We had dinner with friends. I’m allergic to turkey, but there was plenty else to eat.
What WE had as a follower: made another spaghetti sauce. Here’s my personal recipe:
Spaghetti Sauce
3 pounds ground beef.
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
4 tsp dry basil
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp powdered clove
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp red chili flake
dash of cayenne
dash of allspice
heaping TBS chopped garlic in oil
SEAR beef.
Then:
can tomato sauce (standard size canned goods can)
1 can tomato paste. (small can, not big one)
I tomato-sauce can-ful of water.
Bring to boil
let rest an hour
then add:
2 cans tomato paste
sufficient water. About 3 cups. Add more as needed.
Simmer for, oh, 3 hours checking periodically for need of water.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Decade
Merry Christmas!
Side Topic: I recall CJ and Jane discussed a SodaStream bundle, some time back, a base unit, carbonating bottle, and a canister / bottle to hold the carbonated beverage, a liter or two, I think it was. It seems like there were also packs of empty cans and packs of, I guess, flavor syrup mix? IIRC, the bottles could be returned via Walmart, but are there other options? I am reconsidering doing this in a couple of stages, but I am not sure if I will. So I wanted to revisit the topic.
I have packets of the Solimo drink mix (watermelon). They make other flavors. I’m going through this fairly slowly. (I haven’t yet used the case of something like 12 packets of 6 or so; each one will make a pitcher’s worth of punch.) — But the other day, I thought, hmm, what if I could use carbonated water and create my own sodas via drink mix or buying the syrup / mix?
I like Dr. Pepper, Coke or Cherry Coke, and Mountain Dew. I rarely get Sprite or 7-up anymore, but those are fine. For reasons entirely unclear, Amazon has something against offering Dr. Pepper via their Pantry delivery, but now offers through their Fresh store delivery. I use the Pantry for monthly orders, but haven’t yet tried their Fresh service. I get groceries approximately once a month these days via my local grocery store, but may go back to every 2 to 3 weeks, as I keep over- or underestimating still on how fast I use things, and can still get over- or understocked. I have also tried and liked the Izze sparkling juice sodas, but hmm, those are smaller, so although good, you get less.
I’m trying to change how much or how often I drink sodas in favor of juices, tea, or drink mix. I’d like better flavor options and price. So I thought I’d ask again about the SodaStream, as it’s been so long, I’ve forgotten, except CJ and Jane said they liked it, it saved them some money and hassle, and they could return the empties and restock. If there’s a mail-in or pickup option, it might be a good deal for me. Just wondering.
—–
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day would have been very quiet, except — Kids were playing a lot outside most of the day before Christmas Eve and that day, and there was much music and other goings-on in nearby apartments and out in the parking lot, Christmas Eve day, night, well into the night (even at 2 or 3 am), with Christmas Day itself mostly quiet until late afternoon when adults and kids became active again. LOL. Although there was some mild beer(?) drinking in the parking lot, eh, it was indeed mild, no one was drunk that I heard, so nothing too bad there. Just lots of music and fairly quiet enjoyment otherwise, various things going on in other apartments.
LOL, the kicker was, someone hammering (I guess) around midnight between Eve and Day. So possibly Santa’s Elves had a local appointment. If there were any reindeer, I don’t know about it. Possibly the neighbors above got that, haha.
The other kicker was, I very considerately was using my headphones last night to watch Lost in Space season 2 on Netflix, when, hmm, I realized the noise from nearby apartments and outside, even that late during the night, was showing up through my headphones. I decided, OK, if it was loud enough to hear through my headphones, then maybe I should just continue using them, to hear the show better! 😀 — I didn’t get the entire season watched; I still have two episodes to go, probably tonight. I won’t spoil it, but oh, that’s really pretty good this time too. Although I thought it lagged a little in a couple of places, overall, I was hooked into the story, enjoying it, and OK with plausibility of most plot points. (One or two things occurred to me, which I want to recheck in a later viewing to see if I think the same then.) Overall, though, they’ve done an interesting job again this season and used the whole cast better. Each of the Robinson family members get a fuller use and char / story arcs. Dr. Smith is not taking up quite as much screen time / story action, but oh, still a concern. Her threat level is both not as high and yet smoldering underneath. I like how they’re presenting her better this season. The Robot is still a mystery, but we’re getting a little more there, and he changes some as they go, so he’s not so much a one-note or major item, but part of the over-arching story for each episode and the season. So, it’s worth a watch. Popcorn level is good. I didn’t feel like I needed to throw popcorn at the screen or strap in for an amusement park ride. This, like last season, is exciting, but with enough science and plot and character (or at least enough science that you should be able to tolerate any / most departures) to hold interest for science fiction fans.
One thing so far they have not done anything with, but introduced, are alien glyphs talked about, but which I don’t think we actually see close enough to see shapes. It may or may not pay off in the last few eps this season. It seems minor enough not to be too spoilery to mention. But at least they are considering such things.
I give the season a B to an A. It’s much better than a few recent film and TV franchises have been over the past year or two.
Note: I also liked Stranger Things 3 and hope for 4 and maybe 5. I didn’t think 3 was quite as good as 1 and 2, which rank IMHO as among some of the best science fiction / thriller TV ever. If you haven’t watched Stranger Things 1 and 2 (seasons) yet, I’d highly recommend them, but be prepared to be glued to your TV (or computer screen, as it’s on Netflix) as it’s a high risk of needing to binge-watch. 😀
I’d also recommend the Orville highly. Just roll your eyes at some of the earlier hijinks, but the show begins tackling more substance by ep 3 and later.
—–
The next Foreigner book, #20, Resurgence, is due out on Jan. 7th, so a bit more than 2 weeks until it’s here!
Curry is back, at least for the afternoon. Lots of water, a can of food, lots of attention. His fur’s a little dry/rough, but otherwise, he seems fine. Currently sacked out on one of his spots. Little guy could be a housecat if he wanted to.
(The spellchecker suggests housecoat, house cat, or house-cat for housecat. I went with, “learn spelling.”)
