The Eagle has landed

I spent the afternoon listening to the online reenactment of the 1969 lunar landing. It was on in the background of the work I was doing and the crackles of static punctuated different points of the afternoon.

Forty years ago I was a little over 2 years old. I’d love to say that “I remember the landing” but I don’t. I think I remember being inside that night and that I saw Neil Armstrong take those steps, but that may be a conflation of memories of other broadcasts.

No matter. That moment is indelibly etched in my head. I’m not the son of a son of a sailor. I’m a child of NASA. My dad was working for NASA at that time. My younger sister and I were both born in Rockledge while Dad worked at the Cape. He was an engineer working on ways to go even further into space than the moon. I have vague memories of the apartment and the tv with the black and white images of the lunar lander.

My dad was younger than I am now, and only a few years out of school. He worked on space travel until 1970, then work took him elsewhere. Even though he never worked for the space industry afterwards, he has always been interested in the space program.

I wanted to be an astronaut. But after seeing my father’s gypsy ways in engineering, that approach never appealed to me. I didn’t have a calling to engineering, and in college I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do when I grew up. Instead I’m moving more away from the sciences and further into the arts. But I will always have a calling to the sky and space.

As I said on twitter earlier “The Eagle has landed. Even 40 yrs later I have goosebumps, tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat.”

Delenn Kitty is no more

Delenn is gone. Yesterday she perked up a bit in the afternoon. DH had a chance to visit with her and sing her cat songs. She got up from where she was laying and went into the kitchen and he gave her some chunk chicken. She gobbled it up and meowed for more! I was encourage when he called me to tell me about it. He ended up giving her several more pieces of chicken, which she gladly ate and then went back to her spot. After I got home, she was not as perky. She ended up throwing up everything she had eaten for the last 4 hours. She was wandering between the litter box to throw up and then back to her nest. Each trip was shakier than the previous. It reached the point where she would wander out of her nest a few steps, throw up, and then go back. Finally she went downstairs to hide. It was time.

So this morning DH and & took her to the vet for the last time. We both have been crying on and off since Wednesday. This little kitty has been a big part of our lives for a long time. She’s been a sweet and loyal companion. One of the hardest parts was getting out of bed this morning. I wanted to stay in bed and pretend that nothing had changed and Delenn was fine. But that’s not true, and wasn’t ever going to be true. So We both got up and moving. We found her hiding under the couch downstairs and brought her back upstairs. She allowed me to hold her on my lap for a bit, then got a little bit of water and wandered slowly back to her nest upstairs. I had a bit of yogurt, and Delenn had some too.

After the vet’s offices opened, I called to see about bringing her in. We got it set up and then got it together to go. The hardest part was pulling Delenn from her nest and getting her set in the towel for the trip. She didn’t fight it at all. I had promised her that she wouldn’t hurt any more, and I wasn’t going to break that promise. We got to the vet’ s office and Delenn perked up a bit again, nosing around the counter and the office cats, checking out the chocolates on the counter too. I told her that if she wanted one, she was welcome to it. She wasn’t that interested in the chocolates, and checked out a few more things and cats around the way. But the vet’s tech came around and had the room ready soon, and we went back there. They had a towel down, but I put our towel down over it for her. Delenn settled down on the table and you could see very rib and both sets of hips. The vet made sure we all knew where the tissues were, since we were leaking at the eyes and sniffling. They used gas to let her go to sleep, then gave her the injection. She went quickly.

She’s been buried, and is now no longer hurting. We will miss her.

Going to be telling my kitty goodbye.

I’m sitting here on the floor beside my oldest kitty, Delenn. Delenn is the one you see when you see my avatar. She was diagnosed with a gastro-intestinal cancer this morning. She’s been losing weight for some time. And has been into the vet 3 or 4 times this year before today. She’s had bloodwork done that was normal. And has been losing more weight. After being sick Monday and Tuesday myself, I got up and got her into a cat specialist before getting to the office in the morning.

She’s down to 3.5 pounds. And has a mass in her abdominal cavity. And is frail enough that there is no way for her to have surgery to remove it. We knew she had lost weight, but didn’t realize it had gotten down so far.

