Boy Kitten, 3 Weeks In

Boy Kitten is still living in the bathroom. Probably for two more weeks. We can't wait.

He's such a sweet and fun little boy. He makes this sound, kinda like SKWEEEEEE! at every moment. The sound reminds mrguy of Avery Shoaf, from Rust Valley Restorers.

Anyhoo, I took some cute photos today from when we were playing earlier with Rainbow String, on his scratching post.

Here he is all cute and stuff.

And then here he is in fierce playtime frenzy.

Celebrating the good stuff : )

Flowers For Mom

Tomorrow I'm going to see my mom for the first time in several weeks -- since her trip to the Midwest and back, constipation, quarantine, negative COVID test, move from Zyprexa to Haldol, and all that that entails for her and for my sister who is in charge.

I hear she's eager to see me, but I also hear from my sister that my idea of a sidewalk visit (which is what I feel safe doing) "simply *does not* satisfy and never will." To her credit, my grumpy sister has been taking care of mom for weeks, now, and it's been awful for her, I'm sure. Not to her credit, I think this was all her idea, but she thinks it all had to happen because I wouldn't take my mom for drives.

Neat!!

So tomorrow I will walk into the lion's den, where I never satisfy and hand over some flowers that I think are pretty that my family will turn their nose up at and rearrange.

Meantime, I think the flowers are pretty. The blue berries are Dianella tasmanica (Tasman Flax Lily), which really pops with the orange succulent flowers.

Unfriending

I believe in listening to opposing views on the political and human spectrum. I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh 20 years ago while commuting to school, mostly so I could hear what the other side was thinking. I also listened to Dr. Laura, and was once treated to her condemnation of the American Library Association as I was driving to library school!

So when I was introduced to some of my Texas cousins, I wanted to keep an open mind about their political views. Not all of them had strong right-wing views, but one of my cousins does. After our trip the two of us connected on social media. It's super interesting that she is pro-trump but works in the medical profession, and I had held out hope that maybe she wasn't such a racist, or any kind of a racist. Recently, however she started reposting online petitions, (like one against retaining a Confederate statue in the town our ancestors lived in). Please -- our ancestor fought for the North. I just signed the opposite petition, in order to cancel out her vote.

Today I had to give up. When someone says "I didn't do anything" in response to discussions of white privilege and racism, there isn't anything that sharing opposing views will handle. Plus her friends are worse than she is. One said that people should be able to shoot at protesters who deface monuments. Another said that the knot used in the noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage is a blahblah knot used by the Navy, and any sane person would use that knot in that circumstance (only he's the only black driver in that circuit and nobody used that "knot" in the other garages.

I just said my peace: "Would you like to be treated the way your black friends are treated? No? I rest my case." and unfriended. This is the post she agrees with wholeheartedly that elicited the comments above.

Goodbye Old Friend

Mrguy has been painting the Lady Bathroom for me, which is a project we've been talking about for years. It is now two glorious colors of pink, and I am redecorating. With that in mind, it's time to say goodbye to the shipwreck painting that I rescued at an auction.

The great thing about working at the forklift factory is that people know a good shipwreck painting when they see it. I posted a message to our bulletin board, advertising the painting's "sailing vessels, castles, roiling seas, clouds (or smoke) and dudes in hats", and within an hour I had someone over here picking up the painting (in social distancing fashion). OK and it was free.

Turned out that the guy who wanted it is one of mrguy's friends from college, an assembler at the factory. Funny. It will go in his office, and his wife will be none the wiser.

In its place will go this little painting, by a friend, that I bought at a charity auction this week.

So pink!

So charitable!

8 Year Germaversity

Facebook just reminded me of the first beverage I drank in Germany 8 years ago, in Bonn. 

Bananaweisen (banana and hefeweisen). It was weirdly delicious. Work took a group of us to Bonn to work on the exhibition and I ended up learning that I really like Germany. Who knew?

Lots of interests that I have now were sparked by that trip, and I ended up returning to Germany several more times for work and for pleasure.

