Simon

 Meet Simon. I took the camera out on the deck and shot these pictures. He really likes the deck and has decided he likes the bench we put out there.

 Simon has a problem with his right ear. It almost looks as if he had frozen the tip last winter. It's damaged, anyway. He's still pretty feral and hisses a lot, but we have been able to pet him, Tacky has accepted him and Jill is slowly learning to leave him alone.

 He's still pretty thin, but he's only been here 2-3 weeks. His fur is pretty rough looking. I kind of wonder if he doesn't belong to someone in the neighborhood. A couple of days ago, he thought about coming into the house. Um, NOT!

A few nights ago, at 3 a.m. I woke to a cat scowling, the toy barn rattling, and a dog yipe. I think it was one of the neighbor dogs, trying to get at the cat food and Simon objected. We keep Tacky's food in the little barn or Jill will eat it.

Y'all have a lovely weekend, I'll see you next month! :-)

Words for Wednesday

 

WORDS FOR WEDNESDAY 9-27-17

And my dear friends, thus endeth my term as provider of the prompts.  Here are the words for this last week in September 2017.

arbitrary

diminution

plausible

immense

temporize

Pandemonium

garble

élan

perfunctory

bifurcate

vermicular

toothsome

 ____________________________________________________________

I've never posted this on my blog before, so I didn't know exactly what info I needed to put in this, so I just copied the whole thing.

Here goes: 

The immense, red-faced Judge Carnegie banged his gavel, as he bellowed, “Silence, order in the court!”

Pandemonium had broken out when Mr. Smith, the lawyer introduced his arbitrary client, a small speckled dog. It trembled in fear, seated on the frigid, hard chair. Mr. Smith glowered at the crowd. They were the cause of this diminution.

The judge shifted in his seat, thinking this was all a circus act. Mr. Smith was temporizing and nothing else. How could this vermicular, little dog bring them a plausible explanation? He cleared his throat loudly and said, “Mr. Smith, give us a perfunctory reason why this animal is in my courtroom.”

“Well, Your Honor, he knows what happened to Farmer Brown’s divining rod. It’s as simple as that.” Then he turned to the dog.

“Spot, tell us in your own words, what you know about the bifurcated item.”

Try as he might, the poor dog could only give a garbled testimony. He hung his head. Then he showed a toothsome grin and gave Mr. Smith a wink. He said, with élan, “Sir, Farmer Brown broke his rod beating me for swearing out loud in English.”

Poldark Revisited

As I have so boringly pointed out that Poldark will continue with season 3 on Sunday, Oct. 1, I decided to re-watch both versions of what I have. 

The 1975-6 version is longer and covers more ground. It's more like a play, while the newer version is more like a movie. I'm wondering how far they plan to go in this newest version, and how they will treat it. Re-watching the first series, I expected to see what I thought had been there. Evidently, I have retained more of the books than I had first believed, as some of the scenes had been only in my mind, left over from my reading. (I was surprised!)

I will have to say, the books that Winston Graham wrote cannot be improved upon by turning them into movies. It's just the opposite, but, the TV version is still well worth the watch if you haven't the time or inclination to plow through 12 books.

Yesterday, I was in a fog, I didn't even color, although I did put my latest project on my sidebar. I like the cards I bought to color, but the lines are really too tight. It makes for mistakes and it's impossible to always stay true. 

I gave up on Vietnam. That's just too much to know and revisit. I will say that comments in that time frame were similar to now, that the country was being torn apart. That's history for you, we didn't pay attention and are doomed to relive it.

Until next time,

Take care of yourselves!

 

Fall?

The 'Feels like' is 95. (Actual is 85) The air is thick with pollen and humidity. I am not going to go outside to enjoy my deck today. DH has gone for some chest x-rays and one of those double layered pizzas. 

I have been busy watching TV, erm, broadcast and videos. PBS is doing that thing on Vietnam. Son sent me this:

 I had never heard of it, but found it enjoyable. DH said it had been on the television. I had no clue. I began re-watching my Poldark videos to refresh my memory before season 3 begins in a little over a week.

I've been practicing my coloring. It does need a certain touch. Found out the pages in those color books are like flat wicks. I started a page to see what colors went with what colors, I have in the marker pens. No idea how long the markers will last with it being sucked into the paper so fast.

