November 9, 2007

6:00am
The cat wakes me up, crying at the front door. Crying and crying and crying and crying.... Finally he stopped. Then I heard the kitty door swinging. Did he go out, or did he stick his head out and change his mind? I hear him jump onto the floor. Then he cries a couple more times. He stops. I decide I should go let him out so he doesn't pee in the bathtub.

In the living room, I call and call... no cat. I open the door and look outside. I call him. No cat. I go back to bed.

10 minutes later, I hear the cat jump onto his perch outside. I hear the kitty door swinging. I hear the cat jump onto the floor. Then he is on my bed, beside my pillow. He did go outside! He finally figured it out!

I lavish him with praise, telling him what a smart kitty he is.


7:15
Phone rings. I answer it. It is VN, calling to say happy birthday. I hang up.


7:30
Clock radio turns on. I listen to music for an hour then get up. Kept IJ home from school today. We spent some time on bible study together. DL joined us later.


11:30
IJ and I go to the mall to check out the craft fair. We smelled something really good. We went looking for it. Our noses lead us towards to grocery store. We went in to see if they had fresh cookies. The aroma was not coming from there. We exit. Slowly, we move through the mall... and find it!

Fresh, candied almonds!

We hit the jackpot! They were still too hot to eat. I bought some. Tasty.


12:45
We locate VN, and all go out to my car. We head home.


12:55
I am stopped on the road, signaling a left turn. Lots of traffic coming towards me. I check my rearview mirror -- a car is stopped a reasonable distance behind me. I look forwards again, but something catches my eye. I look in the mirror again... there is a truck coming up fast behind the car! No time to react... I tense up. I hear a sickening crash... followed by another crunch... tires screeching on the road... and my rear bumper is tapped.

Wow! Did we ever get lucky! All three of us had seatbelts with shoulder straps on. The car behind me saw the truck coming, and planted his foot on the break and set his handbreak. He got the worst of it. Initially, everyone was ok. By the time the police arrived, the driver behind me was feeling dizzy. They got him an ambulance.

My digital camera was in the car, so I took it out and took an overview picture followed by front and rear photos of each vehicle. I'll post some later.

The first thing the cop said was "Let me guess... someone was making a left turn,"

I put up my hand and said "that was me".

"... was hit from behind, and then another vehicle hit from behind."

"Close," I said. "The white car was hit from behind, and was pushed into me."

She started taking names, beginning with me. I gave her my licence, and I watched her write my birthdate in her notebook.

"I knew there was something I had to do today," I exclaimed. "My licence expires today!"

"Don't worry about it," she said.

She finished up with me and I got to go home.

Other stuff happened today... ran errands with DL, had a chiropractor visit, got a prescription from my GP for some skin cream, went to renew my licence... right after they locked the door! Ordered Chinese food, picked JMJ up at the ferry, arrived at the drug store minutes before they closed to fill out my prescription (the pharmacist was so nice... he turned his computers back on and filled it out right away).

I'm ready to sleep now.

What a day!

Cats!

I am still trying to get my cat to use the cat door I installed. He is using it consistently now to get into the house, but has yet to use it to go outside. He asks out the door when I am awake, and when I am sleeping, he licks my face with his rasp of a tongue until I get up and throw him out.

I was telling FdM about it last night, and he theorized that the cat thinks I am really stupid for having a door that he can only use to come in. He is waiting for me to put in another door so he can get out, too.

I came up with an idea: Put his food outside on the perch. Then he will have to use the door to get out.

This morning, I did just that.

As the cat watched, I filled his food dish, reached out through the cat door, and set it down outside.

What did the cat do?

He sat at the window, looking at his food, and meowed! Several times, he pawed at the window -- right beside the cat door! Once he looked at his food through the cat door (it is clear plastic), and I thought he was going to figure it out... but he didn't. He went back to pawing at the window and meowing.

