computer parts and boxes of parts he said one day he might need.
Another woman who came to look but refused to enter the trailer or help called the sheriff's office. The deputy couldn't even enter the trailer either. The moment he tried, he began coughing and put his hand over his nose and had to get out. He screamed at myself and the woman, saying this is why he hated animal people, that they don't care about people. Then he left. And did nothing to help that man, or his terribly neglected cats.
I wrote him a searing letter, that it was people like him who didn't care about people, that nobody was helping that man except the animal people---not his church, not Mental Health, not his neighbors, not his Men With Mental Health Issues faith based group and not the sheriff's department either. I got no response of course.
I took 27 cats out of that trailer, got help with the very last cats removed from there with a couple other cat groups, and I even shovelled out that huge pile of cat shit.
I had nightmares about that little calico kitten. If they were dogs starving like that, there would have been action. When it is cats neglected, abused, starving or abandoned, law enforcement finds it easier to look the other way I think.
The only person who faced consequences for their behavior was me. I now have three more cats to care for, treat and vaccinate and house, fix and try to rehome.
They handed over to me the really really sick kittens, of course, and took back the starving calico. They claimed ownership, leaving me no choice when the sheriff's department wasn't really going to do anything. So the animal neglectors ran the show, tossing the sick kittens my way and taking back the starving calico kitten, so I could have nightmares about her fate for many months to come.
The corrections officer told me the real problem is that it is not the job of patrol deputies to enforce animal neglect and abuse laws, that that is the job of animal control but that the county has no animal control paid to do anything but pick up loose or dangerous dogs.
I suppose it didn't help much that I stopped by the rest area yesterday and set a trap for that tabby on white. I did park in a place that is no parking, but ODOT has let me park there numerous times before, to make it easier on me to set and check traps. A state trooper pulled up beside me. I was walking back from checking a trap and wanted to know if that was my car and why I was parked where I was, that that was a no parking zone.
Guess what I did. I slobbered at his feet, apologizing all over the place, saying I would move immediately. I felt it useless to say I am getting old, have a couple metal spinal plates, in pain, worn out, and just trying to trap the latest cat dumped at the rest area. I felt it useless to point out two other cars parked in no parking areas or the two people beside one of them with a big huge dog running off leash in a No Pets area and that all dogs in the rest are supposed to be on leash. But oh how I grumbled to myself as I took up my trap and got the hell out of there.
Funny how helping can turn into becoming a slave for people who are abusing animals. How pathetic it would look, from an outside vantage, to see me down there licking the shoes of people like the starving calico people. I had to, I would defend, to save a couple of sick kittens lives, and the law was not on my side. But it does affect me to always be slobbering at the feet of assholes.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Super Bowl Ads So Far
The Super Bowl ads I've seen so far have not been so great. Many are Sexist. Pornographically so, in some cases. I think about the families watching and the image of women this portrays, both to little girls and little boys. The most notable, a Doritas ad where a man gets his wishes when he bites on a Dorita. This includes disrobing an unsuspecting woman walking the sidewalk. Then some website ad, where frat boys are building a website where they can put any woman they want in a steaming shower.
The woman bashing continues with two potato heads in a car speeding along a highway, with the woman potato head being an annoying nagger, until they plow into some sheep and she loses her potato head lips.
And with a strange ad about a woman getting flowers in a box, and what that really says, including dissing cats and telling her "nobody wants to see you naked".
Dissing cats is common in football circles and in women bashing circles I think. You won't see dogs dissed in super bowl ads I bet.
Reminds me of the wardrobe error of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's performance. Although it was Timberlake who ripped off the article of clothing, it was Janet Jackson who took all the flack. None of it fell on Timberlake. And like a true man without balls, Timberlake did not defend Jackson whatsoever and let her bear the whole brunt of conservative America's wrath. I bet there will be no outcry over the pornographic portrayal of women in some of these ads, however.
I guess it's the mentality of those the ad companies think they're targeting. I think it's quite indicative of the stupid ad companies mentalities more than anything else. I would guess they're a bunch of control freak asshole self-hating lonely masturbating-in=the-rest area type triple AAA's who produce such ads. That's my guess. It's really very sad. When you can't think of something creative, disrobe women and diss cats. Very very sad. I cry for them. Wait. I can't make the tears come. Oh well.
I am waiting for the half time show. I am a diehard long time Springsteen fan.
