Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 3 - A New Beginning

Buffythedebtslayer

I was not judging anyone Foxholes, it makes me sad that in a country as rich as ours is with the taxes we pay the benefits systems should provide. I am sad because working people struggle and I am allowed to be sad for the children I work with whose parents struggle. It is not Judgement.

foxgloves

Agree, Buffy. The level of poverty in our wealthy country is very much a political choice.

CCL - Really encouraging that the young people in your form care about these issues.
Hope you are managing to progress your gift making & wrapping. I can't believe how long wrapping presents takes. My gifts always look nice, but are certainly not primped up in all the sparkly frou-frous I used to enjoy buying back in the Spendy Years. I've done two big wrapping sessions this week & I don't seem to be anywhere near finished. And we're buying for 7 fewer people than we used to, due to deaths & peculiar estrangements, so it isn't even as though we've been buying heaps of stuff. My aim is to finish it over the next week. Good luck with getting yours done.
F x

crazy_cat_lady

I don't think that there was any accusation of anyone judging - just the comment that foodbanks are not as perhaps people imagine them (certainly I would worry about being judged if I had to use a foodbank and it's somewhat reassuring to hear that they aren't like that). For people that are in such a desperate situation it's lovely to hear that the community rally round, and that something so positive can come out of a pretty !!!!py situation, in terms of less waste and landfill, and people just helping people.
And so onto my life so far - today has disappeared in a big cloud of nothingness and my list is still absolutely massive!!! Not the best night of sleep, and I only managed to feed cats, change trays, wash dishes and round 1 of washing before the morning hair appointments (me and ds). Then walked home through the pittling rain *not as bad as the midlands* via a couple of shops that I needed to go to. Home for a few hours, hung washing, put rubbish out and wrote a list of current Christmas gifts and recipients, did some printing then went out with dd for her appointment. That was highlights so we were there for hours - I took some work with me. Home from there via Mr S and picking up a gift I'd ordered for ds Christmas and yet more 'top up shopping' - drinks and brown sauce this time. 6pm before I got home.
I've done dinner and next bit of washing and am about half way through the exam stuff now - deadline for that is Monday so I really need to work on that tomorrow. I'm watching the dancing and catching up on here now. I feel like I've been really busy but got nothing done. Still plenty to do tomorrow afternoon after I've been tutoring.
Hope you got more wrapping done than I did today BB - my wrapping paper is still very much wrapped.

apple_muncher

That actually sounds like very busy and productive day, ccl.

f0xh0les

Buffythedebtslayer wrote: »

I was not judging anyone Foxholes, I am sad because working people struggle and I am allowed to be sad for the children I work with whose parents struggle. It is not Judgement.

Buffy, I was not saying you were judging - it must have come across wrong - if so I apologise, it was not meant as such. It is just the public perception of having to use the f/b is very different to the reality.

f0xh0les

Sounds like a pretty busy day to me too CCL.
I have neither bought, nor wrapped a single thing so far.

You are miles ahead of me already.

crazy_cat_lady

Hello :wave:
How is it 3pm on Sunday already? I haven't managed to get anything useful done and my weekend is already almost gone.
Got up at 8 this morning and straight on with my exam stuff - it's taken way longer than I thought it would. 3.5 hours in total today - plus I've done an hour of tutoring as well, which is where most of today has gone.
I still have a huge list of things to do - all the Christmas related stuff I had planned, plus I need to put some stuff up in the loft out of the way, and get another load of washing dried on the airer ready for school tomorrow. Need to give the kids their dinner money for school...
The ongoing flea battle continues - I've sprayed right through the stairs and landing since I got home as it was devoid of kids and cats, but dd and I found 2 live fleas on cats today. It feels like a losing battle and I'm not sure what else I can do. Every room has been flea treated - I have used 2 massive tins of the spray. Every cat has had vet strength flea killer on, and still finding live fleas hatching out. Suppose we just need to continue with the maintenance and combing until the protected eggs hatch out and die. And I think I have learned my lesson about scrimping on flea treatment. I might starve to pay for it, but I will pay for it, every single month without fail.
Right then - onwards. Hopefully the next 6 or so hours will be massively productive and I can report good news next time I'm on here.

foxgloves

Cat fleas can be an absolute bugg*r, CCL, can't they? We had a problem on one occasion with our previous cat - We treated him with one of those pipettes on the back of the neck jobbers & assumed that would be the end of it, but it definitely wasn't. I thought that maybe fleas had become resistant to the brand of treatment I'd used so when it was due again, I went to buy a different brand of the same sort of thing. Aren't they expensive? I mentioned that I thought that the usual brand had failed, but the assistant who was the branch's 'flea adviser' (big national chain of pet store) said it was because we hadn't treated bedding, carpets, etc, for flea eggs & sold us some spray. We honestly had no idea that flea eggs can lay dormant for ages until conditions are right for hatching, such as there being an untreated cat around for them to live on. We sprayed & hoovered, & she also told us to spray out the hoover cylinder when we emptied it, & I think we must have got rid of them in the end, as we noticed there were no longer any signs of them. I assumed the eggs would mostly be in things like carpets, but she said they are just as likely to be in cracks in floorboards, etc, so I think very regular blitzing of the house at the time with the vacuum probably paid off in the end, as much as the spray. I wonder if there is a little cache of flea eggs somewhere in your house where you just wouldn't ever think to spray. Hope you get on top of the problem soon, anyway.
F x

SpekySquarehead

Hope you have a good week CCL and them pesky fleas disappear!!

crazy_cat_lady

Hello :wave: :coffee:
I don't know what happened to me last night, but I just got a really awful night of sleep. I went to bed at 10 but was still wide awake after 11.30 - then just as I was dozing the police helicopter came out and about and I was awake until well after 1am before I finally caught some zzzzz's. Then cat sick at 3am and cat wanting to pee at 4am then cat wanting fed at 6am. It's been a while since I had such a rubbish night and I have suffered a little bit today if I'm honest.
However, I did get myself a nice productive afternoon yesterday - decorating my jars of jam and chutney to make them look festive. Didn't get round to bottling my gin, but I did also write out my very close family Christmas cards - only 5 of them but I just don't send many cards any more. I also trawled through my gift box and made a list of things I still need to get. Then started looking online for a couple of bits.
Today has been a bit of a write off - got lots of little bits done but nothing major. I'm still at work now, waiting to go home but ds is doing his homework so we're stuck here a bit longer. At least he is doing his homework - then I will go home, get into my jammies and relax.
Oh, just remembered that dd is picking her littlest cousin up from school tonight, so we may have visitors when I get home. Then I can relax after that.