Purrs In The Valley

 

Just a furry ball of stripes and spots and paws and all!

            Since the kittens were both asleep and she wasn’t, I was making a special attempt to pay more attention to Suzy. It had been a rather rough few weeks for her, resulting in lots of change.
            She was up here on the desk in her conference position. She wasn’t talking yet, but she was here. I knew what that meant.
            “Well, Suz,” I said. “How do you like the new desk landscape? Much neater isn’t it?”
            “Everything is moved around, and some of it is missing,” she said.
            “You have more room on the desk now!” I said. She does this grudging assent thing where she closes her eyes and dips her nose. That way I know she heard me, but doesn’t want to talk about it.
            “Life is change, how it differs from the rocks. Kantner said that in a song I think,” I said.
            “Yeah, change bites!” she came right back with.
            “But some changes are really neat! Look at those kittens!” She glanced around nervously.
            “Oh, I know you love those two. But, I don’t think I was ever that busy! They’re either on or they’re asleep! I never know what they will do next. And think of poor Mr. Baby! His tail. They won’t stop with his tail!” she said.
            “You’re right about that. You weren’t that wild. I think wild is the operative word. One of their recent ancestors was an actual wild cat! They sort of can’t help it, and they’ll grow up some day,” I said. “You were a very sweet quiet girl kitten. These are Tom kittens and we must deal with it!”
            I had been hearing some rustling movement in the next room while Suzy and I were talking. She heard it too
            Soon a small spotty, stripy creature wandered out onto center stage. Booker.
            “Hello, Booker, sweet baby,” I said, as a greeting upon his arrival.
            A small voice said, “I am Love. I am looking to see how it all works!”
            “You see how it is, Suzy,” I said. “How could any cat look askance at that?”
            “Hello, Child,” she sighed at him, down on the floor.
            Soon he managed to climb up to my arms and settle there. Love, indeed!
            Sweetie followed his brother out of the bedroom behind me. He looked almost exactly like Booker, but not quite. They are quite distinct to the eyes of Love.
            “Hi, Sweetie,” I said.
            Another small voice said, “I am Love. Where is my brother?”
            “Come on up, Sweetie. He’s here with Suzy and me,” I told him. So he did climb up and join the party. I held both of them until they became more awake, and then they wanted down to continue their explorations.
            “Isn’t it good, Suzy?” I said. “They are so very alive!”
            “Yes, life is good, and I will do my best to watch over them and love them too,” she said at last. She was actually purring as she watched them tumble around the floor.
            “Soon they will be bigger than you! Can you believe it! What a change that will be,” I said.
            “Yes,” she purred.
            (PS, they all three napped together today! I saw them!)

🤍

A Day Like Any Other

 

 

           

