I have my random OCD moments, like most people. I also have my very own procrastination quirks. Every day I absolutely MUST wash my dishes, make my bed, scoop the litter-boxes, and take out the rubbish. My laundry is always under control, I provide myself with fresh towels every other day, and my sheets are changed weekly. I shower at least once every six months whether I need it or not! At the same time I’ll do just about anything to put off dusting and vacuuming. I mean, seriously, the dust just comes right back!! Another personal eccentricity of mine is that I confuse having a janitorial staff at the office with having a maid at home. I’ll see an odd bit of detritus on the carpet but rather than pick it up and deposit it in the rubbish bin five feet away, I’ll walk past it on the assumption that the non-existent maid will take care of it. Even though in the same thought I’ll remind myself that really, it is MY responsibility. Still, it could sit there enjoying its last moments for a day or three.

A couple of days ago, I noticed what appeared to be a stray black cotton thread peeking out from under one of my bath mats. Naturally, I decided to let it mature for a spell before I went to all of the effort of actually bending down, peeling up the massive weight of the edge of the bath mat, grasping the thread in my fingers, and heaving it off the floor and into the rubbish bin less than two feet away. I mean, come ON, I’m only human and there are only so many hours in the day and I need to conserve my strength for the estrogen-fueled eating binges that I am using to pad my mid-section of late.

For the record, I would like to be clear that I have, in fact, cleaned my bathroom several times in the past six months. I gave it a good going-over last weekend when Telly was in town for my birthday month. I shook out the bath mats, vacuumed the floor, and scrubbed the bathtub [one of my least favourite chores in the entire span of life]. All just in case one of us sobered up enough to actually take a shower.

That bathroom was sparkling . . . s-p-a-r-k-l-i-n-g I tell you!

Two things happened yesterday on the 27th of July. First, my beautiful Siamese kat, Sugar, turned 13 years old in biped years [that's about 87 in kat years]. Sugar has only really been my kat since November 2007. While he has lived with me since he was three months of age, he was previously for all intents and purposes Jazz’s kat. Jazz and Sugar were true soul-mates in every sense that I can think of. They did everything together, they were inseparable, they lived and loved and ate and groomed and played and wrestled and snuggled for over 12 years. Then Jazz left us to become an angel. Sugar tried to follow Jazz by refusing to eat and becoming very ill. I selfishly refused to let him go and gradually he recovered and agreed to stay with me a while and be my kat.

Second, in honour of Sugar’s birthday, I decided to add one more task to my already overly burdensome schedule of chores and, thus, I fearlessly approached the cotton thread on the bathroom floor with a sense of overwhelming martyrdom . . .

Only, it wasn’t a cotton thread . . . it was one of Jazz’s whiskers.

For those of you unfamiliar with animals, they shed not just ten tons per week of fur, they also shed their whiskers from time-to-time. Apparently, Jazz somehow looked down from his angel perch and oh-so-very-gently let waft one of his whiskers so Sugar would know that he was watching over us all.

Unfortunately, Sugar has a chronic colon illness and he is at the maximum medication dosage for his condition. The periods between impactions are getting shorter in tandem with the lower amount of credit available on my veterinary healthcare credit card. I count each day with him as a blessing, but I don’t think I shall be counting for a whole lot longer. But, for yesterday and today and for as many days as it turns out to be . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

^©www.danjeruskurves.com. Reproduction of the image(s) on this page in any form is strictly prohibited. The contents herein are protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 9:04 am and is filed under Humour, Kat Tails, Reflective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.