The Litterbox

Odds and ends and bits and pieces, all bundled together with flushable clay.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 , the wee hours

Like days of yore

We’re spending a day like the pioneers… we have no electricity.  I suppose this wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world except that we didn’t have any warning, and we slept through the daylight part of the day, and are attempting to fumble around in the darkness while doing things like feeding the cats.  I found out that the gas stove has an electronic ignition (although I was able to get a burner going using a match).  I’m only on the computer now because I’ve got about an hour of time left on my battery, and I was able to find an unsecured wifi network somewhere in our area (thank you, neighbours without modem security).  I can’t do things like read my email (it’s all on my desktop computer), so if I owe you any emails or messages, hopefully you’ll get them tomorrow.  Our power will be back on “sometime before 9pm tomorrow night”, so it’s gonna be a long, long day.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/18 at 12:05 AM
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Saturday, November 15, 2008 , the wee hours

Outing myself as an atheist: the etiquette issue

It won’t be a surprise to anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis to find out that I consider myself an atheist.  It’s just my personal mindset, developed over a lifetime of consideration, and I’m comfortable with it and all that it implies.  When I die, for example, I’m quite sure I’ll just be dead, and it’s okay.  I don’t feel that I’ll ever reunite with my deceased relatives, and I’ve made peace with that.  I don’t belong to any atheist organizations and I don’t really even think about it much, unless someone else brings religion into the conversation.  Even then, I rarely raise the issue… if someone says, “God bless you” to me, I usually just say, “thank you”.  I don’t want to make a big thing about it—I understand that support and good thoughts are being offered, and that this type of thing isn’t necessarily about religion.

During the past two months, I’ve started to develop friendships with two people who’ve turned out to be quite “loud and proud” about their religious beliefs.  One is a person I met in the course of receiving medical care, and we started to email each other after being acquainted just as patient/provider.  The emails started out normally, but now I’m the recipient of frequent email “chain letters” (those mass email forwards), and and the subject is always about being blessed by God, or receiving love from Jesus, or needing to forward the email to a dozen friends if I want my prayers to be answered.  Just like the “God bless you” example I used above, I understand that the emails are sent in kindness.  However, they have no other meaning for me, and in some ways they’re presumptuous (they all assume I’m Christian, for example).  I sat down and tried to write a response to one of them, to attempt to say that if nothing else, I wasn’t a Christian so perhaps the messages would be better suited for another recipient, but I couldn’t think of any way to say it without being rude.  Perhaps I’m just too passive, but I feel like it’s easier to just delete the emails than to say anything.  On the other hand, I feel like I’m lying, or committing a sin of omission (irony intended, I suppose).

The second person to raise this issue with me is a sports celebrity of sorts, someone who has overcome a lot of personal hardships and whose struggle I admire and often identify with.  I wrote this woman a “fan letter” a couple of months ago, and she recently sent back a hand-written, lengthy reply.  I’d asked her some specific questions about her experiences and the problems she’d overcome, and her reply was a big, long advertisement for religion.  At least she waited until the second paragraph, but she pretty much implied that she overcame all her struggles because of her close relationship with God, and suggested I try the same thing (she said she wasn’t “preaching”, she was just saying what she honestly felt).  She suggested Christian authors to read and Christian music to listen to, and talked about her daily struggles “fighting the devil”.  The thing that struck me was that even though her life totally revolves around her faith, she seems really unhappy—her days seem like more of a struggle than mine do, and she’s not dealing with health or money problems.  I felt like the door to communicating with her was left open by the letter, and she wanted to know more about things like the animal rescue work we’ve done, but I don’t know how I can reply to her without saying that I just don’t believe in a God, and that’s not going to be the way I solve my problems.  However, I again don’t know how to say it without feeling rude.

