The State of the Mew-nion: Kitty Politics for Fall of 2008 (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Once in a while I post this. Like the new title? Heh. From oldest to youngest:

Storm is lovable and crabby at age 10. She doesn't get along with Cosmo at all, and I think the other cats don't care for her much, but since Artoo's passing in 2005, she's taken back parts of the bed at night. She likes sleeping next to me, greets me in the morning, and has this habit of meowing and running to the food bowl to voraciously eat, like she wants company while dining. Storm also tries to sneak in my den a lot.

Thisby is 8, and finally mellowing out a little. She is more friendly when food is scarce, but she comes on the bed anyway after I shower, and wants attention. She has also gotten bold enough to climb on Christine's lap from time to time. We occassionally have to pull knots out of her, but that's the long hair for you. Most of the time, though, she's hiding under the bed. She no longer has seizures when she gets excited playing with a feather or laser light dot. She seems better with her coordination when jumping from thing to thing. She's far more sociable than ever, but that's still not very good.

Cosmo is I guess 5 by now, and sleeps with CR. He tries to play the dominant Tom, but since he's away in CR's room a lot, he can't quite pull it off. He does not like Storm very much, and sometimes he fights with Taboo, but with taboo it's more of a "I am in charge" and not too fierce. He still eats dog food, and likes to swat at plants. He's CRs cat, almost a soul-mate to him. I'd hasten to say he's a familiar at this point, but CR and Cosmo fight a lot at night. Cosmo is always knocking stuff around in his room and being obnoxious.

Latte is still crazy. Maybe she's 4, we're not sure. She's still playful, and runs around with Taboo all the time. After managing to get out of and lose 3 collars, I got her a nice one that's still breakaway, but she hasn't broken from it yet. She likes to come up to the bed, get petted, and then leave the bed to meow, and then repeats this cycle. She will, eventually, come to bed and sleep there, but Widget hates her guts, and often attacks her of she gets too close at night. I think Latte has gotten to the point where she finally understands some cats/dogs don't like her and actually tries to stop sleeping on top of them.

Taboo is 3, still sleeps on my legs, and when he sleeps, he sleeps like the dead. Like you can pick him up and roll him around; he won't wake up. He's still playful with the laser dot, likes feathers, and likes to be petted a lot. He'd gained mass, but he's not muscular-dense like Cosmo. Just kind of flabby without being fat, you know?

I still miss Artoo. It's been over 3 years, and I still miss him. :( Posted in: artoo , cats , cosmo , latte , storm , taboo , thisby

Lights out again... (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I am tired of the power going out in my house. I really am. I mean, I got UPS and stuff on my computers, but they really only serve as big surge suppressor with a 1-2 minute shutdown time, heh. I need more of them, at better wattage, and connect some to the router and switches so I don't lose network. The last time our power went out, it took more than 2 days to turn back on again.

I remain logged into my systems at work, and then *boop* I lose my ssh/nx connection and takayla's last statement was:

(3:49:50 PM) Takayla: it's very stormy here

[sigh...]

When I lived in Reston from 1992-2000, we had maybe 4-5 power outages in those 8 years. Most only lasted a few hours or less. I was told that's because Reston's power cables are underground, but I am not sure how true that is. I think our house loses power about 4-5 times a year in Fairfax, and it's making me wonder if I should invest in a generator at this point. Not the $8000 yard-grabbing monstrosity Dominion Power tries to sell me in monthly mailings, but like a $400 Yahama or something. Yes, I know not to run it indoors, we had an employee here who did that and almost died. Posted in: blackout , generator , power , storm

Storm is sick (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I mentioned earlier I went to the vet. Ahfu was due his shots, and Storm has started to have some discharge from one nostril. She doesn't act sick, per se, other then the sneezing. But no fever, no change in behavior. Crabby as always. The vet was not optimistic that antibiotics would do the trick, given no other cat has gotten sick, and it's only from one nostril. Could be... well... I won't say it.

Ahfu also has a heart murmur. Both Ahfu and Storm are roughly the same age; Ahfu is only a little younger, but both are around 9. When I was growing up, I was led to believe that cats had a long lifespan. My family's cat Daisy lived to be 16, and Shasta lived to be 21. But my record isn't as good:

Pookie: 10 - Heart attack
Mikey: 4 - Kidney infection
Oreo: 6 - Total intestine and bowel failure
Artoo: 13 - Kidney failure (mostly old age, though)

I am not sure why cats don't live as long with me. I feed them right, clean the cat box, give them plenty of water... and they never die to to neglect. I just feel unlucky. Posted in: ahfu , storm

Man there are some dark clouds out there (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Montgomery County issued a severe thunderstorm alert. Not that saying that means much; they seem to do this a few times a week. My company does VoIP, so that means we’re hooked up to the 911 alert system, which means I get paged for stuff like Amber Alerts, “suspect with gun fleeing north,” and a plethora of weather alerts among other things.

But those clouds over Silver Spring today are pretty ominous.



Something wicked this way comes... :) Posted in: silvers spring , storm , work