The B Word

As in doggy bath!

A badly needed doggy bath after what transpired this morning. First off it has been stinking hot here lately, but when we went out this morning for Millie's front yard time, time that I use to drink my coffee and sometimes do a little crocheting, time that she uses to first run madly about the yard in search of cats that might be hiding under the daisy bushes, then a more calm walk around to sniff everything, then an even calmer lets lay in the grass and watch the world go by, it seemed a little cooler and much more pleasant outside. We do the front yard time every day and she knows what 'go outside' means and gets very excited waiting for me to open the front door. She has been really good about staying inside her boundaries but still likes to warn people off with a bark if they get to close to her front yard. Anyway, since it didn't seem quite so hot I decided today would be a good day to get some much needed yard work done.

I had been wanting to take out part of the star jasmine vine that has been growing alongside the garage for quite a few years, the star jasmine vine that will overnight sprout new tendrils that tend you grab you as you walk up the sidewalk, the star jasmine vine that started out as a very small plant and grew to cover two large trellises. It had gotten so heavy on the second trellis that it has been leaning way over and really annoying me. Because I like things straight. Pictures hanging crooked drive me nuts and so does a leaning over trellis.

So, lots of chopping and lopping and I got the trellis that didn't actually have a plant growing beneath it, just branches from the original plant, all cleaned up and the branches removed, then trimmed the actual plant on the other trellis way way back. No more grabbing at me when I least expect it!

Then I cleaned out the overgrown African daisies out of one side of the front flower bed, they were starting to look half dead and maybe it's time to freshen things up out there. The front flower bed is also always full of leaves from the camphor tree so a lot of raking was also done. I went into the back yard to get the broom and when I came back out Millie was enthusiastically digging a big hole in the nice damp dirt that my raking of leaves had uncovered. Her paws were covered in mud, so after an unsuccessful attempt to wipe the mud off decided that today would be bath day.

I did a little weed whacking of the small patch of grass (weeds) that grows near the street side flower bed, the rest of the yard being basically dead because we don't water those weeds, only the ones near the flower beds that get watered when we're doing the flowers, then brought Millie inside for her bath.

She looks much cleaner now, as does the yard. I have to be in the right mood to do yard work, sometimes I wish we lived in an apartment or someplace without a yard to take care of, but when I'm finished I do feel like I really accomplished something.

Front flower bed where the hole was dug.

And star jasmine and empty trellis.

I've been doing lots of crochet while sitting in the air conditioned house and am getting a little obsessed with it. It's very relaxing and I've been doing things that get finished quickly like blanket blocks and drink coasters. I was thinking about putting the coasters in my Etsy shop but still haven't decided for sure on that. I've looked around at some other crochet type shops and it doesn't seem like they sell all that well, but it might be worth a try. I haven't made anything new for my shop in a long time, I've almost gotten to where I don't really enjoy doing the shop all that much anymore. I do like the little bit of extra money though, so I'm hesitant to completely give it up.

I am not going to show you my most recent crochet since I'm working on Christmas gifts and if I showed you that would ruin the surprise.

Front Yard Flowers

Our front yard is looking really good this year if I do say so myself. It's green for the first time in years (thanks, little bit of rain we've had) even if the green is all weeds and weird grasses. The flowers in the flower beds were all low maintenance this year, having planted them a year or two ago, and with the white daisy flowers having re-seeded themselves, no planting at all this year to get a really full looking flower bed.

I did a bunch of yard work yesterday and I think my new yard work day is going to be on Sundays. All week long I listen to gardeners coming and going around the neighborhood with their extremely loud leaf blowers, all week long when most of the neighbors are at work and don't have to put up with the noise. So, my neighbors are going to listen to me weed whacking and mowing on Sundays and they should be really glad that I don't have a leaf blower to annoy them even further.

Where Does The Lint Go?

So, my new washer and dryer seem to work very well, which they better, right? The washer makes a totally different noise than we are used to, Keith says it sounds like my computer printer when it's printing out a page. It's kind of a HMMM hmmm HMMM hmmm as it's filling up with water and swishing everything around in there. The tub is a lot bigger than the old washer and supposedly you can cram two baskets of laundry in at once, but I don't think I will try that, one basket at a time seems about right to me. It senses how much water it needs to fill up with by weight I guess. Or something like that.

The clothes come out of the washer without wads of cat hair being left in the tub, so I don't know where the cat hair goes, and the dryer dries without much lint being left in the lint trap at all. Don't know where the lint goes either. I've done probably 10 loads (if not more) of laundry and have only emptied a very small amount of cat hair lint out of the trap.

