Here are pictures of Little Black Kitty's Excellent Adventure.  He went very high up the large Douglas Fir day before yesterday frightened by a large dog.

[URL= http://h1.ripway.com/babthrower/LBKEA.jpg]Little Black Kitty's Excellent Adventure[/URL]

He immediately began howling for help.  I set up a ladder but it did not nearly reach the limb he was on.  He could not figure out how to get down to the ladder which I had climbed to reach him.

So I lashed a foamie to it with rope, hoping he would climb down by himself and use the foamie for traction.  Every hour or so I would go over and call him.  He would just howl back:  "Mom, I love you mom.  Get me down! NOW, please!" Then he began a refrain of ' NOW! NOW! NOW! ' that went on for hours.
[URL= http://h1.ripway.com/babthrower/LBKEA2.jpg ]LBKEA Part 2[/URL]
So he spent the night outside and I went out from time to time to climb the ladder and call him to make  his way down to where I was so I could rescue him.

Trouble was,  I had to go through Himalyan blackberries to reach the ladder.  So yesterday morning I went through and pruned them back.

In the afternoon I set up a recliner chair for myself beneath the tree, for emotional support for the kitty, and read a book.  Finally about three p.m. he backed down and I got him.

He ate 2 kinds of kitty food, drank fresh water and milk, allowed himself to be cuddled while purring in a raspy voice.  Then while I had a bath with Aveena soothing bath powder (for itchy, irritated skin -- I had scratched myself rather badly on the Himalayan blackberries while fighting my way through undergrowth and setting up the ladder and climbing it several times, and got a few bruises handling the ladder) he lay down on the bathmat, and went to sleep.  He's never gone to sleep in the bathroom before.

Then I had a nice 1-hour nap.

Now everyone's fine but I've got a bit of a sore back. That aluminum ladder only weighs about twenty-five pounds but it's awkward to move over rough ground and over a fence.

If I see that damn pit bull here again there's going to be trouble.

p.s. What does it mean when your neighbor has many visitors, night and day, cars turning in but never staying long?  These are recent neighbors, just moved in to a rental property nearby.   And have a large dog and a pit bull?

p.s. please post if you can't get the pictures. I can't, but I think it's my newly-updated browser.

First Link Bad. Second link OK.

Your neighbors are selling something that they shouldn't be, in all probability. Renting out-of-the-way houses is common for dealers who are making enough to afford it. On the off-chance that they are cooking their own (very common in out-of-the-way locations), you should avoid walking near the house. Sometimes, the explosions are pretty big.

Does this work?[URL= http://h1.ripway.com/babthrower/LBKEA.jpg]LBKEA[/URL]

Thank you for the advice. Actually though they're technically 'neighbors', their house is quite a distance away.

Nope, link still broken... let me try:
?Click this to see the photo

My favourite remedy is a simple hot bath with some lavendar oil or similar. Or even better, a massage from the hubby.

Heat - liberal applications there of will loosen sore muscles.

If the pain does not subside or lessen in the next 3 days, see a doctor - other things could have been injured. Muscles take 2-3 days to get back too rights on average.

As for the visits most likely drugs are being sold.

Contrary to popular belief explosions at meth labs are not very common - compared to the number of labs that used to be in operation in the USA. Its nearly akin to saying that explosions at gas stations are common - they are, only in that there are so many gas stations that accidents are bound to happen.

Now days with the strict control of key ingredients used in the manufacture of meth, meth production takes place in say Mexico where is is brought up with the cocaine, illegal immigrants and other black market goods, distributed and sold through various outlets - such as houses in neighborhoods. Drug dealers have had a 'boon' of sorts. Whereas the price of meth has not changed in almost 30 years - a quarter sill goes for $25.00, the outsourcing of the manufacturing process has greatly reduced the price, meaning that dealers are still reaping high profits for product.

Since meth production has been pushed outside of the USA (another manufacturing business gone to cheaper shores) the likelihood of there being a meth lab next door to you is slim to none.

Most likely you have a distribution center - a 'store' if you will were product(s) is/are sold. More often than not the store has several products for sale, e.g. pot and heroine and meth and cocaine. This is a more recent turn of events since manufacturing has gone off shore, now that it is being done by big time 'companies' who already deal in heroine, cocaine, pot the introduction of meth in their supply line is incorporated into existing 'stores'.

