The dynamics of my family changed again today. When my Mom died 10 years ago was the first time it changed and today my 18 year old cat, Sweetie, died. Now some may find this absolutely ridiculous but you need to understand Sweetie had been around for almost half of my lifetime. He was just always there and now that he is gone, the family vibe feels weird.


  About two weeks ago I had found a big mass on Sweetie just in front of his left hip. No I did not take him to the vet because it was more than likely cancer ( he lost two of his sisters to cancer ) and at his age and the fact that he had lost a lot of weight over the past year I was worried he wouldn't survive the anesthesia. So it became a case of letting him have a good quality of life for as long as possible and he did until late Friday afternoon. It was then decided that Monday ( today ) that he would be taken to the vet and be taken care of, but that didn't happen. At sometime after 4 o'clock this morning I got up to check on Sweetie and found him under an end table with his head in an empty wicker wastebasket. I couldn't rouse him and I didn't feel his chest going up and down so, of course, I'm going he's dead. Scratch that thought. Wasn't yet time to pull the shroud over him, but it wasn't far off. So, I sat with him and tried to make him as comfortable as I could : held his head in my hand to elevate it for him when the breathing got to be difficult at times and when that had eased I put his head on a folded towel to use as a pillow. I would check Sweetie's breathing with my hand on his chest every so often; one of the times I didn't feel his breath but I could feel his heart still beating and maybe a couple of minutes later I checked again and that was it...no heartbeat. So that was a little after 6 o'clock and this time I did pull the shroud over him by wrapping him in a towel and putting him in a box on top of my drier until daylight came so he could be buried.

Sweetie in happier times a two springs ago.

  That was his death, now let me tall you a little bit about his life. He was born in May of 1994 after midnight and I was there for the hand-off of Sweetie and his siblings. They all had to be bottle fed every two hours because their mother didn't have enough milk. We started with milk then moved onto baby rice and milk and then baby food meat and milk then plates of baby food meat and to finally cat food. Yes, it was work but it was out of love but it was done out of love so it only makes sense.

  As Sweetie and his brother that looked like him, except for the crooked tail, C.C. grew they were the ones that tore up the wallpaper behind my toilet tank. When Sweetie would go outside after it had rained and he would find a mud puddle and go play in it and he would have muddy water from his paws to his chest . Trust me getting a white cat unmuddied is not an easy task. He loved people tuna, especially the albacore and would get some of what was at the bottom of the can and he taught the other cats that have gone before him and those still here to enjoy it, but now it is plain tuna in water.

What else? Oh, he LOVED to be brushed. Actually he got in my lap last night and let me brush him and I'm happy for that time.

  So that is how my day started and the emptiness that is now here will never be filled by any of my other cats. Yes I do lve them, but they're not Sweetie. He was a VERY special cat and I love and will always miss him.

Fashion Friday Photo Zuhair Murad

Pieces from  Beruit, Lebanon based Zuhair Murad 2012/2013 Fall/Winter collection:

Love the front of this wedding dress

Not too certain about the back of the wedding dress. Maybe it's the big flouncy lace at her waist that cascades down towards her butt that is throwing me off.

The Lemon Song - Led Zeppelin

  ' The Lemon Song' is of course by Led Zeppelin and is on their 1969 album Led Zeppelin II. It was recorded in Hollywood, California at Mystic Studios while the band was on their second tour of America. 'The Lemon Song' was released October 22, 1969.


  With sexual innuendo laced through 'The Lemon Song' also featured some of Zeppelin's most blues influenced playing. 'Lemon' was practically recorded live in studio. There was no electrical devices used to create Robert Plant's vocal. It was made purely with Plant's voice and the acoustics of a 16x16 foot room with wooden walls in Mystic Studios.And of course with the heavily funk influenced complex bass performance of John Paul Jones.

  'The Lemon Song' was performed on Zeppelin's first three tours of the U.S. ( on the first tour as 'Killing Floor'), before it was dropped from their live line-up in late 1969. But the "squeeze my lemon" continued to be inserted in 'A Whole Lotta Love' medley and ad libbed elsewhere.

'The Lemon Song' borrows (maybe a little too heavily) from Howlin' Wolf's 'Killing Floor, which Led Zeppelin would often incorporate into their live set list during their first tour of America.For the second and third North American tours it evolved into 'The Lemon Song', with Robert Plant often improvising lyrics on stage.

  Other lyrics, notably "squeeze (my lemon) 'til the juice runs down my leg', can be traced back to Robert Johnson's song ' Travelling Riverside Blues' ( sometimes also called 'Mudbone' or Mud Bone'). It's also likely that Robert Johnson borrowed this song himself from another 1937 Arthur McKay song called 'She Squeezed My Lemon'. The song also borrowed from Albert King's 1966 song 'Cross-Cut Saw'.

On the early 1970's British re-release of Led Zeppelin II, does the label list 'The Lemon Song' as 'Killing Floor' as the third song and credited it to Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf's given name), while the liner notes list the song as 'The Lemon Song' and give Led Zeppelin credit. So, in December of 1972, Led Zeppelin was sued by Arc Music, owners of the publishing rights to Howlin' Wolf songs, for copyright infringement. The suit was settled out of court. Even though the terms of the settlement were not released, soon after Howlin' Wolf received a check from Arc Music for $45,123 and co-writing credit on further releases of the song.

