Last night I was in a movie chat room where the topic of discussion was Spielberg films. Not something I'm incredibly passionate about, even though he's made a dozen films I've really enjoyed.
Eventually talk turned to which of his films were our favorites, at which point I was mentally ranking them in my head. But them I decided to rank them in my computer when I couldn't think of more than a dozen.
Luckily I have a blog where I can dump things like this...
I have got to remember to wake Jake up if he's sleeping before I go to bed. If I don't, he wakes up and sees that everybody is gone, then starts crying and crying. Eventually he calms down after I yell down a few times... but it still makes me feel bad.
And speaking of feeling bad...
This is what I do when I walk into a room where one of the cats are sleeping and unintentionally wake them up. But then I'm all "Why do I feel bad? All they DO is sleep!" Plus the fact that they can fall asleep again almost immediately. A talent I sure wish that I had.
Lately when I've awakened in the morning and am heading down to feed the cats, my bedroom, the hallway, and all the way down the stairs is littered with toys...
When I get home from work I put them back in the toybox... only to find them dragged back out the next morning.
When I look at the security cameras, I see that it's Jake. He spends hours pulling toys out. Not all at the same time... sometimes he takes breaks between trips... but still. That's a lot of time...
No idea what's going through that furry little head of his.
Not this is anything new.
There was a meme floating through Facebook this past week asking "What company or service that has closed would you bring back?" And I was like "Wow... so many." But if I was forced to pick just one, it would probably be Anthro.
This is a copany that made industrial furniture. And I bought a lot of it. Their stuff was built like a tank, looked great, and had a lot of thought behind it. My two desks at work (along with my scanner stand) is Anthro. My desk at home used to be Anthro until I used a built-in nook desk for my computer and put it into storage. But I still have Anthro shelving at home.
You've probably seen Anthro products before even if the name isn't ringing any bells... it's pretty iconic-looking...
The reason I'd like to bring Anthro back (other than they made such great stuff) is that I need some replacements for the plastic shelf brackets. They're beefy, but plastic gets brittle after 30 years and they're starting to split on me.
Right now I'm essentially canibalizing parts from various Anthro stuff to keep the pieces I'm still using operational.
I wonder if somebody out there is 3D printing the pieces I'm looking for? Seems like there's a demand for it given how many thousands upon thousands of furniture pieces that Anthro make for the decades they were running.
At some point the wildfires have to end, right? I just want to breath again.
Earlier this week I was awakened by a massive clatter downstairs in the kitchen. When I came to my senses, I was like... is the water running? So I went downstairs and, sure enough, the water was running in the kitchen sink and the dishes that I couldn't fit in the dishwasher were scattered in the sink.
It became very obvious what had happened.
One of my cats (Jake) had jumped on the counter, then decided to investigate the dirty dishes to see if there was any food to be found, got too close to the sensor that turns the water on under the neck of the faucet, then got douched with water.
And, sure enough, when I went looking, Jake was under the bed in the guest room with a wet head.
Poor guy.
I think we both learned a lesson. I learned that I shouldn't leave dirty dishes in the sink. Jake learned that he should STAY OFF THE KITCHEN COUNTER AND NOT BE PLAYING IN THE SINK!
And speaking of Jake...
I was working in bed and Jake hopped next to me. As I went to pet him, I noticed that the sunset out my window was beautiful. Look at that amazing sunset, Jakey-Bear! Oh... sorry... you can't see colors very well, can you?
And this got me thinking about an article I read a while back about how cats see the world. Apparently they don't have the ability to see reds and warm colors... blues and greens are muted... their vision is a bit blurry, focusing more on motion... and they can see better than we do in low light. After looking at the images in the article, I adjusted the photo of the sunset to kinda-sorta approximate how I understand Jake sees it...
Yikes. Poor kitties.
Oh well... he got extra belly rubs out of sympathy...
For about fifteen seconds until he bit me. Something that has happened maybe two or three times since I've had him. I guess he really didn't want belly rubs after all.
When the landscaper asked me what plants I wanted out front, I said I didn't care. Just so long as they are low maintenance, like full sun, and can survive people and animals. Welp, I have no idea what these things are that he planted, but they are fucking VICIOUS! I was taking the tags off and sliced two of my fingers wide open from the thorns! How cool is that? I can't WAIT for them to grow full sized! I may have to get more and plant them around my whole house!
The purple one is called LAVA NUGGET BARBERRY! How fucking perfect is that?
The yellow one is named BONANZA GOLD BARBERRY. And it's like... okay, I guess. But I sure wish they had come up with something more lethal-sounding. Though it would be hard to top "Lava Nugget."
