Happy New Year

I've been so lapse at blogging lately that I just noticed Blogger changed the entire format.  When I sat down to blog and load photos a week or so ago, I didn't recognize my own page.  Not to mention I wanted to add photos and was unable since they are not online in a Picasa album. That pissed me off, so I downloaded my photos from my hard drive to Picasa. That took forever since I am a photoholic.  Then I lost my ambition to write.

My procrastination was caused in part by my heavy holiday workload, and in a bigger part by the nasty flu/cold going around that has befriended me. I think I got this thing in December, went through some heavy antibiotics, felt better, and then it came back.  Maybe since everyone in the house got it (with the exception of one person who got dengue fever instead) we are passing it back and forth and it's seemingly ours forever.  I hope not. I am currently awaiting the day I wake up and feel TERRIFIC.  (Waiting for Godot?)

The weather is strange this winter. We had a few fresh 28°C (82°F) days so far, and nights down to 18°C (64°F). This week the daytime temp is hovering around 33°C (91°F) and nights still 18°C....in late January! The facts that the air is so humid, we live in rock houses with cement floors, and our blood is used to a daily dosage of 105°F days and 95°F nights from March to October, mean that when the first northerly front blows in we'll freeze and all get sick.  There have been relatively few northerlies; instead we have warm tropical air traveling northward and the weather is perfect.  I don't mind the cool nights, in my cocoon, as long as the temp doesn't dip into the 50sF I'll be alright with winter this year.  But I miss the pool.   

This year we emptied the pool for the winter because it was just a lot of extra work and chemicals trying desperately to get the water to a usable temp.  We can heat up the pool during the day with the solar panels and the hot sun itself, but it cools down to ground temperature over night. It is a losing battle.  This means that this year we are going to fix and paint the pool before refilling it in March. 

I'm a little confused by the weather. I think back to pre-dawn January of the past few years and remember wondering if I'd freeze to death before I could hit the bathroom and climb back into my hammock cocoon. This year so far has been different.  I may be speaking too soon about the weather, it's only mid January, so you may hear from me again about this topic. Like when the first real cold front dips down into our territory. Enough about non-weather.

Here is one more pic of the cuties we babysat for a couple of months in Oct and Nov...and a little of Dec.  They are now safely ensconced in their loft in NYC.  From what my friend Janet tells me, they are living happily ever after. Their stay made the others here very jealous. My cats started marking territory inside the house.  In fact, I saw Buster spray for the first time in 13 years.  Moka still has to do routine inspections in the kitties' old room to make sure they have not returned, or any other cute little buggers like them!

Requiem to Weasel.  Yes, he deserves his own obituary page, but I'm trying to consolidate this cat stuff a bit.  He was having troubles with our cats before we took on kittens, but then it was Buster and Busmo that decided the white one with balls must go.  I don't know if they ran him off, if something happened to him, or what.  He was sitting on a pillow next to me for months, as if I were the only safety he had.  Then one day he didn't come back.  Who knows what happens to these cats that so often go missing?  Weasel was really sweet and I miss him.  Not like I miss Mokito, but something was fishy about his disappearance too. They were buddies and I miss them both.

This photo of Busmo came out in such a way that you can see how HUGE he is when comparing his FOOT to our foot long remote control! He has taken his role of security guard very seriously and has some nasty bite marks this week to show it. We have another intruder.  The neighborhood ferals see this operation and want in. The housecats have decided the club is closed.

Here's Buster with his best friend Cuate.  They are the oldest neutered males and they are great pals. They travel together.  Safety in numbers if for neutered cats I guess. Buster is close to having his 14th birthday!  He would rather be my only cat, but he likes his girlfriend Moka, and I think he secretly likes the rest of the commando.  He is staying closer to home these days, as he approaches his older and wiser years, and letting young Busmo do the fighting for the cause.

Not much info in this blog. It's a hello I'm still here kind of post.  Hello, I'm still here.  Doing much of nothing except when working.  I promise myself, no resolution or it's a lost cause, to write every day.  So far I have not done that, but today is a new day and I have written something here! 

¡Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël!

¡Feliz Navidad!  Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! 

