401 NOT OK

The true impact of the money system failures are becoming evident as Americans across the nation open their mail and view their new 401K account statements--which for us are down many thousands! If you do not get a statement in the mail (usually quarterly) check online ASAP! And I fear that there is more bad news to come in the next statement. Are we just fools, handing money over each payday to these guys to gamble with? At least in a savings account your principle is protected; in a 401K it can all disappear. And then there are those fees!

Related to this, I recommend a book THE BIG SQUEEZE by Steven Greenhouse, the labor reporter for the NY Times, which tells how companies are seeing big savings by nickel-and-diming workers out of things we once reasonably assumed were standard for workers in this great land. The pension fight is over and we lost; health benefits will go next. And clearly, there is no balance of power in the company-worker relationship. Hard times.

Neighborhood Update

Our once quiet little section of Glendale, bordered by Woodhaven Blvd., Union Tpk., Cooper Ave. and St. John cemetery, and 80th St. is a little enclave of what was, in 2000, quiet streets and mixed residential and commercial. Today it is pretty crowded, and our once sleepy streets now have bumper to bumper parking and traffic whizzing through all day and night. Not to mention lots of foot traffic going to and from the mall. I like the mix of residential and commercial because that means fewer people, and there is sometimes an interesting architectural variety. But all is in flux. Inevitably, we will see further development, and all parcels are up for grabs. There are a few sites on 88th that I am concerned about. For now, here's' a status on small changes:







Our old reliable Glendale Latticini is under new management and has a new name, though this picture shows they kept the awning with the old name and put up a new sign above it with the new name. One mistake they made is not keeping the local staff that worked the register in the morning and weekends. People like to see that.

A new neighbor is offering an alternative to Starbucks at Metropolitan and Cooper. I don't know if we need an alternative to Starbucks in Glendale, and I wonder if the community can support this place. Esparks is a small chain-- I saw one in Glendale/Ridgewood near the CB 5 offices. I really am not sure how to pronounce it. I checked it out--it has bagels, cream cheese, coffee...but if a place does not sell the daily papers, well. Both the Latticini and this place service mostly all the truckers and workers who come into the neighborhood--there's big bucks in brex and lunch. They do not make profits from those of us who live here. We are small change.

And, finally, a closing. China Buffet on Cooper--closed by the Board of Health says the yellow sign on the door. This happened once before, and they opened up a few days later. But it makes you wonder. We ate there with the family. Lots of food. You can really pile it on. Still...

Cat health (or rather, lack thereof) update

Brendan is better. He's eating on his own from the bowl more, but I'm still feeding him from my finger. He's not sneezing or wheezing. I think he's definitely past the worst, and he's being very cooperative about being separated. Of course, it's easy for him because he sees us overnight. I can't say he's been letting me sleep through the night, so it's been hard for me.

On bad news, Georgie is definitely sick. I took him to the vet last night and he understood I was not looking to hospitalize him unless it was necessary, so he gave him a bunch of shots (an antibiotic, an appetite stimulant and a vitamin shot) and I went home with a strong antibiotic (only 1/2 pill once a day) and instructions to use the same antibiotic nose drops that Brendan is getting. And we had to separate him, too, so he got the front upstairs room, which he was NOT happy about, and found fairly inventive hiding places. Unfortunately, he stopped eating and probably drinking, even though we went out and bought the sardine cat food the vets swear every cat will eat. He was still somewhat active, but I know it's really bad for cats to not eat for more than 48 hours, and I didn't want to chance it, so Kevin and I took him tonight and left him, he'll be there a few days at least. I just don't have what it takes to force feed one of my cats. Pills, ok. Food, no. Georgie especially. The first 1/2 pill I gave him, he pooped a little nugget (the other two came out at the vet's). The second time I gave him the pill and nose drops, he let out a huge wet fart (I was sure there were going to be poop bits in it, but I guess since he hadn't been eating and he had already gotten the poop nuggets out previously, there just wasn't anything) and by the end of our struggles he had a HUGE amount of dripping snot that ended up attached between his nose and the air conditioner he was hiding next to. It was a good three inches long and 1/8 inch thick. It was just a bad situation all around.

