Crazy Old Cat Lady

MY 77TH BIRTHDAY (Feb 21)

2012-02-22T01:26:00.000-08:00

I got caught up in writing a story for "Growing Up In Fullerton" and forgot to start a post with my birthday date until it was too late. I will just have to borrow George Washington's (Feb 22 for those of you too young to have learned that date the easy way- getting that day off from school). My generation also knows Abe Lincoln's - Feb 12, having learned that by getting that day off from school too. None of this 3 day Monday holiday stuff for us so that no one has a clue when to really celebrate their days.

One of my favorite jokes was to tell my students that I was one day older than George Washington and let them figure it out for themselves. It wasn't so funny when they all just nodded OK, thinking that my joke was the plausible truth. ( Of course, it didn't help any that by then the 3 day Monday holiday had started and none of them had a clue when George's birthday was,)

It was a good day for a birthday party because when I had a party, we didn't have to worry about going home early to get ready for school the next day or worrying that we might eat too much cake and ice cream and be too sick to attend the next day.

I just wanted this post to put the picture of my birthday flowers on- beautiful peach tulips. I will upload it when I get it sized and cropped.

Click on "Comment" to see the story that I sent to the "Growing Up in Fullerton" group on Facebook for those of you who can't read it there. (I hope to copy it in the comment anyway. We'll see if I can. If I can't, you can always email me if you're interested in reading about a true Fullerton experience. I may also try to put my story about a horse almost killing me in an orange grove on West Malvern.)

1-2-12

2012-01-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

January 2, 2012
All of the holiday company has gone home to Virginia (Peter) or the Valley (the twins). The cats are starting to feel safe to come back into the house before midnight.
I sprained a muscle in my chest over my heart and lungs on Nov 15 that put me out of action for several weeks- when I used my left arm, it would put strain on the muscle and give me a muscle spasm that hurt and made it hard to breathe. When I first did it, I kept my left arm over my chest and could only grunt and make other weird noises so Bill thought I might be having a heart attack or a stroke. I thought it was a muscle spasm because I have had those before, but not for many years. Had my first one more than 50 years ago and had several more before a daily dose of Vitamin B12 helped ward off more, but I over-did using my weak left side that the vitamin couldn't handle. Bill wanted me to go to emergency, just in case. I did take an aspirin, in case that would help (is that for a stroke or heart attack?) After a few hours, I finally agreed to go and sat in emergency for 6 hours before I got an EKG and chest X-ray and pain medicine and a "sprain" diagnosis. Got back home about 11 PM after going to McDonald's for my first food of the day.
So that put me on pain medication for 10 days (I wanted to take more, but Bill had never seen me take any for that long so he was discouraging me). When I finally saw one of my doctors a couple of weeks later, he said that as long as I don't take more than 6 a day (I was taking 3 a day) I would be OK. (Then, of course, I was mad that I hadn't asked a dr sooner and had needlessly suffered the pain.) I didn't use my left arm for a couple more weeks as using it pulled at the sprained muscle that would spasm again.
So all of the usual Christmas chores were not getting done and the house and yard were looking worse. The winds got violent and blew done part of our fence and ripped a tarp apart on our storage tent. A lot of my plants in pots that usually got watered every other day died. And Christmas kept getting closer.

(My right hand goes numb when I type so time out to recuperate.)

LAST MINUTE OF THANKSGIVING 2011

2011-11-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't make it. I tried to post this message at 11:59 PM on Thursday Thanksgiving night, but it didn't post until a minute later on Friday morning. But my last thoughts on Thanksgiving 2011 were of how happy I am to have all of you friends and relatives. (After my cats, you all come first.)

I hope that you all had a nice Thanksgiving.

RECENT PICTURE

2011-11-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

taken summer of 2011 at Chris' college graduation

(trying to find a more recent picture that I like -it's getting harder each year)
The picture on my blog and Facebook is 5 years old now.

Notice how much better I look the farther away the camera is?
(husband Bill, Chris' twins Sarah and Rebecca and Chris' girlfriend Sara)

VAN HORN COUSINS AT GRANDMA VAN HORN'S FUNERAL

2011-11-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

(Funeral 11/0911. Picture posted 11/11/11)

Jane Van Horn Cornwell, Julie Van Horn, Nathan Cordell, Anna Van Horn Clark, Drew Van Horn, Chris Van Horn

Picture taken by Drew's wife.
(Left-click on picture to enlarge. To return to blog, click on "back arrow" in screen's upper left-hand corner.)

Jane and Julie: Joe's kids (missing Debbie and David)
Nathan: Marty's kid (missing Lara)
Anna and Drew: Jim's kids (missing Janet)
Chris: Bill's kid (missing Peter)

Grandma Van Horn died at age 91. Her birthday party was Oct 26, 2011. She died Nov 5, 2011.

11/11/11

2011-11-11T00:49:00.000-08:00

space holder for this date

MOTHERS' DAY 2011

2011-05-08T02:18:00.001-07:00

Notice the new garage door. I wanted 2 rows of windows because we keep the door open slightly so the cats can get in and sometimes the first row gets rolled up too high, but we still get lots of light from just the second row.

Here's a prettier spot to take a picture.

MAY DAY 2011

2011-05-01T17:00:00.001-07:00

text to come later

CALIFORNIA WEED

2011-04-26T03:19:00.000-07:00

Weed taller than I am-

(I have my glove holding the top of the weed.)
Click to enlarge picture. Use back arrow to return to blog.

Our house is at the end of a cul-de-sac so the back yard stretches across a long distance. The above picture is of part of the right-hand side of the back yard.

Below is one of the patios in the left-hand side of the back yard.

This is the farthest left-hand corner of the back yard. The back neighbor's two-story house (not the one in the weed picture- our back yard runs across 2 of those yards) has a "cabana" behind the wall here. (Lots of weeding to do here too.)

Below is some of the center of the back yard. The big plant in the center of the picture is part of what's left of my 30 foot tall 65 year old Giant Bird of Paradise that the tree pruners smashed to pieces. Don't make me think about it. I don't want to cry again.

The trash yard has a beautiful climbing rose.

When you park in the driveway, you can go to the right, back to the trash yard or go left to the front door.

Below is the right-side of the driveway, next to the neighbor's.

Below is the approach to the front door.
(It's spring so the raphioliptus bushes are in bloom.)

If you park on the street in front of the house, you can come up the front walk through the facing benches (usually past lounging cats). Garbo is on the bench. Blackie is sitting on a railroad tie.

Below is the view of the street from the front patio.

Below is looking toward the other neighbor's driveway.

Below are Sarah, Chris and Rebecca by the front door.

This is spring of 2011 so the twins are 9.
Click to enlarge to see those sweet faces.

EASTER SUNDAY 2011

2011-04-24T23:35:00.001-07:00

(Click on any picture to enlarge. Click on back arrow on that page to return to post.)

Grandma and Grandpa Van Horn, Sarah and Rebecca 9 years old

Connie, Chris, Sarah, Rebecca

(In the picture below, notice my Christmas tree behind me that has been dragged into the living room for several years now. A prior tree got too big and is planted in the back yard now.)

It's not all fun and games. See below when Daddy has hidden an egg so well that none of us ever found it (thank Goodness that it is a plastic egg that contains coins and is not a real hard-boiled egg that is going to be found later because of its smell).
Anita Mills Johnson wrote me she thought our yard was perfect for an Easter egg hunt. I guess I didn't make it clear that the hunt was confined to only part of the front yard. Otherwise we might still be looking for both grandchildren instead of for one plastic egg!

NO APRIL FOOL'S JOKE

2011-04-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

It's another wedding anniversary- the year before the 50th. I thought I was celebrating the 47th for the past 3 years so I am a trifle surprised to be this close to the golden one.
How I happened to get married on April Fool's Day is a long story- and pretty funny too (at least it kept Chris's girlfriend laughing at dinner at Don Jose's last night). And, at this stage, laughter is a prime commodity, but, having told it all last night, I am too tired to tell it again. And everybody probably already knows that staying married for that long is no joke.

HUMMINGBIRD VIDEO

2011-03-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

This email message was sent by Earlene Skelton Boyd, FUHS '53.
This guy found this baby hummingbird after it was attacked, and he nursed it
back to health until it decided to stay and be his pet. Very charming video,
and be sure to have your sound on. The song in the background is almost as
good as the video itself. ENJOY :-)
http://www.wimp.com/babyhummingbird/

My husband and I helped a hummingbird family a few years ago when a bad rainstorm wrecked one side of their nest and the next morning one of the babies was hanging upside down by his toe nails. We put him back in the nest and Bill took a sprig from the Jacaranda tree and made a bannister for the wrecked side. They would lean their little heads on that bannister and watch us just a few feet below their nest. Their mother was so happy that she would fly around with me as I watered the yard.

One day when I was gone, my husband saw one of the little ones trying in vain to fly out the porch skylight and looking frantic and tired so he went out with a cottage cheese carton to capture him and take him out from under the porch roof. The little guy jumped onto his finger and perched there and rested quite a while until Bill gently nudged him to fly away.

See the old messages and a picture of "our" babies:
http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2005/05/our-hummingbird-babies.html

http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2005/05/our-hummingbirds-spring-2005-4-days.html

Notice the twigs my husband put to hold the little guys in the nest.

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

2011-02-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

Another birthday.I am getting more than my share. And they are coming faster. At least I get to share one with my friend Sonja, so I have at least one person whose birthday date I can still remember.
Happy Birthday to us, Sonja. Hope your See's candy gets to you today. (Boston doesn't have a See's Candy store. How does one survive a winter there without one?)

10-10-10 (AND 1-1-11 AND 1-11-11)

2010-10-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

Keeping the post for 10-10-10. It's too late for me to get married on this interesting date, but I hope to think of something auspicious.
ADDITION DATED ABOUT 1-1-11 AND 1-11-11:
I can't believe missing a post on 1-1-11. We took Peter to LAX on New Year's Day early, early morning and it never crossed my mind what the date was. By the time I rested up from the grandkids and Peter's holiday visits, it was after 1-11-11, and I missed that one too. I am getting senile. I don't think I want to know the odds on my remembering 11-11-11.

MOTHERS' DAY, 2010

2010-05-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

Flowers from Peter, who lives in Virginia.

Card from Chris, who lives in Fullerton.

(This card tells more than people need to know.)

Left-click an image to enlarge it.

Click on the back-arrow up in left-hand corner of

the screen to return to the post.

MAY DAY 2010

2010-05-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

I can't help it- I just love May Day because it's about this time in South Dakota (where I lived until I was 10) that Spring is in full bloom. I loved the lilac bushes.
Here are some May Day posts from prior years:

http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2005/05/i-love-may-day.html
http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2006/05/i-love-may-day.html
http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2009/05/another-wonderful-may-day.html

OUR 48TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

2010-04-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

And they said a Las Vegas elopement would never last.......
April Fool's on them.
(To read the 2006 post about why we got married on April Fool's Day, click on
http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html )

DEAD 'POSSUM- NOT OPIE

2010-02-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

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I know that this is not Opie, but I think that Opie is dead too as I found another dead 'possum this same size just a few weeks ago that could have been him. (That body was too far gone to recognize.) This dead male may have been the one that chased Opie into the house and down the hall and made him climb the extension cord to escape out the bathroom window. I helped Opie get up to the window, but he was too panicked to realize that I was trying to help him and still always ran when he heard my voice - the little ingrate. (Read the initial post by scrolling down to find "Grandma and Opie Meet Again" on http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

I didn't want my son to take my picture too, but it serves to indicate the relative size of the bin - it's one of those over-long ones - and to remind me to never get in front of Chris' camera if I tell him not to take my picture - another little ingrate.
You can enlarge the 'possum picture by left-clicking on it. (Be warned. It is really big so you can study what a 'possum looks like. He had bled from a stomach wound.) You can return to the post by clicking on the "back arrow" up in the left corner of the screen.

