Down and out

Man.  Little did I realize when I posted last week, how right I was about viruses having it in for me.  I’m STILL trying to get rid of this one.  Eleven days and counting.  My voice was completely gone from Saturday through Wednesday.  Then Wednesday afternoon I started running a temperature above 100 and the virus moved from my throat and chest into my head and took up residence in my ears and nose and sinuses.   I gave up and called in sick Thursday and made a doctor's appointment.  She prescribed antibiotics and Mucinex to get me to cough the stuff out of my lungs.  Unfortunately, I gave them the number for the closest pharmacy to my new house, and when I got there, their computer and fax were down and they weren't getting any prescriptions in.   I was too sick to care and just went home.  

Friday morning I felt marginally better and went and got the meds and started talking them.   This morning I feel like hell again, but then I coughed so much last night I ended up sleeping in the recliner, partially upright.  I hope these drugs work because I'm really tired of being sick, tired of trying to cough up a lung, and tired of being tired.  Can you tell I don't do ill very well.  

I am a little concerned about the fact that I've had two colds in such a short period of time and that it's been eleven days and I still haven't cleared this current cold.  I usually don't have this much trouble.  Plus I have a three day weekend this weekend, and instead of doing a multitude of chores or anything fun, I'm home being miserable.  I really hate that.

Anyway, enough of the viral drama. Yesterday when I went to get my drugs I also went and got a new camera. My one concession to something fun for the weekend.  So you have new pictures today. 

Yesterday I had a pair of brown-headed cowbirds on the feeder.   The male is really distinctive, glossy black all over but with a brown head, like he's wearing a hood.  The female is just a pale even brown.  That may be the female I've been seeing out there and trying to determine what she was.  I try to take pictures of them through the back door, which isn't very successful.   In this picture you can kind of see the red male house finch with this head turned to the left on the left side of the feeder.  A male house sparrow has his back to us.  The picture I attempted of the brown-headed cowbird didn't turn out at all.  I may have to think about getting a motion activated wildlife camera and mounting it back there if so many interesting birds are going to be stopping by.

We got a rain storm last night finally.  They've been calling for rain for days, and we've gotten nothing.  It looks like they are calling for rain most of this week also, so I hope it does rain, at least some.  I heard the storm come through sometime early this morning.  The birdbath is full this morning and it was close to empty yesterday afternoon, so we got a decent amount of rain. The little birds are so happy.  I have several blue jays that use that birdbath.  They don't come in to the feeder, but they use the birdbath. The rest of the birds use both. 

Anyway, that's it for today.  I'm going to go be puny and maybe play with my new camera.  Later.

Viruses have it in for me

Since I haven't replaced my camera yet, I'm putting another old picture in this post.  This one was from last summer at Monica's.  It looks like the mother deer is sticking her tongue out at us.

It’s another rainy and cold Saturday, but that’s fine with me today.  I have another cold, so I’m staying in and being puny.  Yes, I have ANOTHER one.  I had a bad cold which had me out sick for 2 days back in late January and now I have another one.  I’m beginning to worry about my immune system.  Or maybe I'm just particularly susceptible to Florida viruses.  I caught the January cold while at a meeting in Florida.  And this one was given to me by a friend who was sick while she was visiting from Florida.  

This one is particularly untimely because it began coming on on Tuesday afternoon.  Wednesday I was dosing myself with every home remedy known to man plus every over-the-counter cold medication I could buy.   And the reason for that was that I went to Philadelphia on Thursday and Friday to give two talks.  See why the timing was so bad, besides the fact that I shouldn’t be catching colds so easily.

Anyway, I wasn’t too miserable in Philadelphia, and my head wasn’t so stopped up that flying to and from Philadelphia was torture.  And most importantly, my voice lasted through my talks yesterday.  By the time the plane landed last night though, I didn't have much of a voice left, and today it's completely gone.  Nothing.   