I found part of the missing kitchen utensils. Good, but where are the set of four multi-color striped salad/dinner plates, and are my two old mugs indeed gone (did I throw them out by mistake) or are they lurking somewhere? — The mixing bowls showed up, but where is the hand-mixer / egg-beater (old-fashioned hand crank, low tech)? I don’t want to have to buy another one. Grumble.
The not-so-reliable friend had said he’d be by before or after Christmas Day to get the packages at the apt. office. No such luck yet. If I knew one of the older kids or teens who’d do it, I’d be willing to pay a little once or twice a month. Trouble with that is, I don’t know any of them, only see them occasionally, though the kids, mostly little kids, are around any time it’s nice enough to play outside.
Nothing else new. I haven’t sprung for a new phone yet or ordered groceries again. Holding out until next week, just before the new year.
Condensation is leaking or dripping into the light in the refrigerator. You know, the little man who always turns the light on when you open the door. So likely I will have to remove the bulb, find out what kind it is, and order a couple of replacements, to have a spare. No idea if I’ll have to get a repairman for the refrigerator. Hoping to avoid that. I’ve not yet been here three years, quite, and the refrigerator was supposedly “new” when I moved in. (There were indeed tags on the appliances.) I like this refrigerator well enough, but just shy of three years seems way too soon to have had problems with its fan icing up (solved that twice now, defrosting) and now the light, and occasionally, the door not closing tightly enough. :-/ — Dryer vent has never been resolved. :-/ But overall, it’s better here than it could be. This is little stuff. I’m fortunate; I just wish the little stuff weren’t always cropping up, and wish it weren’t big stuff now and then.
Kinship Terms — A while back, I read a few articles on this until my eyes glazed over from the minute details and too similar or repetitive patterns.
In writing a recent chunk of story draft, I realized how irksome it could be to need to specify which cousin or which aunt/uncle, which side of the family, and other relationships, it might be, besides needing to refer to crewmates who might be permanent but not yet married into a ship’s family/-ies, and their relatives.
It’s also too much of a mouthful to try to refer to ith-cousin-jth-removed on your mother’s/father’s side, and so on. — But apparently, that’s what the Scandinavian branch of Germanic languages do. (I’m not clear now on if the Western Germanic (German, Dutch, Friesian, English) branch does. (English lost whatever words we had for “cousin” in favor of the French loanword, then dropped the gender endings, which left us stuck with saying boy or girl cousin or leaving it unspecified.) (“Aunt/Tante” and “Uncle/Oncle” and other cognates seem to be Germanic, then borrowed the other way around into French via the Franks. Cf. Tío y Tía in Spanish.) Spanish has its own set of words for nearly every sort of relationship, with most except mother and father being the same word only inflected for gender. So Spanish has a set of simple but unrelated words for various in-laws and for godparents and godchildren.) Scandinavian (North Germanic) languages spell it all out, “mother’s brother’s son” and so on.
I have some idea that in settings like this, where you’d typically have at most a few hundred people, often less than 100 or 200, on a starship, that if they stayed connected by families, then you’d want/need a way at times to specify succinctly what one person’s relationship to another was. I guess I’m going to have to look up kinship term patterns again to find something that suits me.
Apparently, “sibling” is a recently created word, along with “sibs,” and not something that’s been around in English for more than a century or so. This surprised me, as it’s handier than “brothers and sisters” when you need a general term that includes both.
But thinking about it again, I realized we don’t have a similar neutral term that includes, “aunts and uncles” collectively. English has “parents” and “grandparents,” but nothing to match for “aunts and uncles.” Odd, now that I think about it. And why English didn’t keep cousin versus cousine is strange, given that we borrowed nephew and niece from French also. (What they were before that, I don’t know; possibly Old English just used, “sister’s son” or “brother’s daughter” and their complements, for four possible terms for nephews and nieces. Oh. Hmm, we don’t have a collective term for “nephews and nieces” as a group either. Odd too.
So with a crew of some 30 to 100 or so people, many of which are in a single family or interrelated families, plus a few unrelated permanent crew not yet married in, plus any new or temporary crew, I realized I might really want/need a set of terms for the relationships of who is related exactly to whom, when telling someone new on board.
I figure the discussion is general enough not to exclude Herself from reading that. Dearly hope so. If that risks being too close to, “I can’t read that on my own blog, that’s annoying,” then CJ, please tell me so and the convo can be tabled. (Or div’ed… That’s a bad HTML pun. Very bad. Heheh.)
Ah, kinship systems. You meet them in classes like cultural anthropology. The one English uses is called the “Eskimo” system. You can see examples of different systems here, with nice charted examples:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinship_terminology
(The Romans had a complex system, with different terms for mother’s family and father’s family.)
Ah, kinship terminology—be still, my beating, anthropological heart! (My BA and main, modus of academic analysis is anthropology). Kinship terms in a language are almost always “productive”—meaning that they capture socially-relevant relationship details. Currently, we=modern English don’t directly distinguish between male and female cousins because the gender (and relationship) matters little in our modern, inheritance system. Inheritance and denoting (if it matters) the “side” of the family a relative falls in… and which generation… and which gender… are what drive all languages’ kinship terms so as to most usefully articulate the relationship between “ego”=the person in question and their relatives.
Figure out the type of social relationships and inheritance patterns you want on your fictive spaceship, then develop a unique linguistic term for each. If mothers and their sisters equally raise each others’ daughters… but only mothers raise their sons while the mother’s sisters have a different type of relationship with said sons, then the daughters would call both their biological mothers and their mother’s sisters by the same term (probably “mother”), but the sons would distinguish—when addressing those female relatives on his mother’s side who are one generation older than him. Likely the son would call his biological mother “mother” and his mother’s sisters “mother-side aunt”… and would likely have a different term for his father’s sisters, as any daughters would too if their father’s sisters aren’t expected to step in and raise them.
When I first studied anthropology & kinship systems, they were a memorizational pain in the butt; once I started trying to understand historical Scottish Highland (and also modern US) social systems, I fell in love with the topic. Kinship terms lie at the core or any society’s relationships.
