The PVP Diaries #44

I’m just a guy eating coffee cake.

………

Please say hello to Princess Wuhannah and Madame Quarantina:

10 weeks old. Their practical names are Rae and Maggie, a couple of matronly names in our family, but we will register them under their more formal monikers at the vet next week.

I fear for our furniture, but we will take all necessary precautions. They used the litter box right from the start – not a single errant discharge in the house. However, the self-cleaning litter box is large and a bit noisy. There’s a minor smell coming from it, but we’ll move it to its final position in the laundry room today – meaning that, effectively, I’ll be the only one in the family who ever sees it. .I compare this to raising a puppy and have no regrets at all about skipping that trauma. The kids have to be forced to leave the poor things alone, but when these two get some space they can’t stop chasing each other around, tackling, pouncing and bouncing, stalking, leaping. It’s so much fun to watch. Their intrepid acrobatics are already very impressive. 

It just dawned on me that I may very well be hanging out with these two into my 60’s.

Real time shot:

I had two cats years ago, when I was living in an apartment off base at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. I gave them to a friend when I was sent off to Korea. Which reminds me of a story that I’ll keep short: Some friends and I were walking to a bar outside the gates of Camp Humphreys when we came upon a tiny little kitten huddled against a building in the pouring rain. We picked it up and took it to the bar, where we were friends with the owner. She drove the kitty to a an animal hospital (or a vet or a friend’s house, I actually don’t remember, but I know she was a huge animal lover) and asked us to run the bar while she was gone. It was early on a weekday, and not busy, but we did sell a few beers before she came back. There’s not a lot of places you can get away with that.

………

We are getting so very close on the patio. My sand got soaked Saturday night, because I was a bit forgetful and mesmerized by the downpour, so I didn’t cover it. I asked my brother if this would be a problem, and he said, “if it’ll screed, go for it.” The top layers of the big pile were workable:

Working alone, and in small sections at a time so as not to get ahead of myself and make mistakes, I made slow progress:

\ى

ي فاشفط

(Sorry, cat got onto the keyboard and managed to change it to Arabic. That doesn’t say anything, though it would sound something like “ee faashfat.”)

I had to stop working on the patio because the remaining sand needed to be drier. I spread some out on a second tarp, and should be able to finish laying the stones today. Also, I think they sent me an extra pallet of large rectangles (16″x24″). There’s over a hundred of them left, and I’m almost halfway finished. I’ve only used about 20 so far. I’d think of it as a windfall, but the idea of building another patio makes me want to bury myself under the one I’m working on now.

— Send air freshener, Comrade Citizen! —