Fairweather Zealot

Marty July 1st, 2009

Miles when I found three lumps - squishy ones on his back and belly, and what looked like a pimple that was twice the size it had been a week earlier. That, coupled with his increasing difficulty in getting up off the floor due to stiffness prompted an impromptu vet visit last night.

We got good news and bad news - good news: he doesn’t have cancer, he’s just fat. The lumps were ‘fatty deposits’ that were a combination of getting older and him being a lard ass. The ‘pimple’ was a cyst but nothing to worry about unless it doesn’t resolve in a week or two.

As for his stiffness, that’s the bad news. Miles has burgeoning hip dysplasia in both hips, and it’s causing stress on his bad knees as well. Luckily, the vet thought that him losing about 10 pounds, coupled with more EASY exercise and some OTC meds (anti-inflammatories, glucosamine + chondroitan, omega-3 fatty acids) should relieve many of his symptoms and surgery can be held off. Which is good, because with all of his other health problems, I’m not sure we’d spend the money on the surgery for him.

It’s a hard decision to make, but it’s not only hips - it’s all four knees which would have to be fixed too, and we simply can’t afford $10,000 for a dog who - while very lovable - is prematurely aging and probably won’t be around much longer. I hate thinking that we are already making decisions like that about him - sealing his fate, as it were - but it’s a necessary evil.

In any case, we can treat him and make him feel better, and since he seems generally happy (if a bit bored since we have been too busy to spend enough time with either dog), I hope that will be enough to help him enjoy his life with a minimum of pain.

• Family , Pets
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Marty June 20th, 2009

Last Saturday, I got a bunch of cash out because we needed some for a graduation gift and some for cash on hand. It was in those envelopes that banks give you, which I hate and normally dispose of quickly. For some reason, however, I kept the money in there this time and when we got home from the Phillies game Sunday, I put it down on my desk. Fast forward 3 days, and when I got to look for it, it’s gone. I look everywhere, ranting and raving about how I can’t figure out where it would have gone. Shari looks at me with that knowing look, sure that I have just misplaced it, while I’m sure that I knew where I put it but look elsewhere anyway. I even make a passing joke that maybe the dogs ate it.

So yesterday, I get a message from Shari that she has found the money. Unfortunately, she found it while cleaning the yard of the dogs’ ‘business’. Yes, that’s right - it was in the dog poop. Literally, the dogs did eat the money - about $80 worth. Near as I can figure, the cat - upon NOT getting her way - knocked the envelope to the ground, where our Dog Oakley investigated and, having a distinct penchant for eating paper (napkins, paper towels, coupons, rummy score sheets, etc.) decided that the envelope and its contents looked simply DEE-lish.

What to do, what to do?

Well, if it were $2 or even $20, I would have written that off. But $80 was a little much to just shrug away so I did what might be the second worst job I have ever done*, and I grabbed some latex gloves and went after the money. It wasn’t a pretty job, but a little ‘probing’ provided me with a bunch of scraps of $20 bills. Washing them off in the yard, I realized that I had parts of 4 different bills, but not necessarily ALL of the bills. Back in I went for round 2.

At the end, I had all of the scraps I could find, so I rinsed them off with the hose, then put them in a plastic bag with a ton of rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide to sanitize them. After a couple hours in that solution, I rinsed them a half-dozen times with hot water and then dried them out. This morning, I put them together and taped them. End result:

• 2 bills are completely recovered - both serial numbers intact and most of the bill remaining.
• 1 bill mostly recovered - one serial number intact, the other partially there and a good 75% of the bill.
• 1 bill is very iffy - one serial number and barely 50% of the bill.

Now, according to the rules from the Treasury department, as long as a bill is over 50% present and is identifiable as U.S. currency, the banks have to accept it and give me a new bill. As you can see below, I think I should get all $80 back. But we’ll see.

As for Oakley, I’d prefer if he’s start laying golden eggs instead of recycling my hard-earned cash.

