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Monday afternoon. Our telephone connection was transferred to the new place on time. Yay!!!
We pack up a few things, including fat cat Oberon, and move (or, as the locals say, shift) to the new house.
ADSL wasn't connected the same day. We think. Boohooo!!!!
Tuesday morning. Try to feed Oberon. Oberon not here. Boohoo!!!!
Go back to the old house - a mere hundred yards down the road - and there he is. Yaaay! But not coming back. Boohooo!!
Wednesday morning. Still no Oberon. Boohooo!
Pack a few things up at the old house, and Oberon's still alive. Yay!!!!
Oberon refuses to come back to the new house with me. Shreds two new holes into a shirt. Boohoo!!!
Wednesday afternoon. Finally, after two days of dh whined about us not having ADSL, I checked the telephone wire connections and found they were plugged into the wrong connections on the ADSL splitter/filter thingy, so re-did them correctly. Yay! ADSL now works. Yay!!!!!!
Have no idea if we actually had ADSL for two days while dh phoned and harrassed telephone company employee after telephone company employee. Ooops!
Thursday morning. Power adapter for my laptop stopped working. Batteries died long ago, so no way to power up laptop.
Go back to old house, pack up a few things, and send a couple of loads to the new house, including Oberon in a cat carrier. Again. He's now at the new house. Yay!!!!
After feeding him (he hasn't eaten a meal that I'm aware of since I put him to bed Monday night), and he eats like the pig that he is, Oberon jumps onto the eight foot high wall. He wanders around on the top of the fence, ducking beneath the jasmine tree, smelling the flowers as he goes. He looks like he wants to jump down, sometimes studying our side of the fence, sometimes the others. He lays down on the fence, sunning himself like lazy cats will. I leave him alone.
Ten minutes later, he's gone. Boohooo!
Thursday afternoon. Take power adapter to local laptop repair shop, and they tell me a new one won't be in stock for two more weeks. Notsure if they can fix or not. They'll give it a try.
An hour or so later, I receive a call, and it is fixed. Rs600, or $6 US. Yay!!!!!!
Can't pick it up until tomorrow. The glue won't be dry until then. Boooohooooo!!!!!
Fahim goes back to the other house to pick up a few things. Oberon isn't there. Booohoooo!!!!!
Have dh's old laptop - slow and slow and really, yes, that slow - that I can use in the meantime. Yay!!!
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Darth Mauve, thanks for that - it made my day!
Oberon's back! Yay!!!!
He sat up on the wall for a couple of hours, crying because he didn't know how to jump down without hurting himself. I mentioned it was an eight foot wall, right? But eventually, after putting food out for him and waving it in his face, he managed to find a way. And he's still here. Yay!!!!!!
Most of our stuff is still at the old house. Must go back later today and pack up more to bring over. More Work. Booohooo!
My knee is killing me! Booohoooo!
I slept well last night. Yay!!!!!
I get to pick up my power adaptor for my laptop today. Yay!!!!!
My cleaning lady is coming today - again - so not only do I not have to do any of the cleaning at this place, I don't have to cook today, either. Again. Yay!!!!!!
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Imogen and I moved last september. We really should finish unpacking, sometime...
EDIT to add: oh, and I haven't forgotten that info I said that I'd send you, I've just had four weeks or so of constant interstate touring and deadlines, so haven't had an hour to sit down and put my thoughts together. You still interested?
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Oh hey, we're not done. Yet. There's still stuff at the old house - books,DVDs, dishes, food,furniture. But we're occupying the new place, so that's why it's a qualified sorta almost kinda done.
Tony, yes, please send away. Still very much interested.
On the laptop front, it's true that the power adaptor is now functional. However, it only remains that way as long as I don't insert plug into laptop power adaptor recepticle. Then it stops working. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Elizabeth - this move is why I'm going to have garden space. In the old place, sadly, there really wasn't anywhere I could do anything. But here...
I've also discovered, after close inspection which resulted in a multitude of mosquito bites, that we have jasmine trees in the back in full bloom (Oberon's found his new favorite hiding spot - under its leaves), possibly a lime tree - I need to do some surfing to find out if it matches or not, and some kind of local fruit tree (Fahim doesn't know what it's called in English, or if it even has an English name) that we don't know how to cook, but Girllie, the lady who does our cleaning and cooking, does and is willing to teach me.
