My vacation to Chicago hasn’t even started and I am packing my bags. It seems I’m going to have an extra vacation before my Chicago vacation.

A Cat I know needs a friend to sit with Him, and feed Him, and attend to His Great and Masterful Chonkiness for about five days. I need some cat time, and some alone time, and as cat time often means alone time it all works out perfectly.

My only stress is my fear that the cat might escape, so I’m not opening a single door. It will be a closed system where I wear a trail from the Cat’s office, to the microwave/refrigerator, to the bedroom, to the bathroom, and back.

When I get back from the quiet of the Big Cat Sanctuary I’ll have two or three days of attending to the Great and Masterful Garyiness, and then I’m off to Chicago.

It really is ideal to have a peaceful vacation environment for five days where I can rest up for the exciting vacation environment. Gary insists he will enjoy some alone time too, so it works out well all around. Very fortuitous.

A random Reddit rabbit-hole introduced me to the practice of Jeep ducking. Evidently people, usually Jeep owners, carry toy ducks with them, and when they spot another Jeep in a parking lot, they leave a duck on the hood. The recipient takes the new duck and adds it to their collected ducks behind their windshield.

Jeep Wranglers were the original targets, perhaps because the doors are removable, so instead of putting it on the hood the Duckers could just reach in and add a new duck. Or maybe it’s a take a ducky, leave a ducky situation.

(Coincidentally, Gary has taken a dislike to a particular Jeep Wrangler he sees in the grocery store lot. “THERE ARE NO DOORS ON IT WHY WOULD THEY TAKE THE DOORS OFF WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM DO THEY WANT TO DIE?” He was dismayed to see a golf cart at the grocery last night, as well, again, no doors.)

The link above says the practice spread from Wranglers, to all Jeeps, and now Mini Coopers also participate in ducking. I have never seen a random duck on any part of my car. I suppose I could put a duck on my dash like sweetening a tip jar, but I read that would be “Self-ducking” and is frowned upon.

The Reddit conversation was generally favorable, with one anti-duck voice: “I knock those things off my hood. I don’t know those people.”

I love that person.

This week the glasses went from this:

…to this:

And I think I am done. Am I done?

Yes, I’m done. The bottom of the glass on the left wouldn’t make any more sense if the proportions were correct.

It seems as if there’s a rocket launch every day now that all the nations want to deploy satellites.

I happened to catch a European launch the other day. It was a little different in some ways, not so in others.

The outside of the Vega rocket. It has a face with a little French moustache. The commentators named it Sad Vega.

There are not three stages, there are four, and once the white shell drops off the interior is black, matching the satellites.

And the commentators spoke English, so I forgive myself for my surprise when the countdown began, “dix, neuf, huit…”