You were warned.
*****************BEGIN ICKY GIRL STUFF***************
The problem with menopause? Is that it's unpredictable. It's pissy and dodgy and comes in fits and starts. I'm not happy about "perimenopause." There are a lot of things I regret in life, but only having one child has got to be top of the list. I always wanted a second, and even now, at 47 years old, I have to work very hard not to think about it too much, else my heart breaks. Just another for the pile, I guess.
Anyway, menopause. To put it delicately, my "cycles" have been a bit less than reliable the past few months. Skipping here, barely there there. You know. This month, I'm making up for it. Epically. Like, "At what point do I need an ambulance?" epically.
****************END ICKY GIRL STUFF*****************
Add that that? Lice. Blew my back, hand, and shoulders out yesterday nit-combing our boy. Took over an hour, and my hand still hurts. Then hubby nit-combed me, and I him (as well as I could--his hair is very short). Then the long, pain-in-the-ass process of washing all the bed linens (and rewashing all the clean clothes that had been next to the bed waiting to be put away) began. We were going to wait until today on the fitted sheet and mattress pad beneath, but our Cairn Terrier Charlie made that decision for us.
He pissed on the bed last night. No idea why. No straining or behaving like he doesn't feel good, none of the behaviors I would expect from a dog with a UTI. No, he just pissed on the bed.
Twice. This has never happened before.
It's happened nowhere else. Only on the bed. And only last night. I don't know what's up with that, if the Christmas tree and the stink of permethrin have troubled him, or if the fact that the bed is where the permethrin smell is strongest has something to do with it. First piss, he got the fitted sheet and the mattress pad. Sadly, the second piss (which was much smaller) came after the mattress pad and sheet were in the wash. In other words, he got mattress. We do have enzymatic cleaner for just that purpose, but I'm now scared to death this is going to become a habit. Considering that he's my heating pad when I'm napping cold, that's a tragedy for me. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open. I've read that it might be a weird show of submission or a statement of who the boss is and where she sleeps. It's not a marking thing--he's not cocking leg to do this. And, like I said, he's not doing it anywhere else--he's not abruptly squatting and pissing on the carpet or kitchen tile. Only on the bed.
The computer is being increasingly stupid and bad. Really laggy, really glitchy. Shockwave and a couple of others crash frequently, sometimes within hours of a restart. Yeah, I dump the cache. Just too many competing programs, I think. I fear it may be time to reformat and start from fresh. Especially with the new game our boy's getting for Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, my present came yesterday--from Amazon, but delivered out of the back of a Budget Rental truck (?). A big (3.3 ounce) bottle of Boucheron. See, I got a very small bottle (maybe 1/5 of an ounce) a couple of years ago and fell in love. I've made that tiny little purse-size bottle last because Boucheron is around $115.00 for a 3.3 ounce bottle. Last week? I found it marked down dramatically--40 bucks! With free shipping! So there it is--my bottle of Boucheron! It's very sweet, very romantic and flowery, unlike the scents I normally go for. But I love it--I've loved it since I first smelled it, though my "Unforgivable" (the really wonderful perfume with the unforgivably bad name) is in no danger of being bumped from its favorite slot.
Gonna wander back to religion for just a little. Hey, I'm an atheist, so atheism comes up now and then. I'd venture to say I don't dedicate nearly as much of my blog to atheism as many religious folks do to their particular faith.
Okay. Here we go.
******************BEGIN AWFUL ATHEISM********************
Remembering a discussion with a friend years ago, one that featured him insisting that it's not possible for him to be GOOD without EVIL. In other words, if there weren't EVIL in the world, there would be no good, because everything must occur with opposition (?). He went on to talk about how, without some deity, he can't be happy because . . . oh, heck, I don't remember what his point was. Something about how, in order to be happy, we must also be sad and otherwise how can we know it's joy if we don't have sorrow or some such thing. And then he said it. You know.
IT.
"How can you know not to do bad without Jesus?"
You know, folks who say things like that scare the daylights out of me. Because I'm left with the idea that there are bazillions of people out there who are one thin Gideon's Bible page away from murdering their neighbors, raping their daughters, and plundering every shop they walk by. Are you SERIOUS?
ARE YOU?
Are you really suggesting that, without a Bible, I won't know not to kill my neighbor's toddler or torture his poodle or rob banks? Are you kidding? What about people who've never read the bible? Are they just murderous, raping, pillaging fools who have no morals? And if that's so, why is the U.S. so highly religious AND so violent? Why doesn't someplace like, say, Great Britain, with its hordes of godless atheists, have a murder rate that leaves ours in the dust?
