Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to you all!

You all who celebrate.

I don't necesarrily know what celebrate means...

Me? I give out candy. That's about it. Never been to a halloween party. I got my costume just like everybody else as a child...

Speaking of costumes...

Serenity_23 sent a picture of the baby in his SCARY halloween costume.

OOOOOH! I am so scared of you, little Kayden, little skeleton boy! SOOOOO scared!

Here he is all stretched out!

Yes... that's a little more scary, Little Skeleton Boy!  I'm really scared now!

LOL!

I think it's cute!

Here's another picture:

That costume is his big brother's old costume. That lets me know that we should keep everything, ya'll.

You never know when these things come in handy!

"Little Kayden, Skeleton Baby" and "Here Comes the Bumblebee Boy"...

Next on the Baby Channel. Check your local listings.

LOL

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Good Cold Monday Morning!

Good Monday Morning...

Correct: Happy Cold Monday Morning.

It seems as if the days of 100 temperatures are gone. They are in the rearview mirror...

And now it's cold. In the ATL, our morning temperatures will be in the high 30s this week. I actually turned on the heat yesterday. I'd pulled out my trusty space heater for the bedroom a couple of times last week, but it is getting colder and that just won't do.

And there's a hurricane about to hit the Northeast. That's rare. I haven't really understood the forecasts concerning it. But it looks a bit ratchet. My prayers are with ya'll who are up there in the path of that. If you can get out and get to shelters or safety, do it. They say that it will be bad, but let's just pray that is a flub. I rather that people scoff and be mad at how bad it was said to get, rather than anything catastrophic to occur.

My weekend. It was a bit slow. I did NOTHING... save for take care of the sick and shut-in patient: Oscar-Tyrone. After a couple days in the hospital, he is home. They said he would need intense home care and maintenance. I am not sure what that means, but I'm not taking off from work. I've watched him all weekend and he's been to himself. I have a cage out in the garage, so I'm going to clean that this morning and place him in there. (I know that's gonna piss him off).

His prognosis: hepatitis, pancreatitis, gallbladder itis, irritable bowel syndrome.  He got the triaditus (yeah, they actually call it that). Man, he got isshas. He hasn't been eating or drinking much of anything.  I haven't seen him hit the litter box all weekend. He has to take 4 medications. They had to teach me how to give him his meds, which I'm not all that crazy about, but it has to be done.

He is not his usual active self. I've heard him meow twice this weekend since we've been home. He sleeps A LOT.

And he prefers the same place... on the back of the chair. I made sure to cover it with a sheet just in case he got the notion to start hurling.

I have creeped up on him a couple of time to make sure he's still alive. I call his name and he peeks at me.

Then he closes his eyes again. Good enough. Still alive. Still breathing.

They must have given him a bath at the vet. They must know I've never given him one. He smells like clothes fresh out the dryer.

I did take a nap on the couch yesterday afternoon, and I woke up to see him staring at me.

So I guess that's a good sign. He has always like to... stare. He was woke up every few hours and wants to be rubbed.  So that's good.

I bought him a little bed on Friday night, in an effort to keep him in one place. PetSmart had them on sale, so it was cheap. (And it matches the living room, lol). He has preferred the back of the chair, but after staring at the bed for awhile, he decided to give it a try.

They had to shave his leg to give him an IV. That looks a little creepy.

And then he was back to sleeping. A LOT.

And he has to deal with me poking him every couple of hours to make sure he is still alive. Overall, he seems to be alright. You got one good time to near bankrupt me on a pet bill. If he doesn't get better, I will have to put him to sleep. No need for him to suffer.

But for now, he's okay.

Quote of the Week.  

"A GOAL without a PLAN is simply a WISH".
That's a hard one for me to handle. I rarely make goals. I guess that makes me bad, lazy, and whatever else. Whatever. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm suppose to have these 5 and 10 year plans, but I don't. I sit back and admire people who do. If I am alive in 5 or 10 years, that is good. I am thankful for that. That don't mean I don't get anything done, but I do. Much done. But of course I could be getting tons more done if I had concrete, written out goals.

