We’ve opted out of our usual St. Paddy’s day fest with the pipers and all—regretfully. But while the virus isn’t out in town,it is in town, and we’ve just decided the tightly packed pub crowd in that evening is not wise for people of _ahem) – our age.
Hope you all are staying smart and safe. I love my readers and want them healthy.
It seems every time I think i’m getting ahead on the writing, some new emergency pops up, but we are now making progress. It’s tax time in the US and we’ve decided to change accountants, being absolutely out of our minds with the delays, procrastinations and problems of dealing with the ones we’ve used the last several years. We paid a bill, the papers didn’t get filed, the IRS returned what we paid over our objection to our accountants, who said, no, it’s ok, and now the IRS wants it back with interest…arrgh!
So…that’s part of the hassle. Finity—is a handful. Found her atop the range lapping chicken soup (our lunch) out of a pan that had a burner going under it. There is nothing this kitten will not dare in pursuit of food.
It’s supposed to snow Saturday, after a month of 50 degree days. Naturally things are budding out and ready to bloom.
And we’re doing ok in most regards, except the house is a mess, the basement is a mess and we are behind.
What a day! Harris County and Galveston County (Houston is in Harris County) have both declared county-wide shutdowns, in concertingt with something similar from the State of Texas. Harris County is calling it the “Stay Home Work Safe” initiative.
Essential services like groceries, food and other deliveries, prescriptions, pet care and supplies, are OK, but they are asking people not to gather or go out or have contact except 6 feet away, as much as possible, to limit spread and contact with the virus.
Our County Judge said they had begun testing on Friday and expect to run out of Federal supplies by tomorrow, and are anxiously awaiting the next shipment; a subtle but vocal criticism, while noting the Houston Medical Center is (claimed) the world’s largest.
Naturally the local TV station’s talking bubble head announcers had to voice over with speculation and inane comments while the Judge gave the Spanish translation. They would not have cut out ike that in years past, and now, that Spanish translation is more urgently needed than before, for the higher number of speakers. They went on so long, I skipped the rest.
—–
What this means for me is, closing on my house is now postponed until at least April 3rd, the end of next week, due to the shutdown. Also postponed are utility hookups and installation of and delivery of appliances to be provided by the seller, plus those I will be putting in. Moving is also postponed until then. I will definitely be here in the apartment until after April 3rd at very least.
Hah, this might give me time to catch up and finish packing, maybe even do more weeding out of what I have.
See under Ready4More’s comment above regarding how this affects me keeping the cats. I still have to look into if local Petco or Petsmart could take them and coordinate with local no-kill adoption shelters. But the shelters themselves are closed to the public and smaller private ones are filled to capacity already. So unless I find out otherwise, Mama Peppercorn and her kittens will be here another two weeks.
Natural gas is scheduled now for the Thursday after the shutdown lifts. But the cable / internet / security hookup earliest available date was April 24th. If I move in before then, I could be without internet for a couple of weeks. I don’t know yet, but it looks like I might be in the apartment until then. My friend as well as the seller are just as unsure as I am about how we’ll work this, but we plan to proceed.
I asked about what to do if the closing falls through and I end up having to look for somewhere else. Word from both utilities was, I don’t have to forfeit the money already paid for install and deposit, the acts. can go inactive and be reactivated when needed.
The lady I spoke to for one was based in Colorado, and was very kind. She said they’ve done the same where she is, maybe near Denver, and she was relieved to hear that cats and dogs cannot transfer the virus to/from humans, so humans are safe from their pets and the pets are safe from their humans. I said she could check her local vet and shelters and online, YouTube and other sources, to confirm this. I forgot to say the CDC has stated it’s safe regarding pets.
I’m expecting to order groceries at the end of the week. I called abut that, ad yes, both delivery and in-store will still be going as usual, but limited hours and contact.
