Tipping the balance in favor of more driving

A little-considered bonus of global warming is that in some places, kitten season has begun to extend throughout the entire year. Cats are having more sex because the weather is better. The Oakland Animal shelter is still giving away one-pound furballs, I learned this morning

In related news, last night I dreamt I adopted 10 tabby kittens and two pink juvenile hogs, the latter just for eating. I had to take the kittens back because my landlady reminded me we’d only agreed on the two I already had. But the hogs we determined to keep until we could slaughter them together. They stayed in 9-year-old Gabby’s treehouse.

clean paint off cat

–that’s my only use of Google today.

I’ve just transformed my olive-green den into a friendly orange one. I have also transformed my gray kitten and black-and-tan cat into friendly orange-streaked ones.

In other news, my downstream bathtub pipes have been frozen for two days. Attempted to mix warm water in to melt. Made humorous attempt at plunging tub. Failed, failed. Am starting to miss hot water. But the small child in me rejoices at having an excuse not to wash.

It snows here on non-primary days, too

Alaska has never mattered before—so it’s a step up to get any political coverage at all. The AP’s headline was on voters braving cold weather and going to primaries in odd places. A woman in Barrow was hosting a primary there and making oatmeal cookies. A nice detail—I’m covering the Juneau Republican primary tonight at the Hangar on the Wharf.

But hey there, national media: it’s no big deal and just no story at all to brave snow for the primary. At least not in Juneau. (Time magazine said it was -50 here. It’s not.) Hint: The kids up here don’t get snow days unless they’re covered in an avalanche. Snow is what we’ve got here. We brave it to get the paper in the morning, to take the dog out, to go to the grocery store. I consider it a novelty, but I just moved here three weeks ago.

What’s big news is that anyone is voting at all. Or that Ron Paul supporters have been registering “in droves,” according to the local Republican party organizer.

Off to the Hangar—