Picture This ...

OK, Picture This:

Cute little furry cat, fascinated by strings and dangles. Picture this cat laying on her back, under a chair, front paws busy assaulting a chair pad tie that happens to be “just about” in reach – far enough away to require some effort. Cat is happily tugging away, the string seems to move to and fro. Picture the chair the cat is lying under as a rocking chair. Yep, the to and fro motion is the rocker gently oscillating back and forth. Now picture the cat PUTTING HER OWN TAIL under the rocker rail. Of course she moved her tail quickly out of the way and you have to realize all of this unfolded rather quickly and I do wish I had had my video camera!

No cats were actually harmed in the telling of this tail (tale)!

Goddess Department

OK Ladies, you've got to try this!

http://www.goddess.com.au/home.htm

Just for fun. Jeez, I get to look forward to "poverty, abuse and eventual madness"...I figure I'm well on the way to all of that!

This and That, Happy Thuuuuurrrrzzzday

This is the plane in which I went for a flight. My only reason for removing the ident. is because I'm sensitive about folk not necessarily wanting to be identified in my blog. It was a fun flight and I'm grateful.



Just a quick note before I start my day. Last night after a meeting, I had the opportunity to go flying as a passenger. Even the bumps that were experienced as a result of mountain lee wave were enjoyable as I had every confidence in the pilot. It made me realize how much I miss flying but at the same time, raises the question of balance and life style. Flying is not inexpensive and to do so on a regular basis would require much more effort in the earning of dollars department. More effort means less time to spend doing things and spending time with other people in my life. I guess it boils down to priorities. Flying for me, is like an addiction where one drink is too many and a thousand is not enough. As long as I don’t go flying I don’t miss it too, too much. Heck, I can even go to the Flying Club and have coffee, hangar talk and live vicariously through the adventures of others. However, once I am in the air, the ache and the excitement to take control interjects itself into a normally sane life.

More practical matters of the day … damn ‘puter! Somehow I’ve lost hundreds of emails that I thought were safely stored in files that I created. When I check my email from my @shaw account, if they are important or I think I might need to refer to them, I use to drag them over the appropriate file that I had created under the “inbox”. At some point my “Outlook”/”Outlook Express” burped and today, I look and find a brand new, entirely foreign opening page. No files created under the “inbox”, nadda …. Just 500 or so emails downloaded that I had review via “remote”. My use of “remote” was necessitated because my stupid email program could not seem to find the server. Annoyed? Doesn’t even begin to describe it! Problem solving technique …. ummm probably “denial” in the sense that I hope, I hope, I hope I really never need the things that were in those files. For sure, I think I will saving important emails to the external hard drive; it may well be that I was not even saving them on my C drive in the first place, although I “thought”/”hoped” that I was.

Oh well, onward with the day!

Hot, Hot, Hot

Well I managed to fritter away the day, avoiding all manner of work. Must trip over to a friend who is presently away to clean (read: raid) the fridge. Took the long way back and was surprised by a call from my big sister a few blocks from home. She was in the “hood” and wondered if I would be interested in a Wendy’s Frosty?

Absolutely! It has been very warm here, in fact, warmer than what “my-niece-the Librarian” and the “the boy child” AKA “the nephew” are experiencing in KGBI, so of course I’m up for a treat.

After the dust had settled and it was nearing or even past supper time I decided that I would go for a walk to the local grocery store deli and pick up a bit of potato salad. In the process I was reminded “car-good, walking-bad”. As I was starting out, I discovered horror of horrors, I had locked myself out! Fortunately I had my cell phone with me so I called my big sister, who has rescued me many, many times and asked, “Were-you-planning-on-spending-a-quiet-evening-at-home-or-were-you-thinking-you-might-bring-a-key-over-to-your-sister’s-house-since-she-has-locked-herself-out?!?”. After she finished laughing she agreed to drop over.

In fact she drove me to the store but I opted to walk back. I don’t really get much of a chance to walk in the neighbourhood so it was pleasant (but hot), to note the growing ethnic diversity. Running towards me, in his athletic gear and with his water bottle was a young black man, who smiled when I smiled at him, this was followed by an older Asian fellow on a bike with a backpack out of which protruded, what looked like a tool used to roast wieners (gotta remind those folks they are hotDOGS in name only), the last set of walkers was a young Asian fellow with a black friend. My walk took me past the homes of a number of folk whom I have recognized previously by their dress, as being from the mid and far east. This is a city where people still nod and say hello as you walk by, both young and old exchange greetings and I like this. In fact the other evening I completely forgot that I had not shut the door, leaving only the screen in place (of course I am protected by a fierce guard-cat named Precious) and when I discovered this the next day I was not all that concerned. The diversity of my neighbourhood has increased over the years I have lived here and although, there are some folk who seem to have a perpetual Garage Sale every weekend, in the main, the area is richer for their contribution.

Tomorrow, I promise, PAPER WORK.

Things NOT TO DO on a Saturday

Procrastinating. Tons of paper to shift, read, act on and I'm puttin' it off even though I scheduled this for TODAY. Instead, well, just about anything instead.

