Blogs
Ever get into a conversation where neither of you knew what the other was talking about?
By Baba Fats, 2012-06-18
As dirty a place as the city is, I love it. There are all kinds of different people around you. People from all over the world.
My neighbor across the street, for example, is off the boat from China. He is the oddest character I've ever seen. he paints his concrete steps all different colours multiple times a year. He pees into a bucket outside and uses it to water his plants. (He grows the best vegetable garden I've even see, so he must know what he's doing). He'll paint sections of his house, but never the whole thing, so it always looks patchy.
And he doesn't speak a word of english. Well, not enough to put together half a sentence.
I was playing my ukulele outside today, and He come rolling up to his house, like normal, with a shopping cart and random stuff in it. Today it was an old TV. I've talked to him before, which usually consists of him speaking Chinese (not sure what dialect), and broken english. I think the only thing he knows how to say is "#1", "ok", and a few state names.
So he walked up to me and "asked" to play my uke. He proceeded to strum it and randomly sing his do-re-me's. This wasn't the first time we've done this. But something odd happened today...
We got talking about politics. Nothing in depth. But he started telling my all of the places he has been in the US, including LA, Jersey, New York, Virginia, and somewhere in the middle, I think Arkansas. He then started to talk to me about Mao Zedong. It really only consisted of him saying "bad man". But none the less, I managed to get into a conversation with someone about politics when neither of us knew what the other was saying. It was uncanny.
I helped him drag the TV into his house, and he gave me some unsweetened green tea. It was a bit rancid, but green tea without sugar is pretty bitter. And some strange dried fruits that were pretty good. I have no idea what they are or how to ask. They weren't sweet like most dry fruit, but good nonetheless.
Anyway... I was wondering if anyone else out there has ever just sat and talk to someone who doesn't speak your language for a while? It's worth doing. Never be discouraged or impatient with someone because they don't understand you, or you them. I'm sure this guy could instantly tell I had no idea what he was saying, but it didn't stop him from rambling on and on like we'd been friends for years.
everyone and anyone can add me on FB...if you have a FB account, search me and we'll be freinds
i make my own herbal rinses here at home, using nothin but herbs, home grown plants and a few other things i find in my pantry.
ill boil a huge pot of water and add a couple of bags of green tea and chamomile, cloves, fresh rosemary and sometimes ill throw in a few basil leaves. before it cools down ill a few drops of peppermint extract, lavender oil, lemon juice, sea salt, ground sage and ground thyme and a few squeezes of this all natural aloe extract. once its cool ill add apple cider juice w/o persevs and so forth, and some red wine vinegar...then right before i hop in the shower ill add the baking soda and stir it all up...dip my dreads, pour it all over my scalp and let them dangle and soak it all up..i use my palms to massage it all in and leave it be for about ten minutes.then ill use the coldest water i can tolerate to rinse it all away...the aftermath is the sweetest! your scalp is fresh and clean...feels like its breathing your dreads are totally alive and residue free...i never blow dry or use any dreading methods. i air dry it and use my finger tips to comb it back and let the hair fall into its natural place...now thats what i call rejuvenating my natty dreads...
guys should check out the recipe, hopefully it works wonders in your dreads like it does mine...feedback is very much welcomed!
Checking out at the store, the young cashier
suggested to the older woman that she should
bring her own shopping bags because plastic
bags weren't good for the environment. The
woman apologized and explained,"We didn't
have this green thing back in my earlier days."
The cashier responded, "That's our problem
today. Your generation did not care enough to
save our environment for future generations."
She was right -- our generation didn't have the
green thing in its day. Back then, we returned
milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the
store. The store sent them back to the plant to
be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could
use the same bottles over and over. So they really
were recycled. We refilled writing pens with ink
instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the
razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away
the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an
escalator in every shop and office building. We
walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into
a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to
go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have
the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because
we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried
clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine
burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really
did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got
hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or
sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that
young lady is right.We didn't have the green thing
back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house
-- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small
screen the size of a handkerchief (remember
them?), not a screen the size of the county of
Yorkshire . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred
by hand because we didn't have electric machines
to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile
item to send in the post, we used wadded up old
newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic
bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine
and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push
mower that ran on human power. We exercised by
working so we didn't need to go to a health club to
run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But
she's right.We didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank water from a fountain or a tap when we
were thirsty instead of demanding a plastic bottle
flown in from another country. We accepted that
a lot of food was seasonal and didnt expect that
to be bucked by flying it thousands of air miles
around the world. We actually cooked food that
didnt come out of a packet, tin or plastic wrap
and we could even wash our own vegetables and
chop our own salad.But we didn't have the green
thing back then.
