Good-Bye

If you are pet owner, you know that feeling that your pet(s) are family. We treat them like family members, talking to them like if they are human beings. When they leave this world, we break down, our hearts hurts, we cry like just like if they was a real human family member. Having to deal with the lost of a pet is hard, but having lost two on the same day is just unbearable. On November 6, 2025 two our kittens stray cross over the rainbow bridge.’

Early Thursday morning Tiny Tim was our smallest kitten past in her sleep. Family members gave her the name just cause she was small. I called her mustache, usually mr.mustache. Tiny Tim was just a bundle of joy, smiles and cute memories from her short time with us. One thing that I always smiled when seeing her was her walk. It was just to cute. That the last video I recorded of her, walking. Tiny Tim was small but fast and vocal. Her sibling look out for her, groom her and pick on her like any sibling does.

Latter that day we had to put her brother to sleep. That was just to much to bear, losing two pets on that day. Her brother, who I called Mr.Playful one cause that was his personality from the time he started walking. Family member called him Angie cause he reminded them of a human family member. Mr. Playful one was the one to play around among the other kittens. Even with me his playfulness was scratching me. I feel that is what hurt so much losing him. I love holding him and hearing his loud prrrr and telling him, “no scratching”.

It been rough for me cause I still have that hurtness in my heart. These kitten were stray, I tried not to get attached and hoping I could get them into a shelter where they could get adopted. That never worked out, so I took care of them.

R.I.P Tiny Tim and Mr.Playful One May 30, 2025 – November 6, 2025

Kittens

For the past two months, our front yard has become the home to kittens. I already have two dogs and having a litter of kittens, no. I don’t hate cats/kittens, just don’t have time to take care of them nor the money to feed them. The two dogs I have are already a hand full.

So how did these kittens end up in our yard? Momma cat decided to move into our yard probably because she saw my oldest dog eating outside. This was sometime last November or so. My oldest dog didn’t have time for chasing cats, so it didn’t bug her that the cat was in the yard. Fast foward to two months ago, last Friday in May. Momma cat had her kittens underneath the car. She had 7 kittens. Things were going well and momma cat and the kittens were doing fine. No problems at all. Then that week of 4th July, I feed momma cat in the evening and from there we never saw her. It was strange to not to see her cause she always hang out in the yard or the neighbor yard. Now we were left with 7 kittens with no mom to feed them. The goal now was to see if any of the animal shelters would taken them in, but with the flooding in Texas all shelters were full.

Today we still of five kittens out of the seven. We lost one, we believe it was probably taken by another stray cat in the area or picked off by a owl. The other kittens, happy to say, one was adopted by a family friend who were looking for a kitten. So we still have five that we are hoping someone will adopt them. Plans are to also get the females fixed. Well enough typing, how about some pictures. Am sure there a lot of kitten/cat lover out there.

Mobster Boss – Adopted

playful one

Peaceful one

Lieutenant 2

Lieutenant 1

Mustache

Get paid to do Surveys

Am sure some of you have heard about getting paid to do surveys. I’ve been doing this for about three years and this is just my opinion about doing these surveys. One important thing to note is that you can’t make a living doing this, but you can make a little bit of money. Something to treat yourself to.

So how do you get paid to do survey? You go one of the many surveys sites and registered. One popular survey site is Swagbucks(Referral link below). You enter some information about yourself like age, sex, married status, income etc. There will be other questions they will ask you. Once you’ve completed that, you can start taking surveys. Depending on the survey site you will be award points or a cents/dollar amount for each survey you take. Every survey takes a different amount of time. Some survey you have you answer questions, multiple choice/free response. Others are about a product(s) or a video/ad. Each survey site has a certain amount you need to earn in order to cash out your points and/or dollar amount. I think the minimum is five dollars. Important thing to know is you must pass the survey qualification which they will ask you a few question. If you meet those qualification you can continue on or you will be disqualified. This is one of the downside of doing survey. You can have times where you might not qualify for any survey, but that okay.

I’ve had this happen to me, but I just keep on trying. How much can you make? From my experience I’ve made $25 to $50 a month from using Swagbucks. The majority of the survey site will pay you in gift cards that you can pick from. Some will also allow you to transfer it to your bank account or through paypal which I guess you can then transfer to your bank account. I just get a Walmart gift card. For me that just the easiest way cause I can then input the gift number into the Walmart app wallet and when am ready to check select Walmart pay. I tried the visa gift, but some stores aren’t caught up to date with electronic gift cards. Some people say it a waste of time, but so is scrolling through instagram, facebook, tiktoc etc.

https://www.swagbucks.com/profile/r_135034831?rp=1

sketchbook 2025

2024 sketches

Book: Beyond All Doubt

Beyond All Doubt by Hilton Reed, Cameron Kane lost his wife Alison in a car accident. She was with her boss Maxwell Harding who lost control driving his Lamborghini and running off the road, both dying in a fiery car accident. Their bodies only identified by dental records.

