Morning adventures more fun for the cat

 Today I have an online event for work, which is best done at home, because shared office whilst they renovate the library. But I also have a meeting with my colleagues, which can be done from home, but is nicer in person. So I had pretty much decided to get myself ready to go in to the office today as I was saying goodbye to Keldor. However, as I walked back up to the house, I noticed that the front door was slightly ajar, and looked to the side on time to see Kali, in the gap between the house and the snow, just going around the corner of the house.

 

She is normally treats motivated, so I went in and got the jar of treats and went out to try to lure her back in. She ignored her favourite sound in the world (treats shaking in the jar), and continued her investigations. She went over to the far corner of the neighbour’s house, so I went around the house to avoid making her feel like someone is chasing her (luckily the snow is quite solid packed and easy to walk on now, having had more than a week of plus temperatures).

 

When I got there she continued to ignore the sound of treats, but happily smelled all the interesting plants exposed along the fence, and I managed to get close enough to her to pick her up and start walking back to the house. Alas, I started walking along the driveway, and hit a patch of ice just covered by today’s thin coat of new snow, and suddenly my feet were out from under me, and I sat down, hard, on the ice, and Kali, who hadn’t seemed the least bothered to having been carried, decided that now was a fine time to do more exploring, and made a break for it.

 

This time I caught up to her as she was smelling everything under the raised garden beds, and this time I didn’t go near the driveway, but stayed on the snow in the yard that hasn’t been shoveled, and so doesn’t have very slick ice just under today’s dusting of new snow. Thus we made it safely inside, with no new falls. However, this used up the time that I would have needed to gather the things to take with me, so the decision was made for me--work from home. Sigh.

 

So I gave the cats their breakfast, got my own and sat down at the computer, and discovered that when I landed earlier I bruised the right side of my bottom, having landed directly on a bone and swished the flesh above it against the ice. My normal work chair being a little hard, I decided to see if I could arrange a more cushioned work station for today.

 

When we got the new couch we installed Keldor’s old large screen on the wall so that it will be possible to watch movies from the comfort of the recliner, and that screen can be an external monitor. Why not try it?

 

It turns out that yes, it works fine to wirelessly connect my work computer to that monitor, and the size of the text on the screen is perfect to read from the sofa. However, it only works to duplicate the screen; if I try to extend the screen (my normal preference, so I have two monitors on which to view different things as I work) the second monitor just shows white noise. There isn’t much point in just duplicating the screens, as then I may as well look at the notebook screen, which is closer. And many of the tasks I need to do require two monitors.

 

As I was wondering if I was just going to cope with a single screen, I opened the VPN to the university so I could work, and the second screen abruptly disconnected. I tried reconnecting to it, but it wouldn’t connect till I turned off the VPN. Sigh.

 

So now I am back to my normal work station, with two monitors as is right and proper and a pillow under my but to keep from putting weight on the afflicted area (yes, I have put bruise cream on it).

 

Kali, of course, has no idea of the problems arising from her morning adventure, and she is just delighted.

 

Now to see how much I can accomplish while sitting carefully before it is time to take the bus to town for the shire archery practice.