Ellipses...

Trying to keep the post tempo going.  You'll know if I succeed...  Turned on the air last night before we went out so the house would be cool when we got back.  When we got back we found out the ac needs servicing...  Doesn't saying you are going to bring things up at the convention if they aren't handled in advance really constitute "derailing?"  The press really isn't doing a great job on this election cycle...  I was going to do the room in the attic this week.  I didn't.  Maybe next week...  I do not want Windows 10.  I do not want it tonight.  I do not want it later.  I'll get it when I get a new machine.  Please stop bothering me...  Decided against playing in the summer ultimate casual league.  The game locations and times made the driving sound anything but casual...  We're having a party for our 11th anniversary, we were indisposed for the 10th.  Shoot me an email if you'd like to come.  The more the merrier...  Melissa Harris Perry was on Real Time last night.  She couldn't get a word in edgewise through the active participation of the Trump supporter next to her...  I think we're going to see the actual Thomas the Tank engine next month.  The boy will be very excited...  Speaking of the boy, he hasn't seemed to notice our 50% drop in feline population.  Here's hoping that lasts...  How long do you think it will be until someone does a site or an app to integrate all of the medical portals?  I think I'm up to four.  I know email isn't 100% secure, but all these special communication portals are not really convenient for me...  I finished reading Hugh Howley's Wool, Shift, & Dust trilogy.  It was pretty good.  Maybe worth its own post...  There appears to be a Chihuly mobile in the new student center extension.  I'm sure that will make prospectives feel like CMU is reasonably affordable...

And Then There Was One

For a while there we had six cats.  There was Rolaren who I had from a long while back.  Then there were Bra'Tac and Freya who we adopted one day when we went to buy patio furniture.  After that there were Petra and Bean who we literally rescued off the street.  And rounding out the pack was Tivel, my mother's cat that we took off my father's hands.  We never intended to have that many cats.  I don't think anyone really ever intends to have that many cats.  It just happens.  One day you have a cat and then some day you look up and you've become cat people.

When the boy was imminent we decided we needed to thin the herd some.  It didn't seem responsible to begin that project with all that chaos.

Tivel was the first to depart.  He had to go to the shelter.  Tivel was mean.  I decided he wasn't going to be able to stay with us when it became glaringly clear he was never going to make friends with the rest of the group.  He had been an outdoor cat in Chicago and never adjusted to being an indoor cat here with us.  Plus he had been on his own for more than a decade.  I don't think it was in his plan to become one of six.

Next to go was Rolaren.  I don't think Ro liked being part of a big family either.  She was twitchy right from her adoption and in hindsight it seems like maybe she was better off in a one cat household.  One of my former students took her on and it seems like she's very happy there.  I see pictures of her occasionally on Facebook.

Next was Petra.  We tired really hard to find someone to take Petra and Bean together but had no luck.  It didn't help much that we couldn't really give a rousing recommendation for her: "she only bit me once..."  As the clock ran out on the project we had to take Petra to the shelter.  We did find a new home for Bean.  He went to the family of a co-worker.  We were talking about him just the other day and like Rolaren, Bean is having a fine time of it in his new home.

That left us with Bra'Tac and Freya.  Two cats seemed reasonable for a house with a new child.

Last Friday Freya passed away.  She seemed fine at the top of the week.  I didn't notice anything amiss the times I saw her.  And then Friday she was gone.  Mrs. TANBI saw her Friday afternoon and thought she looked mopey.  She thought it was strange that Freya had let the boy get close enough to pet her.  I figured I'd give her a look over when I saw her.  After we got home Freya didn't present herself, so after a little while I went looking for her.  She was in the basement on the first step just hanging out.  I brought her upstairs thinking maybe she needed some water.  She didn't eat or drink, just sat on my lap.  Her breathing sounded labored so I put her down and searched that online on my phone.  While I was looking she walked into the living room and laid down.

She didn't get up again.

I got her carrier and found a 24 hour animal ER but we never made it to the car.  She'd stopped breathing and I couldn't hear a pulse.  I put her nose in my ear to see if I could hear breathing but there was nothing.  Just like that she was gone.

We're sad.  I'm taking solace from the thought that she got to say goodbye and that it happened quickly and at least apparently without pain.  The whole family is going to miss Freya.  She was a great cat.

Ellipses...

Should I write something?  Ok, I'll write something...  Commencement was last weekend.  I spent the next week buttoning things up.  It's taking more than a week...  I really don't think the total lack of a supreme court confirmation is getting enough press.  Starting to wonder why the Democrats aren't jamming up anything else that tries to move in the Senate...  There's a robin's next outside our bedroom window.  Probably makes sense to move it, but I can't come up with a reason...  I weaseled out of teaching Drafting this summer...  Freya kitten passed away last night.  Two days from appearing perfectly healthy to the end.  We're sad...  I can't remember if anyone but my parents came to my 8th grade graduation.  I do seem to recall that I was next to Eric Steiger in the procession...  There's a nice house for sale three blocks over.  Is it stupid to move three blocks?  Feels like it should demand a fairly significant upgrade to be worth it...  I didn't go to the NYC cocktail again this year.  Probably should make a point of going sometime soon...  I'd really like the folks harping on Sanders to get out to tell me why prolonging an argument taking the discourse to the left is really such a bad thing.  We've lived right of center for so long.  Seems like a leftward current is a good thing...  If at all possible I would like news directors to change up the relative amounts of conjecture, opinion, and news in their news...  Looks like it is going to be a summer without Melissa Etheridge for me...  I'm hoping this next week will see an end to a home project that has dragged out for nearly two years now (although it's not like I've actually been working on it).  If it does I'll post some pictures...