It's National Cat Day!

Queen Kitty Pop

It's National Cat Day!  Those of us who are Cat Lovers are all bound by the same Cat Spell.  They own us with their independence, intelligence, feistiness, amazing purr motors, and the ability to gain 40# when they sleep on you.

Kitty Pop:  A History

Kitty Pop was adopted from the Flagstaff Humane Shelter as a kitten 11/1/2007 by Jerry.  Jerry was our neighbor Deb's nephew John's college roommate.  Did you follow that?  Kitty Pop lived with Jerry and John and their dogs and whoever else young college males collect, and grew to be her confident, highly sociable, independent and sassy self.  John wasn't completely pleased with Jerry's care of Kitty Pop (the actual quote I heard was, "You don't deserve this cat!"), so when they separated as roommates, Kitty Pop went with John.

John had Kitty Pop for a number of years, moving with him to, among other places, Arkansas and Tucson.  On his way to a permanent move to Colorado where he would not be able to keep pets, John stopped to visit Deb and her husband Peter.  It was agreed that Kitty Pop would take up residence with Deb's daughter/John's cousin, Lindsay, here in Flagstaff.   Kitty Pop had a most enjoyable stay with Lindsay until she had to move, also to an apartment where pets were not allowed.  It was agreed that Kitty Pop would take up residence with Deb and Peter.

Since Peter is allergic to cats, Kitty Pop became an outdoor cat.  She was provided a warm and cozy heated bed in the garage, and Deb spent many hours on their porch sharing petting "sessions" with Kitty Pop.  However, neither Deb nor Peter was completely comfortable with such a sociable cat being outside all the time.

Ron and I went to Hawaii in December of 2014.  Our 20-year-old cat Cinnamon decided that was the time to say goodbye, and pet-sitter Kelly, consulting with Deb and Peter on site and us by phone, made the arrangements.  Yes, there was plenty of heartbreak in Hawaii.  Ron and I arrived home December 23.  Unspoken but on my mind was that we were a natural next home for Kitty Pop.  We were all acquainted with each other.  She needed an indoor/outdoor home.  We needed a cat.  Turned out Deb and Peter had the same thought.  One of them asked me, and I asked them to give me a chance to work on Ron a little.

On December 24 a big snowstorm was predicted.  That evening, I told Ron I thought Kitty Pop would make a great cat for us, and with the storm coming in, it would be perfect timing to bring her over.  Invoking his grumpy side, he replied, "I don't want another cat!"  I ignored that, and said "How about if we go over to Deb and Peter's and ask Kitty Pop if she wants to come live with us?"  Grumpy said, "I'm not going over there!" I replied, "Well, I am."   I got up and went.  And this is how you know when things are meant to be:  as I walked up Deb and Peter's driveway to talk to them about the situation, Kitty Pop ran down the driveway to meet me.  I knocked on their door, and said "Kitty Pop says she wants to come live with us."  They said, "Okay, give us a few minutes to say goodbye and we'll be over!"  The rest, as they say, is history.

We agreed that Kitty Pop could be a shared cat, as much as she wanted; however, since it was already winter and she was inside a lot, she shifted allegiance readily.  Deb and Peter take care of her when we travel, though, and interestingly, on the day we leave, she's on THEIR porch to greet them when they come home in the evening!  Who said "dumb animals"?????

Kitty Pop is now 12 years old, and has the run of our house, our yard, and still makes forays in to the forest, which was her back yard when she lived at Deb and Peter's.  She spends summers outside, coming in only to eat.  She spends winters inside, and with our weather chilling down, has recently migrated in to the warmth of blankets on the couch and occasionally our bed.  She remains a cat of distinction.

Ron immortalized Kitty Pop in this Halloween-toned painting

Our cats tend to be long-lived and we've had only one or two at a time.  Kitty Pop shares the legacy of these cats:

Megan

Janny

Squeek

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Take a look at this fun website for information about National Cat Day.www.nationalcatday.com

Q: Why are there fences around graveyards? A: Because everyone's dying to get in!