I have ten of them, and have named them after metal bands thusly...
Okay, Henry is not the name of a metal band, but Henry Rollins is the lead singer of one of my favorite punk bands, Black Flag, so there's that.
Hopefully they're going to survive. I don't have the best track record with keeping plants alive.
I'm just going to be brutally honest: I am getting all the vaccines. I 1000% believe in the same science that's eradicated polio and allows me to have a phone /slash/ computer /slash/ camera in my pocket. So long as there's something that is tested and proven to help people survive COVID, I'm here for it. Especially as I get older and COVID keeps roaring back with new levels of hospitalizations and death.
I've got cats that are counting on me to be alive.
Today I got the new 2023 Super COVID Vaccine. The only reason I waited so long is that there were no appointments available when it arrived here on Tuesday. They don't have Pfizer in my neck of the woods yet, so I snatched up Moderna SpikeVax. My first dose was Pfizer so I've gotten all my boosters from their releases... but I researched and found that's not necessary any more.
This was COVID mRNA vaccine dose No. 6 for me and the easiest one yet. Zero arm soreness. Zero reaction.
I hope I didn't get a dud!
Next Friday they're having flu vaccinations at work and I'm getting that one too.
And when I'm eligible for the RSV and Pneumonia vaccines, I'm fucking rolling up on those two as well. If there's something out there to add any measure of protection in my declining years so I have better quality of life or... you know... don't end up dead? Bet that I'm in line for it.
Interesting to note that I was told by the nice lady jabbing me that there are no more boosters. It's just an annual COVID shot like the flu shot. I didn't know that. I'm a bit concerned at this though. Last I read they were worried that vaccine boosters weren't lasting the 6 months it took to get the next one... now they're lasting a YEAR? Here's hoping.
And then...
I never eat at Taco Bell anymore because I just can’t afford it, but I needed something to distract me from the fact that I’ve got THE DEVIL’S mRNA RUNNING THROUGH MY VEINS. My lunch with no drink: $18. Wow...
Remember when Taco Bell was affordable food?
It doesn't help that I have to pay for meat I have them take off.
But hey... it was delicious as always.
My Litter-Robots keep track of Jake and Jenny's weights. Every time they use one of them, their weight is recorded. Originally, when I bought the Version 4 robots, I was promised that you could personalize the app with your cats' names so that it could keep track of how often they go to the bathroom and monitor their weights. That feature still isn't here... you have to manually look at the history and keep track yourself... but it's pretty easy to spot which cat is which because Jake has five pounds on Jenny, his more petite sister.
Jake is a big boi.
Not just overweight... he's big. Like he's got some Maine Coon in his genetic makeup. Jenny is smaller by a third, but she's also not as tiny as average cats I see. And both of them have large primordial pouches (abdominal flaps) and excess loose skin on their bellies which make them hang a little lower to the ground than other cats.
When it comes to their weight, I've never been overly-concerned because it's well-distributed. When viewed from the top they are not protruding on their sides. They are slim like regular cats. And you can feel their ribs. Neither is obese. But Jake is heavy, and his vet said he could stand to lose some weight, as it might help with the urinary problems he had back in the day.
When I changed to the new vacuum-sealed feaders, they measure in 1/12th cups instead of 1/10th cups of the old feeders. Since I spread their feedings out to avoid Jake doing a scarf-and-barf, I simply eliminated one of their feedings to see what would happen. Instead of getting .45 cups a day, they now get .42 cups. Not a huge amount, but it's making a difference. Mostly because the cats complain... but partly in their weight.
In the month since the change, Jake has lost 1.9 pounds. Jenny has lost .3 pounds. Probably because Jenny is so close to her target weight and Jake is... not.
But my cats are weirder than most in a number of areas, including how they eat, so this kind of progress with Jake could not be guaranteed. Jake will sometimes skip a feeding or two. Then sometimes he will eat all his feedings and skim off his sister as well. Sometimes Jenny will eat both her portion and Jake's if he doesn't show up. Sometimes she will eat only hers. It's a total crap-shoot. All I know is that if I put down a giant bowl of food, Jake would gorge himself several times. I can imagine him easily eating twice his usual amount of food because he doesn't have any self-control. He'll eat his entire dinner... then come watch me eat mine, hoping for a treat.
I think so long as he's not losing weight too quickly... and he stops losing weight once he's closer to his target weight... this will be a good thing. More healthy for him. But most importantly? He doesn't seem to notice now that he's adjusted to the feeding schedule that's minus a meal.
That's healthy for me... because my cats won't murder me in my sleep.
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