years ago, my iMac was running craaaaaazy slow. it was pretty much unusable and seemed like anything that touched the disk took minutes instead of milliseconds. initially i thought it was from a macOS update (like maybe they didn’t bother testing on spinning disks anymore and just let things become unusable on old systems) but eventually realized it must be a problem with the hard disk drive.

all the disks i’ve had die in the past would make crazy noises leading up to an eventual complete failure. so this drive is quite strange with its S.M.A.R.T. data being fine and reading and writing working properly, but it just does everything 100X slower than it should. 🤔

<img style="max-width: 100%; width: auto; height: auto; border-radius: 5px;" src="/blog/2020/12/storm/storm-on-couch_hu_2dde6b3cab02efb9.jpg" width="250" height="145">

my cat Storm passed away. i’m pretty heart broken, i loved her a lot.

Storm was already an adult cat when i adopted her from the animal shelter. my other cat Scratchy was so bored and miserable at home alone while i spent way too many hours at work so i wanted to get him a companion. like Scratchy when i adopted him, Storm was the cat at the shelter no one wanted. she was completely nuts but to me she was adorable.

there are some cats in the neighborhood that come over to my place regularly for snacks and treats. one day i noticed two of them lounging on the patio so i put out a scoop of cat food for them. out of nowhere this chunky raccoon scurried over, chased the cats away, and started chowing down!

for over a week he came back every day or two at dinner time. it was so fun watching him eat with his crazy paws.

so it’s been a year since i moved to my new house already! moving was such a pain but it’s been nice since everything is done. i probably visited with my family more in just a few months than in the past 10 years combined.

my cats took some time to get used to the new place and divide the territory between them, but they’ve settled in nicely by now with their own favorite areas. there are side windows by my front door which go down to the floor and Scratchy likes to watch the neighborhood from there. when the UPS dude drops something off Scratchy comes to find me and let me know. Storm has found several choice spots for sun bathing and has taken to alternating between office chairs for her bed.

this past month i FINALLY moved into my new house!

being nocturnal, having a house now is soooo nice! waking up in the evening and going to bed in the morning didn't leave much time for noisy things like laundry, treadmill running, and loud movies / games when surrounded by units filled with sleeping noise-sensitive daywalkers.

having more space is cool too. i wonder though... when you put a pet fish in a bigger tank they end up growing bigger right? is the same true for cats?? Scratchy is already pretty big so it'll be interesting to see how he transforms to fill the new space available to him. :)

this weekend i got a pet hamster for my cat scratchy! he’s a super fat black and white dwarf hamster who loves exploring and eating pie. i haven’t given him a name yet so you should help me by leaving a comment with your suggestion. :) some names i’m considering are: domino, doob, itchy, lump, modo, tweak, twitchy, and wiki.