Sitting With The Cat

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

This is not my cat. My cat is snoring.
This is my cat. His name is Havey and he snores.

I’m sitting on the other half of the sofa, and a very weird thing happened.

You see, I usually blog from the family room. No (sane) reason, really, except that this is the social-media computer, and the blog is somewhat social. Also, I often do this at night, while husband is watching tv.

I didn’t yesterday, because I felt…. odd. Not sick and I suspect anyway it’s allergies, since it came on after time outside (and I haven’t seen anyone outside the family for a while, so who would I catch sick from?) but my throat was itchy and I was semi out of it.

No problem, I’ll do it tomorrow.

So– Today I sat down and wrote MGC and opened this page, and then HAD to sleep. I don’t know if any of you have experienced this, but it is very weird. It’s like you really can’t fight it. When I worked in an office, I’d often go to the bathroom, just so I could close my eyes. Because you will sleep. Your choice is where. This is usually maybe 15 minutes.

Today it was two hours. And I’m still not fully awake.

Why? I don’t know. The logical hypothesis is that I’m getting sick again. I don’t have time for this.

Blog fundraiser goes up the day after tomorrow, and I have things to organize and set and be ready for. (Runs around with hair on fire.)

So, I’m going to blame it on the cat, who snores and emits sleepy-ons.

Honestly, it’s probably worry about the fundraiser. Mostly worry it will fail big, since you guys came through with the big rescue seven months ago.

This is not a rescue. It’s a “Let’s see if the blog can fund.” I wouldn’t do it, but I can a) use the blog funding as seed money to get the fiction off the ice pad (Sometimes it feels like I’m running on ice) partly by hiring someone to manage the image and the publicity (No. I know him. And you guys will LIKE him.) and someone to run the side stuff on the business. And someone to collate and get the collections ready.

If it overfunds, it’s money to pay for audio book readers.

So… I’m basically fundraising for operating capital for the business, which I THINK is justified? Well, I suppose getting paid for the work I put in is justified too. (Right? Maybe? The way I’m justifying it to myself is that it’s not fair to deprive of my family of the fruits of my labor. I’m not right in the head, okay?)

Anyway, now I’m somewhat awake, and kind of functioning, but not really, so I couldn’t think of anything to blog about except to complain that I fell asleep and hope I’m not falling sick, and then publicly run around in a panic over all the stuff I need to do the next two days. Did I say I’m weird? You knew I was right?

Okay. Now I’m going to finish the two short stories (one for the collection that’s part of the rewards for the fundraiser) and go make a list of the “gifts” for donating (part of this is that it’s ridiculous to consider them a “price” which of course it isn’t. It’s just a thank you for donating. I mean, up to twenty it’s a printable certificate (in eform but suitable for printing) that says “I was carped at according to hoyt” that is not a big enough thing to COST $20. But this is not a store. It’s a fundraiser. (And you guys collect carp!)

So, anyway….

<Lurches up.

I’m going to take the meds (the daily ones) and go work. Keep your fingers crossed I don’t fall sick.

*Isn’t this more interesting than “this is not a post?”*

149 thoughts on “Sitting With The Cat”

  1. Isn’t this more interesting than “this is not a post?”

    Yes. 😉

    Take care.

  2. IIRC (and I do), quite a few of us told you you should make a fund raiser for the blog a recurring event. We find the work you do here valuable. Hence you should be paid.

  3. Hope you aren’t getting sick. Regarding suddenly having to take a nap. I’m that way. Yes. It is a PIA. No choice. Worse I can’t “just Nap” for 15 minutes without emerging with a headache because of the apnea, without using the mouth piece … sigh.

    Been complaining to doctor. It is one my symptoms for low blood sugar, but I’ve had that under control, more or less. Then my doctor thought he heard a heart murmur, maybe, but not always. So “wait and see”. Next similar complaint and he will send me for a scan. I’ve been putting it off. Then, just had my 5 year colonoscopy check. Good news, went very good, now on the 7 year check, instead of 5 years. (Also if can, get the SupTabs. Even if your insurance won’t pay for that option. Much better than the liquid options. $105 Costco Pharmacy discount rate because insurance wouldn’t pay. Worth every cent.) BUT the preop nurse check noted “Heart Murmur grade 2” … well dang. (Not that I know what that means.) Now really putting off notifying primary MD. 🙂 Okay. Not really. But …

      1. Just be careful. My low BS, with “treatment” (eat something) can trigger Reactive Hypoglycemia. You get the sugar “bounce up”, but when it crashes (normal), it doesn’t normalize, just crashes to Hypoglycemia. Trick is to insure doesn’t flat line in the first place, or if does to mix enough fast carbs to hitch it up a bit, and protein to keep it up a bit. A hard balancing act. If you screw up, be ready for a roller coaster ride. Napping can help level it out naturally, sometimes. My BIL brags that he can keep his Type 2 diabetes at an A1C between 6 and 7 (it is good, for him). Um, that puts me into guarantied BS crash (haven’t been hospitalized, yet). My A1C averages 3 to 4. Official is Hypoglycemia Reactive Hypoglycemia (been diagnosed for 35+ years).

