After the Humidity Madness

Entry 06/19/2014 09:35:12 AM – Mentat 704

Finally!!!! After several days of warmer than average weather and unbearable amounts of humidity; it’s finally started raining here this morning. While the humidity is still up there (more than 80% the last time I checked a couple of hours ago), at least it’s not the oppressive BS that I’ve put up the last couple of days. Good thing too, given that I’m getting rather tired of being completely drained out come sundown then the temperatures drop to where I expect them for this time of year… Well that and I don’t have to suffer through one sinus or the other shutting down and blocking up when I move my head one way or the other. So, hopefully over the next couple of days it’ll be more bearable than it has been and I can enjoy Emancipation Day without it feeling quite so like August here in the Tundras of New England.

Of course the amusing thing in all this is that I’m currently over my mother’s house watching her Monster Child — Jack. The amusing thing was that my mother sent up to my Aunt’s house to wash her car in spite of it raining even up there in Woonsocket. She went up there out of sheer stubbornness because she canceled out last week for washing the car on threat of rain. Last week we almost brought Jack along so that he could get a bath (he’s smelling particularly dog at the moment), but the more my mother thought about it — the more she decided it was best he stayed at home and went to a groomer for a washing instead. Not that I blame my mother in her decision — Jack is too easily riled by other dogs, and my aunt’s little hyper mutt would set him off… So while my mother’s off; I’m treated to looks (and attitude) like this:

I get looks like that because I’m not my mother and I’m not one to give him treats whenever he wants or needs. Yeah, she spoils him rotten and because I’m not high on the pecking order/pack order in the house, he often mopes when I’m over making sure he doesn’t wreck the house during any abandonment issues he might go through. At least he’s not begging to go out in his boredom before his usual walk time.

Now that it’s getting into summer, I’m trying to discipline Jack a little bit more and not be completely spazzed out during this walks. Also trying to curb his hyper attitude at barking at faeries. It seems that I’ve come to learn that he’s pretty myopic (near-sighted) as he’s gone crazy barking at smaller people (children and in one case a rather short Latino mowing the lawn at the apartment complex on the path we normally walk). Even at inanimate objects like lawn bags on the sidewalk if they’re the right distance from him. When he gets closer, Jack stops when he realizes what he’s barking at is not a dog at all.

Surprisingly, Jack does really well when he’s short leashed: he walks at the same speed I do, doesn’t do a lot of doubling back to check various scents from other dog-owners that walk the same path. Even maintains a sense of calm when dealing with Starlings, and faeries… But the instant he’s given more leash — off he goes spazzing out more. I suspect it’s going to take months for him to calm down given I don’t think the Summer Heat’s going to calm him down any.

On the flip side, Moe’s even more sedate with the summer heat and humidity. While he might not get up on me at the desk when the ambient temperature’s over 75 F/23 C, he’s still just as determined to lay on me when I take an afternoon cat nap. Which in itself is “fun” because it’s like having more than 101.5 F/38.6 C laying down on my crotch area. Worse when he’s happy and sprawls out like a napping toddler. He doesn’t seem to have much issue hanging off me head upside and purring to his heart’s content as he sleep as well.

In fact, today was the first day he was in the front window and didn’t freak out and hide when said “hello” when she walked by. Unlike the last time when she did that and he hid under the covers in the bedroom for hours. Of course, he’ll still hide whenever anyone else is over… but at least I think he’s figured out if whoever it is that talks to him is on the street, then he’s safe.

The level of stupidity is going up now that the weather’s getting warmer. For example, my neighbors across the street now rent the whole house, one of them made the “brilliant” decision of putting their two little dogs on the first floor… While this might not sound like a fail as I imply, it is when you realize these two dogs are easily stressed out and start barking at anything and everything that walks by or barks in the neighborhood. Worse, when someone walks by — they fly to the front windows wrecking the blinds in the process. I walked by, and one of their two dogs, just flew at the window and through the blinds. Heard them a couple of more times after that when I was in my kitchen and cooking my lunch. It hasn’t happened today as I didn’t see them in the window, so hopefully they’ve learned their lesson.

Then there’s the second floor neighbors in the house across the parking lot (in the back of my house). Seems that they went away on vacation or something and one of their two cats ended up on the fire escape of their apartment for the last three days according to one eye-witness that was waiting by the house. When I talked with the witness, I told them someone would come home in a couple of hours (late morning/early afternoon) and I’ll let them know… but he wouldn’t have anything of the sort. Not only did he continue to wait and watch but also called Animal Rescue about the cat. Sure enough, the third floor tenants came back and were able to rescue the cat from the fire escape, but the witness didn’t stick around to catch Animal Rescue to tell them that the cat’s all right.

That was left to me when I came out of my mother’s house and saw them there looking about the wrong side of the street. So after 10 minutes of explaining to the woman what happened and who had done the good deed, she was off.

Then yesterday, the neighbors across the street had a friend over in some monster pick up truck that I didn’t think twice about, until that friend decided to leave and it sounded like the transmission on the truck was about to fall out. Did that warning screech stop them? Well sort of. They stopped their truck in the middle of the intersection to the side road (Adams St) where they left it there blocking (non-existent) traffic for about an hour. Oh they moved it. In fact, the owner started his truck and apparently drove away with it sounding like the transmission would drop out at any time. It was a hell of a din given that the owner drove away at no more than 5 MPH even onto Atwells Avenue.

Thanks to that, my ears were ringing about 5 minutes after they had gone. Not to mention gave Moe quite the fright too as he couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from.

Then there was the din a couple of days ago in the parking lot with someone that sounded like was setting off some sort of fireworks. Either that or had to break into their car as it sounded more like a window being broken the more I think about it. My cat completely freaked out with that and tried his best to hide under the bureau in the process. When I checked in the morning, there was broken glass, or any sort of fireworks refuse in the parking lot either.

And finally the highlight of the week had to be my neighbor downstairs. Now keep in mind this woman rarely if ever opens up her windows even with the impending summer weather. She’s rarely seen other than perhaps in glimpses when she throws her trash or recycles. My mother says during July and August she has an air conditioner in her bedroom window, but her windows are never opened otherwise.

She opened her windows the other day. For what appeared to be “spring cleaning”. Windows were opened and it looked like she had her curtains out on the fence drying. Since then though? Closed again. 89 F/32 C with 95% humidity and the windows have remained closed.

How she can do that is beyond me.

