Christmas Finally Arrived

I can’t say for sure what held me back this year. I wasn’t really bah humbugging as much as I was meh humbugging. Distracted? Lazy? A tad depressed? Some combination of the above? I don’t know. It took me way too long to get the oomph to get up and decorate. I generally decorate anywhere between the 1^st and 5^th. But I didn’t get around to starting until late last night and into this morning… making this the latest I have ever decorated for Christmas.

 

Laziness I get. It usually takes me a while to get started. But that doesn’t usually hold me back as once I get started the Christmas elf in me comes out with joy. Distraction came from Mom and I trying to clear our way too full DVR so we can replace it as it is screwing up and deleting shows or not recording them correctly at random. It’s hard to decorate and watch shows, especially ones with subtitles or clues the audience is supposed to catch. As for the depression….I don’t know if it was there first or the passing days without the decorations bummed me out. Now that it’s mostly done, I feel way better. Heck, I started to feel less depressed the moment I started unpacking the decorations. I still have a few finishing touches before I consider the decorating done, but it looks very Christmassy and I am happy.

 

I hope Mom doesn’t worry anymore. That is I think I was starting to worry her. While she doesn’t always want them up, she knows I do. A few days ago, she offered to help me decorate. She even asked if we were getting a tree, something we haven’t been able to afford for years. She hasn’t helped decorate since possibly Anaheim (11 years ago) or maybe as late as Long Beach (9ish years ago). That to me screams her seeing something was up with me. I have to remember to write her a card, because while I didn’t feel like taking her up on the offer that day, the fact that she offered meant a lot to me.

 

Now to tackle the Christmas cards! I already sent the international mail out, as I always send that earlier. Not as early as I wanted as the jerk postman walked right by my house the day I put them out, but oh well. :-P I’ll get started on those tomorrow along with getting a jump on some series holiday movie watching. :-D 

Nothing Spooky

Dunno why I feel like sharing this in a blog, but the thought popped in my head so here I am.

 

Apart from enjoying Halloween wrapped candies or going to Knott’s Scary Farm, I’ve never really done anything special for Halloween. Still don’t. At best I bring out my Halloween themed Mickeys to decorate my play space….a mini Halloween party. :-P Occasionally, I try to get Mom to watch a scary movie. But we like creepy and “scary” movies so nothing is really all that scary. Last year we attempted to watch Silent Hill with all the lights off. That’s one of the few movies that just creeps us out and she chickened out midway through. :-P At previous apartments, I used to like to watch trick-or-treaters and sometimes even handed out candy. But no one comes here except cats and skunks.

 

ANYWHO…. This year was no more special than any other, but it was a nice simple day. :-) Last night, after watching Grimm, I began a Walking Dead marathon that went on until mid-morning. After cleaning the kitchen and showering, I had intended on continuing my zombie marathon all through the night. But Mom came home with Costco pizza and the desire to watch a movie. Neither one of us could think of new scary movie we hadn’t already seen in our DVD collection, so we went with Jurassic World. Add that to our usual silly interactions with each other and the cats and it was a fun evening.

 

A lil bit ago, I walked into the kitchen with my empty plate after having my seventh slice of the day (over three different meals) and smiled. Zombies, pizza, dinosaurs, and silliness….not a bad way to spend Halloween. :-)

Mama’s Home

Almost four months ago, my neighbor was helping me catch some of the strays in the area. She noticed the kittens from Spumoni’s latest litter and wanted to see if I could catch them for rescuing. Since the shelter seemed to discourage me when I last brought in a cat with the whole “they’re strays and allowed to roam free” line, I was worried we wouldn’t be able to take the kittens there this time around. Thanks to Dorothy those kittens were rescued and put up for adoption. We also caught Harpo, one of Spumoni’s kittens from the previous summer. We thought Harpo was a girl and that was the main reason to catch “her” before she was old enough to get pregnant. Turns out, he is a he and also too feral to be adopted. He’s never been really mean to me. Spumoni either. But then what can ya really know when the only contact is through a screen door when I put plates out or talk to them. Anywho, he was fixed and released here, well in our yard.
 
I’ve been trying to catch Spumoni for years. She was always so small and kept getting pregnant. I thought if we could catch her and took her to the shelter, she might be spared that over and over again even if she wasn’t adoptable. But she never let me lure her in like the others. I almost didn’t bother trying until Dorothy showed up and encouraged me to try again. I got really lucky one day. I used my big carrier like I’ve always done. So Dorothy and her friend had to transfer her into one of their cages at Dorothy’s friend’s house and, unfortunately, Spumoni escaped their grasp. Mom and I were so worried for her, lost in some foreign neighborhood with possibly no food source. Yes, I know it’s ridiculous. Strays know how to find food one way or another or move on to where they can. But day after day, Dorothy said they were unable to find her. I felt horrible. We caught her for nothing…..
 
As it turns out…. Spumoni was hiding under the house next to Dorothy’s friend. That neighbor feeds strays too. Just leaves bowls of it out. Spumoni was well fed there and sheltered under the house. Well enough to get pregnant again…. Seven kittens this time around! Yikes! Poor lil mama. Thankfully, they caught her and some of the kittens already. She’s home now. She’s been spayed, tested clean, flea prevention dosed, and vaccinated. She’s not exactly happy yet as she’s still in one of their trap/cages on my porch. But as she was operated on late tonight we thought it best to limit her movement for a while. An old sheet off my bed has been draped over the cage to provide my familiar scent. And while I know she’ll bolt as soon as she’s released….I hope she like Harpo won’t take too long to forgive us. I’m just glad she’s back home and safe from getting pregnant. We really did miss her. I wish we didn’t get so attached to these strays. I still think about and miss the ones we left in Norwalk.

Welcome Home, Compy

Okay, not really. I mean my computer’s been home and fixed for a while now. Actually, it’s been fixed again and home for a while now. But the first time it was fixed, not everything was fixed or something. I dreaded turning on the computer or further breaking something. Geek Squad didn’t catch the alert sound I kept hearing when I brought the comp in last year or whenever it is I had to have it repaired. I never did put all the programs I used to use back on it. Still can’t even now… well, I haven’t tried this past month since it’s been fixed. Maybe there is a way to do it without a tech savvy friend to walk me through hacks and cracks… Of course, that might mean purchasing full versions of them but whatever.

  

Anywho… I upgraded the comp to Windows 10. Compy got taken to Geek Squad shortly after to get fully cleaned up and fixed. I had them check EVERYTHING hardware and software. The alert I heard according to the sounds directory was for “hardware failure to connect” and the Geeks said all was well there. Meh. A couple viruses were found and removed. I made the restart my comp several times there to make sure that alert didn’t happen. And I checked for a week after I brought it home. Nada. So I dubbed my comp fully and properly fixed. :-)

  

Now all I have to do is to get in the habit of using it again. :-) It does feel like mine again, which is progress. And now that the summer is almost over it won’t be too hot to sit in front of the computer or more specifically the warm monitor (since I have to lean closer to it to see). So I am looking forward to fun times ahead with Compy….starting with blogging. :-P