          1. That would work! 😉

            I use cheese and crackers. What I can’t use is Cinnabon … (dang it). Well I can. “Cue up one Cinnabon, and one nap, please ….”

      2. There’s a recently-developed family joke that I am ‘The Sugar Dealer’ in the family, with all the mafia-style implications that go with that title, after a trip to relatives out of state resulted in them marveling at the amount and variety of dessert-type materials I carry around in a drawstring backpack and offer to all and sundry. (Seriously. Ziploc bags full of lollipops, chocolates, lemon drops, fun-size candy, some scattered full-size candy bars, two tubs of frosting – yes, sometimes I do eat a spoonful of frosting straight, don’t judge – bags of Starburst jellybeans…etc.)

        So, Donna Eleanor would like to suggest you take some cannoli. (Or other dessert, depending on your tastes and whether or not that would be helpful.) For the family!

          1. Ah. My apologies, then. (I’m not familiar with the medical treatment thereof, so I have no idea what’s helpful and what isn’t. Just trying to be both entertaining and helpful, as best as I can,)

        2. Not diagnosed pre-diabetic. But, still your stash is just as bad for me. Part of the Reactive part is my system going to sugar/carbs is “Oh. BS soaring? Here’s your insulin! And a little bit more.” With no insulin injection that a diabetic would be taking. But with the same over insulin reaction. (Not that I haven’t done it. But, oh boy. I have to be prepared for the roller coaster ride and hope it doesn’t crash as low, each loop.) Yes. We do carry protein when we travel.

        4. I used to do that in college. I had a box of candy by the door that people would come and get stuff out of. My mom was a candy merchandiser and would send me a case of random stuff every month. Every. Month. I had to give it away out of self-defense. I asked her to please trade with some of the other reps and one month got a case of randomly sized panty hose and the next was a case of travel size bottles of ibuprofen and… tylenol, but I can’t spell the generic name.

          And seriously, if given the option, take the cannoli

        5. I hope you won’t take this the wrong way, but you really ought to rethink your sugar intake. Excessive intake of carbohydrates, especially but not limited to sugar, is instrumental in many very serious chronic illnesses that account for a large proportion of the morbidity and mortality in the US and other “developed” countries.

          1. If the theory the stats are based on is correct.

            In spite of a large portion of the input data being known to be nonsense.

            And different people going from the same data not getting the same results.

            And firing/defunding/canceling people whose data is solid, but whose results are not what is desired.

            …the screwballery with politicized or fire-for-not-cool-kid-results is really sucky.

    2. Minor surgical procedures seem to be fertile grounds for uncovering unrelated issues. Had cataract surgery in the first eye without issues, but the postop debrief from the anesthesia doc revealed that I have AFIB. “Okay,” I replied, “What’s that?” So off to the regular docs for tests and a lifetime of Warfarin. I still miss fresh spinach. (Several years later, a retina doc noticed cornea issues when he did his procedure. That fix was fairly easy, though that procedure uncovered abnormal sensitivity to steroid eye drops. Sigh.)

      Had the ‘scopy Jan 2020. (Protip: go for better weather. Shoveling a massive dump of snow left me dehydrated with less than ideal clearance of the colon. Mercifully, good enough, but…)

      That doc used Magnesium Citrate–cheap and effective under normal circumstances. He’s retiring soon, and with the 10 year interval (Medicare standard for “low risk*” patients), I’ll likely get the guy who prefers SuPrep.

      (*) Nothing really interesting from the procedure. No family history of colon issues; we tend to have the other parts of the body fail long before before the GI tract.

      1. Results with the SupTabs same. Just, for me, taking it was a whole lot easier. Son said the SuPrep “not that bad” to drink. Gag, just thinking about it. No thanks. No history of GI cancer either. Do have history of polyps, which is why was on the “5 year plan”. Clear last two, so was hoping for next in 10 years. I’ll take 7 years but still … My family too has a habit of other body parts failing first, generally cardio and vascular. Not on any meds for either, yet. Both my younger sisters are.

  4. As someone who’s been repeatedly (and unaccustomed-ly) “ambushed” by sleep these past few weeks, usually when it’s dark and other people are “getting a good night’s sleep” (and nothing done)… actually I do understand!

    And, isn’t the whole “fundraiser” thing supposed to be annual..? Wasn’t that, really, the point?

  5. When my asthma was acting up, I would suddenly need to nap for 10-15 minutes. The nap seemed to reset my brain and lungs, so I would wake up breathing normally again.

          1. What if the “girl” kitty identifies itself as a “boy” kitty? [Very Big Crazy Grin]

  7. Do what you’ve gotta. We’re ALL different. I cannot nap. I have to get one REM cycle or I’m even MORE grumpy than normal… sigh

    1. Me too. The narcolepsy was getting to be a real pain until my cpap machine came in. Now I’m back to being awake all day, and sleeping well at night.

