The Sabbath!

Ok, this was a new one for me.
I was reading a manual for a new, top of the line wine storage cooler/fridge thing. Hell, I don't even know what you call it. Anyways, I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that it had a setting to automatically turn the light off for the Sabbath. Must be a lot of Jewish wine drinkers!!!! Who knew?!

Funnies!

I was looking on a website that had some LOL bumper stickers.
I wanted to share some of them with you. Maybe you will laugh, too?

If you don't talk to your cat about catnip
someone else will.

I'm speeding because I have to poop. (6th grade humor, I know!)

When do we get to vote on your marriage?

May all the babies you save turn out to be gay.

Meet Sweet Max!

Sweet and ...

SWEET:
My neighbors have a boy cat named Mao. He's a big ol chubby lovebucket. Though they take care of Mao by feeding him and allowing him a spot to sleep on the couch at night, they don't love him up...at least in a way that I understand. I think they relate to him more as a functional companion, one who serves the purpose of being a hunter boy. I just love the fellah. He's soooooo dang sweet and affectionate. Today I had been over there picking strawberries with Mao supervising! The fog was starting to roll in and I wanted to be warm just a little longer so I layed myself down in a sunny spot. Mao came over and could not get close enough!!! He just kept switching his body around so he could be as close as possible. Finally, he settled on laying very close to my face (i was on my side) with his little paws touching me. We both took a cat nap to the music of his purring.

Mao and his yummy tummy!

AND...
Tonight at the farmers market I was hanging out with a fellah whose company I enjoy as we laugh alot.
I can't remember the context for his statement but he said: "if you were 15 years younger..."
He is 25. I am 51. I just busted up. I think it was a compliment but it had somewhat of a sideways bend to it with that not so subtle implication of "old."  Cuz he also could have said: "if I were 15 years older"and it would have bent the other way!!!

The Dead Ones

Liza: "What? I know. So!!!"

Autumn Hairdo!

above 4 photos by Morgan Caufield


 

These dead ones are actively in my orbit today.

Hello to Liza and Morgan

when you click to make it bigger it's even more purty...

Life Oh Luxury

For the last 18 years I lived in a cabin whose only source of warmth was a wood stove. Early on in my stay there I learned that plugging in an electric heater meant blowing a fuse after about 10 minutes. I LOVE wood heat. In fact, I prefer wood heat. However, living where I do now, all I have to do to turn the heat on is move the little switch to 60 something degrees and voila: heat. OMG, I love it!!! It's like magic! My hope is that my next long term living arrangement has both. If that's the case I'm sure I will feel like I'm in heaven!!!

My New Spiritual Teacher!!!

You would never guess in a million years but it is AT & T!!!
Yes, you read it correctly. After having one relatively easy, clear conversation about what I needed to happen with my phone service as a result of moving, the service person and I agreed on a verbal contract. I hung up satisfied. However, my next call to confirm said service ended with the person transferring me to another dept. but not before I lost my cool. Not only was English not her mother tongue but I was speaking to her at a call center so that combination made it difficult to hear and understand what she was saying. Beyond that, she kept referring to me as Miss Leesa. Maybe that should have been my first clue that things were not gonna go well! After explaining the contract that had been agreed upon between myself and the previous AT & T person she put me on hold to investigate. Upon her return to our conversation, she said: "I'm so sorry, Miss Leesa, but that is not possible for us to do." I calmly explained the agreement again and how this was important because the number was also a business line for the last 18 years and I needed...
"I'm sorry Miss Leesa, but we cannot..."
We went round and round. It had been soooo incredibly simple with the previous service person. I could NOT understand how it could be agreed upon in one conversation and then be told it was impossible in the next. Too many "I'm so sorry, Miss Leesa's" were said and as I was marching around on the porch wildly gesticulating with my arms, shouting and irritated as shit, I said to her something like: "I really don't care that you are sorry. I need you..."
Finally, after far too long for both of us, she transferred me to someone else!
That someone else was able to quickly provide the information needed and told me my next steps.
After taking said steps I called AT & T back and confirmed my service...or so i thought. About 10 days later the thought passed through my brain that I ought to check and be sure my old phone number was being forwarded to my cell number. I called my old number and was forwarded to a stranger's voice mail. I found that both hilarious and infuriating. Again, I called AT & T and began to wait! After 40 minutes and being apologized to by 4 different operators for their mistake, I was transferred to the 5th person. When she got on the line I was so flippin' frustrated that I said to her in a not very nice tone: "YOU are the 5th person to whom I have been transferred. I DO NOT want to be transferred again. I want this situation taken care of NOW. After apologizing, she actually did remedy the situation and by the end I apologized to her for being so crabby!

