Lisa – Page 3 – The Roggie-Blog

The Squash Bug Fiasco

‘Tis the season! Autumn is approaching and the garden is starting to wind down. It’s been a bit of an odd gardening year, but we did reap the benefits of some veggies. From a long, cool spring, to a hot and wet early summer and then a very hot rest of the summer, to an approaching Autumn which, fingers crossed, will result in an abundance of cool weather veggies. Right now, part of the garden looks lush and the other part is dying.

• The first crop we were able to reap was potatoes. We dug up 25 lbs of them this year. I planted 4 different types (can’t remember the names), 3 were yellow spuds and 1 type was red.
• I did manage to get 3 zucchinis from the mystery plant. All 3 of them were as big as baseball bats! I have 2 of them still in the fridge.
• Gem squash (a South African squash, similar taste and texture to spaghetti squash, but look totally different) are doing very well. I’ve given a bunch away and should be ready to pick them all off the vine soon and then clear out that space. Right now, that area is looking badly kept because the 2 plants are dying off. The vines are huge and have burst out through the chain link fence into 2 of my neighbors’ yards. It’s fair game! If they grow on their side, they’re theirs! Not sure they know what to do with it though. There will be lessons, and maybe a test! A taste test, perhaps!!
• My 3 tomato plants are still producing but not many of the tomatoes are turning red. I may have to just pick them and let them ripen on the windowsill (if the cats will allow it). It’s still a bit early to be doing that though, so I’ll leave it a couple more weeks.
• The bell peppers are doing fairly well and are turning red. One plant is tired and ready to be put out of its misery while the other one is bursting with peppers.
• I have 2 hot pepper plants, which are exploding with peppers. PSA: I’m a little afraid of it! Last time I picked some, my hands were burning for a full 24 hours!
• The 2 eggplant trees are doing well and producing well, but I’m concerned that the butternut vines will overpower it.
• Then there’s the butternut…! I planted one seed! ONE! This “trifid” has grown so huge, so quickly that I suspect the vines are larger than 20 ft. I’ve trained the vines around the bed it’s in, but it’s still growing. There are tons of baby butternuts forming, which really excites me, but there are also hundreds of squash bugs that want to race me to the finish line! Every year I fight the battle of the squash bugs. Last year they beat me to it, and I reaped nothing. This year I’ve tried to keep on top of their production and even resorted to using chemicals, which I hate to do. I don’t think it helped in the slightest. I think it just annoyed them and made them bionic! I shall prevail! This year I’ve been at home, so have more time to beat them to the finish line.
• I also have asparagus growing, and it seems to be doing wonderfully. It’s a 3-year asparagus and this is the 2nd year, so one more summer and then hopefully in the summer of 2022, we will be eating it!
• My herbs are also wilting, so I really do need to get out and pick some of it and turn it into something wonderful. Lots of basil for pesto, and other herbs for Italian seasonings that I can freeze.

This past week (maybe a little late) I planted some Fall veggies. I have garlic, various types of lettuce, spinach, radishes, and a lot of beetroot. Some of it is already starting to poke its head out of the dirt, so I’m hopeful.

It’s been horribly hot and humid the past couple of weeks with very little rain, so I’ve been watering the garden and dealing with mosquitoes and chiggers feasting on me. Seasonal allergies are no fun either, so I’ve limited my time outside.

I’d say it’s been a fairly successful gardening year. It’s a lot of work to maintain a garden and yard. Awful temperatures don’t make it easy either. I’d enjoy it more on my terms, but Mother Nature does what she wants.

Time for me to prepare my little rain dance outside. It’s cloudy, so I’m hopeful!

Happy gardening!

Blog, Bloggity, Blog-Blog

So, what do you write about when you really have nothing to write about? I think you just yammer on about nonsensical stuff that you’re familiar with and maybe a little bit bored with.

