Kick The Cat

Dawn’s colors were fleeting this morning.

The MLPs, Shocking Blue and Pink Venus, that Santa gave Laurie and me for Christmas started kicking the cats. I asked what’s up with that, and they said: “Kick The Cat” was a popular kids’ game. I told them the game was called “Kick The Can” and it was like “Hide and Seek”, “Capture the Flag” and “Tag” in one game and did not involve kicking cats. Shocking Blue said: “Oh! I heard ‘kick the cat!’ My bad!” I think they are mean and ornery MLPs. We had Shetland Ponies when I was growing up. One was named Frisky. She was a mean little pony. Frisky would buck us off and play “Kick The Kid”.

Shocking Blue and Pink Venus played “Kick The Cat” on Spunk, Marble, Sasha, and Silver. As it turned out, Silver, who bullies the other kitties, has taken a liking to the MLPs and got Shocking Blue and Pink Venus to settle down and snuggle with him. Maybe the MLPs with help silver stop bullying the other kitties.

The clouds were threatening rain at sunset.

Check Duolingo
Crap! In the demotion zone
Will I make it out?

At 33 minutes left on the clock, I found myself in the penultimate position in the Demotion Zone needing 140 XP to keep from being demoted. I was not the only one in the demotion zone trying to get out, so the number of XP needed to extricate myself increased as I worked through stories trying to amass points. In the end, I did make it out of the demotion zone with only 30 seconds to spare, but I had to get 252 XP to do it.

Doggonit Santa’s a Jerk!

Santa is one sick, silly dude. He gave me a blue My Little Pony for Christmas. I’m trying to decide if I was naughty or nice (most likely naughty), to deserve this Shocking Blue pony. A Brony I’m NOT! Tristan has a name for her that I’m not going to publish here. Miss Shocking Blue is kind of cute and will probably end up in future posts and videos.

The painter took Christmas off. We had a colorless (gray) Christmas morning.

Jake waiting to open his Christmas present. Sasha is giving him kitty Mad Dogs.

The moon through a veil of clouds.

Tristan embroidered this amazing tiny portrait for Spunk for Laurie.

Tristan’s beautiful Bearded Dragon, Donny, made an appearance for Christmas.

Wishing You A Lazy Kitty Christmas

All eyes on Loki: Gwendolyn, Loki, Sasha, Glenda.

Loki

Jake? What are you doing in a cat post? “Saying Merry Dogmas to everyone!”

The painter started off well at dawn, but then it rained a washed her colors away by sunrise.

Hubble? Where did you come from? “Lane’s phone stupid Paparazzo!”

Spunk, Sasha, Gwendolyn, Marble, Sasha again.

Selfie in Glenda’s eye.

Marble, Glenda, Gwendolyn, Gwendolyn, Marble

Spunk in the background

Silver

Glenda and Spunk

Color tonight

Sunset

Socked, Boxed, Deodorized

Sasha

Since I can’t bring myself to drive to Target and negotiate their horrible parking lot, I simply ordered what I needed online and had it delivered. It was so much easier and the cats got a new box.

Glenda

Spunk

Spunk and Marble

Marble, Gwendolyn, and Spunk

Gwendolyn and Spunk

Jupiter

Sandhill Cranes

Interesting sunset in a crystal clear sky. Venus is on the left.

And The Winners Are…

Spunk waiting with AantíiciipÁation!

Gabriela announced the winners of her Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and Poetic Prose poetry contest this morning. I am very excited to announce that I shared Third Place with D. Wallace Peach. Congratulations to Virginia Mateias for her First Place poem, and Ingrid Wilson, and Eric Daniel Clarke for their Second Place poems. You can read all the poems at: The Winners of The Poetry Contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and Poetic Prose.

My poem is One Side Sacred The Other Side Profane inspired by Gabriela’s poem Between Sacred and Profane. I based my poem on W. Eugene Smith’s activism against mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan in the 1970s. He published a book titled Minamata: Life Sacred and Profane in 1972 that brought the issue worldwide attention. I first saw the book when I was a photo student at the University of New Mexico in the early 1980s. I wanted to buy a copy of the book back then, but I couldn’t afford it as a student. Now copies sell for hundreds of dollars, so I still don’t have one. W. Eugene Smith was one of the most important American photojournalists of the 20th Century. I don’t think he ever took a bad photo. His County Doctor series is brilliant. Chisso employees attacked and beat Smith in 1972. Smith lost sight in one eye and never really recovered. He died in 1978 at the tender age of 59. His death was a huge loss to the world of photography.

Dawn

We have cloudy skies tonight. The photos below are from last night before I encountered the zombies and sprites.

Christine’s Tree with the moon in the background. Mia’s Tree under Venus. Christine’s Tree with a bicycle in the background.

Sunset

Happy Halloween

My birthday cake. Costco didn’t have any cakes with Happy Birthday!

This is a display along Corrales Road. I’m happy I got it early. The skeleton disappeared after the high winds last week.

All the cats got to try on the bat wings. Loki in photos 12 and 13 was the best batwing model. Glenda (3rd photo) and Gwendolyn (last photo) were pretty good, also. Black cats know they look good in bat wings. Spunk, on the other hand, told me exactly what he thought about wearing bat wings after I took them off him (7th photo).