...and a surprise

 Today was fieldwork day 2. I had to leave earlier today because the student helping me wanted to meet at the site (about 20 minutes from my house IF ALL THE LIGHTS ARE WITH YOU) and he wanted to meet at 7:30 am, understanding, as I do, you start as early as is reasonable in the summer so you are done before it gets very hot.

I got up and did my Duolingo and dressed and ate and filled my water bottle (I knew all the other equipment was in the car ready to go). And as I got ready to go out, I said "Please let them have at least picked up the little cat's body so I don't have to see her still lying there"

And yes, she was gone. But not for the reason I thought. 

I happened to glance at the house next door (the home of the daughter and son in law of the cat's owners) and......saw a cat sitting on the porch, grooming itself. "Oh," I said to myself, "that's one of their other cats" (they have an enormous black-and-white tailless cat, and a tabby) but then the cat sauntered down the steps and onto the sidewalk. It didn't move like the black and white cat and when she walked into enough light that I could see her.....it was Rosie

Not dead after all!

I guess she was just REALLY asleep and was lying very flat and still and I interpreted it wrong, even though I did look out twice over maybe forty-five minutes and she seemed not to have moved at all, and it was a hot day and the sidewalk would have been hot.

(I think of a funny horse video I saw, where a Scotswoman* went out to her field and saw her big white horse lying on the ground, and she yelled "Steven!" and he looked up, and then she said "I thought ye were DEAD, (gerund form of expletive redacted) Hell!"

(*I couldn't tell at first "Scots or Aussie?" because there weren't that many words there to determine, but UK friend tells me "Scots.")

So anyway: Rosie, I thought ye were dead, flippin' heck!) 

But it was definitely her, and she was definitely okay. (I suspected maybe the owner, knowing that I liked the cat and petted her when she came in my yard, would have texted me to let me know if she died, and there was no text). 

So I did the fieldwork in better cheer than I might. It was hard work (very humid, and a lot of bending and digging - I don't like to get down on my knees to do it like I once did because I can't always be assured I can get back up, and it's a little embarrassing to ask the student to give me an arm so I can get up. Also yesterday when I sat down on the ground because I felt overheated, I got multiple chigger bites along my waistline). 

But we got the work done, I took the samples back to my building. I'm sitting home now, the landscaper guys are working. I *think* they're near done but it was an enormous job. I forgot how big my backyard was given the brush encroachment. I think a next step is to find a fencing guy and hire him (I still have money saved up) to replace my back fence; the head of the trimming company texted me and I called him back when I was taking a break because he was worried I didn't know that fence was so destroyed (I think he was afraid I'd think they had done it, but no, I knew, and it happened when part of the elm came down)

I *might*, come fall, if I can save up some more money, have them back out to re-clear where they took out the horrible nandinas and then dump a good load of soil for me, and maybe I get some kind of nice, low-growing native shrubbery I can put in there. I'll have to think about what is hardy, native, and attractive to pollinators (that's a big goal for me, to have a pollinator friendly yard) but this is NOT a good time to plant things. The area gets pretty full sunlight so I think most of the attractive flowering things will work. (Or: I buy a bunch of prairie rootstock and put in coneflowers and black-eyed Susans and stuff, that's another thought)

But now tonight - once they get done, which I hope is kind of soon - I can relax. Can go to bed and not worry about having an alarm for tomorrow, and maybe plan on a trip to the museum for Dino Days and maybe a small lunch out somewhere, and a stop at Albertson's for the groceries I need. 

I also realized that I need to start going to bed earlier. I got into the not-great habit in recent years (actually: since the pandemic) of staying up "late" for me (like 10 or 10:30) and on teaching days when the ideal would be to get up at 4:30 am or 5 to work out and that's HARDER when you're running on maybe six hours of sleep (or in the summer: waking up later so your whole day gets shifted later). But I feel better going to bed earlier.

I also noticed that my knee felt better today after all the walking (even walking on pretty rough ground) yesterday, and it may be I am sitting too much at work, and maybe I need to do the pomodoro thing where I work for either 25 minutes on/five off or 50 minutes on/ten off and spend the "off" minutes walking around the building, or if the weather is okay, walking outside a little bit. It may be the sitting in a chair that's a little low for me and not supporting my back quite right that hurts.