Greg got me a kick scooter for my birthday last year (nearly a year ago)! I’ve only just started riding it recently, not due to any dislike of it at all. In fact, I love it and I had so many plans of where I’d ride it and how far (and fast) I’d go, but life got in the way. He gave it to me the day before we left for Wisconsin to attend his dad’s funeral. When we got back, we left immediately for my dad’s funeral in South Africa. When we got back from that I had a lot of catching up to do, then it was winter with ice and snow and freezing temps not conducive to scootering. Spring came around and I got busy with the garden, at the same time trying to figure out how to activate the app for the scooter (long story, but my iPhone wouldn’t download the new firmware so I couldn’t activate it – finally got it working by having Greg download it on his iPhone and then voila!). Then COVID-19 hit and there were so many uncertainties about how you could contract the virus, so I stayed home.

After a while it seemed safe to try it out, so after a few practice rides up and down my road and figuring out how to avoid bumps and holes in the sidewalks, I think I finally have it figured out. And I love it. It battles quite a bit going up even moderately slight incline’s, but I have a way to nudge it along, even though I can probably walk faster. On flat surfaces and downhill’s, it’s awesome. It is battery operated so as long as I keep it charged up when I’m home, it’s great.

So far, I’ve had it up to 17mph (for literally a second on a downhill run) and the furthest I’ve taken it on one ride was nearly 9 miles so far. My average speed is around 10-11mph. It’s been nice to take it out in the mornings when no one is around and before the cyclists get out. Cyclists are pretty dangerous, never stop at stop signs or traffic lights, don’t adhere to any rules and just plunge ahead expecting everyone to get out of their way (in my experience). I’m learning to relax my shoulders and neck and breathe deeply and enjoy the views.

Right now it’s stinking hot outside, so I won’t be taking it out. I will wait until the temperature and humidity lessens (a lot) before I venture out again, but I’m looking forward to that day. Hopefully we will have a nice long, cool Autumn so that I can make the most of it. In the meantime I will be going for my daily early morning walks to clear my head of daily nonsense.

Quarantining

Who’s tired of quarantining?

Actually, not me! Quarantining has become my new normal and I’m ok with it. In fact, I like it. I no longer have to deal with people! I’m happy in my house – much happier, and less stressed and no longer constantly annoyed and frustrated by work issues. I no longer feel like I’m dealing with recalcitrant children. I can breathe, I can appreciate the fruits of my very hard labour and truth be told, I like it! Naturally it would be nice to have a pay cheque, but I’ll get there.

So what am I up to? I’m working on becoming the next JK Rowling! Ha! Well, I have no illusions of grandeur about the competitive art of writing children’s books, but it has been a great release and helped me escape the world of reality and immerse myself in a fictional town in Antarctica!

When I was a little girl, my dad used to tell me bedtime stories. He was great at making them up on a whim and kept me enthralled with the adventures of Percy the Purple Penguin. So, as a tribute to him, I decided to write them down and develop them into a book for kids. I’m no author, I have no training in writing (except for attending school because it was the law!), but I was a kid once with a very vivid imagination that blossomed into an adult-like vivid imagination. My mum once yelled at me saying “there are no bloody snow faeries in crocuses, so stop messing with the buds” but I still check them – just in case…

Percy’s story has been completed and I’m in the process now of tightening it up and re-reading it, and re-reading it again and again and again. I’m enjoying channeling Percy to see what he will be up to in the next chapter of his life. I’m sure that every person who’s attempted to write a story hopes for publication, but not everyone is that fortunate. I’m going to give it a shot. If it goes nowhere, at least I tried and at the end of the day, I have a cool little story written down.

I’ve been furiously reading a bunch of children’s books to try and gauge where my story would fit in and to see what age group the story would appeal to. My local library, Machacek Library, has been immensely helpful and recommended several books per school grade. I’m not trying to teach anything in my story, it’s not PC-related, it is just pure escapism. I don’t have kids and am not around kids, so I don’t feel I’m qualified to be the “heavy” and dictate anything to anyone. It’s just a story, pure and simple. It has British undertones, because my dad was British and that’s how he told me the stories and that’s how it is written. You will find that the letter “u” is used a lot!

It’s been 4 weeks today since I lost my job and despite the anger and disappointment towards those who helped make that happen, it’s given me a sense of freedom and the chance to do something I’ve always secretly wanted to do. In the meantime, I’m going to read more children’s books because, let’s face it, they’re so much more fun to read than a lot of adult books!

