Christmas lights

 

   Perhaps in the spirit of my last post about needing as much light as possible this Christmas season, I recently got a cat from the local pound – an orange one-year-old. I had not had a cat for some time, and I had been saying that I wanted to get one (or two) for a while.  When I got him, his name was Cashew, which I thought was stupid.  I named him Aaron, because I like biblical names, because it remind me of a lion and because he is small – I suspect he’s a runt - and I want him to be brave. 

   Also when I got him, his tail had been amputated.  Perhaps he touched my heart as a fellow disabled creature. Also, his backside is shaved and waddles when he walks, like he’s strutting around in chaps – quite funny!  Unfortunately, the cone he had been given was too small, and he was able to lick the stump, and it began bleeding. I took him back to the pound where he had another surgery and was given a bigger cone and more meds at no cost.  He doesn’t like either, but he’s being a pretty good boy.  He was even good when I had his nails trimmed – he was hurting me and my attendants, although that clearly wasn’t his intention. 

  Aaron was hurting me, because, soon after I got him, he was climbing up and sitting on my lap, purring like a motor boat.  I’ve had many cats – yes, I’m a proud cat lady/man – but only a few have sat on my lap and not so soon.  He is indeed brave as well as sweet – truly an Aaron.  What a gift!  Although he does like to push my joystick – a problem – and his meow is really a squeak, making me wonder if I got a mouse instead of a cat!

 

   The best gifts are the ones that are not expected. 

   I’ve been able to go out strolling this late in the year.  It’s cool, but I’m okay in my warmer overalls, turtlenecks and beanies. This has been a special treat, since, as I’ve written about before, Fall is my favorite season, with its colorful, falling leaves and special light, and I was confined to bed jail with a pressure sore on my butt last year. 

   One of my routes includes a small concrete path from the end of a cul-de-sac to an adjacent street.  There were a couple problems with this path.  One was a dangerous split in the concrete – which, much to my pleasant surprise, the city paved over a few years ago when I pointed it out but left it at that.  The other problem was a driveway with a nasty, high lip – a trap for my wheelchair if I wasn’t careful. 

   A couple weeks ago, some unrelated work was done, and the concrete path was replaced and even the driveway lip was paved over.  I assume the wood plank, asphalt and metal plates are temporary, but I’d be quite satisfied with them.  After the Fall we had and with what’s coming next month, I will take any good thing, any gift, any light.

 

   Watch Black Doves on Netflix.  This is a superb, six-part, dark, sexy, London-set spy thriller that’s also a refreshingly not-so-sweet Christmas tale.  Also on Netflix is Hot Frosty, about a buff snowman who comes to life – naked! – which is corny and sappy but also sweet and hot.  (The sleeveless coveralls are sexy; too bad they aren’t overalls!)

 

The leaves turn red, fall

here just in time for Christmas –

an end’s beginning.