            The sun shone down on the pleasant little town situated near an old growth forest of fir, alder, and cedar. It was midday. The sky was blue, that profound blue that it gets sometimes in the far northwest. It felt as if soon everything would be blooming and leafing out. A river ran near the house.  It was an excellent day.
            And just like every other day, at the stroke of noon on the old wall clock, Mother brought the soup out in its old tureen. It had been her mother’s, and she used it often. “Why not use your nice things when you can,” she always said. “Too many people save their nice things for the right time, and that time never comes.”
            The floral china bowls were already on the table. There was a loaf of fresh bread, of which she was very proud, on a cutting board, with the big serrated knife. There were cotton napkins, and tea cups. They always had tea, richly sugared, and poured from the big Brown Betty tea pot.
            There was a small ornate blue glass vase centered on the big old wooden table, containing a few sprigs of greenery. There were no flowers yet. Not even wild ones.
            Four people were lunching there this time. The mother, Elaine, father, Franklin, a son, grown, Robert, and a daughter, younger than her brother, Mary Elise.
            The table was surrounded by six wooden chairs, oak. The table was oak also, all plain, but decent and clean. The floor was plain pine boards, with a loose square of linoleum laid over it under the table. The linoleum was printed in geometric patterns and foliage.
            Elaine sat at one end of the table, nearest the kitchen. A large black and white Tom cat came from somewhere and settled himself on the floor by her feet. He was called Apollo.
            Franklin said a quick prayer of thanks. Elaine served the soup, as she always did. Then she sliced bread.
            “Oh, I forgot the butter again!” she said, and scurried back into the kitchen for the butter and a small butter knife. They ate quietly for a few minutes.
            “Robert,” said Franklin, “I believe the weather is settled enough to begin spading the garden. Will you look after that today?”
            “Yes, sir,” said Robert. He looked happy about it too, because he enjoyed gardening. He looked forward to it every spring. He was a handsome youth, with sharply defined shoulders in a plain blue shirt. He already had the hands of a man, tanned like his face.
            Elaine remarked that she and Mary Elise were working on a dress for Mary’s high school graduation. They would be upstairs during the afternoon. Mary Elise smiled. She seemed young for graduating, she was small, blue eyed, with brown braids on her shoulders. The cotton dress she wore was a sprigged blue print, of which she was rather proud, since she had done much of the sewing after Elaine had cut it out. She was beginning to sense that childhood was behind her.
            Franklin said he had some letters to write, then post. He kept up with political things in this small town next to the forest, part of a newly declared state of the union.
            The family was still sitting at the table having their second cups of tea and slices of bread. Franklin lit a small dark cigar; Elaine brought him a saucer for the ashes. She would air the house out when he was closed in his office writing letters.
            There was a sound at the front door. A familiar sound, and yet out of place. Four sets of blue eyes looked at the door, and then around at each other.
            A key turned the front door lock. It made a loud metallic noise in the still air of the old house.
            The door opened slowly. The old hinges were freshy oiled and smoothy silent.
            Two smiling faces peered into the empty room.
            “Oh, look out there! They did leave us the old table and chairs” said newlywed Tracy.
            “Well, I hope so! That was part of the deal,” said her new husband, Lars.
            They walked in, shutting the front door behind themselves.
            Holding hands, they explored the old house. It felt different now that it was their own. Each room was perfectly perfect. So antique, with room for growth and a life together.
            Tracy inspected the kitchen, smiling. When the moving van got there, her modern appliances would complete it. The old fashioned bathroom with its huge iron tub pleased them both anew. It did feel different now that it was home.
            Coming to the dining room, Tracy said, “Look! There on the table!”
            On the center of the table sat a small blue cut glass vase with sprigs of fir and Oregon grape in it. The afternoon sunlight coming through the window lit it up brilliantly.

            There was a faint scent of cigar smoke in the room.

🌿

Just Something I Have Been Fiddling With A Little

 

Wilco Robotronics Inc.

            I’m a creature of the wheat fields of eastern Washington, spawned among the farmers and small shop owners of Watertown in the back of nowhere. I’d never been anywhere west of the Cascade Range in all of my life. The Rockies are a different matter.
            I went to college in Spokane. Not Gonzaga. EWU. Did that.
            Then I came home to Watertown. My name is Marchant Joneson, Mars to my friends, and I wanted out! Watertown doesn’t have a lot of useful occupation for single college graduates in physics and mechanics.
            I looked around online, and I found something that felt like a good fit. It was just about as far west as you can get in Washington, minus the peninsula. Wilco Robotronics Inc. in a little city on Puget Sound. I negotiated with them, back and forth and finally they said I should come on over and we’d talk some more in person. Mr. H.R. guy, Bob Davis, said not to show up looking like an LDS missionary. “It’s not that kind of a place,” he said. “Wear normal clothes.”
            Maybe he thought that I might because of where I came from.
            I left my suit in my old bedroom at home, kissed Mama goodbye, listened to several helpful lectures from the Old Man, packed up what I called mine into my old Accord and started driving westward. Visions of robots danced in my head. I mean, they literally danced!
            Wilco makes household robots. But not generic dopy looking robots. The idea is to not scare and maybe to entertain the children. Household help in the forms of cute animals, various well-known cartoon characters, like that. You could get Sponge Bob, or a bunny, or a motherly tabby. They prided themselves on avoiding the Uncanny Valley of the Japanese models. Wilco made cute robots.
            There were others. They made Batman, and various celebrities too.
            Now, a customer with enough money, but who was squeamish about AI, could order one which was merely online. They could control its basic functions with a smart phone, or they could talk to it. They could assign a new name to it; there were lots of other options, like hair color, language spoken, and all that jazz.
            For the enthusiast, with more money, there were AI creatures. I had seen them in video. To see a nimble and apparently self-aware figure of say, Hello Kitty, moving around doing home making chores, while chatting with the owner and performing the functions of a rational computer was, frankly, a little, or a lot, scary. But I was intrigued.
            Wilco even made a Sasquatch model. Not kidding. Not as big as the real deal, but darn good looking in an uber-hairy kind of way.
            I don’t know if you’ve guessed by now that I’m an AI guy. Love it or hate it, it’s the coming thing.
            Davis wanted somebody to make sure that the AI models were docile.
            It’s a big responsibility. You don’t want a Wilco Robotronics Sponge Bob running amok!
            Monday morning, having driven all across Washington state, I arrived around 8AM and parked on Wetmore Ave., right a across the street from Wilco headquarters. Colorful but dumb versions of several of their models adorned a walkway across Wetmore. Various others appeared in the windows along the street. The building had been a department store before the various malls were built, hence the big windows.
            I got out of the Honda, stretched, and yawned. I thought I better walk around a little in this strange, to me, little city and wake up, smell Port Gardner Bay, so to speak, before going into the building and finding Davis.
            Oh, you wonder how Wilco got around copyright? They made the heads big, but recognizable. Let Marvel, or whoever scream!

