Some Came To Keep the Dark Away

This morning, I woke up to a blinking alarm clock - again. This is the fifth time I've awakened to blinky lights in a matter of a few weeks. Sometimes, there's only one course of action, it's bothersome and you have to undertake it anyhow - in this case, I will. I gotta buy a wind-up because I can't go on waking up two hours after I'm supposed to be leaving 'em rolling in the aisles at work. I hate wind-up clocks and in this day and age I shouldn't need one. Unfortunately, the wiring where I live is so 1947, I have to go all mechanically 1656.

The news is not all bad. Sleeping in on a rainy morning was divine, and waking up when one is finished sleeping is one of life's true pleasures. I vacuumed up grit under foot. I made coffee. I couldn't figure out what the news meant. Still, we face the day. It can be stinky.

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings; - And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

This morning in America, we are looking at significant change, and we have to face that realistically. Larry, the little black cat bent on stealing your soul, gets oral infections, which means when he cleans himself he's actually getting kind of icky. This icky-ness transfers to everything he touches or sleeps on. This morning, I cowboyed up - hahahahaha! - and filled a tub with water.

Tata: I gave the cat a bath.
Siobhan: Hilarious! Are you bleeding?

I was not, but our feline friend, while newly sweet-smelling, was most indignant. When I pulled him out of the tub he made a break for the door, which was closed, alas! I toweled him gingerly, as the kitty hips are sometimes a bit tender. Then I blowdried him until he looked me right in the eye and climbed into the covered litter box, from which vantage point, he glared at me as if to say, "One of these days, you too will be Cat Chow."

Note to self: annoy the cat, then vacuum.

After the cat, the bathroom and I dried and I swept up the kitty litter that seemed to rain from on tiled high, I washed my bed linens because where I lie down the cat also sleeps. Hopefully, the apartment smells less like a sick kitty but because it's raining out and he's not fully dry I haven't opened the windows. It may take time to feel the effects of a fresh breeze.