I liked one commercial, some oil for your engine ad, I think it was. The guy has chimps everywhere working on his car. A friend walks up and asks "what's with all the chimps?" Anyhow, the friend finally says "Strange Days" and the guy with the chimps working on his car, and one his lap replies "Strange days indeed" and kisses the chimp on his lap. That was funny! That's the only one I"ve liked so far. The Cars.com one was sort of ok. The rest---not so standoutish, medicore in fact.
Wait, I liked the show off horse ad, too. And I liked the ad for "Heros". Now that was funny.
The funniest ad of all? A strange one for Hula. It featured Alec Baldwin mocking the American mush brained TV and computer users, equating the stupidification of human beings via mindless TV and computer use with an alien plot to conquer humans. It was funny, but guiltily disturbing and it made me want to blow up my TV and computer immediately. Obviously I didn't.
My gosh Bruce and the E street boys put on a show. He started with the song he started out with long ago===The E Street Shuffle/10th Ave. Freezeout then went on to perhaps his most famous song--Born to Run. "Tramps like us, Baby we were born to run".... He slipped into a new song and was joined in singing it by a church choir. And he finished with Glory Days, modifying the lyrics for football, instead of baseball.....
"Old buddy of mine was walking in, I was walking out. Man he could throw that "hail Mary" by you, make you look like a fool, boy. We went back in, sat down, had a few drinks, but all he kept talking about was, Glory Days.....in the mind of a young girl's eye, glory days......I hope when I grow old, I don't sit around, thinking about it, but I probably will......Sit around something something...leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories,ahhhhhh, of Glory Days." Yup, brings back the memories. The 80's, Bruce's glory days.
He's an entertainer through and through, an aging rocker who still obviously loves performing. Bruce, good show!
Clarence Clemens, a.k.a. "The Big Man" is impressive with his sax always. Little Stevie has gained weight over the years but can still wear that bandana without looking foolish. Love the E Street Band and always have. Patti, Bruces wife, is still playing guitar in the band, too.
It's over. Yay. It's just a game and who cares, really, except the guys playing making millions upon millions.
The woman bashing continues with two potato heads in a car speeding along a highway, with the woman potato head being an annoying nagger, until they plow into some sheep and she loses her potato head lips.
And with a strange ad about a woman getting flowers in a box, and what that really says, including dissing cats and telling her "nobody wants to see you naked".
Dissing cats is common in football circles and in women bashing circles I think. You won't see dogs dissed in super bowl ads I bet.
Reminds me of the wardrobe error of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's performance. Although it was Timberlake who ripped off the article of clothing, it was Janet Jackson who took all the flack. None of it fell on Timberlake. And like a true man without balls, Timberlake did not defend Jackson whatsoever and let her bear the whole brunt of conservative America's wrath. I bet there will be no outcry over the pornographic portrayal of women in some of these ads, however.
I guess it's the mentality of those the ad companies think they're targeting. I think it's quite indicative of the stupid ad companies mentalities more than anything else. I would guess they're a bunch of control freak asshole self-hating lonely masturbating-in=the-rest area type triple AAA's who produce such ads. That's my guess. It's really very sad. When you can't think of something creative, disrobe women and diss cats. Very very sad. I cry for them. Wait. I can't make the tears come. Oh well.
I am waiting for the half time show. I am a diehard long time Springsteen fan.
I liked one commercial, some oil for your engine ad, I think it was. The guy has chimps everywhere working on his car. A friend walks up and asks "what's with all the chimps?" Anyhow, the friend finally says "Strange Days" and the guy with the chimps working on his car, and one his lap replies "Strange days indeed" and kisses the chimp on his lap. That was funny! That's the only one I"ve liked so far. The Cars.com one was sort of ok. The rest---not so standoutish, medicore in fact.
Wait, I liked the show off horse ad, too. And I liked the ad for "Heros". Now that was funny.
The funniest ad of all? A strange one for Hula. It featured Alec Baldwin mocking the American mush brained TV and computer users, equating the stupidification of human beings via mindless TV and computer use with an alien plot to conquer humans. It was funny, but guiltily disturbing and it made me want to blow up my TV and computer immediately. Obviously I didn't.
My gosh Bruce and the E street boys put on a show. He started with the song he started out with long ago===The E Street Shuffle/10th Ave. Freezeout then went on to perhaps his most famous song--Born to Run. "Tramps like us, Baby we were born to run".... He slipped into a new song and was joined in singing it by a church choir. And he finished with Glory Days, modifying the lyrics for football, instead of baseball.....
