Being Organized and the Dead Battery; The Danger of the Sliding Glass Door; Guest Michelle Writes of Dogs and Cats.

PIC OF DAY

New Job for Endlessly Talented Katie Couric
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I still admire Katie Couric, someone who failed for a full year on CBS, in front of the world. You got to admire someone who's been humiliated so publicly (except for her Palin interview….it's the reason why they hold her broken reputation up) and still soldiers on even as I laugh at her.

And yet she continues on and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, now she has an ADVICE column in Women's Day magazine.

People, look me in the eyes.

When you are alone and troubled, when Mother Mary comes to you….who's the first person you seek for advice and consolution?

Of course!

KATIE COURIC!!!

Man, I wonder if she's got a Facebook account, come on guys, Katie Couric to advise you on life. Give this talented woman your business!!

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Being Organized and the Dead Battery
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Lookit, I really thought everyone had a fashion spreadsheet but my daughter tells me this not only odd, it's a bit obsessive-compulsive.

While I think that organizing things is a good idea and goodness knows most women have a bounty of clothes, no?

So one may gently mock, I suppose, and I'd agree that at times I flirt with obsessiveness.

Now I will take a moment and describe just how my tendency to be eh, organized, saved me many hours due to my Jeep's dead battery.

First, well the Jeep had a dead battery. It was the coldest morning of the year so far thus if a battery were to die, would be a good day.

I have stored, carefully and properly, a bevy of auto supplies in a bin in the back of the Jeep. In it are things like tools, flat tire canned air...stuff useful when a vehicle suddenly stops in the middle of nowhere. Yup, just compiled a list of items I learned were useful to carry in the car, did this back in 2005 when I bought the Jeep, and didn't have to think of it since. Of course I had a brand new, 15 feet long jumper cable wire.

Husband and I then pushed the Jeep out of the garage to line up with husband's car, a small little thing but hey, it had a working battery so there you go.

Neither of us had ever started a car via jumper cables and further, we didn't know how to open the hood of the Jeep!

Well don't you know that inside of a well in the passenger door of the Jeep there was the Jeep's manual and it not had instructions on how to open the hood, it had detailed instructions on how to hook up cables for a hot shot.

Right on, right there in the door of the Jeep, the vehicle's manual, put there so it would be there when...eh, it was needed.

Meanwhile as we opened hoods and studied hot shot instructions I was fussing. I remembered it wasn't but not that long ago that we'd bought that battery and I remembered that it had a real long warranty-60 months or something.

So I pull out my file labeled "auto information" and there it was, the bill of sale from 2011 with the warranty length of 75 months plainly handwritten on the front. Since the mechanic's phone number was right on the front of this proof that I had right in my hand with but the opening of a drawer and the pulling of a file I had right at the ready, well I called them up as the Jeep roared to life with a hot shot from the Chevy.

They checked their files and told me to bring the Jeep right in and they'll right this wrong.

And so we did and what, with no prior thought or organization, would have been a horrible morning of angst and despair was simple matter to take care of.

Because I was organized, that's why.

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Drivel: Animal Timing

You already know we have two cool cats and one ditzy dog. What you might not know is they all have exceptionally bad timing.

Hunter, our not-too-bright Shetland Sheepdog, has a potty timing issue. He manages to hold it all day while I'm at work (poor guy) but needs to go every two hours most nights. He tells us he needs out by pacing. Clip, clip, clip go his doggie claws on the hardwood floor. Long pause as he evaluates whether we heard him or not. Clip, clip, clip.

If we don't respond, he resorts to bed-tapping. He puts his front feet on the edge of the bed, stretching his little Sheltie body up to reach the converted waterbed frame. A second of bracing against the bed, and then he drops his front feet back to the floor. Clomp, both feet hit the floor. Clip, clip, clip. Pause. Clomp. Pause. Clip, clip, clip. One of us gets up to put him outside. We try to rotate so it isn't the same one of us all night.

Once in awhile, Hunter sleeps longer and doesn't need to go out as often. It seems like those days are the ones where his timing (though longer) is actually worse.

Clip, clip, clip. One of us gets up and a resounding groan bounces around the room. Whoever got up looked at the clock . . . without fail, the dog seems to need to go out about 20 minutes before our get-up alarm is set to go off.

No matter what time it's set for.

The two cats also have some bad timing, especially now, when the weather is colder and the flannel sheets are on the bed. Kona, the calico, loves to sleep under the covers. Zeker, the orange one, does it occasionally and not for very long.

Last night, I was blessed to have both of them there at the same time, one fuzzy bed warmer on each side of me, for about ten minutes. Then Zeker was done, and abandoned Kona and I. (My husband was out working.)

Kona, however, tends to wait until get-up time to ask to be under the covers. She comes up on the bed and sticks one forefoot as far under the covers as it will go. Then the other foot. If I don't respond by raising the covers for her, she digs. I challenge anyone to ignore a cat digging at your sheets just a few inches from your face! I raise the covers and under she goes. A bit of stretching and contorting, and she finds the perfect place - next to my warm body with all four of her very cold feet braced against me. Just as I hear
her start to purr, the get-up alarm goes off.

You'd think she'd figure out the issue and adjust her timing, but so far she hasn't. Last night was one of those rare nights when she came in early and stayed under the covers all night.

Shame I couldn't do the same . . . with my husband gone working, it was up to me to put the dog out.

Clip, clip, clip.

Michelle
The Desk Drawer writer's exercise list

The Danger of the Sliding Glass Door
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So far I've picked four different species of birds off of my deck floor. At first it was kind of cool. Now I start to get concerned.

So far a chickadee and a titmouse hit the deck's sliding door with such force as to temporarily stun them. They were stunned to a point where I was able to hold them in my hand.

Here we have a goldfinch and a Junco...goldfinch to the right.

The goldfinch, alas, didn't make it. The Junco probably came out okay.

For a perspective….I've fed birds off of my deck for now ten years at this locale. I'd bet thousands of birds pass through those feeders, not to mention the squirrel-rodents. THIS year, for reasons I know not, seems to be an over the top year for bird/window bangups.

I get so I dread the sound of a thud upon the pane.

Still and so, it was a joy to be able to hold all those birds and on some level I think I helped them.