Ex Patria

Something is missing

There is a train line behind our house.  The trains were never very fast, thus never very loud.  In a rather sedate pace, they would pull by the house at set times during the day.  We used to organize our days around the trains - oh, the 8:25, time for Doug to leave the house.  19:25 - time for the boys to go to bed.

There hasn't been a train once since we got back.  I have yet to find out how that happened.  Our nanny ventured a guess that the train schedule might have been cut back because of the season but I'm dubious.  There is simply no more train traffic, neither personal nor freight.

I miss those trains.  Trains have always been romantic to me, and also a sign of "things are still all right".  When train routes are cut, it almost always means nothing good.  Well.  I guess we'll see.

Sharpie

David had a huge time-out and then a long, very stern talking-to today.

Why?

Because he decorated the screen of my laptop with Sharpie. Of course it doesn't simply wipe off, that would be too simple.  It's a permanent marker, and that's its job, to stay on.

How does one get Sharpie off a laptop screen?  I'm tired of looking through those scriggles that were supposedly a decoration on Elmo at sesamestreet.org.  Rubbing alcohol?  Would that kill the screen?

Kitten, singular

The second kitten died yesterday.  When we woke up, he was already dead.  Doug and I buried him in a corner of the garden, and the kids don't understand it.  Alan in particular was sad and cried and then wanted to see the grave and still didn't understand.  How do you explain death to a child?

The first kitten (still not named as Doug feels it's much harder to have a cat die on you when he has a name) is hanging in there.  Still not eating much but purring whenever you stroke her.  The abscess has developed into that huge open wound which we try to keep clean.  This involves much killing of ants, the beasts from hell.  Antibiotics, kitten glop, pedialyte.  We're doing our best.

South Dakota, again

Elijah Page, age 24, is scheduled to be South Dakota’s first execution since 1947 tonight at 10 pm.

Mr. Page has pleaded guilty to the torture killing of a 19-year-old man, himself being 18 at the time. The killing was uncommonly brutal and horrid and Mr. Page deserves life in prison for his crime.

Like many on death row in the USA, Elijah Page’s childhood was one of deprivation and abuse. According to reports, from when he was two years old living with his siblings and his drug-addicted mother in abandoned buildings in Kansas City, Missouri, his mother would allow people to sexually molest him in exchange for drugs.

When he was about seven years old, his mother lost custody of the children because of the abuse, violence and deprivation to which they were being exposed. The state placed the children in the care of their stepfather, but the abuse and deprivation persisted.

Taken into state care again when he was about 13, for the following year Page lived in more than a dozen foster homes and ran away on numerous occasions. By the age of 14 or 15, psychiatric assessments recorded that he was displaying aggressive and anti-social behaviour. By the time he drifted to South Dakota in 1999 at the age of 17, he had a history of time spent in juvenile detention facilities, including as a result of burglaries and car thefts. 
(Quote: Action Center AIUSA)

Too Much Cuteness

We make our own yoghurt ice.  Jacob loves it, that's for sure.

Kitten update

The kittens seem to be doing well - or not.  We're actually not so sure.  They are still alive which is a point in our favor.  They are also lively and will climb out of the basket whenever they can. They are not taking in as much food as we would like them to but they do pee and poop, so that's good.

The first kitten (yet to be named) developed an abscess at the puncture wound I mentioned.  I guess we should not have been surprised by that.  I bathed the kitten in warm water and the abscess opened and it was plain yucky.  I mean yucky.  Considering that I'm not a cat person at all I am going to great lengths to keep these things alive. There must be some good karma in store for me now!

I've been draining the abscess regularly for the last day and have put some Neosporin on.  I hope this will help although I noticed a second opening which I'm not sure was there before the abscess.  We are trying yet again to get a vet come and see the kitten.  I'm quite grossed out by the whole puss and poop thing.  I am constantly washing my hands to keep bacteria contained and not spread any to the kids.  (Jacob was hospitalized for three weeks after his birth for a bacterial infection - ever since I'm left with a deep distaste of bacterial infections and him under the same roof.  It may be unreasonable but there it is.)  I am washing the cats' rags separately from our own laundry although that means washing a very small load by itself which I usually would never do because it's a waste of water.  Oh, I'm not squeamish, I think.  But additional to my own kids' digestive tracts I now have to deal with the cats' and with re-filling yucky abscesses and...  yuck.  Just yuck.