And do you really, really need religion to tell you what's right from wrong? I ask because . . . because I don't believe that. I can't--like I said, that's just too scary. I don't do bad, cruel, violent things to other people because that's hurtful, and it's harmful, not just to them but to all of us. I don't hit people or shoot them because I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that same thing. I don't steal from others because it sucks to be stolen from. I don't lie about others because it sucks to be lied about. I don't cheat on my husband because it sucks to be cheated on. Call that "the Golden Rule" if you wish, though it seriously pre-dates Christianity (Confucianism was saying "What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others" centuries before the advent of Christianity), call it "the Silver Rule," but recognize it for what it is--not some supernatural edict from the sky, but rather a common-sense idea that arises from our natural propensity toward empathy. I don't do "evil" upon others because to do so is hurtful; if I wouldn't want that hurt coming down on me, why on earth would I do it to someone else?
If some holy book is the only thing standing between you and mayhem, if the threat of divine punishment is the only thing that keeps you in line, you've got some terrible issues and you scare the wits right out of me.
And that's that. I've been kicking around writing an entry about how everyone is so sure their religion and their deity is the right one, and yet the overwhelming majority of people are of the faith predominant to their geographical area. In other words, where you're born almost always determines your faith. Which means that if you'd been born in Punjab instead of Pittsburgh, you'd almost certainly be of a different faith. And you'd be proclaiming just as fervently that Sikhism was the true religion. But now it looks as though I've already written it, so never mind.
*********************END AWFUL ATHEISM**********************
That's all. I'm going to go scrub some toilets now, because there isn't much that makes me battier than dirty toilets. Seriously, it's a "thing."
*****************BEGIN ICKY GIRL STUFF***************
The problem with menopause? Is that it's unpredictable. It's pissy and dodgy and comes in fits and starts. I'm not happy about "perimenopause." There are a lot of things I regret in life, but only having one child has got to be top of the list. I always wanted a second, and even now, at 47 years old, I have to work very hard not to think about it too much, else my heart breaks. Just another for the pile, I guess.
Anyway, menopause. To put it delicately, my "cycles" have been a bit less than reliable the past few months. Skipping here, barely there there. You know. This month, I'm making up for it. Epically. Like, "At what point do I need an ambulance?" epically.
****************END ICKY GIRL STUFF*****************
Add that that? Lice. Blew my back, hand, and shoulders out yesterday nit-combing our boy. Took over an hour, and my hand still hurts. Then hubby nit-combed me, and I him (as well as I could--his hair is very short). Then the long, pain-in-the-ass process of washing all the bed linens (and rewashing all the clean clothes that had been next to the bed waiting to be put away) began. We were going to wait until today on the fitted sheet and mattress pad beneath, but our Cairn Terrier Charlie made that decision for us.
He pissed on the bed last night. No idea why. No straining or behaving like he doesn't feel good, none of the behaviors I would expect from a dog with a UTI. No, he just pissed on the bed.
Twice. This has never happened before.
It's happened nowhere else. Only on the bed. And only last night. I don't know what's up with that, if the Christmas tree and the stink of permethrin have troubled him, or if the fact that the bed is where the permethrin smell is strongest has something to do with it. First piss, he got the fitted sheet and the mattress pad. Sadly, the second piss (which was much smaller) came after the mattress pad and sheet were in the wash. In other words, he got mattress. We do have enzymatic cleaner for just that purpose, but I'm now scared to death this is going to become a habit. Considering that he's my heating pad when I'm napping cold, that's a tragedy for me. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open. I've read that it might be a weird show of submission or a statement of who the boss is and where she sleeps. It's not a marking thing--he's not cocking leg to do this. And, like I said, he's not doing it anywhere else--he's not abruptly squatting and pissing on the carpet or kitchen tile. Only on the bed.
The computer is being increasingly stupid and bad. Really laggy, really glitchy. Shockwave and a couple of others crash frequently, sometimes within hours of a restart. Yeah, I dump the cache. Just too many competing programs, I think. I fear it may be time to reformat and start from fresh. Especially with the new game our boy's getting for Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, my present came yesterday--from Amazon, but delivered out of the back of a Budget Rental truck (?). A big (3.3 ounce) bottle of Boucheron. See, I got a very small bottle (maybe 1/5 of an ounce) a couple of years ago and fell in love. I've made that tiny little purse-size bottle last because Boucheron is around $115.00 for a 3.3 ounce bottle. Last week? I found it marked down dramatically--40 bucks! With free shipping! So there it is--my bottle of Boucheron! It's very sweet, very romantic and flowery, unlike the scents I normally go for. But I love it--I've loved it since I first smelled it, though my "Unforgivable" (the really wonderful perfume with the unforgivably bad name) is in no danger of being bumped from its favorite slot.
 |
| Boucheron, Big and Small |
Gonna wander back to religion for just a little. Hey, I'm an atheist, so atheism comes up now and then. I'd venture to say I don't dedicate nearly as much of my blog to atheism as many religious folks do to their particular faith.
