Happy Caturday!


I don’t have cats, but in solidarity with those who do, I thought I’d dedicate part of today’s post to cats. Mainly because Debby gave me this cool Haunted Cat Tarot deck for Christmas. Any particular card you’d like to see?

When I took her to an appointment earlier in the week, I took this coloring book with me.

I’d already torn a page out of it at some point, and I decided to color that one. But I wasn’t sure how to color it, so I looked up various wild cats and found this one to inspire me.

Here’s how it turned out.

What I do have is dogs. The other day, after a frantic round of digging, which she isn’t supposed to do, Delta apparently found somebody’s last marble.

It’s all cleaned up and put with the other marbles now.


Meanwhile, Anime had dental surgery yesterday morning, and she’s had a miserable two days. She started drinking water again sometime around noon today, and this evening, she took some meatballs (canned dog food rolled around her regular meds and her pain med). She’s finally stopped dripping blood from her mouth and is overall a lot more comfortable tonight. Through it all, she’s been very sweet and stoic, so clearly it wasn’t her last marble Delta found.


The tree has been stripped and all the ornaments and decorations have been put away.

Except we have to find the bin that has the box that my vintage Holt Howard angel goes in. Meanwhile, I posed her with an appropriate old Southern novel that I haven’t read in decades and probably should read again.

Sometimes when I get really busy, I forget to eat. When tonight’s light meal of a BLT, half an apple, and some potato chips seemed ridiculously good, it occurred to me that I’d only eaten yogurt with the water and coffee I drank today. It was a good sandwich, though.

A day of baseball

Photos from my Wednesday, when I was the guest, along with Lindsey and Rhonda, of Lindsey’s father at an Astros baseball game! (Tom went with them to a game a long time ago, and it was my turn this time.)

I’ll start with some souvenirs.


Another cup! Doesn’t say “Minute Maid Park,” but it does say Astros!


Lindsey bought a couple of these little hats that were then filled with ice cream. She and her dad shared one, and I took a couple of spoonfuls from Rhonda’s, and then she gave me her hat after she finished her ice cream. I took the second photo with an official league-sized baseball to show its scale.


Took this one of Astros number 30 player, right fielder Kyle Tucker, at bat.


Yesterday, every fan at the game received a free replica Kyle Tucker 2022 World Champions ring.


Back at RubinSmo Manor after the game, Pepper stopped playing for a few seconds to admire it.


While foster cat Tofu hung out next to me taking it all in.


This isn’t my ticket; our tickets were on Lindsey’s dad’s phone. It was likely the ticket of one of several guys sitting in our row. We were seated in front of the press box, and at the end of the seventh inning stretch, members of the media tossed bags of peanuts into our area. Rhonda just missed snagging a bag when a guy taller than us grabbed it. At the end of the game, he turned to me and said, “I feel like I stole these peanuts from y’all,” and gave me the bag, which I in turn gave to Rhonda, whereupon Lindsey’s dad said, “Give them to Tom since he couldn’t come to the game!” That’s exactly what Rhonda did when Tom came to pick me up at their place later. Thank you, stranger, for the peanuts and maybe the ticket. More good baseball vibes.


This little fan sat in front of us with her grandparents and mother and was SO good the entire game.

These are some photos Lindsey took of the day.

Going to what in the pandemic would be called a “super spreader event” was something I did because I was almost always masked, Lindsey and Rhonda were masked as well in highly trafficked areas and inside our Uber rides, and all my companions were considerate of my concerns and in helping me be comfortable. Lindsey and Rhonda invited me to join them at this game around the beginning of July. They knew I’d planned to go to a baseball game (albeit in Chicago to see the Cubs play) with Lynne in 2020 before the pandemic put an end to all travel plans.

Like people all over the world, I was bummed that all the things I intended to do in 2020 never came to be, plus I lost my job, and of course, since then, I’ve had to face the fact that chronic anxiety became part of the new pandemic/post-pandemic me. There are several reasons I’m not able to travel these days, only minimally related to my health, and my family and friends outside of Houston are understanding about that. The way friends like Lindsey, Rhonda, Lynne, and Amy, and family like Tom, Tim, and Debby, help me navigate and adjust to how to “do” life, going places and seeing people in ways that make that easier, gives me a quality of life I wouldn’t have without them.

