Cats & Ancient Egypt

Along with hieroglyphics, obelisks and geometric patterns, cats feature prominently in ancient Egyptian art, reflecting the animal’s unique status among the people who dwelled along the Nile River. The animals were initially adopted as useful predators in ancient Egypt and gradually became symbols of divinity and protection.

“Though it is hard to say the Egyptians thought one thing or another, since so much change happened across their 3,000+ years of history, the ancient Egyptians, in general, did not worship animals,” says Julia Troche, an Egyptologist, assistant professor of history at Missouri State University, and author of Death, Power, and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. “Rather, [they] saw animals as representations of divine aspects of their gods.”

Whether or not they were worshiped as deities, cats were an integral part of ancient Egyptian life. And, based on mummified cats discovered in tombs alongside humans, they carried an important role in the afterlife, as well.

Cats Provided Companionship and Pest Control
For most of the civilization’s history, ancient Egyptians saw cats as mutually beneficial companions, according to Troche. “Cats might come inside when it was hot, and they in turn would chase away dangerous animals, such as snakes—many of which were venomous—and scorpions,” she explains.

Some of what we know about the function of cats in ancient Egyptian society comes from scenes of everyday life depicted in paintings on the walls of tombs. “In tombs scenes, cats are shown laying or sitting below chairs, chasing birds and playing,” Troche says. “In some mortuary texts, they are shown with a dagger, cutting through Apopis: the snake deity who threatens Ra (the sun) at night in the Underworld.”  READ MORE

An East TN Saturday

On the weekends, I awake and begin my day about the same time that I awake and begin my day during the week...  there is no differentiation between the work week and the weekend for me as there used to be when I was working.  I suppose that is the real benefit of being retired although and this is just supposition but I believe the wealthy people pretty much have the same schedule during those 7 days as well...  even it they are still working and earning millions.

As always my day(s) begin with feeding our three cats, taking my thyroid pill, filling up my YETI cup with coffee and Cappuccino Mix, and watching FOX NEWS....  and as I have explained before, I do no get ALL THE NEWS or the TRUTH OF THE NEWS if I were to watch:  CNN, CBS, ABC, or NBC and that bothers me because I used to watch CBS and CNN all the time...  but those days are over.

As with all news shows, the same news is broadcasted over and over again throughout the day and the only additions to that news is when something unexpected happens...  so, after a while this redundancy causes me to change channels.  I then turn to shows about animals, cooking, history, scifi, or living in Alaska and/or living off the grid.  Somewhat entertaining these shows are but I oftentimes wonder about the drama that they try to create especially when the CAMERA CREW IS ALSO PRESENT TO FILM THIS SO CALLED DRAMA...

After a couple of hours of watching, I get bored and begin posting articles to my blog which I will do for the rest of the day unless I decide to cook something like I plan to do today and I am not sure what you would call this other than Turkey Burgers, Peas, and Noodles.  I will make a fairly large pot of this concoction and divide it up into 3-4-5 bowls depending upon how far it will go...  ranging from 300 calories/bowl to over 500 calories/bowl.

My meals will go in the frig and I will eat them for the next several days until I have to cook again.  I would rather cook like that than cook daily.

Here Comes The Drug Cartels...

 

I Must Be Crazy -- part II

Oddly enough and over 7 hours later...  it is still raining outside and I am assuming in the Valley as well...  and, while the temperatures have warmed up a tad (an East TN word that could mean one inch or a mile)...  I am still writing but inside reclining in a chair...  and, making it somewhat difficult for me to type is my Siamese cat laying in my lap...  of course, he appears to be sleeping which is a matter for conjecture because as soon as you think this damn cat is sleeping, he has used his claws to push himself off my legs as he goes after another of our male felines...  of which we have three...  and, I am not sure how we ended up odd because I'd prefer even...

For most of the day, I have been typing on the computer except for a couple of hours that was devoted to making home made soup because we had finished just yesterday all our Thanksgiving leftovers...  lasting 7 days is not bad at all...  I would think since that one big supper was a tad more expensive than all out other meals...  getting a good ROI on prepared food is what my Dad taught me...  as every time I left food on my place, he would remind me that there are starving children in CHINA...  I am not sure why China was on his mind because I knew for sure he did not give a damn about China or the fact that their children were starving...  hell, he never spoke about the starving children in America...  and, he had to know that they were not eating 3 squares a day...

