We all run into it: That one repeating habit or attitude that constantly derails us and screws up our lives.

For S.O., it’s regular monitoring of finances.

For me, the most recent one was getting my workbench built.
It’s that project, task, or job that keeps coming up, nagging the back of your mind, needs to be done, and you Just. Can’t. Get. It. Done.

The excuses are many: I’m too tired. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough money. There are other things I need to get done first. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. This one’s too soft. This one’s too hard. I’m not really up to it today. On and on.

It’s all a load of Horse Puckey!

The only thing making it hard is you. Or in this case, me. I mean, really, how hard is it to take out a tape measure, screws, drill, saw, wood, and put the darn thing together? Not very. Takes a few hours, very long hours in the heat baking our portion of the primordial scrub. But once it’s done, it opens up all these tantalizing possibilities! It doesn’t have to be perfect – generally level, at most; and sturdy!! It’s gotta support a drill press and whatever I’m drilling, sawing, hammering, etc.

There is some blockage, some self-defeating, I’m-not-worthy, I-don’t-want-to-face-this-problem endless loop going on. And I can’t seem to break out of it.

Sometimes, you’ve just got to admit that YOU are the biggest impediment to your own success.

So, here’s what I’m doing:

1. Identify the goal: Get the %&$*($@& workbench built.
2. Enlist help.
3. Get your butt to work.
4. ???
5. Finished.

1. Identifying the Goal.
This is the easy part. What is it, exactly, that you want to accomplish? Build a workbench? Save up $10,000 for an emergency fund? Right. Build a workbench. Write it down. (If you’re already living life like Pookah, it’s already written down – you’re just having trouble actually doing it.)

2. Enlist Help.
If this is one of those tasks, projects, or whatever that you can’t get done, ENLIST SOME HELP!! Hey, S.O.? I need a day to get the fracking workbench built. Can you keep after me until I get it done, and remind me that *I* am making this hard? Could you also help me clear out my schedule for that day so that I don’t have any interruptions for that day? Thanks!

3. Get your butt to work.
OK, recruit. Your mission is to get that thing done. No stalling. No excuses. Get your butt off that couch and do it!! This monkey has been on your back like a sack of potatoes for too long! Time to get that monkey off your back! Time to make some potato stew!! Yumm!! Tastes Great!

I’d make a lousy drill sergeant.

You have got to clear enough time out in one spot to either get the whole thing done – without any interruptions or other time pressures; or get the first step done (if it’s too big to do in one go). That second one is harder, and you’ll keep repeating the steps above until the whole thing is done.

P.S. The amount of time you think you need to get it done? Double it. Remember, you’re literally fighting yourself on this one.

4. ???.
What? You want me to do all the work?!

Heh! Step 4 is pretty basic. DO IT UNTIL IT’S DONE!!!
Every time something comes up to interrupt you, slow you down, stop you, imagine it’s the most annoying, aggravating, emotionally torturing bully you ever encountered in high school (or at your job, at the daycare, wherever). Now imagine him or her, stuck naked on a toilet, on a stage, in front of the entire school (company, PTA, whatever large crowd of people they’d have to see every day for the next six months).

That’s your problem. Right there. On the commode. Helpless. Naked.

With no toilet paper.

Now flush.

Someone comes up to you with a non-life-threatening problem to solve, flush. Smile at the thought (fantasizing is great). Then tell them you’re busy, please go away.

(It does help if you tell them to please go away while holding a power tool, not quite pointed in their direction. Remember, subtle hints, readers. Subtle hints.)

Pookahs show our claws, or just dig the tips in a little bit. This is particularly effective on Pookah’s human, especially on the legs.

5. Finished.
First, gut-check. Are you REALLY finished? No? Got more steps to do? Back to the beginning. Use this as a car to run over that mental tape recorder spewing failure and excuses.

You’re REALLY finished? Yes? Woo-hoo!! Celebrate. Show off your accomplishment to friends and family. Kick back with a package of fresh cherries or blueberries and cream. REWARD yourself. Take note of your friends’ and family’s reaction. If they aren’t happy for you, you may want to watch for toxic behavior.

