Oh Shit

We found a bump on the back of Xenas' head. We had recently (last year) finally lost a battle with cancer with Rama. He was 12 and had had a good long interesting life. Xenas' only 2 and although there is no definitive diagnoses I really don't like how this lump feels. We found a similiar lump on Ramas' leg and after some discussion we found a study at the U of Fla vet school for treating these types of tumours (osteosarcoma) and Rama lived a miraculous 3 years (avg life expectancy is about 4 months from diagnoses). Overall he did really well and wasn't too terribly miserable until near the end. It was a painful time full of joy over small victorys and tears over the ultimate loss. I really don't want to go through that again. Especially with Dollys mom also fighting cancer. What a horrible disease, it takes so many people and animals from us. I hope it's not but I really don't feel good about this...

Humpday

Well, it's hump day, hooooorraaayyyy! That means that there are only few more measly hours as a government lackey! Hooray!!! Again!! We got biz cards printed up and the phone guy was there Monday and we're gettin' closer! I can't wait. It will be nice to get the kennel open and see what we can do. Dollys' a wiz bang hard worker and we will make this work. I know, I'm still workin' on the pics. First I gotta reduce the size, blah, blah and blah. Look, I'll get to it OK. Well, it appears I don't have anything coherent to say so I will just go away for noew.....

Awriigghhhttt.........

It's friday! Yahoooo! No more stupid working for stupid people. Boy that gets me sometimes, working for people tht aren't as smart as I am. Not that I'm a rocket scientist or anything but, come on, use that grey matter a little. I wont bore you with the details but the folks in Tallahassee are just plain OUT OF THE LOOP. They have no idea of what we do or how we do it. Shocking!! (sarcasmmmmm)

The contractor is working great guns on the kennel. If I'm not mistaken the the comment tht was overheard was , lets' get this done and get the hell out of here. No problem here, they've been working on it since September (August?) anyway since before the hurricaines. They're good folks but it's like they're now family. Enuf already!

Looking forward to the weekend! Work on the chicken coop. The new chickens are a bit big for the container they're in but we an't put in with the others. Rocky (top dog er, chicken) is a brute and will clobber them senseless after he rapes them. Thank God I'm not a chicken they sure don't play well with others.....

More stupid meetings and other stuff

Another stupid meeting! One yesterday with the DA. A staff meeting today. Ho-hum, yawn. It's amazing how much productive time is lost to stupid meetings. I wonder if anyone has done a study of the amount of productivity is lost to meetings.

Getting closer on the kennel. painter was there and did the block skirt wall, looks great. The guillotine (I think that;'s right, I really don't feel like looking it up)door guy is there today. I hope it all goes fine. Other than that Dollys' got to go and get business cards made up and open the biz bank acct. Soon, real soon.......

What a shame

One of the blogs that I frequently checked in on has gone bust. Or at least that's how it appears. I originally found it through www.ikeepadiary. I suppose it appeals to my voyueristic side. I guess we all have one. I'm not sure why I enjoyed Brian and Merediths' blogs so much. I suppose it reminds me of my younger days (I'm now((holy crap!!)) almost 50!!). Back in the old days (no laughter now) things were simpler. It seemed that parents and family would be there forever, friends were truer, live was just simpler. We all partied, partied, partied until the sun came up, or down or up again. It was an exciting time in my life. Things were new, new music, new drugs (waa-hoo!!) new experiences (most of which I remember). Life seemed to be full of boundless promise for fufillment. I'm going to sound negative here for while but please don't get the wrong idea. The trip through life to this point made me who I am and I am happy with myself and satisfied (very) with my life now. I have a beautiful, loving wife, a house that I love and my life is full beyond my wildest dreams. Building a business, improving the homestead (continually) getting those things that I want to make me more comfortable. There was a time when I lost track of where I was going. I don't want to go into too many details because I am still angry with myself for the BAD choices that I have made in the past. But the short list, too much alchohol, marriage (mercifully short) to a manipulative, sneaky, double dealing, lying cheating... well, you get the idea. It took me a long time to get over that and the financial and emotional and interpersonal damage that was done during that time. I survived and am a better person for it. It was hard though and during that time I rediscovered religion. Now don't turn your head. I am not one of those bible-beating, chest thumping born again Christians. I just found that by reconnecting I found some firm ground in a belief system that I was comfortable with. It has a place in my life. I lost my Dad, that was hard. For all the difficulties that we had, I have to say that he was ALWAYS, UNFAILINGLY there for me. You can't ask more of a father. Sometimes I really miss him. Sometimes being grown and responsible sucks. Well, for all my talk about not being too negative I sure did tramp down some painful memory paths.Oh well, I guess enough of this and I better get back to work......Thanks for listening....

Monday Again

What is it about Mondays? I feel like shit today. I think I'll go home early, like real soon. Boss is in Orlando and the acting is a good friend. In short, I'm outta here. Tired from laying tile yesterday and just running all over the damn place. All the way across town after church for bedding for the goats. We had removed a ton of shit (literally) from the goat house and put down some plywood for a floor. Now we needed the bedding (wood chips) for them. And I fixed the damn gate. everytime you opened it it would fall down. Most annoying. Can't reach the guy for the doors for the runs and no one is over there working at the kennel. It just seems to drag on. Also got a trough for the animals so we can keep the fram animals away from the house. 7 goats and a horse can poop a lot and they like to crap right by the pool, how disgusting, well thaats over now!. With the new well and water in the pasture they'll not be doing that again!

What is it about some people? I've got one employee that thinks the whole dept is out to get him. He's not a bad fellow but this constant paranioa is getting old. We have chance to give some people some OT for special project but it is some funky dual employment with the state kind of thing and the OT won't count towards retirement dollars. After he read all the small print on the form he had all kinds of things to say about the state and their method of doing things. Know what? If you don't like it DON'T DO IT. Basically I feel like shit and sure don't want to hear his bullshit about how the whole world is out to fuck with him. I mean, get a life.

Tax Day and Racoons

Tax day. Got the taxes back from the accountant and woo-hoo we're getting money back. But wait! What's this.... a mistake!!! Argghhh. Looks like we'll have to file an amended return and the money I thought I would get back (along with appreantly more) goes the other way now. Curses!.Pays to look over the stuff.....

On a more positive note my mother has had the cabinets in the kitchen of her new condo removed and she has agreed to give them to us for the kennel. That's good, it will save a bunch of money and they're brand new and easily matched!

Little Peanut, our foster racoon, is growing and growing, eating like a pig. She's still only on milk (KMR actually) but she's reached the stage were she is developing a personality. I really need to start posting some pics of all this stuff. One of our other fostered racoons (Babette) has reappeared! We finally got her released and she was hanging out in the woods behind the house and eating the food we were leaving out for her but we hadn't seen her for several weeks. On Wednesday when I went bcak to keave the food out she came tear-assing out of the woods, jumping around and playing with the dogs. She was looking good, fat and healthy without any visible marks or scars. Yesterday when Dolly went out to feed her she followed her back to the barn and was teasing Dolly and most resistant to going back to the woods (and feeding station). She finally got her to go back but it was difficult. A fearless racoon is cute but dangerous for the animal. Our dogs and horse and goats are used to her but other folks will not be so understanding. Racoons are a major resiviour for rabies in Florida and people are naturally skittish when they see racoons in the daytime. They are normally nocturnal.. So although she is surviving well on her own, it is a bit dissapointing that she is so friendly. When I say friendly I mean she wants to be near us but she has given us clear direction that she does not want to be petted or picked up. Hissing, barking and growling when we try. But even so, she enjpys being around us. Oh well, we'll keep working with her. A note about how we end up with these guys. Dolly volunteers for Florida Wildlife Care. They rescue, treat and release orphaned and hurt wildlife. We are the racoon peolpe. After they are weaned they usually come to us for several months until they are old enough to survive on their own and we "wild" them up. Usually this is not a problem. Sometimes, however, we get racoons that are a little older and someone has taken them in as a pet until they get big enough to be a problem (up to 40 pounds of curious, cranky raccon is something to behold) then they turn them over to us. The problem is that these folks over socialize them and they are not fit to be pet but not skilled enough to live in the wild on their own. It can take considerably longer to "wild" them enough to release them. Babette is a case in point. We got her at about 3 months? old. Hard to say sometimes. The woman that had found her (Babette was her name, hence the racoons name) had treated her as a pet. She had moved the racoon into the house. She slept in the ladies bed, played with the cats, ate cat food, used the litter box, became a pet. She ulimately realized that as cute as they are when small they don't remain that way forever. So we got a "ruined" racoon to rehab. I'll keep you posted.......later, gotta go back to work (ugh)