🤖

March 2, 1836. Texas Independence Day!

             Today is an important date in American history!
            On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico and became the Republic of Texas!
            

            First flag of the Republic of Texas.

            

            Washington on the Brazos, the birthplace of Texas. Replica of Independence Hall, where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed. 

            The inscription reads: "Here a Nation was born."

        

Texas, our Texas! All hail the mighty State!

Texas, our Texas! So wonderful so great!

Boldest and grandest, Withstanding ev'ry test;

O Empire wide and glorious, You stand supremely blest.

⭐

GOD Bless Texas!

In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lamb

 2026 Marches On

This appears to be a very mild lion.

May your month of March also be pleasant and agreeable!

It will be interesting to see the lamb when he appears.

Happy Suzday to all!

💛

Crash Retrieval Site, Milltown, WA

 

            Nobody saw a flash of light in the sky as far as I know. There were no strange unearthly noises. Little short humanish manikins didn’t run amok over the misty landscape of barely spring. Outside of this house, as far as I know, things have been rumbling along perfectly normally.
            Inside the house is a different matter.
            There have been crashes. There was a planter, one of those long ones on a window ledge on the inside back porch. It went down, baby! It went down hard. That was the first crash retrieval.
            Two little souls ran from the site, spurred on by the sheer glory of their accomplishment.
            Papers have been shoved off of tables. A pizza box was nosed open by Booker. You can’t really blame him.
            Anything that dangles has been climbed, including garments, while being worn. Many needle sharp toenails made short work of it, human flesh be darned. I didn’t really need that leg.
            Then there was the matter of the small pot of tulips placed strategically on the top of dad’s old piano. Mr. Baby was a natural suspect as he likes to hang out on the piano. But, no one actually saw him shove the tulips off. It’s a little hard to feature those two shorties getting up there, but I’m not absolutely sure they didn’t.
            We have a lot to look forward to. They’re just going to get bigger and sleeker, and brighter and wider, and altogether better!

🐈🐈

February 27, 2026. Open Thread

 🤍Introducing Methyl Ethyl Ketone.🤍

"Ethyl"

            She was a good old girl. 

            Ethyl came to us as a second choice. I had brought a gray female cat home from the local very fancy animal shelter. That kitty went under a piece of furniture and stayed there for three days. She did not want to be here. So, I scooped her up and took her back to the shelter. While I was there I met Ethyl, who wanted to come with me in the worst way.

            Whoever had her before had her declawed. You know, declawed cats are kind of crazy. She did not disappoint.

            Even without claws, she hunted. I saw her dispatch a mouse once. She had a way of pouncing them until they were done for.

            The photo was made by my Navigator. She took many many photos of all of the cats!

            She was a bonified nut, but we loved her.

😻