Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Playtime in the Tube


See my glow in the dark eyes.....
I'm waiting to race through my fun tunnel to see what that is at the other end....



The usual suspects...this toy is attached to the tunnel.  I don't really like it. It's not like I can throw it down the stairs like my Pink Panther head.
I wish I could get into the drawer where the scissors are...I would cut the darned thing off. It only gets in the way when I try to race through at warp speed.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sunday Wild Mountain Hangover

I woke up this morning with a bad taste in my mouth. I think I over did the party thing last night with Pinky and my Wild Mountain Catnip.
I tried to eat breakfast but was so embarrassed when I got sick to my stomach. That never happens to me. 
I can count on one paw how many times.....

Sooo embarrassed........sleeping it off some more. Never again! 
Ya right, that's what I said last time.......

Party for One on a Saturday Night

 This is my Pink Panther head...he is my favorite toy in the whole world.
 
Wild Mountain Catnip.... my Saturday night drug of choice.
 Meowme was taking too long to get the lid off so I helped her....oops....



 For some added fun I dragged Pinky's face through the happy nip. I don't think he really liked it much





 I get silly on my Happy Nip....it gets everywhere. I sneeze when it goes up my nose. Meowme says I'm not supposed to snort the nip, so I eat it when she's not looking.

 I'll probably be up all night , look at the size of my pupils....maybe I'll go bug meowme while she sleeps. She hates it when I race upside down underneath the bed. Oooh but it feels so good on my back.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Saturday morning paws, claws and prints.


Cat wants out....no....changed my mind let me back in!
Too cold on the toes.


Now I must spend time cleaning my paws....again.
Phew... stinky when they get wet.
Well not really, but I make this funny face when doing a serious deep clean.

Stretching out for my morning brushing from dad.
I want my coat to be all glittery.
See my claws? Don't let meowme see them or she will be giving me another manicure.
I don't like manicures...she always tricks me into them.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

While Meowme is away....the Bengal will play.....

So I like to climb my scratchy post...

I like to play with my seagull feathers that Meowme collected from the beach one day....

I didn't do it...Meowme...I didn't break part of the black thingy....honest, cross my paws and hope to die.

Taking Charge

Sooooo tired of you pointing that big black thingy in my face and momentarily blinding me.....so tired.

I'm plotting to steal this blog from my meowme, since SHE never posts here anymore....too busy sticking that black thingy in my face.

Bengals are smart, I think I can post a pic or two. She thinks I just step on the keys to annoy her....and yes I do have two ears!


Friday, February 12, 2010

If Mattresses Had Wings

So we go to one of the big box stores at the other end of the city last night to buy an external hard drive so I can do a backup of my dead laptop hard drive before I send it in for major surgery next week. We pull out of the parking lot and drive a couple of blocks and head toward the highway. At the last set of lights a big Dodge Ram pickup pulls out in front of us with his new “Sleep Country” purchase and traffic stops for the red light. We are both mentally assessing the situation we know is about to unfold in front of us once the light turns green. I’m wishing I had a video camera right then. Sitting there for what….a minute? ….me and the man have this short conversation.




Man – “That mattress and box spring are not tied down.”

Me – “I know…and he’s about to go onto the highway.”

Man – “Moron.”

Me – “Don’t drive too close ok?”

Man – “Why not?...these kind of idiots keep me in business.”

Me – “True but someone could get killed.”

Man – “Moron.”



Halfway around the bend in the on ramp the mattress starts liftoff. It’s amazing how much air one of those queenies will get doing about 50km on a bend.

It’s actually quite amusing to actually see first hand I might add. Thud. It lands in the middle of the ramp, skids into the slushy shoulder and we swerve around it.

Moron's brake lights come on for a second and then he keeps driving. He keeps going!

…..Amidst the outburst of laughter…

Me- “Idiot!” Ha Ha Ha ….

Man – “Moron thinks everything is ok” Ha Ha Ha ….

Me & Man – “Oh no….Oh No…. there goes the box spring!”

Me – “Oh my god.”

Man – “Ouch!”……as the box spring lands on its edge and the wood frame breaks apart before it comes to rest halfway into oncoming traffic.

Moron’s brake lights come on for a second and then he keeps driving. He keeps going!

Dude travels about a hundred feet and then starts braking now that he has run out of merge lane. We somehow safely get around him and merge into traffic. Now that I think of it, since I wasn’t driving it may have been an easy lane change since there was a box spring blocking the lane we were now merging into.

Man – “Moron has a long ways to drag those mattresses to his truck now.” Chuckle…

Me – “Imagine what the wife will say when he brings home their new busted up filthy, soggy new bed.” (Insert outburst of laughter here) “No sex for a year” (Insert outburst of more laughter here) “It’s the couch for you, moron.”

At this point I realize that I forgot to charge my cell phone and couldn’t even call to report him. After all, the only way for him to go once he reloaded his truck was to continue down the expressway. Being the moron that he was we were sure that’s exactly what he would do. I sure hope someone behind us called it in or that one of our cities finest just happened to be on patrol in the area.

