Random 5 for October 18 – inflatables, friendship, WordPress, cats, seasons

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This is my cats' favorite inflatable! Source: fountainterior.com

This is my cats’ favorite inflatable! Source: fountainterior.com

Dirty laundry – It started early this year. People letting their dirty laundry out on the lawn. Driving past at night you will find inflatable pumpkins, witches and whatnot but during the day, it’s all dirty laundry littering the yards.

Life happens – Starting several years ago, a group of girlfriends made a pact to get together for dinner once a month. It was an outgrowth of a smaller group that got together periodically for a mudslide (boozy ice cream drink) starting 15 years ago. Friends were added and others left. Now we are five. Some months get hectic and the group is smaller. It is still great to keep connected through all sorts of life changes. We’ve outgrown the mudslides and select more mature (?) drinks these days.

Source: clipartpanda

Source: clipartpanda

WordPress (sigh!) – For you non-bloggers out there WordPress is the platform I use to post my stories. It’s a wonderful site and mostly free (unless you add fancy stuff). The little prepubescent wizards that work there continually update and keep us current. That is not without pain. This week I lost the number count on my Reader page. That means when I am looking at other bloggers’ post titles I have no idea if it’s short or long. I complained when they put the reading time there (and I apologize for complaining) but please give me my number count back? I will sent you some chocolates! K?

Will ya move over? I can barely fit my tail in here!

Will ya move over? I can barely fit my tail in here!

Velcro – I’m not sure what’s up but lately my young cat Morgan is attached to me with Velcro. No matter where I am, she is nearby — sometimes on top of me, other times on top of whatever I’m trying to do. In a way it’s nice. I feel wanted and loved. However, I do like to use the potty and take a shower by myself without someone staring at me. The good news about cats is that there is no judgement. She’s cool with the fact that I only put tanner up to my knees and my skin is a little floppy.

Gearing for frost – We are expecting our first frost this weekend. We have been flirting with above average temperatures for the past few weeks but our luck is running out. Since we have already prepped our yard for winter, there is nothing to do except perhaps start the fireplace. Each season has its perks.

So how was your week?

65 thoughts on “Random 5 for October 18 – inflatables, friendship, WordPress, cats, seasons”

  2. Kate a velcro cat is very funny, sometimes my cat will freak me out and just be behind me, staring at me and I won’t even know how they got there. Like they have an invisible entrance into the kitchen. Hope your frosts aren’t too bad.

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  3. I love the black cat inflatables. They’d look cool on our lawn. We, however, have our witch on a broomstick on our door. She looks like she took a wrong turn and smashed into it.

    I’m thankful that we have dodged another hurricane season. Hopefully, that weather threat is now a thing of the past this year.

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  4. The problem I have with reading late at night, Kate, is that the elevator doesn’t necessarily make it all the way to the top! I got completely stuck on the “dirty laundry!” I had to really work to figure that out. LOL! Now that I “see” it I’ve had a good laugh at myself and your visuals. 🙂 I have been having computer trouble so my WP reading is slow. And in particular, the longer posts are just not loading at all. I remember when you got your new computer…I hope I can hold out a bit longer. I don’t want the expense. I’m very glad I didn’t miss your Random 5!

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    • Glad you can stop by. Back in the day, I loved getting a new computer. It meant new features, faster, etc. Now it’s just a pain. Programs I have are not compatible. Thing don’t work. Set up always requires a call to someplace far away with people who are hard to understand. My new one has quirks that my old one didn’t yet I don’t want to have to go through that again for a long, long time!

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  5. Did not know about the WP word count feature! [Probably because I don’t use their reader, but still.] GREAT idea — I can see that being very handy!

    Fingers crossed they bring it back for ya. Without, yknow, you having to sacrifice too many of your firstborns. Maybe if you treat WP to some mudslides…

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  6. I’m going to keep my eyes open for “dirty laundry” on my neighbors’ lawns. Maybe the inflatables will replace the cobwebs.

    My daughter was away for four days, and now her cats are all over her–when they’re not asking to go out. They’re indoor-outdoor cats. They don’t know what they need more, her company or the chance to run around out side.

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    • They want whatever they don’t have at the moment. There is a very funny cartoon that shows a lapse of 10 seconds and the cat is sitting on either side of that door several times during that 10 seconds. Jake had a routine. He whined. Then he went outside so the whole neighborhood could hear him whine. Then he came in and whined as close to my ear as he could get. On and one for a half hour.

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  7. Now that’s a serious inflatable each year they seem to be getting bigger. The German hates them as they hiss and bounce. Not allowed.
    THis year the big thing here (In an effort to be different, apparently) seems to be lots and lots of orange (and a lovely purple) strings of mini lights – in arches, around/in grapevine pumpkins…and then there’s the Halloween lsnake across the hedge (It’s the nice young German new neighbors – they’ve never had a house/yard before and their first graders is overjoyed with Halloween here – each day there’s something new in the yard. The “snake” is a bit like a coral snake colored string of lights.) The whole darn thing is so joyous, it makes us smile. …and I shall give him extra candy for trick or treats….we will have to replace a bag husband has almost finished off…you know how it goes.. it’s getting cooler at night….need the extra energy to walk the happy dog.
    Paw waves to your guide cat, or is that guard cat, Morgan. (There’s something going on there…we’d probably be frightened if we knew what….)

