Catnapper

Kidnapping, whether by force or persuasion, is still basically the same.

Catnapping, too.

Wendy and I have invited neighborhood cats into our place several times over the years.  We've had such distinguished guests as Sarge, Bear, Butch, Vanilla, and M&M.  We hope to invite the new kittie Black Dynamite over as soon as we get to meet him in person.

During these rainy winter weeks, however, there's been a shortage of cats.  They're staying inside because of the weather, I suppose.

In our housing complex, we're pretty fortunate because our unit is set back from the driveway, so that if anyone was suddenly standing outside our front window, we'd be alarmed.  Others are not so fortunate, such as the unit where M&M, Vanilla, and Black Dynamite live.  There's a walking path that goes right past their front windows.

Wendy and I were walking on this path the other night, and noticed that their window blinds were open.  The lights in their living room were ablaze.  I was walking ahead, and tried to peer in by slanting my eyeballs to the right.  Didn't see anyone, human or feline.

The sharper eyes of Wendy, however, saw something.  She called me back, "Look!"

"You can't be looking in people's houses!" I objected.

"There's no one in there.  Look!" Wendy replied.

So I looked through the window and sure enough, there was Vanilla, settling down for a nap on a soft white cotton towel placed on the back of the sofa for her convenience.

That was cool enough, but then what happened next sort of embarrassed me.  No humans appeared to "catch us", but still...

Wendy did her "kitty chirping", and suddenly Vanilla looked up and was staring back at us through the window.  I started heading back to our place, afraid that the owners would suddenly appear.

The next thing I heard, just seconds later, was the jingling sound that betrayed Vanilla's actions:  she'd jumped down off the sofa, bolted through her cat door, jumped the fence, and was now being petted by Wendy.

I turned back and got a few strokes of greeting in there, and then headed back toward our front door. 

Jingle jingle...  as was her custom, Vanilla was now following behind me, heading over for a visit.

We (or at least I) always feel a twinge of guilt when we play with our neighbors' cats.  They pay for food, shelter, and medical attention, while we just enjoy their company.

This night, however, takes the cake.  If I may blame the main perpetrator, Wendy:  she basically plucked that kitty right out of her own home!

Ah well, catnapping has its rewards... as long no one gets caught.

Fun with Time and Excel

This morning in Excel 2007 class I discovered a fun thing to do with a spreadsheet.

1. In the middle of the screen type the date of your birth.  In the cell to the right enter a zero.
2. In the cell below, type the date of your first birthday, and in the cell to the right, the number one.
3. Select all four cells and drag the fill handle down, using AutoFill to fill in future dates.
4. Select all four cells and drag the fill handle up to fill in past dates.

Here's an example for someone who was born on September 11, 2001:

In this example the dates are only extended 10 years into the future and 10 years into the past.  However, there's no limit to how far back or how far forward you can go.  On the spreadsheet for my actual birthdate I went as far back as my Dad's birth year and discovered that I was "negative thirty" (-30) years old when my father was born.

This is the first time I've ever thought of being a negative age.

Of course this exercise can be a tad bit depressing, too, if you go far enough into the future, bypassing the natural life expectancy of imperfect humans.  I see my parents dying... and I don't like it.

The positive thing, though, is this:  How many times do we hear people longing to "go back into the past" when things were nicer and they were much younger?  Well, with this method of "time travel via spreadsheet", you can spend a bit of time imagining old age, and then as you utter the above-mentioned lament, your wish can now come true!  You can "go back", so to speak, and tell your parents and others how much you love them.

I think I'll take the train and go visit my parents again, since I'm still unemployed and we've still got "rail miles" on our Amtrak credit card.

So that I can tell them something.