I have been writing a novel for several years now. I put it down after the last session of words working. I am going to pick that up or the novel that I wrote a short prequel entitled “She’s a real cougar,” In Bad Ass Moms. This story has been running through my head for years now. It is about a young man who was abandoned by his mother, doesn’t know who his father it, and, having reached the age of 16, found that his heritage has left him with some odd problems besides the usual teenage issues.

I have an idea where I take my puppets, build sets for them, and photograph them. I could then sell the prints online and at conventions. I am excellent at building puppet sized furniture. I believe a bar is the next set I will build because it will work with more than one set of puppets. I would have to build a few more puppets for customers and the bartender. The bartender is going to be important. That is a set I can redress, and magnets and Velcro are my friends. I just need the room to do it.

I know how I want to redo my puppet site and see if I can move some traffic there. I must make a file of all my puppets and find those that are only in my Photobucket and other places. Unfortunately, when Apple changed their photosystem, I lost a lot of photos, or they are on a hard drive I no longer have access to. I might have a reach around for my problem. I do know that a couple of those computers still work. It’s getting the info off them. It would be interesting to see my earlier puppetry work. I have learned a lot since then, so I know they look better. But I want a record of everything.

I am grateful for minds working.

1.    the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.

"their mindfulness of the wider cinematic tradition"

2. a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

I was practicing mindfulness before I knew there was a word for it. I learned when I became upset or sad or whatever, I would take a moment to put me back in the here and now. Sometimes that would kick my brain out of my funk but, not always. But it was a way to calm down.

Taking a moment to put yourself in the absolute present tends to make you think about what your were thinking about differently. Right now, I hear a jet, a cat sleeping, birds chirping with a car running through to break the sounds into pieces. I see my laptop, my front yard, the cats in their napping spots after breakfast and the fabric for the next puppet project. I feel my clothing and my right knee complaining along with my triceps which I overworked when I went to the gym. I can feel the breath of a sleeping cat on my neck. I am feeling some anxiety but nothing severe. I find myself smiling and laughing more these days I am thinking of this blog and what I am going to write next. And I accept this in my life.

I have been watching my way through Dark Shadows, and I noticed something probably because I stage managed for so long and one of the places, I worked at was an Ensemble company. Dark Shadows is the only soap opera and one of the few TV shows that was an Ensemble company. They kept a core of Actors that played many different roles within the show. I liked that there would be radical changes in acting in the new role. Keeps the show fresh even though it is a thing of the mid to late 60s. Honestly, I think the suits were snazzier in that era.

I am gathering the bits and pieces I need for various puppets. I am glad I have them because as of the end of this month, Joann’s is no more. I am really hoping to find the hounds tooth I used previously for my Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes. I know I have a tub of suit fabric, and I think it is there. I did find my neoprene that I need for two puppets. Even the correct colors.

I think body building is next for the puppets.

I am grateful for the fabric I have.

Saturday and Sunday I watched a personal favorite and comfort show, Galivant. It is a hard show to describe. The Hero is in love with a girl who is forced to marry the King, and we go from there. How is it different? It’s a musical that would, trimmed down, work on Broadway. 

They were not a lock for a second season, but a strange thing happened when Cancellation Bear predicted its demise. Letters were writing. Fans of the show worked on getting others to watch it. And they were renewed for a second season.

The First Episode Second Season was entitled “A New Season aka suck it Cancellation Bear.” The season was more insane than the first. I liked that characters grew and had realizations that effected the plot. The King traded a priceless jewel for what looked like an iguana, but he swore it was a dragon.

The main cast was fantastic with Timothy Omundson leading the pack. The guest spots were well cast too. I don’t want to spoil any of those because there are some you must look carefully to realize who it is. Others are blatant. I’ll give you one, Weird Al is in it as a monk.

I give it a high thumbs up and it is available on Hulu.

