Yesterday morning, at nearly the last minute, Jim invited me to join him on a guided walk around Firestone park.  

He didn’t think I would want to go since history and old houses are on my “so boring I can’t believe it” list – but I do like a good walk.   And there were free cookies.

I hustled down to the community center just as the the tour guides were introducing themselves and we were soon off.  I grabbed a cookie for the road.

And, as expected, I liked the walk but was a little bored. I’d be more interested in history, I guess, if we collectively really learned from it.  But we don’t and we keep making the same mistakes. Seems a little pointless until we get it figured out.

Case in point was the flagpole in the park.  There had been a huge pine tree there, but the area held water and the roots rotted.  So, they dug it up and – without fixing the water problem – put in another super expensive tree in the same spot.  And those roots also rotted. It was eventually replaced – most likely by an eagle-eyed controller looking at the tree budget – and now we’ve got a flagpole.  But no flag, yet.

On the walk were state and local representatives – as well as staff from the Mayor’s office.  One of the reps was trying just a little too hard, but the group overall was pretty nice. And I inadvertently learned a little about the history of my neighborhood.  I didn’t retain that knowledge, but I’m sure it was interesting.  🙂

———

Sunday morning for me is usually laundry and video games and I fired up my Playstation with anticipation of some Final Fantasy grinding.  There’s a Chocobo eating fiend on the path ahead and I knew I needed to level up before taking that thing on.

I was playing for a bit when I noticed… a smell.  I thought it might be on my shoes, but they were clean.  And then I realized the back of my pants and the gamer chair I was sitting on were wet.

Thunder(cat) had pissed on my chair.

I got up and threw my pants and underwear in the wash – then took a shower.  Yes, it soaked through that bad.

As I was trying to clean the chair, I looked over at my cat – lying peacefully on the dining room floor.  He was looking back at me and casually flipping the tip of tail up and down as if to say:

“This could have been avoided if you’d done a better job on cleaning the litter box.  Idiot.”

At least, I suspect that was his motivation.  It’s hard to tell with a cat. And like a dutiful servant who’s been upbraided by his boss, I got the litter box cleaned next.

It could have been worse, certainly.  Even if the chair has to be trashed – it could have been my bed.  I like to think that he assumed that this was my favorite place to sit and figured that would send the right message – but he wasn’t willing to escalate this to defiling a sleeping area.

Again, it’s hard to tell with a cat.

So, there’s some tension in the house at the moment.  He’s currently sitting on top of the couch, facing away from me.  And I’m at the dining room table, facing away from the living room.

We’ll get over it soon enough, but for now…