Making It Up As I Go Along #284

MONDAY...
— Laundry day for the holiday. After that I have supper with Sheila and her friend. Hour plus walk goes a slightly different route to change things up.

TUESDAY...
— Scrubs in the morning... the DVD of the show that is.
— Work is okay... I walk twice at work, once alone at supper and the second time at break with Lisa and Josee.
— My stomach feels a little off by the tail end of work. I get some groceries on the way home and don’t go for a night walk. I decide to rest up and go to bed a bit earlier. It’s cool out tonight anyway, so if I’m a touch under the weather, I shouldn’t go out breaking a sweat.

WEDNESDAY...
— Not feeling super today but go to work all the same and get through alright. I work in TC AFIS for a change. The big transformer in AFIS buzzes too much... I needed to get away for a day, it’s like working under power lines!
— Due to the way I feel, I skip the walk again tonight. Like last night, it’s cool out and I think a cool night sweat would be playing with trouble.

THURSDAY...
— Movie in the morning and a few e-mails. I’m up a bit early to try to get on track for a very early rise Friday. It’s day shift tomorrow because of the staff golf tournament.
— Work is okay... we take off a bit early to get home for the early morning thing. Blah.

FRIDAY...
— Long day due to two hours sleep and an early wake to go to work on dayshift. Lucky it’s not for long. In for about three hours and then it’s off to the golf tournament. It’s hot today too... 38 with the humidity. We play okay but the heat wears us down as a team. Linda, Michelle and Carole are the team mates. I talk with several others (including Sheila and Laura and Jonathan and Derek) after and during the meal. Then it’s home for a very tired night.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day. I actually get up early (around 4:30 or 5:00). I snooze a bit in front of the TV until 6:30 and then get back to bed for another three hours. Not ideal. Six episodes of The Office on DVD and some UFC fighting from London on TV.


Cats (Not the Musical)
The cat! Is there any more evil domesticated animal on the planet? I think not. Although cats can be so evil and moody that they’re entertaining. I suppose that’s what make them pets that we tend to rather than meals that we cook up on holidays.

I’ve personally had extending relationships with only two cats. There’s Baby... the darling of my aunt Sylvia. I’ve house sat for Wayne and Sylvia several times, having to feed their ‘baby’, Baby for days or even a few weeks at a time.

Baby is the typical cat. When she wants attention, she comes to you and craves it. Little “rrra” style meows beg for a rub of the ears. And she would always want you around at night, either so she could share the bed or jump up on a window perch, where she can overlook her domain... with you, a loyal subject... beneath her.

But then Baby would also become psycho cat. Not thirty seconds after she comes to you purring and looking for love, she’ll swat your hand and leave a little trickle of red welling up from your wounds. Expletives often follow such an encounter. Leave it to Baby... she’ll turn on you with the blink of an eye.

Friends have often told me their cat stories. Josee, a co-worker, recently tried to get me to take her cat. A 19 year old that’s “looking for love”. Sounds nice enough except for the fact that this animal sleeps most of the day and then meows loudly through the night. Josee’s family can’t sleep because this cat is basically screaming it’s, as Josee puts it, “Death Meows.” What a delightful pet.

Laura has also told a cat tale or two. Her cat is up around 20 years old too and you can tell, through the passion in the way she tells the tales, that Laura truly hates her cat. Although I should qualify the hate as being that of an entertaining hatred.

Laura has often told us how she plans to stop feeding the cat on one of those occasions when the rest of her family are away for a few weeks. The best stories of her epic cat battles again, deal with a meow that is unleashed from the depths of hell. In Laura’s case, it’s when the cat is hungry and looking to be fed. This seems to most often happen when Laura is trying to sleep in the wee morning hours. The cat will stand outside her door and let out a blood curdling “meeeerroooowwww”. Witnessing Laura’s own personal version of the meow is worth the price of admission in itself. She’ll then go on to tell us how she stomps out of the bed, swings the door open, and proceeds to kick the cat down over the stairs. All told with a smile on her face... and since the cat remains alive at such a ripe old age, I’m sure also told with a degree of exaggeration. But it is a fine example of how much cats can mess with our heads.

The main cat of my dealings has been Ebby. Aunt Ruby and Uncle Lee’s mammoth feline who ruled her world with loving disdain for all. Word has it that Ebby started out a normal size. She ventured into Ruby and Lee’s life and took over from the other cat, Oreo. That is to say, when the food was placed in the bowls, Ebby would become the bully and proceed to eat both her share and that of the older Oreo. By the time I first met her, Ebby was a 25 pound mass of fur. I, like most others who first happen upon her, thought she was a stuffed toy. Perched upon a sofa, perfectly still, you’d spot Ebby and venture over to rub her soft fur. Then a great swat of a paw would shoot out from under her form, harmlessly batting you away. The fact she was declawed made such encounters laughable.