VALENTINE'S DAY 2010 PRESENT

2010-02-18T11:20:00.001-08:00

Here is the biggest orchid that I have ever had.
It's Bill's birthday and he gets me a present!
(Left-click on picture to enlarge it. Click on the back arrow up in the left corner of the screen to return to the post.)

CELEBRATING COBOL'S 50TH BIRTHDAY

2009-09-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

Celebrating COBOL's 50th birthday
· Date: September 22nd, 2009
· Author: Justin James
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/programming-and-development/?p=1727
Justin James honors COBOL’s 50th birthday with a brief overview of the language’s history and an endorsement of why it’s still a valuable skill.
COBOL celebrated its 50th birthday on September 18, 2009. Many developers see COBOL as a relic, a dying dinosaur, or a stodgy language that has been superseded by more powerful systems. I believe that viewpoint as being uninformed. In honor of COBOL’s 50th birthday, here’s an overview of COBOL’s history and place in the current development landscape.

(This is the language I taught at Cal State Fullerton. When Grace Hopper, my hero, came to Orange County to speak, I couldn't go because I was teaching COBOL that night.)

Click on "Comments" below to read more.

SEND TO A TEACHER

2009-09-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

WHAT DO TEACHERS MAKE?
The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, 'What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?' He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." To emphasize his point, he said to another guest; 'You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?"

Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness, replied, "You want to know what I make?"

(She paused for a second, then began...)
'Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.
You want to know what I make?'"

(She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table.)
"I make kids wonder.
I make them question.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.
I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn't everything.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them show all their work in math. They use their God-given brain, not the man-made calculator.
I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity.
I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in the United States of America .
I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."

(Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)
"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant...
You want to know what I make?
I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
What do you make, Mr. CEO?"

His jaw dropped, he went silent.~~~~~~~~~~

THIS IS WORTH SENDING TO EVERY TEACHER YOU KNOW, as well as all your "PERSONAL TEACHERS" such as mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, doctors, dentists, caregivers of all kinds, your spiritual leaders, teachers, pastors, priests, clergy ....

(This e-mail message had no author credited.)

BILL'S MOTHER AND SISTER IN CALIF

2009-07-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

To save a picture, left-click it to enlarge it and then right-click it to save it.

(Rebecca is on the left and Sarah on the right.)

Click on the "Back" arrow up in top left corner of the screen to return to the post.

ANOTHER WONDERFUL MAY DAY

2009-05-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Remember the first May Day post that I wrote in 2005? There were some neat comments that came in on that one. Click on the following hot link to see it again.
http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2005/05/i-love-may-day.html

In 2006, I griped about the illegal aliens usurping "my" May Day, which resulted in an interesting comment from someone in Denver. Click on the hot link to see that one:
http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2006/05/i-love-may-day.html

OPIE'S 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

2009-04-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

COUSIN JUD HEATHCOTE

2009-04-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

2005 photo. Heathcote, a 1945 South Kitsap grad, was the winning coach in the 1979 NCAA Championship game that featured Michigan State's Magic Johnson and Indiana State's Larry Bird.

Chuck Stark: Heathcote Back in Final Four Limelight

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/apr/01/chuck-stark-viewpoint-heathcote-back-in-final/

Click on "Comments" below the post to read the news article.

47TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

2009-04-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

Here is the card that I gave my husband. Notice the remote clutched in "his hand" and the cat on "my" lap. Someone has been peeking into my living room. This is exactly how we celebrated the event.

No "April Fools" about it.

BIRTHDAY FUN

2009-02-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

Goofiest phone call I ever got!

********Son Chris and grand-daughters Rebecca and Sarah took me to Disneyland for my free birthday visit. When I was getting my birthday badge, I got a phone call from Goofy wishing me a Happy Birthday.

The main attraction was the nostalgic ride into the newly-renovated Small World. This was my mother's favorite attraction and the first ride Mother and I would always go on. You get to hear "It's a Small World" ringing in your ears for the rest of the day.

We did Pirates of the Caribbean, Pooh, Haunted House, Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise before heading over to California Adventure to get reservations to Soaring Over California. Waiting for our time on Soaring, we got free tortillas while watching them make them and we saw a Pixar parade. I loved the Soaring ride, but wished they had more footage of the orange groves. I would go back to just do the Soaring ride again.

FAMILY, CHRISTMAS 2008

2009-01-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

We had one day when we were all together- Peter visiting from his home in Virginia, Louise visiting from college at Santa Cruz and Chris' twins here for the week. (Chris lives with us.)

L to R:

Connie, Bill, Louise, Peter, Chris and the twins Sarah and Rebecca in front

Click on picture to enlarge it. Click on "back" arrow to return to post.

SUGAR AND HER SANTA TOY

2008-12-11T10:26:00.001-08:00

Sugar loves her Santa toy- to beat up on. She gives this poor stuffed toy all of the biting and kicking and throwing around that we won't allow her to try to do to us. I know she looks so sweet in these pictures, but when she's on a rampage, stand back!

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Update on Jan 10:

We had an awful scare last week. Sugar disappeared for two days. I saw her last early on a Sunday morning (2:30 AM) when I fed the cats. I couldn't find her all day Sunday or Monday. I printed her above picture, thinking to put out some "Lost Cat" signs, but I was crying pretty hard because at our house a lost cat is usually a coyote casualty.

At 6 PM on Monday, a phone call from Sugar's microchip company told us that she had been found and gave us the number to call. She had somehow ended up in the tract behind our house. (I think she was following one of the roaming cats who visit our cat food bowl.) It was a really cold night and Sugar had climbed a palm tree and gotten on a 2nd floor balcony and mewed at a bedroom window for help. The teen-age girl whose bedroom window it was had asked for a kitten for Christmas and yelled to her mother, "God sent me a kitten!". The mother convinced the girl that they had to post "Found" signs and check at a vet to see if there was a microchip before they could keep her. The girl was so disappointed, but bravely gave her back to me. I told her she could have Sugar over to visit, but she probably doesn't want to get any more attached than she already is. I hope she gets her own kitten now.

OPIE A BIG GUY NOW

2008-12-07T17:12:00.000-08:00

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Opie the Opossum is the same size as the big cats now. His body is the same, but his little legs are much shorter. In the first picture, he is headed for his yogurt. He already ate his grapes. In the second picture, he has finished his yogurt and is eating dry cat food. (He always holds on to his dish when he eats.)

I don't know if he ever hunts for other food. I read that "possums usually live only a couple of years. That could be because they have a hard life finding food.

SUGAR DALI AT 4 MONTHS

2008-11-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Here is the new baby at our house- Sugar Dali (named after Salvador Dali because she looks as if she were painted by him as her Siamese markings are all mixed up and then "Sugar" was added as she kept running around to everyone, giving them sweet greetings every time she saw someone). I bought her at the dog pound on Columbus Day, Oct 12. She had a brother who looked just like Sumkui and a brother who had perfect Siamese markings, but I wanted a distinct individual who could be loved only for herself. She is a real character and keeps us hopping. (As evidenced by my sweaty brow from chasing her down to get this picture.) The big cats wouldn't even come into the house for the first month after they saw what I had brought home and looked at me as if trying to decide if I had lost my mind, which of course I had when Sumkui got killed by a coyote.

RASCALLY RACCOONS

2008-11-05T11:50:00.001-08:00

These rascals have invaded Opie's turf and have caused mayhem in all of the pet food areas. I try to get all of the food in by midnight as they prefer to attack between 3 and 5 AM, but one night they came early and may have eaten all of the food before Opie even had a bite. Besides the food being gone, you know they have been there because all of the water dishes are full of dirt. I sure hope they are drinking something before they put their paws in.

A flashlight will scare them up into the trees where they just gaze back at you patiently, waiting for you to give up and go back to bed. Not only are they rude and selfish, not leaving even a morsal for the next guy, but I have heard that they can be dangerous to any animal that gets between them and the food. They aren't even nice to each other as we have video of the 3 of them fighting over the dish on Opie's chair with one hogging the whole chair and pushing the other two off so that they could only crouch beside the chair and cautiously extend a paw up and try to grab a bit out of the bowl every once in a while.

The night after Halloween, I put the porch pet food dish inside the dining room on a chair, but left the glass door open just enough so that the cats could go in and out and left the light on to discourage wild things. A racket in the dining room woke me up at 3 AM. All of the food on the chair was gone and a full plastic grocery bag of Halloween candy was half-way out of the glass door. There were candy bar wrappers all the way from the back yard to the side fence. They had eaten almost the whole new bag of the Reese's crispy bars (the best stuff! I had had only one out of that bag!) and were dragging the grocery sack that held what was the rest of that bag that they hadn't eaten yet and two 26 oz. bags of unopened tootsie roll assortments. They had hit the mother lode. I bet it almost killed them to have to drop that and run.

OPIE LOOKING GOOD

2008-09-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

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Opie is getting harder to spy on. It took me many days to finally snap his picture on the SpyCam at 3 AM. on 9/25. I missed seeing him eat his dish of yogurt. (A few nights before, I started recording and left the room, in hopes that I could get some footage that way as he won't come to eat if I am sitting at the computer just inside the door where his bowls are. I finally got him dashing around the corner from the side yard, gobbling down his low fat, no added ingrediants Trader Joe's yogurt and dashing back to the side yard. He was moving great- no sign of his leg problems that he suffered when he was little when I wasn't feeding him the right foods.) Here he is just finishing up some grapes. He heard or smelled me enter the room and approach the computer and dashed off as soon as I got this picture. The little ingrate.

BEAUTIFUL SUMKUI KILLED BY COYOTE

2008-08-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

Sumkui was killed by a coyote early yesterday morning (on 8/8/08). It was my fault because I didn't check on him and bring him into the house at midnight as I usually did. My neighbor found him by his mailbox very early and cleaned up the pieces or I would have seen him when I went to an 8:30 dental appointment. My neighbor's daughter saw him sleeping under my car when she came home about 2 AM so the coyote grabbed him from under the car and carried him only a few feet to eat him. Usually you hear the scream when the coyote breaks the cat's neck to paralyze it, but none of us heard any noise so, hopefully, Sumkui was killed whan he was first grabbed and was dead before he knew it. My neighbor's dog jumped in my neighbor's bed around 4 AM and was told to get back in her bed where she covered her head with her blanket so we think that she must have heard some sound or sensed something.

ROCK AND ROLL IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

2008-07-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

At 11:42 AM Tues morning (July 29, 2008) the house really rocked with what felt like 2 jolts, a first good one immediately followed by an even bigger one (the news reported it as just one so I guess I interpreted the rocking and rolling as 2 separate quakes) and one smaller one 10 minutes later. Epicenter up by Diamond Bar and east of Yorba Linda, about 15 miles from our house. My neighbor had hard-scape workers in Brea who said they almost got knocked off their feet. Anaheim Hills had some slight damage with stuff falling off of shelves. Chino had more. (5.4 magnitude and 3.8 after-shock) There were 30 or more in the 3. range in the next couple of hours, but I never felt any of those. As a general rule, when the aftershocks become littler and littler, things are dying down, and you don't have to worry about the first one being a pre-cursor to "the big one" that we have been assured is coming.

