h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Finally printed out the 'gatito card' for you - it should be there by next week. Hope it makes you smile.


az

I'm looking forward to my card from the gatitos!

My brain has fried, what does 42C translate to in Fahrenheit? UnBobly hot, at any rate! I'm sending *cool-off* vibes your way.

I have a doctor appt the Tuesday after next, and will get a referral appt to the eye clinic then. Sigh. Hope everything waits until then..,

SC

Oh, forgot to mention -- I have been *trying* to lose weight, so 22 pounds is good.

I'll send a picture to the gallery, I promise, as soon as I can get Photoshop to help make me look human!

SC

It's a shame you can't get a referral before a week Tuesday - couldn't you speak to your doc on the phone and have him/her arrange it sooner? It's still happening, I presume.

The past couple of days it's been a rather pleasant 35ºC. A mere 95ºF. Nog says that 42ºC is about 107ºF and agrees with you that it is quite unBobly hot. The other nice thing recently is that the nights are cooler than before ... it's almost impossible to sleep when just breathing makes you break out into a sweat. I can always tell when it's cooler at night because the boys are suddenly back up on the bed, not sprawled out on the balconies.

How are your beasts doing?

az

My beasties are in rare form today! Missy "killed" the twinkle ball and proudly presented me with it (the only time she seems comfortable with being petted is when it's attached to an "atta-girl"). And the Rocket boy is feeling pleasantly stuffed, as he got my "use-it-today-or-lose-it" sliced turkey leftovers -- his favorite! They are just so cute...

Glad to hear that things are cooling down a little there! We've had a hottish spell here, too -- it's easing up over the next couple of days to a week, but August to October can be *very* hot here, and the winds in October frequently lead to Fire season. (I refuse to discuss Shake-and-Bake, another of our little seasons here, as I don't want to give Bob any ideas!)

As for my peepers: Unfortunately, if I make a separate appt. for the referral, I'll have to pay $50 for the office visit. Better to wait for the appt. a week from Tues, since it comes out of the same bill as the surgery and hospital stay, which is on hold. The flickering dot of vessels thing has stopped for the time being, so I'm going to chance it.

SC

Missy reminds me so much of Lua - total bitch on four paws.

Whenever I tried to pet her she'd cringe away from me and stare daggers.

Weirdo.

I never gave up though, would sometimes grab her and pick her up and feel her go totally STIFF in my arms with that 'What the... how dare you!' look in her eyes.

Well, thought things were cooling down here but the five-day forecast has the temps as being 39/39/42/41/41 ... gaaaah.

Cat card is winging its way to you as we speak - those beasts are such darlings - hope you like it.

Honey, why not just splash out with the extra $50 and get your eye seen to as soon as possible? Shit, I'll even send you the extra $50 - just do it, okay? I don't like the idea of anyone taking a chance with their vision - it's really too important.

You didn't mention the link to the Nasa pic a day thing - did you already know about this? I thought it would be something you'd like.

Anyhoodle, off to make a very late lunch ... *swelter*

az

Forgot to ask - do you have any family there? Or anywhere?

Just that I've never heard you mention family, just friends who helped take care of the cats when you were in hospital ...

Anyhow, having gone through 'op recuperation' myself once, and largely on my own, I am really feeling for you (please excuse the possibly flaky southern cal sounding expression - it's heart felt).

At least I had decent private health care and the occasional friend who showed up to help me do the shopping, etc. And I was more or less able to get back to work after six weeks. I guess I really hate thinking of you having to cope with everything on your own, you know?

Yet your complaints (well-justified) never smack of self-pity or feeling overwhelmed - though I'm guessing it must feel a bit overwhelming at times.

Do me a favour. Go to see the eye doctor as soon as possible. It's on me. Okay?

az

az, I will go to the doctor on Monday! Turns out I have to go to do lab tests for my appt. on Aug. 8, so I'll have them check it out then, since I'll be in the health center anyway. I will spring for the visit, myself, but thanks for offering, you're a dear! You're absolutely right that it needs to be looked at ASAP!

Family? My dad is in a nursing home in Michigan, with dementia, and I try to call; the problem is that he doesn't remember me. My step-brother (whom I have never even met in person) visits him every couple of weeks. He seems to be doing okay, but slowly fading.

My sister lives in Lemoore, California (not far from Fresno), in the San Joaquin valley. She has a lot on things going on in her life, and doesn't communicate much. She's going through a divorce right now, a totally justified one, and has started contacting me again. She has 3 kids, 20, 18 and 12.

My brother lives in Denton TX, which is outside of Dallas. He called me the other day to check up on me, but is usually not good about communicating either. My brother is busy with a *large* extended family, and he and his wife care for their grandchildren during the week.