Sylvester and the Vet

It’s funny, but not really funny (but actually hilarious) when you see a cat recovering from the side effects of having been under anesthesia.

I took Sylvester, our 10-year-old tuxedo cat, to his vet at the St. Louis Cat Clinic to have his teeth cleaned. I had clear instructions not to let him eat anything after 10pm the previous night and that I could drop him off between 8am and 8.30am the next morning.

We nonchalantly went about our business in the morning ignoring his pitiful wails and arrogant mischief-making leading up to his normal breakfast time. That time came and went and that caused the other 2 cats to become antsy about no food. Suffice it to say I was waiting outside the vets office at 8.02am with a very “hangry” Sylvester.

A little later that morning I got a call from the vet to tell me about the procedure and to tell me that he was close enough to his annual visit and would I like them to take care of the annual shots, exam, blood work and urinalysis too. ANYTHING to not have to catch him again and get him in the carrier, so YES, do it all! She then said “well, he’s a little angry right now so I’m going to wait until he’s a bit sleepy before I look in his mouth because I don’t want to get bitten!”

Anyone who knows Sylvester knows that he is the friendliest, most social, charming, playful cat there is, so when the vet tells you “he’s angry” it’s a bit of an embarrassing surprise. I told her he’s not really angry, he’s hungry! She said she had 2 dental’s that day and he will be the 2nd one and she’ll call me when he’s starting to wake up and when she has all the blood results.

So, I went about my day. Aggie and Bear distanced themselves from each other, as usual and had a nice long nap.

Around 3pm I got the call from the vet saying that Sylvester was just starting to wake up and was very drowsy but doing very well. He didn’t have any teeth troubles, so just a cleaning, polishing and scaling was done. All his blood work came back purrfectly, as did the urinalysis results. His weight is also purrfect! Yay, we’ve been working on that for a couple of years. There was one little thing that happened under anesthetic and that was that he developed a heart murmur. It only occurred when they gave him the IV fluids and as soon as they stopped the fluids, the murmur disappeared. She wants to see him in a couple of months to check on his weight and listen to his heart again. I could collect him at 5pm.

At 5pm I was outside the vet’s office waiting for the little darling. They have very strict rules about dropping off and collecting animals, so we conducted all business over the phone and then they brought him out to me. He was furious! Lock, stock and two smoking barrels furious!

I got him home and opened the carrier door and a very drunk black cat shot out of it, flopping around and bouncing off walls. First thing he did was make a bullseye to the food bowls. There was nothing in them, but he fell all over the bowls knocking them all over the place, so I decided to feed him a small amount of food to tide him over! Ha! Vet suggested that I give him about a third of a can of wet food in case he vomits from the anesthetic, so I gave him the food. He could barely stand upright to eat it and fell all over the place with his head in the bowl but inhaled the food and looked for more. I waited a while and gave him some more. Same thing. He lumbered from one room to the next licking and eating everything. He ended up eating 2 full cans of food and was still hungry. He constantly jumped up onto the counter to see what food Aggie had but we put her food away. He had zero sense of balance and threw himself off the counter landing with a splat each time on the floor. I just couldn’t calm him down for a second. This went on for about 4-5 hours! Next time I’ll board him overnight at the vet.

In the meantime, Aggie was horrified with me for bringing Sylvester back. She hissed, growled, yelled, wailed and was a nightmare. Bear only added to her woes. Neither Bear not Aggie ate any dinner. Aggie was making a point of her fury and Bear was a little scared of her so wouldn’t go into the kitchen. I think Sylvester freaked them both out too with his behaviour, as this was totally out of character for him.

Bedtime finally arrived and usually we’re surrounded by cats on the bed, but none of them joined us. I suspect that Sylvester injured his back hip or leg from all the clumsy jumping he did because he now has a bit of a limp. I will be watching that and if it doesn’t improve, back he goes!

This morning is “the morning after” and it was still a bit bumpy as Aggie was still refusing to eat and Bear appeared for a quick snack, so Sylvester ate his and Bear’s food. Sylvester is still limping but not as much as last night. I was able to keep him quiet today and there hasn’t been any jumping. The anesthesia has worn off and his eye size has returned to normal. He is a bit off balance from the limping though.

