Stop and visit, talk all you want #32

Boy did we have fun on Fri. night! They were calling for rain, but it didn't look like it was going to. About 10 to 10, the lights went out. I was in the kitchen and walked back into the living room where John and Krista were and the lights were on. I said I thought the lights were out...thinking I'd really lost my mind...and John said they were, but they came back on. He no more than said that, and the lights went out again. I have a Cyper Power thing for the computers and they were all beeping, so I was feeling my way to shut them off and going upstairs to the other computer to shut it off. I heard John saying something about winds, so when I got downstairs, I looked out too. I don't know how trees were standing up. Next thing you know, the tornado sirens were going off and we were grabbing dog and I grabbed my purse and we headed to the basement. The rain was pelting down by then too. Here's a link to one paper;
http://www.pjstar.com/homepage/x1641099223/Evidence-of-tornado-in-Princeton-from-Friday-night-storms
Here's the county paper. On the page there, is what's left of Festival 56's stage downtown at Solders and Sailors Park.
http://www.bcrnews.com/articles/2009/07/27/r_bxueequztamtm8yizbtkcw/index.xml
My dad wanted to check out how the office building was on Sat. morning. To get there, it's easiest for him to get there by going down Thompson St. He said it was bumper to bumper traffic! In Princeton! LOL Only time it's bumper to bumper here, is when there's a train and it's cleared the tracks. Cars are backed up because it's something like a coal train, so it takes a while for traffic to get going. We took a ride on Sat. and I got some pictures.

This house sustained the worst damage in town that I know of.

And not quite right across the street, but just down a house and across the street, is this.....

Now, if you were to westwards, towards where the stage was blown down and the direction the tree went, is Euclid Ave, and you only see these piles of debris.

And of course, that's supposed to be "to go westwards..."! ooops! LOL

I have been wanting to show you guys a picture of this house for awhile. 2 blocks to east and 2 blocks south. I never know quite what to think when driving or walking by?

WOW!! I am deathly afraid of tornadoes, as you all might know. I would have been freaked out! By that time though I suppose it's too late to freak, just run man, run!!

I forgot to show my poor viburnum. They always look worse in person than in a picture too. This thing was just flattened. And the wind was blowing to the east, right? The viburnum is blown over to the west.

Crissy, I only had a t-shirt and shoes on! If a tornado had taken the house, I wouldn't have been a pretty sight...lol☺ Course if my house was gone and all the contents, I don't think I'd care too much!

Oh, also in the paper today, was a picture of corn. Flattened. Ugh I feel for the farmer. This has been such a tough year for them! It's too wet and it's cool here.

Wow!! Glad you all didn't have worse damage!!

Today we had rain in some areas and some sprinkles at PG. About a quarter til 2, I felt some big rain drops and ran and put my rain coat on. I got it on in the nick of time cause it literally dumped right then and there. The gardener I was with got soaked head to toe and I got my jeans and shoes soaked. We ran to the Hort cabin after grabbing all the bags and stuff we were using for the irise. We laid the papers and bags out on the tables to dry and then we kinda stood there catching our breath and watching the rain dump on us. lol. I was so wet my windows fogged and I had to turn defrosters on. lol.

It rained for 13 hours straight last night, we got between 2 1/2 and 2 3/4 inches rain!

We got rained on last night too but not for that long! lol

I'm glad it wasn't worse too. Be thankful it was only rain and not straight line winds of 82 mph!! I was sooo tempted to go outside, not having a clue how strong the winds were. Can you imagine? It got so eery in the basement when the winds went really calm them picked up again. When all was said and done though, it was calmer than calm. Weird.

I'm not sure how long the rain lasted here, thru all this.

So, so, so very glad you are okay, Terry! My gosh!!!

I like the pink and blue house but you can't see it past those bushes.

I had an appt. with an ophthalmologist today. I've been having trouble seeing out of my left eye. Seems I have fluid build-up in the retina. I have another appt. on Mon. with a specialist to see where it's coming from am relieve the pressure. I have 20-30 vision in my right eye and 20-60 in the left. Makes it difficult to read.

