January 2, 2005

Yayyyy!  I *love* being a Witch!  Lots of praying and candle lighting and positive visualization and look at how the weather forecast has changed since yesterday!!  (compare to the one way down below)

Grizzly Flats Today at: 5:53 pm PST F° | C° Currently: 27° Cloudy High: 44° Low: 35° 5 Day Forecast Today Tomorrow Tue Wed Thu     Rain   High: 44° Low: 35°     Showers   High: 46° Low: 32°     Few Showers   High: 44° Low: 30°     Few Showers   High: 45° Low: 25°     Few Showers   High: 45° Low: 31°

Yeah budddeee!

Right now, we are up to just under 3 feet of snowfall since Wednesday early evening with almost no meltage.  The drifts are huge.  It took Eric over an hour to dig the jeep out of the driveway today.  My front porch has no definition.  You can't tell where it ends, it just has a huge snow beard all around it and you can't tell where the step off is.  The bamboo torches out in the circle are only about a foot out of the show, just their little heads sticking up out of the drifts.  The resin chairs we use to sit around the fire are in snow up past the seat.  All of the kids bikes and wagons are completely under snow.  The sleds got left out and are... somewhere. 

Fortunately, the roads are clear as of this writing, so we expect that the buses will run tomorrow, provided we don't get dumped on again tonight.  I am going to call the appraiser and beg and wheedle and see what we can do.  Time to be more proactive.  I need to get this underway and at least get a plan in place.

For now, time to rest.

Much love,
K

January 1, 2005

I might just *go away* for a while.  No, not in that nice, cabana boy, Acapulco Gold way, but in that, "we have about 2 feet of snow and it is STILL falling, therefore, I might soon have no electricity way."  I can't believe how deep this snow is.  I didn't realize that snow could get this deep in real America, especially in freakin California. 

The thermometer on a chair on the front porch

Nathan, this morning

Eric and Nathan

Have I mentioned that I hate the snow?  The appraiser wouldn't come up because it was snowing.  That puts off the loan even further, since she said the roads needed to be "clear and dry" for a couple of days for her to make the half hour trip.  That isn't likely to happen until March or so.  Eric is going to see if she is willing to be picked up by him in the four-wheel drive jeep once the roads are accessible.  Right now, the jeep will not move from its place in the driveway.

Eric and Delena drove to Diamond Springs yesterday to the Humane Society and got three new kitties for us.  They are still in that unfriendly, new cat mode, so they are hanging out in the laundry room, hiding behind furniture.  I am now officially the weird old Witch who lives in the mountains and has a ton of cats.  First, here's one of the cats we already had, Creep (originally Josh's cat) who we absolutely adore:

He's a gigantic lion cat

KC, our other cat, is a little more camera shy.  She's a 13-year-old tortoise shell tabby.  Our "Grande Dame":

Now for the newbies:

This is Nova, named by Dylan.  He's about 12 weeks old.

Here is Nova with Zachary, who is 4 years old.

This is Tuffy, who is the baby at about 8 weeks old

These are close ups of Zachary.  He's HUGE.  Eric managed to convince the
Humane Society lady that we would protect him from the cults of Witches who
torture black cats in Grizzly Flats.  (*insert smirk here*)  Screw it, I got a cool cat.
I pick my battles.  To take this picture, I had to lie down flat on my tummy and put
the camera under the table where he's hiding. 

All of the kitties are neutered  boys, so little KC is the only girl of the five.  KC and Creep haven't met the newbies yet.  That should be interesting.  KC has seen so many other cats come and go, she won't likely react.  Creep is King of the Mountain, so he's the wild card.

So that's what is happening in my world.  The snow is still falling hard and now we wait.  Wait to see when the appraiser comes up.  Wait to see when Eric can get to work.  Wait to see when the kids can go back to school. Wait to see how long the electricity holds out (it was out for about an hour this morning). 

I'm out of toilet paper and onto Kleenex.

eeep

Love,

K

at: 10:53 am PST F° | C° Currently: 26° Unknown Precipitation High: 43° Low: 32°

What the complete frig is "unknown precipitation?"  I'll be happy to call them up
and give them "informed" precipitation:  "ASSHOLE DEEP SNOW!!"

