Pawprints From Space

If you are solitary, whether by choice or not, this time of year is difficult. If by choice you are annoyed by all the social pressure for couple-ness from the ads for jewelry and the invitations to parties wherein you are the fifth or nineth wheel to children seemingly everywhere. It becomes irritating. If by circumstance not of your own making (such as widowhood) you just want to curl up a cry. Lately I've been on the crying end of the spectrum. You see, for two short months I was happy. Blissfully so in what was developing into a nice and fun relationship until the male in question scared himself somehow and ran for the emotional hills as fast as his frat-boy legs could carry him. If I had been pushy I would understand. But I let him set the pace, and it was he not I who wanted to go away for the weekend. So we did. Had a fabulous time. He got back, freaked out and did the "it's not you, it's me" dance right on out the door. Now after 13 years of solitude I had...

We hear every day about women of a certain age dealing with hot flashes. They even have all sorts of cute names for this annoyance: power surges, personal summer, the list goes on and on. But, there is also a biological response called cold flashes. Some women get cold chills that do not follow the hot flash, it is just cold. Methinks I've got those. I am entering the point where hot flashes typically start (actually I hit that a couple of years ago) but as of yet nothing. However, in the last few months I find myself getting horribly cold for no apparent reason. It can be 75 degrees and I am freezing and nothing I do will warm me up - hot shower, hot tea, bundling up...nothing, instead I am shivering, with ice cold hands, the whole nine yards. It would make sense. I have blood pressure that runs low, I have a body temperature that runs below "normal" and for most of my life I have been cold when other people aren't. I'm not rail thin so it can't be put down t...

Where did the last month and a half go? Obama won the election and most people I know have been giddy ever since. I confess to a few weeks of stupid grins myself. The "Big 3" want money but are aghast that they, like any other business seeking a loan from a bank, would actually have to cough up a business plan to go along with said loan request. Gee, did they expect that all they had to do was show up in their expensive corporate jets and say "gimme"? Apparently. The Prez-Elect has been holding press conferences to show off his new advisers and whatnot, we are supposed to be confident that he and his team will be able to hit the ground running in January. Actually, I think all this is doing is giving Mr. Lame Duck Prez the opportunity to hide until January 20th when he can sneak out of town when no one's looking. Heck, no one's looking now... shoo! Had a personal life for about 5 minutes. Okay two months but it might as well have been five minutes. That pret...