The New Earth

Innana and my not-quite-a-roadtrip yesterday was lovely. I drove the Toaster out to Warrenton, and we discovered that the Fauquier County library used book store is abso-fucking-lutely divine. Hardcover books range from $1-$3. Paperbacks from $.25 to $1. I got: Underworld, by Don Delillo (I find him unreadable, but I'll try again); The Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron; The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai; The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Oscar Hijuelos; The Philosopher's Pupil, by Iris Murdoch (amazingly, I've never read any Murdoch); Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown; and The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt, most in hardcover or really good condition paperback. Total cost: $8. Booyah!

And even as we sat on the rooftop deck on a wine bar having lunch, the trees were beginning to bud. When we left Innana's flat, the flowering tulip outside her window was just budding. The only jarring note on the drive home was that beds of tulips had been planted to be instantly blooming along th GW parkway. Aren't tulips perennials? Rebedding them each spring seems rathehr wasteful.

Despite worries about non-functional relatives (and relatives of friends) we just relaxed and enjoyed the day.

Innana's wonder-cat, Rajah, has spring fever rather badly and is doing a really good impression of Linda Blair in the Exorcist when thwarted in his desire to go outside. Also, he really wants more crackers put out by the window so the squirrels come by more often, because the All-Squirrels-All-The-Time channel is his fave. The squirrels pay him no mind, but accept snacks from Innana as their due. You might think the rodent-sized brain of the average gray squirrel wouldn't lead to much nuanced thought, but you would be wrong. Clearly, the squirrels have a complex algebraic formula in their heads (well, complex to a squirrel whose brain, is, after all, rodent-sized) to assess the risk of being eaten by a rather peevish, but overall sedentary cat when sitting on a window sill outside Innana's flat. Here it is:

Where F = assumed ferocity of cat; pVc = potentially velocity of cat when springing; C = chubbiness of cat (diminishing potential for V to any great degree); T = Thickness of Screen; P = presence of human audience; pVs = potential velocity of squirrel, which is affected by weight of crackers and peanuts ingested and being carried, and lethargicness caused by a nice meal; then:

F x pVc/C
_______________

T x P x pVs

Ergo, Rajah will never, ever catch those squirrels, being the sedentary feline who is not a 25 pounder or anything, but is still a fine and robust (round) figure of a cat.