Poem for Tuesday

Tears, Idle Tears
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

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Yesterday I had to take the cats to the vet for their annual checkups. There was an accident between my house and the highway, so we were stuck in traffic, not moving, for half an hour with the vet threatening to give away the appointments if we were more than ten minutes late. So I was cursing and the cats were yowling at the tops of their lungs, even worse than usual for them in the car...and when we got to the vet, barely in time, they kept yowling for twenty full minutes, practically nonstop. I have never heard them do anything like this.

Rosie has actually lost weight since last year -- not much, but a teeny bit -- while Cinnamon has gained about a pound, which for a cat of her size is fine and also surprising considering that Rosie eats her food! Rosie's blood sugar was slightly high, and they want to do a urinalysis and check her blood again to see if she's becoming diabetic. Poor cat.

Yesterday I also figured out I had a choice: I could try to keep up with people and get no writing done, or try to get the writing done and declare the friends list and comments and chat hopeless. I went with the writing because I really wanted to get it done before leaving on vacation, and while I can answer comments with the kids in my hair, I can seldom do any substantive writing. Apologies, and I will hopefully get to the comments tonight, if we don't go see The Manchurian Candidate while we have free babysitting! Otherwise I might hit Best Buy and see if they have The Reckoning, which I missed in the theaters!