altruistic1

I told you a little about the squirrel monkey that I was lucky enough to have for a few years.  I had two cats, a little black mixed breed dog and two parakeets, and one son at the time.  So, bringing a monkey into all of this was going to be fun.  He had his own large cage that came with him, so I figured that it was best that he stay in it until he was used to his new home.  Well, as time passed we introduced the rest of the animals to Michi and he immediately took to each and every one, with the exception of the birds.  They were in their cage all of the time and in a room that was not frequented by the monkey.

As time passed and Michi was more familiar with us he spent very little time in his cage.  I found out that one of his favorite things to do is to check out a glass that someone had sat down, he would dip his fingers in the glass to see if he liked the contents or not.  Most of the time he did like what he was tasting, so he would continue dipping his little dirty hands in the cup and licking them off.  When he had his fill of the drink he would head over to a table lamp that had silky white shade, crawl up on top of the shade and lay down and hang off of it.  It did not take long before the shade was filthy and had to be replaced with something that was more cleanable.  If he was not on the lamp shade, he would curl up on the bed with one or all of the other animals.  He loved the cats so much.  I used to let him climb in the tree outside and if he didn’t want to come down when I needed him to I would pick up one of the cats and I would meow myself, Michi would come from where ever he was, run up my leg and try to get me to let go of the cat.  It was hilarious to see him come out of the tree so fast and run up my leg and onto my shoulder, reaching down pulling on my fingers to let go of the cat.  I guess he thought that the cat sound was actually from the cat and that I was hurting it.  If I would have been smart and had a VHS camera at the time I would have been able to send clips into The Funniest Home Videos!! 

Right now the girls are in a yelling match, at least they are over the virus that they had, at least for the most part.  I really did not realize how much I had actually been talking about this “sick” crap.  I guess my world was revolving around it at the time.  I also see that it has been over two weeks worth, that is terrible. 

I was looking through some of the things that I had written and I probably sound like a broken record.  I also check out some of the photos that I had posted and noticed the one with my cat and monkey that were not even mentioned in the post.  Instead of boring you to death with our problems, I want to tell you about my monkey and cats.

I love animals and always have, when I was living in Rochester, New York, I would read the Dandy Dime kind of papers and happened to find a squirrel monkey for sale, I was so excited that I could actually afford the price.  I called knowing in the back of my mind that it was too good to be true, and someone else had already called and taken my chance away.  When I did call, the lady answered the phone and said that she still had him, I made arrangements to go to her house and meet them.  I could not wait to get there, but when I did it was all over, he was mine, taking to me like he had known me for a long time.  Unfortunately, I do not remember all of the details, she was not the original owner and she had not owned him for that long, and for some reason was not able to keep him, of course that is all I wanted to hear.  So home with me he went.  I cannot remember what his name was, but we called him ”Michi” and he earned a bunch of other nick-names over time.  We had two cats at the time we brought Michi home and he immediately fell in love with both of them, Teddy and Percy.  Percy is the cat in the picture, a real sweet cat.  Michi and Percy used to curl up on the bed and sleep for hours together.  It was not unusual for Teddy to cuddle with Michi either.  I was so lucky to have had the opportunity to have him in my life!!  I had to find him a new home when we had to move,  it was difficult to find a place to rent.  

I received a telephone call from my youngest daughter the other day and she said that she was not feeling well and was having a hard time talking because her throat hurt, so I told her to get some rest and that I would talk to her later.  I had gone to bed and the phone rang and it was my daughter saying that she was feeling worse, I asked her if she had been getting enough fluids in her and she hadn’t been because her throat was hurting, now she had the chills and a headache.  Even though she is grown up I still wanted to be there for her and take care of her, I hate it when any of the kids or grand-kids are sick.  She was lethargic and I was worried and wanted her to go to the doctor, but she said that she would try and get some rest and hopefully by the next day she would feel better.  Well, she didn’t feel better the next day and I told her that she would have to go to the doctor because she was still not able to get enough fluids in her and when you get dehydrated it makes you feel worse.  Thank goodness she went and they gave her fluids and hopefully she will be able to shake what she has soon. 

I know we are still fighting a virus at our house, I haven’t been myself lately either.  We are on the up turn though so hopefully I will be able to think clearer when I don’t have a sinus headache. 

