My pile is too high

By Elizabeth Prata

My pile has gotten too high. It drives me crazy. Since I live alone I have no one to blame but myself.

We all have a junk pile, things we don't want to deal with immediately but have to be dealt with eventually, and we throw it on the pile. Mine is in the kitchen on the printer in the top shelf of the bookcase. When I sit at the table to eat or write, it's staring me in the face. This is by design, so that I cant/won't ignore the 'need to deal with' papers and stuff ... stuff of life, I guess.

This morning I moved the pile to the counter, and I'll take care of it today, sigh. The jewelry is on top because I broke the necklace. When you wear extra long necklaces, they catch on things. This one caught on the corner of the shopping cart (OK Southerners, "buggy") and one of the links broke. It's my favorite necklace so I will fix it. It won't take long.

I'm going to finish my coffee and search for a casserole recipe of some kind. It's cold today so using the oven will give me a double comfort level, warming the kitchen AND good food coming out. I think for food prep I'll do a lentil soup for next week. I've had my favorite chicken soup for lunches two weeks in a row so I'll switch things up and make the lentil again.

I'll also do a casserole, hopefully I can find a few-ingredient casserole using stuff I already have in the cupboard. I'll make some hummus, and I also have green beans and tofu. That will become a stir fry with rice noodles and soy sauce. I have eggs and potatoes and greens so Eggs Florentine with home fries will figure in there at some point. I also still have some spaghetti squash and combined with stewed tomatoes will also be a hearty dish, especially if I add eggs and cheese to it. There really is more in the fridge and cupboard than we think.

We are at the last week of a loooooooooooooong six weeks. Our school district's usual method of salary schedule is one paycheck per month. In a blessing, we get paid before Christmas break, but that means we receive our December paycheck almost 2 weeks early. The next paycheck comes at the regularly scheduled time of the last day in January, making the time between paychecks 6 weeks instead of four. It's a skill to make your 4 weeks' salary last for six! Phew will I ever be glad for next Friday. Meanwhile, I'm stretching the fridge and cupboard to make healthy food without having to go to the grocery store again until payday. If I do not go to the grocery store out of habit and look with fresh eyes at what I already have, there really is enough, more than enough.

Meanwhile here is your daily Murray:

He flopped down in front of the gas fire. Bert used to LOVE it here. He loved it there so much I put his kitty bed in that spot and he lazed in it all winter, enjoying the burst of warmth coming from the gas heat. Cats are no fools, they know where the best comfort is!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone :)

Murray and his cardboard

All cats seem to love sitting in boxes. My old cat Abby did.

My new cat Murray likes a box too. He will sit in an empty box all day long. OK, not all day. After three seconds he'll shred the box.

Even if the box is small, Murray will get in it. Then he will see the flaps, and they are too luscious to resist. Mmm, cardboard.

Done with that flap, he moves to the other side. Time elapsed, 8 seconds.

Hmmm, I think this corner is sufficiently destroyed. What next?

Let me calmly ponder my next move while I clean myself up.

I've got to hand it to him, he is orderly in his chaos. He goes around the box progressively and methodically chewing each flap.

Here's a short video. Murray goes right to town on the cardboard. I like that he has something he enjoys. I just wish it wasn't destroying cardboard, with the potential that he'll gravitate to chewing books, magazines, and papers after he gets sick of boxes, or if there aren't any boxes around to chew.

Ahhh, cats. So mysterious. So cute!

Murray the Cat is One Year Old

Today I'm making split pea soup, roasted cabbage, black beans N rice, and apple crumble. I still have pumpkin muffins left over from a few days ago. This will be the basis for meals this week.

I like pea soup because it's hearty and SO easy to make. I discovered boil-in-bag rice when a friend dropped some off when I had the flu. Boil in bag, where have you been all my life? I'll add black beans and celery and a bit of hot sauce. The apple crumble is because apples were on sale, 3 for $1.

The weather is turning fall-like here in North GA. I read on Twitter a funny line that encapsulates the situation:

"The nights know it's fall, but the days haven't committed yet."

The nights are in the upper 40s/low 50s but the daytimes are still in the upper 70s/low 80s. It's hard to dress for such a wide range of temps. But I'm not complaining, The days are warm enough I don't have to turn on the heat yet at night. Best of all, the humidity is gone. The nights are so clear I enjoy standing in the yard when it's dark, just looking at the clarity of the stars, moon, and planets. In rural GA there are no ambient lights to compete with the glory of the heavenly lights.

