All posts by TJ

Family, Life, Pets

Mom’s Cats

My Mother was really “The Cat Lady”. After she retired, she volunteered with organizations to trap feral cats and have them seen by a vet, spayed or neutered and given shots. Her home was often filled with 5 or 6 cages occupied by these feral cats while they were waiting to go to the vet, or while recuperating before being released again. She also fed a lot of cats outside. You’d often see several lounging in the sunshine on her deck after having their belly’s full.

About 14 years ago, on a cold, snowy day, she came to visit me. She noticed a very pregnant cat outside and coaxed her in with a plate of yummy cat food. After eating, the mama cat went into my laundry room and hid behind my water heater. We continued to leave food and water available for her in the laundry room but did not see her again for some time.

A few days later, my teenage sons heard soft little mewing coming from the wall. They knew the kittens had been born. While we did not see the kittens for a few weeks, they were able to determine that there were three of them. They named them before they saw them. They named one little girl Sugaree after a Grateful Dead song.

Mama Cat eventually went back outside. We found homes for two of the cats and kept Sugaree. I loved her and knew she would become my cat. Over the course of these 14 years, she and I have lived in many places, with people and alone. We’ve also had other cats at times. She’s always been a loner where other cats are involved, but she loves her human (me). She will spend hours perched on my leg, and sleeps on my head at night.

Once again, she and I are living alone and loving it. I’m very happy to have my little feline companion and I hope to have her for many more years.

Automobiles, Life, Local

Uber Gets Me There

I’ve had some problems with my car lately, so I started taking Uber. What a great idea that was. I downloaded the Uber app on my phone. You enter your name, address, and credit card number. When you need a ride, you just type in the address you are going to. It shows you the price before you ever confirm that you need the ride. It then shows you exactly where your driver is at the time, and how long it will take to get to you. From the safety standpoint, they have thought of everything. You are given your driver’s name, photo, and a description of the car including license plate number.

That, of course, did not stop me from almost getting in the wrong car when I first started using Uber. A car approached me, standing on the street, and stopped in front of me. I almost jumped in. I’m much more careful now to look at the make of the car or license plate if I can and look for the Uber sticker on the front window.

After you get out of the car, your credit card is automatically charged the fare. You are given the opportunity to rate your driver, and/or add a tip, which is not required.

All of the drivers I have had have been very nice. I look forward to having my car repaired soon, but in the meantime, I’m thankful I’ve found Uber.

Life, Outdoors, TV and Movies

Summer – or Not?

Where I grew up, Memorial Day weekend meant the unofficial launch of summer. It was the first big weekend that swimming pools opened for the season. A three day weekend meant that people could get away to the beaches or their mountain cabins or lake houses, clean up the dust from being shuttered all winter and restock the pantries for the summer.

This year Memorial Day was early and it feels like everything is just a little off-kilter. Normally I would be celebrating June 1 as a summer day, but with the early 3 day weekend, June 1 is just another day.

The good thing about summer is the warmer temperatures, the longer days, and the end of school. Kids have more chances to play outdoors, spend time with their friends, and sleep later in the mornings. Unless their moms work outside of the homes, and then they probably have to keep to the same early rising schedules and be hauled off to day care or, if they are lucky, to camp.

The down side of summer is the heat can get excessive, which means the air conditioners run harder and the electric bills go up. And all the good TV shows end their regular series and all that is left on TV is reruns.

I don’t have access to a swimming pool anymore, so that kinda sucks. If I want to take advantage of water, I can go to the lake or the commercial water park. The water park gets expensive, $30 for admission, $10 to park, and of course all the food and drink is grossly overpriced. I try to limit trips to the water park to the really hot days when there is nothing else to do.

There’s a good chance I can get away this summer for a short beach trip. I can’t decide between the Florida Panhandle with the gorgeous Gulf of Mexico, or the Atlantic Ocean and Virginia Beach. They are totally different experiences, but they are both a lot of fun and the water is fantastic. It would be great if I could get away to both of them, but the budget is just too tight for both this year. Maybe I can find some bargain rates at some decent hotel properties and find someone to split the trip expenses……

Life, TV and Movies

Continuum – A Good Sci-Fy Series

Last year I started watching a new science fiction series on the Sci-Fy cable channel, Friday nights at 9:00 pm. The series name is Continuum and the premise is that a group of criminals from the future figure out a way to go back in time rather than be punished in their own time for their crimes. A police officer accidentally gets transported back in time with them, and the chase to corral the criminals and find a way back to their future time ensues.

I like the casting, the characters are very realistic. The setting is Vancouver, so it is not too foreign for the Americans to relate to the geography and style of buildings.

A nice twist that is slowly revealed is that the criminals make it back in time partly through the efforts of a mastermind who remains in the future but has a younger version of himself just emerging from adolescence and preparing to build his evil empire. Part of the problem with the future is that the world is run by corporations rather than elected governments. I thought that was a timely reflection on what we are dealing with here in America right now and our own fight to take the money out politics.

Food and dining, Trips

HomeMade Pizza

A buddy of mine, Filip, lives in Poland and has a kick ass band over there. We keep in touch on Facebook and I get a kick out of seeing the photos of things over there. It’s not that different from America in a lot of ways.

I didn’t want to sound like a schmuck, but I went ahead and asked him what some things are like and what things are different over in Poland compared to America. He says all the same movies like Disney and Warner Brothers are released over there, but all the voices are dubbed over by Polish actors. They don’t even try to find an actor that sounds close to the original English speaking actors – I wonder how the Polish actors get those gigs? It would be easy work – no real acting – just talking into a microphone and reading from  a script.

Last night Filip posted Instagram photos of his home made pizza. It was not round like our traditional pizzas over here, he made it a big rectangle that fit in a cookie sheet kind of pan. He has a gas oven, so I wonder if that oven gets hotter than my electric one? I wonder if the gas gives it a better flavor than an electric oven?

His home made pizza was completely homemade – the dough was made in their kitchen and even the pizza sauce was made from fresh tomatoes. I was impressed and it looked great! I’ve never tried to make a pizza completely from scratch before. But now he has inspired me – if Fili and his wife can make a big pizza at home – why can’t I?