The idea is to help overcome that obstacle with some positive reinforcement. Getting that reinforcement from other people is IMPORTANT!

When you next get that nagging, I-should-really-get-that-thing-done, feeling, get ready to flush it again.

Bathrooms never sounded so good.

Disgusting! You humans don’t even use sand!

Pookah is a master of many arts: Napping, Stalking, Hunting, Pouncing, Eating, Purring, Literature, String Theory, and Literary Arts. Few humans take the time to understand the amount of small tasty bird-fueled effort that goes into achieving even the most basic levels of expertise in these, and other, neo-classical feline pursuits.

Some humans, irritatingly, believe that they have found shortcuts.

A very wise person once said to me that I would find out what kind of person I really was during the worst moments of my life. Out of respect for this person, I held my tongue. I had already faced many, some nearly fatal, crises. I already knew what kind of person I was.

What you didn’t know then, and still have trouble with now, is arrogance.

Except for that “now” part, that is arguably true. Speaking of which, off my keyboard, now!

Hmph!

I was flat-out wrong. When one is a victim, really a victim – as in nearly lethal medical mistakes while undergoing treatment, all one learns is what is really important in your own life: Family, friends, past regrets, lost opportunities, and the like. I know those well enough to have my own bucket list.

No, what that mentor was trying to tell me was that I would find out what kind of person I was when I, personally, was devastated – physically, mentally, and emotionally. Here is one such event: My health had been declining for over a year. The prognosis was not good – undertake a grueling treatment and live, or waste away and die painfully within a short time span. At the same time, my relationship with my then-s.o. was going downhill – partly due to then-s.o.’s inability to deal with my declining health, and partly due to my own personality (I was unwilling to do anything to end a relationship that needed, desperately, to end months before; so I dragged it out). This was among many other issues in that relationship. Shortly after I told my then-s.o. about the prognosis, then-s.o. left me for someone else. Yes. I should have seen that coming. There were plenty of warning signs. But I didn’t want to see them or end a relationship that I had come to depend on for support during this trial. Simultaneously, several people that I thought were trusted and true friends turned out not to be. An entire network of support that I had built up collapsed, burned, exploded, then imploded, and certain individuals came by to kick the ashes around.

My physical and emotional resources were completely drained. I was utterly alone with no one to lean on, in constant physical pain that could not be relieved, even temporarily; and I had an easy way to go into the hereafter – just lay down and wait for it to end. I had been beaten down. Busted up. Kicked to the curb. Stomped.

I found out more about what kind of person I really am than I ever even dreamed before. I found some more of my true self. Just like my old mentor said I would. I didn’t like some of what I found out about myself. Such as, I have little patience….

Negative Patience!!!

… for what appears to me as unreasoning foolishness. I don’t have time for it. It also frustrates the heck out of me when I engage in unreasoning foolishness myself! But I’ve come to rely on the other things I did find out about myself. I didn’t give up. I didn’t quit. I did what I needed to in order to have a life with meaning, fulfilment, and purpose. Even at its worst, I found that I could still offer help to others. I took several huge steps towards becoming the sort of person that I’ve always admired. I found that I have reserves of strength and will that have served me immensely well since then. My limits, I discovered, were far greater than I had “known”.

Knowledge of your true self is an invaluable tool in your financial efforts. Are you the sort of person to rush into things that appear to be a good deal, only to find that they aren’t? Do you, like me, tend to wait too long before committing to a good financial opportunity? Do you know why you do these things?

Pookah knows why Pookah does what Pookah does.

If you can honestly answer that last question fully, then you know something of your true self.

I also learned a lot about the people I knew during that time, about their true selves. I learned how to more easily recognize those characteristics, good and bad, in people I would meet later in life. I also made the mistake of over-generalizing the bad things that happened to me. But what I learned about my true self allowed me to see that mistake and do something about it.

I didn’t know if I could do it, at the time.