        1. If your machine has a datalog card, you can download the OSCAR program and it will tell you a lot (usually more than you want) about the effectiveness and other issues.

          apneaboard dot com is a good resource, and the OSCAR program can be found at https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

          (FWIW, OSCAR is a fork of the old/unsupported Sleepyhead program. It supports a wide variety of machines that use a memory card for data, OSCAR can read it and show it to you. On my ResMed, the CPAP machine keeps detailed files for a bit over a week, and summaries (AHI and other statistics) for a much longer time.)

        2. Well, the continuous airway pressure virtually eliminates the snoring and airway blockage issues I had while sleeping. The machine is so quiet that I can sometimes hear the cat snoring downstairs at night. I can even hear the sound of gently falling rain while it’s going. I use a hybrid mask that fits snuggly up against the bottom of my nose, and covers my mouth, and it allows me to sleep on my sides (yeah!), not just my back. I do have to look at the strap lines on my face first thing in the morning, but those smooth out within the hour. And I found I needed a mouth guard to keep my teeth from being pushed together and griding against each other; but my dentist has been bugging me about that for 2 decades. Nyah! $5 athletic mouth piece versus his $450 custom one? HA!

          Some people don’t tolerate having a mask on their face (Surprise! Surprise!) I got to the point I could sleep in full chem gear and mask during exercises while I was in the military. Who would have thought charcoal suits would provide at least some cushioning for sleeping on bare floors?

          Mind you, testing showed that my blood O2 levels dropped below 80% several times a night before cpap (People were going ballistic when Trump’s dropped to 85%); which one of my nursing coworkers told me would have been enough to have me intubated had I ever been admitted to the hospital. So a valid question would be, how many brain cells did this condition kill off, and how much of my IQ have I lost?

          1. “Well, the continuous airway pressure virtually eliminates the snoring and airway blockage issues I had while sleeping.”

            I find that my issue is that the pressure amounts to a continuous low-level sneeze, so I tend to have to clear my ears in the morning, and likewise have more eye boogers. Occasionally, they rise to ear infections / pinkeye.

            1. Dear Hostess, Could be although 4 years seems too soon to need replacement. Or it could be you’ve changed. Or it could be the environment change (change of altitude?) has affected it adversely. I had had mine for ~9 years and noted I was not sleeping as well as I had to my PCP. They set me up for a new study to check things and found I needed slightly higher pressure, and that I often opened my mouth when sleeping which sort of ruined the whole effect (had a nasal only mask). They said either I needed a strap to close my mouth or a full face mask. Tried the strap out at the study and was having nightmares of suffocation. So now I have a full face mask and a slightly upped pressure :-).

            2. When my older machine hit end of life, I gave the prescription to the doctor to sign and send. That one was an auto-set, originally set for 4 cm minimum with a max to 20. I wasn’t doing well at 4, so courtesy the clinician’s manual (got mine uninsured with a vendor who gives all the info), I set the minimum to 6. (This is at 4000+ feet elevation, though the machine does well at 1200′ when I’m over for a medical trip.

              I’ve been on CPAP since the beginning of 1999 and after some experimentation, found what really works. (Though the nose-bleed from Hades was a surprise, but the Ayr(tm) gel and saline spray seem to help prevent a sequel.)

                1. Weird error messages sound like A Bad Thing. OTOH, I had issues with my ResMed; after a long time, the connection between the compressor and humidifier modules went wonky. The fix was (and is–repeats yearly or so) to separate them, then plug ’em back together.

                  FWIW, I get my hardware and machines from cpapman dot com. Never had insurance when I bought, so no experience dealing with them as insured. Good service.

                2. I would definitely get that checked out ASAP, as with any other life- or health-critical equipment.

              2. I only have nose bleed issues if the air is too dry, or I load up on too much aspirin. Changing the humidity levels, and the tube heater temp on the cpap has virtually eliminated the nose bleeds.

                1. We figure that the aloe vera gel that I used with nasal pillows (from 2002 to 2017) really helped, and the doctor who did post-care told me about the Ayr gel. I used saline spray occasionally, but now it’s part of bedtime prep. Squirts up the nostrils, use gel for the lower nose, and have the humidity set at max. Heated hose to prevent the rainout. (We’ll see what happens come winter. Might have to make adjustments.)

                  FWIW, I’ll hit 85% O2 sat when I’m really in trouble. Not sure I’d be conscious if I hit 80. Amazing how bodies can vary.

          3. Also, MOPP gear is a very nice insulator, handy when the temps drop at night in temperate climes . . .

            1. Yeah, northern Europe in the winter is cold and clammy. I actually prefer winter in the Dakotas to winter in the UK or Germany.

  8. Leg one of the flight back to the US. I was trying to read. Two hours later, I woke up. That wasn’t supposed to happen (it was 11:00 AM by my internal clock.) Apparently dim lights, no voices, and 767 engine noise makes me sleepy.

  9. I’ll have that happen when I’ve been burning the candle at all ends for too long. Eventually my body just says “Hey, remember that sleep thing we’re supposed to be doing? Yeah, we’re doing that now.” and down I go.

