Tag: Eric Larson

Hannah and the CoalBear: Lazy Mother of Cats

Hi. I’m Hannah.

I would like to lodge a complaint against the Mother of Cats!!

The world outside has changed over the last couple of weeks. The sunshine is bright and warm; I love to sleep in the sunshine, don’t you? There are more squirrels than usual chasing each other through the trees out front, and sometimes they even come right up to the windows. The bunnies are spending lots of time in the yard where the CoalBear and I can see them, and there are birds again. Lots of birds!! All of this change is really exciting, and the CoalBear and I just want to spend all of our time playing. So, is the Mother of Cats spending all of her time entertaining us? Giving us tuna? Letting us outside to play in the sunshine and delivering the kitty cookies right on time?

No. She is not!

The Mother of Cats has been sleeping more than usual (and I’m a cat, so believe me, that is a lot!), reading her books, and knitting. Knitting isn’t too bad if we get to play with the yarn, but nope, nope, nope… once again she is not sharing her toys with us like she should.

Mateo the CoalBear is doing his best to play anyway! He loves the needles, I perfer the yarn myself. He is kind of a weird kitty…

The Mother of Cats has been listening to an audiobook during some of her knitting, so I get to listen along with her while she knits and I help with the yarn management.

This is the book that we listened to last week.

Imagine a man who dreams of waves of energy zooming through the air from a spark of electricity to a device that can detect the waves; the device is like magic, letting messages travel from one place to another without wires. He dreams of all the changes that the wireless messages can make in the world, and also about how much money he can make from the business that installs and runs the devices that make this possible. His name is Guglielmo Marconi. Pretty cool, right. (Can I have some tuna now… all this typing is making me hungry…) At the same time in history, there is a man who works creating and selling “cures” for illnesses. He is married to a woman who is very bossy and demanding (CoalBear… I’m looking at you…) and one day he snaps, kills her, and tries to escape with his true love to America on a ship. His name is Hawley Harvey Crippen.

I have to be honest; I played a lot with toys and this fortune paper from a Chinese cookie while the whole book thing was going on…

Are you tired of the story yet? It gets really exciting now. Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland yard finds the reminds of the murdered wife. The hunt for the escaped murdering husband with his girlfriend becomes a big deal in the newspapers, and the captain of the ship realizes that two of his passengers are the people being hunted by Scotland yard. The captain sends a message back to shore using (what else???) his Marconi wireless device. Chief Inspector Dew boards a fast boat and the chase across the Atlantic Ocean is on, with coordination between ships made possible because of … wireless messages using the Marconi system. Marconi messages keep the press updated, and suspense builds as the public hangs onto every new update and intercepted message reported in the news. Whew! My whiskers were just a tingle listening to all of this! Chief Inspecter Dew overtook the ship with the murderer, and he was apprehended before he could land in Canada. Because of the publicity, Marconi’s business was secured. What a story. What a book!! I absolutely need some tuna right this minute!!!!

Look at how much the Mother of Cats got done while she was listening to the book and knitting.

So that has pretty much been the last two weeks. Sleeping, knitting, and listening to really interesting books. I like the yarn and the books, but I do hope that the Mother of Cats will stop being so lazy… Mateo and I have needs, right?

I’m not lazy… I’m a cat. I’m supposed to sleep all day.

This is Hannah, signing off.

>^..^<

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

  • The sweater that I’m knitting is the Winter Albina sweater by Caitlin Hunter. I’m really pleased with how it is working up.
  • I’ve already started another Eric Larson book: The Demon of Unrest.
  • I’m in another scleroderma flare, and I did go see my rheumatologist for help. I am now in possession of an emergency pack of steroids and narcotics. Whew. It’s good to have an emergency pack!
  • I’m doing better lately, but the cats are still kind of disgusted with me.
  • What was that Chinese cookie fortune that Hannah was playing with?

Friday, February 28th, was Rare Disease Day. I found that I was too lazy unable to write another post for the day, but here are some nice ones that I wrote in previous years.

The Saturday Update: Week 18

Another week. It is just crazy, but with sunny warm weather the days seem to be going a little faster. The lawns have been mowed and I am working in the gardens now clearing out the debris of last fall and planting seeds into the bare spots. I managed to get my new roses planted and am now working on clearing out the gardens in the back… so many dandelions for the bees right now, so I feel a little guilty. Luckily there are lots of other things that I can get done out there before I dig and clear those last gardens.

