Alas poor Picher

I first saw Picher, OK almost 10 years ago on a road trip with Kent to see his mom in Oklahoma. Picher is was just over the Kansas state line on 69 Highway, and any glory days were clearly long over.

It didn’t change much in the three or four years we continued to take that route south. It was nearly abandoned with most houses either boarded up or quietly decaying and falling into heaps. The mining museum had clearly seen better days – to me, it looked like a one-story American foursquare house turned into a museum, or maybe it had always been a museum. It was never open when we drove past it. I would have stopped for a tour because I got so curious about the town.

Even then Picher was considered a ghost town, although I would have described it as being on life support. People still lived there and you could stop at a tiny store or two if you needed to pick up a soda or something. It seemed like the residents hadn't given up on the town, and there were signs along the road that urged residents to keep the lead out of their heads by washing their hands. 

The lead came from the zinc and lead mines in the town. This Wikipedia page describes the toxic metal-contaminated mine tailings and talks about the real danger of the roads just flat out collapsing. The article goes on to say that Picher is one of just a few places "evacuated and declared uninhabitable due to environmental and health damages caused by the mines."

I had looked forward to driving through Picher on Saturday. I wanted to see if the little town had been able to come back from the brink of death and decay; I was kind of rooting for them in the face of such absolute devastation.

But there’s no town any more. The sign announcing the city boundary is gone, although the speed limit remains. There are no houses, they are all torn down. The few remaining storefronts I remembered from 2005 are either shuttered, falling down or gone. All you see as you drive 30 MPH through what’s left are sad little driveways leading to empty concrete pads in the middle of overgrown weed-filled yards. There’s still a water tower although I don’t know why. Any water in it must surely be contaminated beyond use. But it’s there, along with the mine tailings that look like small mountains. No people, no dogs, no signs that at one point in time, Picher had a population of almost 15,000.

Apparently things just went from bad to worse after we quit driving that way to Oklahoma. I'm not sure how I missed that the town got hit by an F4 tornado in 2008, or formally voted to dissolve in 2009. I guess if it weren't for bad luck, they'd have no luck at all.

Now the land where Picher was is part of the Quapaw Indian Nation. I can’t imagine why the Quapaw would want a place so contaminated and unlivable. Maybe they can work some sort of miracle or maybe they will leave what’s left as a somber reminder of how we can really screw things up. 

Aint no sunshine when you're gone

Scene: Yesterday morning as we (tried to) pack to leave for Oklahoma to see Kent's mother.

They were not interested in our schedule.

The duck approves

This is what happens to bad, bad tomato plants who don't even bother sprouting a single blossom.

Good-bye to you. 

I just don’t care

A partial list.

• Movie remakes. What’s the point? If the movie was great the first time around, leave it alone. If it stunk, generally it’s for more than just a do-over issue like better technology.
• How much the presidential nominees’ wives love their husbands. Good for you. Now go away.
• Why the Facebook IPO wasn’t a resounding success. I might die of apathy over this one.
• Why you (generic) hate Android/Delta/Sprint/fill in the blank. Those vendors do a good job for me and I’m sure you’re equally happy with your choices so let’s just call it a day, OK?
• Who cheated with whom in Hollywood. You think that’s air you’re breathing?
• Also don’t give a rip about genetically modified food. Nope, I really don’t.
• Or football, professional or college.
• I barely care about baseball, mostly in a disinterested “oh they’re ahead?” kind of way.
• Don’t care which way you put the toilet paper roll because hey! Mine’s always in a canister thanks to the crazy yellow cat.

Wally doesn't care either.

What don't you care about?

Cat in sunlight

Again.

They never tire of the sun in this apartment.

(Neither do I.)

Don't look back

A quick round up of all that’s been going on because I am alive despite the lack of posting.

First, we closed on the sale of our condo in Boston. I’ve kept mum about the whole thing for fear that something would go wrong and the sale would fall through. Thankfully that wasn’t the case and we closed yesterday. We’re ecstatic, although I’ve had several friends on Facebook tell me they will miss my stories about the misdeeds of the Ferals and Nasties. Gotta say, I won’t, not one little bit.

I’m utterly overwhelmed at work—love the work itself, but there’s just so much of it. And I’m not the only one. Everyone in my larger work group has just flat out crushing workloads. Finding the work/life balance is really hard, and it’s been exacerbated by my lungs.

Yes – lung issues are back and with a vengeance. Last weekend when we flew to Boston, the baggie I use to hold my meds was bigger than my 3-1-1 bag. Crazy. I’m on three different inhalers, plus assorted other drugs all designed to help me breathe. Rest assured, I’m staying on top of it, seeing my doctor and taking all my drugs. I suspect my work building is contributing to the situation, since it’s being renovated while we are in it. Right now, four of the six floors on my side are under construction i.e. they are hard hat areas. There’s a lot of construction debris in the air and I am not the only one with asthma who’s struggling.

My most visible symptom is coughing. I sound like I have the worst smoker’s cough ever even though I’ve never smoked. I spent a lot of time last week assuring my co-workers that no, I’m not sick, and no, they won’t catch anything from me. I’m not sure they believed me. One woman happened to be walking by my cube when I was in the middle of a coughing fit and said “Oh, you’re the one with the bad cough!” Yes, I’m the one.

I got a pneumonia vaccine on Wednesday. My doctor is still lobbying for me to get a flu shot but I’m not all that interested. I’ve never had the flu in my life, not once. Heck, I don’t even get colds. What frustrates me about flu shots is that they’re sort of inexact and you have to get one every year and hope that that particular vaccine matches up with the flu variety running around that year. So to me it seems like a crap shoot for something I’ve never had anyway. Of course, now that I’ve posted this I’m sure to get the flu. If that happens, you may all say you told me so. 

You've got to change your evil ways

From Imgur

I’ve wondered why it is some cats are good as gold—they don’t get into the trash, or knock things off shelves or get on the kitchen counter—while others are brazen about their misdeeds. The only conclusion I’ve come to is that much like people, it depends on the cat’s personality and outside influences.

Take Chloe. She's probably 12 years old and she's never been a brazen rule-breaker. Even if I left tasty meat out on the counter, she never jumped up there. She also didn't climb shelves and knock things over. Heck, her poop didn’t even stink. Seriously, I would sometimes forget to scoop for a while and only realize if I happened to look into the box, never by how it smelled.

The boys are different, which I’ve posted about quite frequently on this blog. They climb, they knock things over, counters are their territory despite our best efforts, and their poops are weapons-grade stink bombs.

But our cats have also learned from each other. Here’s an example:

Chloe has a unique way of stretching—she’s the only cat I’ve ever had that stretches quite this way. She’ll lean forward on her front legs so that her back legs are stretched out behind her, almost like she’s in a push-up position. Then she’ll pick up one leg and stretch it out so it’s parallel with the ground, walk forward on her two front legs as she sets the lifted leg down and repeats on the other side. It’s kind of like a dog stretch. And now the boys do it too.

Sadly she’s picked up some of their less desirable habits too, like getting on the kitchen counter, the dining room table, the bathroom counter, things like that.

At least her poop still doesn’t stink.