The Future

My writing and posting are slowing down these days towards an average of one posting/week, instead of driving towards one/day as I’ve tried to in the past. My reasons for this are varied, not the least of which is that my personal time is becoming more precious to me, and I need that personal time for other tasks I consider more important. Another way to look at my posting is that will become more erratic. There were already long periods of inactivity between posts, with a burst of back-to-back posts, followed by another long period of inactivity. It’s the bursty parts that will grow less bursty, if that makes any sense.

These past few weeks have been something of a downer for me. Since at least 8 January, I’ve been battling a upper respiratory virus that has pretty much knocked me for a loop; tired, week, nose running like an open faucet, coughs, chills, etc. I went to an after hours clinic ten minutes away from where I live, and they were able to determine I had neither COVID (again) nor strep. So they gave me a prescription for something to take care of the sinuses and the cough for about ten days, then when that was gone I started using Dayquil/Nyquil to handle things. Yesterday what was left in my sinuses finally broke up and came out, and I’ve been doing physical work without having to take a break every fifteen minutes.

To make things even worse it’s been very cold here in central Florida. How cold? Mid-50s Fahrenheit during the day down to mid-30s at night. This was all part of the cold wave that came rumbling out of Canada and into the mid-West. We got the edge of it all the way down here, and it was cold enough that snow fell with accumulations of 6 or more inches in the Florida Panhandle.

Needless to say all creatures great and small tried to keep warm while all this was happening. That’s what these two photos are about. Zoë was Velcroed to me for a number of days, while Beau kept stealing my seat every time I got up to go do something, like head to the bathroom. While last night went back down to 38°, today was a balmy 63°. While it was still in the mid-50°s yesterday, it was still warm enough, and I was in decent enough shape, to get some tasks of significance done.

Both of these photos were taken with my iPhone 16 Pro Max using the portrait setting. I did some post-processing with the Apple tools, primarily darkening the corners with the vignetting tool. The engineers spend untold sums of money to make sure corner-to-corner exposure is the same, and I go in and basically ignore that with my tweaks.

And yes, we still have our artificial Christmas tree up. Maybe I’ll have it down and stowed by Valentine’s Day.

Still on a weekend cat documentation trip, of sorts. This time I caught Beau resting on my armchair arm, with his forepaws crossed, without a care in the world. I have no idea what he was gazing at, but it certainly had his undivided attention. They all think they own the place, and I’m not certain they don’t.

It’s been a while since I wrote a Caturday post. I haven’t been feeling all that well these past few days, and today was the worst as far as feeling unwell is concerned. I suppose Beau sensed I wasn’t feeling well and decided he wanted to comfort me by being my lap cat today, which in turn gave me a bit of motivation to write about him.

Animals can sense if you’re not doing well and will try to comfort you. No exceptions. They really do care. And when they come over to visit like this, it really does help me feel better.

This is why I’m wont to say that the more I know of people, the more I love my cats and dogs.

Camera Specifics

For those who are interested, the camera is the Panasonic Lumix G9.2 with the 30mm Lumix G Macro, with the G9.2 set in Leica Monochrome mode.

I continue to make little cat studies when the opportunity presents itself. The cats have decided they like resting atop the not-so-new kitchen island. It presents a new spot to sit, stretch, nap, or just walk without having to be on the floor. They like leaping from the center top to the table top, and vice versa.

The classic Beau repose.

And Nicholas looking coyly up at me.

I want to write about the election, but I’m not ready to yet. Instead I’m reaching out for positive subjects to focus on (no pun intended). I refuse to provide anyone so inclined with the satisfaction of seeing me in some mode of sadness, or even depressed, over the results. Instead I intend to celebrate life and all its positives. I need to be doing this now, so that when the going will get rough I’ll be prepared.

That original post where I said I wasn’t going to post for the month of October looks pretty much trash at this point.

I’m sitting here waiting for Milton to hit Tampa/St. Pete and then come roaring up I-4 and across central Florida, including Orlando and my neighborhood. I’ve prepared as much as I can, probably the best I’ve ever done in the 40 years I’ve been living here. But this latest storm has raised my anxiety to the highest level it’s ever been before a storm. Just about the entirety of the west coast of Florida, along with a few counties on the east coast, have been ordered to evacuate.

Part of my anxiety is the vacuum of leadership at the level of governor. We have a little man who has a bobble head, and who has been refusing calls from the sitting Vice President Harris because he thought it too political. What a complete and utter ass.

