A couple of weeks ago I got a couple of early birthday presents, but as I figured, they turned out to be presents for everyone.
Not too long ago we lost our three adopted cats to old age and the problems that arise from it. Unlike the fine shelter we have here in Longmont, where animals could stay months before adopted, where we adopted from they stayed maybe weeks before being euthanized. So the timing of what we got and how lucky we were was really something else. Those cats, with their unique personalities, turned a lot of non-cat people into cat people and in turn saved several pound kittens from sure destruction. The three were fairly close in age, and lived long and happy lives.
A couple of years had passed, and we never thought we'd ever start all over again with a new cat. We figured we'd stick with one pet, our basset hound, and by the time she got up there in years the kids would be out on their own and we'd be done with pets, mainly for travel reasons. But the unspoken truth was that we missed having a cat or cats. Well, to make a long story a short, a dream (literally, not figuratively) turned into a visit to the shelter, which turned into a new addition to our family, another adopted cat. As I'd hoped, he's been a de-stressor for my wife, and a lot of fun for everyone.
That same day I also bought a videogame system, a
Nintendo Wii. I'm sure I'm not as much of a gamer as some, but with the purchase of this system I've now owned at least one system from all seven generations of video game systems, starting with
Pong. I've always been a fan of this company, even to the point where I penned a song
("I Didn't Intend To Nintendo") back in '89 using nothing but the words from the backs of game boxes for lyrics. But as
Nintendo's market share started going south, as well as
Sega and
Atari, so did my interest in video games in general.
I just couldn't get in to the big company boxes by
Sony and
Microsoft, regardless if they're superior or not. When I heard that the
Wii was taking on these boxes and taking it to them, I went and took a look at it, and shortly thereafter got one. I was more than happy to add to
Nintendo's market share, but the added bonus is that it's quality stuff. It kills several birds with one stone: I'm not interested in being a couch potato, many of these games force you to get up and move around, in some cases a lot. It's something we can all do together, and often do, whether its tennis matches or dueling guitars.
Of course, these new things are taking up a lot of my time, but at least it's time well spent. We now just have to figure out how to keep the cat from chasing the little hand on the screen from the
Wiimote (which now he won't pose a picture for) before he knocks the TV over.
©2007 Chris Rodriguez/Wrongmont.Com
(Chris Rodriguez is a Longmont resident, and the editor and publisher of Wrongmont.Com, a community website that raises local issues to increase public awareness and interest)