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Welcome to Clown School 101
On July 1st, we adopted an eight week old kitten from a friend here in Chico. He is an adorable grey and white (which I think may turn out to be a Maine Coon or Rag Doll mix) sweetie and we named him Beauregard.
He is my first kitten.
Need I say more?
I am puppy savvy but I had no idea what life would be like with this fluffy beanbag. Faster than the speed of light and leaping from...well, everything.
Can anyone spell curious?
Holy Moley. This little guy is a handful. By now, at six months of age, I thought some of the wildness would have calmed down. I know his sister, Jezebelle certainly hoped so.
Anyone who has ever raised kittens probably could second guess all the goofy stories of what is uniquely possible to the interests of a kitten. After all, YouTube is filled with wonderful home movies of all sorts of antics.
Let's see...
• Hiding under the bed skirt so that unbeknown st to you, as soon as you walk by hidden sharp claws lunge out at your bare feet
• Grabbing on for dear life to the sash of one's robe and dragging across the floor to the next room
• Showers and faucets are always a fine source of entertainment
• Declaring that the only reasonable and comfortable place to nap is between ones wrists and the keyboard
• Wrapping a gift or unwrapping anything with crackling paper
• Backward leaps and jumps that defy gravity
• Dancing in the vertical blinds
• Unexpectedly jumping up onto one's leg using his claws to rapidly grapple all the way up to one's chest just to say "hello'
and tonight's new favorite:
Jumping onto the kitchen counter and then behind the two-door, full-size refrigerator.
Ta da!
Fortunately, a little patience and faith (and a well-placed phone call to a Practitioner who owns a truck with tools other than prayer) allowed for the little darling to flatten himself and squeeze out next to the cabinet door. I don't know who was worse for wear after that one--him or me?
As Beau sleeps stretched out beside me on the couch right now, I marvel at his flexibility and fearlessness. If I were to even 'do' kittenhood again, I would have two so that they each have a playmate and perhaps, maybe not get into so much trouble out of their own feline ennui.
To be fair, it is not always a circus around the house. Beau is one of the most social and cuddly critters I have had the pleasure to know. And his spiritual practice outshines rivals most humans I know.
About his second week with us, I allowed him to join me when I went into the guest room for my spiritual practice. I placed him onto my lap and quietly explained what I did while I was in this specific chair. For the first few days, he was a bit restless and would wiggle and fret till he settled down and fell asleep. With each new day, we would repeat the process and I would describe to him what I was doing and share with him my prayer list as I prayed out loud so he could hear. Now, he beats me into the room and waits for me on the chair.
In fact, if I putter too long after they have breakfast (first things first, of course) he seeks me out and comes to remind me what is truly important to start our day. Beau has truly become my prayer puddy and is already in training for the Animal Kinship ministry team.
OK, guess you can send in the clowns.
09 November, 2009
27 October, 2009
Stormy whether
It is interesting to be on a staycation when the focus is supposed to be on R & R. What I learned is that I have become so pre-occupied and busy in my regular life that I have difficulty in not doing.
For example, the formerly enjoyable and simple act of watching "Jeopardy!'is very different these days. I grew up watching the original "Jeopardy!" program with Art Flemming. It took me years to adjust to not only the evening version but to Alex Trebek as the host. And of course, the voice of Don Pardo as the announcer (he and Vin Scully will always be the premier announcers in my world). As I got older and busier my viewing time diminished; or the program would be on the T.V. while I was bustling about the house doing a dozen other tasks.
Last night, I indulged myself and watched "Jeopardy!" all the way through without doing anything else. There were moments when I wanted to jump and well, do something. Anything. How uncomfortable I was just sitting still and giving the show my full attention. I took it on as an exercise. I did fine the first night. Tonight, I must confess, I had my MacBook open and I wrote during the commercials and boring bits.
Hello, my name is Duchess and I am a multi-tasker.
Given that this week Don is out of town for work, I have the house to myself and the dozens of house projects keep calling to me. Clean this. Organize that. The list goes on and on. Yet, so does the call to rest, read and relax. Oh, to catch up on the stack of magazines and the stacks of new books whispering my name.
Or what about that movie DVD from Netflix?
For the day, I had no T.V. or music on at all. I appreciated the silence embellished only by the sound of the intense windstorm outside. A bright sunshiney day with tree branches rustling and whistling. Must be near Halloween.
