Half-Birthday!

Today is my Half-Birthday. To celebrate I went shopping with a little bit of money I'd held back just for this event.

For those of you who don't know, a Half-Birthday is the equivalent of being born on 'Festivas'! A Half-Birthday is for those poor folk (like moi!) who were born within the month AFTER Christmas!

Being born at such a time, when everyone is broke and hung-over, from THE major christian holiday of the year, is tantamount to NOT having a birthday! There are no parties, big gifts, a day at the circus for us! Nope, we are lucky to get a piece a cake with a candle in it and a verbal 'Happy Birthday', and that in a half-hearted manner.

So sometime in my late twenties, I saw, read, heard SOMEWHERE about half-birthdays! From then on, I've celebrated my half-birthday on July 28. And let me tell ya, there have been some damn fine parties and celebrations! Needless to say, as I've gotten older (and clean & sober), the celebrations have toned down considerably! Even though it's now a party of one, I still celebrate my half-birthday.

Of course, I never expect or accept half-birthday presents. BUT, I always buy myself one! And ya know what? It is always something I want! This year it was a set of crochet hooks and a piece of Lemon Meringue Pie!

Crochet Project

I now have 10 totally completed 7” x 9” rectangles, edged with 2 rows of single crochet, and ends all tucked in.

Then I have 4 ready for edging & finishing, and about half of each of 2 skeins waiting for me to make rectangles.

I have no idea how large I am going to make it! I do need a spread for my extra long hospital bed, (but I would rather do that in thread or at least sport weight yarn) and a ‘throw’ for my love seat size sofa. For sure, I cannot ‘give it away’ as it IS basically a ‘practice piece’ AND the first crochet project I’ve done for almost two decades!

I’m amazed out how much I have forgotten, sometimes on these simple rectangles (I am making them in basic sc, hdc, dc and variations of same), I still find I’ve dropped or gained stitches, changed to the wrong stitch mid-row, or screwed up some other way, and have to rip it. When I screw up, I find that crocheting is NOT stress reducing, nor a pleasure! However, it is most of the time.

However, my speed and tension are good, they came right back to me.

I especially like to crochet while watching a movie, or at night while listening to Short Wave Radio. And I enjoy it...

Abandoned Cat Not Doing Well-Update

This week I emailed the folks that neutered him. Told them his condition was deteriorating. I think he needs to be caught AGAIN (and of course, who does the catching – moi!), and taken to the shelter. He needs vet care! They told me they would bring a trap by tomorrow.

Grandson Sighting

Today, as I do every few months when in my daughter’s part of Ocean Beach, I stopped by her apartment. I do this to see if she is still living there, and to put my card on her door so that she will know that I am still alive.

I did the same today. Checked the mailbox and her name was there. So I proceeded on to her front door. I was just reaching out to insert my card in the white security screen door, when it flew open and there was my Grandson Mike. I had no idea he was living there, or had even stayed in California after he arrived about a year ago.

“Granny!” he said, all smiles. He did not even say hello, just started telling me about his 19 year old life; he is back in school, and is working nights stocking shelves at a big retail store. (For which I am very grateful!)

He is even taller, and more filled out than when I last saw him; definitely moving out of his teens and into manhood.

Now that I know he is in town, I think I’ll invite him to dinner...

Saturday Has Become my ‘Out’ Day

Mainly because the local bus has a ‘ramp’ instead of the ‘lift’ on Holidays and weekends, Monday through Friday, they only have the ‘lift’. The ramp is much easier, faster, and far less harrowing than the ‘lift’.

So on Saturdays I can bop on and off the bus with no anxiety or worries. (Though at times, even the ramps break and will not deploy.) I have been on the bus when the lift would not deploy. I have seen other people stuck out on that lift, and I have heard harrowing stories of the lift breaking with someone ON it! I do not want to be one of those ‘stories’!

Today I went to the Vons shopping center, picked up a few things, did some window shopping, chatted with strangers, entered a $250 Von’s shopping spree contest, and more or less thoroughly enjoyed myself. I came home just a couple of hours later happy & relaxed. It is amazing how getting out of the apartment one afternoon a week just to play, feeds the soul.

I would do this more often if they had the ‘ramp’ busses on this route ALL the time! I could maybe even get to the Library once in awhile. But the company that contract the route, says that during the week they need to use the ramp loading buses on ‘busier routes’, which intrigues me, as route 35 IS a busy route!

Abandoned Cat Not Doing Well

Just a couple of days after he was returned, I noticed an open place on his scrotum. It looks like a ‘slit’ about an inch long. Now since I cannot get close to him, I am seeing this from 3 – 4 feet away.

I emailed the people who did the surgery on him, and was told they did not put stitches in male neuters, that they just let the blood coagulate, and that if he was licking it, it could take awhile to heal.

I was advised to ‘watch’ him, should he stop eating, become lethargic, etc, to contact them again and perhaps we could put antibiotic in his food.

Why does stuff like this always happen to me? I bet they neuter hundreds of feral cats a year, and this does not happen! Or does it, and no one knows about it? (If only they had put in dissolving stitches!)

But I get to watch him, and worry about him! Poor stray half-wild cat and I have no way to help him, no trap, no money to take him to vet. So frustrating...

Abandoned Cat is Back from Neutering

The volunteer from the Feral Cat Coalition retuned him early this evening. He seemed none the worse for wear, though he was missing a part of his anatomy that with his short gray fur, used to be quite large and prominent!

The volunteer opened the ‘trap’ for him right outside my front door, thereby returning him to his ‘territory’. He took off like a shot, across the parking area towards Famosa Slough. I probably will not see him for 2 – 3 days, or until he gets hungry enough...