As for me…

I’m sore. Not entirely sure why. Old age, probably. Well that and the amount of humidity in the air. Sleep as once again swung back to “normal”. So much so that I seem to be making up with bizarre dreams in overtime. While I can’t remember them as much as I should, I remember enough to know that it’s been a sort of powder keg dredging up memories old and not so from my past. Some of these recurrences I know I caused by thinking about them at the right time before I fell asleep. Other seems to be off-shoots of those memories.

[Last Edited: 6/20/2014 6:26:42 PM]

To continue…

I’m finding myself modestly cautious about what I remember and when given that I’m finding myself highly self-suggestible because of it. It’s not just being the right frame of tired for this suggestible state to happen, but also just being… well, impressionable on the whole. I found one of the dreams that I had last night had been triggered by a set of thoughts that I had while re-watching an episode of Heroic Age yesterday afternoon.

For entertainment, I’ve given up (again) on Andromeda at near precisely the same place I did before (when it was first run too). Why? Well because by season 3 this show was seriously, seriously dumbed down when they ejected Robert Hewitt Wolfe from the production team and gave [Kevin] Sorbo more authority. I tried also to get back into the remake of Battlestar Galactica and realized it’s too depressive for the summer. So it’s back to anime for me for the time being. Namely Samurai 7 and Heroic Age for the time being. I might go digging for others, but these two work for the time being.

Finally I would like to throw a great big, screw you to the team at FourSquare. Seems that for the last couple of weeks they had left their app alone but was pushing a new social app called “Swarm”. Didn’t like the looks of Swarm and it wasn’t really in the queue for loading it up on the phone. Then today when I was out doing a bit of shopping with my mother, tried to check in using FourSquare only to find it disabled until I installed and downloaded the new Swarm app to my phone….

So checking out the reviews on the store and see people are not happy with it at all. A quick download and install I found out why… What made the Foursquare app fun (and sort of unique) was all the features that it used to have had been disables. Gone was the ability to maintain and gaining “Mayorships” at locations. Gone were the point tally acquired during a week of check-ins. In it’s place is a buggy program that leaves the GPS portion of the phone always on and draining power, and organizing through text and messaging — friends to join you here or there.

It’s a good idea if you’re a social butterfly or collect friends like tchotchke.. but for me? Not really. With the exclusion of one acquaintance in the Rhode Island area, most of my friends and acquaintances are nation and world wide. So that organizing feature Swarm offers is very useless to me. Add to the fact that you can’t check in with just Foursquare, I wrote some disparaging reviews for both apps, and deleted my account with FourSquare in the process with the same note that when they remove Swarm, I might come back. Probably not, I’m not a fan of any company that makes draconian decisions that demand their user base install more apps to test out their new ideas by destroying what’s already working.

So bye-bye and screw you FourSquare for betraying a loyal fan and destroying a fun app.

That’s about it for the time being. Until the next time.

Health, Welfare and General Sanity Ruminations

Entry 06/08/2014 11:00:40 AM – Mentat 702

Sleep is for the weak… Or so adrenaline junkies often say.

For me, sleep is an important part of my ability to focus on one subject at a time, instead of flying off in a forty million different directions and finding thirty things to do at once. It allows me to look at my problems from an unconscious standpoint and allow the unconscious to work out the problems my conscious mind can’t wraps itself around. Usually by simply seeing it from a more primal perspective. Without uninterrupted sleep, I often find myself more impatient, more short-tempered about problems or even more prone to avoiding a problem in lieu of complete procrastination. That’s precisely what I’ve been going through the last couple of weeks.

My focus has been shot.

My ability to face stressful situations has caused me to avoid and procrastinate whenever possible.

I’ve found myself anxious when I really shouldn’t be.

I’m clumsy as hell. Last night when I was making myself Cinnamon & Sugar Toast for dessert, I happened to have spilt the teaspoon of sugar all over the table and floor. The dropsies on everything else have been more pronounced. And “best” of all is that the amount of scratches, black & blue marks, and gashing I’ve done to my hands because of this more pronounced.

And worst of all… I’ve had more raging moments than I should have because of this lack of sleep. While I’ve had moments where things have triggered my seeing red; at least I’ve been able to take control of them quickly enough for them not to run rampant as they have in the past.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what the contributing factors are for this lack of sleep… Well, it’s not so much lack as it’s more scattered. For example, I will fall asleep like I normally do. Then I’ll wake up 3 – 4 hours later. Then I’ll stay up for 1 – 2 hours. Then fall asleep again to complete at least 6 – 6½ hours sleep.

Wash… Rinse… Repeat… For at least 10 days.

It’s not as though I’ve had stressful dreams. Most of my dreams, while bizarre were not the typical Cthulhu, face-eating weird-fests I typically have. Or even the sort of dreams that conspiracy theorists would be having a blog-party about. If anything they’ve been the sort of bland that friends and acquaintances tell me about whenever I asked them what they dreamed about: Life, Work, Friends, Family… Everyday sort of dreams. Hell, somewhere in the last 10 days, I’ve had more than usual erotic dreams as well… About 5 or 6 if I recall correctly. And what makes them so memorable was that I had been completely lucid in them; right down to one where I recalled the previous dream and made a comment within the dream that I “deserved” this sort of distraction.

It’s not entirely the stress of the summer as it’s beginning to loom on us all here in the Tundras of New England. Sure, there had been a couple of evenings where I felt like I was hotter than usual and struggling with my sheets — but that was quickly remedied by a fan in the window and lightening the sheets and blankets for the summer.

It’s not as though the neighborhood’s to blame… Since the weather’s been warming up, the idiots evacuating from Tammany Hall at closing time are a bit more sedate now then they were at the end of the Winter/beginning of the Spring. Sure, I can hear them occasionally when I’m up at that time, but they haven’t been as rowdy. In fact, they’ve been almost as sedate as the folk that frequent Lily Marlene’s next to the house.

It’s not as though my diet’s entirely to blame… Although I admit there was a couple of nights where what I had for supper did in fact bite me in the ass appropriately. Like the time I had the Mexican Red Chili Taco recipe. Funny thing that, I’ve also had the Moroccan Chicken Stew which was in fact spicier and that didn’t give me heartburn or acid reflux at all. Nothing a glass of milk and sitting up while I digested it didn’t remedy the problem.

