Aftermath

 I got the 15 cats plus Rosy to Portland last Wednesday.  

Wasn't easy on me.  Loading and unloading cats in traps, switching cats to clean traps....but I was on my way just after 6:00 a.m.   I didn't arrive at the clinic til nearly 8:30.  One word:  Congestion.

The traffic was awful, stop and go from miles south of Portland.  Took forever to get there.

If traffic was normal, which it never is anymore, it takes just a bit over an hour to get to the clinic.   Oh the good old days.  Now....man, I wish I never had to go again to Portland.   Fortunately I don't have to make the trip very often.

I met the woman taking Rosy, the cat who had the plastic stuck on her neck, at the clinic and said my goodbyes to that sweet girl.  Hope she is happy at her new home.

After picking up a salad, sandwich and a bag of chips at a grocery store, I drove back to the rest area.  I had a book and read awhile, then became too sleepy to read and crawled into the back to nap.  I had not put in my blankets and a pillow before leaving home.  I had meant to, and forgot them in the garage.  Didn't matter much.  I was tired enough to sleep on the bare board in the back of my car for a couple of hours.

I remained at the  rest area until just before time to pick up the cats, then returned to the clinic parking lot to find it almost full of people waiting for the magic hour, 4:00 p.m., to get their cats.  I may have been the last to get them back.  I didn't mind at all.  I'd seen the crammed jammed bumper to bumper freeway south and there was no reason to be eager to join that.

Consequently I didn't get home until about 7:30.   Long day.

Thursday morning I returned all the cats.  Well, all but one.   The one little kitten from Rosy's colony I couldn't return in good conscience.   Two pounds.  Easy to tame.   It wasn't right to return him to a place where no one lives currently and the cats are not fed daily.  I thought I could pair him in the bathroom with tabitha, who is awaiting barn cat placement with Silverton Cat Rescue.   First though, I had to get him tested, to be loose in there with her.  For this I took him to Alpine Animal Hospital and he tested negative for FIV/Felk.  So far, Tabitha and Buggy haven't really bonded at all, but its only been a day.

Other than returning the cats Thursday, I've done nothing but clean and sleep since.  Trips like the one Wednesday take it out of me.  If congestion wasn't so bad, it wouldn't be such a pain, but congestion is a way of life here in Oregon now, even in town here, where nonstop building of apartments and houses has brought in thousands of new residents, without the infrastructure to support so many more people and their cars.  It's a nightmare.

The governor wants even more houses and apartments built "to address housing shortages".  Well all this does is bring in more people from out of state.   We don't have the infrastructure for more people.   In Oregon, people live mostly along I5.  Eastern Oregon is desert, with little water available for anything.  What water is over there, is getting given away to tech cloud facilities, massive structures that require tons of water, for cooling, and also eat electricity like candy at Halloween.  I'll just throw in my two cents worth here---our tech oriented society isn't green.  

Anyhow, Oregon's population is almost entirely down the valley between the coast range and the Cascades.   More people mean more cars our roads can't handle.  Albany is overloaded in cars now too with big tie ups and waits especially mornings and afternoons when work gets out.  Lebanon too is getting crammed in cars and has really overdone the intensive developments.   They're everywhere and the city is whining it is broke and must either start adding fees to water bills, like Albany is doing, or drastically cut services.  Well, dumb shits, stop with the developing every fucking square foot of land.   Cause then you need more cops, more fire fighters, more street repair, more doctors and nurses, more water treatment, more water, lots more, etc etc etc.  Doesn't seem complicated that more people come with a lot more costs to governments and the need for lots more services and things like schools and hospitals.

Anyhow....I should stick to cats.   The government entities can deal with the mess they've created of our towns and our state.

Here's Buggyboo, the boy kitten from Rosy's colony.  I know, same photo of him when I trapped him.  Maybe today I'll get some new photos.

I was to have a ENT appointment last Tuesday.   (ear, nose, throat, allergy doctor).   I thought the appointment was for 8:00 a.m. but got a reminder email that it was for 8:50 a.m.  I was there by 8:15 and checked in at the desk.   Receptionist said nothing other than I was checked in. But by 9:00 a.m. I began to wonder what was going on.   I went back up to the desk and asked.  It seems I had two appointments, one for a hearing test at 8:00 a.m. and another at 8:50 to then see a doctor.  I had never been told this, and went solely by the reminder email that only reminded me of an appointment at 8:50.  

They said I'd need to reschedule.   So I did, for yesterday.   I got several reminder texts and emails and about the same time I received the latest set of reminders I was called by the office that the appointment given me was not a valid time, that no doctor would be there.  Ok, whatever.  Now another appointment day is scheduled, and now more email and text reminders until I've about had enough of it.  this was for tinitus in one ear.  It's gone on a couple years and probably started when I took that fall in that ditch, when trapping, that also ruptured the fluid sac in that right eye.  But who knows.  A disorganized office leads me to no confidence I'll get anything but bullshit there.

Ballistic tempered folks should not have guns.  This story proves it.

A father shoots another over school drop off parking.