On this trip in particular, I had decided to do some research on my German ancestors beforehand. Lack of language skills and lack of resources in those days hampered the search. But Google Book helped me crack the question of who these ancestors were.

My family had two German immigrant ancestors. One had a last name that is incredibly common. The other had an incredibly uncommon last name. I searched in Google Book and located an obituary of a guy with our unusual last name who theoretically could be the father of our first immigrant ancestor. I printed out the obituary and our German paper conservator translated it for me. Turns out that this guy (who I had not yet connected to my family) was super interesting and had married the daughter of a portrait painter from Dresden. Once I had that hook I was able to figure things out enough to ask questions of a German genealogy researcher who helped me peel away the layers of the onion.

I'm still researching these people, and learning more about Saxony in the mid-18th century. We've seen my ancestor's paintings in person, and just last week I figured out that he painted the portrait of Louis Charles de France (son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette) at the Tuileries in 1790. It stretches the imagination that someone would have traveled 650 miles from Dresden to Paris by horse or carriage *for work* in those days.

Random Haps

Mom is back in the state. Her visit with my sister didn't go as planned. I think they're getting COVID tests today to see whether they can get her safely back to her community. After that I don't know what happens. We're still sheltering in place over here, and my mom has been on two plane rides in two weeks, so I hope she and my sister are ok.

This week I hit the wall with a project that I've been supporting for many years. First I realized that I can't actually make the project better, then I realized I can't do it any more. That was actually depressing, because I might be made to continue. More later.

On the up side, mrguy is painting the lady bathroom for me.

I have started randomly poking plants into the barren hump of land in the middle of our street.

Boy Kitten is still in isolation for another couple of weeks, and he keeps growing like crazy.

Yesterday I made chicken and slickers, which was quite tasty.

And I have been working on the aku room. I bought two benches and organized the plants I've been growing in there. Today I might try to make an upside down tomato pot out of a cranberry juice jug.

We had a beautiful sunset the other day.

And last week I made a bunch of succulent cuttings and people from the "Buy Nothing" group on Facebook took them away. And yes, that's poison oak in the bush above!

When times are tough (family, police brutality, futility, pandemic), it sometimes helps to document the good stuff.

When All Else Fails

Kittens. The answer to everything. I can't wait until this baby can come out of the bathroom he's in and can join the rest of the family. He's impossibly nice. Purrs like a demon and then pauses to make a sharp and percussive meow. He doesn't cry for any apparent reason. We think it's just because he's happy.

And...the little guy is clever. I've had (and loved) some simple cats but this one figures things out quickly. He is a good distraction from the world of the mama, which is currently under the management of my sister. 

So the scene is that my mom melted down, cops, breaking stuff, etc. The doctor prescribed medicine that my sister referred to as "poison" and when we had a recheck with the doctor he doubled the dose, which made my sister white with rage. She flew here to take mom back home, but stayed, only dealing with Mom and the caregivers, and didn't talk to anyone for a week.

She felt that mom would be better if she were able to get away from her apartment. Every day she took my mom out for a car ride of one to four hours length. She said it's helping her not freak out. Or maybe it's the medication the doctor prescribed. Mom isn't breaking things and yelling any longer, but she's pretty doped up. Sis wanted us to get blood labs for mom so she can take them to a psychiatrist who might tweak her meds. We were ready to do it but then realized that going to a lab would potentially expose her to sick people, and that if we took her to a psychiatrist and that doctor did not agree with our sister, she'd be mad and not listen. 

Then there was the Covid scare of a few days ago because Mom was sniffling and had a cough. I reluctantly mentioned that she often gets sneezy on windy days, which it was. I'm the youngest, and my opinion is not to be trusted.

Two days ago she took Mom home with her for an undetermined amount of time -- supposedly so she can keep mom out of memory care. And because none of us would do as she asked -- continuing her daily routine of Driving Miss Daisy, daily. My sibs live too far away. I won't break social distancing, and I work, and I don't see what driving Mom every day solves. It isn't a plan.