This and that.

 A blessed Samhain to you all. Yes, I know it was yesterday, but I'm told that in some traditions, it's still Samhain season 'til Yule. I'm leaving my decorations up for the next few days anyhow -- at least through Día de Muertos tomorrow. 

Lynne Cantwell 2026

You can see, in the upper right-hand corner of this pic, the mini-split has been installed. The installers finished up this week, and not a moment too soon, as it is getting colder here. Although I do still have to run the A/C in the living room during the day sometimes because the fabulous wall o' windows heats the room up like crazy, even in the winter. 

Oh, and I learned a thing about mini-split systems this week: If you have more than one internal head attached to the same outdoor unit, you cannot run the internal units on auto. That's because the outdoor unit can only do one thing at a time -- it can either heat or cool, but not both. So if you set all the internal units to auto, and one decides it needs to be heating while another thinks it needs to be cooling, the outside unit will get confused and shut one or the other of them down. The installers might have told me that at some point, but if they did, it didn't register -- until one of the units shut down on me. I figured out what had happened with a bit of frantic googling.

Back to the photo: You may have noticed a little dark triangle on the ceiling between the mini-split and the picture over the mantel. That's one of the places where the installers cut into the ceiling to run the lines from the three heads to the outdoor unit. They still have to send their subcontractor over to patch those holes and paint. Hopefully that will get done this week or next, because Tigs is starting to eye those holes like he'd like to jump up in there.

And no wonder. His mama brought him a baby sister a few weeks ago! 

Lynne Cantwell 2026

Her name is Deenie. (The rescue folks named her Sardine, but I was not having it. And I've always maintained that it doesn't matter if you rename a cat; it's not like they come when you call.) She is just now a year old, give or take. She is gray and white with the cutest little curlicue of white on her back, and she has amber eyes (I've never had a cat with amber eyes before) and is full of big kitten energy. 

I'd like to tell you that Tigs was immediately smitten, but I'd be lying. It hasn't been super rocky, but there have been a few times that I've questioned my life choices. I think maybe he likes her now, most of the time. They spent at least a half-hour chilling on the bed with me this morning. 

Lynne Cantwell 2026

And then she stretched out a paw and touched him, he bit her, and she fled. 

We'll get there. Eventually.

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I suppose at some point I'll have to say something about the midterm election. The thing is that I don't want to jinx it. Those who claim to know these things say it's looking good for the Democrats to take control of the House of Representatives, and maybe even the Senate. Whether it'll be a blue tsunami is the question, and given my track record when it comes to political prognostication, I'd rather not hazard a guess.

I will say, though, that I'm getting pretty tired of every election being The Most Important In Our Lifetime and therefore we have to Vote For The Candidate Best Able to Defeat The Other Guys, Who Are Basically Satan. I've begun to suspect that that argument is put forward by the folks currently in power, Republicans and Democrats alike, to encourage voters to reject anyone who's not an incumbent or who is at least handpicked by the party leaders because they won't rock the party's boat. I've been gratified this time around to see some handpicked candidates and incumbents lose to candidates who don't toe the party line. 

Part of it this year is that voters are frustrated that those in power on both sides of the aisle haven't done more to rein in the craziness of Trump and his minions. But I'm hopeful that some voters, at least, are looking to support candidates who aren't beholden to the parties' big donors and are willing to work toward enacting programs that will benefit regular people.

We'll know this time next weekend how it all turns out. Stay tuned.

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These moments of miscellaneous blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Get out and vote!