Aggie settled down around lunch time. I finally had my purry little girl back and she let me stroke her again. She jumped up on the back of the couch and went to sleep. Bear has been sleeping in the closet all day which is mostly normal for him. Sylvester has joined me in the spare room to supervise my activities.

That was quite a 24 hours! We’ve had all 3 cats dealing with anesthesia at some stage and none of them had a reaction anything like Sylvester. I followed him around like a crazy person last night and yet he still managed to do too much jumping. Hopefully 24 hours of having a quiet day of napping will fix him right up. I’m just glad that Aggie stopped yelling at me.

A new way of life!

It’s been an interesting last 14 days since getting terminated from my job. The Board at my old job handled the termination abysmally and exceptionally unprofessionally. No one can possibly ever take them seriously and I certainly will never be donating any money to them!

But, on to nicer things:

My life is constantly comprising of gardening, cleaning the house, playing with the cats, and writing. It’s been a good thought-emitter and rather cathartic for me. I’m naturally a home body and very house-proud, and to be honest, the last 3 ½ months of being “stuck at home” did not for one minute feel like I was “STUCK” at home. No, I didn’t go out. I did what I was told and stayed the heck away from germy people (and still do).

I’ve had a few chats with my neighbours over the fence. Unlike Tim from “Home Improvement” we can see each other’s faces and have enjoyed many a chat during the hot afternoons.

I’ve had a few Zoom meetings and even a few Zoom happy hours which have been nice. Greg is back at work under strict rules, that he created for himself and his clients in order to stay safe. He is taking it very seriously and I’m very proud of him for staying on top of things.

My garden has done pretty well this year, no doubt due to fact that I was here 24/7. I’ve babied it a bit and although it’s a lot of hard work that has to be done early in the morning due to the heat and humidity, I’m happy with how it’s turning out. I’m currently in the “hurry up and wait” stage where I just have to wait for the veggies to ripen and grow. It’s frustrating because I “need” those tomatoes and potatoes to hurry up. I don’t want to have to BUY veggies when I have a perfectly good crop halfway ready to eat. Weeding is an on-going hassle, and by “on-going hassle” I mean a total pain in the patootie! Everything hurts after weeding day! Being home all the time also means that I’m able to water the plants whenever they need it and not necessarily on a schedule they don’t need.

Hands up all those who’ve tried to cut their hair! (insert hand high in the air!) I gave it a shot and now I permanently wear a ponytail! I did however complete a successful colouring, but I have been doing that myself for years, so it doesn’t really count. I’ve always admired the creativity of hair stylists, but now my admiration is soaring. My hair will probably just develop an attitude of its own and take on the form of a rabid alien beast. Oh wait… looks in the mirror… never mind!

I took care of a few projects around the house which I’m very pleased with. I painted the laundry room. I’ve been wanting to do that for years but never had the time or inclination to do it. Also, it meant moving the washing machine and dryer out of the way, which is a thorn in Greg’s side. But, we moved them, and I painted and painted and painted. The walls are outside cement walls in the basement. First, we scrubbed the walls and then vacuumed the walls. We had to wear masks when doing that and the air was choked with dust and we were filthy (and wheezing). I vacuumed into the floor joists in the ceiling too and sucked up a few dead critters! The walls soaked up EVERY splotch of paint I threw on it – and I literally did “throw” paint at it at times. The wall was so porous and sort of holey that I did more dabbing than painting. I sealed it with the undercoat and then painted on top. It didn’t cost us anything because I have a lot of leftover paint. It took several days to complete but by the time we put everything back in place it was looking 100% better and I’m very pleased with it. No more disgustingly filthy cement walls. Now they are slightly off-white-ish and clean.

Oh, I also hand washed my car. It doesn’t sound like a big deal and something I should be doing regularly anyway, but I don’t. I’m not super bonded with my car. I feel it’s too big for me and things are in the wrong place for my liking. I’m 5’3” and the car is built for a man, or at least a 5’9” person. I was quite pedantic about cleaning it and ended up scraping tree sap off it and cleaning in between parts that you can’t see but I know are there. It took me an hour to vacuum it out too. I polished the inside and sprayed nice smelly stuff inside. I never keep any trash or, well, anything in my car so it was a relatively easy clean. I must admit that it did shine nicely for the 2 days before the rains came! Now I’m back to not being bothered about it again.

