Semi-accurate

Here's another post about cats and tee shirts. I have this one in my closet. These past weeks of heat and humidity had me thinking about this shirt. Plus, my daughter had a Facebook post about her cat, Faux, who was stretched out in the 90º position on the tile floor in their house during their power outage after the June derecho.

If you share your life with a cat, this probably rings very true, if you look at it. Cats and dogs are masters at conserving body heat. They just curl themselves into a ball with the tail going over the nose. The warmer it gets, the more the body unfurls to rid itself of excess heat. They don't have the sweating capabilities we do which is why it's important for them to pant. Even cats pants, something I didn't know until I got our first cat, Shakespeare and caught him panting after being outside on a hot summer day. As with any animal, however, heat and cold will kill pets so it's important to provide shelter, food and water. I've read about people breaking into cars to rescue pets left "just for a minute". "But I cracked a window" is not acceptable. Let's put you in that car for "just a minute" and see how you like it.

I keep the house at 80º. I figure 80 air conditioned air is going to be as comfortable as 75 and it's less costly to me. I have two fans going, a box fan to circulate the ground air, and a pedestal fan to circulate air 3 feet off the ground. I figure they help keep the cool air moving which will make it comfortable, too, and keep the AC unit from running more than it has to. Let's see if we can tell what temperature the house is at.

Well, she's not splayed out on her back. Neither of my girls do that. Mija will, when she's rolling about but, as a rule, they don't. I remember reading that if a cat rolls onto her back in your presence, that is a sign she feels very comfortable around you, that she trusts you. Mija will, on occasion, let me pet her belly. Pilchard, ha. I'm sure she has a belly, but me actually seeing it or petting it? No. She may never get to a point where she lets me touch it. I do, about once a month, check out the belly when she jumps into my lap, just to make sure there aren't lumps or mats that need my attention. Females who have had a litter are also more inclined to roll onto their back since that is a comfortable position for nursing kittens. 

So, I would say, given the amount of stretch and the desire to take up part of the second seat in the recliner, it's about 80 in the house. Here's Pilchard from the same time.

Yeah. She's in one of her boxes. She spends most of her sleeping time in the boxes. This one is positioned slightly to the right of the fan so she gets a breeze only partially. Some times she sleeps with the fan blowing on her head; sometimes on the back and sometimes not at all, where she would move to another box. Hence, using Pilchard as a guess on the temperature is not advisable. 

Using both of them for the cuteness factor, well, that's a given. What is it about cats? You're supposed to let sleeping dogs lie but when you see cats asleep, you just want to, no, you're almost compelled to, scratch ears even when it's 80+ degrees and they are sound asleep.

Beverage:  mock mimosa

Deb

They ARE Different

On the day the camera broke, I was trying to take a photo of these shirts.

See? They are different. It took me a long, long time to suddenly realize the difference. The one on the left is the one I wore to the book fair in Chicago. The one on the right happened to be in a basket of clean clothes that I was putting away when I returned home. My mom gave me one of them and the other I got when I went the first time to the Printer's Row Book Fair. Part of me is sad that I only just this year realized they were different shirts. The other part of me says, "Look, who cares. The sentiment is true and you were thrilled to have it on two shirts." Yes, this is truth. How empty my life would be without books or cats, in the plural. 

Books. Cats. Life is goodly sweet or sweetly good indeed.

Beverage:  Mock mimosa. 

Deb

Zinnia Bloom

It was waiting.  On Monday morning, this was the status.

This morning, I had a flower greet me as I left the house. The photo is from my phone as opposed to using the office camera. We aren't that busy that I probably couldn't take it home for random photography, but let's not get into a habit.  I have to wait again to the end of the month to see if the budget allows for a real camera.

I love zinnias. They are so hardy and come in a huge variety of sizes and colors. This one plant from the mix that my friend Patt sent me, is about 3 feet tall, if it hadn't been beaten down by a couple of heavy rains. It is a beautiful lavendar pink color which doesn't photograph well, period.

It's like a smile immediately as I walk out the door.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

Found!

I knew I'd taken a before photo of the back door. I was sort of worried I'd done something like delete it but I should just take some deep breaths and go look for something else. I'll usually find what I wanted previously in the search for a current item.

So, here's what it used to look like.

And here's what two coats of paint look like.

Oh yeah! It's a great improvement. Now to find the single-edged razor blades to scrape the paint off the glass.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb