A near-flattening experience

Today I got a treat. Ravenhub worked late so he decided to come downtown and pick me up for a ride home. Normally I take the bus. We agreed to meet around the corner from work, since the street in front of the building is full of people picking up, dropping off, plus all manner of buses. I thought I had it timed well so that I would be waiting for him when he arrived. But he got lucky and got there first. He was waiting in the driveway to a parking lot. I was happy to see him and rushed to the car. From the corner of my eye I something flying at me. It was a fucking huge honking SUV. Some woman had found a break in the traffic and had decided she should take a left turn through a break in the traffic and barrel into the parking lot. Not bothering to notice there was a pedestrian (moi), walking across the driveway at the exact same moment.

Quick thinking that I am, I put my hand out. Because my awesome hand is the most likely thing to stop 3,000 pounds of metal, right? That wasn't going to be enough, so I jumped back and still had to push off the car before the nitwit driver slammed on her breaks.

Next I was treated to something I have simply never before seen in my life. Ravenhub came barrelling out of our car and screamed at the woman who had very nearly hit me. You have to understand. Ravenhub is the sweet and well-behaved one. Ravenhub is the one who can control impulses. Ravenhub is always trying to tell me to control my urge to mouth off in public.

The woman is mortified. The woman is wondering what the fuck this strange man is doing screaming at her. Ravenhub is at full bore, but he uses his "social worker" language: "You have no idea of the consequences of your actions!" he screams. Now who the hell screams that?

I am just staring at this car in front of my face. And at the toddler buckled into a safety seat in SUV. This woman has got some extreme priority issues. Smashing my face in is one thing. But she could have seriously injured that child as well.

Meanwhile she is apologizing over and over. I climb into our waiting car and ask the still-fulminating Ravenhub to get in with me. SUV driving woman pulls up beside our car and rolls down her window. What, she thinks we want to have a chat over this?

I tell her to be careful from now on and we slowly drive away. Whew!

Gone to that great catnip cloud

I am a long-time cat owner. Last weekend, one of our two cats, Mocha, stopped eating and became extremely lethargic. I took her to the vet yesterday and they pushed fluids. She came home last night feeling better.

I took her back to the vet today for more treatment, and she began to fail. She is 16 years old and has never been sick before. The vet called to tell me she was not doing well and they thought she might have a tumor. I told him to keep her comfortable until I could get there after work. Around 2 pm she had a heart attack and died.

Let me tell you about Mocha. We had two cats when we adopted our daughters. Squeak was obviously Ravenhub's cat and Fruitbat shunned everyone but me. So we took the kids to the local shelter and they each picked out a kitten.

Mocha was a black short-haired cat with touches of white. She had a plaintive voice that we immediately translated as "Oh, me or my!"

Her favorite thing was to climb to the top of the cat tower and call us over to play. We would throw a cat toy up to her. A catnip mouse or a plastic ball with a bell inside. She would allow the toy to land next to her. Then she would take it in her paw and fling it back at us. Whereupon we would toss it straight back to her. She taught us to fetch.

My daughters grew up and moved away, but left the cats with us. Squeak died at 17 years old and my dear Fruitbat died at the ripe old age of 21. For the last few years, it's been the two younger cats keeping us old fogies company and making demands.

Mocha would plop herself down next to me on the couch and demand I pet her. She loved to have her head and ears roughed up. She would bury her face in my hand to force me to rub her ears. During the last five or six years she divided her time between hiding under furniture and sitting beside me demanding to be petted.

We called her Mocha the May cat and she lived a good life. I hope her spirit is rolling in catnip heaven.

We've put off paying a couple of bills long enough to be getting those annoying automated phone calls. One of them works like this:

Phone: ring! ring! ring!

Me (picking up phone): Hello?

Automated male voice: Hello! We have a very important call for you!

Ravenhub had a great response: "What is that, an interpretation service for the phone? Am I supposed to think, 'Oh! That's what that ringing was all about. Thank you for explaining!'"

He makes me smile. :)