Hyperthyroid cats

We went to an art fair down the street . One of the artists makes large animal mosaics. In front of his studio is a life size mosaic tiger that I go by frequently. His wife, who I knew in another life, makes ceramics and soaps

My niece with new glasses. I would never have guessed that these frames would be popular for women

the youngest grandchildren who will come here later today

Josh and Allie at the nearby park this morning

riding her new bike

Recently there was an article in the NYT about the spate of hyperthyroid cats, a not seen condition prior to the 70s. What is to blame?  Possibly PBBs, which are flame retardants. Symptoms of hyperthyroidism; weight loss despite insatiable appetite and thirst; irritability. Best treatment: radioactive iodine followed by life time replacement hormones. However, this is extremely expensive and the cats might not take the follow up pills. One can surgically remove the thyroid but again, expensive and you need the pills. One of the moms has one of those cats. She tried to give daily antithyroid pills but her cat, otherwise quite meek, will fight to the death rather than swallow a pill. She is instead feeding the cat very expensive food that contains absolutely no iodine.

So if it is doing this to cats, what is happening to us? Has the prevalence of thyroid disorders gone up during the same time? I don't know but I do know that I know many more women over forty who have a thyroid disorder than not, most of them having Hashimoto's thyroiditis which causes the thyroid to die. I had the somewhat rarer condition Graves Disease whose principal symptom is hyperthyroidism. Radioactive iodine destroyed my thyroid and I need replacement hormone daily.

It is raining on my preferred bicycling day. Fortunately I had a small break between storms to ride 25 miles. I didn't do my big loop as I would be far from home if the weather maps were incorrect plus it includes dirt roads which really are a pain when wet. I instead biked past huge mountains of trash. The nearby township seems to handle most of the trash in SE Michigan. The road near the ginormous landfill was recently paved. I thought I wouldn't have to worry about the many garbage trucks going to and fro. Early, there were none but on my way back, a whole convoy of them. They don't rest for Sunday I guess. And that smooth road won't last long under their huge loads.

But all this rain is good for my gardens. I planted lots of seeds last year and had very little to show for it except some weedy looking things. I was tempted to pull them out but now they are starting to be in bloom, sweet Williams of all colors. They will need more sun to fully blossom.

We don't have the variety of birds this year as last. No grosbeaks and only the one oriole, who flew away in disgust today as all the grape jelly was washed away in the rain. Instead of having a whole flock of wax wings, a lone pair has shown up only twice. The female hummingbird finally made her way across the Gulf of Mexico to my feeders so I at least have a pair.

A pair of barn swallows are nesting on  our porch. They have not dive bombed my face as other pairs have done. I was sitting on the porch on the phone (brick walls make for bad reception) the other day and the male perched on the chair beside me staring me down just a few feet away. He was there a long time. Usually they perch high on the ceiling and chatter away when we are out there. They are quite pretty.

What have I been up to? I did buy a tile at the art fair yesterday along with s small bicycle sculpture at a yard sale. Two days ago, I went to a cake tasting party (just what I need, right?). I thought I would prefer the chocolate flourless torte as I am a chocoholic but a pineapple upside down cake make with real cherries and fresh pineapple and a very buttery cake base was surprisingly more tasty. The 'diet' choice would be an angel food cake. So homemade angel food cake is much superior to store bought but still it is just sweet fluff. I went instead of to a concert in Detroit (thank-you in-laws) because I was going to see a friend I hadn't seen in years (very nice seeing you KP, we needed more time). Shanna took my place as Steve's date. Bonus for him, she didn't whine when he insisted on eating at the Outback Steakhouse before hand.

I hear those pesky grackles making their ugly screech before greedily gobbling up my suet cake. Must go scare them away
Below is the tiger down the street