Where does the money go

 First off, thank you to Ginny!  For sending me a gift card to commemorate the arrival of Good Boy, which I promptly spent on this:

I mean, COME ON!! How cute is THAT?!





Since my sister left me money, the vast majority of it has been reinvested.  But I've been able to spend some of it in a "why not?" kind of way, like,

I sponsored a matching fundraiser for a local animal rescue, which raised almost three grand!

When an acquaintance of mine's mom passed away very unexpectedly, leaving my acquaintance to ponder the realities of, among other things, going from a three cat household to a six cat household, I placed a massive Chewy order and had it delivered to her, so at least she didn't have to worry about buying cat food and litter for a while.

I saw a facebook post in which a local wildlife rehabilitation outfit had trapped a small feral kitten for TNR, only to discover that the kitten had a prolapsed rectum and would need three hundred dollars' worth of surgery to correct the problem. The comments on that post were pretty dismaying, along the lines of "why bother? It's just a feral," and "do you KNOW how many spays and neuters three hundred dollars will pay for?", neither of which, as far as I was concerned, addressed the problem at hand, which was a little kitten with a correctable problem, so I contacted the outfit and paid the bill.  Take THAT, haters.  Haha.

I finally, FINALLY got t-shirts printed up for the little TNR group I run, and I'll be handing them out to the volunteers, i.e., my friends that I've sucked into helping, the next time we trap, which is coming up in a couple of weeks.

 

And finally, most of you know that I love summer.  I REALLY love summer.  And I love hot weather, as evidenced by the fact that yesterday it was approximately a thousand degrees here with one billion percent humidity, and I went and paddled a local river for three hours.

 

But!  What I DON'T love about summer is the nights when the temp doesn't leave the seventies and it's still one billion percent humidity, and all the fans in the world won't stop me from lying in my bed sweating.

 

So this morning I contacted my furnace guy, who also does plumbing and AC, to see about getting central air installed.  BECAUSE I CAN.  

 

And THAT's where the money goes.  :)  

Where to start, where to start ...

Still here, guys.  Still struggling with the new job - I found out after I started that I was actually filling TWO positions.  Yeah.  So I'm just doing as much as I can every day, the supervisor seems to be happy with the amount that I am able to accomplish, and we'll see where it goes from here.  Eventually I'm going to get so far behind that they're going to have to either hire someone to fill the second position, or let me go and see if they can find someone who can work at superhuman speed, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Because of the job situation, I'm been dealing with some stress issues.  Last week my doctor tried starting me on Paxil, which made me CRAZY, so for now we're back to the Xanax, with a check-up in a few weeks.

I've been hiking, and kayaking

And I've been trapping for spay/neuter on the weekends as well.

The summer session of Foster Campers went to the adoption center, which led to the Fall session coming in two days later:

Here's their gorgeous, if EXTREMELY skittish, mama:

All of the permacats are doing fine, although I DID just see a mouse run out of my closet, meaning they need to step up their game.

I have had zero time to blog-hop, so I sure hope everyone is doing fine.  I love you, I miss you, and I'll try to post more often!

Where the HELL Have I Been?!

Haha I know, guys, I know.  I've just been so BUSY lately, and I'm afraid that I'm tragically behind in reading all of YOUR blogs in addition to never posting here anymore.

*hangs head in shame*

ANYhow, I have officially started "onboarding" for my new job, and the first day in the actual office will be July 10.  In the meantime, there's lots of paperwork and vaccinations (yet again!) and blah blah blah, so I can't WAIT to actually get started.  Not to mention that receiving a paycheck on a regular basis once again will be, well, NICE.  I am happy to report that even though I have not been employed full-time since MARCH, I am still managing to keep body and soul together, without even dipping into savings (yet). 

