Kevin's Watch

aliantha wrote:

Murrin wrote:There'll be plenty of room for players if you feel like joining us.

Nice try.

Come on, think of it as a creative writing exercise! (Most of it does involve prose writing to what you're doing in the game.)

Today is the third consecutive day of sun (well, we had a very short shower yesterday morning but that doesn't count). Hopefully summer has arrived. Please, please let it not rain at the weekend as I have to spend two days in the Heritage Tent in a field at an agricultural show.

Arrived? Surely your summer is nearly over?

--A

Early on in the year a hosepipe ban was imposed because we had a drought. Since then it seems to have rained every day. This is the first time we have had consecutive days of sunshine, but I hear that the weather is turning again. July and August are usually our best months for sunshine. One year (1975 or 1976, my son was a baby) we had about three months with hardly any rain and summer went well into September.

The weather here is very unpredictable - perhaps that's why we talk about it so much

My dog has gone and stripped her tail again. Hotspots are just awful. I have her on 3 meds but every single summer we go through this. It is a bloody mess. They tell me there is a new drug for it called cyclosporin but it is insanely expensive. 160 every two weeks! That's 4160.00 a year. You have to keep them on it year round. Can't afford it. So the battle rages.

Our second dog, Sheba, used to chew the end of her tail. I was forever cleaning blood splashes off the walls, furniture etc. (she wagged her tail a lot). In the end, the vet took the end of her tail off and we had no more trouble. What do you mean by "stripping her tail"?

Another viewing last night, place I'd seen once before. It's starting to seem like a real possibility, but it's hard to make that leap, you know?

Iolanthe wrote:Our second dog, Sheba, used to chew the end of her tail. I was forever cleaning blood splashes off the walls, furniture etc. (she wagged her tail a lot). In the end, the vet took the end of her tail off and we had no more trouble. What do you mean by "stripping her tail"?

She bites off all the hair until it looks like a snake is attached to her ass. Then she moves on to her haunches and stomach. Does it every year in July. Its a skin allergy to the July pollens. She stops the end of September. I have done everything short of the cyclosporin. Special baths, oatmeal (which she loved...snack) cortisone, benadryl, antibiotics, fish oils, flax oils, vitamin supplements yada yada yada.

Just really nasty to look at and painful for her.

What dosage is the vet recommending, lorin? I've seen adverts when I picked up medication at Wal-mart that they fill pet prescriptions as well. Could the cyclosporin be one of the generics on Wal-marts $4.00 list?

(yeah, yeah. I'm probably dreaming it would be at the prices you quoted)

lorin wrote:She bites off all the hair until it looks like a snake is attached to her ass. Then she moves on to her haunches and stomach. Does it every year in July. Its a skin allergy to the July pollens. She stops the end of September. I have done everything short of the cyclosporin. Special baths, oatmeal (which she loved...snack) cortisone, benadryl, antibiotics, fish oils, flax oils, vitamin supplements yada yada yada.

Just really nasty to look at and painful for her.

That does sound awful, Lorin. I hope you can find a cheaper solution than the one you quoted! I had no idea that animals could be affected by pollen.

Murrin wrote:

aliantha wrote:

Murrin wrote:There'll be plenty of room for players if you feel like joining us.

Nice try.

Come on, think of it as a creative writing exercise! (Most of it does involve prose writing to what you're doing in the game.)

Yeah, that's how Fist sucked me in, too. My problem is working with a co-author. I got too frustrated when the game master threw a curve ball and wrecked my carefully-planned moves....

Iolanthe wrote:

lorin wrote:She bites off all the hair until it looks like a snake is attached to her ass. Then she moves on to her haunches and stomach. Does it every year in July. Its a skin allergy to the July pollens. She stops the end of September. I have done everything short of the cyclosporin. Special baths, oatmeal (which she loved...snack) cortisone, benadryl, antibiotics, fish oils, flax oils, vitamin supplements yada yada yada.

Just really nasty to look at and painful for her.

That does sound awful, Lorin. I hope you can find a cheaper solution than the one you quoted! I had no idea that animals could be affected by pollen.

our dog, sonny has manu allergies. he is on meds. and i swear he suffers from ocd when it comes to biting himself. sometimes you have to snap him out of it.

lorin, have you tried loratidine? And another route you may wish to go (for your sanity and the dog's health) is simply medicating him for anxiety (diazepam or whatever would be safe for dogs), at least for the summer months. Poor doggie.

deer of the dawn wrote:lorin, have you tried loratidine? And another route you may wish to go (for your sanity and the dog's health) is simply medicating him for anxiety (diazepam or whatever would be safe for dogs), at least for the summer months. Poor doggie.

No never tried loratidine but will speak to the vet about it. The sores are not anxiety related. The skin reacts to the pollens in the air and begins bubbling and blistering. It is very painful for the dog and she begins licking and biting the area and it gets infected. The skin with the hair peels away and leaves a raw bleeding patch. Pretty yucky.

Well, I'm having an awesome day today (and yesterday was one as well)...

No tutoring students... so relaxed, but getting some cleaning done...

What is this "cleaning" you speak of, Linna? (I should do it more often...)

Batty's back at my house. She and Shara_Lunison broke up earlier this week. They haven't yet split up the stuff, so it's likely to get more awkward as things play out, as these things tend to do. Sigh.

As for me, I slept 'til nearly noon today and am still in my jammies. Finished a book I was reading, read a chunk of the Sunday paper (some of it gets delivered on Saturday), and am now online. I'll make supper presently. Grocery shopping tomorrow. Also need to write a couple of blog posts this weekend. And I can't believe it's nearly August.

aliantha wrote:What is this "cleaning" you speak of, Linna? (I should do it more often...)

Oh, psshhh... I suspect that what is important is that ones house is clean according to something approximating what makes the people in said house comfortable, and preferably not too much beyond that!

I think i talk about cleaning my house so much because it's one of my major... ah... "areas of opportunity."
So I frequently celebrate small victories while pushing against massive chaos!

ali wrote:And I can't believe it's nearly August.

Seriously! Time has been flying for me over here, too!

aliantha wrote:
Batty's back at my house. She and Shara_Lunison broke up earlier this week. They haven't yet split up the stuff, so it's likely to get more awkward as things play out, as these things tend to do. Sigh.

That's rough. They were together a long time, weren't they?

I'm feeling great - I have 8 channels showing live Olympic action, showcasing elite sportsmen and women performing to the best of their ability to become the greatest in their field - sporting paradise!

Enjoy, Stevie!

Sorus wrote:

aliantha wrote:Batty's back at my house. She and Shara_Lunison broke up earlier this week. They haven't yet split up the stuff, so it's likely to get more awkward as things play out, as these things tend to do. Sigh.

That's rough. They were together a long time, weren't they?

Since the spring of Batty's senior year of college, which was 2009. So yeah, three years plus. It was mutual, and everybody seems cool so far. But still.