Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

Yes I know it's a terrible pun. Mum took Yuki out for her night time walkies and came back alarmingly early. Now Sometimes Yui will want to come home early but never this early. I figured something was wrong. She came in limping and nibbling at her paw so I tried to get her to lay down so I could look at it. When I tried to look at her paw she kept moving and licking my hand, I knew she'd bite if she got upset. I had mum hold her head down as I inspected the paw. At first I couldn't see anything but then I saw a splinter sticking out of her pad. It was at a terrible angle. The best way to describe it is kind of like having a splinter under your fingernail, that kind of angle. I tried to pull it out but Yui kept kicking and squirming so I had to get mum to hold her head with one hand and her leg with the other since my hands were occupied with one holding the paw and trying to play out the toes and the other trying to grab the splinter. She really didn't like it and started whining. I felt like I was torturing her, especially since I couldn't get a good grip on the splinter. It seemed pretty well stuck in there. I was considering using tweezers but I didn't want to get my craft tweezers dirty and they were too far away to reach anyway and the only other pair of tweezers nearby were flimsy cheap ones that came in a Christmas cracker last year. I didn't want to hurt Yui too much so I asked mum, should I pull it out fast or slow. She said fast so I tried to get a good grip and yank it out but Yui kicked again and when I looked in her paw again I couldn't find it. I thought it might have gone in deeper or got lost under the fur between her pads but then I saw it on the floor. Although small and thin it was pointed at one end like the end of a toothpick (only thinner than a toothpick). We let Yuki up and she put her weight on the paw right away. She looked so happy, sniffing around and wagging her tail as if nothing had happened and we were acting strange by kneeling on the floor. After that they went back out to conclude their walk.

It got me thinking. Do you think Yuki would thank me if she could or would she not understand what happened? Like the lion and the mouse. She probably thought she could get it out herself, hence the nibbling. When I pinned her down and started looking at her foot maybe she thought I was trying to hurt her. You know how animals hate the vet because they associate them with pain and don't understand it's for their own good? Then again, the vet tells me that most animals don't hate him. We've had three cats over the years and they all hated him. My Henry seemed to hate him the most because he didn't like being taken outside. With the previous two mum would carry them to the vets cradled in her arms like a baby in an old towel and they only complained once that were actually in the surgery. She did it when Henry was a kitten and it was fine but when he got bigger he struggled and clawed holes in her tshirt and she knew she wouldn't be able to hold onto him long enough. The next day she got a pet carrier for him which he hated even more. He'd never willingly get into it and when we got to the vet he wouldn't come out. We'd hold it vertically and shake it a bit trying to slide him out but he clung on for dear life until the vet got bored, reached in, grabbed him by the scruff and dragged him out. What a transformation. He couldn't wait to get back into the box to go home and when we got home he'd rush out. That's one of the reasons I didn't let him stay over night when he died. The vet wanted to keep him in for observation but I knew he was dying. He didn't even fight when I put him in the box. He just meowed such a sad an painful meow unlike anything I'd ever heard before and he kept doing it. I asked if I could take him home and bring him back in the morning. The vet agreed as long as I did it first thing. Henry was a good cat after all. He doed in the early hours but at least it was somewhere safe, warm and comfortable. Some time before, when I thought about how things would end for him I'd asked him to let me know when he was dying. Oddly enough, he did. I wonder if that was coincidence.

Don't know why I got into that now. Sorry. Depressing thing to mention. It's pretty late and my mind wanders. If I don't keep typing I'll lose the flow and I'll just stop without finishing what I set out to say.

Anyway. The cats hated the vet. Oddly enough Yuki finds it fun. Maybe it's because she's a dog. Maybe it's because she's a big dog. (Well, not big like great dane big but medium. Most of the neighbourhood dogs are smaller than her). Maybe she sees it as an adventure. She didn't seem to mind when he injected her on 2 occasions to bring her up to date with her vaccinations, even though the second time he couldn't get a good angle and she yelped, she still seemed happy to be at the vets. She's a very friendly dog. Other dogs, cats, people, the wants to sniff them all.

