05/28/25 – Of Birds and Beasts

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Purrloin jumped onto the Bricknock's back and dug hr claws into it. It screeched "Awwwk!" and flapped into the air, Purrloin aboard. Thoos, Picknar, Knox, and Rodrigo watched as the epic battle of bird and beast ensued in the air above them. Slash! Flap! Peck! Peck! Myreoww! Awwwk! Awwwk! Flap! Flap! Flap! Crunch! Flap! Whap! Spshheww! Meow! Shudder! Whiff! Swoop! And then the Bricknock came crashing down with a "Thoomp!" into its nest. Casually, Purrloin climbed out from behind it and sat on it and began cleaning herself. As the crew looked on with horror, Rodrigo said, "I knew we should have put a bell on her collar."

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A double strip because I felt the gag deserved the space it needed!

Whew. What a week. I bought some groceries on the way walking home Wednesday night, and a fresh bottle of lime juice burst open for some reason. I had my laptop with me, and although it was in a water resilient case, it wasn’t a waterPROOF case. It turned on when I got home and only had minor screen damage, so I shut it down for a-day-and-a-half to dry it out. And it did indeed restart, but wouldn’t take a charge, and some of he ports wouldn’t work. With 6% battery left, I backed up all the important stuff I could think of. The Apple store said that with liquid damage they’d just replace everything, an it would cost more than the laptop was worth. So I took it to an independent shop who said they’d see if it could just be cleaned. And by miracle, success! I was ready for despair, so, how nifty is that?

It was interesting spending 5 days on my old laptop. Slow, clunky, half the keyboard barely works (and for some reason now it won’t talk to my bluetooth keyboard). And the 3D Sketchup models (which I have on a HD) were saved with the new software, and my old laptop will only run the old software. So, I managed to cobble together the backgrounds pulled from the previous strip and make today’s strip work, but thank goodness I got my computer back before it all drove to crazytown.

Oh, plus I’m startng a house-sit unexpectedly early, and so need to pack and put everything I own into storage by Jun 9.

I’m very curious how all this will go.

Oh, and p.s., I added the three panels zoomed in, because Purrloin deserves to be seen for her bold actions!

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Purrloin jumped onto the Bricknock’s back and dug hr claws into it. It screeched “Awwwk!” and flapped into the air, Purrloin aboard. Thoos, Picknar, Knox, and Rodrigo watched as the epic battle of bird and beast ensued in the air above them. Slash! Flap! Peck! Peck! Myreoww! Awwwk! Awwwk! Flap! Flap! Flap! Crunch! Flap! Whap! Spshheww! Meow! Shudder! Whiff! Swoop! And then the Bricknock came crashing down with a “Thoomp!” into its nest. Casually, Purrloin climbed out from behind it and sat on it and began cleaning herself. As the crew looked on with horror, Rodrigo said, “I knew we should have put a bell on her collar.”

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14 Comments

  1. Keith

    Well, nobody has gone after a bird as such…but. That honestly is definitely Boo and not Meowsir* nor Bubba.

    *I haven’t sufficient developed the writing and storytelling skills have not developed to the point I can share how that name occurred. I can however impart it with beverage in hand around a campfire.

  2. Bruce

    There are lots of free ways to back up your work to the cloud, I highly recommend it just for the peace of mind. I never trust leaving things on only one machine.

  3. RUSSELL

    Go to cleaning – distilled water, WD40.

    Suggest plain water to remove mud and save on distilled water.

    Probably not enough for optical drives. Not that hard drives are not waterproof either.

  4. progan01

    Having had my workaday desktop fail on me after 15 years, and having to rebuild it in a new configuration for the NEXT fifteen years — not counting having to move the better part of my working files off the soon-to-expire Winchester drive they were on — I can sympathize fully. I was offline for three weeks, and it put me badly behind. Missed a deadline. Fortunately I wasn’t being paid anyway, but still.

    Purrloin’s exploit doesn’t impress me. I had a 17-pound black tomcat who took on coyotes in the night, and not only did he win, he wasn’t so much as scratched. Until it is demonstrated, you can forget what a determined feline predator can do even to opponents many times its size. Go, Purrloin!

    1. KQY

      Awwwk! pretty much says it’s dead now. Just like that little swallow Jack gave me this afternoon. It was still moving, he bit hard, and it made a sound which Awwwk! would be a reasonable Don Martin sound effect for.

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