Late last week, Joy and I took a walk. Just a simple little meander around town, a stroll, a perambulation, a saunter maybe. Well we didn't cover the entire town. Just a very small part of it. And we still managed to knock out 4+ miles. Awesome. Joy snapped the above photo of us reflected in one of those big mirrors they put in places that are difficult to drive out of and well, we just looked to tall and skinny in the photo that I HAD to use it! Sometime fun house mirrors work For you, not against you :) Just sayin' What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the wander that we did last week. We brought our cameras...just in case. I mean, one never ever truly knows, but we had no expectations. If we had returned with zero photos, it would have been just fine. This wasn't really a photo safari after all, it was just a walk. With cameras. Totally different thing. And yet! We saw lots of photo worthy stuff! Loads of birds of course. This is a very birdie sort of place after all. Some water related: And other birds that were more land oriented: Also snapped a few boat photos. This is an island - a body of land surrounded by water - there are bound to be boats here! It just logically follows. And sometimes, they even make for pretty photos: There were a few other things: And that's it! We didn't take hundreds of photos (thought we did probably take dozens) and we weren't gone for hours and we didn't come home with wet, dirty shoes filthy clothes and the smell of the forest upon us. It was just a little stroll around the perimeter of the north end of town, some laughs, good conversation and a few photos.
Hope you had an Awesome Weekend! Ours involved lots of rain, way more TV than usual and donuts! And non of those things is bad.
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It was Valentine's Day just a few days ago! Hope yours was wonderful! Ours was just about perfect, It involved flowers, baked goods, M&M's and Jersey Mike's subs for dinner! Woohoo to Sam having a night off from cooking dinner :)
Don't get me wrong please. I do love to cook and I especially enjoy cooking for the people I love. But everyone once in awhile it's a treat to Not have to cook. Or think up the idea of what to cook. Or wash up after the meal. Getting take out means, sitting relaxed in our own home in front of the TV with my shoes off, snuggled into the sofa (probably under the sofa blanket) Munching away in my own sweet time with Tim on one side of me and kitties on the other. Afterwards, we just throw away the bag and wrapper. Doesn't get much easier than that! Eating in a restaurant, especially a really nice restaurant is a treat for sure. But I have to be in the right frame of mind for it. Not the actual meal necessarily but the surroundings. In a nice restaurant, I have to be prepared to dress up a bit, maybe make the effort to look nicer than I normally do by the end of the day. Usually by dinnertime I look like the wreck of the Hesperus. By days' end I am tired. Too tired sometimes to appreciate a good meal. I just want a cookie and a nap. (I'm kind of like I giant 4 year old). In a restaurant I need to use my manners: No elbows on the table, sit up straight, try really hard to not drop your fork on the floor a half dozen times please and be a part of pleasant conversation. When I'm really tired sometimes the effort of participating in conversation, putting two related words together in a coherent way is a little beyond my ability. And then there is the whole hearing thing. There is so much ambient noise in a restaurant, even the really nice ones. Sound bounces around off walls and ceilings, there is the murmur of multi conversations going on all around us, footsteps, forks and knives on plates, the "ting" of glassware against other glassware, the background music..... All of that competes with the conversation I'm trying to follow at my own table. My hearing aids are really good ones, high quality stuff, but the effort involved in trying to make sense of the auditory information coming at me sometimes is exhausting. And at the end of the day I don't have a lot of oomph left. I know, I know, I sound like NO FUN AT ALL! How on earth does Tim put up with me? That I don't know. He is a good man. I have asked him that before, actually. Literally asked him. "How can you stand me? What is wrong with you?" He always laughs. I guess that's why he is my Valentine every single year forever and ever. Well, it's one of the reasons. Another reason is that he never gives me a hard time about my inexplicable love of M&M's. I always get some for Valentine's Day, my Birthday, Christmas and sometimes, for no reason at all except that he knows I adore them. He never points out to me that my desire to lose a couple of pounds is in direct conflict with my desire to eat my weight in Chocolate. He also understands, completely understands, that one absolutely MUST have treats while watching movies either at the theatre or at home. Snackies are Essential to movie watching. He is endlessly patient with me as he waits for me to get my act together so that we can leave the house. He stands by the door, key in hand, as I go to the bathroom one more time, change my shoes, put on sunscreen, check on the cats, find my camera/purse/empty egg containers/etc, decide which pair of sunglasses to wear, fix my hair AGAIN, grab my phone and decide at the last second that I don't like the shirt I'm wearing and need to put on a different one. He doesn't say a word and he doesn't get mad and life goes on. He supports my interests, even if it's not high on his hit parade. He takes me to art galleries and stands there waiting for me to be ready to the next room as I moon over my favourites. Same goes for hiking, photography and even me writing this Blog. He was the one who set up the site for me. I didn't even ask him. He just did it. And why? Because it was important to me. He doesn't complain. No matter what horrible, science experiment of a meal I put in front of him, he eats it (or at least attempts to). When I ask a question of any sort the answer is always yes. Can you fix my computer? Do you want to get together with these people? Do you want to go for a hike with me? Do you want to come grocery shopping? Would you drive me, basically anywhere? Can I get a new pair of sneakers? The answer to every one of those was yes. Yes with no hesitation, yes with no conditions, yes with no reservations, yes with no complaint. Just yes. He is so very thoughtful. If I'm sitting on the sofa and I look as if I might be chilly, he will bring me a blanket without me saying a word. If he goes out to the kitchen to refill his waterglass, he fills mine too, if we are planning to eat out he asks where I would like to eat first. It seems as if he is always thinking of me. By way of example, I never asked for a camera. He just thought I would like one and bought one for me, thus kickstarting a new passion. I rarely leave the house without my camera now. And in fact, the camera bag, the clip on glasses case for the camera bag, the monopod for the camera, the wonderful softysoft camera strap, all of those very wonderful and thoughtful things came from him - without me saying a word. He is interested in what I think and respects my opinion. If it turns out that we feel differently about a topic, it only creates a terrific conversation as we exchange thoughts, idea, opinions and beliefs, it doesn't become an argument. We talk about anything and everything. Best of all, he makes me laugh. I look to Tim as an example of how to be a perfect life partner. I'm not sure I"ll ever be as good at it as he is, but as long as I keep trying, I can't go wrong. Hope you and your Valentine had a Perfect Day! This was Joy and I out in the wild last Friday. We were just ahead of a controlled burn. Seriously! As we were leaving, we drove past the fire trucks and saw the actual burning going on. Kind of exciting. We had no photos of the fire or the equipment or the firefighters, sorry. You will have to settle for some other stuff instead. Joy came up with the name for this Photo Safari - The Doubleback Hike. That is because we did a whole lot of doubling back on the trails due to puddles. Not itty bitty no big deal fun to splash in puddles. Nope that would have been fine. These were ankle deep (at least) muddy, murky, goopy, I-don't-know-what's-in-there puddles that we couldn't jump across, walk around (without going too far off trail) or build a frond bridge over and we just weren't in the mood for slogging through muck that day. Sooooo instead we did a lot of doubling back. Here are some of the puddles: Poet e.e.cummings famously wrote "...the world is mud luscious and puddle wonderful..." and that is an adorable mental image but mucky wet feet for hours doens't thrill us at all. The day started out cool and warmed up a bit as we went along. But it was the sky that really struck me. It was at least a zillion different shades of cloudy and light through our hike. The colours kept changing which meant our photos kept changing too. We kept wondering if it was going to rain. It caught my eye and therefore my camera: But it was a great day for birds. A GREAT day for birds. Hope you like birdie pictures because here come a lot of them. There were times when all we had to do was stand in one spot snapping away because they were everywhere around us. The only birds we saw that were NOT in the above set were bluebirds. We saw so many bluebirds. More than we have EVER seen! It was crazy! AND, the most exciting part (to us anyway) is that for the very first time, we saw a bluebird nest! Holy Cats! I will show you othe nest photos first just because that's the part I am most jazzed about. The photos in this next set were kindly sent to me my Joy because my photos didn't turn out which really ticked me off. Can't blame anyone but myself. Operator error! Thanks Jo! How Cool Is That??? Her pictures are just so dang good. Hang on to your poptarts because the next set is Just Bluebirds and now we are back to my photos. If it's too tedious looking at a bunch of photos of the same kind of birds, feel free to skip ahead. I dont' mind. I probably wont' even notice Enough with the birds already! I agree. How about if I move on to flowers. Things are starting to bloom a little bit here and there so there were a few more flowers than lately. I'll just post a few: Lastly, my favourite category, the Randos. I haven't posted much in the way of random, uncategorizable pictures lately. I think I will make up for that here. It's a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Photograhic Flotsam: There you have it, the Doubleback Hike! Those bluebird nests really were amazing! Thanks for the photos once again Joy!
I will find another topic to write about later this week, I promise! In the meantime, have fun and be safe! Can you stand another story about these two scamps? As you can see they have now taken possession of one of my laundry baskets. Never know what a new day will bring :) Life is not dull with these two around! But today I speak of one of my new weekly tasks. Now that Tim and I are kitty owners, once a week, I retrieve missing kitty toys. It's not as if I have it marked on my calendar (kitty toy retrieval day) or anything. But roughly once a week, I will either come into the room and find both cats laying down looking under things leading me to believe that there is something Under There and I'm praying that it's nothing alive. Or Brysco and Wyatt come to me with their sweetie faces on and they keep gently patting me with their paws until I pay attention. Once they have my full attention they lead me to wherever their lost toy is which is clearly requesting I return the toy to them. They are very smart are they not? So at some point, every week, if you were standing outside looking in our windows (and why are you doing that by the way!!) you might see the following tableau: In this photo, Brysco is only sitting up because I am standing up. Normally at this point there are two kitties and me, lying belly down on the floor peering under things with a flashlight and I have something to pull the toys out with. In this particular case we are looking under the display cabinet and I'm using a telescoping back scratcher. If it were something bigger like the sofa, I would be using my monopod, which also telescopes. Very handy tools! The display cabinet is very large and heavy but not deep so the back scratcher work great! It is not unusual to find a half dozen (or more!) toys under this display case. But other favourite places to find lost kitty toys is under the console cabinet, beds, sofas and Tim's desk. When they give me the sad sweetiepie my-toy-is-lost face those are my first go to's. But I have found things under the vanity in the bathroom, trapped behind the kitchen garbage can, and once even in the pantry which is odd because we keep that door closed and latched so I'm not sure how that one happened. We have found toys in closets, cabinets, laundry baskets and our shoes. Is nothing sacred? Nope. Not with cats. It is not unusual to see them walking around with a toy in their mouths. It could be a toy mousie, or soft puff ball or, lately, one of their favourites are these plastic toy springs. They are wild for them! And that is what I found under the display cabinet that day. The boys and I are peering under both sides of the cabinet into the darkness. I cast the flashlight beam to the left and to the right and eventually, aha! There it is, back right corner. Now I have to juggle the flashlight AND the backscratcher AND two excited kitties. They know that I've nearly gotten their beloved toy and they are beside themselves! And since they are literally right beside me, they want to "help". Read that as "get in the way". So while I am attempting to fish out the spring, I am also trying to avoid impaling either of them with the back scratcher. Geez guys! Give me a minute. I'm sort of working blind, dark cabinet, dark shadowy under cabinet, two black cats whose fur is in my way once again. Usually it's just a tail but occasionally a paw and I'm peering underneath in a narrow about two inch high space and trying to manipulate everything AND see what I'm doing at the same time. Absolutely ideal conditions for toy retrieval. (not) Occasionally Wyatt mews encouragingly. I translate that as "Awesome job Mom, you've almost got it now!" Looks easy enough, right. I mean it's Right There! Despite all of my "help", eventually I coax the toy back out and return it to it's rightful owners and the boys frolic and frisk and play with it while I return to whatever I was doing before. But I can guarantee you that by the end of the day that spring will have disappeared once again.
Recently under the console cabinet I found six springs and a mousie. I threw them into the room for the boys to play with. They just about lost their furry little minds with joy. Less than two hours later, they were wanting me to play with them so I went to get some of their favourites - the springs- to throw for them. I toss them into various corners of the room and they chase after them happily, batting them around and having a ball. Wyatt prefers that I throw the springs to him, high n the air so he can jump up into the air after it. Not sure why, but he just loves it. And the crazier the jump required, the better he likes it. Earlier today he leapt off a table to get a toy that I tossed and he landed on one of their play tubes. He emerged triumphantly with the toy in his mouth as I rushed over asking....."are you ok?" Yeah, he was fine and proud as he could be. But on this day, I couldn't find a single toy spring. I turned to them and said, "Guy! Where are they? I just found six of them for you!' They shrugged their shoulders and basically said, " We don't know!" Anyway, on toy retrieval day, I do that same thing, over and again, flashlight, kittyhelpers and either the monopod or the backscratcher, looking under things until it's all been returned to them and they are just so happyhappy once more. I honestly don't mind doing it. It makes them happy, costs me nothing and honestly, it's a bit of exercise hauling my big old butt off the floor over and over again. I'm sure I'm not the only kitty owner who does this though the only people I've ever heard mention it are related to me. Tell me, do you do this too? Those kittyboys :) It's a grey, rainy, gloomy, chilly Monday morning today. Bah! So I'm going to cheer myself up by writing about my most recent hike with Joy! That's right, my friends, it's another Photo Safari Report. And I'm going to call this one the Bridge Hike. You will find out about the why of that very shortly. First of all, we decided to go to Deer Prairie Preserve because we hadn't been there in quite some time. It was closed for, well it seemed like forever! Then too, there were the wild hog incidents that seem to crop up in that particular preserve with more frequency than we are strictly comfortable with. But what the heck, what's life without risk eh? Deer Prairie is open again? All righty...that's where we are headed. Now one of the things about Deer Prairie Preserve is that right away, as soon as you park, you have to decide which way you are going to go, to the left or to the right. We generally go to the right because that trail is Always accessible. The trail to the left is on the other side of the water. The Myakka River flows through it and in some places it widens to appear to be more of a pond or a lake. And in this particular case it creates a stunningly beautiful, peaceful, reflective large pond: And then, out of nowhere, it narrows and drops creating, for all intents and purposes, a waterfall. Very cool: It's all very dramatic and cool looking, I promise! And until this visit the only way to get across that pond/waterfall/river thingie was to wait until the dry season and the water is a wee bit lower and then carefully walk across the top of the falls. Yeah, not the smartest thing we've ever done, but it's what we did. Hey, it's their fault for putting what was obviously an awesome trail head right onthe other side of the water, right? Who could possibly resist that allure? Not us for sure! This is where we walked across. See the marrow little stip of concrete here? Yeah, it goes all along the lip of the "falls". It's mostly under the water right now. The entire time we've been hiking this preserve, that's how it was. So imagine our surprise when we arrived and saw this instead: Holy Cats! How awesome is that? What a gorgeous bridge! Here are some other shots of it: Well of course we had to take that trail! How could we not? Off we went. Saw a lot of very cool trees. Ready for some tree shots? Some insect related things: A few flowers, not many this time 'round. That ought to be changing soon as we are heading toward spring: Got a nice variety of birds. My absolute favourite is the bird on the lily pad! I had never seen that before! There actually was one more bird, a hawk. There he sat, so regally at the tippy top of a tree looking down. Just very steadily, continually looking down. Never once took his eyes off whatever it was he was checking out. So naturally we had to check it out too. Here's the hawk: And here is what he was looking at: He was obviously the supervisor on this job! LOLOL I did take another photo that I particularly liked. It's another reflection shot but when I turn it sideways, it kind of looks like Day and Night represented. See what you think: So there you have it. The Bridge Hike! It was awesome!
Thanks for coming along :) See ya'll soon! All hail the carpet cleaner! Behold it's majesty! Be in awe of it's level of coolness. I know that I certainly am!!!
I've never owned one of these before despite the fact that we've lived in a number of places that actually had wall to wall carpet in at least some of the rooms. I guess I thought that it was not an essential piece of household equipment. I had a perfectly good vacuum cleaner - which IS essential if you have any sort of floors - and used a modicum of common sense regarding where it was wise to eat or not eat, removing ones shoes before coming into the house on muddy, snowy, rainy days and dictating firmly where messy projects were allowed to be done. Should there accidentally be some not-vacuum-up-able dirt on the carpet, I would use a spot cleaner. And then once in a Very Great While, we would rent a carpet cleaner from a local hardware store and go through that rigamarole. It all seemed to be enough. Sufficient to the cause so to speak. I suppose we are rather clean people in general because it's not as if anyone coming into our house ever cringed at the idea of walking on our carpets even barefoot and there was no disgusting mystery odor wafting through the indoor air. So I guess I just didn't give it much thought. When we first married, we lived in a teensy two bed/1 bath apartment that had linoleum floors in the miniscule bath and kitchen. Every other room had wall to wall crayon red carpeting. I did not choose it obviously. We vacuumed and spot cleaned and, I think maybe once a year, did the rental carpet cleaner thing......maybe. The first house Tim and I bought together on the other hand had beautiful wide board wood floors in most rooms and, once again linoleum kitchen and bath. We put an area rug in the living room but it wasn't very big and it was mostly covered with furniture. You had to literally move all of the furniture to properly clean the rugs and, I'm embarrassed to say, it didn't happen very often. We all took turns vacuuming and the degree of cleanliness depending largely on the person wielding the vacuum. Tim was more inclined to move furniture than me. When we moved to Colorado, for the first year we lived in a rental that had tile kitchen, bath, entryway and very pale beige wall to wall carpeting everywhere else. Because this was someone else's house, we were very mindful of taking good care of it. We lived in terror of getting those carpets dirty and tried our best to levitate across rooms rather than walk across them in an effort to keep them pristine at all times. We cleaned voraciously and frequently. There were rules! No eating anywhere but the kitchen table (tile being so much more forgiving than carpeting). Tim rented a carpet cleaner multiple times during that year after he found me in hysterical sobs the day the cat puked on the carpet as I scrubbed and scrubbed attempting (and finally succeeding) in getting the stain out. We still didn't get our deposit back when we left. Oh well. When we moved into our own house in Colorado, the floors were a mix of tile, wood and wall to wall carpet. The wood and the tile was soooo easy to take care of and that carpet was the bane of my existence. I hated it. But at least it was ours and the rules were relaxed a bit more. From time to time Tim rented a carpet cleaner and overall, the place looked good. When we moved to Florida I was so happy to have tile floors everywhere. If you spill on tile, you wipe it up and you are done. You don't have to be reminded every day by the ghost of a stain or have stiff or sticky carpeting. There is no lingering stink or deeply ingrained bacteria growing from errant cookie crumbs or coffee splash. The bonus is the lovely year 'round cool tiles underfoot when you live in a place notorious for warm weather. But, we discovered quickly, with only hard surfaces, sounds bounces around which makes hearing and understanding what you are hearing a challenge. There is a funny echoey sound with any noise at all. If you drop a book, they can hear it next door, if you drop a pot lid it's a cacophony! So we got some area rugs and sprinkled them around, here and there. There is one in the living room and two in the family room. It had helped tremendously with the sound bounce issue and, as a bonus, there is a nice visual division between the various spaces of such a big open area. And it's kind of a cozy look too which is just nice :) I vacuum every week, sometimes twice if needed. The floors get washed every week and any spills are cleaned up immediately. If there happens to be some unvacuumable dirt on the area rug, again, I just spot cleaned and went on about my day. We had been discussing renting a carpet cleaner once again recently and I left Tim to the details since generally he is the one who does that job. Those machines are HEAVY! And instead, to my surprise, the carpet cleaner at the top of the page showed up at our door. How Exciting! Tim decided that, considering the cost of the rental, within just a few uses the purchase would have balanced out. After that, any uses are basically free. I was excited to check it out. I read the instruction manual (unusual for me) before using it then, feeling marginally confident in my understanding, I got to work. It was actually fairly easy, lighter weight than the rental ones, and did a Great Job. The water in the extraction bin was DISGUSTING! I always believed myself to be a clean person. Perhaps I was just in denial because that was gross. Tim helped me and all three rugs are now practically pristine. The kitties watched the entire process with great fascination. I don't know yet if I will just automatically clean the carpets on some sort of regular schedule or will I wait until the spirit and the level of dirt compels me. But at least when carpet cleaning does happen again around here, we don't have to drive to the hardware store, pay to rent, drag the dang thing out to the car, load it up, schlepp it into the house and then once used, do it in reverse. Nope, now I just go to the closet, use it, clean it, return it. Nice. Why did we wait so long??? Have a GREAT weekend! You know who these two people are so you know what this is. Yup, Another Photo Safari Report! I'm calling this one the Combo Platter Hike(s) for several reasons. First of all, Joy and I are a combo! And then, the photos are of a combination of things. Thirdly, we go out on these photo safaris for a combination of different reasons (exercise, photography, being in nature and just spending time together) and lastly, it is a combination of two different hikes. One with Joy of course, the other one I did with Tim! The hike with Tim was much shorter. I will still easily fatigued and getting over being sick but I desperately wanted (Needed!!!) to be out of the house for a bit. So to be on the safe and courteous side, Tim took me for a Very Short hike where there was NOBODY else. Not another living human soul. Just Tim and I and nature. Nice! One of the first things I took a picture of was a bird I couldn't identify. That's always fun. He was just sitting there in the tippity top of a tree and he patiently waited until I took a couple of photos before taking off again. I had to send Joy the photo later for identification. Turns out this guy is called a Shrike. I was thinking more....Zorro. The only other bird picture I got on that hike (again it was a Very Short Hike) was this one which turned out to be one of my all time favourites: That was a bit of good luck eh? Can never go wrong with Mama's and Babies :) All of the rest of the pictures I took on that day were perfectly fine, mostly botanicals, but not as special: Oh and three other birds. Perfectly nice birds, but just ordinary: And then, about a week later, the hike with Joy. We went to Curry Creek which is a small local preserve that we've been to a zillion other times and we've never been disappointed there. As small as it is, and even smaller than usual that day because the water was too high to cross the creek to the other side, we always get at least a few really decent shots. The highlight of this hike was another new to me bird: The Carolina Wren who, since she was in Florida, must have been on vacation. She had the most beautiful and unusual song too. I wish there was a way to attach an audio file because I would love for you to hear her sing. We stood on the trail for the longest time trying to figure out who was making that unusual music. Most local bird song is so familiar too us that we know who the artist is, but not this time. Finally, after a lot of very quiet lurking and searching we found the source: That was exciting. We always feel a little bit like detectives when we hear a bird but cannot immediately see it and then we go on the hunt until we find it! We saw other more familiar birds too: It was a pretty day, the air was a little crisp which is fine, we know how to dress in layers and, for a change it was a sunny day. Nice! I snapped a few botanicals. Not as many as usual but a few here and there: So I guess that's that. The Combo Platter Hike(s). They were both a lot of fun and it was a wonderful surprise to see something brand new to me on both hikes! Now that I'm back to my old self I'm ready to hit the real longer trails and get out there in the thick of things, probably getting lost (or at least temporarily misplaced) and have some more photos for you next time!
