Iris VS Mischevious Cat

We have a couple of Siamese cats that live with us. Iris (my mother in law who lives with us) really likes them to come in and sleep on her lap. However, one of the cats has other ideas. The cats name is Abby.

Abby is quite an interesting cat. She likes high places. When ever she goes into an area she always looks for the highest place she can get to. She is very very curious. In fact she is the reason someone once said, "curiosity killed the cat". She also has a fetish for drinking straws.

Because of those two things we now have contention between Iris and cat. First Iris likes to work on quilts. She has many of them stacked all around her room. She has some shelves in a corner next to her bed with quilts stacked on the top shelf. They are so high there is like six inches between the quilt and the ceiling. Abby has found this spot. She has taken to sleeping up there much of the time when she is in the house. Iris sleeps a lot herself and so never sees her go up there. But there have been a number of times Abby has announced herself by launching herself from the ceiling high perch and landing either next to or on top of Iris. This sends Iris into a tizzy. Many a night we will her her door open and the cat thrown out and the door closed with mighty force.

But the real tussle comes with straws. Iris likes having straws in her water glasses that she insists must be next to her chair and bed at all times. After all if she gets thirsty or her mouth gets dry she must have the water there to take care of the problem. Taking two steps into the bathroom would be to much effort and therefore is not an option. But I stray from the tale.

So Iris has straws in the water and Abby loves straws. She will go and sit and stare at Iris and Iris will stare at her because she knows that Abby wants the straw. But Iris can not win a stare contest. She falls asleep far to easy and often. As soon as she does Abby jumps forward grabs the straw and runs off. She drags the straw around the house chewing on it. She will sometimes just chew on it while it is in the glass and then Iris will wake up and start yelling at her. She will continue to chew on it and play with it in spite of the yelling. It takes Iris a while to get up and or reach over to shew her away. Once she finally does Abby will run away but will be back within a few minutes to do it again.

So we kind of encourage Abby to go in the room as it keeps Iris "entertained" and busy thinking about something, rather than feeling sorry for herself or worrying about dead leaves not falling from the trees! We bad! or not?

Irisism of the unfallen leaf

So here is our first Irisism. Here is the story. Her room is in the front of the house and overlooks the driveway and front year. Our front yard has a very alrge walnut tree sitting in the middle of it. She never closes her curtains ever. She likes looking out and watching what is going on outside. She is convinced that no one can see in especially when it is dark outside. But they can especially since she always has a light on which we call the perpetual light because it never ever is turned off. She is like a fish in a fish bowl and backlit to boot.

Well, our walnut tree started dropping leaves as it does every year. She watched and I guess must have kept count or something. Anyway, in the end one little leaf had not fallen yet. It was just outside of her window and she watched it for quite some time. Finally, and here is the Irisism, she said, ' Go knock that leaf off. I have been watching the leaves fall and that is the only one that has not fallen. It should not be there. Go knock it down now. It is just not right to still be there.'

Of course who can resist the temptation to want to go glue more leaves on to make sure they don't fall off? In fact I think about it each year of just gluing one leaf on the tree so it never drops. So far I have have been a good boy and not done so. She kept telling us to get that leaf off as it bothered her and it was just not right that it should still be on the tree. This went on for a couple of days. Finally one day after being chewed out multiple times a day for not knocking it off we finally removed it for our sanity. I would say her sanity but that went away some time ago.

Mother-In-Law live in!

Anyone ever have their mother in law come and live with them? Well, I have, in fact I am in the middle of it right now. Not so long ago I could do no wrong in her eyes. After all I had married her daughter that she thought would never get married. We gave her grand kids and came to visit at least once a year. Then after many years all things have changed.

She got to the point where she could no longer take care of herself. Her husband passed on and she had no $$ to live on. So it was decided with all of her other children that she could come live with us. We could modify our home to accommodate her and she wanted to come.

