Moving to Modesto

Wow, moving is such a pain. I wasn't planning on moving until.... I got a letter from the Eureka SDA Church board. As you may (or may not) know, Helen died awhile back. Seems the former pastor of the Eureka SDA Church knew that she was getting old, and helped her by getting her to make out a will. Of course during this process, he convinced her to give much of her estate to the church. It might seem to be a conflict of interest, but he also appointed himself as the executor. Then after that was accomplished, the Northern California conference asked him to move away from Eureka to help pastor another church down near Sacramento. So we haven't seen this guy except for one visit for over two years.

Any way, somehow the Eureka SDA church found out about this will, and being in need of funds (and what church today isn't) decided that they should sell Helen's house so they could acquire "their" money. Subsequently I received a letter stating I had 60 days in which to move.

Rather than question the validity of their request, I acquiesced and began to look for a place to relocate to. I thought... in two months I should be able to find lots of places. Well I did. There are hundreds of rentals all over Eureka. Some of them are pretty nice.

I had four cats. Somehow nobody who was in charge of rentals wanted anybody to rent who had four cats. There seems to be a real negative feeling towards cats. Now our cats are super clean, they always use a potty box, and never make any kind of a mess. But, it was all an uphill battle trying to convince people of that. Yeah. I got ZERO calls from all the different rental agencies I went to.

Suddenly I realized I had a big problem. I had to move and had nowhere to go. I was going to be homeless because some church decided they needed money. This was not looking good.

I will tell about the search for a home in my next posting.

Have a wonderful life,
David A. Youngs

Pets can make you healthier

Thanks to Johnny for the wild background in the photo on the left. Johnny lives in Loleta, CA and is a photo shop artist.

Owning a pet can actually lower your blood pressure!! The act of petting a pet gets our minds off of our little (or big) problems and lowers the blood pressure. In fact, just watching fish swim around a tank can also lower your blood pressure.

People with pets tend to live longer. I guess having a pet gives you love, and feeling loved combats many of the ills of life.

Interestingly, John the desciple of Jesus wrote in his book that God is love. God is the source of all life, of love, of true joy. And having pets can really connect you to that love. They love you unconditionally. Our cats get especially loving when there is no food in their dishes. They come and rub all over our legs. And when we come home, they come running out to the fence to greet us.

Johnny has cats that sleep on top of him or beside him every night. There are a lot of people that have their dog sleep on the foot of their bed.

Personally, I like cats better because they are so independant. They only come to you if THEY want to. Dogs are okay too, but dogs are more oriented toward trying to please you. Some people like this. But cats are very smart too.

We had a batch of kittens that were born beside the bed in a closet in the motor home. I left the door open to the closet. Well, of course the little kittens ventured out. One of them went to the foot of the bed and climbed up the bedspread and crawled up to where I was. Of course I was astonished that such a small kitten would do this. So I picked him up and deposited the kitten gently back on the floor beside the bed. A look of understanding crossed his little face. Within seconds he was back up on top of the bed. He ran to the foot and again climbed up the bedspread. He had learned something!!

I have five wonderful cats. Each one has a completely different purrrrrsonality. My wife has given them multipe names. For example, there is Tenika Michael Cocoa. When she was a kitten, one day she did this really strange sideways dancing movement in the motor home hallway. It looked like she had watched Michael Jackson's dance videos and was adapting his moon walk but doing it sideways. And she is black like Michael Jackson used to be. But when the sunlight bleaches her black hair, it turns a rich deep brown like cocoa powder.

There is a joke that goes: "only in America can you be born a poor black boy and grow up to be a rich white man." It is obvious even to the casual observer that even though he is rich and famous, Michael has this problem with hating his nose.

But I was talking about pets, not Michael Jackson.

I will tell you about the amazing four other cats in my next postings.

Have a purrrrrfect day,

David

Napping may be the answer

Are you feeling tired and run-down in the middle of the afternoon? Is your energy level dropping like a rock into a lake? Coffee is NOT the answer, but taking a nap might just be the ticket. Cats take naps all the time. They seem to be perfectly healthy. Of course, I have never been able to actually communicate with any of my cats to see if they feel rested after a nap. :-)

You may be victimizing yourself by not getting enough sleep at night. Maybe you feel you just don't have the time to sleep 8-10 hours a night. You have just got so much to do. Or maybe you are like me, and are so excited about whatever you are doing that time just seems to fade out, and suddenly it is several hours later--perhaps 3 am in the morning. Ooops!! Can you say "time management problems?"

I have found that if you are going to take a nap, don't take a long one. If you do, you will go into deep sleep, and when you wake you will be especially groggy. Your body will crave even more sleep, especially if you are sleep deprived. Then you will wake up far more tired than when you drifted off to sleep.

I believe it was Albert Einstein (although it might have been somebody else) who used to take a kettle and turn it upside down. Then he would hold a spoon in his hand above the kettle. Just as soon as he fell asleep, his hand would relax, the spoon would fall, and there would be a loud clang as the spoon hit the kettle. That would awaken him. Obviously, this is a very short nap. But it is better to err on the side of short than long. And on the practical level, your boss may not begrudge you a short nap, but you might lose your job if you slept all day at your desk.

From personal experience, I think about half an hour is just about right. You don't go into a deep sleep in half an hour, but you can experience some much needed rest. And you won't wake up groggy, but refreshed. Can you say "catnap." My felines are feeling fine. :-)

So try napping when you are tired. It just might help.

David A. Youngs

Are Your Pets Making You Sick?

My wife loves cats and so do I. When we moved into the motor home about 6 years ago, we didn't have any pets. But we saved a couple of little kittens from certain death. The man we were staying with was a very practical man and said, "my cat has had kittens. Unless you want to take those kittens, I have enough cats and I am going to kill them." Oh, that approach guaranteed my wife would at least go and look at the kittens. Of course once she saw them, it was all over for me and suddenly we had two little kittens.

My allergies began to increase about that time. I know that pets can cause problems. Well, in the course of time, these two little kittens grew up into adult FEMALE cats. And one day there was some commotion in the tree and upon investigation I discovered that there was a large male cat there who was paying undue attention to my cats. They subsequently became pregnant.

In time suddenly we had 10 little kittens milling around the motor home. The mother cats put all 10 kittens in one big pile, and both would go and periodically nurse them. And my allergies became seriously worse.

Good breathing,
David A. Youngs
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