Inheritance — I hadn’t even considered that. Possibly because I’m an only child, but also because my paternal grandparents did something unexpected for their generation: instead of primogeniture, everything going to their firstborn son, the will divided the family farm equally among the surviving children, with the part that would have gone to a deceased aunt going to her two children in future. In later years, my dad and his siblings sold out to each other to keep the land together; I don’t think anyone sold their parcel away. And then my dad sold his portion to a new young couple in the area, looking to start their family and farm the place, so that it could be maintained by neighbors from the area who would love it and take care of it, as it should be. That included some contention at one point over logging of the old-growth forest. (My anti-aunt ignored this and had her portion logged instead of more careful management and no systematic or widespread cutting. As a result, my dad’s younger brother didn’t speak to his sister for a number of years, until my mom and dad had the two reconcile. Heh.) — Just a regular family farm, but it had been in the family since the early 1800’s. — My grandpa and grandma had the then-unusual idea to treat each of their kids equally for inheritance and not play favorites due to sex or birth order.
But on a starship, I hadn’t yet thought of how inheritance would matter, how it would pass down. I was (and am) still trying to figure the ways in which a family would develop to own and run the ship, and then new crew would tend to be added as temps, as permanent, or by marrying into the existing family / families aboard. A starship might pass along inheritance by a corporate board, or by primogeniture, or by captaincy / retired captains (commodores), or other ways. But job performance, who is suited to what posting on board, would enter into who’s who, also.
I knew that, given a situation where someone new comes aboard, or given everyday life among those already aboard, you’d probably have times where you needed to be more specific about how each person is related to you or to others, and on the one hand, “cousin” is too general, and on the other, whew, you could get too long a mouthful using our English system of greats, x-th cousin y-th removed, and so on. (I personally find that cousin system cumbersome because we hardly ever use it. And yet at times, I may want to track how someone of my extended family relates to me or to each other, and oh, that gets long and confusing.) If you then introduce longer lifespans, maybe longer reproductive lives too, and several families that would presumably marry into the ship’s family, plus relatives who then go to other ships, or are from other ships…and then permanent and temporary crew who may or may not marry in…and hmm, what about same-sex relationships, and divorce, remarriage, widow/widower and remarriage, do you have more than two in a marriage allowed…. All those things go into modern relationships too, and surely did for historical kinship across the world, not just Euro-centric family systems. (Heck, I know ideas in European cultures differ and have differed over time, plus the Semitic / Middle Eastern models (esp. religion) that we also borrow from come into play.)
But besides that, I thought that something from my own background would come into play. My (maternal) grandmother’s side of the family mostly stayed in one place and spread from there, once my great-grandparents settled down. So there are a whole slew of distant cousins around there, although yes, some moved away to other parts of Oklahoma and Texas. — On my dad’s side of the family, although several families stayed in the area, there was also a strong trend for “itchy feet,” with various people moving elsewhere in the USA and putting down roots there, plus my own grandpa’s tendency to move back and forth between Virginia and Texas for much of his life. He liked Texas, but would also miss Virginia, which was home.
And my dad and his siblings all left the farm for the big cities, for college and work and marriage, so all my first cousins are spread out across the country, and their kids further spread from there.
So if family had not spread out, if most had stayed in one place, they could easily have that large extended family in one place, with neighbors in similar setups, which used to be common in the (rural) US, and still is common for many other countries / cultures. — From this, my realization that if you have a starship that reflects some of that as its own small traveling community (like nomads or migrant workers, home and work and family all go with them) then you’d have a situation where you would have a lot of cousins growing up together, plus the kids of any non-family crew. (And you’d have ways to say who is crew, family, etc.)
I know both CJ and Heinlein have touched on kinship terms for starship crews before. — I need to read the Liaden books, which I take it have a very developed culture there.
So I was mulling it over again and I think I need to work out how that would be, at least on the starship in question. But this case presumes we are not so far removed from the present day , only a few hundred years in the future, with present-day cultures colonizing space without a big break in world civilization or connections, so that it would tend to develop organically based on conditions on early ships and colonies, and then spread from interplanetary to interstellar once a workable star drive is invented. In other words, in this case, I don’t simply come up with something and plunk it down, but it would need to develop along the way from present-day people. I have a few important guesses as to early relationships forming that would, by necessity, jumble up old Earth-bound systems for family and nationality, which might produce different results, because I’m only familiar with the English and European family systems.
(I will reread the wiki pages, I’d gone through h some of that, but got to where my eyes glazed over, ahah. Everything started to look the same. But what I got from it was that there are many systems and the one I grew up with is no more “natural” to humans as a species than any others. That there are recurring patterns, though, and then variations on those.
Plus, yes, I’m remnded of cases in the Bible where, hey, early on, you have a very different idea of what a family or “house” is and what a marriage is, or who can and can’t have kids with whom and why and when. By modern standards, it’s mind-boggling what was common in the ancient world. I’m not sure people would return to all of that at all, but it means it’s within what humans as a species do, which most people today (at least in America) do not think of. (And not that what they did back then, or now, is necessarily “good” or “best.” It might not be.)
One thing current events have driven home for me is, within a single lifetime, large changes, sudden changes, can occur to social and economic and political systems, and ideas about what is right and wrong can change too. People can and are forced by circumstances bigger than they are (weather events, political or economic or personal crises) to big changes. The other thing current events have shown is, that big business and big government and corruption seem to exert a large influence, and may reshape a nation or a world or a local society until it’s unrecognizable, or at least into things people would not have thought would happen.
I worry that we may be headed for an all too literal kind of “corporate government” and “corporate slavery,” where ordinary people may become dependent on their jobs for “owing their souls to the company store,” and all those company benefits and personal debts may collide into…social and technological stratification, where people’s lives become too dependent on their jobs, and where corporations and governments might have so much control over people’s lives, that something like indentured servitude or outright slavery, couched in terms that don’t sound like it, might develop, not only for the poor and working class, but reaching into the middle class, if one remains.
