The craziness continues. Who knew that Parkinson’s ate your brain and made you go batshit? Not sure how much longer it will be before the old fart goes completely off the rails. Kind of makes me think of the old Who line: “Hope I die before I get old”. Amen to that.

And, on yet another sad note, Truman disappeared. I don’t know what happened to him. One evening he was there, trilling away as he did when you petted him and the next day he was gone. I suspect an owl, he was just a kitten. The loss of someone you love is always hard but somehow harder when they disappear without a trace.

Little Truman, gone to blue. Miss you, buddy. Looking forward to seeing you on the other side.

It’s been a hectic two months since last I posted something here. I’ve been working on an idea for an online business which, of course, requires its own elaborate website. I have no idea whether this idea will work out or even if I’m capable of running an online business but I think the time is right for such an idea. I’ll probably launch it sometime early in the new year.

Another thing I got involved in was an update to my Wordpress plugin Birthday List. I received an email from Christian Schuster from the Blackwood Forest area of Germany. He asked if it were possible to translate the plugin into German which I thought was a great idea. Together we worked it out and it will soon be available on my plugin page.

In the midst of all this, I’ve been learning first-hand about dementia, the proper perusal of baby food and feeling more than a little like an out-of-shape Heracles cleaning the Augean stables or, in my case, the Red-Neck Jungle Haven, while having to endure 24/7 television as background noise. In this last regard (TV), I’ve become convinced that the world has gone utterly mad. I’m making progress wading through this nightmare, though there are far too many moments when it seems hard to tell.

On a sad note, Chaplin, mentioned in an earlier post, didn’t make it. One moment he was scampering about as any kitten will and within a day he was gone. More recently, Flannery, one of six kitties that showed up on my doorstep awhile back, was hit by a car. I had tried not to get attached to this ragtag group of gypsy felines but of course, knowing me, that was impossible. I try hard not to play favorites but of them all, Flannery was the sweetest and her death has hit me hard.

Chaplin and Flannery, Gone To Blue. See you both, and all the rest, on the other side.

Sometimes you have bad weeks. And then you have weeks that really suck big time. The last four or five years have sucked big time for me, more or less, but this last week has been a doozy. Spook went to blue on Sunday. Last night my little Manx, the Little Boy, or Beast as he was affectionately referred to, went to blue. My two oldest cats, 18+ for Spook, 16+ for LB. The last of the California Kitties.

Except for Chaplin, a new kitten much too young to be without its mother, found by the side of a twisting, isolated white limestone road a week ago, it is way too quiet around here. The Ginger Snap family has adapted well to this mild Floridian climate and spend most of their time outdoors. Only the old guys stayed indoors nearly 24/7. Spook was the yowler, LB the clinger. Now they both are gone. I miss them.