Today Tomorrow Mon Tue Wed     Rain/Snow Showers   High: 43° Low: 32°     Rain/Snow   High: 41° Low: 28°     Few Showers   High: 41° Low: 23°     Snow Showers   High: 38° Low: 28°     Showers   High: 43° Low: 30°

Now mind you, look at the numbers for the projected and current temperatures.  Then look at the Current Temp.
So we are projected to have a low of 32 today, but it is currently 26.  Our thermometer says 28 degrees.

I'm not waxing all optimistic here.  >:<  I'm screwed.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKK

December 30, 2004

What I life I lead.  I love it.  My friend, Georgia, was with me on Sunrise Blvd in Sacramento one time, coming from the Elephant Bar where we'd had a bootylicious lunch.  Some guys in a little car next to us started making all kind of weird gestures in tune with their music at the stop light.  I started helping them and then pretty soon, we had a little jam thing going on.  Georgia said, "Weird shit only happens to me when I'm with you."  I've thought about that a lot since then and I've decided that I really dig weird shit happening to me.  I love having an odd life. 

Today's weird thing happened before 8am even.  It's snowing like mad today.  Started yesterday early, but we only got a smattering until around 1pm when it started to stick.  Around 2 or so, Dylan and I headed out for town, which is another story altogether.  The snow pretty much stopped while we were gone (no way would I drive back in the scary ice and snow) and really started up in force once we got home.  We got around 4-5 inches over night and it has been falling steadily all day.  I keep having to go outside every half hour or so and knock the snow off the satellite dish. It's on the roof, so that's a mean trick.  I had to leave the step stool out there to keep from dragging it out all the time.  With the long broom, I can barely reach it, so I have to kind of goose it up in the air toward the dish and aim for the concave.  So far, I've made it every time and so far, no matter where I stand or what direction I sweep, the only place for the snow to fall is right on ME, so every half hour or so, I get a snow shower.  Why can't they install a heater in those damned things?

When I got up around 6:30, the cats were all laying about in the warm house, which was fine, except that Creep, the outside kitty, tends to forget he's not outside when pee time comes, so I kind of wanted them to go outside once they were up and around.  About a half hour later, they were still putzing around, so I started easing them to the door.  Creep went on out, but KC rejected the back door, figuring the weather was better out the front door.  (I never said she was a bright kitty and wow, if that impresses you, wait til you get to the next part)  Not seeing much out the front door she liked, she started to dismiss that idea as well, figuring there were nice clean, warm towels in a basket in the laundry room that she could pee in rather than going out in the snow.  I wasn't into that idea, so I introduced my foot to her upturned ass and out goes the cat.

About 15-20 minutes later, I was answering e-mails and heard her scratching at the back door, so I told Nathan to let the cat in.  The cat made a bee line behind the table and started making some deep "rrrrowwling" sounds.  I figured her arthritis had kicked in with the cold and went over to check on her.  I had just enough time to register that *something* was in her mouth.  She got up as I was moving toward her and I could see that it was a little dicky bird from outside, very much alive.  Then she did the dumbest or the smartest thing I've ever seen a cat do. She took the bird over and put it down in her food dish.  Of course, the bird immediately thanked its birdy gods and flew away, away being to the curtain rod.  Now I had to get this terrified little bird out of my house.  It finally made its way into the laundry room and I was able to put a towel over it and put it out a window.  Now, KC is pissed at ME and won't give me the time of day.

On the way down the hill yesterday, poor Dylan got sick three times and I had to stop and walk him around each time.  (Hence, the homeschooling for the first part of this year)  We finally made it to Placerville intact and he revived himself over a Happy Meal and some McDonaldland play.  Like kids tend to do, he hooked up for one of those amazing one hour best friend relationships with a little Opie looking boy and they were all over the tubey playset.  That gave me lots of people watching time.

I was surprised to see a child of about 8-10, little boy, wearing a hooded sweatshirt that said, "Just be glad I'm not your kid."  What kind of bastard parent buys that for their child?  Probably the same kind that put shirts that say, "Foxy" or "Sexy" on their little girl or "Kid for rent, cheap"  on their little one for every pedophile on the street to read.  Do people really not stop and think about what they are writing on their kid?  "Oh, it's just a JOKE." "Be glad I'm not your kid."  Real positive message to send to a child.  I felt like hugging him and saying, "I would be HONORED if you were my kid."  Except that I don't want any more kids.

