7 Days

Since the last time I managed to post anything here.

Froggy, you must be slipping.  You haven't reminded me once.  :)

Last Thursday, there was a really bad storm.  It was pretty much totally unexpected and it was actually starting to become tornadic at one point.

There was almost no warning.  It was lunchtime and I had thought about going out for lunch but decided to stay in and I'm glad I did.  We had rain chances but nothing bad was expected.  The first hint was when my cell phone started making the Alert sound - it is very loud and very shrill.  The entire screen said "TORNADO WARNING. TORNADO IN THE AREA."  It wasn't raining or anything, I turned the radio on and they were doing the normal mid-afternoon show.  I thought that the cell service provider must have had a problem and sent out a bad message by mistake.  And that's when the Tornado Sirens started sounding.  When they go off, it's best to pay attention and take cover.  The boss was in his office but had heard my phone alert so he was coming up the hallway to see what the noise was, when the sirens started.  He ran back towards his office for his phone and I was already in the area we decided is the safest spot - the bathroom which is on a north outside wall but the center of the building is a glassed-in atrium and the glass makes it a very unsafe spot.  Bill called me at that point, he was at home and was watching the noon news.  They were on the storm warning by that point and they were calling out the exact area of Tulsa I work in as being in the firing line of a rotating cloud.  He was telling me what the news said and I was telling the Boss.  Then the cloud started to move more south and not southeast, and the rotation stopped.  At that point, they cancelled the tornado warning but were still putting out a lot of warnings in the direction the cloud was moving because of the fact the cloud had shown rotation already.

The Boss opened the garage door to check the sky and by that time,the cloud was right there.  It was well east of us and we were safe, but it was still pretty scary to look at.  These pictures were taken with my cell phone and make it look a lot lighter than it actually was.

No, these are not "Hey Y'all Redneck Last Word pictures!

After the cloud had moved a little further south, that's when the real storm hit.  The one that was behind the rotation.  The rain was very sudden and very, very heavy.  The wind was even worse.  There were trees ripped out of the ground all over Tulsa and the surrounding areas, trees that were broken into pieces, limbs thrown everywhere.  It was a very, very severe storm.  I've seen rain forced sideways by wind before, but not like this.  Of course, Otter was at J's house and that particular town was right in the direction the cloud and storm were headed next.  They were aware of the weather and stayed inside, ready to take cover.  J's house was ok, but there were two incidents that were confirmed to be the work of a small tornado in the general area.

When I got home, which took a while because of several street lights that were out and also because of debris in the road in some spots, we still had power but we also had limbs down in the back yard.  But  there was one place in particular, a church in south Tulsa that literally had a wall ripped off just because of the wind.  Bill's dad had a tree limb down in their back yard - but they don't have any trees.  It was split off of a neighbor's tree, then the wind carried it over the fence and into their yard.  It was not a small limb, either.  Parts of the Tulsa area and surrounding area just had power restored today, Monday.  Bill cut up the limbs from our tree Saturday and also helped his dad with the one in his yard.  Most of it is now in our woodpile, Bill thinks we got about 1/3 of a rick out of it.

Yesterday, Sunday, Bill mowed the yard.  I was standing beside the rock garden when a grasshopper bounced by me.  And landed right in the center of a zigzag spider's web on the trellis!  I had not even seen the web, it was so well camoflauged in the honeysuckle.  Pretty much as soon as the grasshopper landed, the spider was on it.  She moved like lightning and had the grasshopper wrapped completely in silk in just a couple of seconds.  It was amazing to watch her.  Then she moved it to another spot in the web and then a few hours later when I was walking around the yard with the beagle I checked on the spider and she was happily consuming the grasshopper's innards which were probably liquified by that point.  I hope she stays around.  She's probably not quite quarter sized yet, and they can get much bigger.  She can stay in our trellis and eat all the bugs she wants!

Rambling

Just normal stuff going on around here. Mostly.

Today is National Puppy Day.  That means Maggie Moo pictures!

And, since he will always be my puppy:

Can't believe it's been nearly a year already.  Miss this boy!

It's been extremely windy the last few days, but that is normal for this time of year.  So far, the broken limbs are still in the tree but at least one of them has moved a little.  It's not a huge limb, but there is one piece in particular that is very big although it's not broken off completely.

I put my yarn pieces out for the birds last weekend.  I also discovered a nest being built inside Otter's trellis.  Not sure what kind of birds though.  We are trying to avoid getting anywhere near the trellis.

And, since it's spring and the bugs are out:

I saw the first one at work yesterday!  INSIDE THE OFFICE.  I was standing in the kitchen area when it came from somewhere behind me (which means from inside.  Again) and crashed into the kitchen window.  It was probably trying to get out.  I eventually got it on the end of the broom, then I slowly and carefully took it outside.  And then I crushed it into a million billion pieces.

Hate those things!

Honeybees, now they are welcome.  They have plenty of bluebonnet blossoms to visit!  The redbud has lot of blooms left although some are beginning to blow off and I've seen a few leaves on the tree.  But I did see at least one honeybee on it as well.

Otter goes back to the dentist tomorrow for the 2nd of 4 visits.  I'll bring her back home afterwards, she'll probably get as far as my couch and then she'll sleep for a couple of hours.  She asked me if I would make potato soup tomorrow, of course I said yes.

More later!

First Day of Spring 2016

Today is the first day of Spring.  Of course, I'm still waiting on it to actually be winter!!  We didn't have much of one, so I guess the fact that we didn't have as much firewood as we usually do (and need) didn't really matter all that much.  I think we maybe only used the fireplace twice.

While I don't mind at all not having to deal with icy road conditions, and I'm not at all upset that Bill and the Otter didn't have to deal with them either, the lack of cold weather means that it's going to be a bad bug year.  I've been seeing flying things for a few weeks now, which is way early.  We may have to deal with worse ticks and fleas this year, thanks to the warm winter.

And the allergy situation will be bad this year as well, it's already started for most of us.  Part of the reason for the allergy forecast being so bad is because things are blooming way early as well as being staggered.

I'm not trying to gripe, I know it sounds like it.  I'm actually enjoying seeing the trees bloom and the birds are already starting nesting.  I'm just also already having allergy issues is all.

There really isn't a lot going on around here to blog about.

I'm not complaining about that, either! :)

Trying...

to get back in the swing of things as far as blogging goes!

