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Two felines remain in our house following a legacy of 5 before them. We remodelled the home during the years for when I was asked “what color of carpet would you prefer” .... I replied “fur-ball color please” ... and now you know our color scheme.
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Ya ... our cats “must” have a babbling river water device (on the right) to enjoy tap water 🙄 oh correction ... filtered tap water
 
I wrote a little something a few days ago, but couldn't decide if I actually wanted to share it. After all, I didn't really write it to tell a story, I really just wrote it for me to be able to express my feelings and try to make myself feel a little better. It didn't. But, here goes:

Every now and again I come to the realization that my sometimes extreme (sarcastic, sadistic, or cynical) forms of expressing myself are not a funny way of looking at or dealing with things, even though I think it is at the time.

After telling my wife for the last year or more that I am tired of her cat leaving all types of bodily fluid on various floor surfaces throughout our house, and threatening to have her put down or simply throw her out of the house to find a new home - my wife finally agreed and made me do it.

Here I am, the hard-ass man who spent three months or so on my hands and knees replacing all the carpet and linoleum on our main floor with oak hardwood and ceramic tile, bitching at my wife about the damage that is happening to our investment. I'm not wrong - there is damage, and I know that I am the one that is going to ultimately have to fix it which is part of what made me so mad, but I really wasn't prepared to finally do what I had to do.

First of all, Gus has been with my wife longer than I have. I've been with my wife for ten years, and this cat has been with her for nearly sixteen. Please don't think that I was being outrageously cruel. Sixteen is quite senior for a cat, and she has been declining for a long time. I have spent many hundreds of dollars every time she had to go to the vet, and I have taken care of most of it. The vet appointments and tests. The medications and administering them. Claw trimming and filing. The cone. The clean ups. The skin work. Whatever we had to do.

I told my wife when we moved in together that I didn't like pets, and I wasn't going to be responsible for them, but I was wrong. You do what you have to do because, well... they are family.

In hindsight, it wasn't really all that difficult to have the rational discussion about what needed to be done. There was no argument. It may not have been completely clear that she was suffering, but certainly her quality of life was not what it should be. It's easy to say that cost shouldn't be a consideration, but let's be real - it is - and more importantly, what can it realistically achieve?

What really was tough - was actually doing what needed to be done.

The decision was made, and of course I was the one who had to take care of it. I couldn't even speak when I got to the counter. I just put the carrier down on the counter and looked at the ceiling for a while. There were two young ladies that were waiting for something, and I had to take a really long pause and when I could finally muster the words to say "It's time", the one ran outside crying, and her friend followed. I know - I'm a monster.

How is it that you do what you need to do? How do you be a man, and look another human in the eye and tell them that this life needs to end? And how do you justify that what you say is right? How the (expletive) do I know?

I do what I do because that is what I have to do. Sometimes the enactment of the decision is harder than the decision itself, by a significant margin. Life, and death, is tough. Especially when it is in your hands. I can only hope that when the time comes for someone to make that decision for me, that it is easy to say "Git 'er dun!".

Farewell ol green eyes. Even though I couldn't sleep with your broken diesel purring noise on my chest, I appreciated your warmth and it always felt good to have you there when you knew I should be somewhere else. I don't know how they know, but they do. I enjoyed watching you fall off the arm of the chair and not landing on your feet like the tales say, and I appreciate you cleaning those ice-cream bowls so that I didn't have to put them in the dishwasher. I don't know who is going to clean up the area in front of the stove now, or what I am supposed to do with all the turkey leftovers, and who will hedge back my pepper plants?

Maybe I need to get another cat.

No (expletive) way.

We have had to be the best friend 3 times over the last 20 years. Each time more difficult than the last. Each of them crossed the Rainbow Bridge while being held in my arms. They slipped quietly into “that dark night” surrounded by the humans that cherished and loved them. I dread the time that will come, where I will have to muster every ounce of courage once again.
 
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Ran out of car stuff today so I’m “playing” in the yard ... it’s still cool darn it 😡... oh lookie what I found to play with 😁🤣
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nuts ... vacant ... not as much fun as I wanted ... don't know how I didn't know as my shed door is but 3 feet away
 
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Well, the laundry was not a lot of fun. I made some cardboard coasters for the feet of the washer and dryer so that we could drag them around without scratching up my beautiful tile floor. Then I got cursed out and told to leave so that my wife could do what she needed to do. Then after hearing some cursing and banging, I went back to see what was up, got cursed out some more, and quietly disconnected the dryer vent and left again.

Meanwhile, I decided it might be a good time to work quietly in the basement swapping out my main computer for my 'new' one. Of course I should have know that wasn't going to go smoothly either. I had hooked it up a couple of weeks ago and everything was working fine, I just didn't have all of my software installed and set up, and I had a very important video to do for my aunt in a tight timeline, so I switched back to the old computer just so that I could get the job done.

So yesterday I backed up all of my recently changed stuff, and swapped the machines again. I have really been looking forward to getting this new machine up and working because it is a real powerhouse, and should make my video editing and graphic work a lot faster. Hooked it all up, turned it on, and the video card failed. After many attempts to uninstall and reinstall, move to a different slot, uninstall and reinstall, update drivers, etc, etc, I just can't get the bastard to work properly.

So now I'm pissed off, my wife is pissed off, and we have to go over to Aunt BA's to do a few 'chores'. I had to find her pressure washer and all of the parts and pieces for it, and get it up and running. Then she asked me to wash the siding on the house, the front deck, the back deck, and the barbecue. I'm out there moving furniture and cleaning all this stuff while they sit inside and chat, coming out only to tell me to hurry up and get the barbecue cleaned up so that they can eat! I love my family. Anybody want them?

