This Is Drivel

Category: O’Folks

  • Scooter pees

    Scooter peed in the kitchen this morning. A lot. He sprayed the sides of the recycling bin and the bottles of vinegar, and he left a wide puddle of pee on the floor around the bin and bottles. I mopped up the pee, sprayed everything with formula twice. I cleaned all of the back one-third… Read.

  • plain sight

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    My Darling B was looking for a shaker filled with pepper flakes she got from the grocery last week. She asked me if I knew what happened to it, as if I had a clue where she shelved her herbs and spices. I don’t put that stuff away, not because I have this highfalutin idea… Read.

  • clothe

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    Just got off the phone with mom, who recalled this memory from when I was but a wee lad: When it was time for mom to go down to the basement to do the laundry, she would say to me, “I have to wash some clothes. Do you want to come downstairs with me, or… Read.

  • the cat’s ass

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    My mother once described a certain person’s defining characteristic this way: “He thinks he’s the cat’s ass.” I’ve always been especially fond of this phrase as a way of describing a person who was a little too full of himself, even though I was never quite sure what vanity had to do with a cat’s… Read.

  • a nice call

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    Mom called me last night while we were having dinner. “Call you back in about ten minutes,” I promised her, then for the next ten minutes tried and failed not to think about why she might be calling me. Mom doesn’t call me. I call her. It’s one of those unspoken agreements. When she does… Read.

  • what passes for excitement

    Scooter the cat is back home after a three-day stay at the emergency veterinary hospital. We don’t get up to a lot of exciting things during our self-imposed lockdown, so this is what passes for exciting around here nowadays. I had to take Scooter to our regular vet on Tuesday morning because he looked like… Read.

  • who’s a good boy

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    Sparky went to the vet yesterday. Did. Not. Like. It. Or at least I thought he didn’t, because he howled all the way there. He was fine when I put him in the cat carrier, but as soon as I put the carrier in the car he started to howl like he’d been stuck, and… Read.

  • sheddingest cat ever

    We have two cats: the youngest, Sparky, is a standard tabby cat, and the oldest is a mutt, if that word applies to cats as well as dogs. The vet says he’s got a lot of Siamese in him, judging by his rat tail and the shape of his snout, and the rest is probably… Read.

  • So long Boo

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    So long, Boo. I miss your crooked little tail already. Read.

  • windy city

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    Got back this afternoon from a weekend trip to The Windy City with My Darling B. We’ve been talking for years about visiting the Christmas market they have there every year, and this year we finally stopped talking and did it. B did all the hard work of planning the trip and booking the rooms;… Read.

photo of the author and the author's best friend