And also bad, I think the Riaowly is also sick. She's been hanging out by herself on the futon, and hasn't been eating much. But tonight she ate grilled chicken, a good amount of it, so I'm hoping she's only a little sick and part of the problem is that everything's so topsyturvy. Plus the vet said to start her on the antiobiotics that we originally had for Brendan (a much milder antibiotic) and the nose drops antibiotic. But I won't be surprised if I need to bring her to the hospital in a few days, too.

Basically, I'm feeling like my life sucks right now, and I'm really stressed and don't feel much like eating either. I'm glad that at least we are home for the rest of the year.

The Importance of Oral Care for Cats

A couple of weeks ago, Brendan started leaving some kibbles when he ate, and within a week he wasn't much interested in eating. I suspected he was having a problem with his gums...we knew he had problems with his teeth and gums from way back when we first got him. When we brought him in to be tested and neutered, they removed something like 11 teeth, and since then during vet visits they've mentioned that his gums were bad. And unfortunately, oral care for my cats has eluded me for the most part.

Anyway, we brought him in and he definitely had teeth problems, they thought they might have to do some extractions, but he'd probably be home in a day or so.

Well, it wasn't so simple. He had grown gum flaps over parts of his teeth, and so food had gotten trapped and rotted into the pulp. Plus while extracting they saw a mass they didn't like and biopsied it. Thank goddess it came back negative for cancer, but he was diagnosed with some gingivitis thing (I forget the full name) and they needed to keep him in a few days longer to make sure he was eating on his own. So we weren't happy he had to stay in, and indicated that if it was just force feeding that he needed that we'd prefer to have him home (being confident that in a day or two he would be eating on his own anyway). But by that Friday he was showing interest in eating, so the vets said it was ok to send him home. Though on Thursday we spoke to one of the vets at the hospital that we find somewhat obnoxious and not good partners in our cats' health care.

When we picked him up, the vet (one we like and trust, who apologized for the other vet's phone manner, and said he would be happy to be the main vet to speak to us) showed us some pictures that had taken while Brendan was being worked on. Pretty gruesome! He was sent home with an antibiotic and a pain pill. Well, I was able to do the liquid antibiotic, but the pain pill was too difficult for me because I was really scared of making his mouth hurt more. I should have gotten a pill gun immediately, maybe things would have been a little different, but maybe not.

Anyway, by Monday (Labor Day) he was not wanting to eat again (maybe because the pain medication had worn out and I hadn't been able to dose him properly), and he was sneezing. And hacking, which at first we thought was a hairball, but then rethought it in combination with the sneezing. So we drove out to the Valley Stream hospital office for an emergency visit (and which took us much longer than it should have because we were given bad directions and got lost...even though we had been out there several times related to P. Kitty, without being given the right exit off the Southern State, it wasn't familiar and we ended up all the way out by Hofstra University, many towns east of Valley Stream, what a nightmare trip that was!) and he was readmitted. He was there all week, on an intravenous line, and being force fed for the first few days (apparently cats must eat, unlike humans who can survive for a week on sugar water intravenously, or they develop some kind of liver problem pretty quickly, like within 48 hours).

We picked him up yesterday (Saturday) finally. The poor guy has lost some weight, and he has sores on the outer part of his mouth (I'm afraid to look inside!), and he's on a superduper antibiotic and prednisone (which will be tapered off within a month), in addition to a separate antibiotic administered through his nostrils. The antibiotic and pred are pills, and we bought a pill gun which works just fine. On the trip home he sneezed a zillion times, and we were really worried he was severely ill, but he's been better since he got home.

We have him isolated in the bedroom (because of the sneezing, which could be something contagious), which he isn't happy about but has settled into. Right now he's sleeping underneath the computer hutch. The other cats aren't happy, they know SOMETHINGS up there, and I've been spending most of my time up there this weekend. (Not what we had pictured for our anniversary weekend). Kevin's been doing his best to spend some time with them, but I'm sure it's not the same for them. They like patterns, and the regular pattern is definitely broken!

