Monday Rambles

Our furnace, here in Cat Central (AKA Valhalla) is misbehaving—one minute too hot and the next, it’s MIA. For some odd reason this unearthed one of my earliest memories—watching a coal truck dump its load down a chute into the basement of our house in rural New Jersey.

I couldn’t have been more than four years old and found it so damn exciting. I ran from outside the house, where the truck’s bed was tilting up, to the top of the basement stairs where I watched the coal tumble down next to the furnace. Fascinating!

What was it about the delivery that intrigued me so?

Was it the wildness of watching those jet-black rocks tumbling through the basement window, falling into a messy heap on the floor?

Had I never seen our basement and its fire breathing furnace before?

Maybe I’d just learned where the house heat came from?
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Bat god (see below)

Just got an alert—a Special Weather Statement— on my telefonino:

SLIPPERY TRAVEL POSSIBLE EARLY THIS MORNING...

A light coating of snow fell in many locations late last evening and earlier this morning. While the light snow has ended...patchy ground fog has developed across portions of the region. Temperatures well below freezing may allow for this fog to freeze on untreated roadways. Motorists should drive with extra caution…

Frilled Dragon (see below)

Seems funny and unnecessary to get a watch-your-step warning. Honestly, this is New England and it’s the dead of winter, fer fuck’s sake. OF COURSE the sidewalks and streets are gonna be slippery!
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During our weekend tea time we’ve begun watching The Book of Boba Fett. I’m not a Star Wars aficionado—it took me mucho googling to figure out who the fuck Boba Fett is and get his total backstory. What he’s not is Galactic Empire or Rebel Alliance. There’s a whiff of Man with No Name about him. As a Spaghetti Western fan, I wholeheartedly approve.

Actress Wēn Míngnà plays Fennec Shand, Fett’s partner in crime boss-dom on Tatooine. She kicks astounding amounts of ass. I may be in love.

Ya know what else I like about this show? The pace—it’s slower than other space adventure flicks. Sure there’s rock ‘em/sock ‘em battle scenes but the general flow is more zen-ish.

Also, Boba and Fennec aren’t kids. The actors are, respectively, 61 and 58. Still younger than me but this isn’t a teen superhero action-fest. Cool.
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At some point I believe we’ll need to adopt a herd of capybara. Why? They’re adorable and I like the name. Do I need a better reason than that? No, I do not.

Also, we’ll need a small colony of bats. Why? CHOCOLATE!

Over 300 species of fruit depend on bats for pollination. Bats help spread seeds for nuts, figs and cacao — the main ingredient in chocolate. (source)

We’ll need an aye-aye. They’re loners and only get together for
the occasional bonk. In order to keep the species going, I’ll talk with distant neighbors—they’ll need to adopt aye-ayes too. We can set up play dates.

Some people native to Madagascar consider the aye-aye to be an omen of ill luck or a harbinger of evil, and will even kill them on sight. Another superstition about the aye-aye is that if it points its narrow middle finger at someone, they are marked for death. (source)

How ‘bout a frilled lizard or two? (AKA frilled dragon, AKA dragon lizard) They eat insects and, in their self-protection aggression displays, they’re impressive as all hell.

I’ll name them Fred and Ginger.