Friday cat blogging on Saturday

This is the retreat I had built for the cats in the garage. There are two kitty doors but I don't know if either has ever been used. They come and go under the big door I leave up by 8 or so inches. There are plenty of places for a feline to find a burrow - a huge doggie pillow, a couple of towers, the box with the new green blanket and a blanket on cardboard on the floor which Tim was in a couple of days ago. The water dish is heated.

If you think it looks like bloody footprints, you are correct. Dudie still has the growth on one paw which gets bloody occasionally. I hope to catch him and get him to the vet soon. He hasn't been around for a couple of days. Don't know if he found a woman or another place to roost for awhile. Reminder to me - scrub the carrier.

Meanwhile Tim is in the foam in the canoe this morning. I think I will double it over so she can get underneath like she did with the old pad until it deteriorated into bits.

Friday cat blogging

PuddyTat liked her green blanket so much that I decided to get them for all the boxes. At $4 each, it wasn't a huge expense. Jellico seems happy to have one in his larger box originally created to house both Tommie and PuddyTat.

I partially blocked off and covered the space above the windowsill so Little One had a place when Jellico was in the smaller box by the window. Looks like Little One likes his windowsill tho I suspect he will move to the roomier, now empty box eventually.

Now I need to hook up the electric so the water isn't frozen in the morning.

In case you are wondering about the cardboard on top of the boxes - it is to keep the cats and other critters off the boxes. Hopefully.

Tim seems to be wrapping herself in a blanket on the floor of the garage's cathouse these days. Dudie has usually stayed in a box on the shelf there. I gave him a blanket too. Guess I should photo that too, eh?

Friday shuffle

1. Hosa Dyna Polka
2. In the Rain - The Dramatics
3. Innamorata - Jerry Vale
4. Satie: Prélude #3, "Prélude Du Nazaréen #1 - Riri Shimada
5. Shop Around - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
6. Lilies in the Moonlight
7. Beethoven: Mass in C, Agnus Dei - Shaw/Atlanta
8. Singing the Blues - Guy Mitchell
9. Make Me Smile - Chicago
10. Talk Talk - The Music Machine

I have no idea who the polka bands are so I'm just choosing a video so you can hear the happy music I love. Don't pay any attention to the performance, please! Most are excruciating in one way or another.

Friday cat blogging on Thursday

I think territorial decisions have been made. Each cat in the same place as yesterday. (See below)

Friday cat blogging on Wednesday

Dude and Little One enjoyed a brief bit of sunbathing.

If Tommie weren't so obviously male...

one would think he is pregnant.

Meanwhile the weather seems to be deteriorating and several of the felines have decided they want to stay on the cathouse roof. There was serious contention for the big box. I added a box but that only caused more struggles. So I added a third box and lined all of them up, nicely squeezed in so neither the wind nor the wilder critters should dislodge them. Then I covered the space between the boxes and the window making yet another small space. The three characters are Little One, Jellico and PuddyTat.

The Uganda situation and more

A Ugandan politician who is a member of The Family has proposed legislation in Uganda which would send LGBT people, those who associate with them, even those who don't turn them in to prison and possibly death. Research has traced the incitement of hatred against LGBTs in Africa to religious and political leaders in the US. Sometimes it is difficult to love and pray for those who seem to have no idea how to read the Gospels. The thought that people who call themselves "Christian" would support any legislation which discriminates against other people who do no harm to society or themselves is repulsive, even unimaginable. If there were the hell so often preached about, the preachers who exclude any of Godde's creation will be the primary occupants. I wish their purpose on earth weren't making life hell for others.

Meanwhile I'm tired of those who condemn "homosexual behavior". It sounds to me like marriage is for sex which results in pregnancy. Men (mostly) keep clamoring about the Biblical injunctions against men lying with a man as with a woman. For them it is all about sex. Does anyone marry for love? They shouldn't be allowed according to these men-who-would-play-God. I wonder if they have sex at every opportunity as that is the only thing they seem to think is a legitimate reason to marriage. For those (mostly) males, homosexuality is all about anal sex. Perhaps they fear it because they might find it enjoyable? Why all the concentration on sex and none on relationships?

If two people love each other enough to want and promise to spend the rest of their lives together, shouldn't they be allowed to do that with all the rights and privileges that legal unions have? Many male-female combinations have no kids in their futures for a variety of reasons yet they aren't subjected to public voting on whether or not they should be allowed to marry.

Sometimes it is difficult to be associated with a "church". Get a clue, haters of the world. Get your minds out of the darkness of the gutter of sexual obsession. Get rid of hell. Learn to love.

Reading and watching:
Religion Dispatches here and here
Rachel Maddow here
Politics Daily here.

Friday cat blogging

If you really need to see a cat on Friday, check out Simon.