Anyway…

A week before all of this I purchased and built a new kitchen cart on wheels, complete with built-in drawers and cabinets so that I could get pots and small electric appliances off the other cabinets and uncover the existing cabinet tops for a better cooking experience in the kitchen. I thought it was for the kitchen. The cats have decided it makes a great extension for playing, a second level to traverse through the kitchen.

If I didn’t have all the little creatures I don’t know what I’d be doing right now. Their presence gives me comfort.

…

I know I wrote that I wasn’t going to write any blog posts in October (with the notable exception of the official proclamation post), but that was before I remembered that today, nine years ago, Luke and Beau were born.

That nine years has been simultaneously long and incredibly short. Long in that I have plenty of memories as well as photographs documenting their growth, and short from my human perspective.

I almost didn’t get those two. They were born in 2015, the year I lost both Max the yellow Lab and my little Lucy. I lost them both on the same day at the vets; Luke to old age (he was 15 1/2) and Lucy to feline leukemia. I tried to save Lucy but her cancer wouldn’t respond to treatments. I knew she was in pain, but she was still fighting, and I wanted to give her every opportunity to beat her cancer. She was fighting still when they gave her the shot that put her to sleep. Losing one beloved pet is bad enough, but two on the same day in the same way was a horrific moment I’ll never forget.

I consider Lucy my first real cat. When she came through my front door that hot summer in 2008, I never realized a creature as small as Lucy would have such a profound impact. I already thought of myself as a Lab Person. Through Lucy’s love and attention to me I came to realize I was, deep down, also a Cat Person.

When Momma Sunshine had her litter of five the following October, that litter included Luke and Beau. Their three female littermates were all Torties. The females were quickly spoken for. The ginger boys, however, were languishing as it were. I offered to adopt one of them, hoping to take some pressure off my daughter and son-in-law’s attempt to get them all adopted. But still no-one came forward for even one of the ginger males. So in a fit of insanity charity I offered to adopt both of them.

Normally you wait eight weeks from birth before bringing kittens into the household. But I had to travel to Japan that December for business, so that by the time I came home and took care of some other tasks and travel, it was January (a good twelve weeks) before I could “take delivery” of the two boys. The “late delivery” didn’t have any negative effects whatsoever on their little psychies. They quickly settled in and took over the place.

I had originally decided on some decidedly awkward names based on Disc World characters, but I quickly discovered they didn’t fit either boy. One day while watching them chase each other, they both went running up a little cat box and then leapt into the air. I immediately thought of the Dukes of Hazzard TV show with its orange Dodge Charger and that’s when they got their names. I’ve since decided to simply call them Luke and Beau and I’ve dropped the backstory.

The boys have decidedly mellowed in their “old age.” I certainly hope they’ll be around for another nine years. Assuming I live that long I’ll be 80.

Beau is a creative napper. Most cats sleep on their stomachs, either straight or curled up. Beau has learned to sleep propped up on his back, rather like a tiny human in a hammock. In this case he’s in his favorite sleeping spot, my recliner in the TV room.

Of course Beau has many sleeping positions, such as this simple upright side position. Beau is, if anything, a highly inventive cat in the arts of napping.

Beau loves to nap in my TV room chair. It doesn’t matter the time of day or night; if I’m not sitting in it, and he wants to nap, then he will settle in and drift off into ginger dreamland. If I am sitting in my chair, then he comes up and stretches across my lap and takes a nap. He doesn’t go to any other chair, just my chair, with me in it or not. It’s his poses when he’s in the chair alone that briefly stops me to look.

He might be a “cat” to you, but to me he’s the closest to a living leprechaun I’ve ever known. It’s not just Beau, it’s all of them. Six unique little intelligences with unique little personalities.

Most of the time the cats are constantly playing chase with one another, sometimes wrestling around on the floor. Nothing mean-spirited, just lots of activity. However…

For the past three evenings we’ve been inundated with considerable rain. The days are hot, in the low 90s, then as the evening approaches thunderstorms build up over the area and unleash their considerable rain and lightening. Yesterday was the worst with strong winds and hail. When I went out this morning to look around there was tree litter everywhere.

When the bad weather arrives in force all the little ones gather together for support, usually in twos, sometimes even more. I found Bo (head up but eyes closed) with his clowder mate Nicholas, tightly cuddled in one of the cat beds next to me.