Having no voice is kind of a pain, even staying home and being puny.   Addy’s doing her you-left-me-for-two-days-so-I-must-follow-you-everywhere-and-sit-in-your-lap-if-you’re-still-long-enough act.  If she loses track of me she starts yelling loudly until I call her name and she can locate me again.  Except when I try calling her, nothing happens.   So she just keeps yelling until she finds me. 

The talks in Philadelphia were very well received.  I gave a talk for the residents Friday morning and then gave Grand Rounds in the afternoon.  It was fun. 

I have a LOT of birds fighting over the bird feeder today.  Mostly house sparrows, juncos and mourning doves, but I also have a pair of house finches (he’s very red right now) and a pair of cardinals.   Plus this morning I saw a solid brown bird on the feeder with this pale streak behind her eyes.  I’m thinking it may be the female of that red-wing blackbird I saw a while back.  Or some sort of female blackbird, since they tend to be brown.  It’s fun to watch them and try to figure out what birds are out there.   Zoe likes to watch them too, which she’s doing from inside today since it’s cold and rainy and I’m not opening the door. 

I had to re-figure out how to program my sprinkler system.  The lawn service I use treated my lawn with a pre-emergent last week and said to water it in within 48 hours.  Since no rain was due, I figured out how to get my sprinkler system going again.  It’s working fine and I decided to leave it on, watering every 4th day for now.  I will have to make sure it’s not set to water on any day that might drop below freezing.  It’s not supposed to be very warm here this week. 

It was COLD in Philly and windy as hell, which I'm sure didn't help my cold.  Here's a funny thing.  One of the home remedies I use is gargling with diluted apple cider vinegar.  I really don't know where I picked that one up, but it does seem to help when I have a sore throat.  Anyway, I found a small travel-size bottle and put apple cider vinegar in it to take with me.  Only apparently I had used the bottle for shampoo or something soapy in the past and not successfully cleaned it out. The first time I diluted some of it in Philly and tried to gargle with it, I had foam coming from my mouth and it tasted soapy.  Yuck!  I'm sure it looked hysterical though.  I threw the rest of it out.

I guess that's about all.  I'm going to hang out today babying myself and resting and trying to get this cold to run it's course and move on, and feeling somewhat guilty about probably spreading it to two planeloads of people.  Although luckily I'm not, and haven't been, coughing much . . . yet.

Later.   

Rainy

Today is a gloomy and rainy day but since we need the rain, I'm not that unhappy about it.  A pretty good storm passed though last night so everything is saturated.  And the grass is coming up!  And my neighbor's Bradford pear trees are beginning to bloom like crazy.  Pretty!  I'd take a picture of it except my camera battery is dead.  Instead you get the most recent baby pine tree picture.

I need a new camera.  Badly.  Neither of the batteries for my current camera hold a charge any longer, so I can get maybe 10 pictures before both batteries are dead, fewer if they are flash pictures.  Plus I have one piece of the camera duct-taped on it, so I think I'm due for a new one.    My friend's camera took such great pictures last summer.  I'll have to ask her what make it is.  

My older cat Addy has been getting increasingly fragile.  She's unsteady on her feet, sleeps on the bed essentially all the time except when she's being fed, and lately she occasionally cries when I pet her.  She seemed to be in some amount of pain almost constantly.  So in desperation, trying to find some way to alleviate some of that, I bought a little package of chewy treats that contain glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate.  OMG!  I'm not a believer in stuff that's hyped a lot about how it works, and scientifically, I can't see how these would work or how they could help her, but the fact is, they are helping her!   She's up and active, going outside and wandering around the yard.   Her balance is better - she can stand on three legs while scratching her ear, which she couldn't before.  And she doesn't spend her entire day laying on the bed, she seems more comfortable.  I know none of this is measurable, but she's better.  She's moving more easily and she's moving!  I'm going to keep giving her these treats, which luckily she likes the taste of and eats easily.  I sound like an ad for these things, but it's just such a difference.  I may even consider taking the human version if/when I ever get to the stiff and creaky stage of life.  

I also treated both cats for fleas this weekend.  Interestingly I never had a flea problem with them in the old house, even though my neighbors on three sides had dogs.  But I've seen a flea on each of them this last week, so they got treated yesterday.  

