No Two Kids are the Same

 My 6 year old granddaughter is a very sweet and kind girl. She's polite. She's funny and friendly and smart as a whip. What she is NOT is a fighter. 

We all met at the McDonald's which was part way between where we live and they live to do the great tomato exchange. The idea was to give the girls a chance to run their energy off between the 1 1/2 hour drive there, and the 1 1/2 drive back. 

It has a great climbing cage that goes all the way to the ceiling and it has a piano slide. When the girls were turned loose in it, they had a great time, but there were two boys there as well. The oldest boy and my oldest granddaughter were about the same age. The youngest boy was a year older than my youngest granddaughter. 

Now the boys were much more boisterous than our two girls. They ran at the girls screaming "MONSTERS! MONSTERS!!!" and making grabbing motions in their faces. They crowded close to them while they were climbing, not exactly pushing, but just being physically in the way. 

It wasn't that their grandparents weren't telling them to stop it. They were. 

It wasn't that the boys weren't listening. They were. 

However, ever so slowly, it would begin again. They would begin to crowd and make clawing motions in the 6 year old's face, and she'd get weepy and run for her mama. 

The grandparents would scold the little boys and tell them to back off...but...then ever so slowly, once again...

At one point,  Miss Six was teaching Miss Two how to climb, and the two boys pushed in past and began making roaring noises and clawing motions at the girls' faces. My daughter in law and I opened our mouthes to say something when the two year old took matters into her own capable hands. She got right back into the boys' faces and let loose a scream that could make ears bleed. I mean, I have heard screaming children before, but really, this little gal has a set of lungs on her like you have never heard in your life. 

The other grandma was up in a second, fearing that the boys had hurt someone, and the boys got another stern talking to. Their grandfather threatened to take them home. Shit got real. 

I looked at my daughter in law and said, "Those two girls are as different as night and day, aren't they? That little gal is fearless!"

My daughter in law said, "Her father believes that she's going to be that girl that goes to school with a brick in her purse."

Moving right along.

That's what we've been working on today...the layout of the kitchen. The stove goes between the lazy susan in the corner, and the short drawered cabinet. The sink will center under the window, the dishwasher (which we have not bought yet, will go to the right of the sink with the cabinet on the other side. Tim gave in about the microwave being above the stove. It will sit on the lazy susan cabinet in the corner. It's such a deep corner anyway, and that will make it a bit more functional. We've got three top cabinets, and the undersink set-up needs to be built, but we have the matching doors for it. 

Today, two of the kittens came when I called. Not to me exactly, but they settled down on their haunches and listened interestedly as I talked. I saw all four of the kittens, but did not see their mother, which probably accounts as to why they were a bit more social. I also realized that Mini and Gaza look so much alike that I was confusing them. Gaza has a heart pattern on her side. Mini does not. But it was surprising to me that they are very close to the same size. Sigh is still the smallest. When I fed them, I sat there while they ate, and they were a little nervous but did not seem to mind terribly. 

I took a picture of Tim by the bulldozer they dropped off yesterday and sent it to William. I wrote, 'grandpa got a new toy.' He'll wet his pants when he sees that.

I am not sure why this struck me as hilarious, but it did. 

Lawd, Lawd, I laughed so hard.

I want a flag. 

I got tomatoes today! 

Tomorrow, I'm heading east to meet up with my daughter in law and the girls. 

We will meet at lunch time at a McDonalds that has a piano slide: 

I think that this will blow their little minds. It will also give them a bit of time to wear themselves out before the ride back home with two bushels of tomatoes for their mama.

This and That

 Today, I spent the day scrubbing out all the cabinets for the kitchen and getting a basic idea of how the kitchen will be set up. It is getting kind of cool at this point. 

Two points that have come up for discussion. I want the tops of the cupboard enclosed. I don't want that gap between the ceiling and the top of the cupboard. My cupboards have always been open at the top. I hate it. And today, I spent the day cleaning someone else's grime off the top of my new (to me) cupboards.

I've also always had those small cupboards above the refrigerator and stove, and I consider them the most useless things. I'm short, and have to haul a chair over to access them. The one over the stove collects grime. (See previous paragraph). So. I don't want that. 

It is an entirely new concept to Tim and he's having trouble visualizing. 

We can just put a hood over the stove and let it go. We've got a pantry. We don't need inconvenient storage in the kitchen. In my opinion, we've got more kitchen cabinets than we actually need. 

So. What say you? 

I have only seen two kittens for the past week, so I am wondering if we've had a spot of animal kingdom drama while we were not there. I'd hate to think so, and they are shy cats, so who knows at this point. Tiger and Possum come when they are called, and they will eat while I sit there, but if I move a muscle, they freeze with huge eyes and then simultaneously bolt. I've noticed that they are not running far at this point. Just far enough so that they can keep an close eye on me in from a safe place. 

I've been reading a Blubird Flour Cookbook from 1920. It is interesting to me that they simply assume that every kitchen has hired help. Emily Post's book on Etiquette has a whole section devoted to determining the minimum staffing to efficiently run your home. 

It's such a different mindset. 

We'll be up and at 'em early tomorrow. They dropped off a very large bulldozer at our house to begin work on the road. I know Tim will want to be there to keep an eye on that.

Unbelievable.

 You know how things just pop into your mind sometimes? Last night, I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep and failing miserably at it, and I thought of a name. It just popped into my head. He was a coworker, a quiet, awkward sort of fellow. He was middle aged, clean cut. He collected the recycling where I worked. 

He had a crush on a girl, and it was very obvious. Like him, she was an athlete. She was a runner. He always stopped to talk with her as he passed the table where she worked. She always spoke to him pleasantly enough, but once he was gone, she giggled and sniggered to her friends and made fun of him for being weird. 

Meanwhile, another girl watched the recycling man with big moony eyes from another table. He didn't notice her. 

It was just a strange little triangle, and I felt sorry for him, because he was quiet, and polite, and a very hard worker. For some people, I guess it is just not enough. 

I lost track of the work dramas when I retired, but then there was a shocking story. A man from our county had gone to upstate NY. He'd begun behaving very erratically. He crashed his vehicle after a chase, and then he exited the vehicle with a gun. Ultimately, he was shot and killed by the police. 

I kept thinking that I recognized the name. I knew that I knew that name. It suddenly came to me. It was my coworker, my quiet, polite coworker. 

I was stunned. 

Last night more than a year after he died, he came to mind yet again and I wondered what had actually happened there. There was a lot of talk, a lot of conjecture, but I had never heard what actually happened. Some people felt it was drugs. He never struck me as a drug person. My theory was that he was into some serious physical fitness stuff, and he was taking supplements. I knew that some of those supplements can be dangerous. Some can even cause psychotic breaks. I also kind of had the feeling that he had struggled with some previous mental health issues. I don't know why. Perhaps it was his lack of self awareness. Or maybe it was just his awkwardness around people. If he was taking some sort of drugs for that, perhaps a supplement had interacted badly.

