Snicker's eye pillow

Snickers using light block
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

What do cats do all day? Sleep.

Snickers uses our ottoman to sleep 98% of the day. The only time he leaves this position is to eat and use the litter box.

He doesn't like to be picked up. It may be bacause of his weight. He's now 24 lbs.

And he now begs at the dinner table. We've always fed him dry cat food, never the fancy sutff. He's fine with that. But one time I fed him a piece of bacon during breakfast and now he'll stare up at me while I eat. If I ignore him he'll gently paw my thigh. I can't resist that. I give him a piece of meet. He'll brush this way and that while I hold it out for him. Then he'll lick it. Then finally he gently takes it from my fingers and chews it.

Snickers doesn't even catch mice. He doesn't like to go outside. Although on a nice 65ish day we'll put him out anyway. But then he's soon at the back door staring in at us.

Since he sleeps on this ottoman near the back door, I guess the light gets to him. Yesterday he slept in this position for an hour trying to block the sun. I think I should get him one of those eye pillows. If I got him one of those butterfly designs maybe he'd dream of catching bugs or something. You know, earn his keep.

The only other place he sleeps is on my chest. He'll usually come around when I'm watching TV. He jumps up on my chest, all 24 lbs of him, and after leaving puncture marks, settles down with a loud purr. If I'm trying to read a book, he'll stand on the other side and rub the edges of the book with the side of his snout. Then he'll peek over the top. If I continue to ignore him, he steps around the book and settles down in the one foot space between my nose and the pages.

But it has to be his idea. I can't walk over to the ottoman, pick him up, and put him on my chest. Well I can but he wont stay long. He'll act like he's all comfortable then without warning he'll catapult off my chest and on to the floor.

If I try to pick him up and hold him like a baby his eyes get all wide. His fur gets all bristly and his claws come out. If I persist in carrying him around, he'll make a low growling sound. He's not happy.

He never comes when I call him. Rarely anyway. Maybe he'll just turn and look my way. Most times he'll just cock his ears back in my direction and continue sleeping. He doesn't like to move much. He's 24 lbs.

...dave
When I played in the sandbox the cat kept covering me up. -- Rodney Dangerfield

black friday

simplify
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

So here's the thing: I wanted to get a real good deal on a 42" LCD HDTV. All the stores open at crazy times, 5:00 a.m. for example. So I decided I'd rather pay extra and sleep in.

And yet, I could save a great deal of cash, $600 if I could just get up early. My body woke me at 4:00. So I got up, got dressed, and drove to the store. It's about 30 minutes away. Highway 75 was empty. I could actually count the headlights behind me and the taillights in front of me. There were only six cars behind me and eight cars in front of me. It was as if I was the only guy on the road. Highway 75 is a five line Interstate.

If I could get there by the time the doors opened, I could slip in, grab what I wanted, pay, and slip out again. When I drove into the parking lot it looked like a baseball game. A thick line wrapped around the building, down it's side, and back into the darkness. The store's foyer was packed with people. It was 35 degrees outside. Cars were bumper to bumper in the parking lot. I'm not sure why. Maybe some were hoping to drive into the store?

There must have been 200 people waiting to get in. It was 4:55 a.m. Are these people crazy?

I had shaved, dressed, and drove for 30 minutes for this? There is no way. I drove through the crazy drivers in the parking lot idling for the charge and drove back out again.

I drove home alone. No one existed on the highways, roads, or streets. The lights were all green.

I drove up my driveway, put it in park, and walked into my house. I pealed off my clothes, climbed into bed, and dreamt about being richer.

...dave
Why grab possessions like thieves, or divide them like socialists when you can ignore them like wise men? - Author: Natalie Clifford Barney

Borders at 10:00 p.m.

books
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

Don't ask me why. I don't even know. I just know that at 10:00, in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm my wife said she wanted to go to the book store. She likes reading for free and of course the libraries are closed. She found out that Borders stays open until 11:00. That'll give her an hour.

So in the pouring rain and thunder claps we drive to the book store. It dumps fat drops that slap the windshield. The wipers fight them off courageously but in vain. More water cascades out of the sky like tumbling books from towering shelves. We hydroplane through rivers in the road. No one is out here. All the sane people are ensconced at home cowering under an angry heaven of thundering voices.

But we are fearless or foolish, same difference.

There are plenty of parking spaces. We slide into one and quickly dart inside.

I find a chair with impossibly narrow armrests. I type here on my iBook, my arms cramped, my elbows jammed in my sides. My coat is still on. I'm growing sleepy and dizzy. I'm hot. I yank my North Face waterproof jacket off. I throw it over the next chair. I lay back trying to fight the sleepiness.

The store is quiet. No music plays. I can hear nothing save a few pages shuffling in the next isle. I can just hear the store cashiers giggling in the distance. The air conditioner hums and whirrs above. I hear no thunder, I see no lightning. Has it stopped? Am I dreaming?

I don't know. I just want to get horizontal. I want to go to bed. This is one time I DON'T want to be at Borders. I close my eyes as I type these last few sentences. I'm not even looking at the screen or keyboard. I'm so sleepy. How did I get so tired?

I need sleep. Just a few minutes. I need to return home.

Where is she? How much longer? I can't hold on. I can't lay down here.

I stumble out of the book store into the rain, eyes half-closed. I find the keys and climb into the back seat. Alas, I lie here sleepily. Will anyone ever find me here? I feel as though I've become lost in a wilderness and there's a storm outside. I've crawled into a cave to sleep it off. I'll never be found again.

....dave
I reach for sleep and pull it like a blanket around me.

Gentle Rain

Gentle rain is very calming. It's overcast now and the downspouts empty their contents in a stream. The stream is steady now. There is no noise outside but the gentle rain. A distant dog barks. I hear him no more. I'm feeling sleepy.

I'm in this black wood framed chair. It rocks me gently, slightly. It could put me to sleep like a baby in his mother's arms. This iBook is warm in my lap. My palms rest on the eggshell colored support near the keyboard.

I can click on the browser and be anywhere in an instant, but I wont, I don't. I want to be right here. In the moment, spewing text from this machine and posting it out to the world. What contentment. An umbilical connection to my friends, regardless of their location. I can communicate easily, quickly, or even not at all. Umbilical connection. This is why the blog is so popular. It goes back to connections. Connections with friends. Friends that may be very far away, but still connections.

And so I type and not sleep like my body tells me I should. The rain falls gently. The shutters are drawn like eye lids over windows of the soul. The sounds of the keyboard are all I hear. And I rock ever so gently. Eyes closing now, then they force themselves open to finish this post. What's a post without the final signature and quote? It's no post at all. And so I close. Close this post for sleep. Sleep induced by gentle rain.

...dave
"'I love walking in the rain, 'cause then no-one knows im crying'" -Anonymous