Round up

I think I mentioned earlier that I was cat sitting for my friends while they are in Jamaica. Well, these are their two kitties. One male - named Blueberry; one female - named Zoey.

I think this is Blueberry, the photo really doesn't do justice to his beautiful coat.


This is Zoey, she is much bolder than Blueberry and has been letting me touch her since day one.


One of them has been throwing immense hairballs up since day one. I think it is Blueberry, he isn't sure that I will come and feed them everyday and is worried that mommy won't come back. He is cleaning Zoey all the time and then gorging on the food when I put it down. Yesterday was the first day I didn't have to clean up after him, so maybe he is a little more relaxed and they get back Sunday night.

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You asked for a grin about my hair, well, here it is!

My eyes disappear these days in fat and general old age puffiness when I smile, so that is all you're getting! I am going to have to cobble together a photo one day from all the good bits from several photos!

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I hate it when I dial a wrong number and will usually realize it before the call goes through. If it has already rung on the other end, I will stay on the line and apologize. Seldom am I paying so little attention that I don't realize I have made an error. I have been given plenty of wrong numbers and I will usually take the time to verify that the number I have is the one I dialed and then apologize.

This has a point. I received a call this afternoon and the conversation went something like this:

me: Hello?

caller: Hello -um - who my talkin' too? (very demanding)

me: Who are you looking for?

caller: This isn't (company name)?

me: No, you've dialed CLICK incorrectly....

Which was much more polite than the call I very kindly made last weekend. I had a message on my machine for a wrong number. Now I mostly ignore these, but this was for a person who had just purchased a property and the keys were wrong. It went like this:

me: Hi, someone there (they didn't leave a name) called about keys but they...(interrupted)

him: yes, (and started in to explain)

me: excuse me, I was just calling to let you know that you left the message at the wrong number.

him: oh - CLICK!

What ever happened to telephone manners? Even in calling a business these days you are treated to poor grammar, bad enunciation and appalling manners. I get teased by the people I work with that I sound different when I am on the phone, yes, that is my professional voice, I don't have any idea who is on the other end (well, a better idea these days with caller ID) and it could as well be head office as a wrong number.

Well, before this turns into a really long pointless rant I will sign off. I hope you all have a good weekend.

The Odd, The End & The Middle

Wow, I was so exhausted last night that I couldn't get the video to load for today. Why? you ask? Well, let me tell, you about my weekend.

Friday, I rode my bike to the Cross Cancer Institute to pick up the drugs I forgot to pick up when I was there on Wednesday to have my arm checked out. (In case you missed that, it is better, I have an appointment for Wednesday to be measured and order a new sleeve - smaller!) Before I tell you how far I went, I want to remind everyone that I just acquired a bike last summer after years of having a car. So far this year I have ridden it maybe three times.

On the way, I noticed my tires were a bit low, they had just been pumped up the last week before, so I stopped at my friends and asked (I think I've named him) Pete if I could borrow his bike. Well, it hasn't been out yet at all (and is buried behind a bunch of stuff), so we just put air in my tires and hoped for the best. I headed off and was deliberately taking it easy, I wanted to make sure I could get back. It is four miles from my place to the Cross. With the added stop at my friends, round trip was 8.42 miles.

I had a bite of lunch, then got back on my bike to go to the Dr's to get some prescriptions that he had missed two weeks ago. He drives me crazy sometimes and he refuses to write a 'scrip for more than three months at a time or give them to the pharmacist over the phone. That added 2.64 miles round trip. So my total riding for Friday was 11.06 miles! (18+ kilometers for anyone young enough to actually think that way first)

I almost fell off my bike on the way back. There is construction everywhere between here and the Cross because of the LRT and some dipshit stole a shopping cart and parked it right behind the bushes, with just a corner of the handle sticking out. All along the outside of the sidewalk were these little A frame stands indicating no parking (for the construction). I was on the narrow sidewalk because I know I have to replace or repair the tubes but didn't want to pick up anything from the construction debris in the tires. Needless to say, my handlebar caught the shopping cart handle and I lost control. I managed to stay upright, but only just! When I finally got stopped, I looked up and there was one of the workers looking at me. I felt like taking a bow!

Saturday, I spent rearranging boxes and trying to organize the back room in the office. That woman (my boss) has taken a bunch of files from one year and stuffed them in a plastic bag! So not professional! Anyway, that is now done, so I can suggest some changes in the back and see what happens.

