StrangeRanger

No Major News This Week...

...which is a good thing in most ways.  It does leave me with no idea what I should post, so I'll just hit you with some pics of the Daisy.

And here we have a sacked out cat.  And, no, I did not try to rub the belly.  

Another view.

And now I present Daisy's Toe-hawks!

Well, I like 'em.

I hope you are all safe, happy and well.  Have a great week ahead, all!

A birthday

Maddie's birthday would have been on Tuesday.  She'd have been 20.  Without taking a jot from my love for Daisy, I do miss my Maine Coon girl.  

What a dreamboat she was!

Have a safe and happy week ahead, all!

The Full Nebel with a Corkscrew Twist

And, FYI, we pronounce it to rhyme with "needle".

It's a pose that we first saw commonly among nebelung cats, those strikingly beautiful gray cats that bear a resemblance to our dear Daisy.  Here is Daisy, doing the full nebel:

Maddie did this every once in a while, but not often.  She was more of a classic cat loaf girl.  I don't remember Ivy lounging like this at all.  Daisy?  She does this on the (really, half off the) blanket stack, the back of the couch, the desk chair and, as you can see, in the papa-san chair, otherwise known as the cat nest.

One of the things that I've always found charming about Daisy is that she often curls her tail.  It twists into a corkscrew when she does the arched-back hallowe'en kitty stretch.  She can be found otherwise stretched out and long, but with her plume folded over.  Exhibit A:

And you're obsessing over my tail drape......why??

Not obsessing, dear, noticing and appreciating. That's all.  It's just one of the idiosyncrasies that makes Daisy Daisy.  We're all in favor.  In truth, she's too pretty to ignore.

Well, that's true.

Have a great week ahead, all!

Happy Labor Day!

For a long time I have been employed in an inherently conservative profession in an inherently conservative school district under the control of an extremely conservative state government.  There has always been pressure for teachers to refrain from explicit expressions of ideology or politics.  While I am fine with that in the classroom, my job being to give the children the tools they need to form their own opinions, the pressure has extended to private or other public expression.  Now that I am retired I can express myself attended only by the apprehension that comes with expressing yourself on the internet.  I think I'm grown-up enough to handle that.

Here's my Labor Day post.  And don't worry, there's a DAISY post below this one, if you're just here for the cat.

I have been, for 30 years, a proud member of my union.  When the teachers in my state took unpaid days and marched in our state capitol, I marched.  I got kind of teary when I watched this video.  At 0:38 you'll see a picture of a teacher's march.  Not one of mine, but I'm a part of it in a very real way.  I've always believed in strong unions.  It's been my experience that united, we can bargain.  Alone, we beg.  Teachers and school systems have been begging for way too long.  

My wish for all of you is that your labor is productive, well supported and rewarded.

It has been a busy week.

It's been a busy week for me.  It's also been a far less busy week than usual.

Well, what do I mean?  The busy part has been that I've been the point man for my family in getting dad's house ready to go on the market. I've not done a ton of physical work, but I've been at the house letting people in, talking to my brothers, talking to folks who are going to work on the place.  It's been odd seeing the old homestead stripped down and empty for the first time since '72, but it's not been terrible or depressing.  Honestly, in some of the rooms I'd assumed there was a wall behind the furniture, but there might not have been... 

The far less busy part has been a far greater disconnect from the normal here at ChezRanger.  This is the first school year since 1989 that I have not been involved in a classroom.  I decided to retire this year and was lucky enough to be able to do it financially.  I'd hope to do it soon enough, but 30 years of wear and tear + the complications of the new Covid-era school procedures made an exit the best call for me.  I'm now retired and, honestly, very happy with my decision.  It's odd, but most definitely not terrible. I get to read, mess on the computer, help LadyRanger, play with Daisy, bake, work out lightly and sit on the porch and enjoy an adult beverage at my leisure.  I could get used to this.

Daisy has adapted well to my being home full-time.

Why are you still here? It's 9:00 in the morning!  Don't you have a job?!?    Retired?  Hmmm... I suppose you can stay.  For now.  But you'd better be sure there's always num-nums in the bowl.

Yeah, food on the plate is generally the biggest issue for the wee gray beastie.  

This is the first Labor Day in 40 years that I have not been a working man.  If you take the entire span of my life, from the day of my birth up to right now, I've been a teacher longer than I haven't.   I don't know about you, but that fact does rather boggle my mind....  

I am going to spend tomorrow resting from my labors.  I hope you get to do the same.

Have a safe and wonderful week ahead, all!