Max, The Psychokitty

I don't usually post about other cats here, but have to mention one that left our world Friday.  His name was Max, The Psychokitty.  He was 19 1/2.  He was snarky, opinionated, an expert observer of his Humans, their world, and the world in general.  

Max is the reason I have a cat blog, and by extension, this one.  I do not remember how I came across his blog.  I was gainfully-employed at the time and did not spend much time entertaining myself with odd internet searches.  But somehow I found it in 2004.

The idea of a cat blogging stunned me.  I started reading it daily (at home, I was a serious worker in the office).  Max was sarcastic, snarky, and observant.  When I retired in March 2006, I noticed a clickable button that promised "free blog".  I hesitated for months.  

I had read a couple of blogs by people who were self-important, opinionated (or amazingly boring).  Max was different.  And well, I have cats and I like to write.  So after reading up on blogs a bit and missing talking to a coupe of co-workers), I pressed the "free blog" button.

Of course it wasn't easy.  I had to learn "new stuff".  But I was missing the challenge of new things at the office.  Not to be trite, but my job had always been "out on the edge" and going where no one had gone before.  Nothing was routine.  I retired because a reorg had placed me in an office that was dedicated to "routine" and I was tired of getting up at 5 am every workday, commuting an hour each way, and getting home at 6 pm.  I was working for a completely out-of-touch supervisor.  And I had already figured out I would still gain savings on retirement.

So I left the first day I was eligible.  I wasn't worried about being bored.  I have hobbies and home-maintenance.  I participate in some serious-discussion boards.  But I was missing friendly conversation.   A cat blog seemed "purrfect".  

It was days before I figured out how to post a picture on the blog (well, it WAS 2006).  It took days before anyone found my blog and left a comment (I remember them gratefully).  14 years later, I'm still cat blogging.  5,000 posts is coming up next year.  It has been a joy and I don't plan to stop.  

I've lost 3 cats along the way.  Skeeter was a heart cat.  LC was Skeeter's cat (though I miss her for her calm quiet way of living.  Iza'a loss was crushing.  She was a Tonkinese point with fur like a mink and utterly attached to me.  12 years with her was way too few.

And I have this blog just so I can sometimes say things not appropriate to a cat blog.

And I owe it all to Max and "The Woman" as he called her.  Now Max has gone over The Bridge.  My world is more than "one cat smaller".  Everyone loves their cats.  And I generally follow about 60 cat blogs.  But in cat blogging terms, Max was a GIANT.  I will miss him greatly.

Few people actually START anything, and Max wasn't the very first blogging cat.  But he was close and kept going all my blogging years.  That matters.  Max (through The Woman) invented some terms.  "Stinky Goodness" for canned cat food.  All other cats were "DOODS".  There were others but memory fails me.  

If you knew Max but haven't heard the sad news or if you didn't know but want to comfort The Woman in her loss of him go here  If you would just like to read about Max, look at the archived posts and read at random.

Farewell Max. 

 

 

 

 

Undergrowth

Three years ago, after failing to find anyone who would clear 1/8 acre of wild blackberries and small junk saplings, I bought a brush mower.  It is like a super-heavy-duty lawnmower.  The blade is bigger and heavier.  It has forward and reverse powered wheels.  It cuts down sapling 1 1/2" thick.  It grinds up debris like a chipper-shredder.

It worked great!  Cleared that whole area in 2 hours.  But all gas-powered machines need some basic maintenance and I am terrible about leaving old gas in the tanks.  It goes bad in the tank and leaves some parts sticky with dried gas.

That Spring, there wasn't much new undergrowth, so I thought I had killed it.  There was some growth  that Fall, but I planted 4 decorative trees (2 Sourwoods and 2 Korean Dogwoods) expecting that the shade of the trees would keep the undergrowth down (I used to have junk trees there that did that) and I would just brush-cut again THIS Spring.

Couldn't get it to start.   I gave a half-hearted try of soaking up the old gas with an old towel and then spraying carburetor cleaner into the tank and carburetor and adding a small amount of new gas.  No luck.

I probably could to a complete carburetor removal and cleaning.  I've done it before.  It a pain.  And I have a regular lawn mower than needs the same work.  I decided to just let a professional do them both.  Which requires delivering them to a repair shop.  Remember a couple days ago I mentioned my trailer was full of yard debris and I was waiting for the recycling center to dry and it won't because of all the rain?  I kept waiting.  And waiting.

I guess I am just going to have put on my mud boots and get rid of the yard debris.  Then bring the brush mower and regular mower to the repair place and wait for a month for them to fix them.  I can clear the brush in Winter as well as I can today.  And maybe that makes the blackberries die being cut down out of season (one can always hope).

One thing I am ceetain of is that, after years of this, I will either drain the gas from all my equipment or add gas stabilizer to the tanks!  

My "TO DO" list has gotten too long for me to mess with gas engines.  I'm losing ground on it the list.  It is probably the thing I CAN do that I like the least.  There is too much to do inside the house easier to do the than the things I like least.  And that would cost the same for professional help.

I also am making a list of professional improvements I want for the house (I'm not even going to TRY to install linoleum floors or wall tile).  But that's a future post. 

Rain

What an awful gardening year!  I would say there was NOTHING good about it, but the local reservoirs are probably filled to capacity and there have been years when they got dangerously low to the point of home watering restrictions.  And I will admit that my pole beans and cucumbers did pretty well in the raised beds (better drainage).

But the tomatoes died of fungal diseases, the carrots and leeks and broccoli crops never grew.  The spinach wouldn't even germinate.  And when you cant get radishes to grow, things are serious.

It was a cold wet Spring. July-October, we got over 2' of rain and November hasn't been much different.  It didn't rain for 5 days last week, but the ground is so saturated it didn't make any difference.  It isn't like we got the rain in large batches all at once; its just so CONSTANT!  And I got 3" of rain yesterday and today.

I cut down a lot of junk samplings  and undergrowth in late Spring and filled the trailer.  And there it sits.  The County yard debris recycling center (where they pile it all up in huge heaps that steam and decompose into a mulch/compost mix for homeowners to take for free and will use a bucket-loader to fill your trailer on Saturday mornings for free) is located in a slight depression.  

When it rains, the bulldozer that keeps turning over the piles for even decomposition churns it into a sea of mud.  I've been waiting for things to dry out enough to bring my debris there.  SINCE MAY!  And I have enough debris for 2 more loads.

Possibly the most consequential result is that my lawn is dying.  The soil is so wet for so long that there are large dead areas in the front.  The soil just "squishes" underfoot.  The last time I mowed it. it left muddy ruts.  Even just walking across it not only leaves footprints, the dead grass slides around underfoot.  If next year is relatively normal, I will have to do a lot of renewal.

The soil is good.  I'm organic and I use a mulching blade on the mower that turns grass into shreds in place.  There is no better fertilizer for grass than grass.  Well, grass has exactly what grass needs, right?  And I mow all the tree leaves too.  They get shredded into leaf dust after a few times around the lawn each Fall.   