Not that you would know it is almost Halloween give the decor in the stores. Alas, once again, I visited my local Hallmark store and had to fight past the front displays filled with Christmas decorations, gifts and cards before I could find anything for Halloween or Thanksgiving. And it wasn't just Hallmark. The other retail stores are following suit.
How can this be? It is only tonight that CBS is airing "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."
Maybe the only scary thing this Halloween is the fact that there is movement afoot from the Federal Trade Commission to regulate what we write and read on the Internet to protect us from marketeering. The FTC wants to require bloggers and Facebook users to reveal if they have received any freebies or compensation from companies whose products or services they mention. The failure to disclose could result in an $11,000 fine per incident. (THE WEEK, October 23, 2009).
Argh. Good Grief, Charlie Brown. If only that were true. My heart races at the thought of how much certain companies--who will remain nameless for this post only--would owe me for the years of loving tribute. The words I write here on my private blog when it includes the names of products, movies, T.V. or services is because it is part of my personal experience or my opinion, not my revenue source.
The only commercial ads are ones you will see outside the text of my blog. Everything contained herein is personal and part of my inalienable right to write.
And speaking of being full of hot air, in the midst of the blustering winds of Chico, my cell phone service went kaput. It has been like this since around 11:00 a.m. My electricity and internet service continue to be running just fine but no cell calls. Harumph.
It makes me wonder whether or not it is the Universe supporting me on my Staycation keeping me from sending or receiving calls or whether or not it is time to purchase a new cell phone.
The storm we are whethering is the Blackberry Storm. Don is needing to replace his cell and there is an amazing offer from Verizon that if he buys one for $49 he will get a second phone for free. Realllly? Almost hard to decline. I really enjoy my current EnV cell phone and have finally learned how to text because of its cute little keyboard. With the Storm, I would need to learn how to do that screen scrolling thing that is a bit tricky for those of us with lovely, long nails. Oh yeah, and each phone would also have to subscribe to an internet plan for an additional fee. That was not in the plan I had in mind.
For the record: I have not received any compensation or reciprocal benefit from mentioning any of the public companies written on this blog post.
Stormy weather indeed.
For example, the formerly enjoyable and simple act of watching "Jeopardy!'is very different these days. I grew up watching the original "Jeopardy!" program with Art Flemming. It took me years to adjust to not only the evening version but to Alex Trebek as the host. And of course, the voice of Don Pardo as the announcer (he and Vin Scully will always be the premier announcers in my world). As I got older and busier my viewing time diminished; or the program would be on the T.V. while I was bustling about the house doing a dozen other tasks.
Last night, I indulged myself and watched "Jeopardy!" all the way through without doing anything else. There were moments when I wanted to jump and well, do something. Anything. How uncomfortable I was just sitting still and giving the show my full attention. I took it on as an exercise. I did fine the first night. Tonight, I must confess, I had my MacBook open and I wrote during the commercials and boring bits.
Hello, my name is Duchess and I am a multi-tasker.
Given that this week Don is out of town for work, I have the house to myself and the dozens of house projects keep calling to me. Clean this. Organize that. The list goes on and on. Yet, so does the call to rest, read and relax. Oh, to catch up on the stack of magazines and the stacks of new books whispering my name.
Or what about that movie DVD from Netflix?
For the day, I had no T.V. or music on at all. I appreciated the silence embellished only by the sound of the intense windstorm outside. A bright sunshiney day with tree branches rustling and whistling. Must be near Halloween.
Not that you would know it is almost Halloween give the decor in the stores. Alas, once again, I visited my local Hallmark store and had to fight past the front displays filled with Christmas decorations, gifts and cards before I could find anything for Halloween or Thanksgiving. And it wasn't just Hallmark. The other retail stores are following suit.
How can this be? It is only tonight that CBS is airing "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."
Maybe the only scary thing this Halloween is the fact that there is movement afoot from the Federal Trade Commission to regulate what we write and read on the Internet to protect us from marketeering. The FTC wants to require bloggers and Facebook users to reveal if they have received any freebies or compensation from companies whose products or services they mention. The failure to disclose could result in an $11,000 fine per incident. (THE WEEK, October 23, 2009).
