The bright side of life,
That’s the I like to look,
Volkswagon repair.

Corie “Nothing.”

Jon thinking (Oh no,  I better start kissing her open mouth.)

She’s thinking nothing,
Better start damage control,
Refrigerator.

Since then, I had a new cup holder installed ( How did I go so long without a cup holder? …..that’s a very American thing to say…in a bad way).  I also had the car stereo that Corie gave me for Christmas installed in my car.  I won’t go into too much detail, but I love it!  It connects to my phone over Bluetooth, it has USB so that I can charge my phone through it without the car charge that was stolen in November.  Lot’s of nice features.  Thank you Corie!

So for over two months I had a car with no car stereo.  Every day that I go to work, I spend at least an hour in my car.  I can easily spend two hours or more driving in a given day.  As many of you live in Kansas City, I’m sure you can relate. This is one of the major reasons I am frustrated that light rail was voted down and why I would love to move to another city…say Portland, OR for example.  But let me tell you what I learned.  I like NPR.  No, it isn’t that I just like it, I missed listening to NPR.  I missed getting my “Up to Date” with Steve Kraske and “Morning Edition” with Renee Montagne and Steve Inskeep.  Also, I learned that can’t stand The Buzz.  The music isn’t that good, the DJ are obnoxious and they play way too many commercials.

 This is a service that I really value.  I spend far more time listening to NPR than I do watching TV.  I listen to roughly 25 hours of NPR a month…give or take a few.  That is 300 hours a year!!1  There aren’t very many things I invest that much time in.  Work, Corie, sleep, and maybe eating. 

As I write this, I realize that I need to make a point of contributing to NPR on an annual basis. Surely 300 hours is worth $100 a year.

Now, the question is, do I contribute to 89.3 who I listen to more regularly because they have a stronger signal and come in more clearly, or to 90.9 because they play better music throughout the day…or both?

I like NPR.
That’s all that I have to say.
Do you haiku too?

Me “That’s what she said.”

For those of you who didn’t know, my Blackberry was stolen last month in Detroit. Then this morning, I came down to my car to find my drivers side window was broken (pictures to come) and the radio was ripped out.

Here is how I see it…

My phone was stolen, so I replaced it with a new G1, which is what I am using to write this post (props to the wordpress application someone made). This has actually reduced my phone bill, saving me money over time. $300/$10 a month=2 and a half years.

Then, my car was broken into, and I expect to get a new radio (hopefully with Bluetooth so I can use it for hands free phone calls with my g1), maybe a new cup holder, and also a new window. In addition to that, I got to meet some neighbors who moved here from NC. Here is a shout out to Sarah & Garrett. Sarah goes to the art institute and majors in fabric art. Garrett works at the Gap and pays the bills.

They will be getting a new window as well. They should also have their golden goose and Rumplestiltskin replaced (both of whom were in the trunk as so stated on their insurance claim).

As an afterthought, I also haven’t gone to work yet. So I also get a half day out of the deal!

While I was in the neighborhood to pick up the cat from Dr. Rambo’s office, I also picked Corie up for the first of a series of dates that we will be going on this year. Several hours later when I returned from our date, my still unnamed cat was crouched above a vent in the wall that lacked a vent cover. Peering into the dusty, dark ducts in the underbelly of my house, I am uncertain of what he was thinking. I tried to outflank him by making a maneuver around my recliner which sits next to the vent in question. The next thing I know this brave, or maybe dumb cat began a scouting expedition into the unknown. Crawling on all fours, he ventured five, maybe six feet into the duct system. There he stayed for the next seventeen hours. We tried going downstairs and banging on the vents to coax him out. (Note to the reader: cats do not instinctively leave vents when you bang on them from the outside.) I tried seducing him out with catnip. I tried shining a light. Nothing lured him out. He was committed to his adventure. Once he had studied all that was to be studied (or once he grew hungry), he began to come back to the mouth of the cave. I greeted him with bowls of food and water. When he came out, I promptly blocked the vent with a guitar case.

Saturday, January 26th 2008

Watch Rambo – Check
Stop cat from ever going back into the vent – Check

The next night we one up’ed the animal loving Dr. Andrew Rambo. A group of us went to Cinemark’s Palace on the Plaza to view the feature film, Rambo. Simply amazing. Not many other words are needed to describe such fine art.

When I returned home, I found my cat had squeezed his way under the curve of the guitar case and back into the vents. This time, it only took thirty minutes to get him to come back out. When he returned, I covered the vent with a window screen. Pinned the window screen against the wall with the guitar case, pinned the guitar case with my recliner. Now the cat will never get back into the vents!

