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Eye-ing Buffy 3

Sept. 2007 Still in awe at the existence of such a thing as an animal ophthalmologist (& at the advances that have been made in veterinary care since my last cat died at 17 in 1993), I was thoroughly impressed by the TAOC facilities. And not least, by the concern,...

Eye-ing Buffy 2

Dec. 2006 On a mid-August late Sunday afternoon while I was watching a Cubs game & Buffy was resting on the window shelf behind me, I noticed with alarm some clear tears coming from the eye. She was keeping it half-closed & still the tears were oozing out. The tears...

Eye-ing Buffy 1

Apr. 2004 Long-time no write?! Yeah, I can't believe it's been over 6 mos. A busy time. A difficult time. Then was the beginning of real Spring weather, and now it's the beginning of real Winter weather. Well, the leaves are well past peak here, the leaf-collecting machine just went...

Re-newals II

My last entry here assumed Spring was finally happening. Not. Mere days later about 2 weeks of snowing, blowing, cold raining &/or just downright chilly weather ensued. Nasty. Not to mention depressing. Sigh. Both Buffy & I were suffused with warm-weather longing. Despite, or perhaps because of, knowing the unseasonable...

July???

You're wondering what happened to May in my life? Never mind June? When it's just become July?!? Really?? Geez oh man. Where've I been, huh? Well, here. Really. And I've got the pictures to prove it. If I ever get around to processing them, that is. Sigh. I just haven't...

Two years...

Today is our anniversary. Buffy's & mine, that is. It's been 2 years since she arrived. In her honor (& mine), I've made some changes to the photo sections of this site, mostly to make 'em more efficient & easier to maintain. Buffy's Place has been integrated into Michigosh Photos,...

February ups & downs

It's been a short strange trip of a month: A week after getting my computer back, it began to misbehave in an even bigger way than before & so the pesky thing had to go back for more rehab. It had been awhile since I'd trekked down to the lakeshore...

The deck project

Since today's the first truly warm day we've had in awhile — temps in the 70s at last! — it seems an appropriate occasion to chronicle the latest step in my domestication: With the first warm weather in early April (50s, which at the time seemed quite warm after the...

Spring, maybe

Spring sprout After 5 days of slowly moderating temps — by this weekend it was up to 40s by day & high 20s low 30s by night — & no new snow (yay!), I think the new season has finally, thankfully begun. And Buffy seems to agree with me: she's...

Breathing space

How cute is she? Only 3 wks. this time, between posts...that's getting a little better. Spent an intense & obsessive few weeks designing & building Mac's new site. Which I finished, officially, on Wednesday. After which was able to use a little break between projects to take a few new...

Frigid...

Buffy in the window Did I declare 5 days ago that Winter had arrived? Well, that was nothing compared to this: It was 7° when I got up this morning & it has climbed all the way up to 10° now. And that's without considering the wind chill (a mere...

I've got kittens in my bushes!

The face off Looked out the front door this morning only to find a little one looking back at me...and then the light dawned! The face off between Buffy & a tabby cat out back the night before was a confrontation between a protective mama & my poor oblivious Buffy...

Okies in MI / 08-15-04

Buffy relaxes Sarah pours Sisters 3 Day 6: After a long hiatus, I've finally gotten around to posting the rest of the Okie pictures. What can I say. Been busy. Hadn't been able to process the rest of the (hundreds of) pictures I took during their visit. Hadn't been able...

Okies in MI / 08-09-04

Sunset clouds Finished my preparations just a short time before Danny called from Michigan City, Indiana (2-2½ hours or so south of here)...they'd spent a fun day at Chicago's Children's Museum...until that moment I had no idea when exactly they'd arrive. Enormous satisfaction that I'd managed to get everything done...

More closeups

Fledgling cardinal Yes, it's true, I'm now obsessed with getting close-up shots...but aren't these worth it? Lo's impatiens I've been trying to get a decent picture of the cardinal for days now. Hope to be able to follow it as it gets adult feathers & grows up. Have taken several...

July update?

Buffy, up close So you're wondering if I'm okay & what the heck I've been doing during the last 14+ days? Well, hhhmm, let's see: Naturally, just 2 days after I wrote about not yet needing to install the ac, Mac helped me to install the ac. Not that it...