I know the soil is good.  Each year I dig a hole randomly and look at the sides.  What used to be mostly clay is now darker and loamier after 3 decades.  And when I first moved here, the soil would crack open in Summer.  It doesn't do that anymore.

A couple years ago, a yard-maintenance agent came by to try to sell me on his services.  I invited him to look at the lawn.  He found some weeds of course.  He poked at the soil with a screwdriver and it went in nicely.  He actually complimented me on it.  And I don't do much.  The mulched grass clippings, the leaves.  An application of corn-gluten meal in Spring.  And overseeding every few years.  Cutting the grass 3" high.  I don't even water the lawn (except lightly when I overseed).

I may lose some decorative trees due to root-rot and drowning.  Last year was so dry I was forced to even water the decorative trees.  And this year they are soaked and drowning.  Yes, trees can drown; they actually need air.

Last year,  my 2 Golden Rain Trees lost most of their leaves by late Summer in spite of long drip watering.  This Spring, some branches were dead but there were new shoots from the trunk and a few living branches.  So I figured I would wait a year and seriously prune both of the deadwood next year.  

Well, half of one just broke off in a windstorm and I bet I could just break off more if I pulled on them.  But hope springs eternal.  I'll hope for their survival and gradual recovery.  I more worried about the Saucer Magnolia in the front lawn.   I would very much hate to lose that.  It is a joy to see blooming in the Spring.

If this precipitation pattern lasts another month or 2 I am going to see serious snowfall.  I better make sure the snowblower is working and move it into the garage. 

Relatives

I was visiting another site and a post involved visiting relatives when young.  It brought back some memories.  

We lived in Virginia at the time when the trip to the Grandparents took 12 hours.   Both sets of grandparents lived north of Boston, but near each other.  Well, that's why my parents met.

I loved visiting my dad's parents,  they had a large house and a small farm.  Grampa had a lobster boat, so we were drowned in lobster in many forms when we visited.  There was a tree house in the big apple tree.  We helped pick beans and corn.  Gramma was Amish and made wonderful chicken with dumplings.

She got up early and so did I as a pre-teen and teen and we played rummy until the rest of the family got up.  I helped her make breakfast.  It's partly how I learned to cook.  My Capt Crunch cereal there.  Waffles, pancakes, eggs...

Grmma never gave me any mercy when playing rummy.  I learned to win the hard way.  But the highlight of the evening was when the family sat down to lay "Cinch" (aka Set Back).  If you don't know what that is, it is like cut-throat bridge and Hearts or Spades.

I was allowed into the family game when I was about 13 or 14.  Gramma vouched for me for good Rummy skills.

Its a no-holds-barred game and no one gave mercy.  You declare how many tricks you will take and the highest bidder announces the trump suit.  You toss away all the non-trump cards and fill your hand to 6 -8 cards  from the remaining deck.

Gramma was infamous for saying "oh, I filled"  meaning she had a hand of all trump cards.  She played lethally.  She almost always won.  But it was played in pairs.  I was usually her partner when me visited.  The players were Gramma and Grampa, my uncle, Dad (Mom could never play cards worth a damn) and sometimes an aunt or two.

Dad had his Mom's killer instinct, but his best game was poker.  Gramma and I thought alike and usually won.  It was never kindness to me as a kid.  Like I said, they all played to win; they would beat their kids at Candyland when they could.  It was altogether wonderful.

Every year, we went to a great chinese restaurant. 

And then we had to spend days at Mom's parents.  That was altogether awful.  They were Victorian.  The house was always dim with fake Tiffany lampshades everywhere.  Kids couldn't do anything fun.  You could hardly see anything after sunset.

The house was practically a mausoleum.  Chairs had doilies to protect the fabric.  The most exciting thing was a next door kid who could flip backwards and land on his back.  I mowed the lawn "for fun".  

 Grampa was kind, but very religious.  He once took me on a walk as a child just to get me into a church.  He thought that might change my whole life.  I felt cheated and lied-to.  The high point of our visit was when Grampa would walk us to a candy store.  We couldn't have any actual candy, but a candy bar was allowed.   I always chose a Skybar.  It had 4 different pockets of flavors.

Gramma Mom's cooking was horrid and I learned why Mom couldn't cook either.  Every vegetable had to be boiled to death.  If brocolli wasn't gray, it wasn't cooked enough.  Meat was boiled and if you haven't had a boiled steak, I don't recommend it.  One year, Gramma Mom even bought a watermelon "for us kids" and she cut the heart out for herself because "why would children care"?  

I did and Mom shushed me.

Aren't different grandparents weird?

A Happy Day

Yesterday was a happy day (as is today).  Joe Biden was "called by" the TV networks as the President-Elect.  That doesn't make anything official of course, but they are rather careful about announcing their expectations.  Even Fox News declared that Biden had won, and Fox is a rather die-hard Trump supporter.

I wasn't entirely sure how the Networks could be so certain in some States where there were 100s of thousands of votes left to count and Biden had a 10,000 vote lead or even was losing, but the political TV show hosts gave some detailed explanations later.    

A lot of it had to do with the difference between how Democrats and Republicans voted this year.  Usually, the vast majority of voters vote on Election Day.  But this year, because of the pandemic, States increased the opportunity to vote by mail or early in person at a few locations.  Democrats voted by mail or early; Republicans waited until election Day.

Mail-in and early votes take longer to process.  And the votes from large cities (which are very heavily Democrat) always take longer by sheer volume.  Between the two, the cites needed days to report votes (and none may be truly complete even now).  Overseas, military, and post-marked-but-not-yet-delivered mail-in ballots still have a few days to arrive.

But professional network vote-counters know what voters were still to be heard from Saturday, the almost-certain voter registration, and typical return rates.  A good example was Pennsylvania.  The low-population rural Counties were mostly Republican and had 99% of their votes reported Wednesday.  The major cities were mostly Democrat (approaching 90% in some) and had reported only half of their votes.  

So when Trump was ahead 30,000 votes and 500,000 were still due from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with a typical Democratic majority of 70%, there was little doubt about the outcome.   The States will not announce a winner until the last vote is counted in about a week from now, but the Networks could have a confidence factor above 99.9%.  Well, they don't want to make a mistake like "Dewey Beats Truman" again and besides, they have MUCH more information available now.

So, essentially, the voting is over.  Biden will be the next President and Harris his Vice-President.  The Electoral college will confirm that on December 6th.  Biden will have won with 4 million+ total popular votes.  I am relieved.  I've been waiting for this day for 4 years!

A long national aberration is over.  Trump's victory in 2016 was a hiccup.  Painful to be sure, but temporary.  Biden has promised to return the US to international agreements, balance taxes, restore environmental regulations, organize a National response to the Covid-19 pandemic, attend to excessive force by police against minorities, etc.

