You look up and a bunch of days go by without you even realizing it.

I had started writing an entry last night only to crash in the midst of it.

Yesterday was my day for computer problems though. The drive on my beloved laptop is starting to go. I could hear the heads clicking yesterday - an experience similar to watching dark storm clouds move in on the horizon.

I tried rebuilding the desktops on the various drives hooked up to the machine. It was a process that took quite a bit of time. I’m a real big one for leaving folders out on the desktop (which can’t be good) until I can organize things (which never happens often enough). Also, I just don’t do disk maintenance as religiously as I used to and add to it the fact I do have retrospect but, haven’t found the time to set up a cohesive backup schedule.

So, my catalogs are starting up so of course this would be the time for things to go awry. I’ve already lost one drive in the laptop and gone through the horror of losing what was on it so, you’d think I would know better.

I pulled the keyboard off of it and let it cool down. Last time this had happened (when the previous drive went blooey) was right after I discovered the cat decided the closed, sleeping laptop was the ideal warm, heat radiating kitty bed. The combination of kitty getting to the laptop (walking over the keyboard and moving it out of sleep mode), her lying on top of it for long periods of time, combined to make things very, very hot in the case. It couldn’t have helped the drive.

Well the recent cold snap around here has found kitty discovering the oh-so-comfortable spot once again. I found her a few days back sitting sweet as you please upon the closed laptop, catching some zzz’s. I thought it was a chance event but, it turned out I wasn’t the only person who had chased her from atop her favorite perch. Then the drive started making those noises again yesterday.

It’s probably the wear and tear on the drive really, things happen for reasons we can’t fathom but, don’t we all need to assess blame on someone during these moments.

Time to pull back, and deal.

Later that evening as I was searching the web trying to figure out if I was going to just order a replacement internal drive or if I was going to take the plunge and order a close out laptop, the little creature came down to secure a stop on another favorite perch of hers... my lap when I’m sitting at the station downstairs I use for web surfing.

She just looked up at me and made this weak meow as if to say “Don’t hate me because I get cold!” I hate to say how big a part of my heart the cat has staked out for herself and this is an animal who introduced herself to me by biting me in the back of my foot shortly after meeting me.

“Oh, how cute! Kitty’s playing!”

Yeah, at that moment I was thinking about playing using kitty as the ball but, those things never go over well (kitty football anyone?).

Anyway, over time we have come to a mutual understanding the cat and I. I pretty much make sure she gets fed and her litter is cleaned when the Big S is away but, she doesn’t run my life quite the same way she does other people’s. I mean to say the cat doesn’t jump up on the bed at an ungodly hour of the morning and start hitting me to wake me up to feed her the way she does to the Big S.

There are other things she does do though. I’ll talk to the cat during the day and lots of times she talks back (to the amazement of the other people in the house). If she’s up to something, I don’t have to track her down I just use “the voice” on her which more often than not works. We spend a lot of time sleeping together as I don’t toss much when I sleep and I run pretty hot for the most part so, I’m an ideal place for her to nap (plus over the last few years I’ve developed lots of extra padding that kitties just love). She’ll lick my arm when she’s particularly happy (which she doesn’t do with anyone else).

It’s not quite what Richard used to be able to do with his cat (he would get down on the floor and the cat would roll over on its back in front of him) but, it’s quite nice.

Which brings me to another subject. The cat does really have a way of expressing herself that works with all of us here. There’s something the varying timbre and pitch of her cries convey to us which seems to quite clearly convey what she’s feeling at a given moment.

If a cat is alone, away from other cats for most of its life, does it know how to communicate with other cats? Is there a cat language? Is the language instinctual - hardwired into the cats’ brain? Would the cries the cat uses with us work when communicating with other cats? I was just thinking if someone were brought up without any other human contact would they develop a language and if so what would it be?

As far as the laptop goes, I would probably get a new one if they looked as cool as my G3 did - I don’t like the titanium ones as much.