StrangeRanger

Hoping for a calm, quiet day

We've been busy this week.  Gardening supplies have been purchased and hauled up the front steps.  The garden has been partially put in, some new block and board plant stands have been added to the north 40.  In a new move for us, we've got a small raised bed in the nearby community garden and have put some plants in there.  Got some of the back wildflower shade-garden cleaned up, too, but there is still a long ways to go back there. 

LadyRanger and I have both done harder duties, but it's somewhat tiring.  We're happy about the way it's gone, but it's been tiring.

We're hoping to have a peaceful, calm, restful sort of day before we have to finish setting things up this coming week.

As you may have guessed, peaceful, calm and restful are not adjectives that often apply to our little, gray force of nature.

I haven't knocked priceless stuff off the mantle in months, now....hmmmm......

In truth, sometimes Daisy can be quite relaxed.  

I need a new book.  These were all boring....

I hope you find good books for yourselves!  Have a great week!

Helpful

Daisy is a very interested cat.  Most of the time, if the humans are actively engaged in something, Daisy has to come and see what it is.  Often times, once she figures out the intricacies of the task, appreciates the established work-flow and thoroughly understands the desired outcome, she scarpers off to more important and productive feline pursuits.

Sometimes, though, she joins us in our tasks and sees it through to the bitter end.  Case is point, LadyRanger's sewing projects.  Daisy knows, as soon as the big cardboard workboard gets laid out, that there is a job to do!  And does Daisy sit on the sidelines and kibbitz?  No!  We're talking all-paws-on-deck and active participation!!  In the middle of the action!!!

My, this is comfy!  <ahem> Right!  Let's get going!  That fabric isn't going to get marked by itself, y'know!!  Drape it over me and I'll work on the bottom while you take care of the top!

You don't even have to look especially closely to see the needle sharp fang with which Daisy proposes to hole and pick the fabric.

Looks like you'll need about thiiiissssss much fabric......

Yep, once this board comes out, it is almost impossible to keep Daisy from just running off with the project by herself.

Right.  I figure that if we run a seam up this-a-way, we can put in a couple of darts over there.  Then we can run insert the junction box and run some 4 strand 24 gauge cat-5e wire to the main power source, put a couple of slash pockets on the  sides, a patch pocket on the butt for the catalytic converter, slap on a little bias tape to finish the seams, get some nice embroidery floss, embroider "Daisy made this", and Bob's your uncle!

What?

I don't know why the cardboard is so much more appealing than the hardwood floor, but it apparently is. 

It's a cat thing.  You wouldn't understand.

Really sometimes she's just so pretty we put the fabric away and just let her do what she wants.

You all be safe and have a great week!

Feeling Blue

This funny ol' world is getting me down.

Here's one of my favorite pics of all time.  I'm sure it'll cheer me up.

Dear Little Ivy, on the verge of a daring bowl-raid!  She was a good cat.

Have a safe and excellent week ahead all!

Cats in Windows

In my youth I had a great deal of fun with certain sports.  I enjoyed soccer and swimming. Never played on a team in high school because I simply wasn't good enough to make any team, but I played some team soccer.  I actually made my college team and started just enough games to qualify for a Varsity Letter my freshman year.  I must admit that it was because my coach was an old-school former marine who believed that if you didn't show up for practice, you didn't start the game.  Now, none of the European, South American or African gentlemen who had been playing since they were able to walk needed to practice.  They almost never showed up.  I did need to practice.  A lot.  I showed up and was allowed to start the games.  I was subbed out really fast most games.  I had fun with it, though.  Then I found Fencing.

My coach was  a former 3-time Olympic fencer and one of the founding forces in my life.  I fenced Sabre for 4 years at college, and then sabre and foil for several more years with a local club after that.  I actually won a small tournament in Chapel Hill one year.  Beat a friend that I'd never beaten before.  Never beat him after that, either, but it was a good day to be me.

I did some rock climbing.  Nothing hard or massively dangerous.  I went to Seneca Rocks, West Virginia, which is beautiful and imposing as hell.  I lead Entrance Crack at Stone Mtn North Carolina, which is terrifying.  Technically simple, but terrifying.

After that, I was a casual jogger.  Slow.  Slow slow slow.  I did a few 5k runs.  I did one half marathon, which was one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done.  I started road cycling.  Rode a couple of 62 mile rides, which were tough.

I did some triathlons.  Always got the white ribbon for participation, never a colored ribbon for going fast.  Had a lot of fun, too.  

I was never a really shiny athlete.  I think I'd sit at the bottom of the 40th percentile in most of my activities, but gosh I had fun.

I allowed myself to hit a several years long bad patch and, along with getting older I got fat.  I don't run at this point, though I'm hoping to get back to it as a fitness activity.  What I do now is walk.  I am the older dude with the Covid ponytail who walks through your neighborhood several days a week.  It's been good for me.  One of the reason I enjoy my walks is that I get to see things I'd not notice running, cycling or driving by.

I see cats in windows.  Big fan of cats in windows.  I take pics of cats in windows. 

I'm pretty sure I am going to get arrested some day.  But it's just cats.  I promise.

I'm hoping the pics come through the phone/computer interface in something like a viewable format, neither squished or stretched.  Entirely my fault if they are unrecognizable.  Don't blame the cats...

Here's this guy, a mile from my house.

The little sign above the mailbox reads "Beware of dog.  The cat is shady too."  How could anyone so cute be shady?

Here are a couple of little guys just having a relaxing day watching the humans go by.

 

I'm going to have to get a more up-to-date phone if I'm going to accurately capture the wealth of cats on my walking routes.

Anyways, I'll keep this up until the nice officers tell me to stop.

I hope you all have a great week ahead!  Stay safe!

I Once...