I’ve spent most of the afternoon here. Its where she seems to be most comfortable. And she’s spent hours lying next to me when I’ve been sick, so its the least I can do. She had a little bit of chicken, and we shared some ice cream, and we’ve both had a little bit of water. I’ve been crying on and off all afternoon. Delenn is napping now, and doesn’t seem to be in real pain.

She’s been here with us for 11, almost 12 years. She came to us from the Humane Society. She was around a year old, and had been surrendered by her previous owner. There were lots of bouncy kittens there, but we decided to look for an older cat. She had just come out of quarantine, and was out on the floor for folks to see. She claimed us then. She’s taught me a lot about being a cat owner/owned by a cat. Some fun, some not quite so fun, but all the time I wouldn’t anything in the world for it. We’ve made some midnight runs to the animal emergency room, but she’s been a good sport and has done well by it, other than serenading us with her displeasure as she was on the way there.

Once I have a few pics up online, I’ll add them to this so you can see what a beauty she is.

More Mom update

She’s no longer in a cast! Hooray!

Mom got her cast off and now is wearing an ankle brace. She’s very happy to be able to wear shoes and drive herself around now!

Buh-bye 2008

I’ve been a horrible poster in 2008. Part of the my problem is twitter. I’m posting more smaller posts that normally might have gotten channeled into a blog post.

Now I’m sitting here at home, watching the 9:30PM news and listening to the gunfire in the ‘hood. Its New Year’s Eve! We have to pull out the guns and shoot them! bleh. dumbasses. Quite the glamorous life, innit? After being sick, I probably won’t make it to midnight. Oh well.

If I had been industrious, I’d have a list of books I’ve read this past year, and a good set of resolutions for next year. The Terminal already asked about resolutions, and I had some good ones. One of my Christmas presents was a MSF class. I do want to ride my scooter more! My biz was good this past year, and I hope that it goes better next year. Its a chancy thing in the new economy, but I’m not backing down and I already have bookings for 2009. I’m going to try to post more here in ‘09, but I won’t guarantee it.

Thank you to all of you who do come here and hang out occasionally. I do appreciate you all. I wish us a joyous and prosperous New Year!

Stupid head cold

There’s too much left to do for me to be sick. Unfortunately the virus I have isn’t letting me be busy.

DH started with this cold on Tuesday, having a bad time with it on Wednesday, and dealing with the aftermath on Thursday and today. I started having a scratchy throat on Wednesday, yesterday was the acknowledgement that yes, I do have a freaking cold and today has not been fun. I didn’t go to a Christmas party last night that I had been looking forward to since I was feeling like crap and didn’t want to give this to anyone else.

Stupid rhinovirus. Go away, now!

Let it snow

Well, we have chance of snow tomorrow. I’m sure the grocery stores are covered up tonight! The forecast for tomorrow states “Thursday Breezy at times. Showers through the day. A chance of snow in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Highs around 42. Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation 90 percent.”

Now I’ll believe that we’ll get an accumulation of up to one inch tomorrow. Not. It’s been over 60 degrees for the last 2 days. There’s no way its going to do anything other than fall and melt, if it snows at all.

Mom Update

Mom got to the orthopedist and has a fractured ankle. She also has a cracked rib too. But nothing is fully broken and she’s getting good care. Now she has to take it easy for a while until she heals up.

now its december

And I was an abysmal poster in November. I hope your Thanksgiving was a safe one. We got to visit DH’s parents for it. We had a safe trip up to Huntsville. No turkey, ham.

Unfortunately, I got the word on Sunday that my mom got hurt the night before. She and my dad were out of town visiting my sister and her family. They had gone to a performance of the Nutcracker that my niece performed in, and were bringing home the niece and nephew after the performance when she slipped and broke fractured her ankle. She made a trip to the ER and now has a boot, crutches, and an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow.

She and dad are home now. DH and I made a trip out tonight bearing gifts of hot and sour soup and sizzling rice chicken. Hot and sour soup has become our comfort soup for when we don’t feel good. Hopefully Mom will be doing better soon.