Maggie Moo, however, has never changed her routine of sleeping as much as she can.  We've been leaving her in the house all the time for a few months, we used to put her and Frasier out in the garage on the days we were not home all day.  They had a dog door to the back yard, water in the garage and outside and also a mat to lay on so they weren't exactly being left in the garage for hours on end!  But a few months back, we decided to try leaving Maggie Moo inside while we were gone since we realized that a lot of the leaky issues were quite possibly Frasier's age creeping up on him.  Maggie did still have a few accidents and may still, she is a dog after all and is about 12 years old herself.  But she seemed to be mostly having her accidents in the spots where Frasier had his and we think she was probably drawn to the smell.  So, we got out the carpet cleaner and hit a lot of places and then we started leaving her in for short spells of a couple of hours.  Then when she seemed to be doing ok, and it was becoming winter (well, the calendar said so anyway), we started just leaving her indoors and she seems to do fine.  She probably sleeps a lot!  She has plenty of places to sleep, she has her food and water plus the dog doors so she can go outside when she needs to.  Although at the moment, she is sprawled across one of her beds, a pillow and two of her blankets - snoozing!

My redbud tree in the back yard is pink all over!  It's really pretty and I'm enjoying it.  Not that the outside is being kind to me at the moment - it's going to be a B.A.D. year as far as allergies are concerned.  Thanks mostly to the non-winter!  Even though we did not plant tulips last fall, we have a few coming up in the tulip bed.  The last time we planted was Fall 2014 and some of the bulbs were 2-year bulbs.  The daffodils have already started coming up and some have bloomed.

But we have something else starting to bloom.  Something very special:

The whiskey barrel is overflowing with them and there are several plants sprouting around the whiskey barrel.  The buds are beginning to open.

Yes, I do think Otter was right:  The Teenager has been talking to them!

Questions and Answers and Sunday Stuff

Froggy asked me about the limb in the tree.  I don't think we can get it out easily because of where it is in the tree.  At this point, we just hope that when it comes down it doesn't blow to the north because the house is on the north side of the tree.

Yes, Froggy - that is Maggie Moo under the futon!  She likes to sleep underneath it for some reason.  

Here's a close up:

She also sleeps like this, with just her head underneath.

Otter came over to do laundry today.  I was out in the back yard with Maggie at the time, I heard her car as we were heading to the door to come inside.  Maggie being Maggie, it took a few minutes to get to the door and inside, then she heard Otter at the front door and basically just levitated herself from the back door to the front door.  She was overjoyed to see her Otter.  She was even happier later on when Otter took her on a walk.

We had planned on making Mini Pizzas for lunch so Otter helped me assemble them.  Obviously, she had lunch with us today.  :)  They were pretty good and we have leftovers for dinner.  Maggie spent the entire time we were in the kitchen at our feet, hoping for somebody to drop something.  She got a couple of cheese shreds, and that seemed to be what she wanted.  Goofy little beagle!

Just thought I'd put this out there, no other reason than it's funny (and true):

I saw it online the other day.  It's not an exaggeration!

Saturday

Today I have managed to get the laundry done and put away, one load was from today and the other two or three were done yesterday.  The laundry is pretty much all I got done yesterday, since Otter shared the bug with me that had her down mid-week.  It seems to be a short-lived illness and it's apparently made it's way through her workplace now.

Yesterday morning, I felt cruddy so I called in and stayed home.  I wasn't feeling too good Thursday afternoon but there were a lot of grass fires around Tulsa and the air was pretty toxic.  So I thought at first that the headache and asthma-ish symptoms were related to that. But then I woke up feeling bad yesterday morning and realized that I had the same symptoms Otter had so I think I have been fighting the same thing.  The smoky, icky air didn't help at all!

I also managed to get to Hobby Lobby this morning since I was feeling better and needed to get something.  Otter wanted to go with me so I picked her up at her apartment and then she wanted to go to a thrift store but we didn't find anything.  I made one stop after I took her home - I saw a Girl Scout troop set up in front of the grocery store when I drove past so of course I turned around and bought cookies!

But all of my running only took a couple of hours.  Mostly, I've just been hanging around the house today.

We had a very windy week, it's been warm and Thursday was really bad because of extremely strong winds.  There were grass fires all over the place, and at least one was probably deliberately started.  I hope that the arsonist it caught, that particular fire was really big and a lot of homes and property were destroyed.  I think that was the fire to the south.

It doesn't really show up well, but there is a limb on the other side of the pole holding the bird feeder.  The limb was in the tree Thursday morning.

Toward the middle of the tree on the right side, there is a broken limb.

This is a better shot.  The piece that came off is probably from this part of the tree.  All it's going to take is another hard wind storm, and we get a lot of them in the Spring.

This is not the same tree, but I noticed these two doves when I was taking pictures of the broken limbs.

Let's hope that this is not an indicator of what we are in for this year!

This is the futon in the YARN room.  There are a few things on top of it, I was in the process of rearranging things in there.  But the object of this picture is something else.  Look closely at the far corner.  See it? :)

Thursday Already?

Wow, tomorrow is Friday!  I just realized that.

PBS is having their annual August pledge drive, which is when they have the music features.  I've been in musicobsessive heaven all week!  I did manage to see the BeeGees special from the beginning this time (I usually miss the first part of it), the John Denver special was very good and there have been a couple of others that I've enjoyed.  Tonight is Celtic Woman - watching them makes me realize that the most influential Teacher I ever had was probably Irish!  Obviously, it was the Choir Teacher I'm referring to.  He was probably university professor level, and his lessons are still with me.  One thing he drilled into us was breathing.  Breath control is probably the most important aspect of singing, and to this day I still find myself remembering what I was taught to do and it drives me absolutely CRAZY when so-called professionals can't even figure out when to breathe while singing!  We were taught to the level of ability and performance professionalism that the members of Celtic Woman have, and he made sure we learned it!  I wish Mom had not gotten rid of my Choir Sweater, but she apparently did because it was nowhere to be found when we cleaned out the house after Dad died.

Otter came over to do her laundry today.  She was originally going to come over yesterday, she was scheduled to work Tuesday night (as in all of it, until early Wednesday morning) but the supply truck was delayed so she was rescheduled to work on Wednesday instead, when the truck actually arrived.  She was exhausted after unloading the truck and restocking all the shelves, which is probably her least favorite part of being the Pricing Coordinator for the store.  She is part of the Inventory Control Department.  She decided to come do her laundry today, on her day off.  She mostly came over to play with the beagle I think!  :)  Bill saw a Sonic commercial, they had half-price cheeseburgers today so that's what he wanted for dinner.  I told Otter that I'd get her something from Sonic as well so she had dinner with us.  She's very happy with the new apartment and having more room.  She was really happy today, she found what they refer to as "dumpster furniture."  Somebody put a short dresser out by the dumpster, she and Roomie borrowed a dolly from the apartment office and it's now in their apartment.  On the 3rd floor!  She said it probably weighs at least 100 pounds, and it took them a while to get it up the stairs but they did it.  All that is wrong with it is one drawer needs a little glueing to hold it together on one spot.  They got it into the living room and then left it there, they will figure out exactly where to put it but she said they were tired after having to get it up the stairs and into their apartment.

