Where's my extra hour of sleep?

This happens every fall.

Cats just don't grasp the concept of the fall time change. Thanks to a certain cat in my house, whose name begins with "N," I have been awake since 3 AM-ish every night (morning) since we turned our clocks back Saturday night.

It's impossible to sleep with Nicki's strident yeowling, wanting me to get up and feed him. This morning he felt the need to push the hall lamp off the console table and onto the floor. At 3:15. It's not the first time he's done this, and I know it won't be the last but oh, boy, did I turn the air blue when I flew out of bed and rushed downstairs. NOT impressed. I have "raccoon eyes" and am in surly temper from the lack of rest. On top of the pre-existing sleep deprivation. (There was one night in late September that I slept soundly and deeply, the only night I can remember this year. I couldn't function the next day, I was so out of it!)

I love you, Nicki, but oh, I don't like you very much right now.

As for the other one, and their "output" issues, well, some days are better than others. I actually took a stool sample from Derry and dropped it off at the vet clinic last Thursday. I got the results back yesterday: negative for everything. This is the only time I was hoping for a "positive" and therefore a concrete reason for the ongoing problems. Without that, it means it's a food issue, at least for Fatmandu (Derry).

I'm now keeping track of the canned I'm giving them (with mixed results here), and quite seriously will have to set up a spreadsheet to correlate that with the output. Cripes almighty. I am trying the vet Hill's Z/D (dry) for Nicki and Derry too, but it's full of rice and often it's the carbs that create the problems for cats (i.e. obligate carnivores). In their case I don't think it's adding to the problems, though, so I'll keep on with it for a while. Nicki loves it; Derry will eat any kibble. I'm also now giving them both Metamucil (i.e. psyllium fibre) in their canned, with mixed results, depending on the food they've had. (Duck = too rich, I think. Ditto for the salmon I tried.)

I still can't fathom why Derry started having these problems in mid-October; a cat that never had this issue in his life. I'll probably never figure it out.

From my Pinterest feed

Changing the topic, I was reminded yet again of the perils of decluttering when, on Saturday, I started to rummage through the few Christmas/winter decorations I have left, looking for my warm white strings of holiday lights. I found two, couldn't find the third, realized I'd probably donated it in my most recent decluttering binge. Along with all my extension cords, save one, which wasn't the kind I needed. That I do remember -- opening the storage bin I had all the cords in and thinking who on earth needs that many extension cords? Apparently I do.

So on Sunday I had to traipse out to Rona (the closest big box hardware store) and buy two extension cords, a surge protector, and yep, a string of white LED mini-lights. Duh, Kim. The only "plus" here is that I had Airmiles to use, so I got everything for less than $6. That made me feel a bit better, though I could have put those Airmiles to better use at one of our grocery stores. You know, for food.

This cat had just had an encounter with a dog (on a leash).
The cat stood his ground, but he wasn't impressed.

Oh, I can't end this post (which already is too long) without mentioning our wild storm on Halloween night! It was a complete wash-out for the kids (which isn't a bad thing, IMO, as it kept the roving bands of hooligans down to nil); we had 52 mm of rain and wind gusts up to 110 km/hour (68 miles/hr). There was a lot of damage around the city: downed power lines and trees, dangling traffic lights everywhere, or lights that were completely blown off, etc. Fortunately my roof held up and didn't leak (yay!), though I had some minor damage to the siding. I've sent the pics below to our property manager, but I don't know how long it will take for repairs. This is what I pay condo fees for, and as I don't own the exterior of my unit, it's up to him to get things done (in his typical half-assed way).

You can see that a bit of the siding has come away at the top, and in the second pic, you can see the buckling to the left of the window -- I just noticed that this morning.

Not my problem! I have enough of my own, thanks!

Anyway, if anyone actually made it through this post, give yourself a pat on the back; kudos! There's lots more I could blab on about, but maybe another time. Or maybe not.  :-)

Peace.

Oh, yeah! If only I could follow this great advice!