There are a bunch of other unrecognized plants back there. When I have a better laptop, I'll surf and find out what they're called and if they're useful or not. Lots of plants in the front, too, also mostly unrecognized.
On the street in front of our house, there are a couple of frangipani trees (also called Temple Trees), and another tree that I don't have a name for, but it has large bell-shaped yellow flowers that have nectar that hummingbirds feast off of. And so, by association, we also have hummingbirds. Many, many, many hummingbirds.
There are also three bright green parrots, wild, that fly around this neighborhood.
Now, for laptop.
Power source is dead. Power adaptor was broke but is now fixed, but it turns out that the internal power thingie for the laptop is also broke. Laptop is in the computer hospital, and we don't know yet if it can be fixed, or for how much.
Meanwhile, I have the pleasure of using Fahim's old laptop. The one with the sticky keys and fading display that shows black text as both black and red at the same time. Which basically means that it's extremely difficult to surf the net without ruining my eyes. So forgive my near absence. Believe me, I'm suffering from withdrawal.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Elizabeth - yeah, it's going to be fun. I've already planted spearmint, catnip, chives, garlic, and ginger. In pots in the back. I need to get pots or something to plant the rest. Well, okay, so there are still a few empty pots here I can use, but I also need some decent soil, and that I don't have here.
We also have a whole bunch of other flowering plants both in the back and the front, but of course, I have no idea what they're called. And now I suspect I'm repeating myself.
Fat cat Oberon, as I mentioned before, has a favorite perch under the jasmine tree up on the eight foot wall.
What I haven't told you yet is that, when it rains, he walks the wall, from one end to the other, looking for an easy way down. But he's not used to it enough for it to be an easy, confident jump for him. So instead of actually jumping and running to a place where he can stay dry (under the overhang where our deck is, or through our back door to inside the house), he walks back and forth, finally seeking refuge under the leaves of the jasmine tree, where refuge is illusory at best.
Remember that our climate is officially tropical monsoon. And it's monsoon season.
And he winds up soaked. And we all know how much cats hate being wet. Oberon is no exception.
posted
Maybe you could fashion for him some way to get down more easily from the wall? Like build some outdoor shelving or a place a table or something against that wall? I hate to think of him injuring himself, and especially if he's fat, he easily could, particularly as he gets older.
Sounds like your new house and garden is a dream! So glad you made the transition so easily. It was a full year before I unpacked all my boxes after I moved. It took most of another year to get everything arranged as I wanted it. Maybe in the third year I'll get the trim painted inside and out, and the furniture painted that needs it. I have 3 chests of drawers, a bunch of bookshelves, and two cabinets that I intend to paint white sometime or other when I get around to it. Also the wallpaper in the upstairs bathroom is dark and hideous. One day I shall replace it with something light and cheerful.
There's no end to the stuff you can do in a house! If I were really on top of things, I would have the railing fixed on the front steps where it's rotted, and the place where the roof overhangs the back deck needs to be redone. Also there's that deal with the water coming in the basement every time it rains. It's only on one end, and not very deep, but eventually it will rot out the wood part that's there, so I really shouldn't let it go on. Also there's a lot of pine straw in the gutters that I should probably clean out but it's not very safe to be up there by myself, and the big ladder is pretty difficult for me to manage alone. Houses are a lot of work! I hope you enjoy your new one. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Ack! Moving stinks. I've done it enough that I have become quite used to it. Mmmmm, when I get to New York I plan on buying a house in Schenectady. It will be about an hour from where I will be working, but the prices are much better over there.
It seems your move is going fairly well, excluding the cat.
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
So. Oberon finally figured out an easy way to get down off the wall. It was always there - ledges on the side of the house connected to a upside-down bird bath that makes it a gentle, leisurely hop down off the fence.
The laptop is still dead. We took it away from the computer repair shop - after 5 days at the shop, they hadn't even opened it. Just kept giving me more excuses for delays with no actual activity. It's now with a friend of Fahim's who's likely to be able to fix it. Meanwhile, we bought me another one because I can't live without something, and I was seriously starting to go blind using Fahim's old one.
