I'm going to have a cat

The cat I mentioned earlier is "summering on the Cape" :-) so I went haring off today to visit it. God is Cape traffic awful. There was an accident so that added another 1/2 hour to the usual 1/2 hour delay at the bridge. If you know anything about Cape Cod, the city is Eastham, which is about halfway between the fist and the elbow. 90 miles from my house.

The cat is not perfect. Her name is Lulu. I'm not sure if I'll keep the name; past experience says I will. She's a Maine Coon, which means she's huge and long-haired. She's about 6 years old.

There's a long litany of humans involved: the former owner who is sick, her daughter who lives in my town, and her sister who lives on the Cape (at least in the summer, I didn't ask if they were year-round or seasonal residents). The daughter, Kate, is the one I've been dealing with electronically.

The former owner was unable to take care of the cat, so she got mats, despite having been shaved at the beginning of the summer. Kate (who was at the Cape with her family for the weekend) said she brushed Lulu before I came, but it wasn't at all obvious. We'll see what happens when I'm responsible for grooming -- Kate is only there on occasional weekends, and the sister is not really up on taking care of cats, though she likes the cat and is kind of sad she has to give it away. I'm not really clear why she has to, other than her husband apparently hates cats.

They're able to keep it for another few weeks, which is really great from my perspective, because (I neglected to blog about this) I'm going to California again, and don't want to saddle my housemates with a brand new cat. I'm also getting them to keep it for another week so we can have our party without worrying about a brand new cat. I'm even getting them to deliver the cat! So I don't have to make the 180 mile round trip again. Since they make that trip regularly. Though I suppose they might have a carful with their own family and gear, so it might not actually be that convenient.

Lulu has always been an indoor cat, and doesn't seem inclined to try to go out, so I'm going to try to keep her indoors. Of course, 17 year old humans may not cooperate. So the cat has to not be Houdini. I'm a little worried that the cat will get out and then get killed and then I'd have to tell Kate and her kids, who would be sad. I met the kids today and they thought the cat was cool and they're sorry they can't keep it either. I don't remember what their problem is, some allergy in the family.

So the real problem with the cat is that while she was happy to sit next to me and purr while I petted her, she doesn't really like to be carried around. Maybe this is OK, given that she must weigh at least 15 pounds! On the other hand, I've had cats who didn't like to be carried in the beginning, but were eventually resigned to it and put up with it from me. I just have to apply my "plus three against cats" bonus. There was some discussion of dental work that was done a year or so ago, and so I opened up her mouth and took a look, which engendered some "wow she let you do that" from bystanders. I didn't say "well, duh, plus three against cats" because I figured it would get blank stares, but I definitely thought it!

She's apparently picky about her litter box; I said I'd like them to give me all her accouterments so she is more likely to do the right thing for me.

I FORGOT to ask if she likes to sleep with people. I'd forgotten about that; Chloe didn't sleep with me much. We'll see what Lulu does when presented with the opportunity. Maybe she's so fat it'll be hard to jump on the bed! (In addition to being naturally huge, she is clearly overweight.)

Bicycling adventure to the Cape

No, I didn't bicycle 180 miles.

However, I did bicycle about 30. I made a plan with Ken where he drove to a convenient point 23.3 miles away in the direction of the Cape, and bicycled home, while I bicycled there, picked up the car, and continued on my way.

23.3 in 1:49 for a stunning average of 12.7. To be fair, there was a substantial elevation drop. I could really tell; while there were occasional small rises, mostly it felt like I was riding downhill.

For navigation, I tried using my phone. The shorts I was wearing had pockets that the phone would stay in even while pedaling, so I just pushed "go", and was in fact able to hear "in 1000 feet, turn left onto X road". Every once in a while, it would say "GPS signal lost". It would never say "GPS signal found", and I was somewhat concerned, but it always managed to find itself before the next turn. On one longish stretch, there were two "GPS signal lost" messages, implying that it was found in between. I'm wondering if the phone didn't really like being moved up and down with each pedal stroke, if that's what caused it to lose signal. I wasn't in an urban or hilly area where you could imagine signal being blocked, it was like on open fields.

So the only real problem was battery drain. When I'm navigating in the car, I almost always have it plugged in for power, and it just barely keeps up. Well, I don't have a charger in my pocket! (I suppose I could have a brick.)

After I saw the cat, I kind of wanted to stick my toes in the ocean, having driven all that way with all that traffic. So with permission, I left my car at their house, and rode my bike 3.5 miles to Nauset beach. It seemed easier than trying to park. In fact, by that time, there was parking available, and nobody seemed to be collecting money at the booth, so it would have been OK. But this was more fun. I could have ridden a shorter distance to a bay-side beach, but I wanted waves. There was a very large collection of bike racks, and they were very well-used! I was definitely not alone in biking to the beach.

At the beach, there was a great view of a rainbow out in the ocean associated with a thunderstorm offshore. So I was having the best beach experience ever, watching a rainbow while having my toes washed by the waves.

And then the pod of seals swam by, not 50 feet away. It was just the best. (I didn't get a picture of the seals, they were too quick, and, really, I didn't want to get out my phone while I was standing in the water.)

So, four long hours of driving for one short dip in the ocean, but it sure seemed worth it at the time!