To quote President Ronald Reagan (something I never thought I would do) "It is Morning in America".

To quote President Gerald Ford (after Nixon's resignation) "Our long national nightmare is over".

To quote the Munchkins from 'The Wizard Of Oz':  

"Ding-dong! The Witch is dead
Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding-dong! The Wicked Witch is dead
Wake up you sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead..."

And I'll offer a panel from 'Doonesbury' from after Nixon resigned:

Today, I will sleep easier than I have for some months. 

Cabinet Door Change

I expect the US election results to take days.  So life goes on...  One thing that has annoyed me for 25 years is an upper cabinet door.  My fault, I installed it that way.  I always assumed that cabinet doors right of the center should open toward the right and cabinet doors on the left of the center should open to the left.  

Assumptions are stupid!   The cabinet door nearest the passageway from the kitchen to the TV room has always gotten in the way.  I have hit my head on that SO MANY TIMES!  I would open it to get someting and forget to close it because I was in a hurry.

I clamped a straight edge under the door for ease in keeping it level while I changed it left to right.  THe kind of hinges it hhad allowed that easily.

But getting the screws out was a nightmare.  They wouldn't budge.  I wedged a screwdriver against them; no movement.  I finally hit them with a hammer to loosen them.  No luck.  Squirted some lubricant in.  That got them out with help of Many Bad Words.  Took many many minutes of struggling.  

So I put some paper tape where the new holes would go, reversed the door, and clamped it in place to mark the new drilling spots.  Took the door off and drilled.  Well, you have to be careful about drilling holes for screws.  No small and they are really tight.  Too loose and they don't hold well.  I have a little plastic gadget that has holes to measure screw size and recommends the drill size according to soft wood, hard wood, and metal.  Cabinets are mostly pine or particle board, so I started small.  

The screws wouldn't go in all the way.  And were hard to get back out.  So I went to the next size drill bit.  Same problem.  Went larger and squirted in the lubricant.  It got worse.  

I think the lubricant actually made the wood swell up a bit.  After 30 minutes, I was almost ready to try NAILING the damn hinges in, but I knew that wouldn't last.

Part of the problem was that I was up on a stepladder and you can't get much leverage on a narrow thing like that.  So I took a dining chair and clamped IT to a board against other lower cabinets so IT couldn't move.

With that bracing, I finally managed to get the hinge screws in with the door level and opening properly.  The whole process that should have taken about 5 minutes took 90.  The Mews were all hiding in the bedroom by that time.

I am not a trained or especially natural carpenter.  I do my best.  Persistence usually works and I've never built anything that failed structurally.  But damn, some things are harder than they should be.  

But I succeeded...  The open cabinet door won't be hitting my head again.

I always win eventually, but it sure can be a struggle sometimes!

The Night Before Election Day

A poem expressing my concerns the time before Election Day in the US... 

"Twas the Night of Election Day

As I paced through the house.

Would we get back to normal, the old voting way

Or would Donald steal it, the Cheating Old Louse?

 

I knew that the polls

On MSNBC

Had the Biden team goals

Being granted, you see.

 

But that's what I thought

In '16, when we "won"

But Hillary still lost what most of us sought

So I won't count my chickens until the last one.

 

Cuz Donald makes Tricky Dick

Seem like a nun

Saying he'd cheat the People with legal stuff sick

By saying the voting was over afore it half-done!

 

He said he would do it

Then said it was fake

And when shown the recording a bit

Said "Let them Eat Cake".

 

And spent 15 minutes

Defending you see,

What he claimed he had not said

To the cameras and we.

 

The businesses all boarded

Their windows today

In expectance of armed crazies with guns all aloaded

If Electoral College count drives Trump away.

 

They will say it is fake news

Conspiracy proven

The Deep State and Anti-Fa fears fanning their illusions

Of being the majority as the Biden's prepare move-in.

 

Or maybe tis I to weep who shall

Weep deep bitter tears

At the end of our laws and see autocrat gall

Replace freedom and voting for may yet years. 

 

Ben Franklin once said

When asked by the crowd,

If we had democracy, monarch, or dread

You have a Republic, defend it or be cowed.

 

Republics are fragile

Just ask the Old Greeks

Or the Romans who had some experience a while.

Nothing good lasts for long, go and vote or be weak.

 

So I pace the floor watching

The news of the day.

I think that the outcome will likely be fetching

But I won't be relaxed for many a day.

 

It takes time to count ballots

Mail-ins take some time.

And Trumpians are trying legal tricks quite lots.

But I think that when Electors meet, Biden gets the dime."

 

Odd Neighbors

I've mentioned my odd neighbors across the street before.  The lived there a couple of years several years ago, and  moved back last year.  It is a rental place.  I think the guy is the son of the McMansion guy next door to that house.

They yell a lot late at night and usually outside and I mean 3 am.  The one child I see always seems unhappy.  

Now there is something new going on.  They change the color of the light bulb at the side door every few days.  Sometimes it is red, sometimes blue, sometimes purple.  Well, fine, you display and decorate as you like.  None of my business, I suppose.  But I tend to try to understand patterns and this one is "interesting".  

When the guy changes it to red, the woman comes out and screams "not again"!  Talk about a mystery...  Drugs?  Prostitution?  Poker game night?  Who knows...

I worry about my immediate next-door neighbors sometimes too.  They are the ones who decided to burn brush near my wood fence underneath small dry trees last year during a drought until I demanded they stop.  Their only fire control was a small bucket and a kiddy pool.  Well, their 2 young kids were suddenly outside screaming at midnight.  Midnight?

I went outside and saw the woman standing on the porch and asked if everything was OK.  In a monotone, she said "yes".  I asked again and mentioned that neighbors can help if there is a problem and she called the kids inside and closed the door.  

The lady across the street in the McMansion was out walking her dog and I asked if she had heard the screaming.  She didn't answer directly, but said the kids play in their yard sometimes and seem OK.

How do you know what to do in a situation like that?  Maybe they just let their kids stay up late in these odd pandemic days.  Maybe they are having problems but feel safe in the neighbor's yard around the friendly lady and the friendly dog.  Maybe there is nothing wrong and I am becoming a busybody.

Or maybe I will see police cars at the house some day and know I should have called some authority. 

I VOTED!

I voted.  Not sure whether it counts as Friday when I watched the Mailperson pick up my mail-in ballot or when the Election Board acknowledged (by email) receiving it Tuesday (and they initiated the email).  But apparently it was acceptable and will be counted as if I was there on Election Day.  My State of Maryland has a general view that as many people as possible should vote, that IS sort of the purpose of a democracy after all.

I watch the political news channels most of the day*.  I see about States where the Republicans fight to reduce voting as much as possible and the Democrats fight to make things easier to vote.  It amazes me.  I would rather my candidate lose honestly than win through trickery.   MSNBC discussed a list of lawsuits the Republicans have tried or are trying to reduce voting.  

