Pawprints From Space

Rumba is a goofy cat.  You may recall she is a foundling from the local park who had her 15 minutes of fame in The Lima News thanks to the wonderful Tom Harrison. She is now 4 years old and has gone through the wonderful kitten and terrible teenager phases to end up an extremely affectionate goofball. She chatters (as all feline members of the household do) out the window at the birds and seems desperate to get out there and go after them. In fact the screens on the porch need to be replaced due to SOMEone's dexterity with her claws. She has successfully escaped the confines of the porch to go after the aforementioned birds. But Rumba's relationship with a certain indoor bird is really amusing. Figuring it out all by herself, Rumba has decided that the game of "fetch" is fun. She picks up her bird and wanders around the house crying until I come to play with her. She drops it, I throw it and she goes through amazing acrobatics to catch it (which she alway...

If you know me you know I have little tolerance for voluntary stupidity.  By "voluntary stupidity" I mean the sort of stupidity that people willfully, gleefully it seems, embrace. There are several kinds: The ones who choose not to read the announcement, ad or other printed documentation and then ask a question CLEARLY answered in said documentation. Such as:  Sign posted Hours 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Question asked by a person who has the sign in their field of vision: So when are you open? That sort of thing is annoying enough and since I manage several Facebook pages for folks I see those kind of questions a LOT. Post some information and people will ask questions that clearly indicate they did not bother to read what you posted beyond the first three or four words. Really? Obviously you are literate enough to use a computer/smartphone/tablet to access the page and type in your question. Can you not perhaps maybe READ what we posted BEFORE you ask your si...

July 8, 2013 Verizon Wireless Attn: Correspondence Team PO Box 5029 Wallingford, CT 06492 To Whom It May Concern, I am so furious right now I can NOT begin to tell you. Your chat online service is “unavailable”, the idiots at the local store are well ... idiots and you have no email contact on your web site. Therefore I am forced to write a letter that will not get me swift action and no doubt result in you telling me that I should have spoken up sooner or some other such bunk. I purchased a new phone on July 1, 2013 as my old phone had finally died. I have been a loyal and happy customer of Verizon since I purchased my first cell phone in 1997. Cell #xxx.xxx-xxxx. I am NOT happy now and seriously considering switching providers. When I purchased my new phone all of a sudden I was not allowed to keep my previous plan DESPITE your own announcements that those of us with unlimited plans would be grandfathered in and still allowed to keep our plans. Okay I was annoyed an...

A few thoughts on Egypt and the current situation there. Warning: it is going to be a ramble ... Some call it a coup by the military. Others say no signed petitions led to the ouster of the president. Still others say it is a bit of both. Thomas Friedman for example in today's New York Times is going for both.  Ambassador Twafik says no it wasn't a coup , that the military had to step in to keep the violence from getting out of hand. Of course he sort of has to say that because if there had been a coup by law they would lose the $1.5 billion dollars in aid America sends them. Meanwhile the news out of Turkey is saying ... yup it is a coup and it happened Monday not Wednesday. And all parties in Turkey's parliament have issued a statement condemning the situation. I'm inclined to go with the coup theory myself. Why? The elected president is in custody of the military who have appointed an interim president. Sounds like a coup to me. Military calling the shots i...

This life is crazy. By that I mean as a species human beings are both exasperating and enchanting at the same time; and yet we are also stupid and intelligent as well; oh and then we turn about and TA DA! we are suddenly both good and evil. Makes a spiritual person wonder what God was thinking when He decided oh what the heck let's create "Man"... In my job I see all sorts of bad or just plain stupid behavior, and lately I am seeing a lot of flat out vindictive lying. Why the hell would you set out to destroy an organization you used to work for out of spite? How does it benefit you to bankrupt your former employer? One whose mission is to help the less fortunate? How does it benefit you to lie in court? To lie in charges filed through various regulatory agencies? It just boggles my mind. Your actions (or inaction) caused you to be removed from your job. Own it for cryin out loud. Grow from the mistake and move on. Be a mature person. You are not entitled to a ...

She had a lucky life. Well maybe not the first 4-ish years. The last 13 though weren't too shabby although I was really the lucky one after all. Lucky Her name was Lucky.Why? Because on a cold icy day in early January 2000 (the 11th actually) I found her in the middle of the road bleeding and cold ... she was lucky to be alive. I was on my way to meet with a client about a web site. Driving along in the ice and snow down Route 66 going through one small town after another. I passed a vet's office and made a mental note of "how nice" and continued on my way. Not more then 10 minutes later I spied a lump of white and gray in the center of the road. An on coming car passed and the lump flinched. I spun about and dashed back. The lump was a long haired white, gray and tan calico cat. She was bleeding from the face. There were no houses nearby, just fields so no indication of where she had come from. I scooped her up and flew back to the vet's office, sayi...

