As we wandered the river banks with our BioSITE kids today, the mid-morning quiet was interrupted by an old homeless man who shouted as he walked along the path by the river. The kids were a bit alarmed, and the more imaginative amongst them quickly decided that he had a gun.
It soon became apparent what he was up to. He was trailed by a number of expectant cats as he walked, like some sort of alternate reality pied piper. He stepped off the trail and put down some bowls of cat food. The cats squabbled as they vied for position. The man resumed his shouting, calling more felines to the feast. All along the river, cats could be seen. We noticed another cluster of cats on the other side, gathered around food that the man had put down earlier.
So, I guess the cats aren't quite feral. Hopefully the fact that they're being regularly fed means that they'll leave the wildlife alone, but knowing cats, I'm sure this won't be the case. It's just another example of how kindness to a few is in fact an unkindness to many.

Spay and neuter your pets, people.

Yesterday (or should I say yesternight?), the slow leak in one of my front tires became a fast leak, so I emptied a can of fix-a-flat into it and got back to work. The puncture must have been pretty big, because
while I worked, my spinning tire was painting the wheel well with liquid, chemical-smelling rubber, so that when I stopped to check on the tire, it was nearly flat again and smelled really nasty to boot. I put some more fix-a-flat in and found a gas station with a working air pump (harder than you'd expect). Today I bought a couple of new tires, because the old ones, in addition to being leaky, were nearly bald.
I know that somewhere, locked in a vault, there is a formula for tires that will last for the entire life of a car and beyond. I curse the whole concept of planned obsolescence.

Tonight, I got pulled over again because I look damn suspicious.

cds I listened to while sneaking around: Dead Raven Choir "Armoured Wolves", Ilgi "Kaza Kapa Debesis", Bittova & Fajt "s/t", Godspeed You! Black Emperor "Yanqui U.X.O.", and Shanghaied & Haunted "Pilgrim Beware"