So, not gonna ease into it: on top of everything else going on, my 16 year old cat Wally got hit in the road this week. He so seldom went in the street, it’s kinda hard to process that’s how it ended for him.

It was a hard night when it happened, finding him, explaining it to the girls, digging a grave in the dark. Saying goodbye. For all of that, I am mostly just overwhelmed with a predominant feeling of thankfulness to have had him for so long. But no getting around there is an empty space that he used to fill that translates to a sustained low level of sadness for all of us this week. He was everyone’s favorite.

It’s especially noticeable in the mornings. I used to wake up with him tucked under my arm every day- so its really obvious he’s gone the second I wake up.

He was a fan of mine- and sometimes I’d just go: Man! why does this cat love me this much?! I like to think it was like Thor and Mjölnir… and it feels good to know I was worthy of him.

We buried him in the nicest spot in the garden and I ordered blue eyed grass and a white cat whiskers shrub to go in that spot. He has a nice stone over him. The plants are in and the evening I planted them we had a good rain to settle them in.

Hell of a lead off of a blog post, huh? As I’m doing all this week, I’m just going to keep plowing on.

Also this week I discovered that chickens can climb ladders, after I had to follow one up and catch it ON MY METAL ROOF right before a thunderstorm rolled in. (Ladder was leaning against the side of the house.) I remember thinking that I better not die rescuing a damn chicken, because that would be a The Good Place worthy death right there. “How’d you die?” “Oh I was struck by lightening getting a chicken off the roof- the rest of my life was less ridiculous generally less ridiculous though.”

Side-note: Big recommendation for The Good Place if you haven’t seen it- the children and I are binge watching it on Netflix and it’s been really, really great.

Two weeks ago we went to a rental house on the lower Guadalupe with my brother and his kids. This is right before the river hits the bay, so it’s a brackish water/ “you don’t want to fall in” section of the river. The children spent the majority of the time blissfully fishing and caught some truly mammoth fish: mostly catfish, alligator gar, and a huge redfish.

Not only are there alligators, but our 11 year old got a fish stolen by an alligator as she was reeling it in- a story she will remember for literally ever.

We saw comet NEOWISE while we were down there- amazing how your peripheral vision is the best, isn’t it? We could all see it most clearly when we were not looking directly at it.

Did you know the comet got it’s name for the NEOWISE telescope it was found with? That its name is all capitalized like that because it’s an acronym? NEOWISE officially stands for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. But we ALL know it’s because some NASA Matrix fan came up with the acronym, never dreaming we’d all be saying the word this much back when the telescope was built in 2006 and launched in 2009. I can’t find any timeline on its initial design, but I bet it was in 2003 when the last Matrix movie was released. I’m gonna have a hard time letting this theory go.

Back to the trip, it was nice to get away for a weekend.

Sure the mosquitos were huge, and owls pooped on the deck, and there were alligators and alligator gar everywhere… but for 3 days we didn’t have to see this kinda thing so it was great:

You know, it’s hard to walk around and see that, or the people with it intentionally pulled well below their noses (not the ones doing it that way because of glasses), and realize these people literally hate all the rest of us and want us to know it. So much anger! And such a lack of understanding what liberty really is!

And which, the fuck, is it people? A private business should be able to make their own decisions when it comes to making (or not) a wedding cake for a gay couple… but shouldn’t when they require wearing masks in their stores? Or that you’re fine with having to wear a seatbelt, or drive the speed limit, or that some stores allow pets and some don’t, or with “No shoes, no shirt, no service” signs but not this? Our town literally has places that also have pants on that list… we’re a river town and if you didn’t say that you do get a bunch of brick house shaped women in swimsuits wandering around the grocery stores with a shirt on, and flip flops, but no pants. It still happens sometimes though. But like… people are dying, this is more important than the pants and shirt requirements.

Sigh. Boggles the mind.

Also boggles the mind: people against the Black Lives Matter protests because a few of them are looters and so give the protesters a bad name, but think the police are all good and worthy of support even if a few of them are bad apples. WHICH, THE FUCK, IS IT!

Jumping to other news, I passed my favorite historic marker while walking the dog to the farmer’s market yesterday.

That’s it, that’s all I got till next time.