And how exciting is that? New washer, yay!

We had some rain complete with thunder and lightning here, so unusual for July or anytime other than a few months in winter. Parts of town did flood a bit and the railroad had flash flood warnings out. Keith was bringing a train back from Barstow and had to go 8 miles an hour down the mountain despite the skies being totally sunny, but the rain can come on suddenly up there and flash flood warnings are not something to ignore, so it took them 3 hours to go about 35 miles.

I went back to the dermatologist and got my stitches out so now just have a not too noticeable scar on my cheek, better than a big lump! I also didn't have to wait there for hours and hours this time, when I walked in I was the only patient there. How often does that happen? Never? Keith went in for a skin cancer check and had a few things removed for biopsies, he will go back in a few weeks for the results on that and to have some moles removed.

And that is about all that is going on around here. I did clean up the yard yesterday, not a whole lot of mowing involved, just weed whacking around the edges and sweeping up leaves and small branches from the tree and then trimming the star jasmine that has been sending tendrils out to catch us as we walk by. I was out in the yard for maybe 2 hours and was totally exhausted and soaked in sweat by the time I was done, so after a shower the rest of the day was kind of a bust, no more energy to do anything else.

Getting Up Early

I think I just found a cure for my it's too hot to do anything summertime laziness. Summertime laziness is a little different than my any other time of the year laziness in that I don't feel like doing anything that might make me sweat, which is anything more than getting out of bed when it's stinking hot outside.

Keith woke me up at 5:30 so that I could take him to work and have the car for things that I need to do, such as my doctor's appointment tomorrow morning to have a cyst on my face removed. I've had it for a couple of years now and since I'm old and not so vain these days, I've just kind of ignored it as it kept getting bigger and bigger. It has bothered me but not enough to actually go have someone stick a needle full of novocain into my face and then cut the thing open and remove it until now. Long story short I need a car to get to the doctor's office to get my face cut open.

So, this morning I drop him off at 6:15 to catch his ride to go dogcatch a train that's been sitting on the mountain for probably half the night and as I'm pulling into the driveway back home again I look at our mostly dead lawn and decide that since it's not too hot yet I will get at the weed whacking that has needed doing for a few weeks now. It's not a lot of weed whacking, the only part of our yard that gets any water is around the edges from our neighbor's sprinklers and by the flower boxes that do get watered on a semi regular basis. Plus, half of the flowers in the flower boxes are dead and need to be pulled out.

And now it is 8:00 and the weed whacking and sweeping up part of it is done and I'm covered in sweat but actually have enough energy left to go tend to the flower beds.

I'm thinking maybe I should get up at 5:30 every day. But I probably won't.

The day before yesterday it actually rained some overnight, and I guess Millie didn't want to go outside to do her business because in between feeding all the cats and walking back to the bathroom here she is sitting in the hallway next to a big poop with a rather odd look on her face. And then I see a big wet spot on the bathroom rug. Why she didn't poo and pee in the same spot I don't know, maybe it offended her sensibilities and dogs don't poo where they pee. Or something like that.

Then this morning I go to feed Genie and she left a big poop on her blanket in her basket, and that blanket just went into the garbage because no I don't want to wash poo off of your blanket considering I just had to wash  your cat bed yesterday because of the same sort of issue. Then I see a big wet spot RIGHT NEXT to her cat box that sits on a table on the patio. She peed right on the table instead of in her box. Why is her cat box on a table? Because since the dog and all the cats go outside through the doggy door she is deathly afraid to get down on the ground most of the time and so sleeps and eats on top of some card tables and the patio table. The whole arrangement is kind of a pain in the ass but since the cats got used to going outside it's kind of hard to keep them in.

It's just two of them that really bother Genie, Buddy and Mimi kind of gang up on her and chase her and have gotten into a few scrapes with her, so she steers clear of them. They are just a couple of schoolyard bullies.

Okay, back to my yard work before it gets too hot.

Dog Spay and Yard Clean Up

Yesterday I mowed and weed whacked the front yard while Keith napped and then finally came out to help spray weed killer around the front patio where weeds had come up between the bricks. We have had such a small amount of rain so far this winter but that little bit of rain sure got those weeds growing. We won't even talk about the back yard except to say that the mixture of weeds and grass is about 2 feet high in some places. The dog and the cats kind of like it though, they like to eat the grass and also hide in it. Keith was supposed to clean all that up. Someday maybe he will get to it.