My apologies to any Republicans who also want to see increased voting.  There are honest people in both parties.    Just, it seems, fewer.  

Fraud is not the actual cause of Republican concerns.  Republican, Democratic, and neutral academics  have all looked for examples of voter fraud the past few years and none of them ever find any.  Well, there was a minor case of a Republican who did some deliberate trickery in North Carolina, but it was easily detected and had little effect.  And one Democrat tried to help elderly local voters by going around and collecting legitimate ballots and delivering them to a Ballot Drop-Off Box (but the investigation revealed he delivered ballots supporting both parties so he was merely advised on the law).

There have been some more serious local concerns.  In some majority-Democrat areas,  Ballot Drop Off Boxes have been set on fire inside to destroy ballots.  It is the major and organized attempts to suppress voting that concern me and I won't go into detail here.  Since those are on the major news channels, I don't have to go into that.

*  Cable TV is becoming lower-quality again.  There isn't much information stuff to watch.  The Science Channel used to have great shows about actual science, now they show cheap garbage about alien contact and paranormal stuff.  The History Channel thinks shows about pawn shops buying 50 year old stuff is "history".  National Geographic thinks shows about animals is "geographic".  National Geographic Wild thinks shows about zoos is "wild".  Animal Planet thinks Vet shows are about the only animals.  And they even deceive about that.  "Dr Pol treats cats" actually means 10 minutes of cats and 50 minutes of dogs and horses.

I have a lot of good science, nature, and history DVDs.  But I know them all by heart now.  We need new ones...   I really need to get my CD player working again.  If it isn't just some failed wire, I have a new one sitting in a box for 3 years.  I really need to pull everything away from the wall and solve some problems.  I just hate wiring and plugs. 

 

Laz

I have mentioned recently that Laz has been getting better in adapting to the house.   I may not have have mentioned HOW much better he is doing.

There is still an occasional hiss from Ayla (she is reluctant to trust him) and when you get attacked, you remember it.  And I don't blame her for remembering being attacked.  But I haven't heard a screech in a week (maybe 2) and only softer hisses.

Laz is reacting positively to being let outside.  He got over the fence once a couple/few weeks ago (I think from my compost bin) and observing him desperately trying to jump back up (down is easier than up), I don't think he will do it again soon.  And besides, I now have a board set on the likely jump point loose on edge.  If he tries to jump from that, he will have a very negative experience.  On the other hand, if he does do it, I have one fence board barely attached so that he has a way home.

I know I said I was going to build a small enclosure for him to sit outside in, but I realized what he needed was "running around space".  He is young, full of energy, and I think the outside (in limited and controlled conditions) are good for cats.  

Being outside and exploring the yard (usually with Marley and/or me outside with him) has calmed him.  At first, he did not respond to my calls to return to the house.  The outside was too strong an attraction.  But lately, he has been responding.  That is a major success.  

I am pleased to say he now routinely comes in when called.  It helps when he sees Marley coming back to the house, but he more often does it on his own.  Not always, of course, but what cat ALWAYS responds to calls immediately?

The point is that he usually does and is getting better at it.  That I give treats to all when they do helps.  Well, you can't give treats or food to one and not all.  They KNOW!  I swear, I could give treats to Laz out in the yard and Marley and Ayla would be waiting for theirs inside.  Ayla has several special places where she expects food and sometimes I think that if I even WROTE about food, she would go to one of her places expecting some.

Not to get off-topic entirely, but Ayla decides WHERE she will eat.   I sometimes have to follow her through 3 rooms until she decides where the RIGHT place to eat is.  LOL!

But back to Laz...

Laz is calmer around Ayla.  Ayla has been more willing to come out of the bedroom and Mews Room.  Laz is much more "touchable".  He used to stay just out of reach walking by, but now he comes close enough for a back stroke and sometimes attention.  He loves chin rubs and strokes when he is on the cat tree platform and he flops right over on the waterbed seeking attention a LOT more than he used to.

He talks constantly.  He has a voice like a rusty gate, but even then, not as loud and worried-sounding as a couple months ago...  He is getting better in bed.  He used to push and shove against me very hard.    That might have been desperation about contact with his "new safe Being".  Now he has learned he can stay there longer with softer contact.  Laz and Ayla have peacefully slept around me the past 2 weeks and that would have been impossible a month ago.

Thinks are looking a LOT better than just a few weeks ago.  I think Laz has made some adjustment in his mind (forgot some bad memories, learned new ones, reconsidered his position here, learned to calm down, discovered he could expend youthful energy running around the yard, learned to trust me, connected to Marley, accepting Ayla, etc).

So Laz is here.  And he won't be going anywhere.

 

Political Stuff

It's a week before the US Presidential et al elections and I'm losing my mind.  I don't mind saying that I voted for Biden.  If Trump wins I think my head will explode.  I have disliked the candidate I didn't support before, but never felt complete utter disgust.

I mailed my ballot Friday.  I hope it gets there on time.  I mean, it only has to travel to the next town and 11 days should be way more than safe.  I could probably mail a letter to someone in China in 11 days.  I have a tracking number, so I will check in a couple days.

My State (Maryland) is so Democratic it probably wouldn't matter if it didn't.  Even my County (which was very Republican when I moved here 34 years ago) is now thoroughly Democratic.  Maryland is so completely Democratic that neither Trump nor Biden bothered to visit here (that I know of).  I don't even get political telephone calls or emails.

Still, you never know until it is over.  I went into some shock when Clinton lost in 2016 and even waited 2 days for everyone to announce they reported it wrong.

I was watching some TV interviews with people doing early voting in person today.  It was about how long they had been waiting to vote.  Most said "several hours".  But when the interviewer asked one lady, I just KNEW the answer.  "4 years".  And that is exactly what she said a few seconds later.  I often do that with movies, new commercials, and political speeches.  

I'm waiting with bated breath for Trump to do or say something dramatic to try a last-ditch effort to win.  Announcing  a Covid-19 vaccine, a major tax break for the non-wealthy, firing Mitch McConnell, a war with North Korea, something, who knows?  

He's desperate.  If he loses the election, a half dozen States are just waiting to charge him with a boatload of tax crimes, loan fraud, and who knows what else?  If the Department of Justice is free of his control, they might have things to investigate even he can't pardon himself for.

So nothing Trump does between now and the election will surprise me.  But watch me get surprised.  "Aliens are arriving November 2nd, NASA says so"...

If Biden was up 20 points in every State, I would still be worried.

And I ponder the consequences of Trump still being in office until January 20 even if he loses.  He could do a lot of damage in rage and revenge.  And that would be in his pattern of past behavior.  Let's just say politely that "he does not respond well to rejection".

If Trump loses, I will credit Biden for staying calm and rational in the face of insults and attacks.  I will credit Harris for energy and support and fundraising.  I will credit Obama for getting on the campaign trail at the end (not too early, not too late) and being himself at his best.  His campaign speeches were great.

