(which in hindsight will be replacing "elephant in the room" as a phrase moving forward)

If you've been reading my blog for a while or following me anywhere I'm still active on social media, a thing that's come up multiple times and never remarked upon is that in some cat photos, there's a thing that's just out of frame that upon a cleaner look would require some explanation. A prime example is the photo of Chi at the bottom of this post from last month.

So, here's your cleaner look:

And here's your explanation: It's a bunch of cactuses in a pet crate.

As you probably know, my partner and I live in New England currently so it probably seems bonkers that:

1. We have this many cactuses
2. We have them in a fucking cage

Point 2 is easier to explain and I'd think it would be kind of obvious: Cats. We don't want the cactuars OR the cats to get hurt and keeping them somewhere enclosed is the best we can do, especially while we can't plant them outside.

Point 1 though - the goal IS to plant them outside...just not yet. Della got them for me as both a gift and a promise:

To back up a bit, we relocated our entire lives 3,000 miles across the country back in 2021 for numerous reasons, but many of them have now ceased to have a major bearing on our lives...so we asked ourselves "What is keeping us in New England?" and like, fuck. We didn't have an answer.

The High Desert Calls

When it comes down to it, most of our social circles are still in the pacific time zone, my job is fully remote and time zone agnostic, and I have aging family members in poor health back in California that it's a significantly higher chore to visit if I'm an airplane away vs a car drive. Last August I had to travel home for a family emergency and it was an incredible hassle in every regard that I don't wanna have to repeat.

So the process has begun to get us out of our place in Connecticut and back to the desert. We came here from the Coachella valley proper but this time we're trying to go with the truer expression of the infamous dril tweet and land in Joshua Tree or up near the Mojave:

We know it's crazy but like, shit - we gotta see how this goes. We have less cats in the rescue right now than usual but moving sucks every time. Even a small move within your own city limits sucks, so several thousand miles in an RV after all the hassle of packing and house stuff isn't something I'm super looking forward to again.

Honestly this sounds like a bit but I can't wait to get back

I know this could all blow up in our faces but it's worth being honest with ourselves. We miss the desert sun so much and while this has been a great experiment (and a chance to experience seasons!!!) it's time for us to go home.

In my natural habitat; photo by Della

I've shut down music production on all the projects I'm working until the move is complete since I have to dismantle the studio here and get it ready for transport and lemme fucken tell you, y'never realize how much music gear you've acquired until you start trying to move it. This is our third move since 2017 and the collection has only gotten more ridiculous...realizing as I type this that the Baldwin Orgasonic story was never on the blog because it happened when my primary onlines were cohost [COHOST MENTIONED ALARM SOUNDS] and tiktok. What a change lmao. Go read that story, it's a fun one. Now we have to do it in reverse lol.

Anyway, here's hoping everything goes smooth and we can pack our lives up, lock down the new place and safely travel by RV across the country with all the cats again. The timeline is iffy but we're aiming for "ASAP". It's a lot, but I'm excited.

Oh and here's your end-of-post cat(s) and we'll bring it full circle: It's Trout and Selmers, resting on a pillow that's, you guessed it - on top of the goddamn cactus cage.

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