I have a lot of very close friends, most of them closer to me than my "real" family; I wish it wasn't so, but I don't really have much in common with my sibs. I blame the age differences between us -- my sister is 4 years younger and my brother is almost 7 years older. Doesn't seem like much of a difference, but we had parents who also were not close to *their* siblings -- I think it's a self-replicating pattern. I get the bug to try and improve things periodically, but can't do it on my own.

SC

<< You didn't mention the link to the Nasa pic a day thing - did you already know about this? I thought it would be something you'd like.>>

I did know about them, and I love the one you linked to -- I just forgot to say thank you, for the one you sent.


My favorite of all time is one they had on APOD -- a mosaic photo of Earth at Night: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040822.html . Just breathtaking! It really gives a thoughtful perspective on the little rocky spaceship we share with each other.

If you go here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020528.html, you'll see the Very Large Array of telescopes, in Socorro, New Mexico. I went to visit it, and have a picture of myself standing under the edge of one of these things! They don't look it, but each individual telescope is HUGE! They move them around on railway tracks to vary the distance between them and change the focus of the radio telescope's images. If I can get them scanned in, I'll post the pics on my Yahoo page, assuming I can figure out how.

SC

Sorry, brain dead here! The 2nd link should have been:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020528.html without the comma at the end!!

SC

Glad to hear you'll be seeing about getting your eye checked on Monday - and sorry if I was being *too* pestery.

Wow - I love that mosaic photo! In fact, it's now my desktop wallpaper (on the laptop). As it's too narrow to fill the entire screen I've ended up with three layers of it, which also looks quite cool.

Yeah, family stuff is often so far from the 'Disney version'. I haven't seen any of my family since 1999 and rarely hear from them - one sister, four brothers, mother (father and step-mother are dead). I wish I could say I missed them more and I am quite sure the feeling is mutual. It isn't that we don't get along, just that we don't have a lot in common.

Anyhow, glad to hear you have a family of close friends helping you out.

az

It's interesting you've made that photo your wallpaper -- it was mine on my company computer, until the b******s downsized me!

I think I might be able to get the eye clinic referral without a lot of hullaballoo tomorrow. Hope so, anyway.

It's funny you've said you think I'm not whinging -- here I've been thinking I've been on the whinge for months!

Diane

No, you're not whinging. You have legitimate complaints about very serious RL problems. Huge difference.

But I'm glad you feel able to blow off a little steam here now and again.

I love that new wallpaper so much that I almost also put it on my desktop computer, but just didn't want to lose the one I have now. Which was taken in Cádiz, when I took Nog there for his birthday a year ago March. Here it is.

http://public.fotki.com/azahar/trips/cadiz/waves_breaking_3.html

That was such a lovely and romantic day that I always love seeing that pic on my computer. The night-earth pic is my wallpaper for when I'm using Nog's laptop.

az

Still here.

You still there?


az

Yeah, still here. At 5:47 am -- frickin alarm goes off at 7! May as well not bother...

BTW, I looked at this journal entry, and realized that my answer to your last post never showed up -- what's up with that?

Anyhow, I really liked P's Bday pics. That picture of the ocean hitting the breakwater is very primal!

It's a good thing I'm not working yet, maybe I can get some sleep this morning, after paying my rent...

SC

The cool thing about that 'primal' pic is that it looks like I put it through a sepia filter or something, but that's exactly what the light was like that afternoon. But that happened after lunch - while we were having lunch on the beach it was quite sunny and warm.

Hope you manage to get a bit of a siesta in later. We just did a quick trip to the bank to pay our rent. Normally we just give it to our landlord who lives downstairs but he's away on holiday so we had to deposit it into his bank account.

I've just made up an email notice for our 'summer sale' and now am nervous because it's taking ages to *send*. Let me know how your email comes out, okay? I may have to do it all over again.

az

I'm going to ask Hyp if she can access my webpage, because I think she also uses AOL.

Just sent you a cropped version of your pic - would that do?

az

You are *finally* in the gallery!

I use Picasa to do basic cropping, retouching stuff. It's a free download and quite easy to use.

Speaking of easy to use, what happened to that blog you were setting up?

Oh, I've just had a wonderful idea...

az

http://azahar2.wordpress.com/

This is my 'drawing board' blog, where I play around with various new ideas.

Thought this custom header might suit you very well.


az

Thanks, az, the pic looks good!

BTW, thanks for mentioning going to the bank, otherwise I would have forgotten to pay *my* rent on Friday!! And that would have cost me about $50!!

I am the Queen and Patron Saint of Procrastination! (well, maybe not *saint*, since I hear you have to be dead for that one...)

SC