It's been cooler this week, the last couple of mornings have been almost sweater temperatures.  Maggie Moo has really enjoyed it on our morning walks, especially this morning.  She was so bouncy!  She really had fun this morning, she sniffed everything, and I do mean everything, and she was so playful.  At the moment, she is asleep at my feet.  She wiggled herself around until she is underneath her bed.  I guess she's comfortable because she is snoring!

Nevermind, the beagle is up!  She woke up and curled her tail around my ankle.  Then she got up and shook herself, now she's sitting in front of me and may be watching tv.  She has been known to do that.

It's back-to-school time.  Otter has been out of school for 4 years now.  For some reason, I keep thinking that I need to get school supplies!  She hasn't even lived here in nearly a year, and she's been working for the last 2 1/2 years, for pete's sake.

We do need to start getting firewood soon, though.  That's another thing that the cooler morning temps have got me to thinking about.

Walgreen's has the flu shot vaccine in stock.  I'm getting mine on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, like I usually do.  Last year's was much earlier, in August.  As a result, it was a normal weekend instead of a 3-day weekend.  I really could have used that extra day off to recover from my usual reaction, so I've gone back to the Labor Day weekend schedule.  Otter is going to get hers then as well.

The crepe myrtles in the back yard are doing wonderfully.  Some of them are blooming.  The mimosa tree in the front yard is finally blooming as well.  The mimosa tree was planted from a sprout that showed up in the back yard and was probably grown from a seed from the neighbor's tree.  Each year, it would come up and have a few leaves then it would die down in the fall but it never got taller than a couple of feet.  Last winter, it died completely and disappeared - or so we thought.  It did disappear, but there was still life left in it and it came back up this year.  And it's now over 7 or 8 feet tall!  It's fully leafed out and it beautiful, but I was afraid it might not be a blooming tree.  Then last weekend, it suddenly put of blooms.  Just a few, but that's fine with me because that means it will bloom each year and should increase the number of blooms.  I guess it just took it a few years to get really established.

We have a meeting with the associate pastor at the church we've been attending, next Tuesday.  I think we'll make the decision after we talk to her.  In all probability, we will be joining that church but we won't decide until after our meeting.  Otter will be transferring her membership with us.  We realized today that we haven't been to our current/about to be old church in over 10 months and not once has anyone ever contacted us!  Except for one time when I mailed my tithe check in and made a mistake on it - they contacted me immediately when it concerned money, I noticed!

I think that's very telling.

I Don't Have to go to Work Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you can't tell, I am really glad that my vacation has arrived.  Took long enough!  I wish that Bill was able to take the week off like we originally planned, but he can't take any time off at the moment unfortunately.  He is off Friday for the holiday, but that's also the day that Otter has off this week and we had already planned a shopping ramble.  I don't think he really cares, he wants to spend the day working on pachinko machines.  However, there is a chance of icky weather on Friday so we might stay in the Tulsa-ish area and not go as far as we have planned.  We'll still shop, thrift and possibly yard sale shop.  Froggy, we're also going to the steakhouse for lunch.

It's been a fairly busy, productive weekend.  Yesterday, Bill mowed the front yard and I got the limblets that had started up again on the trees in front.  Today he got the back yard.  We went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and Cici's Pizza for dinner.  We went to Ace Hardware today, I also went to Joann's Fabrics and Walmart this morning.  I got a lot of crafting and crochet done, Bill has been working on pachinko machines for a few hours.  He moved the freezer out to the driveway so it could be defrosted, then he moved it back in place.  It's plugged in again although there's nothing in it - we gave it to our (nice) next door neighbor and he'll get it sometime this week.  If he and Bill are able to move it to his house without laying it down then it can be plugged in again right away and he can start using it.  There was a big, blue dragonfly that kept zipping into the freezer and then zipping back out.  I think it was after the water from the thawing frost.  Maggie Moo got several walks, and she got to see her best canine friend this morning - Luna the wolf.

Maggie and Luna seem to be smitten with each other.  As soon as Maggie saw her down the street this morning she just about pulled my arm out of it's socket in her haste to go see her friend!  Maggie is not normally like that, she's fairly easy-going and walks well.  But as soon as she sees Luna, she's going to do everything in her power to get to her.  Luna is the same way about Maggie, although Luna is still very skittish about just about every other dog.  I got a picture of Luna with my cell phone this morning, I keep forgetting to take my camera with me when we walk in case we see her.  She's absolutely gorgeous.  Her owner said that she's not sure how Luna will do with fireworks, but her two others (one is part wolf) don't like them so she's already going to be staying home Friday and Saturday evenings.  Maggie Moo is totally unconcerned about them, Frasier never cared about them either.  Maggie is a very low-maintenance dog, Frasier was about as high-maintenance as it got.  I do miss him and I always will, he was one of those extra-special dogs.  But I have to admit that Maggie Moo is a much easier dog.  She is also smitten with her new bed.  When she's in the living room, she often is curled up in it or laying across it.  She sometimes sleeps next to it, but she usually has at least one and usually two paws/legs stretched out over it.  At the moment, she's napping and has her head on it like a pillow.

The electrical contractor is supposed to come out tomorrow to repair the damage to my yard from 2 months ago.  I would love for them to be able to bury the line that was put in place on Friday but the marking crew would need to come out first.  I'm very tempted to stand out on my deck with my leather whip at the ready, just in case they might need a little encouragement to do their job and do it correctly!  (Not seriously!  Just kidding.  Sort of.  Maybe.)

