Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Something for Me


Once in a while, I buy something for myself. I don’t do it often because, frankly, my needs are not complicated. This is in contrast, apparently, to the cats, whose needs, while constant and immense, nonetheless manage to shift and alter like a kaleidoscope as seen by a lunatic who’s decided to have a psychotic break, just for something different. But once in a while, I buy something for myself.

The purchase is usually occasioned by the cats, it may not shock anyone to read. My bedspread was in tatters. It resembled the stereotypical cloak worn by a leprous mendicant begging for alms at the edge of a medieval village. My bedspread, however, had more cat-hair. It was also tremendously thin. Once upon a time, it was intact. Then Renn misjudged a jump up to the top of the mattress and recovered himself with his claws. Like a piece of movie-film, the disintegration of which due to sudden heat is displayed in great and enlarged detail on a cinema screen, the bedspread fell apart from there.

The blanket under the bedspread fared similarly, sharing the bedspread’s damage and acquiring some of its own, apparently hoping to establish an independent franchise of physical ruin. It became so ragged that I had to turn it sideways, as the ends had completely torn away, and no longer gave it the necessary length.

Certainly, the duration of my suffering with these pitiful cottonary remnants was my own fault. I like to have exactly what I intend to have. Buying a substitute for my goal merely makes me dislike my lesser purchase, and extends my search for the real thing while intensifying my dissatisfaction with what turns out to be nothing more than a stop-gap measure. I wanted a bedspread, not a coverlet or a quilt – both fine bedclothes, but neither of them bedspreads. The bedspread, like the shoe-shine man, is a dying feature of our modern world, it seems, and a relic of better times. So too, strangely, is the humble blanket, once ubiquitous in households, and now replaced by the likes of the aforementioned coverlet, and the horribly named ‘throw’.

But I found them at last. They arrived this week, and I placed them, newly washed, on the bed, along with clean sheets. I am sufficiently proud of this very minor achievement to feature them in today’s blog-entry, ousting the cats from the central subject, but not, you will note, wholly from appearance.

And yes, I believe Josie is laughing at me in the last photograph.


21 comments:

  1. Thankfully, it seems to have their approval.

    You'd probably be in big trouble otherwise.

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  2. Ahh...your new bedspread and blanket are indeed lovely, but you realize it's only a matter of time until they have cat hair on them. Oh, I guess that's why it's called "fur-niture" :-)

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    1. The cat-hair will come off in the wash. Holes, however, are a tougher proposition.

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  3. So should we open a betting pool on how long your nice, new bedspread will remain intact? :-)

    It's good to see that you bought something for yourself for a change. Even better that it meets the approval of those you serve. :-D

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  4. I'm pretty sure those things aren't allowed to be made without prior feline approval.

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  5. Very nice and I see the cats approve :)

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  6. Years ago I bought a new duvet cover and inner and made the bed up for guests. My old cat Puss jumped on the middle of the bed and threw up her dinner in the middle of it. I hope your new covers avoid that fat.

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  7. Ah! Come on John..Tell the truth..
    Not really something for you, is
    it..HeHe! I bet they all thought
    it was Christmas when you spread
    it on the bed..And..Josie is laughing
    her little heart out..Bless!x

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  8. Renn IS laughing! Katie can TELL! However, of course, that would be the only reaction among the chief residents. I know everyone presently on the bed is grateful to have new and soft and lovely nesting materials and will break them in with loving attention. I too am searching for a plain blanket for my bed. Not to be found apparently. Rather like the one that lies shredded on the bed now, trying and failing to survive through two cats. A standard blanket as one would have found even 20 years ago Now they are as you described and like you...I refuse to buy until I find what I want. No weighted, fleecy, loosely woven of whatever...I want a blanket I say, as of yore! I am looking for a (twin sized) bedspread for the spare room and a blanket for me in my room. And my criteria are the same as yours regarding that fabled entity, the "true" bedspread. Not something that will pill up and shred faithfully in the washer and dryer, becoming a thin sheet of whatever material it was made from. The bank roll one needs to purchase even the poorest of these wished-for objects is considerable. So one must needs be selective.

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  9. Enjoy the newness while you can. We love that our pets soon make
    everything we have theirs too. I tried to buy a bedspread a couple
    years ago and of course no box store had them, and frankly, I get
    tired of trying to look on the web. So I keep the old one and so
    far no cat tears. Glad you had a "self moment" to indulge yourself.

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    1. You might find something you like at Bed, Bath and Beyond. That's where I bought mine.

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  10. Hahaha! I totally understand your dilemma. My favorite blanket of 25 years plus (vellux) finally bit the dust. After having cats on it for the last seven years, it was a holey mess! Love your new bedding and it seems to have cat approval. Made me smile seeing Josie laughing at you!

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    1. I bought my new bedclothes at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I purchased them on-line and they are just what I wanted, a rarity for on-line purchasing, I think.

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  11. It's definitely cat approved. Just like everything here has to be!

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  12. Funny how we live with things...making due...until it's no longer acceptable! Glad that you found what you wanted; that's a treat!

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  13. the true test will come when the catfather gives a nay or a yay :) ♥♥

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  14. It looks very nice and appears to meet the approval of the cats.

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  15. We (the mom bean included) say there is nothing like a fresh made bed and especially one with new bedding. - Sasha & Saku

    Funny, I just replaced my bedspread with a light quilt (bedspreads not, as you say, easily found). The old one had so many snags the pattern wasn't evident any longer. Oh, and then there was the nail polish that was spilled on one corner...can't blame the cats for that.

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  16. I do see that cat-guffaw and hope it is not to portend some nefarious feline frenzy on the new Wide Spread. We thought our throws had been thrown towards the donation box but imagine our surprise when a whole box of them showed up in the storage room! They do make fair cat lounging areas.

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