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.

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%.

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.

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....

DAY 6 - Mon.Sept 14 2009

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

DAY 5 - Sun.Sept 13 2009

Two swans in Cootes Paradise, part of Hamilton bay.

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.

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.

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.

DAY 1 - Wed.Sept 09 2009

Metal statue at Hamilton Bayfront Park

Abigail

When I was a kid, I remember shopping for a gift for my dad for Fathers Day. I didn’t have much money saved up at the time and all I could find within my measly budget was this small fuzzy stuffed baby chick with little black beady eyes and orange plastic feet. I wasn’t sure my father would like it because it wasn’t very big and it wasn’t something practical like a tie as if fathers need more ties for Fathers Day. Funerals, weddings and the occasional dance on a Friday night with my mom and some friends were the only times I ever remember him asking my mom to help him put on a tie. How practical are ties anyways, when most guys need someone else to help them tie the darned things.
I remember the exact moment that he unwrapped the chick and looked at it with a big smile on his face and declared that he had to think of the perfect name for his new little baby chick. We all tossed around some names to help inspire him. He held her up and announced that he was going to call her “Abigail”. So Abigail took up residence on the top of his dresser beside the spot where he placed his watch, where she could keep an eye on him while he slept.
Last year we buried my dad and before the funeral the family had a talk and we all decided to place something with dad to remember us by. So I said goodbye to my dad and to Abigail that day……
She is still keeping a watchful eye on him while he sleeps……

Bits......and bites

Now that summer will be soon winding down here in southern Ontario....WAIT! Summer never came so how can it go? The summer that never was...this is the weatherman's never ending comments these days and I agree I can count the hot days on my fingers and toes that we had this year. I have 1 trip already booked to travel to the Caribbean this fall and a second one in the works. So THERE summer! Stick that where the sun don't shine! Bitter? You bet. I hate winter, always have and the hate seems to grow a bit more every year.


Ok enough venting, ranting, whatever you want to call it.


I was reading a blog I came across the other day that had a really cool concept. So I'm thinking I'm going to try the same thing. The idea is to post 1 photo everyday for 1 year of whatever I happen to take a picture of, but it has to be that day. I can't cheat. I may wait a couple of days before I upload my photos but they must be taken on the actual day. This will be a really good way to force me to take my camera out more and shoot. Sometimes I get a bit nervous about dragging it around as it is a bit obvious and doesn't just slip into my pocket or purse. I have to say upfront that during the winter months I try to only go out if I have to, otherwise it's called hibernation in my book. Those photo days my end up being a shot of my cat or me looking outside at an ugly weather situation.


I have decided that a good day to start this 1 year project will be Wednesday of this week, September 9th as it is my birthday. Good a day as any to start something new, I think. This will be the 9th day of the 9th month of the year 2009. I will be buying a lottery ticket that day, as I have always felt that 9 was my lucky number.


Wish me luck!

p.s.

I promise to only post photos taken by me. My cat has taken over my laptop at times but I draw the line with my camera....paws off!

Rain...Floods...mice...what next?

