Sunday, September 4, 2016

Come, Follow Me



 Rather Earnest Painter



I am moving. You will see why if you'll read this blog post that I have written on my new site. I take with me the name, bemol Ardiente. I hope to take you with me, as well.

Come see me in my new home.

www.ratherearnestpainter.com

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Cat TV

I don't generally let television babysit my cats for me, but if it's a educational nature show, I don't mind.


Sunday, August 28, 2016

Cattitude






I swear this cat sits outside the office and as soon as I approach, the race is on to the office chair. And then lots of attitude.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Bill

In a house full of cats, it's hard to believe that we ever had room for a dog. Fortunately, this one helped us raise some of the kittens. Sweet, gentle Bill had a way with kittens and even as full-grown cats, they still loved him and ran up to him when he came into the room, walking through his legs, rubbing against them. 

Yesterday was National Dog Day. I don't have a dog any more, but I thought I'd make this little post in memory of Bill, the best dog-mamma my cats could ever have hoped for. The best guard dog this property could need. The best companion I could imagine and the most loyal friend ever to walk on the face of the earth. 

Even when he was sick and getting more sick – he was weak, he was tired, but he wanted so badly to make us happy that we found it difficult at times to know what we needed to do to make him happy. We just made sure he was always with us, which is what he really wanted in the end.

Pets, especially dogs, take a piece of our hearts with them when they cross over the Rainbow Bridge.


Rest in Peace, Bill. We love you.

Earnest Painter



Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Why Does my Brain Hurt?

Last week I posted a note for a group that I hang out with (WANATribes). I had had kind of a bad week with family and with myself and I wrote that something just didn't feel right. Like, I don't normally go to work with mismatched shoes on. I threw away my prescription for Stupid Pills, so I wasn't sure what to make of this new, incompetent-yet-rather-amusing Earnie Painter. I did the most logical thing I could do, and that was to visit my doctor. Because, don't you visit the doctor when you're stupid?



My suspicion was confirmed that I was anemic, though not terribly so. The issue is, the iron level has gradually been going down. I had been trying to counter the effects with coffee, but it didn't really help. I was more alert, but I was an alert idiot. Slightly more aware of the mistakes I had made in retrospect and abundantly more reactive to them.

So, armed with this knowledge I doubled down on my efforts to eat leafy vegetables and I began taking iron pills. (Along with vitamin C because my niece is a nutritionist and told me that it would help me absorb the iron.) It's not that I don't eat beef, because I do. It's not that my beef is fast food, because it's not. Hamburgers upset my tummy so I don't eat them, but I'm down with some steak. And, adding greens to my diet actually meant increasing the greens, because I already eat them. I just added spinach to my salad mix. I am to be retested soon.

I think I'm feeling better already. Monday was a little rough because I was dealing with things that I had done last week. Plus, I still get dizzy when I eat first thing in the morning, so some of my reactions were a little out of proportion to what I had actually done. Among the things I did was to write in the time for an online workshop that I took on Monday, and I neglect to note the time zone indicated, which means that I showed up an hour late. At first I thought that the person leading the class was just chatting before it got started, but then I was thinking, "Wow, she's really serious about this chat." I looked around and saw my mistake and lost it just a little bit. I was tired, but mostly I was tired of dealing with things that somebody else was doing to me — that somebody else being myself. At my job I have clients from Atlanta to Anchorage, so time zones are a big part of my life. There was really no excuse for that, except that I was under the influence of stupid when I put it on my calendar. There's been a bit of clean-up lately.

But, I do have more energy and I have gone several days without wearing mismatched shoes. I feel a bit of tightness at the top of my head, like on the scalp, and my head hurts a little bit. There is a ringing in my ear, which might mean that I'm still anemic, from what I've read. We'll see. But, I was wondering why my head was hurting, and why the tingling.


There is still the question of whether or not I'm still anemic. And, either way, one has to ask why I was in the first place. But, for the moment I'm glad to be able to trust myself a little bit more.


Saturday, August 20, 2016

Literary Priorities

I think it says a lot about me that as I was walking out into the light rain -  carrying a book and an electronic device/tablet - I put the electronic device on top to keep the book from getting wet.


Nerd Level: 11

Seen recently in Houston, TX.


Nerd Level: 11