He wants to be brushed. And I have enough fur to knit another cat.
The koi have all survived, even Jane’s late-season pity-buy of a little black shadow that you couldn’t see except by movement. He’s grown during the winter (without eating: go figure) and is still shy, but he’s ok and showing gold edges on the side fins, so he may have some unexpected attributes.
We are now feeding the fish Cheerios, a safe food for cold weather. And the pond is clearing nicely.
New splash picture! Is that what the pond currently looks like?
I’m having a miserable allergy attack, but since we are already down 3 out of 7 staff and I’m the only management, I must stay. I am seriously thinking of taking tomorrow off if this doesn’t improve. I also have to be here to give paperwork to our new potential janitor; our previous one told us last Tuesday that Saturday would be his last day 😛
An atevi koi — black and gold?
something isn’t sitting right with Junior, the jarhead cat; he’s frisky and vocal, but has had bouts last week of running at both ends. Thank heavens for couch throws!
OK, we can chalk that one up to the effect of the antihistamine, et al, meds you’re taking for the cold. 😉
Sorry; TMI about Senor Don Gato?
No, about a “splash picture” of a lily pond.
There’s a long article in the New Yorker about the new discovery at the KT (or KPg) boundary:
The Day the Dinosaurs Died
The answer to Paul’s point about the distance from the impact site seems to be seiche waves.
There’s still some skepticism about the discovery. The discoverer, Robert DePalma, seems to be a bit of a ‘character’. Many scientists have been waiting for the initial paper to be published. It’s now just become available online, and has several co-authors with reasonable reputations.
DePalma is saying that the site records the first hour of impact effect. There seems to be some evidence of dinosaurs, meaning they had not previously been wiped out by the Deccan Traps.
Sorry, guess I wasn’t clear, my concern about distance was whether the “impactor” could by itself have caused the Deccan Traps. The Deccan Traps are roughly a third the circumference of the Earth away from Yucatan. The lithosphere isn’t entirely rigid, but absorbs some seismic energy, and it’s hard to understand how enough would be focused on the Deccan to release 200,000 cubic miles of magma over 30,000 years or so. Coincidence, in my mind.
My greater concern is this one observation. If the same thing is seen at a second site, now that everybody is alert to pay special attention to stratigraphy, not just bones, then that’s a coincidence. But when a handful are found, THAT is evidence! Then the scientists working in the field will propose and argue over a number of hypotheses, eventually reaching major consensus on one, maybe two, worth confirming. Then that/those will be used to make predictions of different facts to be observed than any existing theory, and the search will be to find confirmations. Eventually, the hypothesis that explains the obesrvations, old and new, best will be elevated to a theory, which has a totally different meaning in Science than common parlance. That’s the “Scientific Method”, sketchily.
About halfway around the world – taking into account plate tectonics. (Which does matter.)
And you keep trying to treat it like it’s experimental science, which it isn’t. This is OBSERVATIONAL science.
There is no such thing. Science is “experimental” if you prefer that word, I’d use “empirical”. One observation is only interesting. It must be confirmed.
“Science (from the Latin word scientia, meaning “knowledge”) is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.” Wikipedia
Until an observation is confirmed, leads to testable hypotheses and confirmed predictions, it’s not Science. String Theory, Dark Energy, Dark Matter are not Science–they’re not testable. In 1915 General Relativity wasn’t Science. It made predictions, but it wasn’t testable, yet. It explained the Precession of Mercury, but it wasn’t until experiments showing light bending in the Sun’s gravity field in 1919 that it passed its first test.
(Why wasn’t the Precession of Mercury a sufficient test? Because it’s relatively easy to come up with a theory that explains a known observation, i.e. find a path that goes to a known destination. In such terms, it’s when the theory tells us something about a place nobody’s ever been, THAT’s a successful test of the theory. Gravitational Lensing was that test.)
Paul, with respect, you keep arguing over the definitions of scientific terms with people who are, like you, also trained in sciences, or at least have university degrees, indicating some basic understanding of terms and of science. Why belabor it? No one wishes to keep arguing with you over it.