And it’s not as though Moe’s to blame either. He’s a rather marvelous bed-time companion; moreso than either Cricket or Tiger ever were. He comes to bed when I’m about to pass out. He’ll get up without much fuss if I roll about a bit and then come back to bed when I’ve stopped moving. While he doesn’t try to get under the covers like either Cricket or Tiger, he’ll make his presence known only if it seems I’m mostly awake and even then he sleeps no higher than my waist. In fact, the only time I’ve heard him make a fuss has been when I cover my head with a pillow to create the absolute dark I need when I’m light-sensitive (pre-migraine). Then he’ll meow blue-murder until I either pet him or call to him. (I need to check with the woman that had given me him. I vaguely remember her saying to me that he’s a rescue from an estate sale; I get the impression that his first owner might’ve been old and died which might explain the anxiety he has when I’m covered head to toe in bed. Especially given that when I leave the house he doesn’t meow abandonment issues like Cricket used to. In fact he’s quite silent when I leave the house for hours at a time).

And finally, it’s not because of this milestone of turning a half-century (in a couple of days). While sure it’s been on my mind, taking a conscious and unconscious temperature, I’m finding myself in the sort of anticipation that I had when I had my epiphany at 25. While sure that time has come and gone and I suspect that I won’t have another — it’s certainly not enough for me to losing any amount of sleep over. If anything I’m not looking forward to my birthday with the same apathy, lack of gusto, and anxiousness I’ve had for many of my birthdays in the past (other than 18, 25 and 45). Sure there’s a little something there as I realize, “holy shit, I’m going to be a half-century old”, but it’s not the sort of “HOLY SHIT!!! I’m going to be 50?!?!” most folk have when they get to that age. Heh, I thank my mother’s side of the family for that sort of non-event enthusiasm. They’ve never made much of a fuss about their birthday and I’ve maintained that tradition through most of my life.

*shrugs* Whatever it is, I hope it passes soon. Or I’ll be seeking out help for it.. And hopefully that help won’t mean pills…

Speaking of Moe, he’s gotten way more comfortable with me (and the house) now that the weather’s stayed warmer. Sure he’s not all in my face or on my shoulder as he typically is during the winter, it’s just that he looks forward to time with me when I decided to take a nap. For as long as I’m above the covers or don’t have a thrown on me, he’ll climb up on me and fall asleep on either my waist or my chest. And like a 4 year old (child) that can sleep any way and anywhere: he’ll happily sprawl out hanging his head off of me while catnapping. If I’m sleeping under the covers, he’ll sleep at the foot of the bed instead.

Also because of the warmer weather — he sleeps through most of the day like a lump on a log. If he eats then, it’s a nibble or two. Most of his eating — wet and dry food — is either early in the morning when I fill his bowls, or in the middle of the night when it’s cooler.

Some of the random thoughts that I’ve had the last week or so are as follows…

The smells at this house are definitely different than what I had gotten used to in the Valley. Gone for example is the fact that I can’t smell the bakery in the early morning. The nearest bakery to this apartment are Scialo’s and Palmieri’s, but they’re too far for from here for any bakery smells. Not to mention they open up later than Maya’s in Olneyville, which was open at the butt-crack of dawn every morning. In it’s place I get barbeque and burger smells from Lily Marlene’s at night. Not to mention cigar smells from there and Tammany Hall in the late evening when the winds are just right. Sometimes in the morning I might catch the smells of dryers and fabric softeners from the apartment complex on Knight and Swiss St, or Addie’s. Lately through it’s been construction smells of asphalt (from the renovation/stripping) they did on Knight Street, or the apartments opposite here on Marcello at least for the last couple of weeks because the landlord’s getting the place prepped for new tenants (now that the loud, redneck tenants there had moved out last month).

Across the street here, I’m beginning to suspect hanky-panky of some sort from the chav there (my family calls him a wigger, but he lacks the bling). One, they never open their windows or blinds. Two, in the last week they had put in security cameras on the second floor that watch the driveway and front area of the house. While either the chav, or their kids occasionally make appearances in the yard, there’s just something about their actions that raises suspicions. I was reminded of the idiot at 32 Tuxedo that did the same thing (kept his windows constantly shut and shades drawn). Turns out that the ex-tenant at 32 Tuxedo who disappeared like a thief in the middle of the night was running a marijuana hydroponics set up that when he moved out — douche-bag ex-landlord was whinging up a storm about the thousands of dollars of costs to the water bill that had been run up by the tenant.

Anthony’s Tony’s (the business owner for the upholstery store at the corner) nephew was here working on his truck on the street. Well, he, the chav across the street and one of the chav’s friends that’s here Monday through Friday while the chav’s wife is at work — were in some sort of committee trying to figure out what the problem with the truck was. When I left my mother’s to come home after installing the air conditioners for her, Anthony (my landlord) was out there trying to help him out, and I couldn’t help but overhear the tales of woe from Tony’s nephew on how the inspection sticker had been stolen (quite the work given the adhesive lasts more than a year and can only be removed by razorblade), how he had been arrested and how they beat him up while he was in lock-up. While I was trying to hide the facepalming I was doing while unlocking the front door, I caught the look of two passers-by that were walking their dogs that were laughing visibly at the over-dramatic tales of woe. Apparently, they didn’t believe his story any more than I did and Anthony being as deaf has he was, didn’t hear any of it.

Then Tuesday when my mother and I got up at our usual time (6 AM) and headed to the laundromat, we stopped along the way at an ATM only to find her Debit Card is missing. Seems that over the weekend she had cleaned out her wallet and in the process of that, misplaced her card somewhere in the house. Of course she stressed out. Of course, I tried my best to keep her calm. We called off the laundry trip for the next day while she looked about the house for the missing card. The bad news was that she couldn’t find it. The good news is that it wasn’t lost outside of the house as my mother’s been monitoring her account and nothing unusual has happened. So she’s waiting 3 – 5 business days for the replacement/copy card to come in the mail. That didn’t mean that for the remainder of the day (until her trip to the bank to request a replacement card) she wasn’t completely stressed out about it being missing. And of course, even with me trying to keep everyone calm, it felt like it was just a veneer to being stressed out myself.

[Last Edited: 06/08/2014 09:57:53 PM]

I’ve come to the decision that I want nothing to do with queerfolk in Rhode Island. They’re rude in ways that I cannot even begin to describe. Try simply to chat with them and they completely ignore you. When they try to chat me up, while I’ve been friendly with them they get intimidated because they see my first requirement (of my 4 Rules of Dating) of 6’4″ and taller as the deal breaker for them having any sort of chance. When they push forward, it’s almost always because they want a Friend-with-Benefits, have the sort of daddy fantasies that scream instead “Daddy issues” to me, or *dry heave* NSA, which is met with complete shock that I want something more substantial, or ignored because I want to take my time.

