“a. slang (chiefly U.S.). [A humorous formation, the origin of which is lost: the first part of the word was perhaps suggested by catamount, or ? by words in Gr.]

Fierce, unsparing, destructive. Also, askew, awry. (A high-sounding word with no very definite meaning.)

Hence catawampus n., a bogy, a fierce imaginary animal; catawampously, catawamptiously adv., ‘fiercely, eagerly. To be catawamptiously chawed up is to be completely demolished, utterly defeated’ (Bartlett Dict. Amer.).”

This fellow is not fierce. He is, however, askew, awry, and eager. Very friendly. Has had far too much coffee, and is singeing his whiskers with that fire stick. Also, he’s a little oily, rather mangy, and some jerk spilled wax on him. It is a sad state. Still, there he is, ready to bring warmth, loyal to the end. And always willing to share a gold-flecked Americano with anyone who may care to join him.

a map of shifting proportions.

This is a picture from 2003. My pal Lisa and I took a trip to the Southwest to pick up Noah for the summer and bring him home. Here, we’re driving through Colorado, I think. I like this picture because Lisa happened to look over to see what I was up to at just the right moment. She’s driving, and we’re traveling at about 75mph here. The only indication of this is that you can see the pavement zipping by under the mirror. She’s even kind of smiling, so it looks more planned than it was.

Also, the camera I’m holding was my first digi-cam, a Fujifilm Finepix A101. That thing was great; totally cheap but took some great snapshots and had decent color interpretation. A subsequently owned Fujifilm Finepix was far less than satisfying in its color processing.

I still have the A 101, but it needs a new data card because the old one was written to so many times that images from it turn out quite badly. That camera was great, too, because another pal of mine dropped it, cracked it in half, and I was able to snap it back together like legos and it still works great!

I stayed inside most of the weekend and got on the cats’ nerves. As you can see below, however, they quickly learned to ignore me.

A wise person recently explained to me that 7 is actually supposed to be a lucky number. Besides gambling, that is. And here for years I’d thought it was cursed.

37 has been my favorite number for many years, so I have some optimism for the year ahead.

I think the 3 and the 7 are quite handsome together, really.

Tonight, a celebration; which means I’ll be raising a pint for my fellow aquarian, Allanimal, who will soon follow in rolling over another year.
Happy Birthday next week, Allan!