11 January 2015
'Fraidy Cats
11/01/15 19:02
So it's looking more and more like Imoto is going to get to stay with us. We’ve had no problems between Imoto and Momiji, at least nothing severe. Now it's not that they get along, mind you. On the contrary, for a long time they weren’t comfortable around each other at all. The thing is, we have two passive-aggressive cats. Now there's words I never expected to see in the same sentence, passive-aggressive and cat. It just doesn't sound right. But nonetheless that's what we have. You see they won't fight. Occasionally we hear some hissing, mostly from Momiji, but then she would hiss at Geiger on occasion too. Imoto is quiet and goes about her business, mostly after dark. Momiji is a bit more moody than Imoto. You can almost hear Momiji saying, “You brought someone new into my house. That’s OK. Don’t worry about me. I'll just hide behind the couch for the next twelve hours. Really I don't mind.” I never thought I’d see a cat sigh and roll her eyes, but I swear that’s what she’s doing.
For a while we were wondering if we in fact had two cats, or one that just changed clothes every few hours. We'd see Momiji but Imoto would be hidden and we couldn't find her. Later Marsha would be holding Imoto but Momiji was nowhere to be seen. And then there were the couple of days when we thought we had no cats. Both of them decided to stay well hidden all day, and Marsha had nobody to keep her company. By Wednesday though, the two of them would sit in the same room, aggressively ignoring each other. Thursday morning Momiji decided to growl alarmingly at three in the morning, but it went no farther than that. I'd like to say it was because she saw Imoto in the door or something but hey, she can't see a chair leg in broad daylight. I seriously doubt she noticed a cat the colour of nocturnal shadows in the middle of the night. I suspect she was just expressing her general dissatisfaction at life. By this weekend though, they seem to have reached a stable rapprochement. The two of them seem to be getting along and mostly are annoyed at us.
This too shall pass.
The good news is that Momiji is back on her food. For a few weeks after Geiger left she stopped eating her regular food. She’d only eat the Friskies stufff we used as treats. It was like she was mourning his loss by binging on junk food. Now that there’s another cat in the house she seems to be coming out of her funk. Which we’re all happy about.
In other news, there's this guy I work with, Cody, that used to be a hockey player. OK up here nearly everyone used to be a hockey player but he was actually quite good, even got as far as the WCHL I believe. However, he realized that was as far as he was going to get so he went back to school and became a computer programmer. Who says athletes are dumb? Anyway he keeps his hand in by refereeing games, something he actually started doing back when he was in his teens. He does anything from bantam children's league through junior to local rec leagues to semi pro games here and on the mainland. They even have him train new refs so you know he’s pretty good. As he’s single he's the go-to guy when they need someone and he usually does two or three games a week.
Anyway, on Monday he came in and I could see that he was sore. Very sore. His knees, and hips, and back were obviously not working well at all. He explained that they needed him to do some games over the holidays and as his family had already done the eggnog and dry turkey thing on the 25th he figured why not. From December 26 to January 4, a period of ten days, he did fifteen (15) games in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver AND another eight (8) games here in Nanaimo. Subtract travel time to and from Vancouver this meant he was doing three or four games every day. Now that would be bad enough if he were playing. When you’re playing hockey you get to rotate in and out with the line changes. But no, he was the referee. Referees and Linesman don’t get a break. They start skating before the game, skate the whole time the game is going, plus they usually stay on the ice during breaks except when the Zamboni is cleaning the ice. No wonder he was tired. I would be dead if I tried that. OK, as I’ve never been on skates I’d likely be dead within a minute of the start of the first game, but that’s another story. As the old joke goes, he didn't have to go back to his regular job, he GOT to go back to his regular job. At least he got $40/game out of it, so unlike the rest of us, Cody came out ahead after the holidays.
When the heck did I learn so much about hockey.
And speaking of work. We were putting together a couple of systems this week for a demo for Cargill. You know, the big company that makes, um… everything I guess. They are a multinational that seems to have a hand in everything from shipping and manufacturing to grains and ores to consumer products and drugs. Anyway I mentioned that Cargill was based in Minnesota, the headquarters are in Minnetonka. The people I work with were surprised I knew this so I went on to tell them how Cargill started as Carl and Gill’s Grain elevator near St. Leo, Minnesota. Due to some lucky breaks during the war, (the guy running the Canby elevator got drafted), they got a lucrative contract from the War Department and eventually were able to grow the company into the huge multinational we know today. I went on to explain that a lot of big companies got their start in Minnesota. 3M for instance started as Mary, Margaret, and Marlys Drygoods Store in Taunton, and Dow Chemical was originally Dassel, Olivia, Winthrop manufacturing. They were intrigued so I continued. I added that during the war an Army engineer named Peter Arden was stationed in Minneapolis. He was working at the University of Minnesota with Simon Hills of Hills Brothers Coffee fame trying to come up with a coffee plant that would grow in cold climates. Shipping coffee in from South America was getting to be a problem due to German U-Boats and the Army was looking for a replacement. When that project failed the factory was converted over to making bombs and shells. This is why to this day the site is still called the Arden-Hills Munitions Plant. Anyway, one winter day he got home and is wife, who was from California, complained about the cold Minnesota winter. He replied “I’m sorry honey… well, what can I do about it”. Within a few months he had invented the automatic thermostat and started Honeywell.