Froggy, I finally got around to getting a hair dryer.  My blow dryer went to Otter's apartment.  KN#3 was amazed that I didn't have one when y'all were here a couple of weeks back.  I also bought a full-size ironing board.  I've been using a table top size for years and it worked fine, I didn't have a lot of room at the old house so I used the small one and it was fine.  Then we moved here and even though the house is bigger and I have an actual laundry room, I didn't really have a place for a full-sized one.  So, I used the tabletop one on top of the dryer.  Also, I was hanging Bill's work shirts and jeans in the laundry room behind the door and then Otter's work clothing when she worked at the party store - Party City, in case anybody is interested in it (I didn't mention the actual name at the time for safety reasons.)  When she changed jobs, the uniform is one of their t-shirts and jeans so her clothing didn't really need to be ironed.  I just never changed my system, for some reason.  I took the iron holder/clothes hanger off the back of the laundry room door when we put Maggie Moo's pillow/bed in there and I decided to just go ahead and get a bigger ironing board.  It's now in my closet, it's collapsed and leaning up against the back of the closet.  Bill's work clothes are now going to be put in the front of his part of the closet.  I might eventually move it to the front/craft/guest/YARN room.

I might be done with my mink yarn scarf soon.  It's about 2 rows to an inch, and it is measuring about 56 or 57 inches.  My standard scarf size is about 60" in length.  I'll know "when I get there" if it's done or not, but it might be.  I'm going to get back on Otter's slant stitch poncho as soon as the mink scarf is done.  Then my UFO's will be done, with the exception of my scrap yarn lap blanket because I'm out of scrap end pieces for the moment and that's what I'm making it with, and Bill's quilt because I still need a little more fabric but I'm looking for things that fit his personality and interests.  I do have projects lined up, however!  Two scarf/hat sets for Otter and one for Froggy.  I also have a couple of non-crochet related craft projects. I'm finished with the tray I was working on and am nearly finished with the shadow box I'm making with Mom and AJ's stuff.  Next up is a mouse pad that I'm going to cover with the crochet pattern fabric that is on the bottom of the tray, and I may start on the Christmas ornament wreath soon.  I have a few small craft projects I'll probably work on soon, but they aren't anything major and can wait until "whenever" if they need to.

Talkies

(I may have used that title before, it seems like it.)

When Otter was very young, a few years after the diagnosis of asthma, we noticed something about her.  When she was dealing with a flare, she would frequently talk.  Like constantly!  Turns out, that when you aren't getting enough oxygen in your system your body will do what it takes to get it.  Including talking.  Because you need air to talk, and the air is oxygen.  She hasn't done what we call "the talking thing" in a long time, because she hasn't had a flare in what feels like forever.  Which we are very thankful for, by the way!  Anyway, there is a point to this.  I also do "the talking thing" when I'm starting a flare.

Guess what I've been doing today?

The Talking Thing!

I've been dealing with allergy tiredness today and it's been really bad this afternoon.  I don't have a lot of congestion, although my lungs are beginning to feel like I'm in the starting phase of a flare.  I've been outside more than normal for this time of year, but that can't really be helped.  Maggie Moo needs to be walked, she's a beagle and they are energetic little bratties.  Walks are good for her and they are also going to be good for me, I just wish that my across the street neighbor's magnolia tree would just die off!!!

It's probably not the only thing that is aggravating my allergies, but it's a pretty strong allergy and is probably the current worse issue.

Springtime!

Otter was over this afternoon.  She comes over about once a week to do laundry, and of course to see the aforementioned beaglebrat!  (She also just comes by to say hello sometimes.)  She accompanied me when Maggie got her trip around the neighborhood.  Talk about a happy dog!  She had a few hours of Otter's undivided attention, then she got a walk with Otter.

Otter's hand is doing well.  She saw the doctor yesterday for the 3-day follow up.  He said that he sees no signs of infection and that it looks like it's healing.  She goes back next Wednesday to get the stitches removed.  Until then, she is to continue the care procedures and she can now start leaving it uncovered if she's at home and not going to do anything that might aggravate it.  She said that it does still hurt, although not nearly as much.  The main thing she's noticed is that it is beginning to itch.  The doctor told her that's a good thing, since that means it's healing - which she already knew, by the way.

J graduates from college tomorrow!  He will have a Bachelor's Degree in English.  He's an honors graduate.  He has worked very hard to get to this point.  He took several classes at the community college that Otter went to - that's where they met, actually.  The community college told him very clearly that his credits would transfer.  But when he transferred to the university, it turned out that several classes would not transfer and he had to take them over again.  Which meant that he actually wound up graduating a year later than he originally would have.  But he's finally there.  J and his mother will pick Otter up tomorrow and they'll go to the ceremony.  He's been attending a local satellite location of the university, but the graduation ceremony is at the main campus which is in a not quite next door but still close by town.

Sunday is Mother's Day.  Otter and J are coming over for breakfast, I'm making my own breakfast but that is because I want to.  Monkey Bread!  Apparently, Otter has been telling J how good it is and she was going to make it for him, but she's willing to let me make it instead.  :)

But seriously, way to go J!

Derpy Sunday

Been that kind of day today!  All day long.

 

Not helped in the least by the fact that I had a nosebleed to deal with, with no warning.  I thought my nose was trying to run when it was in fact bleeding.  Not a good time to discover that I'm down to one box of Kleenex!  (TEXAS speak:  All forms of tissues are Kleenex.  Even the Puffs with lotion that we use.  They just are.)  It's allergy related, nothing to worry about.  IF I didn't blow my nose too soon and have it start bleeding again, that is!

 

Otter does have an ear infection.  She was supposed to get off at 6:00 Friday evening, but by 5:00 her ear was really starting to hurt so her boss let her go a little early.  I took her to the urgent care clinic we use and she saw a doctor there.  It's not bad, it was caught early.  But she still has an antibiotic to take which is in the form of horse pills.  She has to split them, they are huge.  Yes, Froggy.  We did get a lot of yogurt!

 

Otter and I went to a fabric store in one of the small, neighboring towns yesterday and we also went to a few yard sales.  We didn't really find anything at any of them.  We did see one estate sale sign on one of the main streets so we followed signs until we found it and I bought a few things there, but I still spent about $1.00 there as it was the last day of the sale and everything was 75% off.  We went to the Hitching Post, Froggy that's where I sent you the pictures from.  One of the booths has something I really like, one of these:

This isn't the actual lamp, but it is very similar.  The shade on the one I saw is much bigger and a different style.  I like it a lot, but it's kind of big and I am not really sure where I would put it.  I could put it on the sofa table for the moment, but I don't know if I want to pay $30.00 for it.  I'm still thinking about it.