Sunday, my friends came and took me to the bottle depot in the morning.....except I hadn't slept all night! I hate having insomnia! I managed to stay awake while at work in the afternoon, but I think that was due to the cappuccino more than anything.

Last night after making and editing this little movie, I was a bit tired and just could not get it to load. I figured out this morning that I was trying to load the wrong thing. Please realize while listening to this tape that I have had about 90 minutes sleep in about 36 hours at this time. I therefore used the wrong words a few times. I did manage to edit out a lot of crap though.




Oh, I forgot to mention on Friday night we went to see stilt walkers perform. I tried to get some video, but a lot of it is shaky - could be I was a bit exhausted. I will see if I can clean it up and show you some of it.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Enjoy.

LRT = Light Rail Transit

Movie time!

Well, I tried to go back after I saved last nights work, to fix the sound and maybe add some music, but MSWMM (microslobwiddlemoviemaker) wouldn't let me. I think because I saved it as a completed project? But then it doesn't recognize shit that it has made? WTF?? So, here it is, my never to be completed movie.




I cut together three little clips and took out some even more boring bits. I can't believe how noisy my neighbours are. When that woman answered her phone, I though she was trying to get my attention.

Have a good weekend all.

Camping with Cats!

My very good friends love to go camping in the summer with their tent trailer. Growing up, our family also camped with a trailer and I quite enjoy the whole camping experience. Now, I can't keep calling them "my friends" so I will call them Tom & Sally and their son Pete (lets hope I don't get confused!). Sally reminded me over Easter, after I told her I had blogged about the "Unfortunate Incident", about the first time Sibu had experienced camping and I thought I should share the story with all of you.

He was not quite one year old when Tom & Sally invited me to go camping with them & Pete to Jasper National Park. Now Sibu is a scaredy cat as I have mentioned before, but he has met Tom & Sally & Pete several times and we have stayed together in Motels and at their house and they at my house etc. Sibu was also quite adjusted to walking on leash and liked to be outside. I traveled to Jasper in my vehicle (from different cities) and met them at the park entrance and we headed off to the camp ground.

Sibu was not about to stay in the car until things were set up, after all Kalon was out and around, he should be too! Fine, so I put him on leash and tied him to a tree that I thought was far enough away from the bustle of setting up camp. Kalon was tied to the tree next to him, but being an old hand at this, he was ignoring the people & trying to catch sight of his first bird or squirrel or elk.

This was later in the evening, but the same tree.

Not my Sibu, he wanted to be wherever I was. Well, I was running back and forth from the truck to the trailer, helping to set things up. We were just about done, the trailer was up and we were looking forward to sitting down & having a drink before starting to make dinner. Pete discovered that Sibu had wound himself up around the tires of the truck and in trying to free him (by coaxing him to reverse his path) bumped the truck. The truck has an alarm on it. My cat was right under the truck. Pete's keys were on the table 20 feet away.

My poor little cat almost hung himself trying to get away from the noise. Once the alarm was stopped and he was untangled he was so scared he was shaking and just couldn't calm down at all. We wound up putting him in the trailer alone for awhile so he could collect himself.

This is after the alarming incident.

Once he showed his face at the door and started to take an interest in things outside, we decided that maybe he should come out and check things out properly. Within about an hour he was as far as his leash would let him go and we had to keep pulling him back to where we could see him. He was chasing night bugs and stalking things in the long grass, listening to the elk calling and then looking for them. He did not want to go to bed when it was time!

Kalon, helping to wash the scare off.

He shied away from Pete the rest of the trip and gave him dirty looks if he came too close, but he didn't object to riding in the offending truck, or getting out and walking the trails with us. Of course, the hair between the pads of his feet collected all the pitch and needles they could and I had to clean them out every time we went into the trailer, or whenever he started to shake his feet as he walked. Which by the way is one of the funniest things to see a cat do!

Since that first time, we have been camping again, but we always keep an eye out for where Sibu is in relation to the truck. He still dashes under vehicles if he is startled, you would think that would be the last place he would dash. Maybe it is just a good thing they have short memories.

I know I shouldn't laugh at the misfortunes of my cat, but sometimes, you just can't help it!

Good Evening all.

The things we do for our pets - or - EWWW!

You can blame this on Crabby over at Cranky Fitness. She is the one that reminded me of this episode, in fact this is the second time. I have to blog it just to get it over with.

My avatar is in fact my very beautiful Himalayan cat Sibu and he is called a Lynx Seal Point. He is more correctly an "it" and is also the biggest scaredy-cat in the world!

