Laundry, Repairs and Cats

I spent the morning today fixing things. First in line was the cat feeder. It didn’t dispense any food this morning. When I checked it out (I now have to open a panel to look inside – it keeps critters out and me too) everything was working OK. It wouldn’t dispense because a piece of duct tape that acted as a flexible seal between the food bin and the feeding wheel had come unstuck and was preventing food from flowing. The simple fix was to just remove the piece of tape.

Next I had to fix the generator. It has a “low oil” sensor that cuts off the engine after 10 seconds if it senses low oil. This is an unreliable sensor. 2 or 3 years ago it went bad and I replaced it. Now this one has gone bad. I recognized the symptoms. It stops the engine after 10 seconds even when it has sufficient oil. I decided no sensor was better than an unreliable one. I check the oil every month anyway. I disconnected the sensor and jumped the wire connection around it. It runs fine again.

After the generator I did some repairs on the enclosure I have it in. The roof/ door had come loose. Then I re-hung the Kayaks against the house. They had been down on the ground most of the summer.

In between these tasks I finished up the laundry. We are all caught up after the weekend trip – at least laundry-wise.

Penny made a batch of her pasta fagioli today and that made for a nice lunch.


After lunch I did some shed clean up and made a warm place for the kitties outside. It may get into the 30’s tonight. While I was doing that I looked over at the basil plant and saw Buzz living up to his name. I named him Buzz because he was always chasing flies. He was now sitting by the plant stalking a bee that was looking for some basil flowers.

I’m currently reading an old James Bond novel that my dentist loaned me. She said they were pretty good and she was right. The book is Moonraker. It was written in 1955 during the cold war. It is interesting to see how commonplace Bond’s high-tech gadgets are by today’s standards. The book is well written and technically accurate, at least so far.

Finally, tonight Buzz joined the group of cats that will let me pet them. Velcro comes for petting with no hesitation. Meredith hesitates and then relaxes. Buzz stood still for the first time today and let me scratch his ear. That leaves the white cat, who seems to have no interest in being pet and Marmalade who will never trust enough to be pet.

I inadvertently closed Brie in our clothes chest today. I lifted her onto the shelf in the chest when I got out a pair of jeans this morning around 9 AM. She nestled all the way in the back with just her head showing. I got dressed and went outside to do the stuff I wrote about here. I forgot she was in there and closed the door on her. It was 4 or 5 hours later that I opened the door and there was Brie. She didn’t seem the least bit upset. As far as we could tell she wasn’t meowing to get out. I sure felt bad when I realized what I had done.