Post 522: busy day, with snow

It’s still summer, right? The calendar says so. Fall’s still a few days away and the trees haven’t begun to turn. The weather report for my town, however, suggests something else:

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What?! Snow already? I heard on the news Rapid City got snow. That’s where one of my sisters lives. It’s only 156 miles (251.1km) north of here. Though it is in the Black Hills, it’s actually at a lower elevation (3202 ft. or 976 meters above sea level) than where I live (3967 ft. or 1209 meters above sea level). Rapid is farther north ( 44°04′.34″) than where I live, which is perched a little north of the 42° of north latitude. Yet, they often get the snow first, and we wipe our brows down here, smug to have avoided that first brush with inevitable cold weather. Not this time, though. They got it first, but we can look forward to getting it within a few hours. Ugh!

Aside from rain, snow, and the 13th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil, today is one for ordinary tasks that won’t wait much longer: The boys have a grooming appointment this morning and they are regular hairballs in need of a trim.

I try not to telegraph my plans to the boys by showering and putting on going out clothes and shoes, but they pick up on things with amazing acuity. They are smart little fellows! Yes, my cats know something is different this morning, and the likelihood that it involves them is high. Even now, they are hiding in plain sight, muscles tensed and prepared to make the Great Escape when I come looking for them to put them in the carrier.

Andy can’t be fooled twice! And he holds grudges!

Andy may be the hardest one to catch since there are two things involving him this morning: his daily medicine dose and capture to go to the groomer. I need to catch him once for both because he will be 10 times harder catch a second time!

Dougy is a little easier to catch than Andy, but he’s a whiner when put in the carrier. “He’s put me in the carrier, Andy! Run and hide!” Yeah, a whiner and a squealer. It makes sense to try to catch him second for that reason.

I’m trying not to think about this little task for the moment. I swear the cats pick up on my thoughts through telepathy!

Post 521: the presence

>tap~tap~tap<

I feel a light touch on my arm. It’s Andy, trying to tell me something.

“What’s the matter, boy? Cat got yer tongue?”

He sits there. I reach a finger toward his nose. He touches his nose to my finger.

“What is it, Andy?”

andy 1

Nothing, it seems. He just wants me to know he’s still here, but he’ll accept any effort to amuse him! In the meantime, he’ll just stare at me in some telepathic experiment with his human.

“Feed me tuna! Bring out the wand toy! Scratch my chin!” I try to interpret his message.

You never know. I never know! All I can do is follow him and hope whatever his pleasure is we’ll stumble on it in our little walk.

Post 520: a little morning drama

Andy trusted me too much, too long, and I easily snatched him right by the computer desk, just before he sneaked into his hidey hole. It took little effort today to give him his medicine, and he was a very good boy about it. Maybe the tuna flavor of the new batch of medicine made the difference!

That said, he still ran off to hide under the computer desk at the first chance after I gave him his medicine.

Andy hurried away from the scene. Medicated, he no longer wanted anything to do with weggieboy!

Dougy wanted to get in on the excitement, you bet! He hopped up on the settee for a better view.

Dougy watches Andy for Andy’s next move… from the comfort of the little plastic tub.

Andy prepares to hide, and Dougy watches for Andy’s next move.

Dougy took up watch at the back door. Andy went into seclusion, under the computer desk. Of course! That’s his usual hidey hole!

What? Dougy looked at the camera long enough for me to take a soft-focus glamour shot! What a handsome boy he is! (Andy is,too, but that photo didn’t turn out.)

“Glamour Puss”

I did call this a “little morning drama”, right? What did you expect? A kitty replay of WAR AND PEACE? 😉

Post 519: a surprise at the veterinarian’s

Andy needed a refill on his blood pressure medication today, so I called ahead to have the medication prepared in tuna flavor, the original flavor I got it in. The chicken flavor I had it made with the last refill didn’t agree with Andy or he just likes tuna better. Anyway, tuna it is for my little fuzzy prince!