I stared down one of the worst times of my life, and didn’t blink.

I kept my heart, and my soul.

And was found by Pookah.

Who rewarded me with nibbled fingers.

Only when teasing Pookah by touching savory peanut butter, without giving some to Pookah.

Scores range from 1 (kill me before I see it) to 10 (defining movie of this element). I saw this movie on the regular flat screen with a good friend, late at night.

Overall: A worthy sequel to the 1987 surprise hit movie. Good script, intelligently directed, with talented actors who looked like they really got to sink their teeth into their parts. Best of all, it ignores the regurgitated pea soup Hollywood put out with those moronic AvP crossovers.

They could have easily cut the number of humans in this film to give us more story, rather than having to do exposition on the extra trophies… I mean, characters. I think this movie suffered from the “too many characters” problem that action-adventure films frequently have.

(Fun: How much did I enjoy the movie?
Action: How much engaging action?
Drama: How much did the drama “get” me?
SF: How did this rate as science fiction?
Fantasy: How did this rate as fantasy?
Sex: How much sex was there in the movie?
Effects: How were the special effects?
Other: How did any other parts of the movie, such as the Moral Of The Story, work?)

SPOILERS!!!! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE

I MEAN IT. SPOILERS BELOW.

I’m trying to avoid major plot spoilers, however some are unavoidable. So I’m going to deliberately avoid certain plot twists so that if you read this review, you can still get some enjoyment out of the film.

Predators is pretty good – definitely worth seeing. If you have seen the 1987 film, Predator, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, you already know the plot and the main antagonists. It is an action-adventure, survival (lifeboat) flick. The real gems are the human characters – especially Adrien Brody’s and Laurence Fishburne’s – and the twists they gave the Predators.

Fun: 7

I was a little disappointed here. There was only one memorable one-liner: “Please. Stop. Doing. That.” Yes, you have to see it to get the effect.

As opposed to the original’s many, not least of which are “I ain’t got time to bleed,” and “You are one ugly…(you know the rest)”.

Beyond that, it was enjoyable! C’mon! It’s PREDATORS!!! IN A FREAKIN’ JUNGLE!!! Only without Arnold and other muscle-men heroes.

Action: 8
Guns. Lots of guns, appropriate to the human prey archetypes. Fight choreography is good – and believable. Our ex-con murderer shiving, slicing, stabbing, ambushing, brutal-in-your-mask-wrestling, you-or-me fighting is great! Tramping around in the jungle didn’t waste time or try my patience. As with the original, the travelling is broken up nicely with discovering new bits of information about the life-or-death survival sitation our humans are in.

They used buckets of blood – human and Predator. Body parts get sliced off. Decapitations occur. At least one spine gets ripped out. Chunks get blown off in explosions. Bodies get riddled with bullets. Bad guys get killed. Repeatedly. Good guys die trying to do the right thing.

Make no mistake: This is a violent film, as it should be.

Our anti-hero is a good fit, physically capable of pulling off the scenes he’s in, and swings a mean axe.

The parts with Laurence Fishburne are scene-stealing, as is the final climactic battle.

Drama: 4

Okay, another point of criticism. The drama was below average. Come ON!! This is supposed to be an Action-Adventure/Survival movie with elements of horror! DRAMA requires character development! If you don’t develop the characters, we don’t care if they die!

Why, oh why, do the idiots making these films have to be so damned Politically Correct? You can’t be very culturally diverse in an action film that’s under two hours long! You simply DO NOT have enough screen time to establish all the dead weight characters without sacrificing your main and secondary characters.

Our drug cartell killer? Dead in the first fight against alien critters. Was anyone surprised? They used him only to show that the Predators set traps. Big woop. What purpose for the movie did he serve? Did he move the plot along in a good way? Did he add to, or resolve, any sort of conflict or tension? No. Waste of time.

Our death-row mass murderer? Hung around a little as internal tension (who is he going to kill in our group? The girl? Seems likely), added some comic relief, and manages to shiv a Predator before dying. It would have been a better story to give all that extra time to the Russian, because someone else is already providing the internal tension!

