Friday morning

Gosh, more than a week since I last wrote here and that only to say Happy Thanksgiving! I'm writing on Friday morning because I took 1/2 day vacation today; I'll go in to the office in an hour or so.

Today was a milestone. I got my haircut for the first time in more than a year. A year ago the day after Thanksgiving, my friend H took me to her stylist who shaved my head. Today I went back to L, the stylist, and she trimmed my chemo-curls. Kind of short, but this way I should only have to go back every 8 weeks or so.

We adopted Ella and are continuing to enjoy getting to know her. She has a canine sense of humor. She will lay on the floor on her side or back and toss one of her "toys" in the air and try to catch it when it comes down. She has very large paws and, in general, is a BIG girl. The Rescue Group's "ad" on line about her said she weighed about 50 pounds, but I took her to the vet last night - just for a check-in/check-up, and she weighed 69 pounds - a 19 pound difference - and she's not through filling out. She was very thin when she came to us and the vet thinks she should weigh around 72 or 73 pounds! She's very long - from the tip of her brown (not black! I'm used to black noses) nose to the end of her soft curly tan tail. She has what I call a "girly dog" bark - I am used to a deeper bark from Jessie, and Ella kind of squeak-barks. She likes to stand with her paws on the radiator cover and look out the window, hunting squirrels and generally checking things out.

We have been to the park a few times, most recently last weekend. There was ice forming on the pond, not thick or deep, just a silvery skim. Then we had warm days, and now cold again. This weekend my guess is there will be more ice.

Thanks again to my friend H I ordered a new bird feeder to hang in front of our living room windows. The one I hung there earlier this year was discovered by the evil cabal of squirrel thieves that apparently call the trees in our yard home. The dastardly little rodents are able to claw their way up the 1/2 inch square metal pole - how I don't know - and then leap to the edge of the feeder, causing it to rock wildly, hang on and grab seeds. They've eaten most of the last 2 refills. I've given up filling the feeder until the new one comes. It is called a "rollerfeeder" (check it out: rollerfeeder.com) and H says since she installed it, the squirrel thieves in her neck of the neighborhood are completely foiled. She said they got on it a couple times - and when they do, the feeder "spins" so they hang on the bottom or something and anyway, can't reach the seed. After a couple of tries, they gave up She says they sit on the deck below where the feeder hangs (where they could reach it) and stare at it. I assume the gears of their little rodent minds are turning as fast as they're capable of, seeking a solution. Hopefully they won't find it - or evolve higher intelligence - at least in my lifetime. The new feeder hasn't arrived yet - maybe today! I can't wait to ruin the nasty little rodents' day.

Wow - some hostility towards squirrels, right? I bought a "bird feeder," not a "squirrel feeder". Those squirrels seem to have no trouble feeding themselves.

At any rate, that's an update on the personal side.

Wiki Leaks in the news. Long term unemployment at rates never seen, and Congress in its spineless capitalist-loving wisdom, did not renew unemployment benefits. A year since the earthquake in Haiti, almost, and in one month recently 30,000 new cholera cases. I read that they brought in porta-potties (Western style like for Rock Festivals!) which have to be emptied, but there's no technology to do that, so then they have to pay a company much $$ to haul the filled porta-pots away, dump them in a rubbish dump (which just lets the sewage seep back into the ground) and bring them back. Great solution - recycling the waste literally "through" the human community - by collecting it, paying someone to move it and dump it on the ground, so it gets in the water where people drink it, and then get diarrhea (or worse - cholera).

Where have all the flowers gone?