Archive for the ‘Adventures on Mill Road’ Category

Archimedes – Psycho Kitty

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Let’s start with… I trim my cats claws.  I always have.  It’s not hard to do.  Just grab a pair of nail clippers – the kind you would use on yourself and just nip off the ends.  If the claws are light you can see the quick and go a little higher for a lasting trim.  If the claws are dark… just take of the really pointy part.

Needless to say I don’t do it frequently enough.  Our guys & girls really don’t claw at the furniture.  We have many scratching posts (3 in the bathroom (they’re small) , 3 in the living room (they’re big) , 1 in the craft room (off the top of my head))  that they can use and get “goooooood kitty” rather than a sharp clap and a “HEY!”

David and I have surmised that cats have biorhythms just like us humans.  We’ve been trying to figure out the duration of the Emotional (lovey dovey must sit on your lap), the Physical (psycho running insanely aroung the house wrestling with the others) and the Intellictual (figures out how to open the treat jar without opposible thumbs) lengths.  We have a spreadsheet that we’ve been keeping … somewhat sporadically.  We really have to get serious if we want to figure it out.  Which leads to Archimedes – Psycho Kitty.

I would say I haven’t cut the Mede Man’s claws in a month or so.  He doesn’t like it.  And so I either have to catch him asleep and cut or have a kitty struggle complete with pathetic “Your killing me” meows.  So day before yesterday I should have known something was up with Archimedes (http://www.taciej.com/kitties/supremes/archimedes4.jpg).  I couldn’t walk without tripping over his little black butt.  Although he’s about 15 lbs. right now and not fat so his butt is anything but little.  Anyway, he was all over me like a cheap fur suit.  I sat down on the edge of the bed to get ready for work.  Up hops Mede-Man.  He lays on my knee hi’s.  Which I then must extract out from under him without a) getting runners or b) getting clawed.  The game has begun!  I managed a and a little b.  Then I put my clothes on the bed.  There was a string in the pants.  Fun! Fun!  I managed to extract my clothes and put them on.  But this is now a full fledged game.  Archimedes the grabs my arm… full out teeth and claws to play.  Talk about OW!  Once claw actually dug in and left a bruise!  So I grabbed hime by the scruff of the neck, swung him around to face me, said “Ow! No!” in my most stern “you hurt me” voice, and plopped him uncermiounously on the floor.  Well I guess because I did the Mom thing of grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, he “apologized” by looking contrite and rubbing on my leg.  This lasted for all of 10 seconds.  I gave him a little pet and he grabbed my leg for some more play time.

Needless to say… his nails have been cut.  Let the games continue!

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Chapter 7

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Making the bed or
Cats and Other Household Pests

For those of us who have cats you’ll understand this next story.  Let’s start with my Beloved.  David is a messy sleeper.  He’s active and when he gets up in the morning the covers are in complete disarray.  He likes to stick his feet off the end of the bed, which untucks the sheets helping to cause said disarray.  Me, I’m the opposite.  I can get into bed, sleep all night and wake up the next morning, get out of bed and barely move the covers.  I don’t like my feet stuck out.  The bellsnickle will get my toes.  It’s not a good thing.

Needless to say, we have to remake the bed every day.  Well, I have to remake the bed everyday.  I like tidy covers.  David doesn’t care.  But he loves me, so he helps me remake the bed.  Well tonight my Archimedes was in full blown play mode.  Those of you who have cats know what is coming next.  Everything was a toy.  My toes, fingers, my shirt… everything.  So I pulled the blankets and quilts off the bed and left the sheet and Archimedes on the bed.  Getting the bedding off the bed was a treat.  Everytime I would pull one piece off, Archimedes would jump on it and ride it to the end of the bed, biting at the covers.  And then try to bite at my fingers as I pulled him off the covers.  I tried to get Archi off the bed… but it was like trying to keep a piece of styrofoam at the bottom of a pool.  Not happening.

Archimedes & the Sheet.  So… I pulled up the sheet and the cat, because… well, I would have had more luck stopping a nuclear reaction than getting Archimedes to stop helping me make the bed.  Archimedes grabbed and bit and kicked and just generally had a whopping good time as I tried to pull the sheets up to the pillow.  He managed to get under the sheet at one point.  Every little move of the sheet was another joyful grab from under the sheet.  Paws & Claws and Teeth.  Finally… step 1 complete.   Next came the small comforter.  And more play.  Archi just had a blast.  Sliding under the comforter, grabbing my fingers, biting my fingers, biting the comforter, just more general cat fun.  So much fun.  And the of course, when the comforter stopped moving for a minute… out popped the little black furry head with the look of, “Hey, I’m not done playing here! Keep going.”

Well 3 throw blankets, 2 quilts, a down blanket and 15 minutes later… the bed is finally made.  With one rather large lump dead smack in the center.  I guess I could have made it easier if I didn’t trace some circles on the bed with my hand.  But Arhicmedes was having so much fun.  So all of you out there who have a cat and have made a bed… you know what I’m talking about.  You know how much fun the cats have with making the bed.

And that was that little adventure.

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Chapter 23

Friday, January 25, 2008

There’s ice where?

It’s been an interesting week on Mill Road. We must now rewind to Sunday. The over night low was a balmy 17 and the high was 34. Monday the high was a warm 28 with the low of 15. Tuesday 34/17 and Wednesday was 28/15. Yesterday (Thursday) was relatively warm at 36/27. Sounds like the top 2 measurements of a woman.