"Old buddy of mine was walking in, I was walking out. Man he could throw that "hail Mary" by you, make you look like a fool, boy. We went back in, sat down, had a few drinks, but all he kept talking about was, Glory Days.....in the mind of a young girl's eye, glory days......I hope when I grow old, I don't sit around, thinking about it, but I probably will......Sit around something something...leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories,ahhhhhh, of Glory Days." Yup, brings back the memories. The 80's, Bruce's glory days.
He's an entertainer through and through, an aging rocker who still obviously loves performing. Bruce, good show!
Clarence Clemens, a.k.a. "The Big Man" is impressive with his sax always. Little Stevie has gained weight over the years but can still wear that bandana without looking foolish. Love the E Street Band and always have. Patti, Bruces wife, is still playing guitar in the band, too.
It's over. Yay. It's just a game and who cares, really, except the guys playing making millions upon millions.
Private Place to Write
I want to write a book and try to get it published. I thought building a space, albeit tiny, free of cats would help and maybe it will some. But I still cannot concentrate in here. Too many cats. The hissy spitty brawls breaking out, the things suddenly crashing over they've climbed....the list goes on of the distractions curious playful cats can so easily create.
I have to get away from here to be able to concentrate. But where can I find a quiet space and how will I do it, without a computer to take with me, to write with?
The other solution involves distracting the cat themselves away from here. Oh yes I've learned from them. I've become devious like a cat. And now, to use these skills they've taught me against them. Whahahahaha......!
I don't know the answer yet, but I'm trying to figure one out. I've wanted to try to write a book and even a screenplay for a very long time. May not end up as any good but then again maybe it might. You don't know til you try.
I can write things out quickly for this blog, without editing or even thinking much. But to write a book I need to concentrate and for that I need a place of some quiet. I'm going to find a way.
I have to get away from here to be able to concentrate. But where can I find a quiet space and how will I do it, without a computer to take with me, to write with?
The other solution involves distracting the cat themselves away from here. Oh yes I've learned from them. I've become devious like a cat. And now, to use these skills they've taught me against them. Whahahahaha......!
I don't know the answer yet, but I'm trying to figure one out. I've wanted to try to write a book and even a screenplay for a very long time. May not end up as any good but then again maybe it might. You don't know til you try.
I can write things out quickly for this blog, without editing or even thinking much. But to write a book I need to concentrate and for that I need a place of some quiet. I'm going to find a way.
Super Bowl Sunday!!!!!!
Woohoooo! Who's playing?
I like Super Bowl Sunday. During the day, there are times when the stores are pretty much vacant and so are the roads. It's like you're alone on the planet and can do anything lots easier. I love Super Bowl Sunday.
I think about my brothers a lot. I wonder what they are up to today. I talk to my younger brother quite often these days. Sometimes every other week now, which is nice. We talk about the economy sometimes. He's a contractor and to save money he says he is doing more himself on jobsites. Long ago he hung up his hammer and became more of an office man. He's getting on in years too, like me, and so is more prone to injury when doing a lot of physical work. He ruptured an achilles tendon two or three years ago and that put him in a cast for six months I think and was very difficult to deal with. His wife is a wonderful person and so he had help in his recovery. She's a nurse.
We talked about the economy again last week. He's slightly concerned about the future of his two kids still in college, if they'll actually be able to find jobs once out. His son is near graduation and will have a degree in architecture. His daughter I believe is in graphic design but might try for med school, which is a long haul. She's smart and would make a great doctor I think. I told him if she can't get in anywhere else, she could apply at the brand new med school in Lebanon. He asked if it was a real med school. I said it was for osteopaths.
Our father used to poohoo osteopathic medical degrees. I don't know why. I really don't know the difference between a DO degree and an MD degree. When we were in high school, a religious boarding school, very small, he made certain it was on our school records that if something happened to any of us, they were not to take us to an osteopath but to a real doctor.
I still don't know the difference or if DO's are less qualified than MD's at most things. I think it probably is an individual thing still, some DO's are good and some MD's are good. But we still remember our father's dislike of DO's.
But my brother says his daughter wants to be an MD not a DO. But then we talked about the good opportunities for Nurse Practioners and Physicians Assistants and that with the cost of medical school and health care rising, that we both think these two professions will be in demand and pay well enough. When you pair that with the fact neither cost nearly as much in education as becoming a doctor, it's a win situation for young people looking for a recession proof career or even a backup career.
