A welcome oasis away from TDS

 

Might be a good time to showcase some of my photography.  I don't have any cryptids though.

Cranberry Lake Preserve.  West Harrison, New York. 

Back in the day we called them stray cats then the breed became romanticized

 

Sometimes alley cats.  Now they're referred to simply as ferals.  Stylistic changes in the language over the years.  I'm always a step or two behind.  Actually cat groups, cat people or the cat industry have come up with official more technical definitions for each.  I don't inquire I simply help when I can.

This is Charlie who I've blogged about before.  Neighborhood tom who now allows me to pet him.  Comes around fairly regular.  All my cats are fixed so there's no shenanigans going on.  Incidentally Google always corrects it to Tom like that's his name.  Clean cat for a feral.  I think the neighborhood people look after him.  Dead rats and mice fairly regular sight around here.  Cats doing their job.  Unfixed toms have a big face.  Mr, Galaxy calls it a face mask to help protect them during cat fights.  Stay out of trouble Charlie.

Tip:  Pulled chicken which you can get at many supermarkets these days share it with the cats.

The POTUS - a crabby nasty man. Grouch. Worse than a curmudgeon.

 I watched the newsclip a few times and Biden does appear to call Trump supporters garbage.  This was in response of course to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's comments at the recent Trump MSG rally where he called Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage."  If you do a bit of a deep dive into this you can make a fair case Hinchcliffe was making an environmental joke that was miscast as a racist joke.  PR has a serious problem with overflowing landfills.  Most people probably don't know this.  I didn't know this.  Some comedians make obscure allusions as if they're common knowledge.  It absolutely should not have been said however which leads us to Trump's press conference from a garbage truck.  There's still time for him to drive a Mister Softee and hand out cones to the kids.

Biden is bitter he was cast aside but it was best for the country.  He could pass away at a UN General Assembly meeting say.  He's a Weekend At Bernie's thing waiting to happen.  Quick get the body double!  Conspiracy theorists think they're around.  Uncle Joe.  Obama fancies himself some elder statesman, an elegant commentator who has to give his Cliffs Notes views on everything.  In his younger days he could have been an underwear model smiling back at you from a package of Hanes.  I hear Whoopie Goldberg had some kind of meltdown.  I have to look that one up.

I'm not bored;)

My ongoing feral cat series - Alfie

 

That's Alfie a male tuxedo.  Look at the long whiskers.  We adopted him from Misty's last litter.  He was definitely past the kitten stage when we took him in.  He once caught three squirrels in three days.  The last one he was eating in the backyard.  His hunting skills passed down from Misty.  Putting him in the cat carrier the first time proved to be a challenge.  I have bigger than normal carriers suitable for a small dog and the carrier also opens up from the top to make it easier.  I also wear thick winter gloves so I don't accidentally get scratched then it's off to the vet's.  Prior to putting a cat into the carrier I close off as many access to escape points as possible as things get more difficult when they go under a bed say.  Everyone else at the vet's have smaller regular carriers of different styles suitable for their Cuddles or Fluffy so I kind of stand out in the waiting room.

FLEAS imo are the #1 affliction or problem for cats although some of my cats never seem to get fleas at all while others are hard hit.  Can even lead to severe forms of dermatitis although other things like stress or ingredients in their diet can lead to severe skin allergies in some cats as well.  Many times at that point the vet will give a cortisone shot combined with an antibiotic shot.  I once spoke with a medical director of a vet clinic since retired and she said fleas can actually develop an immunity to some flea medications.  Ever notice how some flea meds don't help the situation?  I don't know if hers is a minority view but it's food for thought.  Revolution is the strongest flea med on the market but has to be prescribed first.  Pricey stuff.  Horticulturally speaking and far less expensive some plants like marigolds and catnip repel the little bloodsuckers.  I'm not lucky in the green thumb department but marigolds are the easiest plant to grow.

Coming at you from the feral wilds of Yonkers.

