The Not so Daily Privateer

Katey and Garrett Got Married!

Naturally...there were fireworks that day...

On April 20, 2007, at the Courthouse.  Here in beautiful sunny SoCal, in the very favorite city of my very favorite married couple:

This isn't actually Katey and Garrett, but it is our own lovely beach.  Don't feel bad you weren't invited.  The day dawned early and I wondered what was afoot.  Megan was out of bed awfully early and dressed nicely.  I can't remember what she told me she was up to.  Don't feel bad you weren't invited, only Megan and Michelle were.  They wouldn't let Izzy into the courthouse.

The entire day was actually The Wedding, if you ask me.  I think the Ceremony really began at the lovely meadow shown above, also in our Backyard (Log Meadow, Sequoia).

Here are Katey and Garrett walking down the aisle (Garret is in front, click to see better):

Here's Megan,  as the Maid of Honor.  She sort of went with a Blues Bros theme.  Note the wife-beater.  This is 2007, you know.   I think this picture is clickable.    

That's of course not what Megan wore on the day of the actual Wedding.  On the day of the actual Wedding, V. and I were supposed to meet Katey and Garrett at Disneyland.

Usually, Katey is the first to arrive on any trip to Disneyland.  I knew something was up...

We get to Disneyland and Katey and Garrett are "still on the freeway."  Then, we get a phone call to meet them in New Orleans Square, in the beautiful little plaza near the train station, where the telegraph still sends out the opening day speech that Walt gave - one of Katey's favorite places.

That's Walt, on opening day, walking Katey down the aisle.

So, we go over to the Plaza and Katey says, "Guess what we did this morning?"  And we say, "What?"  And she and Garrett say, "WE GOT MARRIED!"  And we laughed and I cried a little and we hugged and it was something I'll never forget, standing there in that little cozy plaza, outside the Haunted Mansion.  I never realized how many wedding themes there are at Disneyland:  the Haunted Mansion has lots of Bride things in it.

Then, The Ceremony continued to the part where there was a kiss. 

            

 

I don't think I've seen a happier couple on their wedding day.  I have a little .avi file that I made somehow with my camera without intending to, and you see the two of them beaming and Katey saying she misses Izzy, I think.  Poor Izzy, didn't get to go.  I was dressed as a pirate, as usual, and it was a Good Luck Day, the Handsome Pirate tossed me some swag and I still have it.  I'll try to post that .avi file here when I figure out more how to blog.

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And Katey and Garrett were Mr. and Mrs. Moser.

They got ready to start living Happily Ever After.

Within 24 hours, Katey had changed her name on every document, I believe.

Valentine's Day

You can see more of Stephen's cartoons.  And there's lots more great Daily Cartoons on that site.  If you click on the cartoon you should see a bigger version of it, if you're getting blurry-eyed like me.

I am getting ready for Valentine's Day really early, because I usually procrastinate about it. 

In China, they have a holiday that's like our Valentine's Day.  They call it The Festival to Plead for Skills.

Rainy Day: My Theory of Global Cat Consciousness

Raining hard here right now.  V. wisely got his bike under cover days ago.  Kea doesn't remember rain, so she's convinced that V. has turned on all the sprinklers and has forgotten to leave a patch of yard dry.  Well, she's realized differently in the past hour, because it's a cloudburst.  She doesn't like getting her paws wet.  Jelly and Lady both know about rain.  Lady would prefer to conduct her toilette indoors at this time, so must be supervised.  Jelly just looks bummed.

But Cali and Nesta are cats, and they are experts at all manner of natural events.  Nesta has been boxing regularly with a cat from down the street, and when it's raining, their matches are called off.  It's very scary to hear them go at each other, like two tiny lions.  Nesta is by far the smallest cat in the neighborhood, but she is very smart and so far, wins all her fights.  She doesn't go into their territory, she waits in our abundant foliage until another cat has the audacity to venture in, and then she pounces.  After she wins, she comes inside, sits by V's feet on the recliner-porch, or, more likely, on top of the couch itself, between us, licking her paws and prettifying herself post-fight.

