This morning I was walking to the library, and I couldn't help but take those pictures.

COAS 

It started with one cat

I think we work in the most attractive building in the city, the library. It’s fairly modern, with a lot of dark glass that keeps the bright light and the heat out and the cool in. The building is huge, with several stories that house many different books and collections. But it’s the outside that I find especially attractive, with a large wide entrance with automatic doors. The grounds around that entrance give it part of its charm. There are trees on both sides of the wide sidewalk leading to the entrance, huge trees that provide a lot of shade and, together with the plants and flowers planted between them, add a lot of color.

I was enjoying the view as I approached the building, walking from my car early one morning. I like to get there early to see that everything is right in the little area where I work, that all is at peace with the world, so to say. If it’s not, I like to put everything in place, make it right.

As I approached the building, admiring the shady entrance to the library, I noticed a small, young cat standing by the entrance. As if noticing me, it seemed to perk up and approached me, meowing softly as if greeting me. It was such a pretty cat, I thought, and it seemed friendly. I stopped as it walked up to me and rubbed against my legs, and I said, “Hello, Kitty,” and petted it. It meowed once again and followed me toward the entrance and I walked in. It didn’t come into the building; it just stopped and stood outside, as if asking, “Why did you leave me alone outside?” I didn’t think about the cat any more that day.

The next morning, as I approached the building, the same thing happened. Once more the kitten saw me and rushed toward me as if in greeting, and rubbed itself against my legs. Once again I petted him and admired him.

After several similar mornings in which the cat would approach me and greet me, I started to wonder if it belonged to anyone and how it survived during the day, so one morning, I decided to bring it some food. I’d gone to the store and bought a small package of cat food, so I put some in a plastic bag and carried it with me in the morning. After the cat greeted me, I walked over to the side of the walkway, where I emptied the bag. The cat, curious as all cats are supposed to be, had followed me, and once I poured the food on the side, quickly began eating the dry cat food. As I watched it, satisfied at having done a good deed, I decided it gave me a good feeling and resolved to continue feeding the cat in the morning. I walked into the building feeling good and kept the uplifting feeling all day long.

The next day, there were two cats waiting for me...

Don't know how I did it, but I think I finally got a photo on the blog. Anyway, this was taken on Christmas morning. This was the first time it had snowed here in the Valley in ages, since 1883 or so, at least like this. They say that we'd had snow maybe in 1924 or so, and of course, we'd had flurries here and there occassionally. Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise for us.

Christmas Day 2004 

Isn't a wireless network fantastic? I'm sitting outside in the rear porch area of the house, and I'm online. I can access anything on the internet, download files using bearshare or bit torrent, or do anything else I'd do inside, and not have to worry about a connection. it really is good.
So I'm sitting outside, and I think a cold front is arriving. There's a lot of wind moving the branches of the trees; there are a lot of leaves flying around, and I feel the cooler air as the breeze hits me. It's getting a little darker, making an overcast day seem a little gloomier than before. I wonder how cold it'll get. Probably it'll go down to the 40s tonight and be in the 50s tomorrow.
So my drive D is about 50% full. I guess I shouldn't add anymore episodes of Roswell or Smallville for a while. I like to have them in my laptop for when I'm out somewhere bored waiting for Mary and I can'd write or do anything else. I get to watch my favorite episodes from those series or perhaps a DVD if I remember to pack one or two.
I think I finally got over my "writer's block." I'd been getting ideas for some characters I've used before that I thought I was through with, but "they" kept at me, telling me, "You need to write about this..." I finally came up with a title for a short story (while listening to a DP cd) and once again I'm using a title from one of Deep Purple's songs: Black Night.
I thought I knew what it was going to be about when I got the idea, but it's turning out different than I thought. It's looking more like a psychological thing, looking into the thoughts of one of my characters while he's hitch hiking. Among other things, he's trying to figure out why he decided to hitch hike rather than drive to his destination. Well, I need to think about it some more.

It's almost 8:00 AM, and so far it's been pretty slow here in the lab. So far, only about three students have shown up to use the computers and print out their papers. The only thing they've asked me is, "Can I borrow your stapler?" I wonder if the rest of the day will be like this.
It's pretty nice weather outside at the moment; the temperature is in the high 60s. It'll probably get to mid 70 today, and it's overcast, so I don't expect it to be hot at all.
Two student workers have just shown up, so there's plenty of help for any students who come in at the this time. I expect a couple more lab workers to show up; I guess it'll be slow today.
My legs still ache a little from the long walk the other day. I guess I need to build up my endurance and muscle in those areas; I just can't see myself walking 6 miles a day though.
I just can't grasp why the Superbowl is such a big thing to people. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and I could not believe how crowded it was. People were stocking up for the game on snack food, beer, fajitas, etc. I know it's exciting to watch football, and the games can be interesting, but I think mostly this game is just a lot of built up hype. As far as I'm concerned, it's just another game. At least this year, there didn't seem to be any violence related to the outcome.

Yesterday

wasn't a total loss. We had registered for the annual 10k run, which started at 1:00. I had loaded my mp3 player with my favorite music (Deep Purple, Van Halen, Doors plus one or two songs by a couple of others - so I like the oldies), and as soon as the run started, I activated my watch's lap time counter and my player, and I was off. My wife ran, and I walked, and she ran the whole thing in 1h 19m while I walked the whole thing in 1h 30m. I think that listening to music while I walked it helped me; I was pretty consistent in my walking, covering 1 mile every 15 minutes. I think maybe about 4000 people participated, so there were a lot of folks around. As soon as we finished, we were given water, bananas, and pizza. And there was live music (it wasn't very good) and a lot of activity.
We went home, showered and changed; then we went out to dinner with my sisters-in-law at La Casa del Taco in Mission. Mary and I had a botana platter, so I have leftovers for dinner. It was delicious, as usual.
Anyway, today, she's leaving for Austin and will be there until Friday. So I'll be on my own all week. Hope she gets to see the kiddos.

It's 8:00 AM, and I'm sitting at the desk, looking out to what looks will be a nice day. The temperature's about 45 F, but it'll probably warm up to the mid 50's by noon although there are scattered showers predicted.
I've been collecting my favorite episodes of Roswell and Smallville and have them on my laptop. I think I'll transfer them to cd and carry them with me when I travel anywhere. I can watch them if I'm bored and not doing anything else when I'm away. But I think I spend too much time on the internet looking for and downloading stuff; I haven't really written anything in over a month. I need to get back to that; it's driving me nutty not putting anything down, not developing anything...
I've been working with more and more students; at least that's picking up. What I've been noticing is that most students who come in for help don't have any idea of what to write about. When I ask them what they're supposed to do, what type of paper they're working on, they're unsure. One of them did have something specific to work on, but the paper was all wrong. While she was supposed to critique a book, she just wrote a book report; I pointed out what I thought were her strong points, gave her suggestions on developing her paper, and she was happy with that. But most of the students aren't ever that specific on their assignments.
That reminds me of some of my classes. The first assignment I used to give was an essay on the difference between listening and hearing. I actually got the idea from a Newsweek Classroom idea and adapted it for my own, but it seemed to work. Once the students developed their essay, giving specific examples of each term and how they differed, I could refer to it throughout the semester and point out that they heard something I'd said, they didn't listen to what I was saying. I used to get many different papers for that assignment; one I specifically remember was so well written and such a good paper I suggested it be submitted to a local magazine, and it was published. The writer was thrilled. I'm sure I kept a copy of it somewhere in my files.
Well, it's getting a little busy, so I guess I'd better finish here...