03/02/01
And the adventure continues. Last month Ishie turned 20 years old, a ripe old age for a cat. We are please that she has seen fit to stay with us. Later this month on the 11th. Poofer will also be 20. Looks like we have a pair of Grand ole Dames.
03/06/01
Our uncle is being very nice to us this year. We are planning to buy Faun a nice new digital camera. Details to follow. We have not yet made up our minds exactly what camera to get. Also, in the plan is a new computer for Doc. Tentatively, a Pentium III - 933, 512 Mb RAM, 40 Mb HHD, everything else is icing on the cake. Oh, yes, and a new USB scanner for the Mac. See, I told you our uncle was being very, very good to us!
03/13/01
On Saturday I put one of our old 1.1 Gb hard drives into my PC and installed Mandrake 7.2 on it. Mandrake is one of several versions of Linux operating system freely available in magazines and on the Internet. The install went very well, with none of the problems that I had been reading that other people were having. I felt very lucky! Then I spent a awhile trying to figure out how to make it work. Giving up after a few hours, we went to Wolf Camera.
As I had said before, our uncle is very nice to us. He did indeed buy Faun a nice new digital camera. A fine Canon G1 to be exact. The G1 comes complete with 16 Mb Flash Card, USB cable, and software to make downloading photos easy. Also, included was Photo Shop 5.0, a most excellent graphics program.
On Sunday, Faun's glasses decided it was time to lose a screw while we were away from home. We did not have our glasses repair kit handy so, Faun took out needle and thread and fixed them on the spot. Whata girl!
Last night after getting Faun's glassed repaired and Dox tightened up, we went shopping. We originally went to CompUSA to look at boom box type stereos for the living room. Instead we ended up taking a nice new Pentium 3 computer home. It runs at 933 Mhz. and comes with a 60 Gb hard drive, 512 Mb memory, Windows Millennium Edition, and 4 USB ports. That means we'll be able to do graphics work on both computers now. See, I told you our uncle was being very, very good to us!
After getting everything into the apartment, we decided to "just leave everything in the boxes and deal with it tomorrow." So, I started up the old computer to check my e-mail and then to spend a little time trying to figure out how to make the Linux, that I had installed on Saturday, work. To my dismay, I crashed the puppy. Now, Windows won't start either! Boy I did it good this time. Oh well, not to worry. I can salvage it. :}
03/28/01
In the past, I had never had a pet for more than a couple of years. They would either run away or get run over in the street. I never had a chance to get too attached to any dog or cat, although, a good part of my life has been shared with pets.
When I was a small child, my parents had a Cocker Spaniel named, Honey. She disappeared after a year or two. Fifty years later my mother told me that Honey was lunging and biting at us kids and so they "got rid" of her. I do sort of remember a dream (?) where I was playing and Honey was running along side and jumping and biting at my throat (she connected in the dream).
Over the years, my mom had several cats. Most of the time, they were just there. Under foot and crying for food or to go out. We would have a cat for a while and then it would disappear. My mom was always taking in strays.
My years in the military allowed for only the occasional visit home. One year I went home on leave. I had hung my uniforms up in the closet. My mom's Siamese decided it needed to crawl up and down my uniforms the the closet. It wouldn't have been so bad but; it was my dark blue dress uniform she really trashed. I didn't really find out how badly "cat haired" it was until the first day I was back onboard my ship and had an inspection.
This set the tone for my next encounter with cats. It seems that the next several encounters were adversarial. When I married in Santa Ana, CA. we had a deaf, white longhair named Snowflake. Di Di, my wife, would tie him on a rope outside the back door just like a dog. He was not happy. Every time he could he would make a run for it. I spent way too many hours looking for that critter.
When I left CA and moved to MN, I adopted a stray kitten that I named Paisley. He was a tri color longhair and about as stubborn and any person or animal I've ever met. He was with me for about a year before there was a fire in the apartment and he ran when the firemen entered.
