My Sick Mind

I've spent most of the last two days trying to get Kitty to eat something. He turns his nose up at the Hill's k/d prescription stuff that the vet gave [sold to] me. I went to the web in search of some other companies who make the Renal care stuff. A company called Royal Canin makes it, as does Eukanuba , neither of which are available in your local pet store. Why, I wonder? PetsMart carries almost the whole line of Royal Canin stuff. Baby Cat, Kitten , Coon Cat, Persian, Siamese , Beauty & Fit, Light, Indoor, Intense Hairball, Light, Mature , Active Mature, Adult Fit , Special, Oral Sensitive, Skin Care and Selective (for fussy cats) . No Renal Care . So, I went back to the vet to see if they had anything different. The vet assistant told me that her cat won't eat the k/d either, so they gave [gave] me packets of the Eukanuba and Royal Canin . Pray that he'll eat one of these. So, I asked (knowing the answer) why the Renal Care stuff isn't sold in stores? ...

What do these two stories have in common? NEW YORK — Americans are giving bad grades all around. President Bush ’s job approval rating now stands at 31 percent, the lowest ever in the FOX News poll , and almost twice as many Americans say they disapprove of the president’s job performance. And this... Giants outfielder Barry Bonds overcame a 119,000-vote deficit in the final days of balloting and finished 123,000 votes ahead of Alfonso Soriano on Sunday to claim the third and final starting outfield spot for the National League. In a vote taken to determine how many people want to see Bonds pass Henry Aaron turned up 52 percent against , so one man's poll is another man's poison . Two men reviled for different reasons, one is the most powerful man in the world and the other is grabbing headlines and money while breaking the most cherished record in sports. Barry Bonds earned $106 million in the last 6 years, after completing a 5-year $90 million dollar contract. President Bush...

The army of King Pyrrhus of Epirus had suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans during the Pyrrhic War in 280 BC. Pyrrhus said that one more such victory would utterly undo him. I got my New Jersey State property tax rebate form in the mail on Monday. With it, I can apply for a 20% rebate on my property taxes. For me, that amounts to about $375. On Tuesday, I got a notice from my mortgage company informing me that my monthly payment was increasing by $50 to cover the cost of my increased property taxes. On Monday I was up $375, and by Tuesday I was down two and a quarter. If I get another rebate I won’t be able to pay my taxes.

It was February in 1991. The wife and I decided that we needed a cat in our lives, and after a couple of disappointing visits to breeders, we decided that we would visit the Gloucester County Animal Shelter and give a homeless cat a home. There were plenty, and my attention turned to a grey short-haired 7-year old whose owner had turned him in because of allergies. We looked at each other, and his eyes had the desperate look of an animal who really wanted to get out of that cage and come to a loving home. Meanwhile, the wife was checking on a litter of kittens at the other end of the row, and had picked up a black fur ball with tiny sharp claws and that squeaky little kitten howl. Simultaneously, we turned to each other with our furry choices. Her heart was set on the kitten, who by this time had taken a death-grip on her sweater, and the only way we were going to give him back would be to give back the sweater with him. My grey hair went back into his cage and our sad eyes said goodb...

Spin is a wonderful thing. It seems that we get more of it than we used to. Maybe that's just me getting older and smarter (well, older) or maybe it's the way it is. Either way, there is a lot of spin going on. At work, play, in government and even in that last vestige of respite from our daily lives - sports. When we combine the spin factor with the endless fascination that people have with even numbers - especially the ones that end in zeroes - we find that the spin can go so fast that it takes on it's own gravity and winds up being a force unto itself. Eventually, as scientists will tell you, things can only spin for so long until they either stop spinning or die. The spin around here lately has been over the Phillies and their relentless pursuit of 10,000 losses. For a franchise that has been around since 1883, that's a lot of losses, and one more will do it. Unfortunately for them, other sports don't play as many games, so even though the Eagles have a worse ...

On occasion, television runs out of things to show us. It happens because there are more TV channels than ever - and more all the time - and less and less interesting stuff to show. So much so, that things like America's Funniest Home Videos is a long-running program. It's interesting, since the show's title proclaims what we are supposed to believe it is; funny, when in fact, it really isn't all that funny. What it is is people being hit in the crotch and falling off of things, jumping off of things and having their pants fall down. The word funny is in the title (well, Funniest actually) so it must be funny. Funniest. This week, in the doldrums of television that is the summer, baseball is holding its annual party that they call the All-Star break. It isn't a break, really, since there is a lot of baseball packed into those three days. The only break comes for the unlucky losers who aren't invited to the party. They get to spend three days at home with their...

Laura tagged me to do this meme [I'm not really sure what 'meme' means] about influential music in my life. I don't have all the mystical "here's where I was when [that] was playing" stuff that others may have. My list has more to do with songs that I can point to as guiding posts for my later-in-life musical tastes. The rules are as follows : 1. Name between 5 & 10 songs that have made an impact on your life. I’ll leave it up to you to decide how many you wish to describe. 2. Pass it onto five other people with a link back to your own post and this one as the original. 1. Donimo - Cocteau Twins . This one opened a whole genre of music to me. I can remember precisely where I was when I first heard it. On my way home from work, tuned to WXPN . I waited on the street until the host finally said what it was. That weekend I was in the record store looking for Treasure . Even now, when my soul needs soothing (almost every day) I find myself listening to...

"If the world is so big how's come I run into people I can't stand all the time? It's just not big enough some days ..." - Kimmyk , on the shrinkage Most days the world seems small, but it's a fair question, and at least one place I visited today served to remind me that the world is sometimes as small as the people in it. My first visit was to the local Chinese buffet restaurant. As I sat there, sucking down my General Tso's chicken , it occurred to me that the only Chinese people I see in Chinese restaurants are the people who work there. It's either because (a) Chinese people come to America partly to escape Chinese food. After all, I wouldn't eat at McDonald's in Beijing. Or, (b) Chinese food in America is like McDonald's to Chinese. I wonder, if I was ever lucky enough [that's right] to visit China, what would the food be like? Would I recognize Chinese food in China? I need to ask one of the people working at the buffet about tha...