Senseless Snow

I have, as so many others, been spending a lot of time removing snow the last few days. When you don’t have a plow, getting rid of it can be hard work, even with a snow blower. My arms are sore from shoveling; I wonder why people around here don’t look more like Popeye in the winter.

The holidays are approaching and everyone is busy preparing, except me. I don’t decorate because my cats would tear it back down, I know this from experience. We go elsewhere on Christmas day so no need to make a big dinner. I wonder when Christmas started to become more of a headache to me than a celebration. I perhaps have become a bit of a Scrooge and would just rather say “bah humbug” and forget the whole thing.

It could be that hubby is working every day and every one else is busy and maybe I am a bit lonely and depressed. I am at a stand still in my life, unemployed and not sure where to turn next, basically feeling kind of useless.

I am still trying college. I came up with enough money for one class and am applying for the rest, keeping my fingers crossed. For the government pushing education on everyone they sure don’t make it affordable. Seems if they wanted people to get a higher education they would drop the cost of it. But then again, how many things does the government do that makes no sense?

I am off to count the inches of snow before I have to shovel again.

Loving My Pets

Yes, I am still alive. Time slipped away from me and into other issues of life. Hubby went back to work today, yah! Of course that means it is cold and snowy now, boo! Still no word from the college program people, but they suspect that it will be soon.

Thanksgiving we hosted my family and provided a tasty turkey dinner. We ate too much and felt sleepy afterwards proving the meal successful. If we fed our enemies turkey dinners during war it would probably make them a lot easier to find, they would all be napping.

Samson loves snow. I find it odd that I wound up with a dog who loves snow when I despise it. He relishes in grabbing pine cones off the snow laden limbs and tossing them about so he can stick his whole head in the snow to search for it. Samson also enjoys rolling on his back in an area that has been freshly shoveled or even on ice patches, haven’t figured that one out yet.

Samson has also been trying new food. For some reason I started researching pet food and realized that I wasn’t actually feeding him good food, although I thought it was pretty good. This led to more research on how to read labels and ingredient descriptions and reviews, etc. So the search began for better food for Samson and the kitties. We visited three pet stores and wrote down what they carried and the price, allowing me to do a spreadsheet on Excel. With the spreadsheet we picked eight brands and compared top 10 ingredients, cost, protein percentage, fat percentage, and calorie count. We found that some of the premium dry foods cost the same as some supermarket foods, crazy.

Another thing I discovered is most of the premium foods have websites and if you email them and request a sample of their food they will happily send some. Taste of the Wild blew me away by sending six sample bags (three different flavors) for the dog and two for the cats. I was only turned down by two brands that said they guarantee their food and if your pet didn’t eat it you could return the bag. So if you are shopping for a new pet foods don’t be afraid to ask for samples. Also ask at the pet stores, a store we visited gave us some samples that the company sent them.

The only downside to new food for Samson has been his gas problem, which has been very unpleasant, but I believe it will end when his tummy adjusts. Until then we are trying a little yogurt and pure pumpkin to help with digestion. The cats have taken to some new food very well and Squeaky has been acting like a kitten again, all playful and feisty, and we are still in the switching process. They had a lot of food left so we are stretching the mixing process.

I would like to end this with a website I found very helpful in my research, I thank them for their time and effort in providing the information.
www.petfoodratings.net

Predicting Bad Luck

Do you believe people have a sixth sense? Wednesday I spent the day with an anxiety attack. My stomach had the butterflies and my nerves were on end and I had no idea why I felt like that, I thought maybe I was starting to have a melt down. I ended up going to bed early in the extra bedroom and stared in the darkness wondering what the heck was wrong with me. I intermittently slept throughout the night but woke the next day feeling better.

Thursday was an average day and all seemed to be well, although a few butterflies still flitted. When hubby returned home from work his news was not good, he was laid off. Fortunately his layoff is only temporary, until it gets cold enough to make snow, but that looks to be weeks away. That is when I understood my panic, another layoff in the house, this is going to suck. My panic has melted away today giving me hope that things will be fine in the end.

I don’t claim to have ESP or anything like that. My feelings Wednesday could have had nothing to do with Thursday, but maybe they did. What if I did have a premonition but did not realize what it was?

We all have different views on ESP or any kind of mind control. I like to think that there are people who have a little ESP, or even telekinesis. The idea amuses me that we all have the ability to do these things, but only a few figures out how. I suppose some could be born with a stronger ability than others, like a lot of physical traits.

I am not sure I will ever know the answer to these questions, but it doesn’t matter. Hopefully my next premonition will be next week’s lottery numbers so I don’t have to panic about a layoff, but I won’t hold my breath.

Winterizing

It was sunny for part of the day allowing me to work in the yard. I cleaned out the shed and put the patio furniture away, how depressing. The weather people are calling for the first snow (shudder) at the beginning of the week. It seems way too early after such a short summer.

While I was hauling stuff back and forth the animals came out to join me. At one point I stopped to hear a group of chickadees chattering away. JC sat under the tree closely watching them and meowing. He would turn to me and meow and I would tell him that he could not go after them. After a few times of asking and me saying no, it became too much for him and he scaled the tree anyway, scaring them all away. Later I kept seeing him streak across the yard, who knows why. Samson followed me relentlessly and I would stop and play ‘keep away’ with him. He gets really excited and goes into a full gallop around the yard, eventually tiring out and letting me continue working. I think they were happy to be out in the sun even though it was chilly.

Last night we went to a surprise birthday party thrown for a close friend. His girlfriend rented a cabin and had everyone meet there before he showed up, it worked and we had a good time. It was fun catching up with the people I should contact more often, but I guess we all say that.

Tomorrow is football and me cooking again, I really need to win this week. I will probably make chicken wings. I deep fry the wings and roll them in our own sauce, messy but very yummy. I realize it is not the healthiest food, but you have to enjoy them once in a while, like so many other things in life. That is all for the time being, hope everyone has a warm and happy weekend.

If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up. – Hunter S. Thompson