friday catblogging

AKA going on strike.



Popcorn theif. So that's where it all went. Her stray roots are showing again.


And yes, I'm going on strike. Show some appreciation for this site, and I'll post more. Oh, yeah, and family is in town, so posting will be even more limited. Be happy you got Friday Catblogging.

alrighty, then

Blogger swore it ate the 2 posts from yesterday about my shoulder, but now they've mysteriously shown up. Whatever. Lets see what else pops up.

shoulder update

First, let's see if Blogger will eat this post or not.

My shoulder isn't torn, it is simply badly sprained and strained. So, no surgery, just physical therapy and pain management. At least I know I don't break or tear, my soft tissue injures aren't that severe, they just hurt like hell. Unfortunately, a rotator cuff injury can take a very long time to heal. When Mom injured hers, it took 18 months to completely to heal her injury. Oh, joy.

shoulder update

The good news is there is no tear, just a sprain/strain of the tissues of my rotator cuff. So, it's physical therapy and pain management while my shoulder heals. Unfortunately, I heal slow, and when Mom injured her rotator cuff it took her 18 months to heal completely. Whee, just what I needed. At least I don't break and tear easily, I keep telling myself that. It still hurts like hell, though.

shoulder update

Good news, I have no tears, all the problems with my shoulder is simply a bad sprain/strain of the rotator cuff. I'll be starting physical therapy sometime in the next week for it, but unfortunately I know I'm in for a long ride in healing. I heal slow, I know this, and when Mom injured her rotator cuff she said it took 18 months for it to return to normal. Oh, joy. At least nothing is broken or torn. That's what I keep telling myself. It takes more than that to really injure me.

friday catblogging

My brother-in-law's cats, both together in one shot.





Kitty Mac Boing Boing, a.k.a. Mac and Maleficent. Mac has taken refuge from somebody, probably Noah, and well Maleficent is being a couch potato, and could give a crap about what is going on.

shoulder scan

Well, this afternoon I get a MRI of my left shoulder to find out how badly I injured it last week. Yes, I fell again, this time in the shower. I have a shower chair, and was sitting in it, when I leaned forward to adjust the water temperature when the slipped backwards and I landed in the tub on my ass. As I fell, I tried to catch myself with my left arm, grabbing the rim of the tub, and succeed only in jamming my arm up, injuring my shoulder. Friday I went to the doc, who had it x-rayed, and it didn't show any fracture, so all the damage is soft tissue. Until I know what is wrong, I'm popping my pain medication, since it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. Here to hoping it's just badly strained and sprained.

in memoriam

In Memoriam – George

As a tiny kitten you were found
Lying abandoned upon the hard ground
Your brother your only companion
Until by chance you found a champion

Saved from death by an approaching car
In my sister’s shirt, she carried you far
A caring home awaited both of you
Time passed, we watched as you grew

Though you never bore kits of your own
You were mother to any younger born
Mother and friend you were to them
Buddies until death made you lonely again

George, my beauty, who I fed with a bottle
When you followed me in a kitten toddle
An elegant lady you grew into
And stole the hearts of all who saw you

In your elder years another companion you found
Laps suitable for my lady’s naps began to abound
And though the years slowly passed by
You remained kittenish, feeling spry

On one afternoon you heard the call of Bastet
And you went outside, your fate you met
Looking into to the setting sun
The Goddess called you, you did not run

To the Summerlands you went, ushered upon the wind
Reunited with your adopted daughters and your long missed twin
All those who passed before were there waiting to greet
A reunion for you, while we miss you and weep

We miss you, knowing all will be united once more
Parting is not forever, ever since the days of yore
Meeting and passing in a cycle since time began
Sadly we part and merrily we meet again












George
July 1, 1993 - October 12, 2005

friday catblogging

This one is for Lair.



Kitty Butt Elephant!

too funny, and too true

Foamy the Squirrel reports from New Orleans on Katrina. Oh, so true.

feasting is over

Now that the feasting from yesterday's Leif Erikson celebration has come to a close in my mighty Mead-Hall Sessrúmnir, and all the trenchers and horns have been cleaned, all of the meat and mead has been consumed, normal blogging may now resume. Wait, I just found a little more mead. Skál!

i'm a cute little critter

You Are A: Bear Cub!

Bears are strong and independent creatures who roam in the forest in search of food. Bears are usually gentle, but anger one and be prepared for their full fury! You won't back down from a fight, you have a bit of a temper -- classic attributes of a bear. Intelligent and resourceful, though lazy at times, you are a fascinating creature of the wild.

You were almost a: Duck or a Monkey
You are least like a: Groundhog or a ChipmunkWhat Cute Animal Are You?

happy leif erikson discovered vineland day!

