Snow?

I hear people in the office here talking about the weather for the upcoming weekend. Apparently the weatherman is predicting snow...or sleet...or very cold rain. Something. But if you were to listen to the tone of the various conversations, you'd think the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was upon us. You know the guys - Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence. Though in the case of Baltimoreans in the winter I think they are Snow, Bread, Milk and Toilet Paper. (My theory is that everyone stocks up on bread, milk and toilet paper so that if the snow doesn't actually appear, they can mix up a gloppy white paste, throw that all over their driveways and have something to complain about.)

Got five or six more rows done on the Mystery Stole today at lunch. Slow progress, but progress none the less.

So here’s a little cat story.

We have the two cats (who have shown up here on the blog with some frequency). Gizmo, the gray, is 13…and not the brightest crayon in the box. Sweet but just a little dim. Duncan, the black and white (Mr. Pointy Sticks wanted to name him Two Tone), is 4, still an energetic youngster and, I would say, smarter than Giz. (He can and will open cupboards in search of food and catnip. He hasn’t figured out drawers yet.)

Gizmo tolerates Duncan for the most part without being terribly friendly. Duncan seems to like washing Giz (I wonder what that means as far as their hierarchy goes?) though he will sometimes get too enthusiastic and start chewing on Giz’s ears, which earns him a swat. And occasionally I’ll notice that Giz has an oddly rumpled spot on his side and realize that Duncan has carefully been styling in cowlicks.

Giz likes, as I noted yesterday, to curl up next to my computer and spend the evening there, close to me, snoozing and get skritches now and then. Duncan will, usually, decide to curl up on top of the bookcase near by.

But lately, perhaps because it’s cooler in the house, Duncan is wedging himself in next to Giz and curling up with him. This peeves Gizmo no end. So the other evening, Duncan came into the room and jumped up next to a sleeping Giz and began settling in. Giz woke up and glared at Duncan, looked at me, glared at Duncan…and Duncan ignored him completely. Duncan finally settled down, whereupon Gizmo stood up, stretched, did that little turn-three-times-before-lying-down bit and flopped back down…on top of Duncan’s rump. Then it was Duncan’s turn to wake up, glare at Giz, look at me, glare at Giz…and then fall back to sleep. You had to be there, I guess, but I can tell you, I was laughing.

Currently Reading

I finished the Jane Gardam book of short stories. I have a second one but I think I’ll save that one for a bit. Her stories are delightful…astringent and clear, like a good lemon sorbet.
Now I’ve picked up When The Devil Holds The Candle, an Inspector Sejer mystery by Karin Fossum. Set in a smallish town in Norway, this one is building up the tension nicely.