Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas, Climbing Trees and Cold Weather

It's almost Christmas. You can't open a website online without being informed of the day, hour and minute until the biggest holiday of the year. I'm not a big fan of the commercial side of Christmas. Unless there are children involved, who needs to go out and spend a huge amount of money, cash or credit, on presents.

If I give a gift, it has to be something I know the person wants, needs or would love to have.  But to do that for a huge list of people because you have to is a lot of psychological pressure that is not needed at this time of year. I try to stay clear of the hoards of people pushing and shoving in the local shopping malls. Buying online is a much better, saner idea if you have to buy at all. The less, the better is my motto.

But I did buy myself a Christmas present this year. It's looking at me as I write this post. It arrived from Shanghai yesterday. I ordered it on Monday afternoon at the Apple store and it arrived on Friday. It's beautiful, shiny new and a joy to write on. This is my first blog post written on my new Apple MacBook Pro 17" laptop.

All day yesterday, after taking the new laptop out of the box and setting it on my living room table where I work, I walked back and forth by it, waiting to actually open it for a long time. I knew it was the beginning of a new era for me. As a long time Mac user, (can you say Macintosh SE?) I have evolved along with Apple since 1986. I was actually at the Superbowl in California where the famous Apple commercial aired. I still have the Macintosh Apple seat cushion everyone there received. The Miami Dolphins played the Raiders I think. It was rather overwhelming to be there and my first exposure to Apple is my most memorable moment.

Today I finally opened the MacBook Pro and started it up. Wow. I was so impressed. Wirelessly, I streamed items from my tiny 13" Macbook to the new Jumbotron Pro. I set my computer up within minutes all by myself (don't try this at home, I'm a professional!)
and seamlessly transferred to using the sleek, ergonomic computer. I love it!

So I wanted this blog post to be about the growth of my animal menagerie and their interactions with each other. In this tiny herd microcosm known as my household, everyone gets along with everyone. It's rather unsettling to know that so many disparate breeds and mixed breeds as well as different species can cohabit so easily.

My kittens are now adults. Very large, with glossy black coats, they slink around, acting smug about how they have all taught themselves (with no assistance from me) how to go in and out of both doggie doors. Now I have to refer to these doors ad dog & cat doors. I have one that goes from the house to the porch and another that goes from the porch into the small yard around the back of the house. This gives everyone a safe place to go when I am not here. All my animals are very proud of their doors and how they can go in and out of them at will, with no help from their humans. It makes them very superior animals!

Now that the kittens (I suppose I will always refer to them as kittens because they are my babies) are going in and out of the dog & cat doors, they have become quite brave, running here and there around the small yard and Spot (of course it was Spot!) even managed to end up somehow on the other side of the fence. She was quite upset about that and cried and cried until I finally heard her and let her in the gate. She was very relieved to come back into the house and go to bed in her kitty condo with her sisters.

Cold weather makes all the animals frisky. I think they, like we humans, appreciate the cool air and crispy days and nights as a bit of a relief from the humidity and heat of our very long summers. The horse don't walk from here to there in their pastures, they run, snorting and cavorting. The kittens are now climbing the Maple trees in the small yard. They think they are quite important looking down at me from the firsst branches of the largest of four trees.

I planted these trees when they were little saplings and it's hard to believe that these huge trees are now a virtual playground for three kittens I helped give birth to last March. But now I must close because Spot has decided that she needs attention (of course) and is trying very hard to add her two cents by rubbing her butt across my keyboard. Since this is my shiny new computer, this won't due and so I'm going to finish and give her the attention she feels is due right this very moment.

As she is now fast asleep and purring across both my arms, it seems the wisest thing to do!

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