Symphony's determined kitten

A cat foster parent provided this footage of a mother cat and her kittens at feeding time.  The video was cute all by itself, and then I touched it up a bit, using Handbrake to convert it from .MOV to .MP4, adding a little background music from Free Music Archive, and learning how to use Mixcraft Acoustica 9 to tighten up the shot.  

Time Well Spent

Sunset in a few minutes, but the overcast sky already has made it too dark to get around outside without artificial light.  It rained all day, so I haven't been outside the house.

Inside the house, I did some more organizing of the basement's contents, so there's my stuff, PG's stuff, Joyce's art stuff that can be given to granddaughter D, Xmas stuff that will be offered to family before being donated, and housewares and other small items that are likewise earmarked.  There's one other pile, consisting of boxes for packing the small stuff.  

In a Times article about a modern production of Once Upon a Mattress, pleasantly surprised to find a link to a 1964 CBS videotape of the same show, this one with most of its original cast, including Carol Burnett as the prospective princess.  Then on that YouTube page was a link to Carol's opening number, "Shy", as done on the Garry Moore show in 1960, while she was still in the show on Broadway.  That led me back to "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles" from the Ed Sullivan show of April 6, 1958, when she was 24, and from there I got a link to her April 2023 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, just before she turned 90.  

Finished "On The Town" and deleted it from Tivo.  Some time on Facebook, putting in a plug for Tabby's Place Kitten Fund.  Some time playing WordScapes.  Practiced drums.  Watched others cover the same songs to try to learn from them.  Some time learning about chords and how Steely Dan used them, adding jazz elements to keep themselves interested and to create new music.  Paid the trash and sewer bills at the credit union website.  

New information on Slack from a TP foster of a cat and her five kittens.  There's a little video; can I edit it and add a little free music?  While I'm at it, January is almost over, so I'd better start thinking about the February correspondent update.  I organized the field reports (you could call them) and their photos today.  Soon, some word processing and uploading.

Soon, a new laptop for downstairs, replacing the 2016 Dell Inspiron that can't be updated to Windows 11.  

Things that produce a sense of accomplishment on a wet, gray Sunday.

One Extended Moment

Before we went out for bird seed and one or two other things at Walmart, I locked the front door.  From there, I could see two robins in the yard across the street.  I had read that the temperature reached 80 degrees in Washington D.C. yesterday, although it had been 30 degrees cooler north of Philadelphia.  At least two birds took the unseasonable warmth as their cue to head north.  They were too far away to photograph, as if they were any different from any other robins on the continent.  But either they're very smart, and they know something about the upcoming weather that I don't know, or life is going to be mighty difficult for them over the next couple of months.  

However, when I pulled into a parking spot at Walmart, this sparrow was much closer, in the cart corral just past the hood.  Unlike the birds who frequent our back yard feeders, this one doesn't fly away at the sight of a human.  I had several seconds to unpocket the phone, enter the unlock code, call up the camera app, and set up the shot, then take three pictures.  

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Girl Scout cookie sellers at Walmart and at Tractor Supply just down the road.  No thanks, I can live without it.  I made cinnamon buns this morning.

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Took the broken-down boxes from the basement to the township yard waste site and plopped them in the cardboard recycling dumpster.  More physical activity than I've had in many a moon, but at least I'm not broken down.  And the basement now has more space than it has had in years.

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"On The Town" on the TiVo.  I can take or leave the dancing, and shrug at the songs and the story.  But those 35mm Technicolor views of late-1940's Manhattan make me reach for the pause button every time.  Somewhere someone has a website with a detailed list of the billboards in Times Square, and I wish I could find it.  Muttering, "... in the 30's it was Planters Peanuts, Chevrolet, and Coca-Cola.  Then in the early 40's it was Four Roses/Kinsey whiskey, Ruppert beer, and Pepsi-Cola.  After that, Canadian Club whiskey and Admiral TV and appliances from the mid-50's to the mid-60's... after that, who cares..."  

Is That So?

Sociology

Professor Lehrer, although not available for comment at this time, has already made his thoughts clear on the subject...

Less Eventful, mostly

Today's event:  a cap fell off one of PG's teeth, leaving a sharp stub behind.  She phoned her dentist, but got no answer and no return call, so I looked for something I didn't know existed:  an over-the-counter tooth repair kit.  Not entirely surprisingly, they do exist, and after supper we went to the Walgreen's down the street and picked one up.  It'll do until she can get an appointment for a professional job.

Years ago, there was a webpage called The End of Free, documenting the gradual shift toward no-holds-barred capitalism on the internet.  I submitted an entry back then with the story of a person who advertised free web sites, and who later tacked on mandatory fees while nominally retaining the no-cost price tag on sites.  

Free is still out there, if you're in the right place at the right time.  I was telling PG that I wouldn't have started learning the drums if it hadn't been for the YouTube videos that showed me it could be done, and the emergence of Moises, which splits songs into separate "stems", or audio files, of vocals, bass, drums, and all else at no cost*.  