I got my sleepless self out of bed and came out to see if I could find the results of the autopsy and the toxicology reports. I was soon immersed in the case. In the end, I was wrong. It was drugs. He had quite a pharmacy inside his truck. 

You never really know people, do you? 

I was about to close out and head back for bed when the body cam footage came up. I didn't want to watch, but couldn't NOT watch. It was 14 minutes long. Four police officers pleaded with him to put down his gun and step away from it. They told him repeatedly that whatever was wrong could be fixed, that they wanted to help. 

And then I heard it: "DO NOT POINT THAT GUN AT US. DON'T DO IT." 

The rest was lost in a hail of gun fire.

The video ended with them doing first aid as they waited for the ambulance. 

I shut down the computer and headed back to bed, but I lay awake for a while longer, and I thought of an awkward, lonesome guy, a hard worker. He just was the very last person in the world that I could imagine dying the way he did. 

One and half years later, in the middle of the night, I still cannot quite fathom it. 

The Excitement Builds

 Today, Tim lightly sanded and used the tack cloth on the walls, and I gave them a second coat of polyurethane. It looks pretty nice. 

Pixie asked about the advisability of using wood on the walls. The only room with the wood walls is the livingroom. It kind of curls around to the entrance. I'll take a picture to explain at some point. The rest of the house is painted drywall. Timber walls are not an issue in our minds to prevent decorating the walls. If you notice, there are grooves between each of the planks. That's where we would install the nails for the picture hangers. (No walls will be hurt in the decorating process.) 

Tim worked on his food plot for a while, and one of the kittens approached him to be fed, which was interesting. 

We waited until it was good and hot to do our next project after the finishing the walls. We drove the truck down the hill and we pulled the cupboards that we bought probably 3 or 4 years ago. I knew that I loved them when I saw them, but then, when things are tucked away for many years, I forget just how much I loved them, and why I loved them. These are nice cabinets. I still love them, thankfully.

Just to refresh your minds, a tornado struck the small town of Starbrick several years back. We were in Washington DC at the time, and so we missed all the hubbub. But one of the houses badly damaged belonged to our friend, Terry. Two trees fell on his house. The kitchen was fine, but as long as he was having the rest of his house fixed up, he decided that he'd never really liked the layout of his kitchen. He decided to tear it out and redesign the whole thing. 

Knowing that we stockpile stuff for rentals, he asked if we wanted to buy the cupboards. At $500 for a nice kitchen, we immediately said yes. It was a bit of a rush job, but we got the stuff loaded up, hauled to the old house where we were storing the stuff for the new house, unloaded everything, and then headed back and did the whole process once more. 

A few months later, we had a bad storm and two trees blew down on the old house where we were storing the cupboards. "Hmmmmmm," I said. "Perhaps these cupboards have some bad juju..." Tim does not believe in juju, bad or otherwise. 

So. Anyways, we got everything into the new house, and I will spend tomorrow with Murphy's Oil Soap cleaning them all up. They are gorgeous. I forgot. I like them a lot. That was a good buy. 

Other than that, there is not much to report. 

My daughter-in-law mentioned that tomatoes are $22 a half bushel where she lives. She was well and truly shocked. They've had a much drier summer than we have and so it didn't surprise me, not really. Anyways, I stopped in and talked to Albert, our produce guy. Quite serendipitously, he is headed to an Amish produce auction tomorrow evening. They bid on the produce, but he felt that he could get me two bushels of tomatoes for between $16 and $20 a bushel. 

If he can get them, I'll be headed east to meet up with my son's family halfway. I'll get grandma time with the littles and I'll get to hear all about school. The oldest is, for the first time, in a different class from her very best friends. 

When I was there for her birthday, she told me about these sad circumstances. 

I said, "I learned something about you at your party. Want to know what it was?" 

She was very curious.

I said, "Well, I learned that you are a very friendly girl who has a very nice circle of friends that she loves, and who love her right back. So I think that what will happen when you walk in that classroom is that you will find new friends to add to that circle. You will enlarge your circle of friends. And that is not a bad thing."

She listened very intently to this. 

Her first day of school was yesterday, and I sent her a little message via her mother's chat. I made four predictions: 1) that her teacher was very nice. 2) that she made new friends. 3) that she had a great day at school and 4) that her little sister was very happy to see her getting off the bus a the end of the day. 

I was right on all four things. She typed back to me all by herself and it began, 'Dear Grandma. You were right! I did enlarge my circle of friends.' 

I'll treasure that little message forever. 

And if everything goes right, I'll have a chance to hear these fine stories in person on Friday or Saturday. I'm very excited about this.

Pictures

 Today when we got to the new build, quite surprisingly, we had a flock of turkey at the front door, a dozen of them. They split up, 5 of them walking in front of the house in an unhurried way, and 7 of them heading to the back of the house to climb up the gigantic pile of dirt (which will hopefully be gone next week). 

Tim was very excited about that, mostly because we also saw a flock of turkeys yesterday afternoon, but this was a different flock. He's a happy chappy. 

We got inside and went to work. DrumMajor wondered if we had to put polyurethane on the walls. Short answer: yes. The tongue and groove boards are pine boards. If we didn't seal them, they'd show dirt and scuffs and grimy hands. We don't use a high gloss finish. We don't like that. We use a satin finish. It is a clear. In short, it looks the same as it did before it was finished. Behold the sealed walls. 

Compare to the unsealed wall.  

And while we are on the topic, (we're not, but bear with me), here is the ceiling. Didn't it turn out great? All that mudding and taping and sanding and priming and painting was totally worth it, wasn't it?

(Yes it was, but by heavens, we're not going to do this again).

 

We have opened up the washer and dryer and slid it into the place where it will go. 

Yesterday, we heard a firm knock on the door. Tim answered it. It was the police. The 'Window Buster Boys' have been apprehended, thanks, in large part to the video one of them posted about their night. 

Still makes me laugh. 

Anyhow the officer suggested that we turn in an estimate to them. They are going to try to get restitution for everyone. Tim went over to the glass repair and hand carried their $450 estimate to the police. I'm not sure how many houses they hit, but know that it was, at a minimum, 4. We know the damage was extensive to one house. I don't see a gang of young teenagers ever making this right, in terms of money, anyway, but we can hope that now that these kids are on the police radar, and this is a chance for them to straighten up and fly right. 

An acquaintance had an herb garden that was her pride and joy, but has gotten behind on it due to illness. She posted yesterday to see if anyone wanted oregano plants. 

I do, I do!

