Evee Knievee's Ordeal

She's all better now. Last Wednesday night she had her stitches out. These photos are taken a couple days before that. I was too worried about her to write about it while it was going on. And even though the thought crossed my mind to take a picture of her as a fat kitty on the day it happened, I just couldn't do it.What happened, briefly, was this. On Monday March 3 she went to the vet for dental work. But Dr. Holveck was out of town and had a friend filling in for him. I picked her up at 1:00 or so, brought her home and noticed she was twice her usual size. Bad substitute vet misdiagnosed and said it was a vaccine reaction. Took her to another vet and they said it was subcutaneous emphysema, caused by a torn trachea, from the tube they put down the throat during anasthesia. Evidently the air leaks into the chest cavity and then finds it's way under the skin. A very strange condition that feels crackly when you touch it. The danger is that the air would press in on the heart, which makes it somewhat of an emergency. They referred us to Northwest Veterinary Specialists in Clackamas, where we promptly took her. They are the best of the best, I think. Amazing attention and care.

So she spent 4 nights there, and had surgery on Thursday, March 6. The tear in her trachea was 2.5 cm, and the incision in her throat, which you can sort of see in these photos, was 10 cm. And Holveck, when I went back to discuss it with him and ask him to pay, insisted that the surgery had not been necessary and she would have healed on her own. Pretty weird reaction from him! Not what I expected! Fortunately, his insurance company is more reasonable.



So, puddy tat is healing nicely now, and seems to be back to her normal self. Her fur is growing back and all the air seems to have cleared out. It is amazing what a presence this little kitty has in our home - for 4 days and nights this house felt very empty and quiet. In this house, one is always aware of her presence, even when she is sleeping under a sleeping bag on one of the upstairs beds! We are so happy she is recovered!

The Next Thing You Know, She'll Be Asking for Silverware!

Day of Destiny

I have to admit that until today I was undecided about who to support for president. Part of that was because it will probably all be decided before I get a chance to vote in a primary so I hadn’t really felt pressured to make a decision. Partly because we have the luxury this year of all the Democratic candidates being acceptable to varying degrees. If Kucinich had stayed in the race I would have voted for him, because I really wanted him to at least have a lot of say in the platform issues. So I was kind of just being an observer. An interested observer. But pretty impartial.

This morning when I got up and looked at my email, I noticed that Amber's Google status message said "Day of Destiny." I knew she was supporting Obama, and I started thinking about it. The excitement. The way he is inspiring young people. The passion.

And then they were talking about just the same thing on the radio. Thom Hartman, Carl & Heidi. Talking about how over and over it is young people telling their parents it has to be Obama. And the parents listening!

These children of my generation have grown up with Ronald Reagan, George Bush senior who took them into high school, a stressful but prosperous weird time with Clinton, and the 8 years of Bush. How completely pathetic. My generation on the other hand grew up with Eisenhower and Kennedy and idealism and the creation of the Peace Corps. We were in middle and high school with Kennedy as president. It was amazing. And then the devastation hit with the assassinations of John and Bobby and Martin Luther King and we ended up with LBJ and then Nixon. Our idealism was bashed. And then we briefly had Jimmy Carter, who was bashed by everyone.

And for whatever reason, our generation was unable to make good on the promises of the love and peace years. We couldn’t organize and energize. We were baffled by what happened to us. How did Ronald Reagan get to be president? How could that have happened?? And ultimately, our generation gave the world George W. Bush. Our generation has more children in jail than any other country. And we continue to be baffled by it all.

So maybe we can redeem ourselves just a tiny bit by giving our children Barack Obama. It is just time. The thing we used to say about how you can't trust anyone over 30 was maybe right. Maybe a little older than 30. But however old someone is, they have to still have the idealism that we had when we were in our 20's in the early 70's. Our children deserve to fall in love, to experience what we felt for the Kennedys and the Beatles. And it is so much more than just good speeches and inspiring people. It is the good work and the good works. The thoughtful intelligence. The real concern and caring. The bold action to move things forward. Ideas, positive change.

So let’s do it!

Thanksgivings I Remember, and Don't Remember

It is a beautiful sunny cold clear day in Newberg. My weight training instructor opened up the gym for us this morning so I walked over there, worked out for an hour, and walked home. Now I need to make a pie! Rich is making the sauce for the squash raviolis that we put together last night. We were up until midnight. The first time in years when we haven't had our boys home to cook for us! It was a lot of work. I hope they know how much we have loved and appreciated their cooking all those years!