I forgot to ask (beg) whether they (ahem) have toilet paper in the store. Heh. Online still won’t admit such a thing exists, Zero results. Amazon reports you can order it from a few suppliers but oh, due April 30th or May something. That is, ah, too long to hold it. Haha. Amazon also reports being out of all / nearly all soft drinks. (I didn’t check on SodaStram as I don’t have it, nor about more specialty brands / flavors.) Kroger’s though, does say they have sodas in stock. But not some other supplies or foods if you want/need those.
Doing OK so far. Really hope the cat litter comes tomorrow.
The apt. mgmt. office is open during the crisis, though. My friend was scrambling to get things done today before shutdown, but might be able to go by the apt. office tomorrow or the next day. There’s at least a big pail of cat litter, much wanted, waiting there.
So hey, I’m in lockdown like everyone else, just about. Which amounts to no change for me, practically speaking, except to postpone my move and thereby cost me at least a month’s rend and storage fees. Oh well, I knew that could happen, just was hoping to avoid the extra expense.
I hope everyone does fine. Please stay well and be careful.
Saw an interesting statistic this morning in the news.
From the very first reported & confirmed case till the first 100,000 th case, it took 67 days.
From 100,000 to reach 200,000 it took 11 days.
From 200,000 to reach 300,000 it took 4 days
Comment Ok my second reply to Blue`s enquiry about audio book. I never thought about this until after the edit timer ended.
Now as I said, I’ve never used Audio before on my Kindle. It says I’m not set up to purchase using audio, as I clicked on individual books, but I can get a free audio book by accepting the trial. Doesn’t tell me how much I might be expected to pay for an audio book otherwise.
Do I went to FantasticFiction.Com and looked at CJ`s page , specifically Pride of Change. Tells me there that Audio is about £13 and change. So that confirms it for me, Wasn’t personally interested in listening to someone else reading a book out loud.
Comment – Just a reminder that with books on Kindle, you can actually change the Font Size
Comment Just announced that the Prince of Wales, has tested positive for the Coronavirus. He and the Duchess are now self isolating. Queen is still reported healthy, and is elsewhere anyway.
Deesha — what you’re looking at is an exponential curve, which we need to flatten ASAP before necessary services get overrun. Like many things, we should have started harder earlier, and now will be playing catchup to avert large problems.
Not surprised that the royal family has at least 1 member with the bug, They are out there pressing the flesh as much as President Rage Mango, and were more likely than not to have been exposed.
BCS — With most services on lockdown right now, it will likely take longer than expected to process something like a house deed and/or mortgage. Hang in there! I think the new place will be much better than the old. One thing I have seen people who receive a lot of packages do, is install a parcel locker on their porch or an accessible place by their house. Might not be necessary for you at the new place, because you work from home and won’t have to deal with the apartment office running interference..
New House, Cats, Virus, Etc.
Both sides, buyer (me) and seller (other guy) are intending to go through with closing on the house purchase, from the latest update. But since the city is now in Stay Home Work Safe, lockdown except essential services, we (and the title co. and nearly every Svc. needed) are shut down or ltd. service for the duration. It’ll be until at least after April 3rd before we get going again. As I understand it, the seller is OK with the deal, probably is more eager with his construction business shut down or mostly so. I postponed utility hoops, and we won’t be getting appliances or furniture delivered and installed until later. Which might give me enough time to get fully packed up at the apartment. Heh.
So I am still hopeful. — A parcel locker, something like that, is a really good idea and probably cheap enough to consider. I will run that by the friend, in case we can get it cheaper, and so we can get it installed.
So I’ll be in the apartment some or most of April. Net and sec hookup is delayed until April 24th, due to backlog, due to the virus concerns. So I might be fully moved in but minus internet access for a couple of weeks, depending on how things go. Or it may work out just about right.
Cats — After more looking online and more calls — Peppercorn and kittens are staying with me for the duration, at the best advice of all the people I talked to. The two major volunteer no-kill shelters (CAP and Special Pals, Houston) are closed to the public but may or may not be taking in animals. One has a voice message up, no way from that number to leave a message or get to a person, it refers back to itself. The local ASPCA and another city/county shelter are not no-kill. After a certain number of days, or with some health problems, they won’t keep the animals, but will put them to sleep. Small local volunteer shelters / fosters are full up or are closed to the ;public.