I know, I know, I have been MIA for a while now. Its summer and I like to spend as much time outdoors. The season seems so short and before you know it, the pool is closed and the backyard furniture has been stored away once again. Wait! It’s almost August and I’m walking around with a sweatshirt on in the evenings. Where is summer? I’ll take a little global warming right about now, and heck I was only joking when we put down all that new sod in May about it raining so I didn’t have to worry about it dying. No worries about that this year. It seems like it has been raining every day for weeks now with more rain forecast for most of the next week. Hamilton Flooding
Yesterday we had rain like we rarely see unless I compare it to some of the storms I used to witness in Mexico, with flooded streets and storm sewers unable to keep up with the deluge. At one point, just when I thought it couldn’t possibly rain any harder, it did. I spent me time roaming around the house looking for any points of entry. Nothing serious but I did find some water trickling in under the French doors leading to the backyard, nothing a towel couldn’t handle though. There was also a small puddle in the basement under the kitchen that was more like dampness than anything. Later I found out some of our neighbors basements didn’t fare so well and were up to their knees with water.
The one spot I was worried about was the family room ceiling. We had a bad leak early in the spring practically from one end of the room to the other. Luckily it stayed close to the windows and didn’t make it as far as the pool table. I don’t think submersible billiards would be much fun. Well yesterday….nary a drop! We don’t plan on doing the repairs until the new roof gets done, hopefully early this fall. Now a new drip has been discovered in the living room. I noticed there was a puddle in the corner of the fireplace and the rain was actually dripping off the fireplace insert on to the concrete. There was one stone halfway up the wall that was soaked which seemed out of place. So between downpours the man came home and had to climb up and calk around the chimney. He noticed that part of the cap had broken off and there was a gap where the rain was most likely pouring in. The raccoons need to go on a diet around here. They like to romp around on our roof in the middle of the night and they are by no means light footed. They can’t get in the chimney but that doesn’t stop them from trying on a regular basis. They have even ripped the siding off part of the house trying to get in. Must be my home made cooking they are after….or not.
So with all the rain, I guess some of Gods creatures need to head for higher ground as in….my laundry room in the basement. In the last couple of days there have been a total of 5 mice in the laundry tub. It looks like the young ones fall in and mamma comes to the rescue. Mamma can easily jump out but the babies can only make it halfway up the side before sliding back down. In comes the cat. The man tells Cheetah to earn his keep. I think the cat would have done fine if the man had just left him to do his feline thing. But no….he tries to hit the mouse with a towel…..misses and gets the cat in the head!....
Score: Mouse 1, Cat 0, Man -0. Next the cat turns to the baby in the sink. I couldn’t believe what the he did next. He very gently kept touching the mouse with his paw (no claws out) to make it jump. He then stepped on its tail and then gently picked it up in his mouth. At this point I had visions of the cat letting the mouse go somewhere upstairs where he would have room to chase it around. I grabbed Cheetah just as he was going to jump out of the tub and tapped him on the head and he let his new toy drop back where he found it. It was enough to know that there was already one mouse running loose in the house. The man placed the mouse in a jar and let it go outside after taking it for a short drive out of the neighborhood. The other three took a car ride the following day as well.
I really have to laugh since we have only ever had a problem with mice coming in the house once before and that was in the fall which is understandable. Typically November is the time of year when they normally would come in for the winter, not in July! My guess is that it’s too wet for them and they are getting flooded out of their nests.

……As long as Cheetah doesn’t decide to surprise me one morning with a rodent wake up treat………….

Evel Katnievel

I have been a bit stressed lately and I think it might be rubbing off on Cheetah. He seems to jump out of his skin at the slightest thing these days. I mean, if I just move my foot he is practically upside down hanging from the ceiling. His tail will be fuzzed up and the fur will be standing up all the way down his back. He then has to sniff what ever it was that just scared him skinny, then he relaxes and all is fine in his world again.

So I pretty much finished painting the main part of the house and was placing plants and things back to their rightful location the other day. Years ago when I first started up my own business I bought this long legged silly looking teddy bear as my mascot when I landed my first big client. So I’m holding this bear around the waist, carrying him down the hall to place him on a chair in the living room. Cheetah is at the end of the hallway by the front door watching me approach. All of a sudden he catches a glimpse of the bear…I swear his eyes almost popped out of his head…he turned and as if he was shot out of a cannon, blasted right through the front door screen. He did a somersault and landed out on the lawn then made a hard right, running as if his fur was on fire. The first thought in my mind was of how timid he has been when ever I have taken him outside. I ran out the front door laughing so hard I had tears running down my face to see where he went. There he was sitting at the end of the garden looking back at me as if he had just been chased by the hounds from hell. I opened the door and he followed me back in to the house, running down the hallway and straight under the bed to his safe place where he remained for the rest of the day.

Later that evening he finally came down the hall in stealth mode, sniffing every square inch of the main floor looking for the creature that had moved into his domain.

.....unsuccessfully , I might add......

Ruh...Roh....

… now see what you did!

