Berkeley: Day Two
Dec. 28th, 2023 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_a(Berkeley Day Two)
THE MISSING CAT (NOT MISSING). We always ask our cat sitter to send us pictures of our cats when they visit. That way we get regular updates without having to bug our cat sitter and we never have to stress. But Kimberly got her daily update today and noticed for the second day in a row that all of the pictures were of Mango, none of Elmer.
So we're paranoid, and we checked with our cat sitter that she sees Elmer every day, expecting to get back a "yes" and that she didn't even realize that she was sending all pictures of the same cat, or something like that. And we get back a response that starts out totally comforting: yes, she sees the cats everyday, but Elmer just doesn't like his photo taken.
Except, she continued, he was hiding somewhere today and she didn't see him. And she'd somehow misinterpreted something we said as, "Hey, if you don't see Elmer, don't worry, he likes to hide." I mean, aside from the fact that that defeats the whole purpose of having a cat sitter, as she's there to make sure he gets attention, doesn't get locked up somewhere, and is doing OK, she was sending reports through the Rover app including not just the pictures, but ALSO AFFIRMING THAT SHE'D SEEN THE CATS and that they were eating, drinking, etc.
So we asked my dad to check-in, and fortunately caught him just before his walk in the golf course behind our house, which meant he could park at our house, check in, and then do his walk, and it was barely out of his way. He found Elmer hanging out under the dining room table, but he might have been somewhere else earlier. (He hadn't seen him when he came in and hunted for a while and then *poof* there he was.) He's apparently being quite skittish, which he does. But seems OK.
So, whew. And my most kindly dad is going to go spend some time with him tomorrow morning.
And Kimberly is going to talk to our cat sitter to make sure she SEES BOTH CATS on each visit.
OTHER THINGS GO AWRY. Both of our Roombas have managed to get themselves jammed up while we are gone. Our house is slowly descending into chaos.
VISITING HOME. But aside from that bit of stress in the evening, today was mainly a gaming day. So I headed south for that, and since I was running early made a detour to our old homestead. It looks about the same, as it has every year. It's increasingly weird to see things like the locked mailbox that I installed (due to theft) still there. But I was most pleased to see that the landscaping that we had done to help sell the house is not only still there, but really thriving. I'm so happy that effort wasn't wasted. Even though our landscaper works to make more houses presentable, she obviously does a great job at creating sustainable work.
GAMING DAY I. The actual gaming was MB's house at noon, where I met up with my old Thursday Night group (and my continuing Thursday Night group online) and we played through until 4pm.
First game was Pathfinder ACG: Curse of the Crimson Throne. Pathfinder ACG was a pretty serious game for us over the years, as we walked through all of the first edition scenarios, but we just got to play with second edition a little bit before I left. So, it was great to return to it, even for a one-off. (And it's *so* much nicer to play in person than online. A lot of games run faster and more efficiently online; Pathfinder ACG is the opposite, in large part because we have to play it on Tabletop Simulator.)
After that we played two games of Ready, Set, Bet, which is a simple horse-racing betting game. It was quite well-done. The betting occurs in real-time as the horses race forward (one die roll at a time) and it's very exciting. Not a deep game, but a good design, and a fun play.
After those games, we had BBQ, which was an old tradition at my game nights thanks to EL pushing for them. That was terrific too. I'm not sure I'd had corn-on-the-cob since we moved to Kauai.
And on the walk home I got to enjoy Christmas lights on the street. (Being in Berkeley I had to decide between the safest streets or the best Christmas lights, and came up with a compromise.)
So, a good day other than the evening Elmer stress.
THE MISSING CAT (NOT MISSING). We always ask our cat sitter to send us pictures of our cats when they visit. That way we get regular updates without having to bug our cat sitter and we never have to stress. But Kimberly got her daily update today and noticed for the second day in a row that all of the pictures were of Mango, none of Elmer.
So we're paranoid, and we checked with our cat sitter that she sees Elmer every day, expecting to get back a "yes" and that she didn't even realize that she was sending all pictures of the same cat, or something like that. And we get back a response that starts out totally comforting: yes, she sees the cats everyday, but Elmer just doesn't like his photo taken.
Except, she continued, he was hiding somewhere today and she didn't see him. And she'd somehow misinterpreted something we said as, "Hey, if you don't see Elmer, don't worry, he likes to hide." I mean, aside from the fact that that defeats the whole purpose of having a cat sitter, as she's there to make sure he gets attention, doesn't get locked up somewhere, and is doing OK, she was sending reports through the Rover app including not just the pictures, but ALSO AFFIRMING THAT SHE'D SEEN THE CATS and that they were eating, drinking, etc.
So we asked my dad to check-in, and fortunately caught him just before his walk in the golf course behind our house, which meant he could park at our house, check in, and then do his walk, and it was barely out of his way. He found Elmer hanging out under the dining room table, but he might have been somewhere else earlier. (He hadn't seen him when he came in and hunted for a while and then *poof* there he was.) He's apparently being quite skittish, which he does. But seems OK.
So, whew. And my most kindly dad is going to go spend some time with him tomorrow morning.
And Kimberly is going to talk to our cat sitter to make sure she SEES BOTH CATS on each visit.
OTHER THINGS GO AWRY. Both of our Roombas have managed to get themselves jammed up while we are gone. Our house is slowly descending into chaos.
VISITING HOME. But aside from that bit of stress in the evening, today was mainly a gaming day. So I headed south for that, and since I was running early made a detour to our old homestead. It looks about the same, as it has every year. It's increasingly weird to see things like the locked mailbox that I installed (due to theft) still there. But I was most pleased to see that the landscaping that we had done to help sell the house is not only still there, but really thriving. I'm so happy that effort wasn't wasted. Even though our landscaper works to make more houses presentable, she obviously does a great job at creating sustainable work.
GAMING DAY I. The actual gaming was MB's house at noon, where I met up with my old Thursday Night group (and my continuing Thursday Night group online) and we played through until 4pm.
First game was Pathfinder ACG: Curse of the Crimson Throne. Pathfinder ACG was a pretty serious game for us over the years, as we walked through all of the first edition scenarios, but we just got to play with second edition a little bit before I left. So, it was great to return to it, even for a one-off. (And it's *so* much nicer to play in person than online. A lot of games run faster and more efficiently online; Pathfinder ACG is the opposite, in large part because we have to play it on Tabletop Simulator.)
After that we played two games of Ready, Set, Bet, which is a simple horse-racing betting game. It was quite well-done. The betting occurs in real-time as the horses race forward (one die roll at a time) and it's very exciting. Not a deep game, but a good design, and a fun play.
After those games, we had BBQ, which was an old tradition at my game nights thanks to EL pushing for them. That was terrific too. I'm not sure I'd had corn-on-the-cob since we moved to Kauai.
And on the walk home I got to enjoy Christmas lights on the street. (Being in Berkeley I had to decide between the safest streets or the best Christmas lights, and came up with a compromise.)
So, a good day other than the evening Elmer stress.