Anyway, he forgot to shut the gate after he put the weed killer away and when Millie went out late in the afternoon to take care of business she of course discovered the open gate. I was sitting in the back yard and heard her barking but the barking sounded like it was coming from further away than usual, so inside I went to look out front since I didn't have my shoes on and didn't want to walk through all the sort of muddy dirt in the side yard to check on things.

Sure enough, there she is in the front yard barking away. Freedom! I grabbed my shoes and some doggy treats for luring purposes and by the time I got out the front door she was across the street at our neighbor Colby's front door. He has a little blind weenie dog (can't remember how to spell dachsund) that Millie probably heard barking when his doggy care lady came to feed him. Colby works a job that has him on the road much of the time so he has a pet sitting service that comes twice a day to check on the dog. The stray cats also love his front door and sit there quite frequently and also pee there quite frequently. His front door probably smells even worse than ours from the stray cats spraying the doors. He has a little stone dog statue by his door and when I got across the street Millie had discovered it and was growling at it. Thinking it was a real dog I'm assuming. I got her picked up and back across the street. Bad Girl!

She had her spay done last week and has been much quieter than usual while she heals. I've been kind of surprised at how quiet she has been, I thought it might be an issue trying to keep her calm, remembering kitten spay and neuters where they acted just like they did before, especially Buddy who had his cone of shame off within a few hours and was ready to play at like 3 am. We did take her inflatable collar off for a bit the other day but that was a mistake because lick, lick, lick, and her incision was all irritated looking. I've been cleaning it twice a day with peroxide and putting neosporin on it like the doctor said and after we put her collar back on it's looking pretty good. She actually grabbed her Lamb Chop toy this morning, but other than that has not even played with any toys. Lots of sleeping and just resting going on.

If you ever have a dog or cat that has surgery, by all means get the inflatable collar, so much more comfortable for them that those horrible plastic things.

Last night I was cleaning the cat box and Mimi decided my bent over body looked like a good thing to climb on.

It's a little difficult to walk around with a cat on your neck.

I'm Tired And Need Some Coffee!

I've been trying not to drink so much coffee lately, my stomach has been hurting a lot and I'm having other digestive type issues. I was taking a lot of aspirin each day for some tooth pain and arm pain and any other kind of pain and I'm wondering if I have a big hole in my stomach from all the aspirin. I did get the tooth pain figured out at the dentist. And I'm switching to Aleeve for the arm pain.

I'm trying some different more soothing for the stomach teas and today I got some probiotic pills that are timed-release. I had tried probiotics before and the brand I got gave me a stomach ache but so far so good after taking 2 of the new ones today. I got some chamomile tea and some energy and mind focusing tea (ha) and still drink some of my good old Lipton decaf at night. I only had one cup of coffee this morning but after a busy busy day I'm really really tired.

I had a bunch of orders to pack up this morning, I really though that the holiday rush was over with but not quite I guess with a lot of orders coming in yesterday. I didn't want to wait until tomorrow morning to get them ready for the mail, Keith should be home tonight and he sleeps a lot later than me in the mornings. I also got 2 more orders today that I needed to make up and then pack.

I also got out into the yard and weed whacked around all the stepping stones that I really wish we had never put in because weed whacking around them is kind of a pain but luckily the grass is pretty much dead around most of them. Then mowing the rest of the yard and I decided to take the black eyed susan that the wind knocked over completely out. It was starting to kind of creep me out a little anyway and it just needed too much maintenance or it would take over the yard, and it was definitely reminding me of Marge Simpson's hair, so...out it came which was quite a job pulling all the tendrils off of the trellis and then digging up the rest of it. I did put what was left of it in the ground by the side yard fence where maybe it will grow again and then it has a whole fence to spread out on.

See what I mean?

Anyway, out it came and I unbent the trellis and stuck it back in the ground and it looks a lot better to me now.

Our little oak tree's leaves are turning and getting ready to fall but fortunately it won't need too much raking up since there are only about 30 leaves or so on the tree. I am glad it survived the wind though!

The Murderess Strikes Again

I knew something was up when Genie was sitting at the back door staring in at me the other morning. It always kinds of creeps me out when she sits and stares and I know she wants something but I'm never sure quite what.

She's a very odd cat, she wants to be petted but won't sit still so you can do just that, she kind of runs around you while you are trying to pet her and absolutely HATES being picked up and absolutely HATES sitting on your lap, so trying to pet her if she isn't asleep can be quite a chore. Get a pet, run around, get another pet, run around.

