Bathing Cats and Other Interesting Pastime

There are things in life that Lucy, my fluffy cat, would rather do than have a bath. But, after using a new brand of flea treatment, big clumps of her hair started falling out. She was constantly pulling at the fur and seemed miserable, so I decided she might not have reacted well to it - duh - and should have a bath.

Used to be that bathing a younger Lucy was very challenging, but this girl has mellowed!

She's now lying on the rug in the dining room after thoroughly grooming herself and seems quite peaceful.

I spent much of yesterday working in the yard.



This beauty is an ornamental oregano. It not only looks pretty but also has the smell of oregano if crushed, and deer don't like it - a major issue here.



I have another ornamental oregano of a different variety on the side of the stone steps to the upper area. It isn't as full yet, but is much larger overall. When it's fully bloomed out it will have bracts maybe 2 1/2 to 3 inches long that will hang down over the rock.


While I garden, clean, bathe cats, cook, and whatever else seems to eat up my time - the dogs nap. Buck particularly has taken sleeping to the level of art form.

Last night when we went upstairs, after waking him from his nap on the dining room floor, he quickly flopped into the nearest dog bed. Unfortunately that one belongs to Cocoa - who didn't want to switch.


Poor girl tried everything, at one point almost lying on top of Buck, but she finally had to give up and retire to the bed that usually belongs to Buck.

I'm tired - FF seems to be flaring - so I'm calling it an easy day for the rest of this one!

Home from the East

OK, I'm exhausted. After flying to Charlotte on Wednesday, arriving at midnight, it was an absolute whirlwind of shopping, eating, graduation, family dinner and breakfast, more shopping and eating, dog walking, more shopping and eating. . . . until I flew home Monday (yesterday) arriving back at the house after 10 PM West Coast time. Yep, I'm tired.
















Here we have Parker, on the left, and Evan, my younger grandson, in all their goofy, teenage- boy-glory. I think I'm naming this photo Fourteen going on Four.














Cyrus, the new graduate, and girlfriend Maddy, at the house after the graduation was over. Cute couple, huh? Miss M will graduate next year. Cy is off to University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He's a pretty stellar young man - good grades, athletic, no drugs or alcohol, and nice - even to adults. See?? Hope for these younger generations does exist.












And this would be the whole Fam-Damily after graduation. Front row is Evan, Jeremy and Jordan (Jeff's twin's) and Faye (Jerry's wife). Back row is yours truly, Monica, my daughter and the mom of the graduate, Ray, the dad of the graduate, Cy, Jeff (who I guess we'll call my pseudo-son) and Jerry, the ex, the father of the kids, and all that.

These family events can be trying or at least threatening when you have divorces, blended or perhaps pureed families involved. But, I've discovered the reality of "if you don't feel it, fake it," and I put it to good use on this trip.

With Jeff not speaking and referring to me to Monica as "your mother", and Faye essentially not speaking to Monica (unless we call "it's mahogany" speaking), it could have been really ugly. I decided in advance (as apparently did everyone) to simply fake it as best I could. And, we got through with surprising ease. Funny thing is that once a person - OK, let's say once I - realize that someone else's bad behavior says nothing about me, but tons about them, I really don't need to react to it. And, given credit where due, Jeff was just as good at the faking it.

On my husband's side, I cheerfully call his ex-wife Sally my "wife-in-law". I really see no reason after years and years for ex-wives or -husbands and current versions to be hateful to one another. And, even with the offspring, there has to come a time of just accepting the status quo one would think. Sadly, not everyone sees it that way. While I'm having fun, there are those allowing old events or imagined events to rent space in their heads! Yuk.


Not to leave out the grand-pups, we have Bella, Tucker and Bear. Guess who thinks he's the boss? Guess who is really the boss?

Allergies, Work, Trips - we got it all

I've had some major allergy attacks lately - one really, really scary - and haven't figured out what's causing. I may have to break down and go for testing if it keeps up. We do have some lousy air quality in Tulare County, much of it due to agricultural activities in the valley. I'm thinking we should have looked into that issue before deciding to build our home here.

Here's mama - or maybe papa - bear, seen up above.

Scottie is off to work in the Park, none too happily. I think he was expecting to play King of the Mounties for the summer, or perhaps Dr. Livingston, but he's run into the fact that this IS a government job. And, government equals bureaucracy. He finds himself checking the campground at Lodgepole, dealing with campground reservations, enforcing rules, etc., etc., etc. But, he's learning to view it as AFGO (another f---ing growth opportunity).

This is taken right behind his summer home, and you can see the public campground in the background on the opposite side of the river. I think it's a wonderful, peaceful place! Scottie's summer roommate, a man in his 80's, will arrive this week. Fingers and toes crossed that it's a good fit!


This little guy was right along the highway when I drove up and still there when I came back down - by then with people stopped, out of cars, within a very few feet of the animal, either not realizing or not caring that he's getting way too acclimated to humans.

I've been on a bit of a mental rant about what idiots we humans can be, and that's just one example. Our arrogance leads us to destruction. Take the air quality in Tulare County - the so-called "Great Central Valley" of California was never, ever meant by Mom Nature to be an agricultural center. But, we dammed the rivers, drained the Tule Lake in the process, planted mono-culture production factories (they can't really be called farms) on the floor of the valley, then proceeded to inundate with pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers - and the water we hold captive behind dams - to the point that we poison the air and the water tables for generations to come. But, we have done service to the mighty dollar, at least in the pockets of a few; and at the same time, we've accustomed ourselves to strawberries in January, oranges on demand in snow country, cheap Mexican labor for the harvest to hold down our food prices. . . . And Nature will win. She always does. We think we are winning because the Mother is patient. She is allowing us to do most of the work ourselves through our own short-sighted activities.

Long, long after we've become just another blip in the history of earth, the Mother will be quietly repairing herself, undoing our noisy, messy, poisonous activities.

Oh - the "trips" part - I'm off to Charlotte, NC for my oldest grandson's graduation. That would be Cyrus John, almost 18, and just a super-great kid! He's on to UNC for college in the fall. Check back for photos from the trip!

Transform vs Transmute

OK, I'm feeling philosophical again. Can't help it.

Transform and Transmute have similar yet subtly different meanings.

Transform implies a major change in the sense of a small company being transformed into a major player - think Apple Computer starting in a garage, now being a giant company.

Transmute implies a change into a higher form - the original example being alchemists attempts to change lead into gold, but think also of a young gang member transmuted into a man working with troubled teens.

As I contemplate (another interesting word) the differences in the two, I long for transmutation for so much of our world. I see so much transformation that is not at all positive - we are transforming the rain forests into logging operations; we transform spirituality into ideology; groups into gangs - it goes on and on and on.

Will we decide to transmute our world while we can? I think it starts with our beliefs. And, I don't know that we can get there through our minds. I believe it comes from our soul/feeling self and then into our actions. Example: Buck, my big dog, developed the habit of grabbing any bird unfortunate enough to have slammed itself into a window and devouring it. I picked up one before he got it, held it and stroked it, and repeatedly told him what a good bird it was, how much I liked it, etc. Now, I know he doesn't understand all my words, but he got at a feeling level the sense I conveyed. So, a couple of days ago, yet another bird slammed into a window and fell to the ground. Buck made no move - none - to get it. He's transmuted, at least for now, aggression into acceptance.

My challenge: making those transmutations within myself.


So, here's a photo of said bird:



I sat and held him for a while then took him to a part of the yard with some cover and let him sit on the ground. One little foot wanted to draw up so I straightened out the claws then held my finger at his breast - and he got on my finger! Sat there until he was ready to fly and took off. How cool is that?