Thursday, October 31, 2013

A new furnace is a beautiful thing.

Today I saw an octopus on a bicycle, her purple arms flapping away. This evening I hosted several super heroes; Spiderman, Batman, Superman and the Hulk. There were many ballerinas, princesses, one queen and a mixture of gypsy/flash dancer/glitter girls with spider webs drawn on their faces. There were a few ghosts and a burlap bag head/face. They cleaned me out. When you're cleaned out of candy, you blow out the candle in the pumpkin, turn off the lights and hide.

The wee babies are the best. One dad was wearing an elephant on his shoulders, a little guy.

Now their parents will be dealing with sugar highs and terrible attention at school.

These days are so heartbreaking in their beauty. Leaves everywhere. Japanese maples and sugar maples and big leaf maples.

Dancing the next three days.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

We get a new furnace on Thursday. In the meantime, I'm freezing.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Great, just great.

I got back from Portland last night, turned on the heat and -- uh oh, that smell again. So today I called the power company and they came right out and gave  me this:


The nice utilities man said the Co2 levels were very high as he reached up and flipped a switch in the ceiling so the furnace can no longer be turned on. I am huddled around a wee space heater that is heating the air about 4 inches in front of it so if I put my feet right on the grate they might warm up. Time for long johns and big socks. I intend to go to the pool for a swim and a hot tub. Gawd.

Portland was, well, Portland. Everyone rides bikes there. There are many bridges so it's easy to get confused. Powell's is still as wonderful as ever. I bought 15 books: poetry and fiction and non-fiction and three books for Deb for Christmas. They have a whole section of small press books; anthologies and poetry and prose and graphic novels and 'other', books with no category at all. I walked back to the hotel with those books slung from my shoulders. They were very heavy. Even though I have a copy of 'Far From the Tree', I bought a paper copy because, well it was on sale and I wanted to feel it and see it (very large and big and heavy) and I wanted to heft it and know it as a book, not just as some words on an electronic device.

Leaves have fallen in my absence so time to find some neighborhood boys and girls to rake and bag. I have a ridiculous amount of trees. You can't have too many trees.

The house really is freezing. I wonder what a new furnace is going to cost. Sigh.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Im going to take myself to dinner so I can have a cocktail, my new favorite thing. Then the movies. Then tomorrow I go to Portland where I will spend the entire day in Powell's bookstore, surely the most wonderful bookstore in the world. I will look to see if any of Rebecca's books are in the poetry section and complain if they aren't.

Lola licks herself obsessively and then throws up long hairballs that look like dead mice. TMI no doubt.

I miss Lucy the chicken. I hope she's adjusting.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

I slipped and fell down my stairs this morning before I went on a hike in the Cascades. My socks were really slippery. I landed on my butt so now my butt is killing me. No, I'm not kidding. My butt is killing me. And I went hiking with Holly anyway. We crested a hill and burst through the cold fog into a beautiful crisp day. Sparkling Green Lakes, one after the other, connected by creeks. Wee waterfalls, log bridges, Boy Scouts with backpacks coming back from sleepovers in the cold night.

I went down the stairs, bump, bump, bump. Ow, ow, ow.

We got lost. Well, we found the trail and the road was closed. Hahahahahahahaha! This happens with us. So as an alternative, we chose a random trailhead. And it was glorious. Every time the dog crossed a log bridge, he leapt around like he'd just scaled Everest. And he barked at the usual tree stumps, patches of light and other dogs. What a guard dog.

Tomorrow, our remaining chicken, Lucy, goes to live with other chickens. It was that or us getting a new flock, introducing them, keeping them from killing each other and burying the dead. I'm too much of a soft touch. I will miss Lucy running to the gate in the morning, looking for lettuce and mealybugs. And her daily egg.

However.


Saturday, October 19, 2013

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Fiscal cliff  averted. Republicans still idiots. I'm reading Hafiz:


Find a Better Job

Now

that

all your worry

has proved such an

unlucrative

business

why

not

find a better

job.