Many people on the news were saying they were scared the first one was just the beginning so they were really looking for a safer place. When the reporters quizzed people where they thought that safer place might be, many said "outside" (the very worst place because of debris falling off of buildings and electric wires, etc) or under a door jam. (The safest place is under your biggest, heaviest table or desk so if stuff comes down, you are sheltered. In the quake in '87, I was sleeping in Chris' bottom bunk bed because I had been painting our bedroom while Bill was gone, and it was the very best place in the world to be because that bunk is the strongest piece of furniture ever made and really comfortable if you have to wait for rescuers.) Maybe there should be a new law for earthquake land- sleep in a bottom bunk.

Tues I was sitting at my computer in the family room and Kahlua's picture fell off the shelf by the tv, but it landed on nice soft rugs, etc. so didn't break. We haven't spotted any other damage, but this house really moved. There have got to be more cracks in the ceilings and walls than we had before. I have been in bigger quakes, but evidently we were a whole lot closer to this one so it was the most quake I had ever felt. (The news reported that many other people who had been through the Whittier quake in '87 too said this one was the biggest they had ever experienced too even though it wasn't.)

I wasn't afraid even though I knew what was happening immediately as I am a weirdo who loves earthquakes. (Of course, I haven't been killed by one yet.) The most fun was the one in '52 when I was in a twin bed positioned next to a window with a venetian blind just above my tummy. The house and venetian blind and I rolled and rolled with a sensation just like riding a horse. It was great.

Chris, our son, uses the metrolink to get from our house to his work in El Segundo and it was shut down for a while, but it was open for him to get home, but the trains were just moving slowly as they searched for any damage to the tracks. (He drives to the Santa Ana train station to take a train to Norwalk, a shuttle to the metrolink, metrolink to close to LAX.)

OPIE AND GRANDMA MEET AGAIN

2008-07-20T03:57:00.000-07:00

I had hoped that Opie would keep in touch when he was out on his own. I taught him how to climb up and down his “tree” to get back and forth to the cat food shelf outside of the bathroom window, thinking that he’d always be able to find food and perhaps stick his head in every now and again if he needed anything, but because he ran away, thinking that he was going to be stuck in his box forever, he didn’t trust me anymore and didn’t climb to the shelf again.
(I know that he eats from a bowl placed on the patio, as the sky cam has revealed.)
Well, knowing about the open bathroom window finally paid off with a brief reunion.
He was chased by a ‘possum his same size from the back porch (I think he may have tried to eat from the dog food dish on the porch that some other 'possum thought was his own private bowl) into the dining room and through the kitchen and into the living room past me (sitting on the couch) to the far side of the room where a fight started. (I have seen enough ‘possums fighting each other over the cat food bowls to know that scene.) I jumped up and yelled, “Boys! Boys!” (it's the males that fight) and scared the aggressor back out of the room, heading for the kitchen, but Opie also took off running and headed down the hall to the bathroom with the aggressor seeing him and taking off after him again. I trailed behind, with all three of us circling around the small hall until Opie hid behind a box in front of Chris’ closed bedroom door. Bill opened the door to his office to see what in the world was going on and Blackie, the cat, came running toward the excitement as she never wants to miss a good fight. I waved Bill back and stepped slightly back into the office to give the aggressor a chance to circle back down the hall past Blackie where I saw him hit the kitchen and make a left into the dining room where I hoped he’d go back out into the porch again.
Opie saw his chance and hit for the bathroom to crawl up the heavy-duty extension cord (that I use when I mow with my electric mower) that always dangles down from the window between a towel table and the sink counter. He was frantically grabbing for the sink counter with its myriad of items strewn on it and I was able to move a bowl full of god-knows-what so he could get a better grasp and pull himself up onto the towel table that is in front of the window. While he rested a moment, I put my fist up to his nose to let him smell me as I always used to do (I wouldn’t put my open hand in front of because he liked to bite fingers) and I kept saying, “It’s grandma” as I always did. He wasn’t afraid of me and didn’t hiss or cringe as a strange ‘possum would so that’s why I know it was Opie, but he wasn’t going to let me catch him again either so he got his breath and jumped out the window and onto the shelf and was gone. (Another clue that it was Opie- if it wasn't Opie that was on the floor, how did that 'possum know that there was an open window up there that the cats always used to go in and out and that Opie used to peek in?)
So we had our first encounter for a brief moment. When he was faced with danger, he had rushed into the house for safety. He had used the shelf that I hoped he would. He just used it to get out, not in.
We saw him (via the sky cam) a couple of hours later eating his midnight supper on the patio with his new little friends scampering about. (Actually, I think one finally scared him off, the little rapscallion.)

OPIE HAS FOOD COMPETITION

2008-07-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

There are little dubbers raiding Opie's food bowl. I have no idea how many as they all look alike. They are running back and forth thru the chain link fence. (I think they are living in the back porch.) My baby Opie is really looking big now.

OPIE'S FIRST SKY CAM PICTURE 7-7-08

2008-07-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

The first picture was taken a couple of nights after the sky cam was installed. I was trying to get a shot of him washing his face. He moved down with his head just out of the shot and washed his face for about 3 minutes. I was so frustrated, but I will keep trying.

Bill took this second picture the first night with the SkyCam. The first time I watched Opie eat, he had come from the opposite direction and I could see more of his face. I even got to watch him wash his face. (The cute thing is to watch him take a whole bath. He cleans his ears and body with his back feet. Remember, the feet also have opposable "thumbs".)

Opie is not inside the fence. The fence is used to keep the dog and the bigger 'possums out of the bedroom. Evidently, Opie was small enough to get through some of the bigger spaces by the gate. I don't think he can do that now, and he ran away only 10 days ago.

To see all of the Opie posts, you may have to click on "Previous Posts" selections or on the Archives. To this date, there are 7 others, starting with 'Possum Orphan.

HAPPY OPIE, BUT SAD CONNIE

2008-07-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

Opie gained his independence a week before the 4th of July.
I was bringing him in each night to keep him safe in his box. I also needed to note his pee/poop schedule so I would be aware if there was a problem with his nutrition. (He had gotten sick from eating too much meat and fruit and had developed a very serious problem that caused his bones to start to weaken -like rickets- and we had gotten advice from an opossum rehabilitator on what a better diet would be.) He had finally gotten well and strong again and was finally getting big enough and smart enough to scoot his blankets together and reach up and grab the top of the box and get out. He had done it once and had gone around the back of the house and up his “tree” and into his little “cave”. (See http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2008/06/opie-getting-independent.html ) But the next night, he was hard for me to catch and I had a real tussle getting him into the box. I probably scared him (besides making him mad). Anyway, he got out again that night and now won’t let me see him. I put food out for him each night and hope that he is the one getting it, but I have no way of knowing if he is staying healthy and strong. Bill is going to put a spy cam on his food dish and we will hope to see him eating.
We were going to take pictures of him climbing his “tree” and sleeping in his “cave”, but it got too dark that night so we were going to do it the next day, and, of course, that was the night he left so he was gone by morning and we lost our opportunity. He won’t go anywhere near that area now.
My goal was to train him to be independent, but I was hoping that he would not be afraid to come to the bathroom window shelf to get cat food and any help that he might need. I am devastated that he is now afraid of me.
I put off posting this on the blog, hoping that I’d have better news as soon as he calmed down, but I don’t think that will happen soon- or maybe at all. We can only hope that he will stay strong and healthy and be able to enjoy his freedom.

**** Bill put up a mini-cam this afternoon, pointing at Opie's dishes in the back yard. He arranged a small window on his computer that he could watch while doing other computer tasks. At 10:20 PM, he saw Opie come strolling over to his water dish, checking for food dishes. I ran to mix him some Esbilac (puppy mother's milk substitute) with dry cat food stirred into it. I put it out at 10:30 and ran to my computer to watch my view of his dishes. First, Rouge came and looked over the food, but didn't find anything that she liked, and then at 10:40, Opie came and ate some of the Esbilac. He washed his little face and then ate some more. It's like watching a black and white movie. I can't believe that the picture is so clear because it's really dark out there. I now know that he's getting the food and that he's staying close- he came from the direction where his "tree" and "cave" are, but he's probably hiding behind all of the plastic bins that are on the ground in that area.
See his first skycam picture in http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2008/07/opies-first-sky-cam-picture-7-7-08.html

OPIE GETTING INDEPENDENT

2008-06-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

I have been giving Opie lots of time outdoors so he can get fresh air and have more space and can practice climbing up a "tree" I made for him with the fallen tree branches in our yard. He has a favorite "cave" that is an area between 2 boxes and a metal shelf up under the top shelf where he has his “outdoors” sleeping box. He can climb down from his top shelf to a lower shelf where the cats eat outside of the bathroom window, and he can climb down his “tree” to a glass table where I keep a couple of grapes for him. I bring him in each night by coaxing him to me with his supper (except for one night when I let him stay out all night when it was too hot to be in the house.)

One night about 9 PM when I hadn't brought him in yet, Chris yelled at me, "Opie's looking for you." I went down the hall toward the bathroom and there was Opie, peeking into the bathroom from the shelf by the open bathroom window. I walked to the window and leaned my elbows on the window ledge and he climbed onto my shoulder. I took him to his indoors box to eat supper and sleep.

But 2 nights ago, he got out of his “indoors” sleeping box and I had no idea if he were still in the office or if he had gone out the open sliding glass door to parts unknown.

I put food down in the office to see if he would smell it and come get it, but no response. I moved the food to the porch, but still no response. I went around the house to his shelf and there he was looking at me from his "cave". He had never been on the ground in any of that area before, but he had watched closely when I carried him in and out of the office to that area, and he just somehow got out of his box and ran around to his “tree” and climbed all of the way up by himself.

I am such a proud mama.

OPIE GETS A LESSON

2008-06-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

Last week when it was so hot (it broke June records), I took Opie to Bill’s bedroom to stay cool in the air-conditioning. (It’s easy to rest on the bed and watch him because he can’t get off the bed). When he was sleeping under his favorite sweatshirt, I brought in my cat Sumkui to also cool down. Opie smelled the cat as soon as I put him down on the bed and came over to investigate. After he sniffed Sumkui, he hissed at him and made Sumkui freak out and run for the door. Opie thought he was pretty tough.

A couple of days later when Opie was outside on the cat bowl shelf, Sweet Pea (my least aggressive cat) jumped up and started eating from the bowl. Opie walked over to her and sniffed and she moved farther away from him. Opie moved closer to her and sniffed again. Sweet Pea moved as far over as the shelf allowed. Opie followed and sniffed again and then hissed at her. Sweet Pea calmly bonked him on the top of his head with her paw. Opie looked really surprised. He was the one to back off this time.

(The top picture shows Opie at his food dish on the top shelf of his outdoor area. The bottom picture shows how he gets to the lower cat bowl shelf. Notice that he is in his outdoor sleeping box sniffing the air because he smells Rouge- who was not the cat who bonked him. Left-click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

OPIE GETTING BIG

2008-06-03T11:38:00.001-07:00

Opie isn't eating dry cat food yet (he doesn't seem to recognize it as food as he currently eats it softened in Esbilac pet milk substitute). When he eats it dry out of the cat dish like the other 'possums and is big enough that he doesn't look like something my "hunter" cat should drag in to show me, he can stay outside. He currently spends a few hours a day outside, but he mostly just sleeps in his "outside" bed that is suspended on a shelf above the feeding station shelf outside of the bathroom window. He is getting practice climbing from one shelf to the other, but he hasn't been on the ground since he fell off a couple of weeks ago. (I have plugged that escape route.) We took a picture of him sitting in his first food dish to show how much he has grown in 2 months.