And yet, hmm, there seems like there would be a strong resistance to that too. (On the principle that government is by consent of the governed.)
…And given that this was while also trying to figure out the cat on a ship and what hijinks may ensue, which I wanted to be more light and-hearted and more teen-friendly, some dystopian nightmare doesn’t seem like it would be very fun to write in, even if it gives material for the heroes to have to contend with.
So, a lot going on. — My story-writing has mostly been on the back burner, percolating.
And my font work has been at a standstill. I have having trouble _seeing_ the new interfaces for the two new programs, and the old one no longer works on the new OS update at all. So I am stuck trying to learn these plus a drawing program, in order to still get anything done towards font-making.
As a result, I have to locate my documentation for my eyes, or make a new appointment and start over. — Plus, this has made me reconsider priorities. I may need to buy that keyboard after all, make sure I get the guitar (etc) out of storage, and knuckle down to learn those, as a possible income maker for me. Because something absolutely has to work within two years, or I am truly sunk in a way I don’t presently see a way out of yet. So, likely before my birthday, maybe in January, I may plus down for the new electronic keyboard. I’m nervous about it, but…dang it, I want another creative outlet, I need to push myself again, and things have got to improve. The status quo isn’t so static, it’s in danger of falling behind, and the economy and political nonsense lately just are not encouraging towards our future, collectively, or mine in specific. (At least we may be on the way toward democracy again instead of spiraling downward into further chaos, now that impeachment is in the works.)
So, hmm, a lot needs to be going on for me. Plus, I’m still curious about things and still have ambitions. Like figuring out how a starship might define family and kinship. heh.
Funny, the situation with the cats seems to be going better than anything much else at present, heh. Thank goodness for small furry favors, I guess. 😀
I really need to get hold of some of my newer relations and ask them about the way they see kinships – they’re not all Europeans, and I suspect they have very different ways of seeing it. (I know one is from a culture where surnames are still mostly not uses. Your “last name” is your father’s first name – at least until you get into countries with fixed surnames, when you adopt one.)
I’d bet most Americans don’t know English also uses, can I call them “patronymic suffixes”? In their case it’s just the -s, rather than -son/-sen. Hughes means “Son of Hugh”, Jones, son of John, Roberts, son of Robert, and so on. That’s how I got my surname, albeit some generations ago, from a Welsh Quaker. Welsh do the “ap” thing.
Fitz, Mac and O’. Armenian “-ian”. Russian “-ov” and “-ova”, and their cognates.
Spanish surnames get -ez / -és as a frequent ending, which, IIRC, usually means something like -son/-child-of, or at least, from the family/house of.
English lost a diminutive ending for names that used to be common in the Old English (Saxon) and Middle English (Norman) periods: -kin. (Compare -dhen in German and IIRC in Dutch.) So last names based on given names and ending in -kin were nearly always formed that way: Tompkins, Simpkins, Perkins, HopKins, Larkin, Adkins/Atkins, Dawkins, and others I’m not thinkingg of at present. Hopkins comes from Hop for Hob, Hobie, Hobart, as a variant on Rob, Robbie, Robert, Robin, because French R sounds like a strong H at times to English ears. Daw was for David; Per was for Peter, Sim(p) and Tom(p) were for Simon and Thomas, Ad was for Adam, and so on. Dar was for Larry, Lawrence. — I went to school with a guy whose last name was Aiken or Aitken, if I’m remembering the spelling right. This was supposed to be from an older form of oak and acorn (āc and āc-corn in Old English.) But there was another explanation for his family name too, that I don’t recall now.
Irish and Scots Gaelic given names, and therefore family names, tend to have -an / -in a lot as a diminutive suffix.
By the way, I’ve beens surprised that a few older English boys’ names grew out of girls’ names given a new form or ending, masculine -et or -ot instead of -ette or -otte or a few others, which were French nickname / diminutive endings. But more commonly, a male name gets borrowed and modified slightly and used for a female name.
I was under the impression that -kin was more like “small” or “little” – which would be cognate with German -chen.
Think of French Pierrot – they had male and female forms for most names. (Later, female names tended to end in -e or -te – such as Josephte – or doubled consonant-plus-e.)
Ah, the joys of doing genealogy in at least two languages.
Wow! I just finished watching Lost in Space, 2nd season on Netflix. That was really something! They had a weak spot somewhere in the middle section, IMHO, but then got back on track and really nailed it. Hmm, and they’ve set themselves up with an unexpected and cool cliffhanger leading up to a 3rd season. I’m presuming, and hoping, they will be renewed for that 3rd and future seasons. And darn it, they got to me emotionally with a couple of things in the 10th ep. I’m in for next season.
Heh, and they are going to have to have a time gap or do some very fast hand-waving, because in the meantime, the boy playing Will Robinson is right at that age where you could see him growing up through the filming of this season, and you can hear his voice beginning to deepen, but not yet changed, I think. Before or during filming for the next season, his voice may change, and the amount of growth will be just about impossible not to notice. He’s playing Will at 12 or near 13, but the actor is now 14, so…well, maybe Will hits puberty earlier due to all those weird space-time effects. Aha, see, hand-waving solved.
Note: I don’t think we actually _saw_ two characters die, which means (maybe) both might have survived perils which left them presumed dead. Plus, now there are one or two elements that might mean more changes in the balance of good-guys / bad-guys.
Note: They did, I thought, a much better job of making it so that the bad guys might not always be so bad, they might have redeeming qualities now and then and do something right, and the good guys are sometimes pressed into, or tempted into, doing something not so good; both sides are human and have flaws and strengths. (This does not always clearly show up, but works in the show for something realistic, I thought, while you still get bad bad guys. The aliens and robots are, hmm, possibly not what we think either. They’ve been subtly playing with the robots as a mostly-unknown quantity the whole time. That makes them both more scary and more alien, but also gives more story potential for something not so two-dimensional.
During one scene in particular, while there’s a suspenseful delay, I think it let me figure out an important storytelling point. While I think the audience was supposed to be led one way, my take on it kept clamoring in my head, but what if…?! and ooh, that’s interesting, ass story material.