Hope everyone is doing GREAT! Hugs all ' round. ..Let's see a show of hands. How many of you hate being sick? Looks like all of you. Yeah. Me too. I'm just, very slowly, getting over being sick myself and I'm telling you, it just doesn't suit me.
Last Tuesday I woke up after a very restless night of not much sleep to find that I had a terrible headache, which I suppose could be attributed to the lack of sleep, and an awful sore throat which was unusual. Every time I swallowed, I winced. Who knew that saliva had such sharp edges? I lay there in bed taking personal inventory for a moment and trying to justify anything that was not quite right. Finally I hauled my carcass out of bed and shuffled into the shower. I'm not a shuffler. I don't shuffle. But I did that morning. It seemed to be all that I could manage. The shower revived me a bit, I felt more awake at least, but the sore throat wasn't improved, nor was the headache and then the cough began. Oh man. I already had a sore throat. The coughing didn't help at all, so I tried to suppress it as much as possible. While the effort wasn't entirely successful, at least I was trying. I decided that what I needed was some nice hot tea. It was while I was reaching up into the cabinet to get a mug that I realized how much my back hurt too. And I was so dang tired I just wanted to lay down on the kitchen floor and sleep. I gave up then because when I added it all up, I knew that I was genuinely sick. Dang. Because I knew I was scheduled to work that day, ironically covering for someone else who was out sick, I had to make a decision very quickly about whether or not I should go to work. I know, I know, it ought to be an easy decision. But I came from a generation where how you felt didn't matter. If something needed to be done, you did it anyway. Work Ethic was Everything! Unless you were in the hospital or deceased, there was no excuse for not showing up and doing your job whether it was a job outside the home or inside of it. You took an aspirin, grabbed some tissues and a few cough drops and you went in anyway. It was what we did. The obvious fact that all of us who were showing up to work sick were probably infecting everyone else in the workplace apparently never dawned on management. It was what it was, and we did what we did. Eventually, the light dawned on Most people during a particularly hideous flu season that we were infecting each other. The response to that where I worked at the time, and other places too I'm sure, was that flu shots became mandatory. Nobody was missing work!! But I believe that that's where it began be start being a little more "normal" to not be at work or school if you were contagious in anyway. This was a huge step forward but not every work place adhered to this policy AND all of us oldsters who were used to working sick were taking a little longer to get on board with it. And then Covid happened. February 2020 was when everything changed. Anything less that perfect healthy was suddenly terrifying. If you had seasonal allergies, people avoided you. If you swallowed 'wrong' and coughed as a result people would give you dirty looks. And the rule of thumb was, if you are sick stay home, stay away. Everyone was terrified by germs. With good reason, no question. But it was a big pendulum swing in a different direction than most of us had ever experienced. When I was a kid, if another child in the neighborhood had chicken pox or measles, parents would deliberately send their kids to play with the sick kid! The prevailing thought was that the non sick child would contract the "childhood disease" and be done with it. Oh my! Childhood diseases were like a rite of passage I suppose. What a bizarre thought process! Now of course, there are vaccines for all of those things and they are (mostly) a thing of the past. And good riddance to it! Things are different now and it's for the better. Still, I kept thinking of my responsibilities at work. If I call out sick, and I'm covering for someone else who is sick, who is going to cover for me? How inconvenient! How inconsiderate! I felt guilty. And then Tim reminded me that most of the people I covered for through November and December called out sick with Covid (because that doggone beast is still out there). I Hmmmm'd to myself and got on my trusty computer to research the symptoms for the current strain of Covid. Sore Thoat, Cough, Congestion, Body aches, headache, fatigue.......check check check check check check check....... damnit. Tim remembered that we had a Covid home test in the linen closet so I got that out, read the directions a dozen times because I was having trouble focusing and tracking, did the test and the dang thing popped positive. Geez! After managing to avoid Covid for just shy of 4 years, it finally caught me. Ratz! So now I absolutely could not go to work. I emailed the boss who made it Very Clear that I should stay home. And I KNOW it was the right thing to do, but now I felt guilty for being sick. Man, I guilt so well. Too bad it's not a paying gig. But I couldn't think about it, or anything else too much, I felt too crummy and I felt worse as they day went by. For the next four days mostly I napped. Tim would wake me to see if what I wanted to eat. By then my voice was almost completely gone, I croaked out, "anything with no edges". He brought me mac'n'cheese and ice cream. I lived on that for 4 days. Gradually I began to not be quite as tired, though I wore out quickly. Still. it felt good to be vertical. Eventually the headache faded and over time the sore throat diminished, the congestion is beginning to clear a little bit but the cough of course lingers. It always does. I retested and now I am negative. Huzzah! Thankfully, Tim is still healthy, no symptoms at all and for that I am truly grateful. I had to cancel working two days, hiking one day, a party, a get together with old friends and attending a City Council Meeting in the meantime. I feel truly awful about all of that. But I remind myself the advice my old College Philosphy Professor once gave me, "A hundred years from now, who'll know the difference?" And I also have to tell myself, on a regular basis, that just because something is the way we used to do it, doesn't mean it was the only way. And it certainly doesn't mean it was the right way. See, I am still capable of learning. I'll never stop feeling guilty about Every freakin' thing, but I am learning how to see things differently. Change can be good. Hey, it's the Kittyboys, Brysco and Wyatt! I think it's time for an update. On Saturday we will have had them for 3 months! Which means they are almost 9 months old. Time flies. Boy oh boy have they changed our lives in that time. And all for the better :) The first thing you may notice here, other than how much they've grown, is that neither of them is wearing a collar. (sigh) Wyatt always hated his collar with a passion and a good portion of his day, every day, was dedicated to finding out how to remove it. Once that puzzle was solved, his collar was off more than it was on. Initially it was a once in a while thing. Then maybe a once a week happening. And suddenly it was about every 30 minutes. Dang. Eventually we gave up. The sole reason we put collars on them to begin with was to tell them apart! We decided that as long as Brysco still had his collar on, we would know which cat was which. Cat with collar - Brysco! Cat without collar - Wyatt! Easy peasy. I did feel a little guilty that Brysco was stuck still wearing his - simply for our convenience of telling them apart . Never fear. In short order, Wyatt taught Brysco how to take his off and then...bam. Neither cat was wearing a collar. DoubleDang. Then Tim and I realized how lazy we were being. I mean parents of identical human twins always figure it out, right? So we have made a concentrated effort to find the subtle differences between them and now I believe that 90% of the time we are correct. In any case, they answer to their names and we can rely on that if necessary. This post is kind of a day in the life thing. How do the kittyboys spend their days? (just in case you wondered) Being cats of course, much of their days is dedicated to sleep. Usually brief little aptly named catnaps. They snooze in their actual cute little beds of course, sometimes together, sometimes separately, but they also nap in the kitty trees, on the sofa, our bed and in any sunny spot they find on the floor: But when they are awake, it's all about playplayplay! They play with each other naturally and that often looks more like a wrestling match and it's impossible to get a good picture! But another favourite game of theirs is the jumpscare where one of them hides behind something and they wait for either their brother, or some unsuspecting human to come along and then they pounce! They favour a butterfly toy, mousies, anything with catnip in it, one particular wool ball that they are slowly shredding, anything with feathers which very soon has no feathers at all and little toy springs which get batted all over the house and under things. Once every week the kittyboys and I, armed with a flashlight and my monopod fully extended, go around the house, fishing errant toys out from under things. They also have a toy we call the CrazyBall. It's a computerized (I suppose) ball that get's charged like a phone. Once it's turned on and put on the floor, it takes off in crazy directions all over the house with both cats in hot pursuit. It occupies them for a Very Long Time. The bad part is that they do not put their toys away when they are done and then we have to find Crazyball. Sometimes we don't discover it's whereabouts until the next day whereupon it gets recharged and ready for the next go 'round. But their absolute favourite game now is what Tim has dubbed the GooberUber. Tim was innocently moving one of their playtubes one day and Brysco jumped in! So, very gently, Tim dragged the tube across the room. Brysco Loved it! Wyatt follows behind and it's like a little parade through the house now. When they see Tim coming, Brysco jumps into the tube in the hopes for a ride! Silly kitty! Most cats are curious by nature and these boys are no different in that respect. Brysco in particular wants to help and check out whatever we are doing. He recently has become fascinated by running water. I find him in the bathtub, the kitchen sink or watching the rain out a window. Wyatt is currently captivated by the ceiling fans and at least part of his day is dedicated to starring at the rotating blades and meowing at them. It's a conversational sort of series of various mews and meows and chirps. I would love to know what he is saying. They insist upon laying on the ironing piles which is why I have it covered with a towel until I get around to actually doing the ironing And anything new remains suspicious whether it is a package that has arrived, a new toy or me wearing a new pair of socks. Their policy is Approach with Caution! So I guess that is pretty much how they spend their days. Ah, the life of a cat! That may be the plan for my next life should reincarnation turn out to be a real thing.
I will try very hard to restrain myself and not write about them again - at least for a little while Have a great weekend. You know that the kittyboys will! Welcome to Florida, the Sunshine State!!! I imagine the conversation went a little something like this: Cold Place Person (CPP): "I've had it with the snow and cold already this winter! Let's go somewhere warm and thaw out" Friend/Partner (F/P): "That sounds wonderful. Let's go somewhere with a beach. Sun and sand and margaritas!!" CPP: "Excellent! What beach tho?" F/P: "Let's go to Florida. Winter there is supposed to be paradise" Later: CPP: "I did a little research and I found this little town called Venice. It's an island! Beautiful beaches, an adorable downtown, a lot of history and, according to what I read, there always seems to be some sort of outside entertainment, music, festivals, outside dining" F/P "Wonderful! Book it" And then they arrive and find: Disappointment R Us!
