Except for a couple small writing projects, I have been free all week to read, veg, visit, and do a little holiday shopping. It feels good.
For the past month or so, I’ve been knee-deep in writing a course for a client, which has taken me some 60 to 80 hours. I usually work just ten hours per week — that’s my happy place — but once in a while I get a larger project, so I knuckle under and do the work.
Next week I will be putting the final touches on the course, but the client isn’t available at all this week to collaborate on that, and won’t be until next Wednesday, so there’s no further progress I can make toward putting it to bed before then.
Finishing shouldn’t take much more than four hours, and the course won’t be taught until sometime next year, so there is still plenty of time to get it finished. I just want to be able to take time off between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day and after that I can be called away, at close to a moment’s notice, to the Enterprise Mission Launch at Cape Canaveral, and I want everything wrapped up by end of year so there’s nothing left unfinished at all during January.
Tina Talk
Spent 45 minutes just now video-IM’ing with Tina. It was great fun. We try to get together at least twice a week for a 30-minute to however-how-long IM video chat. She landed a new job that she’s happy doing. (Doing something you enjoy is always a plus!) We had a lot of fun discussing lucid dreaming and dream analysis, among other things that float both of our boats: animals, etc.
I have this image of her in my den in a cosplay Captain’s uniform. She’s a Bones/Kelley fan but her best friend cosplays as Spock and she recently met another gung-go Bones/Kelley fan who cosplays as Bones, so by DE-fault, Tina has become Kirk. But she’s my favorite Kirk out of all of the ones that have ever been or ever will be, by far, because in her heart of heart, she’s most like Bones/Kelley. She is a beautiful soul and a beautiful woman!
MAGGIE
Maggie and Rocky (Scirocco) Feb 15 , 2015
I think my dear Maggie (goat) is nearing the end of her life. She’s old and has been the herd “boss” for the entire eight years I’ve had her (I was told she was “six or so” when I got her) but now she is backing off and acting less robust.
Lisa and I went out and trimmed their hooves yesterday and noticed that, although she’s eating and getting around normally, she isn’t bossy at all anymore. (That’s a sign, because she has always been bossy!)
She also doesn’t jostle to get treats when they’re offered: I have to make sure she gets her share because she won’t butt in to claim it.
She is at least 14 years old (probably older!), which means Jazzy (a pygmy goat) is at least 12 years old. All of their six babies (I still have two of them) will be EIGHT years old on January 30th, 2023. (How time flies!!!). Nigerian dwarf goats have an average life span of 12 to 14 years, so she’s definitely approaching her expiration date. And technically Jazzie has already exceeded hers; pgymy goats live eight to 12 years, on average. (That means her baby, Tillie, is already a senior citizen in pygmy goat years!)
It will be a sad day when I start losing my last herd of goats! I have shared my life with goats for almost 14 years now, all told, and enjoy them immensely!
RATS
My five remaining rats are approaching their expiration dates, too. I had nine females to start with (two moms and their seven female babies) over two years ago, and they only live (on average) two years, so I have been losing them at the rate of one every other month or so for a while now.
Rats when they were young — two years ago…
PATCHES & MY OTHER PALS
Patches Bobby
Charli Miss Kitty
Patches, my eldest cat, is at least 18 now, but she’s a tortoiseshell, and tortoiseshell cats have notoriously long lives unless they run afoul of a predator or vehicle. She has been through the ringer and is stiff and slow, but she is still enjoying life and sleeps on my pillow with me every night.
The other cats (Bobby, Charli and Miss Kitty) are two, three and four-or-five years old respectively, so I expect them to accompany me to wherever I live next, if I ever leave this place. (That remains to be seen. Jackie may move and, if she does, I will need to relocate, too, because we share this property. If I do move, it will likely be out of the country.)
SOLSTICE
That’s my entire house and barnyard “critter brood,” except for Solstice, the raccoon I fostered for a few months this summer when he was just a wee one. (His mother was hit and killed by a car and no rehab facility would take him or his brother, Summer, in so my friend brought them to me). Summer disappeared entirely within a week of their release in August, and Solstice will be off on his own sometime next year. In fact, he’s off on his own now, but I’m continuing to put out food for him because raccoon kits usually stay with their mothers for 12 to 16 months, and he’s just eight months old as of this writing.
Solstice, the first week of September
I am surrounded by animals day and night, just the way I have always envisioned my life. Some of my best friends are non-human animals. They keep me sane and mostly stress-free (except when they’re sick, dying, or disappear) and they exude only love and comfort. They’re pretty much zero-drama friends, which suits me fine, because living in peace and quiet is my preferred lifestyle.
That’s all the news that’s fit to print for today. I hope you’re enjoying this holiday season as much as I am, or even more!
FELIZ NAVIDAD
MERRY CHRISTMAS
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
с Рождеством
frohe Weihnachten
