Mood:
blueTopic: General
Earlier this week I posted to wish people a Happy Hallowe'en, but for me it was actually quite a sad week. Last Saturday morning (October 29), my beautiful little cat Tara passed away at the age of sixteen and a half. She went peacefully, at home, lying in one of her favourite spots. She was a wonderful cat right up to the end. Even in her last couple of weeks, she would gamely muster up a purr in response to attention given to her and for help given to her in getting to food and water dishes and comfortable sleeping spots. I kept hoping she would start to eat more, so she could get some strength back and rally, but it wasn't to be. She has a lovely final resting spot in a stand of woods out behind the house, with a ravine and a stream, her prowling grounds for many years. I miss her terribly.
Born on March 20, 1995, we got her in May of that year. Our neighbours across the street were getting a kitten from some people they knew, and arranged to get us one, too. So Tara lived right across the street from one of her sisters. We had been planning to get two kittens from them, but that didn't work out. So a couple of weeks after getting Tara, we got a second kitten from a newspaper ad. Since Tara was here two weeks before Paddy (and two weeks his senior in age, as well), she always figured she was boss cat. Since Paddy is three times bigger than Tara, he always thought he was boss cat. So it worked for both of them. ;-)
 Tara with me 1995 |  Tara 2010 |
She'd hang out with me while I was playing guitar, which is how she'd sometimes turn up in my guitar videos. Rolled up in a ball here, you can only see half of her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLzZM0H5al8 And I gave her and Paddy a video of their own, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flyFAUOUpNs When she was younger, she liked to go up on the roof of the house, then meow down just to make sure someone saw she had gotten up there. Then pretend she needed help getting down (even though she didn't need help). She loved running along a balcony railing in the house, too. Like most cats, she could be quite the acrobat.
This past Christmas, my sister gave me a swivel office chair to set up with the computer I had just gotten. Tara took an immediate liking to it, and decided it was hers. So which one of us got the chair when they wanted it? See below. But she let me use it sometimes. :-)
Paddy's been sticking close to us this week. He misses her, too.
 Tara's Office Chair |  Paddy and Tara |
Updated: Saturday, November 5, 2011 6:15 AM EDT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post
Long Long Way was the 1974 follow-up to Ian Thomas's self-titled debut album. It produced two successful singles, in the title track and "Mother Earth". It also gave the 1974 Most Promising Male Vocalist Juno award winner his second consecutive gold album. Thomas showed he was well on his way to becoming the hit-making machine he would be known as in Canada.
As far as I know, the only album the single version has ever appeared on is the 1980 greatest hits compilation The Best Of Ian Thomas. In 1993, when Thomas released another comprehensive best-of compilation (called Looking Back), "Mother Earth" wasn't included on it.
"Nova Heart" was the first single drawn from Arias & Symphonies (1982), the second album from Burlington, Ontario new wave band the Spoons. Released in April of 1982, the song became a Top 40 hit in Canada. It was followed by two more singles, the album's title track and "Smiling In Winter". The success of all three singles propelled Arias & Symphonies to gold status.
Recorded in July of 1982, not long after the death of lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and the firing of bassist Pete Farndon, "Back On the Chain Gang" would become one of the Pretenders' most successful singles. The song was recorded by an interim line-up; Rockpile guitarist Billy Bremner and Big Country bassist Tony Butler joined Chrissie Hynde and Martin Chambers for the session. 
"In Context Of the Moon", the closing track on Max Webster's High Class In Borrowed Shoes (1977) album, was the second in a series of moon-themed songs, one of which appeared on each of the first four Max Webster studio albums. It was preceded by "Coming Off the Moon", from the band's 1976 self-titled debut album. "Beyond the Moon" was featured on 1978's Mutiny Up My Sleeve, while "Moon Voices" -- the last of the series -- appeared on the 1979 album A Million Vacations. 