Murray the kitty was born sometime last October. The neighbor who lived here at the time, noticed the kitten living under the shed, and was often cold or hungry. She started feeding him. After 8 weeks or so, she had him fixed and attended to be the local vet. He was still an outdoor, yard cat though.

Once you start feeding an animal, it's my position that he is your responsibility. It's cruel to teach the animal to depend on you for food ad water and then take it away. At one point in early January last year we were predicted to have exceedingly cold temperatures, near zero, which is unheard of for this area of the south. The weather forecasters were advising people to bring in their animals, to the house, the barn, wherever. I asked the neighbor if I could bring Murray in, just for the duration.

Ha ha. The duration is ongoing almost a year later. Keeping Murray inside with me was fine with the neighbor, and eventually she moved away anyway.

At first, he was standoffish with me, and minimally affectionate. I could see he wanted affection though, even when he was a yard cat. He'd come bounding out from under the shed, his home, when I drove in from school. I'd groom him at the picnic table, and pet him. He would only stand it for a few minutes though. He was too preoccupied with being alert for noises and predators and danger. Let's just say he was skittish.

But I could see the cat he wanted to be, and when I brought him in, I started a program of behavior conditioning.

When he came up to me for petting, I pet him but I always let him go before he fussed. Leave 'em wanting more was the motto. Plus, I wanted him to know he wasn't trapped.

When I groomed him with the comb (clipping nails came later) I stopped before he fussed and I immediately praised him and gave him a treat.

I left him alone when he decided on what spot to take for his naps. He chose the blue chair in the bedroom and I made sure it was always available to him, so he'd know he had a safe place to sleep.

It took a long time before he would climb on the bed to sleep with me and cat Bert and cat Luke. He just started doing so in the last month or so. I'm so excited when he comes up but I try not to manhandle him too much, but pet him to acknowledge him and let him know he's welcome, and then I just let him sleep where he wants. Increasingly, it's been closer to my head. He started at the feet, for 2 or 3 minutes. Then by my knees for 5 or 10 minutes. Then by my shoulders for an hour. Now he feels comfortable enough to sleep near the pillow for as long as he wants. Usually till 4 am and then he sits on the back of the couch and whacks pictures off the wall, sigh. I said he was growing, but not perfect ;)

At first I thought I'd have a problem with Murray and Bert. Bert is aloof, mild mannered and private. Murray of course, immediately gravitated to Bert. They snarled a few times because Murray likes to scare Bert by leaping on him while Bert is snoozing. Of course this is aggravating to Bert.

But Murray settled down into the pecking order and the three are downright chummy. Most days, lol. I have to remember that Murray is only just turned 1. He's still a kitten and will misbehave and pull pranks as kittens do.

I still believe that three cats is too many for me and overloads this apartment, But I would not trade his life for my comfort. He is a precious l'il thing and as long as he is alive I'll take care of him, and love him. He is my little snowball ghost kitty!

Here, Bert on the top bunk and Murray relaxing below. This would not have happened 9 months ago.

Impromptu kitty condo!

Doh! Murray leaps up and scares the kitty litter out of Bert! And Murray looked so innocent a moment ago!

Bad kitty, good kitty; northern lights, and cooking

Yay, it's the weekend!

There are lots of reasons to be celebrating. My friends had a baby, and mom & baby are coming home from the hospital today. Their baby is a girl, healthy and all fingers and toes. The pregnancy was difficult and touch and go sometimes, so we are all thanking the Lord for a new soul added to a loving family this morning.

In Mid-September the heat breaks and fall here in Georgia is spectacular. Though today is supposed to be hot and humid, the rest of the week is supposed to reach only the upper 70s and low 80s for high temps. I truly love having the windows open all day and night, feeling the fresh breeze, enjoying my cats at the window smelling and chirping at bugs and birds going by.

There was a moderately severe solar storm this weekend. An X-class (the biggest) coronal mass ejection launched off the sun and hit earth. Though sometimes CMEs can put out radios or interfere with electronics, it usually just sparks auroras. The harder hitting the CME the brighter the northern lights. Get a look at this. It was taken at Casco Maine last night, a town only a few miles from where I lived for many years. I used to know the photographer. The photo was featured on Spaceweather.com

"I took the picture from Casco, Maine, facing north
towards the Presidential Range in New Hampshire,"
says photographer John Stetson. "Red, purple, green, blue--all the colors were there!"

The storm sparked Auroras as far south as Arizona! See the red glow?!