Argh. Good Grief, Charlie Brown. If only that were true. My heart races at the thought of how much certain companies--who will remain nameless for this post only--would owe me for the years of loving tribute. The words I write here on my private blog when it includes the names of products, movies, T.V. or services is because it is part of my personal experience or my opinion, not my revenue source.
The only commercial ads are ones you will see outside the text of my blog. Everything contained herein is personal and part of my inalienable right to write.
And speaking of being full of hot air, in the midst of the blustering winds of Chico, my cell phone service went kaput. It has been like this since around 11:00 a.m. My electricity and internet service continue to be running just fine but no cell calls. Harumph.
It makes me wonder whether or not it is the Universe supporting me on my Staycation keeping me from sending or receiving calls or whether or not it is time to purchase a new cell phone.
The storm we are whethering is the Blackberry Storm. Don is needing to replace his cell and there is an amazing offer from Verizon that if he buys one for $49 he will get a second phone for free. Realllly? Almost hard to decline. I really enjoy my current EnV cell phone and have finally learned how to text because of its cute little keyboard. With the Storm, I would need to learn how to do that screen scrolling thing that is a bit tricky for those of us with lovely, long nails. Oh yeah, and each phone would also have to subscribe to an internet plan for an additional fee. That was not in the plan I had in mind.
For the record: I have not received any compensation or reciprocal benefit from mentioning any of the public companies written on this blog post.
Stormy weather indeed.
26 October, 2009
Staycation in October
Day One:
Whoda thunk that on my Sunday off from church I would end up spending five and a half hours in the kitchen? Normally,the kitchen is not even a room I spend more than five minutes. However, the clean-up process from the ginormous ant infestation (not ginormous-sized ants but the severity and frequency of their invasion) and subsequent extermination.
It was not an easy decision to choose to have an exterminator come to the house for chemical assistance. Don and I had exhausted ourselves in addition to using all the organic options we knew and to no avail. In fact, it kept getting worse. And we had ClownBoy, aka Beau the kitten, to consider so that he didn't eat the ants who of course, kept going into the cordoned-off, sprayed areas; or for him to clean paws that had marched through the area. Needless to say, the ants found the cats' food and water bowls and it was just downright hopeless.
The onslaught had diminished so it was time to clean the cabinets inside and out and the surrounding areas. Even my small size had difficulty in reaching into the lower pantry cabinets to clear out the debris and then thoroughly wash and rinse everything. While in the midst of this painstaking process, I must have cleared away the anti-ant stuff and hundreds more found their way back in via some crevice or other. I spent over two hours on this task alone. I felt like Sisyphus rolling the sponge over and over only to return and see new hordes of ants where I had just cleaned.
My body is sore and tired from bending, squatting, kneeling and scrubbing so hard for so long.
This morning, we got up at 4:50 a.m. so that Don could take his flight from Sacramento to Baltimore.
Now you can add punchy to my list of ailments.
On the couch is how I am spending Day #2.
Are we having fun yet?
Whoda thunk that on my Sunday off from church I would end up spending five and a half hours in the kitchen? Normally,the kitchen is not even a room I spend more than five minutes. However, the clean-up process from the ginormous ant infestation (not ginormous-sized ants but the severity and frequency of their invasion) and subsequent extermination.
It was not an easy decision to choose to have an exterminator come to the house for chemical assistance. Don and I had exhausted ourselves in addition to using all the organic options we knew and to no avail. In fact, it kept getting worse. And we had ClownBoy, aka Beau the kitten, to consider so that he didn't eat the ants who of course, kept going into the cordoned-off, sprayed areas; or for him to clean paws that had marched through the area. Needless to say, the ants found the cats' food and water bowls and it was just downright hopeless.
The onslaught had diminished so it was time to clean the cabinets inside and out and the surrounding areas. Even my small size had difficulty in reaching into the lower pantry cabinets to clear out the debris and then thoroughly wash and rinse everything. While in the midst of this painstaking process, I must have cleared away the anti-ant stuff and hundreds more found their way back in via some crevice or other. I spent over two hours on this task alone. I felt like Sisyphus rolling the sponge over and over only to return and see new hordes of ants where I had just cleaned.
My body is sore and tired from bending, squatting, kneeling and scrubbing so hard for so long.
This morning, we got up at 4:50 a.m. so that Don could take his flight from Sacramento to Baltimore.
Now you can add punchy to my list of ailments.
On the couch is how I am spending Day #2.
Are we having fun yet?
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