That's about all that's new right now so, later!

Found it!

After a bunch of searching I finally found what it is that's blooming out by my back fence.  It's a flowering quince.  I have to give my sister credit for the find though.  Monica asked me if it had thorns.  I told her 'no' but today I was out there, unwinding and cutting out a vine from the middle of it, and it very definitely has thorns, about an inch or so long.  So when I came back in I googled "long thorns pink blossoms" and there it was!  Yay!  There's some hope that I will be able to identify the things that bloom around here this year after all.

As you can see Zoe is in a lazy mood.  That thing she's laying on is a scratching post that she uses regularly and likes to sleep on.  She's been outside today but not much, and even I came scampering back in after cutting that old vine out.  It's cold today!  I ran some errands this morning and it never got above 38 while I was out there.  And the wind is COLD.   Brrrrrrrr!   It's so bright and sunny that I expect it to be warm, but it's definitely not.    

I went ahead and did my taxes using TurboTax last weekend.  Yup, got them done and e-filed.  It took me almost 5 hours on Sunday to do it though.  I was trying to be really thorough, as well as trying to figure out what the hell this statement means each time I came up on something else.  Tax-ese is no doubt written by the same folks who wrote lawyer-ese.  But I felt as sure about the finished results as I ever feel about taxes, so I went ahead and filed.  Weirdly, I already have my refund!  I had it direct deposited and noticed it in my account this morning.  That's what I call service.    

Something, probably a squirrel, destroyed my bird feeder.  I came in one afternoon and it was hanging funny.  I went out there and when I touched it, it just fell apart.  Luckily it was mostly empty.  I jury-rigged it and refilled it.  The birds have been using it still, even jury-rigged with baling twine.  I bought a new feeder today and will replace the rigged one when they empty it.   

There was a red-wing blackbird on the feeder the other day.  I haven't seen one of those in forever.  They're so pretty.  I hope he sticks around.  The house sparrows, mourning doves and junkos are the most common visitors.

Despite the cold spell we've had this week, the Bradford pears in the area are starting to show signs of flowering.  When it warms up just a little I think everything will go into full bloom mode.  I'm waiting for the trees to leaf out.  I really am not that fond of dead-looking bare branches during the winter.  My aloe vera did indeed take some serious damage this winter, but it looks like the centers of all of them are going to survive.  And I found the tiny start of new leaves on the peach sapling I said looked so dead, so I think they'll be fine also.  


So far I'm keeping up with my exercising.  It's actually easier since I bought the Wii, because the Wii Fit Program makes it fun to exercise, rather than a chore.  That's the thing about exercise.  I don't mind exercising if it's for a purpose.  I love to hike for example.  But just to exercise for the sake of exercising is BORING!  And tedious.  And hard to maintain.  Even with switching out between my little exercise machines I was bored.  But the Wii makes it fun, plus it keeps track of your time and calories.  So, so far I'm still doing it regularly.  

I guess that's about it for today.  Here's another picture of the flowering quince.  

Unknown bloomer

Isn't this thing gorgeous?   I have no idea what it is.  This picture and the one at the end of the post are close-ups of the plant / vine / whatever that's blooming out by my fence.  I spent a couple hours yesterday trying to identify it online.  Just a warning - don't search using "pink flowers" unless you want to spend a LOT of time looking at cherry blossoms.  

Anyway, I still don't know what it is, maybe some sort of primrose?, but it's really pretty.  I also have a couple of small pink hyacinths blooming out front.  Those were easier to identify because I thought I knew what they might be, and they were.

It's another gorgeous weekend, perfectly sunny and a little cool.  It's supposed to be very windy today but the wind hasn't picked up yet.   We had rain last week so more things are starting to come up and leaf out.  One thing that isn't though is my oldest peach seedling.  Is it still called a seedling when it's a couple of feet tall?  Sapling?  Small tree?  Anyway, the two smaller ones aren't leafing out yet, but they are showing some signs of life.  The oldest one still looks very dead.  I hope it isn't very dead.  I'm seriously going to try planting those seedlings in the yard this year.   