I shared living space with a dog after that. My second wife, Zoe, and I went to a shelter to look for a dog, ostensively as my birthday present that year. We had talked about how I had lived around cats a lot but; not had much time with dogs. I chose a quiet black some kind of spaniel. I chose her because she didn't not bark like crazy when I approach her and because she looked sad and I thought I could change that with a little bit of love and improve her quality of life. We named her Romper. No sooner than we got her home and she needed surgery. she had ear mites so bad that there was not other way to deal with the problem. She sure looked weird with her Elizabethan collar, to keep her from scratching her ears after the surgery. After we separated, Zoe took Romper to live at her parent's farm in upstate MN.
About a year after Zoe and I were divorced, I met Faun. Our relationship started out with an electrical shock that continues to shock me :} We had been together for a little over a year when we got a little tri color Manx-Siamese we named Aphrodite, Fro Fro for short. Poofer as she is also known was given us by her previous pets, because her mother did not attack us when we first arrived to visit. The boys said that we were the first people the Hatol (bitch in Yiddish) had not attacked. So we got our pick of the litter. She was born March 11, 1981 and we got her during her 8th. week. Poofer has proved to be a challenge. She has a double undercoat and is constantly puking hair balls. She also has a penchant for eating anything left on the floor or in a chair. String, paper, needles and thread. You name it, I think that she has tried to eat it. Poofer seemed to be a Faun cat. She seemed to prefer Faun and to tell the truth, I was a little disappointed. I wanted a cat to cuddle too.
About a month later, some folks that we knew had a cat they wanted to get rid of. I thought, "Get rid of?" "Better get this kitty out of there." when I arrived to take the cat, she was "booted" out the door as I was coming in. We made small talk until "the cat" wanted to come back in. Then everybody grabbed at her and freaked her out. Judith was bitching big time as "the cat" ran into my arms. I took that as a good sign. Made my farewells and never looked back. I named my kitty Ishtar, Ishie for short. Now, we had a pair of little goddesses!
Ishie was a scardy cat. Poor thing, she was afraid of everything, especially heavy footsteps! It took almost two years for Ishie and Poofer to start getting along. I was an uneasy truce. It took Ishie fifteen years to become a cuddle kitty and never quite that. She would sit next to me in a chair and allow me to pet her. Occasionally, she would lay in my lap.
Sometimes, at night, she would watch Poofer jump up on the bed and cuddle with me. Ya know, there is no better way to go to sleep than with a cat purring in your ear. Anyway, for the last three years, Ishie has been waiting for me to go to bed. She would come and yell at me if I was taking too long. When I would lay down flat on my back she would walk all over me. And at least once a night she would lay down with her butt in my face ans swish her tail across my face and nose. I'm not sure but I think that she may have know that I was allergic to her. She always stopped before I got too stuffed up. I wonder if she was trying to help me get ove the allergy by giving me a little allergen everyday???
We had to put Ishie to sleep today. We are very sad. See Farewell to Ishie
04/02/01
And the adventure continues. Last month Ishie passed away. We were so freaked out about it that instead of waiting for a coupla months before even thinking about going back to the vet, that we took Poofer in on Friday the 30th.
There is no way on heaven or earth that we will let ourselves be blind sided like that again. The doctor said she was pretty healthy for a 19-20 year old. She took a blood sample but; was unable to get a urine sample. She called doxxx at work this morning with the results.
Poofer has high kidney levels, which means that some constituents of her blood have some high levels of some chemicals. She said that these levels may be indicative of approaching kidney failure and would we please bring her back for a urine specimen. We couldn't get one today either, but; when we got home we tricked Poofer into giving us one.
So, tomorrow I'll go by the Animal Hospital and drop off the sample. We expect that we will soon begin giving her 100 ml/day IV therapy. Of course she might just have a bladder infection...
07/27/01
Well, I can't say that Life has not been interesting. On May 11th. I found myself unemployed and I've been searching for another position every since. Been doing some interviews and have two prospects. May be invited back for a second interview next week. Hope so!
