And the silence is so sweet it's practically making my tongue pucker. This is the first time I've been alone in my house since about December 20th.Temporary it may be, but it's also a tantalizing vision of what is to come. I mean, it's only 4:30 in the afternoon -- not even -- so Husband isn't home from work yet. But Older Daughter, now that her best buddy is finally home from vacation traveling, is out for the afternoon. Where? Who gives a rat's ass? She's out, she's not in my car, and the quiet is so delicious that I haven't even turned on the television. And to top it off, for at least 5 minutes now, the cat hasn't been crying for food.
I may not have mentioned previously the cat with the eating disorder. Truth be told, she's about as non-catlike as an animal could be and still be a mammal. She is
* not at all graceful. She can't jump, and when she runs, she gallops, her back end swinging from side to side. She is swaybacked.
* she doesn't ration out her food, the way some cats do, the way our other cat does. If an entire cow dropped dead and fell apart in front of her, she would eat and eat and eat until there was nothing left of it. When she's hungry (= whenever anyone is passing through the kitchen, or is breathing anywhere else in the house) she cries for food, because
* she cannot meow. She is essentially a mute cat, so her cries are very soft. They are no less annoying because of it.
* as everyone knows, cats are fastidiously clean. This cat is not. She does clean herself all the time the way cats do. Let's just leave the rest up to the imagination.
Curiously, although the cat's name is Q (yes, Q, like in Star Trek) she has a white letter Y marking in white on the top of her gray head. Go figure.
And there it is. I vowed I would never post a cat page on the Internet, and now I've gone and done it. I guess I can give her a few paragraphs, since she's not crying. The only sound I hear is of one hand typing ... something like that.
Older Daughter goes back to college on Sunday. Husband tells me that in March and April he will be teaching not two nights a week, but three or four. I may find myself back where I was when both kids first went to college in September and Husband was working about 18 hours a day 7 days a week and when the cat cried I was grateful for the company.
Or maybe not.
