mallorys_camera | Goodbye Ganeshopholis

Goodbye Ganeshopolis, Lawn Guyland. Hello PeeKay.

I've had to keep the cats inside for the last few days, which makes me feel a bit like Ariel Castro. Of course, they are meowing piteously, desperate to escape. I am having to rudely shunt them aside from the door with my foot whenever I enter or leave the room. Just can't risk them running away so close to their PeeKay relocation date.

Oddly enough, timid Rutger's the kitty most upset by the constraint. Meezer is infinitely adaptable. When I was traveling with the circus, she spent seven months living in an RV bulkhead about the size of a closet. I couldn't let her out because unlike Soy, Jessi Wonderfool's kitty,Meezer would immediately take to the hills. I made the mistake of letting her out once in some tiny dead lumber town in Oregon and had to wait around for eight hours for her to reappear while the circus packed up and followed the arrows to the next town. I mean, part of me knew she'd do perfectly fine living in the forest till some raptor carried her off. But part of me wondered. She is a really odd cat with a personality that most people find unpleasant. People who like her like her a lot though. Allan likes her. The postman likes her and brings her treats every day.

Spent the night in PeeKay yesterday, and in the morning wandered into a breakfast joint that was straight out of a Richard Russo novel. Close to the Dutchess County courthouse so all the jaded lawyers in their starched shirts and ties were shoveling in plates of homefries, bacon and eggs, and comparing their pet felons' rap sheets in loud voices.

The guy who once upon a time would have been the Village Idiot was wandering around in an ill-fitting suit, and the lawyers were asking him, "So, Ernie -- what's the deal with the suit?"

"Got a job innerview taday!" announced Ernie. "Gonna be a janitor!"

"Well, that's great, Ernie! Congratulations! But you don't need a suit to to interview to be a janitor!"

"Gotta look good!" said Ernie.

Couple of the lawyers actually stopped to chat with me as I sat at my little table guzzling coffee and typing, and I thought, Huh! I spent a year in Ganeshopolis sending out the mental telepathy vibes, wishing that someone would stop and chat with me. And nobody did.

I suppose it's too dangerous to stop and chat with strangers this close to NYC. Plus there really is no organic reason to talk to strangers when everyone is a stranger really.