DIdn't get to sleep until 6am, woke up at 10am. How does a penguin do on 4 hours of sleep? Interesting experiment, dear Watson. Didn't stop me from heading up to Wally World to get my medicines, then over to Harbor Freight Tools and Sears to start the work of replacing the tools that were in the toolbox that thieves stole (grrrrrr....). None of my core tools were in that toolbox (they were all with my Jeep that weekend), but lots of shit that just make working on cars and motorcycles more pleasant were in there, as well as some specialty tools that I don't even know whether I need'em anymore but it was nice having them in case I ever did need'em again (tools good! Ugh!). So over at Harbor Freight I got cheap replacements for the various specialty pliers (bent nose, needle nose, etc.) which when you need'em you need'em as well as various picks, scribes, tweezers, and other such implements of mass destruction, and oh yeah, my freakin' *air nozzles* were in that tool box too for attaching to my air compressor/air tank to do stuff like fill up tires and such via quick disconnect so I had to pick up a new air tool kit. Then over at Sears, I got replacements for the locking pliers and channel-loks that got stolen (I had the one of each that I use most often in the Jeep with me, well actually had two of the Vice-grips a tiny one and a regular size one, but the ones I didn't have do get occasional use when they're just the right tool for the job). Thus far the thief has set me back around $120, and I haven't even started on stuff like sheet metal shears and such that were in that toolbox, grrr...
So it appears that sleep deprivation makes me type run-on sentences and buy tools. Sigh. Guess it could be worse. Oh, yeah, what beats me is that I'm cutting back on my caffeine intake, just one cup in the morning for the past two days otherwise I can't safely navigate out of my front door and I'm going to cut that down to an 8oz cup rather than a 16oz mug (heh!) then to a 4oz cup at which point I should be able to kick the coffee habit entirely, but it doesn't seem to be helping the insomnia issue. And no, I don't use meth or crack, so don't bother telling me to quit them either :-). Oh yeah, my Macbook in clamshell mode hooked up to my widescreen 22" monitor is suhweet, but I can't find a picture browser that is as nice as gqview on Linux for the Mac. iPhoto is almost there, but is way too slow once you import thousands of photos into it and sucks up all the memory on the system (and remember I have two gigabytes of memory in my Macbook), not to mention that you have to import the photos into it in the first place, you can't just browse an arbitrary directory full of penguin porn for example unless you import it and who wants to have a 'penguin porn' category in their iPhoto left tab heh! So I guess I gotta fire up Xcode and do my first Aqua programming -- porting gqview to the native MacOS API. That oughtta be a trip :-).
Oh, for those of you who have multiple cats with multiple food bowls, do you find that your cats are picky about what order you fill the food bowls in? If I fi ll the food bowl by the wine rack before I fill the food bowl by the refrigerator, the furry beasties get all discombobulated. The Mighty Fang goes and starts eating out of the food bowl by the wine rack until Mencken shoves him away to grab a few bites, meantime I put food into the food bowl by the refrigerator and nobody's eating out of there. But if I put food into the food bowl by the refrigerator, TMF starts chowing down, while Mencken goes and waits by the one by the wine rack, I put food in there, and Mencken starts chowing down, then it's both kitties chowing down at the same time like it's supposed to be. Damned furry beasts simply do not tolerate any variation from their routine, it gets them all tangled up... hmm, okay, so sleep deprivation starts making penguins start talking about cats, photos, crack habits, and other stuff in a posting about insominia too. Babble babble babble...
-- Badtux the Sleepless Penguin
Buying tools is fun, but the reason you're having to buy tools is not. Sorry to hear about that. I don't know why you're quitting caffeine. At this point, there is no way I can even consider it. Perhaps in a couple years, after work gets straightened out... will it ever?
ReplyDeleteMy cats have a couple feeders, but I don't feed them every day, only when the feed bowls are empty, so I don't find a problem with filling them in whatever way. I do give them treats in the morning, and Lady Fortuna has to have hers away from the others. It could be the same cat temperament your kitties experience.
Quitting caffeine due to insomnia (duh!). If I fed my cats like you do, they'd be 30 pounds apiece rather than an average of 16 pounds apiece. Actually, TMF is down to 16 pounds, Mencken is at 14 pounds, but when I put the auto-feeder in place to go on vacation, TMF shoots up to 18 pounds in just a week's time of eating as much as he wants. He's already too fat at 16!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think Mencken is a bit like Lady Fortuna. He has his food bowl, and doesn't like eating out of any other food bowl. TMF, on the other hand, doesn't care how he eats, he goes to the first food bowl that has food in it, heck if I just put the sack on the floor he'd stick his furry nose into it and start eating. I think that's why things get discombobulated when I put the food into Mencken's food bowl first -- TMF isn't going to go anywhere until he's filled his tummy, but Mencken isn't going to go anywhere either, so they shove each others' head out of the way to grab mouthfulls while the other food bowl is completely ignored.
- Badtux the Insomniac Penguin
The cat observations are very funny. The Horde is fed in the morning and in the evening (if we left food out...we'd have furry blimps). And they insist on being fed in the exact same order (it's some sort of pecking order of sorts and it only makes sense to them...dumb human puts the bowls down in the proscribed manner)
ReplyDeleteI tried quitting caffeine for a month but it did not change my sleep patterns. I am thinking that the booze and cigarettes on weekends has something to do with it; but also the fact that I loathe my job and am on twenty four hour call seven days a week does not help either.
ReplyDeleteSo, maybe the caffeine thing may work for you. Know anyone in Houston that I can go work for? ;-)
You call that insomnia?
ReplyDeleteHell, let's see you work my hours for a few months -- 6:30 PM to 6:30 AM three nights a week, sometimes four.
(Blue: Your hours are worse than mine, but only because I know for certain that I'll have a few days off each week. No one can touch me on those days. I do not envy you...)
I've done two hours of sleep with a full work day. I find myself surprisingly lucid.
ReplyDeleteAs far as cat bowls go, we have two, and they're on two special diets. One for UTI prevention, and the other for chubbiness. Trying to get them to eat from the right bowls is a headache.
Sophie gets his food first though.
Losing tools, especially old tools is the pits, because the replacements, even from the same manufacturer, will be different, and will have to be used differently.
ReplyDeleteThere is a prescribed order for food dishes, and no deviation is permitted. Failure to follow the proper sequencing can result in slight miscalculations as to the exact location of the litter box, and hair balls in your shoes.
Tool thieves.... Argh!!!! I once had a top box stolen from me, not a lot in it, but there was a three hundred dollar camshaft bearing installation setup in it.
ReplyDeleteIf you catch one just shoot it and drag it off in the mountains and leave it to the bugs. And don't tell anyone.
I feed my cats the same food in both the inside and outside dishes, they will eat it or go without, it's their choice. I'm not on this planet to spoil cats.
I often only sleep four hours.