Buffy's tale

Click to see show! Wow, didn't realize how long it's been since my last post! Have been busy: celebrating the 4th; rearranging the living room & buying a few new furnishings, completing some unfinished decorating; continuing yoga therapy (Gretchen's been guiding me into a more intensive involvement...god, is she good!);...

A rose is a rose is a rose...

Fairy roses, closeup Rose wall [enlarge on click] Spent a cool-ish Father's Day watching a Chicago Cubs' game (which they unfortunately lost) with Lois & Mac, but before the game started took some pictures of the profusion of Lo's roses...unfortunately, most of the shots didn't come out too well, a...

Closeups...

[enlarge on click] [enlarge on click] Have been busy, many hours adding much to my friend's website, as well as obsessively devising some design changes for it. After overdoing that to the point of exhaustion, have been attempting to break up the work with other activities, including another trip to...

Dry, for now

Buffy in the sun River view Despite the forecast, there was just a little shower overnight & no storms on Tuesday, which was still mostly cloudy but a little warmer than Monday. And although yesterday returned to cool, with a chilly breeze, on both days the clouds broke up in...

Enough already!

Have lost track of the number of thunderstormy days we've had...am beginning to revisit gloomy January-like feelings of neverending, perpetual precipitation...sigh. Have been trying to take it all in stride but unfortunately that led yesterday morning to a certain complacency that nearly cost me this computer when I failed to...

More (bird & cat) pics

Tried for half-a-day to get some shots of the repeated visits of an Indigo Bunting (I think) to my feeders Sunday, but most failed...well, just weren't very successful, either being unfocused or marred by extraneous shadows & window smudges...very frustrating...at left is the best of the bunch. Meanwhile, Buffy's third...

Starting over

Wednesday was a good deal warmer & sunnier than Tuesday...very warm, too warm, humid even...perfect for taking more pictures and giving Buffy another go at the great outdoors. She stuck it out a bit longer this time, even venturing up on the deck (but not before thoroughly inspecting the entire...

First steps

Lilacs [click] Managed, finally, to take a few pictures in the backyard this afternoon, of the peonies & lilacs.... And of Buffy cautiously venturing outside for the first time. It was warm and cloudy, a lot of white haze, most of the day, but the sun peeked out, serendipitously, just...

Flowering

Temps finally edged back up into the 60s today and I managed to take some photos of my frost-free porch flowers. Meanwhile, a shopping trip yesterday to Muskegon yielded a new birdfeeder which, besides holding more seed also provides more perches for more birds &, not incidentally, more visibility for...

Safe

Yay, my plants (& the backyard lilacs) survived the freeze and now, with temps edging into the low 40s and a brilliant blue sky, I can only hope spring will proceed unimpeded...and please, please, please warm up again. Have spent the last few days obsessively, busily building a website for...

Cat-tastrophe

This morning Buffy learned a new trick: how to insert herself into the forefront of my attention, no matter how engrossed I might be with this silly computer. The unforeseen result was devastating and totally my fault, really. I was the one who started it, encouraged her to sit on...

Clearing?

Made a trek down to the river/lake around 2:45 in the afternoon, just in time for the previously sunny day to turn cloudy & begin raining lightly — still amazed how fast the weather can change here — but decided to stick it out & wait to see if &...

Cloudy days

Had hoped to get more outdoor photos around town yesterday & today, but coolish cloudiness has stymied me. Nevertheless, some substantial rain last night has greened things up quite a lot and this day's turning warmer (nearing 60°) & partly cloudy, so there's still a chance for some "picturesque" work...

Pet project, part 5

So after a few days of getting acquainted, kitty & I have settled in, somewhat. She was extremely affectionate the first day...demanding to be petted & head scritched near-constantly, almost manically, not to mention talking at me all the while...which was quite a bit more attention than I was prepared...

Pet project, part 4

I have a new roommate. She arrived by way of Veronica, a massage therapist & friend of Mac & Gretchen's. "Kitty" was a stray that Veronica's father (who lived in California) took to feeding. On his deathbed in 2000, he made his daughter promise to continue caring for the cat....