My brother is concerned there will be very few jobs opportunities in the next decade for architects. My nephew is a bright thoughtful compassionate young man. I think he'll find something or some way to make a living.
My brother's other daughter is an attorney in a SW state. The small firm she works for has recently laid off all but a couple attorneys. She is one of the two lucky ones to keep her job for now, despite being less experienced than some who were let go. She's unbelievably good at what she does. She's sharp, self-confident, always prepared, doesn't back down and should be a district attorney, is my feeling.
I don't know her that well, but the two or three times I've met her, I felt I was in the presence of an exceptional human being, someone kind of way beyond the norm. Maybe you've met people like that. We can't claim it's in the blood of our family. She was adopted. I have great admiration for her.
My other brother is the one I don't hear from much. He leads a very busy overloaded life and his own daughter, an only child, has experienced a lot of troubles in the past years with an eating disorder. This has caused my brother extreme angst and soul searching and worry. I occasionally get a short e-mail response from him, but other than that, I haven't seen him for a couple of years.
I send him e-mails asking how I can help because I wish I could. I don't even know his daughter very well, because I"ve met her, like my other nieces and nephew, only a handful of times.
My younger brother and I were talking about that. He says he wishes we knew others in our family. He says he envies these families who once a year have huge family reunions. We don't know anybody in our extended family.
My father didn't like his family, which had been composed of about 12 brothers and sisters. I'm sure we have literally dozens of cousins and extended cousins on his side, but we never knew any of them. My mother had only one brother, whom my father didn't like either. Her brother died young, in his fifties, of cancer. He had two sons, one of whom, after failing in high school, finally joined the military and made a career of it, I heard. And the other, I have no idea where he ended up.
Now I look at my brothers kids and feel bad for them. There is no big family support system in place for them. My brother's adopted daughter, the attorney, married, but the marraige lasted only a couple years, if that. My nephew is now 24, almost 25, and has yet to find a soulmate. In the meantime, I hope they have plenty of friends. My younger brothers kids have only the one cousin, my older brother's troubled daughter.
In other news, some distance cousin on my mother's side of the family is big time into geneology. He is so deep into it, that when something came into his study of my mother's family's past, that there might be African American blood deep in our ancestry, some of the male members of the family had DNA tests done that did indeed reveal black heritage.
When my younger brother told me that I said I already knew. How? From high school biology class, when we were examining our own blood under a microscope and there was a distinctly long shaped blood cell. I asked the biology teacher to look and he said "That a sickle cell and only black people have those. So you're a black girl under your whitey skin." Then he laughed and walked off. It's one of those things I never forgot.
My father's side of the family includes a whole lot of Native American blood. My aunt looks full blood but always told me she was about a quarter and that we should have gotten Indian money. I never really knew what that meant "Indian money".
She had four husbands, two of whom died in WWII, and only one son, whom I've met maybe two or three times, decades ago. He married and had two kids, a girl and a boy. The boy died in Alaska, after or during he went to a chiropractor for neck pain relief. He was a firefighter. He had a stroke during or right after the chiropractic treatment due to some congenital malformation of a major artery laying across a vertebra, that got nicked or crimped or something during the chiropractic adjustments of his neck. It was a very freakish unexpected thing to happen. I think his death was ruled accidental due to that bizarre malformation or placement of an artery. I can't remember the details to be honest, only that it was a freak thing, related to a congential defect and the chiropractic visit. I'd never met him. I've never met his sister either, nor do I know where she lives.
And the real bizzare twist of the geneological thing my brother told me last week in his reading of the distant cousins' ongoing geneological research, is that we are related to Barack Obama, through his mother who came from Kansas.
We're actually all related on this relatively small planet. I've always said we need to recruit some outside genetic materal, breed with aliens or something. We're seriously inbred here on Earth.
I like Super Bowl Sunday. During the day, there are times when the stores are pretty much vacant and so are the roads. It's like you're alone on the planet and can do anything lots easier. I love Super Bowl Sunday.