Zoe spent almost all day outside yesterday.  She's back out there again today.  The birds now use the feeder whether she'd there or not.  This picture is of her in the doorway, stalking the birds and reflected in the fireplace glass.    Yesterday she wasn't feeling so well, but still wanted to be outside.  She vomited both her breakfast and her supper.  She did drink a bunch from the nasty birdbath yesterday so maybe that was the cause.  I put clean water in it this morning and she seems fine today.  Addy spends most of her time sleeping these days, with occasional demands for attention.  I give it to her.  They're both old lady cats now, but Addy's two years older.  

I still haven't tried doing my taxes.  I'm waiting for one specific form, a 1099 from a company the reimburses me for a bunch of travel, and it hasn't arrived yet.  If I recall it was kinda late arriving last year.  Although . . . come to think of it, I may not have filed for reimbursement from them for those trips.   Huh!  I'm waiting for nothing.  Guess I'll go ahead and work on those taxes.  I must have subconsciously not wanted to do them.

Addy's outside!  It's really a perfect day for her.  Cool enough that she can lay in the full sunlight and it's warm on her rather than baking her in her black fur.   Both cats are drinking a lot of water these days and using the boxes a lot.  Old cat kidneys not working as efficiently as they should.  Addy often looks somewhat dehydrated despite all the water she drinks.  Her lab results from her last vet visit didn't show cause for concern though so I just keep an eye on her. 

The roses in front and back are starting to leaf out.  I trimmed them up a bit this morning in the back yard, but didn't cut them all the way back since they're already growing.  They're thinner and taller than I like but I'll let them grow this year and cut them back next year.

Well, I guess that's about all my trivia for today.  Later.   

Little pine trees

Check out these guys.  I know it's crazy to post about tiny pine trees, but I'm always so excited when I get something to grow, especially from seeds.   And these little trees are just thriving.

The taller of the two trees is about 8 inches tall now.  And it's longest limb extends out 6 inches from the trunk.  I'm so delighted to see them growing so well.  They're supposed to be a little bonsai tree set-up, but I wonder if I put them in bigger pots, whether they would grow into full sized trees.  I do like to watch them grow on my windowsill though.  Decisions, decisions.  They seem to be thriving right now though so I imagine I'll leave them where they are for the time being. 

As you can see, the moss is still growing gangbusters too.  I've taken to trimming the moss back with a scissors when it gets too tall. 

I'm thinking about trying to do my taxes myself with Turbotax.  I've always done my own taxes, but I have several new things to deal with this year besides my usual royalties.  For one thing I have two mortgages, but also I have rent on one of them, etc.  So probably I should find a CPA and have my taxes done for me.   I'm thinking I'm going to try it myself with Turbotax first though, and if I have trouble or it doesn't seem right, I'll take it to a CPA.  Like if I try to do it myself and I end up having to pay more taxes.  I won't e-file the Turbotax version, I'll take it to a professional.  I figure it can't hurt to try it.  I'm not quite ready to try it though.  Still waiting on forms to arrive.

It doesn't look like any birds are touching the thistle seed feeder yet, but then it took them 6 months to start using the other feeder so hopefully they'll eventually use it.  You can see from the picture that I've hung the feeders on the old satellite dishes left on the house.  Might as well make them useful, right?  

We got rain last night, which is good.  My lawn is starting to come up, which seems a little early to me.  We've often had freezes in February and March, so winter isn't over.  I have some sort of vine thing blooming pink out by my fence already though.  I guess I'll have to see if I can figure out what the perennials are that bloom around here this year.  The people who lived here before me loved flowers and blooming things, and I have to admit, I like the bright blooming colors also.  If the vine by the fence wasn't a vine I'd wonder about it.  The color of the blossoms is very similar to peach tree blossoms.  My little peach trees aren't starting to leaf out yet thankfully.   It's too early. It'll freeze again this year.  My poor aloe vera have already taken multiple hits.  There will be some serious limb die-back, but I think the plants will all survive despite that.

