Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for February 16, 2025

Well, this is timely. Here in New England we’re having a winter storm… snow so far but changing over to freezing rain, with ice potentially enough to cause power outages. We’re hunkered down with lots of candles, fully charged phones, books, and a bathtub full of water. However, I have to disagree with Puck – we do not find this charming. :(

We should have an internet outage drill! I need much more practice eating all the ice cream!

The Internet is always with you, dear child. Fear not.

Heeeeeey, distinguished comic lovers! I, PotatoLover02 (that is my name, right?) love blanket forts. And reading forts. Any forts at all, really. (My name is PotatoLover02, right? Right!?!

Assuming you have a battery powered radio, and batteries with a bit of power left in them. Which you won’t. So you will not be able to listen to the radio forecasts of doom.

It’s a great excuse to catch up on books.

Elvis’ airplane ears vanishing into the fuzzy blanket is a marvelous matchup!

Aww, we didn’t get to see the lights go out and Lupin make his famous cry…

Some might suggest that you put the ice cream in a cooler and set it outside until the power is restored. Those people are, of course, No Fun™.

OK, once again Georgia has predicted our local weather accurately. Thursday into Friday we did indeed have a wind storm thaat knocked out power here in areas of Snohomish County. It was especially bad along the US Highway 2 corridor in the eastern part of the county. The worst affects were in the colorfully named towns of Sultan, Startup, Gold Bar, Index and Skykomish.

Quick question for the orb: Highway 2 runs along the horthern tier of the United States in two sections. One from Washington to Michigan (near the Mackinac Bridge) and the other from New York state to Maine. Are there any other orbsters familiar with any parts of Highway 2?

I’m with OZ… without TV I shall starve! lol

(Ditto for the Internet)

Sunday Funday

Phantom of the Opera? These kitties have such old pop culture references. What time period is this comic strip set in?

Well, TV is candy for the mind.

School closings today: Foster, Gloucester, and Foster-Gloucester…

She said it! Ora Zella said………“mew”!

Ora Zella is such a screenager.

The lights are back and and you can see Pucky and Ora Zella Toe Beans!

Iggy should be singing part 49 of his opera in front of the candles.

Stories and lyrics after church.

My brother who was a fireman hates candles.

Our ‘trusty’ ISP (for whom I worked for for 10 years) cut out last night, just as I was sending the cover art and MS for the new book. The ensuing three hour wait for it to be restored was maddening. I then stayed up to make sure it was resent, Even though we still had TV and my mp3 player had 8 books loaded on it, I was a nervous wreck. Sad, really.

Not sure we could survive without online these days. Can you write a letter??

We have many candles for just such emergencies, I like to joke we have enough to shoot a Sting video from the 80s.

Speaking of winter, the low temperature in St. Louis is forecasted at -3 F on Wednesday. Brrrr. On the positive side, Hamilton and I are going to make stewed chicken with lots of vegetables and rice for Sunday dinner. Hamilton and I use organic, free-range chicken.

Good excuse to listen to some Old Time Radio. Ora Zella would love “The Shadow.”

OT

At the risk of jinxing myself…

…just realized we haven’t had a winter-related power outage yet here in my neck of the woods. That’s honestly a good thing, in the long run, but now I’m self-aware of it, so… :P

As amused as I am by Elvis’ grouchiness, there is definitely a charm to this situation that Georgia portrays excellently.

My old stove would blink the time starting from what time it was when power went out. I now have solar power with battery backup, and the blinking time was really the only way I knew power went out. My backup battery app would tell me a few minutes later that it was powering the house. I purchased a new “smart” stove this summer. Its clock only shows when the oven is on – how stupid is that! Running the stovetop doesn’t show the clock, only the oven. Even worse, when there’s a power outage it goes back to Jan 1 at midnight. It doesn’t say what year. It doesn’t blink, because I would have to turn the oven on to see the time. So now if I do run the oven, I know how long its been since the last power outage. Which is frequent here in the winter. Dumb oven.

`That kitten does love the internet!

Elvis, you are so charming in your grouchiness!

Nothing showing of Elvis in panel 4 except his frown! Hilarious!

Friends visiting from Boston area keep checking the interior camera focused on their thermostat ( we’re in Tampa.) If it hits zero they call the neighbors to run water to protect the pipes. As Elvis succinctly puts it, “ Good Grief!”

And when the poser’s the Shortwave Radio enthusiasts among us (Ham radio, SW listeners) rush to the radio to take advantage of the temporary lack of radio frequency interference from the neighbors’ electronic devices!! (That’s why we have battery backups for the radios!)

