Friday Foto

A Summer Day . Our neighborhood.
I miss BA much more than I expected to.
I have open invitations to parties and visits and I am so tempted to drop everything and Go !
I probably will not go now but a plan is in the works for the future .. If I can bring my little family with me, that would be good too. But either way, I will be going back for a visit.

I am the Human

I'm too old for this.
No matter how old I am or was or will be ... Minette is wearing me out.

She takes cat naps, that is one of the clues to having energy ... all day and all night.

She is the size of a tea cup but she can wreck a kitchen in 3 minutes and be sitting there washing her paw and looking innocent when discovered.

She has a voice like a very small mouse with laryngitis and it can still be heard throughout the house.

She is fast .. try catching her to put her in her crate shortly after you discover the bathroom tissue ripped to shreds, the 40th time she has climbed in the window sill or the time you look at the nice glass object on the table and see that is has been moved.

She had "stomach issues" this morning so I got to wake up to pitiful kitten and messy crate.

After dealing with that, she felt great and I got to chase her around the house .

She still hasn't learned that I must MUST have at least 3 cups of coffee in a silent house without moving before I am truly awake.

So now I am having a cup of coffee and she is meowing in her crate.

I am the Human.
I win !

Until I am through posting this, then I will take her out and hold her and talk baby talk to her and wait until she takes a nap to do anything.

Minette in the Morning

Sometimes I wake at 5:30 or 6:00 am and for a moment I wonder Why ? Why am I awake this early ?
Then Minette walks across my head on her way to playing with the string to the shades on the window by the bed.

Sometimes I wake and it is dead quiet and I lie there and relish the peace and quiet and try to go back to sleep but the thought keeps popping up ... what woke me up ? Why is it so quiet ?
Where is Minette ?

Sometimes I don't have to look far, she is sitting precariously on the window sill, next to things that mean a lot to me.
Things that might break.

( I have put almost every thing in the house that is precious, in a closet. away from Minette ....
I have to go stand in a closet to look at things that I love and miss the sight of .)

What is it about the bookcase that appeals to her so much ?
Did I find a literary kitten ??

What is it about the back of the television that she loves so much ?
Is she interested in electronics ?

Why is it that every cat on the planet hates to walk on things like aluminum foil but Minette will walk on it and bring it to me if it falls off the counter , where I put it  ... to keep her from walking on the counter.

Why is it that she is the size of a baby squirrel but she can make an adult human run back and forth without even asking for something ?

Why is it that her voice sounds like she sucks helium every morning ?
I should have named her Squeaky.


Just when she drives me to the point of considering leaving her on the doorstep of a Kitten Orphanage she meows or starts to purr when she looks at me or washes my hair while purring.
I am her Mama.
But I do wish she would let me sleep in the morning and have my 4 cups of coffee before the kitten shenanigans begin.

Happy Monday

Monday
I am looking out the window at grey skies and ominous clouds, more snow is on the way.
Anyone looking in the window would see me .. looking a bit ominous too ... tears might be on the way.
I had so many plans and dreams before we left Argentina and now it is down to, IF ONLY it is a dry day I can drive somewhere ...
IF ONLY it doesn't snow anymore ...
IF ONLY it warms up because I know I will be bankrupted by this years fuel bill.

Minette
Kittens are a lot of work.
They need entertainment and I am so not in the mood these days for being silly and making a kitten laugh.
She does very well herself, finding things to play with ... if only they were not a bracelet I put on the dresser, a pen on the desk, the remote for the television, and why is it that this house is almost all windows and glass doors  and she needs to climb into My bedroom window where there are breakable things ?

Family
I have a very small one but what they lack in numbers, they make up in preciousness.
(is that a word ? preciousness....well, even if it wasn't, it is now)
I don't seem to see enough of them but that might just be me, the Needy One.

Birthdays
Mine is coming .. in 20 days if we are actually counting ..
My first without my husband.... in 40 years.
My first with a new grandson ..
My first with both children here with me ..
Good/Bad/Happy/Sad

Getting Along
People send sweet little notes and just ask, How are you getting along ?
I write back and thank them and say, I am doing OK ...
I guess OK is better than the black pit of depression that lurks around the corner but I hope that They are right, those that says Time helps.
I am making plans.
This keeps me from thinking about the past and the future that didn't happen and gives me some hope for better things to come.

I am going to sell my house and move as far South , near Manhattan as I can get.
Which might only be 2 hours away instead of 2 1/2 ... prices are crazy, I don't know my way around that part of the world .. we will see.