I will need to do a rewatch fairly soon, certainly before my birthday in March.
This was way more intelligent story-wise than any of the major film franchises lately. I’d put this version of Lost in Space right up there with The Expanse and The Orville and a few other science fiction shows as quality science fiction done right, by people who understand what SF&F are. — There’s a good attempt to stay scientifically plausible, although I know some people had trouble with that level in season 1, while I thought it was pretty good for most of it.
(I happened to like the 1990’s film version. I was never too thrilled by the old 60’s show, but it began with such great potential in the first few episodes, and Bill Mumy was great as the original kid growing up in space. I wish that show had followed its original potential instead of becoming a cheaper space fantasy more geared to the kids. But it kept a fan base, it still did have that potential, and the film, the unsuccessful TV series that didn’t get picked up after a pilot, and now this 2018 – 2019 Netflix version, have matured it into real science fiction strengths.
Possible Spoiler” We see, very briefly, one character has survived in cryo for medical treatment, but then we don’t know if he is healed and brought out before another set of events. So…no telling what will happen there.
Nice plot twist cliffhanger to set up for season 3.
I really think you should make an effort to get to know some of your neighbors. They seem to be outside a lot, and very sociable, so it shouldn’t be difficult.
You don’t need find older kids directly and speak to them. Rather speak to any of the adults, explain your situation, and ask if they know of anyone who would be willing to run occasional errands. All the families probably know each other, and I’m sure they will be able to suggest someone and put you in contact with them. More likely than not, you will find adults who regularly go across to the other side of the complex, and who won’t mind picking things up for you at the same time.
The adults and possibly the older teens are out mainly after dark, when it’s just about impossible now for me to see features on people’s faces, and navigating for me gets, hmm, doable but requires a flashlight or a known path, or basically going on faith. Heh.
(And either I’m missing identifying teens’ voices, or else they are working or out dating or inside studying, as I don’t hear them much. One, family of one neighbor, may either be living with his other parent/relative or off to college, which would mean my guess at his age from his voice was, oh, several years off.)
But yes, somehow or other, I need to get to know my neighbors better. I had made a good effort to greet anyone and everyone I saw, for about a year or more after I first moved in. Mostly, this mean hello in passing, then nothing else, as adults and teens were busy. Very rarely did anyone do more than an acknowledged hello in return. It meant I met at most a couple of people, but didn’t retain names.
Then I got discouraged and wasn’t doing that, and have mostly stayed that way.
Occasionally, I’ve had brief interactions with people, but almost no results that I can tell from that either. I know the name of one immediate neighbor but not the others, one set of whom have changed (moved in) since I’ve been here. I know voices more than faces, because I don’t see folks often enough. So I know a small handful of names, mostly without knowing which apt. is theirs, or even last names. And I still have not run into the guy who was friendly and feeding the cats, months ago by now. I’m surprised I haven’t seen or heard him since.
So…getting outside when it’s nice, figuring out some other way to get to know people where I get any feedback and develop an acquaintance or a friendship, is really needed. I’m frustrated, as I don’t think I’m that socially inept or awkward. I would’ve thought I’d know at least my immediate neighbors by now, or the bunch of kids who hang around.
LOL, the little kids, very vocal and a little bratty, I know names because they’re loud enough to hear through my windows. But who’s who and who belongs where and with what family, I don’t know. I am sure though that their parents or someone keeps tabs on them.
I’ve discovered recently that my vision has gone down enough that I need verbal clues more than visual clues. Reading people’s faces is harder now for me. (Seeing well enough to see someone’s eye color, unless close up like across a table or desk has always been a problem, though.)
So…yes, I need a way around this, to get to know people better. If I did, I could then ask about favors like package pickups. — I wouldn’t mind talking to an older teen directly or asking a younger teen to talk to his/her parents about it and have them talk to me, but I wouldn’t likely set up anything directly otherwise, as bad manners or procedure, while some people wouldn’t mind that at all, I suppose. (Keep in mind, my parents were fairly strict, moderate about some things, mostly conservative, and in their 30’s as first-time parents when they had me. So I was raised with old-fashioned courtesy on how you deal with people. And hey, I’ve been to college and out in the business world, so, well, I would have thought I was pretty well accustomed to social interactions.)
But hmm, somehow, not the degree of success I would’ve expected. Something to work on.
Curry — The plot thickens. Or gets more crowded. — OK, not really crowded, but more numerous.
Funny, I am having better luck getting to know neighboring cats than people, LOL.
Curry stayed in quite happily overnight. A good place to sleep, good food and water, periodic attention from me (wakeful anyway); we had a good night overall.
A neighbor was either playing Santa’s Elves again, some kind of repair or putting something together, or meal prep…at 1:00am. Whee! Er, and yes, the sound was identifiable as that rather than more, ah, interpersonal and private activities. (Ahem.) Which have happened a few times. Oh, boy….
Curry had breakfast this morning, which had the good effect of getting both him and Goober to eat a good amount. Goober was hungrier than usual and stayed longer at his bowl to eat. Whether as rival to or friend to Curry, I’m not sure, but this worked really well, and I was encouraged, seeing Goober eat so well too. Curry was (of course) going to tank up.
After which, he wanted right out. (He was going to go out before eating, but I got across to him I’d feed them first, which, aha, of course he liked.) — So after the meal, he went out and stayed a minute to say goodbye and reconnoiter before going on his way. That, I took for courtesy, good feline behavior on his part, feline instincts going feline ways, with their own brand of proper and courteous, friendly behavior. (It’s amazing what a full tummy will do for a person, or a cat. How much of the world’s problems would be solved if all those basic human needs could be met.)