I recall I made mention in previous journal entries of attempting something more… long-distance. I admit though, I haven’t really tried at all. For one, I haven’t tried socializing in any place where folk socialize and mingle. Well other than perhaps one or two MMOs, but those are gamers and not the sort of folk that socialize much other than to get to the end of some mission or another. And even then — there hasn’t been anyone really to spark my attention, other than to make a joke or three with. Eh… In any case, I have more important issues to work on, instead of dating anyway. I just need to cut out whinging on this subject and move on without so much as a second thought.

There’s more to write, but I can’t remember at the moment as I’m tired. I’ll make one more attempt tomorrow… Until then.

[Last Edited: 06/09/2014 08:47:31 AM]

Oh I remember now what the point I forgot about last night… Had to do with something that I was dealing with in an MMO I was playing (Rift). Was with the guild I play with on my main character (Hyakinthos) and I believe I was either doing a dungeon or a raid with them. The straight boys were going on about how they’re glad that the “heavy hitters” aren’t in the group as it allowed them to score better points on the DPS meter. It was (basically) a show of e-peen at it’s finest. Uh, as a Saboteur when it comes to groups of mobs no one — and I do mean no one — can come close to the DPS I’m capable of doing. Even during the Raid I did last night, if I started first early with the attack I was ahead of everyone by 10% of the total damage.

But apparently because I’m not cock-slapping a boss one-on-one during the fight with that awesome amount of damage, I’m simply to be treated like the red-headed step-child and it doesn’t count. Ha, silly straight boys and their e-peen games. It always gives me a chuckle the demented rules straight men and boys make up in order to prove their superiority in a situation. Ironically, I was taught somewhere along the line that if working as a team and defeating the issue (be it opponent, obstacle, or problem) is a win for everyone. Too bad this is a lost lesson for many…

Anyway, I’m really done at the moment. Two more days and counting. And I’m going to be a half-century. Woo… Until the next time.

Life with a Death in the Family

Entry 05/13/2014 08:09:23 AM – Mentat 699

Yesterday, the Tundras of New England was treated to what I would call a typical “Atlanta Spring Day”. Shortly after the rains that we got the night before, the temperatures skyrocketed to 80F/23.3C and just the right sort of humidity that comes off the Gulf of Mexico making the day fall on the wrong side of uncomfortable. The good thing about it though is that the air flow (when you were in the shade) was the sort of comforting New England breeze needed for that heat, haze and humidity. I honestly wasn’t ready for it. Between the issues that I had through the weekend involving the back of my mouth (from the allergies I talked about two journal entries ago involving nitrates from the Easter Ham leftovers) that caused me some lack of sleep and these temperature, I felt like the walking dead. And I was about to post in my failed journal entry yesterday:

 

So instead of keeping the entry, I deleted because I was coming off far too whingy for my own taste (and my own good). And instead, I went with trying to do a bit of fractal creating since the system’s been rebuilt and running to specs again… Though the funny thing about that is I’m finding myself still being in hyper-sensitive mode since the rebuild (you know, like what car owners do when their car makes all these funny noises and when they bring it in for a check-up ends up costing them a couple of hundred dollars in repairs).

I came into the house this morning and could hear the fans running on it and them sounding like they were humming just the wrong sort of way. Then I realized that they were making the right sort of sounds and I just wasn’t used to hearing them as the neighborhood was unusually quiet. It wasn’t quite the quiet that comes from living in the suburbs, but instead the quiet that comes when no one’s driving like crazy people on the street. Ironic given that yesterday morning we had road construction on Knight Street as Contractors were stripping the road out to lay piping (not sure water, gas or sewer) starting promptly at 7 AM; complete with jackhammers and lots of heavy trucks driving up and down the side streets.

On a side note: where are the construction workers this morning? Yeah, that’s right. Not out there continuing to work. We have unbearable temperatures for New Englanders and they’re out there early working until almost sundown, but now that the weather’s comfortable… Nothing. Other than the Road Closed (Except for Local Traffic) signs and the dour looks of Rhode Islanders as they have to drive on the stripped roads. This is a “marvelous” example of hurry up and wait as defined by civilian contractors… Yeah, let’s see how long it’s going to take them to finish this “project”. The sewer line expansion project (Eagle/Atwells Ave) took more than 18 months, and they’re only up to Delaine Street (.4 miles/.64 kilometers from Eagle St)… And from what I’ve seen of the plans — this is to lead to the bay. At this rate it might be finished in 2100, both for the local roads along with the Sewer Expansion Project. … If we’re bloody lucky.

I’m also finding myself being hypersensitive about Moe’s health. I know it comes from taking care of Cricket during her last two years; and is a habit that’s going to take more than a little bit for me to break. I’ve been keeping a sort of monitor/log of some of his habits, including maintaining my giving him a good brushing every morning and he seems to be doing all right. Heck, he even looks forward to the brush as much as he does his obsession with chasing the little red laser dot. He hasn’t vomited any of his food up and goes to the box regularly. Although I’m still getting used to the fact that unlike any of my other cats, he’s determined to eat at night while I’m unconscious and drooling into a pillow. But it’s easy enough to check up on in the morning when I see the cat’s equivalent to an empty bowl:

So of course, I have to break myself of the habit (associated to guilt) for not seeing the signs the first time with Cricket’s illness and simply ensure that he continues to do what he’s supposed to do and not read it as signs of a problem.

I got a call from my (biological) father the other day informing me that my cousin Marlene had passed away due to the ravages of cancer. Yeah, I didn’t answer the call though when I saw the number pop up and the prefix (area code-prefix-line number) to the area of Rhode Island that I knew he lived in, I was like, “what the hell does he want?!” I received a call from my mother about 5 minutes later when she asked me, “Did you just get a call?”

Apparently my father called my aunt, who then gave him my brother and my phone numbers. My aunt then called my mother to tell her about it.

My mother told my aunt that I wouldn’t pick up the call no matter what (which is partially true, if I don’t recognize the number. it’s not in my contact list and I can’t find any information on the call during a Google Query; I won’t pick it up letting it go to voicemail).

My mother then called me to tell me the news knowing I wouldn’t answer the phone and wouldn’t even check the voicemail.

Thinking about it the next day, it’s not like I could attend the wake & funeral. She died in California and that’s where it would probably be held. And it’s not as though I could send out sympathy cards… She’s an only-child… Her mother — Aunt Phyllis — died 11 years ago (and shortly after Jon’s wedding). Her father died from the second stroke he suffered 13 years ago. According to my mother who probably got the news, Marlene and her husband divorced years ago (the details weren’t quite clear, but get the impression it to do with her cancer and his denial of it being life-threatening). I know she has a daughter, but I’m not sure if it were hers or her husband’s… And in either case it’s not as though her daughter knows I exist. I never met her and she didn’t show up for Jon’s wedding — ducking out instead for her friends because the Newlander side of the family was never close.

