mere cat

Five Things You Don’t Know About Me

Happy New Year! This Five Things meme is so last year, but Albert was kind enough to tag me so, despite a host of excuses for the tardiness (some even legitimate ones like being sick), here goes.

1. I wasn't always bald, but from an early age, the hair I was destined to lose had a different texture than the hair I still have. Kind of like foreshadowing. You know, if you see a wood chipper in the first reel, chances are by the last reel somebody will end up in it. Like most foreshadowing, however, I didn’t appreciate the significance at the time.
2. My musical tastes have undergone some radical shifts over the years. My lifelong love of jazz began when I was about 14 or so, but it wasn’t my first love. My earliest passion was for Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and some soundtrack albums I wore out, most notably Goldfinger and Henry Mancini’s music for Peter Gunn, a TV series, and Hatari, a movie. The first jazz band I liked was the Dave Brubeck Quartet (“Take Five” etc). I am mildly abashed by what I liked in those days, although in some ways nothing has changed. Today, my guilty pleasure is smooth jazz, although what I hear on WJJZ rarely matches my concept of the music.
3. I didn't always have a day job. I played drums full time until I was around 40. As the roaring Eighties drew to a close, I saw the writing on the wall. My career had peaked, and I went back to school when I was 35 to get my degree, finally, and have led a normal, even useful, life ever since.
4. Speaking of school, my education first went off the rails in high school. I wanted to attend the local Quaker school, but my parents thought it was too liberal, and of course it wasn’t Catholic. I ended up going to a Catholic “prep” school, which turned out to be a disaster. It was a fine school, but wasn’t a good fit for me.
5. I didn't always love cats. In fact we grew up with dogs—three Dachshunds—and didn't get a cat until I was well into my teens when a stray adopted our family. We named the all-black male Satan. He was an all-around great cat. Not a lap cat at all, but otherwise a totally mellow fellow. I didn’t have a cat of my own until 1988 when Woody came into my life. He saw me through some difficult years and was always there cheerfully dispensing kitty therapy. In fact this site’s name is a meowmorial to the difference a mere cat can make in someone’s life.