Across the street at our house: I didn't move fast enough to get a picture of the rainbow at its peak. It had already begun to fade.
A football game generally takes a couple hours, give or take a few minutes. Today, Tim's beloved Pittsburgh Steelers played at 1PM. The game didn't finish until five or thereabouts.
The weather was pretty bizarre today and the game was delayed due to weather. Tim was mystified by that until it moved from there to here. The sky got dark and the thunder and lightning started. In Pittsburgh, there was high winds and even hail on top of the thunder storm. The game resumed shortly after 3PM, and it was about the same time we found ourselves marveling over a rainbow stretching across a bright blue sky. My daughter had a double rainbow over her house, and got a nice picture of it. Directly after that the game was delayed once again in Pittsburgh, and before long, it began to get very dark here, and another thunderstorm moved through. Thunderstorms are not common at this time of the year, so it was an unusual day.
At my daughter's garage across town:
Eventually, the game was finished, and Tim's team was trounced.
My big accomplishments for the day?
I took all the styrofoam packaging from the kitchen island and used it to line a box and make a cozy insulated cat place. I have a black stray cat who hangs around. We feed him. We tried to bring him inside but he has no interest in being an indoor cat. This does not stop him from standing on his hind legs to gaze beseechingly into the kitchen when his food bowl is empty. We leave the mudroom door ajar so that he has a place to get out of the weather, and he has a cozy bed there. Now that cozy bed is inside an insulated box, which is covered by a by a old thermal blanket.
It makes me feel less guilty about him.
I also got my Christmas cards done, so another box ticked.
And so another day passes quietly in an unquiet world.
I send out about 2/3 of my Holiday newsletters out by email. I finished the ones I send out so I should get them out in the mail soon. I love double rainbows too.
ReplyDeleteI never saw so many rainbows as I saw in Hawaii! Double rainbows are almost a daily thing there during the rainy season.
DeleteYuk - fancy not bothering to clean in between tenants. Over here, tenants have to leave the property cleaned and spruced, or risk losing their deposit. In the flat my son and his girlfriend are in, there is a £1,000 deposit which they will lose, as every time the owner claims the last occupant took the sink out. The bond is held by a particular company - you would think they had smelt a rat as he's done this to the past 3 tenants . . .
ReplyDeleteGlad stray black cat has a snug styrofoam-lined box to sleep in at night (and food on demand).
You see the top of his little head and his little marble eyes peering in, two furry paws on each side of that face. He looks like a little goblin.
DeleteIt's a relief to read that; I began to think that I was the only person in blogland who had days like that! Just as dull here yesterday - but without any rainbows.
ReplyDeleteSundays are normally quiet days here.
Deleteand normally without rainbows as well!
DeleteNot a good landlord/agent. We didn't get a chance to clean before we moved in, but we are renting from a friend and had pressure to move out from an unpleasant landlady.
ReplyDeleteWill you have another cat indoors in a year or so?😉
Rainbows always lift the spirits.
The back story on this is that there was a furnace that would not shut off. The woman owed a huge gas bill that she could not pay, and the landlord/manager would not fix the furnace. So she had to move out. I'm going to guess that she was also behind on her rent and knew that she wouldn't be getting a deposit back, so she just left it. I don't understand that landlord. He lives in New Jersey or NYC or something like that, and hires a local guy to manage the property. The local guy doesn't care. Problems no matter what they are, are simply not addressed. The biggest problem he has right now is that he has a very difficult tenant. She has been there a long time. She fights with all the other tenants. In just this month, the building lost two of its four tenants. The one lived under her. He considered himself a quiet downstairs tenant. She was poundig on his ceiling at every noise, so hard that the a ceiling fan quit working. The other woman left when she threatened to run over her grandchild. The police were called on that one. As landlords, we'd never permit that to continue. We did choose not to renew a tenant's lease because she was a problem. She fought with other tenants and she was entertaining in the basement. (Don't ask, you don't want to know). I don't understand landlords like that, really.