But mostly, I will credit the Democratic voters who turned out in 2020 who didn't turn out out for Clinton (though if they had, we wouldn't be in this hot mess),  the Republican voters of 2016 who realized that they made a mistake (everyone makes a mistake sometimes) and changed their minds about Trump,  all the Republican strategists and columnists who turned away from Trump in the past couple years (that must have been hard to do).  

And I also will credit the resiliency of American Democracy.  Not that other Nations don't have some strong traditions and history of their own, but the Trump Presidency has been a particular challenge. The US is often said to be a "Nation Of Laws".  Sometimes that means we pay more attention to "laws" than we do to "justice".  My personal opinion is that we depend on law and limit justice in hopes of fairness and consistency.

But, as we have discovered in the Trump Presidency, we are more a Nation of "norms" than we realized.  It wasn't until Trump and Senate Leader McConnell started ignoring the informal rules that this legal loophole became clear.  Decades and even a century of informal rules have been broken or ignored for short-term political gain.

Past political leaders have always played "hardball".  They bullied their own party members to get things done and threatened the other party with consequences.  Political leaders have a lot of control over campaign funds to recalcitrant party members, funds to States, and laws which benefit some industry or not.  Politics at the top level are not for sissies.

But some rules have been agreed upon by both sides.  You don't kick the opponent party TOO hard when they are down, because the boot will be on the other foot soon enough and revenge is certain.  If you want something, you give a little bit to get what you really want.  You talk to each other to understand what they care about the most.  If you need a bridge built in your State, you look for someone on the other side who needs a highway in theirs.  Give and take.

In a democracy, "politics is the art of the possible".  In an authoritarian government, politics means "stomping on the opposition and grinding them into the dirt".  It means destroying the Civil Service.  It means ridding the government of any and all of the people who are experts in their fields who disagree with you.

Trump has been working toward "authoritarianism" for 4 years.  It's time to call a halt to the whole damaging process and get back to the usual "fight like hell but obey the norms" again.

Secret Pooper

I have a wildlife camera.  One of those things you set up to take pictures of deer and whatever.  I set it up to figure out which of the Mews were pooping on the bath mat.  Well, I knew it wasn't Marley, I've been cleaning litterboxes a long time and 16 lb Marley's are larger (and I know he uses them because he isn't shy about it when I am in the basement near them).  And Ive never caught Ayla or Laz using them when I could see.

So it is either Ayla or Laz and it started when Laz was here a few months.  But Ayla was stressed when he arrived.  Aya could be avoiding wandering the house, or Laz could be claiming territory.  So can't tell.  

I set up the camera.  Sadly, it was too close to get a decent picture and both Laz and Ayla went in and out of the frame.

So I set up a raised platform which gave a better view and was slightly farther away.  That should work.  And there were 2 pooping incidents.  

Aha, "gotcha ya".  So I pulled the little SD disc out of the camera yesterday and loaded it into the back of the computer and opened the file.  Nothing. 

The camera was "off".   It's maddening sometimes.  There isn't any light that tells you it is "on".    The display that says the "battery condition" apparently doesn't mean the camera is on or off.  There is a small "status light" that never lights either way.  

So the "Secret Pooper" remains unsure.  There is no great harm being done.  The bath mats are easy to wash and I have 2,  one to set to air dry after washing (I wouldn't risk running a rubber-backed mat through the dryer)  and one to set down.  And better on an easily washable bathmat than a room carpet or wood floor.  

But the mystery continues...

Got Some Yard Stuff Done

It wasn't easy, but at least it isn't raining most days,  That sure helps.  It;s uncomforable pulling up overgrown weeds when everything is wet.  I tend to agree with the cats - yuck on the WET!

So it was dry enough to get into the overgrowth.  And it was still bad.  Brambles, wild blackberry canes, and those damn little triangular green "sticky seeds" from some weed.  And those plants with purple stems and purple berries that stain everything they touch.    

Well, you start by cutting them all down. and dragging them out.  And heavy leather gloves even let you handle the damn blackberry canes.   So I got most of the bad stuff eliminated at ground level.  From there, I can dig without being grabbed by thorns.  

So of course, it started to rain...

I have a trailerful of sapling debris loaded.  But the County yard debris drop off place is a pit.  So if it rains,  its all mud.  And it has rained most of this Summer.  I need a week of no rain to dispose of this.  And I have 2 more loads to go.  

The extra unloaded debris has been stacked up in "easy to move" piles and the grass has grown up among it 18" high!  I need 2 days to bring it all away.  I'm not allowed to burn it.  

The backyard has gotten overgrown again.  I have a brush mower.  But thinking I would use it one more time last Fall, I left gas in it.  Now I can't start it.  And the only repair shop here is a slow expensive place for even such a simple repair.  I deal with wood, not engines.  I need to drag the darn thing out and try some tricks about cleaning carburators.  Or hand it over to the repair place and wait 6 weeks for a $200 bill.  I really hate messing with gas engines, so it falls 50/50.  But I need to clear the back yard of the overgrowth.  

I have other stuff that needs chain saw work.   Half a tree died and fell over a couple of months ago.  Fortunately, it barely missed the 2 nearest saplings I planted 2 Falls ago and are getting established.  But vines are growing up them.  I removed vines last Fall, and have to do it again.  I think I will cover the ground around them with 3 feet square of old carpet.  I've done that with other young trees and it works well,  Regular old carpet lets rain through but not weeds weed up.  Dont try that with outdoor carpet though.  It has rubber backing and rain won't sink through.

The meadow bed has reached its full growth of  weeds and grasses and desirable flowers for the year, so I know what to pull out and what to leave.  That should improve things a lot for next year.  The bad news is that it is mostly weeds.  One thing I have learned is that a meadow bed is HARD to establish and takes more attention than I realized.  The bad news for the weeds is that I am VERY persistent.

It is a constant struggle, but some meadow bed enthusiasts say that persistanse WILL win out and the the flowers will shade out the weeds.  I hope they are right.

Where I leave bare spots in the meadow bed from pulling up grasses and large weeds, I will dig up black-eyed Susans and Purple Coneflowers from the garden paths where I don't want them (volunteers) and transplant them.  And I'll be saving seeds from the desirable flowers for scattering around next Spring.  They are all self-seeders but I will help them a bit with a very thin layer of compost in March,

You do what you can...

Laz Screwed Up Yesterday

It wasn't a great day yesterday.  In the morning, Laz suddenly decided to  attack Ayla when she dared to come out of the bedroom.  He had been good for days, so both she and I hoped he was getting used to the house.   And I thought that the outside time of the past few days was calming him down.  

He got to run around, explore, discover new things, wander around with Marley, etc...

No such luck.  He suddenly lit into her RIGHT AT MY FEET.  Forgive me, but I had to kick him to get him to stop!  And he went right after her again!  She ran for the bedroom with him right behind her.  I followed.  She hid.  