Meeting with her tomorrow. I'm interested to see if there is anything else, she wants thinned. I am getting my own herb garden together. I showed Tim my intentions for the yard outside the door. Much to my surprise, he is agreeable to it. It involves fencing so that I can compost again without attracting undesirables. 

I saw two of the kittens today, Possum and Tiger. They came when I called and they ate as I sat there. 

Trump is complaining because they are going to mute microphones during the debate. What a whiny baby. They wouldn't be doing such a thing if he could control himself. 

Dream

 I had the craziest dream last night. I was Christmas shopping. Not such a stretch because I am Christmas shopping right now, picking up things as I get ideas or see things on sale. It's how I always do Christmas.

Anyways, I dreamt that I was in a store and it was like a bonanza. I was finding great things for specific people in my life, and I was excited about the things. I was putting things in the cart and then I came upon something on a shelf. I knew immediately that it was the perfect gift for my parents. I was so excited about it. I can't even tell you what it was, but it was the right gift and I knew it. I knew that they'd both be very excited about it. I put it in the cart with all the things I'd chosen for the grands and for my children. 

I woke up and there was this lingering feeling of joy about this. Except that my parents have been gone for a long time now. My dad for 23 years, my mother for 13. 

Funny thing how the mind works, isn't it? 

I spent today polyurethaning the walls of the living room. I am half done. Tim worked on some receptacles and got the yard mowed. I will finish up tomorrow. Then it will be time to start pulling the cupboards from their storage place and hauling them to the new build and seeing how it will all fit. 

AC? You were right. I see the indent now. I never noticed it before. The things I learn from blogs!

Cat Tails.

 Tim was talking to a neighbor when someone else came over and said, "I've lost a cat. He's a long hair black cat." 

Tim said, mildly, "He's in our driveway right now. Go get him." 

I'd be quite interested to know who that fellow is. How, exactly he defines 'pet ownership'. Goblin is a cat who has been a stray for as long as we've been here. We tried to bring him inside a long time ago. Probably 10 years or so, but we couldn't do it. He did not want to be an indoor cat. He was most unhappy. So...reluctantly, we ceded to his demands and left him outside. 

We do feed him, however, and we've been feeding him for years. As soon as he hears a sound from the kitchen, he is at the back door, standing on his hind legs, peering in the window in a beseeching way. He looks like a hairy little goblin face with two hairy paws on each side. That's how he got his name. He gets 1/2 of a can of cat food at breakfast, and the other half last thing at night and believe me, he knows EXACTLY when it's meal time. There is a dish of dry kibble for nibbling on in between those two events, and he will be the first to tell you that he is not fed nearly enough. At the top of his feline lungs, he will tell you his sad story. 

So...this fellow, whoever he is, doesn't 'own' this cat. He's welcome to him, if he wants him, but Goblin will never be an indoor cat. We gave it our best shot. But if the man wants a fine outdoor cat, he only has to sit down with him and come to an agreement on the food situation. A full can of cat food morning and night would be enough to convince Goblin that the pickings are better on the other side of the fence. We would never see him again.  

The hairy mooch.

My brother-in-law and sister stopped in to see the painting at the new house and were impressed. I went down to show them the kittens. They agreed that they are cute, the ones that they saw anyway. Gaza came out, which surprised me. There were four of us standing there and two were men. She does not like men's voices. I sat down on the ground and she did her darting thing. I got a pet in, but that's about it. But still, I took it as a positive sign that she came to visit a crowd of people. 

My sister said, "That cat looks pregnant." I winced. Yesterday, when she hissed and took a swipe at me, I had put my hand in my lap, told her no, in a quiet way. I wanted to be sure that she understood that when she behaved like that, she would get no more pets. In a considering way, she flopped down and began to groom herself. She stretched out lazily in the evening sun, and I thought, 'My god. I hope she's just filling out from regular feeding...' 

Now my sister was standing there giving voice to my worst fears. I said, wearily, "Just what we need: more kittens."

My sister said, "That's how we ended up with 22 cats once."

My brother in law had been the head of maintenance at a church camp for many years. She said that people simply dumped pregnant cats off. They roamed the grounds freely and they were good mousers. They were nobody's cats, but they were everywhere. 

22 cats. 

The one thing that I know for sure is that the cat taming has to continue. I need to be able to pick up that cat, stuff her in a cat carrier and get her to the vet. If we don't, we will be up to our armpits in feral felines in the matter of a year. 

Late Edit: I forgot that I was going to post this: 

Feathers and Fur

I've been feeding the crows for a couple weeks now. I know that we have a great many of them around, and I am intrigued by them. They are very intelligent birds. I've read a lot of stories about them, and well, I just couldn't resist giving it a try.  I began to set out the peanuts, and they are gone in the morning, but I've never seen crows eating them. We also have squirrels and deer, raccoons, possums, rabbits, turkeys, foxes and coyotes. So...who knows? I was not sure how my little experiment was going to work out. 

Today we were priming the kitchen walls and the ceiling of the open area that is the kitchen and living room. The brush for getting the edges was no good, so Tim ran to Titusville to get another while I continued with the roller. 

The funny thing is that car had no sooner pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road when I began to hear the raucous sounds of crows. I got down from the scaffolding and went to the sliding door and there they were, at least ten of them, and they were having themselves a regular crow party. 

The timbered walls are draped in plastic to protect them from paint splatters, so I had to pull it back to look at them through the window. As soon as that plastic moved, all of them cawed loudly and lifted off simultaneously. It just made me laugh. They are definitely observant. 

Tim got back and we continued on, and we got the priming done. It was a big job and we worked all day. 

At the end of the day, I went out. Gaza and the kittens had been fed that morning, but I just wanted to see. I sat down on the ground and called her, and much to my surprise she came. She did a lot of darting and hissing and spitting. I stayed still and talked to her. She would come in to be petted, then hiss after two or three strokes and back off. Strangely though, she came back again and again, getting those pets before hissing and running off again. She is very nervous. She's also a very tiny cat, and probably not more than a year old herself, if that. At one point she did hiss and swat at my hand, claws out. I told her no, and set my hand in my lap. She lay down a couple feet from me, and stretched out lazily in the evening sun, grooming herself. 

We probably spent 20 minutes together and that's progress, I suppose. 

She is being very aggressive with her kittens. She will run them off. I've begun to feed them outside the garage while she continues to eat inside. I wonder if all mother cats do this. I only had one cat that had kittens, but she was tame. I've never been able to handle any of these kittens. I don't know if I ever will. One thing about the kittens though...now that mama has abandoned them, at least Mini is keeping a close eye on me, meowing at me when I spoke to her today. 

The funniest part is we briefly ducked out and then returned. When we pulled back in the yard, there was a might cawing and once again, a black cloud of crows raised up to the trees. 