I called Petco as Ready suggested. Got advice same as above, to keep fostering them. She gave particulars about the two (ASPCA and BARC) as not no-kill. She said Petco has people send pets to shelters locally, rather than deal with intake themselves at Petco. Also, Petco and Petsmart are open with limited hours, but are doing curbside pickup rather than in-store, or are doing delivery to customer doors. My vet is open, but they are limiting chances for human contact, ferrying animals into and out of the clinic rather than going in. I called to give an update on how mama and kittens are doing, and my plans, so they’d know I still have them and will foster them.
Called my local grocery, they’re open, limited, and still doing deliveries, so I should be OK there I forgot to ask if they have toilet paper in-store It’s not showing up for deliveries via their website. Heh.
So all in all, doing OK here.
Peppercorn could be in heat, but I can’t tell for sure. She hasn’t shown a real urge to go out, so it hasn’t been a problem so far. She likes it inside enough to come back in. Heh. Which also says she was probably a housecat before she was outside full-time. The kittens are doing well, and cat litter is supposed to arrive tomorrow or today. Hmm, but I’ll need to get more. My friend has not been by to pick up the pail waiting at the apt. offices, or I’d have enough I wouldn’t have to order for a few more days. :-/ OK on cat food for a while, with the month-end order due next week before the 3rd.
The kittens are getting big, not quite 12 weeks but close to it, so eating all the moist food thyey can get. Advice was to force them slowly to dry food, continue trying with dry food with broth or water aded and/or a can of moist added to sweeten the deal. I’ve been trying that with no luck yet, just a nibble. But they have to get used to dry food and have to be weaned.
My hand is healing well from the nip from the past week. Now sure I won’t have trouble there.
Beige Boy is Dubhan unless he renames himself. I’m thinking of Springer for the girl who wants to jump and climb a leg. She also has a huge, frequent purr. She hasn’t learned not to climb that leg yet, but we did a little better today, changed the behavior just a tad.
So — So far so good.
Not surprised the royal family would have someone ill from the virus, with all the social contacts they have to do. Do hope that doesn’t harm anyone. Word is, there are surviving cases, but I did not hear the percentage on that. The British royal family at least do diplomatic and public relations and are probably better than most such, at least in the current generations present. That’s a reason they are still part of the UK system. The UK could have decided before to stop special treatment for the royals and move to a system without a difference between peerage / nobles and commoners. And given recent changes, I wonder if that might happen anyway in another generation or so. I noticed one of the brothers and wife had chosen to withdraw somehow from being royals. (Not sure ow that can work, but OK.)
I still need to see about my new voting location for November, and make sure I have my voter registration card from the most recent update so I can vote for someone other than the current officeholder. I didn’t vote for him before.
On my Kindle, I have the font size set to (literally) “Huge,” the maximum. Heh. The Kindle app on iPad and on the Mac allows a little better control of this for reading ebooks, ironically. Too bad they don’t offer a larger screen size on the Kindle tablets. A full-size US Letter or A4 page would sure help, but I’d need it magnified. So the iPad is often my choice. But the Kindle is a good enough tablet and good for listening to Audbile audiobooks.
—–
I was listening to the History of English podcast a few weeks ago, an episode from a couple of years ago, which covered some of the historical events around the Norman Conquest and into Chaucer’s era and after, before the Shakespearean / King James / Queen Elizabeth era. A relevant point, more so now: It seems the Bubonic (Black) Plague resulted in more social changes, combined with inventions and ideas going on then. The drastic reduction in population meant greater need for skilled people and more opportunities for unskilled people too. So more serfs and commoners and yeomanry (free people and small landowners and farmers who owned their own places) could get better jobs and income and move up in life, and as a side effect, they, whether still commoners or rising in wealth and status, could demand better treatment, more fair/just laws. People were more able to move about and switch jobs. The economy as a whole benefited. More people could make their lives better, long-term. This was not only because of the big drop in population, but it was a factor, along with more modern techniques, inventions, and changing ideas. It began to break the feudal system and lead to the expansion of ideas in the Renaissance and later in the Enlightenment eras.
