Post 741: a safe bet…

I saw Andy posed nicely in the window, watching birds. I thought I’d take a photo. By the time I got my camera, though, Andy’d noticed me and remembered something: He hasn’t had his medicine yet today!

Under the computer desk he ran!

Clever little monkey! I still could reach him, though, so he took his game up a notch.

Yep! Up and under the computer desk! No way I can reach him now unless I get on my hands and knees. Not blinking likely!

If there is one thing Andy is it’s resourceful when it comes to evading me at medicine time! Most days I beat him at his game, but there are those days he plays just a little bit better than I.

This is my museum day, so I just have a few hours left to catch him. He won’t win today! Mwahahahaha!

For the record, when I came home from the museum, Andy greeted me at the door. I swooped him iup and gave him his medicine. Slick!

Post 740: being watched…

I am used to it by now. Quietly, on pussycat paws they sneak up on me and are suddenly there…watching me!

What is this dark presence…?

Oh! Never mind! It’s just Andy!

Post 739: a slow Sunday afternoon…

Nothing dramatic happening here today. Of course, I’m deliberately avoiding anything that involves the recent computer issues, that which I call “Those @^#%*^! Times”.

Just took some kitty photos, as best I could without a cooperative cat. Andy is missing in action (sleeping somewhere…) and Dougy wants to play wand toy games, not pose for pretty pictures.

Dougy won’t look my way. I think he expects Andy to come running through the door.

Hmm. Much better pose…but his tail’s twitching!

Oops! Unintentional selfie!

Dang! Now my hand’s cramping!

I guess there was a little dram today! Cramp's gone. Whew!

I guess there was a little drama today! Cramp’s gone. Whew!

Close to what I was trying for but…

…Dougy isn’t posing. He’s getting excited about the camera strap, which he pounces!

Andy signals it’s time to feed the kitty. Yep! Knock over all the wastepaper baskets till the Doug (the human one) puts out the kitty food!

If Dougy doesn’t show up soon, Andy will eat Dougy’s supper, too.

Dougy’s been off schedule for supper feeding lately, though that doesn’t bother Andy a bit. Later, when Dougy shows up, I’ll fix him some wet food. Andy will eat that, too, if I don’t watch him!

Post 738: Computer issues, mayhem, and cats run amok…!

When I left my computer last night, it was updating 136 items, so “[d]o not turn off your computer”. I went to bed, and left the machine to do its tedious updates. I’d had enough of this computer stuff for the day, what with several attempts — all failures — to do a back up of my files.

I tried several different suggestions you made, in fact, and the last one of copying files manually looks like a winner…if I use a memory stick since the files (videos, photos) really eat up the memory.

What popped up on my screen when I turned my PC on this morning.

Ugh! Not only were there over 100 updates, amazing in itself considering I’d run updates several times this past week when the computer “told” me they were there to do.

Now it “told” me it failed to update, so it was undoing whatever it tried to do. That is, I couldn’t use the computer for anything useful until it finished! (After several minutes, I was so tempted to turn it off that I knew it was best I leave the area, which I did.)

😐

My late mother was a school teacher. She often commented on the relationship between naughtiness in children and weather changes. We had a weather change — lots of rain yesterday — and the cat brothers were wound up.

How wound up? For one thing, one of the window screens was pulled down, evidence of a cat climbing the screen to escape his brother who was chasing him.

Mayhem! Most likely Andy pulled it down since he’s my screen climber.

Computer down. Window screen down. What else was in store for me?

I pulled out the laptop, turned it on, and found I still fight the new OS to get simple tasks done. On the other hand, after failing to make much progress on the laptop, I looked back to see the PC was ready to be used.

I turned the laptop off for another day when I’m in a better, more open-minded mood for change, and climbed back on the old horse I knew would probably fail me but in more familiar ways.

LOL!

🙂

Once I came across a cynical saying attributed to a Nantucket sea captain:

Most people don’t care about your problems,

and the rest are damn glad of them.

🙁

When I get in a funk like this morning’s, I like to remind myself of that saying. Not that I necessarily believe it is true, but that most people prefer positive people. Try to stay positive even on the blackest days, I remind myself, and…! Heck if I know. But it does seem to help lighten the mood, though my social life remains pretty much the same. 🙂

In the spirit of positivity, I add this photo of Dougy checking out the effects of the rain yesterday day and this morning.

Dougy knows he slipped outdoors without permission, but he had to see what happened after the rain!

After suffering through the woes of Douglas (the human one), the least I can do is give you a cute kitty photo to end your misery!

Thank you for sticking with me while I suffer the vicissitudes of computers. I respect you too much to get into the latest issue: a printer that refuses to communicate with my PC and vice versa.

Post 737: Seriously, what was Dougy thinking…??

Andy’s a little guy, but don’t think he is a pussycat when Dougy steps outside well-defined kitty territorial lines! Yet he did just that.

It's obvious to all Andy's claimed not only the empty box here, but the over-turned wastepaper basket: "MINE!"

It’s obvious to all Andy claims not only the empty box here, but the over-turned wastepaper basket, too: “MINE!”

Yet even Andy has to take a break. So, despite Dougy’s presence in the room, Andy goes for a drink of water at the fountain. It won’t take long, he figures.

Andy out of the way, Dougy snoops at the box and makes plans to scrunch into it as best he can…! There’s a saying: “When the cat’s away the…” Oh no, that was mice, not cat brothers! Never mind!

“No! No! No!” says Andy. Dougy gets caught in mid-snoop.