Breakthroughs

 We had gone up to pick up some gallon jars from a woman. I'd put an ad on a local 'Helping Hands' site, about a month ago. Nothing. A couple people responded, one to tell me an estate sale had them (they didn't), another to offer gallon glass jugs, which unfortunately would not work. 

After a month, I got two hits in two days. I met a woman in the parking lot of Walmart and got 3 jars from her. The following day, another woman messaged me to say that she had five of them. Such great news! 

Even funnier, when Tim and I drove up there, it turned out it was a woman from his church. We stood in her yard talking awhile. She mentioned that her husband had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. His, unfortunately, is inoperable. 

Tim said, "That's what I had." 

She said, "I know." 

She spoke of how her husband is slowing down, and it is difficult for him, because he's always been busy, and he just can't do it any longer. 

I think that made an impression on Tim because he cannot push himself like he used to. He tires more easily. We've got to the point on this house that I simply tell him, "There is no rush. We're not homeless." The new house will be done when it gets done. End of it. 

He's kind of relaxed about things now, and he doesn't put himself under the same pressure he used to. Yesterday, at noon, we stopped working to have a sandwich, and he was looking off into space. Suddenly he said, "I wonder why Judy's husband's cancer is inoperable." 

I said, "Well, usually that means that the cancer has spread. There are a lot of lymph nodes in the groin area. When the cancer has moved into the lymph nodes, there really is no way to stop it. It's in your blood stream at that point." 

He said nothing.

It was a good opportunity to say it. "Tim, it is exactly what would have happened to you if you had chosen not to have surgery. That's why I was so afraid when you said you wouldn't have it. I know that this has brought some pretty big changes into our lives, and I know that you are unhappy with those changes, but honestly, it doesn't matter to me. I can deal with anything. I just want to have you." He listened, chewing his sandwich. He's not a demonstrative fellow. He just nodded. 

I continued, "...most days anyways." He let loose with a bray of laughter, and for the first time in a long time, things just felt normal and right between us.  

Another cool thing happened. I ran to the new house while Tim was with the Amish crew here at home. I had a cat and her kittens that needed fed, and I was planting some garlic, putting out peanuts for the crows, and such like. 

Gaza was in the field when I pulled in and when she saw me, she meowed and came running. I went inside the house and got the dry food, milk and the two cans of cat food. She bounded ahead of me to the garage. I always sit on the ground so that she can approach, and she did. She began eating from the dish before I finished preparing it. I stirred the canned cat food into the milky mixture as she ate, and I petted her two or three times. She flinched, but she was hungry and she stayed. 

Possum, one of the kittens, was quite hungry too. Gaza has begun to growl and slap at them if they approach while she is eating. I didn't like that. I dished some out for the kitten using the can from the catfood. I set it back away from Gaza so that he could eat. 

I went to the greenhouse and planted my garlic in a pot, and then headed back up to the house to lock up and leave. I saw Gaza, once again, sitting in the field, watching me. I sat down on the ground again and called to her. She came. She was hesitant, and she did that darting thing where she runs at me, veering away at the last minute. She would circle under the car to watch me. I just kept talking to her, and she would approach again, veering off at the last minute. I held out my hand and I did get another couple chances to pet her.

Change is afoot.

 There will be a short lull in house building. We've got an Amish roofing crew coming to put the new roof on the garage tomorrow, which gives me a chance to go to the book club meeting tomorrow without feeling guilty. 

The living room ceiling and kitchen walls are ready to be primed. Tim got most of the electrical outlets for upstairs installed. We agreed on a flooring for the livingroom/kitchen: A textured matte ceramic tile that looks like stone. 12 x 24 size tiles. There is quite a variation between the tiles, and it looks quite natural. It is $2.68 per tile. I also showed Tim the back splash that I liked, and surprise of surprise, he liked it too. 

So. 

It kind of seems like we're settling things pretty quickly at this point. Next week, we'll be moving the kitchen cabinets out of the old house and putting them in place, which will probably mean a run to IKEA to get the kitchen sink. 

Also, in breaking news, we got my car back from the tow company. They delivered it yesterday while I was in the shower. I was ironing when I realized it was out there, which came as a shock. Tim has ordered the parts that I need and he is happily awaiting their delivery. 

There might be other exciting news as well, but we're going to wait just a while before we talk about that one.

Politics and doctors

 Like many others, I am encouraged to see our country moving away from the direction of the far right extremism. Like many others, the Project 2025 is concerning. Some don't believe that it can be implemented, but even as they stand there saying it can't happen, they've rolled out the 180 day transition playbook.

Some people think that this is not possible, that our checks and balances will prevent such a thing from taking place. I don't understand that thinking. I saw the checks and balances crumble and fall completely during the tRUMP administration's time as people in high places changed their stripes to align with the person in power. Right or wrong was immaterial. It was all about maintaining their own hold on power, country be damned. 

So. No. I don't have a lot of faith in 'checks and balances'. 

Even more fundamental is my belief that people who even harbor such ideology should be kept as far away from positions of power as we can keep them. 

And we can. We have our vote. 

All that being said, I am not a convention watcher. The over the top hyperbole is almost too much like fanaticism. I live in a red county, and I've been seeing fanaticism for the last 10 years and it is scary stuff. Not the kind of minds a sane person would elect, that's for sure. So no. If a candidate is talking about plans for this country that are as unconstitutional as anything that I have heard in my life, he's not getting my vote, even if I feel that there is no chance of those plans coming to fruition. 

So no, I am not a convention watcher because I know who I am not voting for. And what I am not voting for. 

I did stay up to watch President Biden speak though. I felt like that was important. And once again, I felt like he was a good man, one who tried his best. I will always be ashamed of the day that he proclaimed himself a Zionist, but I think that he has done the best job that he knew how to do for this country. 

I went to the doctor yesterday for my foot. The nurse was a little surprised that I waited so long. I explained that it was the first appointment I could get with the doctor. I also told her that I felt that it was wrong that they would not tell me over the phone when my last tetanus shot was. I was told that I would get that information during the appointment. 

Now that seems wrong to me. It makes it seem as if they are putting the appointment and the money made from that appointment ahead of the patient's needs. I've been having some doubts about this practice lately. They are affiliated with my local hospital, and while I really don't mean to paint the hospital with one broad brush, I can tell you that I need a mammogram. I haven't done it because there seems to be so much confusion surrounding them. I go, and they are always surprised to discover that I had cancer. I should have divulged that when making the appointment. I didn't make the appointment. My doctor did. This misunderstanding leads to 'we can't do this today', and another appointment, an annoying kerfuffle. If it is that critical, why does the receptionist at the facility simply ask the question at the time that the appointment is being scheduled: 'Does this patient have a history of breast cancer?' Seems like a simple solution. But they don't and it has happened twice. 

