Category: Critters

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Critters Funny Stuff Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Freezing rainy day kitten cuteness

The freezing rain is coming down – my turn to have a sheet of ice that used to be a street!
Xena and Olivia
Xena and Olivia consider snuggling up for warmth.
What's on Earl's Avid
This is what a half-hour show looks like on the Avid.
What's on Earl's Avid
A closer look.
Technical Difficulties
Spotting whilst flipping through channels: the most irritating technical difficulties screen EVER. It hurts my eyes! (It’s the city of Fort Smith’s public access cable channel, by the way.)… Read more

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Critters

Rainy days and Mondays…

It’s pouring down rain. Buckets of the stuff. The big pond on the property behind us is now a big lake that’s almost up to our property line. The ditch across the street has flooded. There’s been water ponded up on the front porch (but so far, thank goodness, not anywhere in the house – so far). It could be worse, though – about 100 miles to the west, it’s so cold that all of this rain translates into freezing water, and all the standing water translates into a sheet of ice. (Though we won’t escape that completely – we’re going to get the ice storm on Sunday night according to the latest forecast.)
Anyway, it seems like a perfectly good day to sleep through. Not me – I’m actually working on a half-hour show for somebody, and my support crew…well… let’s check around the house. … Read more

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Critters Gadgetology

4 days to go

I have’t gone in to work yet, but today we get back to the big countdown: 4 days until the end of my penance in the TV industry. Can’t wait.
Oberon and Olivia
Oberon and Olivia are chilling out after all the Christmas cheer. Actually, they got to spend a lot of the day in the house with no people around – as usual, we head to my sister-in-law’s place for Christmas. I missed seeing Sampson and the other kitties around; there’s only one cat left up there. It’s easy to figure out why when you see real live bald eagles zipping around the mountain.
My Cat Is The Real Boss
My wife liked the bundle of Olivia goodies I got her. As crazy as she is about her kitten, I hoped they’d go down well. I filled the mug with these chocolates that she likes a lot, so all was well. I suppose sometime this year I need to update that design with one that includes Oberon and says “My Cats Are The Real Bosses.” 😆 Anyone who’s interested in picking up the Olivia-wear can still find it here.
I got a nice big spindle of dual-layer DVD+R blanks, new boots (seems that the incident a week ago today was pretty much the end for my already-slowly-disintegrating farm boots) and socks to go with them, and the 4-disc Chronicles Of Narnia DVD set. And today, I got…technical problems. Zen has suddenly decided that it will no longer run Paint Shop Pro 8, nor will it let me reinstall it; I’ve had to load up PSP5 to get any graphics work done. As a possible solution to this problem, I managed to get IE7 uninstalled at last, at the cost of Microsoft trying to tell me every 15 minutes that my computer requires Critical Updates.
Time for me to get cleaned up a bit and head to work. 4 more days…… Read more

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Critters Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Various surprises

Work: I was asked to stay. Sorry, nope. I was then asked to stay a week longer. Sorry, nope. And no attempt was even made, not even a weak one, to entice me to do so. So…ooooookay. A week from tomorrow it still is.
Meow: Our new furry friend went to the vet today for a checkout and neutering. As it turns out, “she” is a “he” (though not a real “he” any more!). I’m beginning to feel pretty stupid – that’s the second time I’ve wound up with a Desmond who I thought was a Desdemona. For a boy cat, he’s very polite, well-groomed and pretty submissive to the other kitties in the house, regardless of all the hissing and growling Olivia sends in his direction. He’s a keeper. His name is Oberon, though he already has a nickname, “Obi-Wan” or just “Obi.”
I just hope he still loves us after we had his bits snipped.
Took two client meetings today from folks wanting me to do stuff for them; if I was on any kind of diet, I would’ve blown it in the past couple of weeks just from meeting with people who are paying for lunch/breakfast/what have you. Maybe I don’t even need to work – just meet with people who want me to do stuff for them, and that takes care of everything but the gas money. 😆
I still miss Sultry fiercely, and I keep having what I suspect will come to be known as “that nightmare.” I have to admit to being just about worn out because I’ve really been trying to put off sleep as much as possible just to avoid that. I don’t know that it will ever go away.… Read more

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Critters

Oh God

I’m bundled up in a bunch of blankets writing this at the farm.
Oh God.
I just saw my horse die.
She’s been almost blind for quite a while, but here lately she’d gotten worse. The rest of the herd would leave her to her own devices and she’d circle until some outside stimulus could get her to move in a straight line toward or away from it. She’d always come to the sound of my voice.
I came up to the farm today to feed and saw she was circling, unattended, way the hell away from everyone else. She ran into the fence a few times and cut up her legs. Then she walked up on the earth dam and fell into the pond on the deep end.
She circled for almost half an hour, treading water, while I ran to get help; the guy who trains our horses happened to be working with the babies up at the barn, and I ran up there to get him to help. We tried to get out to Sultry in a boat to get a rope around her and lead her back to shore. Then the boat started taking on water (hence me sitting here without my clothes on, bundled up in blankets – I’m soaked to the bone). We had to get back to land and try to talk her to shore, but she didn’t make it. She got tangled up in something and started thrashing around and her head went under repeatedly. We started seeing legs kicking, but no head.
And then she stopped.
I’ve loved this horse since I first met her. She was supposed to be Jan’s horse. Then, of course, she picks me instead. I think it’s probably not much of a stretch to say I’m perhaps a little less overbearing than the rest of the family, so she gravitated toward me. Love at first sight. There were times when I’d have to be there for her to get shots, or an ultrasound, because she wouldn’t trust someone to do those things unless I was there. When she lost her last baby, she wouldn’t let the vet get close until I was holding her on a lead rope.
I thought maybe my being there would help her this time. But she was panicked, and too far gone.
Sultry
I’m going to miss my horse.… Read more