I LOST OPIE

2008-05-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

I lost Opie last week.
I had taken him out for another session in his “outdoor home”. I had added a sleeping area above the cat and ‘possum feeding area outside of the bathroom window. I had a plastic bin turned sideways and stuffed with polyester jackets (that he loves to sleep in) that I had perched on 3 other bins to keep him up and out of the way of the bigger animals.
I watched him attentively for about 20 minutes to see how he would handle the new set-up and he seemed to be pretty happy exploring. I decided to sweep the brick patio while I watched him, but after a few minutes, I realized that I needed a dust pan. I ran to get one and got back just in time to see him crawling around the lip of the plastic bin that was one bin below the one that his bed was on. I have no idea how he got there. He went around the narrow lip of the bin to the back side where I could no longer see him. I waited for him to come around the other side, but I heard him fall instead (down 3 bins back into an area that I couldn’t see or even begin to get to because of all the storage boxes in that area). I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t know if he was hurt or worse. It seemed like I should be hearing him if he were walking around.
I called and called and cried and cried. I just knew that he would starve out there alone, if he was even still alive and unhurt, and it was all my fault. I was afraid to start moving boxes because that might cause him to move farther away. After 20 minutes, I moved out a metal shelving unit so that I could look to see the area where he had fallen so I could see if he was dead or unconscious there. I couldn’t see him so I moved the shelving unit back and put a sleep blanket on its bottom shelf with a small bowl of water beside it, hoping he would find them. I ran into the house and fixed him some small pieces of ham and took that out to the bottom shelf and waited patiently, hoping that the ham would draw him out. Then I started to worry that the ham would attract the cat and dog back (they had both come over to see what I was doing in that area and had finally left) so I ran back into the house to fix him some pieces of banana that wouldn’t attract other animals. I took them out there, just in time to see Opie finishing up the ham! I grabbed him up quick. He was not happy.
I took him back into the house to his indoor box and let him finish his ham while I collapsed on the couch.
(Opie's picture was taken on Mothers' Day, 2 days after this frightening event. See
http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2008/05/opie-on-mothers-day.html if it's not the next post because it has already been sent to the archives.)
We have now had several more sessions out there- I fixed it so that he couldn’t get to the dangerous area again- but I don’t take my eyes off of him while we’re out there. One exception: the last time we went out, he crawled into his outdoor sleep box and took a nap. I did run into the house for a minute while he was sleeping. In fact, I finally had to wake him up by bringing out more ham.)
I’m afraid to let him go before he shows that he can eat the dry cat food that all of the other ‘possums eat. He only once tried to eat a softened piece and ate only a small bit of that small bit, but at least he is starting to see it as food.

OPIE ON MOTHERS' DAY MAY 11, 2008

2008-05-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

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My husband named him Opie because opossum starts with the letters "OP". We have been baby-sitting him for a month now. I don't want to release him until he can eat softened dry cat food so that I can put some out for him (because I don't think that the other animals will eat that and I know that they will gobble up any turkey or ham that I put outside). Yesterday when I had him outside of the bathroom window where I have constructed a play area for him, he ate half of a softened piece of cat food that I had put in his play area so he is finally getting the idea that it is food (although not food that is as tasty as his favorite dish- ham). I am hoping that if he eats the softened food that he will eventually be able to eat the regular cat food that the other big 'possums eat.

'POSSUM ORPHAN

2008-04-14T01:44:00.000-07:00

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To 'possum mommy,
You dropped your kid. You have so many that you didn't notice? He is fine, but he is getting used to the land of milk and honey and sleeping on grandma's chest and is not even asking when you are coming back. I am working on his table manners, but no luck so far. He still puts his feet in his food. But he is really good at giving himself a bath after each meal so he can get every last drop of milk. (He doesn't even leave a sip for Sumkui who is wondering "Good golly-what now?)
Left-click on pictures to get a larger picture. Click on the "back" arrow to return to the screen.

OLD GEOCITIES WEB PAGE

2008-04-03T00:49:00.000-07:00

I just got a message from Geocities that I needed to update my old web page or lose it. As it is free, why would I want to lose it? I tried to update it. I hope that I did enough to let them know that I want to keep it. URL for it:
http://www.geocities.com/cvanhorn@pacbell.net/

STILL 1 DAY OLDER THAN GEORGE WASHINGTON

2008-02-21T00:49:00.000-08:00

I used to joke with my students that I was one day older than George Washington until I had to stop because they no longer knew when his birthday was because the nation stopped observing his actual birthday date when it brought in the "Presidents Day" on a Monday to allow everybody to have a 3-day weekend (and because as I got older, more and more of the students stopped getting the joke and started nodding their heads in agreement).

(People my age know that tomorrow is George Washington's birthday because we didn't have to go to school on Feb 22nd in honor of him. I could have a birthday party and not have to go to school the next day. We also know that Feb 12 is Abe Lincoln's birthday because there was no school that day either. I feel sorry for these poor confused children these days trying to figure out Abe's and George's birth dates when they have only 1 holiday, not on either of the true birthday dates.)

Here's my first Happy Birthday greeting (sent at 1:17 in the morning):

Hello cvanhorn,

We at MiceChat would like to wish you a happy birthday today!

(Son #2 is heavy into Disney stuff so I have to belong to read his threads. He is really funny.)

VALENTINE TULIPS 2008

2008-02-16T16:38:00.000-08:00

A REAL LIVE CHRISTMAS TREE

2008-01-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

I get all excited when I read that people insist on buying a "live" Christmas tree because I have been trying to get people to do this for years. Then the article makes it clear that "live" to these people means a tree that used to be alive and has been cut down and is now fading fast. I want people to put a live tree in a pot and keep it alive so they can reuse it year after year. Here is our tree (a Star pine) which we have been dragging into the house for several years now. (The other tree that we used before this one finally got too big.)

GRANDCHILDREN, CHRISTMAS 2007

2008-01-27T16:55:00.000-08:00

Twins Rebecca and Sarah (6 years old) and big sister Louise (17 years old)

FLOWERS FOR KAHLUA

2007-10-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

The vet sent us beautiful flowers for Kahlua. We put his picture into the bouquet.

KAHLUA- HIS SWEET WAYS

2007-09-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

He loved to be brushed.
He loved to have the top of his head stroked.
He loved to be outside, and he would check out the whole cul de sac.
He tolerated other cats, just calmly walking away when confronted by one.
He loved to be talked to.
He would talk to Bill.
He would look steadily into my eyes and communicate his thoughts.
He would reach up to the kitchen counter and help me open the cat food can.
He would stay beside me when I watered the yard.
He would come to meet me at the car when I arrived home. (The last afternoon, when he was so sick, he still came to the driveway to greet me home from school.)
He would cuddle beside me in the bed. (But the last night, when he was so sick, he looked at me for the last time with his eyes begging me to do something to help him, and then gave up on me and wouldn't stay beside me, but went into the bathroom and curled up by the wall. I couldn't tell him there was nothing I could do but put him out of his misery in the morning. The vet had done all that he could, but his kidneys just would not heal. It broke my heart that he gave up on me.)
KAHLUA, WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU AND YOUR SWEET WAYS.

I adopted Kahlua at the animal shelter about 3 years ago. He was de-clawed (so he was probably an indoor cat only) and neutered. They told me he was about 4 years old, but the vet thought he was closer to 7. They told me nothing about how he came to be in the shelter.

He died on Tues, September 25, 2007. The vet gave him a shot and he slowly put his head down and went to sleep, and then the vet administered the final drug. We took him home and buried him in the back yard.

MY WEB PAGE

2007-08-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

My old computer recently died and took much of my life with it. I had treasured all of the emails from my friends and family (I had 10,000) as my memory is getting "worser and worser" (the best way this old English teacher can express it) and I relied on the email messages to remind me of events. From now on I will try to remember to copy and paste important emails into Word and save them on my flashdrive. I also forgot the address of my web site (which used to be displayed under "View my complete profile" along with my email address) so I now have to post my web page URL. With luck, I may be able to find this post.
http://cvanhorn.homestead.com/

I have added another blog account to show the Pow Wow 2008 pictures as I am running out of storage on this blog account. I will probably forget the URL for that too.
http://fuhspowwow2008pics.blogspot.com/

HEAVENLY PAYBACK

2007-07-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today I got payback.

I loaded all of my groceries into the trunk of the car, wheeled my grocery cart (with my purse still in it) to a safe spot, got into the car and drove off.

Fortunately, my next stop wasn't too far away so I realized within 10 minutes that I didn't have my purse. After searching the trunk to see if I'd put it in there with the rest of the stuff, it finally sunk in that I had done the unthinkable. After all of the moaning and groaning I'd done when I'd had my purse stolen out of my kitchen 3 years ago and had to go through all of the stuff necessary to contact credit card suppliers, the bank and DMV as well as mourn my lost treasures (2 pairs of reading glasses- one brand new and never worn yet, a new and unused flashdrive- thankfully it didn't have hours of work on it, and things so precious that it raises my blood pressure too high to contemplate anymore), I'd just calmly walked off and left my purse to chance.

Breaking a few speed limits, I sped back to the grocery store. The cart was right where I had left it, but purseless. I hoped that someone had taken it into the grocery store, but when I asked, no one had.

When I came back out to my car and empty cart, I just stood there, totally dazed and too stunned to even pray for a miracle. Fortunately, while I was standing there trying to get my mind to function, an older gentleman came to his car with his groceries and saw the dimwit standing there staring at an empty grocery cart and asked me if I'd left a purse in the cart. He had it in his car to take to the police station.

Thanking him, I told him I had found several purses in carts and always wondered how people could do that. He said it's easy at our age.

Thank goodness for heavenly payback. But perhaps I'd better not count on it again.

New rule: Put my purse in the car before the groceries (better to forget the potatoes).

PS (3 days later)
After lying awake for a couple of nights trying to remember what in the world happened to allow me to walk away from a grocery cart with the biggest purse in Orange County sitting in it (am I really that nutso now?), I finally figured out what happened.

I always pull forward in a parking lot so that I don't have to back out of my parking spot. (Lesson learned when a lady in a new Cadillac saw me backing my van out of a spot, but thought she could make it past me if she hurried.)

When I came out of the store, there was a car parked by my driver's door and lots of empty carts behind my car so I put my cart on the passengers' side of the car and carried the groceries from that side of the car to the trunk. By the time I had finished loading the last bag, I grabbed the wrong cart and stored it out of the way and didn't notice my cart with the purse when I got into the car. The gentleman saw my purse when he parked the normal way and tried to open his door.

So maybe I'm just a little less goofy.

But I'm still going to put my purse in the car first.

07-07-07

2007-07-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

Many engaged couples are getting married today (my son is going to one wedding) as this will be an easy date to remember and, hopefully, a lucky day for such an important occasion. I hope it turns out to be true.

Sunday, July 8, 2007 (Excerpt from a much-longer article)
Lucky in love
158 couples take the plunge on 7-7-7, said to be the luckiest day of the century.
By TOM BERG
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SANTA ANA – The groom wore an electronic, flashing belt buckle. The bride wore her lucky bra. And the deputized wedding commissioner hummed the Bridal March.
Loudly.
OK, not every ceremony Saturday was romantic. But they sure were lucky.
That's why a whopping 158 couples rushed to the Old County Courthouse in Santa Ana – to marry on what many considered the luckiest day of the century: July 7, 2007, better depicted as 7-7-7.
Why? Some said seven means "completion." Others said "perfection." Others said it's "God's number," pointing to the Seven Seas and the seven days it took God to create Heaven and Earth. Some said Japan's annual Festival of Love falls on July 7.

QUIT BEING MEAN TO 'POSSUMS

2007-06-30T01:44:00.000-07:00

Opossums: your garden's evening clean-up crew

Yes, these backyard visitors can be a little scary-looking. But they're gentle creatures and will keep your yard free of snails and fallen fruit.

