Every day is crammed full of things. Most of those things occur in my basement office, where I am cold, wearing two sweaters (one wool, one the giant cashmere hoodie that is a central figure in my life), my feet on a heated foot pad, with a space heater blasting. It’s so cold and it’s hard to be chilly and sit in eventfull virtual meetings. And try to talk and be present while doing a million other things.

Then at night there are other meetings, the fun ones where we try to make things better. Tonight was one of those, and it whipped me. I do love trying to run things and I worry that I’ll be too harsh. But you have to make people stop talking.

Last night one of the kittens was lost

We didn’t notice until the next morning. Here’s what happened: Calvin returned from Los Angeles, where I was not awarded an Emmy for writing two animated sequences and an Elmo’s World. We were discussing our dire need for light in the living room and he fetched an ugly light fixture and left this horrid cabinet open in the basement.

I gave it all away. The easily-spooked kitten, the one with the bruised eyes, got up into this cabinet, into a hole that led to the grody, scary, dark crawl space between the basement and the first floor, and she got stuck there all night. We got up and realized the food wasn’t eaten and could not find her. The other one was romping around like the self-satisfied scamp she is. I walked the alley, looking under the cars and feeling angry at the ice. It was cold!

By 9:30 AM, Wyatt was gone and Calvin and I were feeling so doomed. I was in a truly productive yet hellish meeting and I hear Calvin start talking maniacally in his office to the other cat. I think he’s encouraging the remaining cat to work with him to find the missing cat but suddenly he yells “I found the cat!”

And I yell to my meeting, “he found the cat!”

She was in the ceiling and he heard her meow and lured her over, through the dark, nail-y space to him.

Whew!

No Maggie news. A giant moving truck parks and we think things are carried to it. Or maybe from it. She gives nothing away on social media and hasn’t attacked us in a month or so.

Back to cats

They are very darling. We try to let them sleep with us but they aren’t ready for that. Venus wants you to pet her constantly and if you stop, she stands on you and looks deeply into your eyes and breathes on you. We kick them out most nights. Venus also farts. They love my cold office in a weird way.

I got nothing for you