As I was waiting for the kettle to boil this morning for my initial heart starter, I heard the most horrible sound I can recall ever hearing. It sounded as though Basil was being run through a meat mincer and he wasn't happy about it. I raced outside to find he'd got himself caught in the fence between our yard and where the sheep reside. He was dangling by the front left paw, not touching the ground, and leaping about like a marlin on the hook. He snapped at me as I approached, so I came up behind him and held him in a bear hug while I lifted him up and out of the groove his paw was stuck in. On release he stood on three legs and I feared he may have a broken bone, the paw seemed to be at a funny angle. Fortunately it turns out he was just being cautious, he was running around on it in less than a minute, and the paw looked fine when I examined it more closely. He came inside to be comforted by Paula & I for a short while, but soon enough wanted to go outside again. Upon his exit, he immediately went over to the scene of the accident and started sniffing everything around the area. Basil was conducting a crime scene investigation and he wasn't going to miss any clue as to what went wrong so as not to have a repeat.
I've just been given an assignment to write down three things I learned today... for the next week. (Extra credit to do it for a month) So I'll put these at the bottom of the blogs.
I just got to a section entitled “Believe in Yourself” in Jeff's course. It's heartening to know I'm not the only one with those negative voices inside, telling me I'm washed up before I even start. He actually quoted a few of my inner voices verbatim.
Oh the dignity of cats. While I was making bread this morning, Lexi decided to jump up on the chair, on which I'd just put the bag of flour, only to find there wasn't sufficient room. She fell off. She strode away with her head and tail at high port as if to say “I meant to do that, I didn't really want to be on that chair anyway.”
Well, the parts for that computer I sold last week just arrived. Time to build my first Tasmanian made system to have it ready for installation on the morrow.
The trip to the post office to check the mail today wasn't the usual quiet walk with Basil. The Australian Ducati club came to town. It seems the club has an annual ride, this year it's through Tasmania. The local store was swamped even though they came in in dribs and drabs. The local dogs in the yards on the highway were beside themselves and they set Basil off. He was extremely hard to keep on the lead. He didn't know if he wanted to confront the dogs, the motorcycles or just run away from the whole ugly mess. After having dropped Basil off at home, I stopped and talked to a couple of riders. The first trip out had been a waste of time anyway as the post office was closed at that time. Shirley (the post mistress) must have been at home (next door to my home) for lunch. I'd tried to go see Sam (our policeman, see yesterdays post) for a chat, but he was out too, making the streets, well the street, safe no doubt. Anyway, the riders. Odd thing, the only riders who seemed to want to chat were the only ones not riding Ducatis. One was on a retro styled Triumph, though fairly new, that reminded me of a '79 Suzuki GSX 1100 I used to own, I used to call it Bessie. The other was on a Honda, though he said it was made in Italy, so I said “Oh, so it's an honorary Ducati” he smiled and nodded. I didn't know Honda had a factory there, apparently they have two.
I just spotted what looked like a tiny scorpion, but without a tail, climbing the wall. According to google and wikipedia, what I just saw was a pseudoscorpion. To quote wiki (something I'm loath to do, but desperate times...) “Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans since they prey on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies.” I regret having crushed it now.
Three things I learned today:
1} We have pseudoscorpions in our house, and they're beneficial.
2} Australia has a Ducati club and they go for annual rides.
3} Honda have two factories in Italy.
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