Not that he is a fat cat, but he is determined. I was on the phone with my sister when this all unfolded right before my eyes. Cheetah jumped on to the end table and decided he was going to park his little butt between the lamp and my Aloe Vera plant. There was about 6 inches of space so as he sat the plant started to slide, giving him a bit more room for him to squeeze into. One last shove and over the plant went. I have to confess that if I didn’t neglect my plants so bad he may have had a harder time of shoving it over. When the plant toppled I realized that the soil was as dry as a dust storm in the Sahara. Cheetah took one look at me, jumped down and went into stealth mode, slinking out of the room. I had to get off the phone to go get the camera, as I knew curiosity killed the cat and he would be back shortly to survey the damage.

Cats are so predictable. I didn’t yell at him, as it didn’t appear that he did it on purpose, but cats can be sneaky. Cheetah’s character is a bit different than any cat I have ever lived with in the past as he has quite the opposite in your face kind of personality once he gets to know you. So a few minutes pass and he slowly enters the room switching to stealth mode low to the floor. He cautiously returns to the scene of the crime, sniffing and surveying from every angle. Finally when he figured it was a lost cause he jumped onto his scratching post perch and viewed the whole scene from a higher vantage point.

I cleaned up the remains of the Aloe Vera that needed to be re-potted for a while so now I have one less thing on my to do list tomorrow……

Cheetah, please remind me to water the plants .......

Ice Cold Mighty Niagara Falls

I think everyone is busy these days which means not much time for blogging. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I spent last weekend in Niagara Falls attending a weekend dinner theatre put on by the casino called Nathan & Nina's Wedding. It turned out to be a very entertaining two day event, mixed in with some gambling and much needed relaxation. Since I wasn't allowed to take my camera into the casino I didn't take a lot of photos of anything but the falls this trip. As soon as the weather is a bit more tolerable I will plan another outing just for photography.

Feel the power of the water flowing over the edge!

The Canadian Falls.

The American Falls at night. Every few minutes the colour of the lights changed .

The Canadian Falls in the early morning.







The American Falls at night, very pretty.



Ice on the American side.




More ice on the American side.....

A Cheetah in the house...

Well it’s been two weeks since we adopted Cheetah, so I just thought I would let you know how he is doing. It only took him a couple of days before he was quite content to settle on my lap any chance he got. Right now he is trying to take over my chair at the computer. Next he will be posting on my blog! Most waking hours are spent exploring every nook and cranny that needed to be sniffed out. He always has to have the last say and can be very demanding and vocal at times. He definitely has some quirky habits for a cat. First thing in the morning he waits quietly for me to wake up. Content to be curled up at my feet, he doesn’t make a sound until I greet him first. Then he makes a mad dash to the bathroom where he leaps onto the counter, slides across to the sink and takes out my vitamin bottles along the way. Then he very loudly tells me to turn on the tap for him. If I don’t, he literally gets in my face and screams his demands. I go down to the kitchen to retrieve my coffee and if I didn’t turn on the tap in the bathroom he has raced me to the kitchen only to be waiting in the kitchen sink vocalizing his demands. Now I have never tolerated cats on the counter in a kitchen but he obviously was not taught any different in his previous home. I can tell he is not after food and only jumps up to ask for a drink or to look out the window at the neighbours dog with great curiosity.

He has this thing for doors. Like most cats, if the door is closed he wants to open it. Most of our closet doors are either bi-folding or have magnetic closures on the top. So with a bit of claw magic the doors eventually come open. Except for the bedroom closet. Try as he might he hasn’t mastered that one, yet. I just wish it didn’t make so much noise banging back and forth as it stops at the carpet edge only to bang closed again. The cat will be almost standing on his head trying every angle to get his paw under to pull. Which brings me to another door in the house. This one actually has to open out away from you. He somehow knows that if he plants his forehead against the door and pushes that it will open. How the heck does a cat know the difference? It’s not like he shoves his little head against the bedroom closet when he can’t get that one to open.

So when he masters this door he likes to roll around on top of the pool table in the sun.

….he’s got game….

