Weekend plans, changes thereto

The plan was for me to ride along with my sister-in-law to south Georgia as she carried my niece and a teammate to a gymnastics meet in my home town. I could visit with my father, perhaps attend some of the meet (having been warned that gym meets at this level are....um...less than exciting, I didn't say I'd go to the whole thing ), and be company for Robbie as she drove. The other girl's mom had been on previous trips but had a conflict for this one, so Robbie agreed to take both girls. We were going to drive down Friday after the girls got out of school, the meet was Saturday afternoon, then we'd spend the night and go back to Atlanta early Sunday.

The plan changed Thursday night when my father called to say that his first-cousin-by-marriage, Nat Jones, had died in Jacksonville, Florida of complications of Parkinson's Disease. Even though we never see much of this part of the extended family, we enjoy them (and vow to get together more often), so my weekend plan changed to include a trip to the funeral. ( more... )

Fish and doors

Fish, despite some occasional success, has not really mastered the skill of opening a door that has been left open a crack. I got to watch his current technique today.

I was outside with Agatha, letting her eat a little grass and enjoy the sunshine while I watered some stuff I planted on Friday. The door was left open a crack in case Agatha panicked from the water spray or the moving hose (SNAKE!) and wanted back into the safety of the house. But she was fine, plus she wanted to keep an eye on me since I'd been away for 2 nights, so she settled down in the sun on the doormat. After finishing the watering, I joined her and started some head skritches, provoking some steady purring.

Fish was inside, and wanted out to join the fun. He managed to widen the crack enough to get a paw out, but he just can't get the knack of then pulling to open the door further. So the paw would slide a couple of inches across the door, then slide back, trying to rake the door along its width. After several attempts at this, he gave up at getting outside, and decided to try to bedevil Agatha from where he was. So the full length of a looong white paw extended through the door, and waved around in the air over her back. Agatha remained oblivious--Fish never managed to touch her.