Friday shuffle

1. A Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum
2. Lucky Man - Emerson, Lake and Palmer
3. I Am Not a Whore - LMFAO - you'll have to look this up yourself
4. Land of 1000 Dances - Cannibal & the Headhunters
5. Golden Ring - Dry Branch Fire Squad
6. 98.6 - Keith
7. One Bad Apple - The Osmonds
8. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross
9. Twilight Time - The Platters
10. Make Me Smile - Chicago
Can you tell I added some to my collection?

Friday dog blogging

No cats this Thanksgiving. This is Trinka. She was a little apprehensive to meet me.

She is a loooooooonnnng dachshund.

We wore her out.

Puritans...

Hat tip to Padre Mickey

Things for which I am thankful

In no particular order and far from complete...

Family - biological and via marriage, church, school, internet, activities, et al. All friends are part of my family.

Music - especially a voice which has been tolerated by choir directors all my life

Faith - how else could I deal with my own stupidity, the foibles of others, the loss of loved ones and the everyday challenges of life

Laughter - a gift which allows me to recognize the absurdities in life and not get hopeless and depressed

The internet - so many new friends, so much to learn, such an easy way to keep in touch with loved ones

Pets - especially the "feral" felines who now live here and keep me hustling to shelter and feed them

RIP Roseann Allen-Matthews

Roseann went peacefully without pain to the other side Saturday night after a valiant fight for life. She had to wait too long for a kidney transplant. Many of us have traveled the long journey to this place and marveled at her determination, endurance and, in the end, amazing grace. Our prayers are with Gary and those who now have a huge hole in our lives. I suspect she would tell us to get over it and get on with life.

Presumption

RC Bishop Tobin has denied the eucharist to Patrick Kennedy because Kennedy respects the rights of others to choose abortion as the best solution to a nasty problem. As others have asked and so do I, what right does anyone have to deny access to the eucharist? The invitation is from Jesus, not some clergy type who thinks he, especially a he, can pick and choose who may sit at the table and share the meal. Clericalism drives me nuts and this is clericalism at its worst tho not the only "worst" possible. How anyone can presume to judge another unworthy to accept Jesus's invitation is beyond my understanding of the Gospel message. But then, I seem to misunderstand much according to certain others.

A day to match my mood

These are color photographs, in case you were wondering.

Friday cat blogging on Saturday

There are remnants of a feathered creature on the cathouse roof. This is a first. Nobody has ever carried a protein supplement up there. I suspect the murderer is in the photo. Once he moved I could see lots of tiny feathers on the towel. I don't know who taught Little One to hunt but it might have been PuddyTat as I often see him in her nest under the feeders.

Friday shuffle on Saturday

1. Stoned Love - The Supremes
2. One Promise Too Late - Reba McEntire
3. Baby, I'm Yours - Barbara Lewis
4. I Remember You - Cal Tjader
5. Skylark - Scott Hamilton
6. arr. Sametz: Shenandoah - Princeton Singers
7. Barnwell: No Mirrors in my Nana's House - Bach Choir of Pittsburgh
8. Stoned Soul Picnic - The 5th Dimension
9. Share the Land - Guess Who
10. The Irish Ballad - Tom Lehrer

Why?

The New York Times featured an article on the food bank service All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago provides every Tuesday night. This is the last paragraph in the article:

Oh, the couple across the street just put the Abbott House on the block for $2.3 million. Buy it and the porch will provide a box seat view of our complex economy. And, if so inclined, consider walking into a place like All Saints and keeping fellow citizens from drowning.

Apparently someone read the article and thought it would be a good idea to actually try to drown them out of the neighborhood. They broke a stained glass window, fed a hose thru the window and flooded the nave. I seriously doubt that any of the Tuesday night people would have ever considered doing that.

It's hard to pray for the person who did this and be charitable.

Bland funeral, St Paul's, Weston, WV

A rather grey, rainy day in Weston, WV to send George Bland home to Godde.

A piper accompanied the casket and pall bearers.

Ann read the first lesson and led the psalm.

Janis read the second lesson.

St Paul's is a pleasant, rather simply decorated church.

The painting on the right and the Stations of the Cross were all created by George and donated to the church.

I tried to capture the incense but it is far too blurry to blog. It was a lovely mostly Rite I service - some of us weren't always looking at the BCP. I suspect George smiled.

Choices - corrected - and made

Thursday 19 November 2009

Weston, WV - George Bland, Janis's father - service 2:00 pm, visiting Wednesday 6:00 to 8:00 pm - funeral home had it wrong
Utica, NY - Jim Jensen, Kathy's husband - visiting 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, service 7:00 pm.

I've done some pretty impressive traveling lately but this is impossible.

Grump.

I think I like the idea of visiting hours after the funeral however.

Over the years we have known each other on the internet from the Anglican/Episcopal board on beliefnet.com thru the blogs and Facebook, Janis and I have become friends, sharing our lives usually via Instant Messaging and several times in person. I would feel like I was avoiding family if I didn't attend her dad's funeral. So I will be going to Weston, WV Thursday. And praying for the Jensen family all the way.