Cancelled plans

Cliff and I had planned a trip to Rantoul, Illinois, to the Half-Century of Progress tractor show.  I had reserved three days at a motel in Urbana, as well a golf cart once we arrived at the show; I had also made a reservation for Gabe at Bed and Bones for the time we'd be gone.  Yesterday Cliff said he didn't think he wanted to go all that distance; I really don't care either way, since the show at Rantoul is far from my favorite tractor show.  It's huge, but it's just tractors, tractors, tractors (yes, they are doing things with them, but still...).  My very favorite show is at Rollag, Minnesota, where they have old, furnished houses from different periods,  draft horses,  steam engines, and a train around the whole place.  My second favorite is probably Old Thresher's Reunion in Iowa.  Maybe I'll try and get Cliff to that one, or maybe not; we'll see how the Covid situation is by then.   

We went grocery shopping yesterday and masked before we went in any store, as well as using hand sanitizer when we got back to the car.  We hadn't been taking those precautions for a while, but it's getting real out here in the country and people I know are coming down with this stuff.  One of us might end up getting it, but at least we'll know we're doing things to avoid it.  

That crazy cat of mine, Blue, must be starting trouble with some sharp-toothed critter outside.  Might be another cat, might be a racoon or something similar; he hunts moles all the time, but the wounds I see on him seem to be made by larger teeth than that.  Perhaps some of my readers recall when Blue got very sick from an infected bite-wound in March and had to stay a couple of nights at the veterinarian's office.  Again in early July he came in with a pretty bad bite on his tail.  And now, two days ago, he's sporting a wound on the back of his hind leg.  You can tell by looking that it's a bite mark.  We're beginning to think it may be an ornery old tomcat that we've seen over here quite a bit.  He used to come and eat any cat food my cats left in their bowls.  On a couple of occasions, I'd hear cats fighting right on the front porch early in the morning; however, it was dark out and when I opened the door to look, the intruder was gone.  Only Mama Kitty would be sitting on the bannister as though to say, "It wasn't me."  Of course, no male cat is likely to fight with a female, even a spayed one.  

(Pet peeve:  Folks that say "spaded" as the past tense.  Present tense is "spay", past tense is "spayed".)

Blue has been coming in lately in the early morning and getting on my lap while Gabe is in my chair beside me.  Makes it kind of hard to look at my laptop when my lap is full of animals!

That's it for today.  I'll be checking on all my blog friends later on.  Right now it's about dinnertime!