%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  Because I am the most interesting person I know |
| I lead the most boring life. I have challenged myself to write about my life so that it seems interesting. |
| So I’ve been thinking – a dangerous activity for me, I know. There has been a lot of talk in the wake of Superstorm Sandy about how to prepare for and survive the next natural disaster. Some of the talk has been from survivalist groups, known here on the liberal East Coast as “those nutjobs in Montana”. Personally, I don’t think that they are nuts. I admire their self-sufficiency. Two weeks without power would be a walk in the park for them. The one area where I disagree with them is their obsession with firearms. Each list of survival gear includes multiple weapons and what they consider sufficient ammunition. Their fear is that in the event of a disaster, the hoards will pour out of the cities to murder their families and steal their supplies. In my opinion, they should watch less Fox News and more lamestream media. We have already had multiple natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina took out most of the Gulf Coast and the entire city of New Orleans. Hurricane Irene destroyed huge swaths of New England. Superstorm Sandy decimated the Northeast. In none of these cases did the hoards from the destroyed cities rampage over the surrounding countryside, desperately looting and killing. In fact, the hoards stayed home and coped as best they could. There were isolated cases of looting, but none outside of the disaster zones. The hoards raged at politicians and FEMA rather than at their neighbors who had food, power and gasoline. I think the problem is that survivalist groups tend to live in isolated areas. They have little or no knowledge of urban areas and their inhabitants. But the joke is on them. The hoards are just as fearful of the country as the survivalists are fearful of the cities. So put down your guns, grab a beer, turn on your TV and enjoy watching the hoards trying to figure out how to live without cars, cell phones, Starbucks and cable TV. |
| I haven’t been blogging, I’m too worried. My beloved Furball is ill. He lost a lot of weight after Superstorm Sandy. At first, I thought it was due to the lack of heat for 5 days. We all lost weight, but Rory, Bandit and I all regained it after we got power back. Furball, who has kidney disease, did not. I tried overfeeding him. He gained a little, but not much. So Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I took him to the vet who initially agreed with me that it could be his kidneys. However, a blood test indicated that his kidney values were normal. The prescription food that I have been feeding him has been keeping his kidneys healthy. The top of his mouth is ulcerated (he was prescribed antibiotics) and should be too sore for him to eat, but he has been eating fine. That left only one conclusion. The vet wanted to do x-rays to look for a tumor. “Tumor” for me means cancer. My first cat, Sneakers, died of cancer that started as a tumor on one of his kidneys. It was impossible to be thankful on Thanksgiving. I cried and cried. And fed my Furball lots and lots of turkey. He loves turkey. It’s the only time when he begs at the table. Friday morning, I dropped him off at the vet for his x-rays. I waited all day for the call from the vet, but it never came. I was terrified when I went to pick him up at 4:45 pm. In this case, I figured no news was bad news. They give you good news over the phone. The bad news is delivered in person. My fears were groundless. There was no news. No tumor. Just some “anomalies”: one kidney is shriveled, the other appears swollen and he has two stones in his bladder. Results of a urinalysis to check for infection would be available within 24 hours. I was so happy to bring my Furball home. We had all missed him. Normally, the top perch of the cat tree is a coveted spot. Furball, usually occupies it, but any time he leaves it, someone else takes it. Yesterday, the top perch remained empty all day. Instead, Rory, Bandit and I moped around the house. The vet called this morning. The urinalysis was normal. Next up is an abdominal ultrasound. The reasoning is that since no large mass was visible in the x-ray, perhaps instead he has a smaller tumor or tumors in his intestines that are not readily visible on an x-ray. So we still don’t know what is wrong with him. I am taking it day by day. I spend as much time with him as possible because I don’t know how much more time we have. And I promised him that I would (finally!) finish writing my book about my cats so that everyone would know what a great cat he is. |
| I’ve had a Christmas Cactus for years that suits my odd personality perfectly. It blooms in January. Not Thanksgiving. Not Christmas. Not Valentine’s Day. It makes me laugh every year. This year, I spotted a Christmas Cactus at ShopRite of all places, that has white blossoms with pink picotee. I’ve never seen those colors on a Christmas Cactus. It hopped into my cart. Because it was on sale for $1.99, I allowed it to come home with me. Every day, I ooh and ah over it. It’s so pretty. Yesterday, I noticed that my resident Christmas Cactus is budded. It’s way too soon. It’s not even Thanksgiving. Why is it blooming so soon? Is it jealous of all the attention that the new one is getting? |
| I have never had a membership to Costco or BJ’s or Sam’s Club or any other warehouse store. I am only one person. I don’t need institutional sized canned goods or pallets of paper goods. The neighborhood grocery store stocks what I need in the sizes I need. Two packs of paper towels. Four packs of toilet paper. All was well with the world until my local A&P decided that it needed to compete with the warehouse stores for customers and started stocking gigantic amounts of goods. There were still the normal sizes but I should have realized that the larger sizes were gradually taking up more shelf space than the normal sizes. It finally hit home this past weekend. Toilet paper was on my list. I headed down the paper goods aisle only to find myself confronted with more toilet paper than I have ever seen in one place before. The smallest package of my favored brand that I could find was a 12 pack. Why would I need 12 rolls of toilet paper? Of course, I would eventually use them all. Some people would even argue that I am full of s*** and therefore would use them quickly. But nevertheless, where would I put them? My hot water heater sits in a closet that has a few shelves in it that I use for linens and extra soap and toilet paper. I really can’t fit more than four rolls in it. Where would I put the other 8 rolls? Granted, I can stash them in the 37,000 bathrooms that I have in my house. Okay, it’s only 3 but it feels like 37,000 when I have to clean them. But do I really want vanity drawers stuffed with toilet paper? Aren’t Americans finally falling out of love with their gas-guzzling SUVs in the face of rising gas prices? Perhaps smaller cars are the answer. Stores will be forced to stock sensible sizes when their customers no longer have the space in their vehicles to transport ginormous amounts of goods to their homes. |