Unemployment Compensation does cover rent, food, and a few utilities, but; our lifestyle has changed drastically. We don't go out to eat anymore and that was one of our favorite pass times. We are learning to live without cable. Still haven't found the rabbit ear antenna. But; that's OK. We never really watched "network" TV. Gasoline got very high there for a while and now we're in the habit of not driving except to buy food or do interviews.
We've heard the four Harry Potter Books so many times that we are starting to get bored with them. So, we went to the library yesterday and came home with half a dozen "new" talking books.
I spent 6-8 hours trying to setup a network so that Faun and I could share files and the Internet connection. just can't seem to get the bugger working. I suppose the problem is that we have an integrated computer room. I have a PC and Faun has a Mac. Both computers, when set to file and connection sharing, thinks that it owns the network and connection.
08/30/01
I have spent the last 2 months looking at fewer and fewer new job online to apply to. Yesterday, Faun found some interesting sites and I found 6 new positions to apply for! After that I made up some graphics and animated then. I put them on my home page on the PC. Here are a few of them.
Faun drew this cat and I animated him. He blinks his right eye, then his left and then both eyes. I set the time interval pretty long, at 30 seconds... |
These guys were fun
 This pair were to remind me about Faun's trip to Florida
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This is one to remind me to call in my unemployment claim
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We belong to the Bead Society of Greater Chicago and this one is to remind me that I volunteered to haul the books for the book sale
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I haven't made up my mind where to use this one yet
this animation stops after 10 times or so
Last night Faun and I scanned photos of some family members and friends and began making a new section for the Bonewits Family Pages to be called the Photo Gallery. The beginnings are up now.
Last Friday I let all of the head hunters know that I was getting desperate and that I would even consider 3-4 months temporary positions or take a cut in pay if necessary. Today, I got a call from one of them saying that he presented my resume to Clara Abbott Foundation and they want to interview me tomorrow at 2. It'll be a 40 mile drive each way, but; a job is a job!
This afternoon has been fun. Before I could even start getting ready, the clothes rod in the closet fell off the wall. We ended up finding a new place for our clothes in the other 2 closets. Then I got to iron a shirt and trousers. Imagine, me, the boy who does not own a suit having to put together one for the interview!
The clothes are taken care of now we gotta do my hair so that I look young. Job Majik, you know!
08/31/01
Got to bed last night (morning) about 2 AM. Woke up hyper about the upcoming interview so, I tweaked some graphic and went to get some breakfast. Still hyper so, I cleaned part of the kitchen counter before making an omelette over O' Brian potatoes. Yummy :}
Left home a bit after noon to head out to the interview. Only took me about 45 minutes instead of the hour and a half that I had expected. Got to wait for the Tech System / Maxim Group account manager Mike Mulligan. It was a pleasant wait. 75°, partly sunny, nice breeze.
Mike arrived at about 1:50 and we went in and only had to wait for a few minutes before the department head came out with the guy I'd be working with, Jim Young. Bill the department head is about my age and twice my size, or so it seemed. Jim is 30 something, an over achiever and the only person in the building that wears a suit to work daily.
"Well, I have all these suits. No sense letting them go to waste," he said.
We had a nice conversation for about an hour and I left telling him that the project looks like just my thing and I'd like the opportunity to work with him.
It took about an hour to drive back to the Tech System / Maxim Group offices. Before I got there I got a call on my cell phone. The only thing I really heard was the "H" word!!!!!
I'm very pleased to said that I start my new position the day after Labor Day.
I was so happy that when I got home after the drug test that I immediately made the graphic above. When I finally left the computer alone, Faun and I made a pasta and chicken dish with sort of a curry to celebrate. Then we put the cloths back in the closet cuz that repairman actually came and fixed it today (instead of taking a month to get around to it like they did with the leaky toilet). We managed to cull out some stuff that doesn't fit anymore (4 trash bags full to go to Goodwill tomorrow) and left some of the stuff in the other closets so that this closet is not so crowded anymore :)
Planning on hiding out this weekend. The pool closes the day after Labor Day so I guess we'll try to get a little more sunburn while we can. Last year the pool closed before we even knew where it was.
Hoping you all have a safe and happy holiday. More next month.