Pumpkin the Cat Dead at 14

Pumpkin Arrives - October 1995

Anyone who knows me is aware that the family cat (Pumpkin) and I didn’t often get along.  We had a love-hate relationship.  I would torment her at times; she would totally ignore me.  Of course, my main source of tormenting her was forcing her to sit with me when she would rather be anywhere else.

However, each day we did have a bonding moment.  Whenever I would come out of the shower, she would be waiting on the end of the bed wishing to be brushed.  I was happy to do it and was usually rewarded with a purr.

Truthfully though, I saw Pumpkin as an annoyance and would often joke about dancing on her grave when she died.  That was until yesterday.

After a weekend of her throwing up and having loose bowel movements around the house, I took her to the Veterinarian Monday morning to see what flu-like kitty bug she had gotten and how could we cure it.  What I found out 45 minutes later was that her kidney disease they discovered last winter had gotten much worse.   My options?  Hospitalization to bring some of her blood levels back in line, a version of home treatment, or euthanasia.  The Veterinarian’s opinion about options 1 & 2 were that we would buy a few months at best. 

Shocked at the decision in front of me, I chose the decision I had often joked about – let’s put her down.  This is the first time I have ever had to make that decision for a pet.  Making it a bit harder was having my daughters with me – who are off school this week.

About 45 minutes later, after my wife arrived, everyone had a chance to say good-bye, my family left and I was alone with the doctor as we waited for Pumpkin to “fall asleep.” 

 My immediate reaction?  I cried – for many reasons.  I cried because I knew my daughters were hurting.  I cried because I knew my wife was sad.  Despite the many problems we had with Pumpkin in recent years – Ellen was still the one who picked her out of a box when she was five weeks old and decided to keep her.  See, Pumpkin and her brother had been abandoned when they were maybe four or five weeks old and were found one morning on the street under a car by one of Ellen’s employees.  So, Ellen had a major connection that no amount of soiled carpets, chewed up documents, or broken Christmas Ornaments will ever take away.

I also cried because a member of our family was now dead after 14 years.  That deserves crying.  However, the thought that still breaks my heart some 34 hours later, is the feeling that I finally fulfilled my many comments made in jest.  “I killed the cat.”

Could we have done more?  Should we have done more?  I don’t know.  The Veterinarian left it up to me saying she supported any of the three options.  Pumpkin was not well, and she obviously didn’t feel well.  She was very dehydrated.  But I will be left with the knowledge that when I grabbed her on Monday to put her in the cat carrier, she was at her water bowl drinking.

Pumpkin's Last Photo - November 19, 2009

So, in a few weeks I will have her ashes returned to me.  I will have my chance to “dance on her grave.”  Will I?  Yes I will - but not because I am excited she is dead.  We plan to plant a tree next spring in her honor in our backyard.  We’ll put her ashes with the tree – and yes we will dance.  But we will dance to celebrate her life!  14 years deserves to be honored!

Statue of Liberty – what a view!!

Reaching the Crown of Lady Liberty

In recent summers, I have had a tradition where I ask the kids for some day trip ideas.  We then take vacation days and go on “mom field trips”.  When they were little it was always a local zoo, or the aquarium. Now their older and have more elaborate requests.  This summer Sydney said she wanted to climb the Statue of Liberty.  The last time I visited the Statue of Liberty, I was a Girl Scout.

I figured they were both old enough to tolerate the drive up and the inevitable security, so I said sure! So did the rest of the planet. Since they just reopened the Statue for climbing, the first available tickets (when I looked in late June) were for late October. Since the kids had a day off in mid-November, I decided our summer trip would become a fall one.  I convinced Jerry to come along, but he said “no” to the climb – small space, too high up. Besides, the ticket sales person said if you were over 6 feet and had any fear of heights, they recommended you stay on the ground and wave.

November 16th, off we went. The 2 1/2-ish hour drive wasn’t too bad. We got there with plenty of time to spare before our 11 am check in. Got the tickets, made it through the airport security for the ferry and off we went to Liberty Island.