Outfoxed?

Remember the story from a few post ago about my neighbor who was going to trap the fox that was/is eating her pears and shoot it? Well, the truth is that I saw some fox kits yesterday. So, today I said to her: "that fox that you want to kill has kits just so you know." She asked me where I'd seen 'em and that was the end of out conversation. I got the sense and, also knowing her the little that I do, that she won't kill the fox now. I'm so grateful those little kits popped into view yesterday. Phew.....

Pee Perspective!

Ok, this might be treading the TMI line. Consider that a warning!!!
The place I live right now does not have bathroom facilities so I pee outside or in a bucket at night. And, it's an interesting thing to be more "conscious" about peeing. I feel closer to my pee!!!
No, what I mean is that I am paying more attention to how often I pee, how much, etc. I mean it's not fascinating or anything but rather just curios to notice something that I just took for granted before.
Anyways, the whole peeing outside thing made me remember a funny story. One time I was walking my dog friend in the forest. I had to pee and I did so right on the trail. As I was squatting, the dog came over, lifted his leg and began to pee...ON ME. No joke.

Sweeeeeeeeeet Neighbor

Celebrate Diversity?

I was helping a farmer friend today get ready for market. She mentioned that fox were eating the pears in her tree. She said she was going to trap the fox and shoot it. Ugh. I can't help that my body has a visceral reaction to stuff like that. As she talked a little bit more about it she said she wishes she could be a Buddhist but she has to kill things every day...she's a farmer...she grows food.

It's easy to create divisions in situations like these. Killing a fox is not something I could do. (the only exception I could think of is if it were harming my cat...but I would try everything else first and killing it as a last resort) Killing the fox because there is fruit available in its territory and it is eating it is not something I could do. I don't make my living growing food. Even though in my mind I make snails/slugs adversaries in the garden I still won't kill them. How do I live with the fact that this farmer is going to kill one of my neighbors? I dunno. Microcosm of the macrocosm. Something we all have to be with and figure out the best we can, I suppose.

Snuggle Buggle!

It was cold last night at my house. I slept with woolies on my head, hands and feet. I also slept inside my sleeping bag underneath the covers. I guess Simon was cold, too, because he crawled into my sleeping bag with me and stayed there all night long. When I woke up in the morning his face was no more than an inch from mine! And even though we were both somewhat "awake" kindah early, we still spent a good long time snuggled down in the bag with the boy purring and me smiling :)

Life Partner

I've never been the marryin' type. It's just not how I think about things...errrr, relationships. Maybe I've not met the "right" person but I don't really believe in that theory either.
However, all this hub bub about queer marriage has set me to thinkin'...
and really, the individual I fer sure want to spend my remaining days with is my zero gravity chair. No joke. I love it unconditionally, till death do us part!!!

Moving Day Performance?!!

This outburst was at the end of one of our moving days. It was inspired by two important "finds.!!"
One was the ginormous saw you see being played by a very serious band member who shall remain anonymous and the other was the double flag wand so aptly waved by our local majorette! We were some kinda tired and hit the silly/everything is hilarious wall when this video was made.
Should you want to recruit them for your local parade or some such other event, I am their self appointed manager so gimme a shout!

