Tuesday, October 18, 2016

It's Always Sumthin'


While the weekend was fantastic (the opening photo will attest to that as regards the weather), it didn't start off all that auspiciously. It was a three day weekend (the past week having been the short week of our 9/80 rotation), so it had that going for it. However comma...

After departing the office Thursday in the afternoon, I climbed into Big Girl (the name which I have given my automotive conveyance) and contemplated the coming weekend.
"Let's see, I'll get up around 0800, with all that getting ready entails, plus the need to fill the fuel tank...

Damn. Why is it so drafty in here?"
Turning to my right, I noticed that the passenger-side window was rolled most of the way down. My initial thought was...
"Did I do that?"
Perhaps that morning I had been fiddling with the switches after parking the vehicle, but prior to dismounting. So I hit the switch to put the window up.

Nothing.

Nada.

Bupkis.

So I dismount and walk over to that window. There is perhaps three inches of window exposed so I grab onto it. Slides up, slides down, effortlessly. Hhmm, seems like an automatic window should provide a tad more resistance.

Yup, the passenger-side power window is malfunctioning. As in, doesn't even feel like it's hooked up.

Well, thinks I, looks like we'll be taking The Missus Herself's car on the morrow. Not a big problem, just need to tape this thing up when I get home so it won't get wet if it rains. I did find that by wedging my window scraper betwixt door and window glass, and by the judicious application of duct tape, there was no need to tape plastic over the malfunctioning passenger-side window.

After I got back to Chez Sarge, that's what I did. The window seemed nicely fixed in place, there were no gaps where water might leak through, so we were good to go vis-à-vis automotive transport on Friday. Now I just had to await the arrival of The Missus Herself who was out purchasing an automatic feeder for the feline staff as their normal support staff were to be in New Hampshire and their auxiliary support staff (the next door neighbors) were going to be in California.

So rather than leave out a really big dish to hold a couple days worth of food, we opted for one of those automatic rigs. I wanted the nice, programmable expensive one. My better half overruled that and went with one of the gravity feed models.

Pretty simple and cheap. But to my way of thinking, no more effective than a big dish full of a couple days worth of food.

Thursday night we tested it. A certain amount of food was dispensed, more than the cats are used to, but they didn't complain. But when it was gone, that seemed to be the end of it. The feed jar had plenty of food in it, but it wasn't going anywhere. I watched Anya, with her head tilted all the way to the right, trying to wedge her face up into the feed spout. Nothing. No movement.

Hhmm. That's not good.

Friday morning, we're up and raring to go. The feline staff is behaving as if they haven't been fed yet.

Hhmm, why weren't you agitating for food at 0600, like every other day? Methinks, dear feline friends, that though doth protest too much. While the food level looked a little lower, it was hard to tell. So I tapped the top of the feed jar. Nothing. Not a single morsel of delicious cat fare slid down that feed chute.

Rocking back on my heels, I accidentally nudged the feed jar, from the side. Lo and behold food was dispensed. Seems logical. A cat wouldn't tap the top, no, she (or he) would no doubt nudge it. So I was reasonably certain that the feline staff would be fine, food-wise. After all, there was enough food in that dispenser for a week!

When we returned home Sunday afternoon, I dashed into the house half-expecting that the cats would have gotten frustrated with their new automatic feeder and knocked it about to get to the food inside. Nope. No mess. Seems they had figured it out.They had figured it out all too well. That week's worth of food? Seems they had eaten nearly all of it, in just two days.

Yup, it's always sumthin'.



Hat tip to Buck for the title. Miss him we do.

20 comments:

  1. Nice photograph Sarge, looks like the weather could hardly have been better.

    Cats are endlessly entertaining. Finally got a second cat as the first cat made it very clear to me that he missed having a buddy around. They are now at the stage of, in a kind of friendly way, getting to know each other. No blood, bi or quadra-ped, has been shed during this exercise. Life is good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The weather was indeed awesome.

      My cats certainly keep me entertained. We've been together 13 years and we still manage to surprise each other.

      Of course, The Missus Herself and I have been together much longer than that and we still manage to surprise each other.

      But that might be because our hearing ain't so good as it used to be. :)

      Delete
  2. Fun story. Would have been fun to watch the cats figure the system out. Maybe invest in a kittycam? :)

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    Replies
    1. The kittycam thought did cross my mind. That would be entertaining in any number of ways.

      Delete
    2. Entertaining....or scary. Too much information can be a bad thing.

      Delete
    3. Hhmm, you might be right Juvat, the arcane rituals of Felis catus are often not for the faint of heart!

      Delete
  3. Cats and power windows, quite a combination for a blog post.
    Well done

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  4. Cats don't do "moderation", in my experience. We tried the 'automatic feeder' thing once, but neither cat could figure out how to work it. After a couple of days, they were mad at us, as if it were our fault. And here we thought cats were supposed to be clever. But good job with the window fix; we see a lot of taped-up, plastic covered windows here.

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    Replies
    1. I've known clever cats and I've known cats who probably shouldn't be without supervision.

      The window fix is probably a result of my Air Force training. You learn to make do with what you have on hand.

      Delete
  5. I 'house sat' a friend's cat in VA for a couple of days, there was one of those same feeders in the house. The second morning, it was knocked over and cat food was everywhere... By 1600 when I got back to check, ALL of the cat food had been eaten, and the cat was lying in the floor moaning...LOL

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    1. I can say that I know exactly what that cat was feeling.

      There have been any number of Thanksgivings and Christmases where I have overindulged.

      I always vowed to "never do that again." Something I always managed to forget when the next holiday rolled around.

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  6. Thanks for the brief respite from political talk. Cats are a good diversion. Makes me miss our "fat, thieving, gluttonous Houdini pig dog" of a beagle who we loved very much, but gave us so much drama (and headaches).

    ReplyDelete
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    1. The respite from politics is going to last a while longer. I'm fed up, holding my peace until after Election Day I am.

      Though I fear the Constitutional Republic of our forebears is down by the bow and taking on a heavy list to port.

      Your late beagle sounds like a kindred spirit.

      Delete
  7. Have you checked the fuse for the window upper/downer motor?

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    Replies
    1. Not the fuse. Window was loose and dangling, no apparent means of support. Investigation revealed a busted belt. A number of dollars later, said belt was replaced and the window was once again (like the driver) happy.

      I don't fix my own vehicles, I pay folks to do that, helps the economy it does.

      Delete
  8. Your tale ( tail? ) of feline gluttony put me in mind of " fat cats ". Both four-legged and two-legged.

    Paul L. Quandt

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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