Sunday, January 27th 2008

Wake up – Check
Keep cat out of vents – Check
Take shower – Check
Keep cat out of anything else dangerous – Check

After waking up, I found my cat missing. Rather, one might say that I did not find my cat…to begin with. I scoured the house. I looked under my desk, under the recliners, behind the entertainment center, on the kitchen shelves, behind the couch. This is not a big house, there are not many places to hide! Except, maybe inside the uncovered vent which was hidden behind the couch in the dining room.

Uhg!

Well, this time he came out in two minutes.

After taking a shower, I again looked for my cat without immediate success. Let me cut to the chase, he trapped himself behind my refrigerator. He could not move forward, he could not move backwards, he could not turn side to side. Stuck in all fashions. I should have left him there, taught him a lesson. But no, I am a compassionated person. I saved him from being burned in my car. I retrieved him from my vents where he was in danger of falling into the fiery furnace. Then I pulled him out from near the hot coils of my refrigerator. All of these dangerous places, and he has come out unharmed. He must have the protection of God…or he has only six more lives left.

I think he now has a name! An almost God given name. Something that reflects the saving hand of God that must be on this beast. His name shall be Shadrach. For not a hair on his head has been burned.

To be continued…

In a time not that long ago, in a not so distant land, I slept in.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the bed was warm and I had the next ten calendar days to do with whatever I deemed desirable. If I would have bothered to fill out my daily planner, my A1 action item would have been to sleep past noon.

Friday, January 25th 2008

Sleep past noon – Check
Take a shower – Check

Putting a check mark next to something truly gives one a sense of accomplishment. Normally I would have filled my task list out with more inactivity such as “Watch TV”, “Think about getting something to eat” or dare I say “Watch TV while thinking about getting something to eat.” No, I would not dare divide my attention. Nevertheless, these items were not on my list. I had a date. Nay! I had a two o’clock appointment. Not with destiny, not with opportunity, but with Rambo.

Dr. Rambo.

Let me back up…

If you refer to my previous post you will remember that my car had an appetite for stray cats. I mentioned that I may adopt a certain kitten that was nearly burned to a crisp behind the engine of my 2000 Volkswagen Jetta.

Upon my earliest opportunity, I did adopt the yet nameless cat. It was a Wednesday. After I had been approved to adopt this distressed feline, I drove to the Gladstone Animal Clinic and paid my eighty six dollars and forty two cents. This included adoption fees, flee treatment, shots, castrations, morphine and supposedly more. Supposedly, declawing. However, I did not get to take my cat home at this point. My cat had to go to the vet to receive many of the above treatments. Many of them…not all. Not declawed. It was not until Friday that I was able to pick up my cat.

Friday, January 25th 2008.

Pick cat up at Two O’Clock PM from the office of Dr. Andrew Rambo – Check

To be continued…

Do you remember Alf? He had some weird obsession with wanting to eat cats? I think my car may have developed the same appitite.

Saturday afternoon, I walked out to my car and headed to a movie from Corie’s house. As I was getting in my car I noticed there was a cat under my car. This isn’t all that unusual, but I did not see where it ran off to as I was backing out. I was a little bit concerned, but brushed it off pretty easily. Corie and I went to Northglen and watched Juno, which was a v v funny movie.

An hour and a half later, I came back out to my car. Corie and I drove to her house to pick something up, then we headed to her studio to drop her off. As I stopped the car, I thought I heard a cat meowing. I might add that it seemed to be a fairly loud meow, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It seemed close, but I didn’t see any cats. I looked under my car quickly and didn’t see anything. I wasn’t too concerned, so I disregarded it and headed to Quik Trip for a tank of gas (All in all, that was about three miles of driving from the theater to the gas station).

As I was filling my tank I heard the meowing again. There still weren’t any cats in sight, so I looked under the car once more and once again didn’t see anything. But now I had a good deal of concern. There was obviously a cat stalking me. I popped my hood and…well…just watch this video:

I had a fairly large group of people gathered around my car trying to help. But as I had already called Animal Control, I told them to leave it alone. The cat was obviously scared and I didn’t know how it would react to people getting close to it. I ended up putting my gloves on and helping it out from behind the engine block. It turned out to be a really friendly kitty. Fortunately, it only had a few slight singes on its fur of its tail and back end. There didn’t seem to be any substantial burns to the skin.

Animal Services got there a few minutes later and picked it up. They said they will hold the cat for a week to see if they get any calls for missing cats. If not, they will put it up for adoption. I’ve talked with my roommates about the possibility of adopting it. While Tim is allergic, he likes cats and would like to see how his allergies would react. Daniel is neutral to the idea. On the other hand, Corie is allergic and just outright doesn’t like cats. I’m trying to figure out which I would like more: a cat which I have rescued from the bowels of my Jetta, or a girlfriend.

The moral of the story is that if your car has an empty tank of gas, it might eat a cat.