I knew I was going to be tired today. Got about 4 hours of sleep on Saturday because I stayed up half the night watching season three of Breaking Bad on Netflix. I was not aware that the 4th season isn’t available (will desperately look for it online tonight, because I’m completely hooked at this point).
Since at least college (and probably long before then), I’ve been able to function normally on the day after I don’t get enough sleep; but – regardless of how much sleep I get on that next day – I will be wiped out TWO days after not getting enough sleep.
You’d think I’d learn, huh?
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| Fleck (left) and Buddy chow down |
In spite of walking around like a zombie at 6:30 this morning (Boo’s been letting me sleep in these days. I might actually have to set an alarm if she keeps this up), the morning started out on a happy note because I learned that Fleck has moved into the new accommodations that I set up for my squatter kitties yesterday afternoon.
Who’s Fleck? He’s one of about six feral cats that live in my back yard. Several of them seem to spend most of their time either under my deck or in the “extreme” back yard (the part separated from the rest of my land by a French drain and several large privet trees), but most of them make the occasional journey up to the deck itself, and they can be seen sunning themselves on my outdoor table during nice weather.
A few of them have gotten quite used to me, which isn’t a total surprise because they’ve been getting food from me literally since before their eyes were open. Their mom was, at any rate. Fleck, oddly enough, was not one of those kittens who was born under the deck last summer. I first noticed him – fully grown – hanging out in my front yard about two years ago. Since then, I’ve spotted him now and then either hiding under the deck or slinking away through the backyard privet; but over the last few weeks he has become much more sociable and can be counted on to make his way to the deck whenever I open the back door (a noise that several of the cats have come to associate with food – for good reason). He has come to enjoy having his head scratched and vocalizes quite a bit whenever he sees me.
My favorite little squatter cat is named Buddy, one of the kittens in the second litter born this summer. He’s never been overly afraid of me, and about a month ago he just decided to be my outdoor pet. Whether I give him food or not, he’ll come running to me when I go outside, and he’ll usually flop over and look at me with big eyes until I scratch his tummy.
So yesterday, I moved the top of a litter box that had been sitting in the backyard for two or three years up to the deck and put some rags under it in the hope that Buddy would make his way to it and give up his under-the-deck sleeping quarters now that the weather has turned decidedly chilly. Should you be wondering, the litter box top was in the backyard for the same reason – it’s basically a plastic dome that I put out there so that the cats would have a dry place to go.
Buddy didn’t seem too impressed with the setup yesterday afternoon; but when I opened the door this morning to put some food out for the feral feline buffet, Fleck nonchalantly squeezed out from under the box top, yawned, stretched, looked at me, squeaked happily, and started chowing down.
When I went out tonight to check on everybody, it appeared that Buddy may be sharing my little cat condo with his much bigger pal. It made me smile. They’re both very sweet cats, and I like having them out there to keep the rodents away.
On the musical front, I got a nice surprise last night. A small group from the GBB did some red bucket caroling for the Salvation Army on Friday, which was fun; and the same group plus two more got together at the HQ of the SA last night to provide music for a Christmas dinner that they were having for their recovery groups (alcohol, drugs, etc). We did this primarily because the SA lets the band use their temple as a rehearsal space and also lets us house music and equipment in an upstairs mechanical room – for free. That being the case, we try to help them out with music whenever we can.
We were told on Friday that we might possibly receive gift cards as a thanks for playing at the dinner – which is awfully nice of the SA – so it was completely unexpected and made for a really great night when, after being given a dinner and getting to listen to a (pretty good) comedian perform, we were also each given $100 in cash.
Hope all those suckers in the GBB who were too busy to help out hear about that!
Oh – and I got to play TUBA at both the Friday gig and the Sunday one. As far as I know, I’ll be doing it again this Friday (another red bucket deal at an Atlanta mall). After being on the tenor horn for the last 6 months, it was both a challenge and an incredible amount of fun to play the big horn. Inspired me to maybe practice it a bit between Christmas and New Year’s, when I’ll have the house to myself and won’t have to go to work. I’d really like to get my chops back into shape if possible.
TWD