Even I recall from basic science that waves move through different materials at different rates and angles and scattering. Those waves would indeed propagate to some degree into the core before either dissipating or being transferred to the next points in the wavefront’s path, until it dissipates to zero. The egg example was apt.
Evidence — A single data point is still a piece of evidence, a datum. One line of text on a potshard or wall is still an item of. evidence. In fact, in that case, it could be argued it gives a lot more data points on the medium written on, the medium used to paint the glyphs, the glyphs themselves, the bit of language evidence they give, and so on. An observation is also still an item of evidence, even if it is a sole datum. Sure, it might require hypotheses and testing to prove it. However, it’s still evidentiary. To claim that one or a set of data points are not evidence, or to argue over observational versus testing is either one science or not? Come on, they’re both part of the scientific process, and that is not really disputed by anyone here. So please don’t belabor it. No one’s trying to argue against you. but. you’re acting as if people trained in science don’t know what they’re talking about, while discussing other scientists’ research papers, as if they don’t get it either. Let it go, please. None of us wishes to be at odds with you or argue over what’s not really in dispute anyway, because we do know what it means.
I have a liberal arts education (English and French, primarily, and other courses along with them) as well as math and science (and several computer science) courses. And professionally, I worked with graphic arts and what used to be called desktop publishing. I edited and wrote some, and did a whole lot of proofreading and copyediting, as well as a course in medical transcription, which I aced. My academic transcript is exceeding varied, mostly because I was in crisis over not coming out as gay. If I could have come out sooner and resolved that dilemma, its own infinite loop in my head at the time, I likely would have done fine. My crummy two year associate’s degree with honor roll, does not reflect my overall education. — So therefore, I do know a little bit about a lot of things, and a reasonable amount about a few subjects. So although I wouldn’t pretend to grasp the full import of physics or chemistry or a number of sciences, yet I also do know enough to get the ideas to a reasonable degree when presented with them.
You’re trying to argue basic definitions with people who do know them, as if they are ignorant of them. Please let it go.
Science is a wonderful tool to understand what is so interesting in our universe; to understand how and why things work, and to further the boundaries of what we know. Asking basic questions, making observations, hypotheses, and testing them, then modifying them, are great ways to understand things.
Asking what-if’s and speculating about the possibilities, imagining things, even unlikely or impossible things, to examine edge cases or assumptions, these things are also important in fiction and philosophy and even in science. They help us understand what is and what is not, and what might be, and what we do or do not understand properly, or fully.
Why seek to denigrate that or squash it? It is valuable still, including within science, but also within all of human endeavor.
But why keep on insisting that others are not right, or that they do not understand basic definitions, or act as if they are ignorant? Particularly, why do that when they may study in that very field, or when they are trained and practicing in other fields of science, or of study, such as the liberal arts? Just because some of us are over in the arts does not mean we also are not actively trained in or interested vitally in, areas of science. — I personally feel that the STEM acronym is incomplete. Why isn’t it STEAM instead, for a complete education, Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Mathematics. Those liberal arts are equally valuable and, I would argue, necessary, to integrate with the others for a fuller understanding of our universe, in a fully educated person.
So — If you want my TLDR version — Dude, let it go. Let’s get to something more productive than arguing over definitions that are not in dispute to begin with.
I say that in all equanimity. We’ve clashed in the past, but even so, I still would rather see/hear what you have that’s worthwhile and unique. And I have no great wish to fuss with you, but come on, it’s getting on people’s nerves, when we’d rather enjoy what’s good about your company. I would hope you can see that, beyond people trying to talk to you about such disputes, when they are unnecessary to begin with. We’d like to hear from you, but continued fussing with people isn’t helping anyone, you or others. Let it be. Trust that people do know a thing or two about what they’re saying and what they are educated in. Please.
The shockwave might have propagated through the earth’s core as well as through the lithosphere, according to an article I read maybe two yrars ago. That’s why the plate tectonics showing that the Deccan traps were roughly across the earth from Chixculub at the time of impact matter, as PJ Evans said.
Extra sites to confirm the observations would be great. Maybe now archeologists know that seiches in large lakes can leave such great evidence, including the tiny glass beads, they will find a few more possible sites to explore, to confirm that this was a global phenomenon (and not something caused by a more local volcanic outburst or anything like that).