Back then, people took the tram or a bus, and kids
rode their bikes to school or walked instead of
turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service.
We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an
entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And we didn't need a computerized gadget to
receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000
miles out in space in order to find the nearest
pizza joint.
But isn't it sad that the current generation
laments how wasteful we old folks were just
because we didn't have the green thing back then?
since dreadlocksite started 3 years ago about a dozen people said they were going to use wax the dread kit and/or crochet for a year and come back and prove us wrong (mostly its been young kids around 15-16) they stubbornly refuse to listen to logic and reason, let alone benefit from the experiences of thousands who had used those things before and regretted it.
so i just want to remind yas
we still want you to come back and show us the results
My life kind of got away from me.
I'm living back in civilization and my life is whirlwind again. Hard to believe 2 years ago I started this process.
My dreads are still alive and well (And still whispy on the ends after 2 years. I've grown to love it).
I'll take pics in a min. I missed you guys.
I have been somewhat laying low this week and am slowly gaining functionality again.
On Tuesday morning, June 12, I had to take my cat Barron to the vet. He was acting sluggishly and had something wrong with his eye (gunky and half-closed) so I thought it may have been an eye infection. It turns out that there was something else going on...
Before I continue, I feel that a little background information is in order. Barron is a ginger Maine Coon that was given to me as a kitten. He was fixed pretty early on and over the course of the first 2 - 3 years of his life, grew to be about 20 lbs. He had some traits that could easily be recognized as more common in dogs, such as running to the front door when he hears my car pull up and meowing and circling my feet when I came in. He could also sit on command and was incredibly intelligent. He used his front paws almost like hands, opening cabinets, eating food, drinking water.
Even though I had picked up Barron to be for my son, he and I had a very special bond from day 1.
Last August, 2011, at just over 3 years old, Barron almost died. I was away for the weekend and got a call from my mom saying that he was acting strangely. He has been going to the water bowls and splashing the water up onto his tummy. He was also fairly unresponsive and barely moved aside from this "self-bathing."
At first I thought that it may have been really hot and he was trying to cool down. I do know that my cats tend to get more vegetative in the peak summer temperatures but in the evening they start to get more spry as the temps cool down... but Barron did not. This worried me a little and I started to panic when he crawled under the kitchen counters (kitchen still in slight remodel disrepair.) I couldn't get him out and I was afraid he had gone under there to die.
I somewhat freaked out and laid on the ground crying and telling him to come out. I had tried misting water under there and I tried using a broom to nudge him but he wasn't budging and I panicked. Finally he crawled out and over to me lying on the ground crying and laid down with his head on my hand. I instantly snatched him up in a towel and ran to the only vet that was opened on a Sunday: Banfield.
I brought him in and they did a visual exam as well as felt his stomach. They explained that it seems that Barron had bladder stones and he was unable to urinate and that if they don't give him an operation called a P.U. surgery, he would die by the next day. They brought in an estimate of the surgery to be paid in full for a total of $2,000! I asked if there was any way that I could set up a payment plan because I, being a single parent and student, did not have more than about $300 in my accounts. They refused to work on a payment plan with me and the vet said, rather dispassionately, "We need to look at what's best for this cat. If you can't afford to take care of him then you will need to surrender him." What's best for my cat?! If the only thing standing between him dying and living was $2,000 for a surgery and I was to surrender him then he would surely be dead! How is that BEST for my cat?!
I asked if there was anything I could do for him in the meantime while I tried to find a way to get the surgery for him. They ended up manually extracting his urine via syringe. Once his bladder was empty at $200 he was immediately rejuvenated. He took a swipe at the vet and jumped into my arms, ready to go home.
Once home I started some searching. I spent 11 hours emailing vets as far as 3 hours away, animal charities, ANYTHING that I felt would help him. In all the time I spent I got 1 email back from a charity saying that they would be willing to help but they didn't have any funds available due to a lack of charity donations. The Humane Society kind of shluffed me off and gave me the email for a lesser known charity called the Paw Fund (so I emailed them as well) and that was it. Over the span of this time Barron regressed and started to get lethargic again. He had stopped eating and was starting to splash water onto himself again. I put a little water in the bath tub and took him in there so my other feline companions could have their drinking bowls of clean water. I slept for a couple of hours and when I woke up Monday morning I decided to take Barron over to ARF when they opened. They hadn't been open the day before so I know they wouldn't have been able to read my emails but I figured if I took my wonderful cat in to see them, maybe they would help me. Their website said they had an Emergency Medical Fund for low income families needing help with their pets. It was worth a shot.