I also accomplished a lot of other smaller tasks and threw away a bunch of stuff I still have no idea why I was keeping. I still have more sorting out to do, but for now I’m busying myself with some writing.

I’ve done quite a bit of reading lately too. Due to being rather absent-minded and distracted I’ve been focusing on cozy mysteries that are quick reads. They work well when insomnia strikes. We have also been binge-watching some shows on Netflix/Prime/Apple TV. We are into shows that have video description for the blind and Netflix does a pretty good job of that. Right now we’re are 1 ½ seasons away from completing Breaking Bad. I’ve also been watching Grantchester. We found out that the new season of Umbrella Academy gets released on July 31st so we’re bookmarking that. Hopefully we’ll be finished with Breaking Bad by then if we work hard at it.

Usually this time of year we head up north for a few days to Greg’s mom, but we don’t want to risk taking any viruses with us nor coming back with any, so we will stay home and eat here!

I think there’s some truth in the saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Things sure have changed, but those changes become familiar and they become the new “same”. COVID-19 has changed us a lot. Missouri is dealing with an increase in new cases every day and it looks like there will be a new rule enforcing mask wearing. Why would you not wear a mask anyway? I think it’s kind of sexy and people have been so creative with the material and patterns that they use for home-made masks. Please do me a favour and just wear the darn mask when you’re out. Why would you risk getting sick? I lost too many people I cared about last year to put anyone through that because of carelessness or ignorance.

Oh hark! I believe I’m hearing the theme song to Magnum PI. That’s my cue.
Peace y’all!

Farewell Service Club for the Blind

So last week, June 17th, 2020 I got terminated from my job. I’m a little confused, very angry yet also a little relieved. There were only 2 paid staff members and we were both terminated. We have 89 clients that we service and I’m confused about what will happen to them. I know the business is not closing. #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm. Instead of eliminating our positions or whatever they want to politically correctly call it, why didn’t they put us to work doing fundraising, getting a plan together to do that? No fundraising has been done in decades!

I have been there for 13 years, been through 3 different president’s, witnessed some amazingly lackadaisical business practices and “management” and heard the most incredible amount of gossip and back-biting ever.

I reckon I’m a fairly good employee. I follow rules, I go the extra mile and I’ve never had a bad evaluation. Work ethic in the USA is very different to what I was used to in South Africa. Even job hunting in the USA is very different. Here, if you don’t have a degree (any degree) you are placed on the “nah, not now” pile of resumes. In South Africa, experience does count. Secondly, if you are not American it can be a little sketchy. Then add the fact that you may be over 50 – they say they can’t discriminate, but well, you know how that goes!

Everything about this termination annoys me, the timing of it (during the Corona pandemic), the way it was handled (telephonically) – incidentally I was on my way to the post office to collect the office mail when I was called, and the total ignorance as to how the business will be run going forward.

Nonprofits are made up and run by a Board of Directors. You’d hope that this Board of Directors would have a ton of business knowledge to impart or have business connections in order to solicit donations, have major fundraising experience. They are volunteers who are unpaid with no other aim except to govern and direct the running of the business. In order to remain in operation, they HAVE to do fundraising, solicit bequests and donations and of course, meet the needs of the clientele they are serving. Has this Board done any of that? Oh hell no!

What will I miss (besides a pay cheque and health insurance)? Well, I will miss my book club group the most. I’ll miss the Christmas shopping day, I’ll miss decorating the Christmas tree for every occasion during the year and I’ll miss having a laugh with my colleague. What won’t I miss? I will not miss the gossip, back-biting and the indecisive decision making and lack of business skills, lack of ethics, laziness, ignorance and the attitude that “someone else can do it”.