New Addition to our Family

Patience finally paid off and we finally adopted a cat. I have been wanting to do this for almost a year now but something always seemed to happen and the arrangements would fall through. This handsome fella was my last attempt a few weeks ago and since I had not heard anything I figured this person either changed her mind or gave the cat to someone else. With the holidays and her work schedule she said time was running out as her lease was up and she had to find Cheetah a good home before the end of the month. She finally called on Thursday evening. We made arrangements to both go look at the cat to see what his temperament was like. The owner was happy that Cheetah actually was good with us because she said he didn't just take to everyone. We had to make a quick stop at the local Pet Smart to get a cat carrier and a litter box. I could finally unload the kitty litter and container of food I had stashed in my trunk for weeks now.
Once we got home and let him out of the carrier, he went up the stairs and straight under the bed where he remained until we turned in for the night. At that time he decided to jump up on the bed and settle down by my feet curling up and purring himself to sleep. He stayed in the same spot all night and then got up to eat a couple of bites of food. He checked out his new litter box and then headed right back under the bed where he spent most of Saturday. Once in a while he would come out for a petting and then head back under. When it was time for bed Saturday night Cheetah was already warming in his spot at the foot of the bed purring loudly. He got up around 4am to have a bite to eat and a drink, then came back to his spot on the bed. About 7 am he ventured out of the bedroom and down the hall to see what was making the noise in the kitchen. A couple of times he ran to the bedroom but stopped in the doorway and peered down the hall. Most of the afternoon was spent curled up asleep in the chair in the rec room. I think he is missing his old family and is going to need lots of love and patience adjusting to his new home. I snapped a couple of photos of him on Saturday during one of his brave moments as he stared up at the lens.



He reminds me of Puss 'n Boots from the movie "Shrek" in this photo.

Is it Winter?

The weather outside is frightful...blah blah blah...
I woke up this morning to the wind howling outside my window. I got up and checked on the weather channel to see what was up. The temperature was 16 Deg C! That's right... 61 deg F for you Fairenheit people. The wind gusts were supposed to reach 105km/h which is 65 mph! Holey crap, batten down the hatches! Wait a minute....when I went to bed last night we still had a boatload of snow everywhere. Now there is not a speck in sight, except for a dirty small pile on the edge of the driveway where last week it was chest high. This is the great white north, Canada. What happened to all the snow from the 3 big blizzards we just survived? My back still aches from all the shovelling. The weather channel has been displaying the big red warning screens stating there is a cold front barrelling through right behind this warm front that is passing through as I type.
I am so glad I have decided to stay in my warm fuzzy flannels all day sipping my Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger tea.
By tomorrow the weather should be back to normal...normal...who decides what's normal? The guy in the suit is pointing at the green screen, which by the way needs tweaking Mr Weatherman. Toronto is NOT located in the middle of Lake Ontario. If it is and it's that windy out, we are in BIG trouble....

Photo Blog

I finally decided to add a photo blog. As if I don't have enough on the go that I can't keep up with already. I'll see how temporary it is, as I fully intend to get my real website up and running one day soon......

...... If I can just stop redesigning it!

CatsEyeImagesCa

A night in Jail

Last night one of our tenants discovered his dog was missing. Rusty decided to escape out of the yard when no one was looking. Before long my man was on a mission trying to find Rusty since he felt partly responsible for leaving the gate unlatched. He was doing some work in the yard and had gone to his truck for some tools. Not knowing the gate was open ,the tenant let his dog out to do his business. Since Rusty's owner is in a wheelchair it would have been difficult for him to cover much ground on his own. So my man heads down the street and asks some guy if he had seen a cute little fluffy brown dog wandering around unattended. To his surprise the guy said there was a little brown dog inside the local pub at the corner where he had just left. My man hurries down the street, goes into the bar only to find out that animal control had just left moments ago with the dog. He calls animal control and they said it would cost $160.00 to have him delivered back home. So he said he would pick him up. They told him he would have to wait till the morning as they were closed for the night.
So this morning we made a trip to the pound to spring Rusty from his night on the town. Boy was he happy to see us! We got him outside and he had to pee like there was no tomorrow.....

