Are you ready for the Fair?!

Yep - it's that time of year again - the great New York State Fair!  I took a day off work and went up with a friend.

We watched some of the 4H judging:

and some of the horse-jumping competition:

We fed the giraffes:

We saw the Birds of Prey exhibit:

Lunch was pulled pork and sausage sandwiches:

We gawked at birds and they gawked back:

We saw lambs with coats on:

And we wrapped up the day with an aerial tram ride that took us up and over the midway:

According to Patti's fitbit, we walked just over seven miles, and it was worth every step.   Another perfect day at the Fair. :)

It's just all so ... strange (edited because I realized I forgot some very important stuff)

First of all, Good Boy continues to do well!  He's been to see my vet and did fine, and I think I'm probably going to try introducing him into Gen Pop this coming weekend.  We'll see how it goes!

And thank you so much to Ginny for the gift card so that I can pick out something special for him and let him know that it's from Aunt Ginny. :)

Thank you also to those who donated to the matching Facebook fundraiser I did for the rescue!  Together we raised almost $3,000.00 in memory of Arline!  I am currently looking for some smaller, up-and-coming local rescues who could use a wee bit of financial assistance.  All in my sister's name, of course. 

Ponyboy about gave me a heart attack the other day - I was petting him and felt an odd, hard LUMP in his belly.  Given his medical history, I took him to the vet right away, and it turned out that he had somehow managed to bruise his "xiphoid process".  Go ahead, google it, I'll wait ...

Leave it to PB to damage something I didn't even know EXISTED.  But he's doing great and will make a full recovery.

Now to the strange part ... well, first off, not being able to talk to my sister, of course.  I really, really miss just being able to pick up the phone and ... you know.  Anyone who has ever lost a loved one knows how tough that is. 

The other strange thing?  The money.  It just seems so WEIRD to have All. This. Money., and not to be able to talk about it.  I mean, talking about money is just kind of ... gauche, isn't it?  Not done?  Especially since I did absolutely nothing to actually EARN this money?

But, I mean, every month I open up the statements from my investment accounts and I just want to do a happy dance.  I understand, of course, that investments go up and go down, but right now, well ... my investment accounts earned more money in the first four months of 2019 than I will earn all YEAR at my job.

Whoa.

(And yes, these are solid investments - mutual funds and such - with an established firm with a proven track record of many decades.  No, I am not investing in oil wells in Texas or Nigerian princes.  It's all on the level.)

So I've got this money, and it's making MORE money, and it's all just such a KICK, and I ...can't really talk about it.  Except to YOU, of course.  I'm so glad I have you guys!

Don't hate me because I have money, okay?  :)

Cheep cheep cheep

I am ... cheap.  I have always been cheap, because I've always HAD to be cheap.  But I'm trying to get over it, now that things have changed.

The other weekend, instead of buying a burger from the dollar menu at the drive-thru for lunch, I ordered a regular-menu burger!  and fries!  and a soda! although I was still able to bundle them together for a value meal, so there.

And I went to the Thrifty Shopper and bought eighteen dollars worth of clothes, but then realized afterward that I actually had been overcharged because they used my birthday week discount instead of the color-tag discount that would have been cheaper, but instead of beating myself up over it for the next week, I had pretty much excused myself by the following day.

I opened up a brand-new can of reddi-whip the other night, instead of going without because I only want reddi-whip on my dessert once in a while, and god knows when the next time will be, and reddi-whip doesn't last forever once opened, so I pretty much just threw a two-dollar can of reddi-whip away for one use.  But I DID use it on a fifty-cent Walmart snack pie that expired a month ago, because I couldn't bear to toss a still-good fifty-cent pie.

I bought a new living room recliner!  on Thanksgiving day, because that's when Big Lots was having their big sale.  AND I splurged and had it delivered to the house.  AND THEN I actually paid my garbage service an extra fee to have my old recliner hauled away, instead of trying to manhandle it into the car and haul it to the dump myself.  Although I DID leave it out to the curb for a week, just to see if there were any takers, before calling the garbage service.  :) 

This year, instead of buying a 5 to 6 foot Christmas tree ($30.00), I bought a 6 to 7 foot tree ($40.00).  And that extra ten bucks is WORTH it.