That's MY Gopher, Mister!!!

Along with another human, there is also a cat (Max) and puppy (Bella) where Simon and I now live.
Yesterday I happened to witness a moment between the cats. It was so CAT!!!
Simon had found a gopher hole and was sitting patiently, waiting. Max saw what he was doing and came over. He sat down to watch for the gopher, too, but then decided it was HIS hunting grounds and HIS gopher and turned to Simon and smacked him! Simon smacked him back, they both hissed a little and returned to waiting patiently for the gopher :)

Falling In Love, Again

I can't help myself...
Now that I've moved to a different part of the same town, I have fallen in love with it from a different location. I could go on and on with the details and bore you to tears, but I won't. I have some blueberry cake with my name on it waiting for me along with my hot water bottle tucked under the covers. But once again, I just feel so blessed...and Blessed to feel Blessed.

HarveyLee!

Many of you are familiar with my 94 year old friend, HarveyLee. She is a kick in the pants, still.
Her hearing is starting to go and she has terrible bad vertigo but her attitude is great. She still busts me up. As we were talking this evening she was trying to remember a word but couldn't quite get to it. She said to me: "it's in there but my computer's crashed" and then cracked up. What cracked me up is her computer reference. She's on facebook and has a twitter account (both courtesy of her son in law) but has absolutely no idea how to use a computer or really any interest!!!
I just love her to pieces.

She shares good company with Piglet:
It suddenly came over him that nobody had ever picked Eeyore a bunch of violets, and the more he thought of this, the more he thought how sad it was...So he hurried out again, saying to himself, "Eeyore, Violets," and then, "Violets, Eeyore" in case he forgot, because it was that sort of day, and he picked a large bunch and trotted along....

"Security" Team!!!

This here is my new awesome threesum who sit at the entryway to my new
house acting as both greeters and "security!!!"
You probably know them all. From left to right: St Francis the Sissy, Fingerless Kuan and Inspector Barbie.

Beaut of a Commute!

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area means taking into consideration "traffic" anytime one drives on the highways. I thought I'd left myself enough time this pre-holiday afternoon to drive from the county south of me home. However, when I got onto the highway I quickly realized that it was going to be bumper to bumper traffic for a long, long time and it was a very hot afternoon. So, I got off on the next exit and headed west towards the ocean. Turned out to be a great choice as the majority of the drive was spent in just crazy beautiful environs...through the rolling golden hills of horse farms and cattle ranches, the cool, moist air smelling of eucalyptus along the bay and finally the grand view of the Pacific Ocean. As I drove I just kept feeling so lucky not only that this was my commute but also now that I live so close to the ocean I get to have a whole new relationship with it. And the funny thing is that my entire system seems to be needing it. You know how certain foods or smells are at one point or another the exact perfect thing that your being needs? Well, there's something about the air, in particular, but also the expansive view of the ocean that at this moment in time is what I would call medicinal. And I didn't even know it until there I was snortin' up that fresh ocean air looking out across the edge of the earth and it felt as if my cells were being rejuvenated. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, what a lucky duck.

Boom Time

Since it is time once again  (at least here in america) for fireworks, I wanted to remind people to take extra good care of your sensitive animals as the loudness can be seriously nerve wracking. Here are some things you can do depending on your animal:

covering the animal with a blanket or if a dog putting a t-shirt on them

give them rescue remedy/five flower formula (can drop it on their fur) no need to try and wrangle it into the mouth. i would also put it in their water for this series of days when fireworks are likely to be happening.

give them calms forte for kids (adjust dosage based on size of your animal)

may be obvious but keep them inside at night

some animals are calmed by touch/massage/body contact
light massaging of the tips of the ears can be calming

and if you are also unnerved by the fireworks your animals are likely to pick up on that so be sure and take care of yourself, too.