And he had the nerve to look back at at me like "what's wrong".  I comforted Ayla.  No wonder she is peeing on the bathroom mat and in the toilet.  She dares not go down to the litterboxes.

Laz follows Marley around outside.  When they tussle inside or out, he tussles friendly.  I don't know why.  Maybe he tussled rough and Marley beat the crap out of him...  But Ayla can't do that.  She is becoming terrified of him.

I've been patient and attentive to Laz.  I know he had a hard start in life and I've treated him carefully and gently.  But basically, he is a mean bastard.  I don't know what to do.

And yesterday afternoon, when I let him out with Marley, things seemed fine.  At one point I briefly went out front to get the mail.  When I came back in, he was in the neighbor's yard.  He jumped the fence.  And he was crying and calling.  Well, there is a spot where a cat can can halfway up so getting UP is easy.  and getting down is easy.  Getting BACK up is harder.

I got him to follow me back and forth near the fence.  He tried to jump up but couldn't.  I finally unscrewed a fence board off so he could walk right through.  Would he?  NO!  Not will I was there.  He doesn't respond to whistles, clicks or any sound I make.  After 5 months, he doesn't recognize his name or even "dinner".  I practically have to shove a bowl under his nose.

He came back through the removed fence board only WHEN I wasn't there.

Laz needs to be an "only cat".  And I think an indoors cat.

He is GREAT around ME!  Flops down in front of me and requests scritchies.  Never suggests using a claw.  Likes me a lot.  And for himself, I like HIM.  He just can't be around other (or maybe just "smaller") cats.  

I have never given up on any cat in my life before, but I am beginning to now.  Maybe I'm just depressed, but this is not working out.  Laz needs a different home and I feel like such a damn failure saying that.

Any suggestions? 

Politics

 I have given some thought to the comments I received on the previous post.  In once sense, I do apologize.  I shouldn't have discussed politics among friends.  

I AM very political personally, but I usually keep that to some discussion boards dedicated to controversial subjects.  And I would be wise to simply drop it now.  

Well, who ever said I was wise?  I do want to reply.  

A commentor replied...

“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said in a statement released after Scalia’s death. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”.

 

And indeed many Republicans agreed.  Some even said they should be quoted about that in the future if the situation came up again.  It has. and they are reversing their positions for political convenience.

 

I don't care if a politician or individual is Republican or Democratic or Green or whatever in their views.   We all have the right to our political views.

What I abhor is hypocrisy.  If you support "A" today, you should support "A" tomorrow.  Even if it is not convenient or beneficial.  I do, and it is sometimes rather painful.  

For example, Senator Mitt Romney declared that he supports Trump naming a new Supreme Court Justice now just weeks before the election.  Well, he said the same thing when Obama wanted to name a Supreme Court Justice in an election year (though that was 10 months before).  But that was basically consistent and honest.

 

The commentor also expressed  (about the Kavanaugh Hearings) "If you don't think that was atrocious and vicious and senseless I don't know what I can say. I watch the hearings from gavel to gavel and it shames me how some people used politics and smearing lies on such a man with fine character."

 

The hearings focussed on contradictory statements made by Kavanough, not his character or "smearing lies".   

 

Kananugh had written previously that “I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so.”

 

Yet he told the Senator hearings he considered Roe “settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court".

 

You can't say both.  That was a hypocrisy.  

 

My personal objections to Donald Trump are many.  In an ordinary year, they would be about political views and programs.  But he has gone beyond  "political views and programs".

 

He has admitted he wants to become President-For Life. He is deliberately damaging voting systems by slowing down the US Mail and directing supporters to eliminate ballots, directing his supporters to vote once by mail and again at voting booths, suggesting armed supporters to intimidate voters, suggesting that he will not accept election results, and wants the courts and the Senate to overturn oting results.

 

The newest idea is that if he can delay voting results long enough, College Of Electors will be tossed out and State Legislatures will decide.   Most of which are Republican-controlled.  But that might cause even conservative Supreme Court Justices to gag.

 

That's why he wants a new Supreme Court Judge in place BEFORE Election Day. One more might go in his favor...

 

OK, I've said enough.  But I felt a response was owed... 

Can't Stay Away

I thought I would probably just stay offline for a week and see what developed after US Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg died, but there is little value in doing that. The Republican party has made it clear that they will appoint a very conservative justice to replace a liberal one.  I just didnt expect them to act so fast.

There are couple things going on here and I just can't stay silent.  The first is that Justice Ginsberg was an unusually thoughtful and careful thinker.  I always personally thought she was special.  While I don't try to read detailed legal decisions, I always found summaries of her questions and arguments to be clearer and more focused than most other Supreme Court Justices (some of whose were downright bizarre and represented political goals more than they did law).

The second is that her replacement will likely be extremely conservative and likely to tilt the Court to a degree of reactionary conservatism.  I am scared, angry, and worried about a generation of reversals of basic civil right decisions.

For the benefit of those who do not pay as much attention to The Supreme Court as they do the Presidency or Congress (as so many do not in the US and do not really need to elsewhere), here is a brief summary of the politicalization of the US Supreme Court...

In our history, there have been times when the Supreme Court nominees were very political chosen.  But after WWII until a few decades ago, nominees were generally moderates chosen for legal expertise and a sense of some political neutrality.  That was mostly because both the Democratic and Republican parties had liberal and conservative members and no extremely ideological judge could get through the Senate for approval.

As the political parties began to chose a side in "self-purging",  Supreme Court candidates became more representative of party politics.  One could blame Richard Nixon for bringing Southern Democratic conservatives and Republican conservatives together to form a new majority Republican party under the idea of "law and order" (a code word for racism and white supremacy).  Economic and liberal Republicans moved to the Democratic party which promised "a big tent".  I was one of them.

Over the next couple of decades, both parties spread apart ideologically.  The Republicans realized that taking over The Supreme Court had advantages for a decade or more (the Democrats, to my constant amazement, never seemed to catch on to that).   Republicans went for advantage; Democrats stayed respectful of the Preident's right to select Judges at all levels

In this century, timing of Supreme Court retirements and deaths has given the Republicans the opportunity to name more Supreme Court judges than the Democrats.  But it isn't JUST that.  There is a major difference between Republicans and Democrats.  

Republican politicians come from businessmen and lawyers used to fighting to win by any means.  Democrats tend to come from community activists used to succeeding by creating consensus among groups.  Republicans enjoy high-stakes poker; Democrats let their kids win at Candyland*.  Let's say both play chess.  Republicans will try a a Fool's Mate playing their Mother; Democrats will try to let their friends get a draw.  Republicans are Dad who sends you to your room for not finishing dinner; Democrats are Mom who sneaks you dessert later. 

That may be changing as Democrats see the lack of benefit by seeking consensus and getting kicked in the face for trying.   

But here's my point...  

In February 2016,  conservative Supreme Court Justice Scalia died.  It was the right of President Obama to name and expect to have approved a replacement.  He nominated Merrick Brian Garland (who serves as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He has served on that court since 1997 with good reputation).  