Kane tries to move on with his life along with his daughter. He runs into a man who resembles Maxwell Harding who was identified and pronounced dead more then a year ago. This encounter lead Kane to ask himself if this is the real Maxwell Harding or is his mind just playing tricks on him. It set off Kane to re-question everything about the accident and his wife’s death.

If you need a little action in your next book read, Beyond all Doubt you should consider. If feel like a movie, the story built up and then you are in a action pack situation.

Book: How to Solve Your own Murder

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin. 1965 teenage Frances Adams is with two of her best friends. Seeing a fortune-teller, Frances is told a scaring prediction, she will be murder one day. She will live the rest of life, trying to solve a murder that has yet to happen. Gathering dirt on everyone she knows and meet who may be the person who will murder her. Present day, Annie Adam is summon to a meeting about Aunt Frances estate. Upon arriving to the meeting, Aunt Frances is murder. Annie takes on the task in solving her Aunt Frances murder. Reviewing the files that Frances has collected over the years on people she has “dirt” on.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Getting told by a fortune-teller that you will be murder, but it actually doesn’t happen until a years later. Yeah not a real life scenario, but a interesting way to begin. The other thing I enjoyed was the sisterhood aspect the author incorporated into the story. If you grew up with sisters it something your witness and / or experience. The rival between sisters. Would have never thought to think about that to solve a murder, these three friends where just like sisters.

Book: The Wager

The Wager, A tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann. A story of a British Naval ship that set sail from England in 1740. During it mission and pursing the a Spanish war ship, the wager wreck along a island on the coast of Patagonia. It surviving crew isolated on the island with no food and facing starvation and the natural element, began to seperate into fractions against each other. With a few small boats the men attempted to leave the island. After months of sailing thousand of miles one group fraction made it home to tell their story. Only following months later another group fraction made it back home to share their story.

What I found most interesting when reading this book, was the life of being in the British Navy at that time. It seem like it was more of a death sentence especially if you were picked off the street because of the need of man power. The man power need to sail such a big naval vessel and engage in any naval battles. The chances of returning home seem slim since living condition on board the ship were not so great. Nor if you need serious medical attention, the “doctor” knowledge of the human body was limited.

Employment Agency

If you are someone looking for employment, have submitted countless of resumes, applications, but have yet to get that phone call for an interview or have just receive rejection letters after rejection letters. I know what you are going through. Here an alternative you might what to explore if you haven’t done so already. Employment agency or temp agency.

Last year, around this time, it was a month since I resigned from my position as a government contractor. I received a phone call from a employment agency, Robert Half who had my resume from a previous job position I applied to through their website. They told me they had some job positions to fill and if i would be interested. I had nothing to lose, so I said, “yes”. So within two weeks they found something and without doing a interview, I started working a day or so later. This position was only suppose to last three weeks, but went on for six months. My next job assignment that they found for me started mid-January working with a non-profit as a receptionist. Was only supposed to be for a month, but ended up being four month. Actually my last day for this position was at the end of May 2024.

Temp agency aren’t a solution in finding a stable full-time job, but it will at least keep you employed and might open the door for full-time employment. My experience with them has been positive. Didn’t have to interview for the positions and it kept me employed. The downside with temp agency is the pay is never the same as you do different job assignments. The other down side is that as you complete one assignment, you may have some downtime awhile the temp agency find you another. As I type this blog, am currently waiting to hear back if they have any position to fill with clients. In the mean time am applying to other jobs not associate with this temp agency or others.

As with any job, it always important to be professional when work with these employment agency. By professional, I mean letting them know if you are going to be late or can’t make it to work. If you need to miss for what ever reason, let them know. Of course also let the client/company you are working with know. Treat this as if it just a normal full-time job.

April 8, 2024: Solar Eclipse

One thing about Texas weather, it a crazy. One day you are in the 90s and in a few hours you drop right down to the 50s. It can be clear skies and in 15 minutes, it cloudy. On April 8, 2024 mother nature wasn’t cooperating to loosen it grip on the the sky for a one in a life time chance to see the solar eclipse.

Unlike the eclipse that happened in October 2023 where I didn’t need to leave the house. This time along with a family member, we went to Kerrville, TX. Hoping the sky condition would improve. We arrived in Kerriville just about noon and the sun had broken free and the the clouds were retreating. It look like we now had a clear view of the solar eclipse. It wasn’t until a few minutes that the eclipse began, the clouds began to roll in again. These were those dark thick clouds, basically taking our clear view away. It convinced several people to leave the area, but we stuck around. There were small break in the clouds to see the eclipse and to see when totality occur. That was the best part and I feel some people don’ t understand that. That it different then what we experience every day when the sunset and it get dark. This is in the middle of the day where the sun it high in the sky and then it become dark. Then after four minute in totality the light of day return. It a cool experience and a once in a life time experience.

Tried to capture a photo using my binocular with solar filter.