Friday, March 14, 2008

Sex, Lives and Computers

~ Tabby Kitten~
Pastel on Board
Sold

I had to give up on my laptop; I really did. Days of trying to work out the meaning of the terminally ill vertical lines, and it's insane OCD looping left me wandering round talking to myself. My man, who has no interest in computers other than being forced to use them at work, emails, and searching the Harley sites, kept saying, "You can take it to a professional, you know". I knew that, but I didn't want it to beat me. Plus, most of those guys are self taught and just bang around trying things that might not work anyway, as your dollars pour down the drain.

Sometimes I thought I had the solution in the bag, and sometimes not, but it went to my son-in-law-to-be last night for the final tune-up. We sat on their cooling veranda after another horribly hot day, eating lemon sorbet and watching him banging away happily on the keys. I now have three hard drives, not two, and when I get it the way I like, he will copy it onto a disc which can be loaded anytime I want a refurbish.

He thinks it was a clash of programs, maybe a Microsoft update, or the iTunes I was loading into my man's new Shuffle. Either way, it spat the dummy, choking on the conflicting information, and made me dig deep into my self-accumulated knowledge base. Though beaten on the last leg, I think I did contribute here and there.

It's still not quite right, as, in it's original working state, it was a high resolution (1920 pixel wide) TV screen with Media Center, which I loved. I could plug in the rabbit ears and sit it on my lap anywhere and watch telly or a DVD. Now it's 1600 wide, so needs to be adapted further.

In the fullness of time.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My recent surgeries have knitted nicely. It is amazing how quickly a big incision will heal, and can be used, and I am walking around on the knee reasonably well. I must be healthy. The dressing on the wrist came off at 6 days old, pretty fragile and easily broken, but a few days later now all is sealed. I remember how we used to keep the stitches in for ten, having to go to the doc's to have them out. Now they're dissolvable, and it's all over in days.

My surgeon had given me issues in the past with his lack of empathy and sense of detachment and hurry. In discussions with a close nurse friend, she ventured that he possibly had high functioning Asberger's (a type of autism), which left him brilliant, but unable to sympathise or connect with his patients on a personal level. She said she had seen it before in her forty odd years of nursing.

We decided that a change in approach might work, and it did! I had my list of questions in my mind, and looked him in the eye and asked them very clearly and he answered them all to my satisfaction.

He ventured that my hand would possibly never close properly, now that the tendons had shrunk and the joints seized up, but to try some more physio. He agreed that the MRI showed I had no more cartilage on half of my knee, leaving bone on bone, so would probably need a knee replacement in the not-too-distant future.

So, I am a bit wrecked; something that I knew already. The next battle will be to deal with compensation issues with the TAC when my injuries are 'stabilised' in a year to eighteen months post-accident.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a cheerier note, both my poodley gals have come on heat together, on the same day. This is a phenomenon I had heard of, but not experienced. Baby Zara, who is almost 23 months, hadn't had one before. Poodles can take a while to mature; even Lily made 18 months before she started.

So this is Zara's first one. We will possibly breed her on her next heat, in maybe 9 months time, which I am really looking forward to. Standard poodles can have up to ten puppies, and that's a lot of fun, curly kids.

Her dad is one of the most highly decorated dogs in Australia, with over 110 Best in Shows, her aunt is an Australian Champ and took out Best in Show at the prestigious Victorian Poodle Show last weekend. Zara's full brother took out Best of Breed and Best Intermediate at the same show, and he and her mum are both Australian Champions.

She's never been shown, because of our busy lifestyle doing other stuff, plus I couldn't be bothered with all those rubber bands, and keeping them quiet and clean. She's a busy little country yobbo, and would much rather dig a hole or chase a bunny, than strut around the show ring.

But her pups will be highly valued.

I would have loved to breed Lily, because she has some major breeding as well, but she never 'took' in the two tries we had, including AI, so we gave up. Such a beautiful girl wasted.


I keep promising to have her speyed, but she's got away from me again. Maybe after this heat.

Dear old Connor at fourteen, who was neutered maybe seven years ago, still has memories of 'fragrant ladies'. Now he has two together, and his interest in them has increased considerably today. He will be on his best behaviour, trying to strut his creaky old body round and appear attractive (seen that before in humans!). It doesn't matter how often I remind him of his incapabilities, instinct still kicks in................

"Instinct is untaught ability"
... Alexander Bain

No comments: