Rain Rain Go Away

That's yet another picture I took of the inside of a gopher hole a few days ago - I find it fascinating for some reason. Jackson swears one of these days I'm going to get bitten but I have a feeling these tunnels must go on for quite awhile and I doubt the denizens of the underworld sit right at the entrance. Jackson's been feeding the horses apples right out of his hand so we can see them peeking over the stone wall in the evening looking for him. David usually loads him up with a pie pan full of cut up apples for them and he has an instant audience. David replaced the hot water heater yesterday, he was still in the process when I  got home which caused me to stomp up the stairs. After a full week of orientation followed by the prospect of crappy weather for the weekend I was in no mood for him to be playing with the plumbing. The rain's been cascading down all night and the t.v.s been blaring flash flood warnings all morning. We've got to go get our licenses this morning too in Troop so I might bring my bathing suit just in case! Vincent went out yesterday before it started raining so we haven't seen him all night, I'm sure he's holed up somewhere but I wish he was back here, after all he is our $65 investment now. I'd told David to put Claw out yesterday, not Vincent as she needs more exercise than to the food bowl and back. But he forgot and let Vincent out instead.

At Least Vincent Van Gogh Only Lost An Ear....

Poor Vincent had such a rough day today. David took him to the vet's since the leg and the ear weren't any better. Remember I said our vet was a REAL no nonsense  country vet?  First David tried to wrestle him into the cat carrier, no luck so he just popped the cat in the truck and off to the vets. Dr. Davis had to sedate Vincent with David as the assistant and shaved his leg first. It's not broken but it's a bad bite. Then he proceded to clean the wounds and give poor cat a series of all the shots and vaccinations plus an antibiotic shot for the leg. During this time David and the vet are chatting with Vincent three sheets to the wind and Dr. Davis asked David if he'd consider having the cat fixed, since the cat was already sedated. David thought that was a good idea so Dr. Davis flips Vincent over, straps down his legs, gets a scalpel out AND POPS THE CAT'S TESTICLES OUT AND PUTS THEM ON A NAPKIN ON THE COUNTER.  I sincerely doubt Vincent agreed to any of this. Not to mention I think David would have preferred to ix-nay out of the room before the fixin' part. Vincent is still a bit bleary and I'm sure rethinking his decision to come in our house. That's what he gets for taking candy from strangers! oh, and cough cough. The total cost for shots, fixin' and exam - $65.

Just Me, The Status Quo

Well, Vincent disappeared AGAIN the other day and just as suddenly reappeared this morning.  David's been hunting for our cat carrier as he's probably going to take him to the vet.Poor Dr. Davis will never have a moments peace now that we've found him. But Vincent still won't use one of his front legs and that ear looks a bit worse for wear so we're once again running around with our open hearts and open checkbooks. I'm just hoping this will move us up the Karma ladder and I won't have to come back as a beetle or something equally icky. Work  continues to be work, I got out of Six O'Clock Jail and can come in at seven, but there's the flip side of that when everyone leaves at 2:30 and I've got to stay til  3:30.David's making plans  to come back to LI next week which works out better for everyone. Our friend Ray was in an accident - he wasnt' hurt but the Neon was and will be in the shop until friday. Ray's been feeling down lately since his sister passed away (he's now the sole remaining sibling of a family of 5) and I told David if the car wasn't fixed in time and he couldn't come it would just make him feel worse. Besides, it's supposed to rain this weekend anyhow. Jackson will have to catch the morning bus which he's not looking foward to but he'll survive. Adam's fine in Japan, we got another "urgent" phone call from the Navy Federal Risk Center for him - I panicked the first time I got one but now I know that the "urgent" is just a nice way of saying he's over his limit again. Thank goodness he's got a fairly tiny limit. I called them back to let them know I would get in contact with him and told them to feel free to cancel his stinkin card anyhow. He has to use us as his home address  so we can keep track of his evil ways and put him on the lecture circuit if need be. And Mr. Lee is dandy in case anyone was wondering, David found her laser light so we've been playing with her with that all week, she can chase it for hours!!

Starry Starry Night....

That's from the song "Vincent" which my friend Kim reminded me about .It's by the same guy who sang American Pie and it's actually about Vincent Van Gogh, not Vincent The Cat. And yes, he came back, limping and with a torn ear poor thing. So there was no happy reunion between cat and owner and I'm guessing we are adopting again. He was on the porch when I got home from work today he was meowing and limping - it doesn't seem to be broken so I think we'll wait and see. He's not in any pain and he's certainly eating! And he always meows when we see him, it's a happy noise for him. Claw of course is P.O.ed about the whole thing, she spent part of her afternoon leaning over the loft and glaring at him but no one got scared. It's hard to look scary when you're white, fluffy and have a pink nose. Work was alright - my preceptor figured out rather quickly I'm not new, handed me my phlobotomy basket and sent me on my merry way, ditto the med run. So much for slacking. Jackson is out moving rocks this afternoon, he needed a new controller for his PS 2 and was short on cash so David gave him 8 dollars and now he's got to move the rocks. I told him that's what he gets for taking money from strangers.

Picture Day!

For the past two days I've been taking pictures of all the things I've meant to photograph. #1 is Jackson and Vincent slacking off on Saturday morning - Vincent actually disappeared yesterday but we're suspecting he may have a weekend owner. #2 is Lake Ariel which is the one the Hideout is located on. #3 is the same lake, but if you enlarge it - it just looks wierdly realistic.#4 is a whole bunch of turkeys, #5  is Outdoorsy Dave, #6 is me in Honesdale, if you enlarge it you can see the sign which I LOVE for obvious reasons. #7 is a waterfall that is (I find this strange) located behind #8 the Purple Cow Dairy Store. #9 the requisite Pennsylvania Barn Shot, #10 my arch enemies The Cows, and #11 is the sign for the Buffalo Shoppe, where they also sell ice cream. In other news Jackson announced in the car yesterday that he will be taking on THREE jobs this summer so he can afford :an X-Box, a car and a forge. I was a bit taken aback about the forge - and yes he's talking about a fire and bellows. I told him I didn't think the Hideout Homeowners Association would approve us building our own forge, but he's assured me it will be a small one. Janet was wondering if we would be having Helper Dwarves, but I think we have enough to deal with between the dogs, cats and incidentals without dragging dwarves into the mix. So, probably no dwarves.

Now, Where Did I Leave My Soapbox.....

We did nothing special today to honor those lost on Sept 11th - went to a flea market, Home Depot, I bought yarn at AC Moore's, took The Appetite to the chinese buffet. After all it's not a holiday - but I think the twin towers and the 2749 lives lost were just on the edge of things all day, like something you see out of the corner of your eye but disappears when you look away. I can't believe it's been 3 years since they were blown up - I can still remember being stopped while biking on Dune road by some guy in a pickup truck almost in tears yelling they blew up the towers. I got home and turned on the TV just in time to see the second one fall.  But did you know that the tally of deaths in Iraq, the war that followed, is now up to 1139? And that's just coalition deaths, that number doesn't include the civillian deaths.Those wounded in the war - 6497. As far as I can tell the terrorist threat was always there,but now it's in overdrive. There were no "weapons of mass destruction" though there are some that will still swear the Iraq move them around so we can't find them. Of course we managed to destroy the historic palaces in the effort to find them. And all we have to show for it is some broken down dictator. I've got no problem with the soldiers we sent over there, I admire them for standing up for their country, after all without our armed forces we wouldn't enjoy the freedom we have today  and I'm proud of my son and cousins for serving. But don't you think this war needs to end? We've proved nothing, made a pool of grieving families just that much larger and have gotten our country into a war situation that there's no graceful way of pulling out of. I don't have the answers and won't even hazard a guess - but I do know this war just needs to end. If we truly wish to honor the victims of Sept 11th, we need to find a better way than piling up more bodies.

Thank God It's Friday!

The end of a very long week - I've started calling my job Six O'Clock Jail because I really feel like I'm doing time. I've been getting up at 4 am to be out the door and was facing two more weeks of it but I Whined And Pleaded and even did a little shifty suggesting about possible Greener Pastures (who am I kidding? This is a one horse town if I ever saw one!) and will be sprung early. I've only got to do two more 6am shifts and then I can come in at 7am. This was due partly because the reason for the 6 am is that's when the LPN shift does blood work and RNs have to know how. I DO know how so for the past 3 days I've been stabbing people right and left to get my little score card filled and finished my requirements for that and the only thing left is to put in an IV. I might have been able to get out of the last two shifts, but since they're making an exception I figured it wouldn't be wise to push my luck. Vincent the black cat is still with us, we've been allowing him in for longer and longer periods of time and he's put on quite a bit of weight, he actually has a  bit of a belly now. When he first appeared he was  this bony thing but I'm sure we'll be able to pork him up. We've got to make sure he won't hurt Mr. Lee or have her hiding under the bed from him. Claw of course is fair game since she hates us all anyhow. All you've got to say to her is "Where's Vincent?" and she starts hissing and spitting, such a sweet kitty, sigh. She bites us all the time, she'll let you pet her a couple of times and then SNAPSNAP. , we're very quick cat petters now. I can't figure out why we don't put her out for good, but I guess she's sort of like a nasty in-law, just one of those things in life you put up with.