    The solution is generally to get 8-10h sleep and then just make sure I’m not trying to run on 4h of sleep for a week…

    2. Yeah, it happened last night. I normally go 6 hours a night, but there were several days when it was 5 hours. So, last night was 8 hours. I was starting to drift off when we were watching TV, so that was a bit of foreshadowing.

  11. Dear Ms. Hoyt,

    You are hereby directed to achieve and maintain good health until such time as you are relieved from duty.

    This order is not negotiable. And you are not to attempt to outsource your health by hiring others to simulate it in your place. We would notice.

    That is all.

    Best regards,

    Your Lotal Fans

    1. I second the motion. (The Sugar Mafia men are standing just behind and either side of me, in pinstripe suits, and holding modified Tommy guns loaded with jellybeans. I’d suggest you play along.)

          1. Ooh, that does look interesting. I’ve got tabs open for Cat’s Paw and A Conspiracy of Ravens too, so I might buy interesting reading material in batch.

  12. Unrelated –

    Apparently fun times in The Netherlands right now. I got a heads up about it in Ace’s comments, and tracked down an article with more info. Apparently the Dutch ruling coalition government has decreed cuts in nitrogen oxide and ammonia emissions of between 70 to 95 percent, depending on the specific location.

    To say the farmers are upset is like saying that a wolverine is mildly aggressive.

    And just as the world is about to get hit with food shortages.

      2. The “You cannot conjure food” rule was even in Harry Potter! Granted, it may have been motivated for plot reasons – to instigate conflict in what was, essentially, a year-long camping trip – but it also makes a great deal of sense for a rule of magic in a world where magic generally does not make any sort of sense at all.

        1. What comes from thin air has the nutritional value of thin air. Great for breathing, useless for eating. What is made from something previously inedible… well, there’s the lingering danger that it will change back to inedible, shortly after which point you will be pining for the fjords. (And yes, I am a fan of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, in case anyone’s heard of that. My worldview is, of course, rather different in some ways than the author’s, but it’s a fantastic story nonetheless.)

          2. Food comes from thin air. Just add water and apply sunlight. In a suitable location, with suitable alchemical substances present. Some assembly required, with post processing for additional nutrition.

          3. > “What comes from thin air has the nutritional value of thin air. Great for breathing, useless for eating.”

            I’ve always thought it was silly from a balance perspective when games have magic that lets you things like conjure up food for less energy than the food gives back.

            > “And yes, I am a fan of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, in case anyone’s heard of that.”

            Read it, enjoyed it.

        2. “The “You cannot conjure food” rule was even in Harry Potter!”

          Wait, what? The first major scene at Hogwarts was Dumbledore conjuring the welcoming banquet.

          1. That was later semi-established to have been the work of the Hogwarts house elves. (Mythological Brownies, with a few tweaks.) I would assume they make the food, then it’s sent to the tables by magic. In Deathly Hallows one of the significant issues is how to get food, since they can’t just create it from thin air.

            1. There’s also an outside chance that House Elves can do something Human Wizards can’t. For example they seem to be able to apparate when a human wizard can’t (C.F. Deathly hollows, Dobby getting folks out of the cell that is apparation proofed). Maybe they CAN conjure food? We’d have to ask J.K. Rowling I suspect 🙂 .

              1. That’s a very good point. Given the unspoken but seeming relation to, as I said, Brownies in folklore, it would make a lot of sense for house elves to be able to conjure food.

                I seem to recall a crack fanfiction in which Tom Riddle had a voice in his head warning him away from the kind of behaviors that led him to be such a foolish dark lord in the future and discovered during his school years that the house elves had been ruling the world all along… and that the only reason wizards couldn’t conjure food was because the house elves kept intervening when they tried to do it, because it was funny… and they tried to kill him for discovering that they were ruling the world, but he would just pop back to life over and over again and they would just end up wiping his memory, only for him to re-discover it later…

                Oh, and he developed something like the Imperious curse that worked exponentially – curse one person, they’ll hit someone else with it, then team up and go after another, more challenging target together – so yeah, he ended up ruling the world.

  13. Have those super-geniuses in the Dutch government not been keeping up with current events in Sri Lanka?

    2. That’s just backward third-worlders. Surely the sophisticated and modern Dutch won’t have those kinds of problems!

  14. So, I’m going to blame it on the cat, who snores and emits sleepy-ons.

    Cats are well know for magic sleep powers. George, in particular, is good at the “laying of paws” sleep induction. He sits next to you, puts a paw on your arm, and its two hours later. Sable does it as well, mostly by snuggling. Abi climbs on you during football games and transfers the players’ tiredness to you (many, many pictures of C sleeping on Sunday afternoon with Abi on her and football on the TV to prove this).

    1. Cat’s purring is claimed to be a healing mechanism for them. If they’re resting up next to you and purring, does that cause you to heal faster too?

      I somehow can’t see myself submitting that as an experimental proposal to our hospital IRB, or the NIH for a grant.

