Tuesday, August 26, 2008

It's a bird! It's a plane! Oh! it's just rain.

Yes rain, something we have seen very little of over the past couple of years. We in the deep south have been under what the experts call a drought. That doesn't mean that we have been completely rain free, but instead have had brief forays of raindrops now and then, usually not at my house.

On the plus side the lawn only needs mowed ever couple of weeks or so. On the down side, what few flowers I planted this year are either already dead or wish they were.

Currently the remnants of Fay, a former tropical storm with the moving speed of an ancient tortoise, is making her way through my area. We have had on and off rain since yesterday evening, some of it a bit on the heavy side. Tornadoes have made brief appearances south of us, but thankfully leaving little damage. We won't be getting the flooding that Florida received, thank goodness, but there will be little flooding in a few areas. Especially as our ground is so unused to being wet.

I had to run an errand this evening after dark in a downpour. I was very thankful that most of the other motorists on the road were going fairly slowly as visibility was far less then ideal.

It is a grand thing to hear something I've not heard much of lately, the pitter-patter of raindrops outside my window.

Thus ends Sylvie's personal weather forcast.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Water Glasses and Other Bouncable Items

I have two cats Luna-tic aka Jabba the Kitty, and Chernobyll aka dammitcat. They are ordinary cats, in the fact that they can render a litter box into a toxic waste dump in three days max, they are very picky in their choice of kibbles, and in Chernobyll's case breakfast MUST include a spoonful of gooshy food. They sleep in all the best places, the couch, the love seat, your shirt that you had just set on the bed to wear for the day. And they shed, well at least Luna-tic does. Just wear black and come to my house for an hour. You will be wearing some of her snow white hair on your black clothes within five minutes of entering my house.

Not long after Luna-tic got old enough, she discovered the perfect way to people up. For my older daughter it was using an ear as a pacifier. The cat is now four years old and still tries to sneak in an ear fix on Ashley now and then. The younger daughter, keeps her door firmly closed against all kitty intruders when she sleeps. Smart girl. For me, ear sucking wasn't going to work, because I wasn't going to let that cat anywhere near my earlobes. So being the determined feline that she was, she figured out a way to get me out of bed and into the kitchen to fix her breakfast without fail. She bats my glasses around aiming to knock them off the nightstand. When Chernobyll came into our lives, Luna-tic taught Nobyll that nice little trick. One or both cats will be in my room every morning, making sure they hear the "alarm" they have set off. I haven't set a real alarm clock in years, unless I have to get up at some ungodly middle of the night hour. That is quite rare however.

Chernobyll liked the wake up Meowmie game so much that she decided to take it further. Any object is fair game to what I have dubbed "bounce". She'll knock off anything off my nightstand, my desk or the coffee table. She once knocked off a baker's lamp off my overhead shelf onto my bed, missing me by inches. Her favorite target however is water glasses. The fuller they are the better she likes it. She never targets glasses when people are in the room. She considers them fair game however, if someone makes the mistake of leaving it on the coffee table for awhile. I try to make sure that all glasses are in the kitchen, preferably in the dishwasher before bed, but every now and then one will escape my notice. Mainly because my college aged kids go to bed after I do. When that happens, it is almost certain that Chernobyll will go glass tipping.

Of course the glass will still have some liquid in it. Of course I am a light sleeper and hear the sound of glass making that sound it makes when it merely tips over onto the coffee table surface or manages to hit the floor. Of course I also hear the splash of liquid. And then I yell Chernobyll's nickname and get up to clean up the mess she's left once again.