I think about my brothers a lot. I wonder what they are up to today. I talk to my younger brother quite often these days. Sometimes every other week now, which is nice. We talk about the economy sometimes. He's a contractor and to save money he says he is doing more himself on jobsites. Long ago he hung up his hammer and became more of an office man. He's getting on in years too, like me, and so is more prone to injury when doing a lot of physical work. He ruptured an achilles tendon two or three years ago and that put him in a cast for six months I think and was very difficult to deal with. His wife is a wonderful person and so he had help in his recovery. She's a nurse.
We talked about the economy again last week. He's slightly concerned about the future of his two kids still in college, if they'll actually be able to find jobs once out. His son is near graduation and will have a degree in architecture. His daughter I believe is in graphic design but might try for med school, which is a long haul. She's smart and would make a great doctor I think. I told him if she can't get in anywhere else, she could apply at the brand new med school in Lebanon. He asked if it was a real med school. I said it was for osteopaths.
Our father used to poohoo osteopathic medical degrees. I don't know why. I really don't know the difference between a DO degree and an MD degree. When we were in high school, a religious boarding school, very small, he made certain it was on our school records that if something happened to any of us, they were not to take us to an osteopath but to a real doctor.
I still don't know the difference or if DO's are less qualified than MD's at most things. I think it probably is an individual thing still, some DO's are good and some MD's are good. But we still remember our father's dislike of DO's.
But my brother says his daughter wants to be an MD not a DO. But then we talked about the good opportunities for Nurse Practioners and Physicians Assistants and that with the cost of medical school and health care rising, that we both think these two professions will be in demand and pay well enough. When you pair that with the fact neither cost nearly as much in education as becoming a doctor, it's a win situation for young people looking for a recession proof career or even a backup career.
My brother is concerned there will be very few jobs opportunities in the next decade for architects. My nephew is a bright thoughtful compassionate young man. I think he'll find something or some way to make a living.
My brother's other daughter is an attorney in a SW state. The small firm she works for has recently laid off all but a couple attorneys. She is one of the two lucky ones to keep her job for now, despite being less experienced than some who were let go. She's unbelievably good at what she does. She's sharp, self-confident, always prepared, doesn't back down and should be a district attorney, is my feeling.
I don't know her that well, but the two or three times I've met her, I felt I was in the presence of an exceptional human being, someone kind of way beyond the norm. Maybe you've met people like that. We can't claim it's in the blood of our family. She was adopted. I have great admiration for her.
My other brother is the one I don't hear from much. He leads a very busy overloaded life and his own daughter, an only child, has experienced a lot of troubles in the past years with an eating disorder. This has caused my brother extreme angst and soul searching and worry. I occasionally get a short e-mail response from him, but other than that, I haven't seen him for a couple of years.
I send him e-mails asking how I can help because I wish I could. I don't even know his daughter very well, because I"ve met her, like my other nieces and nephew, only a handful of times.
My younger brother and I were talking about that. He says he wishes we knew others in our family. He says he envies these families who once a year have huge family reunions. We don't know anybody in our extended family.
My father didn't like his family, which had been composed of about 12 brothers and sisters. I'm sure we have literally dozens of cousins and extended cousins on his side, but we never knew any of them. My mother had only one brother, whom my father didn't like either. Her brother died young, in his fifties, of cancer. He had two sons, one of whom, after failing in high school, finally joined the military and made a career of it, I heard. And the other, I have no idea where he ended up.
Now I look at my brothers kids and feel bad for them. There is no big family support system in place for them. My brother's adopted daughter, the attorney, married, but the marraige lasted only a couple years, if that. My nephew is now 24, almost 25, and has yet to find a soulmate. In the meantime, I hope they have plenty of friends. My younger brothers kids have only the one cousin, my older brother's troubled daughter.
In other news, some distance cousin on my mother's side of the family is big time into geneology. He is so deep into it, that when something came into his study of my mother's family's past, that there might be African American blood deep in our ancestry, some of the male members of the family had DNA tests done that did indeed reveal black heritage.
When my younger brother told me that I said I already knew. How? From high school biology class, when we were examining our own blood under a microscope and there was a distinctly long shaped blood cell. I asked the biology teacher to look and he said "That a sickle cell and only black people have those. So you're a black girl under your whitey skin." Then he laughed and walked off. It's one of those things I never forgot.
My father's side of the family includes a whole lot of Native American blood. My aunt looks full blood but always told me she was about a quarter and that we should have gotten Indian money. I never really knew what that meant "Indian money".