 

I found a different hat pattern that I decided might work well as a Chemo Cap.  I have been looking for a good pattern to make them with, a lot of organizationpings that work with people who are being treated for cancer take donations of them and then they are given to people who have hair loss due to chemotherapy.  The pattern I found was more of a stocking cap and it looked like it might work.  I made it with very soft yarn, so that if it did work I could donate it - they need to be made as soft as possible.  It worked, but it used up a huge amount of yarn and also took way too long.  Also, I don't like the way it looks - at least not for what it was intended for.  I'll keep looking, I'll find a good pattern eventually.  I can use my standard hat pattern, it would need to be made slightly looser and larger than I normally make them but that's not a problem.  But I want to see what else I can find first.

 

I have a slight headache, courtesy of the nosebleed.  I kind of have to just deal with it, since anything I could take for it is a potential blood thinner and that's the last thing I need right now.  One of my least favorite parts of the Redhead Curse is the bleeding issues we have.

 

The weather has been really nice lately.  Last week was really unusual for July in NE Oklahoma - 70's and 60's at night.  Today is nice, I think it's in the 80's but it was very cool this morning.  I was out trimming tree limblets about 8:00 a.m., and it was actually almost cold.  I had a lot of help, in the form of a beagle!  Maggie Moo apparently decided that she needed to help me.  Help me keep the limbs from flying!  She was very bouncy and playful, and as soon as she saw me by the tree she literally bounced over to me from the other side of the yard.  She got in my way quite a bit, but she managed to get her delicate little furry behind on top of a bunch of branches, then she settled down and stayed there.  Even as limblets were falling (and nearly falling on her!)  She had leaves on her head at one point, but she didn't move until I was through.  Then, she got up and bounced (literally) around the tree, behind the shed and on top of the shell-top to the El Camino that is stored behind the shed.  Who knows what goes on in that little furry head!  Frasier was out in the yard with us, but he's smart enough to stay away from falling limbs.  Maggie is such a goof sometimes.  OK, most of the time.  When I got ready to go inside, I yelled for Frasier and he went straight to the back door to wait for me.  I hollered for Maggie a couple of times, but didn't see her anywhere so I figured she was probably under the shed again.  Then I got to the deck and she was sitting in front of the back door, wagging at me and apparently just waiting until I was ready to go inside!

 

We have been dumping the dog's outside water dish just about every day lately, because it's had wrigglers (mosquito larvae.)  Nearly every day.  It's now sitting empty, we always put their inside water dish out in the garage when we leave for the day and we'll continue to do that, but the outside dish might stay empty for a day or two.  The frog hasn't been seen in days anyway, and that might have something to do with why the wrigglers have been so bad.

 

Otter's harvested a few jalepenos from her plants on the deck.  They are not huge, but they are good.  Bill's been helping keep them under control!

Day Three & Counting

For the 3rd Day in a row, the forecast has been for rain.  But it hasn't show up yet!  It's cloudy and humid.  Extremely humid, and hard to breathe.  I hate humidity.

 

We've been busy all day, but it seems like we've hardly gotten anything actually done.  I did get my tree trimming tool and tackled the forest growing up from the bottoms of two of the maple trees in the back yard - not fun with the humidity, but it needed to be done.  We went to church this morning, although Otter actually went to work as her shift started at the time church does.  We took her to work, since Billyboy wanted to get a few things at her store and the plan was to go shop there when we picked her up but we actually went in there shortly after church.

 

We've been to the booth twice today.  Once to take a machine & cabinet and also get a machine to bring home so Bill could get a video of it to put on his website.  The second time was to take the machine back.  I rearranged a bit while we were there but not much.  Bill's friend that has been sharing the booth with us for stuff to big to put in his own booth is ending his booth on the 31st, and we'll expand the contents of our booth then.  The 31st is Saturday, he and his wife were there when we were the 2nd time (that's when we got Otter after her shift at work) and they were taking some of their stuff out now.  Otter and I are going to a local flea market on Saturday, we'll probably go by the booth store as well and see if they've gotten their stuff out of our booth.  Then we'll spread our stuff out just a bit, but we'll do a full-scale rearrange of our booth on Sunday.

 

When we have a holiday and everybody is off, we usually have a bigger than normal breakfast.  Otter doesn't have to work tomorrow, so since we'll all be home she's requested Monkey Bread for breakfast.  We went to Wallyworld after picking Otter up from work today, and I bought what we call "cheap biscuits" and chopped pecans.  Bill is not a fan of Wallyworld, but he was a good boy and behaved himself today!  :)  But I bought him potato salad, so he's happy.  I was going to make homemade potato salad to have with our buffalo burgers tomorrow, but I never quite got around to it.

 

Otter was supposed to work for 4 hours yesterday, but she woke up with a migraine headache herself.  Her migraines follow a different pattern than mine, for one thing she usually throws up and yesterday was no exception.  She wound up calling in and going back to bed -where she stayed nearly all day long.  I checked on her a couple of times, she was asleep most of the time but she did emerge about 7:00 last night.  She got up for a couple of hours, she had some bread and a sprite and she felt much better.  She went to bed early and felt much better this morning.  Except for the ever-present allergies, that is.

 

Frasier, my fluffy puppy, has been shedding like crazy the last few days.  He does this every year when it gets warm.  I took him outside and brushed the bejeebers out of him.  It looks like a tribble farm in the back yard and he looks much bettr, very sleek.  But there is still a cloud of fur coming off of him so he may have another session with the brush in his future - which he loves, by the way.  Maggie Moo likes to get brushed out as well, but she's smooth-coated so she doesn't shed much.  Unlike Fluffbutt Frasier!

Too Busy!

I have tried to take it easy today, but that hasn't happened as much as I wanted it to.  I didn't sleep too well last night and woke up coughing.  I decided to stay home - just like the Teenager told me to.  I talked to him this morning and he said I sounded bad.  Bill left for work at 6:10, when he normally does.  Otter had to be at work at 8:00 and she took my car.  I finally had breakfast about 8:30 or so.  I parked myself on the couch and the plan was to stay there until bedtime.

 

Otter was scheduled to get off at 1:00 and I thought I might get her to run me up to Wallyworld for a few things when she got home.  Other than that, I planned on staying inside and in my pj's.  About 11:00 or so, Bill calls me and said that the booth store owner called him - apparently, when we made price tags for the two newest pachinko machines we put in the booth we didn't realize that one of them had a previous tag on it that was probably from when the person we got it from originally bought it and there was someone interested in it but he wasn't sure which price to charge.  Bill wanted me to go up there when we went to Wallyworld and check on it.  The prospective buyer said he'd come back later on but he was still very interested.   About noon-ish, Bill got home since he'd taken the afternoon off because his Dad was going to come over here and get something he'd stored in our yard.  Bill was eating lunch quickly to get finished before his Dad got here, and the prospective buyer called with questions and said he was on his way back to the booth store so Bill ran up there.  So, I told him I'd help his Dad.  I had to go out and wrangle with the gate - the same one we've had issues with before and also the one that has multiple stage locks because of the electric company leaving it open before.  I didn't have to do a lot of physical work, I just had to be outside for a while and it's windy.  Bill got home just after his Dad and I got done, then Otter got home shortly after that.

