SaraBelle Redux.

I'm quite upset as I write this, so please forgive any errors or other misakes.

I took Sarabelle to the vet this evening.

The vet felt a tumor, a very large one for a cat of her size.

She goes back tomorrow evening to get X-rays on Wednesday. The vet gave me the rundown of treatment options, but it looks like chemotherapy is the likely event in SaraBelle's future. If that works as it should, the tumor will go into remission. If it does not...I don't want to think about it.

Join the Toasty Side!

Why does my new toaster look like something Darth Vader would use?

Gaaaah!!!

Honestly, sometimes the little things at work can drive me absolutely nuts. We are having a heating problem at work in our call center. The day starts off warmly enough, but then the boiler gets shut off and the fan keeps running ('cause its broken). Our inept building manager took both of the portable electric heaters that we used before the call center was built, and replaced them with a cheesy heater that doesn't work well, and can't be used three days of the week. The lens packers need it then.

This is all happening because the same VP who was so intrusive earlier this year is trying to cut costs by running the boiler we need as little as possible. While I can appreciate economy, the fact that we have NO HEAT is something of a MAJOR PROBLEM. The BM's solution? Claim he can't do a damn thing about it. Today he finally sent his underling to tell us that the boiler might be repaired tomorrow.

Adding to this fun is that since it was so cold, one of the call center people brought in their own electric heater. While I was prepping to go to a meeting (with loads of papers under my arms) he burst out of the store, thrusts the heater into my hands, and starts yelling at me about how this thing was going to burn down the building and such.

Here's an idea, maybe we wouldn't have this problem if we HAD HEAT!

Complaints have been sent to my boss and to the HR department. I honestly have had enough of this. He created this crappy situation, and gets huffy when somebody tries to solve it. Idiot.

In other news, my third cat, SaraBelle, has an appointment for Monday evening at the vet. She's getting very, very thin, almost scarily so (I'm feeling way too much spine when I pet her). She also seems a bit listless as well, and she's shedding in clumps.

SaraBelle is the charmer of my kitties. Everyone who encounters her is swayed by her adorable little self. Vet assistants want to steal her, and I've had plenty of neighbors and friends succumb to her charm. But her health these past few years hasn't been great. She got an eye condition called Coronal Sequestorum, where necrotic tissue builds up on the eye (and has to be snipped away..ugh). She also developed asthma. I don't know what's up with the weight loss, but I hope it can be solved.

Poor little thing.

The Final Battle....for now.

Today was the battle of Fort Mercer, a place in history where many a Hessian Grenadier met his end. It was fairly well attended, the rebels had something like 7 cannon on their side, and a decent force to field. We even had our new Hessian music, a competent drummer and a fifer. Swifty!

it was not without problems. I found out my bayonet scabbard was rotten as the leather tore the mounting bracket off. Grrrr. I am destined to not be able to have a bayonet. I gave it to our unit's leathersmith and asked him to make me a new one.

Oh, and I almost set a bunch of haybales on fire. Less said the better.

You can tell that the season is winding down: The musket failure rate starts to become appalling. My own faithful Brown Bess had a wonderful flint that managed to go through Germantown and Brandywine with scarcely a single misfire. That flint died today, chipped to dullness, barely able to fire one time in four with lots of work. Ah well.

I am quite glad that I never bought one of those Potsdam muskets years ago when they were made available. They were costly ($1,000+) and they have since seen just about every way to fail imaginable. They started out as near flint crackers, probably able to spark with a piece granite place of the flint. For a while, I was envious of those who bought them.

Then, like a Ford Pinto, they started to show their dark side. Hammers broke, springs failed, and the stocks started to crack, or even break. There is no-one who has one that is not faulty in some way. The guy who made them started not showing up at events simply to avoid the trouble of dealing with the problems brought to him. Frustration with these new toys has peaked several times. I sometimes wonder why some folks just don't go back to their old Brown Bess's, assuming they did not sell them.

Anyway, this is the next to last battle of the year. There is the Hessian occupation of the Trenton Barracks on December 10th, followed the next day by a small battle near Mt. Holly. It was kinda goofy last year, but enjoyable. Basically we chase the rebels down the streets of the historic district, and they jump in their cars and drive away. Then I think the town then rolls up the sidewalks. At least that is the way it seemed last year.

The last battle of the year would normally be the Battle of Trenton, usually held soon after X-mas. But this year they have scheduled it for December 31st. I don't think so guys. Almost everyone this date was mentioned to said pretty much the same thing. So much for that.

Cat Scratch Fever

Look at this. This is the work of one cat of mine going by the name of 'Brother'. This is not a scratching post, this is section of IKEA shelving that holds my home entertainment systlem. In this new apartment, Brother is able to scratch at this column since it is right next to the spiral staircase (the black metal thing next to the wood is part of the staircase). Brother has been scratching at the pinewood for since I moved in this place, and nothing seems to stop him (chemical deterrents, pepper, shouting real loud for him to stop). I give this about another 8 months before he makes his way through. Fortunately, I do not think that there is much load on this part of the shelving.

Stupid Cat.

In other news, what a difference a day makes. I had a miserable time on Friday, felt a cold coming on, felt clammy all day long, left work early (not feeling well), then when I got home I realised that I left my apartment keys at the office. Grrrrrrrr!!!!

But the miserable weather spell broke on Saturday. It was chilly in the morning but the afternoon you could walk around in a long sleeve shirt and feel great. Even when some old bat tried to turn left in front of me ( I was walking) nearly hitting me without a care for my safety, it did not ruin my day. Especially since I was carrying a rolled up newspaper and was able to give her passenger side window a thwack! that made a sound well out of porportion to what a newspaper should make. Bwahahahahah! The cabbie waiting at the light saw the whole thing and gave me a thumbs up.

