It's been a busy month.
We started walking again. A couple of weeks with a short walk, then a little longer, now we're back up to a mile. We'd quit walking because my body had decided that it would wait until we were halfway through the walk and then let me know it urgently needed to visit a restroom. That seems to have stopped. This aging stuff is weird.
After months of not going outside at night to count the satellites, due to the cloud cover (San Diego actually went a full month with zero sun - we had some inland, but it was always cloudy at night), we started going out again. Since the heat wave (once again, we skipped spring and went right into summer), it's cooler at night outside. We've been closing up the house in the daytime, running all the fans, trying really hard not to turn on the air conditioner, because money. So, when the various thermometers through the house show it's cooler outside than in, we open that area up. And when we go outside, I turn the whole house fan on. It sucks the air from outside into the house and the hot air up into the attic, where it vents to outside.
Earlier this month, we saw something amazing. Satellite after satellite. We counted thirty-one in a row, a string of them. I looked it up and it was a Starlink drop. Cool. Well, this past week, we saw another drop with a count of forty-six. And a couple of nights later, fifty-one. I'm sure there were more, but that's all we could see. Well, guess what? It's a common occurrence and there's a website that tells you all about it and gives a link to another website where you can track when they're visible in your area! We also saw the recent launch from Vanderberg AFB. I tried to get a video, but I was not prepared at all. Here's the local story with photos. This stuff is so very exciting to watch. Being almost seventy years old, I'm happy to be around to watch. I remember the first moonwalk. How far we've come with technology.
I'll go to my death believing that electricity is sorcery. Don't get me started on radio and television and wifi and cable and Alexa and Hey Google. We have eight Alexa devices (one is outside, under the eaves, so we can find out what time it is when we're watching satellites). We have at least thirteen Google devices (I like having music throughout the house and at least two speakers in a room to have stereo). Three smart televisions (Roku) and a couple of Roku devices (office, bedroom and home theater). I can set them up, and I can get them to work as I like, but I have no idea what makes them run. We have a ton of streaming channels, right now, our goto is BritBox. I am constantly amazed at what is out there. I was raised on three stations and rabbit ears. AM radio was the rage.
So, I still have the childlike feelings of "wow!" when I think of how far we've come.
Let's see...oh, I'm going to make our own calendars for this coming year. I have the stuff. I have a Cinch machine. I have a wide format printer (I finally gave up on getting the R1900 to work). I have the paper. I have the software (WinCalendar, an addon for Microsoft Word). So, I'm gonna do that.
Something that's not a positive about time passing. How much things cost. The paper? I tested one sheet that's 12" x 18" with a photo of Natasha. It didn't bleed through which is good and the image was very nice, crisp. I can print on both sides. Of course, I'll have to trim it down (that's a whole 'nother issue). The problem is I don't want to run out of it and I couldn't find out where I got it. After hours of searching websites, I found one that had a paper this size and I tried logging in. It worked! I checked my account (it's been years) and there was the paper. So, cool. The thing is when I first bought it, back in 2014, it was under $35 with no shipping charge. Now, it's just under $60, shipping additional. UPS shipping was $41!!! Holy cow! Fortunately, I was able to use our UPS account and that won't be as much.
I finished the front portion of last year's holiday cards. Guess they'll be this year's holiday cards. Best intentions...
Oh, and we got another cat. Well, he got us. Was in the yard on the morning of the 8th. We got our cats in, opened the gate and this cat ran out. He was back the next morning, he was nice enough and we figured, screw it, we're keeping him. We named him Loki.
Made an appointment for him at the vet's, he was tested and neutered last Wednesday (19th). He was flea-covered, had bad ear mites, was a little anemic, and tested positive for FIV. I kind of figured that would be the case because he was so nice, not fighting with the other cats at all. Ike was being his normal asshole self, but not as bad as it could have been. I had a little go round with the vet about vaccinations (hey, the barn door is closed, the horse is out, what good will vaccinating do now?) Explain to her that we don't vaccinate, we test. "But the other cats aren't protected!" From what? We don't have a bunch of stranger cats in the yard. We've had FIV+ cats in the past (Handsome, Skipper) and they were just sweethearts. FIV is transmitted through deep bite wounds. That's not happening with a cat who won't fight.
We've had over seventy cats since we've been here and not one died from something that a vaccination could have prevented (from the time we had them). The two cats who were disease positive came to us that way.
Anyway, here's a little video of Loki eating.
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