Publius & Co.

I shouldn't be writing this post

Not because it's bad or something...it's just about a year too early.

A few days ago, I introduced you to Rose the Rat.

She died today. I took her to the vet for a wellness checkup yesterday. She was as healthy a rat as I've ever seen, except for a lump under her arm (prime area for mammary tumors, which unspayed females are very prone to) and I gave permission for the surgery today (a line from Macbeth running through my thoughts...If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
it were done quickly. It's almost ironic.).

I only wanted what was best for little Rose, and I stand by my decision. It's not an easy one to make, not at all...so I started second-guessing myself immediately.

I think it's a normal reaction.

Nic had second thoughts last night, but I stood by my decision. I still do...

...but what if I waited? Part of my decision was because we'll be on vacation in two weeks--but part of that was what if it got *really* bad ten days from now? What if it grew rapidly (which we've seen rat tumors do) while we were gone? Our pet sitter, you see, isn't exactly comfortable with rats. He wears welding gloves when he opens the cage door.

You could drive yourself fucking nuts playing, "What if..."

Then there's the what if I waited until vacation was over and we went to our regular vet? This was a new vet--I like her, she seemed confident, she asked me the right questions when I took Rosey in...but what if we went to the old grizzled vet veterinarian? Would Rose still be with us?

See how you could drive yourself fucking nuts? I know--I've seen it.

Years ago, I used to participate on the Pallotta Teamworks AIDS Rides. Yes, the Rides were controversial, and yes, maybe they could have done some things different, but they raised money for their beneficiaries--money they wouldn't have had if the AIDS Rides hadn't taken place (I know that for a fact. Nic, her mother, and I all volunteer at one of the beneficiaries, and I've seen with all six of my eyes what AIDS Ride money has done for Food & Friends.).

On one of our rides, a girl died. Details are sketchy, but she was a Rider, and she died during the Ride. To say that was a tragedy would be putting it mildly.

The DC AIDS Ride community had a very active discussion list--The Listserve, it was called--and the mother of the dead Rider found the list. She was truly the first troll I ever met.

She wanted someone to blame for her daughter's death, and the person she wanted to blame was a gentleman named Dan Pallotta, of Pallotta Teamworks--the guy who originated the idea of the AIDS Rides. She became such a nusiance on the listserve they had to ban her--as agonizing a decision as anyone ever made for that community.

She kept playing, "What if..." and it drove her fucking nuts.

Maybe little Rose's death could have been prevented. Maybe the new vet lied to me and she wasn't experienced. Maybe I decided not to go with the surgery...and I came home to a dead rat anyway....

No, I've found peace within myself. I made a decision that I feel was the right one. I'd do it again.

Guess I did need to write this.

Heckle!

Ted asks an interesting question: What's the best heckle you ever heard?

I started to answer, then realized I have my own neglected blog for stuff like that. I admit, I'm proud to say the best heckles I ever heard were delivered, surprisingly, by me.

I say "surprisingly" because I'm not a glib person. Every now and then, though, I surprise myself. They were both delivered at the only s-f convention I ever attended in my life, over fifteen years ago.

The first one: Comedy dude steps up to the podium, blows into the mike, and asks, "Am I turned on?" *

Me: "Move the podium!"

The second one: I attended a meeting of The Gamers Guild. On the stage, the Guild Board started a huge argument over the prescence of one if its members.

It seems some of the Board objected to one of the Board members being there because his character (that is, he himself, as far as the Gaming Board was concerned) had died during an RPG that morning and he was dead. If he was dead, the argument went, he shouldn't be there.

The counter-argument was what happened that morning was only a game, dammit, and I'm alive since I'm here shouting right back at you.

The argument got hotter and hotter. Voices got louder and louder. I honestly thought fists would start flying. One girl--the one arguing loudest that dead was dead--finally stood up, put her face about a foot from Dead Guy's face, and screamed, "You can't be here BECAUSE YOU'RE DEAD!"

ME, from the audience: "He got better!"

The entire room, extremely nervous in the face of potential violence, lost it. It might well have been the biggest laugh of the entire con--people congratulated me for it later on.

But the best part was there was no bloodshed. My heckle (and I'm still amazed no one shouted it out earlier) completely defused the situation. The guy and the girl laughed & hugged, and The Board got on to business.

* I later intoduced myself to comedy dude, and made the mistake of telling him I had heckled him, while I was shaking his hand. His face darkened and his grip got tight...very tight...then he relaxed and smiled and said it was bad form of me to not only tell someone I had heckled him, it was really bad form to do so when I was funnier than he had been.

He also explained where he got the "Am I turned on?" line from: Many years earlier, in college, he went to see a lecture by one Dr. Timothy Leary.

Dr. Leary walked onstage, approached the mike, blew into it, and asked, "Am I turned on?" Obviously, he was referring to the microphone, but if you're significantly younger then say, oh, Ted...you probably won't get the double-meaning. Trust me, it's hilarious.

Welcome to my Danish readers!

Imagine my surprise when I noticed referrals from Denmark!

