Electric Ladyland

Gene arrived on Wednesday into our fair city of 104 degrees. He’s now living in San Jose, so he started putting sunblock on two weeks back to battle the onslaught of heat he knew would be waiting for him on the tarmac in Austin.

Gene is my web, and blog, master. (Doesn’t that sound naughty?! And if he is the master, I think I’d like to be called the Barking Tiger…don’t ask me why…just popped into my head and doesn’t sound ANYTHING like the response most people give to “master”.) We are excited he is here…threw him a “surprise” birthday party with a homemade lemon cake and giant 3 foot in diameter balloons the girls picked out…one looks like a big red bug/alien with huge internal googly eyes; the other is a bright yellow happy face, complete with party hat. I think Gene is seeing how parenthood is rewarding and, dare I say it?, exhausting. He was wise not to crash at our house…he insisted on being at a hotel. Wise man.

I PLAYED ELECTRIC GUITAR on the cd the other day…A cherry red Telecaster!!! Mark Hallman shared his with me and I had some trepidation, but Mark kept cheering me on, and there you have it. Haven’t done it in a long time….I just had to adjust how I approach the guitar….I play so dang hard! Once I softened up my attacks, it was sounding really cool and was the glue I needed for the song.
Big kudos to Mark for being, once again, a lifelong buddy.

OUR CAT GRADY had to be rushed to the ER Wednesday night after Gene’s party. Lily had gone out to feed the cats, and came in with a seemingly broken, lethargic cat. She had found her, practically passed out, in the bushes. Her weak mews caught Lily’s attention…

We got a towel, and after gently wrapping Grady in itl, we hopped in the car; Lily holding our sweet pet, me driving, Gene along for support…The ER hospital responded immediately when we came through the doors, me stating, “Our cat has been hit by a car…” Two women rushed out, calm and confident, scooped Grady from our arms and disappeared back through doors
into the back of the building. Lily and I were crying like Niagra Falls, and Gene was holding us. They took us all to a little waiting room with a silver table in the middle of it.

Well, the good news was that Grady had NOT been hit by a car, but had severe anemia from a wound we couldn’t see on the inside of her thigh (a “hot spot”, they called it). So, they set up an IV for fluids and then, later that night, gave her a blood transfusion. Yesterday we transferred her to our regular vet, where she spent the rest of the day being taken care of (more IV, more anti-biotics). Today she gets to come home.

She looks like a proud, brown and black lion…we had her shaved about a week and a half ago, so the fur is soft and tight to her body,except where it sticks out like a mane around her face. We are exhausted from the crying…I let the girls stay home part of yesterday morning…they wanted to help move Grady to the vet, and we had breakfast, and then took them to school…..