May 29, 2011 21:22
I'm not a cat person. But I was working in the yard late this afternoon and I heard a meowing. Searched for it. Coming from my neighbor's yard. The neighbor that I dislike. Black cat, obviously unhappy by the tone of its meows. Don't have to be a cat person to understand happy meow from unhappy meow. I approached cautiously. Knelt. Stretched hand out. It approached slowly. The cat was underfed. I'm not going to say starving -- had obviously been fed in the month since the tornado, but not too much. The most telling thing for me was it was not only starved for food, but starved for attention. It clung to me like *I* was food.
Mom brought out a large can of dog food and a bowl, and we watched the cat eat the whole thing. Before the cat could finish, we went inside. It was understood that with two large doggy-dogs and one very annoying bird inside the house, there was no place for a cat, no matter how cute or needy it may be. It was also understood that this cat will NOT be going hungry, because if you feed an animal once, it will be around again. And next time we'll have cat food ready for it.
So. Sunday on Memorial Day weekend. I've been raising hell all week about a lack of television, phones, and internet. Called AT&T a lot. Let them know my frustrations.
Today I realized -- remembered -- how much of a tool I am.
I'm kind of living in a bubble, here. The chances I get to play on my sister's computer are the few opportunities I have to see what's going on with the outside world. I don't see much, then. When I go anywhere, it's straight to the destination and back home -- nothing else. I don't really travel around Pleasant Grove because it's so wrecked, and because the traffic's a nightmare. I'm kinda lucky. I can get on the road out of PG relatively easy. 2 turns. Point is, I don't hear much, and I don't see much, except for what's around my house. Living in a bubble.
So today, I thought, Sunday on memorial day weekend. Cleanup crews will be taking a day off. People will be at church. Maybe I can take a drive around the ol' town. See how it's progressed over the course of a month.
It's not pretty.
Really. Not pretty. I'd forgotten how much I hate seeing this.
Good news -- they've almost cleaned off entire blocks of the city. Bad news -- they've almost cleaned off entire blocks of the city. They've done a lot of work that needed to be done, but it just showed exactly how much was ruined. You hear people say "It's like a bomb went off!!!11111" and you say, bullshit. How the fuck do YOU know what a bomb going off looks like? To me, the aftermath of the cleanup crews, leaving clean slab after clean slab -- THAT looks like a bomb has gone off. A really big fucking bomb.
But that's not the point I was trying to make here. Point I was trying to make here is I'm a dickhead. Again.
I spent a week bitching about not having tv, phones, and internet. Then I looked outside my cute little air conditioned bubble and recalled that there are lots of people that are missing a lot more than that.
Perspective. Gotta learn to keep it.