Unfortunately the blind community seem to be their own worst enemy. It’s a catch 22 situation. They have some good ideas but due to lack of education, business and experience, they deliver it poorly and are not taken seriously. Their expectations are irrational. Most blind people who want to study further and gain business skills are not given the opportunity due to discrimination or an unfair assumption that they are unable to perform a duty. Missouri is a state that chooses to give a “help out” instead of a “help up”. Even the Missouri School for the Blind does not seem to provide adequate social and living skills to their students. Gone are the days when blind people would be taken seriously and do everything and anything to provide for their family. I’ve heard stories of blind people going door to door selling brooms and mops, take many forms of transportation to get to work that was located miles away and get involved in making a difference. This is how the Service Club for the Blind was formed in 1934. It had the potential to do great things and be well known and appreciated in its neighbourhood. Instead, when I mentioned where I worked, I’d hear “I never knew it was there and I’ve lived here all my life”. I had so many ideas and thoughts of what I would have liked to see us do there. Fundraising ideas that are always knocked down.

So why are they terminating us? Who knows! We were told the Board was restructuring. That could mean anything. Personally, I think they wanted to get rid of the sighted people. I know the Board members are not very computer literate or business savvy and few (if any) of them have had jobs in the corporate or business industry (or any real job). It’s very much a self-serving Board, reeking of conflict of interests. Their hearts are in the right place. They want it to work, they want it to prosper, but they want someone else to do it. For many years, they’ve gone round and round making decisions that are irrelevant to the general running of the place, due to their lack of experience.

2 years ago with new leadership I thought we were starting to head in the right direction and I could see change on the horizon, but then fear and panic kicked in and too much “he said, she said” started to raise its ugly head, and I could see once more, that the renewed positivity was taking a downward dive. When you’re dealing with blind Board members who have seldom held down a full-time job in the business world, they do not understand how an office is run. In the 21st century everything is done on the computer. EVERYTHING! So, when I sit at my desk, I’m working.

To terminate the only 2 staff members while the business is closed during a pandemic with no severance package, when they have done nothing wrong, is vindictive, personal and irrational. It’s a 501(c)3 Private Foundation. Go look online at their investment and financial documents. You’ll see they are not hurting. We, the ex-staff on the other hand, are.

Unfortunately this is the last charity I will ever support. I know their background. I know they do nothing substantial for their clients. I would advise you to do the same. Please make sure you all lose my phone number and email address. Don’t ask me for anything.

#peaceout

Cats are smart!

Cats are really smart. Whether you like them or don’t like them, they are still smart. Ok, let me expand on “smart” in this context. We have 3 cats: Aggie (12), Sylvester (11) and Bear (12). We’ve had Aggie and Sylvester since they were kittens, and we inherited Bear from a dear neighbour who passed away several years ago.

When we first got Aggie we went to see her at our vet, held her, bonded with her and she purred and nuzzled up to us and we couldn’t wait to get her home. The vet told us that she’d been returned to them twice as she didn’t get on with their other pets (a sign we should have paid attention to!). She was roughly 12 weeks old! She is a grey and white tabby. We got her home, opened the carrier and she shot out of it like a bullet from a gun. She took off at top speed around our apartment, leaping over couches, under couches, over the bed, in and out of every room. I would have loved to have had a radar gun to measure her speed! We were gobsmacked. Where was that loving, purry, nuzzly kitten we’d just held? We hadn’t even sat down yet, we just stood by the door and took it all in. We grew to love her though – a lot. We named her Agatha CATrina because her approximate birthday falls on the day Hurricane Katrina hit – how apt!! We lovingly refer to her as Hurricane Aggie. Aggie has been through everything with us and yes, she is spoiled rotten! We moved into our house in 2009 and after a settling in period, we decided that she needed a friend. It had taken her 2 ½ years to start to calm down!