I have a phone, a laptop, and a battery backup for my modem and router. None of them will last forever, but I’m covered for a solid few hours at least.

A blanket fort! Wonderful creation.

Personal Update

My power was out from the storm last night too, though my immediate area was one of the few that lost power here. It was above freezing until morning, so despite the snow we got, the storm wasn’t too bad. Apparently a tree took down the lines. So glad I could check the power company app on my phone! Also, even more glad that it had been above freezing yesterday, also so it never got too cold in my apartment.

I’m also between and above others, so that keeps my place quite warm; last night I even opened my window for a bit, while it was raining. I had to time my dog walk between thunderstorms!

If the outage lasts long enough, that ice cream will refreeze.

For ice cream during a winter storm, really don’t need to worry about it melting. Go put it out in the snow. Looks like OZ is addicted to the internet, after all she’s “starving”.

When I lived at the Oregon coast, power outages were definitely a thing. Being a lover of old technology, I’d get out my Victrola and its 78s, boil a pot of water on the wood stove, and make myself a mug of hot chocolate.

[bro] last night we had a little power blip. nothing big but still the clocks reset and we had to correct them

Nothing to complain about here except it’s sooo COLD~!!!

Maybe there will be reports on an incoming fish storm. Pengo would love that.

Papa, without tv, I will starve…ok, I will now lie down on the floor and laugh, for about an hour!

Andrew Lloyd Webber: Music of the Night

Wintry mix, snow, sleet and freezing rain fall

Wires coated, unable to make phone calls

Internet is down, electricity not found

Heat is off, but no matter we can fill the space,

And there’s a fire in the fireplace.

…….

Snowflakes falling, quiet in their splendor

Nap time calls, to sleep we all surrender

A clowder starts to form

Beneath the blanket warm

Television is off, can we await?

Hunger might be Ora Zella’s fate!

…….

As we toast marshmallows in the fireplace

Graham crackers and chocolate bars await

We are all ready for s’more!

And the cats get treats that they adore!

……

Elvis carried in the Woman’s arms, so

He can keep her safe from harm, know

Puck and Lupin dream while Iggy finishes ice cream

What a lovely day, it’s alright

Our dreams while napping taking flight!

Georgia, please…more Iggy!

Eat all the ice cream before it thaws? I am so there!

If you want to avoid power outages, since I moved 2 are building next to a seniors complex 5 1/2 years ago I only experienced a single one. I can’t find an explanation for this but my guess is that we are inside of some sort of grid or my building complex has a backup generator. A friend of mine who lives down the street from the hospital says she also experiences very few power outages. I really do think there’s a connection.

Here if the power goes out you politely freeze to death.

In CA they’re a summer phenomenon. In our area we had 4 last year.

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Queen Catshepsut the Golden: That was a lovely program from the Feeling Better Kittens and Mallets Towards None. My compliments to the performers, and Lupinium and Elvis-Anum.

Elvis: Thank you, Your Majesty. And we must congratulate The Builders, Awhil-Fixit the Seventh (Wally), Iron Glove, and Iggy. Not to forget Arachna for her climbing web creation.

Queen Cat: Yes. My compliments to all. Now, to the Royal Dining Hall for a lovely lunch.

Beatrixia: Wonder what we’ll be having. I thought I heard giggling awhile back.

Ta-Natash: We’ll never tell!

Violet-Ifa: But you’ll find out soon enough. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Sometime Later

Thomios: Welcome, one and all. It gives me great pleasure to announce we’ll be serving a charcuterie platter and a variety of fish fresh caught by the Water Cat Brothers, Freshwater and Saltwater.

Ora Z: Can’t wait to eat!

Bea: And then time to nap.

Puckmosis: But before we nap, we need to do one more thing.

All: Whee!

Time to buy that lottery ticket, Georgia! We had a massive storm blow through overnight; the power went off at about 2:30 AM and stayed that way until about 5:30. Thankfully, there were no significant damages here (lots of limbs and twigs down), but not a whole lot of sleep, either.

Had a power outage a while back, thought the granddaughters were going to die. They couldn’t charge up their phones and had no wifi in the house. Oh the horror of it all.

There is new information in the BCN Patreon post that Georgia just put out that I think will be of great interest to us here and also Swan Eaters fans. Be sure to read it.

We had a rainy morning today then cleared up and blue sky. Late afternoon got dark, rained, wind picked up. Still windy but the sky was blue. Internet WIFI went down. Had to find the cord to connect the computer to the modem directly to get back into the comics. WIFI is horrid to me.

Loving their expressions while under the blankets :) Elvis has grumpy old man nailed lol and ora zella hilarious