I ... I am just not good at spending money.  I think I spent so many years scrimping and saving that it's now ingrained in me.    But there's nothing wrong with being thrifty, is there?  I mean, it's not like I'm reusing aluminum foil or something.  (No judgment here if you reuse aluminum foil, haha.)  I tell myself that I'm saving up for that house in Florida.  That I might be able to actually BUY, now!  Holy cow.  :)

So tell me:  Are you good at spending money? Is there, like, a secret to it?  Is it a skill?   Enquiring minds want to know. :) 

Well hello there!

Remember me?  No?  I don't blame you.  :)

 I hope everyone had a good Christmas - doesn't that seem like a billion years ago?  Right now it's bitterly cold here, as it is just about everywhere - one of the few downsides to the new (well, not-so-new anymore) job is that because it's downtown, on-site parking is only available to those above certain pay grades.  I didn't make the cut, which means I have to schlep a good quarter-mile from where I park my car to actually get to the office.  Not bad most days;  very, very sucky on mornings like today, when it's ten below and the wind chill makes it feel more like thirty-below.  One word:  Layers.

Speaking of work, the office manager is on a cruise to the Bahamas this week (Lucky her!), so I have been filling in in that role. Ay Caramba!  I am learning by the seat of my pants, but I'm learning, so it's all good.  Please, Friday, get here already!  haha

As I mentioned in the last post, I am currently hosting a litter of seven, three of whom are torties.  Oh lord. :)  They came to the rescue in pretty rough shape, and I thought I'd talk a little bit about that here - how the adorable animals you see in shelters often require a lot of resources to get there.

In the case of my particular Foster Campers, back in October, a local person responded to a Craigslist ad offering free kittens.  When she went to see them, she saw that they were in really rough shape, so she scooped up the entire litter (!) and called a friend of hers, who volunteers for the same rescue I do.  As soon as they came into rescue care, they were taken to the vet.

WARNING:  The following pictures are graphic.

The kittens were covered in what appeared to be dried Dawn dish soap, along with a glue-like substance.  Once that mess was removed, it became apparent that they were all covered with sores:

And one of the kittens had a hernia in need of immediate attention:

They were also severely malnourished and dehydrated, and covered with fleas.

All of them were thoroughly cleaned and received IV fluids, and little hernia kitten had surgery.  They spent a couple of months in another foster home, then came here to Foster Camp.

They're all doing great now; one has already headed to the adoption center (hernia kitten) to find his forever home, and the rest will follow as space opens up.  They don't seem to have any lasting effects from their rough start.  Here they are chasing a feather toy:

So!  If you ever wanted to know why rescues are always begging for money, well, this is why.  Sometimes it takes a lot of vet care and money before those adorable kittens and cats ever make their appearance at the local shelter.

Lecture over!  Go in peace!  Let me know how you're all doing in the comments!

oh and TORTIES!  Why did it have to be TORTIES?!  :)

 

Thank you, Ginny!

Take this job, and ...

Yes, it's true.  After giving it the ol' college try for over a year at a job where I was miserable every day, I'm movin' on!

I've accepted a job with the county in which I live, and am about to embark on a career as a civil servant. Who'd a thunk it?  

And in OTHER career news, I found out today that the boss at my OLD old job passed away a few days ago.  Lots of conflicting thoughts about THAT.

So!   Finishing out my time at the current job, doing paperwork for the upcoming job, and on the homefront all is well.  Meet the current fosters:

I've also discovered the joys of backyard campfires:

And in general, life just keeps chugging along.  :)  How are all of YOU doing?

The Fair!

Yep, I took a day of PTO today, thus royally pissing off the woman who has to cover for me (sorry not sorry), and headed for my favorite spot in the whole world, the fair!

