For the first time, I am sitting on the sofa with Tuxie in the cat bed to the left of me, and Purrsimmon in the cat bed to the right of me, and Shuri slithered in between Purrsimmon and me, and is snuggled against me. All 4 of us are on the sofa together! Shuri and Purrsimmon look so cutely intertwined.

The girls don’t sleep together too much, because it’s hard for one of them to not start licking and then wrestling the other, so they usually sleep separate. But they’re managing it for now. They would love to be cuddling with Tuxie, too, but he still would not allow that. If he lives long enough, that may change one day. I am a happy human with my fuzzy kids around me.

In 4 days, Shuri will be a year old! She is the first of my kitties whose birthday I know since her mother gave birth to her litter in a foster home. For her birthday present Sunday, I am going to move the refrigerator, and sweep out the dozens of toys she has shoved under it for safe-keeping. It will be like being in a cat toy shop! There are times I have tried to stop her, but she is too quick, and so off her toy went where it would be stored and safe. That she wouldn’t have it to play with, is one causal chain link too far for her little brain, excellent cat brain as it is. Cats are really great at causal reasoning for one step, but one step only. Still better than a lot of people.

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I'm feeling lonely and unmotivated even though I have so much to do. All I really want to do these days when home is to sit and read novels beside purring cats. I don't give myself enough permission to just do that. Tuxie is sleeping next to me--he's gotten to be my constant snoozy lefthand fuzzy attachment whenever I sit the past year since Saki died, and I am lucky to have him and appreciate what good company he is. He and Moo are very good and easy companions. Except I worry because they sleep too much even for cats and I worry if I should be doing more to try to get them a little more active. It's been a couple of years since either climbed the cat trees at all and they jump up on very little. But my perceptions of how active cats should be may be skewed by having grown up with siamese cats who tend to be a little more active, and these guys are 10 and 11 years old. Do ya'll worry about your pet parenting? Gotta learn to let go of what I can't control and solve (snoozy cats gonna snooze), and be easy on me and give me some love.

I cancelled going to a scifi meet up luncheon in DC this afternoon due to the excessive heat today and expensive parking. And I have so much clean up to do around the house--the more I get done the happier I will feel so I'm going to concentrate on that. One pile at a time. Go through papers. Throw things out--make my habitat something I can feel good in--and when I accomplish that, get back to making and studying and creating. I feel so boring.

July and August so far have been mega-hot, which is extra hard because of the anti-cancer med I'm on and will be for 2 more years, then I hope will be better--yes. And it's been a time filled with Trumphobia, which has felt like the nightmare where you are running but are getting slower and slower as if you're going through molasses and IT's getting closer--I know so many of us are sharing the same nightmare feeling. But that has been easing up the past weeks with the polls. Nate Silver's blog is my Happy Place. It's been a tough month on so many of my friends.

I can't wait until late September when walks will become a joy again. Just a couple more weeks. Spring and autumn, those are my seasons.

I had the yearly thyroid ultrasound on Thursday, and will see the endocrinologist in 2 weeks with hopes that my thyroid nodules have not grown. We've been monitoring this for 2 years and so far so good. Doctors visits make me nervous since the breast precancer diagnosis--I hope I can go back to them being routine sooner than later. My spirits are more down than up, but this is a year of grief and recovery from health problems, trauma, and family losses. Next year will be better, right?

I saw my first monarch butterfly of the season yesterday by the lake. I went back last night and looked up my Verid entries. Remember Verid the monarch and the adventures she took me on? If you didn't know me in 2012, you might like these pics and stories. I still have good caterpillar and chrysalis pics of her I never uploaded. I will have to download them from the back up drive sometime and post.

I listen to NPR radio a lot. The weekend NPR shows that used to delight or interest me make me more often anxious the last couple of years. Is it me (a glass of water makes you anxious, child), or the stories they are telling? Anyone else having this problem? Will talk about the couple of movies and books I've enjoyed lately in another post.

OK, off to get Things Done. I hope this weekend is treating you all well. *hugs my flist*

I'm going to catch up with everything outside of work the last couple of months in this entry. I'll save work stuff for another entry. So, outside of work, besides adjusting to the new work schedule, with my new normal of body maintenance tasks, the last 2 months have brought more challenges, which is why I've been so scarce here. I've really missed sharing stuff with ya'll, but I'm working hard on trying to get enough sleep to keep me healthy and I just keep running out of time each evening.

CAT HEALTH

Tuxie was losing weight this summer and he needed to, but it was faster than his diet could probably account for, and I was worried about him. He was diagnosed with diabetes the end of August, so along with Saki's usual maintenance runs, I've been at the vets more weekends than not the last 2 months. He is doing well now on the insulin and diabetes diet food. It was very hard in the beginning because I was terrified of sticking him with the needle, and our practice session at the vets was rough on him, but it's easy on both of us now. He is doing really well, has gained back some weight, and looks filled out again. In fact, he seems to enjoy the whole needle ritual--he's just that kind of boy. I give him a sprig of catnip with it, so that helps. He is mostly liking the special diet food, and with any luck we might get him into remission in the coming months.

( More whinging and stuff yonder . . . )