Already, we are seeing now that people are going to be changing their habits toward deliveries, maybe more customized or local service, changing in how and where people work (from home), and more immediate concern for health care and public welfare. Being without necessities like food and health care and daily supplies will do that, hah. And it may force US (and UK) politicians to listen more and change policies toward something more sane and helpful. One can hope, anyway. Let those politicians see how the majority of people live for a month or so, and maybe they’ll se why people keep demanding better.
Take care everyone.
@BCS, if you keep ordering cat litter because it keeps getting delivered to the management office and not getting to you, it seems unproductive to keep ordering more and more and having the same thing happening.
It’s no use to you and the cats over there, and I can’t think the management would be happy with four, five, six pails or bags of litter cluttering up their office.
Can you reach them by phone yet?
1) If so, I’d try calling them again, explaining you cannot cross the (unsignaled) road on your own because of being blind, and that your friends can’t come by to pick it up because of the shelter-in-place situation. Ask that the next time a maintenance guy crosses the road he brings along at least one of the accumulated pails, as you’re out of litter and the urgency is high. He can leave it at your door, ring the bell and go. Then you check your doorstep regularly, in case you missed the bell.
2) If not, you may need to ring a neighbor’s doorbell (and step back to keep your distance, even if that means you can’t see them at all well), and explain the situation to them. Ask if they know anyone who could go to the management office for you to pick up the cat litter.
You might need to try two or three neighbors before you find one who can help.
It may be a bit awkward, needing to explain to the neighbors this way, but you’ve lived there for several years now and they probably know you by sight at least by now; and people are generally in a more helpful frame of mind during these collectively troublesome times.
As we say in Dutch “nood breekt wet” (necessity/emergency breaks law), or needs must…
If Peppercorn came from one of the nearer appartments, you could try there first. That José or Joe (I forgot his name) will at least understand about the kittens using a lot of kitty litter!
If you can’t find his home easily, just start ringing doorbells near you.
And if it leads to someone willing to regularly pick up parcels from the management office for you, that’s a positive outcome.
Ah, don’t worry, it’s not all getting sent to the mgmt. office. Most things have been arriving at my door as intended, but occasionally, something lands over there and then takes days or weeks to get to my door. That pail of cat litter has been over there over a month. I keep calling my friend, oh, he’ll pick it up or we’ll get it when we’ve been out on other errands. But then it doesn’t get picked up. Meanwhile, every now and then, another item will get delivered at the office. It’s essentially random. Weather, time of day or day of week, whatever else the driver is dealing with, whether he/she can get to the office if the gate is not taking the gate code, and so on, all affect this.
So I’ve had other deliveries of cat litter, food, etc. arrive fine, and then at random, another item ends up elsewhere. (One was delivered somewhere at the apartment complex, not at my door, no telling where. I did get a refund for that, but not always.)
So it’s…frustrating and random and silly.
The other day, a driver came by and said the office wasn’t accepting deliveries. I told him they were supposed to send to my door anyway, not the office. That’s how it’s set up on my end.
So yes, it doesn’t make sense, but that’s what I’m dealing with.
Oh, if it were always landing at the office, for any class of items, I’d have to find another outlet. And I’d love it if it would get resolved. Those friends are busy and forget or don’t allow enough time, and it’s not their stuff, their problem, so they don’t think about it.