Non-human animals have histories and cultures of course.  All thinking people can see that individual cats and dogs have personalities, just like humans do.  Groups of cats, like the group of semi-feral cats that Nesta comes from, have their own little histories, and the larger groups, like the domesticated cats (Felis silvestris catus) have their cultures and histories too.

Recently, the cats of the world have been vibing on a different wavelength. Why? Well, for one thing, they've been watching us closely for generations, living alongside of us - and they're very smart and adaptable. I'm not sure how adaptable most humans are. Cats usually are, though..  Little cats have their own way of dealing with us, but the big cats have a different philosophy towards humans.  In general, big cats will consider eating a human, and have been.  Mountain lion attacks are up, one mountain lion pulled a full grown man (slightly built though) off his mountain bike in the Santa Monica mountains, killed him and ate part of him.  In Africa, lion attacks are up.  In India, formerly domesticated cats are running amock.  I think the cats transmit their views on humans to each other, and if you're going to adopt a cat, you should take that into consideration.

Cats are lovely creatures, if you didn't see the video about Christian the Lion from my post a couple of days ago, it's still up there (under Nature).  They are also very helpful.  I know it's mean, but I don't like rats and, although I like field mice and gophers, I don't want them right under my feet, if you know what I mean.  In this YouTube video, just below, you get a good idea of what it must have been like for little teensy monkeys back in the day when they had to contend with really big cats on the savannah - say, about 28 million years ago. 

This is a cat who lives in Arizona, where scorpions are increasing in numbers.  That would be because few other creatures are as well adapted to higher temperatures, little foliage, wild variations in humidity, and the food of death...as the scorpion, the Alacron (maybe it's Alacran - if you can tell me anything about the derivation of that word, please do).  Scorpions are very cool, when they're not in your shoes or your house - this cat thinks so too:

Anyways, the cats all over the world are just like us. And some cats are more like me than some humans are. Cats themselves know a lot about being cats, what's good for cats, and how to deal with planetary forces, good or ill. Humans may not be as smart.

I Love the American West Opus 1

This is where I live.  On a sunny day.

My dad, who will be 90 in December, says that never in all his days in California has it ever been as hot as it was this year. He's a Bush supporter, and although he's registered Democrat, he votes Republican. He hasn't been much of a believer in global warming. But, he's getting convinced.  Mom and Dad did well in the heat, though, they're troopers.  They kept their fan going all the time, and Dad checked his in-the-shade-properly-installed thermometer frequently.  It was 105 degrees on two subsequent days.  That's the hottest it's ever been where they live - about 15 miles from the actual coast.  They're lucky, they live up a little canyon, so the sun is blocked after about 5:45 p.m.

Thing is, here in lovely coastal SoCal, the weather hasn't changed that much. It's about the same temperature where I live (about 5 miles from the actual shore), but it's about 4 degrees warmer than usual (yearly average) where Dad lives. And in Central California, I'm told it is about 6 degrees warmer than it was 30 years ago (annual average again). So, depending on where you live, the weather might be pretty good. It rained here today.

No one knows how to predict the local weather, given the new weather patterns on Planet Earth. NOAA (feds) have been forgetting to replace their weather satellites. Lots of bad weather elsewhere - I hope you get your predictions in time. Meggie almost got to be in a hurricane, but I guess it fizzed out before it got to Volcano.

I love the American West. This is a painting by Richard Mayhew that captures how all this vast open land - all the way out to Hawaii - looks in my mind:

But, you know it's almost impossible to a great art gallery out here. For that, you have to go to New York City, like the monkey guy.  He's not even in a gallery,  In New York, the shops look like art galleries. 

Don't be speciesist!

Speciesism: assigning different values or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership. The term was coined by Richard D. Ryder in 1973 and was an attempt to denote prejudice akin to sexism and racism. (source: wikipedia )...

Christian the Lion was raised by humans, who helped him become wild again. At the time this video was made, he had spent a year making friends with other lions and was accepted by a pride. See if you can tell what he's thinking. He's seen people in the past year, but not his own people.

Cats are really cool.