Help Very Much Needed

 Long post, huge ask, opportunity to be kind included.

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TLDR: help three souls find safe space.

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The story, in brief (yes, this is the BRIEF version):

Last year, I stumbled across and started following an account on Twitter.  It was a person and their kitty, homeless after fleeing a DV situation, living in a van, in Arkansas.

Before you lecture, I am aware of the dangers and perfidy of online accounts, and have done my due diligence.

I started following for the kitty pictures - he’s a floofy void wrapped around a bundle of mischief and love.

The human was/is in the midst of appealing denial of disability.  They are, btw, disabled but functioning beyond their limits because survival, but they pay a hearty physical and psychological toll for that.

They have struggled to keep their kitty and themself cared for.

At one point, they were rousted from what had been a property-owner approved parking/sleeping spot and had nowhere to go.  They risked arrest and loss of their worldly goods to go back and wait for kitty to come “home”, as he often went out to toilet and be a cat during the day, returning faithfully to the van after a few hours.  The person would not abandon him.

He returned, they collected him, and then they went seeking a new spot.

At the time, what must have seemed like a miracle happened - someone they knew offered a place, a tiny abandoned house on her property.  No power, no water, asshole neighbors who had vandalized it, but it was a roof and walls and if they wanted to clean it up they could live there.

So they went.

They cleaned.

And cleaned.

And cleaned.

There were struggles and misadventures.

Kitty discovers poison oak and Things In The Woods and had several vet visits, but he was happy to not be vanbound all the time.  Human felt much the same.

The neighbors have non-stop harassed them, even to the point of catnapping the kitty and damn near starving him to death.  He was gone so long, his human had lost hope that he was alive.  They nearly gave up, then.  Luckily, Bastet and Freya listened and responded, and he escaped and came “home”.

They use crowdfunding to get by, and they often go without to make sure kitty has what he needs to thrive.  They are exhausted and hurting and excepting a few online connections, they are alone.  I have donated and made Amazon orders, and Mom donated to their GoFundMe.  We both donated to help cover kitty vet costs because kitty!  Lots of other folks have helped, too.

They put on some much needed weight and strove the regain some strength and health while still jumping…er…stumbling…through the disability appeal hoops.

A few weeks ago, the property owner revealed that they had made some…unfortunate…choices, and now the land, main house (from which this person runs an extension cord, with permission, to power a refrigerator), and little abandoned house are being sold in advance of foreclosure.  The property could have been saved, but the owner didn’t want to make the effort.

So human and kitties (a second cat joined the mix, being looked after for a friend) have to pack up and get out, between unannounced showings and incursions from the harassing neighbors.

They’re struggling to make the van ready to live in again, and they’ve no notion where to go, now.

Meanwhile, one realtor has several times shown up unannounced, forcing the person to quickly crate the cats and leave because apparently a property can’t be shown with a person there?  And they’ve come back to find the cats terrified, spilled soda pop (not theirs, from one of the “guests”), papers and belongings riffled through and in disarray, and a urine…HUMAN urine!…puddle.

They’re dealing with all of this while also struggling with aforementioned disabilities and a new injury cause by property owner negligence and asshole neighbor fuckery.

So, yeah, cascading shitstorm.

The ask(s):

This person and their kitties need a safe, stable place to roost.  A parking spot would do, but I’m hoping someone has or knows of a room, a tiny house, hell, even a camper that they can live in, preferably no or low rent.  I’ll help pay whatever utilities they can’t cover.  It would be better for their continuing disability case if they could stay in Arkansas, but at this point things are such a clusterfuck that they are willing to move to another state and start over if needs must.  MMJ legal would be nice. Comment if you can help.

Donating to their survival fund would be amazing:  https://gofund.me/4103ceb3

Or, if you’re looking for a property for investment with resident guard kitties and their human keeping it lived in for you…I know about a fixer-upper that just came on the market…

Seriously, I’d buy the place myself if I had the funds…

 

At 5:31 am on June 17, 2024, the dragon flew.

Both my brother Cabot and I were by her side when, between one breath and the next, Mom stepped through the veil and into the next great adventure.

Last evening, Mom was aware that the time was close.  We did what we could to keep her comfortable, and her last words to me were “I love you.” followed by our silly ASL I love you finger wiggle thing.

She went to sleep and a few hours later was gone.

