On the home front, aside from a minor temper tantrun by the Vaderling resulting in lost phone privileges for the evening, the roomies came out and spent the evening engaged in convo with me and alternated playing call of duty with Vaderling (thus pretty much taking the sting out of the lost phone but oh well). A pleasant time was had by all. Ms. Roomie expressed her joy at being able to cook if and when and what she wanted to. We worked out housekeeping issues with me making it clear that she was NOT a live in maid and her saying she likes doing it, makes her feel useful and allows her to contribute since she only works part time right now, just don’t take her for granted…won’t be a problem, and I will thank her every day for every chore she does.
So a pleasing interlude was spent at the Vader Ranch and contentment is.
The Littlest Nephew’s birthday is shortly before Christmas, he’ll be five this December. Last year his parental units requested that everybody’s presents be the same (albeit not identical): circuit pieces for IKEA’s wooden train.
Best. Present. Ever.
It’s been almost a year and that train remains the kidlet’s favorite toy. In September they went on vacation (parents, both grandmothers and kidlet): on the way there he proclaimed that well yeah the beach is alright but it was kind of a bummer that he wouldn’t see his friends for a whole week and would not be able to build circuits (sand castles were later deemed an acceptable substitute). Every day they’re at home, my brother sends pics of the latest circuit. And when any of us says “you know what we plan on giving him this year, right?”, his parents grin and say “it will certainly be welcome!”
Nava, he is 10
I still have a few of the cars from the days when his Tommy the Tank Engine wood train and track set was his favorite thing
Oooooh Annie, I know what you mean, it’s sorta like when you get a sliver and it’s really hard to get out and you have to cause every time you do something it snags a little bit.
Then you finally do get it out.
Fun fact. A high school friend of my mom was named Henry MacInnes. But he didn’t think he could be an actor with that name, so changed it to Jefferey Hunter.
I actually had a convo with a (presumably) real woman today, online. It was short. But positive and she has added me to her list of favorites wants to get to know me etc. I’m seeing a potential lunch date here, I hope. It would be pretty easy since she doesn’t live far from me, we could both probably walk to the restaurant, well I could, my town covers a lot of low population square miles so she might have to drive. But still…fingers crossed
The store I cashier at starts opening next Saturday night from 6 yo 11 p.m. The first time I felt good about myself in my job was seven years ago, when the then night manager asked if I could work Saturday nights “because you’re so good and fast.” I accepted, and every year when I get asked it makes me happy.
I hope to frequently have something like this to contribute:
This week (and a bit) was “two years in the shelter is enough” week. Among those who went home are:
A notoriously unhappy and mean-as-hell senior cat we all knew would be better if she could just get out of the stressful shelter. She went home after two years of “lol no way will this cat ever be adopted” with an old lady in a senior apartment setting and, after talking to the people who run it, we’re trying to figure out a good way of hooking a bunch of other residents up with senior cats. Through our shelter, there’s no adoption fee for seniors and vet care is provided for life and if we have like 8 cats in one building, we can take a vet to them. Mean-as-hell cat, by the way, is her new mom’s happy little snuggle buddy.
A shy young boy cat- two and a half years old and he’s been in the shelter since he was about six months. Loves to play, loves other cats, takes a while to warm up to strangers- someone came specifically to see him, knew he was a shy cat, knew before they came that he probably wouldn’t let them pet him for a while, and took him anyway. He’s another one I’m certain will be better in a home- shelters are SO crazy and they’re not places for sensitive cats.
A middle-aged dog who came to us from another shelter that was shutting down, so we actually don’t know how long she’s lived the shelter life, but it’s been two years with us. She needed a home with no other animals and she found it this weekend! She went home yesterday and her new mom has already sent us a message saying she’s an angel and thanking us for bringing them together.
We’d adopted some cats back in the distant days of 1998-2000, and the last of the survivors from that group passed away in July, so we’d been without cats since then. (For the first time since 1982 for me, and even longer for my wife.)
A week ago, the kitty drought ended, when we brought home two six month old kittens from a local animal rescue outfit. They’re totally adorable, of course. One of them’s curled up in my robe on the guest bed right now, and the other one’s decided that my wife’s heating pad, which she’d had on the floor to warm her feet, would be a great place to curl up. She may need to buy a second heating pad.
Why am I out here? I’m staying behind my handler, I know her. Am I supposed to go over to that person? wait a minute . . . sniff . … is it . . . is it really you? is it really you? IT’S REALLY YOU! IT IS IT IS IT IS!
Hey, happy doesn’t zombify and sometimes we need a reminder!
One small joy of being a parent; being able to sit and watch a terrible, awful, crappy movie with your kid(s) and have a good time cause kids are not (usually) astute movie critics and don’t always mock you for your cinematic choices.
I had a very sucky Tuesday. Tele-visit with the Diabetic nurse banged it in my head that there’s no way I can leave the house. At least 6 weeks more.
We’ll have to see after that. She expects a second round of COVID will be pretty bad. I was depressed about that.
I had a decent afternoon with the Grandwrex, though.
And later I had a happy visit (online) with someone who cheered me up.
All’s well that ends well.
I got my Bug-A-Salt gun yesterday, after spending the past couple of weeks watching big-ass flies fly around the house. The cats got some of them but there were still a few flying around. Unfortunately I cleaned the litter earlier in the day and now all of the flies have disappeared.