THE LEMON SONG 

I should have quit you baby, long time ago

I should have quit you baby long time ago

I wouldn't be here, my children down, on the killin' floor

I should have listened, baby, to my second mind

I should have listened, baby, to my second mind

Every time I go away and leave you, darling, you send me the blues way down the line.

Said, people worry I can't keep you satisfied.

Let me tell you baby, you ain't nothin' but a two-bit, no good jive.

Went to sleep last night, worked as hard as I can, Bring home my money, you take it, give it to another man.

I should quit you, baby, such along time ago. 

I wouldn't be here with all my troubles, on the killing floor.

Squeeze me baby, 'til the juice runs down my leg.

Squeeze me baby, 'til the juice runs down my leg.

The way you squeeze my lemon, I'm gonna fall right out of bed.

I'm going to leave my children right on this killing floor.

The Fairies by William Allingham

  This is off the beaten path for this blog, but I found this poem in the book 'Irish Fairy & Folk Tales' by William Butler Yates called 'The Faeries' by Irish poet William Allingham. It is a beautifully sad  lyrical poem about the good wee people of Ireland ( must be nice or they can get a trifle nasty, according to what I have read so far). Anyway, I thought I would share it with you, I hope you enjoy it.

THE FAERIES

by

William Allingham 

 Up the airy mountain,

Down the rushy glen,

We daren't go a hunting

For fear of little men;

We folk, good folk

Trooping all together;

Green jacket, red cap, 

And white owl's feather!

Down along the rocky shore,

Some make their home,

They live on crispy pancakes

Of yellow tide- foam;

Some in the reeds

Of the black mountain lake,

With frogs for their watch - dogs,

All night awake.

HIgh on the hill

The old King sits;

He is now so old and gray

He nigh lost his wits.

With a bridge ogf white mist

Columbkill he crosses,

On his stately journeys

From Slieveleague to Rosses;

Or going up with music

On cold starry nights,

To sup with the Queen

Of the gay Northern Lights

They stole little Bridget

For seven long years;

When she game down again

Her friends were gone.

They took her lightly back,

Between the night and morrow,

They thought she was fast asleep,

But she was dead with sorrow.

They have kept her ever since

Deep within the lake,

On a bed of flag leaves,

Watching till she wakes.

By the craggy hill-side,

Through the mosses bare,

They have planted thorn-trees

For pleasure here and there.

If any man so daring

As dig them up in spite,

He shall find there sharpest thorns

In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain,

Down the rushy glen,

We daren't go a hunting

For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,

Trooping all together;

Green jacket, red cap,

And white owl's feather!

Fashion Friday Photo : Monarch Butterfly Dress from Luly Yang

  Luly Yang is a Seattle, Washington based couture designer who made this lovely Monarch Butterfly dress for her Metamorphosis collection. The dress is a silk taffeta corset with a multi-paneled ball skirt with red, black, orange and white colors following the pattern of a Monarch butterfly. The Monarch Butterfly dress is whimsical and made for anyone to wear.

Fashion Friday Photo - Dior Resort 2012

  I know that it has been a while since I have posted a Friday Fashion Photo and I do apologize. Life happens as I'm sure you all know and sometimes a person can end up being more tired that normal. So even though it is Saturday night, and maybe for some of you Sunday, I would like to give you :  blue caftan from the Dior Resort Collection 2012.

Aurora, Colorado

  On an innocent and fun filled night of movie going, to see the 'Dark Knight Rise' everyone's world got turned upside  down and a new reality was given that nobody could  ever dream of or want.  A creature, for whatever reason and only in its mind is there a reason, decided to use tear gas and four guns to bring Hell on Earth to Aurora, Colorado. The few minute of terror left 58 wounded and 12 dead, with some of the dead being considered missing by their families because they have yet received conformation from authorities on who all the victims are. As of this early morning the missing are :

 Matt Quinn, originally from Ohio, who went to the movies with his girlfriend, who took a bullet to the leg and is believed to be in fair condition, according to the Denver Post.

17 year old named Abdullah is missing according to his mother, Rosemary Ratcliff.

John Larimer, originally from Illinois, is with the U.S. Navy and is stationed in Aurora, his Dad told the Chicago Sun-Times. Scott Larimer, John's father, says that the family has been calling for 15 hours. Quote " We cannot get any help from the military, the police, the hospitals, the Red Cross...We cannot get a single answer if he is alive or dead...We are more than  frantic."

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/20/12861792-anxious-for-word-of-missing-moviegoers-some-families-get-the-worst-news?lite


  There questions that need to be answered, but will they ever truly be answered?With the evil that permeated the town of Aurora, I'm sorry but I don't think so. And I don't even see how we will ever wrap our heads around the cowardly shooting.

But what I can do, and I hope my readers will agree, is offer love,prayers,hugs through cyperspace and my own tears, to the victims, survivors, their families and friends, the town of Aurora, Colorado and the state of Colorado. 

WE LOVE YOU, AURORA, COLORADO!