Ya know what, screw Columbus and his Federal Holiday. Anyone who got Monday off should have because it was Leif Erikson Day, not the other holiday. There is more than enough archeological evidence to say, yes Leif Erikson was the first European that we know the name of to set foot in the Americas, some 500 years before Columbus.

So let us all eat, drink, and be merry, and lift another horn of mead to Leif Erikson, Viking Explorer, the first pale-face to set foot in Vineland! Skál!

watchin tv

I never watch reality TV shows, but tonight I made an exception. I had to watch tonight's episode of the Amazing Race, half of the show was here in Huntsville, so I made an exception. What were the teams doing here? Going through the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, of course. What else would people be doing in the Rocket City? The Huntsville Times reported that the teams and crew were filming in July, and based on the generally crappy night, weather wise, I'm guessing they were all enjoying the beginnings of Dennis, before the center of the storm made it's way about 50 miles from the City of Huntsville proper.

The online edition of the Huntsville Times.

The Wikipedia article on Huntsville. I think I'll make each little part of the article a subject for a blog post, because oh, the stories I can tell...

the 2005 hurricane season breaks another record

Tropical Storm Vince made landfall after passing south of Portugal and making landfall in Spain. Vince was the first tropical system on record to ever make landfall on the Iberian Penninsula. Gotta love this year. So when is Wilma gonna make her debut?

back up and running

The server has finished having it's networking hissy fit, so the pretty graphics are back up. Whee! Yay! And there was much rejoicing.

murphy always wins

It's Happy Blogiversary to me, and my image server thinks there is no network. "I can't see, there is no world. I'm blind!" So, no pretty background images while it has it's little hissy fit in it's corner. Fine, it can have it's little hissy fit, and you get plain solid color. At least the content is here.

happy b-day to me

Today is my 1 year anniversary as a blogger, and what a year it has been. Looking through my archives is interesting, to say the least. Yeah, now you're saying, "there's stuff dated from October 1-9, too". Yep, that's where I hide stuff I don't want cluttering up my index page, like my 100 Things list.

just one to go

Portugal, prepare for the wrath of Hurricane Vince.



Ok. So Portugal will end up getting something more like tropical stormy wrath of Vince. But hey, at least it's on the other side of the pond. Oh, what does the National Hurricane Center have to say?

HURRICANE VINCE DISCUSSION NUMBER 2
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
5 PM EDT SUN OCT 09 2005

IF IT LOOKS LIKE A HURRICANE... IT PROBABLY IS... DESPITE ITS
ENVIRONMENT AND UNUSUAL LOCATION...

Gotta love the scientific accuracy in all of this. So, when do we meet Wilma?

sunday catblogging

Hey, better late than never, right?





No big hurry with anything around here. The light changes, McCullough shifts a little, and life moves at a cat's pace.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you're not satisfied with a cat's pace, then this week's edition of the Carnival of the Cats is up at Gina's Rantings. It's her first Carnival, and it's a fine one.

Also, you can head over to Modulator for this week's edition of the Friday Ark. Life moving at the cat's pace it is around here, I finally got my butt in gear and posted my boardings for the week.

battlestar galactica marathon

Here I am today, doing some sketching, watching the Battlestar Galactica marathon on the Sci-Fi channel. Original Battlestar Galactica. Now, I've become a huge fan of the new series quite by accident, by watching it with my brother-in-law. I've been highly impressed by the story arc, the eye candy, and how well the series is made. Now I'm watching the original series, and it's interesting to see how the new series is trying to be true to the old, without so many plot tangents.

In the old series each episode is a string of single stories, set within the BG universe, while in the new series, each is intertwined, a braided story heading toward a single end, each a chapter in a longer story. I wonder, in 20 years, when I watch the current BG series, will I think "how corny is this, look how bad the effects are" or will I be thinking "it's still as good as it was 20 years ago"? It's hard to tell, and only time will tell.

I'm glad to have come across the old Battlestar Galactica marathon, since I was a very young when it was on the air originally. In my mind for years, I had it meshed with Buck Rogers - Apollo, Starbuck, Buck Rogers, and Hawk, all on the same ship, plus the Cylons. I'm glad to have that tangle out of my head now, although I don't remember any specific episodes of either show. At least things are a little less confused in here, in my mind.

Oh, and a last little bit of trivia. Frack was used in the original series, as well as the new one, as a curse word. In one episode of the new series, Commander Adama is seen shaving in this mirror:



It's from Ikea, and it's the Frack model. I can't make this shit up.

welcome visitors

Hello to the readers directed here from Instapundit. I finally figured out why my numbers over the past two days jumped. Have a good look around, let me know what you think.

more from the tropics

Just 2 more to go before Tropical Storm Alpha...



Yay, more rain in Alabama. Image from the National Hurricane Center.