Our Sierra Leone tribal killer – y’know, half of the stand-in for Billy from the original? He is there to just play off the death-row convict and die. Had a great intro, set up a nice internal conflict with the death-row guy. Died… pathetically. Waste of talent, time, and character.

The aggravating thing is, they could have combined any two of these characters into one, eliminated the third, played the combined character off against the Russian, and it would have been a vast improvement. Not least of which would have been more bits and pieces about our main and secondary characters. Y’know, so we’d feel that knife twist when they get killed.

Now, some things they did right:

Our main hero and the female sniper are excellent foils for each other. Great stuff here! The Yakuza assassin? Whoa, excellent! Neither of them is stupid. They act as intelligent, professional, talented survivors.

Adding in Laurence Fishburne, to give us explanations as to why there’s a tied up Predator still alive in the camp? Oh, yes, yes, yes!!

The doctor. Saw it coming from the first introduction of his character. It was not a gotcha.

The ironic comparisons between the humans as predators and the Predators as predators. Nice one!

SF: 6

The new Predators are bigger and meaner. But they give a valid reason for it that sets up the final act beautifully.

The Predators’ technology is sane and reasonable. I especially like the failsafe one of them used near the end. Not going to spoil it.

Setting aside a breathable atmosphere moon as a hunting preserve? Especially after they’re done mining it for useful materials? Well done, feeds into the plot in a good, reasonable way, and provides plenty of fodder for thought.

Taking the Predators’ tech and using it against them? Check.

Alien critters attacking our main characters? Check. Including some expanded surprises for our Predators’ hunting activities. Watch the cockroaches.

Our humans setting up their own traps and tactics as they learn more about what they’re facing? Check.

Human technology working as it should with no “mysterious” malfunctions? Check – with the usual Hollywood caveats. I’ve seen too many episodes of Mythbusters  about knockback from guns.

Concept of a high-tech alien race using their high-tech to go on safari? Oh, coolness galore! Done in the first movie, continued here.

Expanding that idea to capturing intelligent, armed prey for release into a hunting reservation for planned safaris? Heh, nice one! They pull a deus ex machina on this, though. Just how are the Predators going to grab a death-row convict, two days from execution, out of a U.S. maximum security prison? As referenced under Drama above, this character was problematic for the movie at the get-go.

Our characters’ methods for figuring out that something is majorly wrong with the whole environment. I especially liked the survivalist trick of magnetizing a needle, setting it on a floating leaf in a puddle of still water, as a makeshift compass for determining magnetic north. Not a surprise to us in the audience – it gave weird results. Very. Nice. Touch.

Pulling out the Hollywood-ism, waving it in front of us, and using it well: They marched for hours and the sun never moved. One of the main characters uses that as evidence that Things Are Seriously Wrong Here.

Adding another tribe of alien hunters with a slightly different approach? Nice addition to the backstory, but they didn’t DO enough with it! Remember in the original, we got to watch the Predator cleaning his trophies and enjoying the actual “having” of them? Yeah, none of that in this movie. Lost an opportunity here to up the SF score in a major way.

Survivors scavenging whatever they can use – alien or human – and using it to add to the story in creative ways? Well done, movie guys. Well done! No magic tech here – if it works for the aliens, it works for the humans the same way.

They did, however, break what should be a rule about Predator movies, and IS a rule in monster-movies: When the Predator fights you with an equal weapon (a la Billy taking on the Predator with just a big knife in the original), the Predator wins. Every. Time. I don’t care how cool it looks or sounds having a Yakuza assassin and katana sword go mano-e-mano with a Predator and his claw(s), only for them to kill each other. The Predator should have won. I’m OK for the Predator to be injured afterwards, and easier pickings for the next fight. Maybe even set it up so that the Predator is weakened enough that it loses the next fight. But they cheapened the monster with this trick. It went from a cunning, brutal, contemptuous, nigh-invulnerable enemy to… oh, we CAN kill it pretty easily.

