Critter Count PCB 5/09

Yes, folks, we’re back with a most excellent critter count from our trip to Panama City Beach FL. It must be frisky armadillo season, just LOOK at those numbers!!

All critters are dead unless otherwise noted:
Armadilloes 28 (!!)
Critters 33
Road Pizzas 36
Greasy Spots 9
Cat 1
Raccoons 2
Possums 2
Tortoises 2
Tortoises (live) 2
Dove (live, walking across the road!) 1
Bum (live, sitting at the treeline) 1

The trip was awesome and I did not fry myself like a pork chop! Just my calves got a bit crispy because I forgot to put sunscreen on before we went to Shell Island. :-/

We stayed at the Flamingo, one of only SIX family owned motels left at Panama City Beach. The beach is overrun with HUHYOOGE condos blocking out the sun – most of which are empty from over building. But the sands are white and the surf is warm, so if you get the chance, GO. It’s 5.5 – 6 hours from Atlanta and totally worth it! I highly recommend staying at a family owned motel – they are the history of PCB and you should keep them in business.

RLC

Rotten little cat! Me? Spoil my cats? NEVAH!

Missy on heating pad 5/09
Missy on heating pad 5/09

Yes, that’s a heating pad. And yes, it’s on. And YES that is one HAPPY rotten little cat. She was so happy that she gave belly without chomping. :-)

Poetry from Tin House

I was reading my Tin House magazine just now I thought this was awesome:

Only the I Ching Hexagrams are Lacking
Unlike despair, happiness knows no final answer
As one who has carried discontent
Like car keys,
why should I silence the music of their ping and jingle?

I turn to the Master of No Speech
And seek his counsel.
In the dye-glare of Zattere waters,
He opens his hands: five elements and the ten celestial stems.
– Charles Wright, from Tin House Vol. 10, No. 3

 

Out of sorts

Yah, so Nick and I have both been out of sorts for about a week. His back’s been out and his tummy’s pitching fits. I’ve had to deal with Aunt Flo (beeoch!) and a general lack of focus. Ugh. Hence the lack of bloggery and such. I’m suffering from lackoposty! Heh!

In the afternoons after lunch I’ll sometimes cruise around and watch various odd TV shows. One I’ve watched several times is “Mystery Diagnosis”. Being a fan of “House, MD”, I found this title compelling. Sadly, it should be called “Litany of Crappy Healthcare”. Every single “mystery” on this show is really just some poor soul who has legitimate illnesses but are ignored, bullied or otherwise treated badly by the healthcare professionals who are supposed to CARE and HELP. The interesting trends I have seen from the dozen or so cases I’ve seen:
1. People who know they are ill, yet allow the medical community brush them off and are afraid to talk back to doctors who are being jackasses.
2. A healthcare system that is completely uninterested in finding the REAL issues and treats people like they are stupid morons.
3. Female doctors are FAR more likely to find the answers than male doctors.

I’ve always preferred female doctors, well, since I’m typically there for my girlie parts and I feel that a male doctor has no business treating my girlie parts. I also prefer Indian doctors. I feel their persistent and careful demeanor generally leads to better diagnoses and care in general. I don’t want an old doctor who has been jaded by the system, either. Yah, this show just shows how sheepish people are about talking back to doctors even when they KNOW the doctor is wrong and how pathetic our healthcare system really is. Sad.

But not today. I’m way too spacey for that today! I do apologize for the lack of posts and such here (that’s what “lackoposty” is, btw. New term that I just made up!). I promise to try to get back on track. The retrograde is wreaking havoc at the moment. Hopefully it’ll calm down in a few days.

Welcome to Mercury Rx

Ah! My fave time: retrograde. NOT. Luckily, we’ve not got anything new going on, so we should get through this one relatively unscathed. Mercury Rx makes things just a bit fuzzy or ‘off’ or weird or unexpected or FUBAR if you’re having a bad one. To get through it without having unexpected outcomes, it’s best to not sign contracts, start new projects or make any big changes that could have long term repercussions. Lynn Koiner has an excellent article on Mercury Rx (the link will redirect to the correct page); her site is really good and I’ll cite it a couple more times in this post. If you are interested in the deeper aspects of astrology, you may want to dig around her site.

Void Moon is also a time to avoid the same things but it’s not as vicious and it happens quite often, which makes it much harder to avoid.

Another Rx that I’d completely forgotten about was the Venus Rx we just came out of in April. Cathy Burroughs, a local astrologer, wrote an article in Oracle 20/20 Magazine this month about the Venus retrograde and it explained a lot of CRAP that had been going on with me and various women during March-April. Here’s an excerpt regarding what a Venus retrograde is:

As you know, when Venus shows up in our charts, she is a mesmerizing catch-all for all matters of the heart, but also partnership, money, values, your stuff, your love history, your work history, your values, your goals, your life balance, your spending, your makeovers, what you love, your sense of beauty, women and your relationships with them, including but not exempting, your mother, your sister, your friends, yourself, as well as women, in general. – Cathy Burroughs, Oracle 20/20 Magazine, 5/09

Along with the various flavours of female strife (mother, Miss S), a Venus retrograde can also trigger the desire to get rid of old baggage of any type. I found myself going through my stuff and selling valuable things on eBay and giving the rest away. Venus Rx generally makes one evaluate everything from what’s in your closet to friendships to which comics you read. It’s also a time when people from the past pop up – as I saw on FB. Depending on which house Venus is retrograde in, it can muddy up anything from friendships to finances.

Venus rules the second house, which is finances, so Venus Rx is NOT the time to buy or sell investments or bring home that HD TV (that we were looking at and I’m glad we didn’t buy!!). Supposedly it’s a good time to renegotiate a bank loan, but we didn’t get that particular mojo, sadly.

In general, retrogrades cause confusion. Nothing is as it appears. I totally whiffed the Venus one; had I been paying attention, I could have saved myself some female friendship grief.

As for my mother… The actual issue of her behaviour may not have been as bad as I perceived it, but after putting up with her shit for my whole life, I think I like this disconnect from her. I wish it would encourage her to think about her life and how she treats me, but I know better. It’s definitely caused me to think about my relationship with her and realise that it will never get better. I can ‘give her passes’ like my brother, father and niece do and allow her to chew my ass at random times that suit her or I can disengage. This time, I choose disengage. Since Nick is onboard this time, I feel that I’m not overreacting. That woman does NOT have my permission to chew my ass and beat me down verbally any time she wishes. It’s not right, it’s not fair and I say NO MORE. So.

One of my favourite quotes:

“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt

Right on, sistah!

Go forth, my bitches and try to stay out of trouble until June 1. Re-vamp, re-invent, re-consider, re anything you want! I’ll be in my cave, hiding. :-)