Past holidays all sort of blur together, maybe because we always did the same thing, or maybe because I'm not terribly fond of holidays, for some reason I have not ever figured out. I don't necessarily remember the different ones, either.

I really don't remember any from my childhood, except that we must have had lots of people because we always had to sit at the kids table. I think sometimes they were at our house and sometimes at other people's houses.

I remember Thanksgiving 1966 because I was at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and at the last minute got a ride home with Craig Emerson's older sister, who went to Scripps I think. I can't remember her name - Craig was a friend from high school. Mary, I think. She drove a Mustang. We left Claremont the night before and drove straight through, except the part where we ran out of gas in the Siskiyous. Somehow we got help, and made it home. That was fun. My first year away from home and I was a little homesick.

I remember Thanksgiving 1967. I was living in an apartment in Redwood City, California with Deeda Chamberlain. We were cooking in our tiny kitchen, and had to call home for advice. I don't remember who we invited to dinner.

Thanksgiving 1968 was in Portland, and 1969 was in Puerto Rico, which I actually don't remember. Maybe at Jose's house with his roommates? In the haunted house.

Then those years in Portland after that all kind of blur together.

1975 was the first year in Alaska, and although I don't remember particulars, I'm sure we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Teen Home. And 1976, I think we must have cooked at the Main Street house in Ketchikan. Rich, Phyllis, Jude Brown, and me.

The next year, 1977, Rich and I were in Sitka, living in the little tiny house on the beach that we rented from those weird people Scott and Janet. I don't remember if we cooked or went to someone else's house. I think we probably just stayed home. I think Rich was working at the airport restaurant.

1978 was our first year out in the woods, except I was in town and Rich was out there by himself with Annabelle the cat and the pooper dogs. That was when I had the job working for Social Services, and I worked a week on and a week off in town, so flew back and forth. Actually, I may have had the cat in town with me, because after the first few times of leaving her alone with Rich, she was driving him so crazy I had to take her with me. I had a tiny apartment on Creek Street. That was the year that Rich finished our little cabin enough to move in on Thanksgiving, out of the tent. And I had Thanksgiving at Phyllis's house with an odd assortment of Ketchikan people. I was pregnant with Oliver.

Thanksgivings of 1979 and 1980 we spent in our little cabin with Oliver as a baby. 1979 must have been the year we were listening to the Ketchikan radio station and the power was out there, so everyone was fussing about how to cook their dinner with no electricity. We were all toasty and warm and cooking in/on our big wood coookstove. There was an advantage to not ever having electricity because we didn't depend on it. We were feeling very smug and very superior. 1980 I was pregnant with Danny, and we cooked uszki (tiny polish dumplings) from a recipe in the Vegetarian Epicure. I remember that, because that is the name we gave Danny while he was in the womb. (Oliver's name was Hemlock.)

1981 and 1982 were in Ketchikan, at Jack's house, I think. Then back out to the woods with our 2 little boys. I actually have a journal entry about Thanksgiving 1984. Flashback:
Sat. Nov. 24, 1984
Three whales still in the bay.
Went to Hollis & Craig Tuesday morning. Before we left, 5 swans landed on the pond. Two adults and 3 grayish babies. They are enormous. We were afraid our noise would scare them but they stayed even through us starting the outboard. We stopped at Mark & Suzi's and spent the day in Craig. Stormy on Wednesday and wild on Thursday, so we went with Mark & Suzi to Dave & Marilyn's for Thanksgiving. Bob Guest was also there. Carol has been ill due to stress and is now at her parents in Sitka. The kids are with her. They will stay there until the end of the school year, I guess. Paul & Sue came a little later. They had had high tide problems with their boat floating away. Paul went swimming to rescue it. It was a strange party. Marilyn is in to making everyone play games instead of just having conversations, so we ended up playing truth or dare. Only the women had played it before. It was weird. We finally de-antagonized it by putting questions in a basket for people to draw. That worked better. It was funny how obedient people were, or at least appeared to be. I lied on questions that were none of any one's damn business. wonder if anyone else did. We ended up spending the night. Paul and Sue had to go home about 11:30 to catch the tide right, and Bob went home about 2:00, but Mark and Suzi and us stayed, all of us spread out on the living room floor. It had been rainy & stormy and we didn't want to go home in the dark. Next day was foggy and cold and sunny. We went to Mark & Suzi's house and then packed up our stuff and came home. It was starting to blow just a little on the way home. The plastic had blown off Rich's workshop skylight and there was rain all over. Rusty tools, rusty stove, wet boards. He put new plastic up and has had a hot fire going since. It's starting to dry out. More rain yesterday afternoon and today.
While we were gone the chickens laid 10 eggs in 4 days and there were 3 this morning.
Oliver & Danny are both being very testy. Time to read some books about parenting again.