I arrived at the clinic before the medication was ready, so sat down next to a woman with two carriers. It was the only seat left, but it turned out to be fortuitous: The person in the other seat was Tara, the veterinarian technician who gave me Andy and Dougy!

Tara doesn’t work at the clinic now, so she hadn’t heard in months how the boys are doing.

Oops! It’s “weggieboy”, not “weggyboy”!

I brought her up to date on Andy and Dougy, handed her my “business” cards, which feature the boys, and let her know she could watch videos on YouTube and read about the boys on my blog. (I just noticed today I misspelled “weggieboy” on the Dougy card.)

The surprise at the veterinarian’s? That I ran into Tara and we caught up on where the boys are? Well, that was nice, but the real surprise was in the two carriers with Tara. In one, a Birman queen who is the boy’s paternal auntie! In the other, a step sister, also a Birman queen! I’ve met the boy’s mother, and now a step sister and an aunt.

The aunt is very sweet-natured, and I see the family resemblance to this aunt in Andy more than Dougy. Andy has a rounder face, whereas Dougy’s is classic Persian, that owl-like disc face. Both boys, though, have faint, very subtle hints of their Birman father’s markings, which is similar to Siamese cats. The boys are much darker, of course, so those features show only in certain light or if you are looking for them.

I didn’t have a lot of time with the boys’ relatives, but I was enough to appreciate how beautiful and sweet-natured Birman cats can be! Watch out boys. I want one!

Post 518: Andy’s toy

I heard a clamor behind my computer this morning. What was the fuss? Andy wound himself up playing with a folded piece of paper!

Note in the video that a $16 interactive cat toy is in the upper left of the frame. “Make your own fun” is Andy’s motto. And it is free!

Post 517: smile! :)

Caturday is on us once again! I decided you need to see the boys for a change. They are days away from their next grooming appointment, and look as much like the Persian cats as they ever do, with long, beautiful hair that is soft and pleasant to stroke.

Of course, they aren’t in the mood to cooperate. Both ran to bad places for photos: dark, dirty, cluttered places that serve two purposes, both to thwart pretty pictures of the boys looking as sweet as I’ve ever seen them.

They are beautiful cats! But they are like everyone else in my family. No photos, please.

Here’s Andy:

Yeah. By the dirtpot where I was growing grass for the boys. The grass is long dead, so it isn’t a very seemly foreground for Andy.

Crop the hell out of it, and be happy his eyes are open, at least. Never mind Andy’s giving his mean kitty look, you know, “Cat from Hell”. He’s actually very sweet-natured, a bit shy.

That left Dougy. Maybe Dougy’ll cooperate today. Probably not, but…!

well, he found the messiest corner of the apartment to plop down. Or one of the messiest. And it’s dark there. “Black-cat-in-the-coal-bin-in-the-basement” dark.

That’s about the best look at Dougy’s coat I’ve captured, but he’s hiding his beautiful orange eyes! Of course. His ruff is magnificent!

Dougy told me to tell you he’s not fat, he’s fluffy. Really.

So much for the cats on Caturday. Andy just came back over to the computer and he’s looking cute, cooperative, and…DRAT! He just ran off again when I raised my camera!

Post 516: Internet issues

I’ve had Internet issues since June. Twice, I replaced the dual signal splitter, which seemed to help for a short time. Two days ago, though, I had a major failure to connect with the Internet, and (surely not the dual signal splitter…again!?) I decided it must be related to the Norton security programs.

Don’t ask me why. Frankly, when you’ve run through the unplug-wait-replug-then-try-something-else process with the cable company’s automated troubleshooter system three, four items, you start to think maybe something else is involved. The cable company’s solutions didn’t work.

Just don’t make it too much fun or they’ll think you are thanking them…

So, I spent most of the day on my cellphone talking with Norton’s technical support guy, only to run up against his suggestion that it might be cable-related afterall. (I probably said my favorite word then, but I was exhausted after hours of getting nowhere. I don’t remember.) So, I tried the cable company again.

