The Blog Pound

Monday, January 05, 2009 , terribly early in the morning

A long time coming

This is one of those blog entries that I’ve written in my head every day for the past four weeks, but have never actually typed out on a keyboard. I’m finding that just thinking about blogging, and not actually doing it, isn’t getting much accomplished.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday… Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, etc. It was a quiet year for us (poverty will do that to you), but we had good food and the company of family, so I’m not complaining. What I am complaining about is the weather, because Las Vegas has been FREEZING since mid-December. We’ve had multiple snow days, we’ve had tons of rain, and tonight we have a temp of 31, with a wind chill which makes it feel like 21. Maybe that’s practically balmy in other parts of the country, but we’re not used to it, and we’re all miserable. We’re bundled up in layers, wearing fuzzy slippers, using space heaters in a number of rooms which seem drafty. I think Flippy wrote about the small fire we had from one of our electric heaters, and while that was almost enough to turn me off portable heaters, the cold won me over. We’re back to using heaters again (although not in the wall outlet which is black, melted, and full of fire extinguisher residue). This winter has been more cold and damp than anything I can recall since I moved to Vegas, and speaking as someone with arthritis, it’s somewhat uncomfortable. Last night we had to make an emergency trip to the store in our new used car (a 2001 Pontiac Aztek which is lacking a driver’s side window), and wow, that was a BRISK drive. I have no Canadian blood left in me… it’s all thin desert southwest blood now.

Lots has happened over the past month, although I know that Flippy has been keeping you up to date on most of news. Our nice, still-like-new car was repossessed, so now we’re driving an old clunker (but to be fair, it’s a clunker we kind of love and adore, if only we could get the window repaired and get it to stop dripping oil). We were gifted with some very handy cash around the holidays, and used it to replace our old demonic microwave oven with a brand new one (although when I got the new one home, I realized it was the same brand as the demon, and had similar features, so let’s hope we don’t get a double feature of “the microwave which cooks when the door is open”). We were able to make a fun shopping trip to Trader Joe’s as one of our Christmas gifts, so we stocked up on some amazing food goodies (like frozen, bake-fresh chocolate croissants), and it was nice to have food in the house again. Honestly, early December was kind of frightening where money is concerned, and it was the first time we really had to limit what food we could buy, and we even started to check out food banks and food stamps. Both of us being out of work since June is taking its toll, so I no longer take things like groceries for granted.

Without trying to offer TMI, I’ve been suffering from terrible anxiety/panic issues since about October, and they really left me feeling crippled the past couple of months. I couldn’t sleep, and awoke every day to a sense of terror and fear about financial issues. Just making it through the day was a challenge, and blogging was a bigger challenge that I didn’t feel up to. I’m now finally back on Cymbalta and I can already tell I feel better, so I hope this will be a light at the end of the tunnel. If I never have another panic attack, I’ll be thrilled. Not a fun way to spend an hour, let alone a few months.

To keep my mind occupied, I’ve been doing tons of reading. Of the 30+ books I’ve read since October, the one I enjoyed most was probably “Wesley the Owl”. If you’ve ever raised an orphaned animal, or have an affinity to birds, or just like animal books, I highly recommend it. The story is quite remarkable and the author is very likable, too.

On the Wee Paws front, we’re currently caring for one stray who lives outside, and who I’ve named “Kevin”. I’ve put a collar on him in case he’s picked up by animal control, and soon we’ll take him in for shots and a microchip. I can’t bring him in off the street right now, though—I’ve got no where to put him. Our guest bedroom is still the occasional home of our last rescue, Skyler, and as of yesterday we’re temporarily fostering two cats for a family who have lost their house to foreclosure. They will be renting an apartment next month and can move in and take their cats, but for this month they’re staying with a family member who is allergic. I offered the cats a place to stay, if only because I was impressed that the family wanted to find a solution so they could keep their cats—they didn’t want to just give them away, as most people who contact me seem to do. The cats, named Buddy and Wilbur, are wonderfully and adorable and like giant mutant creatures from a distant galaxy. I’ve never seen cats so fat… they’re so fat that all they do is loll around on their sides, because it’s the only comfortable position for them. They are currently on diets, ahem. I’ll come back and add some photos, but Flippy has some in her Flickr account if you want to see the beasts. I’ll have to weigh them in the next day or two… they’re both at least 25 lbs., if not more.

That’s a super-quick rundown of the last month around here… aren’t you glad I didn’t waste time writing about this stuff every day and dragging it out?! I’ve got tons more I want to write about, and my one New Year’s Resolutions is to try to blog more, so i hope this is just the beginning of new entries from me. I’ve missed you all so much… I miss reading your blogs and hearing from you, too… so I’m going to try to jump back into the saddle again. Now that I’m finally medicated, perhaps there’s hope for me! If nothing else, today is my 43rd birthday, so perhaps I’ll finally be older and wiser and more reliable (not just older and more senile).

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/05 at 03:57 AM
The Litterbox • (6) Comments • Permalink