When he was a kitten, I trained him to harness and to walk on a leash because I knew that I would be taking him in the vehicle with me and camping with friends. I even made him a seat belt like the one I had for my dog, because I didn't want a 10 lb projectile if I had to stop suddenly, or a cat in my lap helping me to steer. My friends also have a cat, he is a Siamese and travels & camps very well. Now normally they are both on the same cat food, but Kalon being a bit older than Sibu, his human changed him over to adult blend a few years ago and forgot to mention it to me before we went away together on one of our weekend trips.

That's Kalon about to get his tail whacked.

Sibu doesn't like to eat when we travel, he will wait until we get where we are going, then chow down. He also won't drink water and so his poor little nose drys out. Aside from this after the truck hits the hwy he will usually settle down and stop howling. Travel rules are: the cats must be sitting in laps or on the blanket on the seat of the truck, they are not allowed to wander as they will. There are enough of us that the seat belt is not necessary. Especially Sibu, he would get himself stuck under one of the rows of seats and we would never get him out! I hate to admit it by he is not a very bright boy sometimes, his fear overrides his tiny little brain. He once slipped his harness and crawled under my feet as I was driving - alone - on the hwy! Not a good place for a cat.

Needless to say, after a long day in the truck (when I say truck I mean Chev Suburban) he was pretty hungry, or at least you would think so. I think he knew the food was different and didn't want to eat, he also didn't want to drink, but that is because he is spoiled. Well, I figured, he'll get over it and sure enough, sometime in the middle of the night he snuck out & scattered food all over the floor. He does this just to let me know he has been at the bowl I think. The next day, we do some touring around and by the time we got back to the motel, he was resigned to being with my friends and started to behave himself. The next day we headed back home.

We never get home until about 10.00 p.m. with these friends, so it is dark, we are about two hours away from home and he wants to go to the back and use the litter box. He knows better than to do this while the truck is moving, but he was really very determined that he had to go and go now. Off he goes and eventually he comes back to sit on my lap. Thanks very much! He has a very delicate stomach, did I mention this? No? Well, it is a good thing that I happened to have some baby wipe type things in my purse, because damn I needed them. Of course I couldn't see what I was doing, but I could sure smell it.

I would just about have him clean when off to the back he goes again! Poor little guy! Eventually we found a gas station and pulled in so the light was on my side of the truck and I could see what I was doing. My friend found some nail scissors in her kit bag which helped a great deal and we were able to get rid of most of the mess in the back.

Right now I can't think of anything worse than trying to trim a cat's butt & leg hair in the back seat of a truck, in the dark, with nail scissors - curved nail scissors!



Well, I have to go trim butt now, we are going on a day trip tomorrow bright and early. Yes, amazingly the same friends, they still let me tag along.

Happy Easter all!

I had an idea....

about a blog topic. It completely escapes me right now! I guess I am going to have to keep a notebook with me to write down these ideas. That is what happens I guess when you get old.

So, I will tell you about the name of my blog site instead.

My cat is a Himalayan Lynx Seal Point. His name is Sibu, which is an East Indian name I picked off of a web site. I can't remember what it means (this was 7 or so years ago), but, I just liked the sound of it. Cats respond well to sibilants so we didn't even look at any other letters. The other "S" names were just too long, too complicated, too common or plain boring. Unfortunately I can't post a really good picture of him as all I have is a really old web cam. My scanner bit the dust a few years back, so I can't even upload any of the other photos I have of him. Oh woe is me. Oh well, you will have to trust me when I say that his eyes are in fact blue - just paler than normal I think. By the way, for those that may be in living in warmer climes, points on cats like Siamese and Himy's go darker when exposed to the cold. (not that he is ever out for long)




Pegasus is my favorite fantasy creature. I have several statues and pictures, but, I will refuse any that have a Unicorns horn stuck on them! There is no such thing as a Uni-Peg! My sister once pointed out that there was also no such thing as a Pegasus or a Unicorn! I don't know where she got that idea! Of course I still believe in Santa too! He has never let me down.



Power, I just threw that on the title. I would have gone crazy long ago were it not for my cat, although sometimes I am not sure that he isn't the one behind the wheel. So I suppose you could say I get my power from my cat and my belief in Pegasus. And the belief that I have beaten the cancer - it will not come back!

(Just for Leah)

That's it, that is how I came up with the name for my blog. I didn't put anywhere near this amount of thought into it. Maybe if I had put more thought into it I would have come up with something much more pithy - oh well, I like it.

By the way my favorite real animal is the Polar Bear, I have lots of those too.

Good evening.