I've been cleaning at the adoption center, and trapping for various people:

And CONSULTING on trapping:

And trying to cram in some of this when I can:

Little Nicky, the Foster Camper found by the side of a busy road, went to the vet's yesterday, and it turns out that his injuries (odd-looking mouth situation, chunk of fur missing) are consistent with being flung from a moving vehicle and landing face-first.  Thanks, Humanity! However, he will be FINE, and his name is now officially Lucky Nicky:

And we have yet one more addition to Foster Camp:  A kitten who was surrendered one day while I was at the center.  He had nowhere else to go, so after keeping him in quarantine in my bedroom for a few days while we made sure he was going to pass muster, health-wise, he has joined the rest of the crew.  Meet Elmo, so named bc his surrenderers live on Elm Street.  He's quite the ladies' man:

And that's it!  Where I'm at.  I'll try to post more often, and please don't be mad that I haven't been around to read your posts lately.  I'll be back soon, I promise. :)

The weekend

Let's see ... On Friday night, an acquaintance of mine brought over ALL KINDS of supplies for the kittens of Foster Camp.  Yay!  Thank you, Gwenne!

On Saturday, the kittens and I were at an adoption event for the rescue for which I am now volunteering.

Predictably, Firecracker (the kitten formerly known as Pretty Pretty Princess) was the star of the show, and he will probably be leaving Foster Camp this week to go to his new home.  Yippee!  Also on Saturday, I learned how to give vaccinations.  Yep, the rescue is entrusting me with sharp objects.  Do they know what they're doing?  Ha.

On Sunday, it was time to do a little paddling.

And yesterday?  It was back to the Fair, of course!  My friend Laurie and I shared a pizza fritte as big as a basketball.  Well, a DEFLATED basketball. (Yes, I took a pic of my food.  SHUT IT.)  We also had a Cuban sandwich, which was ... interesting.  Hmm.

And oh no!  Disaster had stricken!  Since the last time we were there, someone had kicked in Justin Bieber's HEAD on the sand sculpture!  HAHAHAHAHAHA

The Fair was really, REALLY crowded, as it was the last day (it was just me, my friend, and one hundred and eighteen THOUSAND other people, yikes), and the trip home on the interstate was ... interesting, but I'm still glad I went back for another day.

And there's still lots of summer left!    Bring it on.  :)

Mystery Bird

On Saturday I did some river paddling, and as always, the bird-watching was great.

Green heron:

Great blue heron:

Great Egret (a first for me on the river):

... and ... a mystery bird!

The neck looks cormorant-ish, but it's too light to be an adult cormorant - maybe an immature cormorant?

I don't know!  Do you?

Saturday

Down a bumpy gravel road ...

Over a rough little portage:

 

to a space to camp out for the day!

By the time I got the lawn mowed at 10 on Saturday morning, it was already 88 degrees out and I was soaked in sweat.  So I tossed the kayak and a few toys in the wagon and headed for the lake.

I'd float around on the tube for a while,and then go for a paddle.  When the skies looked like rain, I'd head for shore and read for a bit before heading back out again once the weather cleared.

What a beautiful day!

Costume contest!

I went to the reservoir to do some paddling yesterday, and happened upon a canoe and kayak costume contest!

Some people went for the basic look:

Although I did like this dragon:

Bird's nest?  I'm not sure:

Tiki bar!:

From left:  Beach scene, birthday party, Finding Nemo:

And!  My personal favorite:

Now I want a pirate kayak!  There's my next project ...

Vacation, the rest of it, really I mean it this time

Let's see.  I taught a friend how to paddle:

 Did some hiking:

 Took lots of wildlife pics:

 OMG look!  The heron is eating the goose's head!:

paddled and paddled and paddled some more:

Took yet more pics:

 And, of course, spent a lot of time with these guys:

There was also a lot of beer drinking and soft-serve eating mixed in with all that.  A very good week, overall!

Vacation, the rest of it, mostly

Yeah, okay, I'm not going to bore you guys forever.  I'll try to get this wrapped up in the next couple of days. 

On one day I decided to paddle to Hiawatha Island in Owego.  This is how me and the kayak travel:

What?  It fits.  IT FITS!

Heading across the river to the island:

At one time back in the 1800s there was a big hotel on the island.  After that it was farmed for many years.  The remains of some of the old buildings are still there.

Along with old farm equipment.

I wonder whatever happened to Ann O'Rourke and Lorrie Glosick?:

Bald eagles nest on the island:

and there's lots of other wildlife:

The Hiawatha muck monster slimed me, but it was worth it.