Ill, But Not Unexpected News
We may be losing our "free space" for the museum's portable layout. A few years ago, a club member asked the owner of an empty store in town if we could use the empty store as a place to store or setup our portable layout. The actual terms apparently didn't get transmitted to our club leadership, but the arrangement has allowed us to work on and display the layout in a reasonably protected environment, and it has been repeatedly used as a feature attraction for the town's local festivals over the course of the last several years.
Apparently, the store owner wasn't aware of this use. In a town that small, I find this lack of awarenss odd, because she owns the local Mexican restaurant, and my knowledge of locally-owned and operated restaurants is that they are a very hands-on enterprise--it isn't like she is an absentee landlord. Something doesn't make sense about the story. Oh well. However, being a nice person, she did let us know that due to economic circumstances, we cannot use the space for free any more. No ultimatum is involved, and the details of whether we move out versus pay for the use of the space have to be worked out. In the meantime, the status quo for the portable layout is that we have space, we use the space, after a couple of years, we get evicted, scramble to move to a new space, repeat. It has been like that for nearly 20 years.
Tumbler
Clutter is dangerous. ealdthryth proved that last night while attempting to file or retrieve something from an office. A box full of stuff to be dealt with has been migrating around the hearth and office for several months. Mostly, it is stuff for ealdthryth to review and make decisions about. While I was busy giving Ignatius his shot and his pill, I heard a commotion from the office, the sound of collapsing wood, and my sweetie crying out in distress.
I rushed over to see what happened and discovered ealdthryth entangled in the television tray rack and the stationary bike, and half-squashing that perambulating box of stuff. I had to help lift her out of the mess. She got a bit of a scrape, and may have a bruise on her back where she twisted into the bike's handle. The cats were indifferent to her suffering.
It turns out that the box was "in the way", so rather than moving it out of the way, ealdthryth tried to step over it and got her foot caught on the television tray rack. ealdthryth complained bitterly that I was deliberately keeping the box in view to force her to deal with it--which is true, but *I* didn't move it to a place where it was underfoot. Which means she was being contrary and deliberately ignoring it. I've asked her only a couple of times in the last two years to sort through it, but she won't do it. It isn't even a big box...especially now that she's sat on it once.
Kitty Gang Sign Fu
I think our cats have a gang sign. It is to lay down--typically draped over something--and extend their left paw out with the rest of their paws tucked under themselves. I'm not sure what it means. Perhaps they've been watching too many period films with ealdthryth and they think we should kiss their extended paws....
Silly kitties!
Musical Decluttering
ealdthryth has commented that she is getting rid of more CDs than I am. There isn't really any ulterior motive behind that, but she is discovering that her musical tastes have changed sufficiently that what she once enjoyed, she no longer does. My musical selections have normally been more...selective. I've only made the mistake of buying an album for the sake of a single song only a handful of times, and most of those have already been eliminated from the collection over the years.
Too bad I wasn't more discriminating in my literary choices. ;)
Apparently, the store owner wasn't aware of this use. In a town that small, I find this lack of awarenss odd, because she owns the local Mexican restaurant, and my knowledge of locally-owned and operated restaurants is that they are a very hands-on enterprise--it isn't like she is an absentee landlord. Something doesn't make sense about the story. Oh well. However, being a nice person, she did let us know that due to economic circumstances, we cannot use the space for free any more. No ultimatum is involved, and the details of whether we move out versus pay for the use of the space have to be worked out. In the meantime, the status quo for the portable layout is that we have space, we use the space, after a couple of years, we get evicted, scramble to move to a new space, repeat. It has been like that for nearly 20 years.
Tumbler
Clutter is dangerous. ealdthryth proved that last night while attempting to file or retrieve something from an office. A box full of stuff to be dealt with has been migrating around the hearth and office for several months. Mostly, it is stuff for ealdthryth to review and make decisions about. While I was busy giving Ignatius his shot and his pill, I heard a commotion from the office, the sound of collapsing wood, and my sweetie crying out in distress.
I rushed over to see what happened and discovered ealdthryth entangled in the television tray rack and the stationary bike, and half-squashing that perambulating box of stuff. I had to help lift her out of the mess. She got a bit of a scrape, and may have a bruise on her back where she twisted into the bike's handle. The cats were indifferent to her suffering.
It turns out that the box was "in the way", so rather than moving it out of the way, ealdthryth tried to step over it and got her foot caught on the television tray rack. ealdthryth complained bitterly that I was deliberately keeping the box in view to force her to deal with it--which is true, but *I* didn't move it to a place where it was underfoot. Which means she was being contrary and deliberately ignoring it. I've asked her only a couple of times in the last two years to sort through it, but she won't do it. It isn't even a big box...especially now that she's sat on it once.
Kitty Gang Sign Fu
I think our cats have a gang sign. It is to lay down--typically draped over something--and extend their left paw out with the rest of their paws tucked under themselves. I'm not sure what it means. Perhaps they've been watching too many period films with ealdthryth and they think we should kiss their extended paws....
Silly kitties!
Musical Decluttering
ealdthryth has commented that she is getting rid of more CDs than I am. There isn't really any ulterior motive behind that, but she is discovering that her musical tastes have changed sufficiently that what she once enjoyed, she no longer does. My musical selections have normally been more...selective. I've only made the mistake of buying an album for the sake of a single song only a handful of times, and most of those have already been eliminated from the collection over the years.
Too bad I wasn't more discriminating in my literary choices. ;)