There are a pair of doves that hang out around here as well as the pair of cardinals.  I wonder where they're nesting.  Doves and mockingbirds seem to like nesting relatively low, so I'm trying to locate their nests.  There's a nest left over from last year in my crepe myrtle but I haven't seen any birds around it yet this year.  I wish I had swallows nesting here like I did at the old house.  Actually, I just looked out and there are five doves perched along my fence top.  Once they start using it, word of the bird feeder spreads fast I guess.   

 I guess that's about all today.  More later. 

Puzzle

I may have mentioned before that I'm . . . a little goal-oriented.  Or more than a little.  Or a lot.  I've known that about myself for a long time, but I had it illustrated nicely a couple weeks ago. I  got a 3 foot long cat puzzle for Christmas from my sister and brother-in-law and it's been sitting in it's box on the dining room table since I got it.  A couple of Saturday's ago, late in the afternoon I decided I'd start the puzzle, and then just work on it randomly as I had time.  

I finished it just after noon on Sunday.

I don't know how long I worked on it Saturday night.  As soon as I got up on Sunday I picked it up again, only stopping long enough to put laundry in the washer or take it out of the dryer.  The pictures in this post are the various phases of completion.  The first picture is where I was when I went to bed Saturday night.   The third picture is right before being done when I hadn't put in the little cat-shaped pieces that were hidden in the puzzle, and then the last one is the whole thing finished.  Just a little goal oriented, huh?

I caught a bad cold two weeks ago.  I suppose I picked it up in Florida at my board of directors meeting.  The week I caught it, it was bad enough that I actually missed a day and a half of work.  Really miserable.  I'm basically over it now, but I have this damn nagging cough that catches me up at times.  Cold weather and exercise will trigger it, but randomly I'll just start coughing and won't be able to stop for awhile.  Luckily I'm no longer coughing at night, so at least I'm getting my sleep.  Still, I wish I could stop coughing all together.  

I bought a Wii Fit system the other day, figuring when I can breath without coughing again, it'll help me get back on my exercise program.  I've used my sister's at her house in Colorado, and the system does really get you to exercise in a fun way.  It also has this function where you can put your pets into the system.  If you do, then your pets will jog along with you or run along as you're biking, etc.  It's just kinda fun.  The trouble is, you also put the pet's weight in by holding the pet and standing on the Wii board.  The system subtracts the total weight from your weight to get the pet's weight.  So I took my life in my hands and picked up my fat cat to do this.  I'm not sure I've ever said, but my fat cat goes spastic when her feet leave the ground.  I think she may have an inner ear imbalance, and I know she has razor claws.   But I managed without too much bodily harm to myself.  She's 18 pounds.  My smaller cat is 10.5 pounds.  It's too bad I can't really get them to run along with me.

Things at work have been BUSY.  Besides being goal-oriented, I'm a procrastinator.  How's that for a combination?  Well it's not my fault that I missed days due to illness, but I suppose I could have started earlier.  I had five powerpoint presentations due last Friday.  I actually did start them right after the new year, but the rest of my job kept interfering with getting much done on them.  So I was scrambling to get them in on Friday, but I did it.  

The birds have found my bird feeder.  I have a flock of junkos that hang out in the backyard.  Randomly, a pair of cardinals shows up and a couple blue jays, some house finches and sparrows and a bunch of doves.  Yesterday I hung a thistle seed feeder out there to see if I can attract any goldfinches.  Zoe LOVES the birds.  She'll sit in the back door watching them for hours with her tail twitching.  Or if it's warm enough to let her out, she hides under the shrubs and watches them.  Like at the old house, the birds totally dis her.  They were wary at first, but now they pretty much ignore her.  She really enjoys being out there and acting like she's hunting, so I'm happy to let her.  Occasionally she'll even try a charge.  Totally useless, because she's so fat and old that the birds are so long gone by the time she reaches where they were.  It gets her up and moving though and she's happy, so it's all good.

I guess that's about it for today.  In the future I'll try to do better than one post a month.