We think she's coming into season again. That might not be so good. Last week she was violated by another dog. Not sure if Yui felt violated having another dog hump her but mum said that she felt violated. It was off the lead and it's owner didn't seem to care, he was too far away to give a damn really. However, although dogs may do that it doesn't necessarily mean mating. They do it as a sign of dominance too. Also I've heard that it doesn't actually...result in puppies...unless they end up back to back (like in the dogs stuck together kind of videos you see)(can you tell how hard I'm trying not to be explicit here? I don't want to get banned for using explicit language. I'm guessing too much of such a thing can get you banned right?). It's unlikely that anything occurred. We only think she's coming into season because she's moody, off her foot and keeps making groaning noises for no apparent reason like she did last time she came into season. She's had diarrhoea lately so she could just be grumbling about that.

Ah. That's all I have to say really. Oh. This will be my first blog with my new monitor. The old one broke on Saturday night. I did start writing an entry bit hated it so I deleted it. The old monitor cam with by old pc and as my new PC didn't come with a new monitor because Napoleon decided to save money by using one from a previous PC he'd owned (that was older than my old pc). When I had to switch over to the new pc I kept my old monitor because I was used to it (I had my collection of little snow globes on top of it, among other things) and because I hated the other one so much. But that old monitor came as a set with the old PC and it had a joint power cable for both the monitor and the PC. Two wires powering two things but with one plug. Genius, especially since I didn't really have room for an extra plug. Just one problem. Since The old monitor had a cable that couldn't be removed adn that cable just happened to be the power source of the base unit too I had to leave out the power cable that came with the new PC. That in itself was fine. What wasn't fine was when Napoleon took all the left over stuff (old pc, his even older monitor and their cables) including the power cable. Now, that was still fine. Until the old monitor broke. I knew when we replaced it we'd have to get a new power cable for the PC too (I didn't want to get Napoleon involved, he'd probably dump that other one on me and I'd be back at square one). Just before it broke (when it was occasionally flickering) I looked up new monitors online to prepare myself for having to get a new one.

We knew the old one had had it because it suddenly stopped working, making a blipping kind of noise, showed a blank screen even though the light was green and wouldn't turn off when I pressed the button (Meaning I had to turn off the PC with it's power button, twice. It really hates that, because I couldn't see to shut down normally) but I'd say the real clincher was when we noticed a kind of burning smell. I shut everything down and sulked. I was in the middle of watching fairy Tail too. (it's about here that I gave up when trying to write this up yesterday. I went into too much detail about the anime and lost the point of the entry) I'll just say that I was up to the conclusion of a gripping story arc and I shouldn't need to go into any more detail this time.

On Sunday we went to PC world. When I went to bed and was trying to sleep I remembered the power cable so wrote it on my arm so I'd remember it when I got up. We browsed monitors in PC world. My previous one was a total of 19 inches, I measured, but the screen itself was about 16. We read the vital information printed on the little cards for each one. Of many things that confused me about monitors was response time. It ranges from 2ms to 14ms. Which is best. The ones on display were mainly 5ms but it said it was good but not advisable for gaming. I play a lot of games and use a lot of video streaming websites so I veered towards the two 2ms which said they were better for that. In the end I got a 23 inch backlit with 2ms response time because it seemed the best fit with no unnecessary extras like speakers or USB ports. Backlit feels a bit extravagant and 23 inches is more than I know what to do with but that's how it ended up. This is my first flat screen monitor. I've used them before at school and uni but that was a while ago and this is on a whole other level. It's even thinner than those ones and the thinness of those was astonishing to the one at home (which obviously wasn't flat screen. No I tell I lie, the screen was flat just not one of those new fancy liquid screens so it was bigger at the back). You try and get one of those old big backed ones now, it can't be done. It's all flat liquid screen now. I'll admit the quality is better and I love how light they are. I could carry it on my own and it was fine. You have to brace yourself to lift my old one and put it down as soon as possible. And I love the extra space on my desk. It feels easier to type now.

I know that splashing out on such a thing will make me seem selfish and spoiled. You can get cheaper ones for about £69 (this was 100 and something) but I bought it with my saved Christmas money from Napoleon so it's a well received gift. Ah damn, that sounds even more spoiled. If I wanted to show off I'd have bought a super expensive one that was too big to fit on my desk. But I didn't want to do that. I wanted one that would do the job and suit my needs. I'm not an expert so maybe for my purposes 5ms response time would have been fine. But I figured if you have to buy a new one you might as well buy the one you think will do the best job for you and your needs and you have to base that on the information you're given. Do I sound like I' boasting. I don't want to sound like that. Sorry. Ah I'm lost now. Maybe I should call it a night.

Oh. My blogs will probably be longer like this one. Becasue the screen's wider the writing doesn't look so condensed as it did before, I need to get used to it.

Bluebiird out.