The weekend's news
To ease myself into this whole blogging process, I'm going to bore any readers (run while you can!) with my weekend doings.
For me, it was a fairly busy weekend. Saturday morning was spent patiently standing around the Springhills junkyard with the sort of riffraff they have employed there. I probably stood in the middle of this giant metal-infested mudhole for over an hour while they tried to find a headlight in a pile of junk (they did end up finding it - yay!) and cut the hood & taillight out of an Altima that was sitting mired on the other side of the yard. I've never had an excuse to hang out in a setting like this - it was quite interesting really. Scads of broke-down buses, all sorts of cars in varying degrees of rust & wreck, even one of those little carts that they sell fair food out of. I would've liked to wander around but they probably don't like that- the probability of a customer getting mauled by a rusty piece of equipment or getting sucked into one of the many deep puddles of muck is a very real thing.
The guy that I had to traipse around after asked me where I went to school-the same school as him-and when I graduated. I told him '92, he said, "Oh! You're a lot older than me (thanx, buddy) - I graduated in '96." I didn't think that qualified as a LOT older, but I didn't want to tell the guy I would've easily thought he was 4 or 6 years older than me - he looked rough. I didn't bother to ask his name. They were pretty helpful tho' - when I was paying for the parts & they were running around getting the necessary VIN #s, just about every guy that worked there & a couple of ogre-ish customers crowded into the small office & offered directions to and advice on the inspection process. At first I think they saw a girl & figured I'd be girly and snobby and terrified of dirt and cars. But, I wasn't so I seem to have involuntarily redeemed myself. Cars & dirt are, after all, two of my favorite things. They seemed to appreciate that. So, I need only a couple more things & then we can put that baby together!
I slept like shit on Friday night, so after I came home from the junkyard, I grudgingly ran into the bank & stopped at the greenhouse to get some more petunias for the mom-in-law. My own mom had already deemed her yard too wet to dig in, so we knew we didn't have to do that. When I got home from the greenhouse, I promptly passed out until S got home - he was stuck at work until 4:30!!! But, that gave me time to sleep. He then decided jump on the chance to nap & I got up to watch Barbaro break his leg in the Preakness, which made me cry, then I showered and woke S up. Then we headed out to Pete's & fished for a couple hours. We didn't catch much other than a buzz, but it was pleasant none-the-less. Pete has a bunch of houses out there for swallows & purple martens - the swallows were going nuts! Dive-bombing the water, swooping in close to us, squabbling amongst themselves. It was quite the show. I seriously thought I was going to get hit in the face by one as close as they were coming. Wonder how often they get a swallow-attack in the ER.....
Sunday we got up bright & early to head over to his parents to plant. We ate breakfast at Mixins & then prepared for manual labor. Spread peat & topsoil, planted tons of flowers, mulched, drank beer. You could just TELL that his parents were eating it up. Several of the neighbors came over to check things out & his mom was saying, "It's my Mother's Day gift! They bought all these flowers for me!" She was quite proud. We felt good about it - I'm always proud when I go over there & see how the beds look, so that was very nice. I really could do it for a living. It was funny because one of the neighbors had to load up his riding mower to mow his son's yard & was back with it in a half hour, job completed. Dad-in-law asked him what could possibly be the point of mowing such a small yard with a riding mower & the neighbor replied, "Because he's fucking lazy!" So DIL had to rub it in, good-naturedly, about us coming over to work in their yard. It's rare we're the good kids! Also, Mom-in-law hooked me up with some very cute garden decorations & a couple fridge magnets that are very Margaritaville-ish - I think the kitchen wants to have a beach cabana theme. Everything is heading in that direction - I'm thinking maybe we should just go for it.
We left there, exhausted, stiff, dirty, and came right home to shoot some tequila, drink some beer & numb ourselves to head back out to our own yard! We got two of the beds, a big one & a little one, planted and mulched. We'll probably work on two of the others throughout the week. The day had passed more quickly than we realized so it was about 8 o'clock before we headed back inside to think about dinner. We decided to bake chocolate chip cookies & make tacos. We wanted to get the cookies out of the way first, so we mixed & baked and waited on dinner.
