Too Much Time On My Hands

   One of the pleasures about getting into the office at 04:00 and leaving at noon is having the afternoon to myself. I can potter around the kitchen, cut the lawn (or shovel the sidewalk in winter), or just relax for a bit. But no nap. If I have a nap, I usually can't sleep at night, throwing my whole schedule out of whack. Yesterday, I chose to relax.
   A bit of an aside here, but it's necessary, so please be patient. For my major new casts, I try and find a funny or lighter side story to end the package with. We call them "kickers", and yesterday, I had a doozie! Apparently, there's a group "recruiting" for a new "country". Asgardia, founded in Austria, is looking to have people sign up to become citizens of the world's first Space Nation. They promise to colonize the moon, and want 150 million people to sign up, and set up "space arks" where people can permanently live in outer space.

   And that's where relaxing turned into having way too much time on my hands. I signed up:

   No, I did not use my real name, but since Asgardia was named after Asgard, a world in the sky in ancient Norse mythology, so I figured my Asgardian name should reflect that. Aegir was the Norse god of the oceans, and Heimdall was the god that watched the bridge leading to Asgard. Asgardia has it's own flag, coat of arms and national anthem.
   I think I need a new hobby. Or at least do something more productive to fill that idle time.

TTFN

Night Retreats

   Just over a year ago (April 28/17 to be exact..It's Getting Light Earlier) I blogged about the change of seasons, and the fact that, yes, it was getting lighter earlier. I mentioned in that blog about living in part of the world where you could still see the "line of darkness" between day and night.
   It's not easy to see, probably because I was a few minutes too late taking it, but this picture shows that. True, it's very near the horizon, but there is a definite line between the retreat of night, and the advance of day. Again, I took the picture a little too late, and with a crappy cell phone camera.
   But it points out once more the fact that I'm fortunate enough to live in part of the world where light pollution doesn't spoil such events, even though they do happened each and every day.

TTFN

A Tough Decision

   We love pets. We love them so much, my wife and I decided it was time to fill the void left when one of our boy-cats had to be put to sleep due to illness. So, cat-carrier in hand., I went to our local animal shelter this weekend, looking to add to our furry family. And I found one. A (large) male cat about 5 or 6 years old. He's neutered, and had his shots before I picked him up.
   We got home Saturday afternoon. And that's when the trouble started. At first, our newest addition seemed okay. We are very well aware there's a period of time when the animal gets used to us and vice-versa. And we would have been fine with that. But things took a few turns for the worse.
   Our budding new cat started scrapping with our 15 or 16 year old boy-cat several times. The worst was Sunday night when they got locked into each other. We finally had to use pillows, and literally beat them apart. Our elder cat may have come off the worse, and I'll be keeping a very close eye on him. I just shudder to think what would've happened if the "new guy" had gotten hold of our little girl. She's literally half his size, and I fear the outcome would've been an awful lot worse. We've seen, and broken up, cat fights in the past, but the level and intensity of violence in that one was frightening.
   The other major problem was the cat also had a go at my wife. We don't believe it was intentional, but when she picked him up to move him, he rounded on her, and bit and clawed her left hand to the extent that she was bleeding. We think he was just reacting to a new environment, and it was a defensive thing. Nevertheless, I had to take my wife to hospital for treatment, and a tetanus shot.
   The upshot of all this is the cat will be going back to the animal shelter. It's something neither of us want to have happen, but it has to be. If for nothing else than the safety of our other 2 cats. But it's still a hard decision to take.
   Despite all this, we feel he's basically a good cat at heart, and would be a perfect fit in a home with no other animals. And we both hope he finds a loving, caring home soon. Sadly, it just can't be ours.

TTFN

Back!

   And it was a great 2 weeks away. I didn't even mind the long 10 hour drive between Yorkton and Calgary each way. As mentioned in my post below, we caught up with family and friends and generally had a good time. Traffic wasn't even that bad leaving on the Saturday morning of the May long weekend. In fact, I never saw 1 RCMP car the entire trip out.
   One thing I am glad I bought was a portable GPS for the car. I would've been completely lost within minutes of hitting Calgary city limits, not to mention heading out for visits. My old neighbourhoods I could have navigated around, but after 32 years of not living there, anything else would have been a nightmare.
   We also did a quick run to Regina days after we got back from the big trip so my wife could hit her favourite greenhouses and get her plants for the season.
   Next up, trip-wise, is the annual trek to Regina for the annual Secret Garden's Tour in July. Meantime, it's good to be "back in the saddle" again, and back at work.

TTFN