What A Week I'm Having

>> Thursday, April 9, 2009


Sorry, folks, I've been so out of pocket, so I haven't been keeping up with everyone like I should have. But I WILL catch up, I promise.

So far this week, I went to the dentist, where she confirmed that I would have to have a deep cleaning to address gum disease, i.e. cutting open the gums over three fun-filled days. Can't wait.

Then, three hours after this fun-filled dental cleaning, I drove to the airport. Have I mentioned I hate to travel? Well, I do. Off to LAX so I could go to Pasadena and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. True, the reason was cool (peer review for a very cool project called Juno to study Jupiter). Imagine the challenges in preparing such an experiment to not only withstand the local meteoroid and orbital debris environments but the meteoroid environments and the ring particle environment around Jupiter (Jupiter has rings), in addition to the strongest magnetosphere in the solar system, that around Jupiter. (The sun, Mercury, the Earth, Saturn and Neptune have magnetospheres as well, though only the Earth's is as strong or stronger than any but Jupiter's, including the sun's).

Unfortunately, I'm not at my best navigating new towns especially at night. I managed to get myself completely lost between LAX and Pasadena, driving through abandoned warehouse districts and other places I couldn't identify to find my way with printed directions (note to self: reading printed directions at night on a speeding highway, not a good plan). After a harried 2.5 hours, I managed to find my hotel. Oh, good. 1 am (Pacific Time) and I have that peer review for Juno later that morning.

Well, I managed to find the peer review in time (OK, Pasadena is beautiful in the daylight). Unfortunately, since I was leaving on LAX, they insisted I leave before the peer review was quite over (but I gave them my notes before I left) so I wouldn't be late. I got there more than two hours before the flight left, so that was sorta good (and didn't get lost). Came home at 1 am, exhausted, to find that, for reasons unknown, my mortgage company only sent me $300 or so of the nearly $3000 of insurance money I got for extra money I'd already put into home repairs and that they're holding the rest until the rest of the repairs are done. *Sigh*

Then, I got up for work today only to find that my cat had found a mesh bag in the garagesometime while I was gone and managed to strangle herself.

:( Poor Bete.

Now, we have no cat (and, if I think about it, I'll start to cry again. Bete was a gem. Who dies that way? And I still haven't told my teenage daughter because she's at her dad's house until tomorrow). I'm beginning to think I'm not qualified to have pets. Thank heavens my kids are healthy.

I'm hoping things start to look up.

13 comments:

  • Mike
     

    Thanks for the update - sounds like you have been very busy. I heard of Juno to Jupiter. I am going to have to go look through my emails from NASA - I had contacted them a few weeks ago about building one of their paper models and then displaying it the gift shop at the planetarium / science center, and offering for sale the parts packet and material on the mission for the spacecraft the model depicts. They were excited about this and granted me permission, they also asked me if I was interested in helping to design and build the paper model for - I think, the Juno spacecraft. I have to go find that email. Thanks

  • flit
     

    *sigh* mamma said there'd be days like this.... but gotta hate 'em anyway.

    sure hope you're done with your run of misery for awhile... time for some good times, I think!

    oh, and the dentist thing sounds like NO FUN AT ALL - don't you love that they not only suggest such things but then expect you to PAY for the priviledge?

  • shakespeare
     

    So sorry about Bete. Our kitty is 13 now, and he's gotten ultra snuggly over the last few weeks. Your poor Bete, though... not a great way to die.

    Sounds like the gum thing is bad, too. I'd much prefer the extensive cavities I seem to get to gum disease. Now I think I'll go brush my teeth... and hug my kitty.

  • Anonymous
     

    You're going through a very bad patch, that's for sure. Why do these things cluster together? Any one of them would be enough to floor me, especially your poor cat.

  • Quadmama
     

    Oh I'm so sorry to hear about your cat. That on top of everything else going on has got to really be weighing you down. ((hugs)) Here's hoping for some better days.

  • Stephanie Barr
     

    Thanks everyone. I vow, no more whining for at least a week. Still, I'm really dreading talking to my daughter about the cat.

  • Citizen S
     

    Sorry about your cat. I had a dog when I was a kid who died in a similar way, strangling itself, so it happens. : (

    It's very tough to lose a pet. I worry about mine all the time, the don't seem to realize they are mortal.

  • Patricia Rockwell
     

    My husband has that cleaning done to his gums too, so I have heard him describe the torture. I feel for you--also with losing your cat. However, I have to admit it is comforting to hear that a Rocket Scientist can get LOST while driving at night. This actually gives hope to the rest of us who do this all the time.

  • JD at I Do Things
     

    Ohhhhh. I'm so sorry for your poor, sweet Bete. I don't want to make you start crying. Yes, I would say things can only get better from this point.

    You're so brave! Driving around California at night with only written directions. I'd have insisted on a car service (and probably not gotten it).

  • Lidian
     

    What a day! And I am so so sorry about your kitty...we have 2 cats so I know how important and special they are -

    All the best, Lidian

  • GumbyTheCat
     

    NOOOO!!!!

    Not a KITTY!!!

    That's terrible. I feel for you, trust me on that. Simply awful for you and your family to have to go through.

  • Phyl
     

    Oh Stephanie! Oh, I'm so sorry! I think I could have survived the rest with a degree of aplomb, but I would have been destroyed with the news of the kitty. So sorry all this has happened. (Now I'm sending vibes to Kashi, my own departed darling, to take care of Bete across the Bridge.) (I knew one guy who firmly disbelieved in an afterlife who still had to believe there was one for cats, because it was unbearable otherwise.)

  • Stephanie Barr
     

    Citizen, thank for the kind thoughts.

    Patricia, I'm not looking forward to the deep cleaning. And I can get lost readily, especially at night, so I'm usually anal about having directions. Didn't help in this case, though.

    Thank you, JD. I actually have GPS I could have brought with me and will next time I have to rent a car.

    Lidian, Gumby and Phyl, thank you for the good wishes. I hate losing a cat. And Bete was my cat specially.

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