April 2019 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

My furry girls

Diane (a black & white cat), Arwen (a white & black cat), and June (a tortoiseshell cat) — Diane, Arwen, and June

I mention my cats in passing frequently, so I thought I’d dedicate a little more space to them this once. They do their best to keep my life interesting, each in their own way. This is a rare photo of all three of them together. It would have been convenient if they’d arranged themselves by age for the purpose of this post, but that wouldn’t be particularly cat-like.

Starting from the left, Diane is the oldest. She was adopted in 2009 when we suddenly found ourselves as a one-cat house, and that cat, Mungojerrie, was making it quite clear that it wasn’t acceptable. As I recall, he was actively looking for companions in the middle of the night, at volume that reminded us that our black cat was part Siamese. We stopped at a local pet store – the general pet stores near us partner with shelters in the area – and Diane called out for our attention. I do mean that literally, she meowed at us as from her enclosure. It wasn’t long before she and Mungo were happily curled up together. She is the largest cat in the house, mainly noticeable when she decides to walk on me. Twelve pounds isn’t a lot to pick up; it’s fairly significant when distributed across a paw or two when you’re lying in bed. Fortunately, she usually prefers to lay beside me.

In the middle is Arwen, our toe-biting, counter-climbing kitten. (Technically, at almost two, she’s no longer a kitten. But I don’t think she’s realized that.) Diane still hisses at her sometimes, which makes this photo all the rarer – Arwen had to wait until Diane was settled before coming near her on the sofa. Arwen attacks toes (at least, mine) a little less than when she first moved in, but climbs on everything and anything, especially if she thinks there’s food available. Because of her, my kitchen cabinets now have child locks, and she ends up banished to a bedroom while we’re eating.

Delusional cat

trying to steal from my plate.

She’s locked up again.

When I serve them canned food, it’s a constant battle of keeping her off the counter while I scoop it into their bowls. Diane assists me sometimes, poised with one paw in the air, ready to swat at Arwen when I push her off the counter. Arwen makes up for it by curling up on my arm at night and purring me to sleep.

The rightmost cat is June, the mom cat of the family. When we adopted her, she was just over a year, and two of her kittens were available for adoption as well. She will bathe any other cat that’s available, and any people who let her. (No, thank you!) She used to be amazingly skittish, bolting whenever a cabinet closed too loudly or somebody went in or out of the house. She rarely flees now, though she is still the best at “it’s time for the vet hide-and-seek”. On any given day, she curls up with one of the other cats, waking up occasionally to bathe them. On cold nights, she likes sleeping under the covers, though she never stays the whole night. She doubles as an alarm clock, making sure I’m awake to feed them breakfast at an unreasonable hour.

Ethics and home ownership

When you buy a home, at least in this country, some assumptions are made by the bank and your neighbors, and to some extent, by yourself. Your neighbors assume you will maintain the property, particularly the visible bits, in a way that will maintain or increase the value of the home. In some areas, this is enforceable – the city will warn you if you fail at certain maintenance work, such as keeping your lawn and weeds below a specified height, or unrepaired parts of the exterior that are unsightly. More so if your house is in a HomeOwners Assocation (HOA); their rules are stricter.

I don’t have a problem with that concept, it seems a fair part of homeownership and belonging to a neighborhood. I managed to avoid buying a house with an HOA, though I did look at a couple when I was house-hunting. (That was not the deciding factor.) The exterior maintenance I’ve done has really been for my own comfort – the big projects have been improving the ventilation to the attic, adding insulation, and replacing the windows. One of my long term projects is to replace the siding on the house. The current siding is an older style which is no longer produced, so it needs to be fully replaced when it goes.

And therein, we come to the discussion of ethics. Last summer, a hail storm hit the area fairly hard. A good chunk of the neighborhood replaced roofing, siding, or both, as a result of the storm. In the first week after the storm, I had over a dozen companies stop by with business details, offering to inspect both my roof and siding for damage. One was the company that installed my soffits, gutters, and attic insulation; I let them check for damage. After a cursory walk around the house, they reported that they found no new damage.