Happy Holidays.  They snuck up on me again. Is time going faster or is it just me?  We broke out the decorations a couple weeks ago, Lindasita gifted the tree, I painted names on our stockings - we had just the right number, and set some decorations around. In the photo below are some noticeable memories.  The white teddy bear is from 1992.  My friend Maxine gave me a bear every year. The other two little bears sitting on the dais are also gifts from Max that I display every year. The angel on top is the only one I have remaining from an angel making phase I went through living in Hawaii. It is made from the sheath of the split-leaf elephant ear philodendron.  I made thousands of little woven angels. I know you  are supposed to put the tree topper on last, but I saw her and had to put her in her place. 

This is the tree as we were just getting the lights up on it, but the photo shows the display of the stockings and basically, almost 100% of the house decorations!  The only things missing are the tree decorations!

 This Nativity scene was my Mom's, she bought it on her trip to Italy with my brother Jay and his family.

 Stockings: El Comando de Gatos, Pablo, Lin

 Marsha, Don, Lynn

This little gnome has never been a gnome to me. He reminds me of Jim's and my close friend Rusty, a great friend of mine for the past 26 years.  Jim always put this ornament up every year in honor of his friend Rusty.  Rusty is doing well and lives in Oahu, Hawaii.  I hope he sees this picture, he'll get a laugh.

That's all folks!!!  In other words, that is all I have done about Christmas.  I took on all the extra work I could so we could enjoy Christmas as well as continue our beach project.  I think I had one day free in the past nine days, but NOT being a retired pensioner, I'm considering myself lucky to have work as well as the chance to pick up the extra hours.  In today's world, I think seizing the moment is definitely a positive approach to an unknown future.

Besides my heavy work schedule my health did not assist me to make any Christmas progress.  I caught a nasty cold/flu that knocked me off my feet.  I felt a few symptoms for a few days, and then WHAMMO it hit me like a ton of bricks. Pablo carted me off to a doctor and a week later I am JUST getting both physical energy and brain power back.  Whew! And to think that my flu shot this past year hasn't even expired yet! This was, is - I should say, a DOOZIE (as my mom would so aptly describe it.)

So here I am on the night of the 20th having done nothing at all for Christmas.  Not that I have that much I plan to do.  I am not the one in the household throwing a Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) dinner/party, so I don't have to worry much about that.  (I work all day that day.)  Nor can I help much on clean-up day, Christmas, as I accepted even MORE work that day.  Boxing Day is nice to celebrate.

I'm not thrilled to be a last minute shopper, my enjoyment of giving gifts used to be the shopping itself, which I would do thoughtfully and early in the month. What's more, I haven't 'shopped' for gifts in years, since I prefer to make my Christmas gifts. Needless to say I have not had the time nor mind to spread crafts around the house.  Unprepared I am today, but I have a few days off, and at Christmas miracles often happen.

Here is the finished tree! Decorated and already droopy because I forgot to water it when I was sick and working.  We like it. It smells like Christmas.

Will the Cat Stories Ever End? Whadda U think?

Here are the two little angels we've been fostering in their super kitty bed, Guera (above) and Mimi (below). In one my last cat blogs, we had the surprise kitten thrown in the carport.  That little darling was taken to Planned Pethood and adopted.  So what's new enough in OUR cat commando to have to report again so soon? 

The following week someone threw ANOTHER young kitten into the carport.  This one was younger, a calico with a lot of black and brown and very little white, had a sinus infection, and didn't come from a family who was tired of her. She was more feral but not afraid of me; she seemed to think I was her mom. It was a wild couple of days with that one around, she did have to stay in the outside bathroom, but I fixed her up with food,water, catbox, blankets, attention and set the Vicks Vaporub jar near her to help her congestion.  She was a sweet little kitty, AREN'T THEY ALL? Dammit! Someone decided to make it my problem.  Maybe the neighbors don't realize our cats are fixed and that these cannot be our kittens that they find in the neighborhood! How's that for optimism?

I had to turn to Mimi the cat rescuer. She came to bail me out again, and because the kitty was gentle and catbox trained, she took it to Planned Pethood where she received treatment and was expected to be a good candidate for adoption.  Again, thanks to Mimi for taking that adorable but impossible little problem out of my life.