During my rewatch, I have been sorting medical papers and gathering the information I need for Medicaid. Seriously crossing my fingers on that one considering the political climate. Let’s see what touching the third rail does. 

We have a basket that is for cat toys or toys that the cats have declared as their stash.

Fig has two that she loves dearly Piggie, which is the Mo Williams Piggie, and Ellie Phant, which is a Disney Zum Zum of the baby elephant from Jungle Book, these two go with her all over the house. They also come with caterwauling as they carry them around. I can’t figure out if she sees them as prey or kittens. All I know is that both toys were on the bed this morning.

This morning, I awoke with four cats pinning me to the bed. They each had their spot they were sleeping. I moved my left shoulder until Phoebe woke up and moved. I freed my hand and gave her pets and skritches. The others woke up slowing and all came for their morning skritches. We went downstairs as a clowder, and I fed them their morning wet food. No fights this morning.

Now all are settled all over the house napping. Currently Pheobe is behind me. Fig is up on our bed. Mewlan and Inky are in their usual hidey holes in the dining room. Later this afternoon everyone will find their place in the living room.

Today is about outside and playing pick up sticks with the yard. It will be warm enough to play outside. 

This morning, I plan to clear off the coffee table which is covered in important papers. Sweeping the floors. And clearing off the couches. Leave me with a clear space to work on the next paperwork project.

I am grateful for Caturday.

I had a good journal entry planned out in my head while I was at work this morning. By the time I made it home and took care of a few things then sat down at my computer, I could not remember what it was about. I sat there looking at the screen trying to recall what brilliance I had earlier. After a bit, I realized whatever it was, it was gone.

When I have these momentary blips of memory, I put it off with must have not been majorly important. 

I have a lot on my mind. There is the usual list and the random thoughts section of my brain. 

Did you know that walking through a door can cause you to forget why you went into that room? They have studied this phenomenon and something about stepping from one space to another can cause the brain to forget why it was there.

I have been listening to Stephen Fry read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe”. There are still sections I can do verbatim. When I was a kid, that was one of our go to for our annual trip to Florida. There are phrases that become part of our family vocabulary. 

My family has a series of phrases that we either made up or heard and decided it would become part of our rather odd O’Shea language. Our kitchen was always colder than the rest of the house for a variety of reason. One time I closed the kitchen door behind me out of habit. There was a knock on the door. I opened it and Sean, who I had shut the door in his face, said “What for you leave me in the cold, cold kitchen?” which was a paraphrase of a line from “Tales of Tinkerdee.” by Jim Henson. That show had a lot of lines we used over the years. 

Until recently no one knew about that show. It is the one that I made Jim Henson do a double take at a World Con and led to some interesting stories about the show. Afterward he asked me how I knew about it. His narrator was a friend of the family who happened to have a reel to reel of the show because he narrated it. He made a cassette copy of it that I copied and sent to the Henson company because, at that point, the box with Jim’s copy of the show was missing along with the script and some other things that have been found since. 

Gosh darn it, my blog was something about puppets and puppetry. I remember that now but nothing else. 

I am grateful for ideas that stick,

Eventually I will feel my body relax and I know I am ready for bed again.

I know I am not alone in this problem. It has apparently increased since the pandemic. It robs one of the alertness one might need the next day. 

Right now, I feel awake but not full of energy that I get from a good sleep. I will have to pull it from somewhere because I have a lot to do today both inside and outside the house including a trip to the bank. Not the bank’s fault, but these trips are getting tiresome. It has to do with the Medicaid application yet again.

Yes, that’s right. We are starting all over again with Medicaid. The first set of papers I must gather are easier than what I am going to have to find later as the demands grow. I have people in my corner helping me with this. These papers won’t be looked at for months as there is a backlog of paperwork at the Social Service Office.

At least the first part is much easier than it was last year. Some of the paperwork I had to fight tooth and nail for is the paperwork I have in hand. 