I was inordinately excited to discover that the parking lot had been paved:

Yippee!:

 

Sometimes the skies looked threatening, but the day was mostly rain-free:

My favorite booth at the fair - it sells all kinds of funky stuff.:

 

Well, you can't really call it a fair until you've eaten something-on-a-stick.  Meet the chocolate-dipped frozen twinkie, washed down with a blue lemonade:

Not for all the money in the world, buddy - there were people in the top of that thing who paid money to be there (shudder):

I don't know what kind of affliction they're selling, but I'm pretty sure I don't want any:

If they had been selling these things in the Center of Progress building (home of all things as-seen-on-TV), I would have bought one for myself, because this cow sure was enjoying herself.:

And there you have it!   The Great New York State Fair! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ah, the late Seventies.   Gotta love the outfits! But still a great song.

Dining Out

Everybody's got a few great stories.  Tales about something outrageous that happened to them, or someone famous they met, or that time in elementary school when they made the national news.

A friend of mine calls them "dining out" stories - Anecdotes so entertaining that people will take you out to dinner in order to hear them.

For me, it's growing up in a (possibly) (probably) haunted house.  See also:  The times I've mowed over yellowjacket nests.  Oh, and the racoon-in-the-bedroom story is always good for a few laughs.

How about you?  Any good dining-out stories?

How can people be so, well ...

I was perusing Facebook last night, where one of my Facebook "friends" had posted something that went like this:

"Can't believe the great deal I got today!  One of my neighbors had their driveway sealed, and the contractor had enough sealant left over to give me a bargain price!  Sure, it cost a chunk of change, but it was a lot cheaper than it would've normally been!  Good thing I just happened to be home this afternoon!"

Ummmmm ...

Okay, I'll say it.  HOW CAN PEOPLE BE SO STUPID?!  This scam has been around LONGER than the Nigerian Prince thing, and yet somehow, someway, people are still falling for it.  I just ...

*shakes head*

This is a person who has an advanced degree and a highly technical job with a high-level security clearance.  And yet ... and yet ... some gypsy shows up at her house with a scam story, and she falls hook, line, and freaking sinker.

People, man.  I don't get it.

The Big Bad Wolf

I have continued to get my allergy injections every week.  I was on prednisone for a while to help control the coughing, and it worked, but a few weeks after going off the prednisone I started coughing again.

So the allergist suggested Symbicort.

Waaaaaait a minute, I thought - Isn't that COPD medication?  That stuff that uses the big bad wolf in its commercials?  I don't have COPD!  I can breathe JUST FINE, thankyouverymuch!

The allergist says that the Symbicort is effective for allergy-related coughing, and has less side effects than the steroids.  She gave me a sample inhaler and sent me on my way.

I just started taking it, so I don't know yet how well it'll work, but I'll tell ya one thing - that stuff is expensive!  A one-month supply will cost over three hundred bucks!

Granted, my insurance will cover most of that cost, but our company's insurance plan is currently up for renewal and the copays may be increasing.  And thank GOD I'm not covered through the ACA; I'd be shaking in my shoes right now.

But still.  I'm finding that cost just a taaaad hard to justify, especially since prednisone is so (comparitively) cheap.  And especially since I'm still coughing.

Sheesh.

The state of the allergies

I started on my allergy injections right after the first of the year.  I knew it was going to take a few months to see any real improvement, but when I was still coughing my head off a few weeks in, I begged for mercy, and they gave me steroids, which worked like magic.  No more coughing!

And the thing that was most amazing to me was how much more ENERGY I had.  Turns out that spending half of every night awake bc coughing tends to be draining!  Who'd a thunk it?  I've been off the steroids for a couple of weeks now, and while I do have the occasional coughing spell, it's only a few times a day now instead of a bunch.  AND now I know that if the coughing worsens, I can always go on the Prednisone again, so THAT's a relief.

There was one little complication with the injections - my clothes.  See, they give you the shots in your upper arms, and I kept forgetting and wearing long-sleeved sweaters or tops on shot day, and it was a pain in the a** to try and get those sleeves rolled up high enough for the needles.  So now I keep a "shot shirt" at work - a plain black short-sleeved t-shirt.  If I forget and wear something long-sleeved to work, before I head over to my allergist's for my shots, I just change into the shot shirt and I'm good to go.

I'll have to have once-weekly double injections for another few months as they ramp up the dose, and then they'll start lengthening the time between injections.  From what I understand, how long I'll have to have the injections depends on how well I respond, so we'll just have to wait and see.