Anyway. I got up Sunday, took my shower and off I went to church. David had to work so he stayed home. The rest of Sunday was uneventful. Nice. Monday was Martin Luther King’s holiday and so MOST everything not retail was closed. When we got up… no water. So David went down into the basement and fiddled around and found… yes, an open window. David said that the cats opened it, but it could have been when the back door was slammed it popped the window. You really have to slam the back door to close it. So he closed the window and once the pipes warmed up and the water started to flow… we had a leak right where the water meter is attached to the pipe. Now when I say leak I mean a 1/2 gallon every 15 seconds – leak. GUSH. So off goes the water. Now, David who is VERY handy with plumbing could have maybe fixed it… but because it was right around the water meter… he didn’t want to “tamper” with it. Fine. No water Monday, but other than that, not eventful. Tuesday we called the Township and Rick Prewitt knew exactly what to do. There is a little plastic thingy on the water meter, that when it goes below freezing, it breaks creating a leak point preventing damage to the pipes and the meter. Kind of neat, good fore thought in the design. BUT, the little plastic thingy he needed was in Delaware. So David tells him it’s not a problem, just bring the part on Wednesday morning… at 6:30 am. At 6:30 am Rick was there and by 6:45 am Rick was long gone. Problem solved… we have running water again. About 2:30 pm David calls. The oil tank is on the letter M in the word EMPTY. So I asked, do you think we can make it until tomorrow. He said, I think so. I called the oil company and had them make a delivery… Yes I know I should be (for all of you home owners saying “you should be on automatic delivery”). Taylor said they would be out either that day or the next.

Well I must have heard David wrong. He must have said, I think NO. Because when I got home. No heat. Well, no heat from the oil burner. Fortunately we have enough space heaters and the house is super easy to keep warm. We put one space heater under the pipes in the basement – just in case, one in the living room and a 3rd upstairs. The one upstairs is really cool too. It was a Christmas present and it looks like a fire. And it’s actually very realistic – except for the fact it’s sitting in the middle of the hallway. It was fun sleeping by firelight.

So by Thursday morning at 9 am we had heat and water. Now I bet you’re wondering, but where does the ice come in. I mentioned frozen, but not ice specifically. Yes, it’s coming. I have cats as it evidenced by the pictures on my website. And one of the little beauties had an accident on the bed. Off come 3 comforters, a blanket, the sheets and the mattress pad. The mattress was spared. Didn’t that little bugger have good aim! So we have no clean linens. We have a wonderful washer – large capacity front loader that will take the king size quilts on the bed. But it’s not working. So we have to go the laundry mat. Not a problem, we know the lady the runs the one and it’s always nice to have a visit with Esther. Except she was done for the day by the time we got there. So David goes off with just a car load full of dirty laundry and in about an hour and a ½ he comes home with a car full of clean laundry. Wet, clean laundry.

See our dryer is working nicely. And it’s vented into the house and it helps to heat the house. So we clean at the laundry mat and dry at home. Since it was late, almost 9 pm, he just dried the pieces we needed to go to bed. A comforter, sheets & pillowcases. He left the rest in the car. Why not? It’s cold, the laundry will freeze and won’t get musty or yucky. This is were the ice comes in.

This morning David gets up, and puts some of the semi-frozen wet laundry in the basement, some in the dryer, and some in the living room. Off he goes for coffee. I come out, get in my car, see ice, grab my scraper and go scrape my car windows. So there I was, standing beside my car, no ice on the driver side windows. Ok, the sun had been shining on that side of my car, maybe it melted. So around to the back of my X I go to scrape… no ice. Now I know I looked in the rearview mirror and saw ice. So I opened the hatch and … tah-dah! Ice on the inside. Yup, the inside of my car was frosted up. Because of the humidity in the laundry… it created a nice frost on the INSIDE of my car. So I scraped the inside of my windows – rear hatch, passenger side front, driver side front and windshield. The windshield was fun. My scraper is old, so it’s got some dings in the blade that leave ice in place. Yeah, fun. So I couldn’t get all the ice off the inside. But on the good side… my windshield is cleaner than it’s been in a long time.

And that’s the end of this Adventure on Mill Road.

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Chapter 14

Friday, December 28, 2007

There’s a What? Where?!?

About 2 weeks ago, my Beloved came to bed late after working hard.  Normally he doesn’t wake me up, but on this evening he gentle shook me and told me, “if you get up to go to the bathroom, make sure you close the door.”

I opened one bleary eye and looked at the clock.  It read 3:25.  That would be AM.  And being not totally awake my verbal skills just weren’t up to par so all I could do was ask, “why.”  “There’s a possum in the bathroom,” he replied.  “A whut?” “A possum.” “What?”  My Beloved calmly replied, “There’s a possum in the bathroom eating the cat food.  I heard it up on the roof, there must be a breach in the eves.  Just close the door when you go to the bathroom.”

Me, “What?  Did it come in through the hole the bats were coming in?”  Him, “I don’t know.  I’ll check.”  So at 3:30 am my Beloved tromped downstairs, and then tromped to the basement.  The next thing I hear is SLAM! SLAM!!  If you don’t slam our basement door it doesn’t close right.  TROMP, TROMP, TROMP.

My Beloved – “I guess I didn’t close the door to the basement and the possum came in there.”  Now my brain is fully awake and I’m thinking “Ok, what ELSE came in?”  But, I said, “OK.”  Beloved, “But it’s closed now.  The possum is cute.”  Me, “No, we can’t keep it!”  Him, “I’ll take it out in the morning.”  Me, “Ok.”  Him, “Remember to close the door to the bathroom so the possum doesn’t escape.”  Me, “There’s a possum in the bathroom.”

Possum, “crunch, crunch, crunch.”  That’s the best fed possum in our back yard.

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Posted in Adventures on Mill Road, animals & other critters | Comments Off on Chapter 14

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