That was one story too far. I shoulda’ stopped with DOW. Oh well it was fun while it last. (I am surprise it took them this long to figure out you were telling STORIES! mga)
PIX: For Marsha’s birthday I got her some roses. Don’t tell her they were on sale. The second picture is the fog that’s hung around for the last week. This is why I don’t have any scenery pictures this week.
For a while we were wondering if we in fact had two cats, or one that just changed clothes every few hours. We'd see Momiji but Imoto would be hidden and we couldn't find her. Later Marsha would be holding Imoto but Momiji was nowhere to be seen. And then there were the couple of days when we thought we had no cats. Both of them decided to stay well hidden all day, and Marsha had nobody to keep her company. By Wednesday though, the two of them would sit in the same room, aggressively ignoring each other. Thursday morning Momiji decided to growl alarmingly at three in the morning, but it went no farther than that. I'd like to say it was because she saw Imoto in the door or something but hey, she can't see a chair leg in broad daylight. I seriously doubt she noticed a cat the colour of nocturnal shadows in the middle of the night. I suspect she was just expressing her general dissatisfaction at life. By this weekend though, they seem to have reached a stable rapprochement. The two of them seem to be getting along and mostly are annoyed at us.
This too shall pass.
The good news is that Momiji is back on her food. For a few weeks after Geiger left she stopped eating her regular food. She’d only eat the Friskies stufff we used as treats. It was like she was mourning his loss by binging on junk food. Now that there’s another cat in the house she seems to be coming out of her funk. Which we’re all happy about.
In other news, there's this guy I work with, Cody, that used to be a hockey player. OK up here nearly everyone used to be a hockey player but he was actually quite good, even got as far as the WCHL I believe. However, he realized that was as far as he was going to get so he went back to school and became a computer programmer. Who says athletes are dumb? Anyway he keeps his hand in by refereeing games, something he actually started doing back when he was in his teens. He does anything from bantam children's league through junior to local rec leagues to semi pro games here and on the mainland. They even have him train new refs so you know he’s pretty good. As he’s single he's the go-to guy when they need someone and he usually does two or three games a week.
Anyway, on Monday he came in and I could see that he was sore. Very sore. His knees, and hips, and back were obviously not working well at all. He explained that they needed him to do some games over the holidays and as his family had already done the eggnog and dry turkey thing on the 25th he figured why not. From December 26 to January 4, a period of ten days, he did fifteen (15) games in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver AND another eight (8) games here in Nanaimo. Subtract travel time to and from Vancouver this meant he was doing three or four games every day. Now that would be bad enough if he were playing. When you’re playing hockey you get to rotate in and out with the line changes. But no, he was the referee. Referees and Linesman don’t get a break. They start skating before the game, skate the whole time the game is going, plus they usually stay on the ice during breaks except when the Zamboni is cleaning the ice. No wonder he was tired. I would be dead if I tried that. OK, as I’ve never been on skates I’d likely be dead within a minute of the start of the first game, but that’s another story. As the old joke goes, he didn't have to go back to his regular job, he GOT to go back to his regular job. At least he got $40/game out of it, so unlike the rest of us, Cody came out ahead after the holidays.
When the heck did I learn so much about hockey.
And speaking of work. We were putting together a couple of systems this week for a demo for Cargill. You know, the big company that makes, um… everything I guess. They are a multinational that seems to have a hand in everything from shipping and manufacturing to grains and ores to consumer products and drugs. Anyway I mentioned that Cargill was based in Minnesota, the headquarters are in Minnetonka. The people I work with were surprised I knew this so I went on to tell them how Cargill started as Carl and Gill’s Grain elevator near St. Leo, Minnesota. Due to some lucky breaks during the war, (the guy running the Canby elevator got drafted), they got a lucrative contract from the War Department and eventually were able to grow the company into the huge multinational we know today. I went on to explain that a lot of big companies got their start in Minnesota. 3M for instance started as Mary, Margaret, and Marlys Drygoods Store in Taunton, and Dow Chemical was originally Dassel, Olivia, Winthrop manufacturing. They were intrigued so I continued. I added that during the war an Army engineer named Peter Arden was stationed in Minneapolis. He was working at the University of Minnesota with Simon Hills of Hills Brothers Coffee fame trying to come up with a coffee plant that would grow in cold climates. Shipping coffee in from South America was getting to be a problem due to German U-Boats and the Army was looking for a replacement. When that project failed the factory was converted over to making bombs and shells. This is why to this day the site is still called the Arden-Hills Munitions Plant. Anyway, one winter day he got home and is wife, who was from California, complained about the cold Minnesota winter. He replied “I’m sorry honey… well, what can I do about it”. Within a few months he had invented the automatic thermostat and started Honeywell.
That was one story too far. I shoulda’ stopped with DOW. Oh well it was fun while it last. (I am surprise it took them this long to figure out you were telling STORIES! mga)
PIX: For Marsha’s birthday I got her some roses. Don’t tell her they were on sale. The second picture is the fog that’s hung around for the last week. This is why I don’t have any scenery pictures this week.