Low Expectations

And just like that, another Holidailies is over!

It might be a sign of the times that the only reason I got up this morning was to let the dog outside. (Get yourself a dog if you can. Seriously.) I wasn't celebrating the new year because I fully expect 2025 to be a complete shitshow. Honestly, I'd be shocked if the US still exists in its present form in four years.

In completely unrelated news, I need to get a passport. I didn't renew my old passport back in the 90s because the company I worked for kept sending me on unplanned trips. I'm a terrible traveler, and that goes double when it's for business, so I've been happy to be without a passport for the last couple decades. But now it seems like something useful to have, so my goal for this week is to get a picture taken and find a photocopier.

(Where does one even find a photocopier these days? Before I quit my day job, I just used the ones at work, and I haven't had any use for one since then. I'm guessing whatever Kinko's turned into is still around and would have them.)

Oh well. At least the new year will bring more kittens!

Speaking of kittens

This photo from August 2023 has the name "operation_chonk.jpg" which just proves that getting my kittens up to a good fighting weight has been the plan for more than a year.

2025 Bingo

As I mentioned yesterday (?), I'm avoiding writing down a list of "goals" because I've been finding that adds stress without making me more productive. But I think it's useful to think about what things might be good to do in the next year writing-wise.

So here we have it, the 2025 Writing Bingo card:

Not everything will (or even probably should) get done, but it's nice to have something to look at when deciding what to work on next.

(I was proud of writing out 15 things so I could make a 4x4 grid, and then I realized that doesn't work for a symmetric diagonal and had to come up with another nine possibilities.)

Anyhow, happy new year!

Kitten memories

I spent a couple hours today rearranging the kitten supplies and getting rid of the mountain of towels in my hallway. Now I'm ready for the next group!

Here's a picture from October of 2022:

Not Goals

I had started a sort of "goals for 2025" post, but

1. I'm trying not to overload myself, which I will absolutely do if I spend a few days coming up with a list of goals, and
2. I needed more time to think about everything.

But then I saw a post on Mastodon where a person was talking about making a bingo card of things that would be great to accomplish next year, so I think I'm going to do that and post it tomorrow.

But for today, I'll just note that I am back home, the feral cats are fine (I mean, I think they're fine. I've only seen one of them, but I'm sure the other is around somewhere...), and I'm excited to pick up my dog from the pet hotel tomorrow morning.

The cookies survived the Grapevine (because they were in the trunk), but then I stopped at a rest stop and moved them to the front seat and there are only a few left and I feel a little ill. But they tasted really great!

This house is not at a constant 100 decibels, but I'll miss everyone.

I shall sleep well tonight and expect no dreams of floating on a raft in the bayou.

Year of Cats

I was thinking earlier that I hadn't dealt with any ringworm cats this year, and then I was going through my pictures and found this one of Bluebell from February. She was so sweet (actually sweet, not like that cat I transported) and handled lime sulfur dips and staying in a bathtub quarantine without any complaint. I hope she's doing well in her adoptive home.

Sweet Kitty

I occasionally transport animals for my local shelter. My county is somewhat underfunded, but the staff is great at finding other resources. So the rabbits go off to a rescue in Richmond, and the puppies tend to go to Tahoe, and an elderly hyperthyroid cat went up to Santa Rosa.

So I got an email that they were looking for someone to transport a cat to the Bay Area. Specifically, I got an email that said, "We are hoping to find transport for a sweet adult kitty..." (bolding is mine). Since I didn't have anything going on that day, I agreed to drive the cat there and arranged a time.

When I showed up at the shelter on Monday to pick up the cat, the person who arranged it all wasn't there (she is off on Mondays), but she had impressed upon the other staff that the cat needed to be sent in a solid carrier, not one of the cardboard carriers they sometimes use.

That was my first clue.

So the front staff radioed to the cat trailer for one of the employees to bring the cat up. And I waited. And I talked with the staff and waited some more. At the 20 minute mark, an animal services officer went back to find out what was going on. I waited some more.

Ten minutes later, the front staff radioed back to find out what was going on. They were "having problems getting the cat into the carrier." I noted that nobody on the radio was referring to her as a "sweet kitty."

At the 50 minute mark, another animal services officer went back to supervise. He came back ten minutes later with a metal carrier that had a plexiglass front, the whole thing covered in a towel. Then he used duct tape to secure the front.

I was a little worried I'd be considered an accessory to some crime if I handed off this "sweet kitty", though I suppose I could argue that anyone who expected something different from a cat in the equivalent of Hannibal Lecter restraints deserved what they got. But it turned out the cat had originally been microchipped by the rescue I was taking her to, and they'd been warned.

The cat was the perfect passenger, and I passed off the towel and carrier (along with a suggestion that they not open it anywhere the cat wasn't supposed to be a permanent fixture). I'd been told not to worry about the carrier — someone from the shelter would get it back someday.

I never actually saw the cat. Or even the "sweet kitty".

Candy Bar Kittens

Another litter from back in 2022. These ones actually were sweet kitties.

Pablo Escobar's Hippos

Things we have talked about today:

• The current state of the hippos in Colombia. In case you missed it, Pablo Escobar imported four hippos to his estate in Colombia in the 1970s and they escaped after he died. There are now about 200 of them and they love it in Colombia. There is currently an aggressive TNR program to sterilize them, but as of a few months ago they were neutering 1.5 hippos/month and they need to reach 40 hippos/year (3.3 hippos/month) in order to keep the population from expanding.
  
  
• Associating the correct books with the correct author for Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and Charles Dickens.
  
  
• Whether the opening line of Pride and Prejudice is more famous than the first line of Tale of Two Cities. Sure, everyone knows "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." but it doesn't end there. Dickens was paid by the word and it shows.
  
  
• The Italian guy who went to somewhere in Africa as part of an NGO, and planted tomatoes which grew better than any tomato in Italy. He was convinced he'd singlehandedly solved hunger until the week before harvest, at which point the hippos came out of the river and ate all the tomato plants. The people who lived there basically shrugged and said, "Yeah, we could have told you that would happen if you'd bothered to talk to us."
  
  
• The hilarity of trying to remember Kafka's name and searching for "dung beetle story", only to have all the results be about the children's book I Eat Poop: a dung beetle story, which I have heard read aloud twice in the past two days.
  
  

Then things headed back to politics and no amount of hippos could help us so I fled.

Elegant in Black and White

This lovely tuxedo kitten is a foster from over two years ago. So cute!

Gospel Swamp

I found out this week that the town where I spent much of my childhood was in an area once referred to as Gospel Swamp. (It's currently Fountain Valley — there is no truth in advertising since the land is completely flat and the city's fountain has been torn out and replaced multiple times based on water restrictions.)

I think I'm going to start telling people I grew up in Gospel Swamp near Tin Can Beach. That has far more character, doesn't it?

Best Toy

I have gone through many cat toys, but one of the best for kittens in the 5-8 week range is the banana box.

Raft

I'm currently sleeping on an air mattress, and I woke up laughing because in my dream I was floating in a bayou on a blow-up raft. The air mattress had seeped into my dreams.

Anyhow, can't really recommend an air mattress for anyone over 40. I may end up on the couch. (Or, given that there are now 10 people sleeping in the house and 2 are under the age of 5, a hotel. Definitely should have brought my noise-cancelling headphones!)

Better Sleep

Yeah, I'm a bit jealous of my dog in this picture.