Saturday

March 30: The cat woke me up at 6 something this morning. If the last person to go to bed at night, and we know that's not me, fails to put him outside, he usually decides that 4 or 5 a.m. would be a good time to eat or go out. He parks himself next to my pillow (he doesn't dare try this trick with L.) and begins to tap gently with his paw, then a little harder, and harder, slowly working his way into more painful methods which involve claws and teeth. So I got up and fed him, which seemed to be the problem, and went back to bed. Ten minutes later, he stood in the hallway wailing. At 14 years old, he has developed a strange, extended meow which sounds plaintive and crotchety. He prefers the outdoors to the litter box, for personal matters, so he was summoning me to open the garage door. Back in bed again, I couldn't get back to sleep. Drat!! It's some consolation, though, that I slept through almost the entire movie last night before going to bed.

While paying a few bills this morning, I saw that the price of the newspaper subscription has gone up $10 since last time. I love reading the paper every morning. On school days, that and my coffee gets my blood plumping, especially if there's a good letter to the editor from a teacher who spills the truth about the school system, rather than some sugar-coated press release from the BOE. But $10! No, we can afford it and it's practically a necessity for me, but for a second I felt the same sense of outrage that I feel when I see the latest price at the pump, or the sudden surge in the cost of laundry detergent. I'm trying to save for retirement!

I've puttered around most of the day, avoiding what I should be doing, which is, OF COURSE, grading papers. Grades are due next Friday. I guess everyone needs at least one day a week to relax a little bit.


Paul and I took the dog for a walk this afternoon, before it clouded up like it is now. I talk about our walks so much that I thought I'd take some photos and add some real pictures of the place instead of yahoo images.