Aurora viewed in Payson, Arizona (Chris Schur/SpaceWeather.com)

My kitty Murray is coming along. His personality is developing. He is becoming more loving and demonstrative. He still won't let me pick him up from the floor. He runs away like smoke, it's like trying to cuddle a wisp. But when he wants cuddling he jumps on the table next to my laptop and lets me hold him against my shoulder. He throws a paw over my upper arm and nestles his little head in.

Last night he got yelled at three times in three hours. At 3:00 am he started trying to bang the pictures off the wall. There is a very heavy one hanging over the couch, and if I forget to build a pillow barrier, he sits on top of the back of the couch and gets a paw under the picture and whacks it. He actually did knock a picture down once, it broke the frame. It was a first edition, original Fred Thompson hand tinted photograph. Aside from being valuable, I love it. I would be crushed and upset if it had broken. I bought it when I was 8 years old at a church flea market, and my mom had it framed for me.

So I sat up in bed and hollered "No, Murray!"

At 4:00 am I heard him banging something around on the floor. I mumbled "nooo, murray..." and then remembered it was the empty stationery box I'd left on the bureau. That was the sound. I fell back asleep.

At 5:00 am I heard a tinkling like a bell or keys. But they weren't keys, it sounded more like change jingling. I could not figure out what that sound was, so I sat up in bed and hollered "NO MURRAY!"

At 7:00 am I was sitting at the table with my coffee, typing. Murray hopped up and looked at me. When I looked at him, his head bowed a little. If it was possible for a kitten to look abashed this was it. I folded him in my arms, and he threw his head and body into a full hug, tight. Awww.

It reminded me of the children's book, "No David!" by David Shannon, where on every page, David is getting into trouble. His mom is hollering "No, David!" until the last page where there is a big hug, and the mom says "I love you David."

I love my kitty. He really is a good boy.

Ahhh, weekends. I have a lot to do today and I'm happy about it. I already wrote a blog essay at The End Time. I will answer several substantive emails, people asking for help with research. I'll do the dishes, laundry, change the sheets, and vacuum. I want to get my chores done today so tomorrow I have time to read. I've got a lot of good books and somehow days and days go by with no time for me to read them.

The cooking for this week's meals will be: salmon patties, tomato-mushroom soup, banana-oatmeal bars, and quinoa salad. Of course the usual bible reading and prayers are added in, and hopefully a nap.

Oh my, that's a lot. I better get going!

School starts tomorrow, have to go to bed earlier

We have a three-day kindercamp. For incoming new students enrolled in our kindergarten, we have a pre-beginning-of-school opportunity for the kids to come and have three days of a mini-day. For three hours, they go through a regular day. They learn the classroom, where the bathroom is, lunchroom, practice recess, go through rotations for centers...

So that when the first day rolls around on August 15, they are ready and know what is ahead for them. it helps the kids tremendously and it calms the parent's anxiety too. It's really good.

This year I am working at it. So tomorrow I'll be working and that means I should get to bed.

As I've brought Murray in, and he has grown, he has shown me he's a smart cookie. He is also relentless in discovering things. For example, he found a bobby pin. I've lived here 6 years and I assure you I vacuum. I don't wear bobby pins. The tenant before me was a man and he didn't wear bobby pins either. So Murray found one and he plays with it. OK, good for you Murray. I won't dwell on the mystery.

He likes to eat the flowers in the bud base in the kitchen window. He slaps the pictures hanging over the back of the couch. He tosses the stack of books that are on the coffee table, off the coffee table. He strips away at the paper on the magazine spines. He likes to pick at the strip of wood lining the bottom of the tub where it meets the floor. He shreds the toilet paper. I have to hang that on a bungee cord higher than he can reach. But sometimes in the summer I use the bungee for the front door (don't ask) so when I do I have to put the TP somewhere high and out of reach AND remember where it is before I sit down in the morning! He sits on the desk and smacks that picture too, sometimes bouncing it off the wall.

I leave lots of kitty toys around on the floor, it's not like he's deprived. He and the other cats can go anywhere in the entire apartment, except the kitchen counter. They have latitude. It's just that Murray is a kitty. I hope he grows out of some of this.

So this means my going to bed routine has lengthened. I have to start in the kitchen; put the flowers in the fridge. In the living room I line the back of the couch with the pillows that are normally on the couch. I put a heavier book atop the stack of smaller books so he can't fling them off. I let him eat the paper on the magazines. Kitty's gotta have fun. I put the 20lb kitty litter bucket next to the strip of wood he likes to pick at. He is not big enough to move the heavy bucket. Yet. But he tries. I fix the TP so he can't get it. In the bedroom I put more pillows as a barricade against the picture over the desk.

I do all this while I sing A Chorus Line's "What I Did For Love"