A cold midnight; Cats a-leaping; Feeling slightly better; Cats in the pantry; Nathan Reed; The pleasures of reading as a boy

It's midnight on a fairly cold wintery night. Usually cold weather here co-exists with cloudy, dank days, but today was cloudless and bright and chilly. Even though it was cold, it was much better than last week's quasi-ice storm.

For the past 30 minutes, the cats have been romping through the house on one of their nocturnal games. An incredible amount of scampering from room to room across bed, chairs, couch, tables and anything else in the way at about 70 miles per hour. I become just another stick of furniture and cease to exist as far as they're concerned. The funniest part is the frantic pouncing and jumping. One will get on the back of a chair, peer over at another on the floor, begin to twitch the hindquarters and finally lunge across the room.

For the first time in several days, I feel slightly better. My head buzzes and I have a slight headache but no fever. I was debating if this episode was a continuation of the previous one or something new. It is always very difficult for me to tell. The doctor said yesterday that he had seen a lot of upper respiratory infections the last few days, so it indeed may be different.

(Feline pause) Athena and Minerva have decided to rummage in the supply shelves in the kitchen, and I can hear assorted rustling, scratching noises. (Returning to couch) I had to shoo them down, or things would have been flying off the shelves and onto the kitchen floor. Now Athena wants me to stop typing and play daddy. In a sec, she'll plop on the keyboard and start purring.

When I was home the other day, I started re-reading Joseph Hansen's "Living Upstairs." This book and it's companion, "Jack of Hearts" are two of my favorites. "Jack" takes place in 1941 and centers on Nathan Reed, 17, who lives in a small California town and begins to realize he is queer. "Upstairs" occurs two years later when Nathan has moved to Los Angles and is living with his boyfriend Hoyt. I've read both several times and find new things to enjoy each time. Nathan is such a wonderful character that I wish I could find some way to creep into the novel and meet him. Or maybe I want to be Nathan.

I remember as a kid that I would read books that I loved so much that they were much more real than reality. And I always wanted to be in them. Especially if they were about a young guy. (Since my boyhood and teen years were chaotic, I'm sure this was a defense mechanism.) I'd love to find some and re-read them. Especially the ones that I thought were erotic. Of course, at the time I didn't know what that sensation was, just that it was pleasurable.

"Time for bed," he said.

PAX!