....I wonder how many beers he drank before he got busted......

I like beans and beer

Around 8 Friday evening I decided that I would make some Boston brown beans in my crock-pot. I gave the beans a rinse, added them to the water in my crock-pot and left them to soak overnight. Saturday morning around 9, I turned the crock-pot on low to cook the beans for about 4 hours. I’m following my crock-pot recipe here, one I might add that I have used many times before. So around 1pm I’m thinking that those little navy beans should be quite mushy by now since I over soaked them and then cooked them a couple of hours longer than I was supposed to. I drained the liquid off the beans, reserving the 1-1/2 cups to go back in like the recipe called for. I added my molasses, dry mustard, chili sauce and other ingredients thinking that I would leave them cooking on low till dinner and then reap the rewards.
Come diner time I turned the beans off and decided it was time to try them. They smelled divine, so I got out a spoon, picked a few out, blew on them and popped them in my mouth. AKKKK…. They were hard as bullets! Oh just great…. I could hear the man now….”Get a can opener and we’ll have the ones in the cupboard”. I turned the crock-pot back on and left the bullets simmering over night. Sunday morning (I waited till the man went out) I checked on my beans. No change. They had been cooking for 26 hours now, what the hell is wrong with them any way? They should look like paste for all they had been through. So I called my mom on the phone and tell her my bean dilemma. She had no idea why they would still be so crunchy and asked me to keep her posted on the outcome. Off to research navy beans on the Internet and to my surprise I actually found a couple of possibilities for the petrified frijoles. First it stated that if the beans are really old (I bought them last week) that no matter how much you cook them they will be hard. It also stated that if your water is hard (ours is very hard) that it too can cause the beans to be hard. Something about the acidity of the water does something to the outer shell of the bean and stops them from absorbing any moisture or liquids. So there you have it. Soak your beans in bottled water and buy fresh dried beans. Now can someone tell me how the hell to tell a fresh dried bean from a stale one? The online answer to that one is that there is no way to tell till they are cooked. Well no shit Sherlock! By then it’s too late and there’s nothing for dinner.
So tonight the man comes home thinking we are having those delicious Boston brown beans for dinner and I have to tell him he has to settle for stuffed pork chops instead.

He just looked at me and went through the motions pretending to be using a can opener…

I told him next time I'll soak the little bullets in beer......

Am I Difficult?

I must be.....seems I do most things the hard way. I want to adopt a cat. Not so hard. Go to the want ads, look under pets, find free kittens to good home ad ...call number...pick up kitten. I tried that and it fell through. Next I went to the local animal shelter to try to adopt one of 52 bengal cats that had been rescued from a horrible place. That fell through. I really thought this was a simple process.


So now I will try something that is more of a challenge and see what happens. I am going to get in touch with a friend in Cancun Mexico that is involved in a local animal rescue called RAP. I will see what is involved in rescuing a Lean Mean Mexican Meowing Mousing Machine LM5 for short. I know she will find me a lovely purring LM5 because Cancun is teeming with unwanted cats and dogs. I trust her judgement completely and besides, I'm always up for a challenge.
So my man asks me if this short haired Mexican cats fur will be longer up here in the great white north (Wink) so I told him no, but he would now have to learn some basic Spanish. Words that he would normally say to a cat. I think he still might be mulling that one over in his head.

....Como se dice.....here kitty kitty?.....

Cats rule....Dogs drool....

My favorite furry friend is the cat, if you haven't guessed by now. Now don't get me wrong I like dogs as well, just other peoples' dogs. I do prefer the smaller breeds to some of the monster mutts out there. Our next door neighbor has a lovely chocolate lab named Max. He is a total sweety but puts on a great front to strangers. Max has one of those barks that makes your chest rattle, combined with his fur standing up along his back makes all 130 lbs of him quite intimidating. For those of us living nearby and having witnessed the other neighbors 4lb toy poodle chase Max home with his tail between his legs, we know different. As for skunks he has had a hate on or two with them this summer.
With the eventual adoption of a cat or two to our household I had some concerns for their safety should they come in contact with burly Max. Well I come to find out that he is terrified of felines! The head for the hills kind of terror.

