After a couple of weeks of chaos and shocking mail, things are beginning to sort themselves out. I took the screen from the front door and two others Andy damaged with his climbing to the lumber yard this morning, and get to pick them up, fresh and repaired, this afternoon.

[The screen behind these broken blinds hiding Andy is also at the lumber yard for repairs.]

I picked up some cat litter. The boys go through it, let me tell you. It’s like babies: How can anything so sweet make such a nauseating pile of it?! They never learned the fine art of burying their poop from their mother, and make a half-hearted effort. If I saw it in the yard, I’d think, “The neighbor’s dagnab spaniel’s been here again! Grrr!”

Because I had to review a menacing piece of mail with the accounting person at the care center, I was there on a Wednesday at BINGO time. I used to go over on BINGO days when my parents were residents there. That gave us some family time together. It gave me another way to volunteer, too, because I’d help residents with poor eyesight or other difficulties play.

After Mom died, it was difficult to go there because I had to walk past the rooms Mom and Dad occupied to get to the activities room. Today, though, I helped an old friend with his BINGO, had some lovely conversations with old friends among the residents and staff, and cleared up a couple of issues. The menacing news from Blue Cross/ Blue Shield turned out to be stupid redundancy that serves no purpose but to alarm people not directly involved in an issue (me) with a shocking five-digit number. I hate insurance companies for this sort of mindlessness.

[A 2009 Chevrolet Impala gets me around, and actually gets the same mileage as my first car, a 1970 VW Beetle.]

I refueled my car. I remember how shocked I was the first time I had a car that held enough gasoline that (in 1973) could run up to the staggering total of $10 to top the tank. At $3.549 a gallon today at my local station, I reached $10 at 2.817695 gallons, if you want to know exactly. Topping my 2014 tank would cost $56.78!

And what about those three screens I had repaired? I picked them up this afternoon and paid $12.17 total. Now, that was a bargain! I guess I keep the cat.

Finally, now that I seem to have resolved the WordPress issue that plagued me earlier, I took some time to rewrite the awkward passages so normal native English speakers don’t report me to the Immigration and Naturalization people as an alien. Could happen in a week like this one…!

I guess today is a bonus post day, which makes up for no-post days. The second post, of course, needs to be a cat post because you gotta have a cat post, too!

This was a lazy day at home. I had a headache, so I took some aspirin and a morning nap. (I feel rested and free of the headache, thank you very much!)

Dougy on the cat tree. His horns are up. You never know if that means he’s been, is, or is about to be ornery. Or all of the above!

The boys snoozed away the morning, too. Or at least I think they did. I’ll check the house for evidence of cat naughtiness later, but there isn’t anything too obvious yet!

Dougy heard me rustling, so came running into my bedroom for a little lovin’. He’s my hug-a-buddy cat, is really into that walking back and forth on my bed while I pet his back and scratch his whiskers and ears. Purr~purr~purr! Happy paws, too after his motor’s revved up to full speed. It’s our mutually agreeable happy little wake up ritual!

Andy likes to sleep on the towel I put on the floor in front of my shower. That was where he was when I got up. He’s more reserved, but he lets himself go into a purr when he gets his ears scratched and the petting I give him, too. His response is just less, well, adoring! He has his standards, and grovelling like a sycophant – or a Dougy!- is not his style.

I opened the door, and Andy ran over to breathe in all the scent messages of the neighborhood.

Lately, when I open the door, Andy becomes very excited about what he sniffs outside. I don’t know if a cat’s been visiting and leaving a message (possible) or he’s just excited because there are many interesting secrets on the spring air. Regardless, when the door opens, he rushes into the corner, then moves from one side to the other sniffing.

There you go! Well, there Andy goes! And he is unhappy with me because I don’t open the door.

Ew! Is daddy’s little boy pouting? You have your pouty-face on!

Let’s get a closer look at that pout:

Andy will get over it. If not, he knows where I sleep…!

Yes, it was a quiet day at home.

I don’t agree much with Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns, but we do agree on one thing: we are very proud of the Nebraska tradition of tree planting and that Arbor Day started here in Nebraska City, Nebraska!

Here is the e-mail greeting Senator Johanns sent out today:

The link in the greeting, of course, won’t work, so I’ve attached on below:

https://www.arborday.org/

If I told you there is a place called the Nebraska National Forest, if you don’t live here and have an image of the state as some vast flat hay meadow, you’d probably laugh. Yet there is such a place, and it is a wonderful recreation place for hunters, hikers, birders, and others who enjoy the out-of-doors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_National_Forest‎

Plant a tree!