I clicked on the link, and discovered the Dansk Tamrotte Forum, which I believe is Danish for "Danish Rat Forum." They were looking at pictures of my monster fat rat, Calle!

I'm learning Danish already: I believe tennisbold=tennis ball.

In other rat news, I've adopted a new girl! One of the members of my main rat forum is going to school and had to give up his girl (and college is, to me, a darn good reason to have to adopt out your rat). He was in Fairfax, so at least it was only about a one-hour drive to get her this time. Meet Rat:

"Rat" is the name she has now--I may or may not change it in the future. I apologize for the quality of the pictures; she's a nervous little girl (and I don't blame her for being so right now) and she's a PEW (pink-eyed white) so it's hard to get a flash picture of her without it being overexposed, or a non-flash picture without the shutter staying open a lot longer than she can hold still. Thank God for Paint Shop Pro.

The situation on Metro is Normal: AFU'd

Life for Metro users continues to get more and more bizarre. It was announced today that Metro, after promoting cashless parking and forcing a large number of their users to buy SmarTrip cards, is about to run out of SmarTrip cards to sell and will not sell any more after Monday, 26 July. They expect to resume sales when they receive new cards, sometime in September.

Reader sj, in a comment to one of my earlier rants about Metro, forwarded this article from the Washington POST to me, which explains Metro officials were surprised at the high number of SmarTrip cards being sold after they all but made them mandatory for almost every user of the Metro system. Metro Chief Executive Richard A. White is quoted as saying "We weren't able to anticipate this...It turns out the crystal ball was cracked. It was foggy."

Methinks the crystal ball was non-existant. The Washington TIMES quotes Metro board member and representative to the D.C. Council Jim Graham "Especially at the height of tourist season, people are going to ask, 'Could we not have anticipated [the demand for cards]?' We have to be prepared to answer that question."

No kidding, Jim. So...what's your answer? In the meantime, the second vice-chair of the Metro board, Gladys Mack, also said the shortage would be a "terrible inconvenience" which is more than stating the obvious.

But according to the Washington POST, it might have been prevented:

Transit system officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that at least one top manager had warned of a shortage months ago and urged the purchase of more cards but that her concerns were disputed by those who procure the cards.

Ignoring warnings is not unusual for Metro. It was reported earlier this year that Metro apparently ignored warnings from their parking contractor, Penn Parking, telling them cashiers were stealing money from patrons paying for parking, resulting in losses of $500,000 to $1 million per year.

(If you're a regular reader, you know this report resulted in Metro going to a cashless parking system. That is, SmarTrip cards. It's a vicious, vicious cycle.)

In the meantime, the official Metro webpage (as of 12:30 PM, 23 July) is limiting its announcement to an earlier one (made on 21 July if I'm not mistaken) stating SmarTrip cards would no longer be sold online, implying you can still get them at Metro Center or at the station vending machines: screenshot

In other Metro news, last week part of the ceiling collapsed at the Farragut North station. According to local AM news station WTOP: Metro's deputy general manager of operations says the plastic anchors and metal nails may not have been strong enough to hold the ceiling.

Also, Metro has stopped late night short trains (two cars) earlier this month, after a five-day experiment, due to overcrowding of the cars. The overcrowding resulted in extremely overcrowded situations in the cars and patrons being left on platforms because they were unable to board the train.

Are you ready for some football!

I guess I am. I'm signed up for Blogger Bowl 2004. I'll be competing against Ted, Jim, and annika, among others.

I'm sorry to say I went with my second choice for team name: The Rats of Chaos.

My first choice? The Windbreakers.

I'm watching the race, dangit!

I'm still reading blogs. But the Tour day France is taking up most of my time these days. I don't think the big TV in the basement has had anything other than OLN on since the Tour started.

annika links to an editorial by Ed Graney which discusses what a large number of Europeans think about Lance and his (five so far; probably get a record sixth) Tour day France wins.

She also discusses Greg LeMond's comments about Armstrong doping. I haven't found a recent quote from LeMond, though I confess I haven't looked hard--mostly because this has happened in the past.

I can't imagine why LeMond would make such an accusation, so I won't discuss it any further, except to say I've lost a lot of respect for LeMond.

Over at annika's, Jake comments Lance is an expert at peaking for a race and within a race. Because of this skill he appears to be super human.

That's not quite true. Lance is an expert at preparation and if his preparation says he peaks in June...well, that's how he planned it. Consider today's stage: It's all uphill. The only downhill is the little starting ramp at the very beginning--after they hit the bottom of that ramp they go uphill and don't stop till they get to the top.

Chris Carmichael (Lance's coach), in an interview today, said Lance rode this route many times before today in preparation--including four times in one day.

Did anyone else? I confess I don't know, but I doubt it.

Lance put it this way: “Our secret,” said Armstrong when asked how he prepares for the Tour, “is that we work all year long. I hate to disappoint the skeptics but that’s what it is.”

How do you play the palace...or win the Tour? Practice, practice, practice.