 

Otter and I did get to Wallyworld, I would have just sent her but I needed several things and I never actually had time to write a list!  Among other things, I finally got lunch - I got a small salad from their deli.  I didn't get to eat lunch until after 2:00, so I was starved.  I also got dog food, which made the dogs very happy to see when Bill carried the bag inside.

 

I'm tired, I was tired to start with and I'm more tired now.  But I'm glad that I could help his Dad and I'm glad Bill was able to go to the booth store and get that taken care of.  I just would have preferred not to have to be out in the wind is all.

 

When I got home yesterday, I noticed a fairly large limb had come out of the tree by the garage.  Bill dragged it over to the other side of the house and tossed it over the fence.  He commented how we have two trees in the back yard which are in bad shape and the one that always seems to lose limbs is the one we want to keep!  But I noticed that the tree in the back yard which is closest to the house has a biggish limb that might be broken off but is still in the tree.  We could get lots of wind on Sunday, I hope that it doesn't come down and become an airborne missile.  Bill said that there are actually two broken limbs, and he thinks that they have both been up there for a while.

 

Bill's employer has occasional online auctions to get rid of surplus stuff.  This time, it included sewing machines.  Bill bid on a couple, he won one bid and when he was picking it up there was another one that nobody bid on.  It needs a power cord, but I think it's in good shape otherwise.  It was free anyway.  It's a Pfaff.  I can't remember the other one, it might be the same brand.  Now, Otter will have her own machine to use and I will as well.  I really don't like the machine that we call Bill's.  I prefer plain & simple when it comes to sewing machines.  If I sewed a lot, I might like the fancier machines better though.  But I don't sew all that much and what I do sew is usually fairly easy.  Otter is the seamstress in the family, I'll stick with my crochet.  Bill's an Engineer, they are a different species!

Pinks, Blues and Puppy Dog Tails

The redbud tree is still brilliantly pink and it's still drawing honey bees from somewhere close by.  Looks like hundreds of them!

 

The baby bluebonnet in the whiskey barrel has friends now.  I found two tiny ones in the yard, in the general area of where some were last year.  We had so many naturalized ones last year!  Bill isn't willing to leave un-mowed spots all over the front yard this year, so I'm transplanting them to the whiskey barrel as soon as we find them.  So far, just two but they were tiny and I'm thinking that there will probably be more.  If they get transplanted when they are still fairly young and small, they generally make it.  They don't have deep roots, but they still don't like to be moved once they get to a certain size so I have to get to them early.  He was going to mow today, but it's been slightly rainy so he's waiting a day or two.  Even if it hadn't rained (which wasn't much), the weeds (not much grass yet) were still just a bit too damp to mow easily.

 

Frasier was obnoxiously clingy yesterday morning.  After the 3rd or 4th time of having to practically push him out of my lap, Bill finally yelled and him and the dog got the point.  For a while!  He seemed to feel ok, he was just overly needy for some reason.  He's fine today, I think he's hanging out in the garage at the moment.  He likes it out there.  It's misty and cool today, but he spent most of yesterday afternoon snoozing in the sun in their yard.

 

Otter's plans for the day got rearranged.  She was going to meet J at the theater and they were going to go see the new Captain America movie.  But she woke up with extremely bad allergy symptoms.  She took an allergy pill, then she laid down on the couch after breakfast and went to sleep.  So we just left her there and went to church without her.  She was just waking up again when we got home.  She felt a little warm to both of us, so I took her temperature but I didn't think she actually had fever.  Turns out, she did.  Just a degree, but it was enough that she decided to stay home today.  I think she and J might attempt to go see the movie next weekend.  She's been parked on her bed most of the day and has taken Tylenol, along with lots of liquids.  She's a lot better so we think it probably is allergy and not anything else.  She will take a nighttime allergy pill when she goes to bed tonight.

 

I went to the booth to put some stuff out and rearrange, Otter asked me to pick up her schedule at work for her so I did that at the same time.  She's got more hours this coming week, so she was happy.  The booth made me happy, I put one of my vases in it Thursday or Friday and it was gone today.  It wasn't Fenton, it was probably by the Westmoreland company and it was signed.  I don't remember price I had on it.  The large oil lamp we have had in the booth for several weeks was also gone and I think it was sold this time - the last time, it was moved to a different booth (probably by a shopper who changed their mind) and one of the owners brought it back to me when he found it.  I changed a couple of prices and rearranged quite a bit.  I'm not sure if anymore shot glasses sold or not, but possibly.  There were so many that I can't really remember.  I probably won't go back there for a few days.

 

Now that the Aripachi machines are gone, Bill got my path from the garage door to the kitchen door cleared off.  No more having to drag groceries through the house and around two nosy puppies!  He also had room to get back to his workbenches so all the his junk stuff is now back where it belongs and out of my way.  I gave him until today, the Statute of Limitations on My Work Bench was up and I was going to take care of it myself if he didn't get it moved by today.  He was off Friday afternoon so he got busy.  Yesterday, I rearranged a lot of my shelf stuff and found a few things to clean out, get rid of and/or take to the booth.  All my birdfeeders are now back on one shelf and my/Otter's planting stuff is on it's own shelf.  We use the workbench for repotting plants, as well as for crafting.  I transplanted a small cactus from a long planter into a smaller pot, since I now have room on my bench.

 

Now, to get all the pachinko crud pieces out of the living room!

Wolves

Apparently, last week's storm wasn't officially a Spring Storm.  It was just a storm.

 

However, we could get the first official Spring Storm tonight.  And the second one possibly tomorrow.

 

We are not expected to get anything bad here, we could get rain and thunder which could also include hail.  But it is not expected to be the B.A.D. stuff.

 

This is what the forecasters have been doing for a while on tv:

Crying Wolf!

People are a little more aware of the weather this year, mostly due to May 20, 2013.  That's not a bad thing, to be aware.  The problem is that the forecasters are dramatic on a good day and ridiculous on a bad day.  Today is probably not going to be a B.AD. day, but they are making is seem like it's a given that it will be.  This will continue for a while, every time we have even the slightest chance of a storm.  The result will be that people will eventually (maybe soon) stop even listening, because the forecasters are so dramatic.  That could well mean that when something does happen, more people will be hurt because the idiotic forecasters will have turned people off from being warned!

