not freezing!!!!

So it's been a lovely day here in paradise (aka: Pair-O-Dykes ranch). My Tam got the pipes all fixed over the weekend, although the kitchen hot water is a very slow trickle. She's going to try to see what's up with that, this weekend. F helped me get easily 3/4 of the Yule decorations put away. I'll get that finished up tomorrow. She also hanged a load of my Tam's laundry for me. yay, Fawnie!!! We went to her OB appt. yesterday. He is a hoot. I like him! She lost 2 more lbs. The baby will take what she needs from the momma. I'm still pretty sickish, but, gettin' better all the time *crossing fingers*
B has agreed to do my website for me!! Yay!!!! More time for me to draw and BLOG and tattoo!

Right, Left or...Call me an Idealist!

Why do we find it so necessary to put ourselves (and everything/everyone we see, know, hear of etc.) into a neat little box with a label?? Especially when so often we do it not to find a commonality, but to emphasize difference?? And I am no exception to my belief that the more ingnorant we are, the bigger each box is....the more variety it holds under our narrowly defined label. Is this an inherent human condition? This need to identify, categorize, define? I'm sure it is. I'm also sure it begins as a reasonable desire; the desire to understand. Why do we repeatedly choose to stop investigating and decide we have the definitive answer? The label that fits, describes, encompasses a thing, a person, a viewpoint.
The topic of reference today is politics, but this applies to so many "isms" (racism, sexism, etc) and situations in our lives it boggles the mind if one stops to look at it. I know I am so guilty of this myself, blaming "right wing conservatives" for GWB and just about everything else that's wrong with our country right now. When did I begin to make such sweeping generalizations?? Why don't I get real and blame every person who doesn't vote, who doesn't even try to sort out the tons of dis and mis-information. Blame every person (like me) who gets so lost in the "spin"... Blame every "lefty" who is so extreme...
Why don't we all just admit that it is a fucking full time job to sort the wheat from the chaff and that everybody lies!! All we can do is follow our instincts and our hearts.
I identify as extreme left pretty much for one reason...to separate me from the extreme right. A very dear long time conservative friend of mine and myself once decided that if there were actually a political party to suit me, it would be "Idealist" :) How is it that I can claim conservatives as "friends"?? How is it that I can claim UFO detainees as friends?? Witches, Queers, Murderers, Democrats, Republicans, Blacks, Whites, Muslims, Christians....
This is insane. I'm going waaaay...off, right now.
(okay, T, breathe)
It seems to me that if more people would step out of the "left" and "right" positions, and sincerely try to understand each issue based solely on the facts (that we are able to discover, or as they come to light), we could all have an actual exchange of ideas. Dialogue instead of "Parties. (Hence the "Idealist" ;) )
I think the internet is allowing us so much more access to varied sources for "news" that it is harder than ever to distinguish "spin" from truth. I believe we are all victims of this. Left, right and in-between idealists like me. I'm sick of it all, today.

Bye Bye Birdy...

Yukk. So I.m in bed, today. Thanks to my good friend B., I'm in bed with my laptop. iBook. Love it. It's still really cold here in our beautiful High Desert. At night, anyway. Cold enough that the pipes under the house froze solid on Saturday last, and haven't thawed yet. My poor sick GirlyBoi was under the house yesterday with a propane torch. No; not a little handheld bottle torch, a big one with a hose running to a 5gal can! She was disappointed to find that the old galvanized pipes are too close to the newer PVC pipes as well as the wood floor of the kitchen, for the torch to do us any good without burning the house down!!!
And I think life sux today!!
I'm almost grateful to be sick in bed instead of hauling water and heating it and blah, blah-blah, blah-blah! What a pain.
So my sweet lil Birdy, the Dirty Pirate Hooker, is gone. Off to her new home in AZ. This has been hard for me, even though I know that she will be a happier, healthier 'Too. I never dreamed that I would rescue more birds than I could care for, or that it would be so hard to let them go, even when I know that there is simply not enough of me to go around. Especially with Cockatoos. I feel so sad that she is gone. We were finally getting into a routine where she was not screaming all day. (Unless anyone wanted my attention. She did tend to scream whenever anyone else came into the room.) Still, I know she wasn't getting enough out-of-cage time. None of my now-too-many fids have lately. One less will be more of me to share among the rest. So it's for the best for everybirdy.
I'm sure that she will stop plucking when she settles into her new home, too. She hasn't been doing it long enough for it to have become an obsessive/compulsive thing; and she hasn't done any permanent damage to herself.
I'm so big. So hard, sometimes...to do what's right.

New Pics and stuff...

at my tat blog, An Artist's Journey.
Please stop by!!!

The layout of my day...

looks like this:
The largest center block is filled with keeping me and the birds warm. Overlaying this is me journaling, taking down the tree and listening to music. Off to the right lower corner of my day dinner is cooking, and the aroma wafts up through the design like mist. Up in the left top corner, running all along the side of the layout is me puttering with cleaning and sorting in the studio area. So far, so good. Pretty balanced picture under the circumstances, I think!!!

It's Fucking Freezing!!!!!

What a week so far!!!
We had a lovely lil getaway and a great time at the Body Art Expo in Pomona (check out my upcoming article at my An Artists Journey Blog, for more details).
Got a call from F on Sat. saying there was no hot water. The hot water pipes to the house had frozen. They tried boiling water to no avail, so we just had to hope the pipe would thaw. By Sunday, all the pipes were frozen. No water to the house, nor to the tank from the pump. The pump relay switch blew a fuse trying to pump ice. A fixed that, finally thawed enough to get water to the tank, but here I sit on Wednesday still with no water to the house.
This sux. I boiled drinking water on Monday to wash dishes and clean up, and again yesterday. At least yesterday the outside faucets had thawed, so I could water the animals and do some more dishes and flush the toilet (we were almost out of the 25 gallons we'd brought from B's house for that sort of thing).
This morning Tam went in to work after hopefully ascertaining that the block on the truck hadn't cracked (she only had a little antifreeze in it. Thank the Gods that it seems to have been enough. She's getting more today).
So here I sit in the bedroom heated by our lovely little blue flame propane heater, trying to keep warm while I build the fire in the livingroom fireplace to take the chill off enough to wake the birds up.
This is insane. This place is so high maintenance. It seems that one must always do 3 things before one can do what needs to be done, and when things like this go on, the ratio is more like 10 to 1!!!
As my Grandmother says "It's a good life if you don't weaken".
I lost my voice at the Expo. It's par for the course for me since my last stint in a band. I can't remember what the condition is called, but it's not the throat itself, rather the supporting musculature that gets strained. Pavoratti has it. *s* At least I'm in good company.
The big bummer is that I think I'm coming down with something. Tam, too.
So I'm trying to lay out my day (I like to think of it like that; an artistic layout, rather than a linear list), and so far simply can't decide how to arrange things. What elements to include, and which must, perforce, be left out.
I'd love to sort through my new ink supplies and put them each in their place...
I need to boil water for dishes, but only have one pan of water until at least the exterior faucets thaw...
I want to start writing for the aforementioned ink blog...
I need to clean Birdy's cage in preparation for her move to her new home this weekend...
And right now all I can do is sit here and try to keep warm. It's fucking freezing! (We have a title!!!) and on that note, I'll close for now.

Biding my time and enjoying my gifts

*lol* If I hadn't popped the wrong button just now, the title of this post would have been "enjoying my gofts" It has an intriuging sound to it, though, doesn't it??

I'm so enjoying my electric teapot I received from C, my Goddessdaughter , for Yule. It's so good for me to drink more herbal tea and less coffee. And silly as it sounds, I'm so much more likely to push a button than light the stove. As for the microwave...NOT suitable for tea at all, IMO. I'm weaning myself from the coffee addiction, so I need to drink a lil caffeine in the evening, but in a few days I'll be done with evening caffeine. Then maybe I'll find it easier to get my sleep routine back on track.

I've started a few new journals with the hope of making some money at BLOGGING. Well, maybe not so much to make money now, (although it would be nice to make a lil extra), but more thinking that it will help me BLOG regularly, and therein improve my writing habits and skills. I am serious about gearing up for NaNoWriMo this year, and knowing me, I'll need to stay focused or Nov. will come around again and I'll be saying, "oops", one more time.

Maybe this will get me back on track with my novel. I still want to write it, but I have this feeling that I need to write something else before returning to that first 30,000 words. I don't think I've outgrown the story, and I still feel it's a story I need to tell, but I'm not sure that it's supposed to go the direction I had it heading when I got stuck. Hmmmm. Maybe that's why I got stuck!!

So biding time until tomorrow with this tooth. Strange, but it hasn't flared up yet, today (Knock on wood). Of course, my back and hips are screaming from staying in bed yesterday. But I'm moving around a bit today, to keep them stretched out. That should help.

F and A are home from LV after A's accident. They're off to the hospital for some more tests for A, today. My Love is laying tile today. She's very happy to have a break from the trim and drywall. And I'm sure she's excited to use her new tilesaw, I sure would be!! Speaking of tile, I really need to get the kitchen counter finished. Maybe.... well, we'll see. I'm not going to put that on the schedule right now. She installed a couple of doors and a set of french doors for B this last weekend, so I didn't get to see much of her, but she sure made some good money doing it! It was a good break, anyway. I think it's important for lovers to miss each other once in awhile.

I'm so excited about the Body Art Expo this weekend. I'm only slightly less excited to have discovered that my artist, Judy Parker, isn't going to be there. So, poor me, no work on my back. Still, I'm thinking about seeing if I can get some work from Black Wave. I'm doing my left arm in black linework, not big thick tribal shapes, more like mehendi designs. I am thinking to see if Su'a Sulu'ape FreeWind will do a spiral on my elbow. If it doesn't cost too much. I was planning to spend $300 or so for a sitting on my phoenix, but I need a few supplies, so maybe I can spend a little less on ink. Still, I really want some new ink, and think it would be very awesome to be tapped. Very spiritual. Time to move around a bit; I'm getting stiff from sitting.

    I've been in bed all day.  Yesterday, despite this damned tooth, I managed to get up and about a bit.  Got a lil housekeeping done.  This morning I just couldn't do it though.  I woke up with the whole right side of my head/face pounding and screaming.  And such a headache!!  So I opted for meds and sleep today. 
    This toothache thing started before new years, and became intolerable without medication.  Last wednesday I broke down, swallowed my pride and decided to go apply for MIA.  When I got there, they said it would take 30 to 45 days to be approved, that it provided only limited, preapproved dental, and that all services (including emergency) would be at a County facility some 100 miles away.  Needless to say, this did me no good at all.  On the other hand, there was some good news.  They handed me a flier for a non-profit dental clinic in VV.
    I was pleasantly surprised to see the name on the front of the flier:

The Ronald C. Moss Dental Clinic

    Dr. Moss was my Oral Surgeon some 20-something years ago.  His nickname among his patients was "Painless Moss".  He extracted 3 of my 4 wisdom teeth (his partner had done the first one).  It was one of the best experiences I've ever had at a dentist.  He was a gentle, competent and compassionate man.  He actually met me at his office at 7:30 PM, when the pain from what he discovered to be two dry sockets became more than I could bear. 
    I called the number, and later that evening my call was returned and the nicest young woman explained to me that Painless Moss had passed away some years ago and his widow had started the clinic in his memory. 
    They have 2 programs available.  The first is treatment provided on a first-come-first-served basis at their Saturday clinic.  The "payment" for this service was 8 hours of community service done at a homeless shelter, or salvation army, or any public service non profit.  The second is a low cost option.  $50 for the first office visit, which includes exam an x-rays, and is a one time fee for office visits for the year.  Then $75 for whatever it takes to get you out of pain.  Extraction, filling, or root removal and med-pack (the first step of a root canal).    If a crown is needed I would get it for about 40% cost.
     I think this is so excellent.  I would take the community service option if my transportation situation were better, just to be of service.  But the cash option is reasonable and well within our means.  The first available appointment is for Wednesday.  Thank the Gods I have pain meds. 
    So, I'm just hangin' in there.  The best thing that has happened so far this new year is I've received contact from a long lost love/friend whom I've missed terribly.  I adore this woman, and we've had an incredible friendship...a love... a soul bond that goes so much deeper than friendship.  I was devastated (as I know she was) when circumstances and choices divided us.  We were both bitter I think, for awhile, as was F, who loved her also.  The 3 of us have reincarnational ties that I'm sure we're not yet through with.
    Anyway, she has contacted me at one of the sites I had put out hoping she would find me.  I'm so pleased I can't even begin to express it.  We're supposed to chat on Wednesday.  I can hardly wait.  One of my 43 things..."Repair a broken friendship"  Very important to me.
   