      1. Why not? It is more useful and gets more useful info that a lot of studies I have seen past IRB and funded.

      2. Gosh, I would actually love to know if that’s true. It’d be crazy if it were. (Although personally, I’m not sure it’d do me much good. I love cats and dogs when they’re someone else’s, but I don’t know that I’ll ever get one of my own. Fur everywhere, plus maintenance tasks that I need to attend to. I appreciate the lower-maintenance nature of cats, but they’re smaller, and for whatever reason small-creature-that-moves-by-itself freaks me out when it’s in my lap. Plus the use of claws whenever they darn well please, sometimes with little more logic than ‘You’re suddenly annoying me now, even though I was fine with you petting me before.’)

          1. Both good points. I’m probably exaggerating due to lack of experience, and that part of my brain that goes ‘Eek!’ even when the suddenly-visible claws are only being used for traction on my shirt/pants legs.

              1. I don’t know. There were a couple seriously fluffy cats we’ve had with fluff in their foot pads and the claws seemed to give them limited additional grip. At least one cat skidded around lie he was a Tokyo drifter…It was seriously hilarious, though being a cat he was VERY serious.

          1. Cats and their shedding do seem to violate mass balance issues. Perhaps that’s what they’re doing lieing in the sun all da, direct energy to matter?

    2. R and C are sleep specialists here when they’re not in brat mode! R in particular is great for snuggling up with while I’m trying to sleep on my side since if I try my back he’ll try nuzzling up and C will get offended and pounce on him! Which is why those floofs are named after rival characters…

    3. Would an array or matrix of cats (yes, might require herding, therefore unlikely to assemble…) be a sort of sleep-projector? Sort of a nap-laser?

      1. Let me try it out.

        Moves George next to Sable then put Angus at 90 degrees to Sable next to George now to put Abi in the

        zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

  15. We have said for many years that our cats emit sleep particles. But they need to be sleeping themselves to do so.

        2. In our household we say “Right of cat.” It is not to be expected that the person the cat is occupying should move.

        4. I’m surprised C didn’t attempt to incapussitate me when I was soaking my feet a few minutes ago! I haven’t seen him since I got home, actually, which probably means trouble…

            1. There’s no such thing as too many cat pictures and me and the four floofs always happy to make MeWe more like MeeW! 🙂

  16. This is definitely more interesting than ‘This is not a post.’ (Though if you’re too out of it to type more than the latter, by all means, get to sleep or something rather than worrying about what you did or didn’t type on your blog.)

    Since this is not the normal type of post, for which there is at least a nominal main subject, I will ask a random question that I enjoy thinking about.

    Leaving aside the fact that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him,” (1 Corinthians 2:9)… If you could imagine your heavenly mansion (ideal home), what would it be?

    Mine would be located in the mountains somewhere, preferably somewhere cloudy/foggy with thick woods all around. It’d be a combined castle/manor/mansion (castle on the outside, with towers and stone walls, manor/mansion on the inside). Since heavenly mansions don’t have to bother with fire insurance, places could be lit with wall sconces, torches, or similar. Definitely an enormous library, with bookshelves carved from dark wood, at least two levels, and tall arched windows done in Gothic style. (With padded window benches, so one could sit beside the window and read.) Secret passages, hidden rooms, and layered dungeons are a must! (The dungeons would, of course, be used for LARP Dungeons and Dragons style adventures rather than actual imprisonment. Scout’s Honor.)

    Decor would probably employ thick red fabrics embroidered with gold, leathers, dark and polished wood, furs, layered textures, and lots and lots of Gothic/Neoclassical design.

    What about you guys?

    1. I’ve always dreamed of a massive library, m’self. With huge, beautiful stained glass windows, lots and lots of light to read by, and comfy seating around fireplaces everywhere. And cats (and dogs) to read with. And unlimited coffee that never, ever gives you the shakes.

      1. That does sound lovely. Particularly the fireplaces, and the coffee bit. (Although I don’t generally get the shakes… my coffee is half coffee, half milk, and half a cup of sugar, so it’s diluted enough generally to avoid that. Although not always. It’s really annoying to get coffee because you’re trying to wake up enough for a test or similar, only to have a bit too much coffee and find yourself a bit neurotic and panicky.)

        1. I drink a minimum of 30 oz of strong, black coffee daily, often a little more than that. I’d drink even more if I didn’t get the shakes with more than half a 12 cup pot. I LOVE good coffee.

        2. I don’t do the sugar but hubby often asks “Are you sure you have enough coffee in your cream?” Not quite that bad. But he isn’t wrong either. Probably ~3oz 1/2&1/2 to 12oz coffee.

    2. A stone and timber building with a steep copper-clad roof, high ceilings, and exposed beams. Wood and stone floors, soft rugs, and patchwork quilts. Big windows looking out on a mountain meadow and aspen-clad slopes. Bookshelves EVERYWHERE and lofts for reading and sleeping. A whole-house sound system that plays any music I want, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. A studio in which I could play music to my heart’s content, with or without other people. And a kick-ass table for the tabletop RPGs and other games.

      Also, while we’re talking heavenly mansions, it’d have to exist in a world where I could manipulate the terrain and build whatever I want, Minecraft style. That’d be endless fun.

