Ode to the First Frost

I’m getting new tires for the little Prius today. I figured it was time after I realized I was losing traction while taking turns at 5 mph on dry, clean road surfaces. With luck my car will be done in time for me to take a bunch of gold jewelry to my favorite jewelers to sell off so I can pay for this.

I exited the house at about 7:30 to drop the car off, but even though the tire place is only five minutes away, I didn’t get there until a few minutes before eight. This was the morning of the first hard frost of autumn, and my windshield wipers were firmly frozen to the windshield. I couldn’t find my ice scraper (later, I belatedly realized it was probably in the garage somewhere and not in the car) so I sat in the drive with my car running until it warmed up enough to thaw the Prius out. Considering the price of gas at the moment, that was probably a rather expensive way to de-ice the vehicle.

Today is Friday, the first of my four-days-in-a-row-off streak. It’s either feast or famine with this job, and this weekend is Somalia. My next paycheck is going to have to come with an anchor to keep it from floating away, but still it’s a relief to have a bit of a mini-vacation going.

The job is what it is. And don’t think I’m not getting good mileage with that phrase. They change my schedule at the last minute? It is what it is. I have to cancel a doctor’s appointment I made six months ago because they scheduled me to work when I said I couldn’t? It is what it is. I need to take my lunch break one hour after I start my shift (and two hours after I’ve eaten breakfast)? It is what it is. I get admonished because of something someone else did? It is what it is. Whenever I begin to get fed up I remind myself that at least I’m employed now. There’s a lot of people out there who can’t make the same claim.

Midderick von Fluffenhoeffen (LBlS) had minor surgery Monday to remove a little wart/cyst/growth thingy on the side of her nose. The bump was barely larger that the head of a pin (OK, the head of a big pin) but it had about doubled in size over the course of the past year so The Prof decided it was time to do something other than wait-and-see. The vet I use was able to remove it with a small punch biopsy device, but poor Midders now sports two small stitches where she used to sport the growth. We were told we could remove the stitches in ten to fourteen days, so I’ve made an appointment to have them removed first thing in the morning on day ten. I’d do it myself, but my suture scissors are more elephant-sized that cat-nose-sized.

Meanwhile Midderick has to wear an E-collar (aka Cone of Silence) which she abhors. The poor cat is so frustrated about not being able to groom herself properly that she now spends a fair amount of time licking the inside of the collar (that being the only part of her that her tongue can reach with the collar on). We’ve been taking the collar off for brief periods when we know that she will be under 100% surveillance, but it usually isn’t long before she makes an effort to beat the vet to stitch removal.

The other cats may not be as sorry for Midderick as I am, as evidenced by the above picture. I wanted to get a picture of Midders in her E-collar. I was paying no attention to the background at the time. You will notice that a certain grey opportunist was happy to finish cleaning Midders’ food bowl for her.