A Night Out

We are getting rain these days, in Electrical Type Storms. These usually occur in the afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, that is the time I'm free to play on this computer. A while back, we had an unfortunate event with lightning and this Mac that was very tramatical. So we tend to shut down under those conditions. Lightning can be fun to watch, but is no fun in the house. But life does move along anyway.


The Athletical Son had a night off work, and My Sweetie and I took advantage of the situation to have a short Campout. We took off for our hideaway in the woods, (In the Woods-May 28, 2007) and some time to ourselves. The weather was warm, but not unbearable, and the walk in is not long. We put up our trusty little tent, and kicked back. Here the sun is going down behind the trees. This means it is time to kindle a fire. If you wait too long it will be dark, and its hard to cook supper when you can't see.
One thing that makes this such a great campsite is that there is plenty of fire wood laying around. It's not all picked over 'cause we're the only ones who camp here. And among the deadfall one can easily find pieces of this Rich Pine. When one of these pine trees dies, and dries up, and rots apart, there sometimes remains a bit of heartwood impregnated with sap.
This is great stuff. You can light it with a match and it will burn by itself. Here you can see a piece of it at the base of the fire. In fact, at this point, it is the fire. But you just light that little booger and lay the rest on top. Instant campfire.
As the dusk gathered, we fixed up a mess of tasty vittles. Night eventually falls even on these long summer days, and we enjoyed a little nip o' rum by the ol' campfire.


Here Is My Sweetie having a little warm up before bedtime. We had a great rest ot there in the woods. It's too bad we can't go more often.

I don't even mind the dent I put in my truck. But that's another story.

Kitty Cat Family Reunion

You may recognize the orange one as that famous kitten, Puddin' himself. The newbies are his sisters, Split, and Two Face.
It would seem that Angora, the Wild One, is a better mother than we had been led to believe. My Sweetie was poking around and happened to see these two with her. When she approached, the crazy Wild One took off, and these took cover under a pile of stuff that had accumulated in the corner where I try to work on stuff that breaks. There's a lot of stuff that breaks. If the truth be know, I'm not only Kinda Fuzzy, but Kinda Messy also.
And so they were rousted out and brought into the house. Now instead of hiding under a pile of stuff, they hide under the furniture. They don't seem to be scared of people per se. The theory is that if we keep them with us (people), they might not be so wild as their momma. I guess time will tell. Puddin' seems to like them OK, but I don't know if they realize they're kin. They will have to get used to a new diet though. These two are furrier, more like their momma. So, now there are even more Little Things than we realized.

More Little

Things were a little slow today, so I pulled this fellow out of the past. Actually I'm not real sure if it's a "Fellow" or something else. How do you tell with these things anyhow ? But "he" is little.
The kids are out of school now. The days are getting long. Why is "Midsummer's Day" the first day of summer ? Why isn't it in the middle ? Why do I even think about these things ? Is this all some plot by "Them" to mess with us, like Daylight Saving Time ? Who is "Them" any way ? Is "Them" the same ones as the "They" that say all those things ? Will "They" come and get me for asking all these dumb questions ?
Am I just getting paranoid here ?

Quiet Days

Pretty much of a quiet day here at home. Talked to some of the Young'uns via visit and phone. Made a pot of coffee and fried a few eggs for breakfast. Rode over to Wally World in search of bicycle tires. My Sweetie's tires were, as it were, tired. These things were 30 yrs, if a day, all cracked and rotten, in short, history. And besides all that, they leaked. Old tires is one thing, but old leaky tires is another entirely. Hence my trip to Wally World.
It's confession time, I'm ashamed to admit, I have a prejudice against the place. Once, the security people chased my out in the parking lot and insisted I return to the store for to watch a tape of me stealing stuff. When it all was sorted out, it was someone else that was stealing stuff. I was just a little hot. I know it is wrong to hold a grudge, and I repent, but I still prefer not to go there.
I was looking for big round things, shaped roughly like bicycle tires, but couldn't find any. They did have bicycle tire tubes though. As I sadly studied those tubes, I realized some of the boxes actually contained rolled up bicycle tires. I didn't realize you could do that to a tire and expect it to still function properly. But my satisfaction was guarantied was it not ? so I took the plunge. It would seem that when the tires are unrolled, it is possible to use them on a bicycle, and here is another job well done.
And now it was time for dinner. The charcoal bag has been empty for a while now, so I have been using some of the stuff that falls out of the trees in the yard. Oddly enough, this seems to be an improvement. The real fire gives that wonderful campfire like taste to the meal, and it saves some money too. Well it's back to work again tomorrow.

Local Jazz

Greetings, Culture Fans. My Sweetie saw an announce-ment for this Jazz Trio in the local Swapping Paper. Jazz is Culture, isn't it ? So we got into the Luxury Vehicle and went for the Jazz experience. It was pretty good. We started out by going to the wrong place, but made some adjustments, and got there just a little bit late. But it was certainly worth it, and we enjoyed an evening of local Jazz Type music.
No, my camera is not acting weird or anything, I just neglected to bring it. One of these days I'll learn better. But there had to be a picture, so here it is.

We did finally get some rain, complete with Thunder and Lighting, the works. That Puddin' continues to grow. He was a little sick, but seems to be improving. However, if he doesn't start doing better in with the litterbox, his life may be significantly shortened.

Puny Things

Some more of Little Things. This is actually a Sunflower. I know, Sunflowers are supposed to be big and all, but this one isn't. This one is located in the area beneath our little Bird Feeder. It would seem the little birdies some times waste some of that expensive Birdie Food. I used to get the stuff that had all the different kinds of seeds all together. But the little twerps would throw bunches of it out to get to their favorites. This would make me very upset. I couldn't decide weather to stop feeding 'em, or just to shoot the little things. Finally I realized that they mostly ate the sunflower seeds, so now I just get them. But the Birdies are a bit clumsy at times, and some still hits the ground where it sprouts. The ground here is not real good, and there is a lot of shade, so all we get is these puny little things.

Safety First

Got to work the other day, and was informed that my Headlight was out. NC, like most states, insists that we ride with our lights on. We have signs that say, and I quote, "Motorcycles Must Burn Headlights". This is supposed to make things safer of course. The bright light is supposed to make people in cars and trucks see the poor Biker and consequently, not kill him (or her). Of course they do any way. Curious expression though, "Burn Headlights". Mostly, people burn rubber. But it does get the point across.
I figured I'd just risk my life and try to avoid the cops on the way home. But all this was unnecessary on account of it being discovered that the Bright (high beam) light still worked. This piece of the Motorcycle was the problem. It sort of reminds me of those tube things that used to be in all the radios and stuff. I guess there are people now, who never saw those things. But radios used to have all these tubes in there, that glowed in the dark. But this one was supposed to do more than merely glow, it was supposed to "Burn", and it wouldn't.
Time for a trip to the Auto Parts Store. I just can't stay away from that place. There were lots of these things there on the rack. It was finally narrowed down to two selections, the ridiculously expensive one, and the reasonably priced number. The choice was obvious. So now the Motorcycle has a perfectly functional, reasonably priced, new headlight. And I can once again ride safely.

Back in the Mountains

Last week I took a day off work for a ride up to the mountains. One needs to use those vacation days when one can. I had hoped to make it up to Glendale Springs to see the Frescoes. That is a pretty good ride from here, and I tend to take the less direct route on a Bike. So I didn't quite make it all the way up there. But I did have a fine ride, which was the point, after all.
This is Grandfather Mt. as seen from the Parkway. It was cold up there. Once I got up the mountain, I had to stop and put on my gloves. A little while later, (and higher) I had to put the liner in my jacket.
I believe I've mentioned the Parkway before. (More from the Top, May 29, 2007, Label- Motorcycles) Since I was mostly interested in the actual ride, I got off, and hit US 221 near Grandfather Mt. and rode it toward Blowing Rock. This road was made for Bikes, it winds though the woods along the side of the mountain, and no 45mph speed limit. Here's one huge bolder that hangs over the road. You have to stop if you want to admire the scenery, 'cause you don't want to take your eyes off the road. I got back on the Parkway near Blowing Rock and rode north about another hour. This wasn't far from the planned destination, but time was slipping away, so I turned around and headed for home.


For all the fans of this young critter, he seems to want to get in there with the big kids now, but he's going to have to do a bit better with the litter box thing, if he wants to stay in the house.

Another Little Thing

So here is an update on the little orphan. Yes, he's still living, and growing. Even his ears are starting to look like cat ears. He's gotten so he can help himself to his chow now. Kitten Crunchies soaked in that special Milky Mix. I think his Foster Mommy is glad about this.


Unfortunately he is a messy eater. After a meal he needs a bit of a bath. If his Foster Mommy were a Kittycat Foster Mommy, this would be a simple matter. But this Foster Mommy is not inclined to handle this kittycat style, and takes care of things people style. Now it is time to be blow-dried.

The little feller sorta has the run of the house. He's only been stepped on a few times. He seems to have taken a liking to this doll house. The dog hasen't eaten him yet, maybe the little guy is going to make it after all.
So this is one Little Thing, that seems to be turning into a bigger thing.

Little Thing

Just the little things of daily life
This is what it's about here. We're just little people in a big wide world. But then, this big world is made up out of lots of little things, like this Fuzzy little thing here. Funny how little things can look like big things if you look close enough.
This kinda put me in mind of a whole galaxy when I saw it. Thats big. But then, the more I looked, it seemed more like some kind of microscopic thing. That's little. Maybe size doesn't matter. Maybe it's just a Fuzzy thing. Fuzzy is good. I like Fuzzy.
But now I'm kinda sleepy. I'm going to bed. We'll have a Puddin' update soon.

A Little bit of Rain

Finally, a little bit of rain. Not much, but anything will help. It rained (sorta) all night. Not much more than a sprinkle, but it is wet.
Well, this is the last week of school. Not that they're doing much anymore. Tests are over for the younger ones, I think they mostly watch movies.
Scholarly Son, while not graduating himself, got the honor of being an usher for all that stuff. This requires all those fancy clothes and all. Not having his own Monkey Suit, he had to go rent one. I had to do that once for a wedding.... but I digress. I had to take him over to get the thing the other day. The place was full of fancy dresses hanging all over the place. There was not much room to walk around. I think this must be some kind of feminine thing. I guess they hide all the guy stuff in the back or something.
I tried to remember how to tie a tie for him. We're not real sophisticated here, but we managed to fake it. Now he is over there doing what ever they do even as I write this. It's not always easy, growing up in this family.

Something Fishy

Kinda gross isn't it. But this fish was not always so. In fact not that long ago, it was a wonderful specimen, complete with scales, fins, and all those fishy things. But we had decided to make this fish, and it's friend, a part of our lives. Not the whole fish of course, but a significant part of them. But what you see here, was destined for the garden.
It may seem a bit strange, even disquieting, to eat something that is watching you at the time, but you get over it. So what's the big deal ? I'm convinced that we all eat a lot of stuff that we would rather not know about anyway. Who knows what was crawling around in those grain elevators ? And what about stuff that comes from China ?
At least this way we can see it is a real fish.

He's Back

The little feller didn't stay gone long. He seems to be bonded to people, and didn't care for a kitty foster mom. This seems a bit strange, but I guess we'll have to live with it for now. There's still not much to him. The only way the neighbors could make him happy was to carry him around in a pocket. I don't guess it took a large pocket.
There is a certain amount of irony here. His momma is the Wild One, Angora, (The Wild One, December 03, 2006, Label-Cats), the cat that hates and fears people. Puddin' thinks he is a people.

More from the Top

Even though I couldn't get to the Tippy-Top, there was still a bit of a view. Kinda trippy how as the mountains fade into the distance, they just seem to blend into the sky. I like the mountains. But the trees are dying. They say it is acid rain. The little sign up there claims the rain is as stout as vinegar up there. I like vinegar on my collards, but it seems the trees don't. and there are dead trees all over up there, as can be seem.

I of course rode up on the Parkway. You have to ride the Parkway to get to Mt. Mitchell.
The Parkway is a pleasant ride. You see a lot of Bikes there when the weather is good, shoot, even when the weather is not so good. I've been caught in the rain up there many a time. I used to visit Boone NC from time to time and usually got rained on at least once. But no rain on this trip. One thing about the Parkway though, the speed limit is only 45. So if you want an exciting ride, flirting with death, you'll have to go some where else. There are other places.
This is one of the tunnels. I tried to take a picture riding though, but with the poor light, shaky camera, and me trying not to get hurt, it didn't come out too good.

Oh, and, Puddin' had to come back home.

In the Woods

Since the young'uns were in school, My Sweetie and I decided to take advantage of the situation and have a little picnic. This is along the trail to our little hideaway up in the country. I had to slip past a fallen tree on the way in, but the little truck did just fine. This place is not really in the wilderness or anything, but is surprisingly secluded. I guess it is all the trees and stuff. There are a couple small creeks to cross, so you have to walk in. That also helps keep it private. Here, the trail crosses this little trickle on an old salvaged bridge timber. We opened some wine, did a bit of sketching, and just enjoyed the peace and quiet.


A puddin' update. We seem to have made a swap here. Some neighbors have a momma cat that is crazy about nursing kittens, any kittens. And so.....The Puddin' Cat has gone for a visit. But we didn't get off too easy here, these other two were left in his place. I'm not sure if he'll be back in a few weeks or not, but for now, we got two for one.

Up to Mt. Michell

It had been a while, so Saturday I got the Cycle out and took a ride up to the mountains. The weather was pretty good and I wasn't the only one with this idea. I rode up to Mt. Mitchell. As you can see there were plenty of other Bikes up there. There were even more at the restaurant, but I didn't stop there. If you look closely, you can see a dude on a bicycle there in back. There were a lot of them out as well. There seems to be some kind of challenge to riding up to the highest point east of the Rockies for some folks. I appreciate the motor at times like that.
When we were at Grandfather Mt. they made the claim that it was the "Highest Mt. in the Blue Ridge". This confused me a bit. I wasn't sure who's propaganda to believe. Now I realize that Mitchell is actually in the Black Mts, which are a sort of branch off of the Blue Ridge. Mt. Mitchell- 6,684 feet, Grandfather Mt.- a mere 5,964 ft. Any way, after I got there, I went to find the short trail to the top, but all I found was this sign. It seems there are big things afoot on the mountaintop. There was even an artist's rendition of the new Observation Tower. Life's like that sometimes.
Fortunately, the restrooms were open.

Stopping to Smell the Roses

Years ago, as I walked along the edge of a wood near here, I came upon this wonderful plant. Well, not exactly this one, yet certainly it's ancestor. It looked like a rose out here in the wild. Now I'm not a rose fanatic, or anything like that, but this one intrigued me, so I dug it up, and took it home. Well, from that one tiny rose grew many more. In fact they grew so thick that we were forced at one point, to thin them.

It has this beautiful, simple blossom, and blooms and blooms and blooms. But besides all that, it has the sweetest fragrance of any rose I've seen (or smelled).
I'm often disappointed when I "Stop to Smell the Roses", and there is nothing to smell. But these do not disappoint, and they line our much traveled path to our great enjoyment.

Puddin' Stuff

Just a quick update on this Puddin'. Seems to be growing, good appetite, and is still orange. His eyes are open. Just tonight he was set by this tiny bowl of his Special Milk Stuff, stuck his head in, and actually drank some. I think his foster mamma would like to see him weaned, but we still have a ways to go with that.

The Poetry Corner

My Fairy

I have a fairy by my side
Which says I must not sleep,
When once in pain I loudly cried
It said "You must not weep."

If full of mirth, I smile and grin,
It says "You must not laugh;"
When once I wished to drink some gin
It said "You must not quaff."

When once a meal I wished to taste
It said "You must not bite;"
When to the wars I went in haste
It said "You must not fight".

"What may I do?" at length I cried,
Tired of the painful task.
The fairy quietly replied,
And said "You must not ask."


Lewis Carroll -
(From Useful and Instructive Poetry, 1845)

Weekend Fun

It was the Oil Change weekend, and way overdue. I'm bad for putting these things off. I'm bad for putting them off too long. So Rather than being racked by guilt for another week, it was off to the Auto Parts Place. Not only for Truck Oil, but Motor cycle Oil as well. First I took care of the Bike. That wasn't bad, although I did make a mess. After that it was time to move on to the Truck.
Normally, this would simply be a matter of removing the drainplug, (over an appropriate container of course) and changing the easily reached filter. But I had always wanted a 4X4, and this is it. You might notice those steel plates laying there under all the tools. Those are there to protect the oilpan and stuff like that in the unlikely event that this truck gets slammed onto a big rock. They also protect the oil drainplug from being removed. So it was back to the house for more tools. As things progressed, I also discovered that the filter that had been given to me was actually for someone else's truck. So it was back to the Auto Parts Place again.
But now everything is back together and Truck and Motorcycle both have brand new, clean oil.

The Apple Post

Well It seems we can post pictures again, I'm not real sure, since we can't preview them. I suppose if it posts, we can see them then. So here are those tiny little apples I was mentioning the other day. We have two trees, but all I can find are these few, on this one branch, of this one tree. Of the two trees, this one is a sort of wild one, or at least, the least tasty. The other is a Winesap type, which makes yummy pies. But alas, that one seems to have no survivors. These apples are also on a branch that is hanging low across a path which gets constant use due to our particular facilities here. So really, I don't think we can count on much here.
For the curious, I am still employed. The morning after my Exciting Episode, some unfortunate flipped this Transfer Truck right up the street from the garage. This kept the Street Dpt. busy and diverted most of the attention from my own fiasco. All that came of it was a "Be Careful" meeting.
Puddin' is doing fine.

Technical Difficulties

Ah, yes. I wanted to tell you about the few little apples that had survived the terrible freeze, and I even had pictures to prove it. It was to be an "Apple Post". But it seems that Blogger has issues with apples, specifically, Macintosh Apples. I didn't expect Blogger to be prejudiced against minorities, but now I see how it is. At first I thought, perhaps, I had personally done something to offend them. But after some investigation, it seems that the Mac Minority is suffering discrimination in these posting issues. Maybe soon, they will be stricken by conscience, and let us once more, post our humble pictures into Cyberspace.

Bad Day at the Office

Bad day at the office. Here is the office. See The Fuzz in the office. This is not his usual office. This is known as a "Leafer". A leafer is a big vacuum cleaner on wheels. The Fuzz is a Garbageman. But today he is a Leaferman. Leafers suck. They suck up leaves and grass and even small animals if they are too slow. The Fuzz once sucked up a cement block. Fortunately it didn't make it into the impeller, but it was hard to get out of the sucking up hose. Today did not go well. The Fuzz was called on the radio and told there was a problem. It seems the Dumper Door was partially unlatched. This means that as fast as he sucked up stuff it was blowing out of the back of the truck. Bummer. The Fuzz backtracked and sucked up all the leaves off the street.
But that was not the Bad Day at the Office.
When the Fuzz went to dump the leaves out of the leafer, the dumper would not go back down. Fuzz tried many things. It was quitting time, but the leafer did not want to quit. Finally the fuzz was enlightened to this particular machine's idiosyncrasies, and the dumper came down.
But that was not the Bad Day at the Office.
As the now hurrying Fuzz drove though the gate, the sucking hose caught the gate itself and destroyed it.
Tomarrow, the Fuzz will go to work and see if he still has a job. Perhaps they will give him a drug test. This would be no problem, as long as he drinks a lot of water. The Fuzz is very sad about this. It was not a good day.

Puddin'

Here's our little friend. Still won't open his eyes. I guess he don't want to look at us. He did start to purr, supposedly, they do this at around 6 days. He's also starting to take more of an interest in his grub. This is a blend of Milk, Egg Yoke, and Corn Syrup.
After a good meal, he enjoys a little grooming. He will probably be spoiled directly. He may as well enjoy it while he can. His name is now Puddin'.

Don't really know if he has any surviving siblings. If so mamma moved them. She's still around though. He'll have to get tough. Every night one of the neighbors comes and beats up his uncle.

Kittens

Regular Readers, (I think there's a couple of you) may remember The Wild One, Angora. [ The Wild One, December 03, 2006 ] Well she is all grown up now, but as wild as ever. It also seems that she has the loose morals of most of her sister felines, with the typical result. She also has shown poor judgment in her choice of a home, namely under the eaves of the west wing, also know as "The Condition". (This is another story) These two unfortunates, fell out and were rescued. She seemed to make no effort to do this herself, which throws some question on the quality of her maternal instinct.
They are quite young, eyes are still shut. Unfortunately the grey one didn't make it, but the orange one is still going strong.

The Poetry Corner

To a Rose.

Don't forget to brush your teeth,
Before you go to bed,
Or all your teeth will rot,
And you won't have one in your head.

Roofin' III

As we left these Remarkable Roofers the last time, they were headed from the rain to the house. Here, a delicious snack of Chips and Cheese Dip was prepared. It may be noticed that this was fortified with the necessary hot stuff. On the left is some wimpy stuff, the Tabasco is in the middle, and one the right, you may recognize "Da Bomb". [ See- It's Da' Bomb, Thursday, April 26, 2007. ] I think maybe there were some skeptics about Da Bomb, but they too, became believers. The next morning, after some coffee and a breakfast that couldn't be beat, it was time to once again, take up the task at hand. Here are some of our crew hard at work. And the work was progressing so well, some of the neighbors tried to hire us to do their roof. By now the rain was gone, the sun was out, and conditions were excellent. By mid afternoon, it was all finished except for the cleanup. So after a cold one, it was time to go home.
Here is the new roof.

Roofin' Again

My Sweetie sometimes participates in a "Weekend Drawing Event". This past week we participated in a "Weekend Shingle Event". Son's roof was pretty rough, so the family gathered for some Home Improvements. First, of course, the old stuff has to come off. That is a lot of work. Here you can see the old shingles coming off. You can't see the moss growing on them, so you'll just have to take my word for that.

After all the nails and crap are gone, it's time for the tar paper. This was important since the rain was getting ready to pounce on this poor naked roof. That would not have been good for all the valuable possessions inside this place. But with many workers, the tar paper was being applied even as the stripping progressed.
Naturally all that heavy stuff had to be somehow gotten up there where it could be utilized. We were fortunate to have the services of this heathy looking fellow. See how easy he makes it look. He was also the brains of the operation, so many thanks, you know who you are.

As the rain began, the ladies decided it was time to retire to the house and do what ever the ladies do. Before I get in trouble here, let me point out that the ladies had already nailed down a good number of shingles before this happened.
Here you can see Younger Son making critical measurements in the rain.
The macho guys stayed on the job and finished the tar paper and a few courses of shingles as the sun slipped below the horizon. It couldn't actually be seen slipping away in the rain, but I believe it did, since it was getting dark at this point.
And so this is how it stood at the end of the first day. We all went into the house to dry off and eat burgers, tater salad, and lots of other good stuff.

Roofing

Just came home from a family roofing event. I am also a little bit tired and sore. So.... I'll go into more detail on this next time. But as can be seen, this was a necessary job. When things like this come up, it's good to get all the help one can get, so our son set up a Shingle Shindig, complete with food and beer. Maybe it's not good to drink beer on a roof, but no one fell off, so maybe it's OK after all. We all worked hard, except the dog, and there's another job well done.

At the Court Square

Every town needs a Court Square, this is ours. They just celebrated 100 years with this courthouse. But it's not really the courthouse any more. They built a new one. The new one has a sheriff's office, jail and everything right there in one building. It's very convenient if you get arrested. This is the old one. They made a museum out of it which was probably a good idea, but they had to close it. Someone embezzled a bunch of the money. But it still looks cool. But what really makes this Court Square great is the Confederate Soldier. Check it out. Isn't this great ? I bet every town wishes it had one of these. Well, maybe not yankee towns. They'd have to get something else.



Here is a closer look at this Noble Warrior. I suppose, there are some who would take offense at this, but why ? These guys were just trying to defend their homes and all. And really, they did a pretty good job. Just

not good enough.




Well, I just wanted to show y'all this. That is pretty much in the past now, but it would be wrong to forget.

Frozen

Again I refer to a previous post, Home At Last, April 22. This is not a pictorial memory of last autumn, but in fact, April, 2007. Only a few weeks ago, these were tender young leaves welcoming Springtime to our land. But despite this "Global Warming", a mini ice-age brought destruction. When we returned from the Tropical Paradise, the first thing we had to do was light a fire in the heater.
I have never seen it like this before. Sure, we have late frosts that kill the plums or peaches, but this was on a whole new scale. Entire trees were frostbit. There were dead, brown leaves on the ground. I was beginning to wonder what would happen with all this new growth wiped out. But there is yet hope. This is a tiny bud, on the Fig bush. All is not lost after all. The trees are beginning to recover too. Perhaps Summer may come after all.