And other things just happened to crop up.
A few days ago, I saw eight bright green beautiful parrots sitting on the electric wire in front of our house. I'm amazed. Fahim was bored. I don't care how commonplace that is here, I'll never tire of it.
Fahim spotted a lizard on the roof. A couple of days later, I saw it, too, as it was climbing back onto the roof. A full two feet long, tail to head. And fat. So obviously eating quite well. We can hear it crawling up around there, but since it's not bothering us, we ain't bothering it.
Basically, Sri Lankans just accept their fate sharing accomodations with animals in the roof. It's just part and parcel of life here. And since I married a Sri Lankan, I doubt anything will be done about it, especially since the lizard, like the polecats before in the old house, aren't actually interacting with us in any way. They don't come into our house, and they don't come anywhere close enough to us for us to even touch them. As long as they keep their distance, I'm fine.
Now then, about the rats.
Several days ago, hubby saw something greyish that he assumed was a rat. Just for a split second, and he didn't get a good enough look to ascertain genus/species with any degree of accuracy.
However, since then, our garbage in the kitchen has been routed through, crackers (still in their wrapping) have been ripped into, soap has been gnawed at (interesting little tidbit there for ya!), and rat droppings have been seen.
Starting three nights ago, Fahim put out rat poison. Every morning, it's disappeared.
Rat poison. Looks like a brownie, but with poison. Seriously, it looks that good.
This morning, Fahim thought I should go through the kitchen and see if we could find it. Perhaps it had a nest in there?
So we pull the fridge away from the wall (my bright idea) and we find... guess what? More crackers and the rat poison. But wait, the crackers. They're now stored in the cupboard, so how did the rat get at them?
As it turns out, we had an airtight container with crackers on our ant-free cupboard. The container's still there. No crackers, and a yellow liquid residue was left behind. No, I haven't washed it yet. Nor have I smelled it. And no, I'm not certain that it's rat urine. I don't want to find out. I'm not touching that thing again until I find that pair of rubber gloves I have kicking around. Assuming the rats haven't eaten those, too.
Anyway. Lid back on. Not tight, but back on.
IS NOTHING SACRED??????
We hypothesized for a few minutes that it could be a squirrel trapped in the house (as we think of the squirrel that climbed our drapes, and then quickly escaped outside as we got increasingly louder), but then we remembered the chicken bone it got out of the garbage, and hubby figures squirrels won't go for chicken bones, so it's gotta be a rat. I admit I know not enough of rat or squirrel dietary habits.
Our cleaning lady - when we told her of the rat situation - suggested that we mix together rice and fish, which rats apparently love, and mash in some panadol (pain killer, probably similar to tylenol, but I'm not certain on that point). Apparently, the panadol will kill them. But how much panadol? And we'd have to go get some first.
We're willing to go out and get some. And rat traps, too, although they can be messy.
Remember those three pieces of rat poison the rat took away? Completely intact. Not eaten, not chewed, not snacked upon. Just hoarded.
Ugh.
As for Oberon, he's settled in and isn't disappearing anymore. He gets fed and watered, he gets his daily affection, as do I, so we're all happy.
Oh, and it looks like the catnip is coming up. Yay! Nothing else is, though. But then, it's only been a week.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Can you get automotive antifreeze there? That's what my parents used to use for the squirrels. You do need to watch out for Oberon, though, as apparently the stuff is sweet enough that cats and dogs and little children will drink it thinking it's a treat.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I thought you'd like that LOL although it seems like the only time I'm ever aware of anything to do with antifreeze, it's when the car is overheating rather than getting cold...
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
We have a SMART rat. We have at least two rats, but we only know that one is smart. One is trapped in the back part of the house, and so far, that one's only managed to eat the soap. Ignores the rat brownie, but chomped on the soap. Or washes its paws. Or something. But definitely tears into the soap. And leaves marks all over it where the soap is now gone. Ack, I think I'm no longer making sense.
The other one, though. . .
I'll stress the descriptive on the rat getting into our airtight container and stealing ALL the crackers.