Kamala Chameleon

 Kamala Harris was once against fracking now she supports it.  She was once in favor of a looser immigration policy now she advocates for tighter border controls.  She now agrees with Trump's idea of no taxes on tips.  You have the right to adjust and tweak your views but this smacks of political opportunism.  Speaking of tweaking Trump is now playing around with the abortion issue instead of just sticking with his state by state approach thus potentially alienating that part of his base.  He wrote on Truth Social a second Trump term would be great for women's reproductive rights.  Maybe Trump nephew Fred is right he's showing early signs of dementia.  The Hulkster can't save him at this point.  His proposal to require insurance companies to pay for IVF treatments is hardly in line with smaller government.  I don't think Trump was ever a true conservative in the first place.

This election can best be summed up as Make America Confused Again.

What a fracking interview

 The CNN Interview of Kamala Harris/ Tim Walz with Dana Bash asking the questions:

Walz reminded me of a contestant on Jeopardy who just stands there and hardly rings the buzzer.  Moral support for Harris clearly although he did dodge the question about his military service and said something about his wife correcting his grammar and he was proud to be a public school teacher.  Harris basically answered Bash's questions vaguely but got poetic towards the end when she said the true strength of a leader is lifting people up.  We'll just leave everything else for the chat.  I do try to be fair here at Stranded but imo it was a weak interview, inadvertently funny in spots and probably says to most thinking people anyway she shouldn't be the leader of the free world.

What. The. Actual. Frack.

Will Elon Musk and RFK Jr. have roles in a new Trump Administration?

Assuming he wins.

Trump is open to the idea.  Musk has expressed interest in a kind of government efficiency expert and a commission kind of deal.  No idea where RFK Jr. would serve in a Trump Administration (the environment? Big Pharma czar?).  Both have wholeheartedly endorsed Trump Bobby having recently dropped out of the race.  Trump needs to get back on track however.  He's been out of sorts since Biden dropped out and can't seem to readjust to Kamala Harris replacing him.  Elon Musk and Bobby Kennedy in a Trump Administration?  Interesting.

(snide comments to follow)

We never went to a shelter to adopt cats

 

They always came to us.  It's fine whichever way you want to do it.  My sister goes to a pet store affiliated with a rescue group or lately the Yonkers Animal Shelter by Stew Leonard's to adopt.  This feral bunch was taught by the mother how to hunt and kill squirrels.  We adopted all but one.  The gray tabby male went his own way.  The mother since spayed as I mentioned in a previous post is probably living someplace else after having lived here awhile.  She's friendly enough to adapt.  Probably preferred peace and quiet rather than live with too many cats as we have a couple others unrelated.  Domestic or feral it's all good.  A Jackson Galaxy moment;)

The feral mother that started it all

 

Or why we have so many cats.  She had a litter of four in the yard next door a few years back.  Time went by and we eventually decided to take in three, don't know where the last one went and took them all to the vet.  We finally with the help of my sister also took the mother cat to the vet to get spayed and get her shots and she lived with us for a while until she found greener pastures.  Named her Misty.  Just prior to that she got pregnant again, apparently a favorite of the toms in the neighborhood and we adopted one of her male tuxedos from that bunch and a cat rescue group took the other two.  She taught all her litters how to hunt and kill squirrels and to this day some of our cats will occasionally catch a stray squirrel or two.  Caught the tuxedo eating a fresh squirrel one day in the backyard and had to turn away.  Never went to a shelter to adopt any of our cats down through the years.  They still have a bit of the wild in them.  We prefer it that way.

The wilds of Yonkers

 

I woke up this morning and was getting ready for work and there was a deer in my backyard.  Pure suburbia with a bodega down the block.  Was munching on the weeds.  Don't know where he came from.  All I need is a coyote.  Reminds me maybe I have to make another trip to Lowe's and look at some garden power tools.

As usual talk about what you like.  This blog is delightfully off-topic.

