Geeky Cat Miusings

I have had more than my share of cranky TTC drivers lately. I know their jobs are stressful but they shouldn’t be taking it out on customers -and some drivers do seem to forget that passengers on the bus are the customers. Late Saturday night I got on the bus at the subway stop and sat down. A girl got on the bus, hugged the driver and started chatting with him. They chatted continuously as he drove along his route while she stood beside him. When we approached the stop just before my home stop I approached the driver to ask him if he could stop at my street because the TTC offers a request stop service: Request Stop allows a woman to get off the bus at locations between regular TTC stops from 9:00pm to 5:00am. Since the driver and the girl were still chatting and made no signs of stopping so that I could speak, I said “Excuse me, could you please stop at this street?”. The bus driver got very mad at me saying that I interrrupted him while he was explaining something to this person. Well, he has been explaining “something” to this person (he wasn’t willing to admit to her being his friend?) for 10 minutes. Does a customer not have the right to interrupt such a long winded discussion to safely get off the bus? I am finding some drivers are forgetting who the customers are and need to be reminded to be client oriented.

The scene keeps playing in my mind like a movie: what if I went to see the film at U of T instead of stopping to rent the DVD at the video store and then going home to watch it. Things would have been different - not only would my evening been different in terms of where, when, how, and with whom - but I would still have my wallet.

On Friday evening I was planning to go see Open Your Eyes with a group of people but, because of a long lasting cold, I felt the best thing to do was to go home and have an early night. I didn’t want to miss out on the movie so I called a video store to check if they had this 11 year old movie on hand, and they did. So I stopped at the video store to pick up the movie. That was the last time I saw my wallet. After picking up the video I resumed my trek home. It was fairly crowded on the Bloor subway and I did feel some pressure on my side, but I’m so used to having people brush against me that I did not bother to look. I should have. I just continued on my way thinking everything is cool. I didn’t notice anything was wrong until 24 hours later. I was getting ready to go to Nuit Blanche when I noticed that the zipper on my purse was open and my wallet was gone. I was all distressed. It was hard to believe. I was checking everywhere to see if it fell out but I knew if was stolen. I felt so bad. It is such an invasion of the self and a sense of loss - I absolutely hated the miserable turd that did this.

It is fortunate that the thief did not use my credit cards and I was able to cancel them in time. I will need to get new credit cards, debit card, and all kinds of identification cards. I would have preferred to just give the thief the money in my wallet rather than have to endure the inconvience of having to get new cards.

I know that this is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, but it is upsetting.

I keep thinking “what if” thoughts. What if I went to the movie downtown instead? What if I paid closer attention to the people surrounding me? What if I looked at the person when I felt brushing at my side?

Fortunately, I was still able to have a fun Saturday night. Of course, I kept thinking about what happened to my wallet, but it was a really nice evening.

I would really like to see my wallet and all the cards again. And I would absolutely love to see the photo I kept in my wallet of Pumpkin and Tammy sitting in a chair. It was taken some 12 years ago - before the digital camera. I don’t think I have a copy of it. It is irreplacable. Please return it to me!!!

Here are some pictures from Jungle Cat World in Orono. I loved seeing the animals there, especially this baby tiger:

The llamas roamed freely:

While the monkeys swung around their cage like only they can:

Does anyone know if this is a black panther or a jaguar? Is there a specific animal that is refered to as panther or is it a genus?

Another question I have….do big cats cough up fur balls? I saw the cats in Jungle Cat World chowing down entire chickens…feathers, beaks, legs and all. Do they cough up feather balls?

When you look at the photo above are you thinking to yourself, “Sweet Kitty, why is she posting a picture of her dirty litter box?”

First of all, it is not my kitty box…. I found it on the web. And it is not dirty…not at all; it is edible and apparently delicious too. This is a photo Kitty Litter Cake and what appears to the untrained eye as poo in the litter box is actually tootsie rolls.

It is an interesting idea and some people have commented that it is great for Halloween and it is a yummy dessert. The receipe is even posted on epicurious.

I am curious to know if you would care to try Kitty Litter Cake, or would you give it a pass? Personally, I think I would give it a pass. I may even have to remove the photo from my blog before we all permently lose our appetites. But I post here for now for all of us to share in all kitty-related things.

A couple of months ago I bought a new Sony Ericsson Z750a cellphone. About a month after that I received a text message from Fido that they would give me 3 months of free video on demand and free radio on demand. Sounds very cool so I try it on my phone but the message on my cellphone says it does not support this feature. I reply to the text message that I cannot use the system, even though realize that they will never get back to me with this communication system. So a few days later I call up their customer service and ask them if they can help sort up the problem. The customer support person was not aware of the promotional offer and claims that Fido is giving me free video messaging for three months. I let it go at that.