By Lili Singer, Special to The Times June 28, 2007

LAURA SIMON, field director for the Humane Society's Urban Wildlife Program, does not mince words: "People are repulsed by their appearance. "Can you blame them? Opossums, after all, do look like bloated rats — the scruffy fur, the flinty eyes, the bizarre little feet and long, scaly tail. And that's their good side. Threaten one of them, and it will bare its teeth, hiss and drool.

But as disgusting as the animals may appear, they actually do quite lovely work in the garden. Opossums are nature's clean-up crew, working the graveyard shift. Like little dust busters, they cruise the landscape, round ears tilted like satellite dishes, fleshy pink snoots to the ground. They feast on snails and slugs, perhaps even a cockroach or two. Gardeners may blame opossums for the messes and mischief made by rambunctious raccoons, skunks and squirrels rooting out insect grubs, but the reality is that opossums don't dig. They can't. The soft pink skin on their paws is too delicate for such manual labor; their weak nails are built for tree-climbing. Though opossums are excellent at scaling trunks, they rarely sample the fruit above. Instead, they might salvage a fallen peach or munch avocados knocked down by squirrels. Opossums prefer their produce at ground level and well rotted — all the easier to sniff out as they forage the night garden. The animals are effective scavengers, says Jim Dines, collections manager of mammalogy at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. It may not help their image problem, but opossums do eat the really gross stuff too: stinky carrion that other wildlife simply won't consider. Lest you get too disgusted, just remember that this is the detritus that no gardener wants to handle, even with gloved hands.

If opossums are so docile, harmless and downright helpful, then why are so many people — even sensitive gardeners who have designed their landscapes to attract wildlife — so intensely repulsed by this animal? The average person thinks they're so ugly, they're scary, says Simon of the Urban Wildlife Program. Most calls coming into the hotline that she runs are fear-based. "People think the animals must be rabid," she says. In truth, Simon and other experts say, the opossum is one of the gentlest animals out there. When it senses danger, it usually just freezes, motionless, and waits for the hazard to pass. When threatened, the animal can look awfully mean, but it's all a big show. Opossums don't run or bite well. They're not very coordinated and, in Simon's words, they're not the most intellectual of creatures. If the baring-teeth-and-hissing drama doesn't work, they feign death by entering a temporary coma. This strategy doesn't fool dogs and other large predators, according to Mary Cummins, a Los Angeles-based licensed wildlife rehabilitator and educator. She takes in 600 injured or orphaned opossums each year. The rabies fear is unfounded because the disease is rarely found in opossums, says Catherine Conlon, a veterinarian and rabies specialist formerly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and recently named director of the rabies lab at Kansas State University. This apparent resistance to rabies may be attributed to the opossum's low body temperature, which prevents buildup of the rabies virus. That same low body temperature may allow opossums to eat horribly decayed food without getting sick.

Rabies may not be an issue, but opossums do harbor parasites, including fleas, and they can host a bacterial disease called leptospirosis that can be transmitted to humans. That's why it's not smart to touch a wild opossum or keep one as a pet. Says Dines, "It's not an animal you'd want to play with. "THE species that calls Southern California home is actually the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), the only marsupial living in the wilds of North America. As with the kangaroo, koala and other marsupials, the female opossum nurtures her undeveloped pups in a pouch. ("Possums," for the record, are distant relatives found only in Australia.)The Virginia opossum is native to the Southeast, where it is still common. It emigrated west, Dines says, most likely with the help of humans, who carried the animals as curiosities or pets. The first opossum was trapped and recorded in Los Angeles County in 1906. Today, they populate wide-ranging habitats from Baja California to British Columbia.

Life in the city is grueling for the opossum. Mortality is high, and few live to their first birthday. Dogs and cars are the biggest threats. Garden pesticides, especially snail baits, also put the opossum at risk.

What to do if you see one in your yard? The opossum's defenders will suggest that you enjoy it — perhaps smile at its prehensile tail, or note how the rear feet have evolved with nifty opposable thumbs. Admire its adaptability, then let it proceed with the good work it came to do.

home@latimes.com

The opossums found in Southern California immigrated here at least 100 years ago from the southeastern United States. Opossums are marsupials like kangaroos and koalas.
(DLILLC / Corbis)

Comment from Connie:

Many 'possums have lived in my backyard in Orange County, CA. They love grapes. One would take a grape from my hand when I would hand it to him from my bathroom window while he was eating from the cat food bowl on the shelf outside.

If you want to read about my experience with sleeping with a 'possum, click on

http://cvanhorn.homestead.com/AnimalStories.html

THE FOREVER STAMP

2007-04-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

The price of a first-class postage stamp remained 3 cents for more than the first 20 years of my life.

At that time, when I heard that the cost was being raised to 5 cents, due to my thrifty nature, I rushed to the post office and bought a large quantity of bargain-priced 3 centers. When someone patiently explained to me that now I would have to go get an equal amount of 2 cent stamps because I would have to pay the full 5 cents the same as everyone else, I was really disappointed. This was not business as usual as I understood it, but I learned to adapt.

Now, after more than 50 years, my stamp has arrived! There is a 41 cent stamp out that will be legal until "you-know-what" freezes over. I am finally vindicated in my wacky thinking of so long ago. (The newspaper said that Britain has had a similar one for longer than 20 years.)

I asked the post lady at my local Drug Emporium post office annix (who was showing the newly-arrived stamps to her fellow clerks) to explain it to me 3 times because I was sure that I must have gotten the wrong idea again, but it appears that at last I can hoard "bargain" stamps to my heart's content. She told me that I was her first customer for the stamps (and I bet that she hopes that her next customers will get the concept much faster than I did). But stung once, twice shy.

I can finally be assured that the stamp that I find that has no value recorded on it, is going to be the correct one. I have dozens of stamps that I have no idea what I paid for them. I only know that they aren't the current 39 cent one, and I will soon not remember which they are. It drives me crazy that the stamp prices have been changing so fast that they don't print their value on them anymore. Believe me, I have attached a big note on these new Forever stamps so that I know which ones they are.

The newpaper had an article yesterday saying that the stamps were not selling, although one lady had bought a lot and had immediately pasted them on her large stack of mailers even though the first-class rate doesn't change from 39 cents until May 14. She explained this strange action by saying she thought her customers would be impressed. (I think no one will even recognize the new stamp, but perhaps we should commend her for helping the ever-deserving post office with its ever-existing budget dilemma.)

Well, all I have to add on the subject is, "I got mine! Now I know what I am leaving my kids in my will."

JUST A DOG

2007-03-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

'Just a dog'? There's no such thing
Maryanne Dell
Pets columnistThe Orange County Register mdell@ocregister.com
A friend sent me this via e-mail. The words weren't attributed to anyone, but they struck a deep, deep chord – a chord often played by not just dog owners, but also by cat, horse, rabbit, guinea pig, mouse, rat, pig, reptile – and every other kind of animal you might name – owners.
With apologies to the writer for not being able to identify him or her:
"From time to time, people tell me, 'Lighten up; it's just a dog,' or, 'That's a lot of money for just a dog.'
"They don't understand the distance traveled, the time spent or the costs involved for 'just a dog.'
"Some of my proudest moments have come about with 'just a dog.' Many hours have passed and my only company was 'just a dog,' but I did not once feel slighted.
"Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by 'just a dog,' and in those days of darkness, the gentle touch of 'just a dog' gave me comfort and reason to overcome the day.
"If you, too, think it's 'just a dog,' then you will probably understand phases like 'just a friend,' 'just a sunrise' or 'just a promise.'
" 'Just a dog' brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust and pure, unbridled joy.
" 'Just a dog' brings out the compassion and patience that make me a better person. Because of 'just a dog' I will rise early, take long walks and look longingly to the future.
"So, for me and folks like me, it's not 'just a dog' but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future, the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment.
" 'Just a dog' brings out what's good in me and diverts my thoughts away from myself and the worries of the day.
"I hope that someday they can understand that it's not 'just a dog' but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being 'just a human.' "
I read this and think of a friend whose journeys this year have taken her far and wide in efforts to find out what's ailing one of her dogs, a little agility star who's been holding one of her legs up when she exerts herself. Is it a luxating patella – a kneecap that slips out of position? Something going on with her spine?
Many vet exams, an ultrasound, MRI, exams by a canine physical therapist and several neurologists later, she still isn't sure.
And this comes on the heels of many dollars spent on her other dogs and cats.
I read it and think of friends who persist in agility, freestyle, obedience or other dog sports year after year, working hard and spending big bucks so that they can forge a better relationship with their dogs.
I read it and think of another friend, who lost her good friend Gracie in November and regrets not a second of the time and money and energy spent in an effort to extend the little Jack Russell's life.
I read it and think of friends who, like me, often come home and simply curl up on the couch with their pets. My nightly unwind ritual consists of getting into bed with my canine crew and pulling one – or all them – into my lap while I read or watch TV.
No matter how frustrating, stressful or long my day has been, at that point it all disappears amid kisses and soft fur.
My life is dogs. If I don't take one or a couple of them with me when I travel, they are always waiting for me when I return. My private life involves agility classes and seminars, training sessions, therapy work and finding homes for dogs others have abandoned.
What strikes me, constantly, is that, to many people, dogs are "just dogs"; animals of all kinds are "just animals." Last week's dog of the week was a 10-year-old whose owners decided they could no longer cope with both him and young children. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that reason given for giving up an animal, I wouldn't have to work every day.
Likewise the "I'm moving to a place where I can't have a pet" excuse.
People mean well, I like to think, but many of them do consider them "just dogs," or "just cats" or "just an animal" – easily disposed of, easily replaced.
Sadly, our society makes them "just animals." Open this newspaper any day of the week (or just glance at the bottom of this page), and you can see many, many animals for sale, advertised in exactly the same way one might advertise a vehicle that had outlived its usefulness.
We treat animals like property, and our laws view them that way.
I think we need to rearrange our thinking.
They aren't "just dogs," "just cats," "just ... whatever."
They're thinking, feeling, emotional (yes, I said emotional. Anthropomorphic? Maybe. But valid? Maybe) beings with far more rights than that car sitting in your driveway.
What they bring us is the intangibility of love, of happiness, of peace, of security.
My life is dogs, and I love that. My dogs aren't black and white, like my truck. They're complicated beings who, like people, change as life affects them.
There's nothing simple about them. And there's nothing simple about my relationship with them.
There's nothing "just a dog" about it.
Contact the writer: mdell@ocregister.com

IT'S MY 72nd BIRTHDAY

2007-02-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

I never imagined that I would have so many birthdays as so many people in my family died young. (As the saying goes, "If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.")

The birthday I remember best was my birthday with the slogan- "I'll be 21 on the 21st." That was back when turning 21 meant something. That was when the age to vote was 21. I didn't worry about it also being the age to drink legally because I was in college in Illinois and girls could drink at 18, although their dates couldn't. Who thought that one up?

On one birthday a few years ago, I found a gravy stirrer in my favorite thrift shop that I had been searching for for years. I haven't seen another similar one since then.

This morning, going in to the college computer lab to help the students, a student stopped me to say hello and told me that I was a great teacher and that I had really helped her last year. I would call that a pretty special birthday present.

SNOW AGAIN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

2007-01-18T23:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday it snowed again in Southern California- in Malibu this time.

In 1948, when I was in 8th grade at Wilshire Junior High School, it snowed in Fullerton. We were out in the schoolyard making snowballs so there was quite a bit of it.