...read a comment on the internet on the subject of cats.  The individual (who may not have known much about cats) said "You know why cats act so pissy at times?  It's because they're nature's perfect predator but they only weigh 10 pounds and we pick them up and kiss them."  I'm not sure how pissy any of my cats have acted, but I have, in point of fact, picked them up and kissed them.  As for being the perfect predator?  We didn't know Ivy in her prime.  She might have been a terror.  She certainly earned Maddie's cautious respect.  Maddie? Well, she was a bit of a princess.  I'm not sure she'd have know what to do with a prey animal if she'd ever caught one.

Daisy?  Different story.  Bats, mice, small 4-wheel drive vehicles.... they've all fallen beneath her mighty paws!  Her constant nemesis and favorite prey, the paper towel roll?  I'll say only that she continues to to virtuously and bravely defend us against the menace!

die.  Die!  DIE!!!

This is what happens when I leave a roll unguarded whilst cleaning the kitchen....

I think I got it!  This will NEVER threaten another counter-top again!!

Note the tail raised high in victory.

WAIT!  Some  of it escaped into the air duct!  It's gonna be like alligators in the sewers if I don't take care of this now.... lift up this cover and I'll be back in a mo.....

She really was ready to do the Tom-Cruise-in-the-vent Mission Impossible thing.....

Daisy is a predator.  She may weigh only 10 pounds and I do pick her up and smooch her on what must be a disturbingly frequent basis.  But Daisy?  I get the feeling that she doesn't consider herself a lightweight.  No-sirree-bob!  This cat considers herself ten tons of teeth.  Many's the time I think she's considered trying to bring me down.

mmmm...gnaaarrrr.......rrrrrwwwwooowwwlllll.....

She's gnawing on my wrist like I'm a birch tree and she's a beaver with a schedule to meet......  There are teeth and claws being used here!

Tasty enough, but maybe that's just because he's always opening my dinner cans....hmmmm...  I may have to investigate this.... I suppose he lives for another day.

She is a benevolent little tyrant.

Have a great week ahead, all!

Another quiet day

Daisy is off in the great crawl space theme park. Probably still trying to tunnel out past the cinderblock, brick, rock and wire obstruction we erected to keep her inside.  

LadyRanger and I have had a quiet celebration of our 29th anniversary.  Our fave Asian/Indian fusion shrimp dish with a fun and tasty mango prosecco on the good china, thank you very much! We know how to be thankful for each other even after a year of quarantine.

This morning I am a wee bit tired.

Here's a pick of Maddie.  Enjoy!

Have a great, safe week ahead!

Drawers

Drawers seem to hold some sort of attraction for cats.  Maddie liked to lie down in them.  If it was a low drawer, Ivy would crawl in.  It's an atavistic, primal, security instinct, I think.  Perhaps the same reason that cats and boxes are such a reliable partnership.

I have noticed though, that there is one drawer in particular that exerts an almost mystical pull, a more than magnetic attraction for the cats.  It is, of course, the "3-S drawer".  You know, Socks, Skivvies 'n' ...... Stuff"  

Maddie Loved the sock drawer.

Ahh...nothing like a layer of good SmartWool (tm) socks 'neath my furry tum.

Really, she mostly liked disrupting my precision organized collections of socks, skivvies 'n'......stuff.

Chaos, disorder, confusion.... My work here is done.

Ivy was never spry enough to venture so far from the ground.  She made up for it by usually being the first to boxes on ground level.  Maddie, not really being an inside the box wort of girl, did not contest them.

Daisy loves the 3-S drawer.  She'll hop up when I open it in the morning and spend some time rearranging the disorder left from the previous morning.  SmartWool socks still seem to be a powerful draw.  Daisy has, though, taken things a bit farther.  Not a step farther, but maybe a wriggle and a skootch farther.  Daisy has a predilection for trying to fit herself into the smallest, most inconvenient and physically challenging cracks she can.  Honestly, we live in fear that one day she'll realize that a) our fireplace has a chimney that goes waaaayyy up and is very inviting and b) there is not currently a fire burning.   

I was dressing one morning this past week while Daisy was exploring and spelunking in the sock drawer.  And then she vanished.  I knew she hadn't jumped down because I'd have heard it.  There was only one place she could have gotten to.

Yep.

Whoa!  This is like Narnia!

Zoom in , if you can.  She's upside down.

She's gotten between the top of the drawer and the inside of the top of the dresser.  This cat..... She did not, despite appearances, push the entire sock drawer out of the dresser.  Although I'm pretty sure our little spelunking vandal is more than capable of it.  I'm going to make sure the chimney is bricked up now.

We hope you all have a great week ahead!

Okay, *today* I got somethin'......

.....and it's cute!

What?

Okay, so....maaaaayyyybe it's a bit more "mug shot" than "cutie pic", but hey, it's hot off the digital press and it is Daisy!

Like a lot of Americans, we have been relying on the iron-men and -women at Amazon for some necessary goods.  It's been a boon for a wee cat who enjoys the toys that the human's necessities come packed in.  Of course, once she realizes that her cuteness is being incompetently documented, she has the same reaction as most celebs.....

psssshhh.....  I'm out!  I do NOT believe that Chandoha stood me up and sent this clown in his place!

Ah, the temperamental model..... She gets away with it 'cause she's beautiful.

We hope that you all get away with a great week!  And have a lovely Valentine's Day with your sweetie!

I dunno.....

...I got nothin' today.

Have another vintage pic.  

One of the few moments that our two girls were within 3 feet of each other and seemingly at peace.  Thank goodness for that wedge pillow.  As Robert Frost wrote, "...good fences make good neighbors..."

Have a great week, all!  

A little touch of Daisy...

...on a cold gray day.

Have a wee bit of warm furry tummy!  It will bring cheer to your day!

Have a great week!