She had four husbands, two of whom died in WWII, and only one son, whom I've met maybe two or three times, decades ago. He married and had two kids, a girl and a boy. The boy died in Alaska, after or during he went to a chiropractor for neck pain relief. He was a firefighter. He had a stroke during or right after the chiropractic treatment due to some congenital malformation of a major artery laying across a vertebra, that got nicked or crimped or something during the chiropractic adjustments of his neck. It was a very freakish unexpected thing to happen. I think his death was ruled accidental due to that bizarre malformation or placement of an artery. I can't remember the details to be honest, only that it was a freak thing, related to a congential defect and the chiropractic visit. I'd never met him. I've never met his sister either, nor do I know where she lives.
And the real bizzare twist of the geneological thing my brother told me last week in his reading of the distant cousins' ongoing geneological research, is that we are related to Barack Obama, through his mother who came from Kansas.
We're actually all related on this relatively small planet. I've always said we need to recruit some outside genetic materal, breed with aliens or something. We're seriously inbred here on Earth.
Photos of the Two Latest Kittens from the "These are Working Cats" people
The two kittens the folks turned over yesterday are quite ill. The orange and white is a little girl and not as sick as the Siamese mix male. The latter kitten mostly wants to sleep, and drink, but this morning, ate a little bit, when I hand fed him. They're on antibiotics. I roundwormed them and this morning, they are starting to poop out roundworms. They also have earmites and tapeworms and I haven't treated them for either, because they're sick and I don't want to overwhelm them. However today, I will tackle the earmites. They'll be gone.
The people claim they don't feed them because "they're working cats". That means mousers. Do you think these sick kittens are really able to catch mice? When I mentioned worming them, the old woman waved me away again, saying "they're just working cats".
Guess what. If you want good mousers, lady, feed them, fix them, vaccinate them and worm them. Then you will have real working cats, who will mouse as a natural instinct like nothing you've seen before. I know these folks are from a different culture. But how about forgetting cultural differences and applying common sense? Healthy cats can hunt. Sick starving breeding worm infested cats are lousy hunters.
I hate to get people into trouble with the law. I don't know how else to communicate with some people. But I have an idea for these folks, that might work better than any law enforcement intervention. My secret weapon? He has a name. Oscar. He is the Neuterscooter vet's partner. He is charming, Hispanic, speaks fluent Spanish as does everyone at the Neuterscooter and has a way about him of communicating that is just irresistable. He loves giving people flowers, he's just a charmer. What if I could get Oscar to visit them? I think he could pull off a miracle there.
I'm hoping Safehaven will take on at least a couple of these kittens, once over their colds. The man who took me out there, as moral support, is on the board at Safehaven and hopes they can take a couple of them on.
This is the little girl, very cute, but also very dirty. All the cats, including the two calicos, were exceedingly dirty. They have not been cleaning themselves, which is a sign a cat isn't doing well.
This is the sickest kitten. He is doing slightly better this morning, still listless and I have to hand feed him, but he is drinking on his own. He would have been dead within three days, if left there.
Her belly is all dirty. I will give them bathes, but not for a couple of days, when they are feeling better.
The people claim they don't feed them because "they're working cats". That means mousers. Do you think these sick kittens are really able to catch mice? When I mentioned worming them, the old woman waved me away again, saying "they're just working cats".
Guess what. If you want good mousers, lady, feed them, fix them, vaccinate them and worm them. Then you will have real working cats, who will mouse as a natural instinct like nothing you've seen before. I know these folks are from a different culture. But how about forgetting cultural differences and applying common sense? Healthy cats can hunt. Sick starving breeding worm infested cats are lousy hunters.
I hate to get people into trouble with the law. I don't know how else to communicate with some people. But I have an idea for these folks, that might work better than any law enforcement intervention. My secret weapon? He has a name. Oscar. He is the Neuterscooter vet's partner. He is charming, Hispanic, speaks fluent Spanish as does everyone at the Neuterscooter and has a way about him of communicating that is just irresistable. He loves giving people flowers, he's just a charmer. What if I could get Oscar to visit them? I think he could pull off a miracle there.
I'm hoping Safehaven will take on at least a couple of these kittens, once over their colds. The man who took me out there, as moral support, is on the board at Safehaven and hopes they can take a couple of them on.
This is the little girl, very cute, but also very dirty. All the cats, including the two calicos, were exceedingly dirty. They have not been cleaning themselves, which is a sign a cat isn't doing well.