Wow Terry, that's insane!! Glad you didn't get any damage, and that does look and sound like tornado damage to me.

That pink and blue house reminds me of the one Dave's been working on for 3 years now, I'm better off not seeing that house LOL!

That's crazy eyesight! Although my mom has always been 20-40 in the right and 20-80 in the left. She was 3 months premature and her she had a lazy left eye. When she was two they went in and corrected the laziness but she's always had real bad eyesight in it.

Good they had your mom's eye fixed. It really sucks when the glasses don't correct it.

Don't remember if I told you but Isis has been pooping on our floor downstairs. 6' from the box and she can't make it. We called the vet and she suggested putting another box where she's doing it and see if she'll go in there the move it 2" every day toward the other box. This should make her start using the box again. Nope. She did the first 2 days then stopped using it. All around the box but not in it.

We got some Cat Attract that has some sort of feline attractant in it and she did okay for about 3 more days then stopped.

Call the vet again and she suggested behavior modification. Now, little Isis is in solitary in the downstairs bathroom with the box, her food and water, a toy and a sleeping box. She will be down there for 3 more days then we can let her out and try again with the Cat Attract.

Meantime, Darrell has cleaned that carpet 3 times with pet odor neutralizer. Keep your fingers crossed.

How old is Isis? Resolve works wonders!

Isis is 9. It isn't an age thing, though. She does use the box just not for pooping. There is a specialty soap just for pet stains. I don't recall what it is but he's been using that. It works great until Monty...how to be delicate about it...rubs his hind quarters there and then she thinks it's okay to go there. Monty did it, why can't I? Keeping up on Monty's cleanliness is part of our problem. Did all that make sense?

Ooohhhhh one of those deals. Oh yes, it makes complete sense.

She's gotten used to being in quarantine very quickly, though. She has her hour in the yard and then back to her cell! LOL Seriously, in the morning, the routine is...open the door, say HI to mommy, I clean her box while she continues to greet me, up the stairs while she explains about her night in "the hole", to the bathroom to clean her bum, then, outside. 2 hours out and she follows me back down to lock her up again.

Afternoon, she comes outside again to wait for daddy. She greets daddy and gets some sugar from him for a while. Back to the bathroom. All this to teach her to use the box exclusively.

Funny story from yesterday...apparently, the lesson is going well. While we worked on out GH, Isis was out with us and we had the square frame of the base on the grass. During a break, Isis got up and went to the "box" in the grass, climbed in and went potty. Darrell and I laughed so hard!!! LOL

OMG that's hilarious!!

She's the funniest cat we've ever had the pleasure of living with. And the girl I got her from was going to have her put down if we didn't take her. She was a meany. Lucky she found us!

I love smart cats! Mine is hilarious. I got up at 6:30 and Tiga was no where around, I thought she was asleep in my office chair or with Dave in the spare bedroom. Dave came into our bedroom at 7:15 and said, "I don't know what's going on with your daughter, I've fed her, pet her, and given her fresh water and she still won't leave me alone." I know it's been raining so much lately she's bored. I asked her what the problem was, and she let out this very weak meow, which she has this little tiny meow anyway. She got into the wet shower, sat down in the water and got her paw wet and licked the water off her paw, then I started getting dressed and she came over all purring and what-not, then sat next to the door frame between the bedroom and bathroom rubbing the door frame. I got a bag of Temptations, which I don't like to give her cause she gets the runs from them, took the bag with me and said, "Tiga, can I bribe you to leave Dad alone after I leave?" and showed her the bag. Her eyes got big and bright and she meowed a lot louder, and trotted to her food bowl, which had canned food in it. I put two Temptation squares on her food and she was eating when I left. I asked Dave a few minutes ago if she bothered him after I left, she didn't and still hasn't. He's getting ready for work right now.

Funny cats!! LOL. We used to let ours in to visit but they got the fleas and brought them in the house. We are still trying to get rid of them. We're almost there though. Shampooed the carpet and we vacumn almost everyday. There's a few stray ones but that's it. Soon the cats will be in and out all the time again. Although they are loving the cool weather!!

