The "what's On Your Mind?" Thread -2019

kashmir64 · Feb 1, 2019

I dropped my vacuum on my foot once (it's a Kirby. They weigh 500 lbs. lol). Took my big toenail completely off. Blood everywhere, had to throw that sock away.
But I also have Reynaud's on my toes, so this time of year just a little tap will send me screaming. Literally have cotton balls taped to my toes so I can walk.

Alicia88 · Feb 1, 2019

I feel horrible. I've been slacking on clipping kitty nails. They've only ever scratched me accidentally so I haven't been too worried about it. Well, Murphy is a clumsy cat. He definitely lacks feline grace. He's been known to misjudge jumps or slip while climbing. And, he was jumping from the windowsill to the cough, landed wrong, started to fall, panicked, and a claw cat Aedan in the face. I'm gonna have to be more diligent about the nail clipping.

Mamanyt1953 · Feb 1, 2019

Mia6 said:
Oh, I bet they loved the heated rice bag. Do you know if they are related? Are you able to pet any of them?

I do, indeed, know. Little Bit is the Mama of Nyx and Skooks. I'm certain that Austin (one of the group) is the father of them...Skooks is a dead-ringer for him, and they spend LOTS of time together. The other was one of Callie's early litters, Nugget.

Here's something I was able to observe this year...when the mamas get to the point of pusing the kittens away, Austin seems to take them over for a while, at least. I see him sitting with the kittens, often, and he'll usher them to my back porch at meal times, stand guard as they eat, and then eat his own dinner. I hadn't thought that toms would be involved in their kittens that way, but he certainly is!

Alicia88 · Feb 1, 2019

When I was a kid, we kind of had a cat farm. My mom was terrified of snakes and hated rodents so she let us feed all the neighborhood strays, which of course resulted in more cats finding their way to us. We named them all; they had kittens - my mom never had money to spay or neuter any of them. Pocahontas and Cuddles were besties. They put their kittens together and took turns caring for them. Spot was one of Pocahontas's kittens. She had another litter the next year and he would babysit them while his mom and her bestie took off to do cat stuff. It was pretty precious.

Mia6 · Feb 2, 2019

Mamanyt1953 said:
I do, indeed, know. Little Bit is the Mama of Nyx and Skooks. I'm certain that Austin (one of the group) is the father of them...Skooks is a dead-ringer for him, and they spend LOTS of time together. The other was one of Callie's early litters, Nugget.

Here's something I was able to observe this year...when the mamas get to the point of pusing the kittens away, Austin seems to take them over for a while, at least. I see him sitting with the kittens, often, and he'll usher them to my back porch at meal times, stand guard as they eat, and then eat his own dinner. I hadn't thought that toms would be involved in their kittens that way, but he certainly is!

Aww....that is soo sweet of Austin to care for the babies. I bet they all think of you as their human Mama. They are lucky to have you.

Katie M · Feb 2, 2019

I had the longest, strangest dream last night.

I was going to school in Hawaii. That wasn't the strange part, one look outside my window will tell you why I was dreaming of Hawaii :cold:

Most of the dream was taken up by a job I had at a museum there. The museum directors evidently couldn't decide what kind of museum they wanted, so they opted to do everything. I was working in a marine biology/dinosaur area, but the boss was taking me around to history exhibits (one was a 1940s exhibit, even though I Love Lucy was playing :dunno:

), and a planetarium show went awry when the video started insulting my boss. Then the planetarium staff asked the audience to please support their union. I was being asked to do either incredibly basic things or things with technology that were way beyond my skill level. I was starting to sympathize with the planetarium staff

So, yeah. Weird dream

Mia6 · Feb 2, 2019

Katie M said:
I had the longest, strangest dream last night.

I was going to school in Hawaii. That wasn't the strange part, one look outside my window will tell you why I was dreaming of Hawaii

Most of the dream was taken up by a job I had at a museum there. The museum directors evidently couldn't decide what kind of museum they wanted, so they opted to do everything. I was working in a marine biology/dinosaur area, but the boss was taking me around to history exhibits (one was a 1940s exhibit, even though I Love Lucy was playing ), and a planetarium show went awry when the video started insulting my boss. Then the planetarium staff asked the audience to please support their union. I was being asked to do either incredibly basic things or things with technology that were way beyond my skill level. I was starting to sympathize with the planetarium staf

So, yeah. Weird dream

Weird but very interesting!

kashmir64 · Feb 2, 2019

Katie M said:
and a planetarium show went awry when the video started insulting my boss.

How many times have we wished for that to happen

Margret · Feb 2, 2019

Katie M said:
This cold is so rough. My joints feel like they're on fire, they hurt so much

That's not a cold; that sounds like flu. For many people that kind of joint pain is a result of a fever, and colds don't include fever - that's why they're called "colds."