* - Five songs per month, no longer than five minutes each.  

With a drum stem, I can use Audacity (free open-source audio editor) to slow down the part until I can understand it.  

No Quality Time with any cat tonight, but PG and I watched Graham Norton together, and I made some chocolate pudding from a recipe by Epicurious.  After she went upstairs, I went downstairs and broke down some cardboard boxes for recycling.  The basement looked so cluttered a few weeks ago, but come to find it out, a lot of the objects that were taking up space were just the empty boxes from a microwave, a PC, and a toaster oven, to name just three.  

Ongoing project:  Gathering tax documents.  Notifications are trickling in daily, and I've been diligent about fetching them from the individual websites.  All we need now are her Social Security and her pension 1099.  

Ay caramba

PG received a document from Medicare that said she could be billed more than $2,000.  There were charges from some place in Brooklyn with "Ortho" in its name, submitting claims for catheters for six months from May through October last year.  So ay caramba, or oy gevalt, or heck, even bozhe moi.  

We checked Medicare and the Medigap carrier and found claims from the supplier on both sites.  Next, we called Medicare's toll-free number and only had to wait five minutes or so before someone came on to help.  Twenty minutes later, we'd given them all the facts we had to report on what was likely a series of fraudulent claims.  I'm hopeful it will all work out, and I know did wonders for PG's blood pressure, anyway.

An hour later, I logged off and went downstairs for supper.  Before I could take a bite, a phone call came in from a collection agency that left a message for me to call them back.  I looked up the number they left, and found detailed descriptions of a no-doubt scam.  So then, no, I'm not calling.  Any other questions?

Four Things

1.  At Tabby's Place, a woman I didn't know approached me and told me she had adopted Sabrina, and she thanked me for the Throwback Thursday pictures of her cat that had been posted about a month ago.  

2.  Recently, I was in the $1.25 Tree store, and on the bookshelf I found Funny Girl, a novel by Nick Hornby.  I had a vague memory of him associated positively with Steely Dan, and that he'd written a couple of other critically-praised things I'd heard of, so I bought the book.  Last night, as I scanned the Sunday night Tivo listings, I found Funny Woman, a British show based on the book.  (Good idea changing the name.)  "There are no coincidences"?  Ha!

3.  Xitter has its lower-class neighborhoods, I'm told, but where I hang out is perfectly OK.  Still sharp and intelligent.  For instance:

There were several dozen responses that referenced Steely Dan, and every one of them was a reference to something in one of the first seven LP's,  Can't Buy a Thrill through Gaucho. Nothing from Two Against Nature (Grammy Album of the Year!) or Everything Must Go, and zilch from the solo releases. 

My response was slow, and a quote tweet instead of a direct reply, but it works while still fitting in with the crowd.  My excuse is that I had to narrow things down, discarding 11 Tracks of Whack and Circus Money, where others already had a limited list of sources.    

4.  I had a podcast on while driving home yesterday afternoon, the OMG (Osnos, Mayer, Glasser) Political Scene from The New Yorker.  Shortly after crossing the PA border, it ended and unexpectedly, another podcast began, this one devoted to drumming history.  This one, a look back at Neil Peart's gear.  This one, designated as Part II, and just for the years 1982-1994.  This one, nearly two hours long; 1:47.31 to be exact.  (My eyebrows raising higher and higher as I realized all this.)

My good girl Lorna Doone

Lorna Doone

Yesterday afternoon at Tabby's Place.  Not shown:  the hand protectors I was wearing to prevent another attack like the one she inflicted on me last September.

If inspiration struck, I could write lyrics about Lorna Doone the cat, to the tune of Donald Fagen's "On the Dunes".

 

Thursday evening

Snow in the forecast tomorrow, so at noon today we went to the Aldi down the street to get milk for her and bananas for both of us.  The day before, we dropped the better part of a C-note at the new Weis in Macungie (we call it "The Nice Weis").  A whole chicken for chicken soup and chicken-sausage-potato bake, Italian sausage for that and for sausage-pepper-onion sandwiches.  Stuck to the list, no impulse items, only food we'll use that's not ultra-processed.  Have to eat carefully, since it's too cold to do any walking outdoors.  Just hang in there through winter, maintain weight and not gain weight.  When you start walking again in spring, then you can have the occasional chocolate chip cookie.

The basement looks more orderly, even if it isn't much neater.  There's one pile along the south wall that's earmarked for Goodwill, another pile on the west wall for Habitat for Humanity, and a stack of art equipment for the artist granddaughter.  In the middle of the room, taking up the most space, are a couple dozen empty boxes of varying sizes.  Most contained products we still use and now are sure we won't send back.  There are smaller Evian boxes, medium-sized boxes from Amazon, and they should be enough.  The rest get recycled.