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Perfect for this post holiday financial crunch...

Happy New Year

    We had a lovely, intimate lil New Year's eve gathering.  My C and the girls, B, M & K and D (eventually).  F joined us and A didn't make it.
K brought so many goodies...cheese cake, a luscious cranberry bread with grand marinier icing.  B brought steaks which I marinated and Tam BBQed.  I finished up M's celtic tree of life early, then we just partied.  Listened to music, lots of good conversation, and food.  We played Cranium and that was fun.
    K wouldn't let me do dishes, which was very nice!!!  C and the girls, and M & K went home early (before midnite) to avoid the drunks on the roads.  B and E stayed til 1am or so.
    I am about to go insane from this tootheache/sinus/ear thing!  It is so incredibly painful!!!    B said he would take me to get it taken care of, bless his heart, but how to handle it until then??  If I take enough medication to relieve the pain, I'm sick to my stomach and loaded, neither of which I want to be!!  But it's either that or sit around crying and whining and feeling sorry for myself!  Gods!!  I hate tooth pain!!
    Mom's social worker is coming for her yearly eval tomorro, so I need to go over there and help mom clean up.  Tam offered to come home at noon to help, but what's really more important right now??  I mean, yes, I'd like some help.  F can't do it with mom's catboxes, and A is MIA (again), so that leaves me.  If Tam comes home, that's fucking with our paycheck.  We really can't afford to do that right now.  I think I just need to buckle down, take some pain medication and do it!!
    It has recently come to my attention, that my gardening friend and neighbor, R, is not such a good friend after all.  Turns out he's been trying to stir things up between mom and us, (me, F and Tam) by telling stories, gossiping, and repeating things out of context.  He seems to do this for his own amusement; he's an odd, lonely man.  We have all agreed to be very careful to not give him any more fuel for his firestarting.
    I wish my F weren't so unhappy.  Half the time she's sick, the other half it seems she's struggling with her love.  It hurts my heart.  Unlike Tam, I don't blame A.  F is in love and she'll take what she takes until she can't take it anymore.  It doesn't help her to think those closest to her are seeing her as foolish.  Love is love.  I don't doubt that A loves her.  He's just a little wild and predictable only in his unpredictability!  He's responsible in his own way, but pulled too many directions.  It's hard. 
    I seem to have found adoptive parents for Birdy, the dirty pirate hooker.  I'm so pleased, and so sad and scared at the same time.  I've never adopted out one of my babies before.  It is really the best thing for her, though.  She needs a home where she will get the time, attention and affection that 'toos need to thrive.  I cannot give her that here, with 8 other birds (2 of which are 'toos).  I'm actually feeling pretty good about it (as good as a control freak like me can feel).  Judi seems very enthusiastic and realizes the commitment she is taking on.  They're building her a cage, and I'm sending the one she's in, so Birdy can transition easier.  I need to type up (or find) the Birdy Bread recipe and send it to Judi, along with some links for toys and such.  I'm going to send some links about training 'toos, and about their needs.  Also poison woods and foods.  They'll be driving out from N. Arizona later this month to pick her up.  That gives me some time to get used to the idea.
    I also need to make Bread for my birds today, and get the kitchen cleaned up.  I'd like to get the tree down and Yule decorations put away, but I don't see that happening today.  But if I don't get started, nothing will get done, so I'm off!