TALES AND TAILS

Flowing

  Creeks and waterways are beginning to resemble their old selves again. The vaunted El Nino has been producing rain in California, including on the drought stricken Central Coast.

 Driving in the rain in California is akin to driving in snow or on ice elsewhere. Since rain is about the only diversion from sunshine and blue skies in most of California, rain is a big story.

    But after four years of drought, every drop is a cause celeb.

   Here on the Central Coast, half way between LA and San Francisco, it looks as though we are in for a week of rain, with a few hours between cells that allow the ground to soak it up.

   Back in Indiana we never gave much thought to rain, unless it was ruining a picnic, ball game, wedding or etc. due in large part to the fact there is so much rain. Here it is a seasonal oddity and some people and most animals are frightened by it. Really!

THE CATS TALE

   So we begin with the end, before the tail, or tale.

 Joy, on the left and Hemingway are young enough to have missed what a California Central Coast winter is like. All they know is the abnormally warm and dry winters of the past couple of years. So this year, cooler temperatures and rain have them in a dither.
  Because of allergies, they spend their time on the deck and porch and in the garden on the hill. They sleep in the garage.

     To help them through their first real winter and recognizing their love for boxes, Lana made a Cat Condo. They've taken to it. The connecting "door" allows cuddling.

   Hemingway was perturbed I disturbed his nap for a photo op.

   Nighty night!

   See you down the trail.

CATS IN BOX, PENTATONIX, ARTS BUILDING MEMORIES & A BEACH WARM UP-THE WEEKENDER

THIS IS MORE THAN CURIOSITY

    Hemingway and Joy love boxes. A container from a trip to our "big box" store was temporarily put in the garage, pending it's filling with Christmas lights.  We didn't move quickly enough.These two rascals decided to encamp there, together! Put a box in the garage and immediately a curious cat is inspecting it from the inside.

DAYS OF MEMORY

    Our friend Lew sent along a summer scene of the Arts Building Terrace at Ball State University. It's a place of special significance to Lana and me.  Her art classes were in this hall as were my political science courses. I addressed a

throng of students who filled the lawn at an early Earth Day celebration and spoke to another crowd while running as a class officer candidate.  

    This was also a green that filled with sun and nap takers, lunch breakers, and romance makers.  It is also a gorgeous building and sits as a boundary to what was once the center of the campus. Could it really have been that long ago?!

                             A PARTING MELODY

   Charles Dickens was right.  Regardless of faith or belief, we should keep Christmas in our heart all year.  Here's a unique take on a seasonal classic.  Enjoy

Cheers!
A TRIP TO SHAMEL BEACH

    As many of you suffer through winter's icy blast, we offer

a few moments of light and sea from California's central coast at Cambria's Shamel Park beach.

   Hope this warmed you a bit and perhaps evoked memories of land without snow and ice.

    See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-Just Fun

CAN YOUR IPAD DO THIS?

  This link came from my friend Janos. Before the week was over, several others sent it to me as well. 

   What a great pitch man eh? You don't even need to understand what he's saying.

CAT MOMENTS

    As Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot just by watchin'."

      So it is with me and our cats, and so it might be for them.

Oh, he's got that camera out again.

Hurry up and take the shot. I want to got back to sleep.

 Why are you looking down here? I didn't think you could see me.

 Hmmm

Enough already!

This smells good. Feels good too.

You woke me up for that?

  Have a great weekend.  See you down the trail.

AND THE CATS ARE UNARMED

KILLER BEASTS?

     Natalie Angier of the New York Times reports that cats, our domesticated pets and their feral cousins, kill 2.4 Billion birds a year.  They also kill 12.3 Billion mammals, like chipmunks voles and gophers.  At least I hope they are getting the gophers, but that's another issue.

     Well, our three are among that killing squad, though they look like a civil group here.  Luke, front and center, is the Alpha and is true to his tiger/leopard ancestry. Little sister joy with the pink heart is following her tiger DNA coding as well.  She is tenacious for such a cute little thing.

Hemingway, the orange polydactyl doesn't seem to be the hunter type. He's more interested in napping, playing and sitting on a lap.  We haven't seen him express much curiosity in hunting, so maybe he'll help lower the curve. Can't get a bird from a lap, or in a nap.

A DAY WITH A WEIRD VIBE

     The San Luis Obispo Tribune's "Flashback" listing of this day in history was almost enough to send me back under the covers.  
    January 30th has been besmirched by human endeavors.  Consider the history:

-1933 Adolph Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

-1649 King Charles I is beheaded

-1948 Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated
-1962 Two of the Flying Wallendas hire wire act die in an accident during a performance in Detroit
-1964 Ranger 6 is launched. It crashes on moon but fails to send back images
-1968 The Tet Offensive begins in the Viet Nam war
-1972 "Bloody Sunday"-13 Catholic civil rights marchers are shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland
-1973 KISS performs its first show
     This is also the birthday of Dick Cheney. But it too is the day that brought us Boris Spassky, Gene Hackman, Vanessa Redgrave, Phil Collins and Christian Bale. On reflection, that is a group of intense folk.

MOUNTAIN WAVES

 Looking toward the Pacific from Highway 46 between Paso Robles and Cambria 

      So we end this brutal post with something soothing. As the old sarge used to say on Hill Street Blues, "Be careful out there!"

       See you down the trail.    

LETTERMAN AND OPRAH & THE HIGH VALLEY

LOOKING  UP

     If you are not a "cat person" you may think those of us who are kept by cats are a bit silly. I was taken by the expression of our poly dactyl, Hemingway. (Ernest Hemingway's cats at Key West had six toes.  Our little guy has six toes on each paw.) 

     A feral kitten, dropped by his mother as she ferried her litter over a fence, he was rescued by a Paso Robles woman.  He's the first of his line to be "domesticated." He is a link between wild DNA and being a pet. He seems perpetually curious and maybe a little bewildered. He's got an easy going personality with his greatest interests being eating and napping. He's learning quickly isn't he?

NOT SO STUPID HUMAN TRICKS

    Our old college friend was back at our Alma Mater and making news.  David Letterman's interview with Oprah created lots of interest.

Link to a CBS video of the chat here.

    In so many important ways, Dave and Oprah are people

to look up to.  

GEOGRAPHY THAT BLOWS YOUR MIND

   An easy first impression of these frames is that the valley and lake are a low altitude flatness surrounded by the distant peaks which surround and frame the images.

   Partially correct. The valley and the lake are at 7,000 to 8,000 feet.  This is the northern edge of the Owen Valley and Mono Lake which nestle, if such a massive space can indeed nestle, in the Sierra Nevada high country, bounded by the Sierra and the Excelsior mountains in Nevada to the east.  

     The peaks of the Excelsior range between 7 and 13 thousand. The Sierra Nevada peaks are at 13 and 14 thousand.  

      As the settlers trekked west they climbed to reach the big valley, only to face the more rugged eastern slope of the Sierra. Beyond that lay the central valley. 

      What an extraordinary inner drive to lift and buoy the spirit to overcome the sheer struggle.  

      See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-MAGIC

HOW DID HE DO THAT?

     Were you too a sucker for a magic show? Amateur or big production professional-it didn't matter.  Even after buying magic tricks at a local store I was always fascinated by the tricks.

      The Weekender provides this video and asks, how did he do it?

      And then it seems that Luke, Hemingway and little sister Joy are working on a variation of "how many clowns can you get in a car?"

Three cats in the Jade plant.

Perfect for your cat nap?

Have a good weekend.

See you down the trail.