Walter – The Unlikely House Mate

 Am a Cat lover ! There i said it !

Cat lovers are not lonely , Instead we relish sharing our homes with a creature who compliments our existence without constantly tugging on it.

 

Cat and Mouse

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I must admit , the cat has qualities (Independence , Perseverance , Dignity , Loyalty , Resilience etc) from which we humans could benefit. Oh . the lessons we could learn!

I have had cats since i can remember. You never own a cat – you Exist with him . This is a brief story of Walter.

  Hauser–Cat Out

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He is adopted , its cool he knows it . I found him on the side of the street, he was just a few weeks old , determined to survive even though he could barely fend for himself. And that was two years ago , my oh my how he is grown.

The cat is the only animal without visible means of support who still manages to find a living in the city.    Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964)

DIGNITY

I named him Wall E – from the Disney – Pixar movie of the same title. But he answers to Walter , (must have had a British mum).

Proud , confident and at times pompous , Walter will only eat by himself and in the house . He refuses to eat in the company of the rest of the cats .

If man could be crossed with a cat , it would improve man , but it would deteriorate the cat .   Mark Twain.

INTELLIGENCE

Walter is pretty smart , cunning , coy and at times devious

He learns by observing , He can open the doors , windows and most important to him , the fridge . And he is bright enough to know what he has to do to get what he wants.

Cats are smarter than dogs . You cant get eight cats to pull a sled .  (Jeff Valdez)

I have met many Thinkers and many cats , but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior . Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893).

Walter is a reflection of who I am . His likes , dislikes , temperaments , expressions are an almost accurate mirror of me.

I love cats because I love my home  , and little by little they become its visible soul. A kind of active silence emanates from these furry beasts who appear deaf to order , to appeals , to reproaches , and who move in a completely royal authority through the network of our acts , retaining only those that intrigue or comfort them.   Jean Cocteau

 

Goals! What Goals?

Flashback.

Sometime in the month of May this year. Day 1 at the gym.
Here I stand 35 years old, 5’9″ and weigh 220lbs with a BMI of 30. I have a spare tire i want to get rid of and have legs like jelly. My upper body is quite stocky anyway but needs to be toned.
Fear grips me, will I hack this? I spent the night online at the bodybuilding.com, scouring information on exercises, training routines, supplements, you name it.

Age Factor
Will my age work against me? Can I lose weight; get rid of the fat and gain muscle mass? So many questions, so confusing. Now, I got a whole mess of nay sayers and encouragement guys to refute me, but honestly, at age 35, i can certainly get my weight in order, and cut up more, and there is always the illusion factor IE: waist is smaller making the taper seem bigger, etc….

Goals Specific
I’ve read that i need to set specific goals and if i don’t then i will fail or not keep to my training regime because i will get disheartened from not seeing results.

So out comes the note book / diary, starting a gym log …yeah …setting targets.
All this because in a couple of years , I want to look like this .

“The feebler the body, the more it rules: the stronger, the more it obeys.” Rousseau from “Emile” Book 1
For anyone who cant make it to the gym for various reasons, check out this site. http://hundredpushups.com/index.html
It is a great resource for progressive pushups, sit ups, dips and pull ups training programs. No or little equipment necessary.

The Blind Spot

According to Wikipedia…. A blind spot in a vehicle is an area around the vehicle that cannot be directly observed by the driver while at the controls, under existing circumstances. On a motorcycle or in a car your blind spots are at 180° on either side, parallel to your shoulders.

The driver of the blue car can see the green car on his side view mirror but cannot see the red car that is adjacent to him without turning his head, as it is in his blind spot.

Solution. Well for a car that would involve adjusting your side mirrors forward to increase your field of view and increasing the use of your rear view mirror or installing a rear view camera.

Well it’s not that easy when you are on a motorcycle , rear view is not that much of an issue on normal street bikes , but for sports bikes and track bikes , though there are a couple of prototype and DIY rear view cameras available such as this one   .

The only effective way to see round your blind spots on a motorcycle is to add a bubble mirror to your existing side mirror. They bring blind spots into view, but their optical properties impart a great deal of distortion so as to make it difficult to judge distances.

But in the least you will avoid the certain rear end collision by not having to turn your head to your blind spot.