I pushed the cat door open, and held it for him, hoping he would go through. He approached the cat door, and actually stuck his head outside. He lifted his right forepaw, and was about to step through the door, when he changed his mind and came back in.

Then he started meowing again.

So I left him.

When I was ready to go out for the day, I brought his food inside. I was expecting rain, and didn't want his food out in the weather. I put the cat outside, and off I went.

When I returned home, the cat was inside.

It's nice to know the door works in at least one direction.

Miscellaneous Updates

VN is not staying with me any longer. She was only here for a week.

She was referred to a friend of a friend who had space for her and her St Bernard. She now gets free rent in exchange for housework and dog sitting.

Good deal.

---

It took JJ over a week to get JMJ into a school. I was talking to JMJ last night... he did not go to school yesterday. He was not feeling well.

I asked what his symptoms were. He said his ear is bothering him, and he has an upset stomach.

I recognize those symptoms.

The ear is unrelated to the stomache. His ear will bother him if there are allergens in his environment. He has a prescription nasal spray for that.

The upset stomach is stress.

He gets that most years at the beginning of school. He had a huge change this year... from a small class group and two or three teachers, into a high-school with 2000 students, and a class schedule to follow.

Hid dad likely has no idea about it. I know I told him about it each year. But he had no interest in being a parent. It was outside his realm of experience, so he paid it no mind.

Now, he is the parent.

He has alot to learn.

And he does not talk to me anymore.

He could learn from my experience. After all, he is a parent to my child. Who else could help him more?

I know he will not ask. I guess I should send him a brief email about it.

And try not to sound like I am telling him what to do.

---

The cat is still not using the kitty door. He does not like it.

At 5am today, I got up to let him out, and then discovered he had pooped where the litter box used to be. Other mornings, I have found a poop in the bathtub.

He is trying to be a clean cat. It is just tough for him right now, because I am as stubborn as he is.

---

I was catching up on laundry yesterday. After folding IJs clothes, I went to put them away. Usually, I tell him to put them away. This time, there was so much laundry, that I did not want to wait for him to come home from school, so I did it.

I started putting clean clothes into his drawers, and then I saw it: Rat Poop! In his drawer!

So I checked his other drawers.

They all had rat poop in them.

I took the drawers into the bathroom one at a time, and washed the contents. The bathtub is currently full of empty drawers. I need to sanitize them still. The clothes have all been sanitized.

The rat man came to check on the traps yesterday... they were all empty! So I now have only 1 trap inside the house... on top of the hot water tank, where they get into the house. There are 10 or so traps under the house. The idea is to catch them before they get inside.

The fact that no rats were trapped this time is a good thing. It means we got them! The rat man figures I had just one family of rats inside. I know the mother ate the poison I set out. We saw some dead babies, and the rat man caught a few half-grown rats (so did the cat).

The rat man will be back in a month to check traps again. If there are still no rats, he will come about every 6 weeks.

The trailer park management paid for the initial setup. I just have to pay the rat man for the follow-up visits, at $75/visit.

I plan to keep him.

Mom With Power Tools Completes Another Project

I hate Kitty Litter Boxes. They stink. The litter gets tracked all over the house. They take up space.

Liquidation World recently received a shipment of pet supplies. I bought a Kitty Door for $10.

I was all set to replace one of my windows with a piece of plywood with the Kitty Door in it. Then I read the instructions. They said I could cut a hole in my window glass and then install the Kitty Door!

So, I called a glazier and asked if he could do it.

He said yes.

So, I took him my window, and he put a hole in it.

He didn't even charge me!

IJ helped me put the Kitty Door on the window... he held it in place while I screwed it together.

I built a platform and screwed it to the window frame. Then I put the cat on it.

He is nervous about using the Kitty Door, so I came up with a plan: tape the door open during the day so he can see that he can get through. Once he has used it a few times, he should be able to push it open on his own.

I managed to coax him through the Door twice today. Both times, he sat on the platform for a minute, then came back in on his own.

It's just a matter of time, now.

Mom With Power Tools is awesome!