Once we got to Liberty Island we had to check in, show ID, and get special wrist bands showing I had paid to climb to the crown. Then it was off for more security! It was confusing, because with our wrist bands you got to skip a lot of lines, but you had to constantly ask a park ranger where you were suppose to go, and show your wrist band. The security to get into the Statue itself was tight. You had to stand in a booth, get air shot at you, and then the computer thought about what it just registered. Then you went through regular airport type security on top of that.

Once you get into the Statue, we got to see the original torch (and pose for a photo), then go on through a museum about the origin of the Statue, her creators, the fundraising to get her built, etc. I had to read the stuff fast, or the kids got way to far ahead of me!

The nice park ranger informed us that usually there is an elevator you can take to the top of the pedestal, which gets you out of 150 steps. But the elevator is curently broken……  so we climbed 150 steps to the top of the pedestal, then another 202 from the base of the Statue to her crown. Wow!!! The girls were undaunted. Off we went!

The steps aren’t too bad at first, but the last 20 or so to the top of the pedestal are narrower and a lot steeper than the others. I think they are preparing us! When we get to the top of the pedestal, we show our wrist bands and head off to another staircase. The ranger guarding this one cuts off our bands and wishes us luck. 202 more to go! Now the staircase is a tight, tight spiral. Jerry would have walked up this hunchbacked. My feet only fit on securely if I turn them slightly sideways. I’m thinking “Jerry’s feet wouldn’t even fit on these…”. It doesn’t seem like 202 steps, and it goes pretty quickly, considering how tight the spiral is and how much you have to concentrate on where your feet are.

When we make it to the top it is all worth it! The view is phenomenal! New  York harbor, filled with boats and the New York skyline are all laid out in front of us. And it is a beautiful, clear day. The viewing area is a lot smaller than I remember. There are 6 of us up there at the same time, and I really don’t want any more bodies crowded up there. There are 2 park rangers manning the crown and they give us some background and “fun facts” on the statue. After we take in the view and get a few pictures, we climb back down.

The good news is, there is an up staircase and a down staircase. Good thing! Each staircase is only 1 body wide. The freaky part is that the stair area is encased in plexiglass. So you can see the inside “bones” of the statue, the copper, the way to climb up to her torch, and how far down the bottom is. You don’t notice this on the way up, because all you see is the steps in front of you. But you definitely notice it on the way down! It is an awesome view, once you get over any fear of being able to see way down to the bottom. Sydney was freaked out by the view, so she climbed down backwards.

Once we got to the top of the pedestal, we stepped out to look at the view, take more photos and find Jerry. After a bit of a search, we found him. After a few tries, we got his attention (and a couple other guys who answered to “Dad”). Then we continued our climb down. (stopping at each level on the pedestal to make sure Dad still could see us). Overall, it was a good day. Weather was perfect, climb was good. I wish we had stopped at Ellis Island. I really wanted to tour the museum. But that just gives me an excuse for a “mom field trip” in the spring!

Visiting Lady Liberty

Earlier this week my family and I visited the Statue of Liberty.  For my wife, this was a return trip for her, although it was the first time since she was a young girl scout.  For myself and my two daughters, this was our first visit.

While I really wasn’t all that fired up about going, I found the trip to be well worth it.  This was just a day trip for us, so our goal was to visit Liberty Island and climb the statue.  Well, OK, it was my wife and children’s goal to climb the statue.  This past summer we climbed the Hatteras Lighthouse (approx. 200 steps).  I made that climb, but was very winded at the top.  Considering a climb to the crown was nearly 350 steps, I knew I was not in shape to complete it.  When Ellen called for tickets, she was told they don’t recommend the climb for people over 6 ft. tall.  Apparently it is a pretty narrow staircase.  At nearly 6’2″, I was presented with an additional reason to stay on the ground – which was really where I preferred to be.