About 9 o'clock, my mom called. Said she was out with her man & they had found a little wanderer and could she bring it to my house for the night? I glanced at S, he sensed something was going on & was giving me the evil eye. "Sure," I said, trying hard not to look at him. They showed up about a half hour later. We didn't bother to cook then because we knew they were coming. Surely they wouldn't keep us that late on a Sunday night! But no. 11:30 rolled around and they were just leaving. Goddammit! Mom is really, really bad at the quick stop-in. She can't do it. This is why I never ever just "stop by" her place after work - I know I'm in for at least an hour if I stop. It's impossible. Anyway, she brought over this kitten - about 4 mos old, I'm guessing, and it had the three of us completely stumped on the gender. Looking at it you'd think it was a male. Upon further inspection she turned out to be a little girl. Mom said they had gone to Buffalo Jack's for dinner & this little creature came running up crying, and of course Mom couldn't leave it. I wouldn't have been able to, either. I could only see her little head when she was holding it, but when we put her down in the spare room, the poor cat was easily only about 2" wide. Gaunt, hairless, starved. Gaunt is putting it lightly. The cat looked like she was on a day pass from Dachau. I was shocked & immediately set about fixing her a plate to eat - strangely enough, she wanted us to pet her and talk to her more than she wanted to eat. She has the sweetest, worried little face, and this morning when I went in to check on her, she looked at me like I was going to eat her - it was almost like she forgot where she was at, but then after a soft greeting from me, she came around & started meowing & loving. Her purr far outweighs her body. It's quite sad that anyone could've passed that little animal by without some display of pity & an offering of food. I'm not a religious person, but I think that anyone who did will probably be in trouble on their day of reckoning.
Then, Mom called this morning. She wanted to stop by & visit the kitten. Of course, she called at 9:20, shortly before I'm due to leave the house. I grimaced & said, yes, come, fine, but I've gotta get ready for work. It ended up I had to chase her out! She just stood around, leisurely chit chatting. Good lord!! I'm obviously doing my hair, obviously already late, and she wants to yip yap. Grrrrr! Then, "Do you want me to stop back by tonight to check on her?" I think she forgot that I've rescued plenty of cats, some of them in worse shape than this little gal. Mom's the one that wanted to feed it deep-fried fish in lieu of a square meal of normal cat food - and she's rescued more than her share of cats in her life. Yeesh. I love my mom, I just think she's bugged out sometimes. The good news is that she already seems attached to it & has dubbed it "Weegie". I don't know why. But, her naming it & showing such affection for it thus far has S's hopes up that it won't be staying with us for longer than a couple days. I'm inclined to agree with this - we have enough cats (for now)!
In the meantime, I hope she fattens up & grows some hair. Poor little nipper.
Also, needless to say, frozen pizza was our fate - at least I can look forward to the tacos tonight!
For me, it was a fairly busy weekend. Saturday morning was spent patiently standing around the Springhills junkyard with the sort of riffraff they have employed there. I probably stood in the middle of this giant metal-infested mudhole for over an hour while they tried to find a headlight in a pile of junk (they did end up finding it - yay!) and cut the hood & taillight out of an Altima that was sitting mired on the other side of the yard. I've never had an excuse to hang out in a setting like this - it was quite interesting really. Scads of broke-down buses, all sorts of cars in varying degrees of rust & wreck, even one of those little carts that they sell fair food out of. I would've liked to wander around but they probably don't like that- the probability of a customer getting mauled by a rusty piece of equipment or getting sucked into one of the many deep puddles of muck is a very real thing.
The guy that I had to traipse around after asked me where I went to school-the same school as him-and when I graduated. I told him '92, he said, "Oh! You're a lot older than me (thanx, buddy) - I graduated in '96." I didn't think that qualified as a LOT older, but I didn't want to tell the guy I would've easily thought he was 4 or 6 years older than me - he looked rough. I didn't bother to ask his name. They were pretty helpful tho' - when I was paying for the parts & they were running around getting the necessary VIN #s, just about every guy that worked there & a couple of ogre-ish customers crowded into the small office & offered directions to and advice on the inspection process. At first I think they saw a girl & figured I'd be girly and snobby and terrified of dirt and cars. But, I wasn't so I seem to have involuntarily redeemed myself. Cars & dirt are, after all, two of my favorite things. They seemed to appreciate that. So, I need only a couple more things & then we can put that baby together!
I slept like shit on Friday night, so after I came home from the junkyard, I grudgingly ran into the bank & stopped at the greenhouse to get some more petunias for the mom-in-law. My own mom had already deemed her yard too wet to dig in, so we knew we didn't have to do that. When I got home from the greenhouse, I promptly passed out until S got home - he was stuck at work until 4:30!!! But, that gave me time to sleep. He then decided jump on the chance to nap & I got up to watch Barbaro break his leg in the Preakness, which made me cry, then I showered and woke S up. Then we headed out to Pete's & fished for a couple hours. We didn't catch much other than a buzz, but it was pleasant none-the-less. Pete has a bunch of houses out there for swallows & purple martens - the swallows were going nuts! Dive-bombing the water, swooping in close to us, squabbling amongst themselves. It was quite the show. I seriously thought I was going to get hit in the face by one as close as they were coming. Wonder how often they get a swallow-attack in the ER.....
