Tag Archives: Elwha

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Today and tomorrow and the day after

Good morning! I hope you are having a happy day today! I am up and having tea and reading and listening to music, waiting for the rest of the household. They may be a while.

I arrived at my son and daughter in law’s on Sunday. The glitch was that my son and I couldn’t find each other in the pick up area and got frustrated. Turns out that I was at National Airport and he was at Dulles, which does make it more of a challenge. I took my bags and hopped the metro out into Maryland, and they picked me up at the station. Whew.

We are talking, eating, wrapping things and climbing. We went to their climbing gym yesterday and I did a respectable job on some 5.6 and 5.7 climbs. Today my arms want to fall off. Last year my climbing style was panicked sloth. This year I am much better since I have been going to my climbing gym once a week. Arm muscles! How amazing!

We are going to continue wrapping today. My daughter and her boyfriend arrive late tomorrow so we aren’t going to tear paper off stuff until Friday morning. My inner little kid suggests that we unwrap today, wrap it back up, and do it AGAIN on Friday. This waiting frustrates her! Oh, well. No, dear, we aren’t going to do that.

Have a lovely today and tomorrow and day after tomorrow!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: today!

The photograph is Elwha looking up at the Christmas stick last year. I miss him!

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Naughty

The naughtiest postcard I ever sent was to my friend B, when he was living the romantic life of a government tax economist in New Zealand. He had been working for the US government, but went off to work for New Zealand’s government for two years. I felt rather jealous. Uprooting as a physician with a husband and two children to go work in a foreign country seemed a bit insurmountable. There was an awful lot of difficult family drama and illness going on, so that is the real reason that I did not do it.

Anyhow, naughty postcards. I sent B a postcard from Georgetown. It is black and white, a man lying prone looking up. A sheep is standing over him, so that no naughty bits can be seen, but one certainly suspects that the man is nude. He and the sheep are looking at each other. The caption is “No more sheepless nights.” Eeeeee. I bought two of that one, because it made me laugh.

B sent a letter back, along the lines of, “Cut it out, you are getting me in trouble with the postman.” I desisted. I did not have any more postcards like that one.

I have bought and kept blank cards and postcards over the years. Good thing, too, now that cards are a whopping $4.00 to $7.00 each. People must buy them, right? I have picked up blanks at garage sales too, once in a while. And the ones I don’t like can go out in the Little Free Library for other people.

I plan to make a calendar and maybe some postcards of Elwha’s cat art. He did it more than Sol Duc does. The photograph is one of the designs, from February 2023. I did see both of them adding to it. Perhaps there was some sibling rivalry going on, I don’t know. This installation is quite complex, with two toy mice, the earbuds, one of those glittery balls tucked under a mouse and the toy made of pipe cleaners.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: postcard.

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Cagey

Traveling from Washington to Colorado, Elwha did not like the car and the unfamiliar places. I took the cat carrier apart in the hotel room and he decided that it was safer inside it than out, even if it was in pieces. Sol Duc did not enjoy the car but is less worried about it all.

And here is Sol Duc in a virtual cage, a shadow cage. She likes the back yard a lot. I have had the house closed up because of the smoke for the last two days, but there is less today.

Do you know the poem by Ogden Nash, The Tale of Custard the Dragon? The chorus is as follows:

Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,
And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

I love that poem! And I love the lines:

Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,
For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda.

Ogden Nash was perfectly happy to bend words to fit the rhyming scheme and to heck with spelling!

The entire poem is here.

I still have not heard about Elwha. I hope that he has moved in with an older couple and spends most of his time on their laps. I can see him crying for a nice safe cage.

I thought there must be a song of it, but so far I like this tenth grade rap version best!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: cage.

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Tough cat

Sol Duc is quite a cat. The other morning I let her into the fenced back yard. I went back in to get my tea.

There is a knock at the front door. I open it and there is Sol Duc. “Meow!” which I hear as “Mom, I’m not supposed to be in front of the house without you.”

She comes in and I take my tea to the back. Oh.

Yes, I see the problem. She went into the neighbor’s yard and then around to the front. But she didn’t run off, she knocked. Apparently the storm was pretty hard on the fence.

This morning, after two days of rain, there were lots of small frogs singing to the sunrise in the man made run off space across the street. There is about a foot of water in it and the small frogs were all singing to their true loves. They continued to sing as the sun rose. Guess they better make hay while the pond is present, or something like that.

Sol Duc is a tough cat and smart. I think she still misses Elwha too, especially when I am at work, but she is careful not to run off.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: tough.

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Moving

Sol Duc and I moved yesterday. The place we were in was billed as having a kitchen. It has a refrigerator, dishwasher, sink and microwave. NO STOVE! AUGH! I could check out a hot plate with one frying pan. I would describe this as a fast food kitchen. Ugh. I like to COOK. I also found a nice farm stand and bought a bunch of vegetables. The farmer said, “Thank your parents for raising you right with vegetables.” Heh. I will go back.

We are now in a small house, at the western edge of Grand Junction, with two bedrooms! Now my daughter can visit again. Sol Duc worried about the ceiling fans and hid under the bed for most of the day. This morning the fans are off and she is exploring. We have a fenced yard, though she won’t go out without harness, leash and me. We are in the southwestern corner of the development and there is another development across the street. It only has three houses, so we have lots of area to wander around. This am we are out at 5 am and can hear roosters from the farm kitty corner to us. And cows. We have a fabulous view of the mesas to the south and west and we are no longer surrounded by parking lot and highways. The local Coloradans seem to really love their pickups and especially loud ones. The valley acts like a bowl and highway sound travels a long way.

We both miss Elwha. Sol Duc was fairly panicked when I loaded the car and put her in the crate. I think she was afraid we were going to drive for three days again. She likes the house though and came out to purr last night. This morning she is exploring. I am keeping the second bedroom closed since my daughter doesn’t do very well with fur.

We still hope that Elwha turns up. Come back, Elwha!

I will go finish checking out today. I had to have Sol Duc out of the room we were in twice a week for an hour, so that they could come in to clean. That was fairly stressful for both of us. The instructions they gave us were confusing and it was eight days before they explained the rules. Which did not match the written rules. Anyhow, I am OUT OF THERE. Some of the staff were really nice. Others, well.

I had more stuff to move than when I arrived, all food. The new place is great though built for tall people. I am not tall. I am now on the lookout for a desk, because all the chair/table heights are wrong for me. I will ask the rental folks first.

My Ex and I used to dance to Saffire, way back in Richmond when I was in medical school. Fabulous and here is a song about rising.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: rise.

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Blanket

I did not bring a quilt on this trip. I brought two favorite blankets instead. This is the Pendleton wool throw. At home I use it for couch naps. Elwha loved to snuggle under it with me.

The second is a fleece blanket that the cats like to snuggle up to at night.

And on the blanket? Mouse and squirrel.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: quilt!

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View

I took this somewhere along the 1217 mile trip with two cats from Port Townsend, Washington, to Grand Junction, Colorado. Idaho, I think. This a view rest stop as I drove up out of a valley.

Elwha and Sol Duc weren’t too sure about the trip. We started with them in the back and a net between the from and the back. I had to stop within an hour because they could get by it. Elwha wanted to ride by my feet and Sol Duc under the seat.

So then I set up their crate in the back seat and put both cats and the catbox and water into it. They didn’t love it but it worked. I would put their harnesses on and then put them in the carrier to go in to motels.

It was pretty exciting to check into a motel with two cats.

A new place to explore each evening.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: panorama.