The lid was on when I checked it. Empty, the container was.
Does that not qualify for smart in the rat kingdom?
Anyway. We went grocery shopping today. Fahim went wild on the killing implements. We got the requisite bug spray - we've been fighting ant encroachments like crazy here, plus the assorted cockroach, baby sized, and millipedes, and other assorted flying insects that apparently hurt when they bite. And we got sticky sticks that looks kinda like incense sticks that are supposed to attract flying insects. And we got a sticky board for the rats to get stuck to. And the shining treasure - we got rat poison that's supposed to cause the rat's eyes to hemorrhage so that they don't die in enclosed spaces but out in the open.
Yay for hemmhoraging rat eyes!
(Fahim says, "You're just a mean, mean, mean old woman!" as he reads what I typed. And ketchupqueen, if you ever read this, those pills you told me about better work. Cuz I'm telling you, I'm in serious pain right now and I just took two. )
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
The hemorrhaging stuff, is it warfarin? I know some rat poisons here use that.
And tell Fahim that when it comes to unwanted creepy crawlies, especially ones that steal your crackers out of sealed containers, you have a right to be a mean mean woman LOL
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
quid, are you taking Advil at the same time? You need to take ibuprofen or acetaminophen, but preferably ibuprofen, at the same time as the tramadol for it to work the way it should. I don't know why, but that's the way it works for me.
hope you feel better. Send me your new addy and we'll send you chocolate and tahini with radish seeds hidden in the packaging when we get a little money.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Thanks, Goody. I love reassurance like that! I'm pretty sure it's warfarin, but I don't feel like getting up right now to find out.
Well, he put out the sticky board. No rat was trapped, no rat brownie eaten or taken. No garbage was broken into (he deliberately left it there to attract the rat.) No more crackers stolen.
No rat in the back room eating the soap or the rat brownie.
Fahim checked the little upstairs bedroom where he put rat poison - no rat, no rat bait eaten.
Last night, while I was insomniacing due to cramps (ketchupqueen, damn, but those pills worked! Thank you! Okay, so they took nearly an hour to kick in, but once they did, they took care of nearly everything! Only my joints still hurt. But they took care of the cramps, and they were really bad last night), I heard scurrying in the back bedroom upstairs. Fahim hasn't checked it yet.
I'm not checking any of the bedrooms.
a. I'm lightheaded today. See above comment about cramps.
b. I'm a girl, he's a man, it's his job.
c. I'm wussy, and see b.
The really sad thing is that we keep ant targets in the ant free zone, but that's readily accessible to rats. To keep things away from rats, we can only put stuff in the cupboards, away from the ants. Everything is fine in the cupboards as long as there are no holes, but, you see, that's the problem.
Yesterday, we had a major ant invasion. One of Fahim's sugary cereals had several holes in the packaging. Ants found it, in force, in the cupboard where I put it to keep it away from the rats. It's now in the freezer, killing any remaining ants, but still. If it's not one thing, it's the other.
On to other news. I planted some seeds (catnip, spearmint, chives) as well as garlic and ginger a little over a week ago. It appears that the catnip is starting to come up (unless it's a weed I'm seeing), and so is a garlic.
Last night, there was no garlic coming up. This morning, it was an inch and a half high. Now, five hours later, it's two and a half inches high. Welcome to the tropics!
I have no idea if the time to maturity is really going to apply to here. I suspect it'll be cut down in time, but really, I have no idea. I am, however, keeping track of progress in a notebook so I know what's going on. For my own information purposes, of course.
There are a goodly number of plants in the front that were dying of neglect when we moved in. Don't know their names yet, but generally speaking, they're ones that y'all covet. Well, I've been watering them, and we've got lots of new growth showing. Yay!
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Okay, so they took nearly an hour to kick in, but once they did, they took care of nearly everything! Only my joints still hurt.
Well, yay for them working, but seriously, it only takes half an hour for me when I take a major dose of Advil with it. (It's an hour for me, too, otherwise.) If you are taking the Advil, ouch.