But that quote has me thinking. I remember hearing an actual very detailed sermon, when I was 20 years old,  on goals. And how they should be written. I think the backup scripture was that one out of Habbakuk, of writing the vision and making it plain. (As a matter of fact, the message version says write the vision in big block letters.)

They aren't goals if they aren't written. And how they should be separated into long term and short term goals. That was a lot for me to hear in church. But it has always stayed on my mind. I tend to accomplish goals when I do write them down. With an actual plan of action attached to them. So of course that Quote makes much sense.

I am learning it's not reaching the goal that's the only important thing. It's the many things you learn in the process of marching towards that goal that are equally important. The PLAN is just as important.

Yes indeed... a little food for thought for your Monday morning.

That is it for me. The goal this week is to have a great week... on purpose. The plan is to eat well, sleep well, and work well...

And take care of the sick and shut-in Original Oldcat. Let's hope and pray he lives a few more years.

With that said... you have a good week on purpose. 

Oscar-Tyrone... A Sickly Kitty

So...

For the past month or so, I've noticed that The Original Oldcat Oscar-Tyrone has lost a little weight. He's always been 9 or 10 pounds, so he is small, but it has been noticeable.

I know he is tired of me saying...

"Hey boy, you got hips! I see your hips!"

Yes, his little hip bones were showing. However, he had been prancing around as usual.

But this week he was acting funny. He was vomiting a little. I thought it was hairballs.

Then he's been acting a bit delusional, like he's hearing things. Made me think someone was in the house for a minute there.

Then on Wednesday night when I got home from work, he wasn't at the door to greet me. I didn't hear a sound from him for a couple of hours. I didn't think much of it. I thought he may be somewhere sleeping in one of his hiding places.

Then I heard all this wailing... from somewhere in the house.

Then I found Oscar-Tyrone on the floor on the side of the bed hollering.

And he did not look good. He even got to the point where liquids were coming out his mouth and his butt. Yikes.

It was too late to take him anywhere. So I put him first in the laundry room with his litter box, and then in the upstairs bathroom. I only hoped he would be okay in the morning.

I checked on him before bed. He was sitting quietly in the corner staring at the wall. Mess was everywhere. I need a truck of bleach to clean everything up.

The next morning I took him to a ritzy looking animal hospital nearby. When I walked in there, I knew they wouldn't take me. And they didn't. They sent me some 15 minutes away to Decatur to an emergency hospital.

So I went there.

Oscar in his crate in the back seat of the car was a trip. He screamed the whole time. He does NOT like being confined.

As you can see, he is NOT happy. Being sick and mad is not a good combination.

Once we got to the animal hospital he was stone quiet. I let him out of his cage and he just sat there on the table.

But he was still shellshocked and skittish.

They spent a half hour examining him. They determined that he had some type of liver problem because he was turning yellow. So I left him there. Blood tests and x-rays showed that he had a liver and gall bladder infection. So they are keeping him for a couple of days so he can be on IV.

I got a call this morning saying that he was perky, had eaten all his food, and that he looked much better.  I can pick him up Saturday afternoon.

He will need intense home care.

*crickets*

HUNH? What the...?

Uh, I am waiting to see what THAT's all about.  Intense home care? 

Well, I am off on Saturday and Sunday. I can do "intense" then, whatever that means. Not sure how he's gonna make out when I go to work on Monday Morning. I have a big giant cage in the garage that I used for Jeremy when he was alive. He'll have to stay in that, I suppose. I live 5 miles from work, so I can go home in the middle of my workday and have lunch and check on him. That's as intense as it gets.

Intense. Hmm.

Anyway, I am glad he will be alright. The worse case scenario would be that he was in liver failure, and that's not the case. I told my cubicle mate Cowgirl Cre that I would just go back over there with my Mahalia Jackson Greatest Hits CD, play a couple of songs, have him put to sleep, and go on to the Whole Foods and have a little repast. 

Jeremy had a decent funeral. I would take Oscar home and bury him right next to Jeremy. Sure would.