      1. Goodness, yes, Minecraft in real life would rock! And the house sounds lovely.

        Maybe in heaven I could visit and play D&D with you! And in heaven, all the players will arrive on time. (D&D’s the only tabletop RPG I’m familiar with at the moment. Other ones might be interesting to learn, though.)

    3. A half-buried house, with an airstrip near by. And a large library, with a few snug reading nooks with dark paneling and small lamps for directed light. A huge kitchen with a very good pantry (because you cannot have enough shelf space for spices and so on). A writing office, guest bedrooms (two or three at most), and hardwood and tile floors that stay warm in winter. And a rose and other things garden, without blackspot or fungus or aphids.

      1. I’d love to visit, if you’d have me! The library sounds lovely. Gardens aren’t my cup of tea – weeding isn’t much fun, and I would tend to forget things like watering – but yours sounds like it would be beautiful.

  17. Sleepy kitty vibes are a thing, and do absolutely cause involuntary naptime. I have a “go pick up the kids” alarm ten minutes before I have to go get them, in case one of the furry @$$holes does me in at the wrong time (they’ve done it twice). After-school-care is…not something I planned to (or wanted to) pay for.

  18. It was definitely an entertaining “not a post” sort of post and I do get how sleepy kitties can affect things… H is the only one around to agree that it’s a good thing, though, surprisingly! I’m used to L hiding but I figured R and C would be here demanding their snuggles by now. I’m sure the pending fundraiser will do well, too. Take care from all of us!

  19. That cat has the world in her eye.

    Does she hang out with the sea serpent in the minion pool, and Fluffy?

  20. I usually have to throw a small child at my husband to make him nap.

    “The baby’s fussing, can you hold him a bit?”
    Achy back, so he lays down…two minutes later, they’re OUT.

    2. Not that you plan to stop cranking them out anytime soon, I’m sure, but what’s your plan for when you run out of small children?

  21. I gave your 2022 subscription to someone else earlier in the year (you did say you were alright) so I am ready to participate when you go live.

    This space is easily worth any magazine subscription I’ve ever paid. Fair’s fair

  22. Does Havey snuggle up next to you while you are working and try to sleep on your mouse hand or arm? Ours does that to me all the time, If she does it while sitting up watching a movie, it becomes very easy to fall asleep.

      1. Our was given a nice comfy cat bed as well. She never uses it to sleep in. Sometimes she turns it into toy storage. She would much rather sleep on or near her staff (and yes, we are pretty much staff for Her Majesty The Cat” (or what she thinks is her full title, “her most royal majesty, empress of the universe”

      2. Not a big cat person. But my daughters love cats. In Israel cats feral animals rather than pets. The noise of a bunch of Toms raping poor female cats during their heat cycle really turns me off.

        That said, we feed two feral cats on a regular basis … at least until JuJu my German shepherd had 10 pups. Kept one pup and sent JuJu to the Golan Heights as her reward. The family up their has a large farmland. JuJu: chinese for soft mouth. Crossed JuJu with an Israeli breed of feral dog known as a Canaani. Tough animals, excellent guard dogs, a bit unstable emotionally.

        The show breeders have made the German shepherd way to big. The Canaani dogs has excellent hips, and weighs about half the weight of a German Shepherd. Animal crosses produce excellent mutts. Want to breed ‘Elbo’ (A butt ugly puppy out of a litter of 10, but she has the best temperament and nose of all the dogs of that litter.) with a Border Collie and then return back to the German shepherd line.

        JuJu was a Belgium/German shepherd cross. Studied genetics in College. Really oppose the show breeders who in-breed for traits. In my college years participated in the sport known as Shutzhund – German for: working dogs.

    2. R will do that now and then when I’m gaming, which isn’t a problem while I’m using a controller but can be if I’m switching over to a guide.

    3. > “and try to sleep on your mouse hand or arm?”

      My indoor cat does that all the time.

  23. Regrettably far off topic, but all too relevant here — night before last Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, “kinematic artifact” expert and QR code inventor, gave a long talk about his (ongoing) analysis of paper ballots from the major fraud-center of Maricopa County, Arizona. And found more than enough fraud (in assorted specific categories he identified and described) to “flip” that state’s Presidential election. See:

    uncoverdc dot com slash 2022/06/29/predetermined-algorithms-source-of-widespread-election-fraud-in-arizona/

    (and though there have been complaints, I’m not embedding that as a link because what Wille Pete can’t identify as a link, Willie Pete can’t sidetrack into moderation-land… and I been there, done that earlier today).

    TRIGGER WARNING: for anyone afflicted by Election Fraud 2020 Anger Management Issues, this is NOT likely to be a comfortable or blood-pressure-friendly story to read (or video to watch, see following link).

    www dot rsbnetwork dot com slash featured/live-the-truth-behind-arizonas-paper-ballots-jovan-pulitzers-bombshell-paper-analysis-report-6-27-22/

    From the (long and detailed) article, with a link to the full-length RSBN video there too:

    To be clear, a kinematic investigation means Pulitzer actually followed the physical and cyber “trail” of the Maricopa County ballots from the time they were manufactured to the “printing, the folding, sorting, and mailing” of those ballots. Pulitzer then “followed the mailing process, the return process, the election handling process, and eventual scanning, tallying, and election recording of the votes—and reporting of the final outcome.” In addition, Pulitzer drilled his investigation down to the precinct level. He and his team processed over 20,895,610 digital and forensic images in multiple formats.

    and (immediately following)

    Pulitzer says he can prove that predetermined algorithms caused the election to be skewed toward a win for Biden.

