Coyote Uglies

Poor Jessica Simpson. Her adorable little Malti-Poo was snatched by a coyote and likely made the entree for that night's dinner.  She put out flyers, offered a reward, even hired a petfinding agency in the slim hope that maybe little Daisy might have survived and was trying to find her way home.  A lot of people evidently made fun of Simpson for that, which I think is cruel.  Vain though the hope was that her dog lived, I can understand it. If anything like that ever happened to Billy, I'd be out of my mind with grief.  We all deal with it in different ways.  My hope is that at least Daisy's death was a quick one.

Coyotes are a big problem here in the southwest.  Just the other day, one of my own neighbors lost her cat to one.  The beast came right into her backyard.  Poor Deb tried to fight the coyote even as it had the cat in its teeth, and got her arms scratched all to hell and back during the struggle.  The coyote won, unfortunately.

Although they're primarily nocturnal hunters--like javelina--I'm very careful about letting Billy out on his lead line.  Nowadays we get up early enough that the sun is just rising, and there's still a risk of predators trying to get a last meal in before they tuck in for the day.  I've taken to going outside with Billy, coffee in one hand and my big, heavy walking stick in the other.  I'll bash the hell out of any coyote or javelina that tries to go after him.

I'll have another post going up--hopefully later today--about another topic.  There's a little movie a couple of friends of mine made, and yours truly is the publicist.  So I'm using my blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages as extra ammunition, along with my arsenal of Rolodex numbers and emails to various editors and media managers.  I spent part of last week sending the usual press releases and calls out to promote the film's nomination at Chicago Horror Fest.   It's called "From a Place of Darkness", and it's an excellent film.  Not your usual slasher-masher-bloody-gorefest.

Until I post the entry, go check out this link:  From A Place of Darkness
Ta, everyone!  See ya later...

The Week that Was

You know how it's said that everything happens in threes? Well, the universe sure kicked my ass this week. Horrible seven days for me.  I really thought at one point I was going to have some sort of meltdown, dive under the covers in a foetal position and just stay there until...well, ever.

Monday morning I wake up to the cheery revelation that my refrigerator had broken down.  My freezer had defrosted itself, and water was dripping into my crisper drawer at an alarming rate.  I tried everything; checked the outlet, checked the fuse box, switched the breakers on and off--no go.  The fridge light works, so I know it's getting power, but the motor wasn't running.  So that morning consisted of running round frantically, dumping my freezer food into a neighbor's unit next door, cleaning up the mess in the fridge, and loading my cooler with ice so that I could salvage what was left.  You know how much RV refrigerators cost retail?  It's astronomical--$1500 or so.  And they're hard to find secondhand.  I just about cried. 

Then on Tuesday I find that my stinkin' bank overdrafted me because I was four cents short on a purchase.  Yeah, you read that right.  Four lousy pennies.  And so I got nailed with several $35 NSF fees, because of course everything else that posted after the first overdraft...was short.  I'm dumping them this time. I've had enough of that crap from them.  Being charged that much money for such a small error is ridiculous, and the banks are legally executing robbery.  I'm just done.  And I had to hoard what money I had left this week after paying bills. 

So after about a day or two of panic and another day of sulking, I set about attempting to find ways of resolving these issues.  Shot off a letter to the CEO of my bank, just to make myself feel better, though I don't know if it'll do me any good.  Figured out a budget so that I can pay back the overdrafts, and started working on getting new jobs so that maybe I can either fix my fridge or buy a new/used one.  A friend of mine in a neighboring town said he has an RV unit I can have; he's going to see if it still works, and if it does, he'll bring it over.  Cross your fingers for me.

Then number three hit this morning.  I woke up and found that my cooler had started leaking during the night--not too bad, but there was a definitive damp spot spreading underneath my rug.  Sigh.  Outside I hauled the cooler, next to the door, and began plopping old towels onto my floor and stomping on them to try and absorb as much of the moisture as I could before mildew could set in. (I can't yank the carpet up because there's too much furniture and whatnot holding it down.)  Since it was only really damp and not wet--I lifted one corner to check underneath for pooling puddles and there weren't any--I think it should be all right.  Problem may be that it's a really damp, overcast morning, so it may take a while.  If the weather improves, however, I should have it dried by evening. 

All in all, not a great week for me.  But now that my three catastrophes have hit, I am projecting that things will get better from here on out.  Only good things now.  These things will not defeat me. 

If y'all have a minute, send a positive thought my way.  I could use it.  :)