Sunday Gratitude

I'm trying to pack and do all the things I think need to be done before going to the Catholic Media Convention, like leave notes about the cats for the house sitter, water the plants etc.

I wonder why it is that I feel compelled to do things that I would normally put off for days just before a trip...maybe it's the same principle as wearing clean underwear in case you get in an accident.  Want the house to look better than it normally does just in case...

Since I have the vestiges of a sore throat and feel less than wonderful, this time the house will just have to be its normal not ready for staging self.

This Sunday I am grateful for:

1. A cell phone.  I really love my cell phone and I wonder how we ever survived without them?  I remember the first person who got one and how impressed I was with the giant brick that made calls almost anywhere.

2. Chocolate.  It really is a miracle drug.

3. Good friends. I am so grateful for the people in my life who make me better than I would be on my own.

(No pictures....you know who you are.) 

4. Nefer and Basti.  They sometimes drive me crazy, but their joie de vivre helps me remember that all of creation is a song of praise to the Creator.

 5. My bed.  Dorothy might have said there's no place like home, but there's really no place like your own bed.

A Very Odd Thing

Today something odd happened.  I've had my share of odd happenings, so saying something odd happened means it was SOMETHING ODD!!!

What made it so odd was what happened to Bastet, one of the Royal Pair of Aby cats that allow me to live in their domain.  Basti is a little butterball of a cat with enough curiosity to, well, kill a cat. She was being her usual self, a little aloof but eating, drinking, sunning, sleeping. You know, normal cat things. As is her wont, she decided that perhaps a wee bit of petting might be in order, so she jumped on my lap.  I sort of absent-mindedly scritched her head and then my hand hit something rough.  I looked down and her face was covered in what looked like second-degree burns!

She didn't act like she was in pain but her face looked like raw meat in place.  So we hustled off to the vet who said she had never seen anything like it in her years of practice.

Now here's the odd part.  There wasn't anything burning in the house.  No candles.  No incense.  No fire.  No heater.  The only thing that I can think of was that I had a pot of soup boiling on the stove and she might have put her face near enough to get splashed.

But you'd think she might have made a sound if that had happened. Or acted hurt. Or something.

Nope, not a thing until I saw the absolutely horrendous burns.

Very very odd.

That Damn Cat!

I swear I'm never having cats after these go to the great litterbox in the sky.

First Basti kept drinking out the desk fountain so that it would constantly splutter and hiss.  She would sip, listen and if it wasn't hissing enough to suit her, would lap a bit more.  I had to unplug the fountain because she was DRIVING ME CRAZY.

Now Nefer has taken to licking the George Foreman grill.  After I've washed it.  I wash it and let it dry on the rack.  Nefer leaps up and licks the whole thing so that I have to wash it again.  And then he jumps up and licks it again. 

I read once that cats are the only other creatures on this earth besides humans that have the capacity for deliberate sin, only cats will never admit to sinning .  After being driven to the brink of screaming bad words at these two, I believe it. 

Random Musings

Random thoughts on my mind.

A Burning Desire

I was attempting to repair a drawer in the kitchen that came off its rails and I set it on the counter near the stove.  I apparently accidentally turned on a burner because the drawer caught fire. Fortunately the smoke alarm went off and I was able to dump the flaming drawer in the sink and extinguish the flames.  The back end of the drawer is a wee bit charred, however.  Thank goodness it didn't actually catch the whole house on fire. Deo Gratias.

The Orphanage of Life

Griefwalking is very peculiar. No one told me that I could become very anxious about all sorts of things as I take this journey. However, it does make sense, in a strange sort of way. With both parents gone, there is a strange sense of being an orphan, left alone in the world, despite the fact that I am way beyond the age one thinks of for an orphan.  A sort of existential angst at being without support or love pervades the grief, and comes at odd times and ways.  There doesn't seem to be any way out of it but to go through it.

Pocketful of Rosary

At some point, not quite sure when, after Mother's death, I put one of her rosaries in the pocket of my jacket, where it still is. Despite the fact, I'm not a huge rosary fan (I fall asleep when I try to say it ), I find it comforting to reach in and feel the smooth beads and rough cross as I reach for my keys...which usually share the pocket. I wonder if there is any other more Catholic symbol than a rosary?

Cunning Cats

I'm convinced that when Adam and Eve ate the apple, the cat in the garden took a little lick herself.  That is the only explanation for why both cats and humans are so very very sneaky, determined and willful.  Especially when it comes to eating the leaves off the African violet.  The cats, that is, not the humans.