Thank you for the support that you gave to Mom as she navigated a difficult course.  Your words, gifs, memes, photos, flowers, stickers, calls, and gifts meant the world to her.  She was touched and voiced surprise that so many people cared so much.

I was not surprised, because I knew what an amazing woman she was and took great delight in telling her so.

She will be cremated.

A memorial will take place next April, around her birthday, both to give us time to mourn and to make plans for one heck of a party.  

Meanwhile, I’ll be carrying her along on my travels - we WILL go to the Isle of Skye one day to see a Highland Coo and visit a distillery, because she said she would go with me and she’s not getting out of it that easily.

Love you all.  Stay safe in the world.  Fuck cancer.

Sadly Still Apropos

Wrote this on this date in 2020.  I wish it wasn’t still relevant.

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 Ok...I’m taking as deep a breath as I can manage at the moment, girding up my loins, and setting aside my distaste for confrontation and unpleasantry.

My rant:

Hurrah for you if you’re among the 80% who are young, healthy, asymptomatic, lucky, or who made a fantastic and timely deal with the devil.  You feel fine.  Maybe you don’t have it or won’t get it.  Maybe it’s super mild and you recover quickly.  Fanfreakingtastic.

Whoopdedo .

Who are you go spouting off about how this COVID-19 isn’t so bad, and people really shouldn’t be so panicked, so worried about it, and we can all just sit back and relax because you had it and it went just fine?  Perhaps you might consider the other 20%. 

You know, that other 20% of people who are older, immune compromised, or who happened to draw the short straw in the genetic lottery, and will get hit by this hard and fast?

All this quarantining?

All the social distancing?

It isn’t about the 80% who will be ok.

It’s about that other 20%, the old, the injured, the chronically ill, the people who have high risk factors. It’s about keeping them out of hospitals. It’s about not inundating our scarce resources with more patients than they can handle. 

I get it, you don’t like that you’re being told you can’t go to the bar, the restaurant, the movie theater, the concert, the dance party, dying the river green, the beer fest, or whatever it is that you find so terribly important.

It’s a real bummer that you have to interrupt your life.

Much as with vaccines, this is about protecting those who are most vulnerable, and the least able to get the care they will need to survive. Social distancing is the same thing as herd immunity. No, I generally don’t need a flu vaccine. You better bet, though, that I will be getting one every year from now on because I know people who can’t and whom the flu would kill.  If I bring the flu to them whether I have it or not, if I simply have it on my hand and touch them in some way, I endanger their lives.  That’s not ok.

If not endangering the lives of the vulnerable is such a huge inconvenience that you feel you should be exempt from it?  Fuck. You.

Yes, that’s right I said fuck. You.

I realize that it seems like much ado about nothing. A tempest in a teapot. Foolishness on our part. If everything goes as it should, then almost nothing will happen. Then we will hear the voices crying out “See?  I told you we didn’t have to do this!”

If nothing much happens, then all of this quarantine and social distancing worked.

The whole purpose of this is so that nothing much will happen.

I would far rather sit at home, missing out on income, performances, interacting with the people whom I love, knowing that I will be able to do these things in the future, than do them now, help spread this nasty disease, and risk murdering any of those people whom I love because of my selfishness.

In the beginning, I was one of those who said oh, it’s no worse than the flu. What’s all the fuss about?  Then I started reading.

Having access to the World Wide Web means I also have access to worldwide news. I have access to people who are living in the middle of this hell, people who are able to write about their experience and share it with those of us who aren’t yet experiencing it.

I am glad that 80% will be just fine.

I am terrified for the 20% who won’t be just fine. I am terrified because of scant resources, because of a lack of global response, because those who imagine themselves to be our leaders are pooh-poohing the need for care and action now, not later, and I am terrified of the attitude of those who think that just because they won’t be hit hard doesn’t mean anyone will be. That laissez-faire attitude is horrifying to me.

It’s like we’re saying that the 20% don’t matter, they’re disposable.

For the sake of full disclosure, I should tell you that I am vulnerable myself. I have a number of factors that put me in the high risk category. If I get this thing, it could hospitalize me or worse.

My son is also among the vulnerable, despite his youth.

I have friends and family who are among those considered most vulnerable.

You’re upset, and want to mock me because I’m choosing to stay home? You are trying to minimize the seriousness of this, so that you can go out and do the things that you feel you ought to be able to do? Thank you so much for telling me and those whom I love that our lives mean nothing to you, that we’re less important than that concert you want to attend or going out to eat.

