Four-timing them

A dear friend of mine is off having adventures this weekend, and I'm cat sitting. Multiple counts of cat sitting. This is fun. Plus cat photos, which we'll get to. Doing photos of cats would be a tough way to make a living. Some cats are extremely photogenic, others are much less so. But the main problem is that they mostly don't care about people, or they care too much.

We all know the don't care part. They won't look at you or the camera no matter what weird noises you make. They could be in the perfect posture for a great shot, and as soon as you move even slightly, they move and the shot is gone. There was some of that this morning. Or they want to be close to you, closer than the camera will focus.

But first, there's this.

If that isn't the suspicious eye, I don't know what is.

In any case, the other fur balls were happy to see me, or at least my opposable thumbs that deal with food. Best human ever! they said. These guys are shameless, hopping up into the drawer where the cat food is kept, and then up onto the counter where I was dishing it out to get first dibs. Once fed, of course, it was back to business as usual.

There was some lap time, and the new guy is pretty affectionate. The black one remembered me, I think, and cuddled in as well.

Here's the best of the bunch of the new guy. He really isn't as cross as he looks. There were some photos of the other cats, but they've all been on the blog before. I think.

Our adventure this weekend was the fireworks festival last night. Getting there was good. The fireworks by Spain were spectacular! Some of the best I've ever seen, with some new effects. Wow! Then we tried to leave. This is the downside of the festival. There are several tens of thousands of people there on a big night, and they all want to leave now. Southland has shuttle buses lined up ready to go, and mostly our experience has been good.

But last night the buses thought the people going downtown had cooties or something. One left just as we got there, and we stood there for an hour, waiting. Toward the end shuttle buses for Marlborough were leaving EMPTY. WTF??? How hard is it to tell the driver to move up to that next batch of people in plain sight and take them downtown? Eventually one bus arrived for about 3 buses worth of people, and then, FINALLY, they re-destinationed a couple of buses and we headed home. Let's just say the mob was getting cranky and leave it there. It was a late night.

Then there was the lineup to get into a bar just across the road from the parking lot, and I totally do not understand that. But that's another blog.

We may try parking at Marlborough mall next show, and see if that's any better. I suspect the gong show there is getting out of that parking lot. There is also a Calgary Transit BRT line that stops just outside the park, and we saw it running. A bit of research says it runs every 20 or 25 minutes when the festival is over, and I've no idea how many people were trying to ride it. That's an option. Driving there isn't really an option. Parking is $20 everywhere within walking distance, and there is lots of walking. We did it that way a few times and got lucky, and once we got trapped and waited for more than hour to escape.

I love the fireworks, and it's nice to wander the cultural pavilions and take in the various shows. The food is meh, aside from the Cowboy popcorn, or gelato. Every time we go, we are horrified anew at the lineups for mini doughnuts. Gah. Gag.

Peony of the Day (July 7)
One of the few times I've been happy with this peony red.

Driftwood of the Day