So, in answer to KAKe's question about there being episodes of Eight is Enough, I'm thinking it's not likely. We just don't have the funds to take on another cat at this point. If we end up needing to declare bankruptcy, it'll definitely be because of cat health issues! And I can't stress enough the importance of cat oral care; I'm sure that the severity of this could have been avoided if I had pushed myself to ignore their protests and gotten into even a monthly oral cleaning habit. By this, I mean that I would have been aware of Brendan's mouth condition, and likely would have brought him in before it got to that point; clearly he appeared to be happily eating while he must have been in some severe discomfort. :-(

And right now I'm worried about Georgie, who started sneezing today along with some watery eye discharge. I'm not as concerned about the eye discharge, because his normal is to have a lot of eye cheese, but in conjunction with the sneezing I'm concerned that it's whatever Brendan has. Ugh. Wish us good luck that it's just a temporary allergy or something. If he doesn't get better in a day or two, he'll be going to the money pit, too.

We still do...

Today is our 5th anniversary.

We're glad we still see some of the smiling faces in this picture. Five years changes a lot.

New friend

This is a new friend on 71st Ave. by Kim's job. He is smallish--smaller even than Pru--but we are not sure if he is a kitten or if he is just slim. Actually we are not even sure he is a he. He comes around the parking lot and she puts out food for him and for another cat, a white one with patches. We may need names for these two guys/gals.

Kimberly unexpectedly saw him once at the dead end of 71st Ave. near the Hansel & Gretel. She had been putting food out in the parking lot, but hadn't been able to park in the lot that day and so had to find a spot much further down. Going home, walking down the street to the car, almost at the car, she spotted the kitty coming from a fenced in area and she called to him, "Hi kitty, Hi kitty." He ran towards her and meowed but then stayed across the street. So she showed him that she had a bag of food, and he looked interested, but when she went across he moved further away. So she put some food down in a spot where she thought he would see. But he didn't, he moved further away, and she put more out, closer to him. Then that second cat showed up, and she was glad she had two piles.

Back to School, Back to Books

In NYC, the day after Labor Day has traditionally been the day that "'teachers report." They show up for their first day to get their classroom assignments, set up their rooms, meet with their departments, and begin their countdown of the state-mandated 180-days. It's a beautiful day, like April for Chaucer when all nature wakes up. Across all the DeGrassi and Ridgemont and Capeside and West Beverly Hill high schools, teachers today are planning their units and lessons, selecting the books they think will "work" with their classes--and one of the first criteria (forget official requirements) is that the teachers like the books they choose to teach. I won't go on and on about what goes on with teachers, students, and books except to say a few things such as that all the bestseller lists, book review sections, etc. seem to miss this key aspect of American life. They are not counting those things that really count. Do we really know what is being taught and read across America?

It is true that one of the biggest drains on the lives of young people is the forced reading of tired old texts--such as Steinbeck's THE DEAD PONY, oops THE RED PONY. A greater truth is that teachers have made a difference in the lives of kids by introducing them to books that matter and to which they may personally connect. It is teachers who above all others deserve credit for making memoirs so popular, and one day someone will write a history focusing just on the role of Maya Angelou's I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS in that effort; they deserve credit for promoting a whole genre we call YA; and credit to the newer teachers for bringing to their students the works they themselves are discovering in graduate school, whether Jamaica Kincaid, or Sandra Cisneros, or Oscar Hijuelos. Credit also to teachers who take the classic works and, with student participation, read them in fresh and creative ways; and those who bring in music and film to highlight techniques, or to deepen the artistic experience in ways that books cannot. This canon-reshaping and cultural regeneration takes place in the classrooms and student minds each and every semester. Teachers are both transmitters of culture and bulwarks against culture. And so, as Mr. Raditch said in days of old, "Good Morning, Aspiring Scholars."