I somehow feel as if I must apologize to all of our tourists right now. I see them huddled under umbrellas, shivering in their beachware as they wander our downtown (which is indeed adorable). We see them at the jetty sitting in their cars looking at the ocean and the beach wistfully from inside their cars. A few diehards go ahead and walk the beach regardless of the rainfall and the temperature. I suppose if you were planning to swim you would be getting wet anyway, right? At the museum this year, we are seeing record numbers of visitors from all over the world. All of them remarking/complaining about the rain and the chill. Sometimes it is in a jovial sort of way, "Hey where are you hiding the sunshine?" . Other times in a grumpier sort of fashion, "I spent a lot of money for a beach vacation and now here I am in a boring, dusty old museum" (By the way, our museum is neither dusty nor boring) A lot of guests ask us on the way out what else there is to do in the area that in Inside since all of the outside is wet which means some of our usual events have been cancelled. I had to put my thinking cap on the first few times that question came my way but I managed to cobble together a small list. A few of us docents and the boss have since come up with a couple of other thoughts which we happily share. I would just like to take this opportunity to remind Florida Visitors that us Floridians have no control over the weather. We aren't making it rainy and chilly just to spite you or keep you away. And frankly we are as surprised and disappointed right now as you are. The best part of Florida Living has always been October through June. Those of us who are full-timers here manage to survive July- September by staying in the Air Conditioning as much as possible, drinking gallons of water and remembering how beautiful our state is the rest of the year. This year, not so much. I suppose I should just be grateful that we have no snow, the temperature has only once ever dipped below zero (it was Tallahassee in 1899 and the temp was minus 2), and the only ice is in a glass. It probably has happened to everyone at one time or another that a vacation didn't turn out to be exactly what you anticipated. And now it has happened to you here. I am officially apologizing, even though it's not my fault. I'm sorry that you are disappointed. I'm sorry that you ended up doing a Walmart run for warmer clothes. I'm sorry that instead of dining al fresco, you are inside the restaurant looking through rain swept windows at the grey and drizzly outside. I'm sorry that instead of playing volley ball on the beach, you are in your hotel room playing Crazy Eights with a complimentary deck of cards. I'm seeing a lot of cranky folks who do not seem to know how to pivot. If you cannot be outside, get out your magical mini pocket computers that we all have on our person at all times anymore, and find inside things to do. They exist, I promise. It's not the beach, but it's not bad. Because Honestly, we have NO control over the weather. Sure, sure, this time of year, some full-timers grouse about the increased traffic and longer lines and occasionally questionable behaviour of our visitors. Here abouts if you listen closely, you might hear the word 'snowbird' or 'tourist' occasionally spat out as if it were a swear word. (gasp!) But honestly, most of us love our visitors, guests, tourists and seasonal folks! We do! And none of us are happy about the miserable weather. And we are Sorry that you are unhappy, disappointed, bored, frustrated or angry. We are sorry. But it's not our fault. Seriously, if we could do anything to control the weather, would there EVER be another hurricane? Think about it. That's Joy pointing out something to me that I either didn't notice or just cannot seem to see! But to be fair, when you are out in the forest, it's hard to give verbal directions. "It's on that branch? " Which branch? "The one on the tree" Which tree? "The tall one?" LOLOL She is so patient with me for which I am truly grateful. Yesterday, for the first time in a bit, Joy and I were able to hit the trails once more which means this is a Photo Safari Report! I had several choices about what to call this one but I'm landing on the "Lotsa Birds Hike" because, wow, there were a LOT of Birds! So hunker down and be prepared for Birdie Photos' Galore! We waited until the night before to decide if we were going to hike or not because the weather has been so, un-Florida-Winter-like lately. Which is to say, wet. We always get at least a few days that register with us as being chilly (Not to anyone else on the planet understand, just us Floridians), but it's this uncharacteristic winter rainfall that is unsettling our tourists and occasionally our own plans. But Wednesdays nights weather report said cloudy, cool and NO rain until afternoon. Thursday mornings report echoed the same so we headed over to Carlton. We were the ONLY car in the parking lot when we arrived, which is absolutely fine with us. We set out, loaded for photos, and discovered several things straight away. First, that the trails were a bit mucky so we would be picking and choosing our trails carefully. Second, that the sky looking alarming (but beautiful). And Thirdly, there were birds EVERYWHERE! Holy Cats! We didn't have to go far to get loads of shots and that's a good thing because within the first hour, the sky opened up and the rain arrived ahead of schedule. Dang. We tucked our cameras under our jackets, pulled up our hoodies and booked it back to the parking lot. Still, we were pleased with what we managed to get in that brief period of time. Here's the trail and sky. Ominous for sure: But honestly, we were there for the birds. Ready? Here's a sampling: So there we were, sitting in the car in an empty parking lot at the preserve listening to the rainfall debating if we should just call it a day and go out to breakfast? Or try again elsewhere and hope that the rain stops. You guessed correctly, we weren't ready to stop yet. So we moved on to Myakka State Park which has a road going all the way through it. In most parks and preserves you arrive, park and either hike it or bike it the rest of the way. But Myakka, while it has hiking trails a plenty, also has a road to drive all the way through. It's a wonderful meandering road where the forest comes right up to the edge of civilization which also means, wildlife is often, right there out the window. Our thought was that if it was Still raining when we arrived we could, literally shoot out the car windows. Or, if the rain held off, perhaps we could risk a few short hikes. It's a beautiful drive down a canopied road, surrounded by various land and water - scapes: We had no idea what, if anything, we would see along the way, As we chatted about what we hoped we might find, almost every thing we listed, showed up! It's like they were listening to our wish list. Including a bird that someone recently told me cannot be found locally anymore. HAH! We found it. And lest you think that there is no four-legged wildlife at Myakka, we also saw this: And this: I know I'm pushing the definition of "wildlife" with the squirrel but I think when they live in the forest and not in a neighborhood park or somebody's back yard, they still qualify.
We timed our visit perfectly because shortly after Joy dropped me back off at home, suddenly out of nowhere, the rain was pouring down once more. Awesome!~ We were both very chilly and very wet by the time we were done but I regret none of it! Hope you also enjoyed the Lotsa Birds Hike! I wonder what we will see the next time? Have a great weekend everybody~ Good Mornin' ! Happy Monday to ya! How are things with you today? How was your weekend? It was not your usual bright and sunny Florida here this weekend, there was some rain and some gloom, some dreary and dark a wee little bit of sun and it was perfectly perfect for a walk or two. Tim and I spent a little time watching a paddle boarder. The beach was nearly deserted which is very unusual this time of year. Normally it's packed with beach minded folks. But instead we saw things like the paddle boarder. I am very impressed by surfers and paddle boarders and wind surfers. It's so pretty to watch. At one point it looked like he casually walking along, sweeping the ocean: Other times you could really see the skill of staying on that board and upright! The beach, as I said, was not crowded but there were a few folks on and near the pier, flying kites and fishing (not at the same time you understand) We also took a little walk at a tiny park called Venice Myakka River Park. It's shorter than it's name :) But adorable. The path follows the Myakka River which was surprisingly low considering how much rain we've had lately. But on the other hand, during our actual rainy season, not this strange wet winter (dry season) we are experiencing, there was remarkably little rain. I think I read that we are something like 20 inches short of our usual rainfall right now? Despite that, the walk along the river was delightful. Every turn, each curve, the wide spots and slim, the high banks and low is different from the one before. I so wish the trail were longer so that we could have continued to see what was around the next bend. As it was, despite multiple signs warning us of the resident alligator(s), we saw none. Tim was on Alligator spotting duty while I took photos because we agree with Joy and her policy to always know where your alligators are. Actually Tim did borrow my camera to take one picture and it's a doozy: It's kind of a "fool the eye" sort of shot of a tree sunk into the river and then the reflection of the living trees on the surface of the water. Very Cool! I did my own version of a "fool the eye" shot too. Simply by taking the photo and then turning it on it's side: We saw a few flowers, not many, but there were plenty of other green growing things to be seen: And of course, there was the star of the show, the river itself. The Myakka River is 72 miles long and has always given me Mark Twain Vibes. I could see someone cobbling together a raft, Tom Saywer-wise, and spending quality time floating it's length, seeing what you can see and enjoying every minute of it. All in all, a perfect way to while away a weekend day. I highly recommend it.
Way back about seven years ago, on December 15, 2016 (yes I actually looked it up to be sure) I did a blogpost that started with the following sentence: "It's hard to decorate a palm tree". Now here it is, a bit more than 7 years down the road and a lot of things have changed. Still one thing remains the same, it's still had to decorate a palm tree. But that hasn't stopped people from trying! After a two year break, finally, this year the Arboretum was decked out for Christmas again! YAYAYAYAYAY! One year they didn't go it because of that whole pesky pandemic thing and not wanting to encourage people to "congregate" and thereby sharing the contagion. The next year was after our biggest ever hurricane, Ian, and our city arborist (we have a city arborist??) declared that the green growing stuff was far too fragile following the storm to risk decorating. Bummer. While we understood, of course we did, we couldn't not help but be disappointed. Walking through the absolute chaos of Christmas Decorations in that park every year has become one of our favourite Florida Christmas Traditions. Naturally, after that long two year sabbatical, it was so exciting to see the decorations finally go up again! YAYAYAYAYAY! We did what we always do and walked through twice, once in the day time and once at night. And something we noticed this time was that while some displays were familiar, others were brand new. I don't know if it was new people decorating this year or the same good folks with new ideas. I suppose the reason doesn't matter, it was great fun. Somehow, as much as we were looking forward to the walk through the park, with one thing or another, we didn't get around to actually getting our fannies there until just a couple of days before Christmas. The daytime walk was grey and windy and our night walk through got cut short when it unexpectedly began to rain. Still we went, we enjoyed the heck out of it and I got a few photos. The two pictures at the top of the page are of the same tree, one in light the other, obviously at night. The decorators, cleverly wrapped the trunk of the very tall palm in coloured water proof wrapping before winding the lights around. Very Effective! Here is another example of how different the displays look, day to night. I offer you the traditional Christmas Flamingos (what? You don't have flamingos? Awwww I'm sorry) In the first one of course the large lit up flamingo is the star. In the second one the flamingo with lights is practically invisible and it's those little plastic lawn ornament flamingos that take center stage. It's all very fun and creative and artsy and traditional and old fashioned and new fashioned and I just can't seem to get enough of it. Here's a few of my favourites from this year: Hopefully nothing will prevent the Christmas Lights from going up next year and maybe, just maybe, next year I will do what I keep promising myself I'm going to do. Maybe next year I will sign up to be a decorator and be assigned my own tree! Gosh I hope it's Not a Palm Tree! Those things are buggers to decorate!