So, what sayeth you?  If I just ignore all the religious references and continue to correspond with these two individuals, am I doing them (or myself) any favours?  Is it better for me to be honest with them, or to just change the subject?  I know that many people of faith think that atheists come from a place of intellectual superiority (and I know some atheists present themselves that way), but I don’t feel “better”, I just feel “different”.  I don’t want to change their minds about what they believe, I just want to stop talking about it so we can discuss stuff that we do have in common. 

Maybe the issue isn’t about outing myself as an atheist, even… maybe it’s just about how to tell someone that you’re not what they assume you are?  Would I reply to either of the women I mentioned about and say that I was Jewish?  I guess I probably would, because we’d still have our “personal relationship with God” in common.  I know I’d easily tell them I was gay if they thought otherwise, but I worry that saying I’m an atheist will offend them.  Neither of them worried about offending me, but they both had the benefit of seeing me as a blank slate (that they then cast in their own image).

I know that if I lose potential friendships over this issue, then I didn’t have real friendships to begin with.  I know that you can’t have a real friendship with someone if you have to hide your feelings and beliefs.  What I don’t know is how to best present my beliefs.  If you’ve been on either end of this scenario and have advice, I welcome it.

Signed, godless heathen who knows she don’t need to capitalize “God”, but who does it anyway because it just looks correct

p.s.  It’s my 11th year anniversary with the daily-blogging Flippy.  What percentage of the people who donated money to get gay marriage banned in California have been together this long?  I’d bet not a majority of them, not even the Mormons.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/15 at 01:31 AM
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Saturday, November 08, 2008 , the wee hours

No on NABLOPOMO

Apparently I won’t be participating in Nablopomo this year, unless I can convince the organizers to start the event a week late.  However, Flippy has been slaving away and is trying to post daily, so please go and read her blog if you’re looking for entertainment.  Last year I managed to not only write my own blog all month, but to also write a daily blog entry for the IFAW whaling blog, so I guess I’m just really lazy. 

All is quiet around here, just the way I like it.  The cats all seem healthy and happy.  The dogs are doing well and enjoying the cooler weather (although they miss having a doggie door… we had to take it away when the cats started to use it on a regular basis).  I just put the stray cat winter shelter/feeding station out on the front porch because the nights are getting pretty cold, but I still need to get some straw bedding.  I know there are about three different cats who come around and eat on a regular basis, but I’m not sure if they’re strays or if they just like getting an extra meal.  None of them have tags or collars…

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/08 at 02:20 AM
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Monday, October 20, 2008 , the wee hours

Impact of the foreclosure crisis

I could write my own version of this, but the New York Times has an eloquent version which bears reading:  In Hard Times for Humans, Hardships for Pets, Too.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/20 at 12:47 AM
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008 , late morning

Life in the womb

National Geographic is working on an amazing series about life in the womb… as an animal.  We’ve all seen pictures of human fetuses (feti?), but I know I’ve never seen anything like these photos of animals in vivo:  The groundbreaking pictures of animals capturing life in the womb.  The descriptions of animals fighting and eating each other before birth made me feel a bit queasy, and perhaps that episode of the series won’t be my favourite, but I can’t wait to see the one about wild and domestic cats.  Check out the article, if only to see the cool photos of the kitten and the puppy.  There are some additional photos from the series here.  The series is being produced in conjunction with a British TV network, so I have no idea when it might air in the US, but if I find out anything I’ll post about it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/15 at 11:21 AM
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Sunday, October 12, 2008 , early evening

Pants!

Every year I try to document, via this blog, the day that I need to give up my shorts for long pants.  Usually I make it to at least mid-November, and I think I once made it to the first week in December.  But this year?  This year I put on pants October 11th!  Our average high temp on October 11th is usually 83 degrees, but this year, it was a record-low 62 and windy.  The temperature change happened over 24 hours, with no warning, and now we even have snow on the mountains.  Much to my relief, the furnace worked when I turned it on for a test run (it used to blow a fuse every autumn).