And I’ll be go to hell if I’m going to send a sympathy card to my father. We’ve been estranged for decades, and in spite of the brief ceasefire for my brother’s wedding and shortly afterward, we’ve been estranged again the last decade. I didn’t answer his call and I’m not about to mend bridges I prefer nuked into the stone age.

Strange though. I’m sitting here recalling a few of the conversations that I had with Marlene (back around the time I saw her at Jon’s wedding in 2003), and I distinctly recall that the her daughter was her step-daughter. Then there was the time I spoke with her shortly after Aunt Phyllis’ death and her remarking that the family plot in Union Cemetery covered her whole family (alongside my father’s and grandparents). I mentioned this to my mother and she said, “how are you going to find out?”

“How else?” I said, “The Briere Hotline.”

After all, as Douglas Adams once said, “Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.”

And that’s it for the time being. My mother’s home from her trip to the doctor’s. We’re watching Jack to see if he really has to go out (mother said that his morning trip his bowels were a little loose)…. Heh, if he had to go out, he would be dancing at the door.. All he’s doing right now is following us around bored because he would rather be out causing trouble, than sitting about the house resting. At this rate, I’ll be walking him at the usual time (good thing too, given that the other dog-owners time it so that their walks avoid his barking insanity). Time to pack up, head home and give my cat some much needed attention.

Until the next time.

Cat, Health and the general wackiness of another year

Entry 05/03/2014 12:01:11 PM – Mentat 697

Good ol’ Moe. During my being the pack mule for my mother yesterday, I had the opportunity to pick up a replacement cardboard cat scratcher for him (as he had dug to the bottom on the two ends that he uses). So I loaded it up with a little catnip as the same incentive to using it instead of the rug in the kitchen. It looks like I used too much because he stayed near to it like a drunken addict. He turned it over twice to get the catnip all over the rug and floor. He tore the corrugated part of the scratcher out in order to get to the catnip at the bottom and chewed on it — getting himself high as a kite in the process. I had to put it out of range for him last night because I wanted to sleep without him going mad on it. This morning, I put it back down on the floor and he ignored it for the most part — mostly because I think he found the house cold from my leaving the windows open through the night — but when I was getting ready to leave, there he went at it again. Not for long though — it seems that some of it got onto the rug as he happily was rubbing himself into the rug. Heh, the funny thing is that he looks dusty and dirty again, even after I got him brushed clean.

In other news for my happy little pain in the ass. He’s eating the wet again… Well sort of. He licks all the gravy out of the wet food and leaves the chunks of it. I learned to puree the remaining wet food with a bit of water and by the next morning — it’s all gone. Oh I know, this is the sort of thing that’s indicative of gingivitis. It’s not though as he also gets a small bowl of kibble — and he also finishes the kibble in about a day/day and a half. So in the end — he’s eating well, drinking his fill (without the constant trips to the bathtub faucet), and burning out his energy with playing daily. Heh, now if only I can get him to stop being such a scaredy cat whenever someone comes to the door (family mainly) or call out to him when he’s sitting in the window — and he’ll be more amicable to the world at large.

In the land of Computers and annoyances… I had to swap out my flavour of Linux from Mint 15 to Xubuntu 14.04 (LTS) on the laptop. Those of you that have me in your Facebook feed probably saw my message of anger and annoyance at the Mint team that did a slack-ass/lazy re-branding of Ubuntu 13.10 to Mint 16. Those of you that didn’t — let me put it to you this way — the same problem that I experienced when trying to load up Xubuntu 13.10 on this laptop transferred to Mint 16 (code name: Petra). That is the constantly running display (and constantly running processor) dimmer problem — in spite of the scads of complaints about it with people on the Ubuntu forums.

Xubuntu 14.04 seems to have worked out that problem, except for the dimmer when swapping to Screen-saver as it seems to act up then for a bit. But as I don’t normally need to worry about screen burn-in when I’m at the laptop, I simply chose to disable the screen-saver and went directly to shutting off the screen after 90 minutes. Problem solved there.

Consequently, because of the roll out of the new version of the Linux OS, Syncdrive — a Google Drive Synchronization program I used to use on Mint has been blown out because it’s requiring a version the Libboost that doesn’t load in Ubuntu/Xubuntu 14.04. I tried loading up 1.54 for Libboost and that didn’t work. Tried to go back to 1.49 and it wouldn’t load up because remnants of 1.54 remained on the system even after being totally removed through synaptic and terminal. So I blew away the operating system one more time and decided it was high time to go look for an alternative sync program given the maker of Syncdrive only does this part time (and uses too many stop gaps until he has time to work on the problem). Enter Grive.

Grive has an auto-sync function that while I think runs a bit more than my Drive does at home — at least I can shut off the notifications and let it do it’s own thing without the mother-monitoring that I’ve been doing with it since I’ve installed it. And so far has been running to the standards I expect of both the not-installed Syncdrive and the Google Drive for Windows. I’ll check in with Syncdrive to see if they’ve addressed the problems I’ve experienced and corrected its installation.

Then there was the black-screen that I used to get on the desktop playing certain games… Turns out the nVidia forums are all abuzz about that blaming the newest version of the video drivers for this problem. Seemed to happen more commonly (like at least once a day) when I left the default audio drivers (that I don’t need) installed. It’s still there, but not as common. If it happens during a missions in any game, I’m going to do what they suggest and roll back to the drivers from January, 2014 as I didn’t have any problems with them in the time I didn’t upgrade (until the end of last month). Though so far *touching wood* it only happens when cutting between cut scenes.

As for me… It’s May… It’s spring… it’s just a little more than a month away ’til I turn ½ century old. Christ on a Drunken Rampage… 50… Hard to imagine I made it this far eh? As getting to Middle-aged 5 year ago, I’m probably going to take it in stride. Sure there’s been some annoying bodily changes, but at least I’ve got my health still even if my sanity sometimes feels a bit frayed. Though that’s something I’ll think more about next month as it’ll be less than 2 weeks before my birthday.

