Wild Things

 The Crabtree Crew of kittens in my bathroom get more energetic by the day.

Oh my, try to get anything done.  It's a joke!  On me.

If I thought they had energy and were super cute a week ago, by now, two weeks here, omg, double the energy and cuteness.  Or triple!  Too bad if you are tired of kitten videos.  I can't help myself, being a proud second mom to them.

We had a cloudy mornings weekend here, in the mid 70's.  Today I'm not sure what the forecast is, but the clouds are gone today.

I got the cat yard weed eated but not the back lawn.  I did, however, get all the Birch and Cottonwood starter shoots clipped.  Yes, years and years after the Cottonwood was taken down, its still sending up shoots all over the place.

Cottonwoods never die.  They just go into hiding underground and shoot up everywhere when you're asleep.

I got two cat scratcher posts recovered in fresh carpet.  I have a lot of work to do around the house recovering cat trees and scratchers.  The cats shred them and it doesn't take that long.  I try to keep up on it, but.....sometimes I don't.

I get the carpet pieces now at Bimart or Grocery Outlet in the form of cheap rugs.  Don't ever get indoor outdoor carpet.  It's too tightly woven and short and the cats' claws get caught in it.

I used to get remnants at the Habitat Restore but now they're far too expensive there.

Like everything else is expensive seems like.

Gas has come down in some places to just under $5 per gallon, but then, for no known reason, will shoot up over $5 a gallon.  You might guess I go nowhere really anymore.

Utilities are way up too.   Even garbage collection has become terribly expensive.  No wonder people dump stuff off in pull outs by the road.

I'd like to be judgemental about it and put those people down, but I do understand, with prices of everything so high.   

I took the Bird Lady out to lunch yesterday.  I thought she'd be better by now, from her back surgery which was several months ago, but instead, she said, she's gotten worse and her feet swell up.   I don't know if she's in heart failure or if its medication or what is causing it.  

 She said she hadn't been out except to the doctor since late May, when I took her around to the cemeteries.   And here I thought she was so much better with her walking and had lots of relatives who would take her out.    

We again went to a cemetery, after I cut a large bunch of daisies growing in her yard.  She wanted to place them on her first husband and daughter's graves.   So we went out to the cemetery and walked them down to the gravesites.  A neighbor of hers had found a large-wheeled walker with a seat that works well for her to use when out.   She still does not like to go in a restaurant, due to the difficulty in navigation and the possible need to use a bathroom.  Public restrooms are very hard for her to navigate.  

 I told her after the kittens are out of the bathroom she could just come here, watch TV from my recliner, all that, or sit out by the garage in the sun.  I have unimpeded hallways and space here, since I don't have a lot of stuff (just cats), that make it really easy on someone who might need to navigate with a walker.  The bathroom itself has lots of space.  I think she feels most comfortable in her own home, though.  Hanging out at someone else's house, with nothing to really do, other than sit, is boring.  I don't hang out either, at other people's houses.   I like to go out and do things, but not sit around at someone's house, with nothing planned to do.  I'd have to know them really well to enjoy that.   Bird Lady feels the same way about that kind of thing.  I get it.

We went to Panera after we finished at the cemetery and I went in and ordered two tuna salad sandwiches plus a strawberry smoothie for myself.   I still had a gift card from last Christmas.  She won't agree to go out if I don't tell her I have a gift card, so even when I don't, I tell her I do.  

 The order came to over $30, which is a high price for two simple sandwiches and the smoothie was almost the consistency of water.  If she didn't like their tuna salad sandwich so much, I would never go there again.  But she needs to get out now and then.   I can make a tuna salad sandwich that's better than theirs, here, however, and then lunch bag it somewhere with her--a simple solution to be able to afford lunch out.

But  aw well, I had the gift card for this time, thank goodness.

Anyhow, she invited me to their neighborhood watch night out picnic.  I love going to their block party.   I love parties period!  We don't have one on our block.  It's first week in August.  I'll figure out something to take.  One year I just got a bunch of $1 burritos at Taco Bell to take and they went over well.

You know what's funny?  She told me there would be a mariachi band coming to their block party.  That's not what's funny.  What's funny is it reminded me of what the vet tech who works at the spay neuter clinic told me last time I was there.  She's living outside Salem somewhere I think and told me apparently the house she lives in came with a mariachi band because every day, and night, she hears them playing.   

She's a really incredible lady.  She's gone on multiple extreme kayaking trips, even to the Amazon and is a member of a Dragon Boat team.  I meet these people in seemingly ordinary jobs, although working at a spay neuter clinic I consider a hero job, not ordinary, and in their private lives they do unbelievable eye-popping things.

The neighbors told me an elderly couple bought their house.   If it closes on time, the 10th, they'll be gone within days after that, he said.  Darn it.  In the back of my head, I hoped it would all  fall through and they'd stay.  Not very nice of me, to hope their plans fall out.