| I am trying to convince myself that there is no longer a gas shortage. Since gas rationing (odd/even) has been introduced, gas lines have disappeared. Gas stations no longer run out of gas. It is okay for me to make non-necessary trips in my car. Like going to Rutgers Gardens to check on the Herb Garden for damage from the storms. The roads to Warren where I normally grocery shop on Friday nights on my way home from work are still closed so I decided to combine my trip to the Gardens with some grocery shopping in the A&P in Milltown. I like A&P. The prices frequently are better than at Shop Rite. I did zip over to the ShopRite on Rte 18 in East Brunswick first. ShopRite carries the brand of coffee that I like. They had a few other things on special which I bought along with a Christmas cactus. I’ve never seen one with flowers that color: white with pink picotee. It was on sale for $1.99 so it came home with me. Then it was back on Rte 1 headed to Milltown where I discovered that the A&P had no power. It was running on generator which meant minimal lighting and no refrigerated or frozen items. I persevered, buying all the non-perishable items on my list. I’m trying to accumulate points. For every $300 (I think) that you spend, you get a 5% off coupon. I have one so far and was hoping for another to defray the cost of my Thanksgiving turkey. I’m partial to the fresh organic ones which are quite pricey. Then it was decision time. Where to go for the dairy and meat? Should I go back to the ShopRite on Rte 18 or continue on to the Stop & Shop near my house? ShopRite has better prices than Stop & Shop. But would I save enough on the few items I needed to justify the time and gas to retrace my steps? I ended up going to Stop & Shop just because it was faster. Thanks to the New Normal my usual weekly 30 minute stop at the A&P in Warren has turned into a 2 hour, three stores in three different towns odyssey. |
| They keep talking about "the new normal". This is the new normal for me: I have half a tank of gas. I'm panicking. It's an odd numbered day, I can buy gas! Do I try to find an open gas station, get in line, and be late for work? Or try to fill up on the way home from work and delay my stop at the vet for prescription food another day? Or wait another two days, hoping there is still gas on Sunday? I see a gas station. Only two vehicles. Must be closed. Wait, big sign: OPEN FOR GAS. I zoom up to the pump, check my dashboard clock. Fill up, check my dashboard clock as I leave. Four minutes! A new record and I won't be late for work. This must be the new normal. I didn't used to stress about finding gas. I didn't used to think "empty" gas stations were closed. I didn't used to time my fill ups. |
I just found the best contest: to write a Christmas letter to a soldier who has no one to write home to.
|
| I should check my WDC email more often. My story has been chosen to be included in the anthology. I can't believe it. I'm a (soon to be) published author!! |
Hey, remember me? I've been a little busy. I moved. Finally. I've been doing a little journalling. No, you can't read it. It's very personal. And I've been writing some garden articles on Hub pages. I was publishing them here also, but the rule on Hub is that you can only publish there. They check and I got caught. So I've hidden the articles on this site. What can I say? I work in IT. I'm very big on backups. If you want to read them, you'll have to go to HubPages  The real reason that I'm blogging again, of course, is that I want something. I'm entering one of my Fur Patrol stories in the competition to be published in the anthology. I don't expect to get in. I'm actually looking forward to receiving my first rejection slip. What I want from you, is criticism of my story before I submit it. What's good, what's bad, what should go, what should stay. "Invalid Item" : |
| I didn't have time yesterday to write down my thoughts about the death of Osama bin Laden. My life is consumed with plant sales, plant lists, plant signs, etc. But before I embark on the last leg of my two week plant sale marathon, I should take a moment to reflect on this important event. I'm not celebrating Bin Laden's death. I don't think anyone should. I believe in Karma which tells us that anything we send out into the world, comes back to us. Celebrating his death only risks inviting death into my life. I also disagree with those who claim that justice has been served. There was no justice in his death. Justice is when you bring someone to court and try them in front of a jury. Bin Laden was assassinated, plain and simple. And that is wrong. Yes, he was killed while fighting the invading SEALs but that is not the point. The point is that the SEALs' mission was to kill him. Not capture him. Not bring him to justice. Kill him. And that goes against everything that we as Americans stand for. Finally, I have a big, big problem with his burial at sea. I want to see his body. I want a chance to throw my shoes at him. It wasn't that long ago that when notorious criminals were killed in shootouts that their bodies were put on display for the public. Every American, especially the families of the people he killed, should have had a chance to see his body. A chance to finally see the person responsible for all their pain and loss. It would have been even better if he had been captured alive and put on display. The Romans had the right idea. Captured enemies were forced to march in chains in triumphal parades through the streets of Rome. I would have loved to have seen Bin Laden doing the perp walk in shackles past the Pentagon and the former site of the World Trade Center. Without a body, how can anyone be sure that he is dead? All we have is the word of the very few people who were there that he is dead and that the DNA evidence was actually from his dead body. There will always be a lingering doubt about what happened, who died and if Bin Laden is actually dead. He will become like Elvis. There will be sightings of him all over the world for years to come. Conspiracy theories will abound. I understand that burying him at sea was supposed to prevent his grave becoming a shrine but Karma has a way of coming back and biting you in the ass. With no body, there will always be doubt about his death. He will assume mythic proportions in death that he didn't achieve in life. There is no justice in that. |
 Log in to Leave Feedback |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