On another note, it's traditional for the fans to paint messages to their favorite riders on the road. I don't know if the riders notice them or not, but they're there. Sometimes, though, the messages are not exactly encouraging.

On the road, if he bothered to look down, Lance would've seen LANCE EPO, which is an accusation he's taken a blood doping product. EPO increases your red blood cell count--more red blood cells means more O2 getting carried through your blood stream. Lance admits he has used EPO in the past, but it was while he was being treated for cancer!

Later on, had he looked down, he would have seen RIP THEIR BALLS OFF LANCE, no doubt painted by an American.

An ugly one, at that.

Wankers. They're just jealous Lance isn't on their team.

Goodnight, little Kono.

Nic and I put another one of my boys to sleep earlier today. My Patriot Day alph boy, Kono, took a turn for the worse this morning. If you're a reader of the Ratablog I've discussed Kono's injury and subsequent paralysis.

Last night, he was very sleepy and didn't want to come out for playtime. This morning, when I went to give him his medicine, he was having a seizure. It didn't last long, but he was very lethargic afterward, tho he seemed to perk up a bit as the morning wore on.

I took him to Dr. G, who had come in early, and he saw me immediately (I thought I'd have to drop him off). Dr. G did not have good news for me; I think that was the closest he'd ever come to saying, "Put him to sleep." I elected not to do so immediately; Kono did seem to be a bit more active, and I knew Nic would like a chance to say goodbye. I asked him to administer some sub-q fluids and I'd take him home. I fully expected to take him back Saturday one last time.

While I was on the Metro, I rec'd a message from Nic asking me to call home. When I did, she told me he was not looking good. I talked with her a bit, and we decided tonight would be the night.

It's never an easy decision. I wonder if I made the right decision in waiting to have him PTS, but I'm reminded by a friend on one of my rat boards who said that we wait so we're sure. I'm sure I did the right thing in waiting for a bit.

Rat Stats!

From one of my rat forums. I'm tellin' ya, people just aren't human:

Another rat-friend who went to the emergency room when she was bitten by one of her pet rats informed us the folks in the ER told her that rat bites are easy to treat because they rarely become infected.

OTOH, human bites are the worst, followed closely by dogs, according to the ER. I can believe it.

I can say rat bites are painful fucking bites. Ask fellow rat-person Jaboobie sometime. You see, rat-teeth are self-sharpening little chisels--every time they take a bite their teeth get sharpened. If they're really frightened, they can separate their lower teeth, so that they look like a V, to get a better grip and to do more damage. Surprise a rat--even a domesticated pet rat--at the wrong time, and you'll discover it.

Go ahead. I triple-rat dare ya!

A Night at the Movies

The gf and I went out to catch a movie last night. It was pretty much a spur-of-the-moment decision; while it was something we both wanted to see, we hadn't planned on going out last night at all. It all started when I mentioned Super Size Me was showing at a theater next to the Dupont Circle Metro.

Long story short, we drove to the Loew's Outer Circle 1 (actually, two, but who's counting?) in the District, just a few blocks south of the Maryland-DC border. We left at about 3:40-ish, to catch a 4:30 show.

Toldja it was spur-of-the-moment.

As you might imagine, parking in DC on a Saturday afternoon can be a little difficult. I was considering parking a few blocks away after dropping off the gf to let her buy the tickets while I parked the car in Virginia or some other place close by then hoof it to the theater.

Suddenly, I saw a space. One illegal U-turn on Wisconsin Avenue later I was pulling into a spot right in front of the theater. I mean, it was right in front of the theater.

How in front of the theater was it, you ask? Well, the Loew's Outer Circle 1 is a very small theater. When you walk in, you're greeted by the ticket seller/popcorn maker and seller/ticket taker sitting in a little booth that is just left of straight from the door. One theater is to the left of him and the other is to the right.

Super Size Me was in the theater to the right, which meant you could draw a straight line from the front door to that theater entrance. We took our seats in the back row, and as I looked to my right, out the theater entrance and out the front door, there was my car. I couldn't get over that.

OK, the movie was a lot of fun, and I will almost certainly never eat at McDonald's again (I've hardly eaten there anyway, recently, except for breakfast) but it didn't top finding that parking space. I'm sure my gf will review it soon.

But I found that parking space right in front of the theater.

Oops. Guess what I missed?

Yep. An anniversary--an anniversary that involves my sweetie.

Happy anniversary, sweetie!

(This does not bode well should we find ourselves married. Yes, I mean to each other.)

Survivor!

The votes for the final Survivor are in!

The outcome sucks.

Guess I should buy a ticket

I'm buying a lottery ticket tonight, and instead of blowing the winnings at the track, I'm gonna buy a condo in Ocean City first, then I'll get some more rats, then one of these.

Fan Club Duties

As a Member in Good Standing of, and as a contributor to, the Frank J. Fan Club (mu.nu division), I am doing my Frank-ish duty and linking to Frank on this day, the occasion of his second blogiversary.

Rat tales.

I'm dealing with two injured rats these days. Details are at the Ratablog.