That colonoscopy still bugs me. A preop appointment where they asked you questions that, if you didn't have the answer to, they simply looked it up in your records. That cheerful trainee: 'Can you tell me why you want a colonoscopy?' (Me, interestedly: 'Can you tell me if you've ever once met someone who wanted a colonoscopy?) What was the purpose of bringing me in for an appointment to get information that they already had access to? 

The appointment was made two months out, I was told I'd need tests done. A little doubtfully, I said, "Well, I probably should wait for these until closer to the time of the procedure." I was told that the doctor wanted them done ASAP, because she likes to have the results. 

A lot can change in two months though. 

In the end, I waited until two weeks before the procedure to get the things done. And then couldn't get anything done because the tests were not loaded into the system. When I contacted their office, I explained why I had waited, and he said, "Well, if you would have had them done immediately, you would have been required to repeat them, because a lot can change in two months." Moreover, one of the tests had been done incorrectly and it required another appointment with my doctor who did another test and found their test to be in error. 

That's a lot of appointments. I was supposed to go back for a follow up appointment. Crazy. I said, "I'm sure if you find something concerning, you'll let me know. If you don't, there's no reason for me to come back." The thing is, they were backlogged for two months and if they cut out some of this unnecessary stuff, they would cut that backlog too. 

My sister was quick to tell me that it was the way things are done because the insurance companies make them do it that way. Except...it's not. 

Contrast this with Tim's experience. His colonoscopy was scheduled. He received an instruction package in the mail and his appointment which was three weeks away. He followed the instructions, showed up at the facility, had the procedure done. The doctor met with us afterwards and said that everything looked great and that if the path report turned anything up, they would get in touch with us. The end. 

So needless to say, although I love my doctor, I'm not happy at the framework that she operates within. 

So I'm sitting in the office waiting for her to come in, and she breezes in, just as cheerfully as always. "How'd you step on a nail?"

I explained, and said, "Don't you think it is a little suss that my husband sends me in to get a spade? And then the spade is in a dark corner? And that when I go to reach for it, there's a tiny scrap of wood with a large nail in it?" 

She laughed and agreed. 

She asked when it happened, and I told her. I said, "I know it's kind of late for a tetanus shot now. My sister is a nurse and she's been on me about the tetanus shot. Riding my behind about it. I mean, my husband is actively trying to kill me, and she's yelling about tetanus shots. I told her she needed to focus on the big picture." 

She laughed again. I told her to remember this conversation if I died. That it might not be accidental. "The only thing saving me is my Lowe's veteran's discount." She put her head down and laughed again. "Does he know you talk about him like this?" 

"He sure does. I need him to know I've got my eye on him." I said. "He's sitting right out in the waiting room if you care to have a word."

She's a laugher, so she found that funny too. "How long was that nail?" she wanted to know. I showed her. I said that it was close to the tendon in the sole of my foot, but seemed to have missed it. There was no pain on flexion, just when I walked on it, although I had one pair of shoes that didn't seem to aggravate it. She examined it closely. In the end, she decided the painful bump was a hematoma deep inside. She said that the wound has closed, that there is no sign of drainage or redness or swelling. "What have you been doing for it?" I explained about the epsom salts and drawing salve. "It looks really good," she said. In the end, she decided that I should have a tetanus shot although the chances of tetanus were unlikely. 

She buzzed out of the room, and the nurse came in to give me the shot. I said, "Oh...I forgot...could you ask her..." The nurse brusquely said, "You'll need to make another appointment." It was a yes or no question, and something that she could have instructed her staff to give me a call on. I mean, all doctor's offices have nurses on staff that you can call and ask questions. We do it with Tim all the time. Sometimes his doctor even calls us back in person if she has questions for us. 

You know, I really like my doctor a lot. A whole lot. She's been my doctor for many years, but the need to make an appointment to ask a simple yes or no question? The nurse said, "It's the insurance companies. We have to do it like this." 

But they don't. 

I walked out of there and called Tim's doctor. Yes. They are accepting patients. I'm going over today to fill out a Release of Information form. I feel badly about it, because, as I said, I really like my doctor.

Stanley cups and Sundays

 Something that William is self conscious about is that he does not have all the correct accoutrements for middle school. When we drove to the birthday party, he talked about girls. He doesn't like them much. He said, "They are all mean and make fun of people. He made his voice high and squeaky: 'Oh you don't have an I-Phone' or 'OOOOOOOh, your earbuds are not I-Pods', or 'That's not a Stanley cup.' 

I said, "Understand, though, that they've done nothing to have those things. Their parents are well off and can buy them those things. This does not mean that they are better than you. They're the same, they just have fancier stuff." 

He looked out the window. "I know. It doesn't bother me." 

But, I knew that it did, and while my heart hurt for him, the fact of it is (and he knows this) if he wants to earn money, he has every opportunity to do so. If he wants those fancy things, he'll work for them. If he doesn't care to work for them, well...he doesn't really want those fancy things. I just don't think that it is a good thing for a kid to have everything his little heart desires simply handed to him. 

Long story short, I'm looking at Christmas shopping, and I thought maybe that one of those Stanley cups would make a nice Christmas gift for him. I looked them up on line, and was astonished that they were $48. 

I was washing dishes tonight. When we went to the parade yesterday, we took cups of water. I washed mine and discovered, of all darn things, it is a Stanley cup. Stainless steel. Gray trim. A very manly cup. 

I've had it for a while. I used to take coffee to work in it, but I rarely use it now. 

I look a picture of it and sent it to William and told him if he wanted it for school he could have it.

It's most likely not the 'cool' style. It just amazes me that I had one in my cupboard. 

Quiet day today. We went to the new build. We didn't do a lot of work, really. It's Sunday, after all, but Tim went to my nephew's machine shop about a repair and bought a dozen eggs from them. $3. We stopped in at Albert's and bought a 5 tomatoes, 2 large green peppers, 7 peaches, and four zucchini, total $8. We stopped in to blab with my sister and her husband and she asked me to take some summer squash. She was disappointed that I only took two. 

If it wasn't that we have, for the first time, run out of venison, we would just about not have to go to the grocery store at all. 

We came home and had breakfast burritos for supper, and then went over to the renovation to do some work on that for a while. I am very sorry I let myself get talked into buying that house. We've had it for probably 5 years now. A lot has happened in that time frame. We never, ever expected it would take so long to get it flipped, but we have barely scratched the surface of that. It has all new windows, a new roof, new siding. It looks pretty nice outside, but man. We've got a long way to go on the inside. 

I'll be working on houses until I'm 75. 

Which sucks. 

Steve Reed? Click on that picture. To borrow a phrase, can you embiggen it? 

