Last few days' worth of Stuff
Apr. 7th, 2002 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, it's been so long since I made a journal entry that I may run the risk of forgetting how to write. So I'm going to try to cover a bunch of things in this one, and it's going to be lengthy enough that I might as well make the LJ-cut right now. I plan to talk about the neighborhood cats (and the possible danger they're in), the crawdad boil, and my late lamented Visor PDA, and all the other stuff that's happened over the last few days.
But first, I'll point out something that just happened an hour or so ago. I've had my first successful BookCrossing release! One of the books that I left in a nearby college classroom building study hall was picked up, read, and commented upon by someone. Sort of gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
On Friday as I was just getting ready to head to work, one of my neighbors stopped me getting into the car to converse with me. He's an elderly fellow, with a pronounced Missouri accent and a tendancy toward talking slowly and a touch roughly that perhaps leads me to regard him as less smart and lower class than I should--but he's the main other fellow who cares for the neighborhood cats, especially the one whose picture you see attached to this journal entry, who likes to come inside from time to time. I call the cat Kim, because the first time he clambered over my keyboard on the way to my windowsill, he left that word typed behind him; the neighbor calls him "Gato," and recently invested in a collar and little custom-engraved name tag to that effect.
Anyway, there are some genuinely low-class people who live nearby--the hazards of living in a low-rent neighborhood--and I've seen their kids wandering around, messing with the lumber and other oddments the elderly neighbor piled up to serve as shelter for one of the other neighborhood cats when it had kittens. They always seemed to me to be up to no good, and my neighbor confirmed that estimate by saying he'd caught them trying to put a leash on Gato. He also mentioned that apparently they raised pit bulls outside of town, and he thought that they'd stolen a small dog he'd been taking care of and used it as part of their fighting training.
This put me in a good bit of worry for the other cat who's been sharing my apartment more and more lately--the big, fat, shaggy yellow cat whom I call "Gumdrop," since she looks an awful lot like a big furry gumdrop with paws when she's sitting on her haunches. Because of her size, I honestly thought she was pregnant when I first happened onto her. So, that evening I bought a $20 pet carrier and decided to take her down to the family get-together, to see if anyone wanted to adopt her for a while.
As it turned out, nobody did, though everybody quite admired her--and my aunt, a cat-loving nurse who also used to work for a veterinary clinic, examined her and advised me that, no, she wasn't pregnant. And, in fact, if I'd had her for as long as I said I had and she hadn't gotten that way, she likely had already been spayed. I suppose that could account for her immense fatness, as I gather many cats tend to put on weight once they've been fixed. (She must weigh about ten pounds.)
Oddly enough, jumping chronologically ahead for a bit, today I had one of those chance encounters that makes you wonder about the nature of coincidence sometimes. I happened to notice that the fellow I was helping out on the SCOTS self-checkout lanes had a business check which had the name of a veterinary clinic on it. We got to talking, and I asked about how much it would cost to get a cat shots, and he ended up recommending a good vet clinic located very near to me. I think I'll be taking Gumdrop in for a few of those within a few days.
The family get-together went about as well as could be expected--I had my fill of crawdads (which is to say, about a dozen) and other foods, and I brought some machine-made jalapeno-cheese bread which folks remarked kindly about. Annoyingly, though, as I had been getting ready to drive down, I dropped my Visor Deluxe PDA and shattered the screen, not noticing until I was ready to whip it out and read more of the Honor Harrington novel I'd loaded onto it to keep me from getting bored.
At this point, it would cost almost as much, if not more, to "have the screen replaced" (or, in actuality, have Handspring ship me a refurb and me send them the broken Visor afterward in exchange) as it would cost to *buy* a refurbished Visor of that model. I've been wanting to upgrade my Palm for some time, and between what I could make from selling my Visor Backup Module and Targus Stowaway Keyboard to friends or on eBay (incidentally, if anyone would like to buy one of those two items from me, make me an offer) and selling the broken Visor to a place that buys them for refurbishment and resale, and the fact that I'm getting a $776 tax refund, I think it's about time to do so. Unfortunately, the model that a friend got, and that has all the features I want, in the price I can afford, has gotten some remarkably poor reviews on the basis of its screen--and to add insult to injury, has apparently been discontinued as well. (The Sony CLIE T415, in case anyone has an opinion or experience with it--in which case I would like to hear about it.)