You have to vacuum at least twice a day, definitely every day, to get rid of fleas, or do what I used to do and put that Raid Flea & Tick Carpet Powder all over the carpet in the house, it smells so fresh and it gets rid of the fleas on contact. I used to put that down, leave for a few hours, then come back and no more fleas. It won't harm the cats either and you can leave it down.

We're lucky we don't have fleas here. The elevation is too high for them.

The vet has reccomended something for us to use then told us to spray the yard for fleas. Most likely that won't happen. We are in the country and have just under an acre. Not spraying the yard.

Oh and don't buy flea meds at the store. The vet said something in those is making cats sick and killing some of them and they don't know what it is yet

Yes, Hartz is the culprit. Don't buy any meds from the market.

Our cats got sick from the meds but at the time we didn't know what it was. Now we know and are throwing it all away.

Advantage!! I use Advantage on Tiga and it's wonderful. The only thing is she gets mad the day it goes on her because it's wet, other than that can't tell I use it. It takes care of ear mites and dandruff too, great stuff.

My cats hate the meds also. They see us coming and they just hunker down and glare at us. The time they got sick they were licking it off each other. This last time they didn't but it took a week for them to quit being so mad at us. lol

LOL That's funny! Tiga's eaten almost a whole can of Fancy Feast in 20 minutes! She's almost eaten a whole bowl of dry cat food and Dave threw away a can I opened this morning. What a Piggy Kitty!

She eats more than Whiskers does! And he's our pig!! LOL

If you guys want some more plants we have a co-op going on. She's already gotten me for 6 plants. I'm not going any higher!! LOL

www.davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1020857/

Okay, folks. I went to see an eye specialist today and I have leaking vessels in my left eye. I will be going in tomorrow for a laser touch-up to close the leaks. After that, I should be good to go.

I also found out that one of my nieces cats has diabetes. She's terrified for him and I don't blame her. Plus, she's due to have her baby any day now. Her house just went on the market so she's a wreck. I was going to spend the day with her tomorrow but I have this Dr. thingy. She's coming to our house on Wed. evening to help Darrell organize family pictures.

Other than that, (sheesh) things are quiet around here. Too quiet, one could say...heh heh heh...

Hi!! I took yesterday off and Sunday drove to Memphis to meet Betty Pauze and Debbie (debbiesdaisy.) Had a great time, what a neat neat lady! I absolutely love her, we got along so good. I didn't want them to leave but Betty's got to work next week and is on a schedule, plus I had to come back to work today, so poo.

It doesn't sound like it's quiet around there! My goodness you're poor niece! Once she has the baby it'll be better. The eye thing sounds scary but the eye is all liquid so it's probably not that big a deal.

Yes, Jean will be better when the baby comes. She has a big decision to make about the kitty, though. He's 13 and she doesn't know if she can handle the cost of a diabetic cat. His name is Sugar and he's such a lovey.

The eye thing would have been a big deal 30 years ago but now it's much easier to take care of these things.

Been busy here. Still helping out with little things for my brother, been working, starting a new bed for my lilies, just had a new dryer installed, and now will have to look for a new house phone since ours appears to be dying a slow, painful death. LOL

Good luck on the eye surgery!!

Exactly. I'm glad it's something easily fixed, that's a relief!

Yea, it's stressful when they get old. I don't know if I could handle that, mentally. Dave woke me up screaming at the top of his lungs at Tiga this morning for her to quit bugging him and this has gone on long enough, then he realized I was home and said, "Oh, you're still here and in bed?" I said, "Since it's only 6am I hope so." He got into bed with me and almost immediately fell back to sleep. I've cut her steroids down to 1/3 of a 5mg pill every 4th day. Maybe, just maybe, she can stop taking them someday. Doubt it but the vet said that's such a low dose he doesn't see how anything bad could happen caused by the steroid anyway, and it keeps her happy and fun.

Sounds neat, Pepper. Did you find a new phone?

I was told I could drive home after the procedure today. HA!!! Darrell and one of my brothers went with me. I could see colored blobs that we cars out of that eye and that was it. I'm glad Darrell decided to come. I had a huge headache when we got home so I took 3 ibuprofen and took a nap. I feel MUCH better now, though, the sight is still blurry and my eye is still dilated. Tomorrow will be better.