I looked past her into the yard to see if something was bothering her and over by the table and chairs I see a pile of I'm not sure what and then realize it is another dead bird. This time it's a big bird, Genie has managed to catch herself a dove.

She doesn't try to eat the birds she catches, but rather plays with them until they stop moving and then the fun is over and hey, can you come see what I've caught?

Lucy's mockingbird seems to have calmed down, I haven't heard any screeching in the past day or two, and she has staked her claim on her side of the yard and she and Genie seem to be getting a little uneasily along, each one kind of keeping an eye on the other from their respective sides of the yard. It does make mornings a little easier, not having to go out back to feed one cat and then out front to feed the other.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, has been going on around here other than a dead dove. This is the time of year that is most boring here, it's really too hot to do much of anything and the heat makes me even lazier than usual. I am planning on doing the yard this morning before it gets too bad out there, but I have to get myself out there and as you can see, instead of getting out there, I'm at the computer!

Too Hot To Celebrate?

Ever since we moved to this place where it gets so hot in the summer, our 4th of Julys have been similar to any other day of the week. In other words, rather boring.

It's just too dang hot to go outside and barbecue and while there are some outdoor festivities this weekend, at least I think there are, it's just too dang hot! I do think that Tehachapi does something involving hot dogs today but the last time we went to a festival in Tehachapi in the summer time I got kind of sick feeling wandering about the streets (because it was too hot!) and really didn't enjoy myself at all. Plus, Keith is not home today to go do anything anyway.

I think the theme today is too hot.

I got to see Keith for just a few minutes yesterday, he got in early early in the morning and was sound asleep when I got up. He spent all day sleeping only to have to catch another train in the late afternoon. I had checked on him a few times throughout the day, hoping any noise I was making didn't disturb him, and apparently it didn't. So, the little bit of time in between him getting his call to work and going out the door was about all I saw of him in not asleep mode.

I'm going to try and get the yard work done this morning before it gets too hot (there's that theme again), I have been watering the front yard every morning in the hopes that the grass seed I scattered will eventually grow and we won't have a huge brown spot in the middle of the yard. It might be my imagination but it does look like the brown spot is getting smaller. I'm about ready to go buy some green spray paint and spray it like that stuff they used to sell for men's bald spots, that instant hair in a can. Instant grass in a can!

So, for those of you who actually have something fun planned for the day, I hope you enjoy yourselves and it's not too hot where you are.

Someone's Been Sleeping In My Bed

I just went out to the front porch and looked up into the tree to see if Lucy was on her little sleeping perch that Keith built for her (along with steps on the tree trunk to get up there) and there was a cat sound asleep but it wasn't Lucy. It was the pest of the neighborhood, the black and white cat that constantly comes over to eat our cat's food and in general annoy the heck out of them. The same cat that figured out how to get into Genie's shed and into her bed.

So, I say HEY and the cat wakes up in a total panic and tries to jump onto the roof of the house but fails, and what a big fail it was, with the cat tumbling to the ground and landing with a thud and then running off down the street. Apparently not hurt by the thud because it ran away FAST. Then I see Lucy looking over the side yard fence like what's going on out here?

So, what else is going on around here? Keith is almost done with his third week of work at a job that he feels overpaid for (good!) and doesn't really like (bad). When he used to fix pumps it was tear this thing apart and put it back together with new parts, but this job has loads of paperwork involved and you have to document every move you make along with pictures, and measure everything carefully, and he is finding all that quite the headache. They also want to train someone to be on call 24 hours a day seven days a week every other month to travel to fix things and he doesn't think he wants to do that. However, at this point he doesn't have much choice and will kind of have to do whatever they want him to do because there aren't many other jobs out there that will pay him as much and it will still be a job where he would have to fix broken things.

I'm trying to be patient with him and sympathize with him having to do a difficult job and not the job he really wanted, but it gets a little frustrating sometimes.

We are planning to work in the yard this weekend, getting the flowers and shrubs that we bought last weekend into the ground and getting more of the weeds that grow like weeds out there cleaned up. The side yard on the side of the house that we walk through got weed whacked so it looks a little better, but there is still a half finished walkway to the patio and another side yard full of wood and weeds out there.

I think Keith has a little hoarding tendencies when it comes to wood. He was talking about some 2x4s at work that they cut up to use for blocks and how he'd like to ask if he could have some of it and I reminded him about the side yard and garage that are both full of pieces of wood for 'future' building projects that have been sitting there for years. And years. And no, he doesn't need to bring more pieces home.