The aging blogger

 I have a large backyard and every year it gets overrun with weeds.  Large weeds.  Couple weeks back was whacking with one of them manual whackers and later into the day and into the next my left arm became very sore.  Now I get this intense pain in my left elbow to the point I suffer if I even use a spray bottle with my left hand.  I'm partial ambidextrous no matter.  It's a jungle down there could have been a black widow who knows?  I'm older now and Nurse Nancy would probably have one of my feet in the grave.  Bought some Tylenol arthritis power but will wait until a sufficient time has elapsed after imbibing my last adult beverage for the night.  I have my priorities.

Ever have everything go wrong with you AT THE SAME TIME?  You want to go to the doctor's office and present him with a list of at least five ailments and say here fix them.  We can rebuild him we have the technology.  Funny thing is my friend can eat sushi and down it with chocolate milk no problem. 

My cumbersome labeling system.  Gonna file it under health.

Would a Judge Judy mask help?

 Personally I've never had an encounter.

President Obama plans on some male bonding with Bear Grylls

President Obama plans to spend a few days in the Alaskan wilderness with reality-tv star and outdoor guy/survivalist Bear Grylls and he's doing this to throw a spotlight on the issue of climate change. You know this is why Trump is still surging in the polls - he doesn't talk about issues that most or many people don't care about but plugs into practical everyday bread-and-butter issues like immigration. Climate change imo is a kind of left-wing intellectual issue, a pet academic subject of theirs that tolerates no dissent and the average Joe or Mary ain't all that jazzed up about it to be honest. I myself can't get into it either though I'm told I should care and if the polar bears disappear tomorrow well the seals will be happy about the development. The question on everybody's mind though is will Bear Grylls drink Obama's urine?

More from the Opining Pope

Maybe after he's done with the environment and maybe the $15 minimum wage he can promulgate an encyclical on Donald Trump after he excommunicates Hannity.

Obama, man in search of a legacy

In a way you can't blame him, every president wants a legacy and not a Carter legacy.  In the twilight of his second term his motivation is obvious from his opening up relations with Cuba to his attempted but failed for now trans-Pacific trade agreement.  It's not that these things make the most sense necessarily but in terms of legacy he needs stuff.  Probably as his last term comes closer to winding down he'll come up with even more things from his grab bag of Ideas one of the latest being he's somehow trying to tie in climate change with national security.  Not sure how this works, should ISIS go green?  Can he do something on race and the police? doubt it.  Your ponderings......

The conservatives' wet dream - Brian Williams suspended for six months

God they go on and on about it! Then the other thing you hear about ALOT is what is Obama doing exactly about ISIS and terrorism in general? Obama is the DroneMaster (sounds like a good name for an app) and has more hits of top terror leaders under his belt than Bush ever had and is leading that international coalition against ISIS in Iraq and northern Syria so I don't understand the nature of the question, in fact it verges on stupid. Bruce Jenner - I honestly think the man/woman has too much time and money on his hands. Maybe Kanye West can make a song about it. I've been doing alot of walking in the snow lately and people don't hike in the snow as much as they used to seems to me. They leave half-hearted footpaths in the snow and don't maintain them by walking everyday or maybe it's the coyote snowtracks I've been seeing lately so they turn around and go home and play with their smartphones and pack on a few more pounds that they could've lost by following the coyote tracks. Let's see what's going on in Space? For you eggheads out there they found these twin stars in some nebula out there that are gonna merge soon and die or explode or something. God a six-month suspension and he didn't even use steroids!! maybe he was just trying to get women with his barroom tales:)

Hiking your troubles away

On the Purple (History) Trail at the Cranberry Lake Preserve in N. White Plains NY. I really think for a greater challenge they should make a hiking trail modeled on Kim Kardashian's rump.

Why not just have a coyote app?

Actually it'd be far cheaper than subscribing to Sarah Palin's new Web TV Channel.

On the South County Trail in Westchester County

No Sasquatch pics yet.

Eclectic News of the Day

Culled from different sources I thought these two items were interesting. Are you a sleep texter and in cryptozoological news there's this.