Kitchen Remodel, New Tools, and Outside Cats – Thoughts from August 23, 2025

I had my appointment to check on my throat after my surgery to remove the polyp on my vocal cord. I knew it didn’t feel like it used to years ago. Seeing the image the doctor took with the camera down my throat was disappointing. The polyp was smaller than the last image before the surgery, but bigger than I was hoping for. They set me up with an appointment to check back in three months. Before that, I’m going to keep trying to find what I’m doing that continues to damage my throat.

Patti decided that for her birthday in September this year she wants the kitchen remodeled. This involves taking the existing cabinets, drawers, and other items out and installing newer and better items in. We went and bought new cabinets and anything new she wanted installed. Even in Patti’s Toyota Tundra, it took us several trips each time we picked things up. We filled our living room with giant boxes. The cabinet set Patti wanted was being discontinued, so we had to go to several stores to get all the pieces she wanted.

To do the installation, I took about two weeks off in September. It’s basically our big vacation this year. As far as I’m concerned, I prefer a staycation to traveling somewhere. The only reason Patti allows it is that it was her idea. One big issue during the installation is our cats. They will not like the noises and large objects in their way. I’m sure during part of the installation we might have to close them into the bedroom to keep them from getting hurt. I think they will stay away on their own because of all the scary stuff happening.

The kitchen rebuild gave me the perfect excuse to get new tools. I never thought I would care about getting tools. That was my dad’s thing. I only liked creative tools. As I found out, wood-working tools are creative tools. The better tools you have, the more you can create. I didn’t want to start working on the kitchen and not be able to install something because I didn’t have the right tool. We only allowed so much time to complete the kitchen, so I wanted to be as efficient as possible. Cabinet installation requires certain tools. I got new stud finders, measuring tools, screwdrivers, drill bits, and adjustable poles for holding up the cabinets. This was a new obsession that I could do along with collecting more Funko collectables and action figures.

We have had two outside cats hanging around our porch recently. It started with a small female cat that Patti eventually named Rally. Her arrival seemed eerily like when Scout showed up to our porch. We took her in and found out that her belly was baking kittens inside. They were born on July 25, 2021. We still have her and three of her kittens. Soon after Rally showed up, another male cat with orange fur was hanging around. Patti named him Archie after her favorite comic book character. We found out that male orange cats are very vocal. Rally and Archie got along well. They were affectionate towards each other. If anything, Archie was more affectionate and vocal than Rally. Besides names, Patti was feeding them and giving them water.

We began making plans to bring the outside cats into the house when we started talking about the kitchen. We didn’t want to deal with five or six cats while we did the installation. Unfortunately, there was another reason that stopped this talk. Patti was taking out the trash one day, and she saw Rally had something on the side of her head. Patti put the trash in the can and turned around to find Rally was gone. That was the last day either of us saw Rally. Archie still comes around, but no Rally. Patti wondered if Rally got hurt and just saying her last goodbye to us. All I have are the pictures and videos I took of Rally to remember her by.