Whimper
I recall vividly that the last slide I shot was at Dave’s graduation. Little did I know or suspect film would so suddenly be gone in my life. I just simply never went back. I did not look back. And I have not shot a roll of film since my Nikon D70 arrived late after I got home from work. Who knew?!
Nothing of import was on that last roll of slides. The deck, my dog, Dave, the school play and some flowers numbered among the mundane subjects. Interesting to see. I had never really checked until now.
Last
Who knew? Last shot? I was looking back… There was a NYT article – psychiatry now has a dx for prolonged grieving. It’s more than a year… not quite there yet, by a long shot. But then again, it’s morbid, but, the last time I photographed Ray was… He was happy. He was happy right up to the end. He played. He was playing. It’s was humorous and joyful to watch him take pleasure in the simple act of sitting in a box. Boxes amused him. He loved to be in them. Colleen found him in this box. I shot the pic. Who knew?
Habit
Practice and habit: we called it (in medicine) – the usual order, the way of doing things, how things went in our household. And, of course there were always exceptions in the way our cats went about things. Ray liked to sleep in containers and on the rug in front of the TV. He did not sleep on the loom, until, he did. I find that a lot of the pictures I have of the twins were taken sequentially within moments with one twin here and the other in a different location. Telling which was which was still a trick, sometimes. Nutley? He loved to burrow under the rugs. Yeah, he would nestle right under them, sometimes a mere lump, bump, in the rug. These pics are in my catalog and will always make me smile.
Serendipitous
Fortuitous?! This is the great grandson of Charles Dickens, Gerald Dickens, who has returned to perform his one man show – The Christmas Carol. It is indeed daunting. He plays all the characters and within two hours performs the whole novel. It’s a special connection to the original author via his own progeny. No other family members are inclined to perform in such a manner. This is truly a special one of a kind, treat. We have seen it twice now. (Ha ha. I was sleepy thru the first half.) Colleen and I saw the movie in black and white in the basement of our elementary school. Her favorite is the George C Scott version. I have seen Bill Murray’s (not so good) movie. And so it goes. To see Dickens’ great grandson adroitly perform makes us feel like we are connected to the author himself. How grand! An aside: the guy in front of us – “hat head” – ha ha, Colleen admonishes me for being too observant of people around us. ,
Gotcha
I nearly neglected to photograph this behavior. Ray is a champ. But, in this case, Feather had her moment. Instinct? Feather has a beat up (stuffing gone) mouse toy. (No mice were actually harmed in the making of this post.) She was tossing it. I smiled and promptly missed a photo op. It’s hard to catch any of the cats at play. It occurs randomly and only for seconds. Great! I got her. She was so cooperative. She loves to play with that mouse. Why? Pure entertainment (for me)!
Pounce
Spice and Elle (below) are cats that “go ‘round and ‘round.” When Spice first came to live, Elle would hiss and terrorize her. They still do not get along like buddies. It’s always fun to watch one ambush the other. Well, at least I think it’s fascinating. No one ever seems to come to harm. Aren’t they just playing?
Spice was tiny enough to fit in the bathroom sink with her sister Feather. No longer, she fills the sink by herself and is considerably larger than Elle. Elle doesn’t seem to know she’s smaller. She makes up for it all in her attitude. No fear!
Ouch!
It’s gonna hurt! Don’t do it! That’s a rubber band. Lulu has it and like a train crash I was fascinated. No animals were injured in making these images. Pride? Maybe. It didn’t seem to hurt. It would not have helped to say, “NO!” She doesn’t understand. Maybe Arabic? But definitely not English. Actually, she’s smart. She knows things.
She looks at me just before she pounces Casi and then reconsiders. I’d tell her don’t play with rubber bands. And I cringed while she stretched it out. Smart cat. Dumb cat.
Cat Play
I’m on a roll. Ok, I give up. American slang can be pretty confusing. A “roll?” – like a biscuit? – something you eat? And why would I be on it? Yeah, it’s confusing. But just “roll” with it. Eh? It’s why I illustrate my point.
Another non sequitur, poor Casi has a scratch across her nose courtesy of Lulu. I just noticed it. She’s the beta to Lulu’s alpha. But she’s tough. Someone is gonna complain about my use of unlinked pronouns. Which “she?” You just gotta “roll” with it. Ha!
Slow news day, so go for the easy subject. Shoot your cat. Well, my cat, and, no! I did not shoot my cats. And you should not shoot your cats either. I got some grab shots. Yeah, grab! I guess it’s ‘cause I grabbed my camera and shot them. …with the camera! – not a gun! Oh please, maybe I’m a bit punchy? Or would that be punchie? Yes, my daughter will complain again. No cats were harmed making…. They play. They tease. They destroy.
My lovable cat likes to get on my desk and stretch out fully, legs extended, and pushes off all the desktop contents. That would be my external hard drives! Yikes! Fortunately, no hard drives were injured either. Casi is smart. She can smell the black string after she bit on it. She traced it to two different drawers. And she did not understand the concept but did manage to pry the drawers open. She opened my corner kitchen lazy Susan cabinet. She got inside. The trick is getting back out. That is not so easy. She got stuck in there! Meanwhile, she likes string. And I like to get pics. So we had a session. Everyone got something. Humor? If you are here for the jokes, it’s not me. I’m a very serious kind of guy… Shoot! If Casi had destroyed my external hard drive I would not be in good humor at all. Gee, English can be so ambiguous.
Sumo
Kids think up some crazy things. I looked up to see that they had taken sleeping bags and pillows to engage in a sumo match. It was a pretty funny sight. What can you say to children at play with imagination? It would take more than a paragraph to describe what a single slide can show you.
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