Tuesday afternoon, I drove up to Columbia to see the repeat showing of the Rifftrax anniversary/MST3K reunion show with a couple friends from WoW. The drive was annoying, taking 2 hours to go 50 miles. That wasn't really unexpected, since part of it was on the DC beltway at the start of rush hour.

The show was great and it was pretty neat seeing all of the big names from the old MST3K days on stage performing at the same time. The new host/test subject for the upcoming MST3K episodes was there as well. He and Joel riffed an old educational short and he did pretty well, I think. I'm optimistic about the 'new' version of the show.

The trip home only took an hour, but it was still later than I'm usually up on a work night. When I went to unlock the front door, some motion on the floor caught my eye. At first I thought it was a dead leaf or something, but a closer look revealed it to be a toad.



While not exactly as exciting as spotting a bear next to an on-ramp, I still thought it was kind of neat. There are a lot of toads and frogs in the grassy and wooded little area near the apartment. I often hear them at night and they're fairly loud. I was kind of glad to see this little guy hanging out by my front door. Hopefully, he/she intercepted any bugs who were thinking about trying to get inside. I wouldn't mind him or one of his colleagues being out there every night, really.

On the way home after work on Friday afternoon, I saw something one rarely sees in suburbia. As I took the ramp to go northbound onto 28, I noticed something in the grassy area between the ramp and the Hilton. My first reaction was "That's one huge dog," but then I realized it wasn't a dog. It was a black bear. He(she?) was shifting about as if trying to decide what to do. I'd have loved to take a picture of it, but I was driving and wouldn't have been able to get the phone out to do it in time, and I sure wasn't going to pull over on the ramp.

When I got home, I called county animal control and reported it. I was concerned the bear would wander out onto the ramp, or would go the other direction around a fence and into the nearby hotel parking lot. The dispatcher suggested I call the state game warden's office, too, since the county folks aren't equipped to catch bears. They'd just head out there and end up calling the state. Unfortunately, the number she provided me for the game warden was out of service. I figured I'd done my civic duty anyway and didn't bother searching for the correct number.

I don't know if it was an adult bear. It definitely wasn't a cub, but I've no experience with bears and don't know how large black bears actually get. For some reason, I got the impression it was a young adult.

That's one more thing I can check off my suburban wildlife bingo card.

This morning, the president of the company for which I work went down the hall, handing everyone an envelope with their name printed on it. With all that's happened so far this year, I was pretty uneasy when handed mine. The fact that the he didn't say much other than to ask if/when my boss would be in today did nothing to relax me.

It turns out to be good news for once. The pay cuts that were implemented 14 months ago have been reversed. Starting with the next pay period, my salary will increase by the amount by which it was reduced last year.

I'm both surprised and pleased by this, to say the least. Still, with all that's happened since late last year, I can't help but feel only cautiously optimistic. Is the other shoe about to drop and negate this good thing?

Well, the move is done and I've spent a week living in the new place. There's still a lot of unpacking and figuring out of things to be done. The new place is nice and fairly quiet. I need to get some curtains for the bedroom since it's well-lit outside at night and a lot of light gets in around/through the blinds.

One thing I sure don't miss is Loud Bird. He's a robin that perched in a tree outside the old place and declared his robin studmuffin-ness to the world at dawn and dusk with his volume turned up to 11. There's a mockingbird who likes to perch on a light post outside the new place now and then and sing, but he's not annoying.

There are definitely a lot of frogs living nearby now. Going outside at night it sounds like the soundtrack from a swamp scene in a movie.

I just got a text message from the guy who took my oscar home last night.   Bubba survived his trip okay and is in his new home.   The guy also emailed a picture of him in his new tank.



Dangit.  While I was just kind of sad and missed the big fish last night and this morning, seeing him in his new digs actually has me choked up a little.

I got a response to the Craigslist ad I posted to give away my oscar fish.  There's someone who should be coming by tonight to pick him up.  He says he has a tank ready to go for him and has experience with larger fish.   Hopefully, this means that Bubba will soon be in a new (and probably much better) home.  I got a bit choked up giving the little tropical fish to Petco for adoption.   It's not going to be easy to say goodbye to Bubba.

Of course, this means letting a total stranger into the apartment.   I'm a bit leery of that, but having done Google searches of the guy's name and cell #, it seems like he's a real person.

I don't have to worry about anyone stealing the remote from my office with Chief Bogo on the job:

Visitors to the office building in which I work are required to sign in before they can visit any of the companies/agencies that have offices here.  Just now, as I was carrying some documents to a company on another floor, I saw Santa signing in at the guard desk.   Not even Saint Nick enters this building without showing id and signing in!  I wonder if the reindeer had to sign the book, too.

I just read that Leonard Nimoy died. I spent a lot of afternoons in my youth watching Star Trek reruns. Recently, I found it kind of amusing to see him alongside William Shatner in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

It's been 7 years since my last cat, Katie, died.  It's only been in the past year or so that I've been able to consider adopting another cat.  Even then, I kind of figured that if I was meant to have another one, one would end up dropped in my lap in need of help.  That's how I got 2 of the 3 cats I've had in the past.  They were strays who needed help.

Back on Tuesday, I swung by the pet store for some fish food before going to the grocery.  When checking out, I noticed one of the staff over by the adoption kennel things they put in last year.  Those've been empty whenever I was a the store during the past few months.  Perhaps foolishly, I went over to see the new arrivals.  The upper level had two brothers who were less than a year old.  Cute lil guys.  The lower level had a single young adult female black cat.  She was quite affectionate and seemed content to cheekrub forever against any fingers one'd stick through the holes in the plexiglass.  I talked to the woman there who said they'd rescued the cat from a beach a couple days before hurricane Arthur came up the coast.  Her name is Sandy, which is kind of weird for a black cat, but fits in with being found on a beach.  She's somewhere around 2 years old, laid back, loves to play with toys both by herself and with humans, and likes to cuddle in with folks.  They say she doesn't seem to mind being alone but does like being around people.  The woman did say she can be a bit talky at times.

I was seriously considering arranging to spend some time with her in one of the rooms they have for that purpose and even was persuaded to leave with an application.  Of course, I had to figure out costs and think about other aspects of having a cat again, which is where the responsible side of me had to open its big mouth and point out reasons not to go any further.  There'd be the up-front cost of supplies and such since I no longer have anything of Katie's aside from some of her favorite toys and a ceramic water dish.  Then there'd be the $95 adoption fee, and a pet deposit for the apartment, and on top of that monthly pet rent.  That was $15 when Katie was still alive.  I think it's up to $25/month now.  Of course, there'd also be vet bills and recurring costs for food and litter and stuff.  Normally, I could probably budget for that and make the other lifestyle adjustments that a new kitty would entail, but...

There's a chance that the sale of the company I work for will happen around the end of September.  That could mean drastic changes and I could even get laid off.  Definitely not a good time to have the added expenses of a new pet. Thinking about it for a couple days, the responsible thing to do is to not pursue things any further.  She seems like the kind of cat who'll get adopted pretty quickly, and odds are by someone with whom she'd be better off than she would be with me.  I guess it's best to go back to the view that if I'm destined to have a cat, the world will drop one in my lap.

Being responsible and doing the right thing can really suck sometimes.