Random 5 for October 11, 2015 – Stupid, health, friendship, service, cats

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stupid-cartoonGad! They did it again – I hate those reports that say something is really bad for you. They scare people! Yes I know eating too much of anything is bad but how about moderation folks! Anyhow, I read an article that said there is no connection between breast cancer and caffeine. I limit my caffeine for other reasons but when I had cancer the first thing they told me was to cut out the caffeine. Oh yes, and the underarm antiperspirants. Turns out there’s no connection there either. Reminds me of the time in the 60s when it was thought that mustard causes cancer. And we all know about eggs and cholesterol!

Where everybody knows your name – This past week the beloved husband and I went to our local pub. We visit at least twice a month. It’s pub fare but the food is good although simple and the cost is cheap. All that’s good but the best part is that everyone knows us. Feels like home. Cheers!

Seriously? – I went to a trendy home store this past weekend. I like shopping there because it’s inexpensive. They have unusual accent pieces that don’t break the bank and you can throw out when you get tired of them. I had one question and a small bag I wanted to buy. There were three staff people and a few customers. All the clerks would work on the same customer (mostly just observing). Took forever. As a customer was exiting, her big bag caught something in the aisle and it fell. (Wasn’t her fault. The aisle was narrow and cluttered.) It wasn’t glass. That tinkles. All three clerks ran to her. (She didn’t fall. In another store, one person would have gone to help and life would have gone on.) The cashier in my line abandoned the register without locking it. She didn’t help but just looked on dumbfounded (while we waited). In the meantime the few people in the store were lining up in back of me for check out. My turn finally came. I was nice. (I know it’s hard to believe as I have no patience with stupid.) I asked my question. She gave me the wrong answer. I re-asked my question explaining why her answer was wrong. She gave me yet another wrong answer. (She was having difficulty telling the difference between shapes – round vs. square vs. oval.) I left the store exasperated. Totally oblivious to her bad service, she asked me to fill out a customer service questionnaire on-line. Oh yeah! Here come da judge!

Look out! – I’m a terrible passenger. I’m the one who breaks and points out everything to the distraction of the driver. Makes the beloved husband nuts. We were at a 4 way stop sign. He stopped as did the other three cars. Unfortunately the last person to enter the intersection thought they should be first through. After we started into it, they came blasting through. It was a near miss. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see it. The car would have T-boned my side. I have to practice my back seat driver skills. Clearly I’m getting rusty.

More Jake – I finished clearing out Jake’s possessions, washing some for reuse and discarding others. I washed his bed with the drool on it. It’s nice and clean and fresh smelling. I had no takers with the other cats. I put in catnip. Still no takers. I got FRESH catnip. They all come to smell it but no one will go in. When Jake was alive any of the cats would use it. Perhaps they have decided to make it a shrine. Gotta love cats!

So how was your week? See any stupid?

33 thoughts on “Random 5 for October 11, 2015 – Stupid, health, friendship, service, cats”

  2. I’m as frustrated as you are with the way the medical journals keep reporting contradictory messages. I think in the end we really are left with our intuition. Moderation is still the best way to go forward, I’d say. I also thought of you this week when I had lunch with a very good friend who just had her dog, a companion of 15 years, put down. As she apologized for tears, I told her about Jake and what you’d written about grief. I do wonder what your other cats are thinking. I think the idea of Jake’s space as a shrine is probably somewhat true! They have their own intuitive instincts going on! 🙂

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    • If I would have given up coffee because of the cancer risk, I would be hopping mad. I am not convinced any specific food causes it. I think it’s more environmental myself. I grew up during the 50s when they were spraying DDT in the farmer’s field around my neighborhood. My mother’s generation who lived in the same neighborhood prior to pesticides (and who knows what else) died of other things. We have learned to manage the scourges of her lifetime — heart disease mostly and lung disease for smokers. I’m also not buying the “but we live longer” thing either. My last aunt died at 102. Most lived well into their 80s in a fairly healthy state. I’m not quite ready to have Jake canonized but he was quite a cat. He was more affectionate than my lady cats although he became quite the diva in his older years.