 

We finally finished Otter's birthday cake today.  It wasn't a huge cake, but it was big enough.

 

The Aripachi machines have all gone on their way to their new home!  The garage actually has a floor, I'd kind of forgotten about that.  :)

 

Frasier was playing with Bill while ago.  BigStink (dog's nickname, not Bill!) was bouncing around and seemed to be having a good time.  At one point, Bill draped one of their blankets over the dog and he ran around the living room for a while with it on.  He wasn't afraid of it or anything, he just didn't seem to care about the fact that it was on him.  When SuperDog decided it was time to go out, he went out the dog door and the blanket went part of the way out with him.  I think he's having a well-deserved doggy nap now.  He's just like a big puppy!

 

Maggie Moo isn't being ignored, she was part of the fun as well.  It's just that it's amazing to me how young Frasier is acting.  It's wonderful.

 

I went out in the back yard earlier.  While I was out there, I was looking at my Redbud tree which is covered in tiny pink buds and blossoms.  It's beautiful.  It was covered in honeybees!  They generally leave me alone, they are not aggressive so I felt safe to get pretty close.  They just zoomed around me and continued on their way to redbud blossoms.  There were a LOT of bees.  Enough that I think someone in the are might have hives.  They could be from a wild hive, but I don't think so.  Either way, they are more than welcome!

 

But no yellow jackets or hornets are allowed.  EVER.

We Got There..

It was 31 degrees when we left the house this morning.  Maybe that means that my Fall allergies will be a little better?  It won't knock them all out until we have a good, hard freeze.  That may be a little while.  But I'm hoping that at least some of the crud has been killed.

 

I also had my first official nosebleed of the season.  Dry air always causes them.  It wasn't bad, it was just unexpected.  But, being a redhead...  Anyway, I put the humidifier in the bedroom a couple of nights ago, on my side of the bed and close to the head of the bed.  It has helped some, I've slept better and when I wake up I'm less stuffy.

 

Not cold enough for a fire yet, though.  We still need to get the chimney cleaned anyway, which we are going to try to schedule for Thanksgiving week since Bill's taking vacation days that week.  If, that is, I can ever remember which company we used in 2009 when we had the chimney rebuilt!

 

The dogs seem to be enjoying the colder weather as well.  When I got home, Otter and I let the dogsters out in the back yard while we did "walnut patrol."  They were very playful.  Frasier particularly.  He ran and ran and ran and ran and ran...To Infinity and Beyond.  He ran over Maggie Moo several times, she finally figured it out and she tried to trip him several times.  She was on the losing end of his craziness quite a bit but she seemed to have as good a time as he did.  He was so funny, I have never seen him run quite so much and he was smiling.  If the grey on his muzzle wasn't so evident, I'd say he was a young puppy.

 

Walnut Patrol consists of picking up black walnuts which fall from the tree in the (nice) neighbor's back yard.  The tree in question was originally outside of his yard, but then fence the builders put up many years ago enclosed the tree into his yard.  The builder is going to move the fence, but the neighbor is contesting it so it's still in his yard.  The builder will probably eventually win the this one.  When that happens, the builder will take out the tree which is not in good shape anyway.  It never really recovered from the ice storm in 2007.  It's a Black Walnut tree and we've literally picked up hundreds of the things.  It has always dropped them in our yard, but never as bad as this year.  They are poisonous if the dogs eat them, or at least can make them sick.  Of course, that means that the dogs love them!  The neighbor may take the tree down himself, he said it would work great to use with his smoker.  Whichever way, either the builder or the neighbor, I hope it is taken out soon.  It won't take much, another ice storm or a bad wind storm like we had last summer and the tree may not still be standing.  The problem is that it might not be standing because it fell over in my yard, on my shed, on my fence or on someone or someone's pets.

 

TGIF tomorrow!

Limber

We had plans on getting the rest of the limb pile transferred to the front yard today, we were going to do that when we got home.  But the City beat us to it, so there are no limbs in my front yard anymore.   I'm not complaining, by the way.  I wasn't really looking forward to hauling limbs around.  There are still some, but the bulk of what we had was already piled in the yard.  The City will pick up small amounts of limbs in the regular trash pick up, they have to be in 4' bundles and tied up but that's not a problem.  I'll probably get out to the limb pile on Sunday and get some of them ready to go for next Tuesday's trash pick up.

 

There was another hornet in the office today.  Same place as the last one, I got it out the same way but it was bigger.  And I could tell it was definitely a hornet and not a wasp.  We can't find any sign of a nest anywhere.  We think that they might be getting in when the garage door is opened and them coming in through the door from the garage when it gets opened.  We're going to look again tomorrow, but I don't think that they are nesting at the office itself.  Hope not, anyway!

 

Tomorrow is 9 years since we moved into this house.  We usually have a pizza, since that was our first meal here but I think we're going to skip it this time.  Otter's going to her anime convention this weekend, she'll be gone from Friday to Sunday.  Bill and I already have pizza plans for Friday evening.  And we'll probably make chocolate ice cream on Saturday.

 

Froggy, I'm still working on your crocheted "something."  I keep adding more things to the list of stuff to make for you, that's what is taking so long.  I am thinking that one particular item is going to be frogged out partially and redone, since I decided that I'm not happy with the way it turned out.  I know your birthday was Monday, but look at it this way:  you'll have longer to celebrate!

Still Out On a Limb

But not today!

 

We had planned on getting the rest of the limbs shifted to the front today, but it's very windy and Bill doesn't want me to be out in it.  Wind like this can (and has) cause me to have significant allergy and/or asthma issues.  So I'm listening to him (for once!) and staying inside this evening.  We also could get rain tonight, and it's very cloudy.

 

I called the City today, and after many tries I managed to get through.  I felt sorry for the poor girl who answered, she sounded so overwhelmed.  Basically, they don't know when they will start the pick-up process, they are giving people a few days to call in.  But they hope to get it all done within about 3 weeks.  Yes, they will pick up any limbs they see so if people haven't called in they will still have their limbs picked up - IF they are on a street where other neighbors have called in.  Since it's still going to be a few days at least, we're probably ok to let the rest of our limbs wait.  We might get them tomorrow, it depends on the weather.  But if by some miracle they do get them tomorrow, we don't have that many left and we'll be able to put them out with our normal trash pick-up.  They'll have to be in smaller bundles and tied together, but that won't be an issue.