Ah, but there was also — Well, hello, there, who are you? — A new (to me) cat right there when Curry went out, and while he stayed to say goodbye before going. Huh. A friendly cat, too, who looked, to me, pretty well fed and cared for, at first glance. And very friendly and possibly female, though I didn’t check directly. So I petted said cat, was friendly, the usual when greeting a cat. I figured she(?) belongs to a neighbor. Hmm, and wanting something from me, or wanting in, complete with paws on the door. Further indicators that she belongs to someone. Nice cat. She’s pretty. She might be related to Curry. She is either grey-tabby or brown-tabby and white. Brown-tabby, I think, as the grey is usually a lighter silver for tabbies. (Curry is a brown-tabby.) This new cat is also a longhair or medium-longhair as some ordinary cats are.
I opened the door, not particularly prepared to let this new cat saunter in. Goober and the new cat looked at each other, which effectively stopped the new cat from just walking in. Goober made, not quite chittering noises, but his sort of conciliatory or friendly-unsure-curious-about-the-new-cat noises. The new cat didn’t vocalize. Neither one hissed, though, no fisticuffs, nice and civil, and the new cat didn’t therefore come in. (I figure I don’t really need to encourage that if she belongs to someone, though that also means she’s less of a risk if she did.) I’m glad they were civil. That’s a good sign.
(Already, that’s better progress than I’ve made since moving here. :-/ )
I, uh, was convinced to give her some dry food outside, since she kept hanging around and still wanted in.
But — While looking her over to see what sort of cat she was, and markings, to see if she indeed might be related to Curry or just a coincidence, I discovered something while petting her. One, she’s clean, soft fur, which also speaks to, this cat probably has a home. It felt like she has a healthy weight, not too skinny, though not at all overweight. (Also not pregnant that I could tell, but I am not necessarily always right about that, especially if it’s early on.)
But — Her tail. At first, I thought I’d just run across one place where her fur was matted, but none of the rest of her is in poor shape. So I check again. Is that what I thought, and is she going to be OK with me checking more closely about her tail, which is, of course, a sensitive issue for cats, both literally and socially. — And so I discovered — Oh my gosh, poor kitty. I have never, ever seen something that unusual and severe. And apparently, it is benign enough that she seems unperturbed, but…oh, gosh. Kitty, you really need to see a vet for that. — She has a large tumor midway between proximal and distal to her hips/back, midway along her tail. It is the size of a mouse, I kid you not. It’s not matted, and…I hesitated in case she objected, but I then checked, worried for myself and for her…. It’s a somewhat fleshy mass, connected through the skin somehow, I didn’t check that point closely or feel it too much, as I didn’t want to spook or provoke her, and I wasn’t too sure about this myself. But it appears otherwise to be OK and not damaged, no sores or the like. — And it was oriented in such a way that, against the color of the concrete and with her tail moving and herself moving…OK, how could I miss something that obvious, a couple of minutes into a first meeting? I guess it’s my vision, or I was simply misreading it, since you don’t expect that.
This poor kitty, very nice, otherwise seemingly healthy and cared for and likely who has a home, is running around with that on her body, needing surgery and treatment. Eegad. And I don’t know other people’s circumstances; maybe her people can’t afford that. But…just, oh, gosh, that shook me up. That level of need, but that level of care being given too.
I don’t know whose cat she is. I am still presuming she has a home. I stayed a bit longer to pet her and greet her, and see that she was eating. Oh, definitely eating, but not so hungry that she couldn’t stop a moment to come back over and say thanks for the snack/meal. Heh. OK, kitty, you’re welcome, but I presume you do belong to someone, so don’t get too used to this.
I almost wonder if she regularly patrols the area, and I just haven’t seen her before, (possible) or if Curry had a paw in this, letting a friend know there’s a guy who’d give her a good deal, a guy who’s friendly to cats. So, uh, I guess word’s getting around in the cat colony here that I’m a sucker, I mean, friendly. Haha.
It’s supposed to rain sometime in the next few days, 40% chance two different days, with the temp lowering some before going right back up. (70’s today and 40’s at night, more like spring or fall for most people, fairly normal here.)
I’m going to check for Curry more, in case of the rain and needing shelter.
I will be on the lookout for that neighbor cat too, now that I know she’s around. There’s another female cat, skinny, who may be a stray or may belong to a neighbor, I don’t know. There are other cats I haven’t seen, around, and one or two neighbors do have cats, seen in windows or around their apartments, when I’ve walked back and forth.
So, huh, that was a highlight, but also, oh my gosh, at the level of need. I wish I could do something, but I know as long as she’s someone else’s cat and not a stray, I can’t intrude on that. I briefly considered a spare collar with a note attached, but then thought that might be rude and presumptuous. Surely if she has owners, they must know she needs treatment, but they can’t afford it. Or there are other complications to it. :-/ Sigh. — Ah, and I am one to look kindly on her, while some people might shun a cat (or person) like that. She cannot help it that she has that problem needing treatment. I am very quietly freaked out about it. That gets to my instincts of caring and of what’s right, and yet, I fully understand not being able to afford something expensive like that would be. Yet surely it could be treated. (My guess is, it could be excised without much harm to her tail, that it’s probably connective tissue and any blood vessels could be tied or spliced to resolve it once the problematic tissue is removed. Not a vet, but it seems like it ought to be treatable without too much bother to the cat, just the time and expense of surgery and healing up afterward.)
So, well, I seem to have met a new friend, whether she comes back again or not. And next time, I may get to confirm my guess that she’s a she. Fairly sure of that, rather than a neutered male. She is a splendid cat otherwise, and mild and friendly from what I could tell.
Uh, kitty, hey, I didn’t really expect you’d even want to come in. — But yes, anyone who’s had a cat knows, once you’ve fed them and greeted them, or if they’ve come in, well, there’s a much higher than average chance that you now have a cat. Or at least a recurring guest. Well, I don’t mind if a friendly neighbor cat likes to visit. But, uh, I also don’t want for her to switch houses / families, given that I think she probably has a home where people do care about her. If that’s a chance to get to know each other, then good, though. But hey, I have a cat, very happy with him, and Curry is, call him a recurring, regular visitor, a friend, not quite resident but not quite not. (LOL, there isn’t quite a word for that.) So if the new kitty has a home, good, kitty, you stay with them, but you are welcome to visit.