When we were ready for a 2nd cat I went back to my vet and told them we were ready! The next day I got a call “we have some kittens that you might want to look at” so I hot footed it over there to check them out. The vet is located next door to my office. Sylvester was estimated to be about 7 weeks old. It was the first time I’d heard the term “tuxedo cat” and he was true to form. Big green eyes, long white whiskers, big ears and a tiny black and white body. I fell in love immediately, went home to get Greg, took him to the vet and once again, as soon as he held him, there were purrs and snuggles and Greg was sold. He came home the next day. He was a boundy, playful, social, cute-as-a-button darling. Aggie immediately hated him! We kept him secluded in the spare room for a few days while Aggie hissed and growled outside the door. Sylvester didn’t care. He’s everyone’s best friend. On “meet up day” we opened the door and Sylvester bounded out and leaped down the hallway to investigate his new home while Aggie wailed, hissed, scratched and yelled at him and us. She refused to be near us, went off her food in protest and was determined to make us pay for bringing in another cat. We were mortified but determined to make this work. After several months (ok at least a year) Aggie finally realized that Sylvester was no threat to her great Alpha-ness. He has no desire to be a boss. They are not necessarily friends, but she will tolerate him and doesn’t get all huffy if he’s around her.

Fast forward to 2014: I used to take care of a dear neighbour’s cat when she went on vacation and ultimately when she got sick and was in hospital. After her passing her cat was still alone in her house while her family was sorting it out and I would still go there twice a day and feed him and play with him. After a while of doing this we discussed with the family that we’d take Mr. Bear (as she called him) and keep him with us until we could find a good home for him. Well, it’s 6 years later, so I guess he found a good home! Bear is awesome! At first we had him in the spare room separate from Aggie and Sylvester. Aggie went into defensive mode and hated him immediately. Back to hissing, growling and yelling outside the door (but this time we were on to her antics). Sylvester was so excited. He definitely sensed Bear’s pain and grief and camped outside the door quietly. After several days we opened the door and Sylvester shot inside. He jumped up on the bed and he and Bear started at each other, nose-to-nose for about 10 minutes not moving, and then they both jumped down and disappeared under the bed where they sussed each other out for about half an hour. After that, they came out from under the bed and have been best buddies ever since. At first Bear was definitely grieving the loss of his previous owner and his move from his old house, so Sylvester snuggled up next to him to keep him company. Bear never really learnt to play but now that he is with us, he’s developed an ardent love of the laser dot. He is the most lovable cat ever. He loves to snuggle and just be with you. He has the biggest, deepest purr ever. He’s not big on exercise, but he loves food in any shape or form, so he’s a big cat. Aggie was not at all happy about the addition of another cat. She and Bear are constantly vying for Alpha-ship. Aggie thinks she’s the alpha but in reality, Bear is the alpha. She has never accepted him and still growls and hisses at him. They have agreed to disagree, and we have a fairly calmish family.

Cats are smart! I sometimes feel like I have a school yard of kids. They all want attention, then they all don’t. They all want feeding, but they want what the other one has even though it’s exactly the same. They all want to play with whatever the other one is currently playing with, until they get the toy then they don’t want it anymore! People ask us why we don’t have or want kids. Who needs them when you have cats! They have regular birthday parties and we sing happy birthday to them. There’s cake and candles and presents. They celebrate Christmas with us – yes they get presents under the tree. We have conversations with them and they answer us. They do need jobs though!

Yes, cats are smart, but not so smart as to make us think they need jobs!

I washed my car…

Yesterday I washed my car! I’ve had my car a little over 3 years and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never hand washed her. I’ve taken her through the automatic car wash (admittedly it’s been a while) but never hand washed her. Why, you ask? Well, I have a height problem. A lack of height! I can’t reach the roof properly, nor the middle of the front and back windscreen. I could go inside the house and down into the basement and get my step-up stool and drag it upstairs and use it to clean the hard to reach places, but I really can’t be bothered.

I don’t have a strong feeling of love for this car. I’ve always “bonded” with my previous cars. They’ve all had names and I’ve pampered them and loved them. This one just never tugged on those heart strings. I always describe it as a “man’s car”. I’m 5’3” (after a chiropractic adjustment) and everything is in the wrong place for a shortish woman. I’ve adjusted the seat forward, the height of the seat, the height of the steering wheel, the mirrors, the cup holders etc., but it’s still not right. There are big patches of plastic right in my area of vision when I’m turning a corner and those darn head rests are immovable. After 3 years I still haven’t figured out how to change the time on the clock, so it’s permanently stuck on Standard Time. I get caught out on average, about 3 times during Daylight Savings Time, but for the most part I can figure out the time. Now I’m too afraid to ask someone to correct it for me in case I can’t get it back to Standard Time again, so I leave it alone.