.....So I wonder if Max thinks that 4 lb Princess Laya is actually some sort of cat and not a dog at all? He does know there is a big smelly difference between a skunk and a cat.

I'm still waiting for my interview

Geeesh....you would think I was trying to adopt kids or something. It's been a week and not a peep from the Humane Society adoption department. I think I will fire off an email to them, since they don't seem to answer their phones. I've been going in circles through their voicemail system, and I wouldn't mind so much if I eventually got a human on the other end because after all I am calling long distance here! I went on their website yesterday and noticed that they put their prices up quite a bit from last week, so maybe that's what the holdup is. The animals are revolting. Hmmm...... hey George Orwell can you say....uh..... Animal Farm ?
I read the book in high school back in...ok I could date myself right here but I won't. It's probably on the banned list in the schools by now. I wasn't much on reading most of the books we had to plod through while getting an education but this one I really enjoyed. It was right up there with Macbeth, which by the way was Shakespeare's shortest tragic play. I can't believe that I never made a trip to Stratford Ontario to actually see one of Shakespeare's plays. It's only a 1-1/2 hour drive from where I live and heck, I even have relatives that live right there.

So where am I going with all of this? nowhere, nowhere at all. I was thinking that I could always go to my Aunts farm and try to catch one of the wild kittens in the barn. Naw... been there done that...lost a pint of blood...and the battle.

but they sure are cute....

Adoption Application

After posting last night I got to thinking about those kitties that I didn't get. They always kept me wondering what the mystery was as to why the person suddenly changed their mind about letting me adopt them. So I decided to Google "Lost Bengal Cats Ontario". I didn't get any hits that hinted that any of the missing cats online could be these two but I did find a very interesting article: 52 Cats Rescued Talk about raining cats... Raining bengals no less!
I made a few phone calls this morning and filled out the online bengal adoption application in the hopes that one or possibly two of these 52 could come live with us. Now I'm told I have to wait to see if once my application is screened I hopefully get a personal interview to see if I qualify as a kitty mom. One of the main reasons why all the interest in the bengal breed is because next to a hairless cat (Ewww) they are the least allergic cat around. Bengals are described as having a very short tight pelt-like coat. I know Rivergirl is thinking that if you are not allergic to these kitties why not take all 52! (Insert wink here)

Keeping my fingers crossed......

Move Over Neighbourhood Kitty......

Fall is here.

Time for change.

I have decided that tomorrow morning instead of going to work I'm heading to the local animal shelter. I think there is a small bundle of purring fur that needs to come home with me. My allergies may kill me but I have decided that it's been way too long since I had a cat living in my house. Last month I almost adopted two cats but for some strange reason the person changed their mind at the last moment. I think there was something shady about the whole deal. After all who would post an ad giving away two purebred bengals for free in the first place.
I figure that maybe they had been catnapped!

Time to toughen up those itchy watery eyes and calm those sneezing fits........

End of summer Blues

Summer is gone.
The leaves are starting to turn and there is a distinct chill in the air. I find myself thinking more often than not about retirement. Who says you have to be a specific age to retire. I somehow think I might actually miss my job if and when I do the “Freedom 55” thing. My older brother turns 55 today and when I commented on “Freedom 55” he started to laugh and said ‘I wish! It’s more like Freedom 85 at the rate I’m going.’ I’m going to start rambling any second now…if I could just win the lottery, I’d help a few people with early retirement. I would have to plan carefully though, on my favourite beach in Xpu-Ha Mexico. I could go tomorrow no second thoughts…If I could just win the lottery…..