I had just returned to Fullerton from an over-long summer vacation in my old home town in Watertown, South Dakota, so I was teased about bringing the cold weather back with me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2006-12-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

Placeholder for future post.

CHRISTMAS TREES

2006-12-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago, the newspaper had an article about live Christmas trees versus artificial ones. When I first saw the headline, I got all excited because I thought there was going to be a discussion favoring growing and using potted, LIVE trees. When I realized that "live" trees to the journalist meant cut trees that would soon be dead trees, I stopped reading. Being 2 days before Christmas, I didn't have time to waste reading that.

I have grown my own potted trees for several years. One grew so big that it doesn't fit on the perch in the living room any longer. It could be used in the cathedral-ceilinged family room, but that's not where we put the tree.

The picture shows this year's tree. It is a star pine that has 2 main branches so it is not your traditional-looking Christmas tree. As you can see, it is almost too tall too. We have used it the last 3 years since the other Star Pine got too tall. With luck, it will fit for a couple more years.

Those of you who are old enough to remember Red Skelton's poignant skit where he is a Christmas tree who is wondering why he was cut down in his prime, will find one clue why I favor growing my own tree.

(I also think we should start a campaign to require all Orange County homeowners to plant at least one orange tree in their yard so that we still deserve our name and the air can get closer to smelling as wonderful as it used to do.)

06-06-06

2006-06-06T00:47:00.000-07:00

Evidently I am hung up on easy dates to remember. I know that this date happens only once every hundred years so most people come across one only once in their lifetime. If they live to see two, they may not be seeing very well at all.

I don't know why it has the perceived relationship to the devil, but the movie industry is launching a remake of The Omen today.

Jay Leno said he heard that some people were placing bets that the world would end on today's 06-06-06. He pointed out that he'd gladly take that bet because if they are right, he won't have to pay up. (Again, why they thought that this special one meant doom when none of the others has, is beyond me.) I guess I shouldn't have worked so hard in the yard yesteday, in case they are right, but it was a beautiful next-to-last day if they are right.

(The newspapers had articles on the topic of 666 today. Click on "Comments" below if you want to read them.)

I LOVE MAY DAY!

2006-05-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

During freezing, forbidding South Dakota winters, one begins to yearn for Spring and its delights. In grade school in South Dakota, I quickly formed a fondness for May Day which had two of my favorite things going for it: the wonderful warm weather and free candy. Unbeknowst to me in my early years, not all people put candy in their May baskets. I discovered years later that many in less fierce climates put in flowers (and I was horrified to find out that many people didn't even know about May baskets). In South Dakota, we not only filled the baskets with candy, but we expected the thrill of dropping the basket on a friend's doorstep, ringing the bell, and being chased and kissed if the friend were of the opposite sex. I guess we were coming out of hibernation in more ways than just one.

When my mother and I moved to California in the summer of '46 before I entered 6th grade, I had no way of knowing that one of my favorite holidays would be one of the things that I would forfeit as I had my toys.

My first May Day in California, I filled my May baskets, ran to the first friend's door, rang the bell and started running away. My friend opened the door and just stared blankly at my retreating back (of course, I was running away while looking back to see how close he was to catching me). No one I left baskets for that day had ever heard of the custom.

My attempts to encourage the celebration of May Day were abruptly stopped with the advent of the Russian Communists' May Day Celebration (a huge military parade advertising their emerging strength and hostility.)

This year May Day has been pre-empted for demonstations to show support of Mexican illegal aliens.

They wouldn't spoil their own Cinco de Mayo holiday! They ruined my May Day!

ONCE IN A LIFE EVENT

2006-04-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

On April 5, 2006 at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be -
01:02:03 04/05/06.
This won't ever happen again.

APRIL FOOLS

2006-04-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

Today my husband sent me a big bunch of tulips and my favorite perfume. Pretty nice for April Fool’s Day, huh?

For us, April Fool’s Day is no laughing matter (especially for my husband, I imagine)- it’s our wedding anniversary.

Why in the world would anyone get married on April Fool’s Day?

Well, as my Boston friends remind me, Californians are crazy, but we didn’t choose this date. We planned to spend the last week-end in March in Las Vegas and get married while there. (I know. This helps to prove my Boston friends’ opinion, but getting married in Vegas is almost a Californian tradition.)

Everything went wrong from the get-go.

We were supposed to leave Long Beach airport at 6 on a Saturday night, eat a buffet at 8, see a show at 10 and fly back at 4 AM. Everyone knows that you can get married at all hours in Las Vegas, so there would be plenty of time to also get married.

We sat in the airport in Long Beach for another couple of hours because our pilot called in sick and they had to find another pilot. That meant that we arrived late, we ate late (what little they had left from the night’s buffet), and we missed the show. But we had plenty of time to get married before the plane went back home. But every time I asked my soon-to-be dear husband if we should go get married now, he was having a hot streak at the craps table and wanted to wait a while.

OK, I was getting a little nervous. (I thought that was supposed to be the groom’s problem, but he’d been drinking while we waited to leave Long Beach so he was a very happy guy.)

Finally, it was get married now or risk missing the plane back. Even he could understand that. We got in a taxi and went to the marriage license bureau and found out that the only hour that the bureau was closed was that hour- 3 AM to 4 AM. By the time we got the license and hoped that the plane had also been delayed leaving Las Vegas, we found out that the plane had left exactly on time and we were stuck at a hotel that had no rooms left.

Because of the mix-up getting to Vegas, we could fly back on their next flight on the next night.

Most people would have taken that as a sign, I think. We just joked that if we didn’t like being married, we could always say, “April fool!” (I think this may definitely prove that our Boston friends were, at least, right about these two Californians.)

So, at that point, there was no rush to get married. We stood at the craps table, being hosted by the apologetic hotel staff to free champagne. As I hate champagne, my glass was full when an enthusiastic craps shooter wildly threw the dice that ended up in my glass and baptized me.

When we had two rascally boys, I often wondered if my husband wanted to say those words- “April fool!”

ONE DAY OLDER THAN GEORGE WASHINGTON

2006-02-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

I meant to write this yesterday on my birthday, but it's maybe even better to write it on George Washington's birthday.

When I was in school many years ago, we celebrated Abraham Lincoln's and George Washington's birthdays by having the school days off on Feb 12 and Feb 22. Every kid had those birthdays memorized. My birthday is Feb 21 so I was in school to hand out cupcakes on my birthday and be the "Birthday Girl" and then I got a holiday the next day. It was a great arrangement.

When I was first teaching Junior High, all my students knew those birthday dates too as we were still celebrating the individual days with a school holiday. If we were talking about when our birthdays were, I would say that I was one day older than George Washington and most kids would figure out when my birthday was and also laugh at such a funny idea as young Miss Stafford being older than the first president.

As the years progressed, however, I noticed the students shaking their heads in agreement and not finding anything strange about the idea of my being that old. I dropped that little attempt at humor.

Of course, now none of my students know what date George Washington was born as we lump the two presidents' birthdays together by celebrating a Presidents' Day on a Monday so we can have a 3-day week-end. Worse, now even I'm beginning to believe that the idea of my being one day older is not so far-fetched.

HAPPY PALENTINE'S DAY

2006-02-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

Here is an e-mail message that I received today from a girlfriend I met when we were all stationed at Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico in the 60's. Her friend wrote it, and she liked it so much that she sent it on to her friends. Perhaps you will want to send it on to your girl friends too. Maybe next year we can find "Palentine" cards in the shops.

Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 9:15 AM
Subject: To all my dearest pals

This morning as I was putting on my red turtleneck and heart jewelry, I was thinking less of romance (please don’t tell the salamander!) and more of all the women friends I have that mean so much to me, and where would I be without them? You, my friend, are one of those women. You have been there for me, have added richness and joy to my life, and have accepted me just as I am, and have allowed me to be a part of your life. These are the relationships that are most lasting and influential in my life, and I am who I am today because of all of you! THAT”S what Valentine’s Day should be all about and we could call it Pal-entine’s Day! So happy Palentine’s my dear friends!! You rock. And you are all on my mind today.
Much love and gratitude,
R
XOXO

SO HAPPY PALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL OF MY WONDERFUL GIRLFRIENDS TOO!

Today is Bill's birthday. I bought myself a nice plant Saturday for him to give me because otherwise he will stand in line somewhere (probably with all the other guys at See's Candy), and I don't think that's right on his birthday. We can't even go out to dinner for his birthday because the restaurants are too crowded. (Peter always hopefully suggests "I bet we can get into Hooters.")
Connie

Armistice Day/ Veterans Day

2005-11-11T23:25:00.000-08:00

November 11: I pray that no soldier died today.

A LONG-AGO HALLOWEEN

2005-10-31T15:14:00.000-08:00

One Halloween, more than 40 years ago when we were living in Gulfport, Miss. while my husband was going to Communications school at Keesler Air Force Base, we heard a knock at the front door of our upstairs apartment, long after the other “trick or treaters” had been there. We opened the door to find a lady whose son, a young boy about 12, was sitting down on the bottom step, gasping for breath. His mother told us she needed a ride to get her son home to give him his medicine. As we drove them home, which was quite a distance from the apartment complex, his mother told us what had happened to bring on his attack.

Two young men in our complex (we assumed other young lieutenants as most of the tenants were Air Force personnel) had fixed their apartment so that it was lit only with candles, with both of them in scarey costumes and with one of them sitting in a far corner, holding the candy bowl while the other manned the door. A child had to walk across the dark room to get his treat. It had scared this one boy so much that by the time he walked away and got to our apartment, he was too sick to go any farther.

We didn’t know which apartment the boy had been to so the young men, who had obviously had such a grand time scaring the little kids, never knew how dangerous a game they were playing.

More Hurricane Katrina Anguish: Where is "Snowball"?

2005-09-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

During the Hurricane Katrina evacuation from New Orleans, many evacuees who had brought their pets with them to the shelters were not allowed to take the pets with them on the buses. One especially horrible episode was when a small boy had his dog taken from him as the family boarded the bus. The boy screamed for “Snowball” until he got sick and vomited. The newspaper story touched so many hearts that there is a web site offering a reward for the reunion of this child and his pet. http://www.katrinafoundpets.com/snowball_fund.htm One can only be shocked by the cruelty involved in taking away the one comfort that this child had. Due to the public outcry of this practice, some later evacuees were allowed to take their pets with them.

The obstacle to this reunion is that it is not clear what Snowball looks like or what the little boy’s name is. The reporter who first told the story (API’s Mary Foster) and who should at least be able to describe the dog, has apparently not been very helpful in trying to describe him . It has been reported that she said that she saw him after he was put in the stairwell of the Superdome with the other confiscated pets, but that she didn’t see him when the ASPCA came to collect them. She thought that he had either escaped or been taken by someone. The policeman who confiscated him at the bus has apparently not been found and questioned either. The person providing the web site offering the reward for the reunion is considering hiring a private investigator to find Snowball and his boy.

Another confusing part of the puzzle is that a small, white dog was shown on tv pawing at the closed door of the bus that took his mistress/master away, but it is not clear if this dog is Snowball or another unfortunate pet. It broke my heart to see this dear little dog trying in vain to get on the bus.

A web site that has comments from animal lovers is http://news.bestfriends.org/index.cfm?page=specialreports&mode=cat&catid=04061773-BDB9-396E-9001EF6EC01318A4&stid=3&pn=26#cmtHead
It is organized in a “blog” manner and one has to read from the oldest comment to the newest if one wants a chronological view. Its drawback is that very few of the people commenting have left an email address so that they can be contacted to form a united group.