• Pets
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Marty June 18th, 2009

I can not seem to catch up with my writing (or pretty much anything else) lately. And there has been some good stuff happening. Continue Reading »

• Play
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Marty June 8th, 2009

Our last day in the Cave Creek area we wanted to hit some of those places we had missed earlier and look for a couple of species that we really wanted to see: Juniper Titmice, Scaled and Montezuma Quail and Zone-tailed Hawks. We also wanted to make a trip up to the Chiricahua National Monument to see the amazing rock formations there. Continue Reading »

• Birding , Nature , Photography , Travel
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Marty June 7th, 2009

I’ve always been a sketcher during meetings, but unlike many other people where doodling is a sign of boredom or inattention, with my ADD, it actually keeps me focused. By keeping my hands and my right brain focused on the paper, it keeps my ears and mind on Wednesday is being said. Strange but true.

My doodles have cycles: a week or two of realism, a couple weeks of abstract line art, a period of typography, etc. Lately, I’ve been doing bird sketches from memory in the margins. I’m not sure if it’s because I still have birds in the brain from Arizona (probably), if I just have birds in my head right now (definitely) or if I am just enjoying doing some realistic drawings of something that I have a fairly decent picture of in my mind’s eye. Regardless, it’s been fun to try to draw a reasonable likeness of some birds from memory in my notebook. Some samples are below. I just wish I had a better scanner for them (the details didn’t come out very well).

• Birding , Design , Play , Work
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Marty June 1st, 2009

Yesterday was a scary day for Shari and I, especially her. I woke up a bit earlier than her, but was still struggling to get moving with all of the things that I had to do. She woke up with a bad headache, which she attributed to a combination of allergies and dehydration. She tried hydrating before she had to get ready to leave for a shoot, but it didn’t seem to be helping. She was upstairs when I heard her call me. When I got there, she said she was really not feeling well, and then she went to sit down. It took me a few seconds to realize that she hadn’t said anything since she sat and a few more to see that she wasn’t responding to me. I panicked when I realized she had passed out, and tried to revive her by patting her cheek. She seemed to come to, but was really out of it and was slurring - and then she was out again. Continue Reading »

• Family
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Marty June 1st, 2009

I decided to spend the morning doing something I haven’t been able to do all spring - hike/bird locally. It’s hard to believe that I missed almost all of migration this year, but somehow between the weather and doing stuff around the house, I did. So, I decided to see what might be left around the area. Continue Reading »

• Birding
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Marty May 27th, 2009

For our fourth day, we decided to reverse our previous days’ path, except we still wanted to start the morning at the South Fork. We had heard that many people were hearing the Elegant Trogon* right near the bridge, so we started there. Initially, things were a little slow as the sun was just starting to peek into the canyon, but they quickly picked up as all of the birds started to wake up, producing a magical post-dawn chorus. Numerous Empidonax flycatchers were joined by warblers and orioles in song, while other, quieter birds like the Painted Redstart and several hummingbirds flew about in frantic activity. Vireos and a few warblers (including a few Townsend’s and Wilson’s) were flitting about in the tall sycamores by the creek, while Acorn Woodpeckers competed with Canyon Wrens for top song of the morning. Soon, it was almost impossible to keep up with all of the movement and chittering on the trees. Continue Reading »

• Birding , Work
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Marty May 27th, 2009

This past weekend was one of celebration for most people - a three day weekend worth barbecued and volleyball. Shari and I decided to take another tact and spend the extended weekend continuing with our larger house projects - a three day ‘workend’, as it were. Continue Reading »

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Marty May 24th, 2009

Well, we finally did it - we won a game. For some reason, our team has really struggled all season - and for what seems like different reasons each game. One game we can’t hit to save our lives; another game we are scoring runs but giving up twice as many on bad fielding and poor throwing mistakes. But on Wednesday, everything came together - hitting, fielding, base-running were all excellent, and we beat Avenue A-Razorfish 23-2. Now, I can’t say that some of it didn’t have to do with the fact that we were playing the only other winless team in the league, but it seemed like we were just more together - everyone wasn’t swinging at the first pitch, we were running the bases well, making good throws, etc. If we had played that way in other games, I think we might have won 1 or 2 of them. But you know what they say about ‘could have’…

Still, I’m playing better overall, although it seems like I am only getting one at bat per game, regardless of how long I’m in. Wednesday, I went in for the last 4 innings of the 7-inning game … except it got called after 5 innings, right as I was coming up for my second at-bat. Oh well. But I’m getting the ball out of the infield this year, so that’s nice - last year I would pound the ball in batting practice, and then shank it when it mattered. I was a one-bagger through and through. This year, I’ve got a couple of doubles already and even two of my outs have been sacrifice flies.

Now I just have to get my first home run…

• Work , sports
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