Dig it!

Love it!

That cat is still hanging around the yard. It's getting harder for me to remain distant in terms of giving her attention (pettings, chase the string). She starts appearing more like early evening, now, although she still runs off to who knows where at times, ofc. Most of this week I'm out there with the tablet and she's sitting behind my chair and rolling around the door steps like it's her living room. Makes me want a cat.

Problem is, I still miss Mr. Black and at this point I don't want just any 'ol fuzzy wuzzy cat, I'd want another Mr. Black, re: size and for me, uber personality. Which is probably fairly unlikely. Thus this neighbor cat thinking I'm 2nd-mom is enough.

That and Louis Rossman's old and now somewhat ailing cat. Half the time I watch his vids because of that cat - who reminds me tons of - you guessed it, Mr. Black. :)

Oh - one time at night I saw something run past me outside and thought it was the cat. Started to approach (didn't have eyeglasses on) and got fairly close near a fence corner, when I suddenly realized it was a small/young skunk. I skedaddled. You smell skunk occasionally in suburbs, ofc, but 1st time I actually saw one in the yard.

Hanging out with a bunch of Gen Z for the weekend. Do not listen to the naysayers - they're a pretty switched on, caring, aware, and amazing bunch of people!

We have a (semi?) feral tomcat that to my great amazement has survived YEARS of Illinois winters. He must have an occasional home or a nice burrow under someones deck to have made it all this time on his own. He comes to my back slider to visit my two girls, and Ive tried to feed him before, but hes a rolling stone.

^ We've only seen a handful of cats pass thru on the fences here, over 5 years or whatever. Neighbor told us when we first moved in that cats often don't last long here (coyotes, river, fields around etc) and to keep 'em indoors. Still, we're in the suburbs, not some back territory. I always assume they have owners, even if they're not super attentive owners. But outside of knocking doors on 40-50 houses in a radius, there's no way to know for sure.

Anyway, after months and months of her never coming near, I appear to have been sorta-cat-adopted. Or at least our yard has. I've now put a bowl of water out and she seems to be in our yard hiding under bushes (day) or under the patio (night) most of her time. I found myself this evening looking up small sleep-shelters, worrying about winter - then stopped myself.

NOT MY CAT, darnit. Heh.

Cutting all my hair off that one time + diluted baking soda/water hair rinses (not a paste and do not rub it in) and only using a hair dryer on no-heat/only airfan setting appears to have largely fixed my thinning hair problems. Not that my hair isn't thinner/less dense than when I was 13. But it's a lot better. The super thin "spot/part" on the back of my head went away.

Last 3-4 years - either menopausal/hormone or some kind of other "inflammation" or over abundance of one of those face mites (maybe) causing mini-rash bumps that look like micro pimples but often itch like mad, mostly cheeks/lower jaw and around eyebrows and eye-sides. Not typical rosacea (not bright red/blotchy) or eczema (not scaly patches), not visibly obvious from a distance but when itchy drives me nuts.

Head and shoulders on the face, nope.
Selsun Blue on the face, nope
Tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, other essential oils directly on face (then slightly rinsed off/pat dry) - nope.
Changing pillow cases ever few days, nope.
Selsun Blue wash, tea tree oil after - sorta helps. Sometimes I can't tell if a product is helping or if it's just coincidence timing re: flare ups/calm periods.
Already have very reduced processed food/carb diet. Maybe I'm allergic to broccoli.

On the bright side, all those essential oil attempts make the skin nice and soft. I still have very minimal wrinkling or laugh/smile lines etc. My age is mostly given away by gravity liking to make everything looser/sag/droop slowly to earth. And grey hair. And probably my desk-gamer posture.