Meanwhile, the little sisters have grown considerably these past two months. They learned how to open their bedroom door when they were ready to expand their territory.  They are smart and paid attention. They learned a lot from the bigger cats. We had a person arrive to stay in the kittens' 'old room', and we moved them out into a larger running space.  They now occupy the dining room, living room, and kitchen. Basically all the common areas in the house.  Our commando is allowed out into the living space, but we have to keep all screen doors well shut because the little buggers are now ready to explore the outside. That is not part of the owner's plan.  I am an open door person and I have to think twice about closing doors behind me.  Same with Pablo. But so far so good.  Our cats enjoy watching the kittens play, and so far they are all able to get along.  Moka and Buster are the most jealous, since they take my attention from them.  Not to mention we had a group meeting, humans and cats and decided the commando was already too large and no one else can be admitted.  The cats are doing a great job on outsider cat security.  But I have not done my part on interior security.  I still cater to two adorable little darlings whose photos I now like to take. Here are some pics.  In just another couple of weeks these kittens will be moving to a new home.  Their experiences here have taught them quite a bit about other cats, kittens, humans,.....by the way they are not so afraid of humans anymore!  Talk about a full house!

the favorite toy

 this is how the other cats drink water, cool!

Bits and Pieces: Message in a Bottle

10^th Day at sea, located approximately 1000 miles south of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

June 16, 1990

Our 38ft. trimaran planed, skimming the water’s surface; rare brisk winds moved us along at a fast pace.  The guys said we made 200 miles that day.  It was one of our best days yet.  We were in the ‘doldrums’, the area from 5°N across the equator to 5°S.   An area known for its prevailing stillness. 

On that day I decided to cook spaghetti and sauce for dinner.  To cook below decks in a galley where the gimbaled stove swings back and forth, the cook has to stand on bended knees to move with the rhythm of the ocean while keeping his or her balance.  If he fights the movement, he accomplishes no crew dinner and ends up seasick.  It’s important to roll with the flow, to stay loose and think about dancing.  The ingredients slide back and forth on the counter spaces.  It is a patience-requiring, time-consuming task. It’s not so much a multi-task as it is an octopus task, wishing one had more arms to catch the items rolling out of reach.  

I wanted to spiff up the Ragu with not only fresh onions and garlic, but with some of the dried green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, oregano, etc., that I’d dehydrated for the trip.  Preparing dinner that day was my main project, and merits its own paragraph because it’s a complicated process to complete this important task, one which has to be done two or three times a day.  People often ask, “What do you do all day at sea on a long voyage?”  This is one function landlubbers don’t consider.  We work for our supper at sea.  Cooking meals is just one example of essential tasks that consume time during an ocean crossing.

We decided to drink one of our family-sized bottles of wine with our dinner, but we got carried away celebrating our crossing the equator and zipping through the doldrums.  We ended up drinking both Costco sized wine bottles. That’s when we had the bright idea to send out messages in the bottles.  We were completely toasted so it was a crude operation.  I wrote down who and where we were, the date, including our names and our PO Box in Kona, Hawaii.  In hindsight it would have been smart to empty the bottles, dry them, and then insert notes.  But in our state of inebriation we scrolled our notes and dropped them into the dregs of the red wine.    We corked them, tossed them, and forgot about them; other than the notes I’d documented in my journal. 

We threw our messages in the bottles into the South Pacific ocean approximately 1200 miles south of Hawaii.  Many a sailor before us had followed this age old tradition.  For the most part, once the fun of throwing the bottle into the ocean has passed, it is quickly forgotten, and no results are usually expected.  But many a bottle has been found. 

November 21, 1991
Kona, Hawaii

Sorry for the time jump, but the unexpected happened.  Seventeen months and five days after tossing the bottles in the ocean, over a year and a half later, a letter arrived in the mail from the South Pacific Country of Vanuatu.  Two cousins had found our message in a bottle.

Maybe you have seen Survivor: Vanuatu and have seen how outback it is.  It is located in a cluster of island groups northeast of Australia and New Zealand.  The official language is Bislama, although most people speak some French and/or English.  Rather than do a cultural write-up of the country I'll let the photos below show you what life looks like where one of the bottles washed up.