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  3. Does “cat stupid” count?

    In order to keep both my cats on their own strict diets and not, yknow, dead, I have been keeping them on separate sides of my apartment’s one and only door. Hildi has begun howling for me loudly, any time I am with Nathan and not on her side, in the bedroom. (It’s really quite impressive how loud she gets.)

    But Hildi’s a creature of strong habits — and more than a little senile. She seems to have forgotten WHY the shut door bothers her and remembered only that she now howls at it. Incessantly. Even when I am in the same room as she.

    Even yesterday morning, when I was lying in the very bed where she was sitting, as she howled at the door…in order to make me walk back in from the other side. For twenty minutes straight.

    Hells bells.

    It’s a good thing that cat’s cute, and that I love her. And that killing animals with my bare hands makes me squeamish.

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    • I understand about the other cats not wanting to get in Jake’s bed, by the way. We all mourn in our own ways, even animals, and we all honor those who are now gone.

      I hope that your heart is beginning to ease, at least a bit.

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    • I know the feeling about killing with my bare hands and that feeling isn’t just limited to animals! With Jake diabetic and Hazel on a restricted diet for fat cats, feeding time around here was very regimented. Both Molly and Morgan, who were normal eaters, got their food on top of the counter and bureau where neither Jake nor tubby Hazel could jump. Hazel got her food at the door and she scarfed it up so there was never any chance that Jake would eat it (although he could). My biggest problem was that Jake was a grazer so he would holler (loudly) and I would put his food down, wait for him to finish and pick any leftovers up so Hazel couldn’t eat them. I wasn’t always good and Hazel would hoover anything up. She has lost a half pound since Jake’s death. As for the closed door, they are forbidden in my house. I can’t even go to the bathroom without a cat howling on the other side. (Doesn’t matter which side, if I let her in, she hollers to get out.)

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  4. I get REALLY irritated by stupid; so I’m trying to forget it 5 seconds after it drives me momentarily crazy. Either I’m getting old and my memory is mush, or I’m succeeding. Because I know at least a dozen stupid things went on this past weekend, and I can’t think of a one of them right now.

    Oh, wait. I was going to call a coffee shop franchise yesterday, because I stopped at one of their stores yesterday at 3:45, and their hours plainly said “open till 4:00.” And the staff 92 teenage girls) had decided that because they “were so slow” that they were going to close up early. I know enough about franchises to know that they would be in BIG trouble if I took the time to report them. And they obviously knew it too, because when I WALKED up to the drive up window to have a little old chat with them, they gave me a free iced coffee to assuage me.

    It worked. So maybe they were more diabolical than stupid.

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    • A free drink is ok as long as you got there before they got away! Something similar happened last year. I needed to take a urine sample. I knew the lab closed at 4 and I got there at 3:50 (on all the clocks). They were closed and gone! It was Friday. My choices were to go to the hospital lab (where I waited an hour to pee in a cup) or wait until Monday. As it turns out I should have waited until Monday as I didn’t get the test results until Tuesday anyway. I like to let the “stupid” roll off of my back. It makes for a funny post but stewing isn’t good.

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  5. The poor customer service these days is astounding. I blame it on lack of training. It sounds like you were more than patient. I do as much online shopping as possible but even picking up a few groceries can be frustrating at times. Jake’s shrine: I think he deserves one. He was so special.

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  6. There’s a wonderful scene in the show ‘Portlandia’ where two cars pull up to a four-way stop. But because Portland is such a friendly place, each car insists the other go first. They end up sitting like that for hours, stubbornly insisting the other move. 🙂

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  7. 1. Here’s my barometer for food ~> if it makes me feel good NOW, it’s good for me NOW. That alone helps with moderation because too much of anything makes me feel bad NOW.

    I’m not going to worry about 5 years down the road since I could be hit by a bus next week.

    Carpe Diem.

    2. We had a tavern pretzel (with beer cheese sauce) this week. No one knew our name at the pub, but we didn’t mind because we were too busy stuffing our faces.