It is very important that we rally to insist on a “Snowball’s Law” to rescue pets with their owners. Comments on the “BestFriends” web site indicate that this kind of an evacuation has been done and should be done. What is needed is an organized effort to influence better procedures for evacuating people and their pets. I am willing to compile a list of people who want to be involved in such an effort. Email me your snail and email addresses. (The email addresses change so fast that they are not valid for long.) To see my email address, click on “View my complete profile”. Let’s do something to prevent this callous treatment of pets from happening again.

Pepsi and the Pledge of Allegiance

2005-06-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

I received an email yesterday from a friend promoting a boycott of Pepsi products because Pepsi is putting out a patriotic can with the Pledge of Allegiance MINUS the words "Under God".

Oh boy, he pushed one of my buttons. I have been mad for 50 years that they changed the ORIGINAL Pledge version and put those words in!

I remember reciting the original version that was so elegant and powerful and flowed so beautifully. One was able to think of the meaning and try to understand the pledge.

Then they added the words that caused so many people to pause or not pause, twice in succession, (Under God, indivisible) so that the ending becomes a cacaphony of noise. One can't pay attention to the words when one is trying to remember "Do I pause?", If so, how long should I pause?", "Do I pause again then?" and the ending is lost in the babble.

I hope that seeing it on the Pepsi can will show younger people and remind us older people just how simple and powerful the original words are.

I don't like to see a great tradition diminished. I'm looking for the petition to restore it to its former elegance.

(Don't think I am signing petitions to take out "Under God" from our money and to tear down emblems and statues. That's ridiculous. Just leave things alone. I'm hoping this "Political Correctness" mania will wear itself out soon. Have you noticed that the media are using bad grammar to be PC? It's driving this old English teacher crazy. I know----that's no drive; it's a short putt.)

Our Hummingbird Babies

2005-05-12T03:45:00.000-07:00

We have had the joy of watching a cycle of life unfold in a nest on a tree limb just a few feet above our heads in our front yard. My son noticed a hummingbird making a nest above one of our front yard benches so we were aware of the nest before it even was finished. We watched the mama bird sitting there for a couple of weeks it seemed. She and the nest were so small- she was just a little larger than the Christmas tree bulb hanging close by. One day when she was not in the nest, my son took a mirror and held it above the nest and saw two tiny babies. It wasn’t too many days before we could see the tops of their beaks pointing upward to get fed, then soon we saw their little heads and necks stretched forward.

The nest seemed poised in an insecure junction of only two thin branches. It wasn’t a completely round nest as most hummingbird nests are, but was mainly attached on each side to a piece of the tree bark. I was a little nervous about its weakness.

When they were a pretty good size (about a whole inch long), I woke one night because of a rain storm- a cloud burst of steady rain that lasted about a half-hour. I was really anxious about that little nest and its occupants. The next morning we had another cloud burst. When I finally got out to examine the nest, the nest was falling apart and one of the babies was clinging upside down to the bottom of the nest by his little toe nails. I was able to pry him loose from his strangle-hold and put him back into the nest and try to hold the damaged side back into place. I yelled for my husband to get some duct tape (my solution for everything) or something to secure the nest. He found some Jacaranda stems that were tiny and limber enough to bend around the one side of the nest to help hold the side up. (You can see the 2 stems in the picture. Click on the "Our Hummingbirds Spring 2005" post if you don't see it.) However, over the next few days the nest kept shrinking until the twigs became more like a banister for them to lean against. The other side of the nest started to look more like a deck with no support at all.

We were worried that the mother might abandon the baby that I had touched or even both of the babies, but thankfully we soon saw her feeding both of them and they continued to grow very quickly.

A few days ago, I was trying to move a tiny branch out of the way so that my husband could get a picture later, and they both got startled and flew down out of the nest. They looked like little feather parachutes drifting down. (They didn’t look like they could fly back up.) I was able to grab the one that landed on the bricks at my feet and put him back into the nest, but we couldn’t find the other one. My husband said he thought he’d landed in the azalea bush, but my husband, son and I all looked and couldn’t see him. Finally, my husband had to get to the bank before it closed and my son had to go into the house to take care of his daughters so I was out there by myself. One of the cats came over to see what all the commotion was about and immediately started sniffing the azalea bush. I saw him go rigid with attention and I knew that he had found him, and I was able to catch him just as he made a grab for something in the bush. I got the cat shut up in the house and went back and finally found the little bird clinging to a branch in the azalea bush.

We were afraid that we would startle the first bird again when putting the second one back into the nest, but my son was able to do it so slowly that the first little guy stayed put. We were relieved to see the mother feeding both of them later.

A few days later they were so big that they were leaning over the banister on the one side of the nest and sticking out over the other side, but they were still looking for poor old ma to come with the grub. I named them Peter and Chris because I thought they might not ever leave the nest, (my kids do leave, but they keep coming back!), but today I was working just under their nest and they finally soared off. They were flying fine. I saw Mama just a short time later, but I didn’t see her approach the empty nest so I don’t know if she hovered around or what. I hope she’s off taking a nap somewhere.

I expect to see them in the back yard where the favorite hummingbird foliage is. One of our huge bushes has hundreds of little purple flowers that attract the hummingbirds and the butterflies.

I don’t know if hummingbirds come back to their old stomping grounds when it’s their turn to make a nest, but someone told me that they never reuse the old nest. I hope they find a better spot as my nerves are shot.

For Mothers’ Day, my husband got me the Hummingbird Tea Pot floral arrangement that was advertised in the Parade magazine in the Sunday paper so we can always remember our special experience.

Click on the post "Our hummingbirds Spring 2005 (4 days before launch)" to see a picture of the babies if it is not already showing.

Here is an email that a friend at work sent me that has a link to a web site with wonderful photos of the various stages of the birth of a hummingbird:

THE BIRTH OF A HUMMINGBIRD
This is truly amazing. Be sure to click on NEXT PAGE at the bottom of each page; there are 5 pages in all. A lady found a hummingbird nest and got pictures all the way from the egg to leaving the nest. Took 24 days from birth to flight. Because you'll probably never in your lifetime see this again, enjoy; and please share.

http://community-2.webtv.net/hotmail.com/verle33/HummingBirdNest/

2005-05-12T03:35:00.000-07:00

Our hummingbirds Spring 2005 (4 days before launch)

It's Mothers' Day 2005

2005-05-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

I can’t get worked up about receiving presents for Mothers’ Day. Some ladies seem to attach great significance to this fairly-recently-established tradition. It just escapes me.

It’s not that I don’t love stuff because the Good Lord knows that I have my share and the third world’s share too. As the water heater installer remarked this week, “I never saw so much stuff. This place is long over-due for a garage sale.” (He was kinder than my husband who rants about renting a dumpster, but I know that popular opionion would be on my husband's side. Son #1 has proposed giving me a Viking funeral in the living room when the time comes as a solution that would solve two problems at once.)

Perhaps the gifts aren't important to me because I feel the merchants have really gone over-board with their hype. Who needs to get a gift someone felt pressured into giving because Heaven help the child who forgets his mommy on Mothers’ Day. (You’re thinking perhaps it’s because she can’t fit one more thing into that house. No, that’s not it because I felt this way before I had all my stuff.)

All I know is that I feel blessed that I have a couple of kids - that’s more than gift enough for me.

HAPPY 5/5/05 DAY

2005-05-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Because it is so much fun to have an important event on a date such as 5/5/05 (and, of course, because it is so much easier to remember such a date), I'm sure there are plenty of interesting events being planned for today even if it is a mid-week Thursday type of day. How cute to get engaged today. How fortunate to have your baby today. And there are some of us who even got married on a Thursday that was not even a "special" Thursday such as this one. (My wedding is a fun story, but not pertinent here.) So I have come to the conclusion that the reason that the "Runaway Bride" (of the recent news frenzy) disappeared was because she has a faulty memory and she wanted to reschedule her wedding for a date that she could remember. She knew it would take drastic action to get a 600 guest extravaganza moved up a few days and all those guests notified. Now she has all her relatives and friends so relieved that she is alive that they will fall over backwards to grant her every little wish and the nation's news agents at her disposal to send out the news of the revised wedding time. I wonder why I haven't heard the announcement yet.

I Love May Day

2005-05-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

When I was in elementary school in the 1940s in South Dakota, May Day (May 1st) was a big celebration. My favorite part was giving my friends May baskets. We would buy little party favor paper "baskets" or make our own with construction paper and fill them with candy, take them to our friends after school, place them on the doorstep, ring the doorbell and run away. The boys we gave them to were supposed to chase us and give us a hug. I think the May basket idea started with flowers in the baskets, but I guess South Dakota's weather was too iffy to rely on enouth flowers being available.

We moved to California the summer before I entered 6th grade. By the approach of May Day, I had made a lot of new friends who lived close by my home so I made a lot of May baskets. I was so disappointed when I left a basket and rang the bell and started to run away and my friend just stood there looking at me as if I were crazy. (I am used to that look now, but those were the early days.) I found that none of my friends had ever heard of this custom of giving May baskets. I got no hugs that day.

After World War II ended, the Russians held their big military parade on May Day every year. We would sit in movie theaters and watch news reels of tanks and soldiers parading past Stalin. Americans quit celebrating May Day altogether. That gave me a good reason to hate the Communists.

I was never into the "Wedding thing". The only dream I had about a wedding was for it to be on May Day. Unfortunately, my little wedding had to wait a day because we were so broke that we had to wait until I got my monthly teacher's salary check on May Day (a princely $400).

Even though I am lucky enough to live in California and have been experiencing a beautiful Spring for several weeks, I still love May Day. The very name makes me happy.

FUHS Yearly Pow Wow Luncheon

2005-04-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

The alumni of my high school (Fullerton Union High School in Fullerton, CA) have started a yearly all-class luncheon that keeps growing in size as the word gets around. On March 12, 2005 we had more than 600 people attending, and the first year, only 6 years ago, had about 50. For the first few years, the size doubled every year. Because we are the "Fullerton Indians", the luncheon is called the Pow Wow.This year we had two of our class's teachers as guests- and we graduated 52 years ago!
Email me if you have ties to FUHS and want to know more about this. (My email link is on My Complete Profile page.)
Pictures taken at this year's luncheon are on http://cvanhorn.homestead.com/PowWow2005.html

Directions for Beginning Bloggers

2005-04-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

I have another blog that I am using to post directions for beginners on. It is http://anewtoy.blogspot.com/

Note: June 10, 2005
I just created another blog that gives directions for using Blogger that is connected to this CrazyOldCatLady blog. You can see it if you click on "View My Complete Profile" and then click on the blog named "Directions for Learning Blogspot".

(You don't have to learn any of these things to join Earl's FUHS blog when he gets it ready. We will explain how simple it is when it's time.)

As I learn how to do things on my blog, I type up the steps to help others (and to remind myself).

The first step to my understanding what to do starts by reading the Help features on http://help.blogger.com/ but experience has shown me a couple of easier ways to do things than what the experts suggested.