Last week I had a hell of a reaction to the left-over ham I had in the fridge. Something about the type of nitrates on it caused a reaction in my mouth (and more specifically gums). The remaining primary tooth that I have; the gums holding it in place reacted to it, causing me pain whenever I tried to chew on that side of the mouth. Not too hard to switch to the other side (after all, I’m left-handed and the left side just as natural for me as the right), but at one point a couple of days ago, I ended up having an allergic sensitivity in my mouth when I tried having a sliced chicken breast sandwich (another form of nitrates). It felt like I had Novocain without the annoyance of drooling from it. At least during the day… At night, was another story. I was drooling like a teething infant. As of yesterday it’s all passed. The tingling/numbness is gone and I can chew even the hardest things I usually eat on the right side of my mouth without pain or discomfort. Good thing too — I was getting tired of eating oatmeal for breakfast in the morning..

I’m still getting used to the neighborhood here, though I can see my mother and I are going to probably start a crusade against Tammany Hall across the street on Atwells Ave. Seems that closing time during the weekends now that the weather’s gotten warm enough to leave the windows open during the evening and night — the folk there are getting louder and louder. We’re not talking the usual noise one expects when a place is clearing out at closing time. We’re talking the type of screaming, car banging, engine revving asshattery that shouldn’t be going on in a mixed commercial/residential neighborhood. Since my mentioning the drunken slapper that was screaming at her car demanding that it magically opened it’s doors… We’ve had racing up and down Atwells (that eventually involved a high-speed police car chase), a parade of cars and horns at 2:30 in the morning. A fist-fight that involved banging someone against a car on Piedmont Street (side street off of Atwells Ave), and the general sort of ruckus that if it were in any other neighborhood — police would be involved immediately. Sad too given we have another bar right nearby (Lili Marlene’s) and the clientele there are and always have been quiet… Even at closing time we don’t ever hear much of their clients leaving for the night. They just leave quietly at closing time. More on this in the future, I have no doubts..

Well, that’s about it for the time being. My mother’s on her way home from her errands (mix up/mess up from out run about yesterday), and I should be packing up. Until the next time.

On the Eve of Spring Cleaning

Entry 04/23/2014 09:58:47 AM – Mentat 696

So it seems that we have stormy and gale like weather for the next couple of days and for some reason my cat seems to have a thousand time more energy than I do. He’s currently sitting there in the kitchen, eyes dilated and waiting patiently for me to pick up the laser pointer again so he can chase the little red dot all around the kitchen. Me on the other hand, just wants to sit here, window open (with cool and damp breezes blowing west to east through the apartment) to do nothing until about 11 AM when I begin the prep for the chicken slow-cooker dish I’ll be cooking for tonight. Well that and perhaps playing a game or two now that all the other chores have been completed: the morning job search, the shave and shower, the picking up the house a little in the endless cycle of maintaining a clean house. I had a bit of fun when yesterday as I headed to the toilet to heed a nature call and found that the toilet water had turned a very “healthy” shade of pink. Thought that this was only something that happened in the hole (of an apartment) in the Valley that had this sort problem occasionally, but after doing a bit of research into it, found out that it’s a form of Serratia bacteria that thrives in the bathroom area. That is of course once I got over the initial shock of seeing pink/reddish in the bowl and for one split second thought that I was having a reoccurrence of my having something with a red/pink dye and urinating it (quite the story and the shock and horror almost two decades ago and one that I recount to anyone having health scares of some sort or another). So a draining and a spray bleaching of the walls of the water well for the toilet and I’m pretty sure the problem’s been taken care of. I’ll keep an eye out for it again in the future to see how long it takes to reoccur.

There, I think that Moe’s sufficiently entertained and drained as he’s currently sprawled out in the kitchen and not really looking in my direction while I write this journal entry… Good thing too, he was exhausting me as I watched him tear about the kitchen area trying desperately to catch the little red dot.

I am having an over-concerned, “parental” moment with Moe as he’s currently acting oddly about eating and drinking and having repeat visions of Cricket when she stopped eating. Turns out it’s not as though he’s not eating — he’s just eating less. The problem is that all cats have patterns that they follow based on the passing seasons. Cricket had more energy in the summer and wanted to almost hibernate through most of the winter. Tiger was pretty even keeled through the four seasons and as he got older seemed more laid back than when he was a younger cat. Svengali was more hellbent about getting out of the house in the winter than in the spring through autumn. And Satan? Jesus he used to get off being more sadistic to his prey in the autumn. As I only got Moe here during the late fall/early winter last year and a full adult, I haven’t had the opportunity to learn all his habits through the year. So when I got him, during the that time, he had a voracious appetite, eating more than his fair share of wet & dry food. With my moving to an apartment that’s a bit smaller and is exposed to a lot more noise and couple this with the changing of winter, I’ve noticed he’s eating less, avoiding the water in his bowl (and as I said in the last entry, hellbent about licking the bathtub faucet for his necessary water intake).

Getting wet food, I see that he’s more than happy about slurping up all the gravy in the bowl and unless it’s tuna — he won’t eat much of the wet food in the process. I’ve checked for gingivitis and other mouth related issues and haven’t found any either — which confuses me a bit given he’s more than satisfied eating his kibble once he’s done with the gravy from the wet food. He’s not lost significant weight and after watching him chase the laser dot the last hour, doesn’t seem to have loss of energy.

I’m just trying to get over the over-concerned attitude and chalking it up to spring time and a bit of nerves. Particularly when you consider a couple of days ago when my mother and I went for a walk with her dog; with Moe staring down from the window as we walked by. The instant my mother called out to him — *FOOM* he was gone from the window in a puff of dust. When we got back to the neighborhood and I returned to the apartment, Moe was hiding under the covers of the bed until he was sure it was just me. Such a scaredy-cat. So he’s happy, energetic, about the right weight and shedding in typical cat-like change of the seasons sort of way, and I need to stop being over-protective about it until there’s any signs of a real problem…

There… Dinner’s in the slow cooker, and me without any bloodshed, accidents, cuts, bruises or even distractions from Moe in the process. Though he’s a bit confused about the sound of a can being opened up and thinking it’s for him. But after a smell of the Cream of Mushroom soup, he completely lost interest in it.

[Last Edited: 04/23/2014 02:07:06 PM]

As for me… Well sleep has been all over the place. With the weather going to warmer than typical and oppressively over-humid to cool and mostly humid still — my sleep patterns were 2 – 4 hours before 1 – 3 hours of interruption to 5 – 6 hours uninterrupted. As of the last four days, I’m finding myself over-sleeping (8 – 10 hours). At first I thought it was me making up for the lack of sleep from the week before, but given my typical average is 6 – 7 hours a night, I’m not too sure if that’s truly the case. Whatever it is, it’s getting annoying…

Just as annoying as my continued lack of focus. I’m still distracting myself in 20 minute intervals making it difficult to sit through a movie (like Saltwater which I saw the other day), or any of the usual shows that I normally sit to watch. And gaming’s… well.. In and out and in and out and… god, I need to stop trying to play three games at the same time. I was doing all right with the focus on a couple of occasions, but the problem has been because of the lack of sleep that had been going on for a while; it became difficult to focus on much of anything (other than perhaps the complete lack of sleep I had been getting). I was doing all right for 1- 2 days, but after that I went back to being all over the place. Though then again, it’s kind of hard to focus when I’m not trying to make myself focus. So who’s really to blame in this? Yep! Me.

