After the Knitting …

After the knitting comes the sewing and stuffing …

But, because of the intricacy of the knit, there can be no sewing the whole thing together and then stuffing it.

Here I’ve sewn the two body-sides together at the spine, sewn up the four legs and stuffed them, and was about to start on the tail when I discovered the underside must be done before the back and tail.

The written instructions?

The written instructions are terse. I’m having to guess and gamble in places. Such as, pay out a front paw so the underside will stretch far enough to take in the backleg on that side sufficiently.

Because of course no hand-knitter will ever achieve exactly the same tension as another hand-knitter.

Another Day, Another Storm

I’m really enjoying them …

Holey moley I didn’t even see this develop

Only a couple of minutes later the outlook was this …

I head to retreat indoors, found the perfect viewing gallery with the windows in front and the dark curtains at my back …

Be warned, it’s a mite long but I dearly wanted to catch a lightning strike …

The sound is good too … and all this before sunset … The following clip after sunset. Even darker

And all this with just an old iPhone!

Cat Diary 18

Tonight, the first time ever, I finally understood what the old woman wanted me to do when she said, “Come on! Come on!” in that high voice she uses to encourage me to do something good.

Just recently she started watching Jackson Jupiter, or some such name, to get a few clues about what we were trying to do.

Training she calls it. I don’t see the use yet. But as I said today I played along. I came. I walked beside her and every four or five human paces she gave me a kibble and patted and stroked my back and said, “Good girl! Good girl!”

Whatever, you know? Just keep the kibbles coming. We went twice up and down the house and then I swung into the den, stood waiting for my supper. The other half of the kibbles that means.

How many days has it been that she gave me a kibble just for looking at her? About a month worth of days.

Anyway, the training is worth it from my end. I just picked up 24 more kibbles than if I’d been stubborn and ignored her entreaties.

This is me on a day when it is sweltering outside and we have the aircon going inside.

Skewed in Favor of Who …?

How is it even a fair election when people can choose whether or not to vote?

Everybody of the voting age in Australia is required to turn up to vote. You can of course mess up your ballot papers, but people are far less likely to do that it seems, than in the US where you can just not turn up.

Hope the Republicans have stacked the wings with a few strong influential honest stalwarts. Could be they’ll be needed.

The article below is the most uplifting thing I’ve read so far about the election results …

https://substack.com/home/post/p-151265805

And just a couple of hours later, one of my favorite magazines opened with this article …

On excitable neurons and how we craft our future

The “Ten Cannots”.

I met William J H Boetcker today, by way of my daily Gisnep Puzzle.
Best known for the “Ten Cannots” apparently. As I read them, I saw several that fly in the face of present day public domain discourse.

Example … “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.”

Aren’t we all wishing the rich would pay more tax, and if they continue to stay recalcitrant on that score, I’ve read that we should just take some of their billions. And, how much good we’d be able to do with XYZ donate just one of his several billions. And, how much can one person spend in a lifetime?

“And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

“You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

“You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.

“You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

“You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.

“You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

“You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.

“You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.

Mind you, I do like his seven crimes …

  • I don’t think.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t care.
  • I am too busy.
  • I leave well enough alone.
  • I have no time to read and find out.
  • I am not interested.

These are the curse of the times and I’ve been guilty myself of a few. I’ve been too busy. I have left well enough alone when I had no more energy to argue an alternative. I have had no time to read and find out when it’s been a thing that didn’t affect me.

But I would like once or twice in my life to be able to say “I am not interested.” I am, what sometimes feels, as though I am cursed with the curiosity of the proverbial cat. I can usually generate enough interest to explore any arcane, cryptic and/or mind-bending field of study. I used to call it all grist for my writing mill and may it grind finely, but since time is narrowing, I have started to limit my explorations.

Any of these “can-nots” that grab you? [Lol, I put the hyphen in because I kept reading “carrots”!]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._H._Boetcker