So the pandemic is kind of overwhelming for me right now. The news here in the US is full of people storming the governmental offices and demonstrating to be allowed to reopen the economy. I get that, but what is insane is people demanding that their lives be returned to normal. You know, no more masks! Packed beaches! I want to go to the movies and to restaurants. I want everything to be the way it was! I refuse to take a vaccine! I don’t care that we don’t have testing! This is just affecting old people anyway, and it’s just fake news, so let’s just go back to normal!!!!!

Sigh.

This was me five years ago when I was first diagnosed with scleroderma, Sjogren’s disease, and all the rest that came crashing down on me in the months that followed as all of the test results and specialists visits happened. I get it. The loss of your former life can be crushing. Get over it. To pretend something is not happening is not “living without fear”, but rather just burying your head in the sand. It is happening. Be brave. Put on your mask, make the adjustments that you need to in your life, plan for the long haul, hope for the best, and plan for the worst. We will make it, but not if we all just act selfishly.

Books

I decided to switch the order of my weekly topics because this book is so appropriate for what is happening in my world right now.

I finished The Splendid and the Vile this week. Oh, my goodness. This is the book that I needed right at this moment. Imagine blackouts, nightly bombings, fires, thousands of casualities, and a pretty darn hopeless outcome as the nation prepares for invasion. Your allies are gone, and your friends just don’t want to get involved. In the midst of almost certain disaster Churchill emerged in Great Britain as the man that they needed at that time. Hugely energetic, positive, honest, ecentric, and ruthlessly demanding of the people around him, Churchill played a long game over years navigating his nation’s way though what can only be described as desperate times. His leadership and the development of central operations that placed and maintained a wartime footing over years was just inspiring for me and a great counterpoint to the nightly news. This book unpacked the early WWII years and made the people involved in the British effort come alive. I am so glad that I read it.

Now I am again picking away at several books at once trying to settle on one to carry me through the next week. I started a book called She by Pete Brassett because I had the audible version along with the book; I also kind of like British detective books so it was appealing. Oops. A book about a serial killer. What was I thinking of? I then started a science fiction book that is the last in a series that I’ve been reading. The Last Emperox by John Scalzi is set in a scenario where civilization as they know it is collapsing and the rich, powerful corporations are all scrambling to secure as much profit and security as they can in the unfolding chaos and uncertain future. There are machinations, betrayals, assassinations, and blantantly unscrupulous business practices that completely ignore the welfare of “the little people”. What was I thinking!! This is perhaps not the best book for me to be reading at the moment. I can go back to American Dirt (desperate mom tries to escape Mexican cartel and get to America and safety… maybe not) or return to The Mirror and the Light (more political maneuvering with a unhinged leader at the helm; death and betrayal is everywhere…), or just give up and read some nice Japanese cat comic books that I have. That’s the ticket! I am going to focus on The Complete Chi’s Sweet Home for a few days!

It’s a plan!

Knitting

My needles have been busy this week. You know how it is. You can work for days and days without seeing any progress, and then suddenly it is apparent how much you have actually gotten done.

I finished up my Sweet & Tartan socks this week. I am so happy with how they came out and couldn’t be more pleased with the pop of color that the I-cord at the top gives them. I wore them for a couple of cool days this week and they really stay in place. My notes are here.

Then there is the knitted Maya cat that I am making for my son. The knitted Jonesy needs a friend, right?!

I’ve finished the back from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail. Next I will be doing her legs.

You can’t see the cat in the above knitted cat rug? Huh. Maybe I should show it to you in another format.

There, is that better? I’ve draped the knitting over MacKnitzie so you can see how much progress I’ve made. I’m well on the way to having a cat!! This pattern is Cat by Clair Garland. My notes are here.

I’ve also been knitting and knitting on my new V-Neck Boxy sweater. I am about 9 inches below the armhole now and am approaching something that might be looking a little like a sweater.

What do you think? This is V-Neck Boxy by Joji Locatelli.

Garden

Things are starting to come to life out back. I have an immense shrub by my back deck that is almost as high as the rain gutters. It is now covered in blossoms.

The shrub is absolutely covered in these scented blooms… but they don’t smell nice. I’ve actually been keeping the patio door shut to keep the scent out of the house. Later on this shrub will have nice little red berries on it. I’m pretty sure that this is a Viburnum.

Remember my very unhappy roses that I put back outside after they spent a winter being babied in the house under grow lights? They are slowly toughening up, and today I saw this:

Aww… it managed to get a bloom out. See little guy, you will be okay.

Well, that’s all for the week.

Please, please, everyone, be safe!

Remember to read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.