It doesn’t seem to stop. I feel like I am in a room of spinning plates on sticks and once I have one going at a good rate and everything seems stable, I see a plate wobbling and I go deal with that. 

Overall, right now, I am in neutral getting ready to put myself in drive. I must remember to breath and take some time for myself away from the plates. I did get a lot done on my list but there is always more to do. Right now, the list feels balanced, which it hasn’t in a long time.

I am grateful for the plates in the air that keep spinning.

Puppets have been with me my entire life. I don’t remember a time that I didn’t have puppets in my life. I have gone from a connoisseur of the form to full puppeteer in my life.

I see puppets as an art form. And there are a lot of forms to look at.

The basics are shadow, hand, rod, string, and body puppets. Other forms are combination of these like hand and rod or string and rod.

I had the very good luck to work in the museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta Georgia. Pop by if you haven’t. There is a Jim Henson wing that rotates puppets in and out of their vast collection. Also, they have an extensive puppet collection from all over the world. I learned a lot about the history of puppetry and the different forms of puppetry during my time there.

I have met many puppeteers over the years. I have learned a lot from them about building and operating puppets. I took a master class with John Tartaglia on operating puppets for film and television. I have taken doll making classes from Wendy Froud with Toby and Brian. 

I have taught basic puppetry to quite a few people. That is sort of my superpower, I can teach the basics of hand and rod puppetry in under an hour. 

I continue to learn and teach puppetry. One of my favorite panels I do all year is usually Monday at 10am at DragonCon entitled “So you want to build a puppet.” People come in with their ideas and we give them direction on how to create the puppets in their heads. They will bring in the puppets so we can see what they did. That I helped spark that puppet makes me very happy. We have repeat customers who show up every year.

Puppetry to me is like breathing. It is such a part of me.

I have made friends through puppets. I have had some real adventures through my puppets. I have given puppets to people I want to say thank you to and from that some friendships were formed. I know there are people I can go talk to because of the puppets. 

I have gotten recognized because of my puppets even without a puppet on my arm. They will usually tell me what their favorite of my puppets and why. I’ll talk puppetry with anyone who wants to. 

My name is Kathleen O David and I am a puppeteer

I am grateful for all the puppeteers in my life.

Or Rather false Spring. 

Today is going to be lovely today. I can clean the cat boxes outside.

I plan to walk the property and see what needs to be done this year.

The cats are very happy because I went grocery shopping and brough back a bag of greenies which is their favorite treat. Each got their share and now they are in various places napping or getting ready to nap.

Good news on the Peter front, yeah, I know bury the lead. He doesn’t need a wound vac anymore and will be back in rehab at the end of the week. The only ugly is his white cell count that started climbing again. The fistula is clean so now we need to figure out what’s up with the little white cells.

I have a plan for today, now to execute it. Recently my energy level is up, and I am very happy about it. I feel awake and not going through the day in a fog.

I am very sad hearing about the passing of Maragret Clark. She was Peter’s main editor at Pocket Books among other things he wrote. She was a lovely person. I feel privileged to have known her. Peter will be devastated. My sympathies to her family and friends.

Having gone through all the Valamar books I missed; I am going to go to nonfiction for a bit. Next on my list is Peter Ackroyd’s The English Actor: From Medieval to Modern. Stage craft from the English point of view.

I am tired of sneezing. I know it is high tree pollen causing the issue. I have taken my allergy meds but still sneezing and scaring the cats. At least the cough stopped.

Well onto Laundry, my other task for the day.

I am grateful for the kiss of Spring.

Happy Cat Day

No really, it is St. Gertrude’s saint’s day.

St. Gertrude is the patron saint of cats and those who own them.

Yes, I know about the snakes and Ireland and Patrick have a do today.

But, CATS!!!!

Until I move in with Peter, I thought I was more a dog than a cat person. Most of the animals I cared for were dogs up to that point.