The temperatures are going to start to rise again, and I’m sure I’ll have the A/C running again before Wednesday.  Nevertheless, I’m noticing that the winters here are getting colder and more dry.  We’ve lived here for almost ten winters, but our pipes have frozen only the past two.  The trees have suffered the past two years as well (yet weren’t at all bothered a few years ago when it snowed).  Winter used to mean the rainy season, but I don’t think it rained even once between January and May.  The weather is changing, no matter what you might think is at the source of the issue.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/12 at 07:56 PM
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Saturday, October 11, 2008 , late at night

The incredible (incredibly dangerous) backwards microwave oven

I’m so sorry to have another appliance story for you, but I’ve done it again.  Suddenly last night, without warning, the microwave oven started to act as if it was opposite day.  You know how a microwave is supposed to automatically shut off whenever you open the door?  Well, our microwave (a high-powered thing that can make oblivion of a cheese slice in 7 seconds flat) now starts to run on high power whenever the door is opened.  And it will only operate with the door open.  As soon as the door is closed, nada, silence, darkness.  Open door and whoosh, dangerous microwaves give me new diseases.  Of course I didn’t allow this to go on for more than a second, and only because I was in a state of shocked confusion, but c’mon… I’m down to a leaky washing machine, a dryer, and the oven.  Then I’m out of appliances to damage.  The freaky thing about the microwave is that when the door is opened and it’s actively “baking”, it’s not even programmed to be cooking.  All the times have been cleared, I’ve left it unplugged, etc.  Is this the class action suit to finally solve my financial issues (I said, tongue in cheek)?  Get me to a tort lawyer, stat! 

On a note of complete unamusement, I’ve had to put all blog comments on moderation.  I’m sorry, but the spammers are just too active and I don’t want their stupid comments live for even sixty seconds.  I get email notification of comments three times an hour, so I promise your intelligent and beloved comment will show up quickly, but the spammer’s comments will just hit the delete bin, where they belong.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/11 at 11:23 PM
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Wednesday, October 08, 2008 , early evening

Thanks for the rip-off, Kenmore

The good news is that we were able to have our Kenmore fridge repaired, and it “only” cost $220.  Quotes to repair other broken appliances over previous months include $2700 to repair the air conditioner, and $1200 to repair the pool motors, so it makes $220 seem like a relative bargain.

The bad news is that the repair took all of ten minutes, and the part replaced costs $11.56.  C’mon, Sears—wasn’t it enough to charge $109 for the service call?  Did you have to charge an additional $100+ for ten minutes of work?  I don’t know what you pay your technicians, but the guy who was here today was on track to be earning over $400 an hour for you, including driving time between calls, and that’s nothing more than a rip-off, plain and simple.  I’m so sick and tired of crummy products and over-priced service calls.  If the fridge ever dies like this again, I’m replacing this part myself, and Sears/Kenmore can suck it. 

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/08 at 06:53 PM
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Monday, October 06, 2008 , evening

Bad Day

Woke up today to find our only refrigerator dead as a doornail… I’m sure the compressor is blown, but hey, the lightbulb still works!  That makes a fridge, air conditioner, and two pool motors which have died in the last four months, in addition to the two dishwashers and water heater we’ve already replaced in the 7 years we’ve lived in this newly-constructed house.  The landfills aren’t full of plastic—they’re full of our dead appliances.  Shouldn’t a $1200 refrigerator last more than 7 years without benefit of an “extended warranty”?  Did I mention that the washing machine leaks?  Hell, I’m probably still paying for all these things on my Sears card.

I can’t think of anything good to come of any of this, except that it puts one of my favourite R.E.M. songs in my head…

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/06 at 08:35 AM
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Sunday, October 05, 2008 , late afternoon

Men and cats

Here’s a nice article from the New York Times about the increasingly popularity of cats as pets for single men:  Sorry, Fido, It’s Just a Guy Thing.

Man holding his cat

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/05 at 05:19 PM
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