What it Takes to be a Water Skiing Champion

2005-04-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

AL “BAMBI” VAN BEENEN WINS 2004 SKI AWARD

From: "Al Van Beenen"
Connie,If you want to take the time: Go to TheFridayFlyer.com
http://www.thefridayflyer.com/FF-2005-4-15/FFS-1847.htm
or CanyonLakeSkiClub.com and click on ski club awards headline. The mug photo was taken at 50-year class reunion. Do you recognize me?Thanks for all your updating and time to keep us going! Al Van

--- Connie Van Horn wrote:
Now you have to explain what your winning category means: 35 Off? Are there any other pictures of you in those flyers?Connie

Connie,
I guess I opened a can of worms! The counting starts with a 75 foot ski line. Theslalom course is 849 feet in length and 75 feet in width. There is an opening gate and an exit gate with six turn balls in between. Each buoy counts as one point. The tow boat speed is 30.4 mph (49k) to 36 mph (58k) depending on your age group. When you skiboth gates and turn six buoys correctly and reach the top speed for your class the judge shortens the line to 15 off. If you do that correctly the line shortens to 22 feet off the 75 foot line; then 28 feet off, 32 feet off, 35 feet off (54 buoys), 38 feet off, 39.5 off. If you miss a buoy or displace it by hitting it you are all done; thanks for your entry! I went to Texas and placed second in the nation; that's the good news. Then I went to Florida anddidn't complete 22 off; I only got five! Sorry to bore you but you asked!Oh, by the way, there's more to it! Al Van

--- Connie Van Horn wrote:
Let's see if I'm understanding this: you made 6 circuits correctly, with the rope getting shorter and shorter. (I don't add this up to 54 buoys. What am I not understanding? Do you get the points for the 5 buoys you got while trying for 38 off?) Do you then try for 38 off and not make it? Does winning 35 off mean you were the only one able to do it orthe fastest one to do it? Do you have to declare your intentions to do 35 off before you start any of the circuits or do you just keep going until your miss a buoy? Does 35 off and no 38 off winner mean you were the last man standing? How can you get 2nd place in the nationals? Someone could do 38 off? Inquiring minds want to know. When a person wins something, we want to appreciate what it took to do that.Connie

To: "Connie Van Horn”
Connie,I am sorry; I didn't want to bore you with the preliminaries! OK. You are right in your counting and adding! What I didn't explain was the speed and rope length for beginning. Let's take my age/class which starts counting at 26 mph and 75 feet line length. Howeverthe skier doesn't have to ski the slow/long line brackets. It's by choice where you start. However, when you start you can't miss to get credit for the preliminary passes. Example: I start at 22 feet off of 75 feet. If I make all six buoys the score is 36. You are right; you can't miss and if you do you are done but if you attempt and only get 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, etc. they count. So the 36 is scored for running six at 22 off which gets credit for 6@26.7 mph, 6@28.5 mph, 6@30.4 mph, 6@32.3 mph, 6@15 off, and 6@22 off. At championships they don't allow the slower speeds because you have to qualify at top speed, but they do count if you run the opening pass! The winner is the one with the highest buoy count according to five judges. The most common opener is either 15 off or 22 off. I went to Florida for a championship and only got five on the first pass at 22 off; that counts as five instead of my expecting to run it and score 36 and counting the future passes. Therefore, running 28 off is 42 buoys. Running 32 off is 48 buoys.Running 35 off is 54 boys. Running 2 buoys at 38 off is 56 buoys, etc. which is my best but the time was slow for 32.3 mph. The time has to be from gate to gate and every ball in between is timed with the overall time being 17.93 seconds. There is a leeway of plus or minus a few hundreds of a second. I told you there's more to it! There are SmartTimersin the tow boats; there are magnets on the boat guide buoys; they are coordinated with the rpm of tow boat to give accurate speeds. This can be similar to cruise control in automobiles. However, cruise control computes 40 times a second; PerfectPass in boats compute 400 times a second! There's still more to it but thanks for letting me spit this out! Next time maybe we can calibrate boats; every boat and every lake is different. For instance, tail wind, head wind, cross wind, etc. Every skier has a different weight which adjust engine rpm.Yes, to most of your questions and I hope this explains a little more of my can of worms.Al Van

(At this point I stopped asking the poor guy any more questions because I was afraid he would never tell me if he ever won anything again. But why does it take 5 judges if everything is mechanically recorded? Points for style? Does everybody use the same boat driver or draw lots or does one have his own? The driver seems to be an integral part of this whole endeavor. Anyway, this is a remarkable skill and I stand in awe. I know I can’t stand on water skis because I tried to once and failed.)

To see a picture of Bambi in action, click on the "Al 'Bambi' Van Beenen A Champion" post.

2005-04-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Al "Bambi" Van Beenen a Champion

Hass Avocado Mother Tree

2005-04-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 17, 2005
The fruit fell a long way from this tree

By GORDON DILLOW The Orange County Register

I know she was only a tree, and maybe it's silly to get too sentimental about her. Still, given her strange and wonderful history, and the almost daily connection she still has to many of us, it was hard to see her reduced to a stump.

The tree was the Hass avocado "Mother Tree," the genetic source of every Hass avocado in the world. And chances are whenever you dip a tortilla chip into a bowl of guacamole, you're eating a piece of her.

Start the story in 1926, when a man named Rudolph Hass planted a Guatemalan avocado seedling on a 2-acre parcel he owned in La Habra Heights. The seedling was a hybrid of unknown descent, and Hass wasn't interested in its fruit. Instead he planned to use the tree as "root stock" - that is, to graft buds on it from more desirable types of avocado, such as the Fuerte.

By the way, Hass' name, and the avocado that bears it, is properly pronounced to rhyme with "pass," "lass" and "mass." True, a lot of people say "Hah-ss," and some supermarket produce managers even spell it as "Haas" on the avocado bins. I guess they think it sounds tonier and more upscale. But Rudolph's son Charles Hass has assured me that it's Hass-rhymes- with-pass.
Anyway, Hass tried three times to graft some Fuerte avocado buds on the root-stock tree, but they wouldn't take. He thought about cutting down the uncooperative tree, but by then he had moved to Pasadena to be a postman, so he let it grow - and by the early 1930s it was producing its own fruit.

Problem was, the avocados from the root-stock tree were ugly, with a thick, bumpy, purple-black skin and a strange shape, not at all like the smooth, thin-skinned green Fuertes. They didn't look like anything anyone would ever want to eat.

Who actually first ate one is a subject of debate. The late Joseph E. Upton of La Habra, who lived on the Hass place for a while, told me years ago that he had tried the tree's avocados, found them to be delicious and brought them to Mr. Hass' attention. Charles Hass recalls that it was his older brothers who first tried them and then got their father to spare the tree.

However it happened, Rudolph Hass realized he had a good thing on his hands. Outwardly ugly as they were, on the inside the avocados were creamy and nutty-tasting, with an oil content of 18 percent. In 1935 Hass took out a patent on what he called a "new and improved variety of avocado," and made a deal with H.H. Brokaw, a Whittier nurseryman, to sell buds from the tree to be grafted onto other root-stock trees. The avocados thus produced would be exact genetic replicas of the avocados from Hass' tree.

But it was hard overcoming resistance to the Hass avocados' outside appearance. It wasn't until the 1960s that the Hass avocado really took off, and by then both Mr. Hass and his patent had long since expired. Charles Hass says his dad made less than $5,000 on the Hass avocado.
Today, of course, such a patent would be worth millions. According to Wayne Brydon of the California Avocado Society, almost all avocados now grown commercially in the U.S. are Hass avocados, which are favored for their tough skins - which increases shelf life - and for the trees' long maturity and high yields.

He estimates there are 5.5 million commercial Hass avocado trees in California, and perhaps 30 million worldwide - and every one of the avocados from them is the genetic offspring of that lone tree in La Habra Heights.

As for the Mother Tree herself, she grew to a height of about 50 feet and annually yielded about 500 pounds of avocados. In the early 1970s a house was built on the property on West Road, but DeWitt Etheridge and his late wife, Joan, who lived in the house for years, graciously allowed visitors to come into their front yard to see the Mother Tree and the bronze plaque placed beneath it by the California Avocado Society and the La Habra Historical Society.
Now all that's left is the plaque. The Mother Tree had started suffering from root rot, and despite efforts to save her, in 2002, at the age of 76, the Mother Tree died and had to be cut down.

"I miss it," DeWitt Etheridge, who's now 80, told me when I stopped by the other day. "That was a good tree."

Hank Brokaw, the nephew of H.H., has the wood from the Mother Tree at his nursery in Saticoy, and has been using it to make commemorative gavels and wooden plaques for avocado aficionados and various historical groups. Some of the wood also went to Rudolph Hass' descendants.

And that's the story of the Hass Mother Tree. She may be gone, but her 30 million direct descendants live on, still putting avocados on our tables. So even though she was just a tree, maybe it's only fitting that we remember her from time to time.

Say, for example, the next time we dip a chip in the guacamole.

Message for Fullerton Union High School, Fullerton, CA, Class of '53

2005-03-30T18:42:00.000-08:00

If you want to get in touch with the FUHS class of '53, you can leave a comment here if you have your own blogspot account or you can e-mail me by clicking on "View My Complete Profile" and finding my e-mail and web site addresses. (The blogs at blogspot are free.) Earl had to take the guest book off his FUHS site because naughty people were writing in it. (No one from our class, of course.) Someone can leave a comment on a blog only if he has an account so that his comment can be traced back to him. Earl is working on a dedicated FUHS blog that will allow only members of his blog to leave comments. Keep in touch if you want to join his blog when he gets it ready.

2005-03-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

Connie and Kahlua March 2005

2005-03-16T21:27:00.000-08:00

Lois Putman Givens

One Way to Upload a Picture into Your User Profile

2005-03-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

After moaning and groaning about how hard it was to upload a picture to a posting using the free "Hello" program (see my comment on one of the Feb postings), it turns out that that is the first step to getting a picture into your User Profile if you don't know any other way.
Step 2 is to edit the post that has the picture. Click "Blogger" in the top left corner of the page to go to the Dashboard. Click "Change Settings". Click the "Posting" tab. Click "Edit Posts". Find the name of the post that has the picture. Click the word "Edit" that is in front of that post. Then you click the "Edit HTML" tab and select the image source name they used. (It will look like http://photos1.blogger.com/img/ and a whole bunch of other numbers and the name you gave the picture and more numbers and then ending with .jpg -for example my picture's img src is http://photos1.blogger.com/img/67/3771/640/KabukiAndConnieOct2004%204X6.jpg )
Step 3 is to right-click that name and copy it.
Step 4 is to get to the form that asks you the URL name of the picture to put on your User Profile and paste that name in. (I used Ctrl V.)
Step 5 is to Save the settings. (You might need to Refresh your page to see the picture, but you will know immediately if it accepted that name because you get a big red error message at the top of the form if it didn't.)
Step 6, if it works, is to give thanks. (If it doesn't work, you probably have your own "Darn It" routine painfully established, but you will have to delete the URL to get rid of the Error message if you ever want to change anything else on that form and get it saved.)

(These directions may not be perfect, but they should give you the general idea. This is the answer that the Blogger support team sent me when I asked what the URL should be:
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=776 )

I am leaving the post with the picture on the page even though I now have the picture on my User Profile as I have no idea what would happen if I deleted it. I sure don't want to go through all this again. (I guess additional postings will force the picture down the page or into the Archives or wherever. I figure this is the least of my problems.)

2005-02-26T22:29:00.000-08:00

Kabuki and Connie Oct 2004

Time to try this new game in town

2005-02-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

My classmate (from the '50's) started a blog site so I saw one for the first time yesterday. I am still trying to figure the whole thing out. I looked at the "Next blog" and the "Next blog" and the "Next blog" from my friend's about 10 times, and I am super impressed with the content. This world has got some interesting people in it, and I am glad so many of them are sharing themselves with the rest of us. One of my main complaints about the Internet is that so many talented people have shared their thoughts without getting the credit they deserve. Many times items have been forwarded to me that are wonderful, but without any clue to their origin. At least the blogger gets his credit (or blame?) as he deserves.

I am trying to get my Stafford and Heathcote cousins to submit info and pictures for my CVanHorn.homestead.com web site, and I haven't had much luck. Maybe this site will help.

Sorry about the big print, but these old eyes need all the help they can get.