At the time the clowder consisted of Treat William and Stalin. I did not name these cats the girls did. Treat was one of those big cats that thought he was still kitten sized. Stalin was the ruler of the roost.

While I was stage managing ‘Tony and Tina’s Wedding” in Buffalo, NY, I was informed that I was the proud owner of a kitten named Vanilli. Vanilli’s brother Milli was Ariel’s kitten. This was for Hanukkah.

Milli and Vanilli may have come from the same litter, but they were almost opposite personalities. Vanilli was one of the most mellow cats I ever met. It was on Vanilli a very little Caroline learned how to pet a cat safely. She has now done so on three different continents. Millie was affectionate but only on his terms. As he got older he mellowed out.

Figaro was part of the cat distribution system (CDS). It will be fifteen years this October when Fig joined the clowder. There had been a very nasty nor ’eastern that blew through. While I was walking Caroline to the bus stop, I thought I heard a kitten mew. My neighbor Eric thought the same thing so, after the kids were on the bus, we tried to find where the meowing came from. No luck. I was out in the yard picking up branches and sticks. Two ladies who always seem to fast walk about the same time stopped and looked up a tree at the front of the property.

 “Did you know you have a kitten in your tree?” 

I confessed I did not and sure enough there was this wet and bedraggled kitten up the tree. I got a ladder and one of the women was kind enough to go up and get the kitten which she handed to me. I thanked them and they went on their was.

This poor scrap of meowing fur was shivering. I wrapped her in my shirt holding her close to my body. She seem to calm down and snuggled into me.

Here is Peter’s description after I knocked on the office door.

“I opened the door to a poor bedraggled wet one and then I saw the kitten.”

We both knew if we couldn’t get this kitten into a no kill shelter, we would have another member of the family.

Since I am currently looking at the sleeping cat named Figaro aka Boo, she stayed.

Boo is Caroline’s cat all the way. She imprinted on Caroline that first weekend when Caroline stayed in the kitchen with her. I gave her the rules no chasing the cat, pet the cat when she comes to you, and keep calm to help calm the cat. By the end of the weekend, they were inseparable.

Inky or Ink and Toner David aka Enkidu aka Do was our second CDS cat. We found her living under the bushes next to the porch. Poor thing was starving so we put out food and water for her. We kept moving the food and water closer to the front door. It took a while to catch her and she was a little wild cat. It was Jason at the Vet’s, who started scritching the black and white fireball who quickly stopped trying to get away and started purring.

This time was my turn for the weekend and the kitchen to try to calm this little scaredy cat. By Monday she was a little more civilized but still very wary of the other humans. She didn’t have any problems with the other cats. I knew it would take a while to get her to trust us. I’m the only that can pick her up and she and I have a morning ritual of pets and scritches before I go downstairs.

We adopted Mewlan aka Mew from the North Shore Animal League. She’s a black cat so they are careful about placement. This poor cat had been a feral that was caught and spayed. They didn’t notch her ear, they cut the entire top of the ear off.  She was caught again and was adopted out. The family return her because they thought she had brain damage. I have no idea what went on but I do know I got an arm full of very scared cat. She would freak when a shoe was dropped. She ran at the mere sight of a broom. There were other signs that this cat had been abused. Oh and the brain damage? Nada. Her back knees are double jointed and slip in and out of place giving her the drunk sailor walk at times. It did take me almost a year to be able to pet her without her running away. Now she sleeps at my hip and I have learned to present her with a fist rather than fingers to see if she wants pets. 

Phoebe was another shelter cat we adopted. She is very lively and friendly. Heck everyone is her friend and can pet her. She is also the one that gets into the most mischief. Sometimes she drags the others into her plots. She is a muted tortie so her color is quite interesting. She sleeps with me every night, and something has to be touching between us whether it is back to back or a paw on my leg. She is a bit of a nut job at times but we love her.

The current clowder is Fig, Inky, Mew, and Phoebe.

I am grateful for the cats and dogs in my life.