Weeks later I get a phone call from Fido saying how happy they are to have me as a customer and if I have any questions or concerns. Of course I have questions!!! I decide to limit it to two questions so as to not scare the guy off.

First question I ask I thought would be easy: How do I stop the screen saver from coming on every 5 seconds? It is difficult to read the news when the screen goes dark to save energy. My workaround is to push the down button every 5 seconds but I’m sure their must be a setting on the phone to set an acceptable timeout period. Unfortunately, his answer was that I would need to go to the Fido retailer. Not a good answer from Mr. Fido Rep. “Hello, from which company are you calling?” I want to shout.

But I’m so mild mannered that I smoothly move on to the next question…. the one we all want to know the answer to…How do I access the Video on Demand that they have so thoughtfully provided me unlimited access to in order to get me hooked. The guy had to go talk to the tech support for this and he would come back and ask me if I could continue to hold. I patiently waited. After waiting 50 wasted minutes on the phone (in total) I was informed that my cellphone does not support this feature! Nobody can explain to me why the phone is advertised as having this feature and it has the navigation buttons for this feature. But somehow this feature is not supported on my fabulous 3G phone.

I don’t get it.

The week started off in a nasty way: When I took the escalator on the TTC, I placed my hand on a wet gooey, spot on the handrail. My hand had ketchup on it. Somehow someone got ketchup on the handrail. Yuck! You would think that if someone were to be eating on the run, they would also have a napkin for wiping their mouth, fingers, and handrail… should the need arise.

Perhaps a few people could use the $7 reimbursement from the TTC (to compensate for the strike days) to buy some tissues and wipes.

I love this animation — it reminds me of Pumpkin:

I went for brunch at Urbano on Queen Street for a little bit of socializing and catching up with some of my friends. I ordered a fritatta vegeterano which is basically an omelette with vegetables. This omelette did not come with bread and I dislike eating eggs without bread. I think eggs straight up are kind of nauseating and they need some bread or other carbs to balance the dish. So I asked the waitress for bread but a customer in this establishment can’t get a couple of slices of bread thrown in — you need to ORDER a bread side-dish which costs $5. Five dollars to get some bread to go with a $10 omelette. All I needed was a slice or two of bread to complete my meal but the restaurant wants to milk the customers out of their cash buy requiring them to buy a side dish of bread. I would say the bread should be included in the price of the $10 omelette, or at worst, charge the customer a dollar for the waitress’ trouble.

This is not good customer relations, they must rethink their service and quality of care.

I was hoping to climb the CN Tower again this year to raise funds for the WWF but, since my toe doesn’t seem to be doing all that well even though I have been carefull with it, I don’t think I’ll be able to do the climb. It would not be wise as the toe can still ache and, sometimes, really pains me.

Since I need to wear flat shoes for my toe to heal and most of my shoes have heels, I’ll need to go buy some shoes. What hardship;-)

Perhaps you remember my ordeal last winter when I suffered very much when I waited a very long time for the bus on the day of the bad snow storm. Fortunately I learned a few things from that ordeal and was able to use my knowledge today. I had heard that there was going to be a bad snow storm today so I made sure I listened to the radio for any special announcements on closures that may have impact on me (e.g. TTC problems or place of work closures). They announced some closures on the radio and television, but not that affected me. So I packed my lunch, snacks, chocolate, hand warmers, book and iPod in my bag and I left for work at my usual time, dressed very warmly from head to foot. I was carefully prepared in case I should be stuck standing outside for any length of time. I think the only thing missing was hot thermos but at least I should not go hungry. The remembrance of that horrid day last winter is still painful on my mind that I shudder to think how I suffered in those thin boots — today I should be able to survive such an ordeal with my warm boots and socks.

So, going to work took a bit more time than my usual commute — it took about 2 hours to get there, but it did not seem overly long compared to the 1.5 hours it usually takes. But when I got there the sign on the door said all campuses are closed! Oh joy!!! I was pretty upset because I wasted all that time getting into work when I could have stayed home and slept a little more plus tackle a few of the things I really need to do. There was a notice posted by e-mail at 8:15 am regarding work being closed for the day. The message came too late for all the people who leave for work early in the morning. After venting my frustration with some co-workers, I commenced my journey home with the firm avowal that I will never leave for work early when there is a snow storm but wait until 9:00 in order to give people enough time to post messages about the work place’s closure. Lesson learned.

I was able to make myself feel a little better by stopping at the library that was on my way home, to pick up a DVD I had on hold for me. I felt that at least I had accomplished something with the time spent commuting which alleviated my frustration a bit. Well, at least I was able finish “House of Mirth” for my book club meeting and I can watch the DVD as well. There are always ways we can make ourselves better if we only look hard enough.

With every experience, there comes a lesson.