ahhh, the joys of life
Another lengthy post, my friends.
My kids returned home to me yesterday. They were so excited to see me (that's me being sarcastic) that my son gave me some limp hug and darted upstairs to his precious computer and to text message the rest of the day away with his on-again/off-again girlfriend.
My daughter was so damn excited to see me (that's me being even more sarcastic) that she came in, dropped her stuff off, gave me a hug a little less limp than my son's and went right back out to do errands with her dad.
Oh don't mind me. I'll just sit here. By myself. Again. It's not like I haven't done enough of that for a week.
I'm having computer issues. Again. Hmmm...where should I start first?!
Talk about acting like a tempermental bitch on the rag! One day it chooses to work, the next it decides it's going on hiatus. I can almost hear it taunting me "I'll work when I want to work, bitch!". It's slower than shit...if that makes any sense. Maybe I should say that it's slower than molasses. Yeah, that's a better description. Imagine molasses dripping s l o w l y out of a bottle and you actually turning gray waiting for that first drop to make an appearance. That's exactly what my computer has been like for the past year.
Most of you know that I choose to use dial-up despite the high-speed technology available at my fingertips so when I got this computer several years back, I just used the internal modem. It started off as a 56k (I know, lightning speed!) and after taking it to those fuckers who are supposedly in the computer technology business and, well, fucked it up while trying to clean all the unnecessary hoo-ha off of it, it came home a 26.4k. WTF?! I once worked for a modem company and I don't even think they make external modems that slow!
Anyway, since then it's been acting like a two year old having a crack-addicted tantrum and I should probably get a new one but since The Great Appliance Meltdown of 2008 (I would direct you to the post from my previous blog but it seems there are several and no one has enough time in a day to get through all of them) struck not too long ago and the economy being in the shitter, I just don't see the point. I realize this would probably be the best time for me to get a new one because of the holiday sales but to be perfectly honest, my parents bought me this one and told me to let them know when I needed another one and since I was born a princess, I'm not dumb enough not to look a gift horse in the mouth, ya' know?! I'm also not smart enough to ask them for a new one since I've just spent lengthy amounts of time getting this fucker to where it's working without giving me any backtalk!
I've used McAfee Security software for my computer for years but I've developed such brain damage from using it in the last two years alone, it makes me want to hunt down Mr. and/or Mrs. McAfee and bust a cap in his/her ass. Every other day it sends me warnings that my computer is unprotected and then when I make any attempts to fix it, I have to wait 82 hours for my computer to kick it into gear and then it tells me that it couldn't fix the fucking problem! Rrrrrr! When it told me the other day that it failed to update a specific portion of it and I had to reinstall the whole damn thing, I washed my hands of it (or so I thought). When I bought my son's computer a few months ago, a bought another type of security software that the salesperson recommended and one that can protect more than one PC. Yesterday, I decided to say 'fuck you' to McAfee, uninstalled it and installed the new one thinking that I would finally have a software I could trust to really protect my computer.
Well, that was short-lived! First it took me two tries to load it, then I had it scan my computer for viruses but I couldn't get it to stop scanning after it was still going after twelve freakin' hours. I should have also heeded the warning I received when the message window popped up to tell me that my computer didn't have enough memory to use this particular software so everything would be considerably slower on my computer. Well, everything's been considerably slower on my computer for a fucking year now so BFD! THEN, the first time I tried to activate the account, I skimmed through a message that said something about if I had a problem with receiving Email messages, blah, blah, blah...which I should have listened to because once this fucker started loading, I couldn't send or receive Email messages. Oh and then it wouldn't allow me to activate the account.
*heavy sigh*
By this time, I realized I was fucked in the fanny with all this computer shit and decided to uninstall the new software and reinstall McAfee. As of this very moment, my computer is still running on 26.4k speed but the McAfee and my Email are working. Yeah, I know I've just jinxed myself, shut up!
Now...let's talk about my thinning hair 'cause I know this is yet another topic y'all would have an interest in. MY thinning hear. Breaking news. No pun intended.