This is the back of my page. The front is a little better. Haha. I've tried some of the gel pens. Some are impressive and some of them simply don't work. Guess I shouldn't expect too much for what I paid for them - Think it was $11 something for 100 of them. Did part of one design with the gel and the level in the tube went down half an inch. I will have to plan carefully on anything big. I do take my time, still make mistakes, but it's not like I'm doing it to make a living. It is relaxing and time does seem to fly.

I haven't been able to take a picture yet, but it looks like Tacky's friend plans on sticking around. He's black like she is, but not as fluffy. Just glancing, it's easy to mix up who is who. I've named it Simon not knowing if it's a boy or girl, can always add an 'e' later if need be. He let DH pet him yesterday, so he is cautiously friendly. Not that we need another animal to feed, I don't mind one bit.

Well, DH is back and the pizza is smelling ready! Y'all have a great weekend and I'll see you next week! Take care!  

Extra - Added at 11:00 in the evening: 

Foggy Morning

 The top picture is across the road, the meadow. I can see why my nose has been so drippy and why I sneeze so hard. Goldenrod! Well, too blah to take pictures, so I gave Tacky some loving as long as I was out there . I hung around, waiting for sunrise.

I think this is it. The fog has lifted some. I imagine DH hated the drive in to work this morning. I don't know if you can see 3 spiderwebs in the tree in the foreground, but you better believe I am going to stay clear of it.

We had a nice surprise yesterday. J came for a visit with his wife. She made us a delicious peach cobbler, fresh out of the oven. It was scrumptious with vanilla ice cream on top. Mmm-mm!

We need to get a gate on the ramp to the deck. One of the neighbor's dogs has already decided to mark the deck. He/she pooped on it! I know it wasn't the big white dog, not that he wouldn't do that, he did the patio big time, last year. Thank heaven DH had it sealed already.

Y'all have a great day, night, whatever. I'm going to bed soon, no sleep last night. I watched the first part of the PBS Vietnam story, and well, one thought led to another and DH was getting up. 

Passing the time

As if I didn't have anything to do, I thought I would get my legs stretched out on the bed to help with the circulation in my feet. I thought I could park in bed part of the day and color. I started looking at coloring books for adults on Amazon. Wow, I didn't know how popular those color books are! I had a bit of trouble deciding just what to order. I ordered 3!

 Do any of you do this? Know anyone that does? What do they use for the colors? Gel pens, watercolor markers, permanent markers, or colored pencils? Is one preferable over the other? I have colored pencils, but I'm really not a fan, although they might be better as my hands do shake. I don't know. I thought it might help me concentrate on controlling that as long as I was stretching the old veins.

Seeing sky, seeing sun, life is good!

A few pictures ...

 Tomatoes growing on the front porch.

 Look in the central part of the tree in the light red circle.

 Yes, it's a Morning Glory blossom!

You would think the guy with the scooper thingy could have scraped up all those rocks on the far side of the driveway. DH has 180 feet of them to rake up before he takes the lawn mower out there. They also left a big pile of dirt and rocks at the end of the driveway by the garage. Nice. DH not happy. What can I say?

Cold, damp, and drizzly today. We will need heat tonight. I'm about froze!

Have a good day, night, or whatever!

Sigh ...

I think that I should be the only one to answer the door ... I can say, "No!" a whole lot easier. I think we also need a large sign at the end of the driveway that says, 'Peddlers beware of old woman with shotgun.' 

DH only tells me, "No" but he's a patsy for those door to door peddlers. We were stuck with a freezer full of gourmet meat - if you want to call it that. It was already seasoned and I couldn't stomach it. Let's just say, it was not to my taste. He couldn't find anything wrong with it, but after a few months, he let me give it away to gain some freezer space. I figured it out - about $10 a pound! Every time I see one of those pick-up trucks, with a freezer in the back pull in, I'm out the door waiting for him. 

Well, this sneaky bugger came on the weekend when DH was home. He signed a contract (which, btw, we did not get a copy of. Not until it was paid for and he was trying to sell me the seal coating at a bargain price) I said no, DH is not home today. The contract states if you cancel, you have to pay 25% of the cost - yes, DH waived cancellation. Der.

So, I have a brand new asphalt driveway that only goes to the ramp. It looks funny, should have gone to the other end of the garage. I looked up the cost of sealing it. Two articles say to wait up to 3 months for the asphalt to cure before sealing! Also not to do it before rain ... Irma's on her way ...

SIGH ...