I did a lot of staying downtown too. Usually I just hit a shop or two, grab lunch and go home, but I went to Staples, two banks (Commerce for their lovely change exchange machines, and my own bank for a deposit), I. Goldbergs, Borders, and Tower Records.

While I am still feeling good, I would like to rant a bit about all the construction going on. While it is very good that the city is building new stuff and revitalising, I am getting really, really, really freaking sick of sidewalks being blocked every two streets. It seems that no contstruction can be done without taking up the pedestrian's walking space, sometimes even forcing you to zig-zag from one side to the other to evade these walls of dumpsters and chicken wire. It used to be that one or two sidewalks were blocked in all of center city, now almost they are all over the place. Pheh! Also, it seems that 90% of the time the blockage is on the shady side of the street. Thanks guys.

The Dank. The wet.

For the past week, the better part of the NE portion of the USA has been resembling stereotypical Seattle weather. It has been dank, cold and raining constantly. I think I forgot what the sun looks like.

Everyone at work is down and miserable. I'm fighting off a cold myself, and the call center has a leaky roof, smells of damp, and just plain feels clammy. Our building supervisor is as useful as a football bat and manages to get nothing done. I finally told one call center person to get a dehumidifier in there by any means.

Adding to the dank is that a lot of water got into my car during the torrential downpour on Saturday. I went out to run some errands on Sunday morning and found that the drivers side of the car had a couple of inches of water in it. Joy. I scooped most of it out, and even tried using a friends wet/dry vac to get more out. But there is just so much dampness in the carpeting it is ludicrous. The car smells funny (and would be worse if I didn't toss a sock full of charcoal in there).

It is supposed to stop raining tomorrow, at least that is what some of the weathermen are saying. Weather prediction has really gone to shit this summer, and I expect I'll be walking to the bank tomorrow in more joyous misty dampness.

(Sings "I'm only happy when it rains", punches self)

Oh! The Wetness!

It is wet. Very wet. It started raining last night and only just recently let up. Sporadic rain is expected for the rest of the week.

This pretty much killed the big reenactment that was scheduled for this weekend. We already knew that we weren't going to be camping for this one. At best we'd be playing "Ramada Rangers" for attendance. A few emails were exchanged on Friday night, folks were worried. We got he word on Saturday that it was cancelled. Most of us had pretty much bagged the idea of going already, since flood warnings were in effect. But we held out hope for Sunday.

At around 9PM this evening, we got the word that the Sunday part of this event was cancelled.

Its a pity, the two planners of this event worked for some 18 months to get it all together. It promised to be a huge event. Then they had to watch it go down the drain (almost literally) as the first rain we've had in weeks decides to give us more than three hurricane remnants combined.

Tired. Very Tired.

Carrie's Mom took some good pics at the battle of Germantown. They can be seen here.

I am exhasuted and I blame this heatwave. Its the middle of fucking October and its over 83 degrees today. Normally in summer I get acclimatized, but today its draining me. I had to leave fencing early because I was almost falling asleep while fencing. This is not a good thing.

BTW, does anyone know how to make the titles just the stuff in bold? I don't want the first three sentences I type to be the title of each post.

That's two tires now.

I tried to ride into work today. But when I got to 7th and Spring Garden I heard the infamous loud *bang* and realized this wasn't going to be a nice day for riding. The front tire was flat again. Too bad, I had made every light up until that flat. So I changed the inner tube. Couldn't see any damage to the tire, but I figured I'd play it safe an ride home and drive in. Oh well.

When I got home this evening I decided to re-inflate the tube since it was full of C02 and that tends to leak out of rubber tires rather fast. I pumped it up, put the pump away and went upstairs. Soon after I heard another *bang*. Shit. Sure enough, another inner tube blown. This time I took the entire tire off and inspected it. There was a rather large tear right at the bead. Odd thing is that it didn't seem to correspond with the tear on the first inner tube.

But I have spare tires (and tubes). I chucked the old tire and put on a new one. This one seems thinner than the last one. It is also supposed to be kevlar, but so far that factor hasn't been real helpful. I checked the rim for any sharp points that might be causing this, but could not find any. Hrmmmm.

This is getting annoying.

Battle make hurt!

The weekend is over and we have fought the battle of Germantown. It was quite good this year, with lots of powder burned (2 blocks full). I even got to shoot out of the basement window during the afternoon battle. My musket got so hot that it was painful to touch the barrel, and I got a nice flint cut on my finger. As Bill says, its not a real reenactment until you get a flint cut.

Carrie came, with her mom, to the second battle. Some pictures were taken by her mom, as well a video of the ending charge that resembles some perverted, digital version of the Zapruder film. Except that no Presidents were harmed in the making of this video.

I woke up on Sunday and had a surprising amount of energy. I vacuumed the upstairs rooms, cleaned my musket, fixed my bike repair stand, fixed my bike (oiled & adjusted it, let's be real), fixed the Playstation 2, and then went out for dinner with Carrie and her mum. I don't know where that energy came from, but I need it more often.

Next weekend is the big Whitpain encampment. Its not reenacting any real battle, but it the British Brigade's big event for the year. I'll be there for most of the weekend, going up Friday night and getting home on Sunday afternoon. That is, of course, if it does not rain like the 5 day weather outlook says it might. Pheh.

To War With Me

Time for Battle of Germantown. Here's a pic taken by Mathilde last from last year.