All that is left is Vince and Wilma.

how fast a year can pass

In 5 days is my 1 year anniversary as a blogger. I never guessed this site would have become as well read, in 1 year, as it has. Consider this an open thread, what do you want to see more or less of. Not that you'll get your wish, but I want to know what my readers think. Comment away.

i know you're out there

I just checked Sitemeter, and am preparing to do some other meter reading. I know you are out there, I know I have readers. For some reason, yesterday was my all time high in number of hits in a single day, and I may break it today. Feel free to comment, people. Yes, I have enabled verification for commenting, to keep the spambots away. There have already been 104 of you here today. You don't have to just lurk.

And Orion, if you've been on, you can say hi. It's allowed. I know someone from Kessler AFB at Biloxi has been on here a few times. Even if you're not Orion, drop me a line, tell me how things are going down there. It's not like I have anything better to do right now.

a little skywatching

I went outside the other night, at about 3am to get something out of my car, but then I looked up, and got distracted.


Orion, the great hunter, high in the southern sky. Before I went inside to get my camera, I even saw a meteor go across the entire width of Orion's shoulders. For a meteor to go acoss the entire width of the constellation, it was about the size of a grain of sand. Nothing more.

The bright star just to the left of the tip of the utility pole is Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius, or α CMa (alpha Canis Major), is the second brightest star in the sky, second only to our own sun.

We are now in the Dog Days of summer, so called because it's so hot only dogs are crazy enough to be outside in the sun. It is also when Sirius is visible at night, so it became the Dog Star, a celestial indicator of the weather.



Then I looked up even higher and saw the Pleiades, not a constellation but an open cluster of stars, with 6 stars visible by my naked eye, which is amazing, for an urban area. The Pleiades in this photo are the small dipper-shaped cluster of blue-white stars just above the center of this photo. The bright "star" below the Pleiades (the brightest point in this photo) isn't a star at all, but Mars. Just below it, is a small vertical streak with a bright point on one end. That is a meteor I caught on film, the bright spot at the end of the line when the meteor finally completely burned up. With it being so small, it was nothing more than a dust speck, dying a glorious death in the atmosphere. I never would have been able to see it with the naked eye, it's too small.

Now, due to the rotation of the Earth, the stars all appear to be streaks, all moving in the same direction. If my exposure time was longer, you would be able to see long arcs, and if I point my camera at the North Star, which doesn't move, all other stars appear to rotate around it. So, in these two photos, the stars all appear to be streaks, more or less horizontal.

You can click on each photo to be taken to the Flickr page for each. If you have an account, you can scroll down a little, and click on "different sizes" on the right side, to see the full resolution image of each, or any other of my photos on Flickr.

For these two, here are the links for the full resolution pics:
The Pleiades, Mars, and a meteor
Orion and Sirius

some more health news

Yesterday I went to the pulmonologist, for allergy testing and asthma testing, to see if my respiratory infections were caused by. The results - no asthma. I couldn't do the allergy testing, I took some medication for nausea Sunday night, which is also an antihistamine. On the control test on my arm, the saline reacted equally to the pure histamine. So, in 2 weeks I go back for allergy testing. Yes, I realize I'm probably going to be allergic to cat dander. Oh, well, I'll get over it.

The other great revelation from yesterday is (and I know anyone who is a regular reader/chatter will be absolutely shocked by this) that I have a supressed immune system, and am susceptible to infections. I also have a very low pneumococcal antibody count, which means that I have no antibodies to Pneumococci ssp. bacteria, and my immune system just lets it run wild. So I received a pneumococcal vaccination yesterday, will get another antibody count in 4 weeks, and probably get another vaccination. No big deal. So, I just have to try to not get infections...

carnival of the cats #80

The 80^thedition of the Carnival of the Cats is up over at Music and Cats. When you're done here, surf on over and check out the picks of the resident cats, Lyra, Sergi, and Sasha.

And if you can get enough kitty goodness, head over to Modulator for this week's edition of the Friday Ark. There's plenty more over there to feed that nasty cat dander addiction. You know who you are.

the solar powered cat

Behold, the cat of the future, completely solar powered.



Oh, wait. They're already solar powered. Nevermind. Noah's simply enjoying the lack of tropical activity in the area while it lasts.

it's official

It's been over 6 months since I had to go on medical leave, and I am now considered unemployed. While I won't name the company I work for, I am grateful that the CEO decided to extend my benefits more than twice as long as legally required. It is a small business, so I know my employer well, and I am thankful for her decision. I know that my job as a Graphic Designer/Emergency Response Team Coordinator/Jack-of-all-Trades will be waiting for me, when I can return to work.

Until then, I will keep in touch with my co-workers, and the corporate client I worked for. They have all been very suportful of me, and kept me in their thoughts and prayers. For reasons of anonymity, of myself and my family, I won't reveal the name of either organization. Let's just say both are great organizations, with great people. I look forward to the day when I can return to my work families.