Okay. Here we go.
******************BEGIN AWFUL ATHEISM********************
Remembering a discussion with a friend years ago, one that featured him insisting that it's not possible for him to be GOOD without EVIL. In other words, if there weren't EVIL in the world, there would be no good, because everything must occur with opposition (?). He went on to talk about how, without some deity, he can't be happy because . . . oh, heck, I don't remember what his point was. Something about how, in order to be happy, we must also be sad and otherwise how can we know it's joy if we don't have sorrow or some such thing. And then he said it. You know.
IT.
"How can you know not to do bad without Jesus?"
You know, folks who say things like that scare the daylights out of me. Because I'm left with the idea that there are bazillions of people out there who are one thin Gideon's Bible page away from murdering their neighbors, raping their daughters, and plundering every shop they walk by. Are you SERIOUS?
ARE YOU?
Are you really suggesting that, without a Bible, I won't know not to kill my neighbor's toddler or torture his poodle or rob banks? Are you kidding? What about people who've never read the bible? Are they just murderous, raping, pillaging fools who have no morals? And if that's so, why is the U.S. so highly religious AND so violent? Why doesn't someplace like, say, Great Britain, with its hordes of godless atheists, have a murder rate that leaves ours in the dust?
And do you really, really need religion to tell you what's right from wrong? I ask because . . . because I don't believe that. I can't--like I said, that's just too scary. I don't do bad, cruel, violent things to other people because that's hurtful, and it's harmful, not just to them but to all of us. I don't hit people or shoot them because I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that same thing. I don't steal from others because it sucks to be stolen from. I don't lie about others because it sucks to be lied about. I don't cheat on my husband because it sucks to be cheated on. Call that "the Golden Rule" if you wish, though it seriously pre-dates Christianity (Confucianism was saying "What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others" centuries before the advent of Christianity), call it "the Silver Rule," but recognize it for what it is--not some supernatural edict from the sky, but rather a common-sense idea that arises from our natural propensity toward empathy. I don't do "evil" upon others because to do so is hurtful; if I wouldn't want that hurt coming down on me, why on earth would I do it to someone else?
If some holy book is the only thing standing between you and mayhem, if the threat of divine punishment is the only thing that keeps you in line, you've got some terrible issues and you scare the wits right out of me.
And that's that. I've been kicking around writing an entry about how everyone is so sure their religion and their deity is the right one, and yet the overwhelming majority of people are of the faith predominant to their geographical area. In other words, where you're born almost always determines your faith. Which means that if you'd been born in Punjab instead of Pittsburgh, you'd almost certainly be of a different faith. And you'd be proclaiming just as fervently that Sikhism was the true religion. But now it looks as though I've already written it, so never mind.
*********************END AWFUL ATHEISM**********************
That's all. I'm going to go scrub some toilets now, because there isn't much that makes me battier than dirty toilets. Seriously, it's a "thing."
You would be welcome at my house, both with your athesim and your urge to clean the potty. ;-)
ReplyDeleteLOL, thank you! While they're not necessarily a matched pair, they do seem to go together well enough! :-)
ReplyDeleteIn defense of Christians, we're not all boneheads, I promise (this is where I add, "some of my best friends are Atheists" lol). And I am SO sorry you are not only getting hit with head lice, but dog pee and menopause at the same time. That really sucks. It will all pass though, I promise. Hang in there. My head is suddenly itchy :-/
ReplyDeleteLOL, no they're not--if they were, I'd have no friends! Most of my friends are theists of one sort or another, and they treat me with respect (of course, else they wouldn't be my friends!). But those loud ones who tell me I'm gonna burn are exhausting, and sometimes even the nice ones ask me things like, "Aren't you afraid of going to hell?" or "How do you know right from wrong if you don't believe in the Bible?" And that doesn't make me mad, but it does make me shake my head and smile. I love them, even when they ask questions like that. Questions are good--they help us understand each other.
ReplyDeleteI WILL defeat the lice! I used to think I'd defeat menopause, but now I think it's maybe got the upper hand. And I'm keeping the dog off the bed for a while, hoping he'll forget he ever did that.
Thanks for coming by, and Merry Christmas!
Kris