It's 2024! A brand New Year! I don't know about you, but even after all these years, I still get excited at the prospect of a New Year. I have no idea what the next 365 days will bring. Nobody does. You might have a fair guess at some of it, but not all. There's always some surprise that comes with a new calendar and I do love that! So far, the New Year is looking pretty good. Since it's now January 2024, that means that Christmas 2023 is officially over. I haven't managed to remove the outside lights yet but Tim and I took down what was left of the tree already. Usually I leave it up for awhile but this year, it was just looking kind of beat up, bedraggled and more than a little sad. I packed up the few ornaments we had on the tree but Tim bagged the tree remains and most of it is, right now, in the garbage can awaiting pick up. It'll take two separate garbage days to get it gone. Brysco and Wyatt watched the tree come down and same way they watched it go up. With great curiosity and fascination! I even took down the cards. I had them taped to the big old cased opening between the living and family rooms this year. High enough that those frisky kittyboys couldn't reach no matter how hard they tried. And believe you me, they tried. I love Christmas cards! We don't receive as many as we used to but it's enough to make me look forward to mail delivery every day during the Holiday Season. And they look so festive hung up. We ended up with 24 actual real life paper cards this year and I loved each and every one. They were all so very pretty. The breakdown went a little something like this: 2 cards - had only words on the front 5 cards - had foliage of some sort - one was a mix of pine branches and holly the rest were Pine trees, some decorated, some not 2 cards - had snoopy characters! And yes I know the cartoon is called Peanuts but let's face it, Snoopy is the star of that show 2 cards - had birds on the front 6 cards - had animals on the front. Broken down further it was: 1 fox, 1 horse, 1 long horned bull, 2 cats and one cat&dog. Nice! Amusingly, most of the cats were wearing sweaters and Christmas themed glasses - heh 1 card - was beautifully hand painted (wow!) 6 cards - photos of the people who sent the card. I enjoy those so much! And of course, other than the wreath and outside lights, which as I already mentioned, I haven't managed to work my way up to taking down, all indicators of Christmas 2023 have been removed. Now we are concentrating on 2024. I'm sure it will take me my usual few weeks to stop writing the wrong date on things. But otherwise, so far, it feels a whole lot like last year. It's much cool out, windows are open, I'm wearing long pants and sometimes a sweater. Tim of course, is still wearing shorts. As is normal for our town in winter, there has been a big uptick in people hereabouts, between tourists, snowbirds, visitors and those of us who live here full time, the restaurants and shops are a lot busier, the parker lots are fuller, the roads are busier and the lines are longer. But that is what happens when you live in a tourist destination town. Tim and I walked out the old year literally but going for a hike. It was a gorgeous afternoon and a great way to end the year. I didn't take a lot of photos, but here's a few: It was a perfect way to end a year, peaceful, beautiful and in nature. Later on of course, we could hear the fireworks that were crackling all around us. I guess that represent ed more of the excitement and fun of things!
We mostly relaxed and enjoyed the first day of the new year just hanging out together at home, running a few errands and eventually taking first, a drive and then a walk, and holding on to every last minute of a precious Monday off (for Tim) Today, the on the 2nd day of 2024, we are once again celebrating. Me by doing laundry and then going to a dental appointment and Tim by being back in his office, hard at work. We have a few things to learn about celebrating eh? Or perhaps we just make it a point to low -key celebrate and enjoy every day. Yeah, I think that's it. We did not however, make any resolutions. I learned a long time ago to not set myself up to fail. No good can come of that! Hope all of you had a Wonderful New Year Celebration, however you did it! Happy 2024 everybody. May it bring us all Good Health, Great Happiness and Load of fun! klutz [ kluhts ] nounSlang.
There you have it. Just in case you weren't familiar with the term, "Klutz", there is the official definition. And, I don't know this for certain, but it's possible, that if you look the word up in certain dictionaries, it shows a photo of me. I cannot deny it. It's true. It must be typed right on my DNA because from the very beginning of my life, if there was something to drop, or bang into, or trip over (and sometimes even if there wasn't anything visible to the eye to trip over), I was the person who did it. Yup, it was me. My parents tried to help me, they did, bless their hearts. The only thing they could think of, other than creating a padded outfit for me to wear, was to enroll me in ballet class. I actually loved the class. I loved the music, the pretty little pink tutu and even the exercises. The problem was that I, ummm how do I say this politely? I sucked at it. I did. While the other little girls gracefully glided across the floor, I lumbered much like an ox or perhaps a bear. My classmates smoothly and delicately floated their arms from one position to another. I accidentally smacked the person next to me in the face. Ballerinas did pretty little jumps that were gazelle-like. I stumbled and tripped and crashed into the mirrors. sigh. The saying in our house was that I was capable of tripping over the colours in a rug. Eventually I learned to live with my own clumsiness. It was just another Sam-fact. I have blue eyes, I love to read, I am clumsy. Just another thing on the list. On the plus side, I will say that because I am so very accident prone, I have developed great reflexes. I may bumble and fumble and drop or nearly drop an item, but very often I can also catch it before it hits the floor (or counter top or whatever). When I stumble or trip, I usually can right myself. It's not graceful or pretty, but I rarely hit the ground. Because I have made a tremendous effort to do so, I have become much better about being aware of my surroundings and as a result, almost never walk into posts or poles or other solid objects anymore! Rather proud of that. But there are those other times of course when the cup or plate does smash into a zillion irretrievable pieces, or cake does smush into oblivion on the floor or I do carry the bruise(s) from smacking into the coffee table or door frame on my way past. It happens. Tim is so accustomed to hearing it from his office at this point that upon hearing a crash or a thump he only calls out, "everything ok?" and if I said "Yup" (which is the usual) that is the end of things. He no longer races out, heart pounding, to come to the rescue. But then, we've been married a long time. :) But I outdid myself recently. Something Klutz related but new has been added to my repertoire. How exciting. I was ironing. Not an unusual occurrence for me. I've done it a zillion or so times and with only very minor burns as a result. Normally, twice a week I tackle the pile so as to keep it manageable. Normally I have the TV on while I iron but this time, it was such a small pile that I didn't bother. I did, however, have to keep at least half an eye on the kittyboys as they think that the dancing ironing cord is the most fascinating thing ever and I didn't want them pulling the iron down on top of themselves. So I suppose I was a little bit distracted. But I do not blame them. At all. No this was all on me. I had just finished up a pair of slacks and was about to move on to a blouse. I settled the blouse into the position I wanted on the ironing board and I reached for the iron, while also checking to see where those cat-rascals were and somehow, instead of grasping the iron, I merely poked the iron with my finger tips. Can you picture that? Here I am thinking that I am going to be grabbing the iron handle, but instead I completely miss the handle and my fingers, with the same amount of force necessary to grasp the handle, poked iron just above the handle. As a result, I essentially pushed the iron off the ironing board and onto the floor. Well not the actual tile floor but the area rug on the tile floor. Dang. I couldn't even use my super powers of clumsy recovery becoz I was on the wrong side of the ironing board! I gasped in horror, raced around the board and picked the iron up but, alas, it was too late. There is now an iron shaped impression permanently imprinted into our area rug damnit. An impression that cannot be fluffed out.. You know what I mean, if a piece of furniture - say a chair leg - were to sit for any period of time on a rug and you decide to move the chair, there remains an impression of that chair leg in the rug even after the chair is no longer there. But if you fluff it a bit, rake the area with your finger tips and vacuum it in multiple directions, usually the impression disappears. This one ain't goin' nowhere. Crap. I stood there, iron in hand, looking at the damaged carpet and then looked at the iron. It was as bad as the carpet. Initially I thought the iron could be saved. I waited until it cooled and then using a scrubbie worked for quite some time on it but alas. It could not be salvaged.
Eventually Tim poked his head out of the office and I told him what happened. He looked at the rug and said that if it bothered me, he would turn the rug so that the ironed part was under the sofa. But that he agreed, the iron was toast and he returned to his office to order me a new one. This is the thing about us Klutzes. We don't mean to be, but we can be expensive to have around. It helps if the people in our lives understand that we cannot help being the way we are. Most of us really and truly, genuinely and honestly, do take great efforts to NOT drop, crash into, trip, break. We do! I use two hands to hold anything breakable, I try to move slowly, carefully and purposefully, to be ever vigilant! But still, things happen. If you have a Klutz in your family, you understand. And I know it's hard being the person witnessing the destruction and disaster that follows in our wake. But I guarantee you, it's even harder being the person who caused it. This is just a little plea for understanding ;) If you like, you can consider this a Public Service Announcement. I will gladly serve as the poster child for kultz's anonymous. Although, come to think of it, if I'm the poster child, I'm no longer anonymous am I. Well you know what I mean. Have a terrific rest of this year if you please. There are only a few days left and then suddenly it'll be 2024! Be safe and have fun and be kind to the klutzes in your life :) Merry Day after Christmas to all of you!! Hope your holiday was absolutely perfect ;) We were busier than normal this Holiday season. I worked more than usual at the museum, for one thing. Apparently there is a lot of flu and Covid and lord knows what other germies lurking around and people are getting sick! Poor babies. So coverage was needed! The museum gift shop, by the way, was madly busy! It's as if we were only just this year discovered as a place to shop for cool stuff. Tim and I actually went to one Christmas Party this year too! It's unusual, for us, but we are big fans of the people who threw the party and already were familiar with everyone else who was invited so that was lovely. It was just a little dessert bash so it was easy to knock out a few batches of brownies to bring along (everyone brought dessert by the way, not just me). The wife of the hosting couple, Debbie, is so very artistic and creative and just has that perfect eye for decorating. Their home looks like something out of a magazine as did they Christmas Tree! Wow! It was gorgeous! So we had a very nice time, chatting, admiring, eating goodies and sitting around their firepit. Our hostess provided everyone with take away boxes and we were encouraged to load up on the goodies for the very short walk home. It was a lovely evening. On Saturday, we had our annual Christmas before Christmas with Joy and Bob. It was at their place this year. The building they live in is called, The Vue. And this is the View from the Vue: We ate and talked and laughed and talked and played Christmas Trivia and talked and then went on a Trolley Ride to see lights! Woohoo! The Trolley joined the steady line of cars winding through area neighborhoods that are seriously into Christmas! Wow! Some folks are really creative and festive! I cannot imagine how much time and effort was invested in some of the displays! I don't even want to think about their electric bills and so I won't. I only took a few photos. here are two: Sunday we relaxed a lot but also took a walk over to the arboretum to admire our own local Christmas decorations during the day! Another day we will go over at night to see it lit up. I will do a different post on just the arboretum except one picture so we can all admire the museum where I work in the background. Yesterday, Christmas Day, we woke up late, relaxed some more, then headed over to spend part of the day with some dear friends. We talked and laughed, we admired their tree and their gifts, we ate some really good food and played with their kitties. And obviously, we had a wonderful time! By the time we got back, it was naptime for us. Maybe too much good food? Very Likely!! We also made it a point to stop by the jetty. It rained nearly all day so it was a gloomy, wet and cooler than normal Christmas Day which did not dampen our enthusiasm at all. 2023 was a terrific Christmas Season all the way through, top to bottom, side to side and beginning to end. Hope to hear that yours was the same. Merry Day after Christmas Everybody! This past Monday, Dec 18th, was our 30th Anniversary. Thirty Years! Wow! That is really something to celebrate!
