Month: November 2017

I’ve come down with a cold unfortunately. My sinuses are stuffed up, my throat is sore, and I’m generally feeling pretty terrible. I had an uncomfortable day at work. I probably will take a sick day tomorrow and stay in bed.

After work and after I had eaten dinner myself, I walked one block to my friend’s apartment to feed his cat Begbie. By my estimation, it had been over 24 hours since he had been fed and seen a human being.

Knowing cats, I knew that when I opened the front door to the apartment, Begbie was going to right behind the door, thinking I was his owner. I opened the door and there he was, waiting at my feet when I stepped. He meowed loudly. Did I detect a bit of confusion?

I bent down to greet him. On Monday he was very aloof to me but as I went to say hi, he allowed me stroke his fur and give him gentle scratches on the head. I think he was bit lonely. I immediately went to refill his water dish and his food bowls. The wet cat food from yesterday was all gone. There was a bit of dry food left. I got him more food thinking he was hungry but he didn’t even notice there was more to eat.

It was a bit windy yesterday and the wind was making him very nervous and skittish. Well, the wind really picked up today and was howling outside. It made a tremendous racket as it shook the things on my friend’s balcony. It also whistled through the gap in the patio door. Once Begbie was bored with me again, he ran back into the living room and sat on the carpet looking out the window, at a safe distance. I could tell he was really quite unnerved by the sound the wind was making.

I gave him space and sat on the couch, hoping maybe he’d come over for snuggles and comfort but he had no such plans. The closest he came to me was jumping on the coffee table. I offered my lap but again, he was not interested. At one point, something freaked him out and he ran into my friend’s bedroom, where I found him perched on top of a small cat tree.

Begbie didn’t seem interested in eating the fresh food but he did lap at some of the new water I put down. He also didn’t seem interested me all that much either. I felt a bit sorry for him so as a bonus, I scooped out his cat litter for him. It wasn’t so bad. As I got ready to leave, he checked out the litter again and he must have noticed I cleaned it because he went in there and pooped. He felt comfortable enough to do that while I was there so I’ll take that as a win.

There wasn’t much else I could do for him so I left. Before I stepped out, he was still in the living room, being vigilant about that crazy wind that was bothering him. He looked back at me briefly and that’s when I went outside and locked the door.

I hope he’s ok tonight and that he less scared of the wind. I’ll return tomorrow to give him more food and water.

I gotta take care of a cat for two days this week. A friend of mine and also a co-worker is going to Portland for a business trip. He left this evening. Before he did though, I went over to his place and got the instructions for caring for his cat, Begbie.

Begbie was once feral I believe or at least lived part of his life without a caretaker, so he had to fend for himself outside. As such, he’s not as friendly as other cats that have been pets all their lives. He was very aloof when I met him this afternoon. My friend suggested giving him some treats to win him over. I placed two in my hand, kneeled down, and showed him the treats. He looked at them, looked at me, and then looked back at my friend, as if he wasn’t sure what to make of the whole situation and this new idiot. He didn’t trust me enough to take the treats, so I had to put them back.

My friend instead got out the cat food for Begbie and fed him. This was useful so I could see how much and what to feed the cat. After eating, I was thinking perhaps he was content enough for me to try to pet him. I went over to where he was chilling out, let him sniff my hand a bit, and then went for a pet. He jerked back at my attempt. Alright, so he wasn’t going to be too friendly today. I gave up.

My friend gave me keys to his apartment and I left. I gotta feed him tomorrow after work and same thing on Wednesday. I look forward to it.

Almost thirty years ago, Dave Letterman did a show from the international arrivals terminal at JFK airport in New York. This was back in his crazy Late Night with David Letterman days, where one could argue Dave was at his most creative.

If you watch this particular episode, you can sense the unpredictability and randomness that the show was so famous for back then. You can tell there was just enough planning to get this show up and running at the airport but that they were just winging it (no pun intended) beyond that.

I didn’t see this episode when it was aired originally and I am glad someone was able to save it and bring it to YouTube. What other treasures exist in the past?

Yesterday the temperatures were near or below freezing, forcing me to turn my heat on. Today was another day. Temperatures rose to almost double digits, making it almost pleasant to be outside. The fierce bite of the outside cold was gone. I didn’t even need to run my humidifier this evening as the relative humidity was in the low 40s without any intervention on my part.

The forecast calls for the same type of weather and temperatures until at least Tuesday. While it might rain on a few of those days, this is the mild Vancouver fall/winter that I’m used to. It’s a bit early for that freezing weather to stick around.

I relented this evening and turned on the heat in my bedroom. Earlier, I had come home from work and my apartment was freezing. According to my thermometer, it was 17 degrees Celsius but I’m not sure it was correct because it felt a lot colder than that.

I put on socks and a North Face jacket while inside my apartment. I felt much better after that. I didn’t want to sleep in my winter jacket though so I turned on the heat and then cranked up my humidifier up to 50% relative humidity to compensate for the baseboard heater drying out the air. This is probably the earliest I’ve turned on the heat ever. I hope this doesn’t continue into March.

My internet connection is down this evening for scheduled maintenance so I gotta type this on my phone (and using valuable mobile data!)

My tablet started acting up this evening now as well. It’s been screwed up for years as it won’t work without being plugged in. Now it seems to not even want to boot up.

It appears I need to replace both my phone and tablet now. More first world problems to deal with.

The temperatures dropped rapidly last week, down to the freezing level and below. With the temperature, the relative humidity also dropped. Last year I bought a hygrometer to measure the humidity. It showed that it went from about 50% to the low 30s. Accordingly, my skin got dry and uncomfortable.

I immediately went down to my storage locker and brought out the humidifier, which I also bought last year. This thing is now basically running the entire time I’m at home, while I’m sleeping as well. I’m currently keeping things at 45% relative humidity in my bedroom. Perhaps I’ll try to get it more moist in there. Heyo! I might push it to 50% as my hygrometer is still saying it’s too dry for how cold it is.

I recommended it last year and I’ll recommend it again, get a humidifier during the winter months, especially if you’re prone to sinus infections like I am. Your life will be much more comfortable.

Around 9pm I was at my parents’ place to pick up my car and drive it home. At the time, it was damn cold but the skies were clear and the ground was bare. I got home and watched a movie. After midnight I realized it had snowed while the movie was playing. It wasn’t just a light dusting either, it was enough to blanket the city as far as my eyes could see.

As Vancouver sucks when it snows, the possibility of a snow day tomorrow is quite real. Hold onto your butts Vancouverites!

Last week I was in the cafeteria at work to get my lunch. I passed by some dude with a visitor sticker on his shirt. We get a lot of visitors at work so seeing guests at lunch is fairly common. Visitor dude was with his host, someone at work who I don’t know. Anyways, as I pass by visitor dude, I hear him say, “hey, I know you from somewhere”. I wasn’t sure he was talking to me, so I turned to him and asked if he was talking to me (not Taxi Driver style).

He said yes, in fact, he was talking to me. So now this is where it gets awkward. I didn’t recognize this guy at all. So we just stood there wordless. I looked at his visitor sticker which had his name. I read his name aloud, hoping it would trigger something. Nope, I don’t know anyone by that name. I didn’t know what to say. That day was a super busy one and I really just wanted to get my lunch and head back to my desk. I suppose I could have just stayed there and discussed where he might know me from but he wasn’t exactly volunteering any details on his own. Instead, I quickly said his name didn’t ring a bell and I walked off to get my lunch.

Was that rude of me? He was the one who started the conversation. I think the onus is on him to tell me where he thought he knew me. Oh well, I hope he had a good lunch.