(I am now having trouble with Curry-based (and “-curr-“) puns. Currently? Recurring? LOL. Oh dear.)
So…. Well, that was nice, to meet a new friendly cat. I suppose now I’ll see if she visits regularly. I was probably too ready to give her food. Gotta retrieve and wash the bowl now, and see if Curry is still around and wants back in.
It should be a quiet weekend and going into the New Year mid-week.
Side Note: Smokey would be 10, any day now. Still reminded of him often, with Curry.
I hope everyone has a good weekend and a good new year. Expecting to order groceries next week. Otherwise going OK here.
Huh, you just never know what kind of a curve ball life is going to give you. But sometimes it’s a good thing too. I’m surprised and concerned for the new neighbor cat, but glad to make the acquaintance. Life is short. I’d rather it go well for myself and folks around me and friends near and far. Minor annoyances aside, I want my neighbors to be OK and have good lives. If they’re doing well, I figure I have a chance to do well too, so it’s not entirely altruistic, I guess. But…dang it, things need to get better, for me and for others. Too much bad news and crazy-stupid stuff going on in the news lately, politics being the most toxic lately. So…well, I’m in favor of the Tiny Tim school of thought, caring, even if I’m mostly stuck here.
Checking on Curry, then I may try to nap again, since I didn’t sleep much last night, all too usual these days.
Well! Surprise, Curry is back tonight. He meowed at the door. This is (maybe?) progress. This is possibly the first time since he initially left that he has been back the same day and wanted in. A very brief greeting and he went to the food bowl to tank up. He is hungry still. It’s started raining, so it’s a good idea for him to stay in tonight, if he’ll stay.
Huh, you just never know. He is his own unique sort of cat. — And I still have the idea that if he could set aside that deep desire to be out all the time, he could be a fairly happy housecat. He has that sweet side, right along with that fierce side, right along with that, “don’t fence me in” side. But I can sympathize with that latter, and being fierce is occasionally necessary to get by. — I still wish I could trust him enough not to keep the bedroom doors closed. (Sigh.)
But he is in, at least to eat, and probably for the evening, which is opposite to his usual timing.
I did not see the other cat from this morning, the tabby and white with the poor problem tail. (And bless her, she’s beautiful and seemed very sweet. Such a shame she hs to live with that thing on her tail. She needs help and I don’t really have the option to give it to her.) I hope she’s back with her family and happy. If she shows up again, she’s a welcome visitor.
I’m glad to see Curry again so soon. This is a big deal, though it might be just ordinary to him.
Curry was in all night and happy. This morning, I got up and went to the mailbox, and Curry decided it was time to go out. Never mind the light rain and chilly, but not bad, temp, though it’ll get colder around New Year’s. I tried to persuade Curry to come back in, but no, nothing doing. I didn’t want to pick him up and carry him back in, mindful of months ago. So off Curry went, into the rain. But not before — Oh, hello, it’s you again. The likely-female kitty from yesterday showed up wanting attention and food and wanting in the apartment, please. (Stretch for the doorknob.) Despite trying to divert her, in she went. Oh, hmm, that’s a whole ‘nother problem. — She and Goober said hello with no problems. Hmm, interesting. She sniffed around. (Yes, kitty, Curry has been here. I think you know him, don’t you?) And she checked the hallway, bedroom doors still closed, before the kitchen, whereupon, naturally, she thought to clean up remaining moist cat food and sample some dry. (Sigh. Now I know I’m in for it.)
Goober had meanwhile settled in atop the fridge to view the new visitor, neither too positive or negative, but watchful.
After sampling the food, she looked around again, but was really hoping for more food. And here I was, thinking, I really don’t think I should encourage a cat who is probably someone else’s to stay in today. I then had to lure her out with a can of food, while keeping Goober in. This accomplished, with her under the porch where it’s dry, and where she had come in, aha, she’s out. (Which also seems like a dirty trick, since it’s raining.) But now we’re back to just Goober and me. Curry is patrolling, probably holing up somewhere. The neighbor girl kitty is back outside, so she can (presumably) return home. I feel pretty sure she has a home. If not, then I just put her out unfairly. But hmm, now I’m also sure she is right around here somewhere, likely one of the immediate apartments. She’s beautiful and friendly enough. But bless her heart, that large growth on her tail, she’s carrying around with her is so unfair, regardless of a nice feline personality. And…I have inadvertently made a friend this way, in her. (This has not yet led to meeting her owners. Yet. It could.)
Curry, the fluff-brained fellow, did himself out of a perfectly nice dry place to snooze all day, just because he didn’t want to come back in. I was trying every opportunity to let him back in in a way he’d see as welcoming, not threatening. But to no avail. Maybe he’ll show up this evening.
And I wonder at the tradeoff again. I think he and the young lady kitty (no idea of her age) likely know each other. Now she and Goober have met and did so very peacefully, as such things go for a second meeting. I get the idea that she knows how to be a housecat, and would get along with Goober. — But I feel convinced she must belong to someone around here. I wish I knew whom. She has no collar and tag. So, she’s back out, to rejoin her own family when they let her back in.
Wacky day already. — Amazon says part of the month-end cat and people supplies are due today, rain and all. I have my fingers crossed that that doesn’t get left at the apt. offices. Heh.
Until and unless the new neighbor kitty’s family show up to reveal her name, I see I need to call her something. (Princess occurred to me, but seems too obvious, so I’m awaiting a more fitting name to occur to me.) I wonder whose cat she is. Funny, this could be an opportunity.
Goober did get his own can of cat food, despite that I had fed them earlier this morning. It will benefit him, though, the lanky fellow. The visitor kitty got food, so he got something too, being the resident cat.
Happy New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2020.
Or as I like to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WORLD.
We made a dance around the sun and are still here.
❤️ 🎊 🍾 ❤️
Hey, Happy New Year! — Curry came in this morning before dawn. I saw the neighbor(?) brown and white girl kitty again last night (and put out a snack for her).
