Sunday, January 11, 2009

Pack Rat

It's been a good year so far. What are we, like 11 days into the new year? Well, that's 11 days that I haven't screwed up the year. My dog who had the tumor removed is healing up rather nicely. The vet didn't call me last week with the biopsy results, so I'm going to call him first thing tomorrow. Other than that, all is well in Whinerville!

I've decided to make a New Year's resolution for this blog. I vow to use my camera and post pics of stuff. There is this garage I pass on a daily basis on my way to work that, every time I see it, I think, "I have got to take a picture of that and blog about it!" Have I? No ... but I will! My phone doesn't take the absolute best pictures in the world, so I'm going to start carrying the camera around with me. Stay tuned to see if it gets exciting!

Yesterday we went "down the mountain" to visit a friend. Every time we go to this particular house, I have trouble focusing on the visit because I am distracted by the mess. This woman is a total pack rat. She has stuff piled everywhere. You have to literally walk between the stacks of horded stuff in order to get around in her house!

Her boyfriend's lease just expired and he's staying there temporarily. She's pissed and hurt because he won't move in, and they've been together 5 years or so. He has told her repeatedly that he can't permanently live in those conditions, that she has got to get rid of stuff. But she doesn't.

Now, I've heard that this is a mental illness. My mother used to have a friend just like this. I've read about it on the web. it's frickin' insane!! I mean, these types of people throw nothing away ... at all. Newspapers, boxes and boxes of stuff that will be used "some day." I don't even know what type of treatment is available for this disease, but she needs it! Her hoarding has filled every room, including the basement and the garage.

I mean, when my house starts to get messy, I get cranky and things just don't feel good. When the house is clean, it feels good to come home. It feels good to wake up and walk through a clean house. I imagine this friend of mine hasn't had that experience in about, oh ... 19 or 20 years! No exaggeration ... sigh. It kinda puts it all into perspective, when my house is messy, at least it doesn't require a dumpster be parked out front and 50 trips to the Goodwill!

Monday, January 5, 2009

My Voice is Famous!!

Okay, well, maybe not so much. However, my friend Mike, the one who I was the Best Man in his wedding ... he does an on line comic based on his life. I went to his house on New Year's Eve and we recorded the whole evening (vocals only!) and he has snipped and edited, and now I am on his latest "episode". Check it out here.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Sick Puppy

I know I've been scarce as of late, but who hasn't? Busy time of year for most, I'm certain. Right now things are pretty low key in the household because our smallest dog, Butchie, just had two tumors removed and he's recovering. He's at that age now ... hopefully when the biopsy results come back, we will find them both benign and just resolve ourselves to living with a lumpy old dog. Either way, the recovery ain't fun and games. He has a bazillion stitches on his chest where his left leg starts and only about a million on his left hind leg.

My s/o's mother came to visit Christmas week. Shoot me in the head, please!!! She brought her two dogs, who peed in the house about seven times!!! Her dogs also terrorized our cats for five glorious days. The woman would not discipline her dogs!!! So frustrating!!! I am not exaggerating when I describe her discipline ... for each offense, the dogs got spoken to in baby talk as follows: "No, no pee pees", and "No, no kee kee" ... ummm, what the hell?!?!!

She's gone now, but she's taken some of my sanity with her.