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  8. And I thought my wife raised a stink about me decorating the house for the holidays! Can’t beat a friendly get together. Yeah, I noticed they dropped the number count too. The next thing you know, WordPress will be dropping me! Morgan is a friend indeed. Love sitting by the fireplace with a good book, or marshmallows, pillows, my laptop, a hose. A HOSE! What’s that doing here?

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  9. My neighborhood always seems to have more Halloween decorations than at Christmas… that must say something but I’m not sure what…. most of them are pretty creative, not inflatable. I have a velcro cat (Frankie) who at this moment is stretched in front of the monitor. My giant cat Freddie has a sixth sense about when I am in the bathroom and comes running, jumping on my lap… I won’t go into details!

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  10. There’s a word count on that WP reader thing? News to me. I gave up on it entirely. Huh.

    No one in our neighborhood has any of those blow-up decorations. We’re covered in bones, skeletons, skulls and ghosts. It’s quite something.

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  11. Morgan has chosen you and I don’t think it’s a stage. But what do I know about cats? I just know if a dog does it, you are velcroed together for life. Sometimes it works like that with a man too. 🙂

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  13. I’m with you and everyone else regarding the inflatables, could do without them. Someone on my street has them for Halloween and Christmas (how’d you like to see a giant inflated Santa on a motorcycle?) Chilly here today, we even had a few snow flurries. Bill commented tonight if it was 40 degrees and March we’d be ready to wear shorts. But 40 degrees in October and we’re ready to light a fire and bury ourselves in fleece. Morgan’s cute!

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    • I have been eyeing my fleece too. We had a hard frost last night. Our first one. There is something sad about that. No more beautiful flowers blooming outside. All we have are mums and then poinsettias (inside). It heralds the holiday season in a sense.

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  14. I’m not a fan of those inflatables either, Kate. I’ll refrain from sharing my true thoughts. 🙂
    Oh, I remember the Mudslide drink. TGI Fridays, a restaurant chain in Virginia used to make the best ones. Of course, they had about 3 million calories, so like yourself, my friends and I moved on less caloric beverages.
    Stay warm! We’ve got our first frost of the season tonight. I’m not ready for this. 😦

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  16. Congrats on the monthly get-togethers with girlfriends ~ that’s ambitious! I meet regularly with two different groups but usually it’s every two or three months. That’s all any of us can manage. Velcro cat ~ love it! Maybe it has something to do with Jake’s absence.

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    • It’s hard to get together with any regularity. There maybe 2 months a year that we miss but we work at it. I don’t think the Velcro has anything to do with Jake. I think it’s a stage. When Morgan was younger, she liked to be independent. Even though she would let you handle her, she wasn’t interested in being a lap cat. Now she climbs into my lap when I’m on the computer but not when I’m watching TV. She’s a cat. They don’t need to make sense!

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  19. Even the Upper East Side has pumpkins and skeletons and someone of them are dressed. Saw one this morning with a ski sweater, not that I blame him, dead or not. It is freezing here like winter just moved in. I hope he was only here for the weekend since I’m hoping for an Indian summer that could be a stretch, but a girl in multiple layers, can dream.

    I love Morgan’s pirate eye…I can just see him sitting on a chest filled with doubloons and pieces of ate (unsure of spelling) And personally, I think he’s hanging close to make sure his mama is okay after his brother took flight. Cats know…if they could only talk he’d explain it much better than me 🙂

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  20. One of my neighbors put that exact black cat inflatable up in his yard yesterday! This same neighbor has an outdoor black cat who is a neighborhood menace — he’s sent all the local cats to the vet at lest once. (His teeth have some sort of nasty bacteria = instant abscess = $400 surgery. Ask me how I know…)

    I have one dog who herds that black cat home every time we spot him on our side of the street. (A service to all other cats, including ours.)

    My dog went ballistic over that inflatable last night when we walked by. If he gets loose, that sucker is going down!

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    • I know about the nasty bacteria. My black cat Jake had an undiagnosed yeast infection in his ear and he would puncture himself when scratching. It would heal over and create a huge abscess that would stink and be full of puss when it opened. He had 7 of them over 3 months until they found the cause. $$$. I have never seen that inflatable locally. I love that your dog herds it home. Sounds like it may not be neutered.

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      • My neighbor has a terrible time getting that cat to the vet, and so probably there’s all kinds of undiagnosed nastiness. But the cat just showed up on his doorstep one day, with a pink rhinestone collar and no tags or chip. He’s very social with people, and so my neighbor took him in, which was quite a nice thing to do. But I wish that cat would stay on the other side of the street (no one on that side has any cats, for some reason).

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        • There are ways to get him to the vet. Treats. Different kinds of carriers that don’t require jamming them in the front (this is huge!). As a last resort the vet can give a sedative. Wouldn’t have to do often but a good check with blood work, shots and a stool sample should tell it all.

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