ARF had the fund but it was for life threatening non-emergencies... but they made an exception for me. They took Barron from me and told me that they were going to take this 1 step at a time and I could make the decisions along the way. They did a blood test and tested his urine. It turns out he didn't have bladder stones yet but he had crystals in his bladder and a mucus plug keeping him from urinating. His blood work was so off the charts for a cat that technically the vet said he should have been already dead.
Since there were no stones present, they said he didn't even need the surgery that the other vet was going to give him and that they could put in a catheter to help flush the plug or they could euthanize him. One of the risks of doing the catheter was that he may have a stroke or go into cardiac arrest due to shock and his potassium levels shifting dramatically. I decided to take the risk thinking that, I needed to at least try to make him better; I could never live with myself if I didn't TRY.
He took the catheter without any issue and was at ARF for a full week under observation and to get constant testing, making sure that his blood work came back closer to normal before sending him home. In the meantime, I heard back from the Paw Fund. The woman was very nice and she spoke to me over the phone explaining that her organization was very low on funds as well and that it makes her angry that high profile orgs like the Humane Society would just blow me off. They were constantly redirecting animal emergencies to her and it was pissing her off because they were getting donations all the time but were unwilling to help.
Anyhoo, she said that she could come up with $150 to go directly to ARF towards my medical bills for Barron. It was all she could do and hoped it would be enough. Also, I had a friend offer to donate money towards Barron's vet bill and I set up the donation via paypal... It got me to thinking, it wouldn't hurt to try...? I hate asking for money so it was a very big decision to post a donation link on my facebook... and the donations poured in. I was able to raise an additional $300 from sympathetic and wonderful friends! Once all was said and done, the total bill for Barron was just over $300 at ARF. Subsidized and they were willing to make payments on it! I decided that since I now had that from all of those donations I would pay it in full and use the remainder of it towards an extra box, a couple toys and his now, very expensive cat food (Royal Canin Urinary SO.)
Flashing back to this week, since Barron had a history of urinary problems the Dr. decided to extract some urine and test it to see if he was having any other issues in that area before addressing his eye. The urine that came from his bladder was infused with blood which would indicate crystals or stones present... but when it was tested there were no crystals or stones at all. It was a mystery as to why his urine in his bladder was so bloody. Over the course of the day he lost his ability to urinate and started to get extremely sluggish. They said that they could try and catheterize him again but the reality was that he would continue to have this problem the rest of his life. After a few catheterizations he would need to get the dreaded P.U. surgery which will, in turn, open him up to urinary infections. Basically I was looking at an up hill battle that would have him continuously in pain throughout the rest of his life. In the end I decided to euthanize him.
I was able to be with him before, during and after the process. I cried and I felt like a large piece of me died along with him. I never suffered the loss of an animal friend before and I wasn't prepared for how much it hurts. Even now, I still see things of his lying around and get sad. His presence is missed by myself as well as my other cats and my son. When I told Devlin he cried for over an hour straight. I was glad I was able to get the initial crying of my own out of the way so that I could be strong for him when I told him. He is really upset and doesn't want to talk about Barron because every time he does he wants to cry... so we have been distracting ourselves.
In the end I KNOW I made the right decision... but the right decision hurts so very, very much. I've been laying low for a while, away from the computer and trying to focus on projects so that I don't let myself get too glum. So far it's been working but I still need more time. I am waiting for the vet to call me to pick up his ashes so that I can bring him home again. I think that this will hit me in waves and I will grieve a little bit more when that time comes. I just feel like there is an empty space inside of me that aches at the loss of my familiar.
Today is the day! I've started to separate and tnr'ing my hair and it's uber liberating. With the help and shares from lovely people on this site, I decided to not use wax and to let my hair do it's thang... that's what it does without my direction anyway! So here's a not-so-great pic of a few dreads I've started so far, I'll have a few more up a bit later.
Jai and love you all!
I personally dont have "bangs" but I have seen them on other people with dreads and I was thinking about leaving the front of my hair brushed... cause it looks cool. But wouldnt know it I have a gnarly loopy crazy knot going on in the front dead center. I guess my hair didnt like my idea