Once again, as I described in yesterday’s post, baseball has come to have wonderful associations for me. I’ve woven my new respect for the game into the lives of a couple of my characters in the work in progress, and “Papa Smo,” as Lindsey and Rhonda call Lindsey’s dad, told me great baseball trivia during the game in the name of “research.” Lynne, who has been a huge baseball fan her whole life, is glad to have me come on board and like Lindsey, Rhonda, and Tom, is always happy to help me understand the game better.

These are great memories that will carry me through the coming days when I monitor my health for any signs of Covid exposure because while, as they say, “the pandemic is over,” the virus hasn’t gone away and is having a bit of a summer resurgence, though fortunately most people are not as sick, or not getting as sick (thanks to their immunity from either having had Covid or because of vaccinations) or being hospitalized as much. This, too, is just part of anxiety and something I work to manage. Such realities are one reason writing and creating and having interactions via this blog and my Instagram account are so helpful to me. Thank you for reading here and commenting or emailing about posts; you all lift my spirits.

I spy…

…my very cool new friend I just spent a few days with.


Simon, rescued and named for another very cool cat from the past. (I am not the mom/rescuer/namer of either of the Simons.)

I was out of town for a few days, and I’m home now. I’m still trying to decide what I want to share about the trip.

Almost Nothing But Trouble!

Trouble Cat Mysteries No. 1

Back in March of 2020, before I knew I’d be laid off, and when I was still in the habit of reading fiction, an opportunity presented itself for a great sale of a mystery cat cozy series launched by Carolyn Haines. The first book, Familiar Trouble written by Haines, invested me in this cat turned sleuth. The twist was that except for occasional revisits, each of the books in the series would be penned by different authors. As a big fan of Haines’s Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series, I trust her recommendations and bought and downloaded all the Trouble novels then available.

Then… the pandemic happened and brought with it my inability to focus on reading fiction. Since I’ve been trying to remedy that in 2022, I opened my Kindle library and dove into a world of Trouble. I am not a bit sorry, as I’ve enjoyed all of Trouble’s adventures and getting to know lots of characters in different locales, being introduced to new writers, and enjoying some human romance along the way.

Considering world events and national events–including things that should have been bigger news but which have come to seem routine instead of the cultural shocks they are–for me, March became about reading for the pleasure of escape–no research and all non-fiction.

Following is  what my birthday-month reading list was–the Trouble Cat Mysteries in order:

The last one, Year-Round Trouble, I read in paperback rather than as an ebook like the rest of the Trouble mysteries (thanks to Dean James for making that possible).

In non-black cat reads, I read the exquisite 17th Inspector Gamache 2021 offering from Louise Penny:

I also caught up on Miranda James’s Cat In The Stacks Mystery series:

Received the below as gifts from Tim during the pandemic and now have read them.

I ordered the most recent two in the Plum series and will read those in April.

Just for fun, while I was waiting for the 27 and 28 Stephanie Plums, I reread these three Lizzy and Diesel books on my Nook. I wish there were more in this series, and I’m always happy when Diesel and other characters from the series show up in the Plum books:

That’s a total of twenty-eight! I know that won’t happen again, because I have a lot of nonfiction still to read, and that’s much slower for me than fiction. But I do feel like I’ve made up for lost time and am back in a novel-reading mindset. I’m glad, because I’m four books behind in the series of another favorite writer.

I watched very little television, listened to only one podcast, and slowed down on my own work in progress. I need to hit that writing hard so I can finish the fifth book and get to the sixth one!

Button Sunday

I know a lot of people who’ve lost beloved companion animals lately and know this button is true, as do I. Today, February 20, is National Love Your Pet Day. Whether your pets are furred, shelled, hoofed, finned, scaled, winged, or feathered, love the ones you’re with, think about the ones you may live apart from, and cherish the memories of those who’ve made the world a better place for you.

Mood: Monday


I think every Monday I should steal borrow someone’s photo from the Internet and give it this caption.

Came back to add the below thread, because damn. This is roughly what my brain yells daily.