The science fiction is in there, and done with some care. However, they did break some good story elements to pull off their plot. They also fell into the trap of having our new Predators act just like movie monsters – including the cheap “startle” scare. I’m surprised about those scenes – everything else was done with attention to what was set up in the original movie – they’re hunters, out for sport. There’s no sport in just blasting your opponent to bloody bits. It’s not sporting if the lion or tiger doesn’t even have a chance to stalk you and claw you. But they do it anyway, to the detriment of the movie.

Fantasy: 4
This is NOT a Fantasy movie. However, some of the science fiction they use definitely falls into the realm of fantasy:

The alien biology. Humans can breathe the atmosphere unaided, along with at least 3 other alien species.

Kidnapping a deathrow convict two days out from his execution, without raising all kinds of alarm bells.

New atmosphere has no effects on biology or explosions.

No alien plants.

Sex: 5

Only one element: Our death row killer admires the Israeli sniper babe’s posterior. Used well, escelated the tension among the survivors (will he kill her? will he?), and then… wasted. Again, too many throw-away characters in this flick. They didn’t have to have him actually attack her – it would have been better, in my opinion, to ratchet that tension up, then have him actually SAVE her.

Our main human characters, who are all male except for the afore-mentioned sniper, are male, wiry, sinewy. Adrien Brody – buff, tough, and bare-chested for our final fight.

That’s it. That’s all it needed.

Violence: 9
Blood. Gore. Buckets.

Lots of messy kills. There are guns, grenades, bombs, blaster weapons, claws, teeth, mandibles, fists, bullets, swords, knives, torture, dismemberments, decapitations, and a really cool scene of a spine getting ripped out of a body as a trophy.

This is a sequel to Predator.

It is violent, gory, and graphic.

It meets all the brutal expectations of the first movie, minus the skinned, bloody human corpses.

The fight scenes are well-choreographed, graphic, and filmed so that you can actually follow the action 99% of the time. The Predators show off their strength, toughness, and skill. The humans fight, desperately, passionately, fearfully, hopelessly.

NOT FOR KIDS!

Effects: 7

Good use of effects.

I must compliment the movie guys for putting actual big, buffed guys in monster suits for the Predators. With the exception of Cameron’s Avatar, the CGI can’t get the many nuances right for a completely CGI character. Also, you don’t get the subtle feedback and interplay through body language and facial expressions that you get when there is something big, hulking, ugly, and deadly RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU. It really added a presence to the Predators during their interactions with the humans and environment.

We get to see one Predator’s aerial scout device… ONE TIME. That’s it. It never appears again. I view this as another wasted opportunity. It could have been used to good effect during the “stalking” phase of the story.

Other & Final Thoughts:
This is a fun flick and a worthy sequel. If you enjoyed Predator, you’ll like Predators. I will probably add it to my DVD collection, especially if they include a director’s cut and making of.

Here is an example of cell phone jerkery:

John Doe leaves his cell phone on his desk at work. Its ringer starts going off. FOR. HALF. AN. HOUR. Finally reaching the limits of his tolerance, a coworker shuts it in a drawer, where it is tolerably quieter.

John Doe comes back and complains about someone touching his cell phone.

John, buddy, let me tell you something:

Someone else of the knuckledragger persuasion, is likely going to “accidentally” spill their drink all over your expensive, obnoxious, piece-of-excrement cell phone, and thereby reduce its expected useful life to a nice, big, fat ZERO. All without touching it.

That is assuming, of course, that this obvious sign of your close relationship to a braying, farmyard jackass simply doesn’t up and disappear. Forever. With no witnesses.

Or you might annoy Pookah. Pookahs, like all cats, have a uniquely aromatic way of marking items that they dislike intensely. This will ensure that any nearby human servants of Her Feline Royalty, Pookah the First, will remove the offending item from the Royal Demense with all due alacrity.

Or you might find parts of it. Perhaps all the parts of it, so that you can re-assemble it. Of maybe just the battery. Or a piece of the display screen. A very small, broken, piece of the display screen.

