OX, and Happy Chinese New Year

Happy New Year of the Ox.

Took Speedy to the vet Saturday for his annual immunizations. He took it pretty well, but he does not like to take the heartworm medicine. It probably isn't necessary for Speedy to take the heartworm medicine year-round. Still, it's easier for me to remember to give it to him once a month without trying to remember if this is a month he doesn't need to take it. Besides, the medication keeps him from picking up other parasites as well. The flea and tick medicine is a liquid that absorbs through the skin. He's not so unhappy to get that, except he knows that he gets it the same time as he has to take the pill for the heartworm.

My quarterly physical is Thursday. I'm hoping that I will also get a clean bill of health. Then Lloyd and I have the dentist next month, and Lloyd to the podiatrist the month after. It's a never ending round. Not quite as cheerful as the monthly holidays we used to have at school. January was New Years; February, Valentine's and Presidents' Days; March, St. Patrick's Day; April, Spring and Easter; May, Mothers' Day; June, Graduation. As July was outside the school year, we didn't get Independence Day, but we celebrated all the same. August got no holiday, but is often depicted as a day on the seashore. September was Back to School; October, Halloween; November, Thanksgiving; December, Christmas (now the p.c. Winter Holidays). Now the greeting card companies are inventing holidays, and Congress keeps declaring this week as Pickle Week or National Internal Combustion Machine Day. The disadvantages of having so many celebrations is that they get lumped together like St. Ursula's 1100 virgins.

Practicing Hindus have so many gods to choose from, they apparently have the same trouble with holy days. I keep sending the fellows from InfoSys (who are from India and mostly nominal Hindus) holiday greetings for whatever pops up in BeliefNet. One of them wrote back to say that he never knows what holiday it is unless he happens to be off that day anyway.

The word of the day for January 26, 2009 is "ox" — Pronunciation: \'äks\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural ox·en \'äk-sən\ also ox
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English oxa; akin to Old High German ohso ox, Sanskrit ukṣā bull, and perhaps to Sanskrit ukṣati he moistens, Greek hygros wet — more at humor
Date: before 12th century
1: a domestic bovine mammal (Bos taurus) ; broadly : a bovine mammal. 2: an adult castrated male domestic ox.

Our quote for the day is from Jon Cleary, author, b: 22 November 1917, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, High Road to China:

The ox is slow, but the earth is patient.

;^)

-