The neighbourhood cat has started hanging around our place again. Now that most of the landscape project in done , I guess she has forgiven us for the mess.
The other day she surprised me. She wandered into the backyard so I went to check on her as we were closing the pool and I didn’t want her falling in or anything. Not that a cat would allow such a thing to happen with the fear of water and all that cat’s seem to be born with. There she was peeking over the edge!
A few minutes later to my surprise she came out of the yard on a mission with a big fat mouse in her mouth and headed home with her gift. My neighbour was busy finishing a piece of furniture in the garage so she didn’t notice the mouse till it was dropped at her feet. When the shriek came out I realised that the mouse was still very much alive and running around Mary’s feet with the cat in hot pursuit. She chased that poor rodent up and down the street for a couple of hours and then finally had a rest in the late afternoon sun.


At least that will be one less mouse in my house come winter……

Graffiti Ghost

The current assignment for my camera club this month was Graffiti. I spent an afternoon driving around the city looking for some decent graffiti to photograph. Don’t get me wrong, I found plenty of graffiti tagging, just not much I would regard as the least bit artistic. You don’t have to look very hard to see a ton of defaced buildings and mailboxes around town. The artist (I use this term loosely) should be caught, held down and spray-painted all over. Let them go home and to school the next day and have to explain why their face is green and their arms are painted blue & red. Let them have their property ruined and see what it feels like. They can wear pants with spray painted badly spelled tags all over them.
There does happen to be a few very interesting painted walls around that actually show some talent. Now if it could just be channelled into something more useful. I parked my car in a multi-level lot downtown and decided to park right at the top only it wasn’t quite at the top. Once I got my gear together I walked up to the rooftop. The city took on a very different perspective from this bird’s eye perch. I don’t think that this pink ghostly graffiti can be seen from any other angle but for this parking garage.

Unless it continued in the alley down below……

To Bee or not to Bee......

I hate this time of year. I’ll be another year older, and it means the cooler fall weather is just around the corner. The end of summer, what summer, I ask? We had two whole weekends when it didn’t rain either Saturday or Sunday, or both. After the rain stopped this afternoon I went out with my camera to see what I could find to shoot. There seems to be a lot of activity in the bee society. They seem to be camera shy These little winged creepy creatures are right up there at the top of my eeew list along with spiders and centipedes. Now if I were still in Mexico my list would be on a much grander scale. Lets see, tarantulas, and scorpions would probably top my tropical list. I actually had a gecko that lived behind a rather large tacky painting that hung on the living room wall of my condo once. Her name was Henrietta and I remember the night she brought all her little babies out for me to see for the first time. My roommates were not so thrilled about the event. Maybe it was because I woke them out of a dead sleep to give them the news. I assured them the next day that our ant

problem was over. After all, with a dozen geckos around now how could we possibly have any ant dare to cross the room to get to the food in the kitchen?

Oh ya where was I? …Bees…. that’s right I used to have a great fear of them when I was younger. I was stung on many occasions in my life and at one time thought that all bees were out to get me. Call it bad luck but I even found out that dead bees could sting you. If it wasn’t dead then it was doing a great imitation of the dead man float in our kiddie pool. Got me on my thigh when I wasn’t looking.
Then there was the time at my grandfather’s house. He had one of those old stone houses with a grand front porch with rockers and even an old couch to sit on. My sister was very young at the time and her feet didn’t reach the floor as she sat on the couch swinging her feet back and forth. Unbeknownst to even grandpa she kicked a bee’s nest that was hidden under the couch. Out came a swarm of bees and yes you guessed it, they came straight after me. I started to run across the yard, with my grandpa chasing me. I seem to recall someone turned on the hose to try and ward the little buggers off. I think we ended up with half a dozen stings each and drenched clothes. I always thought it must have looked like some comedy skit to someone that was unaware of the whole goings on. My sister was too young to realize what she had even done. I should ask her some day if a bee has ever stung her.

I think I will give her a call………

As if I don't have enough distractions already

I just had to go check it out. "TWITTER" Does that make me a Twit? When I'm reading am I Twitting? The one liners, I do know are called Tweets. That's about all I know so far.....
Thanks a lot Rivergirl.

I have to blame someone.....

http://twitter.com/CdnCat

Ashes to Ashes.....

