landed! and, chaos

[jazzfish]

The weekend started out pretty good, with uilos getting a job she'd really wanted. (Starting mid-August, which will make both moving at the end of August and entertaining her parents in September for a week Interesting, but still very very awesome.) So there was knocking-off-work-early and milkshakes and wandering around in the Vancouver spring, and it was Good.

Satyrday we got up early-ish to go down to the states. After a brief stopover at the border (some asshole is using my name, and it occasionally causes me some delay while the border guards determine that I am not six foot three and do not have a large neck tattoo) we unloaded a mess of books at the used bookstores in Bellingham, and acquired more but not quite as many more. I now have Fred Pohl's autobiography, which I am told is what reading his blog is like. Since I really enjoyed his blog, this works for me.

After spending more time than expected in the bookstores (shocking, I know) we drove down to Seattle to catch papersky's reading at the University Bookstore. We caught most of the reading (first chapter of My Real Children), and got to say hello to her and commiserate about Aspects, which was pleasant.

And then we had dinner, and trekked back to the border in a second attempt at landing. This was, I believe, the easiest interaction I have ever had with anyone at the border. We were all set to hand over a full stack of documentation, marriage licenses and birth certificates and diplomas and all that, and the officer just looked at the forms and ran through some paperwork and some routine questions, and we were in. Bit anticlimactic, really. He was also nice enough to waive the customs duty on the cider we were bringing back, so there's that.

So now we are officially Permanent Residents, or Landed Immigrants if you prefer the older term. In about three years we can apply for citizenship (I say 'about' because the residency requirement is 'three years out of the last four, time before becoming a permanent resident only counts half'). Meanwhile we'll likely have to renew our Permanent Residency at least once, but that just consists of filling out a form saying that we've been resident in Canada for at least two of the last five years and aren't currently in the process of being kicked out of the country.

And then on Sunday we went down to Commercial Drive with half the rest of the population of Vancouver for an Italian street festival. It was seriously crowded down there; I have not been surrounded by that many people outside in a long time. It was good; lots of neat stuff, including jitterbugging commedia dell'arte clowns. Just... busy.

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I haven't mentioned Chaos lately, have I? He used to be a pretty heavyset cat, but over the summer and fall he slimmed down. Eventually it got to the point where it was clearly not "wet food is good for him" but "something is wrong," so back in I guess January we took him to the vet. Turned out his thyroid was going nuts. So we spent a few months pilling him to get the thyroid down and confirm that it wasn't masking any other underlying issues (it wasn't), and now tomorrow uilos takes him to the vet to get his thyroid nuked.

They'll keep him for a week to make sure he's okay and also so we don't have to dispose of radioactive cat poop. I appreciate this but it'll be very strange not having him around. Then for a week or so after that it'll be even stranger: he'll still be mildly radioactive so he's not allowed to sit in anyone's lap. This... will not go well. I am honestly more worried about having to tell him "no you can't come sit on me" for a couple of weeks than I am about the nuking.

After that... I expect we'll get to start giving him an anti-inflammatory for his hips. Joy. At least he'll be happier.

Comments

[rbandrews]

This is all very speculative, and the result of about ten minutes internet research:

My first thought was, what Tucker needs is a radiation-proof blanket. So I searched for that, and got a bunch of fabrics (sold by the crazy "wifi-makes-me-sick" crowd) that block EMF. Which, sure, yeah, that's radiation. Then I searched for stuff that blocks ionizing radiation, and found a couple sources that claim that polyethylene does, which is handy because you can make fabric out of it. Apparently it's used to cover greenhouses.

I bet if you got a thick polyethylene cloth and tested it with a Geiger counter on one side and Chaos on the other it would work.

Also if it were me, I'd have already ordered a Geiger counter off Amazon. How often to you get to play with a radioactive cat? That's just cool. :)

[jazzfish]

ha! I do appreciate having geek/maker friends; that had not occurred to me. Chaos is not a big fan of plastic in general, so polyethylene is unlikely to make him happy. On the bright side, it turns out we *can* snuggle him for up to half an hour a day, each. Which will not be enough for him but nothing is *ever* enough for that cat, so I think we'll be okay.

Also, Amazon.ca seems to want Real Money for a geiger counter. Although there's... a geiger counter app for your android devices? *clicks* Oh, sound effects. Still.

[rbandrews]

And my first thought to that was "well, how do geiger counters work? Maybe we can build one" but I'm not even starting down that rabbit hole. :)

Although now I want to make an Android app that shows you a series of images, and you click a button for each one that's a picture of a surreal, nightmarish, human/machine hybrid.

[reedrover]

Regarding Chaos and his upcoming radioactivity - I definitely support this decision. You will end up with a healthy cat and not have to deal with daily thyroid medication.

Back in the early 2000's, I had Foober nuked, and she was so much happier a cat. She lived another five years without needing any medication for her thyroid ever again. For what it's worth - Foober was annoyed about not being allowed to cuddle for that week, but she was pleased with the change in litter to SweetScoop (recommended by the vet).

[jazzfish]

Yeah, I am about 98% okay with the plan to nuke his thyroid, and the last 2% is mostly in the nature of 'whyyyy can't i just wave a magic wand and make him better withOUT any side effects?' It's good to hear from someone who's been through it that it really isn't a big deal, though; thank you!

And it turns out we *can* snuggle him, for half an hour a day, each. So that won't be quite so bad after all.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Are you sure you won't have to flush radioactive cat poop?

[jazzfish]

In fact it turns out we will, although it won't be as radioactive as it could be. Good thing we have flushable litter.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, grandma's cat was kept a couple weeks, and then it was flush able litter and don't let the cat sit on you and wash your hands after touching. Grandmas cat also tended to sleep on grandma's head ("I wake up with her as a Daniel Boone hat!"), but I decided that if my 85+ year old somewhat demented grandma had a radioactive cat on her head it was really the least of her problems.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

(Grandma was at this point not particularly likely to pay attention to being told to limit contact with the cat.)