We all have so much to say about these people that get themselves in the limelight one way or the other, we love to judge and comment on why they did what they did, without knowing if what we are hearing is factual.  I think it is a sad thing for these people when they are scrutinized every waking and sometimes sleeping moments.  I applaud the people that shine when they have done a good deed and then taken the back seat and lived their lives in private.  I think that today it is harder for people to stay out of harms way because there is so much money to be made from the photographs, any photo the racier the better as far as the paparazzi are concerned.  It is so popular chasing famous people for those photos, young kids are picking up this profession to make the big bucks.  I am ashamed of all of us feeding off of these poor peoples lives, I could not imagine living in a glass house.  Imagine looking over your shoulder every minute of every day.  Yes they are famous but that does not give us the right to pry into their lives the way that we do.

I am just saddened about Natasha Richardson, she was a lovely woman and way too young to have passed away.  I hope that her family will be able to mourn the loss in private. 

I am sorry for venting but all of the nonsense that is on everyday just makes me wonder what people would do if they could not talk about someones misfortune.  Maybe they could interact with their own families!!

I love the spring and summer months, of course I that is because I hate the cold.  I live in beautiful sunny Arizona and it even gets too cold for me here.  I know it sounds crazy or you are thinking that I must be old, well I am older but that is not the problem, ever since I was a kid I have always hated to be cold.  Since I grew up back east I know all about the temperatures dipping below zero, being snowed in , ice storms, etc and the whole time growing up I lived on the register when the furnace was on or in layers of clothes(sometimes both).  My parents used to take me camping every weekend and when we would have a campfire I used to get so close to it they thought I was going to catch on fire. 

I spend a lot of the time in sweaters and sweatshirts, all of my kids think I am crazy.  I really cannot help it, it is just the way I am.  I barely use the air conditioning in the house even when the temperatures get above 100 degrees.  One good thing about not running the air conditioner is that it saves me money on the electric bill. 

Enough of that, I really enjoy the spring, watching things start to grow that have been dormant over the winter months and smelling the freshness of the air from the gardenia bushes that are in my neighbors back yard.  I love watching all of the birds coming around and patiently awaiting the birth of all of the little creatures that live in the wild.    The baby quails following their parents, the baby javalina’s, the lizards, and of course the jack rabbits.  I guess I am sounding old again.  I don’t care I am a cold blooded person who has to have the heat to thrive and loves nature.  Enough said, I’m a freak, OK.

 I mentioned the fact that I love to have the television on but do not necessarily watch what is playing.  I do watch some television for me, but mostly cartoons for the girls.  Wow Wow Wubbzy, Dora the Explorer, and Diego are the girls current favorites.  We have only had satellite television since last September, before that we had just the local channels.  That was fine though, PBS has great programming and I watched NBC for the most part.  We also had a combo VHS and DVD player. When the girls first decided that they liked to watch movies the favorite was Finding Nemo, I guarantee that we have watched that movie ten million times and more. 

When we moved and had the satellite turned on we stopped using the DVD player, I didn’t even bother to set it up because the girls had started to take the DVDs out of the cases and play with them and when they wanted to watch something they decided it was fun to open and close the door on the player.  So I was tired of trying to keep the movies out of reach and the player safe.  I just put it away along with all of the VHS movies and DVDs until they get a little older.  The channels on the satellite provide enough cartoons all of the time that there is no need for the DVDs player.  We did get a DVR when we had the satellite service installed so that made it great. 

One day the Disney Channel played Finding Nemo several times and I recorded it on the DVR.  Just because we no longer used the DVD/VHS player didn’t mean that the girls stopped asking to watch their favorite DVDs, so when I recorded Finding Nemo I opened myself up for a new barrage of request to have it played again.  Especially since we rode the Finding Nemo ride at Disneyland last month.  Most of the time they just request to have it turned on and do not watch it because they are too busy playing .  I am aware of what and how much time they actually spend with the television, I know there is a lot of controversy over kids and television.   Since my children are all adults now and they were brought up basically the same, not one of them is a couch potato.  I make sure the exercise, outdoor and imagination time is not taken away by the use of the television. 

I love the television, even if I am not watching it, I have it on.  I am not a couch potato though.  I do not have to watch everything, I have a few programs that I do not like to miss but if I do no problem these days, you can always find it somewhere else or wait for the reruns.  The times when the television are off I tend to get irritated easily.  At times when I am not watching and only listening the program that is on has to be something that I would watch.  If I cannot find something that I may be interested in and the noise from the television irritates me then I turn it off, that is rare though.  I also am not able to listen to the soothing sounds that are supposed to relax you, the sounds of the ocean, the whale, and other soothing sounds.  I like to hear the sounds but to actually sit and listen to them for a period of time is very grating on my nerves. 

