One thing was cut the hair away from the two red spots on Booger's back, two spots I'm afraid are "pre-warbles," bot-fly larvae that have burrowed under his skin and will hatch and make a nasty hole on their way out. They look like maggots (which I suppose they are) and they gross me out.
I've killed a couple of bot-flies in the house this week and have been brushing all the cats as they come around. Booger, who weighs 21 lb, can probably lose a half pound of loose hair. He's just too big to deal with it himself (can't reach), but thankfully he does like being brushed.
At least this solves my "who goes to the vet next" question. Sapphire, by the way, came back negative on her feline leukemia test, which both Dr. Ralph & I find fascinating, because it means either she passed the disease on to the kittens but was immune herself, or they got it after they stopped nursing, which has been a good five years ago... seems likely, but where would they have caught it? We've always had at least one dog, so strange cats don't tend to come around.
It's spring here now, both officially and actually. Yesterday I hung hummingbird feeders. According to the map here, they've already been sighted north of us, and looking out my east window just now I saw a tiny bird in the apple tree, but it may have only looked especially small because of the huge robin near it...
I'm working on the second sock before turning the heel on the first. I don't know why exactly I feel more comfortable doing it this way, but I think it cuts down on Second Sock Syndrome and helps keep the tension of the cast on, the length of the cuff, etc, more uniform. I have knit two at once, once, and don't really like it. (Liked it enough to try it again, but didn't finish those.) That first time I knit two on two circulars.
I don't seem to have a problem with ladders on dpns, but on circs I did. I prefer my little dpns.
Tonight I plan to go to the Knit Night (tried to spell that Knight, yes I did) at Coffee Tree Books. In the email newsletter they said they'd graduated from scarves to socks, so I think it'll be
Last night I mowed. Pulled the riding mower out of the garage - first I was amazed that it started right away --we have such bad luck with mowers, it seems we spend another $400 on yet another used rider every year or two-- but before I got twenty feet from the garage I rolled right out of one of the back tires. th'Mr took the tire off & next door to Mike's, who aired it up with his compressor, then (th'Mr) put the tire back on. I got back on the mower, it fired right up again, but when I put it in gear, nothing. No reverse, no forward 1 - 5, only neutral. This was especially disturbing since before changing the tire I'd used reverse (backing out of the garage), first gear (easing around Moby Dodge, the big white truck), and then third gear (eager to mow, right before the tire rolled off). I put it in neutral and scooter-paddled it down hill out the driveway and next door to Mike's. He puzzled over it as I had, checking the belts (as I had), and finally said "AHA!" and pulled the wheel back off. Said, "go home and figure out where you dropped the keyway." th'Mr came out with his magnet-on-a-stick (I normally scorn gadgets, but this one's worth its weight in gold) and immediately found the "keyway," a 1/4" wide rectangle a couple of inches long, which Mike reinstalled on the axle, and I happily mowed till it was too dark to see where I'd already been.
The birds were ecstatic. If I'd known off the top of my head where the tape recorder was I'd let you hear how happy they were at the season's first mowing. I don't think I've ever beat all the neighbors to it before; I bet this weekend at least three of them try to catch up with me.
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