Seismic waves do not go THROUGH the core. The point on the surface opposite an earthquake is “in shadow”. It all has to do with the, to apply terms of optics, index of refraction being dependent on the viscosity of the magma, hence temperature and depth.
Here’s an image of how they propagate through the Earth.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Earthquake_wave_paths.svg/800px-Earthquake_wave_paths.svg.png
I grew up in LA, so I was a bit “predisposed” to be “aware” of seismology. Then, while I worked for a company called TRW, was writing software for a USAF S.A.L.T. (Strategic Arms Limititation Treaty) Verification project called Global Subsurface Surveillance System (GSS) that was destined for Patrick Air Force Station at “the Cape” in FLorida. It was to receive real-time data from seismometers around the world–they wouldn’t tell us where–looking for underground nuclear testing blasts. That increased my interest and learning about these propagation modes.
The diagram shows the K waves going through the outer core. So they DO go “through the core”. (You really need to watch out. I’m a Californian, and geology and seismology are something like a hobby. And you can certainly tell when the P and S waves arrive.)
So am I! Native Angeliño, born and bred. Been through my share. I remember Sylmar very well! (You may be interested in a book(let) SciAm published years ago of collected articles about the block movement, etc., of the southern San Andreas Fault. I gave mine away.)
They enter, but are deflected out. They don’t go “through the core”. The site opposite is in a seismic shadow.
As to what caused the Traps: “It is postulated that the Deccan Traps eruption was associated with a deep mantle plume. The area of long-term eruption (the hotspot), known as the Réunion hotspot, is suspected of both causing the Deccan Traps eruption and opening the rift that once separated the Seychelles plateau from India. Seafloor spreading at the boundary between the Indian and African Plates subsequently pushed India north over the plume, which now lies under Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The mantle plume model has, however, been challenged.
Data continue to emerge that support the plume model. The motion of the Indian tectonic plate and the eruptive history of the Deccan traps show strong correlations. Based on data from marine magnetic profiles, a pulse of unusually rapid plate motion began at the same time as the first pulse of Deccan flood basalts, which is dated at 67 million years ago. The spreading rate rapidly increased and reached a maximum at the same time as the peak basaltic eruptions. The spreading rate then dropped off, with the decrease occurring around 63 million years ago, by which time the main phase of Deccan volcanism ended. This correlation is seen as driven by plume dynamics.
There is some evidence to link the Deccan Traps eruption to the asteroid impact that created the nearly antipodal Chicxulub crater in the Mexican state of Yucatán. Although the Deccan Traps began erupting well BEFORE [emphasis mine] the impact, argon-argon dating suggests that the impact may have caused an increase in permeability that allowed magma to reach the surface and produced the most voluminous flows, accounting for around 70% of the volume. The combination of the asteroid impact and the resulting increase in eruptive volume may have been responsible for the mass extinctions that occurred at the time that separates the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, known as the K–Pg boundary” Wikipedia
Wouldn’t the core ‘bounce’ like an egg yolk in its shell or a brain in its skull?
It appears everyone here has different interpretations of the same words, so I’m unsure how to interpret your question. But remember, the inner core is the most fluid of all, but also the most constrained by the pressure of the surrounding layers. Neither an egg shell nor skull exert pressure internally. They’re just containers. I can’t imagine a force strong enough to do what I’m imagining you mean.
We’ve never “seen” inner core matter. It may be very different than we imagine.
OK, that I can understand. What about inertia balls?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_cradle
There are a number of reasons that’s different.
1) The balls are very, very rigid, so the collision is very, very nearly perfectly elastic(!), kinetic energy is conserved. (Yeah, I know, we normally think of elastic as something stretching and returning, but in the ways we usually observe it, e.g. rubber bands, that form of elasticity LOSES energy. The balls aren’t “perfectly” rigid, so also lose energy to deformation.)
Rock, especially hot, viscous, rock is not perfectly elastic, though it’s opportunities for losing energy through deformation are limited in this case. Pressure can cause energy loss through crystal transformation.
2) Because the spherical balls are uniform throughout, AND the points of contact are exactly opposite, the direct and internally reflective paths of kinetic energy are transmitted to the directly opposite “pole” (what I meant as “through” in previous posts).