Ebby would do everything possible to show it was her way or no way. Sitting in a chair on the phone meant you were to play with her. She’d plop down at your feet wanting to be gently pushed and stepped on. Occasional bites would remind you who’s the boss.

Bedtime, you remained at her service. Too big to jump straight up to the bed, she’d swat at the mattress and wait for you to lift her up. At Ruby’s house, I shifted over a chair... giving her the step she needed to make it to the bed on her own. But, months later and with Ruby and Lee out of town, Ebby took over my home. The bed situation become more and more a battle of wills for power. It began as Ebby hitting the mattress and then standing up against the side of the bed to be lifted up. Near the end of her stay, though, she’d hit the bed and then back away just far enough so that I couldn’t reach over the side and get her. It got to a point where I eventually had to shut my door to her entirely. This would leave her batting at the obstruction... and shoving her paw underneath, feeling the air inside my room in horror movie fashion. It left you feeling like a trapped mouse only millimeters from capture as you plaster yourself up against the wall in fear.

Ebby would also go where she wasn’t allowed. Always with the look of complete understanding of the situation but the desire to show you that she’s the one calling the shots. The most blatant of such situations being when she stood next to my coffee table, glowered over at me in a “watch this” manner. Waiting for me to tell her “don’t you dare!” And then she proceeded to leap up onto the coffee table and settle down for a nap within the forbidden zone. When I rushed over and grabbed her down, she walked away, not so much irritated but pleased with a mission successfully accomplished.

Ebby has since died. But only a few weeks ago, during one of my late night neighbourhood walks, I happened upon this massive cat. It just sat there in the middle of a road and stared at me as I passed by. It’s colourings were identical to Ebby’s... and how many 25 pound cats are out there anyway?

I walked by, almost tempted to stop and call her name. Cats, they can control your lives even from beyond the grave.

Making It Up As I Go Along #283

(click on images to enlarge... the "Little Red Jellybean" just prior to departing and the new car below)

MONDAY...
— Not a bad night at work. It seems what I thought was something bad I ate last week (when my stomach didn’t like me) was sickness after all. Well, maybe. I talked to three people tonight who all had fairly similar thing going on with them over the last week.
— Hour and a bit walk after work.

TUESDAY...
— Not much out of the ordinary. My stats at work are fine... I watch Dexter on the movie network before work (good show made by Showtime).
— After hour+ walks Sunday and Monday, I take a night off.

WEDNESDAY...
— Early work day. In for a luncheon. I pick up Leslie, Janice and Laura and then Sue and Michelle join us at the restaurant. I haven’t talked with Laura or Janice very much at all this summer, so spending some time around them was pretty good.
— Work after the luncheon is distracted by an evening storm. It’s the heaviest thunder and lightning storm I’ve seen since moving to Ottawa more than four years ago.
— Still wet on the ground after midnight but the rain stops and I go walking anyway. Out for little more than an hour... and it does rain some while I’m there... also, it’s odd. Paramedics and what look like police are out around. The paramedics dealing with a guy in a van and the police just standing, looking out into a dark and open field. But they don’t tell me anything so I figure I won’t be mugged for going on.

THURSDAY...
— Work is fine. Get some Chinese food for supper and it’s only Glen, Josee, Martin and me there today (Dave is off sick).
— No walk. I have to get up early tomorrow so I thought I’d just watch some Scrubs on DVD and go to bed.

FRIDAY...
— Out early to return the Echo and get the Mazda. It all goes pretty easy and in about two hours. It was weird waiting on the curb at Toyota and seeing the people there go out and get in my old car and drive it off to get cleaned up. I almost felt like saying “Get away from my car!”
— Take a glob of mud from a truck on the drive to work. It smacks the front fender and I’m wondering if I damaged my new car on day 1... but it came off fine.
— Take extra time at supper today to go eat at Grace O’Malley’s with Sheila and others for Sheila’s birthday. Linda, Michelle and Sheila’s roommate, Nicole are also there... plus a few guys I didn’t really know.
— Skip out on a return to Grace O’Malley’s... they didn’t call me before work ended and I was getting tired anyway... so home I went.

SATURDAY...
— Around the house for the morning with some DVD of Scrubs and some baseball on tv. Off to visit with Karl in the late afternoon, then supper and a movie. Knocked Up is really good.


Changing of the Guard

This past week marked a change. Out with the old and in with the new. Gone is the flashy red environmentally friendly... here is the blackness with a bit more substance.

