INTERESTING TIMES

I just heard her dispatch some squeaking thing.  I did not get up to save it from her.  She is probably licking her chops right now, having just chomped down the last bite.  Maybe it was a baby rabbit.  It squeaked like one.

I'm having trouble keeping her clown collar on her.  I bought her a birds be safe collar but the quick-release under-collar is too quick to release--she scratches it right off.  Maybe if I put it on her when she has just fed she will be happy enough to ignore it and get used to it.

In other home news the raspberries are coming in.  W says they've never ever been this early.  It's still May and we have both pink and blonde raspberries already ripe.  The blueberries are on their way as well.  We will probably not get very many of them, because the crows are waiting for their ripening as well.

I'm planing my tulsis outdoors today.  Rama tulsi, the most medicinal Ocimum, and Kapoor, and Vana.  These are the Ayurvedic names, and two of them have the exact same Latin name according to the seed company I got them from.

Bergamots are going out as well.  Three of them.  Should be interesting to see how they fare.

I never know what will live and what will die in my little garden.  

Woke up at 4am eastern time (1am Pacific time) to fly back to the left coast. Due to a coffee mistake (didn't ask and was served caffeinated at 8pm) I slept only 2 hours. Wow does that make for a long day. Arrived in Portland at 10:30am local time, and was grouchy by noon and incoherent by 5pm. Went to bed at 7pm and slept 11 hours, and I feel almost normal this morning. Phew!

So I woke up in the upstairs room here at Will's, which is to be my new home. The room that was the bedroom in this house will become my office. It is a pleasant room and will be even nicer once I can clear the old juju from it. From this day forward any time I use something from my old apartment it is moving to Will's house.

My old apartment smells like cat shit, has no toilet paper or paper towels on the roll, has vines growing into the stairway, has compost rotting in the kitchen, and is generally covered in cat hair and disgusting to me. It quickly becomes apparent how much energy I put into keeping the place clean, and how quickly things will decline in my absence. Emily's new boyfriend, the unemployed smoker from Jersey, is still hanging around. He avoids my eye. He may be the housemate she is thinking of having move in....a disaster in the making. The downstairs neighbors are very upset at her for making noise all night long every night, walking with heavy feet and moving furniture around at 4am. I don't know what she has been up to but I know that she is neurotic and the new boy is likely to aggravate that. I was a moderating presence.

So I have 9 days in PDX before I leave town for another adventure. In that time I am supposed to relocate my possessions from the apartment and clean it. I am leaving Kitten there until we return from Idaho. I hope she doesn't freak too much when the bed etc are removed. I will relocate her to Will's in June.

More later, hope you guys are well. I haven't read anything on LJ in a month or so, so if there has been some major happening in your life please let me know.

Kitten is injured. I don't know what happened to her but I think it was yesterday or the day before. She has lacerations on a front leg and a hind leg, and she can't jump. She's been laying around looking glum. The injuries look like maybe she tangled with a fence or a door, not so much like another creature, though I suppose it is possible. I don't think any bones are broken, but the wounds are painful. I moved her food bowl down to where she could reach it. She has been particularly needy, too, wanting to sit or lay on me a lot. I pet her constantly, wanting the love to help her heal.

I have this strange chair that is the corner out of a segmented sofa. It is supposed to be off white, but it is so old and dirty that it is more like gray mottled with brown. Last winter the roof leaked on it and the stains were the worst yet. I generally keep it covered with a blanket. Today I propped it up on the bannister of our tiny 2nd floor porch. I sprayed it with dilute dish soap, scrubbed the spots a little and hosed it off repeatedly. Then it started to rain. I thought "great, it will get rinsed off well". But then the rain set in as if it would never end. The chair might never dry left out on the porch. So I just wrangled the oversized ugly thing back into the foyer and set a fan on it. This chair only came with me to Oregon because my cat loved it. It is the thing that has told her we are "home" in the several moves we have made so far. I think this may be the end of the chair. It is a piece of garbage that I carted here with me from Arizona. I often think back on the stuff I loaded in a truck to bring here. Junk. But this chair has had its moments. It has been a good meditation chair. And it fits well in small nooks beside windows. I think I paid Suzanne (not this Suzanne but the prior one in my life) $10 for it. I can barely believe I paid ten bucks for this. But here it is. Funny how possessions can complicate our lives. I would have done well to get rid of it a long time ago, and the cat would have known some other way that we were home.

I keep thinking I should get rid of 90% of everything that I have.
Then I cram more stuff into the closet that I might use someday.

Shakti is sitting on the window sill in the east window of my office. The full moon is high and clouds are drifting past it, torturing the vampires. Suzanne is starting charcoal in a hibachi on the porch, and the pug beast is snorting in the hall.
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Today, and last Sunday, Rick and I grilled in the back yard. There's this new cat that comes through the fence, or around the fence after I blocked the hole, and meows and begs and rubs incessantly. It is skinny but not emaciated, and has a collar on. I let it have some leftover buffalo juice last week, and now I know that was a mistake. Today I had enough of it, but it was not so easy to drive away. I progressed from hissing and gesturing at it to throwing sticks and pebbles. It just kept coming back.
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It's a dark morning and there's thunder rumbling. I accidentally left the window closed and the kitten was locked out for the night. I think she slept in the big cedar tree, because she started meowing at me when I sat on the toilet, and when I responded she emerged from the tree and came to the bathroom window. I walked to the other end of the apartment and opened the window for her. She ate a few kibbles and is now settled down to sleep off her long night in the wild streets of Portland.

I myself haven't been sleeping very well. The heat definitely reduces my sleep, but last night was cooler and I still didn't go to sleep easily or deeply. I awoke tired, but lacked any faith that staying in bed would give me more energy, so I am up. The nice thing about a dark gray morning is that Portland stays asleep. There is nothing moving in my neighborhood but the crows. A few big drops of rain are beginning to fall and the crows are retreating from the streets to the trees.

I don't remember any dreams from last night.

Shakti is eating the dregs of my morning smoothie. It is made of fresh pineapple and cherries with the usual powders and potions added. She is sitting on my desk and dipping her paw in the thick green mush, then licking it off her paw. ...
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Kitten is passed out on the couch. I have never seen her sprawl exactly there and like that before....she seems to be getting more comfortable. She does not have to hide from the little canine anymore. She is exhausted from last night's excitement. I closed the door to the Crow's Nest last night while she was still out prowling. She could come into that room, but no farther, and she could not get to me. The idea was that I wanted to sleep all night and wake up without her stomping on me and muttering me awake.
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The kitten requires attention to dine. She meows whenever I am in the kitchen, and then chatters at me until I follow her into the pantry, where her food is on a high shelf. She looks back over her shoulder and entices me to go with her, and once on the shelf she dines eagerly while I pet her. I don't understand why she has such glee at getting attention precisely while she is eating. She just does.
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