“Remoted - Hybrid” – Day 563 (Thursday)

Weird things went on today. There were technology challenges and frustrations and mysteries, but Mercury went retrograde a couple days ago, so I couldn’t even pretend it’s a surprise. Systems and programs were painfully slow. Regularly used software programs were suddenly inaccessible. Toolbar shortcuts and pins disappeared. Screens froze. The most frustrating event happened in the middle of typing in a Word document when the document disappeared from the screen. Poof! Gone. Luckily, it had been recently saved and was comfortably residing in a folder on my drive, minus the last few changes.

The noises in and around the house were even more weird than usual. The kitchen clock ticked extra loud for a couple hours and could be heard all the way across the room. Maybe it wasn't extra loud and maybe now I have superpower hearing. The refrigerator was quiet, then rattled, then groaned and sighed, and then it was blissfully quiet again so I could enjoy the full effects of the shrill shrieking of tinnitus, which has been extra present lately.

Over in the dining room, there was the sound like something being dragged across the floor. Winston was with me in the kitchen, so the logical and grown-up conclusion was that it was actually coming from the shared driveway on that side of the house. The wild and fantastical conclusion is that the mice now have superpower strength and are moving bodies and it's just a matter of time before they are dragging Winston and me through the house. It wouldn’t even surprise me, but I need to sleep at night, so we’re going with neighbors in the driveway.

Skulking white cat.

After work, I was at the desk using the computer to check the recipe for the “Ultra Crispy Smashed Potatoes” that were headed for the oven. I didn’t have glasses on because they aren’t needed for close work and I spotted a ghostly figure in the yard. With glasses on, I saw it was a pure white cat skulking around the perimeter of the yard and sniffing under and around the plants. It turned towards me with a sharply chiseled face. 

The yard has been visited by a pretty gray and tan patterned cat and a solid black cat, but this was the first white cat sighting. It headed along the back edge of the yard towards the shed in the corner. It stuck its head under the shed in one of the openings used by Chuck and his woodchuck family, and its large body remained in the yard. Then, the white cat crawled and flattened and its large body completely disappeared under the shed. 

"Ultra Crispy
Smashed Potatoes."

The ability of animals to slink and morph and fit into crazy spaces is impressive, and I wonder just how much vacant space is carved out underneath that shed. Is it floating on air and is the floor going to collapse as a result? I half expect to hear the screams of embattled wildlife as the woodchucks and the rabbits and the squirrels and now the cat and whatever other critters I haven’t seen go under there engage in a territorial dispute.

The smashed potatoes didn’t look so ultra crispy or golden brown when they came out of the oven after being boiled, smashed, then baked, but they were quite tasty. One turned into two, then the next thing I knew, I’d eaten three of the darned things. There is still about five pounds of potatoes left, so the cookbooks will be scoured for even more potato recipes. Life goals.