I did finish getting the slate laid around the GH this morning. I'll get a pic and show you later.

Celia, so sorry I missed your eye thing, but so glad to hear all went well. You can't exactly rest an eye like you can your feet, unless you wear an eye patch I suppose and who would want to wear one of those? Oh heavens! The talk around town...lol. Uh, you guys know I don't really remember the names of your cats, correct? So with that being said, lol, is Monty a cat? You said he drags his bum, like a dog would do. A dog does it to pop the glands in there to help them "go", would a cat do the same? I don't know what the gland is called, a renal gland? No clue really. I only know there is one. Some dogs can't pop it even doing that, so they have to be taken to the vet once a week, I think it is, to have them pop them manually. I watched a "Dirty Jobs", and...it's Mike, right? the host anyway, was in with a groomer. During the bath, she popped the glands, he was grossed out. Yea, isn't it Mike Rowe? I don't know. I'm still on drugs, don't listen to me.

I went to the ortho doc last week. Good grief his waiting room was standing room only. I wasn't impressed with that. In fact, I hate doctors that double book or triple book a time. I was called 40 min. after my scheduled appointment time, waited in the room an additional 15 min., and the doctor was in the room for 7-8 min. John says he was only in the room that long because I was talking!! LOL My hubby knows me well! The doctor agrees with me, I have carpal tunnel in both hands....LOL! I'm to have the first surgery Aug. 24. I have no idea on what time of day it is, they call me the Fri. before? How weird is that? Well, I'm on Krista's laptop and I don't know what I did. I lost the whole bottom thing, whatever you call it. A taskbar? It's gone. I was checking to see if the 24th was a Mon. I hope so, then I remembered the date right. What the heck? Now it's there. I got the calender up and I have the right date. So surgery on Mon., they call on the Fri. before. I think that's weird!!

I think that house is so junky around it and then the colors don't help any. If it was repainted and the junk cleaned and brush and invasive crap all cut down, it would help immensely. Which reminds me, my mom and I walked over to an open house across the street. I didn't think the Realtor's would be brave enough on that particular house. The bottom of the windows on the outside is all rotted, the siding is aluminum and it in really bad shape, the originality of the house isn't there anymore. The front or side porch, is now enclosed and leaning at such an angle. The stairs going up are rotten. Out back, they had put up a 33' wide by 45' long garage. Yes, you read that right. A 6 car garage and then some. It has no siding on it. It has the TyVek or whatever it's called, but it's been thru a lot if you know what I mean. A big piece of the foundation is knocked out and leaning there. I don't get that house at all. Inside is horrible. This was a young couple that lived there, have 2 kids under the age of 5. The ceiling is falling in, the plaster is yuck so paneling was put up, bookcases are in there that are in no way "original" but claimed to be. There was an original cabinet in the kitchen, but yuck, what a kitchen. I know the Realtor, remember a small town, so while talking to him, he says "someone will buy it for the garage". 60 whatever thousand for a garage? I think not. Yes, we have low housing cost in our area. We have half a million dollar houses if you want those too.

Well, hubby is home early.....and my middle finger is really going numb.

Wow, some goings on there. Sorry about the finger.

My eye will be fine and, yes, Monty is a cat. He drags the rear part to help himself clean.

I forgot to mention. I went into the backyard across the street. Remember the ones who recently moved? There were some pretty garden phlox back there and I got a handful of seeds. The rest of the yard was chock full of weeds. They didn't do anything but mow, and they didn't even do that very well.

There were these, white and a very dark pink.

Tiga does that too, if she's made a mess she'll drag herself. That's when it's in the kitchen sink with the sprayer for a butt bath.

Terry I'm not glad you're wrists are messed up but at least it's something fixable.

Celia when I went to the eye dr last time just to get a new prescription he dilated my eyes and told me I would be able to drive home without using the sunglasses they give you since it was a partly cloudy day, shoot, I couldn't see anything without those stupid sunglasses, and I was still dilated the next day.

Good grief, today is just as annoying as yesterday. aarrgghhhh