Margaretpork

Well, Margaret is back among the indoor cats. I set the trap before I went to sleep last night, and when I got up, Her Woebegone Self was in the trap. She hadn't eaten the catfud, but had managed to throw it all over the porch. She was sitting in the trap with an empty bowl, basically. I picked up the trap and took it (and her) upstairs to the bathroom, and let her out. She immediately yowled and climbed up onto the windowsill to sit among the aloes and sit on the tomato plant, going "wow... WOWWWWWWW!" and hissing at me when I scratched her head.

I refilled the food dish, got her a catbox and some water, and then got her brother, Bert, to sit with her. Tonight when I go home, I'll sit and talk to her and reintroduce her to being a Sociable Indoor Cat(tm).

Catnip will help.

She has lost quite a bit of weight in the weeks she's been outside, but her eyes and teeth look good. She has a donk on her nose from the wire of the trap cage, but she did that to herself, so I'm not going to worry much about it. I am actually pleased I didn't trap Mr. Possum instead, because now Mr. Possum can clean up the catfud that's all over the porch.

I had another horrendous dream last night that erased itself from memory as soon as I woke up. I only remember that it was horrible.

I think I'm going to take the Volkswagen over tonight and get the front tires balanced and the inflation checked. I have this suction-cup gooseneck thing stuck to the inside of the windshield, holding my GPS unit, and because of some imbalance in the front tires, it vibrates so badly I can't actually read the thing without reaching out and steadying it. I must have thrown one of the front tires out of balance hitting a curb or something. In any case, Sears does lifetime balance, and I've taken them literally on that, getting some tires rebalanced three or four times during the course of their lives. The tires that are on the VW have lots of tread left, and while they grip in snow quite well (they're Continentals) they don't "handle" all that well on dry roads. I think when they wear out, I'll go for wider, lower tires with better grip.

I am already wary of putting lots of money into performance modifications for this car... I could do it, and like it, but it'd be just another obsession.