uncles and things...

One of my dearest uncles died this morning. He became ill rather suddenly. I didn't get to say goodbye, which makes me sad. He was one of the most kind-hearted people I've ever known. Another funeral.

SOLVED...I think.

An International Space Station sighting from 1992...familiar?!

Works for me!

A preferrable explanation...

I would like to find out if this was a space station sighting.

Here's the info from NASA...looks like this could be the culprit, even though it doesn't explain the strange sparkles so far away from the center light.

I saw it again this morning in the same area, so I'm very interested to see if this is it.

convince me it's a star...

and I'll shut up...

Another picture...less explanation...

This is another photo my father-in-law took. It is completely unretouched. Pretty eerie...

I'm not at a computer with graphics software, so I'll post a better crop of it at home. I don't know what it is...

Zero percent more explanation

My father-in-law did take a photo of the object we saw, but as I suspected, without a massive zoom, it doesn't really look like much. You can tell it's not a picture of a star, but it doesn't appear to be anything else either.

So, anyway, all I saw this morning was a star hanging out in the same area...no blinking, hovering or speeding satellite objects.

I am all about finding a rational explanation for this, by the way. I have seen in the early morning bright reflections from airliners traveling into the dawn while it was still dark where I was, but it still doesn't explain all the other stuff. I am pretty relieved that the geometric lights were not real (I think anyway).

I'll probably never know. Weird.

15 percent of an explanation...

So, being the rational sort, I can't stand the fact I don't have an explanation for this phenomenon I experienced this morning.

However,

I did discover that the geometric lights were a trick of the eye. I took the binoculars to several windows and discovered that the window upstairs has a metal screen that separates large points of light into segments. And that explains why my father-in-law didn't see the separate lights like I did (my husband couldn't see separate lights because he can't see crap).

So,

that explains the fancy clothes, but not the rest of it...all the stuff I saw from the basement window with my naked eye--the abnormal sparks, the wavering hover, the bright light that has never been there any other morning...and then, upstairs, the reddish blinking light that traveled upward in a diagonal direction at an exponential speed...

I hope tomorrow's doggie duties yield nothing more exciting than full water and food bowls.

And, I hope I find some way I can explain the other 85 percent. But, I doubt it.

only aliens would be able to keep me from earning my degree...

I was downstairs filling up the dog bowls with water this morning about 6:30 a.m. and I looked out the window. I saw an extremely bright star, even though it was a bit cloudy. "Hmmm, that's really bright," I thought. Then it moved. Just a little...hovering.

We live near an airport, so I didn't think that much of it, but I continued to watch it while I filled the other dog bowl. Then there were "sparks" appearing around it; much like landing lights, but way too far from the center light to be a plane. "What the hell?" I turned the water off and I have to admit, being a skeptical person of those sorts of things, I was quite freaked out. OK, really, really freaked out. I stood there for 10 or 15 minutes watching, expecting to discover it was a plane, but it became more apparent to me that conclusion was quite impossible. It continued to hover and from time to time the "sparks" appeared around it--one near, one or two further away. Again, much, much too far to be part of a set of landing lights. Honestly, I started to pass out after I realized this was something very unusual.

I was afraid if I ran upstairs to tell my sleeping husband it would be gone by then and I would have missed this weird opportunity to observe such a thing, but I finally decided I ought to go up.

I ran to the bedroom window, dog food scoop still in hand, and woke up my husband. It was still there. Still very bright. I got a pair of my dad's birdwatching binoculars to see it better and was shocked at what I saw. It wasn't a blob of light like a star, but an organized set of lights in the shape of a cross or, what seemed to me, lights criss-crossed over the shape of an orb. Faint streams of light emanated from the "thing" and it continued to show the "sparks" from time to time. Unfortunately, all my cameras had dead batteries(though without a serious zoom it probably would have looked like a star on film anyway).

After a while another cross-shaped set of lights, fainter and seemingly farther away, appeared and moved across the sky in a perfect upward diagonal to the left. While moving, the lights showed a more reddish color and blinked/flashed. It left a very faint trail. Alien exhaust emissions!?

As daylight broke it got impossible to see the "whatever-the-hell-it-was" and we went back to bed after checking to see if there were any strange news reports on TV.

I didn't get to use a camera, but I did render in PSP a fairly accurate representation of what I saw, and that's the image in this posting...the lights beyond the bigger "cross" of lights were the intermittent "sparks" and the smaller "cross" is a representation of the location and look of the moving object which only appeared for a moment.