I tried again with this damn computer this morning, and spent a good part of the day on it before giving up on it. I pulled that video card out, and now I have a $400 paper weight. Then I had to wrestle a bit with the onboard video outputs to get both monitors to work, but I am back up and running. Now I can check the Corvette forum while I install drivers for my printers, scanner, keyboard, and drives, and get my software installed and working. Fun stuff!
 
I spoke too soon. After spending all day working on this damn computer, I've gone back to my old one again. I just can't get the audio to work, and it is useless to me without it. I'm going to have to dig out some other equipment so that I can fiddle with it later. It is quite frustrating.
 
I spoke too soon. After spending all day working on this damn computer, I've gone back to my old one again. I just can't get the audio to work, and it is useless to me without it. I'm going to have to dig out some other equipment so that I can fiddle with it later. It is quite frustrating.
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........Jeremiad , I have a solution quick fix to all computer problems .

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Cut 5 acres of grass. Cut 5 more acres of silver willows/caraghennas/grass with the rotary mower. Rototilled my wife’s 1 acre garden. Levelled the driveway. Washed her Yukon and my truck. Shored up a horse shelter. Shot a dozen gophers. Walked by the Vette 50 times. Did a little work on the Camaro. Just finished my third Gibson’s.

Back to the office tomorrow for a little R&R. Lol.
 
Cut 5 acres of grass. Cut 5 more acres of silver willows/caraghennas/grass with the rotary mower. Rototilled my wife’s 1 acre garden. Levelled the driveway. Washed her Yukon and my truck. Shored up a horse shelter. Shot a dozen gophers. Walked by the Vette 50 times. Did a little work on the Camaro. Just finished my third Gibson’s.

Back to the office tomorrow for a little R&R. Lol.

Shooting gophers eh !! And 5 acres of grass ? That could make up for not being able to drive Garry’s combine as him and I discussed. Any pics of the mower ! :thumbs:

I have ammo for the gophers. What would you recommend ?

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I spoke too soon. After spending all day working on this damn computer, I've gone back to my old one again. I just can't get the audio to work, and it is useless to me without it. I'm going to have to dig out some other equipment so that I can fiddle with it later. It is quite frustrating.
Here in PEI I recently purchased a new LapTop Hired a computer geek''' came to my home for 1 hr $50.00 all frustration relaxing in my lazyboy
Laptop working great
 
Shooting gophers eh !! And 5 acres of grass ? That could make up for not being able to drive Garry’s combine as him and I discussed. Any pics of the mower ! :thumbs:

I have ammo for the gophers. What would you recommend ?

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Kubota F3080
 

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Here in PEI I recently purchased a new LapTop Hired a computer geek''' came to my home for 1 hr $50.00 all frustration relaxing in my lazyboy
Laptop working great

Yes. A big part of why it is so frustrating to me is that many years ago, I was that geek that would go to people's houses and fix their stuff. It was a great time actually. Finding my way to a farm without a GPS, and fix their stuff without access to internet (what's a Google?), and they would most often make dinner for me while I was there. If I did need to get on the internet, it would certainly be on dial-up (I can still recognize connection rates just by the sound), and would take forever. My USB Thumb Drive was a laptop and a parallel cable, or open the box and add a temporary IDE hard drive. Or my beloved box of 3.5" floppy disks with a plethora of drivers from many years of collecting.

It's not the same any more. Windows 10 is supposed to do all that stuff for you, and when it doesn't, you're kinda hooped. Like Michael and a carburetor, I prefer being able to turn a screw or two (jumpers or dip-switches), set an address and IRQ, and make it do what it is supposed to do.

Holy s**t! I just realized that I am old, and this world has passed me by.
 
Yes. A big part of why it is so frustrating to me is that many years ago, I was that geek that would go to people's houses and fix their stuff. It was a great time actually. Finding my way to a farm without a GPS, and fix their stuff without access to internet (what's a Google?), and they would most often make dinner for me while I was there. If I did need to get on the internet, it would certainly be on dial-up (I can still recognize connection rates just by the sound), and would take forever. My USB Thumb Drive was a laptop and a parallel cable, or open the box and add a temporary IDE hard drive. Or my beloved box of 3.5" floppy disks with a plethora of drivers from many years of collecting.

It's not the same any more. Windows 10 is supposed to do all that stuff for you, and when it doesn't, you're kinda hooped. Like Michael and a carburetor, I prefer being able to turn a screw or two (jumpers or dip-switches), set an address and IRQ, and make it do what it is supposed to do.

Holy s**t! I just realized that I am old, and this world has passed me by.
You and me both. But at least you still have your looks.....
 
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Mike, go with the slugs. Expensive, but fun. and no mess to clean up.

We should arrange for a get-together at Al's place for some old-school video gaming with 22's and hollow points.

I miss the old days when we used to go out to the farms and they would pay us a nickel for each tail we brought back. I remember not even caring about the nickels per, just buy me another box of shells and I'll be back tomorrow.
 
Mike, go with the slugs. Expensive, but fun. and no mess to clean up.

We should arrange for a get-together at Al's place for some old-school video gaming with 22's and hollow points.

I miss the old days when we used to go out to the farms and they would pay us a nickel for each tail we brought back. I remember not even caring about the nickels per, just buy me another box of shells and I'll be back tomorrow.
Anytime. The gophers are calling. Take the targa top off and shoot from the cab.....C6 grand gopher....
 
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