    “91.62 percent of the predetermined ballots were cast in favor of Joe Biden.”

    Approximately 406,972 of the over 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County were “of a predetermined origin” because of the use of algorithms. 38 percent of the mail-in ballots for Biden were found to be of a predetermined nature. 33 percent of the Trump ballots on election day were predetermined. After removing the fraudulently cast ballots, Trump got 59% of the votes. To find that “true vote,” Pulitzer removed the ballots contributing to the predetermined outcome. Biden only got 41 percent with the removal of the predetermined ballots.

    Pulitzer is confident that when the algorithm could not keep pace with the votes coming in for Trump, “paper ballots had to be created to match the electronic outcome.” He found ample evidence of many ballot boxes that were “pilfered.” The boxes were “opened and reopened over time to either insert or remove ballots.”

    Interestingly, 52 ballot boxes were “pre-set aside” on Election Day for a hand audit. Oddly, those boxes were the only ones that were never disturbed. The inconsistencies and non-compliance concerning the handling of the other ballot boxes were remarkable, allowing for fraudulent activity such as the insertion of ballots where needed.

    If there’s anyone left in the country (with a remotely open mind) that (somehow!) believes “robust safeguards protect[ed] the 2020 election” — this ought to finish dispelling the glamour.

    The article concludes, quoting Pulitzer,

    “Now that we know every possible way this is done, we can shut it down,” he added. “We created this problem because we trust. We don’t operate crookedly. We’re running our lives. We just want to live and be free. But we did this to ourselves. If we let it go, we don’t address it? Nothing is going to stop it. Nobody’s coming to save you except you.”

    Yes. What he said.

    1. I absolutely do believe that robust safeguards protected the 2020 election–protected it against the choices of the voters, that is.

      1. Democrats through Time Magazine bragged about how they rigged the election in their favor while at the same time silencing anyone who pointed out that they did what they bragged about doing.

        1. They keep saying Biden misspoke when he said they had created the biggest fraud machine in this country, ever.
          Misspoke my little left toe. It was one of the few times Biden ever uttered the truth.

          1. I remember that! Candidate Joe Biden, August 2020:

            “We have assembled the most extensive, comprehensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.”

            –
            Only, nobody saw what happened a few minutes later:

            “What do you mean, I wasn’t supposed to say that?”

        2. Yep. I had a couple of big, long, incredibly frustrating arguments with a couple of progtards — and one “special” guy who claimed to be More LIbertarian Than You — about that article on The Truth About Guns last year. Try as I might, I couldn’t get them to even consider the possibility that “saving the election” by those means ACTUALLY IS fraud writ large.

          Unfortunately, the lines have been drawn very clearly by now. Those who haven’t yet seen it for what it is are never going to. They won’t allow themselves to. And those of us who’ve seen it can’t unsee it, however much it hurts to know that your country has been stolen from you, that people you have to interact with and try to get along with every day believe you deserved to have it stolen, and there’s not a single thing you can personally do about any of it.

  24. Sitting With the Cat

    By a week after Election Day, things were pretty much back on an even keel. I’d let go everyone I couldn’t pay and couldn’t use, kept on the few I could use for long-term staff (mostly to help me figure out where I could go next, if anywhere); made that “big” concession speech, and done all those polite but uncomfortable interviews that the media seemed to need to do, to underline the fact that the winner (such a “nice” guy for a D, right?) had actually won. I wasn’t distraught, the polling (ours, the little I could afford, the kind that wasn’t cooked six ways from Sunday from the get-go) had always been close, the odds (best we could figure) neck-and-neck. It had been a real fight.

    And I’d really fought, we all had. I’d “left it all on the field” so no regrets there.

    But maybe that was the biggest problem. That I had left it all on the field, and so had almost nothing left in my reserves. I’d given my all, sure enough; and nobody at all was standing in line now waiting for a chance to give some of it back. Or any of it…

    “Thank you for running such a spirited campaign, Miss Macnair. We’ll keep you in mind for the future. You’re truly one of our up-and-coming women.” When really what they meant was something a lot more like, “We’re so relieved you lost, though that’s why we gave you only odds and ends of support. You’re a principled person, not one of our RINO yes-men, and that makes you a loose cannon, a constant problem. So glad we don’t need to work any more to solve it, not this time around…”

    Of course the other guys said what they meant just fine; it was only that mostly it wasn’t quite true, or much true at all. Trish Macnair wants your grandma to die of Covid, she wants your mother to work her fingers to the bone replacing the Social Security and Medicare she wants to take away, and she wants your daughter to bleed to death in a dirty back alley with a rusty coat hanger in her hand. Otherwise, she wishes you well. I guess they pretty much forgot wanting you to gulp Fish Tank Cleaner or Horse Paste instead of “safe and effective” approved (and insanely costly) neo-pharmaceuticals, too — but that’s about what we’d found, circulating on Facebook and Twitter and similar misinformation-free zones quite freely.