The changes of which I speak are to do with the cars. I’ve let the red Echo go and am now the owner of a Mazda 3 sport.

This is actually my first car purchase done basically on my own. Mom and dad helped out with some finances but the legwork, decision making, and negotiated was all on me this time around. It actually went better than I expected although who knows, maybe I’d have been able to get an even better deal with a hard line closer helping me out.

Negotiations have been ongoing for little more than a week. Toyota came calling about my soon to expire lease and I went in to discuss options. The only Toyota option I was seriously considering was the Matrix. And, truth be told, test drives and negotiations on such a car were going pretty well. The Matrix has plenty to offer and I left Toyota feeling as though it would soon be my new car.

Toyota is a fine company. They generally treat you well. But the last few times I dealt with them in maintenance calls on my Echo, I was a little less than impressed. I couldn’t help but feel Toyota were trying to get me to make more and more unnecessary spendings and, when it came to their strong suggestion that I spend $550 on new summer tires rather than $75 to put my old ones back on, it was the final straw. It didn’t help that they still tried to charge me the $75 for the tires I didn’t have them put on... and the fact that another garage said the old tires were good enough left me leaning towards a departure from Toyota.

Still, switching my lease from and Echo to a Matrix is tempting. It’s set up to be a smooth transaction and the salesman kept showing me the ease in it... that I could be in a brand new Matrix with two days.

The Matrix drives well and it has loads of room for anything that I’d want to drive off with (bike, IKEA goods, stolen items). Lots of room for everything. And although it’s no Echo on the gas, the Matrix is solid at the pumps too.

On the down side, my first time on the highway is memorable for all the wrong reasons. I’d say 80% of my Ottawa driving occurs on the highways... and the Matrix has about as much acceleration as a Viking ship with two rowers. I get on the on ramp behind another, non-to-sporty car and I watch it pull away from me as I ease my way up to 100 km/h. Eventually, the ol’ girl gets up to speed, but if I am to go with the Matrix, it won’t be for the getaway abilities on that theft trip I alluded to earlier.

Still, my feelings by midweek (two weeks ago) are that this will be the way I go. I’ve always known Mazda has a hatchback version of their popular 3 model but I also always assumed it would be enough of a price hike over the Matrix that no Mazda deal would get done.

So a week ago Friday past, I decide to drop by Mazda before going on to Toyota for, what I expect, would be the day the deal is done.

To my surprise, the Mazda 3 Sport is actually within the same price range as the Matrix. The fancy Matrix is actually more expensive than the base 3 Sport. And, upon examination, the 3Sport has about as much to offer in it’s basic model as the Matrix does loaded.

With that, the game is on. A quick ride in a Mazda tells me it’s definitely in the game. And I go back to Toyota for another Matrix test drive and leave promising them nothing. If all goes right the following day, I’ll become a Mazda Man.

And the next day, all does go right. Before I know it, I’m signing on the dotted line and phoning Toyota with the thanks, but no thanks.

This past Friday was switch day. I take a final picture of my little red Echo (the Little Red Jellybean... as it became known at the office). I hop in and pull away from home feeling a little sadness. The poor ol’ girl doesn’t know she isn’t coming back. I feel like a dog owner bringing man’s best friend to the vet to get put down. Maybe the Echo has an inkling of change the night before, when I clear out my personal stuff... perhaps it wasn’t an easy night’s sleep for the poor thing in her favourite parking space.

Either way, the drive back to Toyota is a solemn one. And I fear an accident just before I turn it over. But the accident doesn’t come and I get out for the last time at the Toyota dealership.

The salesman is all business today. Nice enough but not in it to make much small talk. He just goes out, gives the car a check over, and brings me my licence plates. We’re all done in twenty minutes and I’m left on the side of the road, waiting my pick up from Mazda. It’s an awkward silence. Me on the sidewalk back on and less than a hundred feet away from the Little Red Jellybean. I consider one last picture before I go, and am about to take out my camera, when the Toyota guys make their way over to my car, pawing over it and discussing it’s future... a future without me.

I turn away again, looking for my ride, and I hear the familiar cough of startup. I look back to see my car pull away and drive around the corner, out of sight... gone forever.

With my memories in place, I get out to Mazda. A refreshing start... a new relationship. It feels good. And there’s my black new friend (Nothing racial in that by the way). A sexier, cooler looking friend. Ready to take on new adventures... ones the little red one was never totally comfortable doing (like taking four friends with us... only my sister ever sat on top of the cup holder that is the middle seat in an Echo).

With power, grace and confidence, my new friend takes me home. I hope the Little Red Jellybean has a good life ahead.