    That pretzel was GOOD for us because it made us feel good NOW. (See #1)

    3. I limit my shopping frustration by limiting my shopping and NEVER going when I’m in a rush. Most weeks our only shopping is for groceries. Because we like to eat. (See #1).

    4. I never assume that the driver sees all potential pitfalls. I happily point them out. Because I don’t want to be hit by a bus next week. (See #1)

    5. You need a cat-mind-reader to interpret for you. Or a Magic 8 Ball. Unless you have Tarot cards. Or tea leaves. Or a pair of dice.

    It’s a crap shoot since cats are FICKLE. They use the same barometer I do: “If it makes me feel good NOW, it’s good for me NOW.” (See #1)

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  8. I don’t pay much attention to those ever changing medical studies. First it’s good for you, then it’s bad. I knew long ago the egg and cholesterol study was a bust. I’ve eatten two eggs a day for years, along with cheese and my cholesterol is excellent.
    Looks like we might eek out a win today, Kate…yay!

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  9. Oh keep the bed around as a memento for the cats. I cleared Mac’s stuff out too fast, but then pulled out his bed again because they just like having it there. Tiger growled at Kana today and Kana lay down. I think that’s an improvement. Good for Tiger for sticking up for herself, but does she have to sound like a lunatic drama queen? hah Re the customer service. It isn’t just us getting older and frustrated with it. My 27 year old daughter is up to HERE with the bad service and bad attitudes–and she used to be so laidback.

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    • Sounds like they will find their place in the hierarchy of catdom eventually. I know I always worry too. My husband couldn’t believe how patient I was (I’m not known for my patience). He would have left. The had an occasional table group that I liked but the size I needed wasn’t on display and I had no idea what the dimensions were. If it weren’t for that, I would have put my purchase down and walked out. I sent in a scathing review to their customer service department. There are some stores that are so awesome and others that just don’t care.

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  10. I love that the other cats won’t sleep in it, like they’re waiting for him to come home from a trip. Sp sweet.
    I almost lost it with two young girls at a cafe making lattes like it was their college thesis. I took breaths like I was swimming the channel knowing if it were me, I’d still be stumbling around for the milk,
    I thought caffeine was good for cancer, so I’m ahead of things. Moderation is the key, whether it’s spoonfuls of frosting, jelly shots or pot. Not that I smoke anymore, but again…a duble once in while wouldn’t hurt anything. You might eat more frosting though.
    Love the random 5 🙂

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  11. Awe, the cats miss Jake. They’re the best!
    We’ve got a local Indian restaurant that we like going to. Everyone knows us and is very friendly. Keeps us going back.
    You behaved better than I think I would have in the store. Frustrated just reading this! My friend had a very similar experience with car dealer service dept. After going back and forth, back and forth, with service sales rep to her dis-satisfaction the same guy called her the next day as a routine follow up to ask how service was. She told him and his manager and got results. My bf likes to point road hazards out to me when he’s a passenger. I finally asked him to stop!

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  12. Let’s see, paying bills, taking care of grandchildren, taking care of youngest granddaughter and taking her to the doctor for pinkeye, pressure washing and painting two coats of primer on a wooden merry-go-round downtown, prepping for city council meeting, creating and delivering church bulletins for today’s service, painting the merry-go-round in primary colors (two coats), moderating the city council meeting, signing city checks and paychecks, scrubbing walls and shelves and rearranging church office and starting to clean out our attic so kids don’t have to wonder what to do with all that “stuff” in the future. On to finishing the attic and starting on the basement. It was a week and I’m grateful that I have the strength and energy to do it.

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  13. AW! A shrine for Jake. Impractical, of course, but, well, cats!

    Ugh! Yeah, I have your basic Germanic tolerance for inefficiency. ZERO. I’d be muttering by then. I’ve written letters, I get so irritated. (Also, if I love a store, I feel like the manager deserves a chance to fire an ineffectual employee. But to do that, they have to know there’s a problem.)

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