(It wouldn’t work the same if the “balls” were hollow shells (deformable and without internal reflections), or nonuniform internally, i.e. made of layers of different material, as is the Earth. It doesn’t actually work, i.e. eventually “runs down”, because the points of contact are only by rare chance “exactly” opposite, and the balls “hop” imperceptably.)
3) Impact, earthquakes, and sound are pressure waves, essentially kinetic. They depend on the motion of atoms, and that motion is also a function of the material’s temperature. (If I want to jump in the shower, I reach in and turn on the hot water then stand outside and listen to the noise of the water in the plumbing. When the pitch drops, I know the water is hot and I can step in. (Physics in everyday life.))
That is shown in that Wikipedia image I posted before, besides also showing the effect of internal reflections. The speed of the pressure wave, P-wave, “in the medium” changes with depth, i.e. temperature, (it’s faster with lower temperature and greater rigidity of the rock) and that, much like Snell’s Law, “deforms” the path of wave, causing it to bend back towards the surface. When geologists are correlating the timing of various seismometers’ data, they must take the fact that the speed of transmission is not constant into account. (Shear waves, S-waves, being transverse, are a lot more complicated, and their speed is slower.) This is all entirely different than Newton’s Cradle.
In recent years these differences have been used in “Seismic Tomography”! There are now maps of the temperature gradients in different parts of the mantle.
[The operative word in ASD is “Spectrum” (the least–“Disorder”). In my case I was just a “natural born” scientist, and my brain is a sponge for all kinds of scientific knowledge and seems to have a facility for “connecting” it all together. A polymath? Perhaps, I can’t really say how much is enough. I can’t remember the last football game I watched, but I watch “Nova”, etc., every week! 😉 ]
You may have caught that I was barred from Chemistry and Physics in high school. They were the exclusive territory of Honor Society, and though my grades qualified me easily, I had just moved to a small town and they had ‘questions’ about my personal honor. Too bad for all concerned. I was a self-righteous prig in 1972, and am still one today!
I thank you, Paul et allii, for increasing my knowledge base in an easily understandable fashion. My guesses as to the way things work are all observational/anecdotal.
That jogged loose a memory I had about something I read in a forensic thriller called coup-contrecoup injuries. What happens when a blow to the head (‘coup’) is strong enough to rattle the brain around inside, the side of the brain opposite the initial impact also get damaged (‘contrecoup’). Could something like this partly account for the increase in upwelling at the Deccan Traps around the time of the Chicxulub impact?
The primary “agent” of the Deccan Traps was the Reunion Hotspot. And please review previous points made about seismic shadows.
It is true (I’ve seen it) that after a very large quake, the Earth can “ring like a bell” for over a day after. But vibrations diminish rapidly. There are suggestions of, and speculation about, a connection, but it’s not accepted truth. One thing about Science is not many things are “settled once and forever”.
I believe you and I are talking past one another, with fundamental agreements on several points. The Deccan Traps were the result of the Reunion hotspot, accepted. There was an increase in the outpouring around the same time as the Chicxulub impact. Correlation may not be causation, but the impact could have ‘forced’ more basalt out (the ‘increase in permeability’), like dropping something heavy on an already open and oozing tube of toothpaste. Now what was the mechanism that sped up the plate movement in that area around the same time?
That’s essentially what I understand too. But most of this is all speculation, beyond the broad outlines. AFAIK, there’s still a lot of uncertainty about the magnitude of the impact, nor have simulations been done showing what it would have done seismically. A simulation would only give us an idea of what COULD have happened, or course. If one looks at simulated plate motion reconstructions, India was “racing” to its collision with Asia with impressive speed.
Comment I just read that article. it was fascinating. I have no science to evaulate it but he sure did find a lot of totally cool stuff in one place, mostly stuff that didn’t belong together. Like the fossil of a fish that was impaled on another fossile fish. Whether or not he has the answer to why all that stuff was jumbled up together in the fossile record, it is still an amazing article, and an awesome find.
I would gladly brush the sweet baby, but don’t think my arms would reach . . . I miss my sweet baby(ies). (A year ago January since I lost the fat(cat)boy.) I’ll be fine for weeks, then suddenly PANG!
