schedule

The move is approaching quickly. Saturday we pick up the truck and start loading, and Tuesday morning we hit the road. I won't miss Ohio, though tomorrow night we're seeing Flight of the Conchords in Columbus.



It will be awesome.

I live among football Gods

Apparently every football every used in every Superbowl was made in that Wilson factory I jog past. Sweet.

In which I try to help a poor creature

There are lots of stray cats running around our new neighborhood. The woman who used to live next door would put food out for them, so they used to congregate right by our house. After she moved (about a week after we moved in), most of them moved on and seem to have found some other food source. Someone else probably puts food out, although I did watch one little kitten catch a small bird. We still see them around, and they all look fairly healthy.

Except that one tiny cat was different than all the others. This one never really moved on when the others did. It just stayed in this area, and seemed to get skinnier and skinnier. One hot day I broke down and gave it some water. After a few more days of it crying outside our window I couldn't help giving it some food.

I felt bad about it though, because feeding a stray cat ultimately just creates more stray cats. I couldn't tell if it was a male or female, but we've already seen a pregnant female running around, meaning soon there should be some homeless kittens. I gave food to the starving cat out of sympathy, but if I give it enough food it will just compound the starving cat problem.

This one was different in another way though. All the others are somewhat afraid of people, and will run away if you get too close, but this one really seemed to like people. It made me think that this one didn't really know how to fend for itself and needed a person taking care of it. I wasn't just going to adopt a feral cat off the street though. The whole thing bothered me and I didn't know what to do. I kind of just wished it would go away, but every day it'd show up and cry outside our door. It even would try to come inside when we went in and out, and we had to chase it away.

So yesterday I put some food in a crate and caught the poor little thing. We found a humane society 30 miles away and took it down there. They'll spay her (turns out she's a female, I never lifted her skirt to find out) and give her vet care if she has any diseases or parasites or anything, and give her a chance to get adopted. They said she seems friendly compared to many other stray cats that get brought in, so hopefully someone will take her. They also said they think she's full grown, which surprised me because she's so small. I know she was severely undernourished but figured she was still pretty young. She seemed very happy about the food they gave her.

The only problem now is that they sometimes do have to kill cats at that shelter. They said they give every cat a good chance to get adopted, and at the moment they had a lot of room. This little cat seemed very nice, so hopefully someone will take her. We're thinking about going back to see her after they get her all fixed up. If she's nice, maybe we'll take her.

pictures

Moving into the new place. Lots of cat pictures.

Ohio

I don't even know where to start writing; I feel like so much has happened. The bottom line is that I am now in Ohio. I loaded up the Penske truck last Wednesday and Thursday, closed on the house Friday afternoon, and arrived here very late Friday night. By Sunday we had dumped everything from the truck into the house, and here I am now, amidst the boxes and clutter.

Our new place is kind of a dump, but I kind of love it. We don't have air conditioning or a dishwasher. We have one small bathroom that smells a little funny no matter how much we clean it. It is a 10 minute walk from campus and we look out our front door to the local high school. I have some pictures I can post if I find my camera sometime soon. Our cats seem to like it here. Our rent is $325/month.

I'm glad to be here. I'm glad that my house sold, that the long drive went smoothly, and that my wife will be starting school again next Tuesday. We've found a farmers market for fresh locally-grown produce, and a family farm that raises grass-fed beef and pork, and free range poultry and eggs. We stocked up on good beer and wine. Life is good.

life

I've made a lot of big decisions over the last 3 years.

I bought a house knowing that there was a good chance I'd be quitting my job. I quit my job. I didn't get another job for a year and a half, and played poker to support myself in the meantime. The job I finally took paid a whole lot less than the one I had quit. I invited my girlfriend to move in with me when she dropped out of college, after we'd only been dating for a few months. A few months later we got married. We visited the Philippines, my first trip abroad. I started eating sushi all the time. We adopted a cat. Then another. Now we're selling the house and move to Ohio for her to finish school, presumably leaving both of our jobs behind. We have no idea where we'll be going after that.

The only choices I'm sure were good were Kira and the cats. The rest might have involved varying degrees of stupidity, but I don't think I could have done it any other way.

And it was good

I had to start writing somehow, and now I have. Its 3:30 in the morning, I just lost $190 playing No-Limit Hold'em, and there's a girl asleep somewhere in Ohio. I'm exhausted and exhilarated, and life is so damn good.