So, we will see how far we get and hopefully the sun will come out because it's a little chilly  here today. Although I shouldn't complain about it because in a few more months I'll be complaining about how hot it is.

What I Learned Today

Do not leave your black rubber crocs on the back porch in full sun while you go into the house to wash your hands because they are dirty from gardening. They will start to melt.

Today it is supposed to be our first day of the above one hundred degrees days of the season. The news weather teams do keep track each year. Because there is nothing else to do around here. It is hot out there but maybe I'm getting more used to the brutal summers up here in hot summer land.

I spent the mid-morning mowing the front yard and starting to do the badly needed cleaning up of the back yard flower beds and all the trimming that needs to be done on our overgrown shrubs and picking up the not yet ripe fruit that is already falling from the peach and plum trees. Not yet ripe fruit that is a hazard when you are trying to walk around out there and step on a hard green plum. Peach and plum trees that I wish were not there because they are way more trouble than they are worth. The fruit never tastes that good, fruit that I don't eat because I'm not supposed to eat sugary fruit, and I never really liked plums and peaches all that much anyway. Now nectarines, maybe. I think we will be chopping down those two trees next year before they start to bear and then we won't have that mess to deal with.

The patio mister system worked really well so that I didn't get too hot out there today, but now I'm exhausted. I'm not used to quite so much physical labor in one day. Tomorrow morning early we'll both get out there and finish up and finally get the tables put away and the barbecue cleaned up. It's only been a mess for two weeks now. That's not much time for us procrastinating type people.

So, did you see the news about the bear running around the school where they were trying to hold a graduation on the other side of town? Yahoo picked up on it and I think Good Morning America did, too. The bear ended up running through an apartment complex where it was finally tranquilized and taken back where it belongs.

Whew!

Now I'm tired.

I got the yard mowed, only a few days late since Friday is my yard mowing day and I didn't feel like doing it on Friday, and then yesterday the yard was still all wet because it actually rained all day here on Sunday. Not a hard rain for the most part, just very light but enough to where poor old Lucy had to stay in the garage all day and night and Genie spent her day inside the shed, all like WHAT THE HELL?  It's WET out there!

Anyway, the yard looks better and I even rode over to Home Depot and got some new flowers for our big flower pot out front. The flower pot that had stubs of dead flowers in it. Stubs that Keith was convinced would come back. I keep explaining to him that some flowers just bloom and then die, and no, they are not going to come back. You just plant new ones each year. So, I did.

I'm beginning to think that my mind is failing me sometimes. Last week I was cooking dinner and had a can of baked beans (from Trader Joe's- very good!) on the back little burner. It's for heating up small pans or keeping things warm and the flame is very small. I had it on low to keep the beans warm while everything else cooked and then I dished up the beans and put the pan in the sink. But forgot to turn off the burner. Until the next night when Keith noticed it was on. So, it was on all night and all day. Burning away on a very low flame. Now I am afraid that I will become quite OCD and check and recheck the burners to make sure they are off.

We finally got our bathroom painted on Sunday. Since it was raining and all and there was nothing else to do. Only about 6 years late. Keith did most of the work because speaking of OCD he is very particular about how things get done while my style is more slap that paint on the wall. It needs a few places touched up, though. We got a new bathroom light and why we didn't do that 6 years ago too I don't know. At first it was blinding after he put it up. We thought the old light was okay but it only had one lightbulb and how we managed to take showers in the dark for so long is beyond me. With the old light the paint job looked just fine. With the new light the splotchy areas are in your face obvious.

Tomorrow afternoon we go get our taxes done so we can see if we will have to give our life savings to the IRS or not. I'm hoping we break even, we have extra money taken out of Keith's paycheck each payday and it's not like we are rich or anything. But, you've got to keep those congressmen paid and their private jets gassed up after all.

More Weekend Projects

Here's what Keith did this weekend. Yes, he is still working on the backyard, too, which may get finished sometime this decade.

I had seen these evergreen trees over at walmart for only $10.00, which for a tree is a pretty cheap price. So, along the side yard they went.



These trees are supposed to get 8-12 feet tall (if they don't burn up in the hot sun and die, that is) and are low maintenance (yay), so someday we'll have a nice privacy screen and shade on the driveway.

We had summer this weekend, temps got up into the 80's and 90's, and are supposed to get near 100 today. What the heck? It's only April. I even turned on the air conditioner last night before we went to bed to cool off the house a little. A week ago we had a cold front coming through and almost turned on the heater.