I had meant to say more, but I'm too tired just now...I'll write about my car inspection/registration travails tomorrow, perhaps.
But first, I'll point out something that just happened an hour or so ago. I've had my first successful BookCrossing release! One of the books that I left in a nearby college classroom building study hall was picked up, read, and commented upon by someone. Sort of gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
On Friday as I was just getting ready to head to work, one of my neighbors stopped me getting into the car to converse with me. He's an elderly fellow, with a pronounced Missouri accent and a tendancy toward talking slowly and a touch roughly that perhaps leads me to regard him as less smart and lower class than I should--but he's the main other fellow who cares for the neighborhood cats, especially the one whose picture you see attached to this journal entry, who likes to come inside from time to time. I call the cat Kim, because the first time he clambered over my keyboard on the way to my windowsill, he left that word typed behind him; the neighbor calls him "Gato," and recently invested in a collar and little custom-engraved name tag to that effect.
Anyway, there are some genuinely low-class people who live nearby--the hazards of living in a low-rent neighborhood--and I've seen their kids wandering around, messing with the lumber and other oddments the elderly neighbor piled up to serve as shelter for one of the other neighborhood cats when it had kittens. They always seemed to me to be up to no good, and my neighbor confirmed that estimate by saying he'd caught them trying to put a leash on Gato. He also mentioned that apparently they raised pit bulls outside of town, and he thought that they'd stolen a small dog he'd been taking care of and used it as part of their fighting training.
This put me in a good bit of worry for the other cat who's been sharing my apartment more and more lately--the big, fat, shaggy yellow cat whom I call "Gumdrop," since she looks an awful lot like a big furry gumdrop with paws when she's sitting on her haunches. Because of her size, I honestly thought she was pregnant when I first happened onto her. So, that evening I bought a $20 pet carrier and decided to take her down to the family get-together, to see if anyone wanted to adopt her for a while.
As it turned out, nobody did, though everybody quite admired her--and my aunt, a cat-loving nurse who also used to work for a veterinary clinic, examined her and advised me that, no, she wasn't pregnant. And, in fact, if I'd had her for as long as I said I had and she hadn't gotten that way, she likely had already been spayed. I suppose that could account for her immense fatness, as I gather many cats tend to put on weight once they've been fixed. (She must weigh about ten pounds.)
Oddly enough, jumping chronologically ahead for a bit, today I had one of those chance encounters that makes you wonder about the nature of coincidence sometimes. I happened to notice that the fellow I was helping out on the SCOTS self-checkout lanes had a business check which had the name of a veterinary clinic on it. We got to talking, and I asked about how much it would cost to get a cat shots, and he ended up recommending a good vet clinic located very near to me. I think I'll be taking Gumdrop in for a few of those within a few days.
The family get-together went about as well as could be expected--I had my fill of crawdads (which is to say, about a dozen) and other foods, and I brought some machine-made jalapeno-cheese bread which folks remarked kindly about. Annoyingly, though, as I had been getting ready to drive down, I dropped my Visor Deluxe PDA and shattered the screen, not noticing until I was ready to whip it out and read more of the Honor Harrington novel I'd loaded onto it to keep me from getting bored.
At this point, it would cost almost as much, if not more, to "have the screen replaced" (or, in actuality, have Handspring ship me a refurb and me send them the broken Visor afterward in exchange) as it would cost to *buy* a refurbished Visor of that model. I've been wanting to upgrade my Palm for some time, and between what I could make from selling my Visor Backup Module and Targus Stowaway Keyboard to friends or on eBay (incidentally, if anyone would like to buy one of those two items from me, make me an offer) and selling the broken Visor to a place that buys them for refurbishment and resale, and the fact that I'm getting a $776 tax refund, I think it's about time to do so. Unfortunately, the model that a friend got, and that has all the features I want, in the price I can afford, has gotten some remarkably poor reviews on the basis of its screen--and to add insult to injury, has apparently been discontinued as well. (The Sony CLIE T415, in case anyone has an opinion or experience with it--in which case I would like to hear about it.)
I had meant to say more, but I'm too tired just now...I'll write about my car inspection/registration travails tomorrow, perhaps.