It seems I'm following closely in Schwartz's shadow. My daughter and I have been trying to grow our hair out for some time now for Locks of Love or one of the other hair-donating charities and I'm kinda' fed up. Not only have I not gotten my hair cut in a long time but I have bad hair days everyday and I've recently noticed that there's one part of my hair, of course directly in front for all to notice, where this one portion always hangs away from the rest of the gang and shows my scalp. It's very attractive, lemme' tell you! I know that once I get my hair cut this will correct itself and after doing some research this morning, I learned that after all this time I can't even donate my hair because the person donating has to be 18 years of age or younger. Nor can the person have any gray in their hair which wouldn't work for me either since I have a skunk stripe in my hair (which is really cool, by the way, if I do say so myself!).
And since I've mentioned Schwartz, what would a blog post be without my telling you a little bit about what's going on with him?!
As mentioned in my previous post, he's been taking steroids and ear drops. He's doing fine with the ear drops and he's almost done with them. I haven't seen him pull or scratch at his left ear since the day he started the drops. The steroids are another story. His reaction to those have been drinking more and loss of bladder control. Not a complete loss but after making a moat of pee around my dining room table last night, oh yeah, and me stepping in it again, it's getting close.
Here's the good news...his blood test came back normal. No thyroid issues. The bad news...he may have Cushings Disease and in dogs, that's bad news as it can lead to a multitude of health problems. Generally, Schwartz is very young to have such a problem but given that he has some of the symptoms mentioned in the article, I'm thinking he may just have such a disease. A few of the symptoms are: hair loss, weight gain, darkened pigment of the skin, sores/raised bumps and having accidents inside the house. I'm suspicious about the accidents though because he didn't start having them until after he was started on the steroids and, as I stated in my previous blog post, the doctor warned me he would be thirstier and pee more often from the medication and it just may be that his bladder fills up more quickly and he just can't hold it long enough to warn me that he has to go out. The article reads that the dog may also be lethargic but frankly, this dog has always loved his naps so it's hard to tell if he's actually exhibiting that symptom! Also, they have an aversion to jumping up onto things that they were once used to jumping on and he did demonstrate hind leg issues last week with his bad leg when I first started him on the medication. He's been ravenous at mealtimes, another symptom of Cushings, whereas up until a few months ago I was lucky if he would be interested in eating one meal/day. Now, he can't eat fast enough and will usually eat an entire bowl of food in under two minutes. It also mentions in this article that terriers in general are susceptible to this disease and if any of you recall, Schwartz is mostly terrier. He is getting tested for it this week and I'll let you know the results as I get them.
As many issues as I've had with this dog from the very beginning, he is part of the family, loved, a truly decent dog and the worst case scenario is that I will be forced to cut his life short. IF it's Cushings and we've caught it in the early stages, he may have a better chance at having a fulfilling life but if this requires more tests, I may have to make that decision sooner than later.
I hate to end this post on such a low note but my kids are up by now and starving like they haven't seen food in a year so y'all enjoy the rest of your weekend!
My kids returned home to me yesterday. They were so excited to see me (that's me being sarcastic) that my son gave me some limp hug and darted upstairs to his precious computer and to text message the rest of the day away with his on-again/off-again girlfriend.
My daughter was so damn excited to see me (that's me being even more sarcastic) that she came in, dropped her stuff off, gave me a hug a little less limp than my son's and went right back out to do errands with her dad.
Oh don't mind me. I'll just sit here. By myself. Again. It's not like I haven't done enough of that for a week.
I'm having computer issues. Again. Hmmm...where should I start first?!
Talk about acting like a tempermental bitch on the rag! One day it chooses to work, the next it decides it's going on hiatus. I can almost hear it taunting me "I'll work when I want to work, bitch!". It's slower than shit...if that makes any sense. Maybe I should say that it's slower than molasses. Yeah, that's a better description. Imagine molasses dripping s l o w l y out of a bottle and you actually turning gray waiting for that first drop to make an appearance. That's exactly what my computer has been like for the past year.