Moron…….

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Here kitty kitty kitty......

Ok, so I have been MIA for quite some time now. I had a lot of photos to upload...then my work load doubled....plus I was new car shopping as well as planning a vacation down south with a group of long time friends. I must confess that it's a bit overwhelming to have well over 3,000 digital photos to sift through now. I am offically shelving the photo a day for 365 days deal. Sorry folks, I bit off more than I could chew I'm afraid. I will now go back to the regularly scheduled program.


Christmas is upon us, in fact I only just finished decorating the tree this morning. I gave Cheetah, the cat a few days to get the  tree climbing phase out of his system. It seems to have worked....for now. The real test will be this evening when he wakes from his catnap and sees all the shiny ornaments hanging within reach of his inquistive paws.
The weather outside is frightful.....if you live pretty much an hours drive away in any direction from where I live in the banana belt of Southern Ontario. Here in balmy Stoney Creek we had wind and rain the other day when everyone else was getting a major winter storm. Parts north of Toronto got upwards of 100cm of blowing snow...that's over 40 inches for you folks in the U.S.
today we are getting rain, once again. I'm thinking maybe I brought the warm breezes back from Jamaica with me...ah but even I know it can't last forever. Eventually the white stuff will be upon us... even here.
That  said, maybe it's time to start thinking about heading to Mexico next........

Saturday, October 17, 2009

DAY 27 - Mon Oct 5 2009

Thousands of small beetles on the
garage behind the building where
I work. I have noticed for the last few year they invade the same area every fall.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

DAY 26 - Sun Oct 4 2009


The  Canadian CIBC "Run for the Cure" for breast cancer research.
Our team participated in the local run in our area. Area runs were held all across Canada today.

p.s. Happy Birthday to my brother Bill!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

DAY 25 - Sat Oct 3 2009

A few years ago decided to disguise the pipe and tap coming up out of the ground at the far end of the yard. I got the idea from something similar that I saw while living/working in Japan.


DAY 24 - Fri Oct 2 2009







Red light in the pouring rain.


DAY 23 - Thurs Oct 1 2009


I'm glad that I work right in the city. One of my favortie places to go is to the waterfront.

I have been experimenting a bit with HDR photography and this is the result on my photo of the day.
HDR - High Dynamic Range.


DAY 22 - Wed Sept 30 2009


On my way to look at a possible car to buy. There are not a lot of these particular models around so I had to travel about 45 minutes out of the city to a place called Cayuga. This is a farm I passed along the way.

DAY 21 - Tues Sept 29 2009



A small town just outside the city that is growing quite rapidly. My guess, it will eventually be part of Hamilton as they grow toward each other.

DAY 20 - Mon Sept 28 2009


I stopped in to visit my father in law after work today. He is entertained on a daily basis by the neighbors cat play chasing the squirrels that he feeds outside his door.

A snapshot a day....


I promise, I have been taking my camera with me everywhere I go since my decision to do 365 days of photos. I have been taking photographs every day but it takes me a few days before I find the time to post them up on my blog. Please be patient with me. Most shots are right out of the camera, but the odd one might need a bit of cropping, afterall some are taken from a moving vehicle or at least while I'm stopped at a light. It's not like I can just move over a few feet to get the shot I really want.
Life......
I guess I should be thankful I still have a job as the employment in my area is quite bleak at the moment. Our department at work saw a reduction from over 20 employees to just 6 of us trying to stay afloat. In the last 3 weeks or so we have gone from no work to more jobs than we have people! The biggest problem is that all of them are small contracts, and all have to be completed by mid November. So no more Fridays off. I found that by having this extra day off on a weekday was so helpful. Life has a way of speeding up more as each decade passes us by.


My car.....
I must start by saying that my licence plate has more rust on it than my car. I named my Mazda MX3 Pepe when I brought him home 14 years ago. I know, cars are supposed to have female names right? I figured that was something held over from the old days when women didn't drive cars, so I am trying to change that one car at a time. Pepe replaced my demon car, a 1985 charcoal grey turbo coupe Ford Thunderbird in 1995. I'm mentioning my old car as someday I should write about some of the unbelievable stories that happened while owning him. Up until now I have not wanted to as I'm afraid it could turn into a book, seriously.

So Pepe has been a faithful little car since day one, a couple of hiccups along the way but nothing serious other than regular maintenance type repairs.