Curry is in, at least for a while today. He was out during all the whiz-bang festivities. I don’t know what sort of fireworks one of those was, but whoever bought them had two volleys that, wow, sounded way too boom-boom for me. However, as far as I know, no mishaps.
A couple had another fight last night. Sigh.
And a day or two ago, the bunch of neighboring kids had a serious disagreement over one boy’s toy gun/rifle, which made the boy completely lose his cool, angry and crying both, whereas before he sounded older than that. But when you’re a kid, well, a new toy or other item can be a big deal, if some other kid is hogging it or takes it, or whatever was going on. I felt bad for the boy, but my adult opinion, not out in the middle of that, was, hmm, if it’s that big a bone of contention, then there are two solutions that come to mind. One, maybe put that prized toy up, keep it inside and play with it there, until he’s ready to let everyone else play, once some of the new has worn off. Or Two, possibly getting a couple more such toys, or something similar, would let the kids have enough to share or play teams, so we don’t have one boy losing his toy and the other kids jealous enough to take it from him to play. I think they were “playing” something like keep-away, in order to frustrate and tease/bully the boy.
Quiet here otherwise. I watched a coming out video recommendation which, wow, was very affecting and was food for thought.
I will be looking for the new Doctor Who episode tonight, but this time, I’m not ready to buy a season pass until I see if it’s going to be worth it. I was very disappointed in series 11 for a number of reasons, and hope they’ve learned better now.
As a result of all the commotion overnight, I’m dragging around and may nap.
I was glad to see Curry, and he seems his usual outdoor self, and his odd mix of highly independent and yet also eager for attention when he remembers he likes it. Heh.
Foreigner the next book is due out in less than a week now!
P.S. — Remember your black eyed peas for luck in the new year. (It’s a Southern thing.) Traditional for lunch and dinner on New Year’s Day.
As an Aspie, I don’t like crowds and general uproar, but as we go through the year I fear that’s exactly what we shall have. I doubt I shall enjoy 2020.
Oops! It’s time, isn’t it? (scurrying off…)
So, it’s pretty small, but in keeping with what I expect as we approach November…
Happy new year to you all!
We came through all the fireworks okay; I kept the windows, shutters and/or curtains closed as soon as the banging started in the afternoon (I’d kept the young cats inside since Christmas because of the occasional loud illegally early fireworks set off by the neighborhood boys), and didn’t open the curtains to look at midnight, to avoid traumatising the cats this first time they experienced lots of fireworks.
Though little Snowy hid under the guestroom bed (the most sheltered space in the house), she was a bit scared but not panicky.
Coco stayed near me, on high alert during the worst banging after midnight, but he didn’t hide and clearly was reassured by me staying calm. Today during some loud after-party bangs while he was on my lap, he even relaxed when I petted him and told him it was nothing to worry about, even though the rear-neighbor boys were setting those fireworks off only about 15 meters (50 feet) from the rear of my house.
I think he’s managed to weather his first New Year fireworks without getting traumatised.
I’m less sure about Snowy, as she’s more timid and prefers to hide anyway, and she’s stayed in retreat, or sleeping on the guest bed in the quietest room in the house, for a lot of today as well.
I hope you all had a good festive end of December, and all the animals came through the stress okay, including little lady Finity.
Wishing a Happy New Year to all!
happy new year to all, and may it be better, much better, for us than last year!
Curry went out yesterday before dawn, meowing to be let out.
I missed seeing him or the tabby and white cat that morning, but heard one of them screech, cats fussing.
No sign of them today, though before dawn, Goober was looking outside, raising up to look out the window by my bed.
Nothing much going on today. The weather is sunny, nice. Laundry this morning, which I hope will be dry by Monday; a few things to weed out and give away.
I watched Doctor Who s12ep01 and hmm, it was better than most of series 11. Not super thrilling, but better, and I’ll watch at least Part 2. Hoping it’ll be better this year.
I saw a commercial for Project Blue Book season 2 on the History Channel. I hadn’t known it was renewed. Thought it was OK in the first season, a mixed bag. So we’ll see this year how they do.
I haven’t yet watched The Expanse season 4; looking forward to that. The Orville is rumored to be released later this year. No idea when we’ll get the next season of Stranger Things, but looking forward to it.
—–
Foreigner #20 comes out on the 7th. Looking forward to it.
Very Happy New Year to all!
Having said that, I do so from almost flat on my back. I came down with an appalling case of the stomach flu, which manifested (of all things) at our New Year’s Eve party. Nothing says Happy New Year like telling your guests “I just threw up, so I’m going to bed now. Have fun!!” Today is the first day I actually feel like doing anything but lay about and whimper, and I have to try to do damage control for the 2 1/2 days I was out of commission. The cats’ main concern was getting fed on time, which DH took over, slightly begrudgingly; that and litterbox patrol. To DH’s credit, the kitchen is somewhat cleaned, party goods have been more or less put away, and all the contaminated linens are piled outside waiting for the washer. I will try to return to work tomorrow if I can be sure I’m not contagious, and won’t have to bolt repeatedly and unbecomingly for the loo.
Well, at least your luck will improve from there! Get well soon, Chondrite. That is not the sort of vacation one would want.
Perhaps teach the husband unit to do laundry? Or, y’know, rubber gloves and/or remote grabber or pitchfork, to load said linens into the washer without risking dire unwanted consequences upon himself?
Very sorry you are not feeling well.
Considering some of the ‘contaminant’, the best choice (outside of hospital grade autoclave) might well be a flamethrower 😛 I did manage to throw it all in with the washer set on high heat and a goodly dollop of bleach. I’ll live with it if I get bleach spots. Die, germs, die!
Seems better than throwing up on your guests New Year’s Eve.
BCS: Thinking about social patterns on human spacecraft, it’s hard to imagine that every possible human social pattern hasn’t happened somewhere in the thousands of years of history of sailing and especially river craft, which are less capital expense and less skill-critical.
Myself, I was rowing and sailing around in a sabot catboat (one bermuda-rig sail) from about ten in sheltered waters. I could have easily been laying nets or diving for clams.