The Old House

I was reading the posts this morning and Jimmy's Blog brought this story to mind. We were living at the old house and I decided that I wanted a working doorbell. DH said it was too difficult (?) to repair. So I decided to get one of those wireless sets. After installation, I had a 'ding dong' at the back door and a 'ding dong type of church bell chime.' I was delighted! 

A bit of a back story on the old house: It wasn't all that old. We were the second occupants and nobody had died there. The house was in a tidy little subdivision about 5 miles from town and had been a work project for the high school's building class. 

We bought the house in 1994 and I was so thrilled. We had sold our little 2 bedroom, 1bath and were almost lost in this 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with an eat-in kitchen, large living room, and den. Our furniture was lost in it. There was a deck in the back off the patio doors in the den. Heaven!  All the rooms were large compared to the little house we had left behind.

Our little boy turned 5 just after we moved in. He sulked a lot at first, he had loved the little house and didn't like the change. DH started working out of town the following year and I decided to move BL into the other bedroom because his was good for a sewing room because of the light. He wasn't happy with the change, but the other bedroom had a larger closet for all of his books and toys. 
He started having nightmares. I thought (and still do) that he was unhappy with the changes to his young life. The nightmares ended in a year or so, I think, at least the screaming in the night ones. As he got older, he would tell me about his wild dreams of running and abduction by aliens.

Little things would happen around the house, you know the kind where a person hollers at nothing saying, "As long as you live here, give us some rent!" Shoulders nudged, closet noises, little things moved. Nothing really scary. 
I was sick one time and I decided to sleep in BL's room and he slept in his tent in the living room. My coughing would have kept DH awake. I settled in. The house was dark and quiet. My blanket slid from my shoulder. I pulled it back. It slid again, and I pulled it back. I checked to see if Rough was lying on it and turning over. Rough was not in the room. I settled in again and the blanket slid down further this time, I pulled it back up harder this time and all of a sudden the blanket was jerked halfway down the bed. I was out of there so quick! DH would have to put up with my coughing! He claims it was the cough medicine or something and I was hallucinating. No sympathy. He went to sleep in BL's bed and never said anything.

After that, I often had a feeling of somebody watching me. Once, I felt it so bad that I called a girlfriend to come to stay with us, DH was out of town. Yes, she laughed, but she came.

Now, to the doorbell ... It was nice to know when someone was at the door. If the front bell rang, I knew it had to be a salesman or Jehovah's Witness. Then the back doorbell started ringing once in the night. Late, like 1 or 2 p.m. Nobody there, no cars, no lights on in the neighborhood. I talked to a rep from the mfg and he said that sometimes a remote door opener will set the doorbells off. Okay. I could see that. The next time I got woke to the bell in the middle of the night, I checked the neighborhood to see if I could see someone had just gotten home. Nope. I considered taking them down. It was a while later, the bell sounded again. It just went 'ding' no 'dong'. I took the cover off the next day. There was no way that it could do that. Push in, 'ding' and release, 'dong.' I pulled that thing off the door frame and threw it in the garbage.

Call me paranoid or crazy, if you will, but I believe there was something wrong with that house! Not much, just enough. I haven't had any of those thing happen here. If I told you this story before, please accept my apologies.

 

Changes

It's this time of year that we bought our house in 2005. I suppose you could call this place a money pit, because it sure has been one! I looked up the pictures that I took just before we moved in. (Put on a new metal roof, installed a new central system, installed a tankless water heater, and new windows and outside doors the first year)

 Lots of changes in our back yard. The little metal shed in the center of the picture was the first thing we tore down and replaced it with a larger wood one. After a few years, DH and son tore off the leaky, damp back porch. 

We still had the cement 'patio'  and spent ages trying to get someone out here to help with the tripping crack. Another couple years and we put a new metal roof and siding on the garage. (sorry, no pic.) Then we put in a new kitchen and remodeled the bathroom and talked the man into putting up a better handrail by the back steps.

It wasn't until this year that we found someone to help our problem with the tripping crack and slippery steps. I must say, I do like my new deck!

 I believe we are finished!

Weekend!

Harvey exited in one big hurry this afternoon and the skies were nearly clear when the sun went down. I spotted this out by the bird feeder. We are saturated for sure. Icky thoughts about what is in store for the folks in Texas and all the other rain soaked areas. 

 This mushroom is 4.5-5" in diameter.

Have a great weekend!