~~ So, what planet are *you* from? ~~

Sunday, April 12, 1998

        While I was working on the new computer yesterday, once I had the dial-up connection established, I opened up IE to be sure that it worked, and while I had it open I accessed the new domain to see if by some miracle it had started working. Since I couldn't get to it on Friday night, I wasn't very hopeful that anything would happen before Monday. But it worked! I was so excited. Not that I'm going to really have much time this weekend to do anything with it, but it was still exciting that it finally worked, that I could access it.

        So then I switched over to the laptop to download email, because I try to keep it all in one place to try to minimize confusion, and while I was there I went to Natterwick . . . and it wasn't there. Just the generic RapidSite page that they put up to hold my place:

        That's what it looks like. This is what it's supposed to look like, and what it looks like on the other computer, and what it probably looks like on your computer:

        I've cleared the cache, both memory and disk, I've hit reload several times, I've tried both Netsape and IE, I've shut them both down and restarted. Nothing. Anybody have any ideas? I'm completely mystified. I asked a couple of people to check, and they see the right, the new, page. Is it just this weird laptop? How could that be? Want to check for youself and tell me what you see? Click here:

        I went to bed at a little after 11:00 last night, and woke up at 7:00. I was going to turn over and go back to sleep, but I felt pretty much awake and decided to go ahead and get up and get some things done. Lately I've felt sort of overwhelmed with "stuff," too much to do and not enough time to do it, and not really getting anything accomplished. Sometimes rather than actually doing anything to clear up my "to do" list, I end up doing nothing, or wasting time, which is okay sometimes, but it's getting a little out of hand.

        I didn't get everything done this morning, of course, but I felt just a little more in control. I cleaned out the drawer of my little table next to my chair, which I've been needing to do for weeks. It was getting too heavy and I was afraid it was going to collapse one of these days. I had several glass candle holders stored in there, and lots of pads of paper and things that were really too heavy. Pyewacket was fascinated. I let her smell everything--the lavender essential oil, the massage cream, the vanilla essence solid perfume, the coconut cuticle cream. She didn't like any of those things, not surprisingly.

        I'm writing this while I'm waiting for it to be time to go out to my parents' house for lunch. I'm wearing shorts and a cropped t-shirt in a color called "butter," I think, a really warm golden yellow. Bob just came down and he's dressed in black sweatpants and a black long-sleeved t-shirt. I said, "Bob, are we from different planets or something?" He asked why, and I pointed out the way we were dressed. He said, "Yes, I'm from Mars and you're from Uranus. You're not even from Venus, you're so far out there that it must be Uranus, or maybe Alpha Centauri." He went on to say that after all these years he can still honestly say that he has no idea what I'm going to do from one minute to the next.

Later . . .

        Several years ago, so long ago that I've completely forgotten the circumstances, I took a small cardboard box, taped it shut, and then cut a hole in it about six inches square. I put a towel in the bottom of it and it became Doña's "house." It sat under a small table in the bedroom and she would retreat in there when the world got to be too much. Many times we'd go quietly looking for her and find her in her box, curled up inside with her back to us, just a patch of white fur sticking out of the entryway.

        I thought maybe Pyewacket would enjoy a box, too, so a couple of weeks ago I brought one home from work for her. I taped it up and cut a hole in it for a door, and put it up in the dining room on the other side of the little table in front of the window. She spends a lot of time up here with me, so I figured she'd discover it sooner or later. She did. She walked in a couple of times, and walked right out again. After that, she completely ignored it. She hasn't been in it, to my knowledge, in a week or more.

        Bob was up here talking to me a little while ago, and I mentioned that Pye didn't like her house. I was sort of disappointed. I thought it would be fun for her. He said that it was okay, that maybe she'd try it again someday, but that if she didn't, that was okay, too. That she was just different from Doña, and it was nice that I had made it for her anyway.

        After that exchange, about a half hour ago, she went into the box and hasn't come out since. For awhile she sat in it with her head and front paws out the door, like a Sphinx. A little while ago she turned around, curled up, and evidently went to sleep. There's just a little patch of tabby-striped fur sticking out the door . . .