a tribute to thursday

Apparently I'm getting into the habit of only posting to the blog on Thursdays, for some reason. Thursdays are cool; I've always liked 'em. Thursday evenings bring the best sitcoms network TV has to offer (such that they are), as well as the anticipation for Friday -- and Friday really needs no introduction.

As my friend Becki says, "Whoever said Sunday was a day of rest never heard of Saturday." Too true. Sunday is the day to finish all the tasks and (in my earlier days) schoolwork that Saturday simply refused to accomplish. Nonetheless, Saturday's procrastination is twined with a guilty conscience that's begging to be more productive.

Friday night, by contrast, has no inhibitions. Friday night knows it has a whole weekend of possibilities ahead. Friday night has no problem kicking back with a 4-hour session of Civilization III or going out to dinner or a party or (in my earlier days) marching with a trombone out on the football field and coming home to watch the newest X-Files episode. Friday night doesn't have to get up early for church tomorrow, either.

In college, I always had fewer classes on Friday, thanks to the schedule of art studio courses. The less-hectic Friday and enjoyable church choir practice on Thursday night brought an early sense of relaxation in preparation for the weekend. Or maybe it was just a smaller-scale version of "senioritis." In any case, I still value Thursday evening and Friday morning for this reason -- the same reason I enjoy Christmas Eve in anticipation of Christmas Day.

And that's why I like Thursdays: because Fridays rock.

movies reenacted by bunnies in 30 seconds

Um, the subject line pretty much sums it up. bunnies here

national anthem

Just a reminder that I'll be joining the tenor section of the Cleveland Athletic Club Singers to sing The Star-Spangled Banner on Friday. I don't think they always have the national anthem on TV, but in any case, the game will be televised on Fox Sports Ohio at 7:00 p.m.

As noted on my music page, I am now the accompanist for this group, which rehearses on Monday nights starting next week. They have two concerts: one in December and one in May. A few of my friends are in the group (that's how I got involved)... and it pays well. ;)

new wheels

Since I started driving at age 16, my vehicle of necessity has been a teal 1994 Ford Thunderbird LXSE coupe. It "de facto" became mine in 2001, as I entered my senior year of college, which was the only time I had my own car on campus. After graduation, the T-bird seemed to need one repair after another: ball joints, head gaskets, starters, batteries, calipers, you name it (and let's not forget that each front turn signal light had to be replaced, as well as the driver side mirror that was a part of an early-morning mirror-smashin' raid that swept our street a while back).

The "coupe" de grâce (har har) was back in April: while I was in the hospital being treated for a negative lung reaction to one of the chemo drugs, back home my car was being rammed in the wee hours of the night. For various reasons, it wasn't until just this past Thursday that we got an estimate on the repair, which is about five times the value of the car in "fair" Kelly Blue Book condition. At one point, my dad thought he might like to keep the T-bird (or "Thunderchicken" as our mechanic dubbed it a few repairs ago) in good working condition because it was made in Lorain, which no longer produces them.

Not only would it cost several thousand dollars to put it back into "good" condition, but when my dad was about to leave the body shop, the car wouldn't run. It just, quit. In the same cell phone conversation where my dad asked me to come pick him up, I told him about Belle's lymphoma, and by the time I arrived, he was discussing our dog-related options with the vet. The bottom line was, the T-bird will no longer be a part of the Bird family, and I would have nothing to trade in for the new car I planned to purchase that day. We plan to sell it for parts.

Enter my new 2005 Honda Civic EX, a stylishly affordable silver sedan with excellent safety ratings, anti-lock brakes, and 31 mpg city / 38 mpg highway. Since the 2006es come out in October, there were no new four-door Civic EXes left in the state of Ohio, but Jack Matia Honda did have two demo EXes on hand, each with about 5,500 miles on them. (This does not affect the warranty, which essentially considers 5,500 to be "zero" for me.)

The Civic is much smaller than the T-bird, and hence is much easier to park, which I like. Four doors also makes it easier to load and unload. On the minus side, the T-bird was long and teal and had a spoiler on the trunk, which made it rather easy to spot in parking areas. Now I have a silver car, just like everyone else, that is easily hidden by the copious and corpulent SUVs that litter our nation's Target parking lots. But such is the price of vanity, I suppose (I could've just as easily taken the dark blue EX).

Here it is in our driveway:

(click to enlarge)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to bed, as my vacation is over and I have to return to work to pay off this car. :) Ah, to be an adult.

Edited to add: The car also came with a full tank of gas. Me to dealer: "With gas prices this week, that alone is worth the price of the car!"

the rainbow bridge has been crossed, and i'm not talking about niagara falls

Some of you know that our miniature beagle, Belle, has been sick off and on lately. It started about two months ago, and eventually the vet said it was a bacteria in the intestine, so we started feeding her a prescription dog food with Tylan powder (an antibiotic for dogs) and Metamucil for fiber. She would get better, then get sick again. When given a shot of Cortisone, she perked right up, so the vet thought the bacterial problem was in addition to something else that Cortisone seems to have an effect on.

Today we took her to the vet to have an endoscopy to find out what was wrong. They put Belle under anesthesia, but before beginning the endoscopy, they noticed one of her lymph nodes was swollen. The vet aspirated some cells from there, and thought it was probably............. lymphoma (do they make a Hodgkin's vs. non-Hodgkin's distinction for dogs too?). To be 100% certain, she would have to send the aspiration to a veterinary specialist, who may just want the whole lymph node to diagnose.

Just as in humans, lymphoma in dogs is one of the more treatable cancers and is "controllable" with chemotherapy, so you can get another year or more of life, but eventually "the cancer always wins." What it came down to was, the chemo is not only pricey (and no insurance, like I had) but we'd have to drive her to a veterinary specialist in Cleveland. And how much better would she get? Would she suffer more months of this up-and-down? When would we finally say it was time? She's already 15 or 16, and she's been with us for 9 years.

So we decided to let her cross the bridge. :( She's already under anesthesia for the endoscopy she was going to have today, so we decided to have them do it while she's still asleep.

I was tearing up hearing my dad make the decision on the phone. We hugged. It wasn't until my mom came home and I told her the news that the waterworks came on, I think partly because it was more sudden than we expected. With our last dog, a beaglemix named Max, I had sort of accepted that he was leaving, and even had the intuition to say goodbye to him that day before I left for school. We had also had him for 9 years, and we found Belle not two weeks prior to his passing.

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
--James Thurber




(click to enlarge)

gas prices

From Stockbridge, Georgia:



The highest in the Cleveland area, according to the news last night, is the North Ridgeville Marathon at $3.36. The lowest was Painesville at $2.99.

hurricane relief

I posted a link to Amazon.com back in January regarding donations for the earthquake/tsunami disaster. Amazon is stepping up to the plate once again and helping out the American Red Cross with disaster relief for the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina (you could just go to redcross.org, but their site seems to be slow at the moment with all the donations coming in).

Amazon.com disaster relief
(Edited to add: as of 12:45 p.m. Friday, $2,713,836.23 has been collected by Amazon.)

It would also be a good idea to donate blood if you're able -- not only for the storm-ravaged areas, which will undoubtedly have hundreds of sick and unhealthy people, but also because a large city full of possible donors is now wiped out during one of the slowest blood donation periods of the year. Unfortunately, I can no longer donate blood because I've had Hodgkin's Disease. Someone needs to take my place!