I had a couple of moments with the lingering anger and rage… Seems to happen more frequently as I’m taking a shower in the morning. I would like to think it’s because I’m trying to wash it out of my hair (so to speak), but the truth of it is that I’ve been using it as a means of trying to motivate myself into moving (into action) when I get out of the shower. The thing is that it doesn’t really seem to accomplish anything other than work up my agita and also not let go of the on-going anger I have for those two douche-nozzles that are and should firmly remain in my past. Though I did notice one time in the last week, I went further back and found myself latched onto the anger and frustration that came out of my last long-term relationship when I was still living in Atlanta. On the one side, it did sort of take be by surprise given that I hadn’t thought much of him in the last 10 years and having a moment of wanting to yell at him for an incident that happened a couple of years later. On the other, after a bit of thinking, it seemed logical as it’s one of those great unresolved issues in my life that I just shook off and moved on. That for just one moment, I wanted to resolve instead of leaving as it was — untouched and ignored. Fortunately for me, I didn’t think much else of it afterward and only until now when I wrote about it.

There’s one other point, but I think I’m going to just let that one die without much more attention to it. I might bring it up again in the future if I see a repeat performance of it. Nothing bad really just… really bloody annoying. And I’m off for the time being. Try to watch a little television before I walk my mother’s dog. Until the next time.

A New Chapter in my Life

Entry 03/08/2014 12:27:28 PM – Mentat 690

Going into my third week out of the Valley, I’m finding the need for sitting down to write almost overpowering, and while I feel I will get farther with each failed attempt, I find it frustrating because it’s taking longer to un-knot the residual anger I have there…

Yes, I’ve moved out of the Valley and away from the two douche-bags that have worked me up to a furious frenzy.

Yes, I’ve only moved 3 blocks east of where I was living for a significant amount less monthly rent than the shit-hole that I was living in. And the kicker is, that while I lost 1 room (3 instead of 4), it’s still significantly warmer than the shit-hole I was in — even with a drafty door and 3 drafty out-dated windows currently installed. Of course, it’s about 200 feet from the door of my mother’s place. Not entirely a bad thing particularly given what happened with her (below).

Yes, I have a metric fuck-ton of improvements that need to do be done to the apartment in order to make it appear someplace I live and not simply the holding pattern of someone else’s attempts at making an apartment livable. Yes, there’s pictures of this on my G+ account but I’m too lazy at the moment to link it within my blogs…

I find myself at the moment in better spirits when dealing with practically everyone in the world at large. Partly because I’m not dealing with liars, thieves and users.. Mostly though because in spite of the occasional noise of party-goers leaving Tammany Hall at closing time — this is a surprisingly quiet neighborhood: even with the the fire department heading up the street to the old folks home at the corner of Atwells Ave and the off-ramp/service road parallel to I-95. Not as much police sirens (like running Valley Street), no construction, and no one 20-something bored and making noise as they head to friends or head home.

But there’s still a long way for me to go to being more like the person I was prior to moving into the Valley. Something that I know is going to require not only my ability to sit down and write in my journal more, but to also seek out professional help as well. More of that to come in the near future…

So, what’s been happening between my last journal entry and this entry right now? Quite a lot actually…

When faced with eviction because of the routine non-payment of getting the douche-bag slum-lord of a landlord to work on the properties, at the very moment of fighting and showing him to being the douche that he was, I decided on taking the option out and make an agreement to leave… quietly. On the plus side, I didn’t have to worry about court costs, outstanding rent and what was left to the non-existent and completely used up by the douche-bag security deposit. That left the slum-lord landlord having to foot all of the outstanding costs (somewhere in the vicinity of 2 months rent at $600, remaining security deposit of $100 and some odd, and $1500 for the court and lawyer costs… (Sure it’s not all that much, given the lawyer was a friend of his)…. On the down side… I was left with a lot of pent up and unresolved anger.

Within a week of the court date, and during one of the coldest and mostly frozen parts of the month, while my mother was walking Jack she slipped and fell and broke her hip. So for the next month, my mother spent her time at the hospital and a nursing & rehabilitation home getting used to having to keep her feet up when she’s not relaxing — hobbling about with walker. During the month she was at the hospital and rehab home, I was here watching Jack — her Chocolate Labrador. Fun times with that dog, as he’s more stubborn than I am and in spite of trying to train him with a bit more discipline — continues to have a mind of his own.

My mother got home just over a week ago, hobbling up the stairs as best she can and getting better at it each day. In fact, today (like Wednesday) she went out with her husband to get a haircut and do a bit of shopping in Attleboro. Not sure when she’ll get home, but I’m sure that I’ll be walking the dog before then.

I did the move the third week of the month. Took two days and six trips between the old and new apartments. It went surprisingly well, in spite of the fact that it took me almost three days to get over the aches and pains of the move.

Moe’s doing surprisingly well within the new environment. Other than the usual of him trying to find the smallest place to secrete himself into — underneath the stove around/near the Broiler — he tends to stick around the bed whenever he hears any noises other than me within the house. And of course, the instant he determines that noise isn’t me — under the covers he goes. Heh, such a scaredy cat. And unlike the apartment in the Valley he gets up onto everything… Table, counter-top (where the sink is), pantry cabinet shelf (at least one of them), all the windows and of course he has complete access to the top of the Fridge from one of the windows and the table. Unlike at the apartment in the Valley (where he loved knocking things off of the top), all he seems to like doing when he gets up there is to feel like king of all that he surveys… Funny thing is that everything on the top of the fridge is practically the same between the two apartments… So I can only assume it’s because there’s windows and more light near the fridge.

In the month we’ve had warm enough to have the windows open to colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra… We’ve had snow, slush, sleet and of course a hell of a lot of ice — mostly melted now. Sure there’s still some ice in many places within the neighborhood, but it’s not quite as bad as the first week of February which was when my mother fell down and broke her hip. I think I remember a time afterward that it had been worse; particularly when it came to the amount of sleet/slush that turned to ice.

