I had the catio closed while I painted the floor, so Mama Manx took advantage of the sunny day to go out and have a roll in the mulch. After a few rolls, she paused to yawn, and then acted embarrassed about the yawn by putting her paw over her face. When she finished rolling in the mulch, she nestled into a dried catnip for a catnap.
Gardening didn’t get off to a very good start today — especially after the pick axe went limp on Laurie. Apparently it couldn’t get excited over a Viking wearing coordinated, sissy pink sweats and pink fuzzy slippers in the garden. When a sales person at Lowe’s asked me what I was looking for, I answered “Do you have Viagra for tools?” I took his blank stare as “No!” and left him puzzling over my question while I finished picking out paint for the catio floor.
I went out to run an errand at lunchtime and discovered a Citroën DS in the parking lot. This one is most likely a late 1970’s model. The Citroën DS was designed by an Italian sculptor and a French aeronautical engineer in the 1950’s.
The obligatory stop to fill ‘er up.
While I got up bright an early, Diné and Rosencrantz chose to sleep in.
Sunrise poured light through the window, prompting Rosencrantz to rise, shine and model for me.
In our reorganization, Laurie pulled out a lot of old equipment. This 4th Generation iPod and DLO iBoom are a couple of the gems we’ve had around for awhile because they are now obsolete for our purposes because we have newer computers and iPhones. While the Gen 4 iPod and iBoom are only 10 years old, they might as well be 100. The iPod/iBoom combination produces fine, loud audio, and has a nice retro tech look, but while Gen 5 and newer iPods and iPhones up to the iPhone 5 will plug into the dock on the iBoom, they will not play. I suspect they don’t have enough power to drive the system. The Gen 4 iPod is thick, clunky and power hungry compared to the thin, more elegant iPod touches and iPhones. So these classic pieces are now a retro tech couple, united until death does them part.
It’s not really concrete, but a cement top coat used for refinishing concrete surfaces. The refinishing cement is really intended for fairly smooth slabs, but the slab in the catio is very rough concrete, so getting a really smooth top coat didn’t happen.
A lone leaf decided it needed to break in the new cement floor, since I have the cats locked out of the catio while the cement cures. In the second photo, there are three dominant shades of gray. I mixed the first batch of cement following the instructions exactly, and the mixture ended up being too thick, so while it poured out of the bucket, it started setting up almost immediately, making it difficult to spread, and almost impossible to smooth as per the instructions (it’s the darkest shade of gray along the back wall).
I made the second batch soupier than the first, but I got it a little too soupy, so it spread thinner than I wanted it to (lighter shade of gray in the middle). On the third batch I got the mixture figured out so it spread well at the thickness I needed, and I was able to get it a little smoother (middle shade of gray in the foreground). I used the same mixture for the the next 8 batches needed to cover the entire slab. I also ended up spreading and smoothing the cement on my hands and knees with a hand trowel. Our air is so dry here, that even the wetter mixtures started setting up as soon as I poured them out of the bucket, making it difficult to spread with the 18 inch-wide cement spreader the instructions suggested I use.
While I was photographing the new floor, I noticed my little chainsaw and level on a bonsai shelf made a nice composition. The last two photos are the candles we have behind the couch in the sunroom unlit and lit.
I find it hard to walk by a nice Harley and not photograph it.
Guildenstern studying Kanji, wanting to know “where the beef” is, and stretching out one fine morning.
Off Center & Not Even 