Just Warming Up
Interstate 10 was the dividing line between above and below freezing this morning. In a week we have gone from watching the heat index to the wind chill. I’m wearing wool socks and long johns rather than no socks and briefs after spending time locating winter clothes.
The temperature is going back up for the rest of the week which makes this time of year a real pain. You don’t know which pile to dress from until you look at the late night weather report.
Still, it is better than being in Cabo San Lucas on Baja Sur and watching Hurricane Vance out in the Pacific. Cabo already got nailed by Odile in mid-September and many of the structures were severely weakened. If the storm doesn’t take the forecast turn to the West midweek, Cabo may take another hit.
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Even Houston temperature plunged to the mid-40°F last night. From last winter, I still had a jacket stashed next to my bed; I awoke at about 5:00 (or 4:00; take your choice) and struggled into the jacket for the rest of the night. Stella asked me tonight whether we could turn on the heat before the landlord had his safety inspection; I asked for another month of low gas bills after a summer of soaring electric bills…
Ooo! I wore sweat pants for the first time in ten months or so… we actually had RAIN two days ago and the mountains have a dusting of snow!… but it will be in the 80s again in a few days. Winter was nice while it lasted…
Was in the mid 40’s here in the Silly Cone Valley last night too — after it had been in the low 90’s last week. Luckily I got my furnace prepped yesterday, because I need it now.
We have another front coming, Steve, the one that Badtux and Ellroon are talking about will be in your area tomorrow or Wednesday, and through here Wednesday or Thursday. I know what you mean about utility bills. We once had weeks in the Fall and Spring when neither the AC or heat were needed, but no longer.
Y’all need a lot more than a dusting in the mountains, you need yards of snow pack to fill the streams, rivers, and reservoirs, Ellroon. At least you got some rain to scrub pollen out of the air for a bit.
So the cats were toasty on their heated pads, but you were frozen, Badtux. maybe you should buy a couple more heated cat beds to sleep on.
I have an electric blanket, Brian. So we were all toasty in our electrically heated beds :). (Actually, Mencken spent most of the night under the covers with me — he has taken to crawling under there and curling up against me when it’s cool outside).
That behavior is more common with former ferals than house born cats. Finding someone to huddle with is an outdoor survival tactic. It is about the only time some of the outdoor cats act civilized toward one another.
My cats huddle next to me, but they don’t get under the covers like my wild born cats did.
I think Mencken was a throw-away, not a feral, but he does have some of the feral attitudes from his time on the streets. But he’s also very grateful that he’s not on the streets anymore, even if he gets annoyed when I pill him every night.
Yeah, Froggy and Hadley like being outside, but when the temperature dips they head for the door. I have never seen a cat who was at all gracious about pills. My Mother’s vet had a special pair of curved forceps specifically for getting pills down cats, but it was a two person procedure.
I have a pill gun. It still needs three hands, one to hold the cat, one to open the cat’s mouth, and one to pull the trigger on the pill gun. Luckily Mencken is not a very physical cat, so I can hug him against me with the arm that’s opening the cat’s mouth, or he wouldn’t get his pill that way…
You’re lucky that Mencken tolerates hugging. None of my cats has ever put up with it. With all of them it was the ‘Vulcan neck pinch’ and the other person dealing with the mouth and pill. Gloves were nice to have if it wasn’t done quickly.
It’s not that Mencken tolerates hugging, he is annoyed when I do so, it’s that he is resigned to hugging. He’s learned over 10 years of living with me that sometimes I’m just going to do stupid things he doesn’t like and there’s nothing he can do about it other than look annoyed, because making a bigger fuss will just make it worse.
On the other hand, Mencken does have the weirdness that he loves having his tummy rubbed. And not in the “trap” sense of the word either, he will wriggle around and drool in ecstasy while I massage his tummy.
Generally it is males that love to have their tummies rubbed while females are almost always trappers. That isn’t universal – Sox was a definite trapper and used the tactic with Ringo and the kids during their ‘combat’.