I have a guilty pleasure. I can admit it. I watch a daytime soap. One of those dinosaur programs slowly dying on the air ... except that mine is roaring back in many ways (ratings included) but ... First some perspective : I grew up watching General Hospital with my grandmother. Before I even went to kindergarten - which was a half day event for me - Grammy and I would watch every day at 2:00 p.m. (Central Time). After I went to school she would catch me up and on days I was home sick - which with asthma was a lot - we'd watch together. When I went off to college I continued to watch and actually tried to schedule my classes to me back at the dorm at 2:00 (especially on Wednesdays and Fridays when all the action happened). In fact. I had a very large dorm room so everyone on the floor gathered there. It was the 1980s the heyday of Luke & Laura and GH was all the rage. On to the work-a-day world and time got in the way, although VCRs helped over the years to stay in to...

Back in August a nasty infection of ear mites hit all cats in the household. The current vet was amazed that all of them had the little buggers. The previous vet (from whom the "new guy & wife" bought the practice) had stated on numerous occasions that if one animal in the household got 'em, they all would. Especially in my household since they sleep in a big pile of fur half the time. Anyway the mites lead to lots of meds since they simply would not die and at one point Lucky ended up going deaf. Now true she had been getting hard of hearing for quite some time so perhaps it wasn't entirely unexpected. But the trauma of going deaf had her hiding out in the basement for over a month. The world is very very scary when you can't hear and your siblings can (and do) sneak up and pounce on you. Once deaf she became vocal for the first time in her life.  Finally, Lucky came back upstairs to live only to end up with a nasty bladder infection a few weeks late...

Those of us who grew up south of Chicago - which is 98% of the state - are sick and tired of all the Illinois bashing thanks to the various shenanigans of the former governor and various other elected folk. For the record, Illinois was a great place to grow up. I would go back in a heartbeat. I grew up in Peoria, back when the City was two and a half times larger than it is now - like much of the Midwest a lot of major industries have moved on but still that river city has a lot to offer. Oh sure there are the usual issues you have in any city that size (well over 100,000 currently). But there is history, art, theatre (will it play in Peoria?), good schools and corporate heaquarters of international companies (e.g. Caterpillar). Heck there's hockey, minor league baseball and the government's agricultural research center. You want it? Odds are Peoria has it. It also has great people. Peoria has a nature center I practically grew up in that is a true gem. Private and public u...

So ... whatcha reading? Better yet ... how are you reading it? Are you a gadget junkie? Did you rush out and get an eReader as soon as the first one rolled out of that factory far, far away? What kind is it? A Kindle? Which version? A Nook? An iPad? A Kindle app on some other device? Or maybe you're all hipster and old school. You actually picked up a volume made from GASP!! paper. You breathe in that luscious smell of new book ... or even old book. The sweet dusty, musty richness of an old tome that weaves its spell around your senses and takes you on journey of the imagination.  Better yet you went to the LIBRARY!! You borrowed a book, or six, for FREE!! You have in your possession the one most valuable thing a person in this country can have. It is a ticket to faraway lands, to rich literature, to ancient cultures, to current yet different cultures and learning from all over the world. It opens doors, increases knowledge, sets the mind free to dr...

A little retrospective musing seems in order. No worries, it isn't a full "year in review" rant or rave. Merely a way to mull over some things. The things that have stuck with me all year. By no means everything that happened or even things that others might consider important. Just a handful of things that continue to dance around my thoughts... Globally - Malala Yousafzai is a true heroine. At a tender age of 15 she stood up for what she believed in (education for girls) and was shot for it. By the Taliban, who apparently afraid of little girls. She has survived and continues to receive treatment in Britain  She is an inspiration. The Taliban were revealed for what they truly are: frightened, ignorant, small-minded, misogynistic men who prefer living in the 12th Century. The "winner" of this conflict was school girls.  Of course it isn't over yet. They are still vowing to kill her. Nationally - President Obama was re-elected. It was a long, ugly...

The suspense is killing me.   Okay, not literally "killing me" but distracting me, making me wonder, getting impatient here ...   What over you ask? Well it ain't what Santa's bringing me for Christmas! Nope, it is Mars Rover Curiosity's "big find".   It appears that SAM (Sample Analysis on Mars) a piece of equipment on the rover found something that has mission control "very excited". But they aren't talking. In fact the date of release of info keeps getting pushed back.   Bloggers are going nuts, conspiracy theorists are ranting and raving, even Fox News has gotten into the act. In fact: John Grotzinger, the Project Scientist for Curiosity, said in an interview, "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good." And thus he launched the imaginations of everybody out there.   What worries me isn't that this is some ground-breaking find that will put theories and conservative ...