Deleteand the second cat? I doubt it, sincerely. The little mooch does not want to be an indoor cat. He does want food and a comfortable place to sleep. If we ever die, he'd take the house in a heartbeat, but he doesn't like people all that much.
DeleteThat is irresponsible to let the running of the house go on like that.
DeleteThe cat..at least you have helped him be happy!
We had a quiet day here and the weather was quite dreary - a rather typical December day!
ReplyDeleteIt's the time of the year for dreary days, isn't it?
DeleteGood for you, helping another cat as best you can. We had stormy weather yesterday but not like yours.
ReplyDeleteCats will only be helped as much as they let you help them. The mind of a cat is a strange and twisty thing.
DeleteThat photo of your daughter's house is so atmospheric. She captured the colour of the sky and that rainbow so well.
ReplyDeleteI wish she would have stepped back, aimed a bit left, and caught her house and garage in the picture. I bet that was amazing. She said it arched over her house perfectly.
DeleteWe had cold, cold weather with snow. Just thought I had lost my cat, but we found her upstairs next to a radiant fire in my daughter's bedroom.
ReplyDeleteCats know where the comfortable places are.
DeleteThese feel like the dead days to me. I just want to get through them.
ReplyDeleteNormally I move through this season with some amount of grace, but I will tell you true: this year, the season is kicking my ass.
DeleteIn my experience, moving into a dirty place, apartment or house, is more common than moving into a clean place. When we sold our last house, we spent an entire day scrubbing every surface only to move into a house where the previous owners had left trash bags full of debris everywhere. One bedroom even had leftover pizza crusts strewn about that were so putrid I started to gag when I walked in. The worst part, is that this is a small town and the previous owners are prominent business owners. Fortunately, their business is one I can easily avoid for there are several others that do the same and we evidently run in different social circles because I haven't run into them, that I know of anyway, in all these years.
ReplyDeleteThe house I live in now belonged to a very prominent citizen in our town as well. He bought the house and was in the process of losing it back to the bank. He fought it every step of the way, for two long years. And every week for those two years, he brought a bag or two of garbage into the house and parked it. The first two stories were packed with garbage bags. When the bank got it back, the city forced them to clean the property up as it was considered a health hazard. It was drawing rats and vermin. I hear his deep voice on the radio sometimes, and he sounds like such a class act....
DeletePeople are so strange…
DeleteThere was only one good thing about the weather and that was the rainbow.
ReplyDeleteIt was some strange weather, but the rainbows are always a treat to see.
DeleteTrying to get back to normal after Covid. My son is starting to feel a bit better so I'm trying to get busy with laundry and decorating. Thanks for the reminder to work on my Christmas cards!
ReplyDeleteOh, now I feel like a Christmas nag!
DeleteWhen i die I want to come back as a stray cat in your neighborhood.....
ReplyDeleteI wish there were no stray cats. The poor things.
DeleteI've often thought of coming back as a cat...but I'd prefer to be pampered and sit on everyone's lap and leave long hairs everywhere! That weather does sound strange! Glad that's past by now. Oh renting over the majority of my life, I've been very fortunate to always find good landlords and I could recommend every one...who also promptly returned my deposits.
ReplyDeleteHoudi has wandered in and curled up in front of the heater keeping a wary eye on the Christmas tree. He would complain that he only gets one can of cat food a day.
DeleteIt's a nice feeling to know that cat has a warm place to snuggle up, I'm sure!
ReplyDeleteYou and Tim are much better landlords than most. Trust me on this.
I honestly always thought it was a requirement to clean between tenants. I was surprised that it is not. I mean, we will continue to always do that, but it really should be a requirement.
ReplyDeleteI struggle to capture rainbows with my camera, so I think both of these are good. I've yet to do my Christmas cards (I only send out just a few), but I did get all my packages mailed.
ReplyDeleteLook at us go: ticking boxes and getting it done!
Delete