I have invited my wife and oldest daughter to contribute blog entries about their adventure.  So check back later this week for their tales.

The ranger who took my family into the base of the statue to begin their climb indicated approximately 30 minutes for the entire trip.  It was more like 75 minutes – so I had time to kill - but no worries.  I was prepared with a plan. I had my iPod, a beautiful fall afternoon, a wonderful view of the harbor and Manhattan Island, and many people to watch. 

I was fascinated by the amount of foreign languages we were hearing both on the ferry and on the island.  Since for most kids it was a normal school day – it probably made sense that the biggest part of the crowd was foreign tourists.  As I was sitting on the wall people watching, I had one lady – who spoke little English, ask me if I would take a couple of pictures of her with NJ and NY in the backgrounds.  I was honored to assist her in this endeavor.  After reviewing the photos I had taken on her digital screen, she looked at me with a big smile and simply said “Good!”  I guess I met her expectations!

As I was taking the photos, I couldn’t help but think about how the skyline of NYC just didn’t seem right without the Twin Towers.  Back in the fall of 2000 I traveled to NYC for a short business meeting with two colleagues.  We traveled the last leg from NJ to NYC via the Path Train that dropped us off under the World Trade Center.  As we were leaving in the early afternoon, we stopped and had lunch in a restaurant of one of the towers.  Just 11 months later would be 9/11 – a horrible day.  Like many people, I don’t think I can ever just look at the NYC skyline and not think about what happened in 2001.

As I was reflecting on this, I happened to catch sight of three people waving from the top of the stone base, but just below the feet of the Statue of Liberty.  My family!  Forty minutes earlier there had been some others who were waving from the same spot.  I wasn’t sure if it was them - but I had waved.  It turns out that first occurence wasn’t them – but it was pretty obvious this second time that it was my wife and daughters.  They were making some odd gestures, almost like they wanted me to come closer to the base.  Turns out they were just trying to signal to me that they were in the process of descending. 

Based on their stories, it sounds like they all enjoyed the experience – but as I said before, I’ll let them tell their story in a future blog post.

A Girl’s 10th Birthday Party

Yesterday was my youngest daughter’s 10th birthday.  Don’t even get me started on how old my wife and I now feel that both of our daughter’s ages are in the double-digits.  Ellen has come up with many creative ways to express the number 10 without using a number with two digits.

Honestly the age thing doesn’t really bother me.  I find that I enjoy my daughters more and more the older they get.  While certain parts of having toddlers is fun, I really enjoy interacting with my children on an intellectual basis more than I ever did any of the events you experience with toddlers.

But as much as I love my daughters, the thing I hate more than anything is their birthday parties.  I know, I am being an old stick in the mud – but I just don’t have much fun at their parties.  Perhaps part of it is because they are girls and I am so not; but I don’t think that is it alone.  True, I have suffered through some interesting parties.  I have attended four “spa-type” parties where they get their hair and nails done up, a couple of princess theme parties, two indoor ball pit / jungle gym parties, a bowling party, a High School Musical 3 movie party, and yesterday a skating party.

At all of these parties, my attendance is not necessary, but demanded by my daughters.  I guess I should be honored as I am the only “boy” either of them have allowed at their party in over five years.  However, my role usually becomes one of four things:

1.  Take pictures

2.  Assist with clean-up / transition from craft table to cake and ice cream

3.  Look excited for the silly gifts they get

4.  Occasionally raise my voice to lower the overall screaming volume at the party.

I think it is #4 that I hate the most.  What I have found is, if you get a group of girls together (really doesn’t matter the age) the volume of speech, screaming, and general silliness goes to level 10+.  It is truly unbelievable what these girls can do as a group. 

