New month, new banner! Another great banner from Christine. Thank you, Christine – I always say it, but I’ll say it again: you rock!
Okay, I took a look at the garden yesterday and it looks pretty rough. Most of the tomato plants are completely gone – and when I say “gone”, I don’t mean “dead.” I mean NOT THERE. They were small plants, and I’m guessing that either they were completely covered up by the mud or perhaps just washed away. Who knows? The peppers are still there and standing proud, some of the cucumbers are still there, and a lot of the squash plants are there, too. We’ll likely go up to the local high school this weekend and buy more plants. I don’t think we’re going to end up doing as much in the garden this year… but then again, garden fever very well might strike and prove me wrong.
Fred’s talking pretty seriously about having a storm shelter put in. Someone – a couple of someones, I think – asked why basements are so uncommon in the South. I can’t speak for other areas of the South, but I know that right here at Crooked Acres, any basement would have a big flooding issue. So a storm shelter would be a good idea for us, but as I told Jean and Robert, and Fred’s sister and mother and stepfather, having a storm shelter’s not going to do us a bit of good if I’m in the storm shelter with 114 cats and George and Gracie, and Fred’s standing in the front room staring out the window in search of twisters.
Our internet and phone went down a few times yesterday, so I guess things are still a bit iffy. I finally had to go over to the gas station down the road to call the shelter manager and talk to her about Dorothy and how things are doing at the shelter. They still don’t have power out there, and I guess it could be as late as Friday before they do. There are FoCH (Friends of Challenger’s House, of course) where they can go for meals and to take showers, so they’re okay. They did get dangerously low on litter (which is something you don’t want to do in a shelter of 60+ cats!), but managed to get through Sunday, when they were able to get to Walmart and get their regular order of 800 pounds of litter. They didn’t lose any trees, and the shelter is high enough so that they weren’t affected by flooding, so if they could just get their power back, they’d be doing well.
The schools aren’t back in until at least tomorrow, I believe, and Fred finally went back to work this morning. We’re ready for life to go back to something approximating normal, but I keep thinking of those poor people who lost their homes and loved ones, and how life won’t go back to normal for them for a long, long time.
The radio stations did a fantastic job of keeping us informed and keeping information circulating, WDRM and WZYP in particular. They aired the press conferences and just generally kept repeating where those who needed help could find it, and it was really just pretty comforting to sit and listen to the calls.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to slap up some cute kitten pics and then head off to Tennessee. Miss Dorothy has a date with the vet for testing and possibly for spaying (she’s a bit over 2 pounds on my scale), so off we go!
“Dude, your brakes are shot. And you need an oil change. Also, your tires are bald. This is gonna cost you a pretty penny.”
“An’ then she dumped us all in a CRATE, an’ then she ran downstairs with us and put us in the CLOSET!”
“It was skeery.”
Macushla tries to decide whether he’s up for a cuddle, or if he’ll just sink his claws into my leg.
They love to climb into my lap and fight with each other. It’s pretty painful on the rare occasion that I forget to change into jeans before I enter the room.
Pouty princess is pouty.
Silly Fergus Simon. Note that his eyes are thinking about starting to change color. Wahhh!
“I bite you butt.”
“They’re going to stick what in my where? No thanks, I’ll just stay right here!”
Alice and Rufus enjoy their daily egg yolk.
“What storms? What water? What internet outage?”
Previously
2010: “Whooooooooooooo’s ready for the snackin’!” I bellowed out the back door, and all the cats came running.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: My feng is not shui’d, and it’s pissin’ me off.
2006: It’s a Suggie in the Sug Cave!
2005: I RUE THE FUCKING DAY I decided to buy a car from this guy.
2004: I snorted. “This from the man who put Oxi-Clean in the dishwasher over and over and over last summer.”
2003: No entry.
2002: I am now sporting a fashionable little red mustache.
2001: What? You don’t think bugs would use the word “abattoir?”
2000: Why all of a sudden is her big scary clown face all over the place talking about it?