Most of you know that I choose to use dial-up despite the high-speed technology available at my fingertips so when I got this computer several years back, I just used the internal modem. It started off as a 56k (I know, lightning speed!) and after taking it to those fuckers who are supposedly in the computer technology business and, well, fucked it up while trying to clean all the unnecessary hoo-ha off of it, it came home a 26.4k. WTF?! I once worked for a modem company and I don't even think they make external modems that slow!
Anyway, since then it's been acting like a two year old having a crack-addicted tantrum and I should probably get a new one but since The Great Appliance Meltdown of 2008 (I would direct you to the post from my previous blog but it seems there are several and no one has enough time in a day to get through all of them) struck not too long ago and the economy being in the shitter, I just don't see the point. I realize this would probably be the best time for me to get a new one because of the holiday sales but to be perfectly honest, my parents bought me this one and told me to let them know when I needed another one and since I was born a princess, I'm not dumb enough not to look a gift horse in the mouth, ya' know?! I'm also not smart enough to ask them for a new one since I've just spent lengthy amounts of time getting this fucker to where it's working without giving me any backtalk!
I've used McAfee Security software for my computer for years but I've developed such brain damage from using it in the last two years alone, it makes me want to hunt down Mr. and/or Mrs. McAfee and bust a cap in his/her ass. Every other day it sends me warnings that my computer is unprotected and then when I make any attempts to fix it, I have to wait 82 hours for my computer to kick it into gear and then it tells me that it couldn't fix the fucking problem! Rrrrrr! When it told me the other day that it failed to update a specific portion of it and I had to reinstall the whole damn thing, I washed my hands of it (or so I thought). When I bought my son's computer a few months ago, a bought another type of security software that the salesperson recommended and one that can protect more than one PC. Yesterday, I decided to say 'fuck you' to McAfee, uninstalled it and installed the new one thinking that I would finally have a software I could trust to really protect my computer.
Well, that was short-lived! First it took me two tries to load it, then I had it scan my computer for viruses but I couldn't get it to stop scanning after it was still going after twelve freakin' hours. I should have also heeded the warning I received when the message window popped up to tell me that my computer didn't have enough memory to use this particular software so everything would be considerably slower on my computer. Well, everything's been considerably slower on my computer for a fucking year now so BFD! THEN, the first time I tried to activate the account, I skimmed through a message that said something about if I had a problem with receiving Email messages, blah, blah, blah...which I should have listened to because once this fucker started loading, I couldn't send or receive Email messages. Oh and then it wouldn't allow me to activate the account.
*heavy sigh*
By this time, I realized I was fucked in the fanny with all this computer shit and decided to uninstall the new software and reinstall McAfee. As of this very moment, my computer is still running on 26.4k speed but the McAfee and my Email are working. Yeah, I know I've just jinxed myself, shut up!
Now...let's talk about my thinning hair 'cause I know this is yet another topic y'all would have an interest in. MY thinning hear. Breaking news. No pun intended.
It seems I'm following closely in Schwartz's shadow. My daughter and I have been trying to grow our hair out for some time now for Locks of Love or one of the other hair-donating charities and I'm kinda' fed up. Not only have I not gotten my hair cut in a long time but I have bad hair days everyday and I've recently noticed that there's one part of my hair, of course directly in front for all to notice, where this one portion always hangs away from the rest of the gang and shows my scalp. It's very attractive, lemme' tell you! I know that once I get my hair cut this will correct itself and after doing some research this morning, I learned that after all this time I can't even donate my hair because the person donating has to be 18 years of age or younger. Nor can the person have any gray in their hair which wouldn't work for me either since I have a skunk stripe in my hair (which is really cool, by the way, if I do say so myself!).
And since I've mentioned Schwartz, what would a blog post be without my telling you a little bit about what's going on with him?!
As mentioned in my previous post, he's been taking steroids and ear drops. He's doing fine with the ear drops and he's almost done with them. I haven't seen him pull or scratch at his left ear since the day he started the drops. The steroids are another story. His reaction to those have been drinking more and loss of bladder control. Not a complete loss but after making a moat of pee around my dining room table last night, oh yeah, and me stepping in it again, it's getting close.