I worked, she refilled the bird feeders, watched Acorn/Britbox, played WordScapes, made potato soup for supper.  In two or three months, I'll wind it down and ease into retirement.  Photography, writing, a foreign language, and a musical instrument.  Any of them can be reduced or dropped if other responsibilities make it necessary.  

Social Security:  check.  (The first "check" comes in mid-February.)

Medicare:  half-check.  Part A, signed up at age 65.  Dropped the coverage from my job effective 1/1 and signed up for a Medigap policy.  But nothing stood out regarding Part B, so I didn't take action until the PCP office notified me of it.  The Medicare card and Medigap card were fine as far as they went, but where's the medical insurance of Part B?  How'd I miss that?  There must have been a checklist that I missed.  

Anyway, I filled out one online form but attached the wrong supporting document, as I realized later that day.  Sometime soon, I'll get a rejection letter and I'll re-submit with the proper form, properly completed.  I dreaded contacting Medicare, but its .gov website had a chat window that told me the names of the two required forms.  One had an online version, which I completed, and today I received the second, fully completed and signed by me and by my current employer.  Ancora Imparo, y'all.

Tuesday night, on Monday afternoon

Went to visit the cats on Monday.  Left at 11:15 and planned to take a route along the river to see how much higher than usual it is.  Instead, there was a detour that took me miles away from the river, and I had to defy the map app to get back there.  

That was the view from here:

Since I had to go out of my way, it took longer than the usual 1 hour-to-75 minutes to get to the cat sanctuary.  By the time I got in town, I was ready for a meal, and stopped at a small independent deli.  The deli was empty except for me and the man on duty, and while I waited for him to make my sandwich, I noted the other items that were available.  

On my left, a large screen that displayed quick state lottery games and counted down the seconds until the next one.  On the right, a cooler containing alcoholic beverages, highly-sweetened soft drinks, and probably some liquids that had both.  

Directly in front of me were packages of loose tobacco, rolling papers, pipes, and smoking paraphernalia.  If they specified anything, they made sure to insert "tobacco" in the product name.  Say no more.

Interspersed among the products designed to put smoke in your lungs were products designed to put nicotine-laced water vapor and who knows what else in your lungs.

What, no mass-produced cakes and cookies, no semi-recent fried dough?  I must not have been looking in the right place.  The man handed me my lunch-meat-on-white-bun, I paid for it and a 16-ounce Pepsi, and got back on the road.  

"If you have a vice, a habit, a weakness, this place has something to temporarily satisfy it.  For a price, of course."

Sunday afternoon

Blood test yesterday morning, and good news on the A1C test.  After dropping 20+ pounds since the prior test, the A1C is now at a "pre-diabetes" level that is considered not to be abnormal for someone over age 65.  I found a study that said less than 12% of seniors who were between 5.7 and 6.4 went on to a later diagnosis of diabetes.  I bookmarked a couple of other articles to prepare for my next appointment.  They're not likely to prescribe something based on the progress in the past 6 months, but just in case, I'm going to be ready to say no thanks.

Snow squalls and high winds in the forecast, so I didn't drive East to see the cats today, but fortunately I can go tomorrow on the national holiday.  What to do instead of taking notes and taking pictures and loving on cats?

Vacuum the family room... print my W2 from work... take out the trash... scoop the cat boxes... take out the full cat poop receptacle... 

Phooey on chores.  Play Immaculate Grid!

Can't Get There From Here

Tonight's the night I learned enough detail to realize that if I need to travel west on short notice, there are no good choices.  The bus is the bus.  The train would have to depart from Philly and it would take 16 hours to get there.  Plane tickets from the area airport to the airport closest to my destination would be prohibitively expensive, and even when I got there I'd need to rent a car for the final 60 miles.  Trip itineraries online showed no direct flights, and the ones that would get there eventually required routing via Atlanta or Charlotte.  Now, that's what I call the long way of getting somewhere.

If I flew from Philly to Detroit, or Newark to Detroit, there'd be a direct flight that would cost less than $100 for the round trip and take less than two hours to arrive.  But that still leaves the 1 hour-plus to get to Philly or the 90 minutes-plus to get to Newark, let alone the distance from Detroit to the middle of nowhere.  

So in short, the most desirable flight leaves the longest remaining driving distance on both ends.  The next best option takes longer and costs more due to less direct flights, and you don't have much less driving ahead of you from Toledo or Fort Wayne.  And then there's the travel itinerary that means the least driving time getting to the one airport and after leaving the other one, and if you have to ask, you can't afford it.  

It's a little late to take flying lessons and acquire a Cessna.  But hey, I could skip public transport altogether and just drive for 10 hours.  Each way.

Check this out

Look what popped up just now on my 1st page of YouTube results.  I always did like this one.  Forty years later, I can find out that the guy who stayed behind was Art LaFleur.  No information on the guy who went out for the Stroh's.  

New Year

Now on Social Security and Medicare with Medigap coverage.  Carrying cards for all of them in my wallet beginning today.  Ought to be noted somehow.  Further along the glide path to old age.