No, no, no backpedaling now! Do you think this is all foolishness and that life should go on as usual?  You think that you shouldn’t have to give up anything just because some of the rest of us might be more vulnerable than you are?  OK, fine. You feel that way, and there’s nothing I can do to change that...but if you are going to go out and live life as usual, carry on as if nothing is happening, then you get to take ownership for your actions.

You, yes you, going on out into the world and doing whatever you want and laughing at the rest of us. You are murdering us. It is murder. You are knowingly spreading a virus without any care for the impact it will have on others. All you care about is you. Fine. We’ve raised several generations in this nation to be quite selfish. Heck, I remember when children of the 80s were called “The ‘Me’ Generation” because they were among the first of us to be clearly, solidly,  openly all about themselves, and only themselves to the exclusion of anyone else.

I lived through it. I’ve watched it happen generation after generation since I was old enough to understand human behavior. That was a really long time ago, by the way. You  want to be all about yourselves, fine. But I’m not going to sit here and pretend that everything is hunky-dory, and that you are not absolutely in the wrong. You are.

Doctors in other nations face having to make the choice of who lives and who dies because they are running out of equipment and medication to treat patients. Do you have any understanding of how horrifying that is? Can you even begin to imagine what it must be like to be in that position? Would you even bother imagining? 

Stay home. Wash your hands. Avoid large gatherings. Inconvenience the fuck out of yourself. It’s not about you. It’s about the people around you. I can guarantee oyou that if your behavior endangers and ultimately kills someone in your family or one of your friends, you will look for someone to blame. I would suggest that you have no further to look than the closest reflective surface.

Oh, Good Grief

IYKYK

I don’t want a gold toilet.  Are you kidding me? Can you imagine sitting on a solid gold seat in the middle of winter? I don’t care how warm you keep your house, that sucker is gonna be cold! Can we say hemorrhoids, boys and girls? 

I don’t want a hoard or material goods just for the sake of having them.

I DO aspire to have wealth, one day…so I can help feed, clothe, house, educate, and provide medical and psychiatric care to people who need those things but can’t afford them.

I’m not usually terribly aware of think pieces, opinion pieces, or any pieces, really, allegedly addressing paganism.  I’m rather whatever about ‘em because I’m busy existing and walking my talk, and often times those trash piles of misused words are written by non-pagan, human dumpster fires who haven’t bothered to look beyond their own ignorance, fear, anger, hatred, or confirmation bias.

I’m only marginally aware of the latest kerfuffle because a friend basically flung it at me like a large handful of bovine excrement…which it is. 

No, I’m not posting anything specific about the piece - like I opened this list with, IYKYK, and if you don’t, I’m not feeding the dumb motherfucker’s page count and you’re welcome.

If anyone can point me to the pagan golden toilet distribution center, though, I’d take it as a mitzvah - I could sell one of those bad boys and fund some serious food/medical/housing needs for a few folks I know.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here followeth a Casa de Crazy Thanksgiving Day Tradicion:




And a new (old) addition to our warped holiday hilarity:


We hope you have a pleasant, tasty, mellow, comfortable, healthy, not-at-all-contentious Thanksgiving day if you are in the USA and an all around good one if not in the USA or not celebrating.

Here are the links if you want to view on YouTube:  Alice's Restaurant , Thankful and Turkey Drop

Thankful

 I have a few traditions on Thanksgiving. Not many - the menu; Mom recording the Macy's parade so we can watch it together at Yule and fast-forward through all the crappy pop music, commercials, and talking heads to see the twenty minutes of balloons, floats and high school bands we’re actually interested in hidden among all that junk; and my day-before-Thanksgiving list of some things for which I am thankful, in no particular order and in no way complete:

