sionnagh and I went contra dancing last night, at a small dance on a community college campus. It was lots of fun. There was only one contra line, but the dancing was good, the people were very friendly, the callers were great, and the large band (8 players, I believe) was lots of fun. A few of the dancers I chatted with were familiar with the Cambridge VFW dance (and were happy to hear how healthy it seems to be and how much new blood has come in over the past few years), and a couple were familiar with the Concord Scout House dances.

I know I say this every time I go contra dancing, and then I don’t actually do it, but I really need to make more space for contra dancing in my life.

So, animals.

First of all, Honolulu is (according to the screen saver on the airplane on the way here) the 11th-largest city in the United States. It is extremely common to keep chickens here. sionnagh’s new house in Kalihi, which is sort of between downtown and the airport, is across the street from a bunch of chickens. Her and docorion’s old house in Ewa Beach has chickens down at the end of the road. So even in fairly urban Honolulu, morning involves the crowing of roosters. It’s kind of nice, actually.

I had forgotten about the feral cats since the last time I visited. In a parking lot, we noticed a groundskeeper moving a big cage trap, and asked him what it was for, and he told us “street cats”. On the mainland, at least the parts of it I’m familiar with, if you see a cat on the sidewalk or crossing the street, it’s probably a housecat that’s out prowling, or maybe a housecat that got lost or was abandoned by its people. In Hawai‘i, if you see a cat outside it’s a good bet that it’s feral, and that its parents were feral. It’s a little odd; people think of cats as poor little cute pests. (Of course, people do have housecats, too, although dogs seem to be more common.) I have the general sense that more people keep dogs than chickens, but more people keep chickens than cats. (docorion or sionnagh, wanna correct me?)

Nice cholesterol-laden breakfast with docorion this morning — a treat, since for some reason I’d thought he was working the early-morning shift today — and this afternoon sionnagh has organized a games day, the last part of which docorion will probably be back for.

Didn’t get as much sleep last night as previous nights, probably due to too much caffeine yesterday. (Oh, Mountain Dew has caffeine? I was just looking for sugar. Whoops.) But I’m still feeling pretty great.