I Gooooogled "UFO March 22, 2007" this morning and I haven't learned of any other people who have seen this, but I, my husband, and his father (who got his telescope out this morning after we called him and saw the reflection of the sun off one of the object's "panels"--he said it looked like a "space station") all saw the same thing and have no way to explain what we viewed. I can't even explain it as a hoax or media stunt...I'm just glad I'm not the only one who saw it, otherwise I would have been dismissed for sure.

Hopefully, no government people in dark suits will show up at my door after this...

My gal...

Today is the one-year anniversary of Sadie’s death. I can’t believe it has been a year. She was a real rascal and an expert at disobedience. She rarely sat still and she frequently lost her temper with our other dog. There were at least three times that we rushed off to the vet to get stitches. We went to a veterinary behaviorist (which is the same rate as a shrink, except without the insurance assistance). I read books. I fretted. I chased her all over the house. She chased me all over the house. We played hide-and-go-seek. She had to be at least one body length ahead of Pickles when we walked. She would distract Pickles by barking at a fake intruder and then steal her treat as soon as Pickles came to see what was going on. She wanted soft toys just to un-stuff them. She wanted hard toys just to bury them (she took great care in burying items). She ran from my big white deaf cat. She hated the garbage men. She hated sirens. She hated thunderstorms. She loved people and kids. She hated dogs. She constantly pestered us when she was inside. She constantly pestered us to come inside when she was outside. She loved to chase birds. She hated to get up in the morning. She hated to go to bed. She’d run upstairs when you told her to go downstairs. She loved to eat more than anything else. She learned that she could only eat the pieces of cat food that had fallen out of the bowl and on the kitchen floor. She cleaned the kitchen floor of all crumbs. She wouldn’t stay out of the garbage. She loved to hear herself bark. The neighbors hated to hear her bark. She loved getting her Christmas toys. Her Christmas toys only lasted 30 minutes. She was a handful. She was always mischievous. Her eyes were always sparkling. She was always smiling like sunshine.

I miss my gal.

it's getting fugly...

Today is the 2nd year anniversary of when we found my father after his accident. I've taken off a couple days to lay low, decrease the stimuli and general overload. I didn't expect the second anniversary to be as painful as the first...

A couple more months and I will have hopefully earned my mastirz in soshul werk...thank God...I thought I would never get there.

My internship in veturinarie soshul werk has been very interesting, but the constant death in this teaching hospital has really worn on me. There are multiple euthanasias nearly every day...it can be terribly difficult for the interns and residents just starting their careers. And I have found out that I would not be able to do this type of work full-time. It is constant grief work and not much else. Yes, you get to see animals all the time and that's really cool, but you also get to see a lot of them die, too.

It could be the anniversary or it could be something else, but I know I want to be able to do more than crisis management and grief work. I do, however, want to be connected to the field as a supportive clinician. Compasshun fatigue is a huge problem in the field and vets see death 5 times more than human doctors. Becoming disconnected and numb is a problem for these folks sometimes, as is burnout.

knit your own penis...

Yes, now you can create the penis of your dreams. And balls, too...need to talk to the boss? Just join another skein and get the cajones you never had.

Atticus says hi...

Atticus says I am feeling better...and I have even gained a little weight!

YUKI

Hi from Yuki

Rooney says hello!

Rooney is where he should not be!

What A Pretty Dog!

And I don't take it back.

A couple of weeks ago I came in to work over the weekend and the building alarm went off. Mind you, it's always malfunctioning and such, so quite frankly, I didn't do anything about it. I didn't have a number to call so I just tried to get my stuff done.

Which is stupid, but sometimes I do stupid things.

I wasn't going to be there long, so my husband came with me. He was wondering around the suite, annoyed that I didn't know who to call. I was in my office and then I heard him call my name, "Uh, Teresa?!"

When I stepped out into the main area of the office, there was the K-9 unit and two policemen with their guns drawn.

Puppy looked hungry. Puppy wanted to eat us.

And the first thing out of my mouth was, "What a pretty dog!"

The cop closest to me looked stunned, as did my husband. But, the smallish German Shepherd dog was beautiful, despite the fact it was pulling so hard the K9 officer had to brace himself to pull him back.

"I guess I shouldn't be happy to see a K9 unit," I said to the officer.

He chuckled a little in a dismayed sort of way and shook his head. "No, you don't..."

So, I proved my identity by pointing to my name on the wall, giving him my license and a business card. All with a smile. All while no one else could figure out why I would take a thing in stride.