The weeks almost over

Well, it seems we got through the software update at work with a minimum of bruising. Surprisingly enough. Kennels moving along fine Dolly has to call the floor guy and the kennel door guy, it appears that stainless steel doors are a little short. Well, that's his hook not mine so I'm not gonna worry about it.

In writing this I wonder about my motivation. Do I really care if other people, who I don't know, know what is going on in my life? Do I care? Is this a type of exhibitionism? Well, I'll continue for a little while and see if I get any comments or maybe just treat it like an online diary/journal. I don't know, I'll have to think about it a little. I have to confess I am interested in other peoples blogs so maybe.......oh, who the hell cares, I'll have to ponder this a little..

Mondaayy Moorrnninng........

Monday, my least favorite day. Gee, wonder why? A lot to do this am before I get off early (woo-hoo). Rush home and feed the racoon (Peanut) and cover for the wife while she is doing her stuff this pm. Truck is broken yet again, this will make getting the kitchen cabinets for the kennel a bit dodgy but I WILL make it work. Oh well, lets get to it then!!

Work? On a Sunday?

After 15 years with the state I finally have to work on a sunday. Jeez, that blows. We 're getting a new software system and they want us all to test it before it goes live tommorrow. It is the right thing to do although I have much to do at home.Finally got the well hooked up yesterday. Electrician shows up and says we're here to do it. Run to the hardware store, get the fittings I need and spend the next two hours in a hole half-filled with water hooking up the piping to the house. It worked! At least for a while, the stupid horse destroyed part of the system and I had to isolate the pasture part of the system so we could have water. Guess what I get to fix when I get home? I love the animals bu they sure can generate work! Gotta go if I want to ever get out of here.

a better day (we hope)

Well after my rant of yesterday morning things seemed to turn around a bit. Got the wife buzzed when I got home and it sure improved her mood. Imagine! Electrician called and rescheduled the meeting for today. Hope we can get the shit taken of today! I can't wait until the kennel is open. We've always wanted to have our own biz and it looks like it will happen soon! Dolly still wants me to work here for 5 or so more years to increase the piddling retirement that the state offers.Not to mention the most important part, the free health insurance. It's about the only thing that is really a good deal. At our ages (no I'm not telling you) it is important. I suppose she's right but the thought makes me want to puke. I don't know if any of you have ever worked for government but I can tell you it's one fucked up place to work. If they had a clue (ivory tower syndrome big time!) we could actually be good at what we do . It makes me wonder about all the tax money that the feds are pissing away. Makes me less and less interested in the major parties and more and more interested in Libertarian and other "fringe" parties. Oh well life (groan) goes on. At least it's friday, hooray!. Another week of drudgery and slavery done!!

bah humbug!!

What a sucky start to today. Feed the racoon (Peanut about 2 1/2 weeks old, eyes still closed) give my mil (mother in law) her pills try to find something for lunch and get to work (late again!). Really, wasn't life simpler in the past? On top of everything we're close to getting the kennel open but it seems like there are more problems every day. Now it's the gd well. The electricians fucked up again and Dollys' not happy with their response (we're real busy). Hey, come on, we're paying you too. And work, jeez, what a ccf (chinese (sorry no racist sentiment) cluster f***) modernization, what a joke, you'd think that the morons at the top would have clue but that's asking too much. Well, this is a very positive start to the blog (HAHAHAHAHA) Thanks for listening to my rant, I'll be more positive in the future (I have to for my own mental health). Updates as frequently as I can. Pics to post as well in the future...