I'm serious. I didn't give birth to him. Not going bankrupt over him.

Oscar has lived a good 15 years, and has never had to work a day in his life. He has lived the good life. The good life indeed. Yes sir!

Looks like he's going to live a little longer!

Happy Birthday Cowgirl Cre!

I'd like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend and workplace cubicle mate The CowgirlCre!

*throws glitter*

Why do we call her CowgirlCre? Because she is a Cowgirl, i.e., she owns a horse! She's the only negro I know who owns one. That makes me feel like I know somebody special!

And she is special indeed. We've been friends for over 15 years! That's a long time! She knows me through and through. She's able to deal with the good side of me and the bad side of me. And that's a lot to deal with, honey! She's a real trooper for hanging with me all these years!

Here she is riding her horse Felix!

Look at her... she's smiling hard. That's because she is doing what she enjoys most! Riding her horse!

And here's ol' Felix.

And you know me... I make suggestions, honey. We need to get Felix out there racing in the Derby, so he can win millions and millions of dollars.

We should plait and braid Felix's hair. We could put some beads and shells in it!

We can tat his name down the middle of his stripe. That would look way cool!

Mess around and shape that wispy beard of his into a goatee and he'd be the flyest horse in the barnyard!

LOL

Uh yeah... As you could've guessed, she's not taking my suggestions.

CowgirlCre is off today so I'm holding down the cubicle all alone. It is quite quiet in these here parts. Sigh.

But NO ONE should work on their birthday. NO ONE! Should be a crime to do so!

She's out at the barn today, hanging out with Felix.

Yesterday (and other days), she played one of my favorite songs for when I'm getting the HECK out of dodge... Getting the heck on could mean a number of things: getting off from work, moving to a new place, or going on vacation.



We sing along with it very loudly. And we sound like some hit dogs sanging. But it makes us happy.

She was happy because she was going to have the day off!

Her favorite part is

"If you see meeeeee... look into my eyes and reeeeeeeeaaaaadddd... what the sign has to say: GITTIN OUTTA here!"

LOL

We sing that a couple of times while packing up to leave work, and it has us high steppingo up out of the workplace, halfway running to our cars!

Dearest Cowgirl... thanks for your friendship all these years. You've gotten me through more than you know. And being your cubicle mate for the past 10 years is icing on the cake indeed! It is a blessing to know you.

Have a great time at the barn! Tell Felix I said Hi!

And make sure you come on back to work tomorrow, ya hear?

Don't get the notion to take the rest of the week off! Don't let me have to come find you!

Happy Birthday! Enjoy your day... on purpose!

Friday Freestyles

TGIF!!

Wooo!

Glory!

*church shouts*

The only way today could be better is if it was PAYDAY!

But alas, it is not. But I am glad it is Friday. I don't have a big weekend planned. Play Mama is in town, and I get to see her! *cartwheels*

This has been a good week! I won all my fantasy football league games (there has been much trash talking between myself, Tazzee and RhysPieces... it is becoming brutal), and I had a pretty good weekend. Not as productive as I like, but good enough.

Then I get a call yesterday that I have a dentist appointment today.

O_O

I thought it was on Monday, but it is today. Sigh. I'm going to call to make sure before I drive waaaay out to Fairburn from downtown. But it is a simple cleaning. And I get to see Dr. Watson again... with his fine self!

But I don't have much else to talk about today. I don't have time to upload interesting pictures, etc... Just wanted to say hi!

Anyway, I do have a video of the week:

You have to be age 35 and above to appreciate this one.



Man... that is an EARLY b-boy rap song.

I have NO idea what the heck that song is about. I am SURE something subliminal was going on. And the whole mixing of square dancing and break dancing... uh, I can't make the connection.

But we liked it for some reason. Seems a bit cheesy. And that was when breakdancing and popping and locking first started.

And it had us all running around hollering "All of that Scratching is making me ITCH!"

And the chorus singing "She's looking like a ho!!"

What the heck does THAT mean!? Geeze. Those are fighting words.

We loved it. Not so much, now. But it brings back memories.