In my soup, I put:

2 chopped medium size onions

1 heaping tablespoon of garlic from a jar and maybe a little more

3 stalks of celery

2 orange bell peppers

2-3 ounces of frozen sweet potato fries

1 can of white beans

1 can of kidney beans

1 large bag of frozen Kale

a shit load of pepper, and a little oregano, turmeric, paprika, and salt

NOTE:  all totaled, I had about 1600 calories but after cooking was poured into 5 plastic containers which calculates out to 320 calories per container.  These plastic containers previously held sliced ham in a sealed package and are more economical to use than buying new ones.

So...  now I have at least one prepared meal each day that only needs 2-3 minutes in the microwave...  and NO...  I do not get tired of eating the same meal 5 days in a row...  as long as it saves money...  and, the fact that I have gotten used to doing this since I started the practice in College in 1966...  does not hurt either.

In College, I would cook a cup of rice along with a can of vegetable soup in a popcorn popper and have a meal for 2-3 days, especially in the winter, because I could put the containers I used on the window sill between the screen and the glass, to keep the contents from spoiling.  In the 1960's, springs and falls were never as warm as they are today, so it was fairly easy to keep food from spoiling.

On The Back Porch

Storm clouds gather in my field of vision and I wonder how long I have out here before it starts to rain...  and even though my porch is screen in and does a relatively good job at keeping out the bugs and insects, it unfortunately cannot keep out the rain.  I prefer to sit out here and write than inside like I did for most of the summer as the humidity made me sick to my stomach, leaving me often with a feeling that I could not breathe... a changing sensation in my body that has arisen as I have grown old.

The round thermometer inside the porch reads a warm 70 degrees but I just cannot believe it is that warm today, although I feel rather pleasant sitting here in a t-shirt and my pajama bottoms which is all I seem to be wearing these days since I don't leave the house much.  And, even if this COVID disease was not upon us like it was, I doubt that I would be leaving home anymore often than I am now as there is really no place that I want to go.

During the first few years of my retirement, my wife and I traveled all over the place, going somewhere for a week (sometimes longer) every other month...  sometimes, we would drive our car...  sometimes, we would use our frequent flyer miles from using our American Express Card and fly, and sometimes, we would drive to Florida and take a cruise.  BUT...  after just a few days of being in another location and despite the sights and sounds and restaurants, we had a keen desire to simply return home.

Why spend the money if you go somewhere and wish that you were HOME...

On the porch with me is our overweight yellow cat...  overweight, not because of eating too much per se but because of all the steroids he's had to take due to his allergies that were causing him to sneeze and cough from lung congestion...   inside the house, we have two more cats, one yellow as well and has the personality of a typical cat or what one might think a typical cat should be like, and one Siamese that is not your typical cat at all, but is a typical Siamese literally HOWLS when he wants something, is very jealous and possessive...  and, who does not like being picked up or put into a cage...  which is all very interesting especially because he has asthma and must get a steroid shot too about every 90 days or so.

He has a tendency to be cold and have a heating pad under a thin blanket on which he lays on days like today, when according to him, it is a little chilly, especially when there are clouds in the sky and no sunshine.

The YETI metal coffee cup I have holds 3 cups of coffee and keeps it warm for at least a couple of hours which as far as I am concerned is not bad.  I take this cup full of coffee and leave it in the car when I go to see the doctor or when I have my cancer treatments which usually lasts 3 hours maybe a little bit more...  and, when I return to the car, the coffee inside is still very much warm and I drink it on the return drive rather than stopping.

One last item before I return inside since my laptop battery is rapidly declining and that is the KODI box that I purchased for about fifty bucks.  It easily attaches itself to a WIFI connection, and offers free movies, TV shows, and NEWS outlets many of which you have on CABLE if you are willing to pay the monthly fees.  It is a way of saving money iffen you need to...   and as far as I am personally concerned, I hate paying a fee for television service that used to be FREE...  but, that's just me.

Our Three Ten Year Old Children

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We have three cats that to us (my wife and I) are like children.  We got them all within months of each other about 10 years ago and all three of them are different.

Our first acquisition was a yellow male cat that we named Chazy who was spoiled as a young kitten until we had to take him to Kentucky to befriend our second cat, a Siamese male named Piper who was mistreated when young and hid under the bed for 6 months only coming out at night...    Chazy stayed under the bed with him until Piper felt comfortable enough to come out during the day when I was there.