It's okay.  I don't mind.  I'll be the one over here, not coughing.

Originally, I was going to travel to Washington to march, but in the end I decided to stay and march at home.  And, in an incredibly awful turn of events, two of the three buses that were supposed to head to D.C. from here got canceled by the bus company at the last minute, so it's just as well I had changed my plans.  Last night I checked with the woman I sold my D.C. bus ticket to, and she and her family had decided to carpool down to the Capital and make the march anyway.  Ain't nobody as determined as a pissed-off woman.

As of yesterday afternoon, the local March had six hundred RSVPs on Facebook. Today's current attendance estimate?  Three thousand. Not bad for this little town!

                                             Dear Donald Trump:  Go f*ck yourself.

The Sign

I was originally going to go to the Women's March on Washington this Saturday, but when I realized it would require a full twenty-four hour commitment, plus it would mean being in a huge crowd for the entire day and I DO NOT do well in large crowds, I rehomed my ticket.

But!  They are having a March in my town that same day, and that one I WILL be attending.  I can handle a crowd for a few hours, if it means showing my anger at the incoming sh*tstorm.

I have never attended a protest march in my life, but I'm going to this one.  And I want to carry a protest sign.  It may be silly, it may not make a difference, but I feel so helpless in the face of the upcoming administration, I figure doing anything is better than doing nothing.

So!  What should I put on my protest sign?  Ideas welcome!

A Shot in the Arm

Literally.  I'm going to be heading over to my allergist's office shortly, to begin allergy injections.

Many, many months of allergy injections.

I've developed some pretty debilitating allergies over the past few years, to the point where I'm TIRED of coughing and sneezing and coughing and wheezing and blowing my nose and wiping my eyes and coughing coughing COUGHING all the damn time.  The standard OTC treatments have failed, so the allergist is bringing out the big guns.

Shots.

Two shots, once a week, for the next several months.  This is supposed to, I guess, build up my immunity to the allergens, though I'm a bit cloudy on how it all actually works, and how the injections will work when Flonase, Zyrtec and Delsym (my Holy Trinity) have failed.

Whatever.  I've got to believe.  I have GOT to get some relief, here, even if it's going to take a long, long time.

Here's my arm, doc!  Hit me up.

UPDATED TO ADD:  Well, THAT was a letdown!  Turns out I need some special super snowflake combination injection that the office hadn't had a chance to get formulated yet, so I can't start my shots until NEXT week.  And now I feel like Shirley MacLaine in that movie, except Shirley was yelling for somebody to give Debra Winger HER injection, and I'm screaming for ME.  "Give me my shot!  Give me my shot!  GIVE ME MY SHOTTTTTTTTTT!"

haha *sob*

Whoooooo are you? Who, who? Who, who?

I bought a refurbished Nikon camera on Amazon a couple of weeks ago to replace my Fuji, which bit the dust.  While I was at it, I went on ebay and bought a couple of older, cheaper Nikons to have as back-ups the next time my "main" camera bit the dust.

And let me tell ya, ebay has some GREAT deals on little point-and-shoot cameras.  I picked up TWO Nikon Coolpix 5600s, one for seven bucks and one for fifteen bucks, including shipping.  Both of them came with memory cards, and one came with all the accessories, including the original box!  AND they both work fine!  GOD, I love ebay.

ANYhoo, the memory cards.  I tried out one camera and it worked fine, so I set it aside and grabbed the other one, and as I started snapping test photos, I noticed that the photo count was up to, like, 196.  The heck?

I hooked the camera up to the PC, accessed the card, and viewed ... someone else's life.

I contacted the seller and asked if he wanted the memory card back.  Of course, I have no idea if it was his own camera he had sold me, or one he picked up at a thrift store or an estate sale, or one he found in a drawer he was cleaning out.   He said to go ahead and delete the photos, but I looked through them first.  Because I'm nosy.

There were lots of selfies:

and an adorable little girl:

And what I'm guessing were vacation photos:

All of the photos were taken in late 2008 or 2009.  And now I'm thinking about how old the kids are today, and where they are, and how they're doing.

You can buy the darndest things on ebay!