A particularly imaginative, and frustrated, individual, may very well pin your beloved brain replacement device directly to your work area via a pen hammered through it and into the particleboard desk so favored in American cubicle farm decor.

So folks, don’t be a Jerky John Doe. Turn your ringer off unless the cell phone is clamped to your person. If you are deaf or hard of hearing, switch it to vibrate only.

If you are lazy… expect to have to replace your cell phone.

Even though I strongly encourage non-destructive methods for handling these situations, please be aware that all the judges I have observed executing their duties ~hate~ cell phones far more than I do.

But not as much as Pookah does! HHHIIISSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

Thank you

Have been preoccupied by a number of Life’s Dramas. In no particular order:

• Death of a beloved pet
• Car wrecks among ourselves and close family
• Day-jobs that occasionally spill over into nights and weekends
• Preventing dead oak trees from falling on our pile of rocks
• Feeding Pookah the delicious new food that helps keep Pookah in trim shape… after that… debacle… involving “Pudgins”
• Replacing certain articles that “mysteriously” shredded themselves

And other sundries besides.

Well, we’re back with updates coming.

Pookah was here. Pookah has always been here. Worship me.

The plan is (and has been) to get ahead on posts, and have them scheduled to publish. Comments are supposed to generate an alert – unless they hit the spam filters.

We’ll see how it goes this time

And humans claim that felines are easily distracted. Hmph!

Onyx

05/15/1995 – 05/17/2010

You will be sorely missed, Oni-kun, Old Lady Cat

1. An economy can’t overcome hundreds of billions of dollars of debt in one year.
2. An economy can’t recover in one year when “real” unemployment is over %10.

By “real” unemployment, I mean people who are capable of working and want to work for compensation or who are on any significant form of tax-backed support;  but excluding people who have sufficient non-tax-backed income-generation by other means to support their household (such as “trust fund babies”. I also put “homemaker” as “real” employment. It’s a job like any other, and strongly affects income (negatively or positively). If it weren’t, housekeepers, baby-sitters, pre-school, and day-care would all be non-profitable.

(That’s a complicated way of saying: Real unemployment takes into account only people willing and able to work. It excludes people who have their own means of self-support – like being independently wealthy, or owning your own gold mine.)

So far, our elected officials have done what I’ve expected:

• The party in power has taken some good steps, and screwed others up royally. Sometimes both at the same time.
• The party out of power is whining about it. Really: What would they have done any different, and how would that have been an improvement? Be specific. I say that if the party in power was reversed, we’d still have the same basic set of problems, only with a slightly different attachment of complications.
• Financial institutions that received a lot of cash bailouts – and put us tax payers further in the red – are handing out bonuses again. Those commitments to cut or give back bonuses? Yup. Worth the paper they were written and signed on.
• The wealthy, as a whole, are getting a lot of blame. Most of it (not all) is unjustified. Is it really Warren Buffet’s fault that he was ridiculously rich before the bubble burst, and is still ridiculously rich? Hardly.
• People who bought too much house are still losing their homes.
• People who stayed sane are still losing their homes, too.
• The government still can’t figure out what to do about small businesses (businesses employing 50 or fewer people).
• Neither can the financial institutions.
• Which means they really don’t know how to run a production-based economy; only a consumption-based one.

Issues that our elected officials are wishing they could ignore:

• Tax increases. Someone’s going to get hit to pay for all these stimulus packages. There is a strong argument to increase the taxes on those who benefited from or received stimulus packages.
• Ridiculously low Fed rates. They can’t keep loaning out money at near-zero interest forever. The longer this goes on, the harder – and longer – the recovery will be.
• Government waste. Stories I could tell. Stories other people are telling.
• Transportation Security Administration. TSA – a new acronym for Boondoggle. Gun-toting trained guards, with no bullets, has proven to be very ineffective during an actual crisis. Ask the military about Lebanon. And this is only one example of the public theater travesty that is TSA. Full body scanners in airports are useless, when one can rent a repairman’s uniform, drive around back, and wheel an unmarked, heavy package through the employee’s entrance.
• Federal Emergency Management Administration. FEMA – the last Boondoggle. Katrina disaster. Hello? What was the National Guard for? The Reserves? Just how are they going to sell all those mobile homes that are rotting in the countryside? But don’t worry. They have a plan…
• Infrastructure. Power grids, bridges, water, waste treatment… Are any of these things going to get repairs, maintenance, or upgrades?