1986 was the year we moved back to Oregon. From then on we had Thanksgiving at my parent's house. A few memorable ones, but mostly they all blur together. I was always annoyed about Thanksgiving because Baba insisted that we have it at her house, and everyone had to bring stuff, but when we got there with our contributions she would fuss because we needed counter, stove and oven space. We played games and yelled about politics. One year Andy Day got drunk and lamented the fact that he could have been a professional baseball player. One year Danny brought two girls. One year Oliver got drunk for the very first time and puked all over. One year we drove to Boise. One year we stayed home and Diane and her boyfriend came with Alex and Kristin. The year that Daddy passed away, 1999, was a sad one. And this year is sad as the first year without Baba. The end of an era really. Now we will start new traditions.

We are going to visit at Sue's for awhile, then go over to Phil & Eloise's for dinner. It will be nice to have Thanksgiving with Rich's relatives for a change. Oliver is alone in DC, which makes me feel sad, but I'm sure he is just fine.

So Happy Thanksgiving and love to all my faithful readers. I love you and miss you.

A Sad and Fond Farewell to Plato 1993 - 2007

More geese flew over while I was waiting for Dr. Holveck to get here to look at Plato.

A few days ago, Plato was laying in the shed and wouldn't get up. I noticed that his leg was caught, so we pulled a board off the side of the shed to free him. He still wouldn't get up, even though his leg did not seem injured. He was drinking water, but not eating. I made arrangements for Dr. Holveck to come look at him today. He couldn't get him up either, and said there really wasn't anything he could do that would prolong his life for more than a few days anyway. So I decided it was time to say goodbye.

I had about 15 minutes with him while the doctor went back to get the drugs for the injection. I just scratched him and talked to him. He seemed quite calm, although he still kept trying to get up a little. I'm sure he understood and I don't think he was quite ready. That old sheep was a fighter. The last 2 winters we thought we were going to lose him and he pulled through. When Lota was here one time he was just laying in the shed. She told stupid me that he needed water. I had not been giving him enough. We gave him some and he perked up right away! So maybe now Lota will take of him.

Dr. Holveck was very gentle and Plato went really fast. Now we will bury him out in the field near Aristotle.

Geese

This morning I was sitting in the kitchen reading the news on my laptop. Inside with the door closed, of course. The heat was even on, which is pretty noisy with the fan. All of a sudden I heard a ruckus outside, like there was a big crowd of people in the neighborhood or something. So I put my tea down and opened the back door and went outside to check it out. The noise was really loud and there were dogs barking in the neighborhood. Geese. Thousands of geese flying overhead.

Happy Halloween

For the first time in 31 years I think, we dressed up for Halloween. Went to a party friday night, and put our costumes back on tonight to frolick around the yard a bit.The last time was in 1976, when we were living in the Main Street house in Ketchikan. Our house had a big Halloween party. At least I think that's where it was...
I think I dressed as a prostitute. Rich wore a suit and went as a politician. Terry Gardner, who was our state legislative representative at the time, was at the party. Rich didn't know who he was, and introduced himself as a politician. Funny memories.

So what we wanted to do tonight was get some of the other neighbors to also dress up like skunks (in case you couldn't tell from the photos what we were), and go trick or treating with us at Ken and Vickie's new house. One of the reasons they finally decided to sell their old house was because the summer before they had skunks move in to their crawl space. They had to go to great labor and expense to get rid of the skunks and their lingering odor.

None of our neighbors cooperated with us though, so we remained content to frolick in the yard for a few minutes to take the photos, leave costumes on long enough to see if we got any trick or treaters, which we didn't of course, and eat some spagetti. Exciting times, here.

Happy Halloween!