I've left the "snot factory" phase of my cold and entered the "hacking my lungs out" phase. How annoying. Managed to get through my show last night through abundant use of cough drops, but (alas) forgot to take a bottle of water with me. I can really feel it this morning.
When do birds lay eggs? Has that started already? I have a big brush pile that I need to cart off to the dump, but I think there are birds living in it and I don't want to disturb their nests if they've already started with the baby making.
Yesterday afternoon I went to put Thirteen out, and there were three cats in the back yard. Three big black cats. Is this some kind of omen? Two of them were sitting on the steps to the shed, and one was on the logs nearby. I've occasionally seen cats on those steps before and I have no idea what makes it a cat-friendly spot. I had speculated that maybe sunlight reflecting off the shed made it warm, but it was overcast yesterday.
To my amazement, Thirteen not only saw them but tried to chase them. Well, in the particular manner a decrepit old dog chases cats:
- Door opens. I see cats; cats see us. Thirteen stares, trying to figure out what's going on.
- Cats continue watching us. After staring a while, Thirteen determines that there are indeed smaller mammals in our yard.
- Thirteen moseys off back deck. The cats analyze her trajectory and plan a rendezvous.
- Thirteen ambles, stopping to pee at the end of the driveway. Two cats head out, leaving the one on the log as a lookout.
- Thirteen strolls up steps towards shed. The two cats are long gone.
- Finally Thirteen reaches the steps. She tries to follow their path but is blocked by that brush pile. The two cats are in another county being debriefed. The lookout cat takes notes.
- Thirteen happily sniffs the ground where the cats were. The lookout cat gets bored and heads out.
All in all it was a highly successful adventure for Thirteen, and hilarious for me to watch. She had this intent expression like she was actually chasing the cats, even when she stopped to pee.
I'm hoping to borrow that truck again this afternoon and get another load of compost. I talked to a friend who used to race cars, who confirmed that the scary bad steering problem was caused by low tire pressure. When I filled them, the two rear tires each read under 15 psi! My racing friend said that with the tires that low and the truck fully loaded, I was practically driving on the sidewalls. There was nothing to grip the road, thus the fishtailing. (He said the same thing happened to him the first time he drove on a race track, because he didn't know you need more air pressure than for street driving.) From now on I'll just stop at a gas station and fill up the tires on my way to the dump.
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Re the high tire pressures needed for racing: Back in the 60s, I used to drive a Porsche roadster and belonged to the local sports car club. One Saturday I was persuaded to enter a competition which involved driving one's car around a complex course in the minimum time. Before taking part, I was told to put at least 50 psi in my tires if I did not want to roll them off their rims. Of course, my time was way longer that those of the other experienced drivers. The next day, I decided to go to the beach. Halfway there I realized that since I had been driving hard the now hot tires would have much more than 50psi in them and might explode! I stopped at the next gas station and was letting air out of the tires to get them down to about 30psi when the attendant came up to me, looked at this odd-shaped car (there were only a few Porsches in Delaware at that time) and said "Did you build up all that pressure by driving down here? How fast were you going?"