January 19, 2018
Dear Everyone:
Just to prove that I’m feeling fine, I ventured to
Costco earlier this
week.
I had made a point of making sure that I was fully stocked up on items
that I generally get at Costco, so as to be able to avoid the entire
place between
Thanksgiving and
New Year’s.
No one in their right mind goes to Costco during the
Holiday Shopping Season.
It is, quite literally, a
madhouse.
In fact, I was at one of the Big Office Supply Warehouse Stores, which
happens to be across the street from Costco, a few weeks before
Christmas.
At the time, I only sort-of noticed a lot of cars parked along a
side street. Only when I was
leaving did I realize that these cars belonged to people who were
shopping at Costco and, literally, couldn’t find parking anywhere else.
I can’t quite imagine sprinting across four lanes of traffic with a
fully-loaded shopping cart.
Nor would I want to.
Now that the Holidays are safely past us, I went in and found a parking
place only three lanes away from the main entrance.
Picked up what I needed, paid, and made my escape with minimal
fuss. Everything is back to
normal.
In other news…
“Jeannie” is currently
vacationing in
Florida with “Alice”.
(“Alice” and “Kelly” have a
timeshare that
they generally use in January, also after the frantic Holidays.)
Consequently, I have two small, furry houseguests:
Beatrice and Benedict.
They moved in with me last Friday; and “Jeannie” left for Florida
Saturday morning.
Beatrice is at least part
Maine Coon, which
is “Jeannie’s” favorite species of cat.
Benedict is your basic slightly-striped gray with medium length
hair. While Beatrice is a
serene young lady, Benedict is still a rambunctious teenager, charging
around, getting into everything and turning just about anything into a
cat toy.
He likes to start “fights” with Beatrice; although, to be fair, she
starts nearly as many as he does.
Benny keeps trying to establish his male dominance; but he’s
hampered by the fact that Beatrice is at least twice his size.
Like your typical “bossy older sister”, first, she cleans his
clock, then she washes his face.
They wrestle with each other, only occasionally rocking a small table,
causing the glass of
Diet Coke on top to become airborne.
Then they both look at me with the same expression:
“I didn’t do that.”
At first, they preferred to sleep on my bed, Benny at the top and Bea at
the foot. But then I
realized that when I press the “Flat” button on my bed, I wouldn’t want
to flatten any little kitties that might have gone exploring.
So I make sure they’re outside the bedroom when I settle down for
the night.
As a result, they sprawl across as much of the floor in the hallway as
possible so as to make sure that I can’t get past them to the kitchen
without their knowing about it.
In fact, as soon as they hear the alarm clock, or the morning
news on the TV come on, Benny starts crying to remind me that they are
waiting for their breakfast.
We have settled into a nice routine and neither one of them has made a
serious attempt to escape into the Great Outdoors.
“Jeannie” comes home on Monday.
In the meantime, Beatrice likes to nap on my chair in front of
the computer; and Benny has decided that he is a lap kitty.
Especially if it means he can chew on the yarn as I try to
crochet.
Love, as always,
Pete
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