If I am by myself, no kids, no adults that is when the television really has to be on.  This is such a rare occasion though.  I have had people tell me that they could not stand all of the screaming and hollering that kids tend to do, but it does not bother me, for the most part.  I do love when the girls are sleeping and I can actually hear the words on the television without having the volume turned up to the max.  I wonder what a psychologist would say about my weird habbits?

I remember as a kid growing up that my mother and I used to fall asleep on the couch watching television, I suppose my habits stem from those times.  Boy were they different though, we would fall asleep and be rudely awakened by the noise from the channel going off of the air.  First the snowy sound, then the National Anthem and then a constant noise showing some kind of a multi-colored circle.  What a thing to remember!

Today was a pretty good day, the youngest is starting to feel better!  The oldest doesn’t act like she is going to get whatever her sister picked up.  They played outside today and ended up in bed by 8:30 pm.  I was able to accomplish more than I anticipated today so I feel pretty good.  It always makes me feel good when I finish up things that normally take forever and never get done. 

On my computer I have the screen saver set to show the pictures in my album, the background on my desktop is a picture of my mother.  I just love to see those pictures I never tire of looking at them.  I have rubbed off on the girls with my picture obsession, the youngest takes the camera out of the case and takes pictures, even a video once.  I have always taken pictures, but never had a decent digital camera, until Christmas of 2007.  I purchased a nice camera that came with a carrying case, rechargeable battery, charger for the battery and it also came with a memory card.  It was only 512 mg, which I never payed attention to because when I am at home I just put the pics on the computer and erase what was downloaded onto the computer.  I have a difficult time erasing pictures that are less than perfect.  I’m just glad that I am able to have a digital instead of a camera that has film that needs processing.  I still have rolls of film that are not processed. 

Last night was a difficult night, the youngest granddaughter started coughing and it was keeping her from sleeping, of course when they are that sick they demand on being held.  It was not good enough that she was in bed with me, she wanted me to get up and walk around.  She had a fever, not sure exactly how high, she wouldn’t hold still long enough to get a proper reading.  We were out of children’s Tylenol, but had children’s Motrin so I had to go find my glasses to read the dosing and then draw the amount up into the syringe.  We do not take much medicine around our house, knock on wood, I can’t remember the last time she had to have medicine.  Well, in the syringe and ready to dispense but she had other ideas, once she got a taste of it that was enough and I still had medicine in the syringe.  I tried to tell her she needed it to feel better but she was not hearing that, I ended up having to hold her and just force it in.  Some of it came out of her mouth, but at least she got the biggest portion of it.  I hate having to refer to that method but it was late and she was hot.  There is nothing worse than a kid that is not feeling like themselves.  They are grouchy because they don’t know what is going on with them.  She was coughing so hard it was making her throw up.  The oldest one seems to have better immunity to these things, even though they share cups and are always in each others face, she never gets quite as bad as her sister.  I am grateful for that because two sick at the same time and feeling horrible and wanting to be held, my lap is just not big enough and they fight as it is if I try to hold them at the same time.

Today the coughing was the same and her nose was not running quite as bad as yesterday.  She took a little nap this morning and fell asleep at a decent time tonight but the coughing woke her up and now she doesn’t want to go back to sleep.  The oldest fell asleep around 8 pm. which is great for her and hopefully I will make it to bed before the youngest wakes up her sister.   Hopefully, this cold/flu/sickness runs its course and will be gone soon. 

I want to thank dementia  for adding me in her blog.  She won an award for the information she shares with everyone about dementia and alzheimer’s disease.   She is a wonderful person who cares, take time to read her blog and see for yourself. 

I jinxed myself when I said the girls were fine and I did not think that they would get sick.  The two year old had a runny nose all day and by this evening she started coughing and now she has a bit of a fever.  I guess a restful sleep is out of the question.  I don’t care about the sleep, I hate when kids get sick, they are at our mercy.  I hope tomorrow will be better but the way she is coughing I doubt it.  The three year old is not showing any signs just yet, but that doesn’t mean a thing.  I am sure the youngest was drinking out of her sisters cup and vice-versa, so I know what comes next.  Two sick kids instead of one.

I was able to use my Skype today for a short period of time and found out that I cannot use it again until I get some kind of patch for my computer.  We have used messenger in the past but we had some of the same issues.  I just need to upgrade my computer or better yet buy a new one.  Someday when I make all of this money online and pay all of my bills and make sure the girls have plenty I will buy a new computer. 

I still read everyday and am surprised at how much there is to learn about online.  I know that sounds really stupid especially since I have been using it for so long.  I am a Capricorn and maybe that has something to do with how I do things.  I guess you could say I like to do them my way.  But I have determination so I know I will succeed.