A new exhaust at 3 years old that was more my fault. I got a contract to work in Japan for 6 months with only 3 days notice to get my affairs in order and leave. So I parked Pepe in the garage and left. Almost as soon as I started him up 6 months later the exhaust blew. I was told it was because of the moisture laying on the bottom (inside) that had 6 months to chew away at the metal. I should have known better, growing up with 2 car buff brothers. So off to the Dealer I went. I didn't know about these louder after market exhausts that were all the rage with the kids at the time. It must have started while I was out of the country. So the kid working on my car says to me" hey do you want us to put this blah...blah... exhaust on your car for the same price? It will look so sick" I should have had an alarm go off in my brain when someone refers to something good as "sick" So I drive off with my new exhaust system and I'm thinking that it sounds rather loud compared to what I remembered my car to sound. When I got home I called my man and mentioned that it seemed louder than what I thought to remember. He assured me that yes , after market exhausts are a tad bit louder. Well when he came by later and saw the two fat shiny pipes sticking out from under the bumper he started to chuckle. I asked him what was so funny about a muffler and he proceeded to explain to me that all the young kids were putting these "chimney pipes" on their cars and yes they are loud. Everyone still mentions that they can hear me coming from a distance because of the low rumble of thunder they hear in the distance as Pepe gets closer. All I can say is one muffler and pipes in 14 years is still pretty darned great!
The year before last the battery finally died. Yes folks the original battery died at over 12 years old. I can't count how many guys told me that batteries don't last 12 years. Well folks mine did, so there!

The last couple of months Pepe has finally started to get hardening of the arteries... in car speak....wiring problems. Ok now this is a biggy because the battery is fine and we changed the alternator just in case. We checked all the grounds and cleaned & tightened everything in sight. I can drive along for days and everything seems fine and then it starts. The radio will sputter & cut out, so I turn it off. Then all the needles on my gauges start jumping up and down and then the battery light comes on. At this point I know now to be pulled off the road and parked in a spot where I can easily get a boost. I have been driving around with a voltage tester so I can check to see what it has dropped to. (not that it matteres at this point)

So to make a really long story shorter, we can't seem to resolve the problem, so I have been car shopping online as well as test driving some newer cars. I just can't decide what to buy, although I am really leaning toward another Mazda. I have always loved he RX8 but.... everyone keeps chiming....it has a rotary engine.


And your point is.................

Sunday, September 27, 2009

DAY 19 - Sun Sept 27 2009


Beauty in my own backyard.

DAY 18 - Sat Sept 26 2009


Today was a boring rainy day and I still have no wheels....
I cleaned Cheetah's ears and then he decided that he should keep the cotton swab and snatched it from me.
Me being the bigger cat... I got it back from him no problem, before he got a chance to tear it to shreds.

DAY 17 - Fri Sept 25 2009


A shot of the railway tracks right beside my office. I'm walking today since my car has decided it does not like to go to work on Fridays.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Day 16 - Thurs Sept 24 2009


a man in uniform......
The boys in blue doing a community service outing at the local school on my way home from work. I had to drive around the block to get this shot.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Day 15 - Wed Sept 23 2009


Incognito.......

DAY 14 - Tues Sept 22 2009


On a clear day.......
you can see Toronto as the crow flies, on the other side of Lake Ontario.
This is due to the cool rainy weather this summer combined with the steel mills production deductions to less than 50%.

Monday, September 21, 2009

DAY 13 - Mon Sept 21 2009


Same rose......
Different day....
Different location. I thought if I brought it in to work, I could enjoy it all week.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

DAY 12 Sun. Sept 20 2009


Late afternoon sun.....
and the roses scent was just as beautiful....

Day 11 Sat. Sept 19 2009


There have been clouds of these tiny bugs everywhere the last few days. They are so small that they can enter right through the screen.

DAY 10 Fri. Sept 18 2009


As close as you can get to Arcelor Mittal (Steel Mill) without actually accessing their property. The public roadway goes directly under part of the building.

DAY 9 Thurs. Sept 17 2009


Picket Line.
One of the subcontracted companies that have been locked out of the steel mill. My brother inlaw & nephew spend a lot of time here these days and they tell me the pay sucks.

DAY 8 - Wed. Sept 16 2009


Looking down from the top of the escarpment at a row of houses.

DAY 7 - Tues.Sept 15 2009


Power Lines.
I used to live in a house years ago that backed right on to these metal giants. On a quiet night you could hear the hum of electricity travelling along the wires....

Monday, September 14, 2009

DAY 6 - Mon.Sept 14 2009


Overlooking the lower city of Hamilton from the top of the escarpment at sunset, 7:30 pm.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Saturday, September 12, 2009

DAY 4 - Sat.Sept 12 2009


Cheetah trying to get my attention while I work on my computer. He tried unsuccessfully to open the cupboard door.
I took a short break as it was time to manicure his carpet shredders.

Friday, September 11, 2009

DAY 3 - Fri.Sept 11 2009



The creek near our house.
I really enjoy having Fridays off work and finding the time to go for walks. The silence was broken by the birds and the squirrels chattering at me invading their space.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

DAY 2 - Thurs.Sept 10 2009



Tim Hortons
Iced Capp and a Strawberry Bloom...
sugar rush............
This is where I meet up with my long time buddy, Ron every once in a while to chat about whats new.