How easily they stretch into hours, days, weeks, months of profound absurdity. That already said, it would be redundant to apologize for my long silence. I would truly feel as if “the universe” was out to get me if I knew I was the only one who can’t seem to catch a break. I’ll fill you in on the high and low points, and here’s one little gem:
I ran some cold water in the kitchen sink the other night for some fresh cat water, and it was murky. I went to the bathroom, same thing. I thought maybe I’d run it for a while and see what happened. The sink filled up with pink water. It was full of fine red dirt, likely due to a recent pipe burst in my neighborhood. It isn’t like we’ve never experienced a little bit of dirt in our water, but this was a bit alarming. It was gone by morning, and to the city’s credit, they worked on it in the middle of the night so that normal people (people other than myself) wouldn’t have to take a pink bath or boil pink water for their tea.
The bad news:
1. My precious Mo has been sick, which is what’s been taking up all of my free time these last couple of weeks. (That, and a Breaking Bad re-watch marathon with my hunny.) Mo had a pretty serious bout of diarrhea. She finally stopped eating. I was sure she was a goner – so sure that I was looking at cremation services and urns. She had been, er, dribbling, and began to smell bad the night before the vet visit. I didn’t think any animal could smell that bad without being inches from death. It felt too familiar to Sugar’s final days. And then Mo passed… something – all over the bathroom tile floor, praise be – and she improved a bit afterwards and that odor was gone. The vet visit ended with a diagnosis of nothing, a dose of sub-q fluid, a can of fancy cat food and a kaopectate (old formula) + probiotic combo in a syringe to be given every 8 hours. It helped tremendously, and by tremendously, I mean she laid down one of the biggest, healthiest logs I’ve ever seen in the litter box. Looks like she’s going to go on screaming and purring and doing the ice cream dance and fronting on Nelson for a while longer.
They all get a little bummed in the summer and kind of go off of their food for a few days, and she did this last summer, too, but it wasn’t as bad as this go-round. I just worry, you know. She’s 12, Fred is 13, and these cat things don’t last forever. Fred’s and Mo’s third eyelid showed up at around the same time, but Fred seems to be fine otherwise. Nelson is fine, of course, being so young and invincible. I was afraid it was the flea treatment I gave them, so I scoured the internet looking for people complaining about their cats dying from Revolution. I couldn’t find much of anything, so I’m chocking it up to the summertime blues. Or big pharma covering their tracks. Either way, I won’t be giving them any more topical bug repellants. This was the first time since 2004 that I had to resort to flea drops. Fleas were just out of control this year, and I’ll try something more natural and non-toxic. We aren’t infested so I think we can nip it.
2. I don’t know about Nelson. I’m just going to say it: he’s an asshole. He’s still a complete spazz about food, and Mr. Sarah just about lost his cool when Nelson ate half of his bowl of ice cream when he got up to take a leak. Who wants to take their food into the bathroom with them because some imbecile junkie cat is lurking somewhere just waiting for this very thing to happen? And let me tell you, it was a large mound of ice cream since Mr. Sarah is no slouch when it comes to eating a bowl of ice cream. (Neither is Nelson, apparently.) Short of backhanding him into next week, we have tried everything: squirting him, throwing (soft) stuff at him, yelling at him, and nothing keeps him from dragging a CLOSED bag of tortilla chips down onto the floor seconds after we leave the kitchen or devouring half of my dinner when I reach for the salt. What the hell does he want with tortilla chips? They aren’t even Doritos, for crying out loud. He doesn’t just steal our food, he steals Fred’s and Mo’s, too. We’ve been sequestering him in another room just so the other two can eat in peace. Who knows, maybe he descends from a long line of under-the-porch cats whose people loving and fellow cat respect genes were bred out long ago.
And when it comes to affection… well. We’re lucky if we get ten seconds of purring every other day, and we have to approach him. Usually, when I do approach him, he gets up and leaves. It’s as if he doesn’t even like us, and me, in particular. So, we have this cat who doesn’t like us and steals our food. We never even considered getting rid of Fred or Mo or Sugar, and I can’t count the number of times we’ve discussed turning Nelson over to the authorities. But. He may have potential. He doesn’t attack us and is gentle with his claws. He doesn’t knock stuff over or soil inappropriately, which extends him several good points. He may just be in his adolescent phase, and I do remember wanting to toss Fred right out the window during his first year or two. So we keep giving him another chance, and we have wondered if he might do better as an only cat. How that will work out with us, I’m not sure, since these old guys just keep on kicking, and we hope that they will continue that way for many more years. Every time I try to muster up the courage to put him in the carrier, I look at his face and see those fanciful little whisker dots. I’m just a sucker for whisker dots. And I’ve never had such a photogenic cat. Just look at him. His eyes are amazing. They’re very amber in indoor light and bright green in natural light. And when he’s watching a moth buzz around a light bulb, I could get lost in them.
3. Vetrofond is no longer producing lampwork cane. That rumor has been floating around for quite some time now, and it has finally been confirmed as truth and is making its rounds on the hot bead forums. Needless to say, we’re seeing it surfacing for sale at (dare I say, why yes, I do) criminally inflated prices. This is very disheartening news, since Vetrofond, quite frankly, made a superior glass. Particularly transparents. And their odd pulls were so fantastically odd. Effetre has declined in quality over the last several years – it’s been full of bubbles, and some colors are covered with some sort of scum that can’t be washed off. Although the scum may not be their fault – exposure to harsh chemicals during transport could be to blame for that.
The good news:
1. So far, we’ve only had 6 or so days whose temps reached 100 degrees or over – compared to last year’s 28 by this date, I’d say this isn’t quite so bad. It doesn’t mean we’re not in for some gruesome heat this week, but I’d be homicidal by now if this summer had started out the same way last summer did.
2. I’ve seen nary an ant since about May. Every summer I dread being on Ant Patrol – it’s a 24 hour job. Nonstop mopping, washing dishes, making sure not even a crumb lands on the counter and the floor. Being so obsessive isn’t really me, but it’s a must if I don’t want ants crawling all over my life. I hate to do it, but we have been spraying Spectracide around the outside of the house, and we’ve only had to do it a couple of times this year. Inside, I use a mixture of distilled vinegar, mint and water in a spray bottle and I guess they really hate it, because it seems to work. In years past, I had to break out everything under the kitchen sink, including the baby powder. I find the smell of baby powder even more loathesome than the combination of vinegar and mint. It’s been nice to have a respite. I do wonder if painting the kitchen is what made the difference.
3. The beads are just pouring out of me… um, that sounds kind of weird. But who cares? Beeeaaadddsss! I’ve been making lots of beads and have been able to find a little bit of extra time for some light metalsmithing.
4. Some new glass colors have been released, and I’m actually excited about them. Famous last words, you know… it seems that lately, every new color that seems even a little bit exciting turns out to be a big dud. But that may have more to do with my mood than anything else… which seems to be improving a bit, as well.
That’s about the size of what I’ve been up to lately. And I’m definitely planning a Superstars sale next week. It’s gonna be great, kids. I’m in for a whole lot of photo taking and description writing. I’ll be working on orders through the weekend, giving me plenty of time to put the finishing touches on the Superstars early next week. So I guess I’d better get to it if I want to get anything done glass-wise this evening…
Thanks for reading!
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