Cleared for surgery by my cardiologist! The only remaining hurdle between me and a new knee (knew nee?) is whether VA/TriWest will approve the surgery, et. al., to be done here. Taking it one step/day at a time.
A black and gold Koi! What Jane thought was a pity buy may have been her responding to fate. . .
Aren’t Tabini’s colors black and red?
Congratulations on getting the approval for the new knee!
I recently saw an article about people who qualified for VA still getting stuck with huge medical bills for emergency procedures, if they were taken to local/non-VA hospitals by non-VA ambulances and treated by out-of-policy anesthesists and such.
It might be a good idea, if you’re waiting on approval of getting the operation done locally, to insist on a letter from the VA that all costs incurred for the local surgery will be paid/dealt with by the VA. Maybe it’s not necessary, but your American predatory healthcare system scares me.
I also just lost my cat, and I’m missing her. She’d been eating less, getting a bit nauseous since the end of last year, and we (the vets and I) thought we’d figured out she had become allergic or intolerant of something in her food. I’d been trying many different foods to find some she’d like and tolerate, but after a few weeks she always ended up either not eating them anymore or spitting up fluid later.
The last two weeks she was suddenly a lot worse, constantly drooling, not keeping herself clean, messing food about all around her feeding station but not eating much, and losing weight fast. Monday the vet figured out she had a tumor at the root of & in her tongue, which is untreatable, and so I had to let her be put to sleep. She would never let him or me look in her mouth except in quick glimpses while holding her paws, so it was hard to see until it became really noticeable, which explained everything about what had been going on for the last two weeks. I thought at first that she’d reacted badly to the antibiotics she’d received for an inflamed gum…
I miss her, especially now I’m still stuck at home more than usual with letting my shoulder recuperate slowly, she was always near and now she’s not. The house is too quiet now, even though she was a very quiet cat.
I’ll look on the animal shelter sites for another grown cat that needs a new home, but because of my allergies it needs to be a Persian, and those don’t end up in shelters or need rehoming often. I don’t want to encourage their breeders as they are already overbred, and I don’t want to bring up a kitten as I am out of the house four days a week and couldn’t raise it properly.
So sorry to hear that you lost your kitty, Hanneke. That is always so tough, though she is out of suffering. Condolences.
It’s a summer pic. The site is difficult to change pix on, but I managed to find the buttons. The netting is a pest-preventer, but since I installed the electronic discouragement, no pests, so we’re running bare right now. Just no lilies are up. You can see new pads under the water, but nothing on the surface yet.
Hanneke, so sorry to hear. A heartbreak. COntact local vets and pet shelters: your ideal situation (and for all concerned) would be taking in a kitty who has lost his human or had his human unable to care for him any longer. And vets often know these situations.
Jane is interviewing someone to keep the garden today….wish us luck in that. Getting someone who will actually do flower beds and do them well is like looking for gold ore.
We are now out from under the snow and the star magnolia is breaking into bloom.
I get my health care from the VA. Due to surgical complications I had to be taken by my local paramedics to the local emergency room and after about 12 hours transferred to my VA (actually Air Force) hospital. No bill, VA covered everything, and my problems are not service related.
I like your new image! I am assuming the netting is to keep the air breathers from kidnapping the water breathers?
Glad to know things are going better with PT, weather and remodel.
I keep looking to preorder Resurgence….no sign of it.
Mr. Junior has a new love. When he was buzzcut, I bought a new brush in the hopes that one with stiffer bristles could help untangle the dreadlocks before they became permanent. Junior has taken to the brush in a big way; he has me hold it and rubs his face all over it, and likes being groomed with it. Maybe he won’t need another trip to the salon!
I just spent hours updating a large crucial file, then deleted it by mistake and emptied the recycle bin (I was looking on the wrong drive)…
…and then got it back again intact in 1 minute.
So I thought I’d mention Recuva, a free undeletion program. It’s one of those things that’s good to download and keep, so that it’s available when you need it. You may not need it for years, but when you do, then it’s vital to have it right there. There’s a portable version available too from PortableApps.
