Charlotte, a different kind of kitten

I've raised 2 kittens in the past.  The first one, Sarah, was interested in a variety of foods, especially salty items, during her first year.  I really had to defend my potato chips and French fries

The second one, Charlie, was a one-food cat most of his life.  He was so particular he only ate Deli-Cat.  He'd leave other foods untouched for days.  The only life-long exception was raw met.  He'd get to the cutting board faster than the dog.  During his last 2 years he tried all kinds of things, but the first 10-11 years he was very picky.

Charlotte is a whole other story.  She likes to try a wide variety of foods.  She really likes bready foods like pancakes, bread, cereal.  She is the first one in the dog's dinner dish.  The one thing we really have to vigorously defend when we have it for dinner is shrimp.  It drives her wild. 

This morning she was intent on having some of my Rice Chex.  I'd give her a small piece, placing it on the edge of the recliner.  If I was slow moving my hand, she'd gently push my hand aside before sweeping the piece to the floor before eating it.  She did that more than once; I gave her several pieces to keep her from fishing out her own from the bag.

As I write this entry she is stretched out on my arm, on her back, taking one of her many daily naps.  Of course, as I finished that sentence, she finished her nap and jumped down.

Bleeping Traffic

Today was my move from my sister's to our daughter's.  I found what looked to be a really straight-forward route.  Ought to be a piece of cake, and bring me onto I-80 in the outside lane, ready to exit.

Oh what a cluster!  Somewhere north of San Rafael traffic got very thick.  I mean really heavy.  It was stop and creep.  I got off to get some gas so I wouldn't run out partway across the Richmond Bay Bridge.  I wanted to pee and get some food, but the vibe at the McDonald's and the A&W wasn't right and they were very crowded so I just got back on the freeway.  I got off the freeway at 6:05 and back on minutes later.  From there the traffic was terrible, even for the Bay Area.  At the end of a half hour I'd gone almost three miles.  At the end of an hour and 45 minutes I'd gone 5 miles.  What should have been a two hour drive (according to MapQuest) tuned into a five hour drive!

And the language!  There was one gal who was not happy about how long it was taking to merge, so she decided to make people get out of her way.  It's "bleeping merge?  Bleeping let people merge.  It's bleeping merge!"  I'm sure most of you can imagine the word I'm bleeping.  Then it turned out she didn't really want to just merge, she wanted to get from the outside incoming lane to the inside lane of a 3-4 lane freeway.  Once she bullied the first drive by hanging out the window and screaming at them, she plowed all the way across traffic.

I tend to be more laid back and will let the occasional driver in front of me.  I don't let in the ones who race to the end of the merge land, then insist on being in front of me.  I just "don't see" them.  Today I was yelled at.  I had windows down since it was actually cool once I got that far south.  A pickup with a horse trailer was pulling alongside on my left, people were waving, so I eased back to let them in.  With the windows down I could hear the driver behind me, and probably the passengers, too, yelling NO! at me.  Nothing they could do about it.  The were disgusted enough with me that they zoomed to the outer lane and got ahead of us.  I did not, however, let the companion truck and horse trailer in front of me.  One at a time is enough.

So, enough for tonight - enough traffic, enough hours in the drivers seat enough rude people.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be a smooth ride out of California, back toward Montana.

Memorial Day Parade

Memorial is on of the days Grand Lake hosts a parade.  And for Grand Lake, it's pretty good sized parade.  And on a day when Trail Ridge Road is closed, like today, there can be fewer people in the parade and watching it.  Add rain and/or snow, and there's another potential drop. 

Today they weren't lined up 4 and 5 deep, but there were few, if any, gaps along the parade route -- all 5 blocks, or so.  You'd be surprised how many vets were in our parade.  Our whole county has fewer people than many of the smaller towns on the other side of the "hill". 

Just last Friday Tom was talking with the organizer of many of our parades and he asked Tom to join the other veterans in the parade.  This is his first time marching with the other vets.  The guys in uniform did a better job of marching in step, the other group had a marching song to help keep them nearer to being in step.

Color Guard

 

First the active duty military

then veterans from many decades, mostly without uniforms

If you look on the far side of the street, in the black jacket, with a white candy bag ... it's Tom!

 

And, the rest of the veterans

And a tribute to those still missing

 

 

To cap off the parade, the color guard and special guests present a ceremonial raising of the colors.  The flag they raised was originally presented to Nursie Young, a Pearl Harbor survivor.  Each part of the ceremony is presented by a vet or someone closely related to the vets.  One touching moment was when the MC asked all veterans and active duty service members to raise their hands and keep them up so the rest of us could look around and identify one or more to shake hands or give a hug later, to thank them for their service.

 

I'll keep the photos to just the veterans, but every parade we see local businesses of every size, local clubs, and it's an excuse to ride your horse in town, or walk your dog down the middle of Grand Avenue.  And, the sheriff, fire and other emergency services; even the dog catcher was in the parade today.