My cats do not have green eyes but I suspect they may suffer from Green Eyed Monster

That is my only explanation for their utter facination for my reading and writing exercises of the morning routine. Aside from the blog - of which I've been most neglectful, I journal on a daily basis. There is a bit of a ritual with this, I've a special fountain pen (remember those, with real ink?) and a book. The cats watch the cursive scroll with utter facination. Too, there is a clock, a wall clock that is currently resting on a side board thing. It has no covering on its face and since one of the hands extends BEYOND the clock-face by a 1/2 inch, I'm quite sure there was never an intention of having it contained behind glass/plastic. In any case, the cats will jump up and study the moving sweep hand and creeping minute hand with fixation usually only stimulated by bug snaring. They really do look like they are trying to get a cat-handle on those things which seem to occupy we humans to a large extent: Communication and Time.
OK, before I launch into a philosophical discourse about "time", "What is it?"; "Is it continuous or discreet?"; "What does it really mean?", I shall Face the Music and as Irvine Berling so eloquently added: "And Dance". Heck, if you've got good music, you might just as well, eh?

PS, I hope “my-niece-the-Librarian” sends “the boy child” AKA the nephew, home with jars of Mrs. Rienfrew’s Green Salsa!

Up To Date in Cans Us

Wow, where has the time gone! Several times in the past weeks I’ve sat down with the full intention to make some blog notes only to be distracted by this and that. Stampede has come and gone. Having consumed too much of the following



















I now turn my attention to more serious matters. This note could be called the “Reckoning of the Escape Artist”.

Precious discovered how to circumvent the Phantom screen door! You will note how the nice pussy cat in the advertisement is on the INSIDE of the house? Precious has discovered that if she butts her head against the very bottom of the screen she can push the screen out of its slot just enough to make good her escape. Her reward is the installation of a kitty, oops I mean child gate. Spook, who is afraid of grass, can be seen commiserating with Ms. P.


Jeff and his wife Jen, home from Singapore for a bit, have introduced some change in the usual routine. Jeff will be visiting his sister, “my-niece-the-Librarian” this weekend and although Jeff says he wants to see his sister’s work-mates and so on, man, I would encourage a trip to the Space Centre – I mean, after all “it isn’t rocket science … oh wait, IT IS”!

Molly is becoming an old girl, with more than 1000k on her. We have reached a bit of a compromise in her training. She moves her buttette (it is hardly a butt, doncha know!) through gears three, four and five, while the takeoff can be described, at best leisurely, at worst, mind-numbingly slow. Sigh … think of the petrol I’m saving (lots and lots, especially since it doesn’t use petrol but uses diesel).

Must, must, must try to remain current!

Let Me Tell Ya 'Bout ....

Let me tell you about “Molly”. She is, as I suspected, as cute as a bug’s ear and very, very independent. It is not clear, who is teaching whom at this point. I would like her to jump when the light turns green. No, her style is much more leisurely and really she would do very well in Hawaii where the local folk make a habit of believing an amber light is really just light green and red, well, red is sort of dark amber – if you get what I mean. This of course poses special risks for me in that I usually stop at amber lights – silly me, meaning this is a big surprise to Hawaiians. Anyway, with Molly’s leisurely acceleration, no way will she EVER be the first car across when the light turns green.

Sometimes she doesn’t want to start. This peculiarity is built into Smarts, something about locking themselves up if nothing happens within a minute or two of entry into the vehicle. I’ve yet to figure it out, I just know that about every fourth time I go to start her she just sort of smiles at me via the instrument panel and says “Nah, coax me!”. Then of course I try all manner of combination of locking and unlocking via the key which has some kind of electronic chip in it that assists in communicating with the car.

Fun to drive, the impression is, I’m going very, very fast – not too likely given the size of the engine. For heaven’s sake there are sewing machines that are more powerful. However, it is all in perception. Frankly, I must say, I was quite put off by my friend saying that the shifting was smoother when I let Molly do it in “automatic”. Yes friends, she is not taking my direction easily.

In closing …. what’s with a car that should be placed in reverse gear at shut-off time and then the parking brake applied. That just sounds plain weird to me. On the other hand, SHE DOES have ME TRAINED to apply the parking brake when I exit. Remember folks, I am coming from a six speed standard, Kompressor, 189hp and quick as a scared cat. Now … I am of the set who bops along listening to Anne Murray … GAD!

Say Hello To Molly

Meet the newest member of the family, “Molly”. Could be Molly as in Molybdenum or maybe as in “Good Golly Miss Molly”, time will tell. Three weeks car-less and now I’ve got wheels again. Cute as a bug’s ear I say and I am training her to be fast – not an easy task given she only has three cylinders and a diesel engine. Mind you, it is all relative, keep in mind, four cylinders is just fine to keep a Cessna airborne!

Pity is we decided to have a thunderstorm so not too many adventures yet for Molly. No doubt, there many more adventures on which to report. For the record….Happy Canada day everyone!