1:05 a.m. - 2003-07-21
Festivals
Three festivals of note today. The first was the Sun and Salsa party in one of our trendy little shopping areas. All the merchants competing for the coveted Green Pepper for their offering of salsa. I don't understand why the closer to the equator one gets the hotter/spicier people like their food. Going to have to research that mystery. Proceeds from the admission going to the food bank. About 40,000 people showed up today to dance in the streets and dip their chips.
Next up the fishing derby on the Bow River. We have some of the best trout fishing in the world - so the story goes. Photos of fly fishermen - and ladies - soaking up the sun. It was 31 C/90 F at the airport so down on the water would have been a very pleasant place to be. No word on the largest fish caught but the entry fees - over $100,000 - were donated to the Children's Wish foundation.
Last up was in our sister city Vancouver, located on our left coast. The Undies 500 is a protest against the car and booze culture of the Indy 500. Residents in Vancouver get out their low tech bicycles and ride through their downtown in their best underwear. Well, it's one way to be certain that the cameramen show up anyway. Interesting ideas on lingerie I must say.
Odd kind of day today. Miss Kitty woke me up and was quite insistent I join her in the nursery. It appears she felt her babies needed to be moved - now! It also appeared she found the task more than her strength would allow. I don't know for sure how big the tom she mated with was, but she is quite petite even by cat standards and these wee ones are already a good size. She had moved her favourite to the new nest but made it clear she was hoping I would complete the transfer for her.
That was fine with me because I got to have a good look at each baby in bright sunlight. Poppa must have been quite colourful because the babies have orange, umber, white and gold patterns through their coats although the dominant colour still comes from mom's black markings. One little one looks as though it has an umber exclamation mark stamped just to the right of its right eye. Another has an orange ring around one eye that is then ringed with white the rest of the face being black. One has a striped orange and black face with a white and orange bib. One looks like a lion cub with tan and white evenly divided along the liner of the nose - very striking and just a little disconcerting. The smallest has a shadow aspect to their whole coat - black and orange tiger stripes but very subtle colouring. Next Miss Kitty wanted her furnishings arranged just so. Lucky I'm still feeling sorry for her - eh? She's still nursing almost non-stop so she's allowed to be as fastidious as she wants - for now.
I was thinking of a friend of mine who moved with her hubby about two years ago today. They are in the gulf islands off our west coast. She used to have such severe weather migraines here, that she was often completely immobilized for days. They chose the west coast for the climate and lifestyle. Penders Island - where they have a bed and breakfast - is considered a retreat for those among us who are still hippies and can carry on in comfort because of an intense yuppy phase in their life that allowed them to accumulate the funds to chose an alternate lifestyle that's much more laid back.
The reason I was thinking of her today was because of the migraine that hit me at about 2 pm today. Felt increasingly like some giant was about to squeeze my brains out the top of my head. A few hours later the sky went black just north of us and the wind became strong enough to blow down mature trees nearby. The house shook. A weather warning was issued and there were unofficial reports of funnel clouds. We could smell the rain although it didn't fall here. The good thing though, was that it rapidly cooled of the temperature so that it was a bearable evening. Did my exercises and worked on both the election and hearing tasks for a while once my head quit hurting so much. I did yoga with the Rodney Yee tape yesterday and was pleased to notice the muscles were tight and sore in the right way today - I'm going to get rid of this potbelly one way or another. Wish I could trade metabolisms with Miss Kitty though.
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