etc.

new Topica list: techielibrarian.

I was supposed to do a bunch of things today. I was supposed to finish writing an article that’s due next week; I was supposed to write up a proposal for a course I want to teach; I was supposed to update a blog I’ve been neglecting; I was supposed to start working on two book reviews that are due next month; I was supposed to whip up some jewellery for someone; I was supposed to test out a couple of sidebar panels for work. All a bit ambitious maybe, but I would have been happy to have made a start on just a few.

So Instead of doing all the things I was supposed to do, I ended up doing a lot of hand-ringing and teeth-gnashing and tear-drying and nose-blowing. You see we spent about 5 hours convinced that one of our cats had gone missing. We have a set of doors in the basement that leads out to the carport and on good days like today, we like leaving one of them open with the screen pulled across to let some fresh air into the house. The cats like hanging out at the screen (they’re indoor cats and live with a wide-eyed reverence for The Outside) and we usually let them, they’ve met several neighbourhood cats there and, thus far, the experience has been agreeable for everyone.

At one point during the day the mister went down to the basement for whatever and called up asking if Heidi was upstairs with me because the screen was open and Sebastian was skulking around but Heidi was awol. After a furious hunt through the house, we came to the conclusion that she must have slipped out, which is completely out of character because she’s easily the world’s most timid creature, but there ensued the hang-ringing and teeth-gnashing &c. Turns out she was in the house all along, the mister found her pussy-footing around upstairs hours later, so all that anguish and regret and sorrow for nothing, we should have known she didn’t have it in her to confront The Outside head-on, and thank goodness for that.

Ever experienced a whole range of emotions, from abject sorrow to overjoyed relief, all within the span of a few hours? Well, instead of picking up on all the things I was supposed to do, I’ve spent the last few hours recovering from this. That and smothering the puny creature while giving thanks that our house won’t be overrun with mice after all.