By now, though, I think my friend has seen enough with Uber that he knows it isn’t just my side of it, for why cabs don’t always get there as ordered. (The big winner was the one which arrived at his house rather than my apartment. Fortunately, he or his wife were there to resolve it.) Multiple cancels rescheduled because a driver couldn’t find it or gave up or didn’t want to bother…while I was waiting outside my apt. in the parking lot in plain sight the whole time, before and after. :-/ Just plain aggravating and not reliable. — Also, after the fifth or sixth time, asking Uber drivers for a card, saying I was looking for a regular cabbie, I gave up. Uber is entirely catch-as-catch-can, often the drivers do it as a side gig, and aren’t looking for regular customers, unlike how I was used to dealing with regular cabbies after finding a couple of them from random Yellow cab calls. Yellow has become just as bad or worse about the whole process.
* Haha, the phones at the mgmt. office are working again, but it was over a week and after the first of the month sometime when they were back on again. I still wonder if they had some genuine billing or other error, or if they (mgmt. or owner) had the phones disconnected temporarily to cover because they knew they were at fault about billing tenants in more than one pass for that month-end / start, such as the letter I got at the start of the month. I can’t have been the only tenant who had that happen, and oh, it was definitely their fault with billing, not the tenants.
Nope, the excuse last time I asked was, “Oh, but if we did that for you, we’d have to do that for everybody.” No, they weren’t going to have anyone from the office or from maintenance walk any packages over to my door. (That was the prior management, but I expect less from the new management, despite initial claims.)
I’m interested to see if the same thing happens with this month’s billing. If I get another letter for their billing problem, I will point it out in writing to their office and owner. No acknowledgement of responsibility because, hey, landlord. And while these apartments are not for the well-off, neither are they slums. This is more or less middle class to lower middle class, or at least typical.
I wonder how many of my neighbors I’d have to ask before I got any positive response. I don’t think they’re bad people, but I’m not sure of who knows whom and how people get along. Obviously some do but others don’t. I’m still lucky if I get more than a yellow in passing when trying to engage anyone. The one lady several doors down, who at random gave out a bag of Cheerios was a complete surprise. She was at her car, so I don’t know her apt. number. I never heard again from the family who had been sheltering Peppercorn and her kittens outside their door, either, and I was disappointed at that, because I’d both written the note (Spanish and English) and spoken to the son. — Is it just me? Is it because it’s a big city? Is it because I’m white and most of my neighbors are Latino or black? Is it because of my eyesight and teeth, so I seem / look weird? Maybe any of those. Maybe it’s me too. I don’t know, but I’ve grown discouraged and frustrated about it. I think most of these folks are good, decent, ordinary people, but somehow I am missing the boat, and admittedly, I don’t play sports and I’m not outside at night because I can’t see well enough anymore. (I can make it back and forth to the dumpster and P.O. Boxes even at night, but that’s not easy. But I can’t necessarily see if someone’s there at night, even talking to them. So I’m not doing that until my eyes can get surgery.)
About the offie: I did try to talk to them, but it was very plain that they weren’t going to make an exception or bend from their position, no matter that I was being nice and asked a few ways before letting it go. They know I can’t see. They’re polite. But they’re not willing to walk me over there or have any of the leasing agents maintenance guys walk any packages (or any other business) over here. Only once, during the first year I was here, did an agent walk over with a release form so I could sign it to give permission for a repair. Since then, not.
You remember the dryer vent line? It was never done under the old mgmt. despite me going over and signing release forms. I then reported repairs still needed when the new mgmt took over and I paid at the office in person, as all tenants were required to do then. Still never got done.
I will be very glad if and when I can move into a house and get mail and repair and cab service without as much hassle. Even if there is some hassle, it will be less. Only very rarely when I had a house before did I have any problem getting a cab or getting mail or packages. Repairs were OK when I had enough money, but I didn’t have good contacts, so had to rely on the work getting done right and not getting overcharged, because hey, I can’t see well and don’t know how to fix x,y, or z, unlike my dad did.
So far, with the shutdown, things have arrived, but if the driver can’t get in the gate, it may be another matter. And still, things might get delivered to the office occasionally.
The day of the shutdown and the next, I had reminded my friend about things still to e picked up, but nope, didn’t see him either day. So it’s still over there. On the plus side, I will have at least one pail of litter and possibly some cat food or people food and some office supplies, extra, when it finally does get over here.