This is the sickest kitten. He is doing slightly better this morning, still listless and I have to hand feed him, but he is drinking on his own. He would have been dead within three days, if left there.
Her belly is all dirty. I will give them bathes, but not for a couple of days, when they are feeling better.
Having an MRI? They are Not Created Equal
Someone once told me an X-ray is only as good as the technician taking it and the radiologist reading it. I was told before getting my first mammogram. The woman said despite getting routine yearly mammograms she ended up with late stage breast cancer she only found with self-exam. I said "Whoa, how can that be, with mammograms so highly touted as the first best early diagnosis defense?"
That's when she said she found out that mammograms and any scan are only as good as the tech doing them and the radiologist reading them.
Read the above article about MRI's by clicking the post title. I guess you can add to that statement that scans are only as good as the machine doing them too.
Seems some MRI machines are not accredited and some have very low capacity magnets, especially the open MRI machines currently popular with claustrophobic and obese patients. The gold star is Tesla 3 strength magnet, according to the article and to have a radiologist reading the MRI specialized in reading images and knowledge of the problem body part or organ.
I remember when I got back X-ray once. It showed something nobody expected--a large lesion in my pelvic bone right at the hip joint. My doctor said I needed to see a bone specialist, to look at the X-ray and determine if this was cancer or just what. He sent me to somebody at the Corvallis clinic. But he was hardly an expert on bone lesions. His bone speciality experience was mostly broken bones.
The night before seeing him I memorized a medical student short cut to the I think it was 11 possible causes of a bone lesion. At the appointment, the doctor did not even know these common causes. I had to spit them out for him. All eleven.
In the end, he said to come back in six months to see if it had changed. When I came back, he had not ordered from records, or could not find, the orignal X-ray so there was no way to even compare the X-ray taken that day and the one of six months ago. He then told me he thought he could remember that the X-ray six months ago looked exactly the same and had not changed in size from the one taken just before this appointment. He wanted me to come back in six months again. I told him this was bullshit, that nobody could remember with any accuracy an X-ray taken six months ago when he could not even remember my name. I never went back.
It was bullshit. The worst bullshit of it was in the initial appointment. He didn't apparently have knowledge or memory from medical school of bone lesion causes. This would make him inept at interpreting an X-ray of a bone lesion.
I was, at that time, on the Oregon Health Plan. So both appointments and one X-ray were a waste of taxpayer dollars. If a person had paid out of pocket for those two visits and the second X-ray (the first was ordered due to my severe back problems), only to go be sent to a doctor that really knew nothing about bone lesions at all, what a total waste of money that is. It's like if you had something wrong with your car and had to go to only one certain mechanic to get that problem fixed, (due to enrollment in a managed car repair plan) and he said "well I don't know anything about this" and charged you hundreds of dollars anyhow. Same thing. Rip off!
I don't know if that lesion is still there or not, what caused it, if its gotten bigger or filled in. A couple months prior to that first X-ray I had come out of my little shack in Corvallis, in the dark, totally exhausted, to unload cats just fixed at a clinic, from my car. I'd forgotten about the cinder block sitting to the side of the front porch and tripped over it hard. I went flying, landing on my right hip, immediately sparking horrendous pain. I couldn't even get up and thought for sure I'd broken my hip or pelvis. I was eventually able to crawl back inside. I had a huge bruise from the fall (I landed on a fist size irregular rock). It is possible that very bad fall jammed my leg bone up against my pelvic bone at the hip joint and that the trauma of the blow to my pelvic bone created the lesion right above the hip socket.
It's also possible I was born with it. It's also possible it is something worse, too. So far so good. I was told if it remains, I have a far greater risk of breaking my hip right there. There was only a teensy bit of bone left between the lesion and the margin of the hip socket.
I"ve been skeptical of mammograms somewhat. I know they save many lives. My skeptic nature is only because of one incident in which I had a mammogram in the afternoon of one day and received the results, saying everything was fine, in the mail the next day. This is impossible. I was told the mail had to go through the whole hospital complex mailing system too, which further led me to skepticism, about this event.
It led me to wonder if the results were premailed out accidentally and the mammogram was never really read. This was years ago, when my inferiority feelings and paranoia were far greater than they are currently. Those problems coupled with an active imagination, led me to wonder if the mammograms of people with bad or no insurance were never really read by an anesthesiologist, in a cost cutting measure. That one incident has colored my skepticism of mammograms ever since, however. I know its silly.