What remains of my left foot, Nubbly, which perseveres and does its best not to pain me even when I deserve it
The doctors, nurses, and techs who probably saved my life and helped me get back to living it
The care that family and friends gave me while I return to upright living (or what now passes for it, which is pretty darned good) once more
The Evil Genius
Blossom (who was Sprout but reminded me that she's a bit grown, now and isn't a sprout any more, and I'm not weeping over that, you can't prove anything)
Mom
The house in which I live (beloved Casa de Crazy)
The vehicle which takes me where I need/want to be
Gypsy
Kerri
T, who may be my ex-husband but remains a staunch friend
Mr. Grey
Mizz A
Kit
Sam-I-Am
PJ, who is gone from this world but always with me
Mizz Beth
Martha 'n' Milo (who lives always in our hearts)
Avalon
My band mates
Dica
Donna
All of my friends who put up with me when I am most myself and therefor least likable. They are the net beneath me when I fly and fall
Kira, Jon, and Ric, with whom I am privileged to make music
Bread
The scent of leaf loam and woodsmoke in the crisp autumn air
Apple cider
Books, music, and art
Clean, plentiful water
Clean air
Clean clothes
Freedom
Nature and the ways she finds to show me something new of herself every day
Words
Song
Dance
Adversity, that joy is all the sweeter (Okay, okay, the joy is sweet enough, so basta with the adversity for a minute, please)
Every creature and plant that I consume to sustain myself, because without the life I take, I would have no life to live
Love - that it exists at all is a wonder, and I feel blessed to know it in many forms
Chocolate, gift from the Gods (yes, even the perversion called "candy bar") (Mmm...candy bar...)
The cats by whom I am kept
Honeycrisp Apples
Strong hands
Strong spirit
Strong will
Laughter
Cussed determination not to curl up and die just because life can sometimes be a succession of truly awful, bleak, and desolate days...but sometimes it isn't
My couselor, Jessica
The Internet
You

I hope you have a blessed day, and that the things for which you're thankful outweigh the things for which you're not.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all, from us at Casa de Crazy to you out in the Blue Nowhere and beyond.

Counting Down

 It is Thanksgiving week and there is much happening here at Casa de Crazy.

We’re celebrating at Mom’s this year unless she doesn’t feel up for it so the kids and I are terrorizing the cats...er...tidying up a bit.  Poor house is a right mess as a result of some serious depression, chaos, and stress (so what's new?), and it WILL BE CLEAN for Thanksgiving.  Or, at least, the parts our guests will see will be clean.  Probably.  Maybe.  I hope.

This is a somewhat traditional post for me - every year I write a little something about this week, as it is the lead-off to The Silly Season (aka Christmahannukwazakyule) and often one of my busiest here at the Casa.

So, here we go.

Tuesday (today) - Baking a keylime pie, mashing turnips and carrots, cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning.  Wash all of the good* dishes and serving dishes, clean off the dining room table, dig out Thanksgiving table linens, pull out the "formal"* flatware.  Panic over the cream supply - will half a gallon suffice?  Is two pounds of butter sufficient?

Wednesday - More housework.  Lort, the housework.  Then there's the laundry.  Oh, lort, the laundry.  Moving the trailer so it's not in the way of guest parking, and also so it's in its winter home.  Prepping the dressing.  Still panicking about the butter…

Thursday - Turkey goes in to bake.  Dressing goes in to bake.  Green beans are steamed.   Finishing up any last minute cleaning.  Children are shooed outside to frolic.  Friends and family trickle in.  Set the table.  Fill the water pitcher.  Watch TV and baste the turkey.  Make food, food, more food.  Start Dutch apple pie baking and start chocolate silk pie thawing (because Marie Callender does pie so well, I'm happy to let her).  Serve.  Eat.  Coma.  Dessert and coffee/tea.  More coma.  Play games.  Pack leftovers to go for guests.  Pack baked goods for mom to take to the bake sale.  Eat more.  Sleep well.

Friday - More food coma and take the kids to visit/frolic with friends, or stay home and collectively hermit.

Saturday - Start baking holiday goodies for shipping to family and friends.

Sunday - Rest.  Possibly interspersed with napping and more baking.

How is your week shaping up?

*These are dishes that Mum and I bought one piece at a time from a grocery store a long, long, looooong time ago.  Service for fourteen including serving dishes, either free or bargain priced with purchase of a certain amount of groceries.  I love them.  Not fancy, but pretty and simple and I like them.

**Not sterling, but some rather lovely and solid stainless steel flatware from the Oneida Company, back when there was a Betty Crocker catalog and we clipped Betty Crocker points from boxes and saved them in a tin on top of the refrigerator.  Service for twelve, and some day I hope to expand it and add more serving pieces and other cutlery, but that'll have to wait a bit because it's a discontinued pattern and getting the pieces I'd like to have will cost a small fortune.  I adore my pattern, bought a few pieces at a time through the mail with little bits of cardboard and postage paid.