As we move through life we change perspectives.   When we are children we see our world in one way and as we mature that view evolves (ideally) with us into a more mature view. Granted you have to wonder about some people who seem to remain stuck in the toddler's perspective of what's mine is mine and by the way EVERYTHING is mine. But overall I like to think the majority of us move along the path towards, for lack of a better term, enlightenment.   Certain exceptions must be made for political campaign season obviously. But I digress...   So ... perspective and growth. I find it interesting that some people of my acquaintance believe that when you're young it is understandable to be idealistic and thus have a live and let live, take care of each other and the planet. But that as you age you "grow out of that" and realize what life is all about. Really? And what is life all about then according to this perspective? Making money and keeping it as much ...

Autumn ... change  Not the dying of the world but sleep. Plants seem to die and yet they do not. They go to sleep. The roots are nice and cozy down deep in the soil, or the seeds tucked quietly away waiting for the returning sun. Leaves whisper along the streets, skipping ahead of the wind and chasing each other along paths and across grass .. like laughter skips along with children. Nature at play. Cooler air makes animals frisk and frolic, the oppressive heat of summer a fading memory. Even indoor cats get all puffy tailed and race around the house with sudden bursts of kitty-insanity. Horses play tag in pastures and even normally calm cattle suddenly kick up their heels. Cooler air is invigorating to all. And yet ... Change is difficult, change is sadness as well as joy. The bright flowers of summer have faded away, the sweet birdsong of spring is a memory. These warmer months enchant poets to craft words of love. Autumn and winter coax forth phras...

Where have they gone? The dedicated community service folk. You know the ones, the people who get involved and roll up their sleeves. The sort that jump right in there and "do what needs doin" regardless of the cost in time or money. Service clubs across the area - perhaps across the country - are asking this question. So are nonprofits struggling to find board members and volunteers - let alone donors. School districts long for parents to get involved and actually DO something other than complain. It's sad.  Whatever happened to civic responsibility? To giving back to a community that has given you so much? And more than on the national "make a difference day" - I am not talking about one day a year. I am talking about working to make your community a better place EVERY day. Whether that is by being a vocal cheerleader for what's great where you live, shopping local or actually being part of something greater than yourself. Your communi...

Guess what: This is NOT a political piece! So relax, you can breathe now ... maybe   It is always SO much fun to have to explain what you meant when you said what you said because some overly sensitive/paranoid individual (or group of individuals) jumped to a conclusion. Just ask a political candidate.   As a person who specifically says exactly what she means, this drives me nuts.   For example: I will say that I "have" to be somewhere to do something. And I do. Why? Because I have made a commitment to be there.   Maybe that is to show up for work. Maybe it is to help my mother out. Maybe it is to attend a party I have RSVP'ed to in the affirmative. Maybe it is an event. Maybe it is a volunteer organization. Maybe it is a meeting for an organization. Whatever "it" if I have somehow, some way committed to be there then .... I HAVE to be there. It is that simple. If something unforeseen gets in the way I call and let someone know I can't be ...

I am reminded recently, daily it seems, of a phrase ... why can't we all just get along . Probably paraphrased but poignant all the same in the midst of all the negative advertising, mud slinging and viciousness of the political "season". And that's just among friends on Facebook!! Never mind what the various candidates in local, state and federal elections are saying about each other. That rhetoric might be nasty but it can't hold a candle to the way people are bashing - and defriending - each other online for daring to have a different opinion. There is apparently no such thing as civil discourse these days when it comes to the election. People who are supposed to be friends are ripping into each other and simply being cruel. There is no call for it. None. Part of what makes it great to live in the United States is the fact that we can voice different opinions! You can have a say (by voting) in what goes on. To hear some of these people talk it is t...

Like so many people I've decided I need to take off some pounds. This is a common goal for women of une certain age I know but I have had enough of going through several items in the closet before finding the one thing that fits. This is eating into my sleeping time! Have to get up earlier than I'd like just to figure out what'll fit the figure. On the up side the proportions are still in the hourglass category - there's just too much damned sand in said hourglass. Plus there is a wedding at the end of September and I have a dress I'd like to wear but at the current levels of hourglass "sand" I'll be lucky to get one leg in it. And the bride is a size zero so PRESSURE!! I have discovered a couple of new tools to aid me in this quest: a web site and phone ap called "Lose It!" which can be found here: http://loseit.com/  The aps for the phone works with both the iPhone and Android platforms and it is free. The other thing I like is that ...

It doesn't matter what your political leanings are, if you are female at certain points in your life you're going to be told you need certain screenings (Pap test, mammogram). You may find out that you have certain medical issues that require medications typically used for contraception (endometriosis, menopause, control of acne, regulation of the menstrual cycle, etc.). You may have some insurance, no insurance, not enough insurance or one of those so-called Cadillac plans.  And you might wonder why a drug for men's reproductive "issues" is mandated to be covered by insurance and yet the mere idea that a type of drug for yours is causing such a ruckus. Within weeks of Viagra's hitting the market in 1998 more than half of all prescriptions for the drug were covered by insurance. The Pill? Not so much. Which is REALLY silly since The Pill is cheaper than a pregnancy. AND contraception tends to mean that there are fewer abortions as there are fewer unplanne...