Isn't it terrible when you're tracing your kid through the tubes and you hear a kid start creaming inside?  You jump up and fear for your kid wars with the thought of, "Shit, do I have to go in there?"  Then your kid emerges unscathed through some brightly colored tube and you exhale with relief while some other parent starts climbing.  Those tubes are such horrible things anyway.  Delena once got lost in one at Chuck E. Cheese's when she was 5 and had to pee.  Didn't make it.  When she found her way out, we hurried her out to get clean clothes and told the staff.  In the meantime, I thought of the poor minimum wage earner who had to climb up there and sterilize the tube (or at least paper towel it out) and the little kids who might splash into it before the MWE made it up there. 

I heard that they had to take all of the ball pits out of the McDonalds that had outside access and were not fully enclosed because there was a problem with snakes crawling into the ball pits under the balls at night.  Surprise for all concerned, including the snake who thought he scored a happy home!  I always imagined dead bodies, dirty diapers and all kinds of crap in those balls anyway. *shudder*  My kids have lost about a million socks in there.

Yesterday, two kids who were 6-7 emerged from the tunnel and said, "We aren't trapped any more!  We're free!"  Weird.

When we were in Wal-Mart getting pens, a man came up to Dylan and said, "I don't want you to think I was stealing things by putting them in my pocket. I just ran out of hand room."  Dylan looked at him like, "Pfft, whatever, dude."

I tried to take a short cut home, which should have taken us onto Pleasant Valley Road, right on my way home directly in front of a much needed gas station.  Somehow, I took a wrong turn and ended up in Bizarro Land.  The roads were getting more and more narrow and winding ever upward.  My gas tank was hitting the actual "E."  Dylan was making worried sounds from the back of the Jeep.  Houses were getting fewer and further between (and far less affluent).  I drove over one piece of road that actually had a humongous puddle of blood that smeared further ahead on the road from the central puddle.  I imagine someone hit a deer and took it home to freezer wrap.  I'm telling myself that anyway.  For a while, I had it in my head that I was moving in the right direction and HAD to run into Diamond Springs eventually.  I finally gave up on that about 15-20 minutes into the road and went back.  I made it to the Shell station and was pumping up when a fairly nice looking older guy leaned in from the other side of the pumps and said, "You have the prettiest car I have ever seen."  I gave him my patented, "OK, you're weird," look and said, "Thank you."  He said, "No, I'm serious.  Your car is just perfect.  I really like it."  *stare*  I was a little unnerved from my wrong turn and the very real possibility of having been stranded in some Deliverance highway, so I just said, "O..K..."  Then he laughed and said, "Look at my car."  I was thinking we were getting into some "you show me your car and I'll show you mine" freak metaphor, but when I did look, I saw we had exactly the same vehicle, same year, same color.  :)~  As it turned out, I had the Liberty Sport and he had the not sport, so we discussed what the difference might be.  I figured like Harleys, the sportster was smaller and since I have no sense of proportion, I couldn't tell if his jeep was bigger and didn't want to introduce "bigger" into the conversation in case we WERE having some innuendo metaphor talk.  As it turned out, we learned that mine is a Liberty Sport because I have 4-wheel drive and he doesn't.  (Yaayy!  I win!) 

Finally, I got home a little after 8pm, dragging and glad to be off the road.  Dylan was already asleep in the back.  I passed easily 5-6 deer standing by the road, one a giant buck.  I know they were all thinking about pulling a lemming right in front of my jeep, but likely heard what happened to their cousin, Unlucky Marvin, on the freak road I got lost on and decided not to challenge the might of my 4-wheel drive Deer Killing Machine of Majesty.

Still, the snow falls. 

Eric just called and is coming home earlier than I expected, which means my goof off time just got seriously curtailed and I have to get busy.

Appraisal tomorrow.  Say a prayer, light a candle, swing a cat, whatever.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures for you.  Click to make them bigger:

Mammaw's baby, Aiden
Dec 25, 2004

But I have to share him with Papa

Winter in Grizzly Flats.

Crap, Nathan is having a meltdown over something.  Best go hit his reset button.  PUHLEASE let the buses run on Monday!

Oh and here is a preview pic of the new Tim Burton version of Willy Wonka.  They're looking at the fate of Augustus Gloop:

Love,
K