I did apologize...a lot. And they told us to have a good night.

I got an angry lecture from my husband and I took it because I deserved it this time. I do not take lectures from anyone unless I've really goofed.

I do know the security code now. By memory. Etched in gray matter.

But the truth is that I really wanted to pet the dog.

The Rodent Department

A ratty mascot for our office...degus from South America...

grayson

Atticus-ker-splaticus

My papaw-kitty, 14 year-old Atticus is not well. Over the past six months he's been losing weight and though his bloodwork looked okay at that time, he's gotten skinnier. The pic is of him before he started to lose weight.

So I took him back and he's in renal failure and has a heart murmur...and has liver problems. I didn't expect to hear any of that and left with two meds, special kidney diet food, IV fluids and a bag of needles to do sub-cutaneous fluids daily.

I really hate poking him on a daily basis. I get through it, but I think it traumatizes me more than it does him. He does seems to feel a little better with the fluids, though. I really hate to lose my Atticus-man. He's a really special, kind of spunky/cranky kind of cat that steals your heart. I don't know how much longer I'll have him, but I'll try to enjoy the time we do have.

Ugh.

I'm going to try to post a little more often...it's a crazy time for me. I have four cell phones between my personal, internship and work equipment...every day is a battle against getting confused as to whether I'm coming or going.

It will all work out somehow. Hope all is well for my friends in the blogosphere!

I'll take 'bloated brains' for $200

Me. no. have. brain. cells. no. more.

Splat.

I hit the windshield again.

Headed all directions, but still traveling the direction of the car.

Fast.

Ah, nothing like retard poetry to get the juices flowing. At the end of the semester I always find myself a bit lost. One more semester. You can do it.

I miss getting to knit. I miss writing. I miss computer noodling and learning new nerdy stuff. I miss having more time to felt, spin, dye, paint and create. And yet, I know things will eventually come together because, even though I'm a blob of crusty, smashed bug guts at the moment, I'm sure the car is headed the right direction. Give it some gas.

I hope to share some puppy pictures over Christmas. Pepper turned out to be a pretty big dog! They are both great and get along fabulously with our little old lady Pickles.

Today at the vet school I got to see a barn owl and a Cooper's Hawk in exotics...pretty cool. And a Macaw was squawking so loudly in one of the treatment rooms that I couldn't hear over the telephone. Funny...they are really, really loud when they're getting poked upon!

I am so scatterbrained these days...I'll be glad when I get my old wrinkled ass out of school...I know, all I do is whine anymore.

Posting has been so sporadic here that I doubt anyone still stops by, but I reckon' I talk to myself a lot anyway! ;-)

neither here nor there...

Does that equal nowhere? Dunno.

I have about five paintings up on Ebay right now and one tiny bid. It looks like everyone is getting some used mulch from the neighbor's yard in their stockings this year...that's all I'll be able to afford. ;-)

If you so choose, click on the Ebay link on the right sidebar --> that-a-way.

Leaving my former profession behind cold turkey has been really hard. I entered into a life of no comfort zones and no safety nets. Doing the art show on top of all that nearly sizzled my last few synapses.

My internship at the vet school has highlighted a lot of my personal weaknesses (oh, I mean learning opportunities) related to being assertive. It's a very chaotic atmosphere with constantly changing schedules and you are swimming in a sea of left-brainers. No, I mean REALLY left-brainers.

When I am fairly confident of what I know, I have a much better time being assertive, but being a brand-spanking-new social worker I find it hard to be as assertive as I need to be. I think some of that is a perfectionism problem--and I need to get over that if I am going to stay in this field. The internship is also very isolating in that you are not allowed to make friends per se. Being that everyone is a potentional client (vets, vet students and owners) you have to maintain a professional distance at all times. I don't have a problem with that, not being the social butterfly sort, but it gets isolating and lonely. I have to be careful to not let that feeling perpetuate into other areas.

And the holidays are tugging at my heart. Last year I was distracted from Daddy's absence by major surgery. This year it's just me, the holidays, and one less family member. Grief can come in waves. Right now I'm caught in the undertow.

Last Thanksgiving I put a piece of pumpkin pie on Daddy's grave. I decided to not do that this year. For some reason it's just too painful this time.

My job working with older people is going fine, but slow. The folks I am working with mostly live alone...and many of them will not have family around during the holidays. You can hear the intense loneliness in their voices when they talk to you about it. If you have an older family member, please take time to include them in some way...even if it's just a phone call to tell them you are thinking about them.