The photo on the left we took the evening of our 30th Annivesary. We had spent the day doing various chores and projects and at some point we took a very lovely walk. Tim originally wanted to take me out some place nice to celebrate, but by the time the dinnerish hour had rolled around, we were tired and not especially hungry so instead we did a quick trip to a drive- thru for some very bad fast food to celebrate. It was quiet and simple and perfect. The photo on the right was our wedding day. Our vows had just been shared in front of the Christmas tree in my tiny little apartment in Connecticut. There were 13 other people in attendance besides us. Tim looked so snazzy in his dress blues and I wore a yummy silk velvet dress I picked up on a super sale rack at the local mall. Very few people believed that we would last a year. Bets were taken. They were wrong. You can tell from the photos how much we've both changed. I mean come on, thirty years have gone by. Of course we've changed! Life has happened. Since then we've lived in 3 different states and 5 different addresses. Tim has had 5 different jobs and I have had 4 different paying gigs and at least 5 different volunteer positions. All three of the boys grew up, moved multiple times, had numerous different jobs and met the perfect women to share their lives with. Tim and I both said a final goodbye to all of our wonderful parents and many beloved pets. We have travelled to so many wonderful places and had amazing experiences. We have shared moments of great joy and excitement and consoled each other through terribles losses. There have been scary medical moments and wonderful surprises. Every mountain that we've had to climb, we climbed together. We helped each other over the tough parts, propped each other up when we were too tired, and walked side by side through the easier terrain. We don't agree about everything, nor should we. We each have our own opinions, thoughts, perspectives and interests. But we respect each other so we compromise sometimes and occasionally just have to agree to disagree. We share a lot of the same interests and tastes but not all which is part of what keeps things interesting. I will watch his movies that seem to be largely things blowing up and he will watch my time travelling/historic/romances which seems to be my genres of choice. I have gone to sports events with him and at least attempted to follow the goings on and he has taken me to art exhibits and patiently stood by while I was mesmerized. He chooses crazy, spicy and sometimes unfathomable food from the menu while I stick to the same boring stuff I always choose and while we may gently tease one another about those things, we are never mean spirited about it. Together we are rock solid and dependable. My late Mother-In-Law once told us that we were the two most boring people she ever knew. LOL. She was right. We are not very exciting I suppose but we are a constant in the Universe. Fire is hot, Water is wet and Sam & Tim are together. Mostly what we are is happy. We are content, we are comfortable, we are goofy, we are us. We laugh a lot every day. We take care of each other in innumerable little ways all day, every day. And we communicate which is one of the most important things in any successful relationship. So here's to us. Thirty Wonderful Years Together! Here's to Another Thirty! Hey, it could happen. My great grandmother lived to be 106 years old! It's good to have a goal :) Hey look ya'll! I got the lights up! Woohoo! I wasn't sure if I was going to bother or not this year. I didn't last year, or the year before. And I told myself, I didn't care. What do I care ifthere are lights up on the house or not? It 's really easy for me to talk myself out of putting up lights. So many genuinely good reason. 1) we have no small children to create Christmas Magic for 2) The jump in the already outrageous electric bill 3) Ladders. Ladders all by themselves is a reason to not do pretty much anything as far as I am concerned. 4) fear of falling. I am clumsy. That is just a fact. I always have been, I always will be. But after my fall and subsequent broken arm last year I have become far more cautious about potential falls. And then one day last week, I stood outside assessing the no-lights situation and decided that I was going to put them up. I don't know why I changed my mind, but there it is. No lights has suddenly become absolutely of course lights. Because I know myself, I had to do it immediately, before I changed my mind. So I rooted around the utility room until I found the lights which is a good step one. Then I hauled out the step ladder and got to work. Naturally it took much longer and was far more problematic than anticipated. That is just how these thing work. But I was remarkably patient with both myself and the project throughout. And that is new. I like it, but it's definitely new for me. Luckily, our first Christmas here, I was smart enough to buy a bunch of those Command strips suitable for outside use. And also fortunately, completely unlike the inside command strips that didn't last, the outside ones seem to be eternal. Awesome. All I had to do was to follow the path of command strips! This was going to be done in no time at all. Hah! Why do I ever say those things out loud? The path led one light string from the outside socket over the door an along the eaves on the south end of the house. So there I went, untangling as I went patiently putting up one teensy bit at a time, bravely climbing to the top of the step ladder for each one, then climbing down, moving the ladder over and doing it again. Until I realized two things, one: The hedge is in my way. There is a hedge beneath the set of double windows on that end of the house and the step ladder isn't tall enough to bridge over it and yet is too big to squeeze against the house and I am far too short to try to reach over the hedge if the ladder is in front of it. Dang! And two: The light bulbs hang downwards and every time someone opens the front door, the lights dangle between the screen door and the actual door preventing the screen from closing. What the actual heck ?? Was this a problem before? How did I solve it? So I had to stop and think a minute. Then I recalled two important things. One: that the original lights were very teensy and didn't block the screen door. Two: That Tim helped me that first year and we used a real ladder, not a step ladder. So I made an executive decision. No lights on that part of the front of the house. Done. This turned out to be an excellent decision later. So I took down everythingI had already put up. Up and down the step ladder, move the ladder over and again until I was back at the starting point. All lights from this moment forward will be placed only on the north end of the house. I made the necessary proclamation and began to do that very thing. Once again, slowly, one tiny section at a time. Things went smoothly until I ran up against this: .The sail shade. The above is just a stock photo of sail shade by the way, not ours We have just one. It is triangular and the long end runs right along the edge of the overhang to protect the front of the house and my plants from being fried all summer long. It is stretch very tautly, as it should be and as such, is immovable. I was hoping that I could just slip my hand in the admittedly very small space between the sail shade and the roof line but alas, nope. So I tried reaching over the sail shade from the other side but once again, fail. It's too far! I cannot reach. Ratz. That sail shade is going to have to come down. So down it came and them I was able to put lights up all along the edge of the house. Then I wrapped them around the pillars of the wall outside of the courtyard and draped them pillar to pillar which also took multiple tries to get it even. But at least I could reach without a ladder. Hurrah! Finally it was done! I was very pleased with myself. Right up until I switched the lights on and found that the middle string was burnt out. Dang! Back up on the ladder I went and took down that middle string. Luckily since I did NOT battle the lights into place on the South end, I had one extra string of lights to replace the non-working ones. Up they went, (up and down the ladder again) but eventually it was truly done this time and when I switched them on, they lit right up! Hurrah! Of course now the sail shade needed to go back up. Back up on the ladder I went but it turned out that I don't have the upper body strength necessary to pull it taut while turning the - what's that thing called? Some sort of screw I suppose? Anyway, I couldn't do it and poor Tim was enlisted to take care of that. Still it was done and I was so pleased with the results. Honestly it wasn't that difficult, just time consuming and very ladder-ish. That night we came out after dark to admire it and I realized that if I looked closely I could see the lights on the Christmas tree through the kitchen window: But wait, something didn't look quite right. So I looked even more closely at the Christmas tree lights: Do you see it? The middle string of lights on the Christmas tree are out too. Dagnabit! LOLOLOL One more project!
Up next? Christmas Cards! We are a little behind but that is Next on the Christmas Gotta do list! I don't know how it works at your house, of course, but at our house, the stuff necessary to wrap gifts is all over the dang place. The tape and scissors of course are carefully hidden on my desk so that they do not get lost. I am happy to lend them out whenever someone needs them, but I prefer them to be returned directly to me so that I can put them where they belong. That way I am positive where they are when I need them next. Ribbons starts out all nice and neat and tidy on their little cardboards rolls but as soon as I open the package and use it, it's like the thread in my sewing box. Ishkabibble! It's a tangled mess which I shove into a plastic shopping bag. It looks a little like those permanent tangles of tree lights. The bows, which I buy cheapcheap usually at the dollar store come in a huge cellophane bag. Once opened, the cellophane is fairly useless (and it tears if you look at it too hard) so the bows are transferred to a plastic shopping bag. The two shopping bags are stuffed into an underbed storage container. This container usually also holds all previously used but still in good shape wrapping material such as gift bags, untorn wrapping paper (carefully smoothed and folded), bows, tissue paper (also carefully smoothed and folded) and any other bits and pieces that I've collected through the year. Whatever doesn't fit (and there is always stuff that doesn't fit) like various sized boxes, the remainder is yet another plastic shopping bag (do I get points for upcycling?) and the whole thing is put anywhere it fits. And that's everything. Well all of it except the actual rolls of wrapping paper! The rolls do not fit the underbed storage box dang it. So those get tucked into the back corners of various closets where they slowly somehow start to unwrap themselves (the ones that have been already opened I mean). They fray a little on the edges and get creases and collect dust but basically it seemsto work ok. Or at least it worked until the kittyboys came to live here. They found the wrapping paper rolls and fell instantly in love. While we were blissfully snoozing in the night, they were shredding and tearing and frolicking with paper! The least amount of damage were some light fang marks. Sigh. So this year on my annual stop at the dollar store, we bought 3 new rolls of paper, rescued as much as possible from one other roll (the rest were too damaged to save) and I vowed to keep everything in the guest room closet AND keep that door closed at all times! Which is super easy to say but less easy to do. Y'see, we actually use that closet. This is a small house and storage is always at a premium. The floor steamer and the vacuum cleaner are in that closet as is my Pilates mat and ball. We keep our jackets and wintery clothes in there too. Which is to say that particular closet door gets opened every single day at least once, usually far more often. And sometimes I forget. My bad. So in short, I suppose even though my methodology is messy, it's the system we have been using for gift wrap storage. And it mostly works. Sort of. Usually. Sometimes. Well, earlier this week, Tim surprised me with a wonderous thing! New Storage made specifically for wrapping paraphernalia! Be still my beating heart. I am in love!~ First of all, the wrapping paper rolls fit! Withh room to spare! Shocking! And there is plenty of room leftover for ribbons, bows and other random wrapping related stuff! Woohoo! Tim also ordered these: Do you recognize these? You may have to think a number of years back but.....I'm pretty sure you know what they are. Ok, does this help? Slapbands! Remember those? Kids drove adults crazy with them. They were awesome. What does that have to do with gift wrap stuff you ask? Well here you go: It keeps the wrapping paper rolls closed! Brilliant! Love this! I was so happy to fill this storage container up! It all fit. Every single bit of it fits! So tickled with this. Once it was zippered closed the next question was where on earth was I going to keep it? Once again, the guest room was the answer. It fits just a sweet as can be under the bed: Colour me happy! Clearly Tim knows the secret to keeping me happy. Storage Solutions! Now I'm excited about wrapping gifts! And I know the kittyboys will be overjoyed to help. Oh dear. That's a whole other disaster waiting to happen. They want to help me do everything I do! Recently when I was making biscuits, Brysco kept trying to get up on the counter top to help me. I would put him down, he would jump back up whereupon he sniffed the recipe, the flour container (which made him sneeze) and the box of baking powder. Then he knocked the measuring spoons on the floor.