As for joints, what kind of joint pain is this? I get some serious transient stiffness and pain periodically, often worse around period time, that I've been informed is some kind of weird auto-immune thing. Only thing that works for it at all is salcilate. (I have no clue how that's spelled.) And that doesn't do much, but it's something.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
kq - I didn't know that! Thanks for that tip. That could help tremendously, and maybe it would kick in sooner, too! I don't take acetomeno-whatever (I don't know if I can spell today, never mind that you have it spelled correctly up there somewhere) - it doesn't work on me. Advil, however, does, so that's my drug of choice anyway, and now that I know what it's called locally, it's easy to find.
Does this drug cause you to be lightheaded and dizzy? I'm not sure if it's my period or the drug or both. Or the ear infection that came back. How confusing.
Yes, I'll email you now. Have I told you lately how sweet you are? And adorable? And kind? And considerate? And thoughtful? (I think it's the drugs talking....) Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
The joint pain is typical for me during my periods. Well, it's also typical for me if I'm sleeping on a mattress that doesn't give me proper support, too. I have a weird genetic thing that means I have really loose ligaments, so my bones come out of joint really easy, and much more easily during my periods. Plus my pelvic bones all shift during my period, as if they're getting ready for labor. I frequently dilate to 6 or more cms, too. It's just a part of my odd life.
I've never come across anything that helped the joint pain, and my doctors all just shook their collective heads at me.
No, I didn't take the advil with the painkiller before, but I will try that. It's nice to know your experience - makes it easier to gauge what I need to know. I'm also leery of mixing pain killers if I don't know the interactions.
Thanks for the tips. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:I have a weird genetic thing that means I have really loose ligaments, so my bones come out of joint really easy, and much more easily during my periods
Me, too! I've never come across another woman outside my family that had this... I'll tell you, though, it got much worse during pregnancy, and has never fully gone back to the level it was at before-- which was still far too much for comfort. Count yourself lucky on the never pregnant thing on that count.
quote:I'm also leery of mixing pain killers if I don't know the interactions.
Me, too. I started doing that on the recommendation of my dad, who prescribed the Ultram for me in the first place. I would never have dared do it on my own. But as long as you're otherwise safe for Advil or Tylenol, it's fine to take your normal dose of either (and a normal period dose of Advil for me is 3 pills instead of two) right along with the Ultram.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I know your dad's a doctor - you've mentioned it before. That's why I'm not leery of you mentioning it. I figured it was from him that you knew you could do that.
Huh. Yeah, a normal dose of Advil for me is also three pills. Two never does the trick.
I have a high tolerance for painkillers. In other words, generally speaking, they do nothing for me. Historically, I've had to cycle through them. Try one for three to six months, then it stops working, on to the next, and so on, and so forth. But I have such a long history of headaches, migraines, and period problems that I've tried nearly everything.
I just gave up about five or so years ago because we started getting into the narcotics (there wasn't anything left), and I really don't want to go there. I had an addiction problem with cafergot (which reacted with me like LSD) when I was a teenager, and I come from a highly addictive family anyway, so it just isn't worth the risk for me.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
So*, remember that rat sticky pad I mentioned earlier? Guess what happened?
Oh, and I should probably preface this with a couple of other comments. That back kitchen. A rat continues to eat the soap - or wash its paws - and has, finally, started nibbling on the rat brownie.
No dead rat back there, though.
Now for the rat sticky board. Guess what?
Two geckos are attached to it. They're still living - I can see their tiny little lungs inflating and deflating. Poor guys! (Well, I haven't actually taken a look under the tail to see if they're blue or pink geckos, and since I can't be bothered, I'm just going to call them whatever gender I feel like in the moment.) They sit there, stuck to the glue, unable to otherwise move.
But no rat.
No dead rats in a baggie.
There are no dead rats in our house today.
Uh, that we know of. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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And he's still here. Yay!!!!!!![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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hope you feel better. Send me your new addy and we'll send you chocolate and tahini with radish seeds hidden in the packaging when we get a little money.
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I've never come across another woman outside my family that had this... I'll tell you, though, it got much worse during pregnancy, and has never fully gone back to the level it was at before-- which was still far too much for comfort. Count yourself lucky on the never pregnant thing on that count.![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