Our third cat was picked up from a Cat Rescue Mission who had been abandoned so early in his life that he had to be bottle fed by the main handler at the Mission.  We had to sign a document agreeing to raise the yellow male cat according to a list of logical rules that we would have adhered to anyway.  We named him Tippy.

Chazy
Piper
Tippy

Even after living with us for 10 years, Piper is still skeptical if we do anything that breaks our routine and does not liked being picked up by me when anyone else is around; but, if I am alone with him, I can pick him up and turn him upside down in my arms and rub his belly as her purrs.

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Our cats sleep with us in bed at night if they want to or sleep on the couch or on another bed in one of our spare rooms.  Our cats have a swinging door that they can go through to get to our screen in porch and there is another swinging door in the basement that gives them access to an outside fenced in area that we had built especially for them.  There are seats in two corners and there are walkways all around the perimeter of the enclosure and underneath a bushy vine crawling on a metal gazebo trellis that we put in the center of the enclosure for the vine with two plastic chairs and pillows for the cats to sleep on as well.

Today, I was out in the cat enclosure replacing the corner seats with new wood and fixing the steps leading up to the walk around area with new wood as well.  I wanted to make these new items as secure as I could so that they will last another 10 years.

Staying at Home -- 5th Week

For my wife and I, we started staying at home March 16, 2020, and I remember when I went to my

monthly cancer treatment last month on March 26, I was wearing a surgical mask and disposable gloves and made a point of gargling mouthwash in my car before leaving the parking lot...  We postponed all our medical appointment until the month of June except for those that were critical to our health and for one I had a video teleconference...

Once or twice a week, my wife who has a better immune system than I do, drives to a restaurant for a take out meal so that we can support our local restaurants as best as we can.

From what I have heard on FOX NEWS, many Americans are having a difficult time staying at home because they are the most comfortable and relaxed when they are around other people.  I logically understand why it is difficult for those people while at the same time cannot identify with those feelings because I have never needed to be around people for my happiness or sense of self-worth or comfort.

What do I do each day?

First of all, I give our three cats their morning treats and then fill their food bowls which are typically empty from their nocturnal hunger...

Second, I watch FOX News for a couple of hours while drinking coffee in an effort to stimulate my body to have a bowel movement...  sounds crazy...  but, this has been a routine for me since 1966 and 99% of the time it works perfectly...

Third, I start writing...
I have a Composition Notebook in which I write each day.  It could be thoughts, feelings, concerns, a list of things to do, financial analysis of our future funds, recipes that I found on the Internet, counting my calories for a meal I want to cook, a political opinion, ideas for a novel, and possibly a poem which does not happen that often anymore.

I review my 4 blogs and make sure that something is ready to be posted for the day and if not, then I create a post and schedule it.

Fourth, I eat breakfast and take my 6 morning pills.

Fifth, I work on my chores either inside the house or outside the house.

Sixth, is lunch.

Seventh, is preparing article for my blogs which includes research.

Eighth, I cook something if I need to and if I don't I play with the cats.

Ninth, I eat dinner

Tenth, I watch something that we recorded on Cable or a series on Netflix until it is time for my evening pills and bed.

This is my routine and it never gets old.
I am comfortable being with my wife and cats and writing.
I want for nothing. 
I am content.

Sunday in the Valley

A storm blew through the valley this morning about 5:00 am waking up both my wife and I because of the rain hitting against the window and the wind...  this is very unusual for me because I sleep through damn near everything, including rain/wind storms worse than this one.  Fortunately, it only lasted about an hour or so but it was forceful enough to move furniture and carpets around on the back deck.

Once up, I just decided to stay up...  so, I fed the cats who were roaming around and let me know that they were STARVED TO DEATH as soon as I opened the door to the bedroom...

If I do not respond to their requests right away, they either start fighting each other to get my attention or they decide they need to do a little mischief to get my attention...

Once fed my 3 monsters settle down and go back to bed and typically will sleep for a couple of hours before they are again out and about, looking for food or trouble or sometimes a soft lap in which to jump into and continue their sleep...

It appears that there will be no sunshine today as an overcast sky seems to be lingering around and whatever work that was going to be done will have to be postponed...  And, while some (who are impatient) might think that would be a pain-in-the-ass to postpone a work activity, let me remind you that we are both retired and can work outside while you must work for your employers...

Retirement does have its advantages...