Source:  pixabay.com

  

Nothing like reviewing wills and last wishes to feel the grip of one's mortality.  Ron and I have been doing so, on both counts.  It's mostly in order, and we're trying to make what can't help but be a messy job easier for those we've asked to clean up after us.  So to speak.

During our process, we realized our wishes for our final disposal were not in written form.  Between ourselves, we had discussed being cremated.  We had not made any decision or provision about our cremains.


Ron's family doesn't have a historical family cemetery.  Mine has two in Nebraska, in close proximity.  One is the Sumner Cemetery, where my Mom's side is buried.  My Dad's side is buried in what is variously known as the Eddyville Cemetery, St. Patrick's Cemetery, or The Catholic Cemetery, Yeah, though the split is no longer practiced, the origins are pretty plain.  My parents are at St. Patrick's Cemetery, as is Brother Scott's wife Laurie, to be joined by Scott at his time.



I've been visiting living family in Nebraska yearly since I retired, which was shortly after my parents died and were buried there.  I've grown to like a visit to the non-living as well, and a flower run has become de rigueur.

We visited this past July, and during our drive from the airport to Scott's home, I had the feeling I've had almost every time I've visited.  Not that I've come home, exactly, but that things make sense.  The landscape, the never-ending horizon, the rural and agricultural nature of it.  It lasts about a week, then it starts to get too confining.  No place but paved roads to run, no place to just go for a walk without getting ticks and/or mosquito bites, the indoor lifestyle made necessary by midwestern summer weather.   This year I had another feeling, accompanied by a thought which grew to be quite appealing:  I might like to be buried in Nebraska.  I didn't say anything to Ron about it at the time, but now that we're discussing such things, I told Ron I was thinking about it, and asked what he thought. He was amenable to joining me there.

Since he didn't know much of my Mom's side of the family, we decided St. Patrick's would be the cemetery of choice.  It's in the middle of a cornfield, with a very nice aspect.

The drive in.

Immediate family.

Scott is the keeper of Nebraska family lore, and has told me in the past that when St. Patrick's was originally established, our family bought a number of plots.  He believes it was our great-great-grandparents Sell who purchased the plots. My casual research shows that St. Patrick's was established in 1887, which would make the purchasers John and Sylvia Sell. 

My folks made these genealogies for Christmas one year.  You'll have to double click to enlarge it enough to read it.  I'm on the bottom left, and the red line connects up to John and Sylvia.

Scott believes there are two plots still available.  He's going to do some legwork and see if that's the case, and confirm whether any of my aunts or uncles have plans to use the plots.  They have priority, of course.  If all of the family plots are spoken for, he'll check and see what other plots are available in the immediate area and their price.  He believes there are plenty.   When I asked him how we might put dibs on a family plot if it's available, he said, "Next time you're here, buy your headstone without the end dates and put it on the plot."  Okay, THAT was a mortality grab right around the throat!  "So, Alice, what did you do during your visit to Nebraska this year?"  "Oh, we bought our headstone and had it installed at St. Patrick's"!  YIKES!

Even so, another piece of the puzzle is falling into place, and it feels right.



“If you don’t know how to die, don’t worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don’t bother your head about it.”

                                                                                                        -----Montaigne

October Objectives

With the new month here, it's time to look at some goals, objectives, ambitions, intents, targets.

MOVIE SEASON IS ON! 

The past couple of years have seen a dearth of movie attendance.  Not because there weren't movies to see, but because of scheduling issues.  Holy smokes, I'm retired!  There should be NO scheduling issues!  Summer doesn't usually have many movies that I'm interested in seeing, and this year was no exception.  However, fall/winter/spring usually DO have movies I'm interested in seeing, and this year is no exception.  I'm going to get this schedule thing straightened out!  

So far, I've seen a couple of feel-good movies.

Source:  youtube.com

What made this movie a winner for me was that the main character, Zak, who had Down Syndrome, was played by actor Zack Gottsagen, who has Down Syndrome.  What a great job he did!  And the movie emphasized all the best qualities of people with Down Syndrome:  great sense of humor, persistence, charm, willingness to try things, and an irresistible naivete. My take on this movie:  predictable, unlikely, entirely appealing.    