I also remember for a couple of weeks after the accident that it was truly hellish getting from my mother’s house to my old apartment… Sure, it was only a 10 minute walk but it felt like the longest 10 minutes I’ve ever experienced.

The apartment itself? What a nightmare of a DIY project. The walls are riddled with nail holes, a poor use of stick up hooks that have done more damage to the walls than they should have. The walls are the worst example of sponge painting for walls I have ever seen in my life… The kitchen is blue-white… the office (used to be the den) green-white, the bedroom orange-white… And the bathroom? Brown-white… The worst example of brown too: as it looks shit brown. Not the color one should paint for a bathroom at all… There’s not tile around the bathtub, and instead it would appear that linoleum floor tiles… poor choice for the wall protection given that they did not use any additional glue/sealant for them.

The actual ceramic tiles used around the sink in the kitchen for example don’t have the proper grout between the tiles to make it watertight, making the tiles around the front of the sink to lose cohesion and are pretty much falling off… Hell, the counter-top needs to be fixed, replaced as well.

Three of the windows in the apartment (two in the bedroom, one in the office) need to definitely be replaced as I’ve said before. They’re the really old windows with the side locks on them… Single-paned and no screens or storm windows on the outside either. And rotted out and drafty looking… Along with the door to the apartment itself. Surprisingly even with them looking drafty as they are, the apartment is surprisingly warm even with the heater running at low temperatures..

And I haven’t a clue what happened to any of the 5 blinds that had been in the windows. The slats on the blinds were destroyed in places they shouldn’t have been even for the previous dweller owning a cat. The tilt wands were gone and many of the hooks for the controls gone… The covers for the installation brackets were missing and the only thing holding the blinds themselves in were small screws.. Finally many of the bottom rails were split in two. They were useless even in their state so I had to have them removed. Now I have more then enough curtains for the windows, save one: and that window’s near the sink. Sure I won’t be able to walk to the sink naked (because the neighbor’s across the street will be able to see me… But until such time as I can get blinds, I don’t need to be heading to the sink naked.

Surprisingly, in spite of the mess for the floors being painted and paint-splattered from the walls (and ceilings) being done they’re a lot cleaner than expected. A quick sweeping/vacuuming and a quick mopping and I find my feet to being cleaner than the old apartment in the valley. Sure, they look pretty crappy — but it’s just cosmetic.

Oh yeah, the heater… Smaller space heater than the gas-on-gas portion of the stove at the old apartment and yet at setting 3 on the thermostat for the heater, I can keep the apartment above 66 F (18.8 C). And the best part of it is the fact that the space heater has a thermostat control, which means that the heat doesn’t have to stay on all the time — making it run only when the temperature drops enough to need to re-run. Definitely cheaper than the old gas-on-gas that came with only two settings: On and off.

As for me personally, well I’m not playing as many games as I used to but instead am back to binging on television shows. Sure there’s many of the shows I’ve already seen from beginning to end (Stargate SG-1, Torchwood), and a couple of new ones/continuations… Elementary, Primeval, Ultraman in many of the different versions over the last 40 years… and of course all the movies that have come out since. Some of them good, some of them questionable.. And some? Incredibly bad. The kind of bad that you wish you could get the time spent on them back. Yeah, there were a couple like that. I don’t remember all the movies that I’ve seen in the last three months.. But at least they were entertaining.

Oh and there have been the webseries that I’ve stumbled across. Some I’ve mentioned before (not sure here though): G&T, Husbands…

Well, that’s about it for the time being. I think it’s almost time for dinner here and then it’s a little gaming, trying to watch a little television before I pass out in no time flat. Seems that for the moment my staying up ’til late has flown out the window and barely last until 10 PM.. Put on a little television (albeit YouTube channels) and I’m out by 9’ish max. I’m sure I’ll be able to sleep less come the summer, but until then… I think I’m making up for lost sleep the last 3 months. Off I go.. Until the next time.

An addition to the Homestead on the Tundras

Entry 10/24/2013 03:04:00 PM – Mentat 686

For those of you that might have been wondering who Moe is when I mentioned him in one of my fractals earlier in the week…

This is Moe… A 5 year-old DSH (Tabby) that’s been living with me for the last week. A friend of my mother’s sort of runs a half-way house for rescued animals for which my mother told her the last time my mother and her friend had talked (earlier in the week) that I was looking for a cat partially because the house has been too quiet for the likes of me since Cricket had passed away 2 years ago, but mostly because in the last month the amount of mice that have been getting into the house was getting well above the 1 – 2 I would be seeing in a month… Yes, the last month alone I had seen more than 7 make their way to the second floor cupboard looking for things to eat. So, last Thursday after finishing up the butt-crack in the morning ritual of laundry, I headed up to my mother’s and then over to her friend’s house to pick Moe up.

The amusing thing about what my mother’s friend told me about Moe and what Moe has demonstrated is how he’s nothing like how my mother’s friend painted him. For one thing, he’s not afraid of small spaces… For the first 3 to 4 days, from about the time the sun had come up, until the time the sun went down Moe would end up underneath the bureau in my bedroom, hiding happily from me, the construction noises across the street and the noises about the house. Then come sundown… He’s out and about… All hours of the night. Proving that Moe is in fact quite nocturnal. So, the only way that my mother’s friend might not know Moe is nocturnal, would be because the woman had to sleep like the dead.

Then over the course of the week, I learn that he’s quite the climber. So much so that I seriously am thinking of changing his name to Monkey. In the week, Moe’s made several successful trips to the top of the fridge in the kitchen, several more (failed) attempts of getting into the cupboards in the pantry (above the sink) and a couple of attempts at trying to get behind the false wall in the bathroom (a sort of decorative wall that hides the sewer line from the third floor into the basement). While fortunately for me I’ve been able to thwart those attempts, Moe’s made one more attempt since then and I think he’s given up trying to get behind. Good thing too, I don’t think that once he gets into it, he’ll be able to get out without having to cut the wall open.

So, as Moe and I get used to each other, I try to make an effort to keeping him up a bit more during the day so that I can get at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. As a concession I’ve learned that 5 – 6 in the morning when Moe’s completely torqued up and hyper is the time that I should be throwing his toys around the house while he plays the feline version of “fetch” (which is more like “chase” and less like bringing it back for another throw). On the whole it works, and while my patience is pushed at 3 in the morning when he’s feeling lonely and mewing loudly in the middle of the kitchen, we’re getting on rather well.

More to tell in the near future… Anyway it’s time for me to head to bed. I’m going to need to make up for the lack of sleep I’m not going to get in the early morning when it’s time for Moe to skulk about the house. Until the next time..