Well I made it back from the east coast of Canada feeling a bit more at peace with the world. It was an emotional trip for the family, but we made the best of it under the circumstances. My uncle took care of all the arrangements at the church and the cemetery. He is actually in charge of the cemetery, having spent a fair bit of time having to verify plots and corresponding names on the stones. Seems there were some discrepancies with some of the measurements a while back. He mentioned to me that they had a burial that prompted the assessment when they nicked the edge of a coffin in the ground where there wasn’t supposed to be one. Oops! All is well now and everyone has been accounted for.
We filed into the front pew in the church and I noticed a small back box on a table beside my dad’s urn of ashes and all kinds of thoughts started racing through my mind. I turned to my sister and asked her what she thought was up with the black box. She had no idea. My thoughts kept wandering throughout the whole mass…did ‘they’ put my dad in this box? ….did they want ‘us’ to put my dad in this box? Then in the midst of the sermon the priest acknowledged my father and then some other guy! What the heck? Now I felt kind of bad for the other guy. The whole mass was scripted around my dad and all of our family. We knew nothing at this point of this other man or his family, but at least I knew we didn’t have to tamper with my dads ashes and I could set aside all the crazy thoughts that had been consuming my brain. It turned out that this other man had passed away 3 years ago and 5 of his family members were present and asked if they could share our mass so they could bury his ashes as well. My uncle said he couldn’t very well say no to them as he figured that they needed to do this just as much as we needed to. I wonder though, why someone would wait 3 years and then show up 10 minutes before mass with such a personal request. I’m sure they had their reasons and I’m glad we could help them lay him to rest.

Spending 4 days with my immediate family was a challenge to say the least. Now don’t get me wrong…I love my family dearly…..but...

I need my space. I always have. Besides it might have been easier if the weather had co-operated. For most of the time it was raining or cool, humid and cloudy. We were fortunate that my very generous cousin let us stay in his cottage which was situated about 50 feet from the edge of the cliff that dropped off to the ocean. A set of stairs descended to the beach below where I ended up spending a fair bit of my time walking. Not a person to be seen and the only escape from my family and the mosquitoes. If I didn’t contract West Nile while I was there, I at least contributed to some sort of insect inflicted transfusion with the help of hoards of tiny winged blood bandits!
It’s so sad to be at the ocean and say that I only waded to my knees and didn’t go swimming at all. It was a combination of the lousy weather, cold water and all the jelly fish that were dotting the shoreline every couple of feet that kept me from jumping in. Then there is also the thought of all that exposed skin just waiting to be attacked as I would have had to run from the top of the stairs across the wet grass and into the cottage and wonder how many pints of blood I just gave as I scratched myself to death. My sister couldn’t believe how the little buggers loved only me. In 4 days I used most of a container of OFF! mosquito repellent. Without it I would have been the one needing a blood transfusion….this mosquito attraction is all new to me. I have never really been bothered by them until this summer, so get over me already and move on to your next victim!

......pst....found some dirt shirts......

In search of "DIRT" shirts....

They can only be found in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Seems appropriate as we are heading there this morning to attend the bural of my dad's ashes tomorrow. I will report back in a few days with the details. Can I survive 4 days with the family and no computer? At least I will be staying right on the ocean.

....and maybe the landscape job will be completed when I get back........

If I help....

Do you think it might get done any faster? I am so tired of looking at mud and dirt, not to mention breathing in Diesel fumes. I think all the neighbors hate us by now. They keep asking if we have had enough yet? Like we can stop part way through...and say what? "Put it back the way it was?" I think not. I am starting to lose sleep over it now. When I wake up dreaming about placing boulders slung from heavy machinery, I have to wonder.

So the neighbors' cat was over the other evening showing me how to hold up the rocks with her back, while they get back filled. I tried to explain to her that if she came around during the day she might become back fill.

Next morning I came out to have a look around before the noise and mess started and there she was lying right under the Bobcat. She put her ears back, gave me a look and then proceeded to get up and mosey across the road without so much as a pause for a petting. I think she is not amused by this disruption in her hunting grounds.

....neither am I....