By the numbers
42
The answer to life, the universe and everything
56
Minutes spent on jury duty
6:30
Time I got up so I could get ready for jury duty
12
Times I worried I’d forget about jury duty or sleep through the alarm
8:00
Time jury duty was supposed to start, only the doors were locked
8:02
Doors are unlocked, and I drift through security, determined to be awake
60
Approximate number of people called for initial pool
15
Likely amount of people let go after roll call, including me
1
Feeling of disappointment that I wasn’t even going to find out what the case was about
0
Attorneys or judges seen
1
Feeling of relief that I wouldn’t have to be alert for the rest of the day, but could instead return home
1
Feeling of disappointment at the thought of having to go to work anyway, because I work nights
2.5
Hours slept after returning from jury duty, but first bypassing sleep for a trip to the store
3
Songs bought on iTunes
108
Songs bought on iTunes over the last year or so, including before the iPod was purchased
926
Songs loaded on the iPod. That represents 35.7 days of listening and 3.87 gb of memory taken up both on the iPod and my hard drive. And I’m not nearly finished loading my collection
8
Homemade truffles eaten
7
Amount of pounds I’ve lost in the last several weeks. Wonder how many more it would’ve been if I hadn’t made truffles. Twice.
12,000
Times I wished I could win the lottery so I wouldn’t have to work
0
Lottery tickets purchased in the last year. Last five years
14
Flashes of insane depression at the thought that I will never be able to stop working. Not tomorrow. Not ever. Retirement age will be 92 in the future
1
Very nice coworker who agreed to take Other Kitty, the nighttime feline moocher visitor. Hope his very nice but allergic wife doesn’t want to kill me. It’s a surprise
100
Times I tried to get somebody to take Other Kitty. Anybody. Incentives offered included me paying for spaying and shots
1
Frantically meowing Other Kitty locked in the bathroom, awaiting her trip to her new home
3
Angry and confused housecats who don’t understand that Other Kitty isn’t really here to stay
100
Times I wished I could let Other Kitty stay. But I’m already borderline on that Crazy Cat Lady thing. And no way am I cleaning litter boxes for that many cats
100
Times Other Kitty broke my heart with her green eyes and her meow and her sleek calico fur and her gangling, youngling legs and her pleas to come inside
4
Worries about her being cooped up all night while I happily slept. I considered sleeping with her, but the bathroom is much to small for me to do much more than sit. And probably on the one logical seat
1
Happy feeling of relief that she has a home
You know, you have really creative entries. Really nice way to schmooze two events together.
But to the meat of the comment… Glad you were able to find her a home. You were beginning to go a little nuts. And I’m proud of that bit of arm-twisting you had to do to get there.
Diana and her kids just adopted a new kitty. Formerly named Artie, now christened Legolas. Seven-week-old Maine Coon boy that was found by a public works employee in Lansing down a storm drain, injured besides. Another injustice corrected …
How many of those ipod songs were bought at itunes? Judging by the above numbers, you may be further gone than Matt
No, I have not bought as much as Matt. As I said, I’ve only bought 108. The rest all belong to my CD collection.
oops, apparently, I just remembered the total number on your ipod…
Well, I’ve upped the total a few since the post, both bought and copied from CD, so no need to be precise.
You may not be as far gone as me, but you’re getting there. I didn’t know you were buying iTunes songs before you even had an iPod. My, you did have a secret vice, didn’t you?
We experimented this weekend with bringing another cat into our family, so I know what you mean about “angry and confused housecats.” Ours was mostly just angry, however. A neighbor gave Brendan a kitten, and unfortunately after two days we decided we couldn’t keep it. Didn’t get much sleep Saturday night, between the kitten meowing at Brendan’s door, where we shut her in, and our older cat growling at Brendan’s door every time the kitten meowed. The next day, the two cats decided to fight. The rest of the time, the kitten sat in the window looking despondently out towards her former home, meowing pitifully. So we figured all that was enough of a clue that this was not working out. The neighbor had told us she’d take the kitten back, if it didn’t work out, so we gave her back.
Well, one needs to get legal downloads from somewhere.
Cats are not meant to get along right away, Matt. They seldom do.
Just needed enough time and patience to make the kitten welcome.
Eventually cats sort stuff out on their own. They might not like each other at worst, but they don’t spend every second fighting, either.
My oldest cat hated both of the boy kittens I brought home (at separate times, of course.) She mostly ignores them unless they’re picking on her.
Now the boys … Ziggy, the older cat, became a mother to Merlin. And Merlin was like an annoying younger brother, always following him, pestering him, biting him. But they do get along.
Adding a second cat just requires patience. Though the kitten seemed to want back to its old home, it probably missed its mother? That’s normal. I think cats spend their whole lives missing mom … that’s why they knead when they’re happy.
A young kitten is a lot of work, and getting it to get along with an older cat protecting its territory is hard, but not impossible. It’s going to be noisy for a while. But it’s worth it in the end.
We do lack patience, I must say. After two days of near-constant meowing, day and night, we lost interest and decided it wasn’t worth it. The kitten had a good home where she was at formerly, and the woman said she would keep it herself, if no one wanted it. If we had gotten it from the pound, or off the street, we probably would have demosntrated more patience with it simply because the alternative was to condemn the cat to a terrible, probably brief existence.
Also, we felt the adjustment was unduly hard on our older cat. As big as she is, our ten year old cat took the new arrival with some degree of fear. She hid behind the TV all day, every day, until we locked the kitten in Brendan’s bedroom. Maybe she felt as if we had replaced her, or maybe I am anthropomorphizing an animal. Anyway, we decided it was better for all involved if we devoted ourselves to our older cat, in her later years, instead of taking on a new cat right now. We certainly slept better last night.
I guess that’s OK if she still has a home.
I can understand respecting an older cat … but my cat Stinky just never liked any other cat, and I kinda made her deal with it. She was 10 when I got Ziggy. And sort of gets along with him now, in that she’ll sniff him without swatting him. But he’s still scared of her.
And then I got Merlin two years later when I realized that Stinky was making my Ziggy into a scaredy-cat and that meant that if I didn’t get another cat soon to help him become normal, I was never going to have normal cats.
Merlin and Ziggy sort of get along. They fight a lot. But they sleep near each other. Wash each other (though that normally devolves into fighting). And both have a common dislike of Stinky.
An update on Other Kitty:
The coworker’s family likes her. She’s getting along well there and is apparently facing off the family’s three dogs admirably. She is now named Shiva.
Whoever renamed Other Kitty definitely has a sense of humor. In the Jewish tradition, you “sit shiva” for someone who has died, and the Hindu god Shiva “is referred to as the good one or the auspicious one” (from Wikipedia).
I believe the namer of the kitty was probably thinking of Shiva’s destructive aspect. Heh heh.
How’s Diana’s kitten doing, btw? Maine coons are so beautiful.
At last report, Legolas the kitty is eating well and wants to play constantly. In other words, normal kitten. He’s a real cutie.