The thing to do when you completely delete a file by mistake is to stop working immediately, don’t do anything else that may write to the hard drive, and run a recovery program. You have an excellent chance of getting it back.
Phooey, looks like Recuva is Windows, not Mac (or Apple’s Ipad).
Something like this happened at work two weeks ago on Thursday: one of our ICT people accidentally deleted the entire drive of the fileshare server on which all 300 of us do our work!
The official archive program and its documentserver were OK, but any files not officialy archived nor on the email-server were gone.
Luckily it happened at 9 in the morning, as they make backups each night, so not too much work was lost; but it took 4 days (including the whole weekend) to get all the backups up and running again.
Management is now having a talk with our emergency backup service provider about why it took that long – it’s supposed to be available to continue work within the day.
I guess it demonstrates both the perils and safety of going completely digital – when all the work was on paper the building would have to burn down to lose that much work, instead of someone just clicking the wrong button; but then we’d never have recovered any of it.
I remember pulling up one of the smaller maps at work – a schematic of a pressure-regulating station – and finding that half of it was missing, because someone had somehow deleted (or more likely detached) the raster-graphics half. The vector part was still there. They checked backups to three years prior and couldn’t find it….
(One time I spent a day redrawing part of a larger map where someone had overlaid a second raster file on top of it. Streets and property lines, about three inches one way and 30 inches the other. I was pleased. I hope that the higher-ups were. And I spent another day, a different time, drawing the pipe in a pressure-regulating station on one of the large maps, very carefully and as accurately as I could, because the maps are the working record of What’s Out There.)
Thanks!
That may save a book some day!
Ow, ow, ow. — I have a toothache and I have to wait another few hours before I can take another dose of Ibuprofen. Soft foods only today, tomorrow, and I’ll see how it goes Monday. I would love to just sleep it off. Ow. I think I also tweaked it when I brushed my teeth. 🙁
Hanneke, I’m so sorry to hear about your cat, and I hope you’ll find a good match when you are ready.
Speaking of teeth; Lucia de Clamormore seems to be teething. Any advice on avoiding being bitten?
See if you can get your hands on clove oil, the old reliable temporary remedy for tooth pain. Dab it on with a cotton swab, or if you’ve lost a filling (or need a filling) pack the hole with cotton soaked in the oil.
If Lucia wants to gnaw on something, make sure you wear your gardening gloves when you play with her!
I’ll get some clove oil. Thank you! My tooth has calmed down again, enough to have something semi-crunchy at supper (risked it) and I’m going to skip an ibuprofen before bed. In the morning, we’ll see, and I may take a lesser dose of ibuprofen, but I’m hoping to be off it. I’ll cook something easy on the teeth, to avoid getting it all thingy and angry at me again. Still a bit of soreness but not major. Whew.
Re: Lucia de Clamormore. Hahah, great name. Is that your newly resident feline, back post-op? Best advice for teething kitty: Do not put hands near kitty’s mouth. LOL. (OK, sorry, obvious and snarky. 😀 ) That same advice, probably good for hani, kif, and Klingons. Wookiees possibly too. 😉
More seriously, heavy work gloves, leather, if you’re having to administer an oral med, for instance. A fuzzy towel wrapped around her to avoid claws too. Ah, this is the ideal, I should hasten to point out. In practice, cats are always some sort of gel-plasma, trans-dimensional being, capable, apparently, of teleportation and of improbable shape changes while in any state of motion. Also while at rest. Don’t know how well the quantum physics of this has been investigated, or whether cats are in fact some other lifeform similar to, but unrelated to, timelords. (Haha, auto-incorrect wanted that to be timecards!)
OK, I got nuthin’. — I still recall how one kitty, many kitties ago, dealt with his first bath in quite a while. I had on a nice, thick denim jacket and was congratulating myself on how this would protect me. My calm, sane, sweet, friendly kitty proceeded to yowl, escape the dreaded deluge, and climb up my front, down my back, claws in force, skitter across the linoleum tile floor, and up the wall to the height of my head, not yet six feet back then, before bounding down to the floor, where he glared at me and then yowled pitifully and shivered, soaking wet and still soapy from the flea shampoo, looking like a drowned rat, a most pathetic sight.