If it will just stop snowing.

Sightings
A herd of deer in the back. 7 of them !!
Deer rob bird feeders.
The birds sent a letter of complaint and now I have to go buy deer proof bird feeders.
We ( the kitten and I) saw a squirrel for the first time this winter.

Plans
Lately, plans are those things you make in the morning because if you wake up and think, today I will be going to the mall or the coffee shop and you look out the window and there is snow piling up, you get a bit disappointed.
So now I make vague plans and wait until morning to see if I will be allowed out today.
Right now it is grey and cold but no snow.
Maybe I will get the car washed, that could be exciting .. I never did it before alone .
You might read in the papers tomorrow, local resident found screaming in her car after being stuck for 12 hours being washed.

Happy Monday

Once Upon A Time When It Was Not Winter

I would be able to walk out there without help.
Or at least someone in the house watching to be sure I didn't slip and fall into the deep snow and not be found until Summer.

I would run back and forth every few days from the ( sorry ...) Solarium to the bird feeders , keeping the little beggars happy and well fed.

I would devise ways to keep the chipmunks and squirrels from being able to get to the feeders.

I would watch the chipmunks and squirrels figure it out quickly and get to the feeders.
It can be slightly depressing when you can't best a squirrel or a chipmunk.

I would tell my husband that I was fine, watching Him drive that riding lawnmower thing around and around and not crashing into things.
He was always a brilliant driver.
Only once did he get into a tight space on that lawnmower, which cannot be backed up.
So he had to do a lot of fancy back and forth, back and forth until he got out.

I know it is a beautiful garden, an acre of trees and shrubs and flowers constantly blooming, thanks to the Garden Club lady who lived here a long time ago.
I hate to think she is looking down from Garden Club Lady Heaven and hoping that I will do a good job.
Because I can't.
I can't even mow the lawn!
I will admire it all and praise her but there is no way I am going to break my back trying to keep up an acre of gardens ... my next garden will most likely be in Window Boxes .

I look out the windows today and see bright blue skies with bright sunshine , on bright snow.
Deep snow. It is still up to my knees ..
I should teach the kitten how to dial 911 in case she sees me slip and fall into a drift .. maybe I should have gotten a dog .. it could run out and dig me out .. or pull me out by my collar like Lassie would.

I have a feeling Minette will be interested in my arm waving floundering as I go under the snow , for
about a minute then she will go back to washing herself, biting her nails, chasing a dust mote.
At this stage, she is not a deep thinker.

I daydream of flying to Florida to visit my daughter.
But I had to go and get a kitten !

I daydream of accepting invitations to Buenos Aires ... there's that kitten again.

So I sit here ( or dash around after a small creature) each day and wait for the Seasons to change, the sun to come out and melt away all of the snow and let me out into the fresh air again.
I can wait.
 I have company now.
If she will just stop biting my toes.... late  at night ...... washing my hair .... late at night .... .. meowing pitifully when the she can't see me .....  late at night ..

Drama Queens

It seems as if it is never just Sunny anymore.
It is either Sunny and the Coldest day of the Year or Cloudy, Grey and a degree warmer making more  Snow   possible.
If I suddenly fell down outside my front door, the pile of snow is still big enough that I would be buried until June.
If it didn't snow again, I don't think I will truly be warm again until August.

Minette is warm.
She has her own little fur coat. A very beautiful color too.
She has her own little soft, cushy bed covered in that fleece that baby clothes are made of.
She is either on that, or curled up in here, where mama was thoughtful enough to supply a sofa ..
with blankets.

And then she has the bed that is a bit too high for her yet, but if someone ... ok .. if I pick her up in the morning and toss her under the covers, she will go back to sleep.

Except for the mornings where she attacks my hair on the pillow.

Bites my finger .. no particular reason, it is just there .

Walks across my face .. while I sleep ... I know I am pale but can't she tell my head from the pillow ??
Which leads me to think I have a pillow face ... how I got it I have no idea but that is the only idea I have these days ... my head looks like a puffy pillow.

I opened a bottle of seltzer and the bottle cap sliced my finger.

If I said  ... A bottle cap sliced my finger ... my husband would start curling up and groaning and having a major drama fit, because the thought of a finger being sliced made him feel weird.. sick .. like curling up and protecting himself.

There were days, at our house,  when there was a tie for the  Drama Queen Award.

Speaking of Drama Queens ... If this kitten climbs on my head in the middle of the night again, I am going to let her join the Circus.