"Brysco" I said patiently, "This recipe does not call for fur. You gotta get down" So I put him on the floor and he jumped back up on the counter over and over. Finally we compromised and he sat in the barstool chair and watched. They are like this with everything we do all day long. Most of the time it's not a huge issue, usually it's actually fun. But somehow I think that helping wrap Christmas gifts isn't going to be one of the fun ones. Funny, yes, fun no. Useful no. Helpful, no. But that'll be the topic of some future post, I'm sure. In the meantime, I am DELIGHTED with my wrapping stuff storage box! Woohoo! Thank you Tim! Last week we took the kittyboys to the vet for the first time. Well, it was our first time of taking them. Obviously, they had both seen a vet before at least twice. Once when they were scooped up in the feral kitty neutering round up (and then set free again) and the second time when they were captured once more and taken to the shelter. So it's not like the concept was entirely unfamiliar to them. But since Tim and I had never experienced a vet visit with these two particular cats before, we just weren't sure how it was going to go. Shortly after we brought the boys home to live with us, we hunted around to find a local vet for them, the same way when Tim and I moved some place new we would find doctors for us. We did some online research and asked around too. We ended up choosing a vet whose office is right here, on island who had great reviews. When I called to ask them if they were taking new patients, they suggested a "well patient" visit which is also how it usually works with people. Since both Brysco and Wyatt were a little traumatized by their early lives, we wanted to take particular care to make the experience as easy as possible for all of us! So we really thought this through. Joy made the excellent suggestion that perhaps a few days prior to the appointment we get out the carriers and leave them open for the kitties to check out. Tim took it a step further and decided to bring out the carriers at the same time as the Christmas decorations, so it was not a whole separate new thing. We left the carriers on the floor, near the tree, wide open for inspection. To our great surprise, we often found them napping or just resting in their little "houses". Awesome! These carriers are obviously kitty approved. As the day of the appointment drew near, I think our biggest concern was Wyatt. Of the two he would certainly be voted, most spicey kitty. Even now, two months after adoption, he still does not like to be picked up and definitely still has "no touchy!" moments. I kept thinking, what happens if he behaves so badly that the vet cannot deal with him. Would we get fired as patients? Would the staff have to don protective garments to care for him? Should I sign us all up now for post-appointment transfusions? Friday arrived and I played with the boys extra hard trying to wear them out. We got smart and closed as many doors in the house as possible, thus limiting the number of possible hiding places. When it was time to start loading us all up, to my surprise, Wyatt was already napping in the carrier so it was just a matter of zipping the door closed. Whew! That was a bit of luck. Brysco on the other hand, who witnessed the zipping, had to be captured and stuffed into the carrier whereupon he freaked out! That was a surprise. Really didn't expect it of sweet, easy going Brysco! First it was just crying. The most plaintive, tragic, dramatic kitty cries you ever heard. I picked up both carriers, softly talking, reassuringly (I hoped) to them both and walked toward the front door. I had to set the carriers down a moment while Tim put on his shoes and grab his keys and wallet. Meanwhile Wyatt quietly watched out the mesh sides on the carrier. Brysco tossed and turned and thumped around so hard that he knocked the carrier (and therefore himself) on it's side. Oh dear. I righted him and we all headed outside. We buckled them into the backseat and ourselves into the front seat and set off. It was a blessedly short drive as we were serenaded the entire drive. Tim drove, I tried to comfort and Brysco attempted to dig his way out of his carrier while Wyatt watched with great interest. (most likely in case Brysco was successful at breaking out). Oh my! Where did our gentle Bryso disappear to? Geez Brysco! Luckily, we were whisked into the exam room straight away and told to let the boys out. All we had to do was unzip and Brysco was off like a shot. He prowled around the room like a crime scene detective. Wyatt, meanwhile, had to be physically removed from the carrier and set on the exam table. The vet tech, wisely, allowed them a few moments to re-orient themselves to a new environment. While Tim filled out some paperwork, Brysco showed off his athleticism by jumping back and forth repeatedly from the exam table to the countertop. Calm down buddy! Wyatt, on the other hand, found and opened the door to what turned out to be the towel cabinet and climbed inside to hide. The vet tech did the rudimentary exam on Brysco first. He didn't actually enjoy it of course, but he tolerated it better than expected. Wyatt had to be fished out of the cabinet for his exam and once released went right back to nesting in the towels. Once the doctor came in, things progressed quickly. He handled them both easily and comfortably, professionally and kindly. All the things that you want of a veterinarian. He proclaimed them both very healthy and told us that we were doing everything right. He also trimmed their nails so quickly and efficiently that they boys barely knew it happened. Goals. Once it was all over, we loaded those kittyboys back into their carriers Very easily. Once again, Brysco was the opera singer on the way back and, like before, he thrashed around inside his carrier like a fish on a line. Once we opened the carriers to let them out, silence reigned again. They looked around, in surprise. They were back home! We gave them treats and pets and they took reallllly long naps. By evening, they were back to playing under the Christmas tree so I suppose any residual vet visit trauma was negligible. Brysco was back to being his sweetiepie self and Wyatt was a little more trusting, a little warmer than before. Hmmm interesting. Maybe all the drama was because they thought they were leaving us and didn't want to go? That's flattering :) At any rate, they now know for sure, that this is their home, we are their people, and everybody is staying put. Brysco and Wyatt quickly and fully recovered. Tim and I, on the other hand, were exhausted and relieved that it went much better than we feared.
First vet visit - check! Apparently, this is me. How embarassing! I am the snorer!!! Wow. Seriously unattractive attribute. No man ever said, "My wife has beautiful blue eyes and the cutest snore."
I did not know this. How could I know this? It's not as if we hear ourselves when we are sleeping for heaven's sakes. And of course, Tim is much too gallant to have ever mentioned it to me. This came up recently during a doctor visit. Just my usual once a year visit with our General Practitioner. He went over my lab results, they checked all the stuff they usual check and for the most part, everything looked good. He then asked, as he always does, if I had noticed anything new. This is the part where I usually say, "Nope, I'm all good" and I make an appointment for the next year and go on my merry way. This time however, I said, "yes. I notice that I am tired. I mean seriously just so dang tired all of the time. And even on days when I feel a little perkier, I wear out fast. If I hike in the morning, I snooze in the afternoon. Yes, I even take naps! I means seriously! Naps! Naps do not suit me." He asked a few questions like....am I a good sleeper. And that's easy. No. I am a terrible sleeper. If you look up the word Insomniac in the dictionary, it's probably a picture of me. BUT that's nothing new. I have never been a good sleeper. One of my earliest memories is of me getting in trouble for NOT sleeping. I wasn't not sleeping on purpose. I just couldn't sleep. So I got really good, as a child, at playing possum. Laying their quietly, thinking about things, pretending to be asleep so as to not get in trouble. So the not sleeping part isn't unusual at all. I made that part very clear. The extreme fatigue......yeah, that part is different. So then he asked me, very nonchalantly, "do you snore"? And for a second, I didn't respond at all. I was shocked, surprised, taken aback momentarily. Then I said, 'How on earth would I know?" To his credit he laughed and suggested that I ask Tim. So when I got home, I did just that. And Tim said, Yes. With not a seconds hesitation. It was not accusatory or horrible or anything like that. In fact, his tone was very conversational and ordinary. "Would you like spaghetti for dinner? - yes" That sort of a yes. I was aghast! I snore??? My cheeks were on fire with humiliation. I was horrified and said so. Tim was quick to reassure me that it didn't bother him, he wasn't grossed out by it and it didn't keep him awake. It was just something he noticed is all. He reassured me but...wow... I've never been a cute, dainty little girlygirl. I was the big clodhopperish nerd who read endless piles of books, wore glasses and got a microscope and a globe for Christmas. But at least I didn't snore. No wait! Yes I do. Dang. As my late Nana used to say, "Crap and two is eight" Meaning, it is what it is what it is. So what do I do about it? In my case, my GP referred me to a pulmonologist. Start there he said, and so I did. The appointment was yesterday. It was super quick, in and out. "Do you sleep well?" he asked. "No" I answered, "but that's nothing new. I am a life long insomniac. So why am I suddenly tired? If I've always been a poor sleeper shouldn't I have always been tired?" Somehow that very reasonable question (I thought anyway) got walked past and the Pulmonologist said, "You have sleep apnea." I do? News to me! In case you are unfamiliar with the term: Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder where breathing is interrupted repeatedly during sleep. Characterized by loud snoring and episodes of stop breathing. Oh My God! I stop breathing during the night? That doesn't sound like a good idea!!! Anyway, the plan is that once he gets permission from my insurance company, I am going to do some sort of sleep study. It seems to involve downloading an app on my phone and me wearing a ring of sorts that will track my sleep (or in my case nonsleep) patterns. I'll do that for a month. Then the doctor reviews all of the collected info from the study and then we move forward from there. It'll be interesting. A different experience. It's good to learn new things. Though I think I could have gone my entire life without knowing that I snore! Trying to see the good here. If it's true (and I'm honestly not yet convinced) that I do have sleep apnea and we can fix it, yeah, it might be nice to find out what a good nights sleep is like. Meanwhile, I'm wishing you happy dreams and good sleep! Really Super Quick:
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did! Lots of good food, lots of great conversation, lots of wonderful laughter and the company of some of my favourite people. My list of things and people for whom I give thanks grows longer every year. Among those people, I give thanks for all of you! And now the race to get everything Christmas related done before Christmas begin! Enjoy your weekend! Hugs all 'round I know everyone is super busy right now, just two days before Thanksgiving! Yikes! So Much To Do! But maybe you have time for one quick, funny little story before you dash off to get done the next thing on your gotta do list? As you can see by the photo at the top of the page, I already have our tree up. Yeah, too early, even for me. BUT still there it is. Up and bright with lights and beautiful in the way that all Christmas trees are. If you recall, I haven't been able to put up a tree for two Christmasses with all of the Construction and related ish-kabibble that was going on. There was just no room to squeeze in the tree. Literally no room. There was barely room for us in this house for two years! Therefore, I have been looking forward to putting up our tree since that last lick of paint went on the walls in the Family Room (formerly known as the project room) and all of the furniture went back to where it belonged. What a relief to have it over! I was so excited at the prospect of a fully decorated house With A Tree! I am actually kind of impressed with myself that I waited this long to put the tree up. But I restrained myself. Originally the plan was to put it up the day after Thanksgiving thus following my own policy of "One Holiday At A Time Please". But then I remembered that Thanksgiving is on Thursday and the great Christmas Cooking Bakathon begins on Saturday and if I put up the tree on Friday I will be Toast by Saturday. Crispy! Thus dimming the pleasure of anything else. Therefore, I wisely decided that the Friday between Turkey Day and Cookie Day be a day of rest. Which means either putting off the tree for one more full week OR putting it up early. You already know which one I choose. Sooooo Sunday past, Tim helped me put the tree together. It 's still a wierd thing getting used to a fake tree. It's handy, I will give it that. Just a quick as anything, the tree was constructed, the electric cords all connected (carefully covered and cat proofed) and plugged in and tested (yes! it still works) and we took a moment to consider what happens next. As it was, the kitties were showing GREAT interest. No shocking at all. Cats are notoriously curious. The cutest part was once we plugged the tree in and the lights went on. They went from curious to mesmerized! Tim and I put a lot of thought into what decorations