So the house was modified with great labor from me, my wife and her brother. We were within two weeks of being done when she showed up because she was tired of waiting. That should have been a sign to us that things were not going to go as smoothly as we thought at first.

So she shows up and moves into the room that is not complete and fills it so full there is no way to finish it the rest of the way. Plus she already has her pink carpet that she demanded she have because pink is her favorite color. She wants everything pink. She even brought pink glass items that she wants displayed through out the house. We said no she could put them in her room and she through a temper tantrum. What does one do with a 75 plus old person throwing a temper tantrum like a child??? That should have been the second signal that not all was going to go well. Then we worked with her on her pills of which she takes at least 20 a day for things ranging from psycho drugs to blood thinners to water pills. That should have been the third signal. But we must have been wearing rose color glasses or something. We look back now and we can see many of the signals that we missed pointing to the fact this was not going to be an easy thing.

I have collected what I call Irisism's that I will share in future blogs. Great words of wisdom for all to enjoy and learn from! NOT! But they are funny. So we all have something to look forward to. So stay tuned...

Government stupidity

Ever notice there are many changes taking place in the country today? Ever wonder how we can spend money to save money? Ever wonder why there are those who whose greatest desire is to tell us how we will live, drive, eat, breath, speak and work?

Well wonder no longer. There is a drive taking place in this country to control every single facet of our life. That sounds to me like, oh I don't know, someone wants to be a King, dictator, or something similar. They would gratefully throw out the constitution because it limits what they feel is truly needed in this country. The sad part are people who support these folks in their desires. They want to be taken care of. They don't want to be responsible for their own actions and are looking for someone to take those responsibilities away from them so they won't feel guilty like maybe they are doing something wrong.

I hope that all who still believe in the constitution will stand up and help stop this insanity! No longer can we be silent. We must demand our freedoms be left alone and those that have already been taken returned to us. We must speak out and let our wishes be known. I am not saying attack others or scream from the roof tops. We must be civil and kind and yet speak up. Our voices are as important as are those who think different than we do.

We have a president who seems to think you can spend your way out of debt. Last time I tried spending more and more on my credit card to pay it off it just did not seem to work, but instead put me even further in debt and caused me even more pain as I tried to get rid of those shackles that tied me to having to pay off my creditors.

Fascinating that when we as individuals or companies get our income cut we tend to spend less because it is not there to spend. Yet the government both State and Federal tend to spend more with the thought they have to spend it to help someone some where. Don't take this any longer. Contact anyone you can. Write about it on your blogs. Speak up and let your ideas and desires be known.
Final words??? mmm mmm mmm!!!!! What does that tell you?????

Fed up in America!!!

Termination and Beyond

So what does one do after working for 22 years at one company and being laid off? You continue on living life and having fun. You start looking for work in other places and learn quickly that you are not really wanted much of anywhere since you are now OLDER and most of your experience is all in one business.

I don't want to sound totally negative. It is a bit depressing not getting any hits on many many resumes sent all around the country. But all is well, bills are paid and life is definitely not over!

I think back many years ago when my wife and I first got married. She was pregnant, I had just graduated from school with great hopes of a good job. She was only working graveyards on weekends and I was working a few part time jobs. Money was nonexistent, the checking account was at zero and no job appeared for over a year. Yet we survived and had wonderful times even with the difficulties. Today we have money in the bank, bills are paid, she is working and we are moving a long. Amazing to see the differences and realize the great and wonderful blessings that have been poured out on us.

It is great taking vacations as I don't have to take time off from work! I get to sleep in each morning! I am getting lots of honey do's done around the house! And I am looking for work and still have great hope of finding something even if it is digging a ditch somewhere or being a Wal-mart greeter. Our garden was more weed free this year than for a long time. I had to do something with my time!

So if you have lost your job as have I, don't give up. Work hard and with faith in God you will be blessed and life will change more than likely for the better. I have not turned the corner yet but know I will. The only real question is how long it will take. Life is wonderful and worth living. Take care all of you unemployed companions. Till later...