gurdymonkey | Report from Points North

Ah, that burning dust smell tells me the furnace has kicked on and I shall have heat in the apartment for the first time this season.

It's a good thing I like and understand cats. Jean and Scott have nine of them. Well, actually, the cats have them. Simon, the shy one, was petrified of me for the duration. Nischka is as pathologically disdainful as a show Persian should be. Rupert has a superiority complex which means he cannot be seen being petted by the other cats. That STILL leaves six to pet, play with and be sat upon by. Kika, the elderly matriarch, mostly kept to her window in the kitchen, or her ottoman by the wood stove in the living room, but she permitted me to help her in and out of the window as needed and didn't seem to mind me much at all. Nandi, the other older female, loves to be a lap cat, and she parked herself with me a number of times. Lexi would cruise by for petting and ear scritches. Bella, the little black and white tuxedo female, is a total Daddy's girl, and she has Scott completely in her thrall, but she would come and play with Tobikomi when I was bouncing his feather-on-a-stick toy. I got some weight training in by lifting Khyber (15 pounds of glossy coat and muscle convinced he is a kitten). I confess that Tobi charmed the socks off me. I'd never seen a Japanese bobtail before and he's very typy in conformation, coloration and personality. He loved me. LOVED me as in "She understands! She PLAYS with me! Perhaps she will order me some sushi!"

Friday we ended up having a rather chilly walk around Portland's Zoo - I really am not acclimated and in the shady spots it was darned cold, but my leather jacket did a pretty good job of keeping me warm. It's a very nice zoo, with a large section devoted to the regional forests and critters of the Northwest: mountain goats, otters, cougars, a pair of rescued bald eagles, bears, and so forth. The enrichment toys for the cougars appeared to be dummy "hikers", which amused me no end. Red Ape Reserve is not, in fact, a cabernet from some odd little estate, but the orangutan habitat planned for the four currently residing in an indoor exhibit. And the Alaskan Tundra section of the zoo is being phased out in favor of lions. There's obviously a lot of work in progress going on to improve the place and so forth. Probably would've been mobbed if it had been warmer out, though I imagine they were drawing a fair number of late-in-the-day arrivals for their holiday light displays. I found some goodies for my nephews in the gift shop and managed NOT to come home with any monkey paraphenalia.

Heading back east towards home, I saw the full moon coming up over a panorama that included not only Mount Hood, but the ridge that can be seen from the house (the one with snow on it!) and the unmistakable flat-top of Mount St. Helens.

I did not know this, but my friends enjoy recreational plane-spotting. We went home past the airport, pulled over along the fence line and they both pulled out monoculars and we sat for awhile watching planes go in and out.

Dinner was Jean's take on turkey pot pie - leftover turkey, gravy and frozen vegetables go in a casserole with frozen biscuits laid on top. Yum! I have to remember this one because it was perfect cold-day comfort food. I got to see the rest of Blackadder The Third, including the Christmas Carol parody, which I'd never seen before.

It was cold and overcast Saturday, so we stayed in most of the day. Well, Jean and I did, though Scott was out doing firewood chores, since they plan to heat the place using the stove for the winter. I worked on my wool tunic, which has been imbued with the shed hair of several cats. We ended up at a great little restaurant called Uncle Vinny's. Scott had a massive calzone, Jean went for the steak and lobster special - which was way more food than I needed or wanted, so I had a smaller steak dinner.

They dropped me off at the airport. I was given a standby ticket because they'd oversold, but they got several volunteers for bumping right away and I was put next to an emergency exit which meant tons of leg room. Got into Oakland more or less on time, but baggage claim was ridiculously slow and the line at the taxi stand likewise, probably because of the holiday weekend. Got in the door a few minutes before midnight.