Even worst than the volume – but helps contribute to it, is the competition that seems to occur with all of the girls.  Each year I give my daughters the reminder that they need to pay attention to all of their guests, and not just their BFF’s.  I know this is difficult for them.  But what makes it even harder is the fact that the majority of the guests spend most of the party trying to be “next to” the birthday girl – even to the point of sitting on their lap.  It is almost like their self-worth is dependant on having time next to the birthday girl.  As an adult I know this is silly – but I guess I can understand it from the point of view of a 9, 10, 11, or even 12 year-old.  But I still can’t help shaking my head.  

The competition happens when they are at the table for cake, it happens when they are opening presents, and it went off the charts yesterday when we left the house in two cars to take the girls ice skating.  When my daughter decided to ride with two friends in my wife’s car – it became obvious that the vehicle my oldest daughter and I were in charge of became undesirable.  It was almost like my wife’s car became “Air Force One” and my car was just another airplane.

Fortunately it didn’t ruin the party – but I was worried during the drive.  The girls in my car were very quiet for the 10 minute ride.   I guess I am not as “cool” to other 9 and 10 year-olds as I seem to be to my 10 year-old.  Wow – that was hard to say.  Maybe I really am old?!

Phillies Now…and in the Future

Last night was Game 3 of the 2009 World Series.  After splitting the first two games in New York, and coming back home, you would think the Phillies were in great shape.  This is the same pattern that they used to win the 2008 World Series and the recently completed NLCS vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers.  But I was worried.

Like many fans who have watched this year, I knew Cole Hamels wasn’t throwing like he did most of last year – and definitely not the way he dominated in the playoffs in 2008.  But where I disagree with most fans is that I haven’t seen signs that he is coming out of it.  For each of his last several starts, fans would hope that the “old Cole” would come out.  I never believed it would happen - he just seems…well…lost is the best way I can describe it.  It just seems like he is not aware of his surrounding and would rather be anywhere else.

Unfortunately my fears proved justified.  Cole was pitching good for three innings, but it just didn’t feel “solid” to me.  After losing Teixeira on a close 3-2 pitch ( I thought it was a ball), Cole started to pout.  “Just Cole being Cole” – to borrow a phrase from another baseball superstar.  Cole, like any child who is pouting, lost focus on the here-and-now and gave up a Home Run to A-Rod.  15 minutes later in the 5th inning, the Evil Empire was circling the bases and Cole was headed for the showers.

My fears were realized - and my fear now is, this series spirals out of control.  I think they lose again tonight (CC is due to beat the Phillies).  They probably can survive with Lee on the mound Monday – but I think it is lights out Wednesday night in Game 6.  “Who’s Your Daddy???”

Will I be disappointed – sure.  But going into this season, after delivering a World Championship to our area, I said if the Phillies made the post season, I would be satisfied – and I am.  I would love to be a fan of a back-to-back championship team and start the conversations of a Dynasty – but if it is not meant to be, so be it.

My bigger concern is the status of the pitching both now and for the future.  A couple of months ago I was feeling great about the future of this staff – but now I think you have to wonder.  And here is why:

1.  Lee only has one year remaining on his contract.  If the Phillies are smart, they extend him during the off-season.  But will they want to pay him?

2.  What do you do with Pedro?  Do you sign him, or was he a one shot attempt to win back-to-back?  He’s going to want to be paid.

3.  Brett Myers is a total bust.  We have gotten very little from him in the past few years, and I just don’t think his ego fits on this team.  He needs to be cut loose and use his money to lock down Lee and maybe even Pedro.

4.  Cole Hamels - I outlined my playoff concerns above.  Honestly, I haven’t been fond of him all year.  I hope it was a one year blip, but I fear he may be overrated and we got the best of him last year.

5.  J. Happ - I like this kid – I think he can be the real deal – but have the Phillies hurt his confidence by not giving him any starts in the playoffs?  We’ll have to wait and see.

6. What do you do about Jamie Moyer?  I love the grit and the back story – but he is due to collect Social Security next year.

So, because of doubts in the pitching rotation, my plans for a dynasty might have to be tabled for now.  OK, maybe the Yankees are having something to do with all of this.  I must say, I am feeling a great disturbance in the force.