E (exstacy), LSD, PCP and other 'rarer' forms of recreational drugs are making a strong comeback as they too have been forced off shore by the government. The chances are high that that one house next door are selling a wide variety of products, made in other places and pulling in a high profit not by sheer volume, but by the cheapness of manufacture insay Mexico compared to the USA.

Babs, if you use a heating pad, DO NOT go to sleep on it. The heat build-up while you are asleep can permanently damage muscle tissue. If you want to sleep with the heat, turn it off a little while before you go to bed. The pad will retain enough heat to make you feel comfortable, but there won't be the heat build-up as if the pad were still on.


David - In Missouri, there are still plenty of meth labs, and not a few explosions.

I put a heating pad at the neck and upper back, set on low, while watching TV and set my kitchen timer for 45 minutes. I need that kind of reminder these days, so thanks for it, because I think I'm showing signs of Old-timers' disease!

I forget the darnedest things, and then the next day, no problem.

And slept well last night, and feel a lot better this morning.

So I can recommend the measure to anyone else who has foolishly overdone unaccustomed activity.

Thanks again.

quote:

Originally posted by babthrower:
So I can recommend the measure to anyone else who has foolishly overdone unaccustomed activity.

That'd be me. Duh...what an idiot I am. I just did it, when I was setting up tables at the library. No time for a heating pad, as I have to be back at work in a little while. I hate these back injuries, because I know once it happens, it'll only get worse before it gets better.

Glad you are on the mend though, Babs.

To whom it may concern:

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head -
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back somersault in at the door -
Pray, what is the reason of that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment - one shilling the box -
Allow me to sell you a couple."

"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak -
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw
Has lasted the rest of my life."

"You are old," said the youth; "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose -
What made you so awfully clever?"

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to this stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you downstairs!

Lewis Carrol.

Well, that was certainly comforting, Frank. Is that all you have to offer?

It's killing me now..I knew it would.

quote:

Originally posted by dg:
Well, that was certainly comforting, Frank. Is that all you have to offer?

Let me try. Here's the original:

Comfort

Now, does that make you feel better?

Frankvan, sweetie:

You know I am devoted to you but this time you have gone too far. Don't mock the aged and infirm. I may lapse now and again, true; but remember that you will be old and clueless one day yourself.

Don't make me go over there, Frankvan cutie, because if I have to go over there, what I will do to you will hurt you a lot more than it will me. You have been very, very naughty.

Now go to your room. And pick up all your toys and put them away. Neatly. Or I'll send your real steam engine toy train to the little poor children in Holland.

What I most remember about Robert Southey is that he was Poet Laureate for donkey's years, and no one reads him today. A contemporary of both of them quotes him as saying this about William Blake: "Southey ... admired both his designs and his poetic talents. At the same time he held him to be a decided madman. Blake, he said, spoke of his visions with the diffidence which is usual with such people, and did not seem to expect that he should be believed. He showed Southey a perfectly mad poem, called Jerusalem."

And did those feet in ancient time,

Walk upon England’s mountains green

And was the holy Lamb of God,

On England’s pleasant pastures seen

And did the Countenance Divine,

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here,

Among these dark Satanic Mills?


Bring me my Bow of burning gold;

Bring me my Arrows of desire:

Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold:

Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In England’s green & pleasant Land.

If this is the poem Southey refers to, it has stood up pretty well over two centuries compared to The Old Man's Complaints. And how he gained them, don't you think?

quote:

Originally posted by FredPuli:

quote:

Originally posted by dg:
Well, that was certainly comforting, Frank. Is that all you have to offer?

Let me try. Here's the original:

Comfort

Now, does that make you feel better?

No. At this stage in the pain process, and considering I don't have to work until noon tomorrow, only wine can help now. But thanks for trying.


Jerusalem is one of my favourite hymns, and it's a C of E staple of course.
I'm always looking for different renditions of songs, and I came across this one by the wonderful Billy Bragg. Not quite the "Chariots of Fire" or Royal Albert Hall version, but sung with feeling, nonetheless.

Billy Bragg, "Blake's Jerusalem"

Oops, try this link:

Here It was the least political one I could find that worked!