Wednesday and Thursday

I returned home yesterday evening to discover evidence that Phantom Garage Cat had returned. Also that it might be something of a jerk.

The blinds on two of the garage’s windows had been effectively demolished, and there were other things thrown about the floor to suggest the return of a cat (or mischievous poltergeist), even if there wasn’t any sign of the cat itself. I’m pretty sure it had left the garage for about a week, but wherever it hides, it does a really good job. I managed to scare it out of the corner again, getting just a glimpse of cat-like movement, but I don’t think I scared it enough for it to run outside. It keeps very quiet, at least when I’ve been out there with it, and the only way to know it’s even out there is to close the door, walk away, and then come back to find some new destruction has been visited upon the garage while you were gone. I think I heard it this morning, but I didn’t see it, and I don’t know if it’s still out there now.

But it’s not just my problem now.

My parents returned home after about three weeks away. “So I see you’ve met Phantom Garage Cat,” I said, “or at least seen its handiwork.” Well, I don’t think I said those words exactly, but the damage to the blinds is pretty tough to miss. (And I had told them about the cat about a week ago.)

I’m really glad they’re back. I’m okay on my own — I tell myself I’m determined that this is the year I move back out to my own apartment — but I don’t think I’m well suited to being on my own in the middle of a lousy winter in a large and otherwise empty house. I managed, me and the dog, but I can’t pretend like it was much fun. It’s easy to jump at noises in the night, especially when you’ve got a polter-cat on the prowl outside the kitchen door. Over the past three weeks, I got nothing more accomplished than watching the first season of The Good Wife. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty good show, but I’m looking to return some level of normalcy to my routine and sleep patterns.

And speaking of sleep patterns, I’m off to go find some.