But I no longer feel getting my yearly mammogram is really very helpful. I do it anyway, because it's so ground in. It's like I think I'll die for sure if I don't get one. Almost like being raised a Christian. Even though I'm extremely skeptical about man made religion, I want at least one foot on the heaven train just in case.
That's when she said she found out that mammograms and any scan are only as good as the tech doing them and the radiologist reading them.
Read the above article about MRI's by clicking the post title. I guess you can add to that statement that scans are only as good as the machine doing them too.
Seems some MRI machines are not accredited and some have very low capacity magnets, especially the open MRI machines currently popular with claustrophobic and obese patients. The gold star is Tesla 3 strength magnet, according to the article and to have a radiologist reading the MRI specialized in reading images and knowledge of the problem body part or organ.
I remember when I got back X-ray once. It showed something nobody expected--a large lesion in my pelvic bone right at the hip joint. My doctor said I needed to see a bone specialist, to look at the X-ray and determine if this was cancer or just what. He sent me to somebody at the Corvallis clinic. But he was hardly an expert on bone lesions. His bone speciality experience was mostly broken bones.
The night before seeing him I memorized a medical student short cut to the I think it was 11 possible causes of a bone lesion. At the appointment, the doctor did not even know these common causes. I had to spit them out for him. All eleven.
In the end, he said to come back in six months to see if it had changed. When I came back, he had not ordered from records, or could not find, the orignal X-ray so there was no way to even compare the X-ray taken that day and the one of six months ago. He then told me he thought he could remember that the X-ray six months ago looked exactly the same and had not changed in size from the one taken just before this appointment. He wanted me to come back in six months again. I told him this was bullshit, that nobody could remember with any accuracy an X-ray taken six months ago when he could not even remember my name. I never went back.
It was bullshit. The worst bullshit of it was in the initial appointment. He didn't apparently have knowledge or memory from medical school of bone lesion causes. This would make him inept at interpreting an X-ray of a bone lesion.
I was, at that time, on the Oregon Health Plan. So both appointments and one X-ray were a waste of taxpayer dollars. If a person had paid out of pocket for those two visits and the second X-ray (the first was ordered due to my severe back problems), only to go be sent to a doctor that really knew nothing about bone lesions at all, what a total waste of money that is. It's like if you had something wrong with your car and had to go to only one certain mechanic to get that problem fixed, (due to enrollment in a managed car repair plan) and he said "well I don't know anything about this" and charged you hundreds of dollars anyhow. Same thing. Rip off!
I don't know if that lesion is still there or not, what caused it, if its gotten bigger or filled in. A couple months prior to that first X-ray I had come out of my little shack in Corvallis, in the dark, totally exhausted, to unload cats just fixed at a clinic, from my car. I'd forgotten about the cinder block sitting to the side of the front porch and tripped over it hard. I went flying, landing on my right hip, immediately sparking horrendous pain. I couldn't even get up and thought for sure I'd broken my hip or pelvis. I was eventually able to crawl back inside. I had a huge bruise from the fall (I landed on a fist size irregular rock). It is possible that very bad fall jammed my leg bone up against my pelvic bone at the hip joint and that the trauma of the blow to my pelvic bone created the lesion right above the hip socket.
It's also possible I was born with it. It's also possible it is something worse, too. So far so good. I was told if it remains, I have a far greater risk of breaking my hip right there. There was only a teensy bit of bone left between the lesion and the margin of the hip socket.
I"ve been skeptical of mammograms somewhat. I know they save many lives. My skeptic nature is only because of one incident in which I had a mammogram in the afternoon of one day and received the results, saying everything was fine, in the mail the next day. This is impossible. I was told the mail had to go through the whole hospital complex mailing system too, which further led me to skepticism, about this event.
It led me to wonder if the results were premailed out accidentally and the mammogram was never really read. This was years ago, when my inferiority feelings and paranoia were far greater than they are currently. Those problems coupled with an active imagination, led me to wonder if the mammograms of people with bad or no insurance were never really read by an anesthesiologist, in a cost cutting measure. That one incident has colored my skepticism of mammograms ever since, however. I know its silly.
But I no longer feel getting my yearly mammogram is really very helpful. I do it anyway, because it's so ground in. It's like I think I'll die for sure if I don't get one. Almost like being raised a Christian. Even though I'm extremely skeptical about man made religion, I want at least one foot on the heaven train just in case.
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