The letter was from one of two cousins, Patrick and Setla Simon, who found our bottle with the message.  They live in the southernmost part of the country on a small island Named Maskelynes, off the island of Malekula.  Their first letter to us was as follows:

Dear Sir (Hello)

My name is Setla. I live in a very small island. Yes friend I’ve already found the bottle. Inside the bottle there is a piece of paper or a small note.  Inside it you’ve wrote all your names, phone number and box number. I can’t read the whole thing because half of the note has been torn up, but anyway I try my best to read and understand it. There are some names but I cant see clearly so I want you to write back and re-write the whole passage again. I found the bottle with the note on this date. (Tuesday the 5^th November 1991)

Write back to me with this address. Never change any spelling.

Mr. Setla Simon

Pelongk Village

Maskelynes Island
South Malekula
Vanuatu

Thank you very much for your great attention! Bye, Setla

 We sent them an underwater disposable camera and asked them to take photos of themselves, where they found the bottle, and their family, which happens to also be their village.  They took the pictures and sent back the camera.  We continued to write back and forth until their requests got to be more than we could manage.  When the entire soccer team needed uniforms and shoes, they sort of stopped writing when we sent them a care package but not full of sporting equipment.  It would be incredible to visit them one day.  By now they are grown men with kids of their own, I would imagine.  Fishing and combing the lagoons.  I should write them a letter and see what’s new in Vanuatu.  At last report many yachts were visiting their area, thus they have become more anglicized, but I imagine it is still quite the peaceful little fishing village it always has been.

This is the mangrove where these guys found the bottle. The bottle traveled about 1,000 miles farther than we did on our sail trip.  We only sailed as far as Fiji.

Patrick and Setla, cousins, our new friends in Vanuatu. Yes, they loved the sunglasses and new flip flops.

A photo of their village from out on the boat, taken while fishing. They sent us pics of the fish they caught, the cleaning area, the drying palapa.

The family standing in their village posing for their first ever family photo.

Buds and Butterflies, Bits and Pieces

Buds and butterflies:  The mamey branches are flowering up again.  This morning I photographed a few beautifully bright orange butterflies (not monarchs) feasting on the seasonal blooms.

Bits and Pieces:  One of my main objectives living here is to finish writing....well, to finish writing SOMETHING, but primarily a travel adventure tale about the sail trip I was part of in 1990.  My husband Jim and I were invited to sail from Hawaii to Fiji with a sailor friend from San Diego and his brother on their boat.  We traveled on a 38 ft. trimaran, or triple hulled sailboat, for three months.  There is so much to this story that I have decided to try an experiment.  I want to post some of my writing. I have taken a new approach to just write about any day or experience and not try to write chronologically.  I am hoping that threatening to post these stories gives me the initiative to pick up that pen and paper every day, if just for a little while, and blog more often, even if I'm just telling sea stories.

It's more interesting than gossip, religion or politics! And so much less stressful!

Tomorrow I plan to post the first installment of BITS AND PIECES. Hope it works out! For all of us.

One Happy Ending, One Sad Ending

Gemelo, lived many years as a feral cat, and I imagine he lived his entire life in the abandoned property next door and in this house before I bought it.  This was the first photo he ever let me take of him in May, 2011. Gemelo - after several months of studying the life of the domestic cats in this commando - decided that he too would like to be able to count on meals, fresh water, some human love, and a warm place to sleep.  This photo was taken shortly after he had begun to let me pet him, flea drop him, brush and groom him in general, and he was accepted into the commado.  He is the father of who knows how many neighborhood cats, and of course some of my cats! Busmo for sure! I think the way cat heirarchy goes, he was still the king of the neighborhood because he wasn't neutered. He was so feral when I first moved here I couldn't capture him and he remained the only cat with balls in the commando.  And so he reigned as the macho of machos and the other cats let him get away with eating half their food.

Once he let me pet and groom him, and he started talking to me, I realized he was a very old cat. Cats age faster in the feral world, so I have no idea how many years old he was.  But I could feel his ribs, his fur was often dissheveled, and the coloring of his fur was another indicator.  I had the gut feeling that he knew his days were numbered and he wanted to live out his fantasy, to have all the cat comforts he'd never had.  I have seen this behavior before with a cat I had in Kona. 