should (and more importantly should not) be used this year. Out of deference to the baby kitties, we decided that only unbreakable things would be on the tree, We knew, no wait, we KNEW that ornaments would be batted around and possibly gnawed on a bit from many previous kitty owning years. Once the boxes of ornaments came out, we sorted through carefully and only choose things made of fabric and leather and yarn and wood and, well you get the idea, things that are, generally speaking, unbreakable. We had enough of them that, while the tree was not nearly as heavily decorated as usual, was good enough to appear finished. Yay! Good Job! We even found the Christmas Train to put under the tree! Tim and I put all of the bins and boxes away while Brysco and Wyatt sniffed around and checked things out. In general, their attitude seemed to be very paws off. They were interested but only mildly. Brysco took a little nap underneath and Wyatt showed even less interest than that. : All in all, we felt like we got really lucky. We have spent many a Holiday season plucking kitties out of Christmas trees and cleaning up broken stuff. I even considered that perhaps soon I would take a chance and put out some of the other Christmas stuff. You know what I mean, the pretty little (mostly breakable) things that sit on table tops and in surprising little corners, Ultimately, as it was nearly the end of the day I decided to wait and give it an over night think before I acted. Thank goodness! We woke the next morning bright and early to discover that during the night there had been a terrible train wreck: Oh, the humanity! Train cars scattered thither and yon! Then through my sleepy eyes I noticed an ornament on the floor near the train. And another. And another. And..... Oh dear, the violence of this train crash obviously caused an avalanche! When I squinted through my not quite awake peppers, I slowly (I'm not too quick on the uptake first thing in the day) realized just how many ornaments had fallen. And they were strewn around the family room and, I later realized, into the living room and beyond. Wow, that was some Crazy Avalanche eh? I asked the kitty boys if they knew anything about this little collection of ornaments and, as expected, initially they professed their innocence. But when I later caught them in the act, they had to confess, yes it was them. However, in the way of cats everywhere, they showed no remorse whatsoever I suppose that to their way of thinking, we obviously put the tree up for their enjoyment, right? Otherwise, first of all, why would it be there at all? They were feral kitties, they have climbed a few trees in their short little lives, trees are for climbing! And secondly, all of the dangling little objects in the tree clearly are intended to be played with. I mean, otherwise, what is the point at all? Why would those enticing little bits be hung in the tree? I collected all of the ornaments as I found them throughout the day and debated. Should I bother putting them back on ? Should we take the tree back down? In discussion with Tim we decided that A) it's their tree too, leave it up. Thus far they haven't managed to actually knock the tree over (though it's not for lack of trying I assure you) B) It was a cheapo tree from Big Lots and we've had it for 7 years now. It's not like it's valuable or precious in anyway. C) they are still babies. In a few years, they won't be as frisky or silly or fun. So we decided that when they nap in the afternoon, I would put the ornaments (which I have collected through the day) back on the tree and during the night they can, if they choose, once again have the fun of taking them back off. During the day they don't seem to bother with the tree much other than to sleep under it. The undecorating and train destruction are strictly night maneuvers. Which means that, foolishly, after the first night, we thought, maybe they got it out of the system and tonight will be different. HAHAHAHAHAHAH! Silly Humans. I woke this morning to yet another train wreck and about half of the tree undecorated I'm not sure, of course, but I suspect that the goal is to denude the tree fully. It's important to have goals. I think I have found most of the ornaments now. A few were inside the kitty tunnels, under furniture and behind things but still they were found with only a few fang marks marring them. Later today I will, once again, put the ornaments back on the tree and tomorrow we will do the dance again.
Some of the branches in the tree are looking a little worse for wear too. While the boys are indeed babies - only 7 months old after all, they are BIG babies. I measured Wyatt when he was sleeping and from the top of his head to the tip of his tail he is over two feet long. They aren't cats as much as they are mini-panthers. I'm quite sure that this cheapo tree wasn't intended to carry the weight or length of kitties this size. (or probably at all though that is naive - everyone knows that cats are the arch enemies of Christmas trees) The rest of the ornaments, the table top things, the Father Christmas, the snowman collection and so forth, will stay in their boxes and bins this year. This tree, such as it is, will be our one and only decoration this year. Right now they are sleeping the sleep of the righteous and innocent and they look so dang cute. Later they will wake to wreak chaos and havoc once again. And we wouldn't have it any other way. Happy Thanksgiving! Hey, there you guys are! Glad you are still around! I was having some computer problems last week so it's been a few days. Hope all is well with all of you! As you can clearly see (Joy on the left, me on the right) Joy and I hit the trail again this past Friday. Even though we have several days of rain (which we needed so very badly that I won't even complain about it) Friday rose with heavy fog but by the time we arrived at the preserve the sun had come out. Perfect for a Photo Safari Day! I'm calling with one the Spidey Hike because even though we saw lots of wonderful things, I was so struck by the sun shining through the spider webs everywhere that were right at the very beginning of the day! There were literally hundreds of them. Wow! I ought to apologize because that's a lot of spider webs to post, but I did love them all! It's funny how we only saw them because the light was just perfectly shining threw them in just that moment. A short time later it was as if they had all vanished! There were, as there always are, some lovely botanicals too. A few of them still have those sweet early morning dew drops on them too: I must have been on my A-Game too because I caught a lot more creatures than usual..woohoo! The one and only butterfly that I managed to photograph did not come out very clear, but I am posting it anyway, just as the representative for all of the butterfly pictures I did NOT manage to get. Oh well. We all know that birds are not my best thing. I love them, I see them, I try to capture them, but I kind of suck at it. Still, I keep trying and I have a small collection of them for you today. We saw quite the birdie variety which is super nice but it seems that mostly what I shot were various sorts of woodpeckers, a bluebird, a warbler of some sort and a hawk in mid-scream! And if you've never heard a hawk scream, honestly, it's blood chilling! Lastly, as always, are my favouites, the rando's. There is no rhyme or reason as to why I like these particular pictures, but I do. Hope you do too! Hiking for the next few weeks will be a lot less likely as the holidays approach us and the window for getting all the gotta-do list completed in time grows short. So I hope you enjoyed the Spidey Hike because there may not be another until the New Year!
There will, however, be loads of other things to talk about, so expect me back again later this week. Meanwhile, everyone please enjoy a fabulous Thanksgiving. I hope your pies are perfect, the potatoes are mashed and your holiday companions are exactly what you want and need. Please know that when I count up all of the things for which I am truly thankful, my readers are on that list! Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!! When you have been petless, especially if it's been for a good long while, there are accommodations you must make in your home when you, once again, have pets. Suddenly you realize that you must make space, not just for them - and as small as they are they seem to take up a great deal of space - but also for their stuff: beds, toys, water and food dishes and litter box. In our family we are very good at the idea of "everybody shove over" to make room so that part wasn't hard, not really. It was just a matter of rethinking the space, seeing it differently. Some things we have moved multiple times because our first idea wasn't the right idea. Like the kitty beds. Initially we put them in the kitchen/living/dining space because during the day, that center of the house is probably the area nearest us. My "office" as it were, is the kitchen but, in the way of all "open concept" homes the kitchen over looks both eating and living areas. Tim spends most of his days in his office but he comes into the main area fairly frequently. Side note here: The idea of an open concept home is supposedly a new idea. Our house was built in 1962 so perhaps it's not such a new idea after all. Makes me giggle a little bit ANYWAY, these two sillycats didn't seem to like their brand new comfy kitty beds. In fact, the only time any of the cats ever did was one day when when Tim and I were relaxing and chatting in the living room with two friends who were over one afternoon. To our great surprised, Brysco got into one of the beds as if he did it every day, curled up and immediately fell asleep. First Time Ever. The message was clear. They want to be near us when we are relaxing...not racing around cleaning or cooking or working! Gotcha. The beds have been moved to the family room where they are used on the regular now. They snooze in their beds when Tim and I are relaxing in the evening, reading, watching TV, chatting, playing games. Much like the new cats, Tim and I are teachable. Sometimes we guide the kitties, sometimes they guide us. Other accommodations, very small things, were, for example, learning that we must ALWAYS put the lid down on the toilet seat becoz these two kitties are fascinated by water. Water of any kind. Lids Down! Got it. Some of our tabletop decor has been put away too. I used to have this adorable little golden carousel that sat on the coffee table. It moved by air currents and with the ceiling fans always going it spent it's days gently spinning, catching the light as it turned and I was charmed by it. Kitties were charmed by it too and for a few days, every morning, I would wake up and have to put all of the horses back on the carousel becoz they had been knocked off. No big deal. Like I said, it's little things. The carousel is now in the display cabinet, safe and sound. Small accommodations. Mostly. Another was was not so small. This is our pantry which is in desperate need of a reorganization so please ignore the mess! It has doors. But back in BC (Before Cats) I generally didn't bother to close the doors because I was in and out of it all day long. Leaving the door open was just more efficient. However! The thing about kitties is that they are naturally very curious. About everything! And the pantry is something they desperately want to explore. And if they happen to stumble across some kitty snacks along they way, all the better. And that is not a good idea. So I began to close the pantry doors. The doors have little magnets at the top that were supposed to hold them closed. And I suppose if kitties weren't attempting to open it, it might actually work too. Those magnets were no match for Brysco and Wyatt! Clever little kitties. So we had to come up with another thought on keeping those doors closed and while it was very low tech, it worked. Ahh, the old rubber band over the doorknobs trick, as Maxwell Smart might have said. It worked great. Kind of a Pain in the Arse to be undoing and redoing all day long over and over but after awhile, you get used to it. Except the rubber band doesn't get used to it and in the short time that these kittyboys have lived with us (3 weeks now!) we have had to replace broken rubber bands as locks three different times. Sigh. It was clear that either we would have to invest heavily in rubber bands OR find another way of securing the door. Tim spent awhile exploring options. Part of the issue is me. It has to be a lock that even with my stupid arthritis clumsy hands, I can easily work it BUT it cannot be so easy that the cats can figure it out. Believe me, yes that is an issue these guys are super smarties. After a little trial and error, Tim found a solution! A lock that I can work, holds the doors closed and, thus far, the cats cannot operate: The bottom holes? Like I said, a little trial and error was involved. The important thing is that this lock or fastener or whatever we shall call it, works! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!
It's funny. We've had pets before, all sorts of pets. So while we knew that there would be accommodations, and a lot of them we knew about ahead of time, this one we did not expect. As time passes, I'm sure there will be others. And I also know that we will find solutions because that's what we do. Meanwhile the new mystery today is that Brysco has somehow managed to lose his collar! Obviously it is somewhere - SOMEWHERE - in this house. The question is where. I've already looked everywhere I can think of. Now I suppose I need to look everywhere I cannot think of. I promise you that the next post will NOT be about the cats. I swear it! Hope your weekend was grand! |
AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
May 2024
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