Good morning, gang. Happy rainy Sunday.

I am 100% thoroughly and entirely exhausted — on every spiritual plane!!

And at 7:22AM, I was lying in bed, scrolling through Instagram, and the agency texted me and asked me if I could cover someone’s shift this morning — last minute!

Indeed, I said no. But it was exhausting just seeing the text! And I hate turning down work. But anyway.

I have a ton of work to do over the phone with Peitor today, so even if I weren’t completely exhausted, I would still have had to say no.

Before I forget — here’s an updated version of our poster for the TV Pilot (keep in mind, these actors are just used as examples of the characters. They’re not in the show!):

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There is some very surprising news here — which I feel certain you will not be expecting. I certainly was not.

If you’re a loyal reader of this lofty blog, you know that Big Blackie (a stray cat who lived on my porch — who arrived here nearly dead, after the tornado hit our village last summer) died tragically back in February.

At that point, Little Blackie — another stray cat — followed Big Blackie to my kitchen porch and immediately started living out there permanently. This was back in September. And after Big Blackie died she wanted to come inside my house. She didn’t want to live on the porch anymore, even though neighbors had provided me with some really wonderful cat houses for them.

I let her come in, but it turned out that she attacked all my other cats, so I could only let her come in if I was around to supervise her. Otherwise, she had to go back outside and sleep in her little straw-filled house.

Little Blackie was oddly shaped from the start. At first, I worried that she was pregnant, but she was not. So then I thought that maybe she had some sort of tumor. Since I couldn’t afford to get her to a vet, and I certainly couldn’t afford any potential cancer treatment for her, I was resigned to just making sure she was fed, and loved, and had a safe place.

Friday afternoon, I came home from my shift and it was terrible weather. Rainy, windy, chilly. She didn’t come trotting out of her little house to greet me, as she always did. I peered into her little house and she was in there, big green eyes blinking at me. And I figured she just didn’t want to come out into the bad weather.

Friday evening, she didn’t want to come out of her little house to get her bowl of canned cat food — which is unheard of for her. But, oh well.

And then at 5AM yesterday morning, when I went out to try feeding her again, a (very cute!!) little raccoon was out there eating the dry cat food, and I thought maybe that was why Little Blackie still didn’t want to come out of her little house.

Then, when the sun was up a little while later, and I went down to the kitchen to get ready to leave for my morning shift, I opened the kitchen door to check on her, and she came trotting into the kitchen, all happy and frisky. Yay.

But wait! I thought. She looks suddenly rather trim (for her, anyway). No, no no, I continued thinking. And I hurried out to her little straw-filled house, and I peered into it again.

Why, yes!! Kittens!!!!!! 3 or 4 of them. Extremely tiny. Extremely newborn. Grey and white. And really cute!!!!!

Aaaaack! She was so large all the time that I never noticed she had, in fact, gotten pregnant. Back in February, apparently.

My house already looks like this!! (Okay, not really, but sort of.)

I absolutely cannot believe this. Kittens. But what are you gonna do at this point, right? And sometime soon, they’re all going to have to come inside because my porch is too close to the road and they’ll get hit by cars.

Anyway. I will find good homes for them. But in the meantime, my life couldn’t be more different than I was hoping it would actually be.

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Other than that, gang. Rain, rain, rain. The Wakatomika Creek is flooded. Luckily, I am a couple miles from the creek. But it does mean that for the next few days, I have to go the long way around to get out of town.

But what’s nice about that, is that I get to see all kinds of flowers and flowering trees in bloom that I don’t usually get to see.

There is also this out there — not the best angle. It’s a huge church and it’s on some really beautiful grounds. Surrounded by rolling hills and farms. I often think about attending this church, but it is evangelical, which is pretty hardcore Christianity.

But look at it inside, gang! Isn’t it awesome? Hard to believe this is out in the middle of nowhere.

And churches are always looking for sinners, you know. If I showed up, they probably wouldn’t need any additional ones for a long time…

So I keep thinking about it. We shall see.

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Okay, I guess I’m gonna scoot. Go take a peak at the little kittens! And get my day underway here.

Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Still on that Neil Diamond kick in the mornings here. I woke up at 4AM this morning, with this song unexpectedly going over and over in my head. It’s nice for a Sunday morning.

“Play Me” 1972. Enjoy, gang.

“Play Me”

She was morning, and I was night time
I one day woke up
To find her lying beside my bed
I softly said “Come take me”
For I’ve been lonely in need of someone
As though I’d done someone wrong somewhere
But I don’t know where, I don’t know where
Come lately

You are the sun, I am the moon
You are the words, I am the tune
Play me

Song she sang to me
Song she brang to me
Words that rang in me,
Rhyme that sprang from me
Warmed the night, and what was right
Became me

You are the sun, I am the moon
You are the words, I am the tune
Play me

[Instrumental]

And so it was that I came to travel
Upon a road that was thorned and narrow
Another place, another grace
Would save me

You are the sun, I am the moon
You are the words, I am the tune
Play me
You are the sun, I am the moon
You are the words, I am the tune
Play me……

c – 1972 Neil Diamond