Source:  youtube.com

Natch, I was drawn to the title of this movie.  The review I read described it as a comedy-transformation movie, and it was.  Brittany is played by actress, comedian, and former SNL writer Jillian Bell.  Brittany had a journey to make in her transformation, and I would have preferred less of the self-indulgent pity-party "old" Brittany and more of the training for a marathon "new" Brittany.  However, there was still enough of the training/running part to redeem the movie for me, and the ending was satisfactory.  My take on this movie:  predictable, likely, good enough.

COOKING SCHOOL

The Sharp Knife is still in its box.  I've decided to sharpen my existing knives (but not too sharp) and practice two particular skills:  1) how to hold the knife properly (I wasn't) and how to hold the non-knife hand so you don't cut your fingers off (I also wasn't).  I have decades and decades of automatically wrong technique to overcome.  I'll practice these holds while learning three basic chopping techniques:  slice, chop, dice.  

I've also decided to expand my side-dish repertoire.  Many of my dinner entrees (supper to you mid-westerners) are all-in-one:  protein, veggie & carb inclusive.  For those, I'm interested in not-usual salads as side dishes.  For entrees with separate dishes, rice pilaf and garden side salad are getting old.  I've already got roasted and sauteed veggies under my belt.  I'm looking at other grains, breads, squash, pasta, & beans.  There's a trendy preparation for veggies called spiralizing.  It can be used for carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, etc.  Even trendier is using the spiralizer to prepare zucchini squash, then using the squash in place of regular pasta noodles.  Called:  Zoodles.  Cute!!!!  And for those of us on the low-carb side, it's a nice alternative.  Spiralizers come in all sizes; I don't want a counter-top version.  I'm not THAT trendy.  This hand-held version from Amazon will be showing up on my doorstep any time:

 

Source:  Amazon

  

FINISH UP THE TINY DECK CONCERT SEASON

There are two scheduled for October, and the music is on the stand.

START OVER (AGAIN) FROM AN INJURY

Source:  needpix.com

A leg injury incurred by falling early in September brought  running, hiking, biking, strength workouts, yoga, and dog training to a screeching halt.  The good part is that it could have been A LOT worse.    However, I can't get around the time that's required for healing.  It's now in the last phases of recovery.  

 

Running:  I started doing a 30 minute walk in KV on Monday with good results but still some leg swelling later in the day.  When I do start running, it'll be Week 1 (again) of the Hal Higdon 5K Training Schedule.  A Fall Running Series is very questionable.

Hiking:  Sue and I have a plan to go out Friday for a short section of the Kelly Off Highway Vehicle trail.  She's volunteered to be the Voice of Reason in case I'm tempted to over-do.   

Biking:  Since some of the injury was to the knee, I want complete healing before I bend the knee as much as a bike takes.  A Fall Ride to Munds Park is very questionable. 

Strength Workouts:  The strength workout I get from Dr. Wes is what's called "functional" strength training.  It's more therapy-based than reps-at-a-gym based.  It trains muscles as part of whole body movement rather than isolated movements.  It involves bending, kneeling and other things an injured knee can't do.  I did dig out some upper-body-only dumbbell workouts I used to do before I started with Dr. Wes and have been able to make do very well with those.

Yoga:  It occurred to me that rather than find another excuse not to do yoga, I could check out some chair yoga on-line.  Turns out there are some vigorous knee-involved chair yoga routines out there!  So my google search has been refined to "chair yoga for seniors".   The most appropriate one for me that didn't involve the knee was a session for people in wheelchairs.  😕  I'm not complaining!  My injury could have been have been so much worse than it was!  Up to and including a wheelchair!!  

Dog training:  I finished up the last Agility Class with Jasmine a few days after the injury.  The trainer, Rebecca, had already set up a session that didn't involve running on the human part.  It worked out well enough.  I've acquired a book on Agility training, and have been working on the planning part of integrating what I learned in classes with what's in this book.  They dovetail very nicely.  I'm probably still a week out from being able to re-start any work with Jasmine.  

 "Our aspirations are our possibilities."  

  

                                                                                               -----Samuel Johnson