Last night, we took the step we have been fearing/looking forward to for so long: Both platoons of cats were moved into their new digs. My cats had been wandering around my suddenly empty and echo-ey house for the past three days by themselves; I packed them into pet carriers and loaded them into the truck (the tortoise is still at the shop). Firing up the now muffler-less Scout, both of their pupils got HUGE and their gentle meowing became yowls which roughly translated into

“what-the-F***-are-you-doing-this-thing-is-louder-than-GOD-where-the-hell-are-you-taking-us!?!”

I didn’t think anything was louder than the truck until I heard Teller’s screams of fear going through the Harbor tunnel. Jen called while I was on the road; instead of answering, I held the phone up to the carrier and let him howl into the handset like an escaped mental patient.

Jen’s cats had a shorter ride, but are handling the new situation in roughly the same way. Both groups are prowling around their respective prison camps wondering when they can catch the bus back home; both Penn and Pique are pretty chill about the whole thing, while Geneva, Sage, and Teller are planning to break the pet carrier, fashion shivs, and stage a prison riot. Luckily they all have light, fans, and windows to sit in and get used to their new surroundings.

I sat out on the back porch and talked with my mom last night, and the air was cool and quiet. It’s so much more peaceful there than in the city. I wasn’t worried about the tools in the Scout getting stolen, or the plants on the side of the driveway walking off, or any of the other hundreds of small nagging city fears I’m used to. I finally feel peaceful there, even though the list of stuff to accomplish is about thirty feet long, the laundry and boxes are piling up, and the lawn is getting shaggier.

Now, on that last note, one of my daily reads, What do I know, had a post a few months back about manual mowers and how much the writer enjoyed his old-school mowing. From that site I found a link in the comments to another site, cleanairmowing.com, which features lots of environmentally-friendly products for working in the outdoors. (We have a greenhouse and the sellers left us two rainbarrels, and this coming spring I intend to install them back under the downspouts to collect water for gardening.)

Why the hubbub? Well, we don’t have a mower, and I’ve got to make arrangements for one sometime real soon. I’m considering this manual mower because I could use the exercise, it’s inexpensive, it’s environmentally friendly (I was considering an electric mower as well) and I could use the exercise. To be decided…

For all my tri-state peeps out there: Todd sent me this link this morning. Wave your ADIDAS in the air if you know Carvel.