The Bad Idea

What was I thinking? Thong track in the paint.

Crunched file cabinet and bed---I painted around them.

Crammed up hallway outside bedroom. I think I'll just leave the house to my cats and run away!

I got a bug in my bonnet, so to speak, the other day. I was frustrated that I've got nothing yet set up here for the cats. Except, I did get the carpet out of most of the house. I got it out of everywhere except for the bedroom.

My cats are unhappy here. They have no cat runs. The windows don't open and they can't go outside. When they get stressed and start shedding, as cats do this time of year, they get hairballs. These stress them more and also create partial blockages that are not only uncomfortable but that also press on the bladdar and kidneys, creating urinary urgency. They start pee marking. In the bedroom, on the carpet, this is an issue!

Readers of my blog know I HATE CARPET.

In a fit of frustration, I began yanking the bedroom carpeting. Seems simple enough, right? There's more carpet, pad and tack strips in one small room than one might think.

I got most of it out quickly. But I've got spinal cord issues. So I didn't move the bed or the computer desk, which was dumbshit. Instead, I pulled the carpet from everywhere else, tore up the pad, cursed the dirt underneath as usual in self-smug-satisfaction, because such sights led to and feed my carpet hate.

I caulked the holes and cracks. I pried up and pulled out the staples that held the pad down. All except for under the computer desk and bed.

Then I twice painted it over with primer. And even while primer dried in one area, I was putting final coat, the beautiful blue, not the ugly dull green of the rest of the house, in a first coat in the litterbox closet.

But that floor and deck paint takes FOREVER to dry adequately. And I hadn't thought about my phone with message machine being in here, on the computer desk and the computer itself, too. I cursed myself more, when trying to get across the sticky floor to get to my alarm clock, which I'd left on the computer desk. I was wearing my thongs. One of them stuck to the sticky painted blue beautiful floor and I had to pry it up.

I'd taken out my chair too, but I sure couldn't not check my e-mail even once yesterday. I mean, I'd called Vicki of KAT desperate, because the Oak street male finally went in my trap. He's number six, the last cat. But my own vet wasn't in yesterday and was full today. I didn't want to hold onto him all weekend. I wondered if they had any fix spots available anywhere sooner. They did. But I had to communicate with KAT by e-mail. I don't have long distance. I use long distance prepaid cards I buy at Darimart.

So, lacking a chair, unable to bend over and type standing for long, I sat on the edge of my Goodwill file cabinet. The top was just the perfect height for sitting and typing. And it crunched it in. Well, at least if anyone broke in here, now I have a security system on the damn file cabinet. You'd need a crowbar to pry it open enough to pull out a drawer now. I'm using it to sit on now. Damage is already done.

I can't really talk on my phoneline now and maybe this is why the computer speed has slowed to crawl again. When I'm on the phone, interference is extreme and I hear my neighbors, the Mexicans, talking too. Life here has gone to the shits.

I've been sleeping on my couch. My cats are unhappier than ever. I need screen doors on both my bedroom and bathroom, for help in socializing new cats quickly, but will have to build them. I'm just really behind on projects needed to get this place comfortable. Plus, most of my useful old wood and materials---lost in the move. My brother hauled off and threw out much of my old wood and materials, saying I'd always have access to wood at his contractors shop. This was ridiculous of me to allow. His shop is a four hour drive away. One way. And hauling all that shit back here, in my little car---impossible, too.

Much of what I had, and used for cat structures, I precariously hauled back to my place, with it sticking out the back and various ropes and nets holding it in, as I drove with it, at slow bike speeds, from wherever I found my treasures, often in the middle of the night, when traffic wasn't an issue.

Cat yard----doubt I'll ever have one. The logistics of this house make it seemingly impossible to create. Cat runs, my brother says no to those. Blocking out the morning sun----which heats the house miserably for the day---no progress. Secure cat window screens--no progress either.

It's like starting over from scratch. I had that old place in Corvallis fixed up great for cats. To start over from scratch once again, is hell really. Having unhappy cats, however, is a deeper hell.