It's a glorious day. The leaves are scarlet and yellow. The dog is farting under the table. Time for a walk.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Animals and babies but no baby animals

Remember the baby pile-up I mentioned in my last post. Hahahahahahahahaha. Sunday the very next day, we had a baby, then seven more over the week while clinic went on and Fiona the chicken died and it rained and the sun cam out and I grabbed the lady in the whirlpool at the new swimming pool by the boob (oops) so she wouldn't go under (she had had a stroke six years ago so her coordination wasn't too good). I excused myself for the boob grab and she was gracious about it. I managed to get to her arm after the breast situation so I partially saved myself embarrassment. Then we talked about children and grandchildren and her stroke and the healing waters of a 96 degree pool and a 104 degree whirlpool.

I am SO GRATEFUL that the most beautiful pool in Seattle is in a poor people's neighborhood. So people who don't have access to fancy spas and saunas can come and pay six bucks to sit in whirly water and get some aches and pains soothed, at least for a while.

The new pool even has a jetted waterway you can float around in by the big yellow slide.

I would like to live there. I could put a little cot behind reception.

Fiona the chicken was stiff and dead when I went out to let them out one morning. Now we're having a conversation about getting more chickens and I don't wanna. You have to separate new chickens from the old one(s) because they peck and harass each other. Sheesh. Then you introduce all and hope for the best. No more naming and being fond of individuals. They die. And when you bring them into the house, phew.

But Lucy is probably lonely.

There was a dead rat at the bottom of the basement stairs in the midst of last week. I picked it up by the tail and put it in the garbage. Thanks Hugo, beast of the house.

I'm going home now. I think I'm safe to leave the clinic. The current new babies are all ok and so are their parents. I have done my job.

Saturday, October 05, 2013

For the latest in chicken news-Fiona is eating and drinking but walking like a drunken sailor. I tried putting her in the coop with Lucy as it is a gorgeous day but Lucy came over and pecked at her-AND WE CAN'T HAVE THAT so back she came, into the dog crate in the house. I must say, chickens stink.

I checked her for mites (nope) probably not broody so now to try antibiotics. Sigh.

I'm on call, the new swimming pool is open

and I'm afraid I have to go to the 'grange' for chicken medicine. I'm feeling resentful. Is that wrong? Isn't the new swimming pool beautiful? OMG. I want to go there right now. They even have a women only swim on Sundays. No guys splashing and showing off (sorry, guys, but you know it's true). The pool looks like the fantastical pool in Nanaimo, BC that was so grand and fancy I almost fainted from pleasure. A public pool. I guess when you give health insurance to everyone, it's cheaper and the provinces can spend money on other things like recreation centers for all. Gawd, those Canadians.

I'd really like just one woman to have a baby and get the ball rolling. I fear a pile-up. At least one baby could come today while the weather is so delicious.

My dog is weary of waiting for me to take him out. I'm getting there. I am.

Friday, October 04, 2013

Thanks, John Boehner

PubMed is open, however it is being maintained with minimal staffing due to the lapse in government funding. Information will be updated to the extent possible, and the agency will attempt to respond to urgent operational inquiries. For updates regarding government operating status see USA.gov.



I had a dream about George Harrison this morning. He was an area therapist and I had an appointment with him right after my appointment with my other (as in, real) therapist. She was hurt that I was going to see him and neither of us realized that he's, um, dead. So I slunk off to see him, feeling cheap and foolish and shallow.

In other news, I saw this bag on Capitol Hill, Ha!!!



George, you're cooler than Reverend Phelps, even if you're dead. I still love you. 

Kisses and hugs,

Beth

Thursday, October 03, 2013

The sick chicken is 'broody', ie, she's sitting on an imaginary nest with imaginary eggs under her. Apparently chickens don't eat or drink while they're broody so she's been drinking and eating like mad. Today I gave her cottage cheese which she lapped (beaked?) up with alacrity.

We're to keep her warm and sequestered so she's in a dog crate in the office with a space heater aimed at her. Gawd, it stinks in there. I need to keep her isolated for a week then put her back. To break the broody cycle. Lucy is all alone but seems fine with it. She's a lusty chicken, even if she's a bully.

Chickens are dumb but the Republicans are dumber. Regardless that I cannot figure out the new insurance choices (and the State WEB site is no help), holding us all hostage because the flat earthers own the senate is evil and horrid. And stupid.

In other news: I thought we'd have a baby this morning but nope, false alarm. We are in a bit of a pile-up and there may be an avalanche. Of babies.





Tuesday, October 01, 2013

I have a sick chicken who is in the dog crate with food, water and a heating pad. Sheesh.