Tommy Floof and the Floofdells
Tommy Floof and the Floofdells (floofinition) – Floofmerican soft floof rock (flock) band whose music sometimes featured floofedelic influences. Formed in Niles, Floofigan in 1964, they remain active and touring.
In use: “After being released in 1969, the Tommy Floof and Floofdells song, “Crystal Blue Floofsuasion”, reached number two in Floofmerica and number one in Canfloofda.”
Blueberry Hunter
Quinn was a compact cat. His silky fur and bushy tail made him look larger than he was and often drew compliments. I was partial to his sharp, jade eyes. His nickname was black paws for the dark fur that covered them.
He passed away almost a year ago, succumbing to cancer. With us for about twelve years, he was a refugee from another house on the street. He’d come in during a cold and windy night when I was out calling my felines. We fed him and put him up. I put out posters. He was identified, and his people came and got him, but he kept coming back to ours until the people gave up and moved away without him. I’m flattered that he chose us.
A strong-willed feline, he prompted me to write about him numerous times. My favorite was just called “Quinn”, which I posted just over four years ago.
Life’s a rush,
When you’re Quinn.
If he’s out,
He wants in.
If he’s in,
He wants out.
And to find a way,
He’ll rush about.
He was also my inspiration for one of my favorite posts, “The Catfood”, from a few years ago. He was always a picky eater, forcing me to procure new offerings. Hence I found myself in a Walmart store contemplating chicken and waffle cat food.
I’m thinking about him today with fondness. My wife is harvesting the last of her cherry tomatoes. Plucking them from the vine, she sets them in bowls in the kitchen to ripen.
Today, she’s talking about using some of the ripe ones in an arugula-pasta-cherry tomato salad. One of our favorite dishes, it’s healthy and easy to make. Sorting tomatoes that could be use, she dropped a green one onto the floor where it disappeared from our sight.
That’s where Quinn would’ve come in. He was terrific at finding things on the floor, and then batting them around. Most frequently, blueberries were involved. We’ve picked blueberries almost every year since we’ve lived here. After picking, we set some aside for immediate use, and then freeze the rest. Freezing them meant spreading them on trays and then placing the tray in the freezer. Once they’re frozen on the tray, they’re transferred to plastic storage containers. We’d need to do that multiple times. Inevitably, blueberries would hit the floor.
Quinn would immediately rush to them and sniff the dropped berry. From the look that jumped into his face, he hated their smell. So offensive was it to him, he’d immediately start angrily whacking the blueberry around until a human interceded and took it away.
Such a fun sweetheart, he was also a bit of a slut. More than once, I saw people passing by notice him and say something. He’d hurry up to them for love and attention.
But he always returned to us, and slept snuggled up against me. I could’ve used him during this week, when tension from the combination of pandemic life and presidential elections is higher than the moon. Besides, he would find that cherry tomato that was dropped.
As it is now, we probably won’t find it until one of us steps on it or we move away.
My Venn Diagram
It’s like I’m all over the place – everything and nothing.
New Puzzle
We were off jigsaw puzzles for the summer. It was a deliberate decision. Gardening called my wife, and reading called us both, and I was doing some DIY stuff until I broke my arm. Now, arm healed, the days have become cooler and shorter, and it seems like it’s time for a jigsaw puzzle. Also, the theme is Halloween. My wife saw it online and thought it’d be fun.
So here we go.
Sunday’s Theme Music
I use the phrase “Check it out,” often. Used it all of my life. We used it in the military, along with variations like, “Check this out.”
‘Check it out’ always meant, “Hey, look at this,” or “Notice this,” because it’s something special. In our house most recently, it’s been, “Check it out,” regarding something stupid Trump said/did, but also wildlife wandering through the yard — bucks in the day, skunks at night. Check it out.
My friend, a retired doctor, has more varied wildlife at his place. Although just a mile away, it seems further. He sends video of wildlife caught via a trail cam. Check it out, says his email subject line, and it’s a video two cubs nursing on mama bear a yard away from the camera. Or it’s a big bear scratching his back on a pine, another bear taking shelter from a rainstorm. Once in a while, it’s a cougar or fox taking a stroll.
John Cougar, who became John Cougar Mellencamp, who became John Mellencamp (the name he was given at birth), made a song of it in 1987. I saw him perform it in a soccer stadium in Germany the next year, a good show.
So, check it out.
David Also Said
I found that rhythm in typing, too. I first started writing on a typewriter, and that rhythm was satisfying.
After finding it in writing in notebooks and on computers, I realized that it’s the rhythm of the writing process – thinking, putting it down on something, editing – that I enjoy. The typewriter’s clacking, thumping, and bells (whether on my old Brother portable or my second-hand IBM Selectric II, which sounded more like a machine-gun firing out letters when I was going at speed), the noise of pen on paper, the computer keyboard clicking, is all melody to the writing in my head.
The movement and flow of writing is addictive and satisfying like nothing else the world offers.
Michael Seidel, writer 