Living with MCL

A very nice young kid called about 10:30 last night, indicating he found her. Four days she was gone, and it’s a good thing he found her then, because she was about 5 blocks away, right at a major intersection with lots of traffic. Who knows what might have happened if he hadn’t found her then.

She was a little disheveled, but didn’t look the worse for wear. Of course the first thing she did when we got her home was head straight for the food.

Now all she seems to want to do is sleep. She slept with us the entire night, and today, she’s spent the entire day on our bed. It must have been a very trying ordeal for her.

I guess it’s true that cats have 9 lives. The problem is at this rate (this is the second time she’s disappeared), Chloe’s going to use hers up before she turns 3 (She’s not even 2 yet).

But Edie and Morris are happy now. Ok, maybe Morris not so much, but Edie was much relieved.

I’ve heard it said, things happen in 3′s. I sure hope that’s the case, and it doesn’t turn into 4′s or ………..

Ever since returning from Vegas things have just not been going as I would hope. First it was the abnormally low platelet count, which fortunately seems to have resolved itself [for now], and then our cat Chloe decides to disappear, and despite repeated searches of the neighborhood has not turned up yet. I just hope if someone finds her they will call (Morris misses her), or at the very least give her a good home.

Even worse, this morning I crashed on my bike. It wasn’t a bad crash (we weren’t going that fast), and fortunately it wasn’t my fault (they’re always worse when you’re to blame). The person in front of me fell, and I ran over their wheel, scraping up my shin and knee, and screwing up the rear wheel. I didn’t even tear any of my riding clothes, but now that I’m home, my knee has started stiffening up some, I’m starting to feel some new pains in my thumb and hip.

And I’m not going to count the fact I haven’t been sleeping well at all the past two weeks, because that would make it a fourth thing, and I don’t want it to go beyond three.

I’m just hoping I’ll be able to ride tomorrow. I’ve been riding really good the past month or so, and I’d hate to lose any of that fitness. I can’t think of too many things that could upset me more, but I’m sure there are plenty I haven’t thought of either.

Oh well, we’re having dinner with some friends to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary tonight. Hopefully that will cheer me up a little, and if there’s one thing I could use a lot of, it’s cheering up.

Ever since buying my Kindle about a year ago, I’ve started reading a lot more. I’ve never been much of a book reader, but the thought of spending more time sitting in front of the TV, being bombarded [for the most part] with mindless jabber, no longer seems appealing.  Plus after reading more of Far Beyond the Stars, I’ve become inspired.

Not only that, but reading has become so much more convenient, especially since there’s an app which allows me to read my kindle books on my phone. (There’s even this report to indicate I may not be unique to this trend.)

It’s so amazing when you think about it. Items which not to long ago were big, and bulky and difficult to carry by themselves, can now be packaged in such convenient formats. If you’re as old as me, you’ll remember when computers took up entire rooms, telephones consisted of two parts, and had rotary dials, and cameras had to loaded with a roll of film before you could take a picture.

Now all that stuff [which for a minimalist could be considered nirvana], a computer, telephone, cameras, and now even books can all be loaded into one convenient device about 5″ x 2.5″ x 0.4″ (my Droid X) or smaller, and easily slipped into your pocket.

It just boggles my mind.

But I digress [as usual]. So like I said earlier, I’ve been reading [maybe a little too much for my own good, but....]. The most recent book I finished was “Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban“, by Jere Van Dyke, and currently I’m reading “The Good Soldiers“, by David Finkel, a story of one army battalion (the 2-16) during the infamous Iraq surge of 2007.

Both books are well worth reading, but the latter particularly is one I think everyone should read (Steven Colbert featured this book and interviewed the author on the Colbert Report), if for no other reason than to enlighten everyone as to the kind of hell the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are putting this country and it’s young man and women through.

For me it brought back some old [and current] memories, and reminded me of a song by Eric Burdon and the Animals, oh what seems like an eternity ago

we gotta get [everyone] out of this place

I’ve been reading this blog, Far Beyond the Stars, a blog about living minimally, and the quote “less stuff more living” came to mind.

That’s how a family in Denmark described their life, after an interviewer commented on how small their home was. A home half the size of the average home in the US, without a lot of stuff, but a home none the less, and one that seemed quite comfortable for a husband, wife and two kids.

That interview happened quite awhile ago, but that statement has stuck in my mind all this time. (It also came up while talking with the couple from Germany we met at the Aureole Wine Weekend.)

It just got me thinking about how materialistic we have become in the US. Even myself, although I don’t consider myself overly materialistic, or one who strives to impress anyone. Yeah, we have a lot of the usual stuff, including a 52″ wide screen LCD TV, with built in surround sound (we watch a lot of TV), but that’s pretty much the only over indulgence. Oh yeah, there are my two bicycles (which I do get significant use out of), but they’re very likely worth more than the 3 cars I own (at least two of them anyways).

And I almost forgot about our house, which, admittedly is bigger than we need. I would move, but it would likely cost more to do so, but more importantly it would be too upsetting for the cats, and I wouldn’t do that to them.

Beyond that, there isn’t much I would call anything extravagant, and there really isn’t much else I want or crave for, except for maybe a new bike, but I really consider that more a necessity than a luxury.

Okay, I think I’m starting to get a little long winded here, but I wanted to point out that guys blog. I really think it would do everyone a lot of good to follow at least some of his advice.

And on an unrelated [but related to this blog] note, it seems I’ve dodged a bullet for now. I’m happy to report my platelet count is back to within the normal range at 168 thou/cumm. WHEW! Finally after a week of being a nervous wreck, I can at last relax [at least a little].