Co-inky-dink

 It was the strangest thing today. We went to the Fireman's parade in Sheffield, up the road from us, perhaps 15 miles. It is the town where Tim grew up. Anyways, he ran into friend who invited us to come to their house, and Tim wanted to go, and so we did. 

They were there, and their 3 kids, nine grandkids, and a handful of nieces and nephews and inlaws and outlaws, and it was fun. It was fun to sit around talking. Suddenly my ears picked up a name. 'Cameron Nelson.' 

Whoa. Wait. I said, "We had a picture window broken by a couple of rock throwers, and we were sent a video posted to a name: Cameron Nelson." 

They immediately said, "That would be about right." The conversation unfolded, and they said, "He's just a little kid. 11 years old." I said, "Well, if it is the same kid, he was at our house at 3:00 according to a neighbor who had two of her windows broken out." 

They said, "Yes, that he and his brother were caught stealing on a Ring camera at 4:10 AM." They said that the two boys are regularly out all night long. They had just stolen a purse. They were pinned down on that one because the purse had a cell phone, and it was tracked. There is also strong suspicion that they stole a car and wrecked it. 

I said, "Well, I turned the video over to the police." 

The response was, "The police will not do anything. His father is a police informant." 

I forwarded the kid's information to the police, father's name, brother's name, mother's name, addresses. It will be interesting to see what happens. 

It is a dark evening. Storms on their way, but taking their good old time. The thunder has been grumbling off in the distance for nearly two hours, moving closer and closer, the thunder getting sterner and more threatening. 

I love evenings like this. 

Strange and Curious

 We went to hear Music in the Park last night. 

This is the performer. It is NOT her performance last night. (You might want to start it about 1:20. A lot of talking.) She had a nice voice, but honestly, I'm not sure if it is my ears or what, but I was not able to understand her when she was singing. Her words slurred and ran together, and her voice trilled and dropped, she crooned into the microphone. It seems to be the style. Interestingly enough, it was when she slipped in a few old standards that she generated the greatest audience enthusiasm. People clapped and sang along. 

What did interest me was watching the skies. There were dark clouds off to the west, which generally indicates a storm moving in, and the weather forecast was calling for it, but not until after midnight. If you looked over towards the southwest, the clouds were actually clearing. It got darker and at a 8:15, the streetlights came on. 

We headed for the car at 8:30. Tim had a hankering for a milkshake. 

I stopped to take a picture of the fountain. I thought it looked neat silhouetted against the dusky south west sky. 

One street over we got to our car. This is the western side of the Struther's Theater. Remember that the western sky was black and ominous. Yet this building caught a golden glow that illuminated the whole street. The picture was taken five minutes after the fountain picture. 

It just struck me as a strange and curious thing. 

The Idiots

 Well, the good news is that Mangey is still alive. I went straight over and knocked on their door and apologized for the strange question, but admitted that we're his cat's other family, and we hadn't seen him for a few weeks and were wondering if something happened to him. 

He is a pretty genial guy. "Nope. He's fine. Want to see him?" And he went right in and brought him out, sleepy and blinking. He got a good petting, that's for sure. The man said, "He's having a terrible time with fleas right now. He just isn't interested in going outside much." 

I told him that we'd actually bought a seresto collar for him. He indicated that if he ever came home with a collar on, that they would not remove it. So...there's that.

I signed up for a felting class. I always wanted to learn how to do that. It is September 10th, so I'm looking forward to that. 

We signed up for supplemental insurance. The gentleman showed up with a "We the People" hat, which is a dog whistle (here anyway) for tRUMPers. He went on at great lengths about the different insurances and I did not say, "But isn't tRUMP about to unveil his big healthcare plan? He was just about to when he lost the election." I was quite proud of my self control. 

He had Tim's information, but he did not have mine. He asked his questions and said "...and you're not a veteran..." and I said, "Yes. I am." He asked if I used the VA. I told him I did not. He was curious why. I explained that it was an overburdened system, and that there were others who were far more in need of it than I was." 

He looked quite surprised. "I've never heard that one before," he said. 

I tried to figure him out. Everyone has heard that the VA is overburdened and backlogged. 

He said, "No. Most people are going to grab every benefit that they are entitled to." 

I said, "We don't." 

He shook his head again. I'm sure he thinks that we are idiots. 

I got groceries today, while Tim went up to grade the torn up ground from the excavation work. He's planting a food plot for the deer. I thought it was kind of late in the season for that. He says it's not, based on what he's reading.

Nice to have a day at home. As far as idiots go, I'm a fairly happy one. 

Tim's Lucky Day.

 Yes. I have an appointment on Monday with my doctor to get a tetanus shot, if necessary. Why they can't tell you if you need one over the phone is beyond me, but I don't really have a choice but to play the game. I've been soaking my foot. When I went to bed last night, the sole of my foot was swollen, and it was quite painful to walk on. This morning, the swelling was gone, and it did not hurt to walk. Just to be on the safe side, I wore hiking sandals, with socks. I looked like an idiot, I suppose, but it kept my foot clean and dry and it was the deepest puncture wound I've ever had.  I gave it another good soaking tonight and another thick coat of Prid. 

So, today, we got that big table cleared off, and got all the things boxed up and in the basement. It does make everything a lot more spacious looking. Naturally, I forgot to take a picture before we left. I stuck to cleaning and sweeping and moving Tim on the scaffolding. The living room ceiling and the kitchen walls and ceiling have all received their first coat of drywall compound. The seams are all taped so that really is progress there. 

I did take one picture today: 

I was sitting on the floor of the garage, talking to the cats like I usually do, when I happen to catch sight of this not more than five feet in front of me. It was huge, probably 1 1/2 inches from one extended leg to the other.  I was trying to find something that I could use for scale, while not moving from where I was sitting for concern of scaring the kittens. I finally decided that my water bottle would work. I reached for it, turned back around and he was no longer there. I'm not afraid of spiders, however I discovered that they do make me a little nervous when they disappear. 

We discovered we will probably be losing a tenant tonight. The prospective landlord called to check with us. We love Harlee and were surprised to find she was looking for another place, but you can't really blame her. She lives in a second story apartment and she's taken in a foster child that she's in the process of adopting. Of course, I gave her a glowing reference. 

It was interesting that the person I was speaking with began to ask me questions about what we charge for rents. We discussed that. She had a bad experience with the last people that lived in the place. I asked her how she vetted, and she said it was mostly based on what kind of sense she got after meeting them. She's new at it, and they've just moved here from midwest. 

I said, "You really can't go on your feelings here. It is a poor area, and there is a drug problem. 1 out of 3 kids in the elementary school have had a parent in jail." I made a couple suggestions on vetting. Number one, check their facebook. The stuff people put out there is mindboggling, but it is a window into their lives and the people they run with, etc. 