Little creatures like the cats and dogs don’t like stormy weather. They instinctively know to go to ground and find cover until the rainstorms are done. This is why I find neighborhood fireworks on the Fourth of July and New Years Eve particularly distasteful. The explosions are as loud, if not louder, and far more continuous than a weather event.

Every animal sooner or later needs to make a visit a vet, and mine or no different. Earlier this week Bo needed to go get his three-year rabies shot as mandated by Florida law. Getting Bo into the carrier was uneventful, as was the trip to the vet’s office. Once we got there Bo went into his fearful shock mode, where he hunkered down and refused to move. A little bit of drool also started to form at the corners of his mouth, and he kept giving me a wide-eyed unblinking stare. After he was weighed (13.3 lbs), the staff set up a hiding place for him to stay in. That’s that pink blanket over a simple wire frame you see above. When the vet came in to administer his shots, the vet moved the towel away, but Bo just continued to hunker down and didn’t make a peep when he got his shot. Then the vet put the cover back over Bo, and he stayed there until the vet tech put Bo back into his carrier, I paid the bill, and then drove Bo home.

Once Bo got back in the house I opened the door to the carrier and Bo took off like he’d been shot out of a cannon. For the next 30 minutes he wasn’t anywhere to be found, then all of a sudden he was back in my chair looking up at me like nothing had transpired.

Bo and his brother Luke will be nine years old in October. Even though vet trips are infrequent, you’d think after all these years Bo would understand and not be fearful, but I suppose Bo will always be fearful of trips away from home. I wish I could communicate with Bo he has nothing to be afraid of, but I can’t. So the next best thing is to be quiet and supportive during these infrequent trips.

Today is our two little leprechaun kitten’s fourth birthday. I can’t believe four years have passed by so quickly. But even at four years of age they still march back together into the back bedroom, eat their mid-day meal together, then leap up onto the bed and take their naps cuddled together. Even when they eat, the eat out of the same big bowl, which they’ve done since they came to live with us as tiny kittens. Luke and Beau are also littermates, and at eight-going-on-nine years they barely tolerate each other’s presence, but the girls are still little snugglers. I hope they keep this bit of behavior up as long as possible. Every time I see them do this I just melt.

Speaking of the boys, this is Beau stretched out in my chair enjoying his mid-afternoon siesta. You can’t see it from this angle, but Beau likes to fold his forepaws together and then rest his head on them. Most of the time I just let Beau be, but on those occasions when I do need to sit I have to gently but firmly lift him up and place him elsewhere before I sit. When I’m sitting comfortably he then leaps up and lies across my lap and continues his nap.

Today’s photos represent a change from past photos. Beau was taken with the M.Zuiko 12mm/2 in black on my Pen F. I’d been wanting that lens ever since it was first released over 12 years ago, but I never could get past the premium price Olympus was asking for it at the time. It was first released in silver, then Olympus decided to release it in a Limited black run. The Limited was even more expensive than the original silver. Then earlier in March I a black version crop up all over for less than half the cost of the original silver, although it wasn’t the Limited version. So after a bit of agonizing I purchased my own copy. I suppose I should write about my experiences with the lens in more detail, but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to know about this lens after 12 years. Suffice to say I’m glad I got it, and that when mounted on the front of my Pen F it looks quite the sexy little camera. There’s only one other prime I would even half-way consider purchasing now, and that’s the OM Systems 20mm/1.4. It’s key feature that attracts me is that it’s sealed against the elements, where the 12mm and the Pen F body aren’t. But then I have my E-M5, OM-D E-M1.2, and my Panasonic Lumix G9, all of which are sealed and still work just dandy. But we’ll have to wait and see on that purchase.

Luke loves to lounge around the house, especially in the TV room (hey, I’m 70, it’s a TV room even though I stream multiple services only). This is one of his favorite spots, so much so that fights will erupt between him and his brother Beau as to who will lounge in that one spot.

Beau of course has his own selection of spots, such as out on the lanai in the corner of the lounge furniture. Normally he likes to pick a spot so he can keep an eye on the other cats, such as…

Zoë, who likes to sit up high so she can keep an eye on everybody else eyeing her.

Now that I have the Pen F on those crazy color settings, I’m using my E-M1.2 with the 12-40mm/2.8 PRO. Makes a potent combination for general running around. One body, one lens, and that’s all I really need.