I’m alive and half awake.

I’ve been really busy with my business these days. Sorry that I haven’t checked in in so long.

Then we had a minor flood at work at the day job 2 weeks ago. One of the automatic toilets wouldn’t stop filling after it flushed one Friday afternoon/evening. So we came in to the entire first floor of the building with a nice layer of water in the hallway and the offices. At least it was clean water and not sewage. We had boxes and paper that had to be trashed before we got sick from it growing mold. All the carpet in our offices has been ripped out. The glue holding the carpet down is still on the on the tile floor, but having the carpet out made a world of difference in the smell and mold. After all of that, we didn’t lose any electrical equipment to the water! I was amazed.

Tail end of a busy weekend

I got to the library and picked up American Gods and Land of Laughs. I’ve been reading American Gods as I can. But its been a very busy weekend for me, I’ve had 2 jobs that were fairly long this weekend, so I’m still recovering from those. I’ll be continuing to read American Gods around all my other commitments.

Where were you 7 years ago?

It has been the question of the day. Where were you when you first heard the news? What were you doing? I was in my car, on the way to work. The newsperson of the radio station came on and told us about the horrible accident with the airplane and the World Trade Center. When I arrived at work, I joined the other folks who were already there and who had the tv in the conference room turned on. We were all glued to the tv, trying to comprehend. Then when the second plane struck and the towers collapsed we were in shock, along with the rest of the nation. I was one of the folks helping to organize a prayer vigil 2 days later in 5 Points South. It was a way of doing something that let us all start to come to grips with what happened. The enormity of it all was overwhelming to everyone around.

So where were you?

Heard from everyone in Louisiana

and they are all ok. The folks in Houma haven’t made it home yet, and it is going to be a while before they area has power. The folks in Baton Rouge got power back a week after the storm came through. And the folks in New Orleans are dealing with being on the old pre-Katrina grid. But everyone came through safely. Yay!

Now its time to keep the folks in Texas and northern Mexico who are going to be dealing with Ike, as well as the folks in the Caribbean who’ve been hit really hard this hurricane season in our thoughts and prayers.

Been mesmerised

watching reports of Hurricane Gustav all day today. Its been like a flashback to 3 years ago. I have friends and family down in Louisiana, south Mississippi, Florida, and Texas. We’re 250 miles north of the coast, so we don’t get the initial brunt of the storms, we get them after they’ve calmed some, or we get the rain bands and recurring waves of thunderstorms and tornados that are spawned with the spinning of the system.

Birmingham has evacuation shelters open, and I think that even though they planned for 4,000 evacuees, last I heard we had around 7,000. Shades of 2005.

One of my friends lives in Houma, LA. After it made landfall, the eye passed over Houma. That’s where Jim Cantore was located. Several days ago she had said that her family was planning on riding out the storm at home. When we got word that the hurricane was up to Cat 4, I got really worried for her and her family. I found out today that they did decide to evacuate before Gustav hit. Another friend lives in Baton Rouge. Her family stayed there. They were set to shelter from the tornados. Other friends live in Erath, they had evacuated to Lafayette. And still more friends live in New Orleans. We got the word last night that they were not evacuating. Their house survived Katrina and the post hurricane flooding that did so much damage to different neighborhoods. So they decided to stay behind. I got an email this evening that they are doing ok. The power is out at their house, but they are next door at the bar with a group of other folks who decided to stick it out and have electricity and internet there. So far all the people have been able to check back in and let us know that they are ok. I’m really thankful for this. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the flooding in New Orleans that is happening will be much more limited this time around.

Sitting down with my feet up.

Its been a long day. I had a gig this evening, and standing for 3 hours straight outside is not as fun as it could be. So I’m sitting down now, and relaxing with another bottle of water. I have a book beside me, David Hough’s Proficient Motorcycling. I think there’s going to be lots of food for thought in this.

We have another gig on Saturday, it will be outside all day. I still have to clean and restock my kit before tomorrow night, but it will be done and ready to go for o’dark thirty in the morning when we’ll have to get up on Saturday.