Cat Drama, and glasses...

Hey people. This is Camper and Ray. You can't really tell from this pic, but they pretty much hate each other. Nothing personal, just some asinine male imperative they can't seem to overcome. They spend a lot of time within feet of each other-- the whole "keep your enemies closer" thing.

The other night I went to let them in. There they sat, side by side, inches apart, looking both guilty and pissed off, soaking wet and caked with mud.

They'd gotten into anther little tussle, in the stream bed this time, apparently. It's the only place on our property with that kind of black, goopy mud. This pic of Ray was taken after I'd tried to wash him off with a rag. They both wound-up needing kitchen sink scrub-downs.

The next day they went back to their usual Spy v.s. Spy mode.

Meanwhile, Mike and Tootie's cuddlefest continues.

Believe it or not, all these were taken on different days.

Yesterday I dug though our box of Halloween get-ups. I've almost talked Dan into going in this Halloween mountain bike race with me. Of course anything that involves costumes, and is active-- I want to do.

Anyway, I found an old pair of my mom's reading glasses. I used to call them her "birth control glasses" when I was in high school. Nice huh? (I am so lucky I don't have some snotty kid lurking around my house to remind me of how old I am. Sorry mom.) Anyway, I'll probably be needing reading glasses sometime this year. And now I think they're kind of cute in a nerdy way. Trippy to say the least. This is def one of those moments I would have issued the "if I ever ____, just kill me" sanction on when I was young. Glad I've lived long enough to become ridiculous.

Geek chic?

In other SueNews:

I'm getting kind of fried, but still have lots to do in the next three weeks. The joint that tends to wear-out that connects my thumb to my hand is getting cranky, and I think I'm suffering from the cumulative effects of the lousy air quality in my shop. The suck-wow (my work bench/ exhaust system) is working pretty good, but there is still a coating of metal dust and spray paint particles on every surface in my shop, so... not super pure air.

I've had what's left of a cold for 4 weeks now-- the last vestiges refusing to let go, mostly in the form of rubber cement in my lungs. Any time I get sick it really attacks my lungs and usually turns into bronchitis, probably because they're always a bit compromised. Dan is really on my butt about this lately. There is probably a respirator mask in my future, even though I know I'll feel all claustrophobic and hate it.

Also I'm just getting a bit burned-out. I've been working pretty full blast since the beginning of June. So have all of you right? But when I'm getting ready for something (like I have been since then, one event after another) I wind-up working weekends & some evenings, and spending a lot of my "off" time working in my head. I wind-up never really feeling like I'm off, and I get worn-out physically too. Anyway, reaching the end-- getting to that hitting the wall point and hoping I get everything done before I hit it.

I have to say I have a few people in my life who will just never really get what I do, and their little jabs about my work schedule etc ("must be nice" "some people have to have real jobs" "what are you doing today?" "working" "on what?" (like it's just some hobby of mine) etc) that I usually take with a grain of salt are wearing pretty damned thin about now. I wouldn't belittle someone else's job. Why do people feels it's acceptable to do to me? Do other creatives get this attitude?

I know being self-employed looks pretty appealing compared to working for some doofus at a job you hate-- but come on. It's still hard work.