Graceful-Lily said:
Do you try traditional home remedies? Not sure if they'll work. . . I'm probably no help, sorry.

For sore throat, I know of two.

Throat Coat Tea, from Traditional Medicinals. Not the version that says it has echinacea in it, just the plain Throat Coat.
Honey Lemonade. You should probably make it hot so the honey will dissolve easily, but you can ice it afterwards if you prefer. (The Throat Coat Tea can also be used cold, after brewing.)

Mother Dragon said:
Crafting with Cat Hair shows readers how to transform stray clumps of fur into soft and adorable handicrafts.

I have a friend who spins cat fur into yarn, using a drop spindle. She has dibs on all I can brush off of Jasmine. But I've found that when putting it in a Ziploc Snack Bag to take to her I also need to include one of those packets from a pill bottle that absorbs any extra humidity, in order to keep the fur from felting before she ever gets it.

Lari said:
They didn't give me antibiotics. Just said rest and take ibuprofen. I think I might be going in again today.

I've also lost like 6lbs in the past week. I mean, I'm trying to lose weight, but that seems way too fast. So I need to get this thing under control whatever it is. I might just demand medicine, lol.

That is too fast! Don't know what you have, but if they think it's flu isn't there something that's supposed to shorten the length of influenza?

Mother Dragon said:
When she got tired of screaming, she would hold her breath until she got her way. Her mother was afraid she'd die from it but her doctor assured her that either she'd give up and breathe or she'd pass out and start breathing. Either way, she was in no danger. Her family then began to ignore the tantrums and she gave up. Peace reigned.

Many years ago I was on a hike in the mountains with a group from my church. One little girl fell down and started crying and her mother ignored her. I asked whether she didn't want to check for injuries, and she said "No, just watch. See, every time she cries she's looking to see whether an adult is paying attention. That means she's just looking for sympathy." I watched. The mother was right.

Katie M said:
I had the longest, strangest dream last night.

Problems at work?

* * * * * *

Does anybody here know anything about Interstitial Lung Disease? An online search reveals that it's scarring of the lungs and can be caused by any number of things.

One of my sisters-in-law has it, and in her case it's an autoimmune disorder; her body is attacking her lungs. My brother says there are only two treatments available:

A drug that costs $100,000/year, and insurance may not cover it.
A lung transplant, for which she probably wouldn't be approved because no one with a lick of sense would believe that an immune system that's already attacking its own lungs wouldn't attack a transplanted lung.

If someone doesn't come up with something, chances are that within a year my SIL will be on oxygen 24/7 and complete bed rest, and within 3 years she'll smother to death. Obviously, we're very worried.

Margret

susanm9006 · Feb 2, 2019

Alicia88 said:
Oh, the toddler years are gonna be fun. Aedan had a massive meltdown and threw his ladybug toy across the room - pretty impressive, considering it's kind of a big toy - because it was turned off so the buttons weren't working. I turned it on for him and then he was happy but wow!
In his defense, he didn't take a very long nap so he was pretty cranky. He just fell asleep again. He's a strong little booger, though.

My son was the king of fits and when sent to his room would throw all his toys around and at things. Then, before he could leave his room he had to pick them all up and put them away. Did this over and over and over. He grew up to be a normal and nice human being but when he was between the ages of 3-7 I had my doubts.

Katie M · Feb 2, 2019

Margret said:
That's not a cold; that sounds like flu. For many people that kind of joint pain is a result of a fever, and colds don't include fever - that's why they're called "colds."

Problems at work?

Oh, no, I meant the subzero wind chill. My body doesn't handle cold weather well at all. The colder it is, the worse the pain is.

I'm not normally one to analyze dreams, but I did think about this one. I'm not having problems, per se. I do however tend to jump around with tasks, depending on who needs me. I help with children's programs, I scan and shred old financial documents, I price old books. The dream seemed to be an exaggerated version.

Lari · Feb 2, 2019

Margret said:
That is too fast! Don't know what you have, but if they think it's flu isn't there something that's supposed to shorten the length of influenza?

I was the one who assumed it was the flu after getting the negative for strep and developing chills, headaches, etc on top of the sore throat.

Well, after a negative test for mono on Thursday, I cried and they gave me amoxicillin with the caveat that if I didn't feel any better in 48-72 hours I'd stop and call my PCP. 48 hours later, I'm feeling a lot better, so I'm wondering if, assuming I did have the flu, while my immune system was weak some bacteria snuck in, which may be why I thought I was improving last weekend and started completely relapsing. Fingers crossed that whatever it is is really going away now.

mama africa · Feb 2, 2019

Lari said:
I was the one who assumed it was the flu after getting the negative for strep and developing chills, headaches, etc on top of the sore throat.