These are only a few of the problems.

Playing “What If?”
Let’s play make-believe. Consider the consequences of the following ideas, if actually implemented. I’m not talking about a rose-tinted perspective where everything works as intended; but a realistic approach instead. Remember, in a capitalism-based economy (make no mistake: The U.S. economy is NOT pure capitalism, but is based on those principles), the main goal of businesses is to maximize profits. This leads to many unintended consequences, as companies and individuals find ways around restrictions on their ability to maximize profits. So consider the following ideas:

What If: To receive a stimulus derived from tax funds you had to do 20 hours (or more) of community service – picking up trash, sorting recyclables – any of the basic grunt work that a person with two arms, two legs, and a few brain cells could do? Well, you’d have to pay for equipment, transportation (buses and trucks), tracking, management… sounds like generating some jobs to me. It would also be nice to see some of the so-called Wall Street Fat Cats (deservedly or not) out there picking up trash with us common folk, even those of us who foolishly took on too much debt.

What If: Companies received a tax benefit for each employee they trained to industry certification in a job? Specifically, the same jobs that are going to H1B visas. We train our own, improve a person’s earning power, increase the overall tax base (higher income = more paid in taxes), and the company gets the tax benefits, morale benefits, PR benefits, fills a business need, AND retaining someone with good institutional knowledge.

What If: For every job outsourced overseas, the company had to train two employees in a new career, or to a higher level and certification in their current profession?

What If: Regulatory requirements regarding banks and investment firms that were relaxed since 1995 were re-instated, while keeping any new regulatory requirements put in place since 1995? In other words, restore the old restrictions, and keep any new restrictions, for a more — wait for it, this is shocking — CONSERVATIVE financial approach?

What If: We created two categories of corporate income taxes? One for income generated within the U.S. borders, say 15%, and one for income generated outside the U.S. borders, say 30%?

What If: It became illegal, punishable by a mandatory hard-labor 10-year jail sentence, to redirect funds from infrastructure to ANY other purpose… in every state? Would the the flood-prevention infrastructure in Katrina-hit areas have held up better? Would transportation routes be in better shape? What would that do to the economy?

What If: Our elected officials actually discussed some of these ideas, point-by-point, with real research and analysis by accredited professionals, instead of mindlessly screaming at each other while trying to protect THEIR OWN paychecks?

Please do NOT fall into the trap of thinking that I support all of these thoughts and ideas. I don’t.

But they do make for some interesting consideration.

The situation has not improved in that regard. Quite the opposite.

Old Lady Cat went through the more expensive procedure. The results were inconclusive, but did provide more information. OLC’s kidneys have shrunk. And she is a good candidate for an iodine isotope injection that, if it works, would cure her thyroid problems. But she is in bad shape with her kidneys. Not surprising, considering her 15 years of age.

So here we are. Another decision time.

Curing the thyroid problem will “make her more comfortable”. Her deteriorating kidneys will still kill her.

For those to whom quantity of life is important, there is no easy answer. Her thyroid disease is masking the severity and some symptoms of her kidney disease. Treatment for her thyroid requires a week of preparation, followed by more weeks of special care and waste handling (the idodine isotope IS radioactive, after all). Weak as she is, Old Lady Cat may not survive the treatment.

For those to whom quality of life is important, there still is no easy answer. Her thyroid condition makes her weak and shaky on bad days. Both conditions give her nausea and vomiting. With the thyroid treatment, if successful, her symptoms will be reduced… for a while.

So I am left with a simple, yet hard question.

