A Different Start to the Day

 Sunday afternoon out in the glorious weather, cutting up dead sunflower stalks, checking the dried out flowers for seeds and a general cleanup of the side flowerbed was a great way to spend Sunday afternoon. The only interruption, getting the trash bins down to the road. There is always more work to be done and I might venture out there today. I should venture down to the front flowerbed but think that will be saved for the next really cool day. 

The sound of a cat attack pulled me out of my quiet time yesterday morning. I rushed out to the garage to check on things. Boodos wasn't there. The mystery of why Boodos bugs King Herod baffles me. Boodos is lame somewhat and mentally not the cat he was before the onslaught of constant stalking and attacks by KH. I have provided several spots for Boodos to be out of harms way but it seems harm came looking for him. He wasn't around all day. The Feral Fam was somewhat subdued and the ones that don't hang out here, just eat mainly, hung around, especially in the garage. I walked the yard to make sure Boodos wasn't somewhere hurt and I told Roy last night that Boodos might not be back. Thankfully, I was wrong because he was on the steps for treats this morning as well as for breakfast. A little worse for the wear, but interested in food. The other cats especially Toupee and Junioretta love him and watch over him but they are no match for the mean KH. Thankfully, KH didn't show his face last night. 

I started Eugene Petersons biography this weekend. Still in the chapters of his growing up years but the insights to his early life clearly show what an impact they made as he pastors and writes. He worked in his father's butcher shop and that is where he learned to see the sacred in the ordinary. 

Roy probably made his last recruiting trip to Louisiana Tech last week. He is feeling a bit sentimental yet goal oriented over it. They have hired some of the brightest and best in accounting from that university. He let the others do the interviewing and speaking in the classes and he felt he has helped the next generation that will be making those recruiting trips in the future. His technique became accomplished and fine tuned due to his working in Toastmasters. He told me something he said in one of the classes and it cracked me up. I am so proud of him, because he has come a long way in speaking before groups. Law school taught him how to organize his thoughts and Toastmasters, being able to share his organized thoughts. We got to talking about humor and how it is a powerful tool that most overlook. He overlooked it for a really long time but he has seen the light and I helped, said in my best shake and bake commercial voice. I get so tickled with people who have to announce, many times to remind people, that they are funny. Uh, no not really. It is mainly contrived and an attempt to be relatable when they really aren't. I often think of someone I knew in Houston that pretty much announced anything they did out of the ordinary for their personality type, which to most seems to be, they want to be the boss of everything and sometimes stifle the creativity of others or feel competition from it. Most humorous people enjoy the funny of others and the creativity that abounds. It inspires and many times joy upon joy is experienced, you know iron sharpening iron... The best teacher and mentor in humor for me is Peggy Bain. She taught me how to develop bits and the powerful use of humor in a crowd. I often think of a women's retreat we did for a church in Katy. It was a rather serious church in their approach to discipleship and learning. The two women leaders I met with were hesitant to use Mildred and Gertrude and I assured them that if they were disappointed in us, they didn't have to pay us. Their retreat topic was a rather heavy topic and depended so much on interaction at the tables of the gathered women. Frankly, if I don't relate to the people I'm sitting with, I'm not participating. Just polite head nods. Well, Mildred and Gertrude said stuff that everyone thinks about churchy type things but doesn't say out loud. We also asked Lisa P to help us with the ending, musically. Through laughter and humor, walls came down and that opened up the Saturday teaching to greater interaction. I met with one of leaders after the retreat and she apologized for being skeptical and loved she had seen how God can use humor to open the windows of heaven. 

Speaking of humor, I watched most of What's Up Doc yesterday. Funny still today even after seeing it so many times. The documentary of Pauline Kael was on after What's Up.  A long time ago when movies meant something to me I loved reading her column in the New Yorker and I had a couple of her books. Movies lost their allure, so her reviews were not so important to me. I watched a little of it and then realized seeing snippets of movies that I never had seen and had chosen not to see were included. So, I changed the channel until almost the end where they are wrapping up her life and purpose, deciding whether she was a good critic or if she was self serving in her reviews. I haven't a clue but I do know I discovered her while reading a critical review of the movie The Sound of Music. It is not one of my favorite movies, unlike so many who love it, yet she didn't like What's Up Doc. 

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I am still missing Buddy and guess will in some form or fashion forever. Mornings are the hardest sometimes cause we sat together, she napped, I quiet timed. She knew if I put her up on the arm of the chair, I was coming back after refilling the mug with coffee. This morning I thought of her because we blended in when I wore the gray jammies with sheep on them, along with the gray furry bed jacket like thing and that's what I have on this morning. During this past year as she narrowed down and gathered the wagons health wise, this was the one constant, morning time together. 

This morning I caught the Feral Fam sleeping in. I went out to the garage instead of treats on the steps because no one was out there waiting. So, it was a full house so to speak. Boodos and Junior came wandering in and Junior cleared out the interlopers to his specific spot. Toupee has moved to another location closer to me while breakfast is prepared and has been eating there but sometimes Tippy noses her out. They are discovering the warm places prepared for them to sleep when the temps drop even lower. KH showed his ugly face last night and success in keeping him away from Boodos. Ever since last winter when I finally let the Feral Fam sleep in the garage, thinking I was doing them a big favor, they have done a favor for me. I have been given the gift of a closer look into cat lives and the interaction. Everyone of them is kind to Boodos, well not Mama Cat but she isn't too kindhearted anyway. The way they play, eat, sleep and hang around, shows complex interactions with one another. 

This morning I fixed a protein breakfast. Toast and yogurt are my staples, but this morning eggs and bacon for a different start to the day.