The good life is eating watermelon with your cat while reading.
Category: Cats
Scratch that Itch
I was trying to get Stretch to pose for a photo, which he wasn’t in the mood for, so he scratched an itch in defiance. The light and clouds were dramatic on the way in to work this morning, as was the light on a bicycle locked to the grating at 3rd and Gold.
Kat’s Cat
Firefox was displaying typical cat-like behavior tonight when we dropped Tristan off on our way home this afternoon. In the first and last photos she was rolling around on the floor, making it difficult to get a clear photo, but we finally managed to get her to hold still for a few seconds. In the middle photo, she was at the top of the stairs challenging another cat. The incandescent light in the stairwell made her look orange, whereas she is yellow in the photos with the bright, fluorescent light streaming in from the kitchen .
What Cats Do Best
Seems that no matter the size of the cat, type of the cat or where the cat is, what cats do best is nap!
Comics Connoisseur
Apparently Stretch is becoming a comics connoisseur from Laurie reading Tintin while we waterboard him (subcutaneous fluids for renal failure) every night, because when I went back out to the kitchen last night after he thought we had gone to bed, I found him reading the funnies that Laurie had left on her book holder. He was so engrossed that I was able to sneak a photo before he noticed me and slinked off, looking a little embarrassed.
When the Sandias turned pink at sunset, I decided to try a panorama through the bare cottonwoods. While I was photographing the mountains, a great blue heron landed on a cottonwood between the irrigation and clearwater ditches, affording me the opportunity to get a pretty clear photo of it. When I was going back inside, Puck had all his attention fixed on something. I couldn’t see what it was, but he was so concentrated that I snapped the photo of him. The shutter clicking interrupted his concentration, he glanced at me, then started looking around as if he was trying to find the object of his attention, scolded me with a few choice meows when he seemed not to see it again (I assume he was saying “nice going stupid ¡#%&^@$*! photographer”), then he jumped down off the railing and came inside with me. When I went out a little later, I was able to get a detailed shot of the moon in the clear, cold, winter sky.
Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!
Laurie and I volunteered for Family Promise at Central United Methodist Church this afternoon. Family Promise is a ministry where various churches take turns hosting homeless families for a week at a time while the families are getting housing. Church members volunteer to help by bringing food, or staying and doing things with the families, or staying overnight or driving family members who don’t have cars to work and school. The local denominations participating in Family Promise include the mainline Protestant churches — United Methodist, Lutheran and Presbyterian — Catholic churches and Synagogues.
If you are asking “What’s with the lions, tigers and bears then if we helped with family promise this afternoon?” We took the families to the zoo. Besides the obvious photo ops, we had a great time, the Albuquerque Zoo is in good shape, the animals are healthy and they seem to be as happy as they can be for being in a zoo.
Black Cats on White
We had to wash our down comforter, and we haven’t put the pink cover back on it, so the black cats have been really enjoying laying around on the clean comforter, napping hard to get it dirty again. Before we got the comforter dry, we had wooly, “cat magnet” blankets on the bed which Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Diné enjoy lounging around on.
Tuesday morning the analog thermometer read -12 degrees F and our pipes were freezing up. Wednesday morning dropped below zero as well, but to look at it optimistically, it was only half as cold at -6 degrees F. The weather widget is forecasting a low of only 18 for tonight — one can only hope — but it really means our low will be around 8 maybe lower since the temperatur is already down to 10. The high for tomorrow is supposed to be 46, which may well happen — a heat wave. I’m still waiting for global warming to kick in on our property, because it just does not seem to be happening for us.
Loads of Dirt
The morning light was quite nice on the flowers in the bedroom. The temperature sensor for the weather said it got to 3 degrees F this morning, but the analog thermometer hanging next to it showed -2 right before sunrise. The weather widget is forecasting a low of 4 degrees for Corrales tonight, so the temperature is sure to fall below zero, even on the digital sensor.
Puck brought in 4 loads of dirt throughout the day. One reason is that Laurie cleaned the house yesterday. Another reason is that we have lots of fine dirt exposed from the trenches for the electrical upgrade. Once we are all done with the upgrade the power pole, wires and light in the photo of the Sandias will be removed.
On the “affordable health care” front, my annual blood work that was $98 last year is $350 this year — the same tests by the same lab.
Storm, Stew & Rosencrantz
A storm system is moving in and the temperatures are dropping rapidly. The weather widget is forecasting 6 degrees F over the weekend in Corrales, but since it’s always 10 to 15 degrees lower at our house, we may see sub-zero temperatures over the next couple of nights.
Rosencrantz gave me mad dogs when I told him the temperatures were going to drop below zero, and Laurie is making all the stews that feature in our latest fine cooking so we will at least have a variety of delicious hot stews to help us weather the cold. Rosencrantz was a bit of a skeptic when I told him he could have some stew to help keep warm.
Our electricity went out for about 40 minutes or so last night. We used the black-out as a good excuse to run to the store, so we didn’t have to go in the morning.
Kitty Pole-Dancing
Mama Manx was sitting on the top of a 10 foot pole this morning. The moment I started photographing her she began stretching and rubbing around on the pole, performing her kitty version of pole dancing for my camera.
Off Center & Not Even 