November 27, 1996
It snowed last night. An inch or so I think (I didn't measure it). There was ice under it making it slippery driving and hard windshield clearing. Pretty though. A regular winter wonderland.
Amelia, one of the long time residents at the cat shelter, finally got adopted. It's nice to see some of the "old timers" find homes. Now if only somebody would take Jaguar...
Molly had the rest of her tail amputated. The paralyzed part was amputated last week but apparently whatever the problem was continued to plague the stump so now she looks like Jaguar - at least tailwise. No perky wagging little stump like Stumpy. Harvey was picking fights with everyone it seemed: Rebel, Jaguar, miscellaneous black and white ones, even Juliet. I sang my "Juliet don't hurt me" song nonstop while I cleaned her cage. She watched me from inches away on top of Phantom's cage and looked like she was going to lunge a couple of times but I got through it without a single drop of blood spilled. The humans continue to be amazed at this. I can't carry a tune so it can't be the sweetness of my voice that calms her.
Jaguar let me pet him for considerable time first thing this morning. He was sitting in what used to be his special place on top of the logbook on top of the fridge. He even purred for me. He's been known to purr maybe 5 times since 1993 so I feel special.
Sebastian was returned because someone in his adoptive home developed an allergy to cats. Sigh. He kept throwing a tiny toy mouse out of the cage and meowing for me to pick it up and bring it to him. Teaching the human to play fetch... wait a minute, cats don't play fetch... why is he teaching me?
rrrrrrrrrrrrew <- Wilbur's entry
Wilbur is now sitting on my left shoulder. Good thing I learned touch typing in high school. I can't see the keyboard.
Tom gave me a wonderful little book he picked up on one of his used book expeditions. It's in German, which I don't read, but it is full of exquisite black and white photos of birds. They are all identified by the German name but there's an appendix in the back with the Latin name so I can decode them. Score another point for Linneus.
Wilbur has been sitting on my chest in such a position that I couldn't move for several minutes without damage. He just now jumped down so I can resume this entry.
Except that now I've forgotten what I wanted to write about...
I bought all the salad vegetables at the Super Stop and Shop in Reading. Way less crowded than the local Marketbasket. I was dreading going to Marketbasket so much that I was thinking of just ordering a bunch of salads from Bertucci's and mixing them in one bowl. I'm glad to know that the new Stop and Shop is easier to get in and out of, the lines are short, and the cashiers speak English. And as far as I know there is no car theft ring operating out of their parking lot yet either. I'm sure I'll revert to Marketbasket after the holidays though.
Does Massachusetts experience a net loss in population over the Thanksgiving weekend? All the westbound traffic is amazing. And it does seem like there are fewer people around town tonight.
What do people mean when they say "get a life"? When I was working all the time I thought it meant "get a mate" or "get a family". Now I think everybody has their own definition and nobody really means the same thing at all. Last night I was reading Willa's entry and followed a link to "Get a Life - Home of the Socially Challenged Site of the Day." (no longer accessible). That person obviously "has no life" if he/she has nothing better to do that to criticize people's attempts at personal web sites. But I wonder what he/she means by a life? A job pushing bits of magnetic dust around - oh I guess software isn't really magnetic dust anymore but you get the idea...
So anyway, one of my goals for my time away from work (aka the sabbatical) was to "get a life", which I defined as cultivating relationships and hobbies and interests apart from work. In the depths of my work addiction I thought work was life. Then I started to think life was something outside work. Now I have no idea.
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