Rain

 Rain is back in Oregon.

I slept in and have been enjoying morning with my kitties who hate it that its raining.

Cat yard, you know, they love it.  They enjoy bird watching from the runs through the wire.   It's not hard raining so most are still out in the yard before their mid day naps.

They have such hard lives here, you know.

I went out to try to catch that Siamese with the drop trap late yesterday afternoon.  No luck.  I wondered, since I'd left food day before, but had to give it a shot.  And got a big surprise.  There are two Siamese.

There were two born there to a litter of four or five, the feeder lady had told me in 2024 but she thought the unfixed boy was run off when a bigger boy showed up.   Well he's back now.   And you can't tell the fixed girl from the unfixed boy outside of a couple tiny differences.  The boys' tail is darker and shorter.   That's it.  You can barely see the girl's eartip unless right there very close up and sometimes not even then if angle is wrong.

Explains a alot, with the two there, although the boy is a roamer now.   I watched him, as the sun set, take off across the flatlands.   He was bent on a direction and traveled quickly.  I bet he has a homeless human friend.

This is the girl, now limping, when she was fixed mid summer last year.

I hope so.  Everyone needs a friend in this world.

In previous visits, I had been convinced my eyes were playing tricks on me.  I saw slight differences when I'd see what I thought was the same cat and would shake my head to clear it and told myself I was seeing things.   I wasn't.

For now, I won't be going up to trap.  I have other obligations for the next two weeks.  That begs the question:  what do I do with Roadie, from same place, still in the garage.  I had hoped to pair him up with the fixed girl for a barn home.   I'll figure something out.  He's so easy to care for in the cage.  He's such a good boy, although he is wild.  He seems completely content to be warm and well fed.  

I've gotten so many fix it projects done last two weeks I feel very happy.   

I'm making beet sweet potato soup for the week today.   I'm also going to make a curry.   Its not quite Borscht.  Borscht includes cabbage, carrots, cream and traditional potatoes, topped with sour cream.   I use what I have.  It's extremely delicious anyway.  This batch has roasted sweet potatoes, beets, onions, garlic, vegetable stock from boullion and boxed milk.  I puree it in the blender once done simmering.  I roast the sweet potatoes and beets wrapped in foil.  Then the skins just slip off, which makes it easy to add to soup.

I get the Olympics on a Eugene station that comes through on my antenna, so I've been watching pretty much nonstop, as I do morning chores.  Enjoying it.  All that effort athletes put into preparation only to not make it into finals, I wonder how that affects them and their families, who sacrifice so much to get them to that point.

Learning to lose gracefully, outwardly and inwardly, is a life skill.   Picking up the pieces and getting right back at it, that's a life skill too.

You win some, you lose some.  Our President is almost 80 and hasn't learned how to move on from losses or perceived wrongs.   I wonder if he can still learn that, in old age.