But they live.  I'll be darned if they won't live.

First day of school

Well, not  really.  It's actually the third day of school but it's the first day ever that Alan took the school bus.  He was very excited - and so was I!  No more struggles in the mornings to get all three kids into the car to drive Alan to school.  It was so easy to just get him ready and out the door in time for the bus.  A very relaxing morning.

He couldn't talk about anything else all weekend and couldn't wait for Monday morning.  He did get a light case of cold feet in the end but the excitement won, and since he was the last kid on the bus, he felt much better instantly to see his friends.  And I?  I have time to blog now!  Yay!

 

Doesn't he look awfully grown-up?

Neighbors

The area of Yerevan we live in is basically a village.  We live in a little house, along a cul-de-sac with other little houses.  The train tracks run on the other side of the dirt road that is our road, and our house sort of cuddles up with the houses left and right to it.

The neighbors on our right aren't there much, and the ones on our left are nice and friendly and  have two teenage boys.  I do not like teenage boys, never did.  After all, I was a teenage girl once.  Those teenage boys are like all teenage boys.  In the beginning, they were hanging out in our front drive way and tried to get a peek of the life inside our house.  They were peering over the wall into our yard.  Now, I'm not in the habit of hanging out in the yard in my undies or so, but I do walk about the house in the mornings and evenings with little on, especially in the heat that we have here (reminder: no air con in our house).  So I put my foot down - no hanging around in the drive way.  It's our ground, not theirs.  I don't want to be self-conscious in my own house.

Plan B, the first step

It took way too long but finally, Plan B is available for women in the US.  Planned Parenthood writes in a letter to its members:

Plan B prevails! Today, after years of foot-dragging, the FDA put politics aside and granted over-the-counter status to emergency contraception for women 18 and older.

This victory is the result of years of pressure from the scientific and medical communities and pro-choice activists, including thousands of Planned Parenthood supporters like YOU. Thank you! [You're welcome. CM]

[...]

While emergency contraception is not yet available over-the-counter — you can always get emergency contraception at your local Planned Parenthood. Celebrate this momentous decision today by picking up a package of emergency contraception to back up your birth control!

This is a huge, long-awaited success — but there is still more work to be done. In its announcement, the FDA stated it will not approve over-the-counter sales of Plan B to women under 18. It continues to deny teens the benefits of greater access to emergency contraception.

Our country has a serious teen pregnancy problem. As we all know, anything that makes it harder for teens to prevent unintended pregnancy is bad medicine and bad policy.

What's more, this age restriction means pharmacies will likely keep this safe, effective backup method of birth control behind the counter, forcing all women to ask a pharmacist's permission to access it.

We will continue to work diligently to secure over-the-counter access of emergency contraception for ALL women of ALL ages — without them needing permission from a pharmacist.

Addition to the family

We found a kitten in the garden this morning.  He (I think it's a he) cannot be much more than a week or two old.  His eyes are open, and he weighs 7 ounces.  He meowed like nobody's business, shaking all over his little body.  He has a puncture mark on his shoulder and when I picked him up, the nasty ants we have here spilled from that wound.  It was disgusting.  I cleared the ants as best as possible and the wound doesn't look too bad from what I can tell.

But he's so little and I have no idea what to do.  I don't know any vets around here, don't even know if they have vets in this country.  I tried to feed him but I only have baby nipples and he doesn't like them. I did whip up a fortified baby formula as per Internet instructions which he sort of lapped up a bit.  We will try to make him take some milk every half hour.  I do hope his mother comes to get him but I'm afraid that she might not do that.  And I really have no clue about cats.  I'm not a cat person. I don't know anything about them.

I put him into a basket with a soft blanket.  He's not meowing anymore, and sort of snuggling into the blanket. Hm, now I actually think he's napping.  I hope that's a good sign.

Any recommendations, beyond the usual advice from the all-knowing Internet? I have a snot sucker for infants, with a soft spout that is very little as it is meant for newborn's noses.  Maybe I'll give that a try for the feeding.  Assume we have to work with what we have - what can we do?  Besides my compassion for the creature, there is also the fervent wish not having to explain to the kids why the kitten died...