Animal Tales

It's been so long since I actively wrote here that I find it difficult to decide what to write about. In fact, I’m not sure but what that hasn’t been the problem for some time… writer’s block. If so, it’s sure a long streak of blockage! My tagline for this blog reads “…This is just a place for thoughts about... well, whatever I might think about. God, work, life, boredom. Dogs. Cats. Whatever.” And yet, to comprehend this block of mine is to almost say “I’m not having any thoughts.”

I have a dog. I have a cat. But what should I write about them? There’s not much to say. They’re not particularly into any interesting antics. Unless Pepsi (that’s the cat) suddenly becoming extremely affectionate of late counts. It doesn’t matter what I am doing. I might be eating dinner, or working on the laptop or reading the paper, even… he’ll just walk into the room spy me sitting there, and hop up in my lap, crawl up on to my chest, dig in his claws for dear life, and lay down. Then he’ll proceed to purr loudly, rubbing the top of his head against my cheek. Did I mention the claws? But his presence has an effect… soon, I drift off to sleep and we, uh, catnap together!

Then there’s Nikki. She is the dog. The apple of my eye, now that Travis is gone. She loves Scott. She adores me. When we come in at night from a hard day at work, she stands up on her hind paws as high as she can and peers at us until we open the gate and let her in to the living room with us. Then she dances around, still on her hind paws. She goes to Scott for a greeting, then glues herself to me… follows me into the den where I put down my coat… then into the bathroom where I take care of some of the coffee that’s pressing on my bladder… then back into the living room. I take her outside, she runs… does her business, then back to my side. The only thing that draws her away from me is the sound of Scott rattling plates in the kitchen. She has this doggy sense that tells her precisely when it is time to run into the kitchen to get her piece of raw meat. Then back to my side.

I sit down on the sofa while Scott cooks, and Nikki curls up in the seat next to me… as close as she can get. Sometimes, it’s not close enough and she rolls herself over into my lap. If I shift positions just wrong, lean a little forward, she flies off the sofa and looks back at me as if to say “Where’re we going, huh, dad?”

When dinner is served, she curls up and watches every move, knowing the plate will be hers to clean soon enough. And that’s her life… gluing herself to me, and when I’m unavailable, to Scott. Or, she’ll go over and lie next to Scott turning so she can keep her eyes on me… I swear, she sleeps with BOTH eyes open just to keep tabs on my every movement.

And that pretty much describes everything there is to say about DOGS and CATS. Ever. Or, at least until we get the next one of either. We used to have 3 dogs and 3 cats. Now we’re down to 2 of each, but 1 of each belongs to Gary and neither spend too much time with us… in fact both avoid us if they can… and that’s just fine by me!

Oh, and does anyone know a dachshund breeder here in the middle of the country? I promised my Scott I’d get him a pup soon… I think it’s time to honor that promise. And then, I suspect, there’ll be LOTS of dog stories for me to tell!

Long Past Due

Well, it's been a LONG time since I posted here last. It's been nearly 3 months, and they've been incredibly eventful... though from this post it may not seem to be. Busy, mostly.

After my trip to New Jersey, I was immersed in my work... far too immersed. My associate's ("Tom's") departure in mid-November tripled my work load, and much of these past months has been spent trying to figure out just what it was he did... not that he didn't do a lot, but he did so much, and left most of it undocumented.

We hired a consultant in December to assist me in the process of getting caught up to date with all the work, and to help me troubleshoot issues that arose with Tom's processes and databases.

At the same time, as the Christmas season progressed, I helped produce, direct and perform in a reader's theater presentation at church that took most of my spare time.

Then, during the first week of January, our company announced our future. We acquired or merged with a competitor this month, and some employees were not going to be continued in their positions as a result.

In the cheery words of my manager "there is no position for you in our end state." This means that I move from the database management team to the Integration Team for a period of 12 - 18 months, after which I will no longer have a job with my company... the company I've worked for these past 10 years. Que sera, I guess.

I was pretty devastated by that news... in spite of actually kind of hoping for it... the dream and the reality are often two different things, eh? It's taken most of January to return to some sort of equilibrium.

Of course, I don't have to stick around for a year. But they're dangling an awfully tasty carrot in front of me to keep me going, so unless something tremendous comes along, I'll stick it out.

But it's not all been hard work and stress... my honey and I have just returned from a 6 night cruise from Galveston, TX, to Cozumel, Belize City and Costa Maya. I kind of don't want to go back to work tomorrow!

We got back last Thursday night. The first news from our roommate was that the upstairs toilet had sprung a leak. Friday, when we pulled the stool out, we discovered the leak has apparently been ongoing for years, as the hardwood floor under it is mostly rotted away by the moisture. We replaced the wax ring, but that wasn't the problem... the problem is the gasket between the tank and the bowl, and naturally THAT has to be special ordered, so we'll be without a toilet for 2 weeks. That leaves 1 for 3 men. Ick.

Then, while we were out of the house on Friday, one of our roommate's "friends" entered my office and stole our digital camera. Thankfully I'd already downloaded all our cruise pictures.

And THEN, Saturday morning at 3:30 a.m. we got called by the church's security company. We got to the church to discover the place surrounded by cops, the fire dept, and a K9 unit. Seems a homeless guy broke through a window, then proceeded to cook himself up over 5 whole chickens over the open fire of the stove!

And that brings us up to date on my life as of today. I'm going to TRY to get back to writing more here. But, no promises!