"Aaaaaahhhh!" she said. "That's excellent." 

We talked about a couple other sites I use regularly, and I told her that if she needed help learning how to screen people, she was free to call. I'd be glad to show her. 

Tim walked out to see who I was talking to. He was hungry and wanted supper. I said, "Well. We're going to probably be losing Harlee." We discussed it in the kitchen as I started supper. 

He sighed. He thinks an awful lot of her too.  But all he said, "Well, while you're cooking, I'm going down to 606 to count how many bundles of shingles I have left." He's arranged to have the garage roofed next week.

So out the door he went. 

He came back laughing. "Did Paula call you?" 

I told him she hadn't. 

"She called me! Her ex-husband is looking for a place to rent." He told her that we didn't have anything, because we haven't actually received notice that our tenant is leaving, but the timing of the request made us both laugh. 

He said, "I need about 10 bundles of shingles and that is going to be a major hit. They are between $46 and $60 a bundle." He has the underlayment, but he needed the drip edge too. 

After supper, he took a quick run to Lowe's to price their stuff, having already been to 4 other stores earlier in the day. 

He came back home while I was soaking my foot and peeling a quart basket of garlic to put in a jar of olive oil. He was in high spirits and laughing once again. 

He'd walked into Lowe's priced their stuff, found it at $46, but because he's married to me, he gets the 10% veterans discount, bringing it down to $41.40. He decided that he was better off buying it there. He would come back with the truck over the weekend and get what he needed. 

Except...as he headed out the door and noticed a customer return. 9 bundles of shingles and the matching ridge cap, clearanced out at $16 a bundle! Since one of his bundles of shingles was to make ridgecaps, after some quick calculations, he decided it was enough. 

"I just came back home to get the truck. I'll be right back!" he said cheerfully. That happy discovery saved him about $400. 

Nailed it!

 It was not a typical work day. Tim needed to wait for the bank to open so that he could get a large sum of cash to pay the excavation guy. While he waited, he ran over to the court house. Levi had questions about a sheriff sale that abuts his property, so Tim looked up the information for him at the court house. We ran up on the hill first, to drop off that information with Levi, and then we headed to work. 

We are working on the ceiling in the kitchen/living room. We are at an exciting place now, because we have a long work table in the living room (a 4' x 8' piece of sheeting set up on saw horses). We've been working from that table for months now, and tomorrow I will spend the morning unloading it and taking those supplies and tools down to the basement. We no longer need them every day. We're both trying to imagine how big the area will look without that big thing set square in the middle of it. It doesn't take much excite us these days. 

I vacuumed up drywall dust and scraped up the 'blops' from the floor, and moved Tim around on the scaffolding. For some reason, he likes to be the one taping the seams, so I just kept myself busy cleaning and organizing. Again. Tim just sets whatever he's using where ever he is, and then gets frustrated when he can't find what he needs when he needs it. I get frustrated because I think that this is all pretty self explanatory. 

Just one of the aggravations of working together day in and day out. 

I was a little worried about the cats. Yesterday the excavator was running up at the garage, bringing a gas line there.  I figured all the racket might have scared the cats, but it didn't. They were waiting for me this morning, but they would not come while I was near. 

After we finished working in the house, we decided to take rakes to level out the dirt where the new lines had been laid. It's a long trail running from the gas well to the house and to the garage. Tim wanted some gravel spread in front of the man door on the garage, and that is when I did it. I walked into the garage to grab the spade out of a corner and managed to run a nail through my foot. 

Honest to pete, it hurt like crazy and it was deep. Crocs are not much protection, that's for sure. That ended our dirt work. I've been soaking it in epsom salts with as hot of water as I can stand. I am using a good drawing salve and wrapping it tightly. 

On a completely unrelated note, I think that something has happened to Mangey. It's been a month since I've seen him and I'm sad about that. 

I've been getting e-mails from the tRUMP campaign believe it or not. 

FLIGHT CONFIRMATION #45472024 Debby, what time should we pick you up? I secured you a spot alongside my next Vice President, JD Vance, as our VIP GUEST for a ride on Trump Force Two! Best of all, the entire trip will be COMPLETELY FREE! > ENTER TO WIN You’ll be my FIRST SUPPORTER to ride on Trump Force Two. You’ll get to spend one-on-one time with the future Vice President. You might even get the chance to take a picture together to remember this day forever!

(Of course, there is a small entry fee to be entered in this contest.)

Before I had even stopped giggling over that e-mail, there was another which began like this: 

FROM THE DESK OF DONALD TRUMP I’m back on the campaign trail today after my HUGELY successful interview with Elon Musk.

That did it. I had to unsubscribe. Too weird for me. 

Home Again, Home Again

 Someone forwarded a video to Tim. Pretty crazy that they'd post such a thing, share such a thing AND put their name on it. But I forwarded it to the police, and they were very happy.

I'm fresh back from my trip to the girls' birthdays. It was a perfect celebration. The museum where the party was being held had two amazing children's exhibits: A castle exhibit and a dragon exhibit, with huge animatronic dragons. Each display had wonderful activities, and the best thing about it is that it had something for kids of all ages. Even the teenage cousins enjoyed it. (If you want to read more about it: go here). 

And this was the cake made by the mother of the princesses: 

My son said, "I'm not sure it we'll ever be able to top this one." I'm just about sure he's right. 

It was a long drive home. I got caught in not one but two actual traffic stoppages. One was 20 minutes, which gave me time to get my Pandora set up again. I lost access when my phone fell in the portapotty and was lost forever. Since I set up the account like 7 years ago, at work, using my work e-mail, I needed to reset it all. It went pretty quickly and I listened to two podcasts on the way home. 

I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about politics lately. Just the fact that all these crazy theories are getting shot down before they even get traction is great news. Stephen Miller made the claim on MSNBC that Biden and Harris run the biggest sex trafficking operation in the world. Ari Melber deftly shut that down, calling it "some crazy thing he ripped off the internet." The man was in control of the interview and it was great. 

As the Harris/Walz ticket gains momentum, if does feel as if tRUMP's losing some marbles on the way, and lord knows, the number of marbles in his bag was questionable before. He's getting more erratic. He's setting the stage already. If he doesn't win, it's because the Democrats cheated. We are watching him unravel in real time, and JD Vance is not going to save his bacon. 

I haven't seen my husband yet. He's down at Grand Valley where they have begun construction on the right of way. He left roses on the kitchen table. 

Heading out.

The beadboard for the pantry is done. 

I've been gimping around. Tim has been going to the fair to meet up with friends and watch the tractor pulls. I've been staying at home resting my back. Something that made me laugh is this: Tim is not an animal person. He's just not. He never has been. And now, we've got a cat. And that cat has kittens. Because he is married to a sap, he's been going along with the feeding of the cats pretty patiently for a man who doesn't like animals. 

