Thursday, August 28, 2008

Scrat Monster is sick again

Hubby took him to the vet this morning around 10:30 with the same symptoms as last time.

Looks like the rock is in his stomach right now and they are leaning towards cutting him open to get it out rather then try to pump it out.

Please send good thoughts.

***Update***

Make that multiple rocks. One in his stomach they are going to try to get out with a scope. Multiples in both large and small intestines.

We are waiting. And I'm scared.

***Update 10:30 PM ***

Scrat Monster is home. They got the rock in his stomach out with a scope. 4 passed the disgusting way. They think one is still in him but they don't think it is big enough to get stuck.

I now have an $800 rock and $1200 rock. Scrat has to be part cat, because he's just used up a second life. He's moping right now because I'm making him get used to his soft muzzle. It will be worn by him whenever he is outside off lead.

Harsh, but necessary and recommended by the vet.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

15 hours and what do you get?

That's 15 hours on the phone with a client Sunday. 7 hours on the phone with the same client Monday.

2 daily scheduled phone calls with the same client for the next two weeks, not including impromptu dial in NOW messages. And I'm on call for after hours stuff and they have my direct line. Help.

All that equates to a Tired Tiny Tyrant.

I'm hard of hearing. I hate the phone. It's a HUGE effort for me to do one short phone call let alone that kind of marathon. I'm waiting to get sick. I always do after something like that.

But on the plus side I am getting off my keester and I signed up for and am actually GOING to kickboxing classes. They haven't killed me yet, so I guess they are making me stronger.

There has been minimal, like 30 stitches, knitting the past week, but there has been knitting.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Double Digit Doggy

Ten years ago today an event occurred that would affect the rest of my life. Little did I know exactly what the Fates had in store for me.

I was married to my first husband at the time and he wanted another dog and really wanted it to be a Boston Terrier.

December 23, 1998 I get a call at work from my husband saying I need to come down to the Humane Society and see this little guy they have. He's 8 pounds and four months old of half Boston and half Traveling Salesman. So I met Bob there and there was this little yappy, crooked teethed, crooked nosed, bundle of fur in with this little female Fox Terrier.

Bob, of course decided he actually wanted the FT, but it thankfully had a hold on it already. I promptly fell in love with the little brown guy that the FT was just mean to. Really truly while we were there she wouldn't let him near the front of the kennel or the water dish. I was bringing him home or else. (Turns out the little b* had bit him and punctured his lower jaw, but I got that fixed)

We started makin
g arrangements with our landlord to bring the little guy home. The words 'Crate Training' are all powerful for renters that want a four month old puppy. We got permission and I left work early on Christmas Eve to go pick him up, since Bob was picking his parents up from the airport (I think - it's been a while).

I went to pay the fee and they said no he's FREE. So I asked why. He had been adopted out once to a couple with a two year old little girl. Apparently they were left together unsupervised and Cliff bit her. Rather than use this as an opportunity to be a better parent, they dumped him back at the HS. I got him because I didn't have kids. He spent the rest of that day curled up on my lap.

Yeah he's been my dog since day 1.

We napped together, went through dog training together, he was with me when my marriage fell apart and he helped my ex's dad deal with cancer. When he was allowed in the bed he always curled up with me.

Cliff went on to eat one of each of my pairs of dress shoes. He learned that eating Mommy's cross stitch project is a really good way to get in a LOT of trouble. He also learned that chasing after deer in Annadel is an excellent way to send Mom into a panic attack.

He went through obedience training with flying colors.

Cliff has long since redeemed himself for biting the little girl. He is excellent with children. He is a Pet Assisted Therapy dog now. We can take him anywhere and know he will behave.

My husband Ken has never been much of a dog person, even with Cliff, sin
ce Cliff doesn't play much. But he had to take Cliff on a camping trip with another friend and their dog and I got the best compliment ever when they got home. Before that trip, seeing the friend's dog, he'd never appreciated just what a well behaved dog Cliff is.

He's my little bed bug. He has bad knees, but a good weight so they don't bother him. He loves blankets and squeaky toys. He hates the water. His middle name is Tiberius. His first name is actually Clifton, even if he named after the bar fly on Cheers (half Boston, and we already had a Norman dog, get it?)

He is the best dog I could have ever asked for and I don't know what I'll do when it is his time to go.

Hopefully that's not something I'll have to deal with for many years to come.

Happy 10th Birthday baby dog. I love you so much.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Poetry, Physics and Philosophy

The title of this piece brings together three things that are not always thought of in the same context. Physics usually remains removed from poetry and philosophy, while philosophers can use poetry to get their point across and poets use their work to let the reader know their particular philosophical stance.

A favorite poem from my youth is the following:

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Most interpretations of this piece of work lend themselves to a discussion of love versus hate. Being the geek that I am, I prefer to look at it as an explanation of where the universe may have come from and where it may be going.

The Big Bang Theory is the model that scientific evidence and observation currently supports the most. Basically that the universe began as a hot primordial mess at a specific point in the past and has continued to expand to what we have today.

Many scientists are still at odds over exactly how all that matter ended up in that point at that time with enough energy to create the universe as we know it. The Big Bang theory is not meant to explain that very beginning point in time. It is intended to explain events since just after the ‘explosion’ happened.

We enter the realm of cosmology (NOT cosmetology as my mother loved to tell people) when we start looking at how the Big Bang happened. For the sake of this article, I will focus on the cyclic model postulate.

It was put forth to my class at some point during my undergraduate studies that the universe may be what we call an oscillatory universe. That is one in which the universe could consist of an infinite sequence of finite universes which end with a Big Crunch which then leads to the next Big Bang.

For this to happen, the universe would have to be dense enough to stop its current rate of expansion while maintaining enough matter that it would begin to contract in upon itself due to the gravitational pull of the remaining matter.

The main problem with the cyclic model is the matter of entropy. This being that in statistical mechanics, entropy only increases due to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This implies that each successive cycle will get longer and longer, while each preceding cycle was smaller and smaller, till again we are trying to figure out how all that matter got into one place, in one point, at one time and decided to explode in the first place. This could also imply that there will come a point at which enough matter is lost in the next explosion that the universe will simply expand in its last cycle until it burns itself out and nothing is left.

So what if we have been here before? What if you have lived this very life in a past universal expansion? What if you may be at this point again in the next one?

What if those weird senses of déjà vu are from the fact that we are going through this cycle over and over again with the universe, and we REALLY have done all this before?

For many of us, this may be a scary proposition. For others, this may be a validation. If it were actually the case, what would you change, what things would you want a chance to do over? Would you donate more time or money to making the world a better place? Would you simply not care because you know it has to end sometime? These questions are no easier to answer than the one of how the universe came to be in the first place.

But in the end, it may simply not matter. Nothing is forever. But, given that all current evidence points to the fact that universe is expanding and that expansion is accelerating, what if this is the last cycle? What if the previous one (if there was one) was the first?

That cycle ended in fire. This cycle may end in ice.

Which would you prefer? Fire and the chance to do it all over or ice and believing that this is all there is and we should make the most of it while we can?

****

How's that for my hundredth post?

Friday, August 1, 2008

In Memory of

Margaret Louise Connor.

My grandmother passed away a few minutes ago. I think she went peacefully.

It was quicker than they thought a couple of weeks ago.

I'm glad I made the decision to go down and see her while I still could. Another week would have been too late.

Good bye.