This won’t do! He gives Doug the “Screaming Mad Stink Eye that Makes Fur Fall Off Your Tail and Your Whiskers Take Off and Run” look all cats know is serious business. And Dougy knows it is serious business. Dougy heads on out, pronto! dougy gives it up for andy

Whew! Dougy got away with it this time, but only because he heeded Andy’s message. AND, though the magazines by the computer desk also are Andy’s, Andy can’t be both there and over at the box and wastepaper basket, too. Dougy plays his cards well!

One eye on Dougy and the other on the box, Andy verifies all is how he left it. Dougy's stink will leave soon enough!

One eye on Dougy and the other on the box, Andy verifies all is how he left it. Dougy gets away with the magazine matter this time !

Dougy once again finds out Andy is a tough little bugger when it comes to HIS things!

Must be time to feed the kitties. When I got up this morning — that is, when the cats got me up…– they both had innocent looks on their chops and all the wastepaper baskets were tipped over and rummaged through. They are not subtle!

Post 736: The Sallows Military Museum makes progress…

The Sallows Military Museum is a small museum in Alliance, Nebraska, dedicated to those who served or are serving in the US military.

The old swimming pool bath house — repurposed to be a military museum.

It is in the old city swimming pool bath house, which the City of Alliance provided to the organization, and it has one paid employee — Suzan; one part-time employee – Jan; and a bunch of volunteers (me included) who come in to assist Suzan by being there so she can deal with a backlog of donated materials, housekeeping issues, and those all-important meetings all administrators “get” to attend.

I go in for three hours on Wednesdays during the Winter Hours season, and probably will return to Thursdays for the Summer Season hours. Yeah, I’m a life member of the museum support group, too!

1000-piece puzzles often help pass the three hours. Some days, no visitors come in. Other days, whole groups do.

All of the exhibits are donations or lent items from local people with military materials, from veterans, family members of veterans, even random people who have items of interest who feel the museum can better conserve and preserve those materials.

WWII artifacts are most common, but there are items from many wars, from the US Civil War through Afghanistan.

WWII artifacts are common, but there are items from many wars, from the Revolutionary War through Afghanistan.

Suzan and Jan have made progress cleaning and organizing the collection since Suzan became the director of the museum. Material that came in during the period between the previous director’s last day and Suzan’s first day several months later created a backlog that continues to be her priority to catalog and work into the mix of displays.

Jan (left) and Suzan work on a display update.

What is of particular interest to locals is how many men and women in these photos lining the shelves are the younger selves of people we often knew as parents of people we went to school with: Heroes hide among us! But time is thinning out the ranks, making the museum all the more important as a depository of the collective memory of a community’s military contributions.

Familiar faces in unfamiliar roles as defenders of American freedom. It is humbling!

One remarkable resource at the museum is a collection of veterans’ personal remembrances of their military service. Some include letters written from war zones, all detail the experiences of the veteran. These first source references probably need to be held in reserve for researchers at some point, but now sit on an open shelf where anyone with the time and interest can take them down and read through them.

Post 735: Making use of what you’ve got…

Cats are great teachers, if you pay attention to them. For example, a cat doesn’t complain about the size of a box, he or she just uses it!

There is no way Dougy can fit into this new box, but that doesn’t stop him from using it anyway!

There is a lesson there: Be happy with what you have, and make the best possible use you can of it. Smart kitty!

Post 734: The g-mail miracle happened!

Miracle of miracles! I stumbled onto g-mail after somehow finally coming up with a credible user name/password combination Google Chrome liked! What a relief!

Dougy checking out the scenery…

Best of all, re-finding g-mail means I have an easier path to the edit function for this blog! I managed to find a long path here, but the easy one, well, who wouldn’t prefer the easy way over the tedious one!?

I think I might win this war yet!

Post 733: No e-mail yet and other miseries…!

I’m without g-mail for the time being, and that means I may not know about your comments or see them. I’m re-learning how to use this site…without the helpful, familiar landmarks…and hope to figure out how to access your comments, soon.

The main thing,I don’t want anyone to think I’m disinterested in your comments or that I’m ignoring you. More often than not, the comments are a big part of the fun of doing this blog!

Andy feels a bit sleepy from all the stress of protyecting his box. "Where is that dang brother of mine!? I know he wants to take my box...!"

Andy (above) and Dougy continue to be entertaining parts of my day.

Post 732: Andy, Dougy, and Doug are back…sort of…

What a nightmare! Both my PC and new laptop are back from repair, and virtually nothing works the way it used to.

G-mail is down. All Microsoft Office applications are down. Photoshop is AWOL. Ugh! How I got onto WordPress is a mystery. I typed what was in the search box “in case”. If I can get to the editable section of the blog, I can limp along with something, however rudimentary.

If you’ve stayed on during me disappearance from the Internet, bless you! I’;ll try top reward you with some happy cat stuff to make up for thew recent blackout. If nothing else, the boys and I had lots of play time this past week, and they’ve enjoyed having the extra attention.

But, hey! Here are some cat photos to give you something other than a tale of woe for today’s post:

It’s been nice enough to open the back door. The boys liked that!

Dougy heads for the little red chair.

Lots of birdies out this door! The fir tree is just across the lawn from here.

Woohoo!

Happy cat!

Of course, if Dougy wants to sit on the little red chair, so will Andy!

A little tension, but the boys resolve it without a hassle.

The change of the guards…! Andy makes his move.

Woohoo! Andy’s turn!

Dougy moves over to the cat lounger.

…but he keeps an eye on his brother!

Of course, Andy keeps an eye on Dougy, too!

Later, Dougy’s off to his hidey hole to snooze and Andy climbs on top of his favorite perch, the blue carrier on the settee, for a nice rest of his own!