Some plans, and pre-trip

[la_belle_laide]

Today I brought the birds with me to work because I had to drop them off at Laura's directly after. Lil Jon, my grackle, has always feathered really badly and has had skin problems (along with his many other issues) since I got him two summers ago, but recently he lost all the feathers on his head and his beak has beenlooking weird. Also his skin looked scaley to me. So I had Rob look at him, and for once, Rob was mystified. It's not mites, it might be viral but he doubted it. He said it looked like feather and beak disease, but he'd only ever seen that in parrots. So he took a "wait and see" option. I brought them both to Laura, and she wondered if maybe it was lack of vitamin D, a common thing in wild grackles kept indoors. I started wondering how I could safely get him more sunlight (clearly he can't go outdoors.) It took me a few minutes to admit to myself that I was thinking about putting the birds in the sunroom, which I admittedly still think of as "Pendragon's Room." It's real hard for me to consider letting something else live in there aside from plants. On the other hand, it hardly seems fair to deny wild birds a nice, bright sunroom because I'm still hung up on the loss of a beloved pet. Which I guess I am, because not a day goes by when I don't miss him. And sometimes in the morning I can still smell him; that smell of warm scales that I don't think I'll ever forget. It smells like the forest.

Well, now I'm starting to depress myself. The point is, I think when I come back from vaca, I'll get a nice, high table and put both of my non-releasables in there. That'll free up some kitchen space as well as being a nice change for them. And maybe some fish, who knows? I'm kind of a fan of fish. I've always liked the sound of a fish tank running in the background of things, and honestly, with all of the stuff that used to be going on in that room (heaters, humidifiers, etc.) it seems so quiet. I'll have to see about that fish tank thing, though. Those can get expensive and I really can't afford extra expenses, especially around the holidays and with my last seminar to pay off. We'll see about this.

Oh, House was loads of fun tonight. Even though it was fully outlandish, and even though I'm seeing a certain amount of handwaving when it comes to really heavy plot points, it was still classic House and I still love it. I think I might stay in next Tuesday to see it. I can't miss two whole episodes this season, when in fact I haven't missed a single one since I started watching in the first season! The only episode I've ever missed was on Halloween, because I was at the concert.

So let's see, tomorrow I have to finish packing, clean the house, get whatever last minute stuff done, and then go work at Green Cloud and then train. I guess I should drop off my rented DVDs although I didn't even watch one of them. Then Thursday I have to bring the dogs down to work for boarding (the hardest aspect of any vacation,) then hang around for the kids to get off from school, at which time they and Uncle Don will drive out here. Dinner, and then off to Florida. Betsy is flying on Friday. I'd have loved to fly with her, but I just can't afford it right about now. Anyway, it'll be kind of neat to be driving down with the fam again; haven't done that since I was just out of college, and holy crap, what a crazy trip that was. There was a lot of drama going on in my life, and with my cousin who was staying with me at the time. I should dig out my old journals from that time and see what kind of stuff I was writing.

Pre-traveling wears me down. By the time I'm in Florida, I'm always so ready for a vacation. ^_^