It’s been unusually cold in central Florida this past week. The weather bureau has stated that on some of the days the temperatures were 10°F below normal. Come summer we’ll swing in the opposite direction with temperatures 10 or more degrees above normal. Such is the nature of extremes of weather during a climate crisis.

During this cold spell the clowder finds spots to bundle down and stay warm when they’re outside. Such is the nature of a cat.

Camera was my Olympus E-M1.2 with the PRO 40-150mm/2.8. I just love how that lens renders a scene.

There is always that five-day interlude between any given Christmas and New Years, when very little work gets done in the office if you’re required to work those days, and if you’ve taken them off you spend that time running around visiting, returning gift items you received but don’t want, or else looking for any special sales for items you do want. In between are the visits to and from relatives and friends.

Or else, nothing special happens because you’re retired and that’s the way life roles these days.

This past few weeks have been wet here in central Florida. We’ve had cloudy days, followed by days of lingering rain. Today for example the rain started yesterday around 5 pm, and continued through the night and intermittently through today. We need the rain because we always need the water to filter down and recharge the Floridan Aquifer. This state’s industries pump out so much as it is, followed by a growing population that demands we waste drinking water on our manicured lawns. Except for me; as a bonus of retirement I’ve let the lawn slowly turn back to a “natural” state where the only lawn mowing I do is with an old-style hand push mower. No gas, no rechargeable batteries. Just me getting out and pushing.

In a rare day of cool temperatures and sunshine I managed to snag a photo of Beau lounging on the lounger near the pool. It was sundown and Beau decided (I guess) that the lounger was just the right spot for a cat to … lounge about.

This photo was taken with my Olympus OM-D EM-1.2 and the PRO 2.8/40-150mm zoom. I own it, it’s paid for, so I might as well pull it out of the bag and work with it. If nothing else the zoom range gives me enough distance to photograph squirrelly cats. And it gives me opportunities to practice using this more-than-competent camera/lens combination.

Let the photos speak for themselves.

At this point in time Beau is nearly eight (birthday in early October) while Danï is three. Once again I’m reminded how time is fleeting. I still remember (without photographic aids) when they all arrived as kittens.

Both photos taken with the Olympus Pen F and the Panasonic Leica 25mm/1.4 first edition. On micro four thirds the 25mm is a normal lens. Being a Leica designed lens, not Leica built, it produces photos with excellent character. Being Panasonic built I was able to afford it over 10 years ago. If it had been Leica built I wouldn’t have touched it because it would have been well outside my discretionary budget.

It’s been very hot in Florida. We’ve had daily excessive heat warnings that have been going on for weeks now. Our air conditioning labors to keep the house reasonably cool, even if the thermostat is set at 78. I don’t want to blow up the air conditioner by overusing it. We’ve already had two incidents here with power, where the lights have flickered. One was this morning; while out on a very short walk around 6:30 I heard a transformer blow up in our neighborhood. Our power stayed on. I can only imagine how the effected homes stayed without power before the transformer was replaced.

I keep the little ones inside now, and make sure everyone has full bowls of clean water. Everyone comes around to visit, or else find a spot to nap. I know that cat ancestors lived in the desert, but today’s cats are a lot more domesticated than wild; they won’t do well out in this high heat and humidity.

Camera was the Olympus E-M1.2 with the m.Zuiko 17mm/1.2 PRO.

Cats

I can’t believe the first six months of 2023 have already gone by. Here we are the first day of July. The cats, of course, pay no mind to the passage of time. Everything and every day is always new to them.

In the summer they like to congregate around one corner of the lanai to look at … something. Whatever it is, it has their complete attention. I was able to walk up with a camera and take this photo of four of the six. They are, from left to right, Danï, Zoë, Joan, and Beau (who appears to be their leader). Joan is hidden by Beau, lying next to her kitten Zoë. It’s always fun to see how the cats congregate, with the two dilute Torties hanging together and the four Gingers in a group by themselves. They when it’s time to be fed, they break up three and three, with the three “kittens” eating together and the three “adults” eating together in a different area. Or else Danï and Zoë will sleep together, Joan and Beau sleep together, while Nicholas and Luke are off independent. And when they decide to play, they’re all mixed in and playing hard.

Camera

Panasonic Lumix GH4 with M.Zuiko 12-100mm/4 PRO zoom.