How Do You Feel Today? v4

[SoulBiter]

Last post on this. My boy Dundee. We got him from a rescue as a puppy in 2012. He was always a tender soul who never saw a person or dog he didn't like. We always say he is a "dog of the people". This was taken last fall. He loved to play with his frizz. He looks like the picture of health and we figured he would go 14 years on the low end. We had no idea this was our last "fall" with him.

[Menolly]

Here on the west coast of the US, we’re only about halfway through the Olympic Opening Ceremony. But, I think for me, the highlight is going to remain hearing the bells from the Cathedral of Notre Dame for the first time in five years. The first time the bells were heard since the devastating fire.
“The Bells! The Bells!”

Notre Dame Bells Ring Out During Olympics Opening Ceremony

[Damelon]

That’s a handsome dog, SB! It’s sad to lose old friends.

[Menolly]

Rabbit
Rabbit!
Rabbit!!

eek!
I almost forgot.

[Menolly]

Pictorial update of my two raised beds at Marymoor Community Garden in Redmond, WA. Zone 9a, up from 8b last year. I’m basically treating it as a mixture of both zones.


South side of the arching trellis:
Purple collard trees
Various tomatoes I got for free from one of my gardening Facebook groups
Asparagus crown from a deserted plot at the gardens
Various herbs and field greens
Sweet corn I sowed from seed last month, so it has a ways to go
Underneath cardboard towards the front carrot seeds I sowed yesterday


North side of the arching trellis:
Various tomatoes
Various herbs and field greens
Another asparagus crown from a deserted plot at the gardens
Sweet corn I sowed from seed last month, so it also has a ways to go
Under the cardboard towards the front of the bed are parsnip seeds I sowed yesterday

[sgt.null]

Retired after 24 years in the prison back in April. Now working on disability.

[Menolly]

Congratulations on your retirement, sarge!

According to many I have discussed both disability and SSI benefits with, it seems as though applications for both are routinely denied on first submission. Specialty attorneys tend to be pricey, but they apparently have a much higher success rate with getting approved.

Good luck with the process!

[sgt.null]

Thank you. We have engaged the services
Of a specialist attorney. My doctor is on board.

[SoulBiter]

Congrats on retiring! I hope you are able to get your disability approved quickly.

[Fist and Faith]

@SoulBiter just reading this. Sorry about Dundee.

[peter]

Off to the opticians.

Get ready to be rinsed for hundreds of pounds for specs that 50 years ago would have been given free (if in slightly unfashionable form - not something at nearly 70 I loose much sleep over).

If this is progress you can keep it.

[peter]

SoulBiter.

Bit of time has passed and hopefully the glad memories of a good and faithful friend are kicking in.

But remember just one thing. Good dog owners should have dogs. There are countless numbers out there who need you.

[SoulBiter]

It's much better now. We will probably do what we did last time we went through this. Say we aren't getting a dog any time soon. Well we still have a Border Collie. But eventually see a picture or hear or story about a rescue dog that speaks to us and we end up bringing a new member to our family. We have always done rescue's. We have two cats, one we rescued from a back yard in a house we lived in. She was living in a tree stump and had a litter of kittens there. The other cat we got from an actual rescue, and she has the clipped ear showing that at least at one time, they had "Fixed" her and released her into the wild. The Border Collie was a dog that had been brought back to the rescue twice. Dundee picked him out for us.

But yeah, it will happen in time. Always more room in our hearts for another dog. Cats though, last ones. They can live 20+ years so its a very very large commitment. The one we rescued from the stump is 19 and going strong.

[Avatar]

Well, well looked after in-door ones can. Average life expectancy of an outdoor cat is 8 years IIRC. (Just average obviously, my Ginger roamed (and fought and etc. etc.) freely for 12 years before becoming a (still sometimes grumpy but adapting finally) indoor cat with only supervised (albeit extensive) garden time. (Garden mostly cat-proofed unless you leave him alone too long... )

But he's a pretty damn clever cat...have literally seen him sitting at the side of the busy road he crossed several times daily, (at our old place) waiting for a gap he could cross in.

And yeah, the GF's grandmother was the same...when her last dog died, she said she wouldn't get another because she wouldn't want her pet to outlive her.

--A

[peter]

Happiest stories from the vets were always the ones where we eventually had to euthanase an old animal that had spent his/her entire life with the same family. Much rarer than you'd think. The oldest animals at shelters are always the ones they have most problems rehoming, and as one gets older these are the ones that we should consider. It's a fine thing to give them a last few years of love and stability before they go. Many will have been passed from pillar to post for their entire lives. They really respond to the care they have missed out on.

[SoulBiter]

My wife and I went to one of the many Octoberfest's they have around here. We met up with my BIL and SIL and drank a few beers and ate some brats and metts. A friend of my BIL saw him and came over and was talking to us, he mentioned his wife has Alzheimer's. A bit later they (he and his wife) came over to our table together. At first I thought, well she seems pretty with it and she introduced herself to me and she asked me if I spoke German. I said no, and then went to the area where the car show was going on. I came back, and she introduced herself to me and asked me if I spoke German. Later on, I went to get a beer, chatted with some people on the way back, and sat down. She introduced herself to me and asked if I spoke German, then she said, I think there are people at this table I don't know. So we sat there for a while and she started to get odd and paranoid. She kept trying to speak German to me and got irritated when I kept saying, I don't understand. A bit later they were giving out the awards from the car show so I turned around to watch and try to hear who won. She grabbed me by the arm and said something unintelligible. I said, "I'm trying to see who won the classic car awards" and she said "I know what you are doing and its bullshit". I said again, "I want to see who is getting awards", she again said... "that's BS I know what you are doing." At that point I just told my wife, we need to go ahead and go, so shook hands with everyone and left.

I cant imagine having to live with someone in that condition. I knew it was bad, but having never really spent any time with someone with that condition, well it was eye opening and very very sad.

[Fist and Faith]

Damn

[Menolly]

[Menolly]

Rabbit
Rabbit!
Rabbit!!

[Khaliban]

I was alone
For fifty-four years
Born in solitary confinement
Never a moment of friendship
Or connection
Or love
On the outside looking in
With my family
Never joy or happiness
When they did well
When they celebrated
When they laughed
I couldn't share
Never sorrow
Or grief
Or tears
When one of them died
My cousin
At twelve
Her brother
At forty-nine
Our grandmother
At ninety-three
I look at them
My parents
My aunts and uncles
My siblings
Perhaps
And I know
I will feel nothing
Asperger's
Thirty-six
When I finally learned the term
Found the answer
Could stop feeling guilty
That I couldn't feel
At fifty-four
I was at peace with it
Then you
Luck
Happenstance
A loophole
I cheated
Without knowing it
I had one chance
Ever
In my entire life
To do what I did
Forty years
To sneak past Asperger's
Without it noticing
Bit by bit
Drop by drop
You made your way around the damage
You made it past the Wall
That locks me in
And locks everyone else out
The Wall
The isolation
The emptiness
The itch you cannot scratch
Punished for nothing
For being born a little wrong
I couldn't laugh
I couldn't love
I couldn't hurt
Not the way your kind does it
So easily
Until you
Until every day was pain
And grief
And sorrow
And longing
And love
Until every day
Was about you
Be careful what you wish for
But that's not fair
The pain
Might be all I ever have
But it is better
Than the emptiness
A life
Filled
With pain
A heart
Filled
With sorrow
And grief
And agony
And love
The insane
Impossible
Unbelievable
Success
I am in love with you
All my days are yours
If you ever want them
If you ever see this
If you ever understand
What you did
What it means
I love you
Always
And forever