Republican US Senate Leader Mich McConnell declared it was improper for a President to name a Supreme Court Judge in an election year  (this was 10 months before the election).  Most all other Republicans agreed and some even swore on camera that they would never change their minds on this issue as a "matter of principle".  Because the nominee should be chosen by the next President.

Now it is 2020, only 48 days before the next election.  President Trump is demanding to name Ginsberg's replacement and those Republican Senators who swore never to allow a Court approval at any point in an election year are saying they will approve anyone Trump names within days.

My Dad hated "lying"; I hate "hypocrisy".  They are close but different.

In a way, it doesn't matter what the views of Trump's nominee are.  It is the hypocrisy of the Republican Senators who changed their views just as a matter of winning.  I am disgusted by the amorality and
hypocrisy of the Republican party in this matter.

    -----------------

* When I was growing up, my family played board games a lot.  Dad was lethal.  Mom probably was kinder.  But Dad never explained how he won.  He just LOVED winnng at anything.  And when I got better at any game than him, he stopped playing it.  Granted, I learned a lot from losing and DID figure out his secrets slowly.

Move ahead to 1980.  My parents (who said we should always stay close together as a family) suddenly went and moved from MD to NH taking my minor sister with them.  So I visited them each Summer.  Sis liked to play board games too.  Her favorite was Careers.  I was lethal, like Dad.  And that probablt distressed her at first because I was her "adored Big Brother".  

But I kept showing her what I had done to win (and there were many ways), and she caught on o the idea that I was teaching her how to play games.  I explained there was a way of looking at how a game worked and taking advantage of that.  In Careers you could win by meeting goals you set in your mind at the start.  Any version of $, happiness, or fame that got you to 60.  But you just had to focus on it.  She mentioned that to me years later saying I had helped her look at some parts of life more analytically and clearly.

The point was Dad killed, Mom was kind, and I explained.   Dad was  Republican, Mom was a Democrats, and I was somewhere between...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died tonight.  I am turning off the computer and TV for a while... 

An Odd Combination Of Problems

I fixed a problem with the Heat Pump today, more about that later...  But there have been some odd problems over the past few weeks that may or may not be related, so that might fit in.   Here is a list of problems..

1.  The Heat Pump started intermittingly leaking water onto the basement floor.

2.  The hot water smells odd first thing in the morning and sometimes it is slightly discolored.  The cold water is fine, so it isn't the city water supply.

3.  I detected a slight sewer smell in the showerstall bathroom.

4.   Some cat started pooping in the shower stall and then on the bathroom mat after I scrubbed the shower stall with general cleaner.  Nice little firm connected poops that fall right off the mat into the toilet when I lift it.  No pee, just poops.

5.  The Heat Pump air filter vanished.

So, I started trying to find the easiest solutions first.  Most obvious was that I don't use the showerstall and have detected odd smells in the past.  I assume the water in the trap drys up and lets gases emerge.  I usually just turn on the shower for a minute each month to make sure it is refilled and that solved the problem in the past.  Not this time.

I can't identify the mystery pooper.  Its not Marley, his are larger.  Laz is stressed  (but slowly improving).  Ayla is stressed by Laz.  She spends a lot of her time on the showerstall bathroom windowsill watching the birds, but Laz is often in there too.

I washed the mat.  I moved the mat to the main bathroom.  More poops.  So I suspect Laz but still no proof.  I have a wildlife camera, but I need to set it up from scratch because the batteries have been dead for years.  And I am worried about using it because of the infrared beam.  The instructions say not to look at it while on due to danger of blindness and I fear a curious cat might do that.

Since Iza left, the litterboxes don't get half the usage (she was a prodigious pee-er).  I have 4, and sometimes a couple aren't even used for a couple days.  I slacked...  Maybe Laz is fussy, or maybe Ayla wants to stay in the bedroom are so much she won't go to the basement.  So I made sure my daily schedule included cleaning no matter how little they were used.  That made no difference.

The Heat Pump has occasionally leaked water over the years.  It has usually meant that the condensation reservoir output tube has gotten but blocked by mineral deposits of mold.  I repairman (here for a more serious failure) mentioned putting a spoonful of bleach in the reservoir when I changed the air filter once every 3 months, but as maintenance habits tend to go, you forget after a few years when nothing goes wrong.  I forgot.  And one time the water collection tray got out of level and spilled over to the floor.  I fixed that. 

So I decided the output tube was blocked again.  Well, I looked around for a solution and found a coil of stiff wire.  I used pliers to form a small ball at the end  and fed it backwards through the tube and pulled it back and forth.  It empties into the laundry tub, so I put a small bucket under the tube (since any overfill would drain out safely).  The reservoir water was utterly clean.  So not the problem.

Meanwhile where WAS that missing air filter?  Well, for whatever reason, there is a couple of feet of "nothing" below the air filter.  On my Heat Pump, the incoming (to-be-filtered house air enters that bottom area and moves up.  There wasn't anywhere UP for the filter to go.  It had to be below in the collecting water.

The slot where the filter fits is only an inch wide and hard to get into.  I took a small bamboo stick and pushed it in.  The collected water was 3" deep.  It is apparently well-sealed, or all the water would have just drained out.  So I tried a few ways to grab the fallen air filter.  The flexible spring-loaded grabber didn't work.  The bamboo stake didn't work.  I finally took that coil of stiff wire and bent a hook at the end.  That worked!

It was squishy and awkward to get the bent filter out of the narrow 1" slot, and I almost lost it a couple times, but eventually I pulled it out intact.   I swear, I have some "MacGyver genes" in me.  For those of you unfortunate enough to not be familiar with the show, he took on bad guys with the creative use of common everyday items.  For myself, I just look around the cluttered basement awhile and suddenly "there it is", the thing I need that was never intended for the purpose.

For reasons I cannot explain, the smell in the showerstall immediately went away.  Maybe the collected stuff on the filter was reacting with the water and fermenting or decaying.  As long as it stopped...

That left the water on the basement floor and the smell of morning hot water (not that the cat poop problem was solved but I haven't solved that yet).  

Here is the Heat Pump fix I mentioned ate beginning...  

Today, I tackled the Heat Pump water leakage.  I had been resisting doing that (hoping it would just "go away").  But it wasn't going away.  And the water was between the rest of the house and the cat litter boxes.  Marley didn't care, as he walks through wet grass.  But it might have been bothering Ayla or Laz.

Machinery has odd little screws with slots and hex heads.  Well, I have tools.  One of them fits over the sheet metal screws.  You have to be careful with them.  They only screw into metal about 1/16th of an inch thick so you can strip out the threads.  

I sat there in front of the Heat Pump and considered the drainage PVC tubes on the outside, 4 square plastic nuts on them, and where they PVC tubes came from and went to.  And what parts of the front were removable.  And the PVC tubes had tops and bends where I thought didn't need to be.  Which suggested they were for access and therefore "removable'.

