Slippery Slope

Spot fought like mad to not be put into the carrier. The one I got for him at adoption time is too small and stupidly designed - a dozen screws hold the top to the bottom. Finally got him inside and into the car and to the vet. He yelled for about the first mile, then mostly quieted down.

In the exam room he was okay at first, but when the tech went out and we were waiting for the doctor, he hid under the bench. When they moved the bench he moved with it. I was able to grab him and get him back onto the exam table. From then on he was nice & quiet. Doc said he's in excellent health, the techs trimmed all his claws, and they had to take the carrier apart to get him back in. Weird, because my other cats have always zipped right in after the exam.

No shots needed, and the only charge was for the claw trim, since he's a new adoptee. They will call Monday with the poop report.

Home, he was leery about leaving the carrier for a minute, but then realized he was home.

Spook meanwhile spent most of the day cowering under the futon. Spot has her spooked. I've been spray training him, but it hasn't quite internalized yet.

Did a load of whites, for once using the whole presoak, prewash and full wash with bleach. When I took them out of the dryer and started preparing them to be put away, two had to be tossed due to nasty stains. Grrr. Spot tried to "help" but after a few times being pushed away, he just watched.

Lunch was grilled cheese.

While I was on the computer, Spot found out the hard way that climbing the cat tree via the posts is not really possible without claws.

Turned on Tivo, and channel surfed. Pac12 network claimed it was showing the UW spring game, so I tuned in, but they only showed the individual training sessions and a lot of interviews, then the Big Insult™ they switched to the Wazoo spring game and then the U of OR spring game. Gag me.

Spot joined me for a while.


Sat out on the porch watching bees and hummers till it got too hot.

7-ish, drove to the Pear theater, saw the improv show. About the same quality as last time, except one especially annoying actress was annoying. Only one female in the cast was not banded, and while she is the prettiest, I suspect she's gay. Too young for me anyway. After the show they served really good chocolate cake & champagne, I went out on the patio and had a nice chat with a woman who came from Berkeley because her friend had a friend in the cast. Adorable, but married. And in Berkeley, which is a long walk from here.

Home, threw together some chicken stock, a couple of small pieces of breaded chicken and about 10 wontons. Added thyme & black pepper. Vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Spot's latest habit is to camp out in the shower when I'm on the john:


Took my meds and shot up, and had to spray Spot, who was chasing Spook away from the food & water. Spot is on the office tree again, Spook is probably under the futon or in the closet again.

Delivered were two boxes of Kind bars.

Plans for tomorrow:

Nothing till coffee at 5:30 w/Janice in MV
No trout fishing as hoped - season doesn't start for another week

Not Much until coffee time

Stayed in bed almost until 11. Spot was with me on and off, and the claw trimming helped, but he's still taking shots at my back if I turn it on him. Spook is still cowering.

Roomba kicked on at 9 as usual, I had to interrupt my reveries for a minute when it got stuck on the sheepskin rug again. This is getting old. I carried it to the guest room and re-started it, which saved me vacuuming by hand. For a change it actually returned to the dock when it was low on power.

Emptied all the trash - there was a lot of it from 3 weeks of crippledom.

It was a hot day, 80's. I vegged on the porch for a while, there are new hummers coming around, and I think some small birds have nests in my carport gutters. I may have nodded off a bit.

Watched some mindless TV, tried out some of the free Amazon Prime offerings on the fire TV, but they were all drek.

Delivered was car wash soap and flat plastic camping plates & such. Put the latter by the lunchbox, and the former by the carport door.

More TV and computer time, then the car wash brush arrived. It's an extendable pole with a hose connection on one end and a big fluffy brush with a soap reservoir on the other. It has a water on/off switch by the hose coupling. I filled it with soap and parked it on the washing machine for later.

Lunch was franks on steamed buns with sauerkraut and dijon mustard. Made a mental note that I probably needed more mustard**.

Wheeled the bins to the curb way early, also broke down the cardboard boxes and taped them into a bundle.

4:30-ish, hooked up the car wash brush and did a quick and sloppy job of moving the worst of the dirt around.

Drove to MV to meet Janice. I was early enough to check out the cut fruit offerings in the Safeway nextdoor.

I ordered unsweetened green tea, "no whip". The cashier actually checked the "NW" box on the cup, which confused the crap out of the barista, who didn't get the joke.

Janice & I chatted inside, it was too hot outside, and at about 6 the staff kicked everyone out for a "safety emergency". We sat at one of the outdoor tables and started chatting again, but then the chaos started.

First, a lone police car blocked the shopping center lane leading from the main roads to the Starbucks. He got out of the way as a MVFD paramedic truck pulled up in front of us, then a hook and ladder moved into that lane, almost directly in front of us, and three more fire trucks tried to jam into the parking lot. Talk about overkill.

We watched as the ladder was deployed, and four firemen climbed onto the roof just to our right. The fire captain came over to tell us we were okay to stay where we were. Good news because the ladder truck was blocking Janice's car. 


They wrapped up in about half an hour, Janice drove home, I went to Safeway and bought cut fruit, milk, PAM-like spray, makings for tuna salad and a box of tuna helper just out of curiosity. Also sugar-free popsicles, two pizzas, and matzo balls.

Home,  Put away all the stuff. ** The two bottles of mustard joined the spare one already in the cabinet. Heated up the oven and made one pizza. Could not find my pizza slicer wheel. Used a Chinese duck whacker to slice it. Spot jumped up on the kitchen island from the other side and tried to snag a piece.

It wasn't bad. Put the other half into two ziplock bags and into the freezer. Popsicles for dessert.

Started watching a pretty good mock NFL draft on the NFL network, but hit the record button after three picks. Almost got sucked into Long Island Medium again. I hope this time Lost Lives gets recorded.

Mixed up an egg  cream, it's gone now.

Spook was out in the hallway a bit ago, but she wouldn't come when I called.

Oh. There she is.


Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Lunch will include lots of fruit
Home