And he asked why I spent so much on Amazon deliveries…. Heh.
There’s a certain darkly comedic effect to the whole thing.
Plus, I swear, I can look right at someone, smile, ask as nicely and reasonably and politely as anyone could, assertive or not, and people may say they’ll do what I ask — and only rarely does anyone ever do what I ask. Some people seem charmed, so that people will do almost anything for them, even when it’s not what they are supposed to do. Other people, it’s as if they can do everything right and still not get a good response, not be followed as a leader. I don’t get why that is, but I seem to be too often in the latter category, and how to persuade folks doesn’t work out often enough.
I know I sound negative and sour about that, and I am, some. Yet I saw this whilee I was a caregiver and have seen it here at the apartment. Somehow, it’s as if I’m easy to overlook, not persuasive enough so that people want to do something when I ask or need it. Even when people say they will. I don’t get it. But it’s often like that for me.
Sounds like what you need is a ‘Shabbos Goy’. Historically, in the most orthodox Jewish communities, almost anything might be construed as work, and in violation of the Jewish prohibition of no work on the Sabbath. Some Jewish families would hire a non-Jew to assist during the Sabbath and do mundane household tasks that would fall under the work ban, like turning on lights. These days, timers are available for most things and a person isn’t usually needed any more, but for package delivery or even to guide you over the road to the office and make sure you don’t get hit by a car, you could certainly use help!
Hanneke, I’m sorry for being overly fussy with those replies. It’s not your fault, you’re trying to help and to be nice, and I do appreciate it. I’m just frustrated and it’s been ongoing for so long.
I’m fatigued and sniffly, yet the symptoms come and go, so it’s not the virus, I don’t think, just stirring up things while packing, rebooting, cleaning, moving things around. I’m having trouble keeping motivated to knuckle down and really work, even though I really want this. I don’t know why I’m having trouble with it. You’d think I’d be going non-stop, pushing to get it done, like, er, a sensible and motivated person.
I’ve done some today but not as much progress as I’d hoped.
Chondrite — Heh, I hadn’t heard of that, but oh yeah, a Man Friday, servant, houseboy, chauffeur? Dang, if I could afford it. There have been wishes for that a few times, say, if I could clone myself or hire someone or if some man or boy needed work…. It used to be that you could do that and be fine. Room and board, a minimum wage we’d probably find laughable today. Or there’d be someone tied to your house / family if you were socially high up enough, higher up in the bourgeoisie or some noble or well-off yeoman farmer. There was indenture and apprenticeship and well, worse. That even extended into the first half of the 20th century. But it’s mostly gone now, replaced by below-living-wage working poor jobs (janitor, etc.).
Er, and I don’t know how the gay community deals with things, but I understand that since it’s a minority with people needing housing and jobs, “stuff happens” that might not happen otherwise, much like minority and immigrant communities. (Hah, I try not to let my imagination run wild with that.)
Someone to assist with things would be a genuine help. It wouldn’t have to be live-in or more than maybe once a week, but it would preclude some of the problems and frustrations I have. And it wouldn’t be fair to expect a roommate to do that for me. He / she / they would have their own job and life.
—–
I saw I had not thrown away the last of the Yesterday’s News brand of cat litter. So even though the cats had not used it (or only to pee) before, I changed out the truly awful, completely used litter in both boxes and put in most of the remaining Yesterday’s News. (The cats don’t like the big pellets, stepping on them, or the smell of it, and I don’t like sifting through it. But it’ll have to do until more arrives. If it doesn’t arrive on my doorstep, I will call my friend and remind him I _need_ that from the office, or else I need an emergency run to the pet store or grocery store for a couple of big bags of litter.
The most pitifully funny and touching thing? The minute I emptied the litter from the main pan, mama and kittens lined up to use it. Mama peed in the pan, without litter, and tried to cover it up, while I was tying the used litter and before I got the new in. I then poured the new Y.N. in, and everyone but one kitten decided that was enough for them.
