Productivity

 Yesterday was a rare day.  I got in the mood.

I removed the sheet on the top bunk where my cats hang out.  They all love it up there and cuddle up with one another.  Consequently, the sheet and their beds up there have to be cleaned more often than anywhere else in the house.

So I removed the top sheet, much to their dismay.  I changed the plastic mattress protector too, which had, with time, fallen to pieces.  I replaced it with a new one.

Their beds I first clean with a moist brush, to remove as much hair as possible.  It's shedding season.  If they still look bad, I wash them.  My old craigslist Maytag washer keeps on running.   Got it so many years ago from someone selling it from their mom's house when she was moved to assisted living.

If this wasn't enough hair and dust to deal with, after I did that, and was sitting in the garage, I thought "now's the time".  I wanted to move one of the shelf units sideways to be flat against the garage wall, so I could actually access stuff on the shelf.  I had it perpendicular to the wall.   

I had to move some things around so I could make the change.  I wanted all the cat stuff together, all the garden stuff together, and all my kayak/raft stuff together.  Also I'm switching out from towel cage covers to fleece.  They are lightweight.   The big plus is they wash and more importantly DRY fast.   With electric rates skyrocketing fast drying is a big energy saver.

I will donate all my old towel cage covers to the humane society clinic, who use them in post surgical burrito wraps.  Walmart has had fleeces big enough to make two cages covers on sale for $3 each.  Their only downside is because of their light weight they blow in wind.   I"ll keep a couple towels for windy night trapping.

I felt very accomplished afterwards.   I took two bags of things to Goodwill afterwards, stuff I'd found while moving things around, that I haven't used in too long.  Off they went.  I don't like to keep things I don't use.  I went and visited someone then I had been unable to get on the phone for awhile.  I was worried, wondered if she was ok.  She was in bed, with her phone off and I told her I felt like doing the same, with the weather so bad and cost of living so high.   We're all struggling with the high utilities and food costs.

This morning I'm sneezing.  I always do after cleaning.   I think 'Next time I will wear a mask' but I always seem to forget.

I want to catch Bob for Monday appointments but how?  I hadn't seen him around as much as usual.  He's fed at least five places I know of.  This makes it quite difficult.   I set up the game cam to see if he is even still coming through.   In the mornings, if the game cam is out, I get excited to get up and download the nights outside excitement.  Like a peeping tom looking in on something else's life.

I saw Bob only once all night on the cam, and that was shortly after I set it up, around 8:00.  But guess who was right there too--Cisco.  Cisco appeared off and on until 3:00 a.m.  He was in and out of the tied open trap and ate most of the food in it.  Bob is not an aggressive sort of cat and may not go into the trap to eat if another male is near.  While Cisco was neutered over two weeks ago, those hormones will take awhile to diminish.  In the meantime he will smell and act like a five year old unfixed boy.

I didn't watch the big hoopla state of the union address last night.   Instead I went to bed and read my book with my cats around me.   This one is Cisco earlier this morning, about 1:00 a.m. I think this one was.  The second video shows Bob making his one and only appearance about 8:00 p.m. last night, with Cisco immediately appearing to give him some boy shit.

Cisco will soon start settling down.   In no time, it will be a month since he was neutered.  Must get Bob done too, to save his life.  It's been over 70 cats now I've caught who have come through my yard since I moved here 17 years ago.  The first years I got the most fixed, then its been sporadic since getting the area initially cleaned up of unifxed cats.  The majority have been boys.