Here's the good news...his blood test came back normal. No thyroid issues. The bad news...he may have Cushings Disease and in dogs, that's bad news as it can lead to a multitude of health problems. Generally, Schwartz is very young to have such a problem but given that he has some of the symptoms mentioned in the article, I'm thinking he may just have such a disease. A few of the symptoms are: hair loss, weight gain, darkened pigment of the skin, sores/raised bumps and having accidents inside the house. I'm suspicious about the accidents though because he didn't start having them until after he was started on the steroids and, as I stated in my previous blog post, the doctor warned me he would be thirstier and pee more often from the medication and it just may be that his bladder fills up more quickly and he just can't hold it long enough to warn me that he has to go out. The article reads that the dog may also be lethargic but frankly, this dog has always loved his naps so it's hard to tell if he's actually exhibiting that symptom! Also, they have an aversion to jumping up onto things that they were once used to jumping on and he did demonstrate hind leg issues last week with his bad leg when I first started him on the medication. He's been ravenous at mealtimes, another symptom of Cushings, whereas up until a few months ago I was lucky if he would be interested in eating one meal/day. Now, he can't eat fast enough and will usually eat an entire bowl of food in under two minutes. It also mentions in this article that terriers in general are susceptible to this disease and if any of you recall, Schwartz is mostly terrier. He is getting tested for it this week and I'll let you know the results as I get them.
As many issues as I've had with this dog from the very beginning, he is part of the family, loved, a truly decent dog and the worst case scenario is that I will be forced to cut his life short. IF it's Cushings and we've caught it in the early stages, he may have a better chance at having a fulfilling life but if this requires more tests, I may have to make that decision sooner than later.
I hate to end this post on such a low note but my kids are up by now and starving like they haven't seen food in a year so y'all enjoy the rest of your weekend!
posted by Michelle Flaherty at
9:02 AM
5 Comments:
Poor Schwartz! That little guy has been through so much already, and now he could have something that's even worse? Ugh. And here I complain about MY stupid issues.
I hope the tests show he's okay, and I hope you get your computer issues fixed soon. Well, actually I hope you get a NEW computer soon - I'm so frustrated every time I go to my folks' and have to use their dial up that I can't even imagine futzing with it every day!
It is time to get a new computer, and scrap the dial up. Good God Girl! What are you waiting for? People living in mud huts in Haiti won't even use dial up! With a high speed connection and a new computer, you won't even care if your kids don't miss you, or that your hair is thinning! People will cease to be annoying and you will have a perpetual smile on your face that not even your co-class-mom buddy can wipe off. Please, I beg you, get a high speed connection so I can sleep better at night knowing you have made it in to the 90's.
On a more serious note, I'll keep my fingers crossed for Schwartz.
I take prednisone, a corticosteroid (note cortisol) that can cause Cushings disease. Steroids shut off the natural production of cortisone in humans, but it may not in canines—in other words, Schwartz is possibly getting too much.
WavyDavy already did a job on your computer, so I'll defer to him.
And what's so bad about your hair? When I was a kid, the ringworm look was in vogue.
GP,thanks. Dial-up isn't so bad. I can appreciate how much faster high-speed can take someone but I only do a few things on the computer so I don't have enough of a reason
to get it for myself.
Dave, I think your rant about my computer has jinxed me and caused yet another problem - it seems now while I'm typing the cursor decides
to skip around my words so I add the wrong letter in the wrong space. Because of that, I can no longer type my 70-some words/minute but now I have to watch the screen carefully so as not to make mistakes. So thanks a fucking lot!! ;)
Charlie, Schwartz has been on Predisone since his ear infection last week. The most it's done to
him is caused him to drink and pee excessively. He's had the fur loss and some of the other symptoms before taking this medicine so I would find it hard to believe if
it made his condition worse.
Heh. You know, McAfee used to be my neighbor. Sort of.
He had a huge estate across the highway that he auctioned off a few years ago.
A bit of an odd bird.
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