Sure enough, the highest one twisted right off.  And some water spilled out.  That meant something was blocked.  And I had already made sure the lower reservoir ans output tube were cleared.  I pushed the stiff wire down and heard some waterflow.  AHA!   

The tubes were too bendy to plunge that way.  But I noticed that the top cap was loose and the end went into the water reservoir, so I checked to see what other connections were were held by friction.  The entire PVC pipe can off in my hands.  More water on the floor, "oh joy".

Well, at least I could examine it.  It was filled with "stuff".  I carried it to the laundry tub and forced water though it.  You wouldn't believe such muck!  It looked like a slight folding of mayonnaise, jelly, and motor oil.  It was thin enough to move but thick enough to not move fast, so I slammed a rag over the drain to prevent it going down.  I scooped it up with a trowel and duped it it into a small bucket.  

After that, I used a long bottle-brush to scrape the PVC clean and set it level enough to fill with bleachy water and scraped it again in 10 minutes.    I also bottle-brushed the PVC pipes still in place.  Keeping in mind that it had taken 5 years since installation to get this bad, I don't expect a similar problem soon.  But a few years ago, I bought a package of 1/2" bleach tablets intended for such cleaning. 

They will fit into the condensation tray through a removable plug.  I shoved it through the plug in a mesh bag with a wire ring so I can remove and replace it easily.  And I have posted a reminder on the heat pump to change it once a year (as I also have a reminder of when to replace the air filter).  So that problem is probably solved.  Now I just have to wait for the collected water at the bottom of the heat pump to evaporate.  Well, a Heat Pump IS a dehumidifier, so that shouldn't take long.

That leaves the odd hot water smell.  I think I need to replace it.  A water heater has a rod on the inside to resist corrosion (and maybe absorb water minerals, I'm not sure).  And some minerals fall to the bottom.  There is a little hose-fitting outlet at the bottom.  I used to be good at draining the tank every 5 years.  I forgot about that.  

But the water heater is about 20 years old.  I bet the rod is completely gone.  And modern water heaters are far more efficient.  Time to replace it.  I'm researching standard ones, heat pump ones, and "instant-heating" tankless electric ones.  I like the "instant-on idea but these is more routine maintenance but I can tell I'm not as good at routine maintenance as I used to be.  

So It will be a good high volume standard type (when I use hot water, I use a lot) or the heat pump kind.  Depends on what Consumer Reports magazine recommends for my usage pattern).  But I'm going to drain the current tank (garden hose to the storm drain downhill) to see what comes out.   I bet it is gray.

It is possible I have solved most of the indoor problems I've had recently.  I will have to see if the bathroom pooping stops though.

 

Collective Cats

So I was sitting here for a while at the computer and I finally stood up.  And what do you think I saw?  

The Mews.  

They weren't hungry or asking for scritchies or even requesting laptime.  They just sort of collect around me when I don't notice.  It isn't the first time.  Just the first time I really thought about it.  

If I stay in any room long enough, they are all there.  If I deliberately look around, they aren't there.  Its when I'm not looking that they are well, "just sitting around" the room.  

And if I get up and move to another room for a while, it isn't like they follow me. But after a bit, there they are.

I must be the luckiest person in the universe!

9-11

I usually write at some length about 9-11.  I have decided to just stay silent this year.

Elections Are Frustrating Here

I live in Maryland, USA, which is so overwhelmingly Democratic the past few decades that it almost doesn't matter whether I vote or not.   The State Electors will be voting for the Democratic Presidential Candidate even if half the Democrats didn't bother to vote.  And my own Congressional District has Congressman House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer representing it and he is so overwhelmingly popular that he isn't even challenged seriously. 
When I moved to this County, it was somewhat Republican  but new arrivals from nearby Washington DC changed that competely.
Can you tell from that who I support?  Not really.  I could be a happy Democrat or a frustrated Republican.  As it happens, I started out as a Republican (though a progressive one) in the 60's.  Just for info, non-conservative Republicans tended to be called "Progressives" and non-conservative Democrats were called "Liberals".  There wasn't much difference but Progressives were a bit more economically "middle". 
The Nixon political inversion (he made Democratic Dixiecrats" Republican) chased me away.  It was a close call back then.  Unions were TOO powerful but Dixiecrats were MORE too racist.
I don't actually indentify with "party", but I've been forced to vote Democratic since Nixon from lack of ethical choices.  I supported 3rd Party Candidate John Anderson in 1980, but it was so hopeless by Election Day, I didn't bother to stand in the 3 hour line to vote (voting has become much faster since then).
Yeh, I vote Democrat.  It hasn't even been any hard decision.  Bill Clinton was better than Bush I , Al Gore was better than Bush II, Obama was better than McCain (hard decision as McCain was always honorable and trustworthy) and Romney had that election-killing "47% speech".
I thought Hillary Clinton was a walk-in against Trump.  An experienced Senator and Secretary of State VS an inexperienced sexist racist buffoon.  Easy choice and I settled in front of the TV to watch the blowout. 
OMG!  Election night 2016 was a horror show.  I was so horrified that I considered leaving the US.  But I had so much stuff it really would have been a serious bother or else Canada or Australia might have had me (and my retirement pay).  But I hunkered down and waited for Trump to be impeached as any honest Congressmen and Senators should have done.  That didn't happen, but, well, the next election wasn't far away. 
I'm worried.  Trump has arranged government in ways that could get him re-elected.  Voter polls are being purged of legitimate voters, voting locations are being shut down in places where he knows he will lose.  Mail-in ballots are being contested before they are even cast.  The Post Office, a trusted institution created in our Constitution. is being slowed so that ballots will arrive late.  Some places are demanding that mail-in voters come to prove their identity.
I find some comfort that many lifelong Republican strategists and power-brokers are fighting Trump.  But I don't know if they are enough.  All Trump needs to do is report the actual election day votes to declare victory and cause a crisis.  His supporters tend to vote ON Election Day.  The mail-in ballots are counted after the day.  And some investigations suggest that mail-in ballots are routinely dismissed/trashed and not considered "real".
Further, Trump has recently suggested that his followers deliberately try to mess up the system by voting twice.  Once by mail and once on Election Day.  Never mind that voting twice, trying to vote twice, or even encouraging people to try to vote twice is a felony...  There seems to be nothing Trump won't try to stay in office.  And he has expressed a desire for "12 years".
When Benjamin Franklin emerged from the building in 1776, someone shouted out, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”  He replied “A republic, if you can keep it.”  It is sometimes debated, but he did say that in a letter to a friend though.
So the question is, can we keep a republic (because we are not actually, technically, not  a "democracy" if we were, then  Al Gore and Hillary Clinton would have been Presidents by legitimate popular vote) and can we keep it.  This election will decide that.
Vote as if your children's future will depend on it.  Because it will...
Trump wants to be Putin.  Biden wants to be a normal US President.  That's all there is to it.