Well, after a negative test for mono on Thursday, I cried and they gave me amoxicillin with the caveat that if I didn't feel any better in 48-72 hours I'd stop and call my PCP. 48 hours later, I'm feeling a lot better, so I'm wondering if, assuming I did have the flu, while my immune system was weak some bacteria snuck in, which may be why I thought I was improving last weekend and started completely relapsing. Fingers crossed that whatever it is is really going away now.

Fingers and paws crossed.

Alicia88 · Feb 2, 2019

Glad you're feeling better. Aedan's gonna be a handful. I can already tell. Into everything. When he gets mad because I won't let him have something, I ignore it. With the toy, he just wanted it to work (and he was tired). I guess he already understands the concept of "percussive maintenance." I probably taught him that. He has an old leapfrog leaptop and the sound goes out on it. I hit it and make the sound come back on. So it was probably my fault. I never thought anything of it. I guess I should start taking it into another room to "fix" it. Haha

Mother Dragon · Feb 3, 2019

Margret said:
That's not a cold; that sounds like flu. For many people that kind of joint pain is a result of a fever, and colds don't include fever - that's why they're called "colds."

For sore throat, I know of two.

Throat Coat Tea, from Traditional Medicinals. Not the version that says it has echinacea in it, just the plain Throat Coat.

Honey Lemonade. You should probably make it hot so the honey will dissolve easily, but you can ice it afterwards if you prefer. (The Throat Coat Tea can also be used cold, after brewing.)

I have a friend who spins cat fur into yarn, using a drop spindle. She has dibs on all I can brush off of Jasmine. But I've found that when putting it in a Ziploc Snack Bag to take to her I also need to include one of those packets from a pill bottle that absorbs any extra humidity, in order to keep the fur from felting before she ever gets it.

I wish I'd known about something to keep the fur from felting. I carefully saved all the fur I brushed from my beloved Feather, my soulmate cat. I wanted to have it spun and woven into even a tiny square, whatever it would make. When I removed it from the plastic bag, it was all hopelessly felted and my precious Feather had crossed the bridge.

That is too fast! Don't know what you have, but if they think it's flu isn't there something that's supposed to shorten the length of influenza?

Many years ago I was on a hike in the mountains with a group from my church. One little girl fell down and started crying and her mother ignored her. I asked whether she didn't want to check for injuries, and she said "No, just watch. See, every time she cries she's looking to see whether an adult is paying attention. That means she's just looking for sympathy." I watched. The mother was right.

Problems at work?

* * * * * *
Does anybody here know anything about Interstitial Lung Disease? An online search reveals that it's scarring of the lungs and can be caused by any number of things.

One of my sisters-in-law has it, and in her case it's an autoimmune disorder; her body is attacking her lungs. My brother says there are only two treatments available:

A drug that costs $100,000/year, and insurance may not cover it.

A lung transplant, for which she probably wouldn't be approved because no one with a lick of sense would believe that an immune system that's already attacking its own lungs wouldn't attack a transplanted lung.

If someone doesn't come up with something, chances are that within a year my SIL will be on oxygen 24/7 and complete bed rest, and within 3 years she'll smother to death. Obviously, we're very worried.

Margret

islander · Feb 3, 2019

Good morning from a silent ,peaceful island.. Slightly less cold so managed a short walk in the stillness with not another soul around. In all four of my four cats came walkabout with me at various stages... The new ones are in training to be "follow cats" ... My cats etc have always been like this with me. At one place I used to have two lambs, three cats and a hen with no toes trailing after me to the gate. Still missing my dog though. Been three months now. There are places I cannot face yet. .back abed getting warm.

Mia6 · Feb 3, 2019

islander said:
Good morning from a silent ,peaceful island.. Slightly less cold so managed a short walk in the stillness with not another soul around. In all four of my four cats came walkabout with me at various stages... The new ones are in training to be "follow cats" ... My cats etc have always been like this with me. At one place I used to have two lambs, three cats and a hen with no toes trailing after me to the gate. Still missing my dog though. Been three months now. There are places I cannot face yet. .back abed getting warm.

So sweet having lambs, cats and a hen with no toes going walking with you.
So sorry about your doggie. :alright:

Mia6 · Feb 3, 2019

Well, it's not frigid cold anymore and will get into the 50s here today, crazy Ohio weather. Going to my sister's to watch the Superbowl or at least part of it.
GO RAMS!!

AbbysMom · Feb 3, 2019

Mia6 said:
GO RAMS!!

GO PATS!

Margret · Feb 3, 2019

Roger is watching the Super Bowl, so I hear it in the background but I'm pretty much ignoring it; if the Denver Broncos aren't involved I don't care about football all that much.

Does anyone know how to go about sending a Kindle or Audible book as a gift to someone who has a Kindle?

Margret

The "what's On Your Mind?" Thread -2019

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