A Little Bit about a Lot of Things

Yesterday I had a lot of problems to solve. My pickup was sick. Sunny, a yellow striped kitten we actually paid $5 for at the feed about six months ago has suddenly turned into a Tomcat, and was doing his best to impregnate his sister Tunes, another $5 kitten. The rent was due to be paid at the bank, a couple of other bills needed paying in person, and we needed some supplies.

 I absolutely HAD to get my shuddering car fixed before a wheel came off, or the steering went out and I found myself going over the edge of the roadside cliff down into a canyon. I am still in good with Sears for the car expense, and my pension came in on the first so I went to town yesterday to fix all of our problems.

The cat came first. I had to have Sunny at the discount vet hospital by 8:30 AM so that meant I had to be out of here by 8:15 at the latest. He howled all the 65 miles in. You wouldn't think a pretty little cat like that could howl so loud or so long! He was one scared and unhappy cat.

After I dropped him off, I went right to Sears because they still think I'm going to live long enough to pay my Sears credit card off. When I finally tracked down a salesman, I asked him to find out why my pickup shuddered so badly when I braked so there had to be brake related. And since I was going to have to charge it and break my New Year's Resolution anyway, I also asked for an oil change with all the necessary filters, tire rotation, and a wheel alignment.

They were not very busy and got right on it while I sat on a hard chair in the waiting room reading in front of a big TV playing programs that I couldn't change. In about an hour and a half they came to tell me that bad rotors were the cause of the shimmying and shuddering. "Fix it", said I, and by noon they had it done.

Thank God! A woman had come in about half an hour before that, and she was talking my ear off. She is divorced, she has a book being published, she is not interested in politics, she never votes,  she's from Tulsa, etc, etc, etc. She had a very nervous way about her that made me nervous too.

By the time I broke away from her outside by our cars, I was hungry and remembered that there is a Sizzler not far from Sears. "No", I told myself, "MacDonalds is closer and a lot cheaper. You can't afford a sit-down meal at Sizzler".  But I suddenly recalled that I still had $35.68 on the Vanilla Visa Gift Card that some kind friends from Gather had given me for Christmas! Hot dog! NO - I had the Senior lunch of delicately fried shrimp, tasty rice pilaf, garlic bread, and complete freedom to have all I could eat from the salad bar, soup, tacos, and the soft ice cream machine. I did them all and   it was sooo good! I ate slowly and just like the pelican in the poem, I stuffed down enough to last me a week.

The only thing lacking was one of my husbands to share it with. I miss them most when I go out to eat, but they both died long ago of heart attacks from chlorestoral buildup. I killed them with my cooking. It took me 34 years with Rusty, my sailor husband, and father of our children, and another 23 years with Scotty before he died in his sleep. He was a Scottish soldier and veteran of 34 years in the Black Watch. He lived through all that, but my cooking did him in. Too many steaks, chicken, and home made pie for both of them.

Well, anyway, I picked up my neutered cat, finished the rest of my errands, and got home before 5 PM. After doing I did my pet chores, I was in bed before the sun went down. That's a long day for these old bones.

Today, I let two more of my eight cats go outdoors for the first time since we moved in with Jane just before Christmas. Buddy, my number one cat, has been going out since the beginning. On the very first day out he found the cat door at Ed's house next door and alarmed Ed's only cat when he walked right in and began to eat the cat food. Buddy is too bold. He was chased up a tree at another neighbor's house two days ago, and had to be rescued.

I have gradually let Tuxedo Charlie, Mr. Chips, and his brother Inky, go out and explore, too. Jack, one of Jane's cats, has an unexplainable dislike for Charlie, and wants to beat him up. Jack used to be a muscle bound tomcat before he was 'fixed'. I think Charlie is big and strong enough to hold his own in a cat fight if he just had the will to fight.

Today was the first time out for Riley, a toothless yellow tabby, and also for Tiger Tommy, the cat that lived in the tree over my trailer for about six months one winter. Right away Riley found the hole to go under the house, but Jane's big puppy, Sasha, chased Tommy and he scrambled up the latticework up onto the roof. When I called them to go back inside a couple hours later, Tommy came out of a hole from under the house, and Riley came from under the fence. He had probably been visiting Ed's cat and sampling the cat food just like Buddy does.

It's after 11 PM and my old coydog, Sherpa, is nagging me to go back into my bedroom and go to sleep so she can go off duty. Things have to be just so before she settles down.

I apologize for rambling on so long. Jane works all the time so I don't have anyone except cats and dogs to talk to most of the time. I have bent your ear as badly as that lady at Sears did mine yesterday. I'll do better next time and pick better topics - like President Obama getting the angry Presidents of France and China to shake hands, and Michelle hugging the Queen of England - or not.

Good night all you nice people.