 

Bill did mow the back yard as soon as he got home.  Just from a couple of days ago, it's already grown quite a bit.  If we do get more rain in the next few days, it's going to be even longer.

 

Otter's busy working on her costumes for the even she's going to this weekend.  She's sewing a red skirt and a white one, then she's got a few other pieces she's working on.  Two of her costumes have horns, one of her friends made them for her for very little $$ and Otter attached them to headbands.  She has wigs for each costume, there are 3 in all.  Two of them have full-face makeup, I'll eventually get some pictures of Otter in cosplay.  She just won't be recognizable!

Out on a Limb

(The pictures loaded out of order, for some reason.)

 

Anyway.  This is what we've been doing today:

Piling limbs!

The city finally announced that they will be picking up limbs.  We still have to call them and let them know, which makes no sense whatsoever.  The limbs have to be 8' or shorter and piled by the street.  But not in the street (obviously), not too close to mailboxes or street signs, etc.  The limb piles are bigger than they look.

 

We've been piling limbs in a corner of the back yard for a while, mostly it is storm damage.  Just not from one storm!  (The City doesn't care, they just want it to be tree debris and not trash.)  There are a few limblets that got trimmed and placed in the pile, but they were pretty small.  We're still not through, there are a few more.  Maybe one more pile or two, in the size we've put them in at the street.  They are bigger than they look in the pictures.

 

I'll call the city tomorrow.  Our neighbors all seem to be doing the same thing we are, there are more chainsaw sounds than anything else!

 

We found this in the back yard as well.  Spiderweb!

 

A really big one.
S

It was hanging between one of the trees in the back yard and one of the shepherd's hooks that I hang birdfeeders on.

It was taken yesterday morning, it was getting foggy and the web picked up any available light and reflected it.

Woodpile from today.  This is probably about 1/2 a rick, but it is maple so it will burn fairly quickly.  It's got a few months to age still.  The larger pieces came from the neighbor - he cut down an entire tree and put it in one of his limb piles but he gave us the big pieces.  There are a couple more pieces but I'm not sure if we'll get them or not.

 

No injuries!  And Bill even operated the chainsaw most of the day.  However, I do have billions of scrapes on my arms from dragging the limbs out to the curb.  Also, we have a few mosquito bites but some of them are from yesterday.  But we are going to be hurting tomorrow!  There were about a billion grasshoppers in the yard.  I saw one tiny frog.  Bill saw one mouse, it was running under the old limb pile.  And one dead spider, which I think had been there for a while.  No rats, which we thought might be in the woodpile.  And, probably more important - no snakes with rattlebutts!  We're still going to be cautious when we finish moving the old limb pile to the curb, which we'll probably do tomorrow after work.  That is, assuming that we can actually move.

 

Bill said that he felt like rigor mortis was setting in, he was beginning to be stiff.  I'm not looking forward to getting out of bed tomorrow.  You'll probably hear us screeching!

Tree Tales

We got our electricity back sometime yesterday, we were down less than 24 hours but there are still parts of the Tulsa area that are without it.  We don't usually have to wait as long as some areas do, which I think is because our lines are buried and when the lines leading to ours get fixed, that fixes ours.

 

We did not lose anything in the fridge or freezer.  I had been trying to get to the grocery store for days but hadn't made it yet.  Which is probably a good thing!  I did manage to get there today, Wallyworld was busy and running out of things.  Probably because a lot of people did lose things and are re-stocking.

 

We had a whole bunch of tree limbs to deal with.  It was not really light enough to tell when Bill left for work yesterday morning.  When Otter and I left, it was earlier than normal and I didn't spend a lot of time out in the back yard beyond standing out on the deck and checking the roof.  The roof seems to be fine, none of the limbs hit it as far as we can tell and the shingles all look good.  Bill said that there is a house not too far from where he works and it looks like just about all the shingles were peeled off of the roof - wind will do that!

 

We did discover that the gate was open.  We didn't discover that until we were hauling limbs around yesterday afternoon, which means that it was open the entire time the dogs were running in and out the back door yesterday morning.  It was obviously wind that forced it open, two pieces of the wooden slats were broken off but Bill was able to fix it.  He also got the back yard mowed yesterday, the grass was growing fast due to all the rain we've had and it already looks like it's on the verge of needing to be mowed again.  He mowed the front yard this afternoon.

 

The limbs are all piled up.  Tulsa is picking up limbs starting next week.  We don't live in Tulsa, we live near-ish to Tulsa.  Our area will be doing limited limb pick up but the residents have to request it and there are a lot of regulations.  We'll probably just start cutting the limbs to 4' lengths, binding them together and then putting them out with our regular trash.  They will pick them up that way as part of the regular trash pick-up.  But some of it will be cut up and put aside for firewood.

 

We could get more rain tonight.  We are already under a flash flood watch, but we are not supposed to get the high winds like we got Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  That one was forecast, but it wasn't supposed to be anywhere near as bad as it actually was.

 

Like Bill always says, the forecasters couldn't predict a hole if they dug it themselves!

Weather Update

Bad storms came through Tulsa and surrounding areas overnight.  We were awakened by the power going out shortly after midnight.  I set one of the cell phone alarms to wake us up on time, but we were awake before it went off.

 

We have no power yet, the electric company is saying that it may be "days" until everyone is restored because its so widespread.  Like nearly to the Kansas border!  My office still has power, so I brought my laptop with me.  I also brought Otter with me, she had no desire to stay home in a dark, warm house.

 

Our power lines are buried, but the ones leading to us are not so we sometimes have power outages caused by problems in other areas.  We'll see how long it lasts, in the meantime we are actually ok.  Because the Borg Queen is always prepared.

 

We do have some tree damage, looks like we lost a lot of limbs in the back yard.  Nothing in the front yard, but most of our neighbors seem to have a lot of tree damage both front and back.  The tree limbs are all over my back yard but I could also see limbs that were broken off but were caught in the trees and not down yet.  Bill has been planning on mowing the lawn for 2 or 3 days, but it has rained every time he planned to mow.  Maybe today, although I think he'll probably be busy with tree limbs instead.

 

If the power isn't restored soon to our area, we might not be able to call long distance because of the cell towers.  If they go down, we won't be able to use the cell phones but we still have landline phones at home.  We'll be able to make local calls, just not long distance.

 

The dogs are unaffected, they didn't mind eating in the dark this morning.  They seemed to be happy with the fact that we had the doors open for fresh air, they spent a lot of time going in and out the back door.  Then, they curled up for a nap.

 

They might be on to something!