Sunday we got up bright & early to head over to his parents to plant. We ate breakfast at Mixins & then prepared for manual labor. Spread peat & topsoil, planted tons of flowers, mulched, drank beer. You could just TELL that his parents were eating it up. Several of the neighbors came over to check things out & his mom was saying, "It's my Mother's Day gift! They bought all these flowers for me!" She was quite proud. We felt good about it - I'm always proud when I go over there & see how the beds look, so that was very nice. I really could do it for a living. It was funny because one of the neighbors had to load up his riding mower to mow his son's yard & was back with it in a half hour, job completed. Dad-in-law asked him what could possibly be the point of mowing such a small yard with a riding mower & the neighbor replied, "Because he's fucking lazy!" So DIL had to rub it in, good-naturedly, about us coming over to work in their yard. It's rare we're the good kids! Also, Mom-in-law hooked me up with some very cute garden decorations & a couple fridge magnets that are very Margaritaville-ish - I think the kitchen wants to have a beach cabana theme. Everything is heading in that direction - I'm thinking maybe we should just go for it.
We left there, exhausted, stiff, dirty, and came right home to shoot some tequila, drink some beer & numb ourselves to head back out to our own yard! We got two of the beds, a big one & a little one, planted and mulched. We'll probably work on two of the others throughout the week. The day had passed more quickly than we realized so it was about 8 o'clock before we headed back inside to think about dinner. We decided to bake chocolate chip cookies & make tacos. We wanted to get the cookies out of the way first, so we mixed & baked and waited on dinner.
About 9 o'clock, my mom called. Said she was out with her man & they had found a little wanderer and could she bring it to my house for the night? I glanced at S, he sensed something was going on & was giving me the evil eye. "Sure," I said, trying hard not to look at him. They showed up about a half hour later. We didn't bother to cook then because we knew they were coming. Surely they wouldn't keep us that late on a Sunday night! But no. 11:30 rolled around and they were just leaving. Goddammit! Mom is really, really bad at the quick stop-in. She can't do it. This is why I never ever just "stop by" her place after work - I know I'm in for at least an hour if I stop. It's impossible. Anyway, she brought over this kitten - about 4 mos old, I'm guessing, and it had the three of us completely stumped on the gender. Looking at it you'd think it was a male. Upon further inspection she turned out to be a little girl. Mom said they had gone to Buffalo Jack's for dinner & this little creature came running up crying, and of course Mom couldn't leave it. I wouldn't have been able to, either. I could only see her little head when she was holding it, but when we put her down in the spare room, the poor cat was easily only about 2" wide. Gaunt, hairless, starved. Gaunt is putting it lightly. The cat looked like she was on a day pass from Dachau. I was shocked & immediately set about fixing her a plate to eat - strangely enough, she wanted us to pet her and talk to her more than she wanted to eat. She has the sweetest, worried little face, and this morning when I went in to check on her, she looked at me like I was going to eat her - it was almost like she forgot where she was at, but then after a soft greeting from me, she came around & started meowing & loving. Her purr far outweighs her body. It's quite sad that anyone could've passed that little animal by without some display of pity & an offering of food. I'm not a religious person, but I think that anyone who did will probably be in trouble on their day of reckoning.
Then, Mom called this morning. She wanted to stop by & visit the kitten. Of course, she called at 9:20, shortly before I'm due to leave the house. I grimaced & said, yes, come, fine, but I've gotta get ready for work. It ended up I had to chase her out! She just stood around, leisurely chit chatting. Good lord!! I'm obviously doing my hair, obviously already late, and she wants to yip yap. Grrrrr! Then, "Do you want me to stop back by tonight to check on her?" I think she forgot that I've rescued plenty of cats, some of them in worse shape than this little gal. Mom's the one that wanted to feed it deep-fried fish in lieu of a square meal of normal cat food - and she's rescued more than her share of cats in her life. Yeesh. I love my mom, I just think she's bugged out sometimes. The good news is that she already seems attached to it & has dubbed it "Weegie". I don't know why. But, her naming it & showing such affection for it thus far has S's hopes up that it won't be staying with us for longer than a couple days. I'm inclined to agree with this - we have enough cats (for now)!
In the meantime, I hope she fattens up & grows some hair. Poor little nipper.
Also, needless to say, frozen pizza was our fate - at least I can look forward to the tacos tonight!
posted by RCSure | 11:06 AM
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