Yesterday we found Gemelo hiding in the trough in the back of the patio. He looked terrible, was completely dissheveled, didn't smell great, and was not comfortable. I cleaned him up and gave him a nice comfy pillow and blanket in a corner of the closet, where it was quiet. I rocked him and gave him water in a syringe.  However, while thinking over the life of Gemelo, I remembered two nights ago he slept on the bed. He has never done that and I think he always wanted to.  The next night he slept on Buster's bed. That was ballsy.  Yesterday when I saw how shallow Gemelo's breathing was, and how cool his skin felt, I knew what was happening.  His time had come to go. We made him as comfortable as possible and he died during the night.  In many ways it was a happy ending for Gemelo who had lived a rough life out there fighting for himself.  But here, even though he was a pain in the ass at feeding time, we are saddened.  Gemelo died during the night of November 8, 2011.  I hope he rests in peace.  Losing a pet is difficult, and when your pets are such an integral part of our daily lives around here, it makes for one sad ending. 

Gemelo's favorite thing was to go outside after a rain and lick all the water off the leaves.  He did it as if it were his job to clean up all that sitting water.  He was a very sweet cat, once he felt at home here.

Onward to happier endings.  Remember this little angel?

The one someone threw into my carport?  She brought so much life to the two other kittens we are fostering. They'd been alone since birth, Mimi and Guera, and were quite afraid of the world in general.  This little darling obviously had a familiy for her first few weeks, because she was completely adjusted when I found her in the carport and thought it was Guera.  It was just raining cats that week. This kitten taught them to play, she trusted us immediately and that intrigued Mimi and Guera.  They came out to play. The three of them had a blast. But we could not keep the little kitten.  Our commando is closed, full to over the limit already. 

Mimi the animal rescuer (to differentiate from Mimi the kitten) took the little one to Planned Pethood and she was adopted within a couple days to a family excited about how fun and frisky she was.  We missed her a lot, and so did Mimi and Guera miss their playmate, but then they started playing together and things have just gotten better with them.  They both strut around with their tails riding high, meaning they are happy.  Guera has taken to the human lovin' thing and comes to ask for petting and 'acarísias' in Spanish.  This little kittie was the best thing that could have happened to the other two, other than of course their being rescued and cared for so well from the beginning of their little lives.  They learned how to play.  Thanks to our temporary visitor who we never even named, because she has already positively affected the lives of others at the age of just 5 weeks!  I hope her new family is good to her.  This unexpected surprise at the house turned out to be a happy ending for all involved.

The house has been quite cat active lately. Maybe it's in the air. Maybe it's the asteroide. Who knows?  I won't bore you with details of Lorenza's little seizure, or Weasel's two day jaundice.  I just wish I hada more knowledge and possibly a veterinary doctor's certificate.

Cats, Cats, Cats: Last Part!

So what is going to happen to these little darlings?  Mimi the cat rescuer believes she can take the little angel to a place where she will be quickly adopted on or around Monday of next week.

Guera and little Mimi will likely be here until around the end of the month, when Mimi the cat rescuer has a potential foster mother who can keep them on a long term basis if needed.

Gemelo, I forgot to mention in yesterday's post, is one of the feral-gone-domestic cats who weaseled his way into the commando.  And we are hoping to get some deworming meds for the entire commando next week.  He is first on the agenda because he steals the rest of the commando's food right off their plates while they are eating. The feeding procedure here has become quite complicated and I need to work on that too!  I am hoping the meds help Gemelo because the rest are more courteous and eat their own food, which I now serve on up to 9 separate plates in separate places. It's a circus.

Sometimes when animal caregiving gets a little out of hand, there is help closer than you think. Thanks to those who provided the happiness that having kittens in the house provides, and more thanks to all those folks like Jill, Sylvia, Mimi and a host of others who help to make it all work, so I can continue to love and support the commando in charge.

Just a few more shots of these darling kitties: Indulge me. I'm done with today's cat story.

Mimi comes out from under the bed!

 Allows some petting, please excuse the photo angle, it's too late at night to edit now.

Guera purrs while she enjoys her petting session.