Back in the day, my mom would draw an X on a hard boiled egg so that we'd know which ones are raw and which ones are hard boiled. I have carried on the tradition in my own home until recently, when I've used them to share my disgruntlement and make mrguy laugh.
Here are a few from the lockdown and windup to the election. Which shells would you want to crack first?
October 3. Almost every day of the past 3+ years I've woken up and reached for the laptop to see if he's dead. Often in the middle of the night I'll check the phone. At some point I stopped wanting him dead, but wanting him and lots of his people to suffer. Tuesday's presidential debate made the hate even more fervent. I still don't think that Biden will win, and feel as if our future will be catastrophic no matter the outcome.
On top of it, I have three different Caringbridge accounts that keep giving me poignant medical updates on people I care for who have health problems. Mrguy says that factoring in the base level of misery he's actually quite happy!
We had an awesome time for mrguy's birthday. I went to see the mama and then picked up dinner from a place owned by a guy I used to work with and his partner, who used to work at the forklift factory. They opened the restaurant just 18 months before the pandemic. We like giving them our support.
Due to the heat wave and wildfire smoke, we holed up with a fan and air purifier in what we're calling Man Room Theater, which is the Man Room with two chairs set up so we can watch tv. With food and wine in place we watched two episodes of Mrs Maisel, which is our "pretty place". After that was all said and done and that room had gotten so hot we had to leave, we went back upstairs.
Special birthday bonus: first the news about Hope Hicks, and then POTUS. A boy could barely have gotten a better birthday present. Unlike me, mrguy wasn't hoping for death all this time. His favorite fantasy is that the president will get COVID (so far so good!), suffer mightily, recover, lose the election, be convicted of his many crimes, go to prison, contract COVID again, and continue to suffer mightily.
I declare this day Holiday From Bite (a riff on mrguy's Holiday From Hate).
Boy Kitten is a biter. Super orally fixated, he loves to bite things, chew things, and also mount things. We've never had a humper before, but apparently bk is a humper. Good times!
Because of the bitey bitey bitey problem, and because he may or may not have put his big brother in the hospital a few weeks ago via infected bite, I sought the counsel of a cat behaviorist. I can't continue to separate the animals for the rest of their (hopefully) long lives.
The cat whisperer seems nice. He's covered in tattoos, some cat-related (ex: "cat's meow" across the knuckles). He works with the local animal shelter to advise them on the socialization of their cats. We zoomed our meeting.
He says that the best thing for bk would be another bk, but otherwise we need to give him more enrichment. Toys are on order. And then we need to distract him from the other cats, so that he can learn that there are other things besides humping and they can learn not to fear him. Good luck with that.
I have many cat toys on order, but in the meantime mrguy found cat apps, and he loves them. Cat Alone 2, you are awesome. bk especially loves the water drop game. You put your device on the floor and start the app. Imaginary water drips from a pipe and if the cat steps on its picture, the drop splits into droplets and makes a satisfying sound. He loves water and he loves fake water also. He licks his lips while he plays and sometimes licks his paw. He can play with this thing for an hour without getting bored.
According to bk, however, Cat Alone 2 will never take the place of humping.
Pandemic.
Shelter-in-place for six months.
Wildfires galore that mean you can't open the windows for weeks.
Heat wave after heat wave (without opening the windows).
My favorite cousin died on Thursday after a recurrence of leukemia. Amazingly, on Tuesday he sent me a text that just said "call" and we had one last phone conversation. Took a bereavement day on Friday.
Last night it was 101.7 in the kitchen last night and 120+ in the aku room. I watered the tomatoes 5 times, and the canna corms I've been resurrecting started the day underground and ended the day with 1/4" of growth.
Several weeks ago, while on a toilet paper hunt for the mama at a local bodega, I passed a bottle of piña colada mixer. Impulse buy! It came in really handy last night. Why did I always think that making blended ice drinks was difficult? It is not.
Among all of the awfulness, we are not alone. Friday night cocktails with friends. Saturday evening zoom with our good friends who were good friends with our cousin after we introduced them. Sunday morning conversation with Cack and Blick. Sunday evening conversation with my cousin (youngest brother of the one who died).
In honor of my cousin, who someone described this week as "an animal of music facts", listen to some Richard Thompson and use the word fuck.
A LOT.