‘For years during Obama/Biden, you Trumpers claimed “AMERICA!” like you were cowboys or had stormed the beach at Normandy. You screamed that Obama, the constitutional law attorney, was violating the constitution. You claimed to be patriots, constantly. You bitched about…

‘Executive orders, Benghazi where four Americans died in a terrorist attack but then mocked a president who shed tears after 22 little kids died at Sandy Hook. You called these kids parents “crisis actors” while they grieved for their children. When 600 were shot in Vegas…

’58 killed, you just pounded out excuses why we need MORE GUNS! Our country is about freedom of religion, yet You wanted to ban Muslims. You hold up the flag like it’s a deity, but wear it as a shirt, or size 48 cargo shorts so your armpit sweat and ball-cheese desecrate it…

‘We are all watching the unraveling of this wild experiment, America. Trump has cheated, lied, stolen, does it daily. He’s gotten people killed, pulling the troops out of Syria got Kurds, our allies slaughtered. The Russian army has a base WE BUILT. You don’t care. From day one..

‘..with that crazy ass Edgar Allen Poe inaugural speech, to lying about the crowd size. He’s lied 22000 times, your leader. He’s lied about the wall, taxes, infrastructure, job numbers, Epstein, Cohen, Parness, so many have come forward and told you who this failure really is…

‘You shrug it off, he’s killed our free press, at least to you. You think you’re “American?” Seriously? The same people you believed about Obama/Biden, Nixon, whenever they fukd up, you call “fake news.” About a 7 time bankrupt multiple business failure who paid off a pornstar

‘he raw dogged while his illegal immigrant wife was raising their newborn. You claim to follow Christ?! He was sued for raping a 13 year old. Case got dropped 16 days before the election. Wonder what that check looked like. Russian Bounties on our troops, you still have his back..

‘You think you’re Patriots? You make me gag. 200 thousand of your countrymen are dead because he wouldn’t do anything, and Dr. Fauci, a man that was instrumental in stopping AIDS, gets death threats for telling the truth. You pick a man WHO CANT READ, over a genius virologist. Wow.

‘You like him because as many of you say “he’s like me!” Is he? A man who was handed 400 million dollars when daddy died? That sound like you? He’s like you in some ways, he’s not smart, he’s out of shape, he doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. Like you. That’s not US…

‘at all. The greatest generation worked together to beat Germany, and Japan and all who tried to roll over and kill democracy and freedom. We were liberators of concentration camps, now we have concentration camps. And you are fine with it, obedient cult members. With nothing to

‘…show WHY you believe in him. WHY you’re okay with his racism, misogyny, lying, incompetence and destroying an economy that Obama and Biden built back after W’s and Cheney’s destruction of it. No evidence, unless you own stock in coffins and eviction notices. You give reasons…

‘…why it’s okay for our black brothers and sisters to be shot by some asshole teenager wilding with a AR-15. You back him up while a man gets shot seven times. in front of his three kids. “HE HAD A KNIFE!” Bullshit. Or a woman, a nurse, just sleeping, cops bust in, kill her…

‘…against everything this country stands for. It’s unbelievable, unconscionable, unGodly and like you Trump supporters, UnAmerican.
You’re okay with him breaking the post office, filling his pockets with your tax dollars, saying he’d date his daughter. Cuz U wanna date yours?

‘His buddies have been convicted of felonies, he pardons them, you paid for the trial, you paid the cops, the investigators, the judges, and he let em go. Our rule of law, just a history lesson. You’re not American, you don’t give a fuck about America. You’re ready to go into the

‘…street and shoot, pepper spray and run over your countrymen, people who are protesting injustice FOR THIS ASSHOLE? A man that let 200k die, wants you to inject disinfectant and thinks that because he can remember Person Woman Man Camera TV. He’s a genius. Do me a favor because

‘I love this country, what it stands for, the free speech it affords, the opportunity it presents, the freedom it provides, I’ve only done well because of the promise that is America. You say you’re Americans, but you just live here. You don’t cherish it, you sold out cheap

‘to a bankrupt used car salesman who smiles and says “you’re getting the best deal” but the car breaks down on the ride home. Call yourselves what you like, Trumpers, Magats, Deplorables. I don’t give a shit but NEVER call yourselves “AMERICANS” you don’t know what the word means.’

Christopher Titus