You are looking at posts that were written in the month of August in the year 2007.
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I have become totally fascinated with this flower. It has so much depth and detail to it. And I really love its color.
Funny that I so rarely see them. I first saw one a long time ago. A friend had one in her yard. Then, this summer I noticed it growing in a yard near my dad’s house. But last week, I found a really great vine growing near our vet’s office. It covers the entire fence. It is huge. This picture is a side view so you can see its spaceship-like quality.
Music has long been a big part in my life. I have so many memories that are triggered by a song. And I often have a song for my mood. Many times, a word or phrase will trigger the memory of a song for me. Two days out of the year, I have designated as Pink Floyd Day. The two days are today, August 23rd, and February 18th. I dedicate them both to my sister Conni. She came into this world on February 18, 1953 and left, far too early, on August 23, 2001.
Conni was diagnosed with lung cancer almost 5 years after she quit smoking. It never seemed fair that it should happen to her. After her diagnosis, she pushed everyone she knew to stop smoking. Saying it was stupid, and it was. Some, like myself, listened. Others didn’t. To this day, I can no longer understand why anyone would smoke. I watched her go from the most independent person I knew, to someone who relied on others for everything.
We shared a lot in our life together. Growing up, we always shared a bedroom. And we certainly shared music. Conni introduced me to a lot of the music I know today. I recall one of our last conversations. I was remembering our early teen years. We listened to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention until we knew every line of every song. That day, one week before she left us, we sat in her hospital room singing those songs.
That last summer, my husband and I made countless trips to the hospital to visit her. One line from a song kept going through my mind: “What a long strange trip it’s been!”
The first day I returned to work after her passing, the radio played “Comfortably Numb” on my drive in. It made me cry. In fact, writing this post also makes me cry.
And for a very long time, I felt guilty whenever I sang along with Joe Walsh on “Life’s Been Good To Me So Far.”
To this day, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of her. “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?”
She may be gone, but she is definitely not forgotten.
Most of us have heard about the tainted pet food from earlier this year. It was killing a lot of pets in the US. I was surprised to learn that most of the cat food brands sold came fro one source. Sadly, that source was using poisoned products from China.
Since I first go Shadow - picture below, I’ve been trying to buy high quality pet food. I’ve tested as being allergic to cats. And I’ve read that many pet allergies are caused by pet dander. And, you can control dander and allergies by feeding your pet a high-quality diet.
It seemed to help me. But I also had a theory that short hair on Shadow helped as well. We lost Shadow in 2005, 2 months shy of her 18th birthday.
Shortly after that, we got Grayson - picture below. (And yes, that is the same perch, notice how he fills it up!) And he certainly isn’t a short-haired cat - quite the opposite.
When I heard about the tainted pet food, I wanted an alternative. That’s when I happened to find this post on Health and Wellness Blog. In May, I ordered Flint River Pet Food and gave it a try. We started out as instructed, giving small amounts of new w/ old and then increasing. Grayson wasn’t having it though. He was sorting through his food and eating only the new. After about 5 days, we gave up and quit giving him the old stuff. He loves his new food, and we feel better that he is eating it! We wound up throwing some of the old food away.
Today, on the radio, I heard that Wal De Moort was getting complaints from customers. Seems that some pet treats they are selling are making pets sick. Wal De Moort has taken the treats off the shelf, but isn’t issuing a recall. Doesn’t really matter since you can take back any thing in any condition to them anyway.
It makes me wonder - Why do we do so much business with China? Pet food, toothpaste, children’s toys. What’s next? Is it simply poor quality or do they have an ulterior motive? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am being much more careful, reading labels, before I buy anything that could be ingested.
Many people on the web today may not remember this, but years ago, local banks used to give away toasters (yes, toasters!) when you opened an account. This was even before the toaster oven, so it was just a two slice toaster! It became the source of many jokes. Along with the glasses that gas stations used to give away!
Well, the banks appear to be at it again. I just heard a radio ad for Wacho Villa. This woman was talking about how her son loved football. Except he didn’t own a football. Her solution? She opened a bank account with Wacho Villa. No, they’re not giving away footballs. They are giving away $75 gift cards to a sporting goods store, so you can go buy your own football.
I don’t know why the banks can’t just provide good service without a ton of fees, like mine does. As long as they keep that up, even a $750 gift card wouldn’t make me change!
These deer live within the city. We saw them recently one evening. That night, we saw close to 20 deer, but we had no camera and it would have been dark by the time we got back. We’ve been by a few times since then with the camera. Finally got some pics.
The sad thing is that they live far too close to a major freeway. And sometimes, they don’t make it when they try to cross it.
Do you suffer with Migraines? If so, you’re likely aware that MSG is a well known migraine trigger. But did you know that Carrageenan is often known to contain MSG?
I’ve written about Carrageenan on my other blog - Breathe Free.
Carrageenan has been used in laboratory experiments because it is a known tumor promoter. Not a carcinogen, but something that enhances a carcinongen’s virility. Which is reason enough to ask, “Why is it in my food?”
But it’s in lots of your foods - desserts, ice cream, milk shakes, sauces, beer, processed meats, skim milk, soy milks, diet sodas, yogurt to name a few. That’s why I don’t eat “the best ice cream in the country” among a lot of other things. In soy milk, it is often the culprit in reported stomach aches. It’s not the soy milk, it’s the additives.
Now I’ve learned that it can also contain MSG. I’ll be sure to avoid it now because MSG is one of my top food triggers for migraine.
Read your labels. You’ll be surprised what you will find.
Our cat had to make his annual trip to the Vet on Monday. Last year at his visit, he weighed 18 pounds! And the vet said he could still grow for 6 months. Which, by the way, he did. The carrier he had last year was not adequate for a cat of his stature. (He’s not fat, he’s just part lion. He is looong.) The plastic threatened to tear when I held it by the handle. The carrier even fell off the counter top while Grayson was in it. But he survived.
So this year I have a wheeled carrier. It’s made to hold up to 30 pounds. And it’s a good thing, because this guy:
now weighs 22 pounds! But we’re pretty sure he’s stopped growing. We weighed him several months ago and he weighed 22.
Still, big as he is, he still doesn’t care for travel. He was pretty quiet until we got out of the car at the vet’s office. It’s right by the highway so it was noisy. And he howled.
Inside, he tried his best to do his disappearing act. He didn’t succeed, but not for lack of trying!