I wondered though. Back when we knew there were kittens but hadn't seen them yet, we were feeding a very bedraggled mother cat. Soon we'd catch a glimpse of a tiny kitten here or there. Finally I saw them all together and I said, "Well. We've got 4 kittens out there." And Tim's only response was "That's cool." 

I didn't expect that.

Anyways, he came home from the fair, and was telling me that he'd run into an old friend. He said, "I was telling Larry about those cats, and he was telling me about the pregnant cat that showed up at his place. They felt sorry for her and started feeding her because she looked so bad. She had her kittens, and they paid to have them all neutered just as soon as possible. They found homes for the mother and the kittens, but they kept the runt. Tim was laughing while he told me all the adventures that Larry and his wife have been having with this tiny little runt.

I laughed with him, but I can tell you, the idea that he'd sit and talk about the cats with an old friend is not something that I'd ever expect from him. 

The police are patrolling our street tonight. That's nice to see, but I don't expect that they'll catch these kids. They rarely do. In answer to Red's question, it really isn't at all surprising that we didn't hear the breaking glass. The picture window is in the office, which was the old front porch of the house. It was enclosed and turned into an extra room. Our bedroom is at the back of the house. Between there and the office, there is one exterior wall and two interior walls, plus a foyer with a long hall. So no. We did not hear a sound. 

I am heading out tomorrow morning, to my grandaughters' birthday party. William is riding out with me. Tim has decided to stay home. We probably have nothing to worry about, but we have a broken picture window. He's worried about someone prowling around. He's worried about further damage. He's worried about someone getting inside the house. He wants to be available if the police call. He wants to keep an eye on kids prowling around after dark. 

I won't be back until Monday at the earliest, but I'm kind of hoping to be there until Tuesday. My daughter in law has a project that needs doing and I think that it would be much easier for her to get it done if she had extra hands to help with the girls and with the job at hand. 

I won't be blogging until I get back. 

Rigmor? Check in, will you? 

The Excitement Never Ends

 Our view. 

Normally, our view is not marred by a broken window. 

The thing is, we went to bed pretty late last night. I was folding laundry when William and Tim got back from the fair and we finished watching a documentary on the Turpin children. William entertained us with his reading about hadron colliders for a few minutes and then held forth on his belief that we can control what we dream, which led to a bit of a debate. How these two topics connect, I could not tell you. 

We finally went to bed at midnight. So we can pin the time down to after midnight and before sunrise. There was more than one person involved. 

We were not the only house on the street that got hit. Hopefully someone's cameras got something helpful. 

The Meeting

 First of all, the darling little cat you saw yesterday was Sigh. S/he looks siamese, doesn't s/he? Sigh is the smallest kitten. 

This is Gaza. I did not see her today, but I saw the kittens. They are exceedingly cautious when their mother is absent. 

The meeting today:

We found out why it had not been submitted to their insurance. Their own lawyer asked that question. Answer: very high deductible. 

They were unaware that we'd hired a guy with a camera, and it was quite obvious that it hadn't occurred to them that we have access to the old line through our basement. They said, "We haven't seen that bill."

I pointed out that after not getting any kind of response out of them up to that point, we felt that it was a waste of time to bother sending anything more to them. At that point, we decided we would have to get a lawyer, and I said, "We are taxpayers. Yet for seven months, you have completely ignored us." 

In short, the city manager tried to say that this was a civil issue between the neighbor and ourselves, since it was their demolition that resulted in the capped line. Our lawyer immediately fired back disputing that. He pointed out that they could not have gotten the demolition permit without capping the line, and that it was a city employee who told the excavator what line to cap. 

They said they would consider it. 

The end.

Progress

 Today we had to be up early. Tim was meeting with the guy who has the right-of-way across our property. The man who was actually going to build the road was showing up, along with the fellow who was going to do some excavating work. They were planning to come tomorrow, but we have our appointment with the city, and Tim could not make it. They wanted everyone there, so they rescheduled for today. 

I had plenty to keep me busy. I was staining the tongue and groove for the pantry. I was not sure of the stain when I opened it, but once I began to apply it, I really liked the look of it. I think it will be okay with the wallpaper. 

The color is called 'gunstock', and it is a can of stain that Tim had here from an earlier project. I stained 30 boards. I liked working the stain into the wood, and into the grooves of the beadboard. It was a nice way to spend a morning, sitting in the basement by myself, working in the silence, listening to the rain outside, and the occasional rumbles of thunder. 

Tomorrow, I will poly that wood, and hopefully, by the end of the week, we'll be able to get it on the wall. I'm getting excited about it. 

Something else that I'm getting excited about is that this morning, I went down to feed Gaza and her kittens. I make a point of sitting on the concrete and assembling their food. I use a heavy metal pan now, because they keep pulling the dish off away, and I can never find it. When I called, a kitten popped up, yawning sleepily. I stirred the milk into the dry catfood, and then I added the two cans of canned cat food and stirred it all together, and set it in front of me, about maybe six feet from where I was seated. It was not long before Gaza came out to feed. She was very nervous. The men were talking outside and one had a very loud voice. When he spoke, she would growl, run past me to dart underneath the truck behind me, peering nervously out the garage door. I thought that it was very interesting that she was running towards me when she got nervous, instead of away from me. I also was encouraged by the fact that when I spoke soothingly to her in a low voice, she seemed to settle, and walked past me to go back to her dish. 

After probably a half dozen times of this darting, being soothed, and returning to feed, I did something new. When she darted under the truck, I began to hold my hand out to her when I spoke soothingly. She stopped to rub herself thoughtfully against the ladder that leads to the garage attic while considering my outstretched hand. Much to my delight, she finally came to me and gave my hand a little 'boop' with her nose. I made no attempt to pet her because I didn't want to push my luck, but she did come to me four times to give me a little touch during our visit. 

The kittens are very nervous as well, but they too show signs of settling down. They will come out and feed in front of me. They head off in all directions it I speak or move, but if I sit quietly, they will eat cautiously, watching me closely for any sign of movement. When they run off, they don't duck outside. They stay within sight, but out of reach, playing and tumbling and pouncing. 

I changed their bedding for fresh and walked out and got started on my boards.

Two nights ago, I couldn't sleep and came out to read for a while. There was a woman shouting for quite some time in the neighborhood about 1AM. Last night it was Tim's turn to be sleepless. He said that there was a woman shouting about 2:30AM. When we returned home from working today, the man was shouting still. That's one thing we will not have to deal with when we move. 

Tomorrow is the big meeting with the city. 

It will be very interesting to finally hear what they have to say.