After doing everything I’d already done dozens of times in the past two months, with some positive results for a short time, this time I ran into a big nothing. I finally got a human being on the line by saying cues words not suggested by the cable prompt. You can imagine, I’m sure, if you’ve had cable or Internet issues just which words I used.

Of course, I kept my head on straight, and the problem soon disappeared.

The cable human ultimately decided the problem was my modem since the signal made it that far, but not to my computer, which has a wireless connection to the modem. She said something about “time out errors” and how 10 in two hours might be acceptable. I’d had 38 in less than two hours. Would I like to schedule a technician to visit?

And that’s where I am now: Waiting for James the cable guy. I got the confirmation phone call, and notice that he’d be by between 3 PM and 5 PM, as established two days ago. The 3 PM hour arrives in 30 minutes. 🙂 I am hopeful. Right now, I have to switch the main coaxial connection between the television and the modem, not that I can watch television and work on the computer at the same time. I pay $155 and some odd cents a month for television and Internet combined, so this little process isn’t one I intend to tolerate beyond today.

Mews: The amazing and brave cats of World War 1

Here’s a fascinating look at cats as helpmates in the military. Take that, Rin Tin Tin!

Post 515: …of cats and tomatoes

Not much “of cats”, though. Andy’s hiding somewhere, and Dougy isn’t happy about having his photo taken.

“No photos today, human!”

Walking way from me, eh, Dougy? Next you’ll be hopping up on my computer desk and helping yourself to your wand toy! [Dougy just hopped up on my computer desk and helped himself to the wand toy there because I hadn’t put it away yet. I tried to get him to play, and he gave me the big “Meh!”]

That leaves tomatoes. A friend left several with me a few days ago, along with some cucumbers. I’ve eaten most of these yummy garden veggies, but am left with one last tomato. It’s slated to become supper, in the form of bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwiches. Yeah, I think I’ll go for two sandwiches today! The tomato looks that good!

I named this one “Supper”!

Yeah, it’s a low acid tomato, juicy and perfectly ready to grace a BLT sandwich tonight. And it didn’t move away from me when I tried to take its photo. More than I can say for my kitties.

Post 514: Labor Day 2014

Typical. It’s one of those ironic holidays like Memorial Day, where people go to the beach, barbecue, and basically get a summer thing on: Labor Day, a day celebrated by not working! I’m retired, of course, so maybe I should observe it by working. Or not.

I chose “or not”, of course, and watched a silent movie (“The Big Parade”, a WWI melodrama) on TCM channel. It was painfully dated, technically. Of course. It was made in 1925. The story was lame (“lamish”): a spoiled rich boy goes to war, leaving his girl behind to fall in love with his brother while he, in France, meets a local girl and falls in love with her. You know it will end one of two ways.

Well, this one ends with him surviving the war, losing a leg below the knee. (Special effects or for real? That was pretty convincing…) Oh yeah, and he loses his best buddies, KIA, who in civilian life were a bartender and an iron worker who chewed (and spit throughout the film) tobacco. The latter’s nickname was “Slim”. We had to wait till WWII before at least one of the Hollywood film buddies was Polish and another Jewish. Yeah, the story was a bit lame! The blue-collar workers die in battle, and the rich guy survives to get the girl. Just like real life!

In the end, Johnny One-Leg hobbles over the hill with his crutch, his French girl friend (who was walking behind a plow, moping) sees him, abandons plowing instantly because she senses she’s about to become a rich American society wife, runs up the hill toward Johnny, and the two embrace. Smoochery takes place. XOXOX

Geez! I tried not to, but I confess a tear or two slipped out of my eyes, and I watched this whole movie wanting not to be jerked around by what I saw. I guess they get married, but the movie mercifully fades to “THE END”.

When did I get so cynical?Jaded? Unsentimental? Why, during my days of travail at the hose factory! I knew there must be a Labor Day connection somewhere here! What about other people who work for a living? The attached BuzzFeed video takes a happy look at WallMartlandia and the happy denizens there.