Tone Parsons

Last night, I was sitting in my garage, petting my cat Magellan, and it stuck me…. we’ve had a lot of cats in the past 20 years that my wife and I have been together.

I’m totally a cat person. I like dogs too (I have two of them, Shasta and Chloe), but there’s something about a cats attitude that strikes a chord with me. They aren’t domesticated, they live with people because they choose to, and they’re chock full of attitude.

I started thinking of all the cats we’ve had…

• Vermin – The first cat I could call my own. She was pure attitude, and hated everyone but me. She would disappear for days on end. One day she came home with a new collar and tag (showing she had been immunized). Then she quit coming home. I saw her one day in the window of a house down the street, so I know she found a new home.
• Fritzie (the first) – My wife’s cat when I met her. She brought him over from her old place (where her ex lived), but Fritzie wasn’t happy, so she took him back.
• Jazz – a stray my sister brought over one day. We had him for 9 years until he went out and never came home again.
• Mode – Jazz’s brother (he didn’t stay long)
• Bear Tank – one of Vermin’s kittens (the only one we named). He went to a good home.
• Quinto – A vicious little bastard who would attack me as I slept by biting my nose (I worked graveyard and he didn’t feel that his human should sleep during the day). A co-worker of mine adopted him when we moved to a new apartment.
• Pookie Bear – A loving kitten who became feral later in life after my eldest son was born and had to be put up for adoption at the shelter (I hope he made it).
• Fritzie (the second) – a great cat. He finally died of old age two years ago.
• Magellan – We also call him “Jelly” because he’s the fattest thing you’ve ever seen. He’s a great cat with one exception: He’s obsessive-compulsive about spraying everything in sight (he is now our garage kitty).
• Icon – We think she suffered brain damage when we had her spayed. She went from being a great cat to being incredibly stupid overnight. She met a bad end with an automatic garage door.
• Cisco – an all white kitten adopted from the shelter. He had the feline version of kennel cough. We paid a small fortune trying to keep him alive, but he died just 2 weeks after we got him (on my wife’s birthday).
• Bondi – a brother of Cisco. We adopted him after Cisco died, and if not for the immediate medical care we got for him, he would have met the same end as his brother.
• Switch – from the same litter as Cisco and Bondi. He received the same medical treatments and barely survived.
• Darwin – quite possibly the coolest cat that ever was. Darwin got his name from the fact that he’s a polydactyl (he had extra toes on his front feet that looked and acted like thumbs). I loved that little bastard like I’ve loved no other. Sadly, some bastard ran him over. He now resides next to Fritzie (the second) in our back garden.
• Roxie – Darwin’s sister, and quite possibly the most expensive “free kitten”I’ve ever owned. Every year, she does something to herself that requires emergency surgery. She is quite the lover though.
• Seven – another polydactyl (seven toes on each foot). This one is pure attitude. She is the queen of the house, very vocal (she has to get in the last word if you talk to her) and is famous for walking in front of you, plopping down, and demanding affection when she desires it.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few of them (my will will point them out later today once she reads this).

Oh… and the most original name I’ve ever seen for a cat one my sister has. Her name is Noname (pronounced: “No-nham-ee” but spelled like “no name”) 🙂

First and foremost, sorry about the previous post. I was feeling pretty low, but my attitude is much improved now. Also, thank you Mike for the support…. I appreciate it. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in this.

The weekend was pretty low key at Casa de Tone. We went to my sister’s place on Friday because my father and step-mother were in town. We had a good visit and got home in time to watch Stargate SG-1 (which is in it’s last few episodes). Saturday, our boys marched in the torch parade here in Spokane (yeah… they’re band geeks). On Sunday, it was back to my sisters to eat a smoked beef brisket (mmmmmmm….. it was gooooooooooood!) and have a few beers.

All in all, a very good weekend!

I’m also making good progress on my project here at work! I found a way around one of the major issues I was having and am hopeful to get it all finished and published by the end of the week.

And there you go… a post that was far less depressing!

I haven’t written on the blog for a while. I haven’t really had much to say.

My neuropathy is getting worse, and I’ve been feeling pretty low. I feel like my shoes are full of broken glass, there are daggers in my shins, and hot needles in my back…. and the feeling doesn’t go away.  Just the act of walking causes huge amounts of pain, I can’t drive my car or ride my motorcycle, hell…. I can’t even play video games because my reaction time and concentration are shot.

Yes, I’m taking my medications as prescribed, but they only mask the problem… and not very effectively. The real downside is that taking all the morphine and oxycodone is seriously affecting my work. It’s very, VERY hard to write code when your head is full of narcotics. I have a huge project that I’m responsible for, and I’m not going to make the completion date. Unfortunately, that’s 40% of my goals for this year, so that means no raise next year.

*sigh*

Sorry to dump all this crap onto the web (not that anyone out there really cares). I’m just very frustrated right now. There’s nothing that the doctors can do, I’m in constant and intense pain, and I’ve had more than my fill of it all.

Ok… perhaps that wasn’t the most romantic title for a post about our anniversary.

My wife and I had our 17th wedding anniversary on Saturday. Of course, we’ll have been together for 20 years on November 6th of this year (I’m a guy, yet I remember things like that… what’s wrong with me?).

Sadly though, our anniversary falls on Cinco de Mayo every year. This means that going out for mexican food is totally out of the question (we both despise large crowds). We decided to go to Tomato Street because I love their steak myzithra and tomato basil soup. We weren’t able to go on Saturday, however, because Bloomsday (the worlds largest individually timed foot race, held here in Spokane) was on Sunday, and everyone was carb loading for the big race (again with the large crowd thing).

We decided that Sunday would be a better day, and it was. The food was very good and the service matched. I tried a new drink after the meal, something called a Russian Novocaine (a drink made of Baily’s Irish Cream, Frangelico, and Cream de Coco, chilled and served in a martini glass). It was pretty good, but they added AfterShock (a very strong cinnamon liqueur), which wasn’t on the list of ingredients. I think it would have been better without it.

We also watched three movies over the weekend: Casino Royal (the newest James Bond Film), The Illusionist (with Edward Norton), and The Queen. I would recommend any and all of them!

And that’s about it for the weekend wrap-up. How did you fare?