Here were are, nine months after the incident, and I’m still getting the occasional drive-by visit from companies that want my insurance’s business of repairing the roofing and siding. This last one bugged me. Their flyers – pre-printed – said “YOUR ALUMINUM SIDING and/or ROOF HAVE HAIL DAMAGE! YOUR INSURANCE WILL PAY US TO REPLACE IT WITH BRAND NEW VINYL SIDING!!”. The flyer ends with (still in all caps, and really, I have limits to how much of that I want to see) “You’ve been paying insurance your whole life, now is the time to finally get something back!!” The guy at the door reinforced this – he told me that if he could find even one section that appeared to be damaged from the storm, the insurance would pay to replace all of it.

I’m all for using insurance when something happens that requires it. Health insurance covered the birth of a child and my appendectomy, both of which would have been painfully expensive without insurance. My car insurance came through for me after my accident. But I’m not going to abuse my insurance simply because I want new siding, knowing that there wasn’t significant damage to the siding from that particular storm. I’m also not going to pick a company that reminds me of ambulance chasers to do the work.

Some movie thoughts

I’ve seen a few distinctive movies recently and thought I’d talk about a couple of them. I’ll go light on spoilers, since one of them is still in theaters.

Dragon Blade – This historical fiction piece about a Roman army invading China’s Silk Road pairs up Jackie Chan and John Cusack against a corrupt Roman leader. Obviously, a movie with Jackie Chan has some great fight scenes, including some duels and larger battles. The dialogue was about what you’d expect from an action movie… not memorable, but not too corny, and while the outcome was predictable, plot points within the movie came as a surprise.

Tag – This movie about adults playing a 30-year game of tag is rated R for a reason… there are significant portions of dialogue you do not want to explain to a child. Once you get past that, it’s a fun romp about a group of adults that set aside one month a year to sneak up on their friends – in other cities – for an extended game of tag, and the one friend they’ve never managed to tag.

Shazam! – Just out in theaters, this is a fun DC movie, now that they’ve realized they can sell something other than mopey Superman and Batman flicks. Shazam! goes beyond the goofy moments in Aquaman to entertain viewers while relaying a solid message similar to Lilo & Stitch or Mrs. Doubtfire about family being what we make of it. There are some great moments as Billy explores his powers and discovers the importance of using them wisely. My biggest question about the movie, however, was why “Shazam,” composed of a mix of Jewish, Greek, and Roman strengths, is responsible for containing the seven deadly sins from Christianity.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women – This is a fabulous not for kids movie exploring the origins behind Wonder Woman. Professor Marston, addressing criticism of Wonder Woman, explains the psychology that the comic book is supposed to be teaching, exploring the DISC assessment with the censors who were interrogating him. The movie delves into the polyamorous relationship between Professor Marston, his wife Elizabeth, and their student and girlfriend, Olive, and the difficulties of raising a non-traditional family in the pre-World War 2 era.

Signs of spring continue

I’m thoroughly enjoying the warmer weather and the time I get to spend outside as a result. It’s not doing much for my Pokémon Go tendencies – there’s so much work to do in the garden, I don’t have time to walk to the nearby gyms and stops. Once everything is planted and at a maintenance level for the season, I’m sure I’ll get more walking in.

That said, I’ve continued mulching all around the garden, both as a weed suppressant and because it looks nice. I’m expecting to have my strawberry plants in the ground by the end of the week, with all of the pavers set so I can reach every part of the garden bed. Most of last year’s mint has been trimmed back, and the dried ends pulled off the chives to see (and taste) the new growth in the spring. I have a couple more plant remnants to pull out before I can start putting seeds in the ground for the early plantings, like salad greens.

The yard has been brimming with wildlife as the robins and other birds return. It’s hard to keep the bird feeders filled, not only because the neighborhood squirrels keep visiting, but also the abundance of birds that perch in the nearby trees. The squirrels do tend to knock all the seed onto the ground, which makes it more accessible to the gathered birds.

Squirrel on a hanging bird feeder — This squirrel is a regular visitor

Given the variable weather in Chicagoland, I’m never quite sure when the first grilling of the season will be. I’m pleased to say that I lit of the grill already… on the last day of March. Well, technically, I cooked on it; Cassandra lit it. I’m looking forward to continued grilling throughout the warm months.