    Minus that whole, “I’m William Whitstead, and I approved this ad” part, of course.

    And when I went back to my apartment, not only had I half forgotten what it looked like, not only had I been amazed at the slow but steady collection of this-and-that kind of debris from the few times I’d managed to get back here, I’d found suddenly that the inner sinkhole of non-energy and pure emptiness brought to me by all of the above events and non-events… suddenly threatened to swallow me whole, if I just sat here and waited for all of it to catch up to me.

    Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you,, said Satchel Paige. He hadn’t even mentioned squatting down and waiting for it all to trot up and say hi.

    Then my mother called and asked how I was, and if I’d like to come to her place, the old house I’d learned to call Grandma’s growing up, and stay for a while way up in the mountains. And I literally could not say no to that — any more than I could’ve possibly given her a completely honest and direct answer to her question. (Sure and I had to live with that, myself, no other choice. But I did not have to inflict that burden of knowledge on her, too.)

    And so a day and a half later I was up in the oldest part of the house, the old living room and bedroom, with the wood stove and backup electric heat to keep me warm. (No kitchen, of course; that part of it was that old.) Up at the top of the stairs, that led to the new modern front-part where my mother had moved in, after the estate had been settled and she’d cut loose from the wide world of work (just before the wokers came to burrow into everything at her old company, like busy termites in the walls).

    Me, and my “devices” and their high-speed Internet links to everything and everyone in real time 24/7. Sure; my medicine and my addiction. But also my crate of books. Yes, my favorite three Bible translations and a few commentaries, some Catherine Marshall and Hildegarde of Bingen. But also the foundations of my secular faith. Thomas Sowell and Ludwig von Mises, all the Federalists and Walter Williams, John Locke and Adam Smith. Even a little de Tocqueville for seasoning. And a bit of really knock-down, drag-em-out, shoot-em-up SF. David Drake, Gordon Dickson, Jerry Pournelle. (People liken politics to war. Usually they miss the deeper, darker likeness, what the no-holds-barred strife of both can corrosively do to the mind and soul.)

    And I set about filling that immense hole, that underground salt-mine of the spirit; talking with my mother only a little, listening to merry music on the shortwave, mostly just walking on the high hills (when it wasn’t raining, or a little even when it was); and reading. Falling back into the things that had made me; or (as with the bloody too-true SF) dipping my toe skittishly back into that new inner ocean of storm and lightning and thunder that had made me… into someone a bit different, maybe even a bit too sharply different for the rest of me to sit comfortably beside any more.

    But what really did it, in the middle of all that garden of slowly-growing healing, was obviously and unquestionably the cat.

    Suddenly I’d hear it, sitting on the old love-seat or simply on the bed, in the bright sun (or the glow of the now-banned but delicious Edison light bulb). Soft scratching at the door of the stairs. Then not so soft. Next a piercing, musical meow that said, “No, you really do want to open this door even if you don’t know it yet.”

    Greta the cat, solid as a Scotch-Irish farmwife in the late-19th-century mold. Black as the coal that hadn’t heated this place since 1935 (though I’d love to tweak the noses of the ultra-Greenies by burning it here, I was just as glad not to have to clean up the “carbon footprints” of the dust my grandmother had always told me it left behind).

    Greta, who simply wouldn’t take no for an answer, once she’d decided that one of her two-legged tribe was in need of her attentions and ministrations.

    But who, once she was where she was needed, was mostly willing to sit by and be. Be here, be with me, while I read or listened, or just was for awhile.

    Follow me down, in the mornings, when I wanted a plate of sausage and eggs or a bowl of oatmeal. Follow me back up, when I returned to read, or maybe even a little here and there, to write — nothing too useful and never to a deadline, but write again.

    Meet me at the door, up here or downstairs, when I’d come back chilled but happy from another hours-long walk, down in the holler or up on the ridges. Mind full of this and that, slowly come to light like water from a spring; or else rarely (and for a wonder) blessedly, blissfully empty. Hello, I’m your cat. Still. And you can pet me now or be willing to curl up with me (and one of your books) soon enough.

    One of Gordon Dickson’s books has a scene where the protagonist, and I guess hero, has been thrown (literally) light-years through space, more or less in bits and pieces, and reassembled, physically just fine. But spiritually — not so much. So he has to (as they say in these New Age-y days) “re-member” himself. Listening to music, and reading, and looking at paintings… everything he needs to do, to remind himself that he is still who he is, to put his-self back together after being everywhere and nowhere.

    Mister Dickson missed a point, there. Somehow, there should have been a cat.

    Preferably black as perfectly Deplorable and Appalachian coal. With a heart not of gold, but of the kind of diamond the Tibetans make their Vajrayana out of. The sort of bright carbon that leads you not to riches, but ever toward healing and enlightenment.

    My name is Patricia Anne Macnair, and I approved this ad.

Comments are closed.