On The Beach

Photo: Good one Lyla!

It was a hot day yesterday so we headed out to the beach. Lyla had a lovely time in the sea :o)

09-09-09

Photo: Mama raccoon and her 3 babes come for a visit @ Green valley

Happy Ocean Dog

Lyla is a happy girl in the water!

Wildman Concerns

Photo: Wildman & Me (May 2009)



Wildman had some health issues and needed a few vet visits to work out what was going on. We finally decided it was a recurrence of his upper respiratory infection.



He has a chronic sinusitis from when he got sick as a tiny foster kitten. I had to do many desperate measures to keep him alive (2 of his litter mates died). So now he has a condition that flares up occasionally.



We did 2 rounds of antibiotics to try to clear it up. He has the was I call the "snotty nose syndrome". When cats get blocked noses they stop eating and drinking.



So he got dehydrated and was running a temperature of 104 oF. I gave him subcutaneous fluids and helped him eat some wet food. It took a few weeks but now he seems in fine fettle.



Hope he keeps up the fine fettle. Too stressful otherwise!

I Should Only Have To Pay Half Price......

Photo: Ain't he cute! (picture from another blog)

......because I have only one left. That is, pay half price for a mammogram for only one breast.

Which, dearest ones, I had today.

I decided the time was right for a follow up. My breast surgeon had requested I do one last August/September but since I had had a breast MRI a year ago last November (which is a vastly more accurate diagnostic tool) I figured I was good for a while.

Plus premenopausal breast tissue is one of the most sensitive tissues in the human body to the carcinogenic effects of ionizing radiation. So,why subject myself to something that can increase my risk of breast cancer?

So, I'm pleased to report that the radiologist did not see any changes in my remaining right breast. (He checked out the images immediately after they were taken - thank you!)

I get to see the breast surgeon next week for a check up.

May all breasts (female and male) be healthy.

(My sweetest husband came with me to the appointment ***)

I Did It!

Photo: Grand Canyon at Sunset

I passed my interview for US citizenship, that is!!!

And truly greatest thanks to my brilliant husband who supported and encouraged me the whole way. It definitely wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for my amazing and wonderful life partner!

Applied back in September and after filling out an extensive application, being fingerprinted for the FBI and then today having the interview in San Francisco.

I was tested on US history and civics. Plus up to scratch on my English reading and writing - huh?(!) I only have to go through the formality of taking the Oath of Allegiance (modified for me 'cos I wont "bear arms for the country") in a few weeks.

Yay - I finally did after nearly 20 years in the country!

And I can be a dual citizen with Britain :o)

In Case You Didn't Know "It's" Arrived!

Photo: Belvoir Bay, Herm Island, Channels Island, UK

By Joseph Romm, Climate Progress

Posted on February 2, 2009

"Australia has been suffering its* worst heatwave on record, the first time temperatures exceeded 110 F for 3 days running.

It’s been so hot that on Thursday, the*low at Melbourne airport was 87 F.Australia is the canary in the coal mine for climate-driven desertification. The astonishing decade-long* drought in southern Australia was declared ‘worst on record’last year.

My headline quote is from the UK’s* Independent*story, which notes: Australia, the driest inhabited continent on earth, is regarded as highly vulnerable. A study by the country’s blue-chip Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation identified its ecosystems as "potentially the most fragile" on earth in the face of the threat.

Australia is but the first and most seriously impacted of the arid sub-tropical (and near-sub-tropical) climates that are facing horrific desertification from climate change. For instance, Lester Snow, Director of California’s Department of Water Resources said FridayWe may be at the start of the worst California drought in modern history.

Two years ago,* Science**published research that " predicted a permanent drought by 2050 throughout the Southwest" -- levels of aridity comparable to the 1930s Dust Bowl would stretch from Kansas to California.

The UK’s Hadley Center* warned in November 2006*that their research predicted multiple permanent Dust Bowls around the planet on our current emissions path:Extreme drought is likely to increase from under 3% of the globe today to 30%*by 2100 -- areas affected by severe drought could see a five-fold increase from 8% to 40%.

Extreme drought means desertification, especially if it lasts for hundreds of years, as the recent NOAA-led study found (see* NOAA stunner: Climate change "largely irreversible for 1000 years," with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe).

The regions that NOAA identifies as facing permanent Dust Bowls:U.S. SouthwestSoutheast AsiaEastern South AmericaSouthern EuropeSouthern AfricaNorthern AfricaWestern AustraliaAgain, since Western Australia is the most sensitive, since Australia is already the driest of the habitable continents, it’s no surprise that Australia is the first to see such climate change driven decadal drought.

Most of the south of the country is gripped by unprecedented 12-year drought.*The Australian Alps have had their driest three years ever, and the water from the vast Murray-Darling river system now fails to reach the sea 40 per cent of the time. Harvests have fallen sharply.It will get worse as global warming increases. Even modest temperature rises, now seen as unavoidable, are expected to increase drought by 70 per cent in New South Wales, cut Melbourne’s water supplies by more than a third, and dry up the Murray-Darling system by another 25 per cent.

When you throw a brutal heat wave on top of the desertification, then all hell breaks loose:Ministers are blaming the heat -- which follows a record drought -- on global warming. Experts worry that Australia, which emits more carbon dioxide per head than any nation on earth, may also*be the first to implode under the impact of climate change.

At times last week it seemed as if that was happening already. Chaos ruled in Melbourne on Friday after an electricity substation exploded, shutting down the city’s entire train service, trapping people in lifts, and blocking roads as traffic lights failed. Half a million homes and businesses were blacked out, and patients were turned away from hospitals.More than 20 people have died from the heat, mainly in Adelaide. Trees in Melbourne’s parks are dropping leaves to survive, and residents at one of the city’s nursing homes have started putting their clothes in the freezer."

All of this is consistent with climate change, and with what scientists told us would happen," said climate change minister Penny Wong.

As an aside, I wonder when the United States will get a Department of Climate Change. Probably not for a decade or more, until we are hit by an extended Australian-scale drought somewhere along with one or more of the other* near-term climate Pearl Harbors?AFP’s story’s calls this " once-in-a-century heatwave that has claimed dozens of lives and sparked wildfires."

But, in fact, Professor David Karoly, of the University of Melbourne, said last week: "The heat is unusual, but it will become much more like the normal experience in 10 to 20 years."

One final (very) small point. We already saw* Tiger Woods win the "Hottest Major of All Time"*and the parched " brown British Open."

But this Australian open is going to go down as the hottest tennis major of all time (so far):Earlier in the week, as the historic heat took grip, men’s champion Novak Djokovic sensationally pulled out of his Australian Open quarter final with heat-related problems, the first defending champion to withdraw in the Open era.

Three-time champion Serena Williams, who will take on Russia’s Dinara Safina in Saturday’s women’s final, described playing as an "out-of-body" experience before the roof of the Rod Laver Arena was closed and a row over the Australian Open heat policy ensued.

In the future, more and more major sporting events will have to be moved away from the summer and perhaps, like the Super Bowl, actually be held in the winter (if not indoors where possible).

Of course, if we really turn one third of the planet into permanent desert by century’s end -- and* raise global temperatures an average of 10°F, with sea levels 5 feet higher and rising 10 inches a decade, I wonder just how much interest will remain in such "nonessential" activities like professional sports."