What would I want for myself or S.O.?

I have a living will. I do not want to be kept on life support with no reasonable chance of recovery and good quality of life for longer than a week. I do not want to financially or emotionally ruin my family by them having to keep me alive, when I’m only going to be in pain and end up dying anyway. Given the chance, I would be glad to take a nice, long, final camping trip to end my days surrounded by the natural beauty of this great world. That is part of what love is: Caring enough to let someone or something go on its own path.

I will make Old Lady Cat as comfortable as I can. I will love and cherish this living creature for as long as I can. Finally, when the time comes…

I will let her go.

Pookah has been very, very worried! Pookah has worn herself ragged trying to take care of Pookah’s pet humans. The extra effort on Pookah’s part has required massive consumption of tasty foods.

Now Pookah is searching for this “Pudgey Pudgins” individual is, and why “Pudgins” is in Pookah’s house!

Then, Old Lady Cat was ill, then took a nosedive for the worse. Translate this to additional vet bills. On the heels of Pookah’s daughter’s illness and ongoing slow recovery, this is extra expense that is breaking our monthly budget.

Did this qualify as an emergency, and why?

In this article, we set up our First Number – the Emergency Fund. Later analysis showed that, with the responsibility of pets included, we needed to increase our Emergency Fund commensurately with the responsibility of caring for our pets.

We are now in a position where, temporarily, our pets’ illnesses have broken our budget. The illnesses in question are life-threatening to the pets.

It is further complicated because Old Lady Cat is near the end of her life expectancy, is a rescue from an abusive environment, is going blind and deaf, has severe arthritis, and has a long history of health issues. She is also an integral part of our lives, and a generously affectionate part of our household.

Affectionate to HUMANS, you mean! Old Lady Cat tried to maul Pookah when Pookah first came into human’s house. Before it became Pookah’s house.

Who is “Pudgins?”

If Old Lady Cat does not improve, and soon, the next step is to undergo an expensive procedure – ultrasound imaging – to try and determine the cause of her illness and render treatment. Or, if the worst is revealed, make her as comfortable as possible. This procedure is expensive… and may reveal nothing.

So, since Old Lady Cat is “mine” (I am the one responsible for adopting her and bringing her into our lives permanently), the responsibility for deciding is mine… with S.O.’s input. After all, that Emergency Fund is there for S.O., too.

We discussed the pro’s and con’s, reviewed the vet’s recommendations and alternatives.

I decided to go ahead with the ultrasound, and asked if S.O. agreed that this qualified as an emergency — and therefore I could tap the First Number (as increased for our pets) to pay for it. S.O. agreed – this qualifies.

If Old Lady Cat’s situation does not improve very soon (as in, the day I am writing this), we will tap the Emergency Fund up to the amount allocated for OLC’s care for this attempt to diagnose. If the scan does not reveal anything, or shows that her condition is terminal, then we make her as comfortable as possible and face the harder decision. If the scan is successful, and reasonable treatment is available, then we adjust the budget to compensate (and refill the First Number).

Pookah will find this “Pudgins”, and bite HIS tail! Only a male cat would be so foolish as to enter Pookah’s house!

I knew when I adopted Old Lady Cat that the day would come when I’d lose her.

It will be very hard.

Specifically, breathing, eating, and walking.

My human, and the “S.O.”, have endured great illness. They are in the process of re-discovering the pleasures of breathing through their sinuses. This recovery, however, has done nothing to improve their ability to scent prey. I understand that this ability is rare in humans. Even in its limited form, it has skipped my human’s generation.

Even so, I, Pookah, along with my daughter, Dora, and the Old Lady Cat, have labored hard to restore my human, and the “S.O.”, to health.

This is an ongoing process.

Post-recovery, I shall dictate further editorials and information for my human to include in these online ramblings.

– Pookah, Queen Of All She Surveys, Holder Of The Comfy-Nest-Sunbeams, She Who WILL Have That Portion Of Small Tasty Bird Hanging Off The Side Of Your Plate