It’s a good car, powerful, manual transmission, silver, but it feels too big for me to be truly comfortable, but it recently cost me a fortune to repair, one week after buying 4 new tyres for her. While at the mechanic, I was complaining about, well, everything to do with cars, and mentioned that I wanted to trade her in. The mechanic looked at me, lowered his voice and said “that is actually a very good idea”, so when your mechanic agrees with you, you should pay attention! We are determined to trade her in while we can still get some kind of money for her but I’m in a quandary because of the money I spent on her. I should get SOME benefit from that, right? At the time of purchasing her we managed to drive my old car to the dealer to look at cars and she died right in the dealer’s parking lot, so it was a sign that we had to purchase a car that day. They didn’t have too much in our price range, so we bought quickly and I was so excited to find a car with a manual transmission!

My goal is to own a small, economical car – preferably a hatchback and a manual, and one that I can comfortably reach all the necessary spots and not have my vision hindered by plastic globs of eye candy. Who knows, maybe I’ll hand wash her too!

Day 19,264…

So, today is day 19,264 of my life.

That translates to:

633 months old
2,752 weeks old
19,264 days old
462,336 hours old
27,740,160 minutes old
1,664,409,600 seconds old

Time is a strange thing. It takes time to grow, but it seems to take a longer amount of time to grow UP. You plant a seed in the ground, hope for rain, hope for sun, wait and voila, about 3 months later you’re eating home grown veggies. You try to sneak in a late planting and do everything in your power to protect the plants and hope for no early frost and you may be lucky enough to harvest for a second time. Then winter arrives and nothing grows. You don’t tend to anything so nothing grows… In fact, due to lack of attention (partly) things start to die.

This is my 3rd attempt at writing for the Roggie-Blog. The previous 2 times I had finished the blog and was ready to publish it and clicked on “save draft” so that I could check it, and it disappeared. No idea where it went, but it’s gone. Because I’m 19,264 days old, I can no longer remember what I was writing about so I’m not able to replicate it. The first Blog “almost post” was written by angry me. Too much going on, too much negativity on social media and the news and I was, as we say in South Africa, “gatvol” (fed up). The second Blog “almost post” was written by disillusioned me. A bad start to the week, a couple of days of “gatvolheid” (fed upness) and I just pounded out words. Both times it happened, it made me frustrated. Greg said to me “just redo it”. Redo it? Redo what? I can’t remember what I babbled on about. Something to do with jobs, cars, protests, quarantine, cats, sleep, and the lack thereof, walks, heat, gardens etc. Ok, so maybe it was a good thing those posts never made it to Postville. I am sure they were epic, but alas, we will never know!

This is my 12th week of quarantine! Greg started back at work last Tuesday after considering all the pros and cons and doing an excellent job of preparing his office for the “new normal”. He has been fairly busy and had real conversations with all his clients before working on them. They are all complying with his requests and he is comfortable with working again – for now. But, our local new case numbers are increasing again, which is to be expected with everything re-opening, protests, summer vacations etc. It’s almost like people think COVID-19 has vanished.

During these 12 weeks I have stayed home as much as possible. I’ve washed my hands A LOT, used an obsessive amount of hand sanitizer and cleaned everything possible – I’m still not done (are we ever?). I’ve managed to take care of several projects around the house and planted my garden and taken care of it unlike any previous year where I’d never be this far along. My body, mind and spirit feel more rejuvenated because I haven’t been so rushed to do everything. I needed it. I needed it A LOT. I still have a long way to go but as I find myself again, I’ll be sure to share it.

The New Roggie Update – maybe…

I decided to play around with blogging and am considering resurrecting the old Roggie Update.

I don’t remember why I stopped writing the old one. I guess life happened and we got busy. Or, maybe Facebook took over and that became the new way to stay in touch with everyone. Or, maybe I got lazy and couldn’t be bothered. Either way, due to the Coronavirus, I’m home a lot (ok, all the time) and have the time and interest in things that I used to enjoy doing.

So, let’s see if this takes off! It might be fun to make a habit of it.

Peace and hugs!
Lisa