Thanks to cleanup and moving things around, it’s possible I’ve scared the roaches and put them on the run. I don’t see them running around, but I see evidence of where they have been, so I know there’s a serious problem still.
Hoping to get enough cleared out and done that I can create a good staging area or two , to get all the boxes now ready to move into one place, and keep on going. — I have more than enough clothes to divide those in half and give that away and still have plenty. I’m caught up with laundry again, the clothes racks are a good help, and I need to sort through them. But it’s taking 1 to 2 days for normal things to dry and up to 6 to 8 days for heavier things to dry, such as bedspreads or jeans.
Also still have to get another overnight bag ready and get a box of cat supplies ready.
If possible, I’ll have everything done by the time the ban is lifted. But my strategy is to have critical supplies divided in case I’m in between apt. and house until the move is fully done.
Ad yup, mama and kittens are here for the duration, until we’re out of shutdown. So they may go into barding at the vet’s and get to the new house before I can get them given to a no-kill shelter for adoption. With a little luck, Peppercorn might wean them so she can be spayed, to take care of that.
She wanted me to stay and pet her after the dumpster trip, so I spent a few minutes just petting her. This pleased her no end. I guess I’ve been so flustered with everything that I haven’t given her as much time as she needs. I’ve been giving Goober extra time, which has helped him a lot, but he still is feeling crowded. He is, though, also tolerating the kittens a little more from time to time.
They were all over the place today, “helping” me work, then busy napping around the computer while I checked on it and posted. Likewise with Goober and Peppercorn, so I had everybody right with me for a while today.
— I have lost track of how many days it’s been since I last saw Mystic. Longer than that since he got fed or came in. I think he’s still around, but haven’t definitely seen or heard him. Poor kitty, I’d feed him I he’d stick around long enough to get it. I also have not seen the other two strays I’d seen earlier. But I’ve heard cats outside a few times, so he and they are likely still around.
Kittenitis: “Sudden, sharp stabbing pains advancing up the leg”—sounds as if you might have that, BCS!
Hahaha, oh, definitely, that sounds like it!
I’m hoping a few more times telling her no, being nice but definite, may get across that this is not acceptable, bad behavior.
I’m thinking of calling her Springer, instead of Unicorn (which was from her temp collar).
She has a very loud, very frequent purr. If she can be trained out of that bad habit of scaling a leg, she can otherwise make someone a very good kitty.
I’m partial to all of them. Heh.
After supper cleanup, I came back to find Goober and Peppercorn side by side, almost touching, lying down on the bed. I should not have sat down by them; it disturbed them and one of the kittens joined us, and Peppercorn and then Goober got up and left. I think I may have crashed a date in the making. (No, I think Goober might come around to making friends and Peppercorn may be in heat or might make friends too, but it didn’t look like a date, just hanging out.) Still, that’s a tremendous leap forward in good relations between them.
Later, Goober still felt overwhelmed by mama and all the kittens, but came back after they’d cleared out to have fun elsewhere. So it’s not settled yet, but it was still a good sign.
I hope you and your family are doing fine up north. Folks here around the apartments, including the kids, are still socializing some, the kids playing together. But that may be self-defense on the parents’ part, plenty of younger kids, plenty of energy, probably driving their parents nuts if they don’t let them out to play some; and people do have to live still. Besides, I guess they’re already exposed, from frequent contact. I don’t really know any of my neighbors well, but most are nice, I think, and I don’t want anyone around here getting terribly sick and miserable, both the worry and the cost to the families that brings.
However, I do hope the ceiling and floor upstairs from me survive the onslaught. You’d think, from all the noise and shaking, that the kids were running, jumping on things, really going full-tilt. Maybe they are, maybe not. But it rattles the ceiling and walls and is noisy and worrisome, distracting. I keep avoiding the urge to march up the stairs and knock and say, hey, could y’all have the kids simmer down?
Also on the plus side, I have not heard either of two young couples arguing and fighting lately.