Doin' time

"You don't have any draft stories."

I know. I deleted the ones I had. They were nothingburgers.

I'm angry again. My head is pounding. I'm about to slam my office door shut. The men in the library are arguing over how many pushups they've done. I want to quote the girl from "Mega Mind" by saying, "Girls, girls! You're both pretty." Honestly, are we children?

These two men play chess for several hours a day, and the loser has to do pushups. They are competitive, and one or the other gets his boxers in a bunch over the loss of a game or the number of pushups completed by his opponent. Some days, I want to throw a cup of cold water on them. They act like cats in heat. Miaaaaaaaaaaow! MEEEEEoooooowwww! Raaaoooww! Riiiiiiiiaaaaaoooooow! My gosh, the caterwauling is unnerving.

Have you ever heard cats in heat? When I was about eight years old, my parents hired the girl next door to stay at the house with my just-older sister and me while they were out late for some event or other. Ordinarily, one of our other siblings would watch us, but they were all busy elsewhere, too, so Sue came to stay with us. Around bed time, just as I was falling asleep, I heard someone crying, and I called to her.

She came upstairs and I told her I thought my sister was crying, so she checked on my sister. Moments later, she returned and said my sister was fine. Then we heard the sound again. It definitely sounded like children crying, and all three of us were scared. Sue called her father, who walked over with a flashlight. When he saw what was happening, he called out to his daughter to "sit tight."

A few minutes later, we heard the distinct noise of angry meowing and hissing, and then the commotion stopped. Sue went to the door and talked with her father. When he left, she returned to us and explained what happened. "Two cats in heat were in the hole in the ground where they've been digging to pour the new foundation for your house," she said. "They were getting ready to mate, which is why they were making all that noise. Daddy turned on the hose and sprayed them with cold water. They didn't like that, but it got them to run off and make their noise somewhere else!" She laughed as she described the scene. "Daddy was glad it was just housecats," she added. "He was afraid he was going to find coyotes."

Many years later, Sue and I were reminiscing about the "good ol' days" of our childhood, and I asked if she remembered that night. "Oh my goodness, yes! I couldn't imagine what was making such an awful noise!" she said. "I'm just glad Daddy was able to come over and sort it out for us." I agreed. More than forty years have passed, and I can still hear that wretched screeching in my memories.

Oh, crap. They're talking about chess again. My eyes are itchy, my head is still pounding, and my day doesn't end for another 90 minutes. At least the arguing has stopped.

And, in other news:

G.M., 64, appeared in a Bangor courtroom and pleaded guilty where he had previously pleaded not guilty. At the time of his 2023 arrest, he was serving as deputy superintendent and business manager of correctional facilities in Charleston and Machiasport, Maine.

According to prosecutors, he used a state credit card to make nearly $2.4 million in purchases from a Florida businesswoman and her associates. Some items were purchased at an inflated price, while others were never received, prosecutors said. The businesswoman then paid him more than $500,000 in cash.

As part of the plea deal, he agreed to serve five years in prison, followed by three years of probation. He will also be required to pay restitution, with the exact amount to be determined at his sentencing in May.

We used to wonder why purchases for our education program were always getting turned down by him. Now we know why.