recharging

Of course, there's a literal meaning here: this large sphere is a wonderful electric light, that can be set to glow in a number of colors - white, blue, purple, red ... But it was also a recharging day (though I did write a couple of paragraphs about bronze Banana Slugs in Vancouver) - the kind that one wants to store up against the incoming semester (and yes, there were stirrings from that, too) - a visit from a friend, brunch at Cafe Fina, and so on ... 

The print in the background?  A present to us from my parents, years ago - the Owl and the Pussycats, by Ditz - who used to live opposite them in Hillside (and on various occasions borrowed local cats for her compositions).  Ray commissioned a painting of one of their cats, Sam (why not both of them?? I never liked to ask ...) for Joy on their 50th wedding anniversary - we have it now on the dresser in LA.  I don't know which tabby modeled for this (Sam was a long-furred Somali, so not him), but clearly they were, as Dr Johnson would say of Hodge, a Very Fine Cat Indeed.