I persevered and got him rinsed, and declared it good enough. Poor kitty. Then did my best to dry him. I was surprised how shivery he was, even though the house was quite warm, in summer then. — I have since learned more about how to bathe and dry a cat, so my technique would be much better.
Ah…one thing that worked surprisingly well was when, at my previous house, the shower/tub had sliding plexiglass doors, rather than shower curtains. Oh, those were nice. This made a few cat baths easier: Place cat in shower, close sliding glass door except for room to put in arm. Turn on shower. Voilà! Feline can’t be too mad at you, and may not even connect it to you, because it’s kinda-sorta-almost “raining.” Cat gets well soaked, or well rinsed! Ah, not the officially recommended method, but sometimes, ya gotta go with what works! In an enclosed bathroom, then drying said cat can be easier. (I have never tried drying a cat with a hairdryer on low heat, as I’ve seen demonstrated.) I’ve just towel-dried them, but this, I’ve found, takes multiple towels (all that fur soaks up a heckuva lotta water!). Ah, no, not the officially recommended method, but hey, it has its benefits.
Alas and alack, my apartment’s bathtub / shower has no such sliding doors, only a shower curtain. If any cat needs a bath, I will have to go for the usually recommended version. Which always looks much calmer than I have ever managed. I think it helps if they are conditioned, used to it from kitten hood. Adult cats, ah, en grade, attempt at thine own peril.
Hmm, the hani crew in their showers — They must have some fantastic blow-dry feature after showers, for all that fur! I’d never really compared it with bathing my own cats. I don’t seem to recall, but my impression was that Py and company toweled dry instead of blew-dry via hairdryers, either wall-mounted or handheld. Huh. — Ah, and I believe they had na Hallan in separate quarters, to avoid problems that co-ed showers would cause in multiple ways, among hani.
(I still wonder how hani would adapt to having mixed crews and then families, with babies and kids and adolescents, on board. I suppose Hermitage out in space would need either a complete social overhaul, or areas dedicated on stations, or…oh, only CJ knows how they’d work it out. But of course, I’ll always hope for more Chanur and Compact space books. I’m still very curious about the mahendo’sat and the stsho, besides the hani. The kif are still risky, wildcards. The knnn and the tc’a and chi…whee! And those meddlesome, problematic humans. And who knows who or what else might be around there too…. Oh well, I can keep wishing.)
(Was that too big of a hint?? No? I could figure a way to hint bigger without introducing anything problematic, likely. Eh? Heheh.)
Whee. Ibuprofen again this morning, though maybe not as bad today as it was. Clove oil is on order.
Beware using clove oil full strength. It can produce burns. Mix it with a little vegetable oil and put it in with a cotton swab. Olive oil is the usual, but Crisco might make it easier to maneuver to the place you want it.
Another of “the walking wounded” here, off to the lab this morning for an ultrasound imaging. It’s thought, Friday one of my gallstones got into the wrong place–it was a tough night, no sleep until 0315. This was the first chance to check, but I already feel about normal. Perhaps it has shifted again.
Seems like en-masse, one of us is dead! HAHAHAHA
Glug—so sorry, Paul! Feel better. And WOL and Hanneke. And everybody.
The ultrasound was pretty much a waste of time and money. I want a refund! The radiologist’s report said about the gall bladder, “has gallstones”. DOH! Knew it was “packed” almost a decade ago! No help to know if they’re fixed or mobile, likely or not to cause a serious attack. Said there’s a cyst in one kidney, but that’s causing nobody alarm.
Paul, that joke was highly unscientific, but funny. A bit grim. I hope for everyone’s recovery and good health.
@Hanneke. ehugs and an empathetic shoulder. Hard to believe how such a small animal as a cat can leave such a big hole in your life when they go, but they do. Lost my last one over a year ago, and I still miss the “little” guy.
In about an hour, I have to go to the orthopod to set the surgery date. I’m going to call TriWest and find out what needs to be done on my end to make sure everything is OK to proceed here at the local hospital. Fingers crossed. Hopefully, I’ll get done at the doctors in time to meet my mom at the nail salon for pedicures. One of life’s little luxuries, and a chance to sit and schmooze with my mom.